My favorite Thai Salads

I love hot and spicy. However, if I cook curry everyday it would grain up more weight because of coconut milk. So today I will recommend to the menu that always for a skinny Thai ladies secret. Thai Salad.

Of cause, Thai foods is a little heat along the way, as you will see my Thai recipe I put on the blog later on. I love to put hot chillies pepper, which called in Thai " Prik Kee Noo", it is very small pepper but really hot especially the Red color ones. I slice its very thinly and try to mix with Green color pepper. For a person who never like the heat too much, I would prefer to use couple of green prik kee noo.

My boyfriend had not have any real hot or spicy foods before met me. So when I introduced him to Thai foods, he always asked about the ingredients in the dish which sometime I didn't tell him all the ingredient until he tasted it first. Once he tried the Spicy Salad that I will put on this blog, his face and ears turned red and looked for more drinks after that. Although, he is more willing to go a little farther when it becomes to spicy foods. My trick is put less in his first time, then add up more every time I cook the same dish. Now he can handle at least 5 greens prik kee noo thinly sliced in one of his favorite dish, which will put on this blog later on.

Yum Woonsen and Yum Moo Yor.

( Yum = Salad, Woonsen = Clear noodle, Moo Yor = Vietnamese Pork stick, or I called Thai Baloney)

My tips; I like to make dressing separately and pour into salad when ready to serve. So I will give the dressing recipe and salad itself separately.

Yum Dressing
(I use this dressing in almost any spicy salad with clear noodle or only Moo Yor itself)

Ingredient;  make about half of a cup, that could make 2 serving salad

1 tbsp hot water
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce, *substitute with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp fish sauce
2-3 green Thai hot chilies (Prik Kee Noo) for Mild taste, 7-9 red Prik Kee Noo for Hot, thinly sliced

In small bowl, add sugar in hot water just for it melts. Let it cool. Add fish sauce or salt, lime juice and chilies. Taste and set aside.

Clear noodle and Seafood with Thai Salad Dressing
(Yum Woonsen and Seafood)

Ingredient;

1 1/2 cup raw clear noodle

1/4 cup Moo Yor, thinly sliced and cut to bite size

1/4 cup mix seafood, cut into small bite size and cooked

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion or white onion

3 tbsp thinly sliced or julienned

3 tbsp celery with leaves, chopped

2 cups

1/2 cup Yum dressing as recipe above

garnish with cilantro

Direction;

1. If you have raw seafood, wash and divined for shrimp. For crab meat, mostly already cooked, cut up small bite and put in the mixing bowl.

2. In the pot of boiling water, add clear noodle, Moo Yor, shrimp and carrot, cooked until the noodle soft and clear like glass, drained and add in mixing bowl with onion and celery only stalk part, mixing all the ingredient when it is still hot.

3. Just before serving, add the dressing and celery leaves, mix it all ingredient well. Garnish with cilantro.

Another recipe that I would love to make when I feel like to have more fresh summer vegetable that all grow in the garden is "Yum Moo Yor with cucumber tomato in Thai dressing salad"

Yum Moo Yor with Cucumber Tomato in Thai dressing Salad

My tip; use fresh cucumber and tomato as you can find. It is a nice for fresh summer afternoon lunch especially in Thailand. I suggest to have this dish with warm jasmine rice.

I choose to steam the ingredient this time because I want to keep the taste as much as i can and also let the meat sit longer in the dressing before add tomato and cucumber to prevent more juice come out to the salad.

Ingredient;

1/2 cup Moo Yor

1/4 cup sliced cucumber

3 tbsp thinly slice fresh carrot

1/4 cup sliced tomato

1 medium sweet onion, prefer white onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup celery stalk, cut bite size included celery leaves roughly chopped

1/2 cup yum dressing

cilantro for garnish

Direction;

1. In a steamer, cook the Moo Yor, carrot for couple minute. Add to mixing bowl with have onion, celery stalks. Add the yum dressing, mix well.

