Vegetarian Egg Rolls

Just egg rolls made with some seitan. They were pretty good, I made these when one of my kids was eating vegetarian. My regular egg roll recipe was easily adapted. 

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Chili Oil

I  don't have a real recipe for chili oil. I just use what sounds good at that time. Garlic, ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, other varieties of peppercorns.  Sometimes I add star anise. It really just depends. I do like to use Avocado oil because it is neutral taste and high smoking point. 
I also heat my spices with the oil. I don't pour hot oil over my spices. This just works better for me. 

Thank you for being here. Have a blessed day.

Crispy Pork Belly Vermicelli Salad

 

The Crunchy Pork Belly method can be found HERE.

The dressing recipe is here. Just dilute a bit and add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter dressing.

Sour Tamarind Concentrate

There's no recipe. I just needed some Tamarind Concentrate so here we are. I don't know if this is the correct way to make this, but it is the way I do it and my mom helped me so. I'm right, you're wrong. Just kidding, you do you.

 

Most important thing is that you have Sour Tamarind's not sweet ones.

Peel them, and add them to a pot with a disk or two of palm sugar if you want. Next time I am leaving the sugar out only because I can control the amount of sugar when I am cooking easier.

Cover with water, about 1 inch above the fruit, and then bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down and simmer. Stirring. The seeds and the stringy bean stuff will separate from the fruit. Keep simmering until the fruit has dissolved into the liquid.

Strain through a fine mesh sieve and discard the stringy bean stuff, and the seeds. Let cool and keep covered in the refrigerator. I use it for soups and papaya salad.

Lunar New Year: Year of the Dragon

 

Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year is known as the Spring Festival in China and is celebrated in many East Asian countries. It is a time of seeing out the previous year and ushering in the new one with luck, prosperity, and health. From the time I was born, this was the biggest holiday that we celebrated. This is the one mom hosted every year, the week was spent cleaning and shopping for all of the traditional treats and food. Our loved ones would join us for prayer and a feast. When my parents lived in Laos their parents and ancestors held the feasts.

This year marks the first year that mom was not home to host the celebration. She has been here with us visiting. My cousin picked up the torch back in my hometown and my children got to experience their first Chinese New Year with their Matou. I have made traditional foods during this time for my family in years past. I have never truly held the celebration with all the customs I had growing up.

We cleaned the house and made sure it was ready for family and loved ones. A cleansing away of the old so to speak. On the day of there would be no sweeping, as this symbolizes sweeping away good luck. Of course, this is madness with two standard poodles and two teens. Dust and dirt anyone? Thank goodness my mom said yes you can sweep just push the piles off to the side, you just don't want to take them out and dispose of them until after.

 The week of the celebration we shopped for traditional foods and items we would need. This year I took the time to ask my mom so many questions about which foods, why those foods, how she celebrated as a child, who hosted (her parents), etc.  

Items we shopped for:

Red Envelopes: Lai see (In Mandarin), Song Dang (Lao for "envelope" and "red") - not that we didn't have a bunch lying around but for me Red Envelopes are like Poultry seasoning at Thanksgiving. I always pick some up.

Incense: Toob in Lao

Fake money, fake gold bars, paper clothing to burn

Tea

Candied fruits

Fresh fruits

Snacks

Roast duck was reserved for pick up

Fish

Chicken

Noodles

Once all of the food is prepared and the table is set my mom lit some candles outside and opened the front door. A prayer is said to invite our ancestors to come to the feast and eat. After an hour we moved outside.

Fake money, gold printed on paper, blessings for health and prosperity, and paper clothing are all burned for our ancestors to use in the afterlife. Archaeological evidence supports the use of spirit money as early as 3,000 years ago

After, we all celebrate together and eat.

Red Envelopes are passed out to unmarried guests and the children.

I hope you have a happy, healthy, abundant New Year!

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Give Peas A Chance Lao style Papaya Salad (Thum Mak Houng)

 

Updating my Thum Mak Houng post here on Give Peas A Chance since my last one is from I don't know before 2010 I think? Doesn't matter. This is how I personally make my Lao Green Papaya salad, also known as Thum Mak Houng. Thai call this Som Thum and they make theirs sweeter, without the pa deak, and they add peanuts. I prefer the Lao version. 

Jeaow Som

Spicy, savory, sweet. Great for a dipping sauce, salad dressing, marinade.

I keep it on hand for spring/summer rolls, salad, egg rolls. On eggs. It's very versatile.

Jeaow Som

1/3 - 1/4 cup Nam Pa (Fish sauce)

1/3 cup water

1-2.5 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup+ fresh lime juice

3 or 20 Thai bird chilies

3-4 cloves of garlic

MSG optional

Chopped cilantro to taste

ALL of these ingredients should be adjusted to taste. 

Stir the 1 tablespoon of sugar in water to dissolve. Set aside.

In a mortar place the chilies, garlic, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Pound until the chilies and garlic are broken down.

Add stir in lime juice, fish sauce, and about 1/3 of the water sugar mixture. 

Taste and adjust your seasonings. 

Serve with summer/spring rolls, in Vermicelli salads, with egg rolls. I keep it in the fridge for yum neua, crying tiger salad.

Alternatively you can:

1. Slice Thai bird chilies and garlic.

2. Used a blender/immersion blender for this.

Vermicelli Noodle Bowl

An oldie but goodie. Not the picture, but Vermicelli Noodle Bowls. I put either these or Spring Rolls on our menu at least once every two weeks. They are just so easy and everyone here enjoys it! Win win here at the Give Peas A Chance household!

Find the recipe and more below-

Make them grain/noodle free by using a spiral slicer like this one that we love for vegetable noodles.

Here are links related to these great noodle bowls, recipes, and Spring Rolls also

Related posts-

Vermicelli Salad

Spring Rolls  
Spring Rolls Manic Monday

Vietnamese Egg Rolls

Egg Rolls

Nam Pla Dressing

Vermicelli Salad Bentos/Lunches

More Lunches