Khao Pad Tom Yum (Tom Yum Fried Rice)

Many have enjoyed the hot and sour Tom Yum soup, but this one is a fried rice with Tom Yum. Recently tasted this in a Thai restaurant in Sydney (@Bangkok) and found it to be a very interesting combination. One could call it the Thai Puliyogare for the sour taste. Apparently this is a popular dish in Thailand just not too popular in the westernized restaurants.







What goes in:

1) Tom Yum paste - just get it from the store. I think it's too much of a hassle if you need to make it on your own. And yes this has shrimp paste in it not sure if there is a veggie version of this.
2) Jasmine Rice (Cooked at least 6 hrs in advance)
3) Kaffir leaves
4) Bamboo shoot
5) Bean sprouts
6) Chives
7) Garlic
8) Mixed vegetables
9) Eggs
10) Thai Red chillies

The process:

1) Heat up a wok to as high a temperature as possible.
2) Add a generous amount of oil and wait for the smoke to come out of the oil.
3) Break open the eggs and stir quickly for a good scrambled fried egg.
4) Add the garlic, chillies and Tom Yum paste and stir well for about a minute.
5) Add the mixed vegetables and bamboo shoots and give it a stir for about 2 minutes.
6) Add the chives and kaffir leaves, give it a short stir.
7) Add the boiled Jasmine rice and give it a good mix. Add more tom yum paste if needed (not smelling the flavour enough?).
8) Add fish sauce as required to the amount of saltiness you need.
9) Toss in the bean sprouts for a final stir.

Tom Yum Fried Rice - Done!!

Enjoy!!

C

Tomato Chutney

Someone had asked me if this blog will contain only "exotic" cuisines and recipes. Not really - so here's one of the everyday recipes. But then everyday to us might be special to someone else!! This is Uma's production but I'll take credit for photography, posting and of course tasting testing. :-)

Ingredients:

1) Asafoetida (the famous L.G. Perungayam). I sincerely wonder if there is any other brand for perungayam.

2) Grated coconut (for those who can afford fresh - go for it)

3) Onions

4) Tomatoes

5) Garlic

6) Tamarind

7) Channa Dal

8) Urad Dal

9) Dried red chillies

10) Curry leaves

11) Mustard

The method:

1) Sautee Urad dal ,Channa dal and dried red chillies  for a few minutes in vegetable oil (any kind would do) until brown.

2) Sautee garlic, coconut, onions and tomatoes until the onion becomes translucent and the tomatoes gets mushy. 

3) Add tamarind (make sure there are no seeds in it). You can also use tamarind pulp.

4) Mix all of this in blender until it comes to a smooth chutney. 

5) Garnish with sauteed mustards and curry leaves.

This can be had with Idli/Dosai - typically. Maybe you can try this with a phulka or maybe pita bread??

Enjoy.

C

Pad Thai

Hello,

Alvin - This one is for you. The one who asks for 2 * Pad Thai @ Eagle Thai!! Pad Thai is what made me fall in love with Thai food. Especially the one at Eagle Thai - Pad Thai in Tomato sauce - 5 * (at times over the scale). Since then Pad Thai has been my dip stick to measure my likingness to any new Thai restaurant I try. If the Pad Thai is good then the other dishes can't be that bad. The version below may not be the typical recipe for Pad Thai. It's a mix and match of many recipes I have seen. Some claim that Pad Thai is actually not a Thai dish - but guess what - who cares!!

What goes in:

For the sauce:

1) Tamarind puree
2) Fish sauce (can substitute with soy and salt)
3) Peanut butter (smooth)
4) Tomato sauce (ketchup)
5) Palm sugar (ordinary sugar would do as well)








Other stuff
1) Flat rice noodles - thin variety
2) Egg
3) Dried prawn (shrimp)
4) Pickled turnips (this is the signature ingredient)
5) Prawn - preferably raw (can substitute with chicken, tofu or any other veggie)
6) Chives (substitute with spring onions)
7) Bean sprouts
8) Ground peanuts (roasted)



The procedure:

1) Mix the ingredients of the sauce together and make a paste. The quantity of each of this ingredient would make or break the taste of Pad Thai. Happy experimenting.
2) Boil the rice noodles. Make sure it is not too soft that it breaks apart or gets mushy mushy.
3) Heat a large wok and add a few tablespoons of oil.
4) Break in an egg and scramble fry it.
5) Add the dried prawns and turnips and saute for a few minutes.
6) Add the mixed sauce and saute for a minute or 2.
7) Add the prawns and cook them until they just turn red.
8) Add the noodles and add some more fish sauce. Remember to sprinkle some water if the noodles gets too sticky.
9) Mix well for a few minutes.
10) Add the chives.
11) Add bean sprouts and garnish with roasted peanuts.

