Joy’s Thai Food Recipe & Dessert Blog!

Prepare:

1 cup  sliced pork
1 cup  cut onion
1 cup  cut pineapple
1 cup  sliced sweet pepper (any color)
1 cup  cut tomato
2 cup sliced cucumber

1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tbsp. tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 tsp. sugar

Cooking instructions:

1. In a hot pan, add vegetable oil and minced garlic. Fry it until it has aromatic smell. After that add pork. Cook pork for 2 minutes use maximum heat. If you don’t like pork you can use chicken, fish, shrimps as substitution or even skip the meat if you are vegetarian.

[For the fish, you should deep fried it first and add the fish last. Same with the shrimps, soft boiled them first.]

2. After the pork is done, add the vegetable that takes time to cook first, cucumber and pineapple. Then, add fish sauce, spy sauce, oyster sauce, tomato sauce, sugar. Mix well.

3. Next, add sweet pepper, onion, tomatoes. Turn of the fire and serve it with hot jasmine rice.

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Sour Fish in Thai, Pla Som!

Pla Som!

ปลาส้ม

Prepare:

1 fish of any kind (tilapia is recommended) scraped and clean very well
(Carp or cyprinid is the other choices) but any Fatty fish is the best.
1 tbsp. sea salt
1 cup steamed rice
6 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tbsp. rice flour
1 egg (beat)
1/2 cup sliced red onion or minced garlic (fried)
4 kaffir lime leaves (fried)
4 dried chili peppers (fried)
water
plastic bag
plastic container

Cooking Instructions:

1. Mix rice flour with water and clean the fish with it.

2. Clean inside the mouth and stomach really well.

3. Soak steamed rice in the water and drain it.

4. Put clean fish in a big bowl and sprinkle the salt all over the fish. After that, add minced garlic, steamed rice and mix it altogether.

5. Tuck the rice into the fish mouth and stomach. Then put the fish in a plastic bag and seal it.

6. Store the fish in plastic container and seal very well. Leave the fish outside refrigerator at the room temperature for 3 days.

7. On the forth day, move it into the fridge.

8. It should be sour about this time.

9. Remove all the rice that cover the fish but leave some of it inside the stomach.

10. The smell is going to be very smelly for someone but I know for Thais, we are going to finish 2 plates of rice with this recipe.

11. Dip the fish into a bowl of beaten egg then fry on medium heat while the vegetable oil is hot.

12. When you serve it, dress the fish with fried onion, fried garlic, fried chili peppers and fried kaffir lime leave. (Squeeze 1 piece of lemon if it is not sour enough)

Serve with steamed rice or sticky rice.

If the place where you live is usually cold, you should leave it in room temperature for a longer time, maybe 5 days. Make sure the fish was really clean before to process the preservation, or you will get rotten fish as a result.

In Yasothon, where I lived when I was 11, they produce the Pla Som as the main product for the whole province. If there is anybody wants to buy it, they know Pla Som from Yasothon is the best.

I don’t like the kind of preserved fish they made from carp. It has too many bones and really destroyed my appetite. Me and my grandma, we love the fish with fatty stomachs.

Not so healthy!

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Spicy Seafood Stir-Fry in Thai, Phad Cha! Talay

Phad Cha! Talay
Spicy Seafood Stir-Fry
ผัดฉ่าทะเล

Prepare:

1/4 cup sea mussel
1/4 cup cooked cockle (throw away the shell)
1/2 cup cut squid (score the squid and soft boiled)
1/4 cup shrimp (peeled, de-veined, soft boiled)
5 pieces snapper (cut to bite size and boil)
2 bunches pepper corn
1 tbsp. minced chili pepper
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp. sliced galingale
2 tbsp. chili paste for Tom Yum
1 tbsp. cut yellow or red sweet pepper
1 group scallion (cut 1 inch)
1/2 cup basil
1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the pan start on low flame and add vegetable oil. Wait until it’s hot then fry minced garlic.

2. When the garlic smell aromatic, increase the flame. Add chili pepper, galingale, pepper corn, followed by squids, shrimp, snapper, cockles and sea mussel.

3. Mix well. Now, add fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, chili paste for Tom Yum.

4. Quick stir and then add sweet pepper, scallion and basil. Turn off the fire.

ผัดฉ่าทะเล is what I always order at the restaurant. With this recipe, I really like squid so I add a lot.

You can always add more or cut out the ones you don’t like.

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Preserved Fish in Thai we call it Pla Som

Preserved Fish

ปลาส้ม
Pla Som

Prepare:

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!

