Joy’s Thai Food Recipe & Dessert Blog!

Prepare:
500 g. dried squids cut it into a bite size (size of the squid is at your satisfaction), Click on the link to see photo.
1-2 tbsp. palm sugar (regular sugar is ok)
2 tbsp. shrimp paste (optional, some recipe say you don’t need this)
4 dried or fresh red chili (crush them)
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1/2 cup concentrated tamarind juice
1 tbsp. fish sauce
Vegetable oil

Cooking Instructions:

1. Deep fry the dried squids that you already cut them into bite size. Make sure you use low heat and don’t let it burn. This dried squid can get burnt very easy. How can you tell when it is ready? Don’t let it get the brownish color, yellowish is ok. When you have it turn yellow, the squid will be half chewy half crispy as it is cool off. However, having it turn brown the squid will be way to crispy that you won’t get to taste the saltiness from it but only the bitter taste.

2. Now, leave the squid aside and make 3 flavors dressing in a different pan.

3. Start with dried chili. If you don’t want it  too spicy, you can use dried red chili with long shape. Soak the chili in water for 15 minutes. Cut to take the seed out and then crushed it well. If you love spicy food you can just crush them without taking the seed out. Usually, dried red chili (the long one) is not that much spicy.

4. Next, heat the pan up and add 1 tbsp. vegetable oil. Add crushed chili and garlic, fry until it has good sneezing smell.

5. Then, add tamarind juice, palm sugar and fish sauce. During this time, you should use low heat, add little amount of water to make sure the sauce won’t get burn. Check if the sauce is sticky.

6. After that, add the fried squid into the sauce and mix it well. Please note that, the sauce should have 3 flavors of sweetness, saltiness and spiciness. You may change the taste of this sauce as the way you like before mixing the squid in it.

20 some years ago as a was a kid from the country side, my school was right in front of my grandma’s house where I lived. I joined the kindergarten there with my older brother, before we moved into my aunt’s. I was a very skinny and tiny that my teacher put me in the list of the kids that were lack of nutrient. Not that my mom didn’t give me good food but I was too picky. Whenever there many people ask me to eat, I closed my mouth tight, stick my nose up in the air and said “NO”… haha

However, here it come the reason for the size of my lunch box 20 years ago. It was a margarine box… small and cute.. haha..nothing fancy. Kids in the countryside pack their lunch with rice and some other thing in the same box. Fried dried squid was my favorite… and 2 small squids with rice was the lunch I couldn’t finish up.

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Most people have difficulty wrapping the banana leaves for 2 reasons;
1. The banana leaves the got were too brittle, so  it leaks after to wrapped it into triangle shape.
2. Their hands were too stiff of less practice.

Therefore, to fix those two main problems we have to prepare  the banana leaves to be flexible enough to put into shapes. and there are 3 ways to do it.

1. Sit the leaves in the sun for 1-3 minutes? so it loose the moisture and get a bit softer to put into shapes. This yield the result of burn banana leaves. Maybe we wouldn’t care about it much because when we steam the food, using banana leaves as a wrap, the leaves will turn brown as if it was burn any way. Remember, if you sit them in the sun, the leaves will look really ugly.

2. Using the heat from candle light. This way, would mean that you don’t have enough time to wait for the leaves to be sit in the sun for some amount of time. Same result, the leave will be dark and who cares??? It will get dark color after being cooked anyway.

3. The best way to prepare your banana leaves so that it is flexible enough to be wrapped is to sit inside your house for 1-2 days. This way, the leave will loose some moisture and get more flexible. It will give the best result, because you will still get the green leaves and it looks much nicer when you wrap the food that doesn’t need to be cooked, like the dessert (glutinous rice with egg pudding)

Practice makes perfect: How to solve your stiff hands
3 words, practice, practice and practice. I learn my first wrapped at Primary 3 (when I was 9 years old) and with a very strict teacher. Plus, I have my aunt to keep her eyes on me if I did it perfectly.

I got to practice many times, with the good chance that my family loves to cook dessert when each Buddhist event comes. I recommend that, when you first start, use something solid to put inside the wrap so you can control it easier.

Clay should be a good tool. Make sure you start with a big piece of banana leaf so you don’t have to worry about grasping  the leaf. Just to hold it together is difficult enough.

Ok!!! Before you start with the video tutorial, prepare these:

Banana leaves
Clay
Toothpick

and practice, practice, practice…..

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Prepare:
400 grams clams
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. or as much as you like of sliced spicy red chilies
1 handful sliced long red chili
1 handful sweet basil

1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the pan with maximum heat. Add vegetable oil.
2. Wait until the oil get hot and then add garlic and spicy chili.
3. Cook the chilies if you like this dish to be spicy. If you like it at a baby level, I suggest that after you add the red chilies, put the clams in the pan right the way.

When you cook the red chili with hot oil, you will get it more spicy in the food. Notice that you will sneeze when you cook the chili for a while.

4. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, Thai chili paste and sugar.
5. Cook the clams for about 30 seconds or when you see the change of the shell color.
6. Add sweet basil and sliced long red chili. Now mix it well before you remove it from the stove .

Thai chili paste, the sound of the word chili is unbearable when it comes to spiciness, right?.. This chili paste is not spicy at all though. The color does look scary but the taste is quite sweet. That’s why we don’t need much sugar in this recipe.

Hoi Laai Pad Prik Phao or Stir Fried Clams with Thai Chili Paste is one of my favorite seafood.
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I really like it when we travel to the ocean and we can get fresh seafood from the market not so far from the beach.
Thai style, we don’t pull out the meat from clam and then cook. We just cook the whole thing. As same as, one recipe I like to eat back at home. It was the shell from fresh water which has almost round shape. We cut a small part of that shell’s bottom and stir fry the whole thing with sweet basil.

The funny thing is we made a noise “Joob!” when we try to get the meat out. The easiest way is to use toothpick to pull out the meat. Y

 

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Prepare:
400 g. Fish (boneless)
1 + 1/2 cup concentrated coconut milk (The creamy part) <<< regular instant coconut milk is fine.
1-2 tbsp. Gang Ped Paste or Panang Paste (Depends on brand and the level of spiciness of each brand)
3 tbsp. fish  sauce
1 egg

Vegetable:
2 leaves of Chinese cabbage (soft boiled and squeeze the juice out)
1 handful sweet basil
1/2 cup coriander leaves (use as topping)
1 long red chili
1 tbsp. thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves

Banana leaves (cut and make it into a small bowl shape or use small ceramic bowls, or foil cups)

Coconut Cream Dressing:
5 tbsp. Concentrate coconut milk
1 tsp. corn starch or rice flour

Because preparing the a homemade paste is such a hassle.  I learned that hassle from cooking Khanom Jeen the earlier recipe. While instant paste doesn’t make much different, only the level of freshness and its aromatic smell. I think you can easily find the instant Gang Ped Paste in any Asian market in the world though.. if not then you can also try Panang Paste.

Panang Paste is less spicy I guess… but the smell you get from it is pretty much the same.

In the south of Thailand, when you talk about spiciness, you could prepare to have your eyes watering from the first bite. Their spiciness is no joke. So, I chose the Panang instant Paste from the morning market instead of Gang Ped because I don’t want to die from spiciness gets into my vain. hehe

I just don’t get it how could southern people stands the level of spicy food. They are amazing.

Cooking Instructions:

1. Add fish, Gang Ped paste, fish sauce, coconut milk  and beat egg together. Taste it if you like. Uncooked egg is in it I know.
2. In a small banana leaves bowls, foil cups or ceramic cups, place soft boiled Chinese cabbage, some amount of sweet basil. Then scoop the mix you get from step1 on top.
3. Steam on boiling water for 20 minutes.

4. Mix coconut milk with corn starch or rice flour pour it on top on the steamed Ho Mok and cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Remove from the stove. Topping the cup with sliced long red chili and kaffir lime leaves and coriander leaves.

Done!

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Prepare Paste Ingredients:
1/2 cup Shallot
1/2 cup  Garlic
1/2 cup  Galingale
1/2 cup  Kaffir lime skin
1/2 cup  Big and dried red chili
1/2 cup  lemongrass

Curry Ingredients:
2 cups Thick coconut milk or regular 250ml coconut milk
1 cup fish (throw out bones and skin)
1 cup meat balls (made of fish)
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
5 tbsp. fish sauce
5-8 Kaffir lime leaves
1 cup stock
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Rice Vermicelli

Side vegetable:
Bean sprouts
Sliced cabbage
pickled cabbage
sliced long bean
Sweet basil or lemon basil (Mostly lemon basil taste better)
sliced cucumber

Cooking Instructions:

1. Blend or ground the paste ingredients together. Add stock in the blender to make it blend smoothly.
2. Ground fish meat with 1 cup of the paste. You can save the rest of the paste for next time use.

3. In a pot, add 1 tbsp. vegetable oil. Fry 1 tbsp of the paste until it smell nice.
4. Add coconut milk and let in boil in medium heat while you keep stirring.
5. Add meat balls, fish sauce and cook for 5  minutes in medium heat.
6. Turn off the fire and add kaffir lime leaves.
7. Pour on top of the Rice Vermicelli and serve with side vegetable like Bean sprouts, sliced cabbage, pickled cabbage, sliced long bean, sweet basil or lemon basil and cucumber.

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Prepare:

300-500g steamed mung bean (Soak mung bean in the water for 3 hours or over a night first and steam)
1/2 cup palm sugar
250 ml scent of candle coconut milk

Gelatin:
2 tbsp. gelatin powder
3 cups water
3 tbsp. sugar

Food coloring (red, orange, green, yellow)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Start with 300g steamed mung bean.

