Category: Thai

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Here’s Looking at You, Kid! (Recipe: Thai Whole Fish)

(Don’t forget about the chocolate giveaway. Leave a comment before midnight, Tuesday, November 17th) 

When I was in Chinatown last week, stocking up on supplies, I decided to buy fish for dinner.  I scanned the fish display – a vast array of whole fish and fillets, from mackeral to salmon to monkfish.  The fillets didn’t look great (I look for a moist sheen and firmness to the flesh).  Nor did the whole fish: the eyes were cloudy, a sure sign of age,  or perhaps just because they were packed on ice.  I didn't want to chance it.   But then I looked down, and saw fish tanks under the counter with live fish squirming around.  It doesn’t get any fresher than that!

The man in front of the fish tanks scooped a striped bass out of the tank with a net and pointed to the counter, as if to ask, “Do you want that killed and cleaned.” I nodded. Another man scaled the fish and cleaned out the innards. Before I had a chance to request that I’d like it filleted, it was in a bag with a UPC sticker.

I could have easily filleted it at home, but I decided to cook it whole – for better flavor and for ease of handling. The bones will keep the fish moist and give extra flavor. Leaving the fish whole also makes it easier to fillet the fish with less waste and  test for doneness – the fillets will pull away from the bones easily with a fork or spoon when it’s cooked. 

Digging deep into the archives of my recipes, I found this recipe for Whole Thai Fish with Chilies. WOW! Was it delicious! The sweet and sour flavor is bright from the addition of kaffir lime leaves. And the sauce stays light since it’s thickened only from the sugar. It’s definitely going to make a more regular appearance at the dinner table.

The presentation is impressive, but if you’re squeamish about whole fish, you can also filet it in the kitchen before serving.

From the Garden: Green chilies and scallions.



Whole Fish with Garlic and Chilies

2 whole 1 – 2 lb. fish, like striped bass.
1 cup flour
oil for frying

3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 green jalapenos, sliced thin
2 red jalapeno or 1/2 red bell pepper, slice thin
1/2 cup scallions, sliced thin or cut into rounds
1/2 cup cilantro

2 tbs. oil
1/3 cup fish sauce
6 tbs. sugar
6 tbs. lime juice
12 kaffir lime leaves

1. Cut three slashes to the bone on both sides of fish.

2. Heat oil. Add peppers and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes or until garlic is lightly brown.  Remove from heat, and stir in fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.  Set aside.

3.  Coat fish with flour.  Heat a large skillet over high heat and add oil.  Gently place in fish and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

4.  Put fish on a serving platter.  Stir kaffir lime leaves into sauce and pour over fish.  Garnish with cilantro

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The Lasting Effect (Recipe: Thai Spring Rolls)

I received a random email the other day…

Hello Julia, I don't know if you remember me but I was married to J. I just moved to Denver and on my way out here they broke into my UHAUL and stole everything. They got a box with my cookbooks and more important your recipe for Thai Spring Rolls. Is there any way to get that recipe again?

I haven’t seen R in years. And in fact, I barely knew him, so it’s not surprising that we “lost touch.” His wife used to work with me as my assistant during Interactive cooking parties. I met him a handful of times, including the evening I cooked them dinner as a thank you for all the help J gave me.

How awful that he should lose everything in a move like that! And how flattered I was that, of all the things he lost, he should remember the spring roll recipe.

I agree they are quite delicious. And I don’t make them nearly enough. They are easy enough to make, though the spring roll wrapping is a bit time consuming. It’s so worth the effort.

Thai Mini Spring Rolls

2 oz. Bean thread noodles- (MUNG bean)
¼ cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tsp. oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 shallot, diced
1 tablespoon cilantro- (coarsely chopped)
¾ pound ground pork (or chicken)
¼ pound shrimp-shelled — deveined & chopped
1 tbs. Thai fish sauce
2 tsp. sugar
4 scallions, julienned
1 carrot; peeled, julienned
¼ Pound Bean sprouts — tails removed
8 12-inch spring roll skins
Peanut oil for deep-frying

1. Soak bean thread noodles in warm water until soft and pliable (about 15 minutes). Drain the noodles and cut into 1-inch lengths; set aside

2. Heat a skillet or wok. Add oil, cook garlic, pork, shrimp and carrots. Add fish sauce, pepper, cilantro and sugar. Add scallions, bean sprouts, and the reserved bean thread noodles; mix together thoroughly.

