I didn’t really want to put this one under the beef and Thai eggplant green curry, since I used neither ingredient. I used the green curry paste described upthread to make a curry using fried tofu, mushrooms, green beans, and red bell peppers. Used the pretty standard technique, similar to the green curry in the book, of frying the paste in some coconut fat before adding coconut milk and the other ingredients. I have now used three of the curry pastes from the book and they all perform well. It really gets down to niggling on details to decide that these are better or worse than other respected books. These are absolutely worth making and cooking with.
I plan to try this thanks for posting @LulusMom1.
I’m not sure if you know so just sharing information.
It depends on the Soy Sauce used as Tamari is less salty than other Soy Sauces.
Also Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is less salty than Sea Salt.
If using Table Salt (many people bake with it) it is very easy to oversalt a dish using Table Salt.
SPICY BASIL CHICKEN AND FRIED EGGS ON RICE (KHAO RAT PHAT KA-PHRAO KAI KHAI DAO)
I made a slightly modified version of this dish tonight and very much enjoyed it. In contrast to Rainy, I scaled this version way down - making a 1/3 of a recipe for myself for dinner tonight. Otherwise, I made it as written (Rainy’s described the method above), though I believe my basil was also Thai, not holy, and I cooked my crispy eggs separately in far less oil than the recipe prescribed (using Julia Turshen’s crispy egg method from Small Victories - worked great!) I didn’t make the recommended chile fish sauce to serve with it (I didn’t scan that recipe!), and ended up using a little sweet chile sauce instead, which nicely cut the richness of the runny yolk and the salt of the meat. I think the cucumber relish also would have been great with it, though. Maybe next time!
Not sure about your experience, but I’ve found it very hard to replicate store bought toasted/ground rice powder at home – mine is never quite savory/nutty enough. Could be an issue? Also maybe try frying extra shallots in oil and then browning the meat in that oil.
The dish was spicy enough for me. I used regular cabbage. My fish sauce was old and not the best brand. I don’t know how much difference that makes. The toasted rice powder was somewhat of a nuisance since it took at least twice as long as estimated to toast and although is was golden it probably could have been darker. I used more meat than I should have and I definitely would like it more saucy. I had the leftovers today. It was a bit spicier and I would have added more lime if I had one. I liked it enough to make again. I just thought it needed something else but have no experience cooking Thai food.
I absolutely love this dish, but it does require a lot of blotting with paper towels. I stopped using the cornstarch and lime juice called for in this recipe, which I ultimately didn’t find to produce a noticeably different omelet than one without (I don’t find it comes out really crispy as claimed especially once it’s time to eat it). These days I make the healthier version which, while not the same, is similarly tender and fluffy. I tend to use higher heat than she does in this video, though, so the eggs really puff up.
I like to blot because it’s pretty oily from soaking up oil no matter how hot you get your oil.
The cornstarch or sometimes rice flour is to help with crispness, but ultimately that amount produces the same results as without. The lime is for tenderizing, but I find no need for it.
Lots of people call the dish crispy but imo that’s the little bits that sort of separate and it’s the result of egg getting cooked really hard and being a bit dried out as opposed to a crispness I really find enjoyable. You can see it here where she passes the egg through a strainer to create more small crispy bits. The actual center isn’t crispy because it retains moisture.
Personally the reason I like this so much is the supremely fluffy and and light texture (I like fluffy as opposed to creamy scrambled eggs) combined with the savoriness from fish sauce. A bit similar to egg foo young, but simpler and with a different flavor.
This method might be interesting to try because it uses a little more starch, and two different kinds (rice flour and sweet potato starch) and he first makes a batter out of them.
I agree with the amount specified in the recipe, I don’t see a noticeable effect.
This is due to the whipping, I doubled the egg volume. I waited a bit too long before eating, as I was cooking something else, it softened a bit. But it won’t be as crispy as in the video. That’s a tempura!
BTW, do you feel the pork? I think maybe it wasn’t very obvious too. I would like a little bit more meat.
Agitation factors into producing fluffy eggs, but it’s also the use of high heat, which makes eggs puff and produce big fluffy curds. It’s why if you want creamy scrambled eggs you generally want to keep the heat low, but if you want fluffy then you start with high heat which contributes to a rapid expansion.
The second video there is good for showing how much oil eggs soak up using this method, in spite of claims that it’s oil temperature leading to oil absorption. By design this dish will soak up a fair amount of oil. Eating it with plain rice to soak up the grease isn’t just for taste.
I like the pork, but most times I make it without.
