Thai Recipes From My Kitchen

Nam Tok (literally, waterfall) is the North Eastern Thai or Isan food. The name “Nam Tok Neua”, or “waterfall beef” refers to the juices that flow out of the meat when it is cut, due to its being lightly grilled and so slightly rare in the center.

It is a popular Thai dish in among North Eastern Thai people or beef lovers. Actually most of the ingredients for Nam Tok are the same as “Laab” accept the meat and the process of cooking the meat is different. We use chopped meat in Laab and cook with the small amount of water in a pot. For Nam Tok, we use a big piece of meat and use grilling as the process of cooking.

For 2 servings

Ingredients

280 - 300 g.                 Beef loin (sirloin, tenderloin) or rib eye steak

1 - 2 cloves                  Garlic, chopped fine

Pinch of salt

1 tsp                             Sugar

1 tsp                            Vegetable oil (optional, if the meat has not much fat)

1 tsp                            Oyster sauce

½ tsp                           Soy sauce

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15 leaves                     Mints

4 - 5 leaves                 Culantro ( Eryngium foetidum leaves ) cut into ¼ inch long

4 - 5 leaves                 Kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin stripes

1 tbsp                         Galangal, chopped fine

2                                  Shallots, slice thin

1 ½ tbsp                     Lemongrass, chopped fine

1 tbsp                         Ground roasted sticky rice

½ tsp                          Ground Thai chili pepper (adjustable)

1 – 1½ tbsp               Fish sauce (adjustable, different brand of fish sauce has different level of sodium)

1 – 1 ½ tbsp              Lime juice

2 – 3 tbsp                 Chicken broth or beef broth (optional, if the mixture is too dry)

Vegetable Side Dish

(These vegetables are not processed; they are just plain fresh vegetables. We use them for breaking the feeling of hot and spicy on the tongue from a spicy food and at the same time we can get more nutrition from the vegetables beside from the meat and herbs in the mixture.)

  

Cabbage or Chinese Napa

Snake beans

Or any salad vegetable (like lettuce or cucumber) 

                            You can also follow the instructions from this video!

Instructions

Yam Makua Yao or Eggplant Salad is one of healthy and yummy popular “YAM” Thai dishes. Some recipes may have hard boiled eggs in this dish. For people who can not eat pork or don’t like pork then you can just simply change it to be chicken.

3 - 4 Servings. Spiciness: Medium

Ingredients

2                         Large egg plants (Chinese Eggplants)

200 g.                  Pork mince

1 tsp                   Soy sauce

2 cloves              Garlic mince

Pinch of salt

12                       Shrimp (size 31 -40 or any size)

3                         Shallots, slice thin or ½ cup of red onion

3 tbsp                 Lemongrass, slice very thin

2 tbsp                Kaffir Lime leaves, cut into thin stripes (about 4-5 leaves)

10 – 15 leaves     Mint

3                        Fresh Thai chilli or Prik Kee Noo (spiciness is adjustable)

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

3 tbsp                Lime juice

2 tbsp                Fish sauce

2 tbsp                Water

Instruction

Yam Tuna with Herbs or Tuna Salad with Herbs is a healthy dish. Nowadays more and more people think about healthy diet – less process, less oil, less sodium and or no chemical but contains with all nutrition.  In Thai food, there are many different Thai dishes that are considered in the category of healthy food.

                                                   

For me I am always careful what to make for my family and I to eat, the food that I make have enough nutrition or is healthy enough or not. Some people say coconut milk is not good for your health but people in many tropical countries who consume coconuts (original they used coconut oil for cooking) for hundreds of years but they don’t have cardiovascular disease or obesity problem more than others, actually coconuts have some good nutrition. Over all I think beside what we eat we should think how much quantity to have for our body base on the input and output energy of each person. In general we don’t have an obesity problem in adults in Thailand but there are more and more overweight children, especially children in cities that have less active activities but with lots of corner shops and western junk food restaurants (in Thailand, going to the import western junk food restaurants is a privilege and it is popular). It becomes a global classic problem.

