Pad See Ew

Pad See EwPad see ew is a standard lunch fare among Thais and is very popular here in the US. My sister's favorite too. It is not difficult to make and tastes great.As kids, we loved pad see ew. It is a comfort food; nice and warm. Normally people make it spicier at the table (not in the wok) by adding red pepper sauce.

1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup pork, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb fresh flat rice noodles
1 egg
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 lb Chinese broccoli

If your fresh flat rice noodles are not pre-cut, cut them into strips of 3/4 inch wide. Cut Chinese broccoli into 2 inch long pieces. Halve the stems lengthwise because thick stems take longer to cook. You are going to want to cook them at the same time.Heat a wok to high heat and then add 2 tablespoons of oil. Drop in the chopped garlic and stir. Add the sliced pork. Stir to cook the pork. When the pork is somewhat cooked or turned from pink to light brown, add rice noodles. Stir to break up the noodles. Add light and dark soy sauce and sugar.Stir to mix the seasonings into the noodles and pork. Open a spot in the middle of the pan, and drop the egg in. Scramble the egg until it is almost all cooked (not watery any more). Fold in the noodles and mix them all. Add the Chinese broccoli, stems first. I usually add half of the Chinese broccoli and stir until it wilts and then add the rest. But if you have room in your wok, you can cook all the Chinese broccoli at once. As soon as the Chinese broccoli is cooked, turn off the heat.Put on a serving plate and sprinkle white pepper on top. Serve with the usual noodles condiments; sugar, fish sauce, vinegar and dried ground pepper. I usually like mine with ground chili peppers and vinegar.Pad see ew that you find in Thailand is little sweeter than mine because many street vendors add more sugar than I prefer.

Pad Thai

Pad Thai - This Pad Thai recipe is how you actually find it in Bangkok and comes from testing hundreds of different variations from food carts all over the city. Pad Thai is the ultimate street food. While "street food" may sound bad, food cart cooks are in such a competitive situation, with such limited space, ingredients and tools they need to specialize in a dish or two just to stay in business. The best of these cooks have cooked the same dish day-after-day, year-after-year, constantly perfecting it. Great Pad Thai is dry and light bodied, with a fresh, complex, balanced flavor. I've never actually seen the red, oily pad thai in Thailand that is common in many western Thai restaurants. The ingredients listed below can be somewhat intimidating but many are optional. If you would like to make authentic Pad Thai, just like in Thailand, use all the ingredients. Pad Thai is another perfect vegetarian dish, just omit shrimp and substitute soy sauce for fish sauce. Add more tofu if you like.

1/2 lime
1 egg
4 teaspoons fish sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground dried chili pepper ground pepper
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon tamarind
1/2 package Thai rice noodles
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2-1/4 lb shrimp Optional
1/2 banana flower
1/3 cup tofu - extra firm
1-1/2 cup Chinese chives - green
2 tablespoons peanuts
1-1/3 cup bean sprouts
1 tablespoon preserved turnip

Soak the dry noodles in lukewarm water while preparing the other ingredients, for 5-10 minutes. Julienne tofu and cut into 1 inch long matchsticks. When cut, the extra firm tofu should have a mozzarella cheese consistency. Cut up Chinese chives into 1 inch long pieces. Set aside a few fresh chives for a garnish. Rinse the bean sprouts and save half for serving fresh. Mince shallot and garlic together. Use a wok. If you do not have a wok, any big pot will do. Heat it up on high heat and pour oil in the wok. Fry the peanuts until toasted and remove them from the wok. Add shallot, garlic and tofu and stir them until they start to brown. The noodles should be flexible but not expanded at this point. Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Stir quickly to keep things from sticking. Add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, chili pepper and preserved turnip. Stir. The heat should remain high. If your wok is not hot enough, you will see a lot of juice in the wok at this point. Turn up the heat, if it is the case. Make room for the egg by pushing all noodles to the side of the wok. Crack the egg onto the wok and scramble it until it is almost all cooked. Fold the egg into the noodles. Add shrimp and stir. Add bean sprouts, chives. Stir a few more times. The noodles should be soft and very tangled. Pour onto the serving plate and sprinkle with peanuts. Serve hot with the banana flower slice and a wedge of lime on the side and raw Chinese chives and raw bean sprouts on top. As always, in Thailand, condiments such as sugar, chili pepper, vinegar and fish sauce are available at your table for your personal taste. Some people add more pepper or sugar at this point.