3. Lay one sheet of spring roll wrapper with a pointed edge nearest to you, on a flat surface. Mold 3 tablespoon of pork mixture into 1-inch wide by 2-inch long cylinder and put it near the pointed edge of the wrapper. Fold bottom of wrapper over filling. Fold left and right sides over each end to enclose filling. Continue rolling until completely sealed. Repeat with remaining filling.

4. Fry over medium high heat until crispy all over.

THAI SPRING ROLL DIP: Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup vinegar in a saucepan over medium-high heat; boil until reduced to 3/4 cup of liquid. Remove from heat and stir in 2 tbs. fish sauce and 1/4 tsp. chile flakes.

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The Last Breath of Summer (Recipe: Tod Mun)

Tod-mum
Last week, a friend came over for dinner. Immediately when he walked in, he complained that the house was too cold, and could we please turn on the heat. He was right – the windows were wide open, outside temperatures were hovering in the low 50’s and inside wasn’t much warmer.

Normally, I’m more accommodating of friends’ requests, but on this evening I knew that closing the windows meant summer was over. And I wasn’t ready for that admission.

I acquiesced.

The garden has also succumbed to autumn. The blight finally overcame the tomatoes. And the cucumbers stopped growing just shy of being sweet.

With the last tomato, I indulged in a simple tomato-mayo sandwich.

With the last sweet cucumber, I made a relish to accompany spicy Thai Tod Mun. These fish cakes get their heat from red curry and brightness from kaffir lime leaves. They give warmth to summer’s last breath and welcome in the fall.

Thai Style Fish Cakes
1 lb. 2 oz. white fish filets, minced (use food processor if necessary)
5 tbs. red curry paste (more or less to taste)
4 tbs. fish sauce
1 egg, beaten
8 tbs. tapioca flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbs. palm sugar or brown sugar
10 kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced, stems discarded
8 Chinese long beans or string beans, thinly sliced

Oil for frying

Sauce
6 tbs. water
6 tbs. sugar
1 tbs. chilli powder
2 tbs. roasted peanuts – chopped
2 tbs. cucumber, thinly sliced
½ cup chopped cilantro

1. Make dipping sauce: put water, sugar and vinegar into a pan, bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and add chilli powder and cucumbers. Garnish with cilantro

2. Mix ingredients for fish cakes together in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Form into cakes.

3. Fry fish cakes in medium hot oil until golden brown on all sides. Drain on paper towel. Serve while still hot with sauce.

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Larp of Chiang Mai: Thai Chicken Salad


Every once in a while it happens – you make a great sauce, for a pasta or chicken dish, and invariably it’s too thin, and falls to the bottom of the plate. As you’re eating, you assertively drag the noodles through the sauce, hoping to pull up the yummy flavors. Unless you’re eating with a spoon, it can be a near impossible feat.

Every culture has its tricks. The French have resolved this issue by reducing their stock-based sauces so that they are thick and rich with gelatin. The Chinese use various forms of starch, including corn starch and tapioca flour, to act as an adhesive. And with each technique comes a unique “mouth feel.”

The Thai have an ingenious method: ground, roasted rice. The rice absorbs all the flavors in the dressing and then clings like super-glue onto the food. The rice offers a crunchy texture and slightly nutty flavor. Roasted rice takes about five minutes to make and can be stored for a month wrapped tightly in the cupboard.

Roasted Rice Flour
In a small skillet, over medium heat, add ½ cup of raw jasmine rice. Cook stirring constantly until the grains are lightly golden brown. Immediately remove from heat and out of the pan. When the rice cools, grind to a coarse powder in a spice grinder. For tips on cleaning your coffee bean grinder to use, click here.