One of the most important ingredients of this dish is Piper Sarmentosum leaves. The leaves, are commonly used in traditional medicine, contain the antioxidant naringenin and in cuisine are used to wrap Miang Kham or a traditional snack. Miang Kham, is a bite size snack, made of roasted shredded coconut, roasted peanuts, shallot cubes, small ginger cubes, dried shrimp, a small piece of lime, small pieces of fresh chilli and a drop of thick sweet and salty sauce wrapped in Piper Sarmentosum so this Yum Tuna dish adapted the idea of Miang Kham snack.

This yam tuna dish is typical Thai, array of flavours that addresses all 5 taste senses – sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter. You can taste only a slightly bitterness at the end of the palate so it doesn’t really bother your enjoyment but it creates the sense of (all) good for your health.

***Piper sarmentosum is available at Asian grocery stores.

2 -3 servings

Ingredients

130 g.                   Tuna (solid) in oil

2                           Small shallots, slice thin (see picture)

2 tbsp                   Lemongrass, slice very thin

2 tbsp                   Ginger, cut into very thin stripe about 1 inch long

2 tbsp                   Galangal, cut into very thin stripe about 1 inch long

2 tbsp                   Kaffir lime leaves, cut into very thin stripe

2 tbsp                   Fingerroots (see picture from the link), slice into thin diagonal slices

12-15 leaves         Piper Sarmentosum

Herb cuts

Salad Dressing

2                           Fresh Thai chilli (spiciness is adjustable)

3 roots                   Coriander or cilantro

½ tsp                     Sugar

1 tbsp                    Fish sauce (saltiness is adjustable, depends on sodium in tuna and your palate)

2 tbsp                    Lime juice

Instruction

“Pla”, “Yam”, Tam”, “Laab” are kinds of processing food in Thai cuisine, all these processes are similar to the process of salad in Western cuisine, the dishes from these processes usually combine the balancing of 4 tastes – sourness, sweetness, spiciness and saltiness. We consider the food from these processes is healthy food as it is less processed, less oil and always combined with fresh herbs.

Not only “Pla”, “Yam”, Tam” and “Laab” dishes are healthy food but more over than that it doesn’t consume a lot of time to make which is an ideal for people who have a busy life and aim to live healthy.

All Thai people love “Pla”, “Yam”, Tam” and “Laab” dishes, sometimes we feel we have no appetite because of the weather as the weather is warm all round year in Thailand or other reasons, but as soon as we see “Pla”, “Yam”, Tam” and “Laab” dishes our mouth is watering.

Ingredients

300 g.                   Scallop

¹⁄₃ cup                  Lemongrass, slice very thin

3                           Shallots, slice thin

5                           Kaffir lime leaves, chop into very thin strip

8                           Mint leaves

2 - 3 pieces          Iceberg lettuce

Salad dressing

2                           Fresh Thai chilli, chopped fine

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

1 ½ tbsp               Lime juice

1 tbsp                    Fish sauce

?  Sugar (there is only one brand of Nam Prik Pao in my city and it is sweet enough for this recipe.)

Instruction

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

"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.

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

1 tbsp            Fish sauce

  

Instruction

Last two to three weeks I was in Costa Rica with my family for a vacation, during we were there I missed my Thai food. I am just like the most of Thai people who are used to eating hot and spicy food. Spiciness in chilli peppers helps your appetite, in Thailand we will say “Sab” or Yummy when we see spicy and sour food because it makes your mount water, in some cultures people believe that eating a spicy food can stimulate a person’s sexual appetite.

