Twice a Year Thai

This is one of my favorite things to eat, but one of my least favorite things to cook. It is a royal mess (but worth all the clean-up if you do it once or twice a year). I haven't made it in a few years, but I have been craving it lately... so I thought I would share the recipe for you Thai lovers out there and inspire myself to cook it. I have YET to find a better version of this ANYWHERE (even restaurants do not make it this good). It is spicy, and yet has a lovely brown sugar sweetness... and although it is supposed to be an appetizer, I could eat this as a main dish because I love it so! You would have to have a kitchen helper to make this PLUS another few Thai dishes for a complete meal. Enlist your sweetheart to help you cook... or make some Thai Coconut Soup and a Thai Salad to accompany it (along with some Thai Tea) and enjoy!

Mee Krob - Crisp Sweet Thai Noodles

Ingredients & Tools:
WOK
Chopping Block/Knives
Food Processor
Paper towels and plates for draining grease off of cooked food
- - - - -
Medium bottle of high quality oil for deep-frying
8 oz. dried rice sticks, broken into small bunches (very thin and tiny noodles)
4 eggs (slightly beaten)
6 tablespoons light brown sugar (do not skimp!)
1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (or bottled)
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion (red is fine)
1 tablespoon minced fresh hot chili (or Serrano pepper)
1 tablespoon minced or pressed garlic
12 oz boned and skinned chicken breast (minced or ran through food processor)
2 green onions or 4-6 chives, including tops, julienned or chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
Sliced red hot chili for garnish

Note from recipe book:

"Fried wiry rice stick threads crowned with sweet and sour syrup are most often served as an appetizer in a Thai meal. Small shrimp, minced pork, or cubed tofu may be substituted for the chicken."

Instructions:
Pour the oil in a wok or deep-fat fryer to a depth of 2 to 3 inches and preheat to about 360° F. Add the rice sticks (tearing them apart as they fly all over your kitchen - don't worry - you can sweep later), a handful at a time, and cook, turning once, until crisp and lightly golden, 12 to 15 seconds. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Hold the bowl about 8 inches over the hot oil; dip a hand into the egg, then stretch it over the surface of the oil to dribble egg in long threads. Crisscross the oil in several directions to form a thin web of egg over the oil. Cook until lightly golden on the bottom, turn carefully, and cook until egg is golden on the other side. Transfer to paper toweling to drain while repeating procedure with remaining egg. After frying all the egg, discard all but about 3 tablespoons of the oil. Transfer that amount to a clean wok or frying pan.

In a bowl, combine the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and lime juice. Set aside after stirring.

Heat the oil in the wok or sauté pan over high heat. Add the onion and chili and stir fry for about one minute. Add the garlic and reserved fish sauce mixture and cook until sauce is syrupy (about 2 minutes). Add the chicken and stir fry until the meat turns opaque (about 2 minutes). Reduce the heat to low and add about one third of the reserved rice sticks and egg threads and gently toss to coat. Add half of the remaining rice sticks and egg and toss until coated. Add remaining rice sticks and egg and toss until all the rice sticks are coated with syrup.

Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with green onion and cilantro (I like to leave a bowl of extra greens on the table for those who love it like me), garnish with red chili (optional) and serve immediately. (*Then spend a few hours/days cleaning up the grease and mess in your kitchen!)

Serves 6 to 8 (*unless you are like me and horde the leftovers for yourself!)

This recipe from James McNair's Pasta Cookbook. (*my comments)

Technorati Tags: Food, Food Blogs, Recipes, Delicious, No MSG, Thai Food, Thailand, Cooking, Dinner, Rice, Noodles, Yummy

Sticky Chicky

This recipe comes from a recipe book that I got at a 75% off book store. I collect recipe books, and this one really caught my eye. Just the title alone is wonderful, "BEAT THAT!" If you don't have it, you should get it. From the forward, I learned that it is her SECOND cookbook, and there may even be more than two of them... and they are ALL on my Christmas list (Ahem! Hint, hint!). It is the only cookbook I have that actually has me laughing out loud as I read her notes on each recipe, and reads almost as good as any humor book out there. I'm going to give you an excerpt of her writing style on this recipe. Just promise me that when YOU buy her book, you buy it from MY Amazon link here: Beat That! Cookbook by Ann Hodgman

Enjoy!

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STICKY CHICKY (recipe from "Beat That!" by Ann Hodgman)

I'm getting bolder about giving people embarrassing recipes, especially if I'm sure that children will like them. As many of us knows, it's not easy to find a recipe that kids love and grownups like - and as my sister-in-law Anne said when she was little, "This is also vice versa." Sticky Chicky crosses the generations. You wouldn't serve it to company, but your children will love it, and you will find it perfectly acceptable, sort of like sweet-and-sour chicken without those embarrassing pineapple chunks. Also, it's easy and low in fat. Don't I sound like a woman's magazine?

The chicken needs to marinate for 24 hours or longer before it's cooked. Rice is mandatory with Sticky Chicky.

