Grilled Chicken

Grilled Chicken

I wanted to make Satay Chicken - but I didn't have fresh spices (galangal and lemongrass) and I was too lazy to make satay chicken's peanut sauce and cucumber salad (Aa-jaad). So I made this grilled chicken - which is basically satay chicken minus all of the above....

It came out nicely spiced - although I would have liked it spicier. Have to put more pepper next time.



Ingredients

• 3-4 pounds boneless skinless chicken thigh - cubed


• 4 cloves garlic - chopped


• 4 teaspoon ground coriander seed


• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 
  
• 2 teaspoon turmeric


• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper


• 2 teaspoon salt


• 1 tablespoon brown sugar


• 1 cup coconut milk

Directions

1. Combine all the spices in coconut milk. Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes.


2. Line broiler with aluminum foil. Skewer the chicken and grilled under the broiler for about 7 to 10 minutes. Flip the skewers and cook 5 more minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

Yum Woon Sen - Glass Noodle Salad - Two Ways

Yum Woon Sen - Glass Noodle Salad - Two Ways

I have been craving Thai Salad. Maybe it's because I have been eating those make-your-own salads from the deli next to my work almost everyday for lunch. Maybe it's just another attempt of mine trying to eat healthy at home.

Last week I made Laab from ground turkey. I had a bit of the cooked turkey left so I bought these wonderful glass noodle or mung bean noodle or woon-sen in Thai.

From a package of woon-sen, I got two different salad based on what I had in the refrigerator.


One with less noodle but more vegetables - cherry tomatoes and flat-leaf cilantro served over lettuce. And the other one with more noodle and with dry baby shrimp.

The basic ingredients are the same - the woon-sen soaked in hot water for a few minutes, chopped shallots and chilies, cooked ground turkey (or other meat), fish sauce and lime juice. And whatever fresh vegetable you have that you deem fit to be in the salad. Everything tossed together and served immediately.

I love Thai food. So simple and tasty.

Massaman Curry

Massaman Curry

Or the best spicy beef stew recipe ever ever. My friends love love love this curry. I got a special request for it for our biggest potluck party of the year. I pointed somebody to this blog and realized that the recipe is actually on my old blog. So I'm re-publishing it with slightly different scale.

The secret to this is very simple - simmering for a loonnnggg time. There's nothing else to it. I used pre-packaged massaman curry paste, added a lot of other chopped spices and peanuts and then cooked it for about 6 hours. Massaman curry is a little different from all other Thai curries. It requires some dry spices (cinnamon and bay leaves) as opposed to just fresh spices. Massaman is not exactly a Thai word either. I think it came from Muslim-man telling the origin of the recipe.

Regardless, it's a wonderful and hearty dish to serve in a cold weather.


Ingredients

• 5 pounds of any flavorful cut of beef - cubed (I used sirloin tips because they were on sale - but chucks would be fine too.)


• 3 pounds of potatoes - peeled and quartered and then soaked in cold water so that they don't turn brown


• 1/2 cup of ginger - peeled - chopped


• 1 head garlic - peeled and chopped *


• 15 shallots - peeled - chop 5 and leave the rest whole *


• 3 stalks of lemongrass - discard outer layers and both tips and chopped *


• 2 tablespoons of galangal - chopped *


• 2 cinnamon sticks


• 5 bay leaves


• 1 cup of massaman curry paste


• 2 cans coconut milk


• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts


• 2 tablespoon red pepper flakes


• 1 cup tamarind juice (I soaked about half a cup of packaged tamarind in a cup of water. This makes the curry a little tangy.)


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 2 tablespoon brown sugar


• Fish sauce - to taste

Directions

1. Marinate the beef in a can of coconut milk, 1/4 cup of chopped ginger and about 2 tablespoons of fish sauce for 30 minutes.


2. Cook the marinated meat on medium heat for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally.


3. In a different pot - preferably the larger one, fry massaman curry paste with the rest of chopped spices in oil for 1 minute. Stir vigorously and try not to burn the curry. Add a can of coconut milk. Reduce the heat to medium.


4. Combine meat into the curry pot. Once the content is a little bubble, reduce heat to very low. Add potatoes, whole shallots, peanuts, bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. Season to taste with sugar, red pepper flakes, tamarind juice and fish sauce.


5. Let simmer for a few hours or until the meat is tender.

* I processed all the spices other than ginger together in my food processor. It saved me a lot of time and tears.

Miang-Kum

Miang-Kum

This thing is super easy to prepare - no cooking required (well - I cheated a little - explanation below.) But what is this thing - Miang Kum? Kum (heeehee) means a bite in Thai. Miang is food that requires chewing - a lot of chewing - before swallowing and/or spitting out.

So here's Miang Kum - except that it's not in Kum (heeehee) yet. We need to assemble it to make it into a bit size treat. It's real simple. You just drop whatever you want to eat (basically everything) onto a leaf. Wrap it up - drop it in your mouth - start chewing - and wait for this wonderful combination of flavors to burst in your mouth. I can't explain how this work. How simple ingredients - uncooked - put together very simply - can produce such delicious treats... You have to try it for yourself.

Ingredients
Any green leaves - I use collard green - we normally use this heart-shaped green leaves which I don't know how they are called in English but I can't find them here in NY.
Diced lime
Diced shallots
Diced ginger
Chopped chilies
Roasted grated coconut
Roasted peanuts
Small dried shrimp
Miang Kum Sauce - I attempted to make this sauce a few years ago. It came out really good but my apartment and all my clothes smelled like dead rabbit for about 2 weeks. So this time around, I went to a Thai grocery store in Chinatown - asked for a sauce for Miang Kum. The store keeper said they didn't have it but I could use Nam Pla Wan - meaning sweetened fish sauce which we use as a dipping sauce for sour fruits like raw mangoes - instead. I bought a can of that for $2.50 and my apartment smells like roses today.

