Goong Ob Woon Sen

Goong Ob Woon Sen or proper name – Goong Ob Woon Sen Mo Din (literally, shrimp baked with mung bean vermicelli noodles in clay pot) is originally a Thai-Chinese dish (created by Chinese in Thailand). Goong Ob Woon Sen is well known and popular dish – it is a restaurant and food catering dish, you don’t see it at street vendors.

We have very famous and popular food catering businesses in Nakhon Pathom Province. Nakhon Pathom Province is one of the central provinces of Thailand, is about 58 km. away from Bangkok. When we talk about Nakhon Pathom we will think of 2 things from this province, one is Phra Pathom Chedi, a chedi commissioned by King Mongkut in 1870, it is one of the tourists’ destination and the other one is food catering, this style of catering is called “Dto Jiin” or Chinese Table means Chinese food with a set of 10 -12 dishes including dessert, are served at the round tables for 10 -12 people per table. I don’t know how many food caterers are in Nakhon Pathom exactly but it’s a lot. The caterers will carry pots, pans, chairs, tables and necessary utensils or kitchen wares with them in a big truck and they do it for any occasion across Thailand in a very reasonable price with fresh made food from scratch.

One of popular dishes on the food catering menus is Goong Ob Woon Sen. This dish normally we use the large size of Tiger shrimp or fresh water shrimp. The frozen tiger shrimp and fresh water shrimp from Thailand are available at Asian grocery stores.

*** If Chinese celery is not available, it can be replaced by coriander or cilantro.

For 4 servings

Ingredients

240 g                  (Dried) Mung Bean Vermicelli noodles

1 ½ lbs.               Shrimp (size 31 – 40 /lb or larger)

1 root                  Ginger 2 ½  inch long, slices

10 - 12 slices       Fat pork

1 cup                  Chinese Celery, cut into 1 inch long

1 tsp                   Ground peppercorn

6 roots                Coriander or cilantro

4 cloves              Garlic

2 tbsps               Soy Sauce

2 tbsps               Oyster Sauce

2 tbsps               Sesame Oil

½ cup                 Water

Instruction

1. Soak Mung bean vermicelli noodles in lukewarm water for ½ hour or until soft and drain, and cut into 4 inches long. Set aside.
2. Pound peppercorn, coriander roots and garlic in a mortar and pestle (chop coriander roots and garlic first before put in the mortar and pestle so that it’s easier to be broken in small pieces but not paste like yet)

   

   1. Lay fat pork and ginger over bottom.

3. In a mixing bowl (see picture), combine shrimp, Mung bean vermicelli, mixer from 2., soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil, and mix well. Set aside.
4. In clay pot (see picture), lay fat pork over clay pot bottom and layer ginger slices on fat pork.
5. Transfer the mixer from the mixing bowl to the clay pot and let shrimp stay at the bottom (see picture) and noodles on the top, before put on the heat pour (spread) ½ cup of water on noodles and cover with the lid.

   

   1. Mix in a bowl. 2. Transfer to clay pot.

6. Bake on the stove burner over medium heat until steam coming out and continuing for another 2 -3 minutes or until shrimp is cooked. Stir in Chinese celery.
7. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Moo Daet Diao or Thai Style Pork Jerky

Moo Daet Diao (literally, a day of sunshine pork) is Thai style pork jerky. We have two different kinds of pork and beef jerky in Thailand, the first one we can find in China town, on Yaowarach road, this one we don’t call Moo Daet Diao but it is called Moo Pen, means pork sheets, this Moo Pen is sweet jerky. Pork and beef jerky in China town, Bangkok has been selling for nearly hundred years and has been very popular. I remember when I was a child living in Southern Thailand, every Chinese New Year my young adult brother or sister who worked in Bangkok would come home and bring us pork jerky in the red bright colourful tins. Nowadays you can find pork and beef jerky from China town at the luxury shopping centers in Bangkok or other big cities and also it is one of the most popular souvenirs for the tourists who visit China town in Bangkok.

The other one, Moo Daet Diao, is normally found at Som Tum vendors or Issan style restaurants. Som Tum or Papaya salad is one of Issan or North-Eastern Thai food so it is understood that Moo Daet Diao is Issan or North-Eastern Thai food. North-Eastern of Thailand is a biggest part of the country and is a flat land, growing rice is main economic activity, and majority of population are farmers. This Moo Daet Diao is perfect food for the farmers base on the style of work in the field all day and tropical climate which is warm all round year so they need the food that will not go bad easily, and they use a few ingredients like fish sauce and salt as the preservatives and flavour.

And for restaurants and street vendors, they develop the simple Moo Daet Diao from upcountry to be more cities’ style with more flavour and taste by adding more kinds and differences of ingredients.