• 1/2 cup vinegar (I use balsamic, but cider or distilled work too)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tblsp grated fresh ginger
• 3-4 pounds chicken pieces, preferably with skin removed, quartered (chicken breasts are my favorite here)

Combine the vinegar, soy, sugar, garlic and ginger in a shallow baking dish big enough to hold the chicken in a single layer. Stir marinade until the sugar dissolves. Put chicken into dish and turn each piece over a few times to coat well. Cover baking dish and chill 24 hours.

Next day, bring chicken to room temperature. Transfer chicken and marinade to large heavy skillet. Over medium heat, bring marinade to boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer chicken 15 minutes turning occasionally. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Check chicken for doneness (keep checking as you uncover skillet and cook chicken for 15 minutes longer or until meat is tender and juices run clear when you prick with fork). Put chicken on platter and cover with foil to keep warm in oven.

Turn heat up on skillet burner to cook sauce until syrupy and caramelized, stirring frequently. This takes up to 15 minutes. After ten minutes, turn heat back down to prevent sauce from suddenly overcooking. Return chicken to skillet and coat with sauce. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

This is by far not her funniest entry, but she is great, and I love her recipes that I have tried. She started cooking in her young years and by age 14, she won Seventeen magazine's Teen Gourmet of the Year. She is the author of 40 books for children, humor books for adults, and was the original food columnist for Spy magazine. And even more interesting, she has a Australian flying squirrel and a prairie dog as a pet (amoung the rest of her pet zoo). She dedicates her cook books to Keanu Reeves. Wonder why?

Adaptable and Delicious Asian Fried Rice

I stole this recipe from someone who stole it from someone else. I love to make fried rice. Any time we have leftover white rice from eating out, this is what we do with it. We sometimes just make it at home with our own white rice, too. I like the longer grained rice (basmati especially). But remember, the rice must be pre-cooked and chilled before you start... that is the secret to great fried rice! I am not sure how exact this recipe is. I have adapted the recipe as we have continued to make the rice. I usually don't use it at all anymore, but make it from memory (and sometimes we ad-lib and create something similar, and yet not exactly the same). Here is the original Fried Rice recipe we started with (my notes in parentheses)...

"Thai Star Thai Fried Rice"

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil (you can use peanut oil also, which I use often)

1 Egg (we like 2 eggs or more - that is my favorite part... and we sometimes just use egg and no other meat)

1 breast of chicken cut into small pieces (can use other meat if you desire, or tofu)

1 tbsp. chopped onion (can also add green onion if you like it in addition or as a substitute)

1 tbsp. chopped tomato (this is distinctly Thai... is not usually found in Chinese Fried Rice. I only use when eating other Thai dishes, and prefer without it, honestly)

1 cup COLD COOKED RICE (if you are in a hurry, cook your rice and throw it in the freezer for a quick cool-down before frying)

1/2 tsp. sugar (other recipes I have call for brown sugar instead of white. I prefer to use PALM SUGAR. Palm sugar is delicious in the rice, and tastes very natural. I add more than a teaspoon, usually... depending on how much rice. Taste as you go and add more if it is not sweet enough.)

Assorted chopped vegetables to taste (can use frozen also - we use different ones depending on what we have, what type of foods we are eating with it, and what we feel like... our usuals are small heads of broccoli, frozen peas, green onions, small slices of celery, slivers of baby carrot cut long ways, etc. When we do Chinese type rice, we add Water Chestnuts and Bean Sprouts... and like I said earlier, when we do Thai, we sometimes add in the tomato chunks, or we pan fry large slices of tomatoes and serve along side rice like the Thai restaurant we love does)

Dash of Pepper

Soy Sauce (I love soy, so I add quite a bit and my rice is somewhat darker than my husband's. He prefers it lighter and less salty. We usually get a nice big metal can of soy as it pours nicely and will make quite a few plates full of fried rice!)

Other Ingredients not listed in this recipe that we like:

dash of Oyster Sauce (use sparingly, but it does add a nice flavor, even though it sounds horrible!)

dash of Fish Sauce (use sparingly, especially if you make a Thai or Vietnamese version of fried rice - they put fish sauce in their version at the restaurants usually)

Clove of Garlic (this actually does make it taste better, but don't use more than 2 cloves - we use about 1)

Thai Kitchen Spicy Thai Chili Sauce (serve on the side if you have someone who loves hot stuff), diced red peppers (if you are a bell pepper lover)

yellow onion instead of white (adds more tang if you like the onion taste in it)

salt (if it lacks something after cooking, you can always try a bit more soy or just some plain ol' salt!)

HEATHER's INSTRUCTIONS:
Cook rice and put in fridge/freezer to cool
heat your oil over medium high in wok or large skillet
scramble your egg/s in the oil until well done (we like ours browned a bit on the edges)
remove egg and throw on your meat - cook until done
throw in your veggies to sear/cook them until they are the desired consistency
add your egg back in
add your rice (add a bit more oil if you need to)
add your soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar (whichever kind you chose), pepper, salt, garlic, etc. - as fast as you can get it all in the pan!
keep stirring, taste rice, add more of whatever you think is "missing" from the taste test. :)

Pretty soon, you'll have your own favorite recipe from this recipe base just like we did!

