Kaffir Lime Leaves and Lemongrass

I posted this Larb gai yesterday and thought I put this picture in that post. I didn't. My mom grows these Kaffir leaves so she brings them to me to put in my freezer. I love them. So fragrant and fresh. Great in soups, Thai beef salad, marinades, curries and more.
They can also be dehydrated. Just wash, dry, and put them in my dehydrator.

(Living in Texas I now have my own tree and I love having fresh leaves year round)

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.

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. 

Khao Piek Sen (Bánh Canh Noodles)

I am so happy with this recipe. I saw it shared on a Facebook page for noodle making. I changed the weights and ratios a bit to our liking. The original recipe calls for a total of 5 kneading cycles. and two longer rest preiods, and often I just don't have time for that. It doesn't matter I'm thankful she posted the recipe. Traditionally these noodles don't have potato starch or Xanthan Gum. I find that both give this noodle great texture.  The noodles are chewy and hold their shape well. I used weights for everything in this recipe, even the water is by weight/grams. I find it is more accurate.

Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango (Pandan and Butterfly Pea Flower)

Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango, Khao Niew Mak Houng is something I've blogged before. Twice actually.
Here in 2008.
Here in 2013 with Forbidden Rice.

Vegetarian Red Curry

I love red curry, it's probably my favorite Thai curry. This is a Whole30 compliant dish, it could be used as a side with fat built in from the coconut milk. If not on a Whole30 round I like to add medium firm tofu to this. I usually pan fry the tofu first to get it crispy, then make the curry and stir it in after. This is an easy dish to make. If you're going to be pressed for time you can even prepare all the vegetables the day before. This can be made Vegan if you use a vegan curry paste and leave out the fish sauce, subbing for salt.

I have two store bought red curry paste brands that I have used. Both are Whole30 compliant, only one is vegan. That brand is Thai Kitchen brand. The other brand of paste I use is Mae Ploy brand. Which is very yummy but it has shrimp in it. I like both brands, the Mae Ploy does have more umami flavor to it.

Red Curry Meatballs

Red Curry Meatballs wrapped in lettuce with a bunch of vegetables. So yum and Whole 30 compliant.

These Red Curry Meatballs are easy to make and Whole 30 compliant,but so full of flavor. Tender, spicy, and so good. They also freeze well for quick meals and to pack in lunches. I love meals that can do double duty and freeze well! It saves time and saves me when I don't feel like cooking but we all need to eat.

Geang Phet Thalei (Red Curry Seafood Soup)

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I wasn't sure what to call this so I names it Geang Phet Thalei, which is spicy seafood soup in Lao, or literally geang "soup", phet "spicy", thalei "sea". Sounds legit right? Let's roll with it. This is one of the quickest, yummiest Whole30 lunches I threw together so far. The beauty is that it has 3/4 can of coconut milk so I didn't even have to add a plated fat. If I had more/different vegetables I would have thrown them in. I don't really consider mushrooms a vegetable but, let's just go with that also. They are really good though. A creamy pumpkin would be so yummy in this though. I ate this whole recipe like a soup. By myself. I suppose it's two servings if you serve it with rice, cauliflower rice. with a sweet potato. But nope. I. Ate. It. All.

Curry Shrimp Lettuce Wraps And Noodle Bowls

Curry Shrimp Lettuce wraps are a favorite around here. It's an easy meal to throw together and is pretty healthy. Lots of colorful veggies, it's a great way to get my kids to eat vegetables. I have posted Curry Shrimp before, made with a curry powder. This is a version made with Thai curry paste, both are flavorful and good. Just use your favorite kind of curry. Make this as spicy or mild as you like. If you don't like shrimp you can cook fish filet with these flavors, or even strips of chicken and use those in a wrap.

Yum Woon Sen- Lao Glass Noodle Salad

This noodle salad is simple and versatile. It's called Yum Woon Sen ("woon" are the noodles, "sen" mean strands) , Yum Woon Goong ("goong" is shrimp). It is made with Glass noodles or Cellophane noodles. You can add any vegetables you like, any cooked protein you like. I used leftover pork loin that I had cooked in my Instant Pot, I just put the pork on the trivet over about a cup of water that had lemon grass, kaffir leaves, garlic, and peppercorns in it. Once cooked, let the meat cool and slice. The shrimp can also be poached in water with similar aromatics.

Lao Bitter Melon Soup

Bitter Melon Soup

 Bitter melon, or bitter gourd. As a child I didn't like eating it at all. So bitter. But there's something about this flavor. It's not just bitter, it's ... complex. A word I'm using because it's just hard to describe. Like I said, as a child I didn't appreciate this at all. My mom would always say "it's medicinal!" She was really ahead of her time, now you can find this stuff in capsules! We were drinking Aloe Vera tea, artichoke tea, choking down two tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar before it was hipster. Sigh. Maybe that's why I'm built like an ox. *snort*

Khao Piek Sen- Lao Noodles (Philips Pasta Maker)

Khao Piek Sen is one of my favorite noodle soups. It's a Lao soup that has noodles made with rice and tapioca flour. Khao Piek Sen, literally "wet rice strands" in Lao are a gluten free noodle. I usually make these and cut them by hand. You can find that method here. The hand made and hand cut method is easy and uses less ingredients than this Philips Pasta Machine one. But it's nice to dump the ingredients into the machine and have it do the work sometimes.

