Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a Thai rice noodles dish that became quite famous worldwide. Usually it's the only dish people know from Thai cuisine... 
Pad Thai is prepared with a special Pad Thai sauce which combines opposite tastes like sour and sweet and salty, but the combination is absolutely perfect: after you've prepared this delicious sauce I would like to see if you won't lick the spoon.... 

 


INGREDIENTS: 
Servings: 2

150-180g wide rice noodles
50g firm tofu
10-12 medium fresh shrimps
1 egg
handful of soy bean sprouts
cashew nuts
chilli
1 garlic clove 
3cm cube of ginger
1/2 lime
4-5tbs vegetable oil
fresh coriander leaves

For Pad Thai Sauce:
2tbs fish sauce
2tbs oyster sauce
3tbs tamarind juice
1/3 palm sugar round brick  



One of the most important ingredients for the Pad Thai Noodles is obviously the Pad Thai Sauce.

1. If you have dry tamarind, soak 2tbs of tamarind paste in 1/3 glass of water for a half an hour, then pass it through a stainer to get the juice.
2. Chop palm sugar in small pieces as it comes in dry round bricks.

3. Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small sauce pan and bring it to boiling over medium heat, then boil for a couple of minutes.
Note: Pad Thai Sauce is a perfect mix of saltiness, sweetness and sourness.    
4. Peel the shrimps and devein them.

5. Cut tofu into thin match-sticks.

6. Soak rice noodles in warm water for 5 minutes and then drain them. 
Note: The noodles should be still a bit firm.

7. Pour vegetable oil in a wok pan and put the wok over high heat.
8. Add squeezed garlic and grated ginger. 
9. Add tofu and fry it for a couple of minutes.

 
10. Add an egg and scramble it.
Note: I usually use tongs to mix the ingredients in my wok pan.
11. Add shrimps...

 
 12. Add rice noodles and the sauce. Stir well!!!

 12. At the end add soy sprouts, stir well and switch off the heat.
Note: As the dish is cooked over high heat, so you need to add all the ingredients one after the other with just a quick stirring.

13. Crush some peanuts or cashew nuts (I prefer these) and chop some fresh coriander.
14. Serve your Pad Thai noodles sprinkled with some chilli, crushed peanuts, chopped coriander and a slice of lime aside, you will squeeze it over the dish just before eating.  
   

      ขอให้เจริญอาหาร! (kŏr hâi jà-rern aa-hăan!)

Miso soup with Wakame and Tofu

I made my brother's favourite soup today: Miso Soup... I even made the stock from scratch, as finally I gathered all the necessary ingredients!
The ingredients of this soup are quite unusual for the westerners, but as one of my Japanese friends asked me once: how can you cook any Japanese food without dashi stock?  
Dashi is used to prepare almost everything in Japanese cuisine, and surely not even one Japanese soup can lack this stock. 
It is prepared with the Kombu kelp and the Katsuobushi, a particular dried thin tuna flakes.

Then Wakame seaweed comes: it looks like dry thin twisted stripes that expand 10 times bigger as soon as you put them in water.
All these ingredients can be found in specialized oriental groceries. They are quite pricy here in Europe but don't worry, they will last long...



INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2-3

For Dashi:
5x10cm kombu kelp
2tbs katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
3 glasses of water

For the soup: 
1.5tbs white miso paste
50g tofu
1.5 tbs wakame seaweed
green onions


 

1. To prepare dashi stock, soak kombu in cold water for 15minutes.
2. Bring water with kombu to boiling over the low heat.

3. When the water just starts boiling add bonito flakes and simmer for 2-3 minutes over low heat.

4. Drain through a thin stainer and your dashi is ready.
Note: You may keep dashi refrigerated for 2-3 days.

5. Put wakame seaweeds into hot dashi and it will immediately expand and will gain it's wonderful dark green colour back.

6. Cut the tofu skin off and cut the cheese into 1cm cubes and add it to dashi.


7. Bring dashi with wakame and tofu to boiling and simmer for a couple of minutes.
8. Switch off the heat and melt tofu paste in the hot soup.
Note: Don't boil the soup with miso.