One way I like to make this is with imitation crab, which is what I used to order from a Thai restaurant.
I made two eggs separately, each same size in a bowl, one egg was cooked less, I noticed it absorbed a lot less cooking oil. The second one, I cooked slightly longer, I noticed the leftover oil was almost gone.
Yeah that definitely happens and you see it in that second video because he drains out the oil once he gets the initial puffing up. Between his making a batter with the starch and the draining it might be worth trying half the recipe for the sake of curiosity. I like his other recipes so I’m sure this one is solid.
Usually when I make satay, I used flat tiles of fried tofu. It soaks up the marinade, grills well, and I like it. But I decided to make this recipe with a new chicken analogue I came across, Lightlife plant-gased chicken strips. I’ve never found a commercial chicken analogue that I wanted to buy more than once, and I’ll save you the suspense and say that this one is no different. It isn’t that it tasted bad, but I like tofu better. Now as for this recipe… the marinade is pineapple juice, coconut milk, water, cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Other versions I’ve made included some galangal and lemongrass, but they were absent here, and I missed their presence. I cut the plant-based chicken strips in half to make them half the thickness they were originally - 1/4" as opposed to 1/2". Then they went into the marinade for a few hours. Meanwhile, you make a cucumber relish and peanut sauce. Having already made the cucumber relish in this book, I decided to make the one from Pok Pok instead. It is not as sweet, and I reduced the sugar a bit more, because I knew the peanut sauce would be very sweet. For the peanut sauce, there are two versions given:
easy and less-easy. I used an amalgam of the two. The less-easy version has you grinding your own peanut butter, and I skipped that in favor of Jiff. But I did fry the curry paste at the beginning, a step that is skipped in the easy version, and used tamarind for the acid (the easy version uses vinegar). This satay sauce is very close to how I normally make it, which is a good thing (my normal version is one I’ve developed to suit my own tastes, and therefore is my favorite). I would highly recommend you try this version, using homemade curry paste. If you use a sweetened peanut butter like I did, you can reduce the sugar in the recipe (I used 1/2 cup). The sauce is very sweet, with a hint of sour, a pleasant heat, and the complexity it needs from the homemade curry paste. I served my satay with toast points, as directed, and essential in my opinion. They should be white bread, but I only had a GF whole grain bread on hand, so that’s what I used. The rice shouldn’t be there, but I was making a meal out of this and needed a little something more to fill it out.
RICE NOODLES “DRUNKARD’S STYLE” WITH CHICKEN - Kindle
[kuai-tiao phat khi mao kai]
We like this dish so well that I’ve made it twice from this COTM, once with dried rice noodles, and this time, with fresh noodles. While the dried noodle version was very good, the silkiness of the fresh noodles really elevated the dish, and I highly recommend using them, although they require a bit of extra preparation.
A paste of fresh bird’s eye chiles, garlic, and shallot is briefly sautéed in oil, until fragrant. Next, onion wedges are allowed to sear for a few minutes. Sliced chicken breast (I went with BSCTs) is tossed into the mix, along with fish sauce. When the chicken is cooked through, the noodles, oyster sauce, soy sauces (I used regular), sugar, sliced Thai chile, and tomatoes go in, and are stir-fried for a few minutes until the noodles relax and the sauce is absorbed. Finally, once off the heat, the basil is tossed in until wilted.
@MelMM has made the dish. So I won’t repeat the process. I used dried shrimp, ground pork, and octopus (instead of squid tubes) in addition, coriander leaves to substitute celery leaves and I didn’t add the fresh tomatoes.
I added a lot more lime juice and fish sauce to my taste. The salad was good, maybe I will prefer a bit more heat, I used dried bird’s eye chiles and tossed out some the seeds. I didn’t have the problem of noodles sticking together.
I’ve noticed that peppercorns is not mentioned in many of the recipes in the book. Do you think it’s the author’s personal choice, or dried pepper is not popular in Thai cuisine.
I have a bit of a peppercorn obsession and have just been researching this. Apparently before chilies were brought to Asia, peppercorn was the source of spicy heat! Green peppercorns are used often, and this source says white pepper is more common: https://www.thaitable.com/thai/ingredient/ground-pepper
I just purchased some black peppercorn in a Thai market this week, so some must use it! Look for the pickled green peppercorns, they are interesting–though I’d love to grow my own and try them fresh, as I am not a fan of the brine in the jarred brand I tried. My husband regularly orders a pork dish full of the strands of green peppercorn.
That’s a tempura!
