Around the World in 30 Dishes

Thai Fried Rice- Khao Phat – Around the World in 30 Dishes – Thailand

April 24, 2014 by danawyyc 7 Comments

Come along with me as I explore the world through my kitchen. For each region, I’ll be trying about 5 dishes, drawing inspiration from authentic dishes, ingredients or techniques from that region but adapting them for a North American home cook. All the ingredients in this series will be ones I can find in my local (Calgary, Alberta) grocery store and use cooking tools I already have at home.

I’ve always quite liked fried rice, but I’d never heard of Thai fried rice before. It’s not too different from the fried rice that you might get at a chinese food restaurant in many ways. The There are many variations on the dish and it is a perfect dish for using up whatever you have on hand – don’t be afraid to improvise. I really love this dish. I’ve is now my go-to recipe if I have leftover rice. If you would like to try out some Thai flavors but are a little nervous, this dish would be a perfect recipe to start with.

Ingredients and Substitutions:

- Fish Sauce – is a condiment made from anchovies. That may not sound awesome, but it actually is. You can usually substitute soy sauce with good results. You will probably lose a little of the uniqueness in this particular dish. If you are hesitant because it says ‘fish sauce’, give it a try anyway. It doesn’t seem fishy at all. Worchestershire sauce is also made from anchovies.

Thai Fried Rice

Author: Dana

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Thailand

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice (I used brown basmati, jasmine would be traditional) - using cold rice from the day before is best
2 cups cooked rice (I used brown basmati, jasmine would be traditional) - using cold rice from the day before is best
2 eggs
2 eggs
1 teaspoons fish sauce
1 teaspoons fish sauce
1 cloves minced garlic
1 cloves minced garlic
2 green onions
2 green onions
pinch ground pepper
pinch ground pepper
1 lime
1 lime
1 chicken breast chopped
1 chicken breast chopped
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 thinly sliced tomato
1 thinly sliced tomato
3 tablespoon cooking oil

Instructions

Prep all your ingredients before you start.
Heat oil in a large pan or wok on high heat.
Add garlic and stir then add meat if uncooked and continue to stir.
When the meat is cooked, add the rice. Break up any clumps and coat with the oil. If you are using cooked meat, add it now.
Stir in the fish sauce and soy sauce.
Add the white parts of the green onion and the tomato slices.
Push the rice mixture to the side of the pan and turn down the heat.
Cook the scrambled eggs on the open side of the pan.
Once the eggs are dry, break them up and mix them in with the rice.
Remove the pan from heat. Top the rice or individual bowls of rice with fresh lime juice, pepper and green onions.
It is often served with cucumber slices, tomato slices, lime, chili fish sauce, and cilantro.

Notes

Adapted from Thai Table's Thai Fried Rice - http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/fried-rice

Crockpot Chicken or Beef Massaman Curry – Around the World in 30 Dishes – Thailand

April 14, 2014 by danawyyc 6 Comments

Massaman Curry - Thai Food - Around the World in 30 Dishes - talkinginallcaps.com

My friend Amy lived in Thailand for a while and said that this dish was her favorite. After looking at the ingredient list, I found that even though many of the ingredients weren’t super familiar to me, I could find them all in my local grocery store. I made it as a crockpot recipe, but you could easily do it on the stove top instead. You can reduce the cooking time to about 1/3 of what I recommend for the crockpot on high. I thought this recipe was great. I ended up making both a beef and a chicken version and loved them both. It made great leftovers too.

Ingredients and Substitutions:

Tamarind – is a kind of sour fruit. I’ve found it whole in the produce section and as a paste or as a sauce in the asian section of our local grocery stores. If you use whole fruit, remove the outer layer and use the inner fruit. Tamarind may seem unfamiliar but is a primary ingredient in Worchestershire sauce. Nothing is really recommended as a substitute for Tamarind, but what you are looking for is something to add a sweet, sour taste.
Sambal Olek – This is a chili sauce that is meant to add heat without effecting the flavoring. Substitute for any chili or garlic chili sauce.
Lemongrass – is a grass that has a herby lemon flavor. It looks like a stalk and is found in the produce section. They may be long or cut into smaller chunks and put in a package. I’ve found the lemon grass in our grocery stores to be a bit dry, but you can re-hydrate it by letting it sit in some water. It will even continue to grow. Substitute with lemon zest.
Cardamon – Is an aromatic spice commonly used in Indian cooking . If you can’t find it, try substituting a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg. The flavor won’t be quite the same but it should work well.
Fish Sauce – is a condiment made from anchovies. That may not sound awesome, but it actually is. You can substitute soy sauce with good results.

Crockpot Massaman Curry – Thai Food

Author: Dana

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients

2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp oil
one pound beef or chicken cut into chunks
one pound beef or chicken cut into chunks
one pound baby potatoes quartered (large potatoes cut into chunks is fine too)
one pound baby potatoes quartered (large potatoes cut into chunks is fine too)
1 onion, diced
1 onion, diced
one 2 inch long piece of ginger, grated
one 2 inch long piece of ginger, grated
4-5 cloves garlic, grated or minced
4-5 cloves garlic, grated or minced
2 or more teaspoons Sambal Olek or other chili paste
2 or more teaspoons Sambal Olek or other chili paste
one 14 oz can broth to match meat of choice
one 14 oz can broth to match meat of choice
one 14 oz can coconut milk
one 14 oz can coconut milk
1 stalk lemongrass, minced
1 stalk lemongrass, minced
3 bay leaves
3 bay leaves
1½ teaspoons turmeric
1½ teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon cardamon
¼ teaspoon cardamon
1 teaspoon tamarind (paste, sauce or mashed up fruit - whatever you can find)
1 teaspoon tamarind (paste, sauce or mashed up fruit - whatever you can find)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
½ tablespoon brown sugar
½ tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted cashews or peanuts (+ handful more for garnish)
¼ cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted cashews or peanuts (+ handful more for garnish)
1 small red pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, sliced