This Yam Tuna dish is very simple and easy to make – no cooking required. You can find the ingredients pretty much every part of the world. The main ingredient is Tuna from a can, I prefer the Tuna in oil one so that the tuna will not be too dry and I remove some extra oil which is floating on the top in a can, and the rest of ingredients are lime juice, chilli pepper, onion or shallots and one of these herbs - mint, dill, coriander and culantro. I used culantro when I made this dish in Costa Rica as it is available and native herb to Mexico through South America. It is interesting we use this herb a lots in Thai food. And for chilli peppers, the only kind of chilli pepper I had in Costa Rica was jalapeño peppers. I simply roasted a jalapeno pepper on the element of a stove to remove a strong flavour in jalapeno peppers and created a little smoky flavour and was incredible to become a good Thai-Latino Tuna salad.

After I had this Yam Tuna in Costa Rica and thought of people, who love Thai food or spicy food, live in any part of the world will have a chance to enjoy a (simple) taste of Thai and would like to share with. It is healthy food and really good for people who don’t have a lots of time on cooking.

10 minutes for a whole process.

Ingredients

1 can                    Tuna in oil, 130g.

½ cup                   Shallots or red onion, slice thin.

2 - 2½ tbsp           Lime juice

7 leaves                Mints

1 Fresh Thai chilli pepper, chopped very fine or 1 roasted jalapeno pepper. (The spiciness is adjustable, depend on your favour or the level of spiciness of chillies)

Pinch of salt

Fish sauce            Optional; it depends on the level of sodium in tuna.

3                           Grape tomatoes, cut into half.

Instruction

Original Som Tam or Papaya Salad is a common dish and widely eaten food among people who speak Lao language in Laos and including Isan or North Eastern Thais. Isan or North Eastern Thai is one of the dialects of Lao language. Isan or North-Eastern Thailand is the biggest part of the country with one third of population, majority of people are farmers. Isan is a farm land and also is the driest part of the country so the growing season is only in rainy season. Their life is full of hardship so they become the biggest group of people migrate to Bangkok and other parts of the country, especially when Thailand started to change to be industrialized country 20-30 years ago. They brought their cultures: food, language and music with them. Comedies and music with Isan language have been popular on TV, at bars, restaurants, streets and etc. 

Som Tam becomes popular food where Isan people are and because of Som Tam is such a pleasant food with the tastes of spiciness, sourness, sweetness and saltiness so it is easy for local people to enjoy it too. The most important ingredient in Som Tam Isan is Pla-Ra or fermented fish which is the Isan rural staple food. Many Thai people who are not from Isan are not comfortable eating fermented fish and will adjust their Som Tam to suit their flavour for example Som Tam in Southern Thailand may have shrimp paste with it. Actually we have Som Tam from royal cuisine which original is from royal cookery, this Som Tam, the important ingredient of royal Som Tam is dry shrimp, always comes with Khao Man or Jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk, but this Som Tam is not that attractive compare with Som Tam Isan so people combine Som Tam Isan and Som Tam from royal cuisine to be Tam Thai or Som Tam Thai - remain dry shrimp but Pla-Ra..

Nowadays many restaurants sell Som Tam as their main menu; they create many different flavours and toppings, for example: papaya salad with salted eggs, crispy anchovy, grilled chicken, cockle (saltwater clams), cooked fresh shrimp etc. The most common and widely available are Som Tam Thai, Som Tam Thai with salted crabs and Som Tam Isan (with fermented fish).

This recipe is Tam Thai or Som Tam Thai, dry shrimp is one of the ingredients but if you don’t like or are allergy with shrimp you can skip this ingredient.

Tip : Fresh and firm green papaya will create crisp shredded papaya but sometimes the really fresh ones are not available then soak shredded papaya in really cold water until crispy.

 *** Medium hot

Ingredients

Shredded papaya and carrot

2 cup              Shredded green papaya

½ cup             Shredded carrot

1/3 cup           Snake beans or green beans, cut in 1½ inch long, crash

10 - 12            Cherry tomatoes, cut half.

