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!

thai turkey and zucchini meatballs

Life is so hectic nowadays with both a baby and a toddler that I keep f***ing up while following recipes.  Luckily, things still usually turn out and this is one of those instances.  This is adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe for Thai turkey meatballs and it’s adapted because I straight up f***ed up the original recipe.  Basically, I put waaay more zucchini in the meatballs – hence I’m calling these turkey and zucchini meatballs – than the recipe calls for as most of the zucchini was actually supposed to be sliced up and added to the sauce. I was worried the meatballs would fall apart and the whole thing would be a disaster but it turned out really well and we all loved it!  Whew.

(We’re still cooking Whole30 for Rock but I’m not 100% strict about using ‘compliant’ ingredients if getting them makes my life 100% harder.  But if you are strict about it, you can use homemade chicken stock and crazy expensive compliant fish sauce.)

3 zucchini  /  1 lb ground turkey  /  3 stalks of green onion  /  1 clove garlic, minced  /  1 and 1/2 tsp grated ginger  /  small bunch of cilantro, chopped  /  1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes  /  zest and juice of 1 lime  /  1 tsp sea salt flakes or salt to taste  /  1 tsp grapeseed oil  /  3 tbsp Thai green curry paste  /  1 (14 oz) can coconut milk  / 2 cups chicken broth  /  3 tbsp fish sauce  /  a large handful of sugar snap peas  /  optional: limes cut into wedges & small handful of Thai basil leaves to serve

To make the meatballs, trim the ends of the zucchini and coarsely grate onto a piece of paper towel.  Squeeze out as much water as you can from the grated zucchini and toss into a large bowl.  Finely chop the white parts of the green onion and add that along with the ground turkey to the bowl.  Next, add the garlic, ginger, 2 tbsp of the cilantro, crushed red pepper flakes, lime zest and salt to the bowl.  Using your hands, mix the meatball mixture just until everything is combined.

To measure out the meatballs, use a heaping teaspoonful for each one and then simply roll into balls.  You’ll end up with about 30 meatballs.

Finely chop up the green parts of your green onion.  Heat up the oil in a large dutch oven or lidded pan and give chopped green onion a quick fry.  Add the curry paste and then the coconut milk, chicken broth and fish sauce.  Let the sauce come to a boil and then gently drop the meatballs into the soup.  Drop them in going around the dutch oven in a circle going from the outside inward.  I was worried they wouldn’t all fit in but they did!

Let the sauce come to a boil again and then slap the lid on and turn the heat down to a simmer.  Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and check that the meatballs are cooked through.  Add the snap peas and the juice of the one lime.  I didn’t do this but if you want you can serve with some Thai basil and lime wedges.

 

 

pork-stuffed cucumber soup

So we COOKED cucumbers today for the first time!  And I guess we also stuffed pork into cucumbers for the first time too!  Onwards we go with Rock’s Whole30 challenge and tonight I made this soup from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings book. Kind of reminded me of Chinese winter melon soup and it was delicious.  Even our toddler finished his bowl which is amazing considering he’s so picky lately.  A few things – to make it Whole30 I had to substitute the soy sauce with coconut aminos (something i didn’t even know existed until a week ago!) and I used organic chicken stock instead of bouillon cubes (which still has some trace amount of sugar in it but I made the executive decision that I just didn’t care.  Turns out sugar really is in EVERYTHING! If you’re strict with Whole30 you can always make your own chicken stock.)

And as for the cucumbers, I used the English cucumbers that are readily available at the supermarket but after making this soup, I’m pretty sure the recipe uses the other variety of cucumber that’s shorter and chubbier; not sure what it’s called.  Our cucumbers looked waaaay longer than the ones in the book.  Do we not use the same type of cucumber as in the US??  Will google that later.  Next time I’d probably hunt down those fatter cukes or cut the English ones into thirds.  I also only used 4 cucumbers and 10 cups of stock, which I’m glad I did because my dutch oven was almost filled to the brim!  Here I’ll give you the recipe with the ingredient list straight from the book though.

This would serve 3-4 as a main.

1 lb ground pork  /  1/4 cup light soy sauce  /  10 cloves garlic, minced  /  1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper  /  5 cucumbers, peeled, ends not trimmed  /  3 chicken bouillon cubes  /  1 bunch honshimeji mushrooms, trimmed (I couldn’t find these so I substituted enoki mushrooms)  /  1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion

Mix the pork, soy sauce, garlic and pepper together in a bowl.  Then, cut the cucumbers in half, crosswise.  Chrissy suggests using a measuring spoon or a pineapple corer to hallow out the cucumbers so that they become hallow tubes with still the end intact.  I just used the handle of a spoon and it worked great.

Then you stuff the cucumbers with the pork mixture. (We had quite a bit of pork mixture leftover and in hindsight, we should’ve just made them into meatballs and added them to the soup.  Next time!)

Next, in a large dutch oven or soup pot over high heat, mix 12 cups of water with the bouillon cubes and bring it to a boil. (Or if you’re using chicken stock, simply heat it to a boil.)  Add in the cucumbers and lower the heat to a simmer; letting it cook for 30 minutes.

