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Gai Pad Prik

Gai Pad Prik (literally, Stir-fried chicken chilli pepper) Pad Prik is a popular one dish food. This dish can be found everywhere from a street food vendor in Thailand. We consider that one dish food is fast food in Thailand. Most Thai fast food are made from scratch, some are ready made is called Khao Gaeng and the other one is called Arhan Tam Sang, Arhan Tam Sang is the food made from your order.

We normally measure the cost of living in Thailand from the prices of one dish food. Working and white collar class people rely on one dish food. In general, people don’t bring lunch (from home) to work – most of them eat lunch from Khao Gaeng or Arhan Tam Sang shops. Living in a big city like Bangkok, traveling from home to work can take hours because the streets pack with vehicles so people don’t have much time to cook and also food from Khao Gaeng and Arhan Tam Sang shops are cheaper and fresher than you make yourself at home, especially a single person.

(Bangkok is a very big city, over 8 million people living in Bangkok that is an official number but many people register as a resident in other provinces or up countries and we also have people from provinces which are surrounded Bangkok but it is like part of Bangkok because Bangkok grows horizontal – there is no space between so we have millions of commuters each day. We have some subways that run within the city and some more are under construction. Each time I go back to (visit) Thailand and it’s different but Bangkok is always an interesting and exciting city and food is good.)

This dish is pretty much contain all nutrition you need in one dish even it is (Thai) fast food (it takes less than 10 minutes on cooking) it is healthy food.


* You can use any kind of meat in this dish like chicken, beef, pork and seafood. And if you use beef for this dish then you should reduce cooking time by tossing with a flipper a few time then add vegetable or the beef will be tough from overcooking.



3- 4 servings

Ingredients

2                  Small – medium skinless, boneless chicken breasts, slice into ¼ inch thick
2 cloves       Garlic mince
1½ tsp         Soy Sauce
Pinch of salt
Combine chicken, garlic, soy sauce and salt and marinate for 30 minutes.

1                  Small Onion (about 1 cup), cut into ½ inch wedges
1                  Small – medium Red or green Pepper, cut into ½ inch x 1½ inch
2                  Green onion, cut into ½ inch long
2                  Jalapeno Pepper, cut half in lengthwise and from the half cut on an angle into ¼ inch slices.
3 tbsp           Vegetable oil
3 tbsp           Water
1 tbsp           Soy or fish sauce
1 tsp             Oyster Sauce

Instruction

    Veggy cuts
    1. Heat the wok on high heat (for a steel wok) until hot put 2 tbsp oil and add marinated chicken. Tossing and separating chicken with a spatula for a minute and reduce the heat to medium high and stir-frying until chicken is almost cooked.
    2. Add onion, red or green pepper, jalapeno pepper and mix all well and add 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp soy or fish sauce and oyster sauce. Stir-frying for 2 -3 minutes or until parts of vegetable soft, add water during stir-frying.
    3. Turn off the heat. Add green onion and mix well. Serve with steamed rice.

Tom Kha Gai or Tom Kha Kai


Tom Kha Gai or Tom Kha Kai (literally, chicken galangal soup) is hot, spicy and sour soup. It is one of the most well known and popular soups beside Tom Yum. We can say that Tom Kha Soup and Tom Yum Soup are twins which are hot, spicy and sour. Tom Yum Soup dish itself also has two different versions – one is just a clear soup and the other one is with evaporated milk. The looks of Tom Yum which with evaporated milk is pretty close to Tom Kha which is with coconut milk, they both are creamy-white colour soup but they are not as thick as western style creamy soup.

Even it is only one ingredient different between these two kinds of soup but each one has its own character.  The coconut milk in Tom Kha soup brings the tastes of hot, spicy and sour to a smooth and gentle flavour, because coconut milk has sweetness as its fruit and is creamy from its oil. We don’t add any extra oil or butter into the soup. This soup is really a real tropical flavour food as you can sense the sweetness of coconut milk and the scent of Thai herbs.



*** Medium hot
For 4 – 5 servings

Ingredients

2                  Medium to large size of skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch thick and 1½ inches long
10 – 12         Mushrooms, cut into half or quarters (depending on the sizes of mushrooms)
60-80g          Galangal, slice into ¼ inch slices
3                   Lemongrass, tear off 1-2 outer sheaths cut on an angle into ½ inch slices
15                 Kaffir Lime leaves
10                 Grape Tomatoes (optional)
2                   Plants of Coriander with roots, cut the roots off the stems – leave 2 inches long stems to the roots and chopped the leaves for garnishing.
3                   Thai fresh chilli peppers, chopped very fine
2                   Shallots, slices
 1 clove          Garlic, mince
1-2 tsp           Nam Prink Pao or chilli paste with soya bean oil (optional)
? tsp              Chicken flavoured broth mix (you can adjust this ingredient, you may start with ¼ - ½ tsp)
¼ tsp             Salt
3½ - 4 cups    Water
1½ cups or 375 ml. Coconut Milk
4 – 5 tbsps     Lime juice
½ tbsp           Fish sauce
1 tsp              Soy sauce