2. Ground or blend the mung beans very well. Mix it well with sugar and coconut milk in the pot.

3. Put the pot on the stove and heat it will medium heat change it to low after a while. Stir until the mix gets dry. Make sure you can mold it and it is not soft. Taste it by taking some small amount and try to roll it into a ball. If the mung bean don’t stick to your dry hands, then it is ok to remove from the stove.

The time uses on this step really depend on the heat you use and the coconut milk to add. If it takes too long, you may add more steam mung bean to make the mix get dry quicker.

4. Leave it cool.

5. Now, is a fun part and you need your artistic heart. Mold it into a fruit shape, cherry, mango, red chili pepper, banana, orange, watermelon for example.

6. Use food coloring to color them. Make it as real as possible. Put a stick to the fruit shape and put it on a piece of Styrofoam. Then, leave it dry.

7. Next, dissolve gelatin in boiling water, then add sugar. The sugar will help makes your look chup shiny. Then Wait until it is boiling again. Now, after it’s boiling, change the heat to very low. Dip the fruit shape into it and leave it dry on the Styrofoam again.

When the gelatin mix is getting too dry, you may add more water and get it boiling again before you dip the fruit shape in it.

8. Next, dip the fruits again for the second times. Then decorate it with leaves to make it look real.

It sounds so easy, but it need a lot of patience with this type of dessert. In Thailand, we have it for sale on 1 baht per piece. I would buy them rather than making them my self. Anyway! if you have kids in your house and look for something to do, you would love to start this recipe!!! It’s fun. Mung bean is good for kids too. However, skip the artificial color if you like and use color from nature instead.

I think food coloring is too scary to eat. It looks so unreal.

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Prepare dipping sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup dried shrimps
1/2 cup roasted minced coconut
1 tbsp. minced galangal
1 tbsp. minced ginger
1 tbsp.thinly sliced lemongrass
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
1 cup palm sugar
2 tsp. roasted shrimps paste
1 cup fish sauce

Side ingredients:
1 cup roasted cut coconut
1 cup dried shrimps
1 cup roasted peanut
1/2 cup shallot (sliced in small cube shape)
1/2 cup ginger (sliced in small cube shape)
1/2 cup sliced chiles
1/2 cup sliced lime (in small cube shapes)
15-20 betel leaves

Cooking Instructions:
1.  Crushed galangal, lemongrass, shallot finely. Add shrimps paste and mix well.
2. In a pot, add fish sauce and palm sugar. Boil it with medium heat.
3. Add the paste we got from step 1 and mix well.
4. Keep stirring. When it get thick, use low heat and add dried shrimps and roasted minced coconut.

5. Serve with the side ingredients. When you eat, add a little bit of everything on the leave and then pour the sauce on top. Then, wrap it up and eat it!

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No! it is not made of spider webs or my husband’s white hair!!!!
(Dear Vern, my beloved husband, I am just kidding here) hehe.

It is my midnight meal tonight and the sandwich filling is dried shredded pork. I really love writing about Thai food. There’s so many cultural related thing, like this sandwich. I don’t know who and where is the first place to create this recipe but it is a real popular food among young people (like me).

I used to work at the coffee shop for my part time job at university. This menu was being sold every day and every table has to have it. As Thai people don’t like to eat plain food, someone create this combination and it works! Even with the bakery in Thailand they add this into the bread section of their shop.

Here’s we don’t serve it with any vegetable, I don’t know why.
The Thai chili paste taste a little sweet. Some saltiness and spiciness are also there.
Dried shredded pork, you can eat it with steamed jasmine rice or boiled rice. I even add the dried shredded pork in my omelet.

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Another recipe you will find in every Thai restaurant I bet but what they have there in vary from seafood mix Phad Cha or just salt water fish or even a type of clams. If you like Pad Ga Prao, you may also like this food too. The aromatic smell from galingale really makes you hungry!


Prepare:
200-300 gram Squid (clean and cut to a bite size)
3 branches young pepper corn
1/2 cup sliced Galingale <<click to see photo
1 handful sweet basil
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. oyster sauce (from Healthy boy brand, if you have Mae Krua brand then you will need just 1 tbsp.)

Paste:
2 tbsp. sliced garlic
2 tbsp. sliced shallot
2 tbsp. sliced chilies

Cooking Instructions:

1. Crush shallot, garlic and chilies altogether.
2. Add vegetable oil in a hot pan. Add the paste we got from earlier. Fry it until you sneeze couple times.
3. Add squid and cook for 2-5 minutes depend on the heat you use. Don’t let it cook for too long because the squid will shrink and the meat will be quite tough to eat.
4. Add young pepper corn and galingale. Then add fish sauce, soy sauce and oyster sauce.

5. If you don’t like oyster sauce, just mix 1 tbsp. corn starch with 2 tbsp of water and pour it in. Let it get thick. This way you can slip the oyster sauce.

6. After you mix the sauce in the food well. Put sweet basil leaves and quickly stir. Then remove the food from the stove.

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