Laab

Laab, also known as Larb and Laap, is a northeastern food. It usually eaten as a part of a set (laab, papaya salad and sticky rice.) The set is accompanied by string beans, sliver of cabbage, water spinach and Thai basil. It can be served as an appetizer. It can also be served as a main course along with other non-northeastern food. There are variations of laab, duck laab, chicken laab. Some people like my brother love to include a few pieces of liver in laab.

1 tablespoon toasted rice
1/4 shallot, thinly sliced
1-2 limes
1/2 lbs ground pork
1/4 tablespoon ground dried chili pepper
3 tablespoons fish sauce
5 sprigs cilantro, sliced
3 sprigs spearmint
1 green onion, sliced

Squeeze juice from 1/3 of the lime on to the ground pork. Mix well and let it marinade for just a couple of minutes until you are ready to cook it. For this dish, people normally use a small pot; I use my cast iron pans because they can be heated up really hot, they retain heat well and heat evenly. Heat up a pan on high until it is very hot. Add two tablespoons of water and then immediately add your marinated pork and stir. The pork will stick to the pan at first, but then the juice will come out and the meat will loosen from the bottom. Keep stirring until the pork is well done. Traditionally, the pork is undercooked, but I do not recommend undercooking pork for health reasons. Put the pork in a bowl a large mixing bowl that will hold all the ingredients. Add fish sauce, green onion, shallot, cilantro, the rest of the lime juice, ground chili pepper and almost all of toasted rice into the bowl. Save some toasted rice to sprinkle on top for garnish. Mix well and taste. It should be a little bit hot. You should be able to taste tartness from the lime juice and the fish sauce. If you need to add more fish sauce or lime juice, don't be afraid. Getting the flavor balance right is a trial and error process. Put the mixed ingredients in a serving bowl, garnish with spearmint and sprinkle the rest of toasted rice on top. Serve with vegetables like cabbage, green beans, lettuce and Thai basil.

Tom Yum Goong

This is my mom's recipe and method of making tom yum goong and it is the best! This is definitely a recipe that you can only balance by taste -- tom yum goong should never be bland, but hot and sour.

4 cups water
1 cup shrimp
5 mushrooms
1-2 limes 1 lemon grass
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 tablespoon fish sauce
5 sprigs cilantro
3 chili peppers
1 tablespoon nam prig pow

Start boiling the water in a 2 quart pot. Peel and devein the shrimp and set them aside. Cut lemon grass into pieces, 5-6 inches long. Use the back of your knife to pound the lemon grass, just to bruise it to release the flavor. If you want, you can tie the lemon grass into a knot to make it easier to manage. Drop the lemon grass in water and let boil for 5 minutes. Put the fish sauce and 1 lime's juice into the bottom of the bowls you will serve the soup in. Crush chili pepper and add to the bowl. Remove the stems from the kaffir lime leaves and add the leafy part to the pot. Clean and halve the mushrooms and add them to the pot. Add the shrimp and turn off the heat. Shrimp gets too tough very quickly, and will cook even when it is just sitting in the warm broth. Scoop the shrimp and liquid into the serving bowls immediately. As soon as you add the liquid to the serving bowl, you will see that the broth becomes cloudy because of the lime juice. Add the nam prig pow. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve. Be very careful, the peppers can be hot. Take a small sip at a time. Add more fish sauce and/or lime juice if it tastes bland. It's right if it's good for your sinus.

Chicken Curry

Chicken curry is so common that you will find it at any to-go curry vendors in Thailand. Chicken curry is eaten with rice or 'kanom jeen' noodles. You can see chicken curry's popularity when you go to a temple in Thailand; Thai people frequently bring the classic dishes like chicken curry to feed the monks and other temple patrons.

