Thai food
The main ingredients are mung bean, sugar, coconut milk, agar (agar-agar is Malay for jelly), white jasmine water and food colouring. You also need some toothpicks. The method to make starts by mixing the mung bean and sugar together. Slowly pour the coconut milk into the bowl while continuing to stir. Pour the mixture into a brass pan and on a low heat, keep stirring until the mixture no longer sticks to the base of the pan. Take out and leave to cool. Next, shape the mixture into different types of fruit. Finnish by painting it with food colouring.
Tom yum (Lao: , Thai: ต้มยำ, IPA: [tôm ɲɑm, tôm jɑm], tom yam in the Royal Thai General System of Transcription) is a name for two similar soups originating from Laos and Thailand, respectively. The Royal Lao version includes a pinch of rice in the soup, whereas other typical Lao and Thai versions do not include rice as an ingredient. Tom yum is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and has been popularized around the world.
Tom yum is characterized by its distinct hot and sour flavors, with fragrant herbs generously used. The basic broth is made of stock and fresh ingredients such as lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lime juice, fish sauce and crushed chili peppers.
Tom yum is usually made with prawns (tom yum goong or tom yum kung), chicken (tom yum kai), fish (tom yum pa in Lao and tom yum pla in Thai), or mixed seafood (tom yum thale or tom yum po taek) and mushrooms - usually straw mushrooms or oyster mushrooms. The soup is often topped with generous sprinkling of fresh chopped cilantro (coriander leaves).
The less popular, and relatively more modern, variety of tom yum is tom yum nam khon (Thai: ต้มยำน้ำข้น), where coconut milk is added to the broth. This adaptation is not to be confused with tom kha - where the galanga flavor dominates the soup. Tom yum nam khon is almost always made with prawns, whereas chicken is often used in tom kha (called tom kha gai, "chicken galanga soup"). Its other cousin is less well-known outside Thailand - tom khlong. Sometimes Thai chili jam (nam phrik phao, Thai: น้ำพริกเผา) is added: this gives the soup a bright orange colour and makes the chili flavor more pronounced.
Commercial tom yum paste is made by crushing all the herb ingredients and stir-frying in oil. Seasoning and other preservative ingredients are then added. The paste is bottled or packaged, and sold around the world. Tom yum flavored with the paste may have different characteristics from that made with fresh herb ingredients.
Firmly in my Top 10 for Thai Street Food is Pad Thai, otherwise known as Thai fried noodles. The ingredients that make up this dish include: egg, beansprouts, dried shrimp, garlic, tofu, salted Chinese radish and crushed peanuts.You can find pad thai being made almost anywhere. However, be warned. The recipe does vary. Try to avoid the pad thai that has been "mass produced" and is seen for sale for only 10 baht at temple fairs and places like Khao San Road. For best results, watch it being made fresh. The pad thai stand around the corner from me opens at about 5 p.m. and is open until late. A large plate from her costs 20 baht (see picture above). An extra sized helping (called pi-set in Thai) costs only 5 baht more.
In the above picture, you can see the ingredients waiting to be added. From left to right: tofu (beancurd), dried shrimp and salted Chinese raddish/turnip. At the back, in the plastic bag, you can see the rice noodles.
First to be added to the wok are the noodles. These are stir-fried for a few minutes. Next is added the dried shrimp, tofu and minced Chinese raddish. Again this is mixed and stir-fried for a few minutes.
The ingredients are now pushed to one side and an egg is cracked into the wok. She cooked the egg for a minute or so before breaking it up and mixing it in with the noodles. Finally a sprinkling of chopped chives and a generous layer of breansprouts are placed on top. This is not mixed in with the noodles. It is now ready to serve. The finally layer is the ground roasted peanuts. She placed all of this into a container with some spring onions, half a lime and a little plastic bag containing chili and sugar.
Although pad thai is cooked just about everywhere, people will cross to the other side of town just to get their favourite recipe. My favourite is on Taiban roundabout. Very delicious and worth the extra effort to cross town. It is easy to spot the more popular hawkers as there is always a long queue!
I have never attempted to cook this dish as it is so readily available. However, here is the recipe if you want to have a go at home:
Stir-Fried Thai Noodles Recipe
Ingredients:
8 oz (250 g) rice noodles (sen lek)3 tablespoons oil3 garlic cloves (kratiem), minced1/4 cup dried shrimp/prawns1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) fish sauce (nam pla)1/4 cup (2 oz/60 g) sugar2 tablespoons tamarind juice (ma-kaam piag)1 tablespoon paprika1/2 cup fried tofu2 tablespoons dried unsalted turnip, cut into small pieces1 egg, beaten1/4 cup 1-in (2.5-cm) lengths chopped chives1/4 cup (2 oz/60 g) ground roasted peanuts1 cup bean sprouts
Garnish:
1/2 cup bean sprouts1/2 cup chopped chives1/4 small banana blossom, cut into strips1/2 lime, cut into wedges
How to cook:
1. Soak the rice noodles in cold water for 30 minutes, or until soft. Drain, and set aside.
2. Heat a large skillet until hot, then add the oil. Add the garlic and dried shrimp, and stir-fry. Add the noodles and stir-fry until translucent. It may be necessary to reduce the heat if the mixture is cooking too quickly and the noodles stick.
