We went to our favorite grocery store last night, it is a bit like Sam’s Club in the USA. We have a card for discounts and most of the things are bulk items. Usually there isn’t a very large selection of lobsters or horseshoe crabs, but last night there were a LOT of them and the tanks were very clean. It was great for my daughter to see them.
Listen to when she says about their little leggies! ha! 😉
I’m missing to blog very much! I hope I can do more this year! Help me by sharing my videos or photos or recipes if you would please! Thank you! Sawasdee Ka!
Hoi Laai Pad Prik Phao (Stir Fried Clams with Thai Chili Paste)
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. Heat the pan with maximum heat. Add vegetable oil.
2. Wait until the oil gets 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. Everyone does in the whole restaurant when we go to eat out. It’s funny, my husband make exaggerated noises like he’s choking and the staff always look at him and laugh so hard!
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. 🙂
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.
In 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.
Plakapong Nueng Manao – Steamed Whole Snapper Dressed with Lemon Juice Sauce
Prepare:
1 medium size snapper (scraped, cleaned)
1 group coriander
3 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. minced red chili peppers (more or less as you prefer)
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar (optional)
1 turnip
1/4 cup mint
1/4 cup stock
Cooking Instructions:
1. First we will do the fish, cut the fin, open the stomach and throw away the stuffing. Now, clean it very well with water.
2. Add coriander inside the stomach.
3. Then, prepare the sauce. Mix fish sauce, lemon juice, garlic, red chili peppers, and sugar together.
4. To make the sauce smell aromatic, add minced coriander root.
5. Place the turnip leaves on a big plate. Then, put snapper over top.
6. After that, dress half of the sauce on the snapper.
7. Steam it on boiling water for 15 minutes (or use microwave on high for 6 minutes)
8. When the fish is done, dress with the other half sauce and top with mint.
Tip:
To steam the fish by the stove, you should use maximum heat and wait until the water is boiling. Then, place the fish into a double boiler. Cooking “Plakapong Nueng Manao” like this is one of the ways to get rid of the fishy smell.
1 fish (1Kg.) tilapia, carp, cyprinid
1 tbsp. sea salt
1 cup sticky rice (or steamed rice)
6 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tbsp. rice flour
1 egg (beat)
water
1 big plastic bag to pack the fish
Cooking Instructions:
1. Clean the fish very well and scrape the scales off. Cut the stomach part and throw away the inside part. Rinse out it again with a lot of water.
2. In a big bowl, mix rice flour with water. Soak the fish inside the bowl.
3. Leave it drain.
4. Soak the sticky rice with water. After that, put it over the drained fish.
5. Make sure you put some rice inside the mouth and stomach.
6. Put the fish inside plastic bag and wrap very well, with rubber band or scotch tape.
7. Leave it lay in sealed plastic container at room temperature for 3-4 days.
8. Later, keep it in refrigerator.
9. Soak it in a bowl of beaten egg before you deep fry. Don’t forget to remove the rice you see outside the fish. Leave the rice in side its mouth and stomach there. I think it will be ok.
10. Dress the fish with fried sliced garlic, fried kaffir lime leaves and fried sliced red onion.
11. Serve with hot jasmine rice.
The best place to get this food is Yasothon, Thailand in the Northeast (Isaan region). I lived there for 2 years and someone introduced it to me. That day, I had 2 big plates of rice. The smell is so strong, but always make my stomach cry asking for more! I didn’t show this recipe to my husband yet. Maybe soon!