Instruction

Cut chicken on angle
Herbs
  1. Marinate chicken with garlic mince, salt and soy sauce. Leave aside.
  2. Boil water in a pot on medium high heat until bubbling. Add galangal slices, lemongrass slices, kaffir lime leaves and coriander roots; boil until you can smell the scent of the herbs.
  3. And chicken and chicken broth mix, and boil until bubbling then add fish sauce, coconut milk until reach to the bubbling point then add mushroom, chilli pepper, grape tomatoes and shallot slice and boil another minute.
  4. Remove from heat and add lime juice. Discard galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leave and coriander roots and garnish coriander leaves before serve. 

Yam Tuna or Thai style Tuna Salad

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.

  • The tuna in oil, I got in Costa Rica had lot of oil but the tuna in oil from Ottawa was pretty dry so I didn’t have to remove the extra oil. I think it depends on the manufacturers and also the level of sodium too – each brand has different level of sodium.
  • For some people may find that shallot has a strong flavour, then red onion is a good solution.



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

  1. Open tuna can. Remove some extra oil that floating on the top. Transfer tuna to a bowl. (Break to be smaller pieces if you use solid tuna).
  2. Sprinkle salt on shallot or red onion slices and mix well.
  3. Mix all together tuna, shallot or onion slices, lime juice, chilli pepper and mints. And garnish with grape tomatoes.
  4. Serve with steamed rice or eat as salad, or wrapped each bite with lettuce leaves, and or for sandwiches.

Gai Gor Raeh or Thai southern style grill chicken skewers

This Thai southern style grill chicken skewers or Gai Gor Raeh, is originally from Malay or Melayu ethnic who are inhabiting the Malay Peninsula including the southernmost of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Brunei.

This dish is not a common and well known dish in other parts of Thailand, it is not like satay which is very similar, they both are from the same region and has similar process and flavour. Malay or Melayu ethnic’s food has very strong Indian and Arab food influence.

In general, majority of Thai people have very little knowledge and understanding about Malay ethnic’s culture, believes and language, except the unrest situation in that part of Thailand on media, even myself who were born, and raised and lived, there until my late teen. Is it because the differences of believes, cultures and languages?!  It is the nature of human to try to protect their ethnicity by dividing themselves from the others but it is too bad to reduce the chances to learn from each other.

Thai government and local leaders from different groups and believes are trying to solve the conflicts that have been occurred for a long time and hope to bring peace to the region.

I admit that I know only few dishes from Malay ethnic’s food. One of them is a rice dish called Khao Yum. Khao Yum is my favourite dish; I will have it every time when I visit my hometown. It is interesting and yummy dish. I will write this original real Khao Yum dish (recipe) after I go to visit my hometown next time.   


Gai Gor Raeh or Thai Southern Style Grill Chicken Skewers
 *** Mild hot
Curry Marinade * this recipe is for 3 kg meat.
Ingredients
8                      Shallots
12 ea.               dried red chillies (4-5 inches long chillies, it’s not very spicy chilli) soak in warm water until soft- remove seeds.
6                      cloves   garlic
2 tsp.                Turmeric powder
3 tsp.                Coriander seeds
1 can                (560 ml ) coconut milk
1 tbsp.              Lime juice
1 tsp.                Cinnamon powder
1 tsp.                Cumin powder
3 tsp.                Shrimp paste, roasted (wrap in foil and roast on the heat)
1 can                (114 g) red curry paste
3 cakes.           Palm sugar
1 cup.               Water
2/3tsp               Salt
2tbsp                fish sauce

Instruction

    Curry Marinade
  1. Puree everything in a blender except the palm sugar.  Put in a pot, add palm sugar, and heat until boiling.  Add salt and fish sauce to taste. Remove from heat. Lets it cool, pour the marinade over the meat (cut 1½ inch chunks). Mix thoroughly – leave in the fridge over night.
  2. Thread the meat onto the skewers- ready to grill (on charcoal, broil in the oven or pan grill.) Serve with Ah-Jad or cucumber pickles (see recipe below).

 

Ah-Jad or Cucumber Pickles


Ah-Jad is a side dish. Many different grilled meant dishes from Southern Thailand or Malayu ethnic will serve with this side dish, including Satay. It is basically a pickle dish.  