9. Chop the green onions finely and add them to the soup.
Serve in small bowls.

ITADAKIMASU!!!!  

  

  

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

It's spring time and I managed to catch a cold.... saaaaaaaad!!!
I need a natural remedy: what can be better than a hot chicken soup? But Hot and Sour Chicken soup is even better.
This soup is typical of the Chinese restaurants and has both many variations of ingredients and many different names: Pekinese Soup, Sichuan Soup, Hot and Sour Soup..... This soup has a thick texture and hot and sour taste (you could get it from the name, right?) - really good for the flu....

INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 3

600-700 ml chicken broth 
2 chicken breast slices
3 Chinese black mushrooms
1/2 bamboo shoot
2-3cm tofu slice
1 egg
2tbs sesame oil
2tbs vegetable oil  
4tbs rice vinegar / white wine vinegar
5tbs corn starch
3-4 tbs soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 garlic clove
chilli 
black pepper
salt
green onion

 First we need to prepare the Chinese chicken broth:
1. Wash the chicken breast and some other parts of chicken that you want to use for the broth. You may use the chicken breast for the soup later.
2. Put the chicken into cold water with the ginger root 5-6 cm long that you previousely peeled and cut into 3-4 parts.
3. Bring the water to boiling and remove the foam that is produced on the broth surface.
4. Add one tablespoon of rice wine and some pepper grains and boil for one hour or a bit more.  
This is the Chinese version of the broth, you may find other chicken broth recipe HERE.  
You may combine two recipes if you like it... You usual chicken broth will become very aromatic with some extra ginger root!

5. Soak dry Chinese mushrooms in a glass of warm water for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes squeeze the mushrooms and slice them finely. Keep the water.
  

7. Slice bamboo shoots finely and boil them for 2-3 minutes to remove their bitterness, then drain them well.

8. Slice the boiled chicken and tofu cheese. 

9. Pour sesame oil into a frying pan, add sliced mushrooms and some water from soaking. Cook the mushrooms for 5 minute over medium heat.

10. When the water is evaporated add some vegetable oil, sliced chicken and sliced bamboo shoots and cook over medium heat for 5 more minutes or till the mix is browned a bit.

11. Now prepare the thickening sauce: in a bowl mix squeezed garlic clove, chilli, sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce and corn starch. 

12. Add the chicken and vegetables as well and continue stirring.
13. In a small bowl beat an egg with a fork in order to have it smooth, pour the egg into the soup constantly stirring.
14. Add the sauce to the boiling broth and stir well.
Note: After combining all the ingredients together, there's no need of cooking for long, the soup is ready when it's thickened.  
15. Serve hot seasoned with some salt if needed and some freshly milled black pepper. You may also add some chives or other fresh herbs, like coriander or parsley.

 

   慢慢吃！ (mànmàn chī!)

 
 

Deep Fried Tofu

Tofu is a substitute for milk cheeses and widely used in vegetarian cuisine. This cheese is prepared with green soy beans and so it is also called "soy bean curd". The origin of this cheese is Asia and it's usually associated with the chinese cuisine, even if the dishes with tofu can be found in all the asian countries' cuisines.
Tofu has different stages of maturity. The one that may be fried is the middle firm tofu. 
You would never believe but tofu is extremely easy to deep fry.
 
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2

150 g tofu
salt
vegetable oil 






1. Carefully take tofu out of it's whey.
2. Dump tofu cube with the paper towels to remove the excess of water. 

 

3. Cut tofu into smaller cube.

 4. Heat the oil in a wok.
Note: Wok is a large chinese pan with a really small base . It's very handy for frying as the oil heats up very fast and doesn't drop in temperature when you start frying. The other advantage is that you need less quantity of oil. I always use it for frying.

5. Fry cubes of tofu for about 5 minutes or till they are brown at a side, just then you may turn them over.




6. Serve the tofu cubes with a Sweet Chilli Sauce or a Sweet'n'Sour Sauce.