1/3cup            Salted roasted peanuts or cashew nuts

1/3cup            Dried shrimp

2                     Thai fresh chillies, crash (the spiciness is adjustable)

1 clove            Garlic, crash

Dressing

1 cake                  Palm Sugar or ¼ cup of Sugar

Ingredients

¼ cup                   Water

3 tbsp                   Lime Juice (adjustable)

3 tbsp                   Fish Sauce (adjustable)

Instruction

Laab is Lao language; the meaning of Laab is the same as Yum in Thai means a dish with the process of combining mince meat or slice small pieces of meat with herbs, chilli, lime juice and fish sauce together. It is not quite like salad in Western cooking as mostly the main ingredient for Laab or Yum is meat. It can be any kind of meat: chicken, duck, beef, fish or and pork.

Original this dish is commonly and widely eaten in Northern Thailand and people who speak Lao language like Isan or North-Eastern Thais and Lao in Laos. There are other different dishes that have the same kind of process from the same region for example Sok-Lek, Goy, and etc. This dish is commonly served with sticky rice as sticky rice is the staple food of Northern Thais, North-Eastern Thais and Lao.  

This dish became popular and well-known in Thailand, Thai restaurants and Thai or and Lao communities around the world as the migration of Isan or North-Eastern Thais and migration of Lao as well.

I don’t use only just fish sauce for many of my recipes because some recipes original are from Chinese food and also if using only fish sauce in the food is pretty fishy for many people who are not used to eating fish sauce. In Thailand we pretty much use both fish sauce and soy sauce (and oyster sauce) for cooking.

Ingredients

2                  Boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 350g), minced

1 clove        Garlic, minced

¼ tsp           Sea Salt

1tbsp           Vegetable oil

1 tsp            Soy Sauce

¼ cup          Water

3 tbsp           Lemongrass, finely chopped (see picture)

3 tbsp          Galangal, finely chopped (see picture)

2 tsp             Kaffir Lime leaves, finely chopped (see picture)

2                   Shallots, slice thin

2                  Green Onion, cut into ¼ inch

¼ cup          Culantro, cut into ¼ inch (optional) (see link)

3 stems        Mints, leaves.

3 tbsp          Ground roasted sticky rice

1 tsp            Ground chilli pepper (you can adjust the spiciness; some kind of chilli is very spicy)

4 -5 tbsp      Lime juice (adjustable)

3 tsp            Fish Sauce (adjustable)

Instruction

4.  Serve with steamed rice or sticky rice.

Mango is native to tropical to Thailand, south-east Asia and India from where it spread all over the tropics around the world. There are many different kinds of mangoes grow in Thailand, some are good for eating ripe and some are good for eating green.  Here in North America mangoes are available almost all round year, they are from many places – Mexico, Central America, and Asian mangoes at some Asian grocery stores. This recipe requires a green sour mango or firm sour mango.

Ingredients

 2                        chicken breasts

¼  tsp.                 salt

2   tbsps.             soy sauce

2   tbsps.             canola or vegetable oil

2   cloves             garlic, finely chopped.

1   tsp.                 sugar

(Chicken marinated with ingredients above for 1- 2 hours. And then grill it in the oven until cooked. Cut in chunks. Keep the dripping for the salad dressing)

½    unripe mango, julienne. (1 cup)

½    small carrot, julienne.

¼     red onion, thinly slice.

10    grape tomatoes, cut in half.

4      green onions,  chopped

4      stalks of mints, only leaves.

Mix all the ingredients and chicken in a salad bowl, put aside.

Salad Dressing

5   tbsp               condense chicken broth

¼  cake               palm sugar

1   tbsp               fish sauce

1   (round) tsp     chilli paste (chilli paste with soya oil)

3   tbsp                Lime juice (depending on the sourness of the mango, you can add more or reduce less)

4                         fresh red chilli peppers, finely chopped.

1   stalk               lemongrass (about 3 tbsp), finely slice first and then chopped in very small pieces

5                         kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped (Stack and fold the leaves when you chop, it will be easier)

Instruction