(^v^)

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Spicy Isaan Fermented Fish Sauce (Bla Ra, Pla Ra, Bla La, Plala, Blala, Blara, Pla La)

Spicy Fermented Fish Sauce from Isaan

ปลาร้า
Bla Ra, Pla Ra, Bla La, Plala, Blala, Blara, Pla La

Prepare:

2 kg. fresh water fish (small size)
1 and 1/2 cup rice grain with husk (roasted and crushed)
2 and 1/2 cup sea salt
1 cup rice bran chaff

Preservation Instructions:

How to make Bpla Rah or Plara? I know some of you, including my best friends who live abroad, are dying for it. Big Thank to my mom for a recipe.

1. Scrape the scale off of the fish. It depends on what kind of fish you pick. If you use the gouramy, then you don’t need to. However, with the bigger fish like climbing fish, it should be scraped before you do the next step.

We use any kind of fish. The whole idea is to preserve the fish we have left from cooking in daily meal. Someone can find too much from the river.

I remember that we had a big pond at our rice field where we keep there natural water from the rain. There are fish live in there and I still think that they came out of nowhere. I believe that they hibernate under the ground and come out where there is a lot of water. Is that right?

I swear that we didn’t mean to do fish farm at all. Finally, after the harvest has ended, we invited all friends and relatives to come over, removed water out of the pond and I was barefoot catching the fish with my hands. It was so much fun at that time.

However, I don’t know since when I got scared of the fish in the river. Thinking that it is slippery like a snake is why it freaks me out. If I can ignore that feeling, then it will be ok to put my hands in the water. Maybe, I think those fish are trying to eat me… haha This is so crazy feeling that someone can get scared of fish but Thai movie start is worse than me! One of them got scared of orange and some of them can’t stand seeing pineapple!! That’s a little too much.

Anyway, get back to step 2.

2. Open its stomach and remove the inside part. Clean the fish very well. Add 1 handful of salt, knead it and wash with water. Do it again one more time.

3. Add salt and knead the fish while you are adding roasted uncooked rice.

4. Keep it sealed in the container (best earthen jar). Make sure you keep the fish under thesalt water. When it dries out, boil water with salt, leave it cool and add into the container.

5. Leave it outside refrigerator at least 6 months in ventilated area.

Tips:

1. Choose fresh water fish without hard skin because it is safer and easier to make Bpla Rah.

2. Brown salt is a better choice to use in a preservation process. It has a better taste. If you can’t find it, don’t worry. My family used normal salt but we will have to add it a lot so that the fish won’t get rotten.

3. Rice bran chaff is also an important ingredient. You can add unlimited amount of rice bran chaff. Adding it more will only make the juice thick, give nice smell and help with color.

4. Take a strictly action, when you keep it in container. You shouldn’t let even one fly land on it. You don’t want to see a surprise from a fly worm, do you?

5. Boil it for a long time so even if you eat the worms, no problem.

This is something that you shouldn’t miss.

\(^v^)/
Joy

Hi – this is Vern, Joy’s ‘husband’… I had to write something here because if at first this doesn’t seem appetizing to you it’s only because you know what is in it and how it’s made. It’s incredibly delicious (tasty) sauce that we use in our Som Tam, but also just with rice as a paste and dip for the rice, grilled fish, shrimps, just about anything that we eat here. It’s like a common spice that people in the Northeast (Isaan) really love and are addicted to. Fortunately I became addicted too – and I crave this every day or every other day. Finally we found a good som tam place near us here in the south and we’ll probably need to get som tam bla ra tonight because now I’m craving it. It has a harsh smell that most foreigners and even some Thais’ don’t like, but try it just to make sure before you give it the thumbs down!

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Stir-Fried Fish with Chinese Celery, in Thai, Pla Pad Kun Chai

Stir-Fried Fish with Chinese Celery

ปลาผัดขึ้นฉ่าย
Pla Pad Kun Chai

Prepare:

1/2 cup snapper (cut and deep fried)
1/2 cup Chinese celery
1/2 cup cut scallion
1 tbsp. cut sweet pepper (red)
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. stock
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. minced garlic

Cooking instructions:

1. Heat the pan and add garlic.

2. Stir-fry until it smells aromatic. After that, add fried snapper, scallion, Chinese celery, sweet pepper, oyster sauce and stock.

3. Quick stir and turn off the fire. Serve on top of jasmine rice.

This is my dinner for today! I just want to eat something different from what I cook at home and from what I usually order at the restaurants. This evening, I and my husband found the best restaurant here in town. The price is very cheap, consider the food they cooked but it is expensive, compare to the same type of restaurants in town. Think about the taste, it is always worth it!

This recipe you can apply it with any kind of fish. In Thailand, we mostly cook snakehead fish as it is easy to find anywhere in Thailand and cheap. You should pick the fish with less bone and make sure you get the fresh one. That way, you will taste the sweetness from its meat.