2. Just before serve, add tomato, cucumber and celery leaves, gently mix altogether. Garnish with cilantro.

Leftover fix ; Seafood Fried Rice

Every time I have leftover from the day before I would like to create the menu with that leftover. I did create a menu that satisfied everyone in this family especially the boys. We actually have fish every Thursday since the father doesn't like fish, especially oily fish, and he will work until later that day, so that is perfect day for the rest of family who love fish. I experimented that the boys love fresh water fishes more than oily fish, however I do not want to make them choosing the meals that they are usually comfortable with, because I think when they are a grown up, they will be more picky.

Now I have tried to experiment and create new recipe about fish as much as I can to make them feel more interesting to try new dishes. Today I know they love Fried Rice and especially this dish will make a extra way for them to consume more vegetables too. I broke up the leftover, Grilled trout fillet to smaller flakes and diced all fresh vegetable we grew in the garden as small pieces as I can so they can not take it out. I suggest you can also use mix frozen vegetable.

Trout Fried Rice

Tip; Rice for making Fried rice; you would want to use less water than you used to prepare normally.

How to cook rice; 2 cups of Jasmine Rice + 3 Cups of water. In a pot of boiling water and rice, let it boiling for 3 minutes, reduce the heat to low and shimmer it about 5-8 minutes or until the top of the rice look clearer and no bubbling water. Turn heat off and cover the lid until use it. Fluffy with folk.

Ingredient;

2 cups cold cooked rice
1 cups mix vegetables; Diced carrot, corn, peas or sliced green beans
2 cups cooked Trout; flaked
2 eggs
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 cups diced crab meats
1/4 cup or 1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp black soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp butter

salt and black pepper

garnish with cilantro, lime, cucumber

Direction;

1. Preheat wok to medium high, add oil, butter and onion, cook till translucent then add garlic cook till yellow brown add eggs, cook as scramble eggs and add cold rice, soy sauce, black soy sauce and sugar, stir until mix well.

2. Add, mix vegetables, salt and black pepper, cook for about 3 minutes or the vegetable start to get bright color. Add tomato, crab meats and trout, cook for about 3 minutes. Turn the heat off and serve with cucumber, lime and cilantro. 

Every day Thai Foods; Vol. 1

All About Thai

First, I am aThai woman who love to travel and cooking. I was born and grew up in Thailand. In 2006, I traveled 10,000 miles to work and study English in the United States for 2 years. I lived with American family and took care of lo little cute creature with blue eyes and curly blond hair. I fell in love with him right away, the family gave me many opportunities to learn their culture, language, foods and people. It was not easy at first couple of months. However, i got through every things mostly by myself and I really love to look back at the good time I had in Chicago,

Now, I am working for Canadian family, familiar to what I did in Chicago, plus I cook meals everyday for the family. I offered to cook every meals just because I found myself have passionate about foods and bakery. I am spontaneous when it comes to food and eating :p. I have been open up to learn more other culture too.

Most Canadian people are not like spicy foods. They like regular meal with big portion of meats, potato and some vegetable that easily grown here. I personally like to have a lot of vegetable and different type of them. I do like chicken, pork and seafood more than beef. Also I love really hot and spicy foods. My boyfriend can't handle the heat of the hot peppers, so if I have to cook him something it have to be very little hot. He loves other Thai foods that is not real hot or spicy. His favorite dish is Pad Thai and Pad See Eew.

If I have to pick one of these two dish, I love Pad See Eew better. It is easy to prepare and it is not as sweet as the Pad Thai. I do love Pad Thai but I like the way they do not cook it in North America.

Pad See Eew ( Pad = Stir fry, See Eew = Soy Sauce)

Tip; when it comes to stir fry, you need to have a good wok, that can heat up quickly, and especially high heat with high smoking point oil. In this case I used canola oil, but Peanut oil is popular in Thailand for Thai cooking. An important method of Thai cooking, especially Stir fry, you need to prepare all ingredients ahead of time before you turn the heat on. Let's get cooking!

