Food in Thailand

In our recent visit to Thailand I again realized how much fresh un-processed food is available to the rest of the world and isn't available to us at reasonable prices. A visit to the market in Thailand makes one drool, the variety of fruit, vegetables and even meats is awesome. 
And beyond the raw materials restaurants are very reasonable - one can eat a feast in $10US. 

Here's a link to a slideshow: Flickr link to slide show

With that said what were my favourites?
1) The barracuda with curry paste @ Jai's restaurant in Khao Lak
2) The massaman curry @ Jai's restaurant in Khao Lak
3) Mango and sticky rice - everywhere!
4) Fried fish cakes - at the Khao lak / Bang Nga market
5) Fried chicken at Chatuchak market in BKK

Many things I didn't get to try as it was a family vacation, and some things I did try were a let down.
The biggest letdown?  'Roti Mataba' recommended in Lonely Planet! Ripoff and not that tasty compared to all the other things available.

Review in a few words: would love to go to Thailand again.  Thank you Sister & B-in-Law for having us over.

Mouth Watering Chicken

Mouth Watering Chicken - L10
Gourmet kingdom

An interesting cold dish.  We guessed the preparation - whole chicken is first boiled and then cooled in a bath of ice water.  The thick slices are then served in a spicy oil garnished with fresh cilantro. You can taste chillies, vinegar and a touch of sugar.  A great appetizer to begin a mouth-watering meal!

Kebab roll

Kebab roll at restaurant Kashmir, corner of 8th ave and 39th street
for 3.99 not bad wish the Naan was fresh :(

3 pepper chicken

Not for the weak at heart, this one packs a punch!

Banhmi at jujube

Its a crime that they serve this only for lunch on weekdays!  But, we made it there recently and finally tasted the menu which we used to look at and drool.

I had a vietnamese chicken sandwich (in the picture).  Salil had vietnamese crepe with sweet and sour pork.  Amazing flavors, fresh ingredients!

Ba Shu Chicken

This is a follow up to the Gourmet Kingdom review from a few weeks back.  We tried the Ba Shu chicken and it lived up to the sky high expectations!  Extremely hot, not for the weaker souls.  Salil ate most of it.  I had an eggplant dish to balance things a bit.

Also went to Gourmet Kingdom for lunch with the lab-mates.  The menu is standard chinese lunch menu with Broccoli and Beef, Kung-Pao Chicken and the works.  The lunch entree came with a bowl of soup and a small salad.  The taste was refreshing, unlike the usual oily chinese fare.  Portions were generous and the price was exceptional.  I think my chicken and brocolli was priced at $ 5.75.  Highly recommended, especially if you are a graduate student who is getting tired of the regular chinese take-out.

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Fifteen minute, kicked-up Pasta

(Post by Avani)

Although I love Italian food, it has taken me some time to warm up to anchovies and more so to start cooking with them. Decided to brave it and developed this simple recipe inspired from Rachel Ray's 30-minute meals show.

A small can of Anchovies fillet (6-7 small fillets), chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups store bought marinara sauce
1 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 pound pasta (spaghetti/penne whatever you like)
10 small meatballs (I used sun-dried tomato and basil chicken meatballs from Trader Joes. Guys, dont frown...its a fifteen minute, kicked-up pasta!!)
Parsley
Shredded Jarlsburg cheese
Chopped black olives (optional)

Heat olive oil in a shallow, wide pan. Once the oil starts to ripple (dont let it smoke though), add chopped anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli flakes. Its important to add the fish before the garlic...we are not going for the burnt garlic flavor here! Feel free to change the amount of anchovies/chiili flakes and garlic to suit your palate. Whisk the mixture with a fork gently and reduce the heat to low.

The anchovies will almost melt in the oil and aroma will fill up your kitchen. At this stage, add the sliced mushrooms, chopped olives and the pasta sauce. If you have some extra time on hand, use grilled mushrooms (400C for 15 minutes in a thin layer with a splash of olive oil). Once the sauce heats through, add the de-frosted chicken meatballs and pasta. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Remember, the pasta sauce is already well seasoned. Garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley and grated cheese. I chose jarlsburg for its creamy, milky, neutral taste to cut through the strong anchovy flavor.

