Kao Pad Moo / Thai Pork Fried-Rice

Growing up in Thailand, I’ve learned how to make fried-rice at a very young age, just like those who grown up here in the U.S. learned how to make sandwich at home, and please don’t be offended by what I just said.   I meant, I didn’t even know how to make sandwich until I came to the U.S. 12 years ago!  No joke! The hubby was even laughing at me when I asked, “How do you make a sandwich?”

By all mean, the staple food of us South East Asia people is rice, especially in Thailand.   We eat rice with everything, every single day and every meal, except for dessert...well, we use rice to making dessert dishes,too.   I was taught to cook rice, both jasmine rice and sticky rice (famously eaten in the North and the North East of Thailand), since I was nine...maybe, every morning before doing anything else.  Other meat dishes that could be eaten with rice were planned later and that because the rice must come first!

  

And when we have a lot of rice leftovers, we make fried-rice.  And that means, every youngsters must learn how to make fried-rice!  The basic ingredients of Thai fried-rice I was taught at home have oil, garlic, and onion, either fish sauce or soy sauce or dark soy sauce, sugar, egg, and rice, of course.  No meat?   Not necessarily.  Other fancy stuffs like in the restaurants we learned how to add into it later.   Just like many Thai dishes, everything can transform into a delicious dish easy if you just use your imagination.  So, don’t be surprised if you travel to Thailand and see dishes that you don’t even know or see before, you have to be brave and try new things that might, at the end, surprise you.   Just like Bizarre Food host Andrew Zimmern says, “If it looks good, eat it!”

So, what is the difference between Thai fried-rice and Chinese fried-rice? The answer is tomato and Chinese broccoli. At Thai restaurants here in the U.S. would sometime skip the Chinese broccoli, which exceptional, but not tomato.   So next time, if you ordered fired-rice at Thai restaurant and didn’t see chopped tomato in it, don’t be afraid to ask, where’s tomato?

Personally, I like tomato in fried-rice because it gives a little unique sweet taste of tomato to the dish. Therefore, Thai fried-rice is usually served with fish sauce mixed with lime juice load with thinly sliced of Thai chili plus lime wedge and cucumber slices to balance out the palate, and sometime would come with fried egg, which is optional. 

Like I said earlier, other fancy stuffs we add into it later. You choose you own protein and veggies to be added to the dish but don’t forget the rice though, otherwise, you’d end up with meat and veggies stir-fry and not the fried-rice.

What you need:   for 2 servings

2 cups cooked rice
6 oz. pork meat, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 of white or yellow onion, thin sliced or chopped
1/4 cup carrot cut into small cubes
2 eggs 

1 medium Roma tomato chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup Chinese broccoli or bok choy – optional
A dash of ground white pepper
3 tbsp canola oil

Condiment:

5 green and red Thai chilies, thinly chopped 

1 tbsp fish sauce 

1/2 tbsp fresh squeeze lime juice 

: mix those three ingredients together and set aside

  

To be served with:

Lime wedges 

Cilantro leaves or chopped scallions for garnish 

Cucumber slices – optional 

How to: 

- Add 2 tbsp canola oil into a large sauté pan or wok over high heat
- Add minced garlic and fried until it fragrant and then add pork meat and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the meat cooked through
- Add chopped carrot and onion, cook until they are wilted, and then add rice
- Seasoning with sugar and soy sauce stir to combine well
- Push the fried rice to the side of the pan and then add 1 tbsp canola oil into a pan
- Crack 2 eggs into the pan and make quick scramble, and then stir in the fried rice to mix well
- Add Chinese broccoli or bok choy (if used), stir to cook until the vegetables are wilted
- Add chopped tomato and a dash of ground white pepper, turn off the heat - Serve immediately with chili, fish sauce and lime mixture, lime wedge and sliced cucumber, and garnish with cilantro leaves or chopped scallions

Enjoy!

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Gluay Ping / Thai Grilled Banana with Coconut Palm Sugar Sauce

Grilled bananas are my all time favorite snack. Whenever I go visit my family in Thailand, I’d always look for a vendor that selling this kind of snack on the side of the road and eat them like a starving monkey almost every day. I usually buy only grilled whole bananas that’s no smash and no sauce – you have an option of with or without smash and sauce – because the sauce can be very sweet, too sweet for my tooth sometimes. Thai people love eating grilled bananas as a quick snack because they are quick, cheap and very filling. It can also become an instant dessert just by dipping in the coconut palm sugar sauce.