Some serve with a wedge of lemon - personally I never preferred that.

Happy Cooking!!

C

Singapore Chilli Crab

Hello,

Am back again after a short break. This is one of those dishes that I cooked without tasting ever. I still haven't brought myself to buy a dish that costs $85. Yes, that is what it costs at Sambal for their signature dish. It was on my "To Cook" for a while and it happened over the long weekend. Thanks to the Queen.

What goes in:

• Crab
• Onion, Ginger, Garlic paste
• Chilli powder (can replace this with Thai red chilli added to the paste above)
• Tomato paste
• Sambal paste
• Palm sugar (or normal sugar would do as well)
• Vinegar
• Soy sauce
• Tomato Sauce

Crab Cleaning

The very first time we attempted to cook crab was in Phoenix and it was a major disaster. So did a little more research this time.

1) If the crabs are still alive you should give a tap on its head just near the eyes to "knock them off". The one we had was already dead. 

2) Take a nice big knife and split the crab right in the middle.

3) Once split, you can easily open up the top shell and clean all the slimy stuff out. You can run it under cold water. There will also be some gray fibery substance on the top - get that out as well.

4) Chop up the claws or sections as some people call it.

Now to the curry

1. Heat up a wide sauce pan and pour a few tablespoons of oil.
2. Saute the onion-ginger-garlic paste until the oil separates a bit.
3. Add the tomato paste and the sambal paste and saute it for a few minutes.
4. Add vinegar, tomato sauce, soy sauce and palm sugar and saute until the sugar is dissolved completely.
5. Toss in the crab and saute for about 10 minutes. The crab shells will turn red by then.

The result:

One needs to have a taste for seafood and the fishy smell else don't bother to try this. :-)

Happy Cooking

C

Kadai Panneer

Kadai Panneer - one of the few dishes that I got accustomed in Bangalore probably during the later half of 1996 - when my stipend increased from Rs. 2500 - Rs. 4500 and we started graduating into the  "high end" Sagars (Sukh Sagar, Shanti Sagar etc)  from the road side Idli stalls. A yummy dish that's fairly simple to make as well. 

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 500 gms diced into small cubes
2. Capsicum (Bell Pepper) - 1 (diced)
3. Onions - 3 (2 roughly chopped and 1 diced in cubes)
4. Green chillies - 3 o r 4
5. Tomato paste - 2 table spoons
6. Kashmiri Red chilli powder - 1 tea spoon
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tea spoon
8. Cumin powder - 1  table spoon
9. Coriander powder - 1 table spoon
10. Garam masala - 1 table spoon
11. Methi Kasuri - 1 table spoon  (crushed in hand)
12. Ginger garlic paste - 2 table spoons
13. Milk - 1 cup
14. Lemon juice - 2 teaspoons
15. Vegetable oil - 3-4 table spoons
16. Salt to taste
17. Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

1. Grind the 2 roughly chopped onions to a paste.
2. Heat up the kadai and saute the onion paste in vegetable oil for about 4-5 minutes.
3. Add ginger garlic paste, cumin, coriander, garam masala, red chilli, turmeric powders and sautee until the oil separates from the mix.
4. Add tomato paste and saute for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add a 1/4 cup of milk and mix it up so that the milk blends into the masala well.
6. Add salt to taste and water to required consistency. Note this dish is usually a semi-gravy style and hence water should be kept to a minimum.
7. Add the diced onions and capsicum and mix it up for a few minutes until the onions become soft.
8. Add the lemon juice and cook it for about a minute.
9. Add the crushed methi kasuri and mix it well.
10. Add paneer and let it cook for a minute or two.
11. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Enjoy your Kadai Paneer!!

