It's been a full year away. Kind of amazing, but it was a pretty crappy year so go figure. All that is fading into the past now, and it's back to cooking.
This is an attempt at a rich yellow Thai curry -- and it worked beautifully. The flavors could probably be enriched by using tamarind over lime and a Thai basil over Italian, but all that just creates trouble getting it done with a visit to the local store. And it's actually quite good enough as is.
In a dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons of butter and immediately begin sauteing 1.5 medium red onions. Add to that 4 sliced jalapenos, seeds and all. You could moderate the heat here, but it's Thai -- so don't. (Also note that these jalapenos are the only source of heat, so don't skimp.) Dash on both raw sugar and salt here.
As the onions cook through, chunk up 4 or 5 potatoes -- russets worked fine and added to the overall sweet notes to the dish. Also slice 4 or 5 large carrots. When the onion is mostly translucent, add those and toss to coat.
While that is cooking down a bit, mince 4 (large) cloves of garlic and an equivalent amount of ginger. Add those as you can with perhaps a bit more sugar.
When all that is combined, add 1 quart chicken stock and 3 stalks lemongrass (if using dried). Juice 1 lime into the pot and heat to a simmer. Keep cooking until the potatoes are done and have acquired plenty of spicy-sweet flavor.
To finish, add 1 can of coconut milk (just go for full fat) and a very generous amount of rough chopped basil. Serve over rice.
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basil. Show all posts
Jan 3, 2012
Jun 27, 2010
Pad thai
I've done this a few times now. It isn't what you get from a Thai restaurant. Apparently it's also even closer to the real thing than what you can get in this country.
I based this largely on several readings of this extensive post. It's really good. And then I ignored much of the advice and came up with the following.
So, two parts: sauce and assembly.
Sauce
Prep
As per suggestion, I've decided that woking up one serving at a time is the best way to go. Not only does it let you customize to the taste of your fellow eaters, it just comes out better.
But first, noodles. I've used pho. Soaked in hot tap water for less than about five minutes. Make sure these are ready to go.
Take your choice of proteins. I like chicken for this; beef is too aggressive, I hate shrimp, and I don't much care for tofu. If you're going to use shrimp, be sure to add it later than you would the chicken (which goes in first).
Slice your chicken, preferably breast for this (trust me, you won't miss the fat), quite thin. This is rather important, as you really don't want any single serving to be in the wok for more than, say, 90 to 120 seconds.
Crush some peanuts, preferably unsalted. The easy way: put a bunch of peanutes in a ziploc bag and either use a rolling pin to roll them into near pulp or, say, a cast iron pan. Either works.
Dice some green onion.
Chiffonade some basil, preferably Thai or purple, but we've talked about those before.
Wash some bean sprouts. More than you think.
If desired, let about an egg per serving come to room temp. I also hate egg, so I don't add this myself, but it's not only traditional, it's almost required to be "real" pad thai.
Assembly
Heat peanut oil, plenty, in a wok. Toss in any non-seafood with a small ladel-full of the sauce. Cook that nearly through as quickly as possible.
Add noddles and bean sprouts.
If using egg, push everything in the wok to one side save some of the sauce and basically scramble the egg very quickly on the bottom of the wok.
Add shrimp here and make damn sure the heat is high enough to cook quickly.
Add peanuts.
Add more sauce, probably a few ladels if your heat is high enough.
Finish with basil, green onion, etc.
Serve with lime slices and more peanuts for maximum effect.
Mmm. Realish pad thai.
I based this largely on several readings of this extensive post. It's really good. And then I ignored much of the advice and came up with the following.
So, two parts: sauce and assembly.
Sauce
- 1/2 cup fish sauce, more or less. The stuff is salty so take that into account.
- 1/2ish cup -- maybe more -- rice wine vinegar. This was basically because tamarind paste is hard to find; I'm sure it's better done the right way.
- Pure cane sugar -- more than expected
- Sriracha (plenty)
- Garlic-chili paste (also plenty)
- Water to take salt down and get a sauce that will reduce properly under very high heat
Prep
As per suggestion, I've decided that woking up one serving at a time is the best way to go. Not only does it let you customize to the taste of your fellow eaters, it just comes out better.
