Thai Cucumber Salad

I found this recipe on the back of the Satay Seasoning Mix package. It turned out to be the Thai version of a similar cucumber salad I had with some Chinese friends a few years ago. It's really delicious and sweet with a little bit of a kick from the chilli.

Thai Cucumber Salad

Adapted from the back of Satay Seasoning Mix package

4 tbsp vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
5 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 cucumber, in slices
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1-2 shallots, finely sliced (I used red onions)

1. Mix the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan.

2. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

3. Arrange cucumber, chilli and shallots in a bowl. Pour over the vinegar mixture, stir, and serve.

Gaeng Chöt- soup

I gave my boyfriend a task yesterday; to find a soup to have for dinner before going out last night. He found a soup called Gaeng Chöt- a pork meatballs and glass noodle soup from Thailand ( I would say it's more Chinese, but who am I to judge?), over at the Norwegian site "Mat Prat" (Food talk).

It's a really easy soup to make and it tastes surprisingly good. I wasn't all too excited, it doesn't look like much at all... but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't have any ground pork at home but I had plenty of store bought meatballs in the freezer, so... And I really hate the look of glass noodles, they remind me of jellyfish tentacles, so I used Chinese wheat noodles instead.

To make this dish vegetarian friendly, simply substitute the meatballs for tofu.

Gaeng Chöt
(Adapted from matprat.no)
Serves 2

Meatballs:
300 g ground pork
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Soup:
4 dried Chinese mushrooms- shiitake
50 g glass noodles or other kind
5 dl / 2 cups water
½ dl soy sauce
1 spring onion, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced lengthwise
1 tbsp coriander/cilantro leaves

1. Soak the mushrooms in hot water for at least 20 minutes. Soak the noodles, or cook until almost done.

2. Mix the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl. Make small meatballs.

3. Bring water and soy sauce to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer the meatballs for 5 minutes.

4. Cut the mushrooms in half, add the mushrooms and the noodles to the soup.

5. After a couple of minutes, add in the vegetables, take the pan from the heat. Sprinkle the soup with the coriander soup, and serve.

Thai Red Curry

Thai Red Curry
Serves 4

500 g boneless chicken (I used pork), sliced
1 generous tbsp red curry paste
2 tbsp sugar
5-6 lime leaves, shredded
1 can sliced bamboo shoots
400 ml coconut milk
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1. Pour one cup of coconut milk into a wok, bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Add in the curry paste and stir until red oil appears at the surface.

2. Add in the meat, simmer until cooked.

3. Add in the rest of the coconut milk, lime leaves, and bamboo shoots. Also stir in the sugar, and the fish sauce. Bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes.

4. Serve with rice

(As always I didn't use the exact ingredients. This time I used my trusty frozen wok vegetable mix instead of just the bamboo shoots)

- You can make this with other kinds of meat, or with no meat at all, but you will then have to add mushrooms or aubergines or something similar to make it a bit "meaty".

På svenska:
Thai Röd Curry

Thai prawn balls- revisited

I made Thai prawn balls again yesterday! They, as last time, turned out delicious! I really didn't feel like making them last night, it was late and I had just returned from volleyball practice. But I had already defrosted the prawns so had to make them or else I'd end up throwing the prawns in the trash. After a quick stop at the supermarket on my way home from practice I picked up all the ingredients I knew I didn't have at home; lime, spring onions and eggs. Once home I realized I didn't have soy sauce either, but I simply substituted the soy sauce for 1 tsp Thai fish sauce. Like last time I served the "balls" with rice and a sweet chili sauce. I also added a couple of florets of broccoli to add some greens to the plate. YUM!

Enjoy!

Thai Green Curry

Me and my boyfriend had a friend over for dinner tonight. I decided to make a Thai chicken green curry, a dish that never fails to please even the most picky eater. I'm not saying the friend we invited is a picky eater, but let me put it this way; he had no idea that Thai food was food inspired by Thailand, but thought it was some kind of Mexican food. However, I think he was happily surprised by my Thai Green curry, even though I am pretty sure he found it a tad bit too spicy... I thought it was delicious, and cannot wait to devour the leftovers tomorrow.

Thai Green Curry
Serves 4

3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 generous tbsp green curry paste
1 tsp coriander/cilantro powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 can coconut milk
1 clove garlic, grated
1 cm ginger, grated
4 chicken breasts (or fish, or prawns, or pork, or beef) cut into bite size pieces
350 ml chicken stock

3/4 courgette, sliced and halved
3/4 aubergine, sliced and halved
10 small button mushroom, halved
1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp lime juice
handful coriander/cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil in a wok, sauce pan or saute pan. Add the curry paste and stir for 2 minutes. Add in the spices, and garlic & ginger and fry for another minute, keep stirring.

2. Add coconut milk, chicken stock, and chicken pieces and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the chicken is almost cooked.

3. Tip in the vegetables, add fish sauce and lime juice. Simmer until the aubergine is soft. Sprinkle coriander/cilantro leaves on top.

4. Serve with rice.

Enjoy!

- You can make this dish vegetarian by cutting out the meat, and using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

- The flavour develops when you freeze this dish, so put the leftovers in the freezer to enjoy another day.

- If you find this dish a tab bit too spicy, serve it with dollop of creme fraiche, yogurt or sour cream.