Coconut Pandan Waffles

Coconut Pandan Waffles are found in several Southeast Asian cuisines. They are eaten plain and aren't really a breakfast food but more as a snack or dessert. They are very easy to make. I am the only one in my family who likes the shredded coconut in them, which is traditional and how I've had them. It's not a big deal though, I just make plain ones and stir in coconut for the last couple of waffles.

Coconut Pandan Crepes

Coconut Pandan crepes

 Coconut Pandan Crepes, these lovely fragrant crepes. You can fill them with anything you like. Keep them tropical themed with coconut, mango, papaya, and other flavors from South East Asia. I used strawberries and bananas in the pictures. I'm on a pandan flavor kick. It's a bit floral, aromatic, fragrant. It's lovely, especially with coconut. I made a cake with it for Christmas so good, I've made that cake again just a couple weeks ago. I'll try to get that recipe up before next year (wink). It looks like this.

 Pandan or screwpine leaves, also known as pandan goes well with coconut many desserts are paired with these flavors. In Lao,  and also in Thai the leaves are called Bai teoy. They look almost like a tall grass. Fresh leaves are hard to find, but can be ordered. Sometimes you can find them frozen but it's not as flavorful. I have not personally tried the dried leaves yet. I opt for the ever easy gel flavoring. You can also buy a canned extract. If you use the canned, the remaining portion can be frozen in an ice cube tray since it isn't shelf stable. For these crepes I use pandan extract/gel. The extracts do have coloring in them. They are thicker like a paste, the bottles of essence I hear have less flavor. So I stick with the extract. You can find them both at Asian markets. You can also find many pandan flavored desserts in Asian markets.

Instant Pot Jasmine Rice

Each grain stands on it's own, no mushy rice here!

Jasmine rice, basmati, most long or short grain white rice I cook with the same method. In a rice cooker I wash and drain. Add about one inch of water and press the start button. I measure with my finger, have since my mom taught me as a child.  I don't usually pull out my ruler, but I thought it would help for this post. For brown rice, I add a splash more of water. That's helpful isn't it?

Khao Mun Gai

Lao Khao Mun Gai is much like Singapore Chicken Rice or Taiwanese Chicken and Rice.

 I can't tell you how many times I've made this and just not gotten a post written up, but I think "I should post this" each time. It's simple, but I wanted to post it because as a child this was one of my favorite "comfort" foods that my mom made. It's just... I don't know I feel it's involved. There are different steps and what not. But it doesn't get any more simple than chicken and rice. There aren't any exotic ingredients in this at all. It's like a good poached chicken I guess.
Khao means "rice", mun means "grease/fat", gai means chicken. The rice in this dish is toasted in chicken fat renderings with ginger and garlic. It's fragrant and so yummy. There are a few ways you can do this. My mom used the stove, which I do most often. There is the slow cooker, which I did a post on here, I never make it in the slow cooker anymore, It just isn't as good. Sadly, I noticed in that post that I said I was going to blog this. In 2011. Hmm. Another method is the pressure cooker. I wasn't sure how to cook the chicken without it drying out or cooking too fast I guess? But this worked perfectly.

Thai Basil Stir Fry

Thai Basil Stir Fry. Fresh, fragrant, flavorful. This stir fry comes together quickly for a great weeknight meal. I used ground chicken tonight, but ground turkey, sliced pork, slicked chicken, tofu, or sliced beef can be used. I hope you'll enjoy this Give Peas A Chance favorite, you can find the recipe in this post.
I hope that you were able to spend Mother's day with loved ones.

Thai Beef Salad

One of my family's and my very favorite salads is Thai Beef Salad. How can you go wrong? Juicy steak, vegetables, spicy vinaigrette. It's so good. I don't make it too spicy for the kids. It's great because this is one of those meals I can make for dinner and I know that everyone will love it. I use other vegetables like carrots, bell peppers, and such. Just depends on what I have available. 

Here is the link to the recipe/original post.

Coconut Forbidden Rice with Mango

Welcome to Manic Monday! Today I'm updating/reposting Coconut Sweet Rice with Mango. Instead of Khao Neow/Sticky Rice I used Black rice or Forbidden rice. We all really like Forbidden rice. It's a shame it's so much more expensive than Jasmine rice, this Forbidden rice is a short grain rice. I made this in the rice cooker, I didn't steam it in the Sticky Rice basket because it's not a glutenous rice (the kind I have).
My family likes both the Forbidden and sticky rice. Enjoy this very simple recipe. I'm sure different people have different ways of making this dish, but this is how my mom makes it and this is how I make it.

Manic Monday- Pepper Steak

Okay, so technically I made this with pork, but whatevers. It's an easy family favorite that I first posted HERE. 

I like this with sliced jalapenos also. Different colored peppers are yummy. You can add whatever vegetables you want like this Stir fry HERE.