3 cups water

3-5 sprigs Thai basil

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 lb eggplant

1 tablespoon red curry paste

1 cup coconut milk

1 chicken breast

I use Thai eggplants, the golf ball size ones. But, they can be difficult to find. Regular eggplants that you find in supermarkets are a good substitute. If you have the Thai eggplants, cut them up into quarters. If you have the regular eggplants, cut them into bite size pieces. Wash and pick the basil leaves. Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. If you have this dish in Thailand, you will see that the chicken comes with bones. All parts such as legs and thighs can be used. The bones make the curry more flavorful. Pour half of the coconut milk into a large pot, over low to medium low heat. Add the red curry paste. Break up the paste and mix it with coconut milk. Stir constantly. Lower the heat if it splatters too much. Add chicken when you see red oil bubbling on top. Stir and coat chicken with curry sauce. Add the eggplant when chicken starts to turn white. Add the rest of the coconut milk and water and the fish sauce. Let it boil until all the eggplant pieces turn dark and tender. The longer you boil the curry, the thicker the curry becomes because the eggplant disintegrates and thickens the sauce. Add the basil leaves just before you serve and make sure the leaves are submerged quickly in the curry to preserve the color. Serve hot with rice or rice noodles.

Fried Rice

There are a few varieties of Fried Rice across Asia; Thai fried rice starts goes in a much different direction than most. In Thailand, Fried Rice is a good lunch dish, served with cucumber and a wedge of lime. The most popular fried rice is crab fried rice. But for me, fried rice is a good way to clean the refrigerator since most any vegetables and meats you have in your fridge will do. For meats, I use everything - bacon, canned crab, ham, tofu hot dogs - your name it. Any vegetables will do too. Have fun!Thai fried rice gets much of its unique flavor from the mix of fish sauce, soy sauce, chili peppers and lime. The cilantro and a dusting of pre-ground white pepper gives the flavors a clean, rounded finish.

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tomato, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons soy sauce - mushroompinch ground pepper

1 teaspoons fish sauce

1 cup cooked rice3 Thai chili pepper

1/3 cup pork

1/2 onion, chopped

1 lime1 green onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

When the pan is extremely hot (smoking hot), pour in the oil and follow with meat. Stir quickly. It can get real smoky. If you see that there is juice coming out from your meat and pooling on the bottom and not evaporating, your pan is not hot enough. When the meat is cooked, set it aside or just put it on the side of the pan if you can. Add the egg and scramble the egg until the egg is all cooked. Put the egg aside or just push it aside and make some room on the bottom of the wok. Add the fish sauce and soy sauce and stir. Keep stirring and mixing the rice with ingredients. Add all vegetables. Stir for 1 or 2 more minutes. Sprinkle ground pepper.Some people like to add a fried egg on top of the fried rice. If you do, add 2 teaspoons of oil, crack the egg and fry until the egg white is crispy. Put the egg on top of fried rice.Serve hot with a 1/4 wedge of lime and whole green onion.

Pud Dok Gui Chai

My mother used to make this dish with sliced liver instead of shrimp. But it is tough for me to find friends or family members who are willing to eat liver. So, shrimp it is. Chinese chive flowers with shrimp is an easy dish to make and reheats well in microwave.

1 teaspoon sugar
1 lb shrimp 1 clove garlic, chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce

3/4 lb Chinese chive flowers, cut

Chop garlic. Cut the Chinese chive flowers into 1 1/2 inch long. Peel and devain shrimp. For a presentation, you can use whole shrimp (with head) and peel. Heat a wok or a pan on high heat. Add a tablespoon of oil and chopped garlic and stir. Add shrimp when the garlic starts to brown. Stir to get the shrimp somewhat cooked. The shrimp shoud start to get pinky but not all pink or cooked. Add the chive flowers and stir to cook them. Add fish sauce and sugar. The flowers shouldn't take long to cook. You want the flowers to just cook, but not overcook and still retain their crunchiness. When the color turns bright green, it indicates that they are cooked. Turn off the heat and pour on a plate immediately. Serve with hot with rice.