Now that you have roasted, ground rice, you can make this unusual Thai Chicken Salad. It’s naturally low in fat and high in flavor.

Larp of Chiang Mai
1 lb. chicken breast
1 stalk lemongrass, minced
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
4 red chilies, finely chopped (seeded if you’d like)
4 tbs. lime juice
2 tbs. fish sauce
1tbs. roasted ground rice
2 scallions, chopped
2 tbs. cilantro, chopped
1 tsp. sugar
Mesclun Greens
salt and pepper to taste

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a cold sauté pan, put chicken and a ½ cup of water. Turn on heat to medium. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool. Dice chicken.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine chicken and remaining ingredients, except mesclun. Mix thoroughly.

3. Serve salad on a bed of mesclun.

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Pad Thai Obsession

Pad_thai_bbt2l
The national dish of Thailand… there are as many variations as there are temples in Bangkok. My quest for the perfect pad Thai began after I tried the noodle dish for the first time (about 12 years ago). I lived in the Fenway and there were at least 4 Thai restaurants within a 1 block radius. Within a week, I had tasted them all and picked Bangkok City’s version as my favorite. Though the restaurant’s other dishes were not as good, the pad Thai was far superior and that was all I needed.

The obsession continued as I tried to refine the dish at home. I went on-line and found hundreds of recipes. Though I had never studied Thai cuisine (save a one hour lecture in culinary school), I could decipher the pattern of sweet, salty, sour and hot. I created a little spreadsheet that laid out all the variations. Based on intuition and further research, I decided that fish sauce was more authentic than soy sauce, and ketchup just had no place at all. And so I began testing recipes. My friend Paul Sussman, who owned Daddy-O’s, let me use his prep kitchen during dinner service to test out recipes. At the end of the shift, I served his staff oodles and oodles of noodles. Though they were delighted, I was not pleased with my results – the flavor was always a bit off, and the texture of the noodles was never right either.

After many failed attempts at trying to unlock the secret of good pad Thai, I realized the only solution was to travel to Thailand and take a cooking class. I had been forewarned that Thai pad Thai was very different than American pad Thai.

While vacationing, I ate noodles at most every meal – at street stalls, at restaurants and cafes. Each one a little different – most used the fresh rice noodles, some were spicy, some were not. In the cooking class, the mystery of the cooking technique was revealed. After a brief pan frying, the noodles were softened with the addition of water. The sauce, I was surprised, did in fact have soy and oyster sauces.

When I got home, I experimented a little more with the sauce, and ultimately, omitted the soy sauce altogether, but kept the oyster. I call my version “Pad Thai – Type A” (and I’m sure you can guess why…). This is what I came up with:

Pad Thai – Type A

7 oz. dried rice stick noodles

Sauce
3 tbs. “prepared” tamarind pulp
2 tbs. palm sugar
2 tbs. oyster sauce
2 tbs. fish sauce
1/4 tsp. (or to taste) thai chili powder or cayenne

3 tbs. oil
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 oz. firm tofu, diced, dried well on a paper towel
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 shallot, dice (opt.)
1 tbs. ground preserved turnip
6 oz. shrimp or chicken or combination (opt.)
4 scallions, cut into 2” pieces
¼ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely ground
1 ½ cup bean sprouts, soaked in cold water
1 lime quarter
1. Soak the dried noodles in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain.
2. To make the sauce: combine tamarind with palm sugar, oyster sauce, chili powder and fish sauce.
3. Heat 2 tbs. oil. Add drained tofu, and cook without stirring for 2-3 minutes, until tofu develops a brown crust on the bottom, and doesn’t stick. Add garlic and shallots, and stir fry until soft. Add shrimp/chicken (opt) and preserved turnip.
4. Add noodles. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup water to soften noodles. Stir fry until the water has evaporated. Add sauce, scallions and peanuts, and stir fry.
5. Push noodles to the side of the pan, and push that part of the pan off the heat. In the open space, pour in the eggs. Let eggs set for 1 minute before stirring into the noodles
6. Cook until noodles are soft and pliable. Add in sprouts and toss.
Garnish with lime and remaining sprouts.