Instructions

Turn your crockpot onto high heat and add a couple tablespoons of oil.
After the oil is heated, add the onion, spices, cashews or peanuts and tamarind. Stir until fragrant.
Add the meat, chicken, broth, coconut milk, chili garlic paste, fish sauce and brown sugar. The potatoes can be added here, or later on depending on how long the crockpot will be running. Add the potatoes right away if they will be cooking on low for 3-4 hours. If you are cooking at a higher heat or for a longer time (eg if you want it to cook while you are out or are using a tough cut of beef) add the potatoes 2-3 hours before you plan on eating. Alternatively, you can boil the potatoes and add them at the last minute.
During the last hour of cooking add the peppers and tomatoes.
You can vary the cooking time for this dish a lot as long as you don't add the potatoes, tomatoes and peppers too early. Curries tend to only get better with additional cooking time. As long as your meat is cooked through and no longer tough you can eat it.
If you are using chicken breasts, you can probably cook it for as little as 2.5 - 3 hours on high. Beef will have a longer minimum cooking time (at least 5-6 hours) - you'll want to cook it long enough for the meat to get tender. If you have the time to cook it on low for 8-10 hours it will be even better.
Serve over rice (I like brown jasmine or brown basmati) Top with additional chopped cashews or peanuts.

Notes

(Adapted from <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/massaman-curry/">Instructable's Massaman Curry Recipe</a>

Hoi Tod – Thai Street Food – Egg and Seafood Pancake – Around the World in 30 Dishes: Thailand

March 24, 2014 by danawyyc 14 Comments

Introducing my new series Around the World in 30 Dishes. My goal is to pick several regions around the world and explore it’s food through my kitchen. For each area I’ll try to make about 5 dishes. I want to take my inspiration from foods, techniques or ingredients that you could actually find in that region, but adapt them for a North American home cook. I’ll try to provide substitutions for ingredients that may be hard to find, not use anything that I can’t find in my local (Calgary, Alberta) grocery store and only use cooking tools that I already have at home.

The first region I’ve chosen is Thailand. My Dad recently moved to Thailand and has been trying all kinds of interesting new foods. He told me that Hoi Tod is one of his favorites. Here’s my best attempt and advice for making it at home. I used this recipe as my inspiration and watched a couple videos that you can find at the bottom of the post.

There’s a lot of different (but similar) methods to make this recipe. The method I’ve posted is the one I found the easiest to do. I tried beating the eggs and putting them in with the tapioca flour mixture first, but that didn’t seem to give quite the right result, and I also tried to mix the egg in the ladle but I found that to be a little messy and requiring a larger ladle. Feel free to play around with it, I found it to be pretty resilient to error, I even forgot the seafood one time and my husband still thought it was okay.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Tapioca Flour – I was able to find this in my local grocery store. It’s similar to cornstarch so you can use that in its place
Fish Sauce – If you can’t find fish sauce you can use soy sauce in it’s place.
Cilantro – If you hate cilantro you can just skip it. It is more mild after being chopped and cooked so you may want to give it a try before you decide.

Hoi Tod - Crispy Egg and Seafood Pancake

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Thai

Ingredients

¾ cup seafood (mussels are traditional - I really liked shrimp - you could also use clams or squid etc)
¾ cup seafood (mussels are traditional - I really liked shrimp - you could also use clams or squid etc)
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
fresh cilantro (optional)
fresh cilantro (optional)
fish sauce (or soy sauce)
fish sauce (or soy sauce)
1-3 cloves garlic (optional)
1-3 cloves garlic (optional)
3-4 eggs
3-4 eggs
3 green onions
3 green onions
8 tablespoons tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
8 tablespoons tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
½ cup soda water (or 7-Up)
½ cup soda water (or 7-Up)
salt and pepper
salt and pepper
vegetable oil for cooking

Instructions

You'll want to have all of your ingredients prepped before you begin cooking. Slice the green onions, chop the cilantro and prep the seafood you are using.
Heat oil in a large pan on medium high heat. Mix the tapioca flour (or cornstarch) with salt, pepper and soda water.
In a ladle, scoop up a third or so of the tapioca mixture and pour it in the pan. drop the seafood and a pinch of green onions and cilantro on top. Crack the egg in the middle of the batter and break it open with a spatula and move it around to mix in with the rest of the ingredients. I had a tendency to want to pile them into a smaller space at this point but you actually want it to be spread out over a large space in the pan. (You should use a large pan than I did - you will want a BIG pan). This step should all be done fairly quickly.
As the pancake starts to set, push it to the side of the pan and leave it alone while it gets crispy. When the bottom is crispy, flip it and let it cook on the other side. The finished pancake should end up being fairly crispy. I found I tended to undercook them - they still tasted good though so don't stress too much.
While the second side is cooking throw down some minced garlic onto the opposite side of the pan. (If you are using a pan that was as small as the one I used, you may want to do this in a second pan). After the garlic gets aromatic, add the bean sprouts and fish sauce and stir fry until heated.
Serve the pancake on top of the bean sprouts and top with Sriracha sauce (or another spicy pepper sauce if you don't have Sriracha).

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:23]

Videos of Thai Street Vendors Making Hoi Tod

I found it helpful to watch videos of Hoi Tod being made. The methods of the vendors are a little different but I found these two both really good.

Around the World in 30 Dishes

Ingredients and Substitutions:

Ingredients and Substitutions:

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