soup Archives - Joy's Thai Food Recipe Blog in Thailand

Grandma Surprises Us with Spicy Thai Red Ant Egg Soup!

It was an amazing dinner two nights ago. We thought we were going out to eat because grandma didn’t give us forewarning, but, she had secretly made one of our Thai favorites – Spicy Red Ant Egg Soup!

We sat all sat down, and with the exception of our little girl, Mali, dove in and enjoyed it!

This is a traditional Isaan (northeastern) Thai soup that grandma said she first had when she was about three-years-old. Though we haven’t started to give our five-year-old daughter any spicy Thai food yet, those that grew up in the northeast have been eating it since they were babies. I have seen kids as young as 2-3 years old eating spicy food here. I don’t know if it’s right. The kids aren’t crying, they enjoy it I guess. Maybe they don’t understand pain in the same way we do in the USA. Lol. In the US, we think anything spicy hurts. Maybe they look at it differently in Thailand? Not sure.

The ant eggs come from the red weaver ants from the genus,Oecophylla that weave a nest of silk for their egg development. These nests are easy to spot, but not easy to reach in most cases. If you try to cut the branch a nest is hanging from, the red weaver ants quickly cover your arm and body and bite and hang on! Not very fun, I can assure you.

Here is a weaver ant nest full of eggs that I took a photo of the other day.

And, here is a video Joy made about our spontaneous Thai spicy red ant (weaver ants) egg soup that you can see below. Our daughter had something wonderful to say about the soup – listen close for it.

Thai Food Soup: Gang Som Pla (Fish in Sour Soup)

Gang Som Pla (Fish in Sour Soup)

Prepare:

1 whole fish (clean and cut)
1 cup tamarind juice (non-dried tamarind+hot water)
1 cup sliced raw papaya
1 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups water

Paste:
1 whole fish (small size)
7 dried red chili peppers (throw away the seed)
3 galingale
5 red onions
1 tbsp. shrimp paste
2 tbsp. LOBO gang som paste

Cooking Instructions:

1. Ground all the paste ingredients together.

2. Boil the fish for 10 minutes. Take its meat for 1/2 cup. Mix fish meat with the paste.

3. In a different pot, boil the water and add the paste from number 1. Until it’s boiling, add tamarind juice. Try 1/2 cup first. If you like it very sour then add more.

4. Add fish and papaya. Cook for 15 minutes.

8. In a bowl, prepare fresh vegetables (any kind). Pour hot soup with fish over the vegetables. This way will make the vegetable crunchy.

Thai Food Recipe: Gang Khanoon Sai Gradook Moo (Jackfruit & Soft Pork Soup)

Gang Khanoon Sai Gradook Moo On – Young Jackfruit and Soft Pork Bone Soup

Prepare:

1 cup soft pork bone with meat sticks to it
1 cup young jackfruit sliced into dices
4 dried red chili peppers
7 red onions
5 tbsp. full sliced lemongrass
5 straw mushrooms
2 cups water
2 tbsp. fermented fish juice (Plarah)
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1/2 cup Leguminosae (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Ground dried red chili peppers, red onions and lemongrass together.

2. Put it in a pot, add salt and pour water. Boil in max heat.

3. When it’s boiling, add pork and young jackfruit

4. Cook for 15 minutes then remove from the stove.

5. Add Leguminosae if you like.

This recipe is from Isaan region where I live. We eat the jackfruit when it’s ripe and unripe. I remember we have a big jackfruit planted in a back yard. My grandma loved to take care of it. Even though she was already at late 80s, she still loved to move around to take care of the fruit and vegetables she had in our garden. Her jackfruit became so big, as big as a size of two basketballs, and we all were so excited.

I will put her photo here later, if I can find it. She was so beautiful at 95 years old. 🙂

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.)

Thai Food Recipe: Stuffed Squid in Soup (Gang Jued Pla Muk)

Stuffed Squid in Plain Soup in Thai, Gang Jued Pla Muk Yud Sai

Prepare:

10 squids (small size)
1 cup minced pork
3 cucumbers (peeled and cut horizontally 4 times)
2 group scallion (cut 1 inch long)
1 group coriander (cut 1 inch long)
1/4 cup minced carrot
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tsp. pepper
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3 cups stock from pork or chicken bone

Cooking Instructions:

1. Clean the squids very well.

2. Mix minced pork with 1 tbsp. minced garlic, pepper, minced carrot and light soy sauce.

3. Stuff the squids with mixed pork and close the hole with its tentacles.

4. Peel the cucumbers and clean.

5. Fry 1 tbsp. minced garlic until it has aromatic smell.

6. Heat the stock. When it is boiling, add stuffed squids and cucumber. Cook for 8 minutes then remove from the stove.

7. Add scallion, coriander and mix well. When you serve, don’t forget to sprinkle fry garlic in the soup. It will give the nicest smell that makes your stomach cry.

When I was writing this recipe, I was thinking about the time I studied at primary school, Anuban Yasothon. It was also where my aunt taught.

This was an Anuban School, I will call it a brand name school because in all provinces all over Thailand there is a school with this name. They have the same pattern of rules and food, characteristic of teachers and students. I can compare it because I went to this brand name school to study in Yasothon and work in Ubon Ratchathani, where I first met my husband. :p hehe

10 years after I finished grade 6, I can’t believe they have the same food and same taste to serve their students. The good thing is the food, stuffed cucumbers in plain soup, reminded me of the time in the passed 10 years. (They made it stuffed cucumber because the squid is too expensiveâ€¦ haha)

However, the plain soup with cucumber in it always tastes so good. It has a little sweet taste from cucumber and great fragrance.

I hope this will remind any of you, who are Anuban family members, the time at school like it has reminded me. 🙂