Happy Cooking
C

Nasi Goreng

Nasi goreng a.k.a. Fried rice Malaysian style is yet another variety of fried rice that brings it own twist to the "genre" of fried rice. The main ingredients that make this different from a regular Chinese (or Thai) fried rice is the Sambal paste, bean sprouts and fried onions (shallots). Sambal paste is a mix of shrimp paste and red chilli pastes. Am yet to figure out how to make this paste, right now under the courtesy of its namesake restaurant - Sambal.

Ingredients:

1. Sambal paste
2. Jasmine Rice
3. Minced Garlic
4. Eggs
5. Chicken (Optional of course)
6. Bean sprouts
7. Spring onions
8. Mixed vegetables (Carrots, peas and corn)
9. Fried onions
10. Soy sauce (not in pic)
11. Turmeric powder (not in pic)

Process

1. Cook the Jasmine rice, preferably few hours in advance and cool it down. The ratio I like for cooking rice is 1 cup rice : 1.5 cups water.
2. In a hot wok add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and swirl it around.
3. Sautee the garlic and sambal paste and turmeric for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the chicken and stir fry until cooked. 
5. Add the diced spring onions and the veggies and stir fry for about a minute.
6. Create an opening in the middle of the wok, add a bit of oil and scramble the eggs. 
7. Add jasmine rice and soy sauce and stir fry for a minute.
8. Add the bean sprouts and fried onions and give it a good final toss.

The result:

Stir Fried Chicken Noodles a.k.a. Chicken Chowmein (in Indo-Chinese lingo)

Stir-fried noodles or "Mee" as I was introduce to about 4 decades ago was always a hit at home. My mom had her recipe influenced probably by Malay and Indian cuisine with a strong garlic and ginger flavour to it. Over the years I have realized that "chowmein" means many things in different restaurants. I always get confused (and confuse the waiters) when I order "chowmein" in a proper Chinese restaurant (outside India). I've learnt to order this as "stir fried egg noodles with...".  When it comes to anything chinese and stir fried - one of the key requirements is a nice wok to get the smoky restauranty flavour. You cannot get this with the non-stick versions but a proper steel sticky version that needs proper "seasoning".  I used something like the one below. 

Ingredients:
1) Egg Noodles
2) Carrot
3) Onions
4) Cabbage
5) Capsicum (Bell Pepper)
6) Spring Onions (Shallots)
7) Garlic
8) Eggs (beaten)
9) Dark Soya sauce
10) Chicken thigh fillet
11) Vinegar

The method:

1) Chop Shop
The first and foremost in making noodles is chopping the veggies to the right size in terms of length and thickness. Yes, it could be a pain to chop the carrots, but any other way would not make that a chowmein. These days I cheat and get the ready made stir fry veggie mix. The next important thing in chopping is the meat. Make sure you slice the chicken fillet as thinly as possible and chop it up a bit more. Each piece should not be more than 1-2 inches in length and probably a few centimeters wide. This is to allow the chicken to be cooked fairly quickly. The next trick was to marinade the chicken in soy sauce and garlic. This removed the otherwise chickeny smell of chicken once stir fried.

2) The Noodles

1) Heat a large sauce pan with enough water to dunk all of the noodles.
2) Bring it to a boil and add the noodles.
3) Use a fork to separate the noodles after a few minutes.
4) Stop cooking when you can see the froth coming up.
5) Drain and wash the noodles in cold water to stop further cooking.

3) Stir Fry
a) Heat up a large wok on high heat until you can see the smoke coming out.
b) Add a few table spoons of oil (1 per serving) and coat the wok with oil.
c) Toss in the minced garlic and sautee for about 10-20 seconds.
d) Add the chicken and sautee until the chicken is 3/4ths cooked i.e., you dont see anything pinkish. Remove the chicken and transfer to a separate bowl / plate.
e) Add the beaten egg and scramble it up for about a minute.
f) Add the onions and stir fry for a minute.
g) Next comes the carrots. Another 30 seconds of stir frying.
h) Add capsicum and cabbage and give it another quick stir.
i) Toss in the boiled noodles and coat it with a bit of soya sauce. A typical Indo-chinese version will be fairly low on the soy sauce content. Add a few tablespoons of water if the noodles are sticky.
j) Stir fry the mix for about a minute ensuring all the contents have mixed well.
k) Garnish with spring onions.

Chicken Chowmein ready!!

Enjoy

C