Category: noodles

Thai Food Recipe: Yum Woon Sen (Spicy Glass Noodle Salad)

Yum Woon Sen - Mung Bean Noodle Spicy Salad, from Thailand.

Yum Woon Sen – Cellophane Mun Bean Noodle Spicy Salad

Prepare:

1/2 minced pork
1/2 cup seafood (optional)
1 cup mung bean noodles (bean thread noodles)
2 tbsp. sliced onion
2 tbsp. sliced tomato
3 tbsp. scallion (cut 1 inch)
3 tbsp. Chinese celery (cut 1 inch)
2 tbsp. chopped carrot
1/2 tsp. salt

Prepare sauce:

2 tbsp. chopped red chili pepper
1 pickled garlic (sliced) with 1 tbsp. juice
7 tbsp. lemon juice
5 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
2 crushed coriander roots

 

Cooking Instructions:

1. Boil minced pork and seafood in 1/2 cup of water for 5 minutes. Add salt.

2. While the pork is being cooked, soak mung bean noodles until it’s soft.

3. In a different pot, add water and wait until it’s boiling. Then, drop mung bean noodles and leave it for 3 seconds. Next, drain and leave it in a bowl.

4. Prepare the sauce, mix chopped red chili pepper, pickled garlic and its juice, lemon juice, fish sauce, crushed coriander roots and sugar altogether.

5. In the pot with minced pork, add the sauce from number 4 and mung bean noodle. Put Chinese celery, scallion, onion, tomato and carrot. Mix well.

6. Dress with lettuce, sliced cucumber and tomato.

 

Today at lunch, I made our Thai food favorite at our office, Yum Woon Sen, for the first time after a long time. I like to add a lot of vegetables and make it more sour and spicy than usual. The color is so red because I crushed the pepper real good. 🙂 To make it red like in the picture but keep the same spicy level, you should cut the red pepper in half and then throw away the seed. Some restaurants in Thailand use hot sauce to make it red, but I never try it. I think the hot sauce make Yum Woon Sen taste strange.

 

Note from Vern

I first had yum woon sen in Tampa, Florida at a Thai restaurant. I wanted to try something new because I had already bought my one-way ticket to fly to Thailand and I knew I was going to have to get used to the food. All I knew at the time was tom yum soup and pad Thai noodles! Well, the cook at the Thai restaurant knew to dumb it down for me a bit and take the spice out. They also made it a bit sweet for me, and not so sour. There was only like 1 chili cut up in mine.

I liked yum woon sen immediately. I was in for somewhat of a shock once I arrived in Thailand and got my first true Thai version of the dish. It was very spicy, very wet, and the vegetables were so perfectly done. It was so much better than it was in the USA. I love spicy food, and this was definitely spicy, but eventually I got used to it. If you’re afraid you might not get used to the level of spice in the country, I would say that you shouldn’t worry. Just tell everyone NO chilis. Mai ow prik na krup (na ka, if you’re a woman). It will STILL be spicy, because Thais just don’t know how to make anything that is supposed to have chilis – with at LEAST one chili in it, but you’ll get used to it and soon you’ll be eating it like me.

I like it so hot, that when they ask, I say, “Pedt silop suh lai.” It means, make it so hot that I fall into a coma. Sometimes they actually do make it that hot! Be careful what you ask for.

Come to Thailand and taste authentic Thai food! I’m trying to get Joy to teach classes to visitors that want to learn how to make a couple of dishes during their vacation. I hope she goes for it and quits her other job!

Sawasdee Ka - Joy

Pad Thai: Thai Style Noodle Stir Fry

Pad Thai with shrimp recipe and instructions for step-by-step cooking.

Thailand’s Best Pad Thai (Stir-fried noodles) Recipe!

 

Prepare Pad Thai sauce: For 2 servings

2 Big tbsp. of palm sugar
3 tbsp. concentrated tamarind juice
3 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. oyster sauce

Prepare ingredients to cook the noodle:

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. minced shallot
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. cut yellow tofu
1 tbsp. sweet radish (minced)
2 handful thin noodle if you can’t find the specific one, just use any noodle, mung bean noodle is also good. (Soak the noodle in regular water for 2 hours)
2 eggs
1 handful of a garlic-like vegetable -> garlic Chives/ Chinese Chives.
10 big shrimp (peeled, De-veined and cooked)

Final Decoration:

1 handful bean sprouts
1 tsp. dried red chili powder
2 tbsp. roasted peanut (crushed)
1 tsp. sugar
4-5 branches of Uuicnri leaves/ garlic Chives/ Chinese Chives.
1 piece of sliced lime

 

 

Tamarind juice

Yellow tofu to add to pad Thai noodles.

Chinese chives leaves for pad thai

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the pan and add palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind juice, oyster sauce and a little bit of water. Now used medium or low heat to let the sauce boil and thicken. Keep stirring. Make sure you don’t burn the sauce. Golden pad Thai is good pad Thai. Be careful, it will be bitter if you put max heat and burn it.

