pad thai

For the last couple of years in Riyadh, I ate a lot of pad thai at P.F. Chang’s which is ketchup-y and saucy and delicious. Very westernized and not at all authentic. This recipe is not for that! This is adapted from a recipe in the “Thailand: From the Source” cookbook from Lonely Planet which is full of authentic recipes from chefs and restaurants in Thailand. I’ve changed some of the ingredients and and taken out some that I can’t find easily but the end result is still great. It’s sour and sweet and salty… and easy!

You can make this without chicken if you’d like as it’s still quite substantial thanks to the egg and tofu. Alternatively you can also switch up the chicken for prawns or any other protein.

Serves 4.

4 tbsp canola oil / 200 grams firm tofu / 4 shallots / optional: ~300 grams skinless, boneless chicken / 200 grams dried flat rice noodles / 2 oz (1/4 of a block of) tamarind pulp* / 1/4 cup sugar (I used coconut sugar but brown sugar would be good too) / 1/4 cup fish sauce / 4 large eggs / a few stalks of green onion, sliced lengthwise / large handful of bean sprouts / 1/4 cup crushed unsalted roasted peanuts / 2 limes

*if you can’t find any tamarind pulp, you can maybe find readily prepared tamarind paste or sauce but it won’t be as flavourful. Otherwise you can also substitute with 1/4 cup white vinegar

First, you need to prepare the tamarind pulp so that you can actually cook with it! Pour about 1/3 cup of boiling hot water into a cup and add your chunk of tamarind paste. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and then using the back of a spoon kind of mash it about. Then push through a fine mesh strainer and scrape down to get all the paste through while leaving behind the tamarind fibres. You should end up with about 1/4 cup of tamarind paste. I know – the picture below looks like poop!

After the tamarind paste is prepped, soak the rice noodles in a large bowl boiling water until softened. This should be about 7 or 8 minutes but different brands may differ so check the instructions on the back of your packet of noodles. Once softened, drain the noodles and set aside.

While the noodles are soaking, you can prep your other ingredients. Thinly slice the shallots, dice up the tofu and cut your chicken into thin strips. You can also bash up your peanuts with a mortar and pestle or give them a quick blitz in a food processor.

Heat up the oil in a wok over medium-high heat and fry the shallots and tofu while stirring constantly. It will become lovely and fragrant and start to take on a bit of colour.

If you are including chicken, scoop up the tofu and shallots and set aside on a plate. Add the chicken to the hot oil and stir fry until cooked through. Add back in the tofu and shallots as well as the noodles, fish sauce, tamarind paste and sugar. Stir to combine. If the noodles are a bit sticky you can add a tablespoon or so of water.

Next, push everything to one side of the wok and crack in the eggs. Let the eggs cook a little bit and then gently stir to scramble them a bit. After about a minute, stir the eggs and noodle mixture all together.

Stir in the green onions and bean sprouts.

Remove from the heat and it’s time to plate up! Garnish with the crushed peanuts on top and serve with lime wedges. Other optional condiments you could add to the side would be Thai chilli powder (we used some crushed red pepper instead), sugar and fish sauce. Enjoy!

thai red chicken curry

Rock says this Thai curry is his absolute favourite thing that I cook for dinner nowadays.  Ever since I made this the first time a while back, I find myself cooking this curry probably once every two weeks.  The recipe is from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings: Hungry for More cookbook (I just LOVE all of Chrissy Teigen’s recipes! I cook from her two books more than any other cookbook I own and I own a lot).  I mostly follow her recipe exactly except I don’t add in broccoli and I omit her garnishes of jalapeño and fresh basil as they’re not easy for me to come by here in Saudi.  I also add in kaffir lime leaves which I keep a bag of in the freezer just for making Thai curries.

Serves 4.

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs / 2 tbsp canola oil / 1 small onion / 2 inch piece of ginger / 6 cloves of garlic / 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste / 1 can full-fat coconut milk / 2 tbsp brown sugar / 1 tbsp fish sauce / 1 large red bell pepper / 1 large yellow bell pepper / 1 medium potato / 4 kaffir lime leaves / 1/4 tsp ground white pepper / salt and pepper

Start by mincing the garlic and the ginger and thinly slicing the onion and peppers. Peel the potato and cut into 1 inch cubes.

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and heat up the canola oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.  When the oil is hot, add the chicken thighs, cooking for about 4 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken and set aside on a plate.

Next, add the onions to the dutch oven and stir and cook for about 4 minutes or until the onions have gone soft.  Add in the minced garlic and ginger and the curry paste and stir and cook for about 2 minutes.

Now add in the coconut milk, fish sauce and brown sugar and give it a stir until it’s smooth.  Once it’s come to a boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

Next, add in the kaffir lime leaves, the peppers, potatoes and chicken.  Cover with the lid and let it simmer for 20 minutes.  The chicken and potatoes should be cooked through.

Then stir in the white pepper and let it simmer for another few minutes with the lid off.  Serve with freshly cooked jasmine rice.

thai chicken biryani (khao mok gai)

I found this recipe in Lonely Planet’s Thailand: From the Source cookbook (yes, LP has a few cookbooks!) and we are now all obsessed with this dish.  It’s a southern Thai meets Indian dish where the chicken is braised in rice with turmeric and spices and this specific recipe calls for a generous scattering of deep fried shallots over top.  SO GOOD!!!  Even my increasingly picky toddler was going to town on this. (Although, he wouldn’t eat the shallots ‘cus he said they were ‘octopus’ – you can’t win em all!)