I have to admit that I am a convert now. Anchovies are yummy and if used in the right proportion, they will give a lot of depth to your sauce.

Super Spud

Went to a deli on Franklin Street this friday and got a spud...was a little disappointed with the hugh amount of cheese but lack of other interesting toppings. So, Salil and I decided to come up with our own recipe for an overflowing potato!  You can get as creative with the toppings, but here is what we had last night.

The POTATO:  2 good, uniformly cylinder shaped russet potatoes about half pound each.  Clean the potatoes under running water to get rid of all the dirt. Dry them well, and poke deeply with a fork about 5-6 places so the steam can escape. Coat them with oil and sprinkle salt liberally all over. Pre heat the oven at 350C and set the potatoes in the top rack for 60 minutes. Keep a tray in the bottom rack to collect the drippings if any.
At the end of baking, the skin should be crispy but the flesh inside should remain soft. Cut the potato in half and you can mash/ slash it a little with a dab of butter. Its ready for the toppings now.

TOPPINGS:

Mashed gruyere cheese: This was the first layer and it melted instantly on th soft hot potato. Gruyere has a bold taste - slightly bitter. But I put very little cheese, just enough to make a thin layer on the potato and the bitter taste paired perfectly with the starchy sweetness of the potato.

Sausage: I used 2 chicken andouille sausages but any spicy sausage will work here. Take the sausage out of its casing and chop up real fine. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a saute pan and once the oil heats up, add the sausage. Let it cook on medium heat untill the sausage browns and you see some oil/fat separateing out into the pan. Should take about 15 minutes.

Mushrooms: I used regular white mushrooms, chopped finely about 2 cups raw. Sauted them in the same pan after the sausage was done to get the yummy flavor of the pan drippings. Seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Mushrooms will shrink conbsiderably after cooking but the flavor will concentrate, so a little goes a long way.

Chick-peas: This was mainly to bump up the protein content of the meal, but potatoes and chick-peas are a classic combination in the Indian Street food scene (paani-puri), cant go wrong with that! Heat a teaspoon of oil and saute a finely chopped shallot or a very small onion. Once it starts to turn brown, add finely chopped fat big clove of garlic. Let the garlic cook for about 30 seconds (dont let it turn brown, completely changes the flavor profile) and add 1 cup chicke peas (soaked overnight if using fresh or use a can). Once the chickpeas are coated with the onion garlic mixture, add a tablespoon of water and cook for 10 minutes till the water evaporates. For a dash of color, add a small pinch of turmeric to the onion. Season with salt.

Finely chopped jalapeno peppers, deseeded: Dont take off the seeds, if you are brave. Want more heat, use the small and thin Indian chillis or the thai chillis. Want a milder flavor, skip this topping.

Finely chopped green onion.

Assembly: Once the potao comes out of the oven, add a layer of cheese that will melt on the potato and hold all the toppings like a glue. After this, go nuts! Dont forget to add a dollop of sour cream or whipped curds, especially if you have the chillies.

I figure that this is a great dish for entertaining. As long as you have an oven, you can bake any number of potatoes at the same time. Get creative with the toppings and the guests can build their own! Other topping ideas - chopped olives, salsa, italian pickeled vegetables...

Pick a theme and run with it :).

Kari Ayam - Malay chicken curry.

It snowed all Friday night and Saturday during the day.  Couldn't go out anywhere and was craving Roti Canai from Merlion - a local restaurant specializing in Singapore/Malay food. We're not that bad at cooking and we have the world at our fingertips!  Decided to look-up a recipe for Roti Canai curry. See my previous rant blog on trying to find a recipe.  Finally found something called Kari Ayam which seemed to fit the bill.  I took the recipe and adapted it to my kitchen - and decided to document the recipe with more detail.    I don't know why recipe's use measurements in grams - WTF - am I supposed to have a weight measure in my kitchen?  I use cups, spoons...etc.  I don't have a laboratory with a milligram weighting scale!