3. Add the fish sauce, sugar, tamarind juice and paprika. Stir-fry the mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the tofu, turnip and egg.
4. Turn the heat to high and cook until the egg sets, stirring gently. Thoroughly combine the mixture, and continue cooking over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes until most of the liquid is reduced.
5. Mix in the chives, peanuts and bean sprouts. Place on a serving dish, arrange the bean sprouts, chives, banana blossom and lime attractively and serve.
Chicken Coconut Soup with mushroomI read in the newspaper the other day, that a research team from the UK had proved that an extract of galangal can both kill cancer cells and protect healthy ones from the disease. As this is a common ingredient in Thai stir-fries and soups I was intrigued to learn more. I went onto the Internet and googled "galangal". I eventually found a recipe for Tom Kha Gai (chicken coconut soup). As this is on my favourites list I decided to have a go at cooking it.
My first stop was my collection of cookery books. I soon discovered that although each book had a recipe for Tom Kha Gai they were quite different from each other. From my memory of eating this dish I decided to use the recipe from "Thailand The Beautiful Cookbook". I made a list of the ingredients before setting off to the supermarket. I needed: coconut milk, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, coriander leaves and some chili. They wanted green but I wanted red.
(Left): galangal (Right): lemon grass
On the left is the galangal (kha). As you can see, it is similar in appearance to ginger. It is pinkish and has a peppery flavour. The label on the pack said it cost 45 baht per kilo. This pack cost 5.75 baht. More than enough. On the next shelf I noticed another pack with both lemon grass (right), galangal and kaffir lime leaves (below right). These are the ingredients for Lemon Grass Soup (more famously known as Tom Yum). As this was only 7 baht I decided to go for that. (1 US$ is presently 38 baht.) As far as I understand, although these two dishes have similar ingredients, Tom Yum focuses more on the lemon grass and Tom Kha Gai focuses more on the galangal. If you are wondering at this stage what "tom" means then I will tell you that it means "boiled".
(Left): coriander (Right): kaffir lime leaves
Next I needed the coriander or "pak chee" in Thai. There were two varieties on the shelf. One was "pak chee tai" and the other "pak chee jeen". I guess the former was Thai and the latter Chinese. As "pak chee jeen" was translated into "coriander" on the label I knew which one to pick. This only cost 4 baht. Next on my list was the small green limes, coconunt milk, chilis and of course the chicken. Oh yes, did you know that the red chilis that are labelled in English as "red bird chili peppers" are called in Thai "mouse shit chilis"! I wonder why they didn't translate that properly in the supermarket?
Tom Kha Gai - Chicken coconut Soup
Ingredients:2 cups of coconut milk6 thin slices of galangal2 stalks of lemon grass (cut into 1 inch strips and crush with cleaver)5 fresh kaffir lime leaves (torn in half, not cut)250 g of boneless chicken5 tablespoons of fish sauce (naam blaa)2 tablespoons of sugarHalf a cup of lime juice1 teaspoon of black chili paste (nam prik pow)Quarter cup of coriander leaves5 green chili peppers (I will use red chilis)
Method 1:(1) Combine half the coconut milk with the galangal, lemon grass and lime leaves in a large saucepan and heat to boiling. Add the chicken, fish sauce and sugar.(2) Simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Add the remaining coconut milk to the saucepan and heat just to boiling.(3) Place the lime juice and chili paste in a serving bowl then pour the soup into the serving bowl.(4) Garnish with the torn coriander leaves and chili pepers, and serve.
Other recipes I have read don't include the lemon grass. I also saw another one that said add the chili at the same time as the chicken. I will do that. This next version of the same recipe comes from a book called "Simply Thai Cooking". I am thinking I will go for a mixture of the two. However, they say add lemon juice which I don't have!
Method 2:(1) Slice the chicken into thin strips.(2) Smash lemon grass with the flat side of a chef's knife once and then cut into 1 inch pieces; slice galangal into thin rounds; tear lime leaves into thirds; cut chilis in half.(3) Heat coconut milk and water in a saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Don't let it boil. Reduce heat to a medium and add lemon grass, galangal, lime leaves, chilies and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring continuously and not letting it boil.(4) Add chicken strips and cook for 5 minutes, stirring over medium heat, until the chicken is cooked.(5) Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and quarter tablespoon of sugar. stir, and continue cooking for another minute or two/(6) Transfer to a soup bowl and serve immediately, garnished with fresh corriander leaves.