Then add in the mushrooms and cook for about 15 minutes longer.  The cucumbers should be tender and the pork cooked through.  Serve with the green onions over top.

 

 

cauliflower and cashew curry

I’m going to be trying out lots of new recipes this month because Rock is doing the Whole30 meal program!  Our friend recommended it so he’s giving it a shot… while I happily sit this one out.  There’s TONS of stuff you cannot eat including dairy, ALL grains, ALL sweeteners, legumes… even stuff like soy sauce and quinoa isn’t allowed.  Talk about a challenge!  So I’ve been sifting through my cookbooks looking for recipes that don’t include any of these forbidden foods, while also still being something I would actually like to eat, and I found this recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Simply Nigella book.  It turned out really yummy!  She calls it a “Multi-Culti Curry” as it combines Thai and Indian flavours. Aymeric and I had it with some naan bread but you could also serve it with rice.  Rock ate it with some baby potatoes (potatoes are Whole30 at least!)

Serves 2 as a main dish.

1 medium-sized head of cauliflower, cut into florets  /  2 bay leaves  /  2 tsp sea salt flakes or salt to taste  /  1 tbsp coconut oil  /  2 green onions, thinly sliced  /  2 tsp minced ginger  /  seeds from 3 cardamom pods (which I couldn’t find so I substituted roughly 1/3 tsp ground cardamom)  /  1 tsp cumin seeds  /  1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro stalks  /  1/4 cup Thai red curry paste  /  1 can (14 oz) coconut milk  /  2/3 cup cashews  /  1 lime  /  small handful of chopped cilantro

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Add the salt, bay leaves and the cauliflower florets; cooking them until they are just tender – about 4 to 5 minutes.  In the meantime, add the coconut oil, green onion, ginger, cardamom, cumin and cilantro stalks to a wok or large lidded pan over medium heat and cook for about a minute.

Add the curry paste to the wok and then the coconut milk.  Stir it all together and bring it to a boil.  When the cauliflower is cooked, drain and add to the wok.  Give it a stir and you can add more salt to taste if you want.  Slap on the lid and turn down the heat to a simmer and let it cook away for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, just give the cashews a light toasting in a small frying pan.

Stir in half of the cashews to the curry.  Then to serve, simply plate up along with the lime cut into wedges and scatter over the rest of the cashews and the chopped cilantro.  Enjoy!

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!

lightening up: thai green curry with vegetables

We had ourselves a little weigh-in today at the gym for the first time since pre-holidays and it wasn’t awesome.  I guess the extreme food-fest during Christmas wasn’t helped by the alcohol, fast food and pizza from this past weekend.  Oops!  By the way, amazing discovery, we were at Bobby’s Tavern on Saturday and it was midnight, the kitchen was closed and we were starving.  It turns out you can get Domino’s pizza delivered right there to the pub!  I am such a terrible junk-eating influence on Rock.

Anyway,  I’ll never be able to bring myself to go on a diet but we also don’t wanna be chunky monkeys.   I also need to toss in some healthy meals and salads every now and again since it’s only a matter of time before I want something deep-fried.  So tonight I decided to make a healthy/healthier Thai green curry using using a bunch of veggies and substituting some of the coconut milk with water.  (Canned ‘lite’ coconut milk has always bothered me since it’s just watered down coconut milk.  What a rip.)

Serves 2:

1 red pepper  /  1 zucchini  /  ~100 g of sugar peas  (with the ends snipped off)  /  1 tbsp canola oil  /  1 tbsp sesame oil  /  1 half can of coconut milk  /  1 lime

for the curry paste:  2 stalks lemongrass  /  4 trimmed green onions  /  2 – 3 green chiles (depending on how spicy you want it.  Thai green chiles or jalapenos should work since I don’t actually know which one I ended up getting)  /  4 cloves garlic  / 1 bunch of cilantro  /  1 piece of ginger (about the size of your thumb)  /  1 tsp coriander seeds  /  3 tbsp soy sauce  /  1 tbsp fish sauce

For the curry paste, slice the chiles length-wise and de-seed them.  I used gloves because the last time I handled chiles without gloves and then took out my contact lenses later that night, my eyes burned something fierce.  Peel and chop up the garlic and ginger and then, with 3/4 of the cilantro and the rest of the ingredients for the curry paste, blend it all up using a hand blender or a food processor until quite smooth.

Chop up the zucchini and slice the red pepper into strips.  Heat up the canola and sesame oil in a wok over medium to medium-high heat and add the zucchini, red pepper, and the curry paste.  Stir-fry for a couple of minutes and then add the sugar peas, the half can of coconut milk, and half a can of water.  Cook for a few minutes, take off the heat and squeeze in the lime.  Top with some of the remaining cilantro and serve with jasmine rice.

Rock says that it was surprisingly spicy with just 2 chili peppers but he really liked this dish.  I think that, once you’ve got all the ingredients in tow, this is a a really quick and easy meal to make that tastes good and you don’t have to feel guilty about eating.