Results:
A good tasting curry - not quite what is served in Merlion :(
Something is missing or too much. My hypothesis is that the shrimp paste is essential and I went overboard on the corriander seeds.

Am going to now eat this with some Malay roti (bought frozen from store) and stare out the dining room window at the snow.
... After eating - Holy Yum!  Pretty good - will make again.

Ingredients:
Curry paste ingredients-
2 cloves
2 peppercorns
8 dried chilis - seeds removed
1/2 tbsp corriender seeds
1 teasp fennel seeds
1 teasp cumin
bottom of stock of lemon grass (2 in piece) chopped in small pieces
1 1/2 cup onion
1/2 teasp ground turmeric powder
1 teasp galangal minced

oil saute ingredients -
2 cloves
2 pepper corns
1/2 cinamon stick
1 star anise
12 curry leaves
2-3 in piece of lemon grass chopped finely

1/4 teasp anchovy paste - I didn't have dry shrimp paste
1 teasp fish sauce - again I don't have shrimp paste

Other ingredients -
3/4th tbsp salt
1 teasp brown sugar
1 teasp regular sugar

Process:

Put chilis in 1 cup of water and soak - 20 min - don't throw away water use later.
Start sauteeing onions - 20 min
Roast cumin, corriender, lemongrass in pan - once fragrance grind in coffee grinder with peper corns, cloves and turmeric powder

Put sauteed onions, teasp of galangal, soaked chilis and 1 teasp of spice powder into a blender and grind.

In a pan heat up oil - once heated thrown in cloves, peppercorns, cinamon stick, star anise, and curry leaves
sautee for 5 min

throw in the anchovy paste&fish sauce into the oil sautee - throw in chicken and sautee for 5 min.
Toss in the onion paste and the spice powder

after 5 min add in the the water from the chili seeds
add in 1 can (165ml) coconut milk
add salt & sugar

Simmer till chicken is cooked

Serve with rice or roti paratha (malaysian roti - found in frozen section of indian store)

Aargh... sooo hard to find Malaysian chicken curry recipe

Why soooo hard you ask? every recipe uses 'curry powder' or 'curry paste' - does no one make food from scratch knowing what the ingredients are?  Well it turns out you have to know what you are looking for - can't be looking for Roti Canai - seems that's just the roti and it is served with many many different types of curries.  If you search for Roti Canai Curry or Malaysian curry you get all the recipes with 'curry paste'.
Finally I found one of the curries names 'Kari Ayam' and found the curry paste recipe!!
Going to try this out tomorrow: Nonya Food - Kari Ayam
Perfect recipe when its snowed outside and am stuck at home - going to eat a nice spicy chicken curry with flaky roti paratha.  mmm.

West Indian Coconut Chicken Curry

Yum!

Per prior post I decided to do Emril's West Indian Coconut Chicken Curry - holy heat! I used Emri's recipe with my own method and proportion modifications....
My modifications to Emril's recipe: 1) I scaled down the proportions for almost all spices by half - cept the cloves. Also instead of using two scotch bonnets I used 2 jalepenos (1 de-seeded). 2) I didn't simmer the whole thing for 1 1/2 hr - why? I was using cubed chicken breast - am thinking I'd have gotten rubber chicken in 1 1/2 hr... 3) Instead of cooking the chicken first and then tossing in the onions, I did the standard Indian thing - let the onions sweat added the ginger, garlic, and spice powder.. let it smell up the whole house then tossed in the chicken and browned it. After the chicken was browned I added the rest of the spice powder, coconut milk, brown sugar and 1/4 cup of chicken stock (istead of 1).

The taste - very pungent. It reminds me of a cross between Singapore Curry Noodles (the curry taste) and Malaysian Roti Paratha.... the curry is very strong. Istead of eating it with Roti I've made some coconut rice (recipe below)


Recipe for Rice:
2 wati rice - rinse thoroughly
1 wati thin home made coconut milk
1 tbsp butter
1/2 wati chicken stock
3/4th wati water
Salt, and fresh ground pepper.
Yum.