Ingredients

1 kg.              Pork lion, cut into long stripes about ½ inch x ½ inch thick

3 cloves         Garlic, chopped fine

2 tsps            Ground black pepper

3 tsps            Coriander seeds, roughly crushed

4 tbsps          Sugar or Honey

½ tbsp           Salt

2 tbsps          Soy sauce

3 tbsps          Oyster sauce

2 tbsps          Vegetable oil (add this oil if using roasting in oven method)

Vegetable oil for deep frying (deep-frying method)

Instruction

1. Marinate pork with garlic, ground pepper, coriander seeds, sugar or honey, salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce and 2 tbsps oil (add oil in marinade if you bake it in oven) marinate over night in the fridge.
2. Spread on a rack and dry in the sun for a few hours and deep fry in hot oil until nice brown colour. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. OR
3. Bake in oven at 70 °C/160 °F for 3 -4 hours or until cooked.
4. Serve with steamed sticky rice.

Pad Prik Khing with Squid

Pad Prik Khing is one of popular Khao Khaeng dishes. Raan Khao Khaeng is a type of traditional Thai diner; the style of this diner is similar to cafeteria that all the food, it can be 20 – 30 different kinds of items are ready made and display for customers to choose and food will be served to you at the table.

Raan Khao Khaeng is one of food services that play a big part of city life; people who living in cities from low level labours to white collars rely on it as it is served as a breakfast, lunch and or dinner for many people. Every time when government increase the price of cooking gas (In Thailand, the price of cooking gas is controlled by government) and the prices of Khao Khaeng food will increase as well. Often the prices of food increase more than cooking gas by percentage because it’s easy to take an advantage of increasing the price of food each time by 5 baths rather than 1 or 2 bath base on the part that increased. The gas price increased last time was in February 2013 and the prices of Khao Khaeng food are still at 25 – 40 baths per dish. (Bath is, Thai currency, about 30 bath= 1 USD)  We use the prices of Khoa Khaeng measure the economy in a sense of everyday life of cost living so the inflation rate in Thailand is still pretty good as Khoa Khaeng food prices are not much different than many years before.

This recipe, I use curry paste from a can instead of making curry paste from scratch so that people who don’t have much time on cooking will be able to enjoy some Thai food. Some time I will post another recipe with homemade curry paste on this blog as well.

*** Prik Khing curry paste in a can is available at Asian grocery stores.

     

Level of spiciness - mild

For 2 – 3 servings

Ingredients

2                      Fresh squid tubes, about 300g.(or 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts)

1 ½ cups          Snake beans, cut into 1 inch

2 tbsps             Prik Khing Chilli Jam or Prik Khing Curry Paste (114g./can)

5                      Kaffir lime leaves, chop into very thin stripes

2 cloves           Garlic, chopped fine

 ²⁄₃ tsp              Sugar

1 tsp                Fish sauce

2 tbsp              Vegetable oil

2 – 3tbsps       Water

Instruction

1. Clean the squid and cut the squid tubes in half lengthways. Cut a criss-cross pattern on the inside of squid. Cut into 1 ¼ inch x 2 inch. Or if use chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch x 1 ¾ inch.
2. Heat the steel wok over high heat with 1 tbsp oil and swirl to coat. Add squid or chicken and chopped garlic, and stir-fry for 2 minutes and add curry paste. Mix well.
3. Stir in snake beans, sugar, fish sauce, the other tbsp of oil. Stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes during the process adds 1 -2 tbsp of water before remove from heat stir in kaffir lime leaves.
4. Serve with steamed rice.

Khao Pad Goong

Khao Pad Goong (literally, fried rice with shrimp) is one of the most popular kinds of fried rice. This style of fried rice is original from high-end Cantonese Chinese restaurants and nowadays you can see on the menu at higher end Thai restaurants as well. The style of this fried rice is simple and normally with more expensive meat like shrimp or crab.

There is another style of fried rice that is also popular and normally you can find this dish at street vendors and Raan Ah-Han Tam Sang (another kind of short order food shop beside Raan Khao Khaeng). This style of fried rice is a one dish food, in the dish contains with vegetable like Gai Lan or Chinese broccoli, tomato and onion and the meat will be pork or chicken, and serve with some slices of cucumber. People in Thailand eat fried rice as a breakfast, lunch or and dinner.

My recipe here is from the first style of fried rice but I make this recipe as a one dish food as it covers all category of food.

For 1 serving

Ingredients

1 cup                 (packed) Steamed Jasmine rice

1                        Egg

5                        Shrimp (31 – 40 PCS /lb) (Or any size you wish)

1 clove               Garlic, chopped fine 

1                        Small spring green onion, chopped into ¼ inch

¼ tsp                 Ground pepper corn

1 tsp                  Soy sauce

1 tsp                  Oyster sauce

1 tbsp and 1 tsp Vegetable oil (1tbsp would be enough, if you concern about your health)

3 slices              Tomato

3 slices               Cucumber

1 wedge              Lime

2                         Fresh Thai chilli, chopped

                           Fish sauce

Instruction

1. Heat a steel wok over high heat, add 1 tbsp oil and swirl to coat. Add the egg and cook for a few second then use a spatula cut and break the egg to be pieces.
2. Add garlic and shrimp, and mix well. Add steamed Jasmine rice, breaking up any lumps and stir into the mixer. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and ground pepper, and while swirling and mixing, add 1 tsp oil on just edge of the mixer. Swirl and mix 1–2 minutes or you can see every gain of rice stay individually with slightly golden brown colour.
3. Just before remove from heat, add spring green onion and mix well.
4. Serve with slices of tomato, cucumber, (squeeze) the wedge of lime, and chopped fresh chilli in fish sauce.