A few things I did different: There’s a recipe for a chilli dipping sauce included but I skipped it and just used store-bought Thai sweet chilli sauce.  I also used coconut milk instead of unsweetened evaporated milk and used de-boned chicken thighs instead of entire chicken legs.  Just though it would make my life a bit easier but if you want, the original recipe calls for 3 chicken legs with the skin removed and cut into big chunks (whatever ‘big’ means, I dunno!)

Serves 4

~700 grams skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into roughly 1 inch pieces  /  2 tsp curry powder (I used Indian curry)  /  1 tsp ground turmeric  /  1 tsp ground coriander  /  1/2 tsp ground cumin  /  1 tsp ground cinnamon  /  1 tsp salt  /  1 tbsp sugar  /  2 bay leaves  /  200 ml coconut milk  /  1 and 1/2 tbsp butter  /  2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed and drained  /  2 cups water  /  canola oil for frying  /  300 grams shallots, very finely sliced (this seems like a lot but it’s really not after frying)  /  pinch of salt

Mix the spices, salt, sugar, bay leaves and coconut milk in a large bowl.  Mix the chicken in and let it marinate for at least 15 minutes.

In a frying pan or a wok, melt the butter over medium-high heat and then add the chicken, including the marinade.  Fry for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is juuuust cooked.  Transfer to a bowl.

I replaced my rice cooker with an Instant Pot so I used that but you can of course use a rice cooker or cook on the stove top.  Add the washed and drained rice to the Instant Pot and then put the chicken and sauce on top.  Then add the water and using the manual setting, set it to high pressure for 3 minutes.  When the 3 minutes are up, let the steam naturally release for 10 min.   If you’re cooking on the stove top, bring to a boil and then cover with the lid and turn the heat to low.  Cook for 20-25 minutes until the rice is cooked.

While the rice is cooking, fry the shallots.  In a frying pan or a wok over medium heat, add just enough oil so that you can deep-fry.  Toss the shallots with the salt in a bowl and then squeeze out as much liquid as you can.  When the oil is hot, fry the shallots in batches for about 1 to 2 minutes until crispy.  When each batch is done, transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Plate up the rice and chicken, scatter the fried shallots over top and serve with a small bowl of sweet chilli sauce on the side.  Again, SO GOOD!

chicken satay & dipping sauce

We made these Thai skewers a few weeks ago and my sister’s been bugging me repeatedly to post about it ‘cus she really wants to make some too.  So here you go, Reyna!  This recipe is from the Lonely Planet: Thailand cookbook.  I’ve been loyal to Lonely Planet travel guides ever since I got my first one 8 or 9 years ago, the LP Southeast Asia on a Shoestring (aaaah, the glory days).  Turns out LP just came out with 2 cookbooks and they were at Costco so how could I not?  Their recipe is from the Silom Thai Cooking School and it made awesome skewers with the absolute best dipping sauce ever.

There’s 3 parts to the recipe, the chicken, dipping sauce, and cucumber relish, and I followed it for the most part.  (I’m terrible at following recipes simply because I’m too lazy to, unless it’s for baking!).  So I’ll just let you know what we did with the recipe.

For the chicken: 4 chicken breasts, sliced into long strips about an inch in width  /  1 tsp ground coriander  /  1 tbsp turmeric  /  1/2 tbsp curry powder (I used Malaysian curry but if you don’t have any I’m sure you can use just regular)  /  1 tbsp light soy sauce  /  ~ 1/2 can (400 ml) of coconut cream  /  1/4 tsp salt  /  and not technically an ingredient, but bamboo skewers, about a dozen)

For the dipping sauce:  120 grams red curry paste  /  120 grams roasted peanuts  /  1 can (400 ml) coconut milk  / the remaining 1/2 can of coconut cream  /  1 and 1/2 tsp salt  /  50 grams coconut sugar (or brown sugar)  /  1 tbsp tamarind paste  (note:  I like Cock Brand curry paste which is imported from Thailand and it’s got some pretty good heat going so if you’re not after spicy, you might wanna reduce the amount of curry paste in your sauce)

For the cucumber relish:  120 ml white vinegar  /  2 tbsp sugar  /  1/4 tsp salt  /  60 ml water  /  1 red Thai chilli, finely sliced  /  1 green Thai chilli, finely sliced  /  4 small cucumbers, finely sliced  /  2 shallots, finely sliced (use a mandoline if you have one!)

In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the chicken and cover with some clingfilm.  Set aside and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.  In the meantime, you can start soaking the bamboo skewers in some cold water so that they won’t burn during the grilling.

Now, for the dipping sauce.  In a food processor, grind together the curry paste and the peanuts (we left it still a bit chunky).  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, simmer about 250 ml of the coconut milk until the oil rises to the surface.  To be perfectly honest, I got impatient and never quite got to the oil rising stage and it turned out great but I’ll try harder next time!  Then mix in the curry/peanut paste and bring back to a simmer.  Add in the rest of the coconut milk and the rest of the dipping sauce ingredients and let it reduce for about 5 minutes.  Set aside and let it cool.

This would be a good time to start heating up your barbecue to medium to medium-high heat.

For the relish, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and water and let it simmer for about 5 minutes or until it looks a bit syrupy.  Remove from heat, let it cool completely, and then toss in the chillies, cucumbers and shallots.

Thread the chicken onto the skewers.

Grill for about 10 minutes or so (depending on the heat of your barbecue), or until the chicken is cooked through, turning them every now and again.  Serve with the dipping sauce and the cucumber relish on the side.  We also steamed up some jasmine rice to go with the skewers.

Seriously though, the dipping sauce is unreal.  Stoked to make these again soon!