Directions
Clean, chop, dice, roast the ingredients up. Put them in serving containers and serve!

Nam Prik Ong - Northern Thai Tamato and Meat Dip

Nam Prik Ong - Northern Thai Tamato and Meat Dip

This is one of my mother's favourite dishes. I would see her sit down with a small bowl of Nam Prik Ong and a gigantic bowl of assortment of fresh vegetables - slowing picking and dipping her way until everything disappears. Her version is with tofu because she's a vegan. This one is with ground turkey - my meat of choice.

The dish is extremely easy to make once you have all the ingredients. Now that I have a food processor, I cooked the thing within 15 minutes. Nam Prik Ong is quite good by itself - looking like Italian meat sauce but with more spices and heat. Its flavor and texture improve significantly when you pair it with fresh crunchy vegetables - like cucumber, lettuce, green beans, etc.


Ingredients

• 5 cloves garlic


• 2 stalks of lemongrass* - discard a few hard outer layers and the leafy end


• 2 inches of galangal root* - peeled


• 5-6 shallots or 1 large onion - peeled


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 pound ground turkey (or any other meat)


• 1 28 ounce can of crushed or chopped tomatoes


• 2 teaspoon dry red pepper flakes


• 1 teaspoon kapi or Thai fermented shrimp paste


• 2 teaspoon fish sauce


• A small bunch of fresh cilantro to garnish

Directions

1. Finely chop garlic, lemongrass, galangal and shallots or process them in a food processor.


2. In a large heavy bottom pot or a deep pan, heat up the oil. Stir in the chopped spices. Stir vigorously for 30 seconds or until fragrant but not burnt. Add ground turkey. Stir occasionally until the meat is cooked.


3. Add canned tomatoes. Reduce the heat. Season with red pepper flakes, shrimp paste and fish sauce. Let simmer for a few minutes.


4. The real Thai cook will tell you to pound kapi or the shrimp paste with all the spices and fry the paste in oil before adding the meat. Since I'm cooking in a small apartment with no window in the kitchen and I do not wish to disturb my neighbor with the extremely exotic aroma of the shrimp paste (it's pretty vile for people who are not used to it), I add it at the end.


5. When ready to serve, sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Serve with crunchy fresh vegetables like cucumbers, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, etc.

* I got my lemongrass and galangal from Chinatown. I keep them frozen in the refrigerator - when ready to be use, just run hot water over them to soften.

Panang Gai (Chicken in Panang Curry)

Chicken Panang Curry (Panag Gai)

Panang Curry looks and tastes very similar to red curry except that it's a little sweeter, milder and not as liquid-ie. I have seen restaurants in New York made this curry with peanuts. But from what I remember eating in Thailand, there's no peanuts in it.

The main spice (at least the visible one) in Panang Curry is kaffir lime leaves. The leaves give this sharp lime-y, refreshing scent to the curry. I bought bags of these leaves whenever I saw them in Chinatown. They freeze well.


Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cooking oil


• 1 can coconut milk


• 1/2 cup panang curry paste


• 4 cloves garlic


• 6 shallots


• 2 inches fresh ginger


• 2 inches galangal


• 1 stalk lemongrass


• 2 pounds chicken breast - cubed


• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar


• 20 kaffir lime leaves - thinly sliced width-wise


• Water


• Fish sauce

Directions

1. Chop garlic, shallots, ginger, galangal, and lemongrass really finely. (I use my food processor fitted with a mini cup and mini blade to chop everything up. This step used to be the longest and hardest process to make curry for me. Now it takes 10 seconds!)


2. In a large saucepan, fry curry paste in oil over medium heat. Add the chopped spice. Stir vigorously. Be careful not to burn. Add half the can of coconut milk. Let cook until fragrant and coconut milk is bubbly.


3. Add chicken and the rest of coconut milk. Stir frequently until the chicken is cooked. Add water if the curry becomes too dry (but not too much water.)


4. Season with sugar and fish sauce. The curry should be mild, and just a tiny bit sweet.


5. Simmer until the chopped spices become tender (about an hour) or until ready to serve.


6. Right before serving, sprinkle chopped kaffir lime leaves over the curry.


7. Serve over steamed rice. I served mine over blanched asparagus and collard green.
8. 
   

Tom Kha Gai ( Chicken soup in coconut milk )

Product Description

• Always a kitchen favorite in Thai homes. Young galangal is less spicy than older roots. Its refreshing fragrance is often used in many Thai dishes to balance the taste. The roots have many medicinal uses to improve digestion, relieve heartburn, improve blood circulation, and improve skin complexion. The sweet taste from the coconut milk, make a perfect combination to provide a satisfactory dish in taste, fragrance, and nutrition.

Ingredients:-

1/2 lb chicken breast fillets

2 1/2 cup coconut milk

5 Thai Chilies, lightly crushed

15 sliced galangal

1 stalk lemon grass sliced

5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded

1 tbs. sugar

3 tbs. fish sauce

3 tbs. lemon juice

Direction:-

• Bring the ½ cup coconut milk to a boil; add the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, and chicken. Add the 2 cups coconut milk and flavor with sugar, lemon juice, fish sauce. Add chilies upon serving.