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Thai Recipes

Cooking catchup!

Jul 29th, 2009
by dave.
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Pad Kra Pow
Pad Kra Pow – Thai Basil Chicken

Just a couple things I’ve cooked up lately for this post. The first is Pad Kra Pow – Thai Basil Chicken, I posted this originally back in April but had another couple go-arounds to try to get it tastier. The second being Kalbi Steak Tips, the recipe was posted using short ribs and steak tips are a great alternative for throwing on the grill now that it’s summertime!

Now, the Thai Basil Chicken had been a dish that was confounding me for quite some time. I could never get the sauce just right, no matter how hard I tried. But then, one day, eureka! I added 1.5x the sauce and cut out some of the extra vegetables. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but the extra vegetables will soak up a ton of the sauce AND dilute the sauce to boot! So, using only half an onion and half a red pepper, this edition was the closest I’ve gotten to the stuff I’ve eaten at Rod Dee, Dok Bua, and S&I To Go!

Kalbi Steak Tips
Kalbi Steak Tips

On the other hand, the Kalbi marinade I found a while back turned out to be just about right. I end up making it about once a month and absolutely devour the stuff. Lately, I’ve been applying the marinade to steak tips and bringing them to other BBQ’s, and they’ve been an absolute hit! Add that with some peppers, onions, and a little bit of cheese, and this was a pretty good meal for the summer.

Minced Chicken with Thai Basil over Rice (Pad Kra Pow)

Apr 8th, 2009
by dave.
3 comments

Pad Kra Pow

Short writeup today. Just got back from California a couple days ago and haven’t had much chance to breath since. More on that soon.

Anyway, I’ve always been interested in a lot of the quick and simple ethnic foods and this recipe was no exception. Normally, I’ve had this made with ground chicken or ground pork, but since I had some chicken thighs to use, I figured minced (to the best of my limited ability) would be enough.

The dish itself is known for having an intense set of flavors, with fish sauce mixed with sugar and basil providing most of the punch. Ended up being not as flavorful as I’ve had, but I attribute that more to needing a little more sauce and perhaps me not getting the proportions entirely correct.

Recipe compiled from numerous sources and from word of mouth. Original I worked with is at Serious Eats. I somewhat doubled the recipe to use all of the chicken I had.

Minced Chicken with Thai Basil over Rice (Pad Kra Pow)

Serves 4
Time 30 minutes

Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp canola oil
- 4-5 red bird’s eye chilies
- 1 large shallot, minced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ red bell pepper (or a small one), chopped
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- 1/3 lb green beans, ends removed
- 1 – 1.5lb pound ground chicken
- 6 tbsp fish sauce
- 6 tsp sugar
- A handful of thai basil leaves
- Fried eggs (optional)

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok under high heat. Add chilies, shallots, and garlic and stir fry until golden and fragrant, 30-45 seconds.
2. Add green beans, bell pepper, and onion, stir fry for about 5 minutes
3. Add ground chicken, stir fry for another 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Add fish sauce and sugar, mix well, adjust as needed for your tastes.
5. Reduce heat to medium and add basil leaves. Stir fry until leaves are wilted.
6. Serve with rice. Add a fried egg on top (optional)

Super Fusion Cuisine (Brookline, MA)

Apr 1st, 2009
by dave.
1 comment

super_fusion

Nestled about a 2-3 minute walk from Washington Square, Brookline is Super Fusion Cuisine, a small (very small!) sushi restaurant run by a former chef from Fugakyu, one of the more popular sushi restaurants in town. In the past year, there have been many, many sushi restaurant openings in the Coolidge Corner / Washington Square area and I was afraid it was starting to become oversaturated. But I sure hope Super Fusion sticks around!

There are 4-5 very small tables (2 person tables) snugly piled into one corner of the restaurant while the sushi bar could probably house another 3-4 people. The rest of the restaurant is occupied by the kitchen and sushi bar. The roommate and I ended up there about a month ago and ended up with the last table (3 more parties showed up in the next 5 minutes and had to wait in the cold!). Unfortunately, every time someone came in or left the restaurant, a swift frigid breeze swept through the restaurant, making it extremely uncomfortable. However, after a few cups of tea, the food arrived…and I was pleasantly surprised!