2. Taste the sauce and make it the way you like. Some people really love it to be more sweet and some just love it a little more salty but the trick of Pad Thai sauce is the proper balance of 3 tastes: sweetness, sourness and saltiness. So change it the way you like. If you like it sweet, keep the taste the way it is will be right taste for you. However, my trick is to add some Maggi brand soy sauce to make it more salty as my husband loves it that way.

3. When the sauce gets thick enough, remove from the stove.

Next, we will cook the pad Thai noodles.

1. In a different pan, heat the pan and add vegetable oil. When the pan is hot, add garlic and shallot Fry until it has a nice aromatic smell.

2. Next, add tofu and sweet radish.

3. Now, add noodles and 4 tbsp of the sauce we made earlier. (that’s for 1 serving). You can keep adding the sauce of the amount of the noodles is more than one handful. Make sure you don’t add too much because the noodle will be too wet and overcooked. (add it little by little) Then, make a quick stir.

You may want to pick the noodles out and taste them to see if the noodles are cooked properly.

4. If you like the bean sprouts and the sliced garlic Chives/ Chinese Chives to be cooked, add it in this step.

5. Push the noodles aside. Add the egg and cook it until it is half way done then mix it with the noodles. Now add shrimp and mix.

6. Turn off the fire. Arrange the noodles on a plate. Put dried chili pepper, sugar, roasted peanut, fresh bean sprouts, one piece of lemon and the garlic Chives/ Chinese Chives on the side.

Another option for Pad Thai, is to make an omelet from duck’s eggs. Make it as thin and as big as possible. Put the noodles in the middle of the omelet. Fold four sides then put another plate on top. Turn it upside down. Decorate it with bean sprouts, the genus Allium or scallion, dried chili powder, sugar, peanut, and one piece of lemon.

We call this Pad Thai with omelet in Thai language, “Pad Thai Kai Ho”. Pad Thai is a classic Thai Food dish and one that we eat a lot – a couple times per month at least. Tourists, when they come to Thailand know “Pad Thai” from the Thai food restaurants in their home country. They always seem to know to order this dish! My husband when he first came from America only knew pad thai and a couple of other dishes like yum woon sen and tom yum soup.

 

Pad thai noodles with pork.
Pad Thai with Pork. Can also do with just about anything, we use chicken, shrimp, pork, and some people even do fish and squid.

 

Sawasdee Ka - Joy

Oops, BONUS – Below is a video of me making Pad Thai another time – this was the best Pad Thai my husband said he ever ate!

Thai Food Recipe: Popia (Fried Spring Rolls)

Fried spring Rolls from Thailand - Popia - a Thai food favorite.

Popia (Fried Spring Rolls)

Prepare:

1 cup minced pork
1/2 cup minced onion
2 tsp. corn flour
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup mung bean noodle
1 tbsp. pepper
1/2 cup cooked bean sprouts
28 rice papers to wrap the stuffing

Sauce:

1/2 cup sweet chicken sauce
1 tbsp. minced chili pepper
1 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. roasted peanut (crushed)
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. hot water

 

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the pan and put 2 tbsp. vegetable oil. Wait until it’s hot.

2. Add minced onion and cook for 3 minutes. Then, add minced pork.

3. Add some amount of water if it gets too dry. Cook the pork for 8 minutes.

4. Add soy sauce, pepper, sugar, mung bean noodle and bean sprouts. Mix well.

5. Turn off the fire.

6. Drop one piece of rice paper into a bowl of water and remove quickly. Leave it dry out.
You can rest it on the sieve or basket to let the water dry out.

7. When the paper is soft and sticky enough, that it will stick together when you roll, put 3 tbsp. of stuffing from step 4 and roll it.

8. Roll it half way first, fold both sides to close the both end and then keep rolling it until the end of the paper. Continue doing it until you finish 28 papers.

9. Deep fry the spring rolls until it turns gold.

10. Mix all the sauce ingredients together and taste it the way you like, sweet and sour will be great.

11. Serve with lettuce, coriander, sweet basil, and mint.

 

I know spring roll is one of your favorites. It’s my favorite too and I’m going to have spring rolls for lunch tomorrow. It’s very easy to make but you may need to be patient. Make sure you don’t soak the rice paper too long because it will be not be flexible and get rip easily when you try to wrap it. When you leave it dry out, try to pull it apart gently. If the paper does not rip, then it is ready to wrap.

If you don’t like it fried, you may consider this.

Cut pork and cook in boiling water. Crush the pork until the meat gets soft. Mix it with cooked bean sprouts. Prepare ready-to-eat noodle. Now, arrange them on the soft and flexible rice paper. Add cooked shrimps, if you like. Add mint, sweet basil, coriander and lettuce. Roll it the same way as above. Cut the roll in to the right bite. 🙂

Serve with the same sauce as above. This one is known as Vietnamese rolls. We have it in Ubon Ratchathani, and Mukdahan, as I know.

I got the rice paper from Tesco and Big C shopping mall. It has round shape in green package which you can see through.