Spicy Holy Basil Chicken Curry

I love browsing the aisles of my local Asian food shop. I love looking at all the different foods, spices, pickles, rice, vegetables, and things I don't even know what they are. The other day I was looking for the Satay Seasoning mix I love, but couldn't find it. The man at the cash register told me he had it out back but did not want to go searching for it. So I had to make new plans for dinner. I continued browsing and found a packet of Holy Basil Seasoning Paste. It looked easy enough to make, and only cost 14,90 NOK.
As always, I did not stick to the recipe when preparing, but it turned out delicious anyway. Delicious, but spicy, very spicy. Luckily I had an open can on coconut cream in the fridge, so I added the content into the pan, and enjoyed a yummy dinner.



Spicy Holy Basil Chicken Curry
Serves 2

1 ½ dl Basmati rice
2 1/4 dl water
1 pinch salt

250 g chicken, other meat or firm fish
1 packet Holy Basil Seasoning Paste
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 red bell pepper
4 button mushroom
1 small onion
1/4 box coconut milk/cream

1. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Place in a saucepan, and add the water. Bring to the boil, bring down the heat to a slow simmer. Simmer, under lid, for 17 minutes, remove from the heat. Remove the lid and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork.

2. Follow the instructions on the packet to make the Holy Basil Chicken Curry. add the vegetables when the chicken is almost done. Stir in the coconut milk/cream, allow to heat.

3. Enjoy!

- Comments are love

Thai prawn risotto

Sometimes an idea sounds really good in my head, but laid out on paper, or as in this case on a plate, does not seem like an all that clever idea. That is what happened to me yesterday. I was in a hurry to make a quick dinner before I was off to volleyball practice. I had a craving for risotto but didn't really have all that much to put in it. The thought hit me, why not use the tiger prawns I have in the freezer and give the risotto a "Thai-twist" by marinating the prawns in Thai green curry paste? Ok, I must admit, following my train of thoughts on this one now tells me that it was really never a good idea to mix Thai and Italian cuisine. But I did not realize that yesterday, so I made Thai-inspired prawns on a bed of risotto. Obviously, it wasn't the tastiest dinner I have ever had, but it was eatable and the prawns were gorgeous.

Will-you-try-my-Thai-prawn risotto?
Serves 2

2 dl risotto rice

1 small onion, finely chopped

½ clove garlic, chopped

about 5 dl chicken/fish stock or 1 dl white wine and 4 dl stock
(however, I used ½ dl of coconut cream and 5 dl stock)

6 tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined

1 tsp vegetable oil

½ clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp Thai green curry paste

a pinch of chili-salt

1. Follow the instructions on the risotto rice package on how to best cook it.

2. Put the oil, garlic, curry paste, and chili salt in a bowl. Add the prawns and marinate for 15 minutes.

3.When the risotto is all but done, add the prawns to the pan and cook 'til the prawns are pink.

4. Plate, sprinkle with chopped red pepper and coriander/cilantro leaves.

Green curry paste

Green curry paste is used a lot in Thai cooking, and it is surprisingly easy to make. I love it, and I keep a jar of it in the fridge at all times. Mix with coconut milk and add prawns, spring vegetables and noodles for an easy lunch!

Green curry paste

Makes 125 ml

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

6 green chillies, de-seeded and chopped

2 stalks of lemon grass

3 tbsp coriander/cilantro root, chopped

2 cm galangal, or ginger

1 shallot, large

zest and juice from one lime

1 pinch salt

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

Just put everything into a food processor and blend into a smooth paste. Store in an air-tight jar in the fridge.

Freezes well up till 2 months.

- As seen in Ching's Kitchen

Fish green curry

I found this recipe in a food magazine, and just had to try it out. It looked just delicious on the photo, and it was absolutely delicious, and so easy to make. My boyfriend even made an ambitious promise saying he'd invite his parents over for dinner one day, and serve them this dish. A promise yet to be fulfilled!

Fish green curry

serves 4

600 g fish fillets, cod or other quite firm fish

salt and pepper

4 carrots, peel into fine strips using a potato peeler, or cut like matchsticks

250g sugar snaps, cut in half

1 bunch spring onions, chopped

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp green curry paste

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 can coconut milk

1 tbsp fish sauce

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp brown or caster sugar

1 small bunch or coriander/cilantro

1. Season the fish with the salt and pepper. Roll the fillets, if the fish allows it, and secure with toothpick or bamboo skewer, otherwise cut into bit-size pieces.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the curry paste, allow to sizzle for 1 minute. Add the carrots, and allow to heat for 2minutes. Add grated or finely chopped garlic, ginger, sugar snaps, coconut milk, fish sauce, lemon juice and sugar. Bring to a boil.

3.Turn down the heat, add the fish and allow to simmer for 8 minutes, or until the fish is done.

4. Serve with rice and sprinkle with spring onion and chopped coriander/cilantro.

Thai prawn balls

I made these prawn balls the other week and they went down a treat. They are truly delicious! I served them with boiled Basmati rice and a sweet and sour sauce, but I think they might be even better just served as a treat on a Friday-night in. Or if you would still like to have them as a main course, make a double batch.

Thai prawn balls
makes 16 small balls

200 g tiger prawn, for a vegetarian version use canned sweet corn
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1 chili, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine, can be left out if you can't find it in your local Asian shop
1 tbsp rice flour
50 g coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
salt

Chop the prawns coarsely, combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Fry in hot oil for 2 minutes per side, squeeze some lemon over the top and serve immediately.

Freezes well, cooked, for about 1 week.

- As seen on Ching's Kitchen