BUT REMEMBER.... THE *SECRET* TO GREAT FRIED RICE: COOK RICE AHEAD OF TIME AND REFRIGERATE UNTIL COLD BEFORE PUTTING INTO FRYING PAN!!! This also came from a Vietnamese co-worker of my husband's. He adds MSG to his rice also, but it is not good for you! MSG is called "sugar" by the Vietnamese according to him. You will get the same effect if you add palm, brown or refined sugar to your rice in a subtle quantity. :) It makes it unbelievably good!

Hope you enjoy!

(original recipe from CopyKat Creations Website @ www.copykat.com)



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Soy-Garlic Chicken

I always have looked for recipes for oriental chicken because I absolutely LOVE fried rice, and I make my own, because I like to know what is in it. I am partial to my husband and my fried rice now, and prefer it over the restaurant version. I tried a new chicken recipe that was in my family cookbook on my mom's side, and marinated it over night, and it turned out pretty good. The KIDS loved it - that is the kicker. I get excited when we make things the kids like to eat. They are not too picky, but I like to know they are enjoying the foods we eat - even though they are troopers and put up with our international tastes more often than not.

Soy-Garlic Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce


• 1/4 cup vegetable oil


• 2 tblsp ketchup


• 1 tblsp vinegar


• 4 cloves garlic (minced) - I used the kind in the jar


• 1/4 tsp pepper - you could put more to taste if you like


• 4 skinned and boned chicken breast halves (I cut 2 large breasts up and cut them into smaller pieces since hubby was not home, and we had a few chunks left over)

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Combine all ingredients except chicken in zip-lock bag (SO EASY!)


• Clean, trim, cut, and drop chicken in zip-lock bag (SO EASY!)


• Zip bag up and marinade in fridge for 4 hours (or overnight - but prepare for it to be a bit saltier if you do overnight - still very good, though!)


• Heat large skillet or fire up the grill outside (too cold, so we did skillet method)


• Pour contents of ziplock on heated pan and cook chicken until slightly seared on edges and well done (SO EASY!)


• OR grill covered by lid over medium fire (350-400) - cook each side 12 minutes

Serves 4

Compliments of my aunt Margaret!

Sesame Chicken Fingers

Everyone knows that chicken and fish are much better for you than beef or pork. Don't believe what you hear with all these low-carb, high protein fad diets. I know for us, chicken is the staple meat in our home. Beef is a rare treat, and we usually use much less than the recipe calls for. Fish is something we are working on incorporating more. We eat a lot of fish at restaurants.

I enjoy Asian foods a lot. We eat Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese often. I discovered this quick, easy kid-pleasing recipe in a cook book, and we've enjoyed it since. I hope you enjoy it as well.

WARNING: you will have to have plenty of bread crumbs and sesame seeds on hand to make this!

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Sesame Chicken Fingers

INGREDIENTS:

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts or 1 lb. of tenders

8 slices stale bread (you can use wheat - I have and it tastes fine, but I admit that it is easier to use a bottle of unflavored bread crumbs!)

1/4 CUP sesame seeds (or more - we like more!)

1 tsp salt (we like more)

Lots of freshly ground pepper

Oil for frying (not olive oil - use grapeola, smart balance, or vegetable)

DIRECTIONS:
Lay the bread out and let it get stale (8 hours or overnight), grind it up in a food processor with on/off pulses (or use pre-made crumbs!). Pour crumbs into Ziploc bag. Add seeds, salt, and pepper. Toss/shake baggie to evenly distribute mixture. Drop cleaned, trimmed, sliced chicken strips in bag 3-4 at a time, sealing top and shaking bag to evenly coat them. Set coated strips on plate and repeat until all strips are coated.

In medium frying pan, heat 1/4 inch of oil and lay chicken fingers in a single layer in hot oil making sure they are not touching. Fry until golden brown using tongs or fork to turn. Drain on paper towel lined plate.

Serves 4 (make more if you have lots of hungry kids! They will gobble these up!)

Compliments of "Cook Something" by Mitchell Davis
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Easy Chicken Stir Fry

Serves 4

1 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons ground ginger or grate some fresh
2 cloves garlic -- pressed
3 skinless boneless chicken breast halves -- thinly sliced (about 3/4 pound)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
6 green onions -- cut into 1-inch pieces
1 green bell pepper -- thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper -- thinly sliced
4 cups hot cooked brown rice

Mix soy sauce, ketchup, ginger and garlic in resealable heavy-duty
plastic bag. Add chicken; seal bag and turn to coat with marinade.
Let stand 15 minutes. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in 10-inch skillet
or wok over medium-high heat. Add green onions and bell peppers; stir-
fry until crisp-tender. Remove from skillet. Heat remaining 1
tablespoon oil in skillet. Add chicken; stir-fry 4 to 5 minutes or
until no longer pink in center. Stir in bell pepper mixture. Serve
with brown rice.

Per serving: 436 Calories (kcal); 9g Total Fat; (18% calories from
fat); 27g Protein; 9g Fiber; 61g Carbohydrate; 51mg Cholesterol;
670mg Sodium

VEGETARIANS: Skip the chicken and add some tofu and extra veggies.
You'll love it!

Recipe from Menu Mailer