Ingredient;

1 lbs Fresh Rice Noodle, separated and cut in to 2 inch

2 cups of Chinese broccoli, washed and sliced about 1 inch

2 eggs
2 tbsp soy sauce, preferred light soy sauce
3 tbsp dark and sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp oilster sauce, optional*
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce, optional*

1 tsp garlic, minced

4 tbsp canola oil

4 oz of meat, thinly sliced, optional*
salt and black pepper




Direction;

Preheat the wok to high heat, add oil and garlic, cook until garlic get gold color but not brown. Add meat if need season with salt and black pepper, cook meat well.

Add eggs and cook until it almost firm add noodle right in the egg and stir quickly, if the noodle are not breaking up, add salt water to help it soft and break up the noodle. Add soy sauce, dark and sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, oilster sauce and sugar, stir it all well. Cook the noodle and the sauce until the noddle get all color of soy sauce evenly and softer. Add the Chinese broccoli, stir for a minute turn the heat off. Serve with Lime and hot pepper chili flakes.

Seafood Dinner

My Seafood dinner

When I was a little girl, my parents were very concerned about foods, so they wanted to make sure we consumed enough healthy and organic ingredients that why we would grow vegetable, herbs and even fed chicken for eggs and meat (I was sad when it time to murdered them !). However, we still got a health problem, my aunt and my brother had not gotten enough Iodine, that because we weren't consumed Seafood and sea salt at all. Well, we live North of Thailand where no connect to the ocean at all.

My dad was very worried about it but luckily it was fixable. They had been treating by the doctor. The doctor suggested to consume more sea foods and sea salt. Since then, we cooked more seafood and put more sea salt while we cook other dishes. I fell in love with seafood by then.

My favorite seafood dish is Stir fried Ocean Crabs in Curry sauce! I like Red Snapper in sour soup with spring vegetable. And since Japanese cuisine hits Thailand, my brother took me and my mom to Japanese Restaurant for my 20th birthday, We all tried new foods together, it was fun and interesting things I love to do! I fell in love with Sushi Maki Rolls since then. However, I decided to not like Raw fish, just because I didn't like the taste and smell. When I lived in Chicago, I always liked to go for sushi buffet all the time, it was fun going out with a lot of my Au Pair friends there, they were from all around the world, mostly I knew from Europe, some of them never heard about Sushi at all! So I just liked to introduce new menu for their life and they cooked their comfort foods they had at their hometown for me! It was a good trade!

This blog I will bring up the recipe I just cooked for the dinner. The boys I am taking care doesn't like Fish, I think because his dad doesn't like it and they got the idea that they should not like it. However, I don't agree with these kids, I think if I try to cook it right and add more favor to the fish dish, they will change their mind! I succeed with this menu because it actually taste good and easy to prepare. Let's check it out!!

Grill Herb-Topped Trout Fillet

Most trout has vivid color which depends on environment of their habitats. Trout is in the same species with Salmon but Mostly Salmon lives in salt water unlike trout that can find in the cool, clear stream or lake. 

Ingredient

1 boneless trout fillet with skin

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp each finely chopped of fresh basil, thyme and parsley
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic, minced
a pinch of salt and ground black pepper
cooking oil spray

Direction;

1. Preheat the barbecue to medium-high. In a small bowl, stir together extra virgin olive oil, basil, thyme, parsley, lemon zest, garlic, salt and black pepper.
2. Spray the flesh side of trout fillet with cooking spray. Grill trout, flesh side down, for 2 to 3 minutes or until browned. Turn trout over. Spread herb mixture evenly over the flesh side, grill it further about 2 to 4 minutes, until fillet are firm and flesh is opaque.
Serve garnished with fresh parsley and lemon slices.

My secret add on ingredient; I made Thai herbs oil earlier, so I used it instead of just plain Extra Virgin Olive oil. The lemon glass and kefir lime leaves gave the kick for the oil on the trout too!!

