One advantage of living on a budget and not being able to go out to eat whenever I want is that if I want some delicious ethnic foods, I have to make them myself. This is quickly expanding my cooking repertoire. A lot of dishes that I thought would be quite complicated are actually quite simple, as long as you have the necessary, sometimes hard to find, ingredients. But after a few trips to the local Asian market or other specialty food stores, you'll be ready to go!
I've also noticed that if I go out to eat to an ethnic restaurant, I crave that type of food for at least the next week, but usually much longer. We recently went out for Thai food, and I've been wanting a heaping plate of Pad Thai noodles with a side of curry ever since. After searching various Asian food blogs, I came up with some recipes that I thought I could handle.
They were both delicious, easy, and took less than 30 minutes to make! Definitely give these a try if you're a fan of Thai food. You'll be impressed at how good a cook you are.
Pad Thai
Serves 4-6
adapted from Chez Pim
(her long explanation of how to make Pad Thai was extremely helpful. I've paired the recipe down, but if you need further instruction, look at her site)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup tamarind pulp
1/2 cup palm sugar (you can substitute white or brown sugar, but use 1/3 cup instead)
2-4 tsp. chili powder (depending on how spicy you want the sauce)
1 lb. Rice Noodles - Fresh if possible, but dried will work too
The measurements for the ingredients below are pretty fluid, depending on how much you want of each in each serving of Pad Thai
Chicken, cut into thin, bite-size pieces
Shrimp - optional
Green ends of one bunch of green onions, cut in 1-inch slices
Peanuts, chopped finely or crushed
Eggs
Beansprouts
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
Cilantro
Lime
Vegetable or Canola oil
Directions:
First, it is important that you only cook Pad Thai in serving sizes. Do not try to cook the whole pound of noodles at once, or it will get gummy and you'll end up with a sloppy mess. Follow the directions below, and you won't go wrong.
Soak rice noodles in warm water until al dente. Do not soak them to the point that they're soft.
In a small saucepan over low heat, mix together tamarind, sugar and fish sauce. When sugar is melted and sauce is heated through, add chili powder by teaspoons, tasting frequently, until desired level of spiciness is reached. Set sauce aside.
- Heat wok or large frying pan until very hot. Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil and let heat.
- Add chicken and stir fry until halfway done, about 1-2 minutes if chicken is sliced thinly. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of sauce and 1-2 garlic cloves. Let cook for a minute longer.
- Add 1-2 cups of loosely packed noodles, depending on how large you want your portions to be. Add 1/4 cup of sauce.
- Stir noodles, sauce and chicken together quickly, keeping everything moving, until noodles are soft. Break up noodles if they stick together. You can add more oil if the noodles continue to stick together, but I didn't find it necessary.
- Push the noodles to the side, and crack an egg in the middle of the pan. Let sit for 10-15 seconds, then push noodles on top of egg and mix everything together until egg is cooked through.
- Add shrimp, peanuts and beansprouts. Continue stirring until shrimp are pink, another 1-2 minutes. You can add more sauce at this point if you think it looks to dry, but, again, I didn't need to.
- Throw in the green onion ends and the cilantro. Turn off heat, stir a few more times.
- Plate the finished Pad Thai, squeeze a quarter of a lime over the top, and serve.
- Rinse and wipe out pan, and start over!
Thai Red Curry
Adapted from Rasa Malaysian
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small cubes
1/2 lb green beans, cut into 2-inch lengths and parboiled
2-3 kaffir lime leaves, cut into fine thin strips, or 1-2 tsp. of lime zest
2 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons red curry paste
1/4 cup palm sugar, or 3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
2/3 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
Directions:
- Heat up a wok or deep fryin pan with the cooking oil.
- Saute the red curry paste until aromatic.
- Add the chicken into the pot and stir well with the curry paste.
- Add coconut milk, water, green beans, kaffir lime leaves, and bring the curry to boil.
- Add fish sauce, palm sugar, and stir-continuously until sugar is melted.
- Dish out and serve immediately with steamed jasmine rice.
2 comments:
How do you have kaffir lime leaves and tamarind pulp...I have never even heard of these things.
I found both at the Asian grocery store by my house. Surprisingly, I have found that everything is very cheap at the Asian market. I hadn't heard of them either, but just went in and asked and they showed me what I needed.
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