This is very simple and makes a quick and easy weeknight dinner. 1/4 cup lime juice, 2 T fish sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 3/4 cup chicken broth are mixed together. Fish fillets (she recommends trout, salmon, and halibut) are placed in a baking dish that will fit in a steamer, topped with the marinade, and sprinkled with 4 chopped bird’s eye chilis and 4 chopped garlic cloves. The fish is then steamed or baked. The finished dish is topped with cilantro leaves.
I made 1/4 of the recipe with a halibut fillet. I baked the fish in a foil packet for easy clean up. I served it on rice; you need something to sop up the marinade. It had a bit of a kick from the chilis. It is not terribly exciting, but I’d make it again as it was very easy and healthy.
This is really a great dish for ginger-lovers. I prepared per the recipe as described by naf. I did rinse my mature ginger a bit as recommended by the author, and it was still wonderfully gingery. 99 Ranch had fresh wood ear mushrooms, so I used those. Was really good served over jasmine rice, and it made four large servings.
I’ve made the noodles (in cheung fun form) but I wouldn’t call them easy to make… takes some trial and error on texture, and definitely adds a project to another project (Plus it’s not like they keep well, so you cant make them more than a day ahead or make a big batch to freeze.)
I don’t mind making them because it’s just a quickly blended batter and they cook in seconds. No kneading, no rolling out, and once cooked they can be stacked and cut in one go. For cheong fun the sheets need to be thinner and more delicate (the filled kind anyway; I actually like more toothsome rolls for unfilled ones with sauce), so I can see how for that purpose it’s more troublesome. For those I like Chinese Cooking Demystified’s method of making the batter from rice rather than flour and using a towel for thinner sheets. And it’s definitely more annoying that way!
Made this last night. Method has already been described. I used the stovetop for the vinegar/sugar mixture. It seemed like a lot of syrup for a small amount of cucumber (olny 1/2 cup?), and I ended up doubling it. This was a bit on the sweet side for my taste, but Mr. MM loved it. And a heads-up… don’t slosh any of that syrup on the floor, or on your shoes (as I did). It makes a crazy sticky mess.
Made this too last night, as part of the meal with rice and shrimp. I found this pickle added some freshness and acidity as accompaniment. As for the sweetness, I don’t like dishes too sweet, I usually dose it by 1/2 or even 1/3. So it was okay for me. I forgot to add the cilantro leaves.
This is maybe the easiest recipe in the book, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it is boring. You marinate diced chicken (she calls for half breast/half thighs - I went all thigh meat) in thin soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, vegetable oil, white pepper, and rice wine or sherry (I used sherry) for 8-10 hours. Then heat chicken stock in wok or skillet (I think a dutch oven would be fine here) and once that starts to bubble, add the chicken. Cook through until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve over rice with sliced chilies (I used serranos instead of the Thai long chilies called for) and cilantro (I didn’t have any). She serves this with a fried egg over it - I didn’t. It doesn’t mention to salt it anywhere in the recipe, and I know sometimes it is assumed that you’ll do so anyway, and I did. I salted too much, given the soy, so just a warning that you want to be careful with that. But this is a keeper - simple but delicious.
As described in the recipe, it’s a Chinese-Thai dish. I did as advised in the recipe, toasted my curry powder in a dry pan over low heat for a minute in advance. As for the cooking, first I heated the wok with oil, added minced garlic and sliced onion for 1 minute wtih high heat, Then added the shrimp and cooked briefly, followed by the egg mixture (milk, egg, chile jam, curry powder, salt sugar and chicken stock) for another 2 minutes. Stirred in the celery.
The taste was fine, but the tiny bits milk egg curd, disturbed me a bit, I was thinking maybe I did something wrong, but I found the same in other photos of the same dish, so I guess it’s the style.
PHAT WUN SEN | STIR-FRIED GLASS NOODLES WITH CHICKEN
Made this for lunch. I mixed up slightly with another recipe in the book Glass noodle salad, as I read both recipes last night, so I had wood ear mushroom and dried shrimp in extra for this dish. Cooked the minced garlic in high heat, then added the chicken, tomatoes, re-hydrated mushroom, soaked dried shrimps, sliced onions, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and pepper. Followed by the noodles and chicken stock and continued to cook for a minute. Added the egg, cooked 1 minute more and lastly celery. The dish was okay, nothing particularly stood out, maybe I under seasoned and a bit more sauce would be better.
I followed the method as described by naf. I, too, was not a fan of the appearance of the egg curd or its texture. Still, the flavor was very good. Mr. Ramone even had seconds, and asked for the leftovers the following day… and for him, that’s saying something.
The recipe in the book mentioned the original dish uses crabs instead of shrimps. So I checked out the dish bpuu pat pong garee, stir-fried crab with curry powder.
@klyeoh Is the egg/milk curd normal in bpuu pat pong garee (stir-fried crab with curry powder) or kung phat phong kari (shrimp curry stir-fry)? I guess you know this dish more than us. Thanks in advance.
RICE NOODLES WITH BEEF-TOMATO GRAVY (kuai-tiao nuea sap) - ebook
I’m putting the picture at the end of my post with this warning: UGLY FOOD ALERT. Please feel free to scroll quickly past the photo. There is no picture in the book for a good reason.
I can’t say this dish was on my radar. The only reason I chose to make it was because I had 8 oz of Impossible ground open in the fridge, left over from using 4 oz to make mapo tofu a few days ago. It needed to be used up, so I searched the book for ground beef recipes, and this is what came up.
I used dried wide rice noodles, and followed the instructions to boil, drain, and rinse. You start by stir-frying the cooked noodles with a bit of thin soy sauce and sweet soy sauce. They are then removed to the plates (which have been lined with lettuce). Then you make the sauce. Start the stir-frying with garlic, then add ground beef (Impossible), and break it up. Then add onion, tomato, and preserved cabbage. Then you add the sauce mixture, which is broth, cornstarch, thin soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and curry powder. And some celery goes in. This quickly thickens to a gravy. It’s served over the noodles, and finished with white pepper.
So, yes, this is ugly. As for taste, we were divided. Mr. MM liked it well enough, and cleaned his plate. I ate most of mine only because I was very hungry. Really was not a fan. It was the curry powder that ruined it for me. It just seemed completely out of place to me. This is not a repeater as Casa de Mel. YMMV.
It’s not ugly, just looked a bit greenish, but I think it’s the tone of the photo. As for the curry, do you think it’s a dosage problem or you prefer curry paste?
You plated it beautifully, Mr. MM enjoyed, and it filled you up. I’m noticing a lot of the home-style dishes in this book are not especially showy, but hey, they are good-eating, so bon appétit!
(Plus it’s not like they keep well, so you cant make them more than a day ahead or make a big batch to freeze.)