Everyday Italian

Pasta and Meatballs

When we are thinking about Italian foods, a lot of you might thinking of Pasta, Pizza and Lasagna right? My favorite Italian dish is Pasta and Meatballs. When I was young and lived in Thailand, I had never had this dish, always Thai foods or other Asian foods. Luckily, I came to work in the United States, I had gotten more chances to know more about Italian foods. IThere are Italian restaurants I entered to couple times but I remeber that I never ordered a pasta with meatball dish, don't know why, maybe because I think it was just a simple dish.

Anyway, I am working with a Canadian family. Grandparents of 2 young boys that I am taking care are Italian and very good cooks. They have passion for cooking and baking. Fortunately, I feel like a lucky person that get to stay with this family and learn so much from them.

First month of being in Canada, they showed and taught me how to make pasta sauce. It was amazing and surprised how to cook an Italian meal. It looked so easy to prepare and more impressed of this sauce was the taste, it was so good and fresh. It makes me think now that the main reasons of Italian cooking is fresh and homemade foods. Since then I just love to prepare homemade pasta sauce that she taught me. She even showed me how to bottle very own tomato base sauces from fresh Roma tomatoes ripe from the garden and farm. It was very unique style and authentic. Lucky me! they also taught me how to make their own meatballs recipe which everyone really love it.

Finally, my first blog today couldn't hesitate to write about this Pasta Sauce and Meatball recipes because this is one of my all time favorite dishes to prepare.

Nauna meatballs Recipe,

Ingredient;

3  lbs  Lean ground beef

3  lbs  Lean ground veal

1  lbs  Lean ground pork

3  cups of bread crumbs

2 1/2  cups of grated Romano cheese

1/2  cup of chopped fresh parsley

2  Tablespoons of minced garlic

17  large eggs (* it's can be more or less depend on how moist the mixture is)

2  Teaspoon of Salt and ground black pepper

Direction; Preheat 375 F, Yield 75 - 80 meatballs

1. In a large mixing bowl, break up the meats altogether until it mixed well. Carefully not to squeeze it because will make the meatballs too dense and tough,

2. Add bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt, black pepper and garlic, mix it all well.
3. Add 4 eggs at a time and mix well with the meat mixture alternately add more eggs until you feel it combined altogether. Make sure the meat mixture doesn’t feel dry and not liquid, then shape up with wet hand with a tennis balls size.
4. Preparing baking sheets with cooking spray. Place the meatballs in the sheet close to each other but not touching and bake it in the oven about 15-20 minutes or just until it lightly brown outside and still moist inside.  Lets it cool off in the baking sheet completely.
5. Freezer tip; put it in the air tight containers or zip lock bags for freezer. Keep it in the freezer about 6 months

Pasta Sauce

Ingredient;

1 Cans of tomato sauce

1 Can of Tomato paste

6 leaves of Fresh/dried basil

2 Tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley/1 Teaspoon of dried Parsley

2 Bay leafs (* Optional)

1 Teaspoon of Minced garlic

A pinch of Salt and ground black pepper

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Direction;

In a big pot, preheat in medium low heat, add  oil and garlic, cook until golden brown. Add a can of tomato paste and a half of a can of water in tomato paste can, stir well and bring it to boil. Pour a can of tomato sauce and add a half of a can of water in the tomato sauce. Bring to boil, add bay leafs, Basil, parsley, Salt and pepper. If making Pasta meatballs sauce, add them in the sauce this time. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about an hour or so. Make sure that the sauce and the meats are cooperated well.

Additional Meats;

Pork Back Ribs; cut the ribs to individual pieces and seasoning with salt and black pepper altogether. Browns the Ribs in the pot that you are going to use to make a pasta sauce, doesn’t need to cook through because it will cook more with the sauce and will give the sauce more tastier. Lets it simmer in the sauce until the meat is starting to coming out of the bones.

Ground Beef; cook chopped white onion and garlic until its translucent, seasons with salt and black pepper. Add the ground beef and cook through, then drain the fat out. Pour in Tomato paste and tomato sauce, lets it simmer about 2 hours.