But first, noodles. I've used pho. Soaked in hot tap water for less than about five minutes. Make sure these are ready to go.
Take your choice of proteins. I like chicken for this; beef is too aggressive, I hate shrimp, and I don't much care for tofu. If you're going to use shrimp, be sure to add it later than you would the chicken (which goes in first).
Slice your chicken, preferably breast for this (trust me, you won't miss the fat), quite thin. This is rather important, as you really don't want any single serving to be in the wok for more than, say, 90 to 120 seconds.
Crush some peanuts, preferably unsalted. The easy way: put a bunch of peanutes in a ziploc bag and either use a rolling pin to roll them into near pulp or, say, a cast iron pan. Either works.
Dice some green onion.
Chiffonade some basil, preferably Thai or purple, but we've talked about those before.
Wash some bean sprouts. More than you think.
If desired, let about an egg per serving come to room temp. I also hate egg, so I don't add this myself, but it's not only traditional, it's almost required to be "real" pad thai.
Assembly
Heat peanut oil, plenty, in a wok. Toss in any non-seafood with a small ladel-full of the sauce. Cook that nearly through as quickly as possible.
Add noddles and bean sprouts.
If using egg, push everything in the wok to one side save some of the sauce and basically scramble the egg very quickly on the bottom of the wok.
Add shrimp here and make damn sure the heat is high enough to cook quickly.
Add peanuts.
Add more sauce, probably a few ladels if your heat is high enough.
Finish with basil, green onion, etc.
Serve with lime slices and more peanuts for maximum effect.
Mmm. Realish pad thai.
Early summer risotto
First, read up on the basics of a decent risotto. I'm not inclined to repeat myself, so that's what you get for an introduction. (And seriously, this stuff becomes second nature after awhile; it's not like you have to read a recipe for risotto and do more than skim to see what ingredients are added when. It's a great dish for experiments.)
This is a side dish, I suppose. It can work well with anything from salmon to chicken to beef.
Start off the dish as usual: onions, garlic, rice, wine, stock in that order.
Let that go about half way to done; judging that might take some time.
Add about a dozen capers, drained and rinsed, choped finely.
Aside: capers are neat. Some people have them; they're basically crazy. What they do is add a floral note to a dish that you basically can't duplicate. Probably because they are, in fact, flower buds. Subtle but it adds quite a bit.
Finely chop about half a red bell pepper. Grate sufficient cheese.
Don't forget to keep stirring and adding liquid.
When the mixture is about 90% done (ie, it's getting noticeably harder to stir), add the red pepper.
Finally, the basil. Cooked basil loses flavor fast, so this goes in nearly at the end. If you have fresh, great. If perhaps you froze some from last year, make sure you give it enough time (and hot liquid and massive amounts of stirring helps here) to defrost. Chop finely, add that, let that go for another minute or two, then add the cheese, take off the heat, and stir it in.
Works wonderfully.
This is a side dish, I suppose. It can work well with anything from salmon to chicken to beef.
Start off the dish as usual: onions, garlic, rice, wine, stock in that order.
Let that go about half way to done; judging that might take some time.
Add about a dozen capers, drained and rinsed, choped finely.
Aside: capers are neat. Some people have them; they're basically crazy. What they do is add a floral note to a dish that you basically can't duplicate. Probably because they are, in fact, flower buds. Subtle but it adds quite a bit.
Finely chop about half a red bell pepper. Grate sufficient cheese.
Don't forget to keep stirring and adding liquid.
When the mixture is about 90% done (ie, it's getting noticeably harder to stir), add the red pepper.
Finally, the basil. Cooked basil loses flavor fast, so this goes in nearly at the end. If you have fresh, great. If perhaps you froze some from last year, make sure you give it enough time (and hot liquid and massive amounts of stirring helps here) to defrost. Chop finely, add that, let that go for another minute or two, then add the cheese, take off the heat, and stir it in.
Works wonderfully.
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