Joy \(^v^)/

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Deep Fried Bass with Sweet Sauce in Thai, Pla Grapong Tod Nam Pla

Deep Fried Bass with Sweet Sauce
Pla Grapong Tod Nam Pla

ปลากะพงทอดน้ำปลา

Prepare:

1 bass
200 ml. fish sauce
1 sour mango (sliced)
1 tbsp. palm sugar
1 tsp. coriander leave
1 tsp. minced red chili pepper

Cooking Instructions:

1. Clean the bass very well and dip it in a bowl of fish sauce.

2. After that deep fry the fish on medium heat until it turn yellow and crunchy.

3. Mix 2 tbsp. fish sauce with palm sugar. Add chili pepper and sliced mango.

4. Add the coriander leave in the sauce. Serve with deep fried bass.

I saw this recipe on TV this morning. It took just a few minutes, then finished, very easy. I love the sauce too, especially the sour mango in it.

Yummy!

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ผัดคะน้าปลาเค็ม Pad Khana Plakem (Chinese Kale Stir-Fried with Salted Fish)

Prepare:

1 cup cut Chinese kale (1 inch)

1 small piece salted fish

2 tbsp. oyster sauce

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

5 crushed chili peppers

1 tbsp. minced garlic

Cooking Instructions:

1. Clean Chinese kale very well. Peel off the hard skin and cut diagonally into 1 inch long.

2. In a bowl, put crushed chili peppers, more or less than 5 depends on the level of spiciness that you like. Add Chinese kale, sugar and oyster sauce together in the same bowl.

3. Now, heat the pan and put vegetable oil. Wait until it’s hot. Then fry salted fish until it turns yellow. Don’t stir it too much because we don’t want it as a sauce.

4. Use the flipper cut fried salted fish into medium pieces. Next, maximize the heat.

5. Add garlic and stir it quickly because the garlic will get burn so fast.

6. When the garlic gets a little yellow, throw Chinese kale from a bowl where you have sugar and oyster sauce in it.

7. Hold your breath and stir it quickly 4 times. Turn off the fire.

Tip!

You have to cook the vegetable very quick because taking too long time will make it over cook. I like it crunchy.

Salted fish may have a bad smell for foreigners but it has a beautiful smell for Thais. If you have Thai people as your neighbors, I bet there must be some strange smell come out of the house when they cook. The other way we eat salted fish is frying it until it turn yellow. Then pour lemon juice, sliced chili pepper, fried sliced red onion on top of it. Eat this with boiled jasmine rice.

You can order it from anywhere in Thailand at the restaurants that have the sign said “food as you order “

***** Note****

They wrote the sign “food as you order” in Thai language … hehe

Joy…. \(^v^)/

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กระเพาะปลาน้ำแดง Gra Po Bpla Nam Dang (Fish maw in brown sauce)

กระเพาะปลาน้ำแดง

Gra Po Bpla Nam Dang

(Fish maw in brown sauce)

Prepare:

2 cups stock

2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 cup fish maw (soaked then deep fried)
1 tbsp. corn flour dissolved with 1/3 cup water

2 coriander roots

1 cup straw mushroom

1 cup bamboo shoot (sliced)

1/2 cup cooked pork’s blood

1/2 cup peeled boiled partridge’s egg

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. oyster sauce

1 tsp. pepper powder

1 cup sliced lettuce

2 tbsp. sliced coriander

2 tbsp. sliced scallion

2 tbsp. crab meat

1 tbsp. mushroom soy sauce

Cooking Instructions:

1. Wash deep fried fish maw in water, squeeze the grease out and put away.

2. Heat the stock until it’s boiling. Add garlic, coriander roots, fish maw, bamboo shoot or young coconut tree top, shitake mushroom, pork’s blood and boiled partridge’s egg.

3. Cook for 10 minutes. After that, add light soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and mix well.

4. Add dissolved corn flour. Cook until the soup gets a little bit thick. Turn off the fire.

5. Place lettuce on a bowl and pour Gra Po Bpla Nam Dang in it. Add sliced coriander leaves and scallion. If you have crab meat, put it in the bowl too.

6. Don’t forget to serve with sour sauce for dimsum.

Don’t get too scared if I tell you we usually serve Gra Po Bpla Nam Dang in a Thai funeral. We arrange the funeral 1 day, 7 days, 10 days or 30 days-according to what caused that person to the death. During 7 days of funeral, as we invite a lot of people to come to pay respect and say goodbye to the dead person, we have to serve the guests dinner after the monks finished chanting. Monks always eat first in any ceremony and intimate guests will get a plastic bag to gather some food back home.

Gra Po Bpla Nam Dang is one of the various selections of food we always serve during the 7 days funeral arrangement. Other from that, we will have Lahp moo and coconut milk ice cream for example. Anyway, you can always find Gra Po

Bpla Nam Dang in a night market.

Joy…. \(^o^)/

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