I applaud the chefs for not using a ton of rice on the maki, as sometimes I’ve seen more rice than fish. Also, the special rolls on the menu were very creative, combining many different tastes that I haven’t experienced together before. And the bill came out pretty reasonably too (for sushi anyway), which resulted in a pleasant dinner, despite the gusts of cold air. Super Fusion also delivers, which is a plus for this densely populated area.

Variation on a previous dish

May 10th, 2008
by dave.
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A while back I had some leftover rice (about a day or two old) that I wanted to use. Stopped by the store and picked up the ingredients for a dish I made a couple months ago, Thai Basil Chicken, and figured I’d make a fried rice out of it.

I’ve never been able to master the version that most restaurants serve where the egg is nice and stringy and some of the rice is seared from the wok. Instead, I usually end up with gluey/moister fried rice, not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s definitely one of my goals to be able to make a Cantonese style fried rice.

Anyway, it’s quick which makes it a perfect weeknight meal. Most of the time is spent chopping the chicken anyway, and when that’s ready, just throw it in the wok with the other ingredients and go!

The big hint is to use leftover rice that’s refrigerated at least a day. It’ll dry out the rice so that when cooked again, the rice won’t get soggy.

Thai Basil Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3-4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Thai chili peppers (Bird chillies)
8 – 16 oz Chicken Breasts/Thighs
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chopped shallots
1/3 cup thai basil
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2-3 cups of rice (refrigerated overnight)
2 eggs

Optional:
1 small red bell pepper
1 small yellow onion
Cold cooked rice (for a fried rice-like meal)

Method
1. In a wok or large frying pan, add oil and stir-fry the garlic under medium-high heat.
2. When the garlic sizzles and turns golden, add chillies and chicken.
3. When the chicken is lightly browned, add the vegetables (probably after about a minute)
4. Mix in the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and rice (optional).
5. Add shallots, basil leaves and cilantro. Cook about another minute or so.
6. Add the eggs, give a nice stir. Break up as the egg hardens.
7. Add the rice, mix well, and cook for another couple minutes.

Thai Noodles – Noob style!

Mar 31st, 2008
by dave.
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I originally got into Thai food like most other people…through Pad Thai at various locales around the area. And like other inquisitive eaters before me, I had to try making this awesome new dish.

Turns out it’s not as easy as it looks. Getting the ingredients isn’t necessarily the hard part…but I’ve never managed to get the sauce to taste right. I’ve given up since and searched for some of the easier dishes to make, leading me to today’s post. I found multiple recipes for Pad See Ew over the past few months and compiled them all together for a “distinct” version I guess.

I’m a huge fan of fresh rice noodles…in fact, it’s probably one of my favorite noodles to supplement a dish with. And also, living near Super 88 is a huge plus, where they have fresh rice noodles daily! I always buy the precut ones since I’m lazy but you can also get the wedges and cut them yourself (If you like different shapes anyway)

Pad See Ew

Main Ingredients
1 lb fresh rice noodles (sliced into bite sized pieces)
1 lb beef (I like to use sirloin tips or flank)
2 large bunches of broccoli florets (more if you like broccoli :P )
2 eggs

Marinade
3-5 garlic cloves minced
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp rice wine (I use Shaoshing)
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 spring onion (I’ve used 2-3 scallions as well)
3-4 thai chillies (chopped, with seeds)

Extra Sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp ketjap manis

Method
1. Slice the meat, mix in marinade. Let marinate for about 20-30 minutes (overnight is ok but unneeded)
2. Slice up the broccoli florets into bite sized (or smaller) pieces. This way the pieces of broccoli will soak up the sauce faster.
3. Heat wok to medium-high, and stir fry the marinated beef until slightly browned.
4. Add broccoli, stir fry for about a minute to get the broccoli mixed well.
5. Add noodles and the sauce. Mix well.
6. Make a little well in the middle of the wok, crack the two eggs in and stir fry until egg is fully cooked through and mix well with the rest of the dish.

Enjoy!

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