Chilli in Fish Sauce

            Cover chopped chilli with fish sauce (squeeze a wedge of lime juice if you wish)

***A whole process happens very fast and on high heat only so that it produces good fried rice.

***Jasmine rice is the best for making fried rice as fried rice suppose to be dried but soft

*** Some people prefer lime juice mix in fish sauce and chilli rather then squeezing it on the rice.

Khai Luk Koei

Khai Luk Koei, Kai Leuk Koey or Kai Look Koey (literally, son-in-law eggs) is a dish that commonly found at Raan Khoa Khaeng or short order Thai restaurants. Khai Luk Koei or Son-In-Law-Eggs made of hard boiled eggs and we also have Khai Luk Sa Pai or Daughter- In-Law-Eggs made of over easy fried eggs but Son-In-Law-Eggs seems more popular.

Eggs are a common food for everyone, we simply turn the eggs to something more interesting, and it is for families especially for kids. In Thailand we consider Khai Luk Koei is a kind of comfort food and also it is a kid friendly dish as it contains a little sweetness, saltiness and sourness but is not spicy. Many people asked me what ages of kids can eat or learn to eat spicy food – I think it depends on each kid his or herself some can eat spicy hot food at very young age like 2 -3 years old and some can eat only mild spicy food even they are adult. We both my husband and I be able to eat very spicy food but not our son, he can eat mild spicy only. I was surprised he loved my Massaman Curry; this curry is mild hot in a sense of spicy hot from chilli pepper but it has the strong flavour of the spiciness of other different spices like cumin, for example.   

Ingredients

Tamarind Liquid

1                        ¾ x 1 ¾ inches of 200 g Tamarind cake (see picture)

½ cup                water

Break and knead tamarind in water until the mixer thickens

6                       Large eggs

½ cake             Palm sugar

6 tbsp               Tamarind thick liquid

2 tbsp               Fish sauce

½ cup               Oil for frying

1                       Large shallot, slice thin

2 tbsp               Chopped coriander

1                      Big long red chilli or Prik Chee Fah, sliced (optional) this kind of chilli is mild hot.

Instruction

1. Place eggs in a pot and cover with cold tap water and boil at high heat for 12 minutes (boil 10 minutes from tap water in Thailand).
2. Remove from heat, drain the hot water and rise and soak with cold tap water in the same time shake the pot so the eggs will be cracked from hitting to each other and peel the shells.
3. Put oil on a small frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add egg one at a time if using small amount oil in the pan and roll and turn the egg to brown totally until finish all.
4. In the same frying pan with the same oil, add sliced shallot, fry until slightly golden brown and drain oil on paper towel.
5. In the same frying pan, remove all oil, reduce the heat to low and add tamarind liquid, fish sauce and palm sugar and cook until palm sugar dissolves and the mixer thickens slightly.
6. To serve, slice the eggs and arrange on a serving plate. Pour on the sauce and garnish with crispy shallot, red chilli slices and chopped coriander. Serve with steamed rice.

Pla Goong

"PLA" is kind of processing food, by using acid from lime juice, without cooking, normally it is for raw meat; beef or seafood, basically the process is the same as "YAM", and Goong means shrimp. Original this dish is made from live tiny shrimp krill but nowadays many Thai restaurants in Thailand use roasted or grilled shrimp to for this dish.

This dish is considering a healthy food and it doesn’t take a lot of time to prepare and make it, it’s perfect for people who have a busy life and love healthy and Thai food.

Ingredients

12                  Shrimp (size 31 -40)

2 - 3              Fresh chilli, chopped fine

3 tbsp            Lemongrass, chopped very fine (see picture)

3                    Shallots (about ¹⁄₃ cup), slice thin

8 leaves        Mints

1 tbsp            Kaffir Lime Leaves, chopped very fine (see picture)

1 tbsp            Nam Prik Pao or chilli paste with soya bean oil

?                    Sugar (there is only one brand of Nam Prik Pao in my city and it is pretty sweet so I don’t add more sugar in it.)

2 tbsp            Lime juice

Herb cuts

1 tbsp            Fish sauce

  

Instruction

1. Grill shrimp on pan grill or charcoal both sides until shrimp turns prink.
2. Combine fresh chilli, Nam Prik Pao, (sugar), lime juice and fish sauce and stir until sugar or Nam Prik Pao dissolved.
3. Add shrimp, lemongrass, shallots, mints and kaffir lime leaves. Mix well.
4. Serve with steamed rice or eat as appetizer or salad.

*** This dish can be served as appetizer, place each piece of shrimp on a rice cracker and put a small piece of lettuce between shrimp and the rice cracker to prevent the crackers being wet, or just simply place shrimp on a piece of belgain envide as a healthy finger food.