Ah-Jad
Ingredients
1               Cucumber, cut into quaters lengthwise and slice into ¼ inch thick.
3               Shallots, slice thin
1- 2          Jalapeno pepper, slice thin
Coriander

Salad Dressing

1 cup         Sugar
1¼ cup        White vinegar
1¼ tsp          Salt

Instruction
  1. In a high-sided saucepan over medium – medium high heat, bring white vinegar, sugar and salt to a boil for 6 - 8 minutes or until the liquid turn into syrup-like. Remove from heat and lets it cool.
  2. Combine cucumber, shallots and jalapeno in a bowl. Pour the dressing on the top and mix well. And garnish with coriander. Serve as a side dish with Gai Gor Raeh or Satay.

Crunchy Fried Shrimp with Tamarind Sauce


Evolution of creating food is very interesting; in the past the process moved slowly and since we have had technology (communication) like TV and internet that bring more people be able to access the source easily and in a mass. There are lots of cooking shows on TV and internet like Youtube that are interesting. I like to watch cooking shows, especially Iron Chef Thailand (and sometimes with Iron Chef America), to see diffident and new techniques for cooking for example: they use a torch to blaze only the surface of the food to create slightly burning flavour, or use a vacuum chamber machine for sous-vide or slow cooking in low and control temperature, another interesting is some chefs use liquid nitrogen for cooking, for this method there is still a safety issue – not for households use yet. For me it is more like a circus on TV show, its fun and exciting.

Cooking or creating food is absolutely the kind of art. Good flavour food is from the right ingredients and right amount of the ingredients and that your taste buds send that message to your brain to your body to produce happiness hormone and you satisfy with what you put into your mouth. Nowadays a good flavour food seems not enough and it is better if it looks good too. I really enjoy watching the chefs doing nice displaying their food; it is really a piece of art on the plate.

This recipe I got from Iron Chef Thailand and I added some more ingredients in it for example they don’t have bread crumbs and ground chilli. Original this recipe modified from Khai Luuk Koei or Son-in-law’s eggs. Khai Luuk Koei is, a common street vendor food, made from fried hard boiled eggs and pour on the tamarind sauce and garnish with crispy shallot.


Shrimp with Tamarind Sauce, the shrimp in this image is without bread crumbs.

  
Ingredients

1 lb.                 Peeled shrimp
Shallots - slice thin.
2                      Eggs, beat.
Flour
Bread crumbs
2 - 3                 Shallots, slice thin.
1 – 2 tsp          Cilantro, chopped
Vegetable oil (for deep frying)

Tamarind Sauce

50 g.               Tamarind (200g package tamarind cake is available at Asian grocery stores)
1 cup              Water
1 cake             Palm sugar
5 tbsp              Fish sauce ( can be 5 and a half tbsp)
½ tsp               Ground chilli (adjustable)

Instruction

    Tamarind liquid
  1. Soak tamarind in water, break and knead tamarind with hand until water becomes thick liquid, discard seeds and pods.
  2. Bring tamarind liquid (about ¾ cup) on medium high heat to boil with palm sugar until palm sugar dissolved, add fish sauce until boiled and mix well.
  3. Remove from heat and add ground chilli and mix well. Put aside.
  4. Beat eggs in a bowl and until frothy. Rise shrimp and dry it on paper towels. Dredge shrimp in flour, shake off excess. Dip shrimp into eggs, then press shrimp into bread crumbs; turn shrimp over and press into bread crumbs again to coat both sides.
  5. Fry shrimp in hot oil until golden and drain oil on paper towels. Fry shallots in hot oil (after shrimp) until golden and drain on paper. Place and arrange fried shrimp on a plate pour the sauce on shrimp (or just serve shrimp with the tamarind sauce in a dipping bowl beside), garnish with cilantro and crispy shallot.

Som Tam or Papaya Salad

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.


Som Tum Thai
 *** 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

  1. Making the dressing - heat water and palm sugar or sugar in a pot until sugar is melted or boiled for 7 – 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Add lime juice and fish sauce, mix well.
  2. Combine shredded papaya, shredded carrot, snake beans or green beans, chillies, garlic, cherry tomatoes and dried shrimp in a mixing bowl. Add the dressing and mix well and add peanuts or cashew nuts. Serve with sticky rice and grilled or roasted chicken.

Laab Gai or Laab Chicken

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.


Laab Gai
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

    Roasted Sticky Rice
  1. Roast sticky rice with a frying-pan at medium heat until lightly golden. Grind in a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder to a fine powder.
  2. Marinate chicken with garlic, salt, oil and soy sauce. Cook the marinated chicken with a pot or frying-pan at medium heat, and add fish sauce and water while stirring and breaking up any lumps with a spoon until it changes colour and totally cooked. Remove from heat and let it cool down a bit so that when you add fresh herbs in the chicken they are still fresh green.
    3. Chop Lemongrass, Galangal and Kaffir lime leaves very fine.
  3. Add lime juice, ground rice, ground chilli, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, shallots, green onion and culantro, and mix well.

    Slice and cut herbs
4.  Serve with steamed rice or sticky rice.
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