 There are varieties of banana in Thailand as same as here in the U.S. that use for cooking which mostly are for making dessert However, Gluay Nam Wah bananas are famously used for grilling in Thailand but burro bananas and other kinds are also used as well. Bananas for grilling have to be just ripe and still firm so when press it won’t fall apart. 

I have burro banana trees at home that yield fruit all the time but the hubby doesn’t like them that much, which sometime I have to give them away to friends after I grilled them for myself, of course.

Maybe I could make another Thai dessert dish with these burro bananas called “Gluay Buad Chee” or Banana in sweet coconut milk, which usually serve warm. I think it’d be perfect for this kind of weather

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What you need: 

4 Burro bananas – ripe and firm 

3/4 cup coconut milk 

3-4 tbsp palm sugar 

Pinch of salt 

Bamboo skewers

How to: 

- First make the caramel sauce by combine coconut milk, palm sugar, and salt in small sauce pan over medium low heat.
- Simmer the sauce and keep stirring to prevent burn until the sauce is getting thicker and turn to caramel color for about 5 minutes. Set aside

- Peel bananas and cut them crosswise about 3/4 inch thick

- Skewer banana into bamboo skewers and grill them over low heat about 3-5 minutes each side or until they get grilled marks

- Place grilled banana stick into a plastic bag and use a heavy object such as a rolling pin or a bottle to press them slightly flat

- Soak or brush them with the coconut caramel sauce and serve them warm

Enjoy!

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Seaweed Salad

Honestly, I’ve never made seaweed salad or cooked with fresh seaweed before, but I love eating them which usually, of course, wrap around sushi in dried form of seaweed, crispy toasted seaweed snacks, seaweed salad, and in Miso soup at Japanese or Korean restaurants. I’ve always thinking about making seaweed salad at home but never had a chance to do it. So, I brought home a package of fresh seaweed from the Asian Supermarket that happened to have only one package left that day and was thinking about dishes that I could possibly make with it. I said dishes because there were 12 ounces in the package and seemed to be awful lot just to make a salad. So, I used half of the package and left the other half for my next dish.

The fresh seaweed I got from the market didn’t label the type of seaweed, but I believed they were Kelp. These dark green leafy plant came in a very long strips and still had the “salty-sea smell” with some slimy on them.   I wondered if they needed to be cooked before consuming.    So…I did some research. Some said that seaweed can be eaten raw and some said that fresh seaweed are needed to be cooked in boiling water for at least 3 minutes limit and no more to preserve its nutrition.   Therefore, some types of seaweed are dehydrated and dried and needed to be soaked in water for at least 5-10 minutes to make it pliable before prepare into salad or soup.

 

My research has led me to a little bit of confusion; however, what did I do with them?     “Let’s meet in the middle,” I thought.    So I washed off the slimy really well before I soaked them in the hot water for 15 minutes, and then rinsed them again with cold water and let them dripping out excess water in the colander until they were ready to use. 

The dressing for my seaweed salad was very easy to make which you could adjust the taste for your own liking, chili or no chili you decide, and add some of your favorite veggies. The completed salad is needed to be marinated overnight before eating, the longer it’s marinated, the softer the seaweed and yet taste a lot better!

So! What are benefits of eating seaweed, if you asked? There are plenty of good stuffs, especially to those who really need to shred some pounds and live healthier. Well, I don’t know about you, but I chose to live a healthy live.    You know?  Healthy life won’t bite! 

 You can find out more of seaweed benefits here

What you need:

6 oz fresh seaweed strips (kelp)
1/4 cup carrots finely julienned
1/4 cup finely sliced celery
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp Rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp Asian chili garlic sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds 1 tbsp finely chopped spring onion

   

How to:
- Soak fresh seaweed in hot water for 15 minutes and rinse thoroughly with cold water and set aside. If you think the seaweed strips are too long, you can cut into your desired size. I didn’t cut mine.
- Making the dressing by whisking together soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar, and chili garlic sauce until sugar dissolve.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine seaweed, carrot, celery and toss in the dressing, sesame seeds and chopped spring onion and mix well.
- marinade it overnight before serving.

Enjoy!

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