Have fun!!!

Sawasdee Ka - Joy

Thai Food Recipe: Gwit Diow Soup (Noodle)

Thai breakfast - gwit diao soup with chicken, pork, or beef and thin or thicker noodles.

Gwit Diow (Soup Noodle)

Prepare:

1 cup pork’s bone
4 meat balls (cooked)
2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sliced radish
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. sliced scallion
1 handful bean sprouts
1/2 cup cut morning glory
1 handful noodle
1 tbsp. fry garlic
1 tbsp. pepper
1 tsp. pickled radish (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Boil 2 cup of water with pork’s bone and radish. Add salt and cook for 30 minutes.

2. Put soy sauce, light soy sauce, pepper.

3. In a different pot boil the water. When it’s boiling, throw noodle cook for a few second then remove to the bowl.

4. Put morning glory and bean sprouts. Count a quick 1-2-3 then remove to the bowl.

5. Mix fry garlic with pickled garlic. Put it over top of the noodle.

6. Adjust the meat balls on a side (cooked beef, pork or chicken are your choice)

7. Now, pour the soup in the bowl and sprinkle the scallion. 🙂

If you want it in brown soup, you should put 1 tbsp. of Chinese five-spice blend or Pae-lo powder, LOBO brand.

Easy isn’t it?

Someone asked me what kind of food that Thai people eat for breakfast. I don’t think we have the food pattern for breakfast. My family eats almost anything in the morning. Jasmine rice with fried egg or omelets with soy sauce are our first choice because it takes a short time to make. Kao Tom (rice soup), sticky rice and BBQ pork or kaoji are the kind of food I saw people sell in the early morning.

I think Thai people will eat any kinds of food for their breakfast.

At 4 or 5 a.m., in some family, they will wake up and prepare food to offer the monks, who will walk around the town about 5.30 – 6.30 a.m. of everyday. The food we cooked to offer the monks based on what our passed away relatives liked to eat and we saved some of those food for the breakfast. That is for a special occasion though. (We offer food to the monks everyday, every full moon, yearly on their birthday, weekly on the day they were born depends on each family routine.)

Sawasdee Ka - Joy

Thai Food Noodle Recipe: Pad Si Iw, Thick Noodle Stir Fry with Shrimp & Squid

Thai Food Noodle Recipe: Pad Si Iw
(Thick Noodle Stir-Fried with Shrimp and Squid)

Pad Si Iw (thick noodled stir fry with shrimp and squid)

Pad Si Iw (Thick Noodle Stir-Fried with Shrimp and Squid)

Prepare:

2 cups thick noodle
1 cup cooked squid and shrimp (peeled, de-veined)
1 egg
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. sweet black soybean sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. oyster sauce (Depend on which brand you use, some are too salty)
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 handful Chinese kale
1/2 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup sliced tomato
1 handful fresh bean sprouts
1 piece lemon


Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the pan and fry garlic with olive oil until it smells aromatic. In a cup, make the sauce ready by putting black soybean sauce, soybean sauce, sugar, oyster sauce together.

2. Add the egg. Beat it and let it cook for 2 minutes.

3. Now, add squid, shrimp or chicken as you like and then mixed sauce.

4. Add noodle and black soybean sauce then mix well.

5. Put Chinese kale, carrot, tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Now turn off the fire. Serve Pad Si Iw with lemon and fresh bean sprouts on a side.


Pad Si Iw is my very first cooking recipes I can do beside fried egg, omelet, fried rice and MAMA instant noodle. My cousin taught me how to cook this one. You can find this food at any restaurant that cook to order. They must have this as a tradition. 🙂

I cooked this food on that day because I was angry. After the baby fall asleep the day before I cook Pad Si Iw, I went out to buy food. Secretly, I stop at Tesco for my own enjoyment ( a quick enjoyment I would say). Also, I want to look for bread for my lovely husband….

There was no bread!!!.. I should expect that to happen. At the store, they always don’t have what you want, especially when you really want it.

So, I drove back home in a hurry. At the same time, I was thinking about what else we can get for lunch. I passed one restaurant on the way back home and think to myself “if someone dare to open a restaurant, they must know how to cook Pad Si Iw with a good taste.” Undoubtedly, the Pad Si Iw they cook must be good because it is very basic and easy. Any restaurant that cook food to order must cook this dish quite well. Well enough that they feel confident to sell it.

I turn around to that restaurant and got one to take home for Vern. Again thinking, if this Pad Si Iw is bad, I will tell restaurant people to go commit suicide….. hahaha like a Samurai… (fail on the job and punish himself, seppuku or as you know for Hara-kiri.) I will suggest them to do Hara-Kiri.

and it turn out that Pad Si Iw he cooked was very bad!!!!!!!!! but I am not going to tell him to do that. 😀 I was so angry that I waste money bought food from him when I know I can cook better….. kick kick slap slap to myself and went shopping for Pad Si Iw ingredients the next day.

Click here for a cooking video of Pad Si Iw. It was very good food. haha I am not being boastful.