Thai Red Curry

After not so long break, trying to finish my Thai series, this is the recipe for Thai Red Curry.

Red Curry is more popular. A bit more spicy and maybe because red is more appealing to the eyes.. Haha.. 

I am putting up this recipe because, red curry paste by itself can be preserved and used for different courses- soups, starters, curry, and even rice! So this is just another addition and a guideline  to make your favorite Thai Red Curry.

Again, the choice of vegetables is entirely up to your preferences. Ideally, a mix of at least 5 different vegetables should be good. This will give it texture and taste.  

Also, this curry is healthy and nutritious. Its low cal and flavoursome. For health conscious eaters, this can be taken with brown rice as well. 

So here it is then:

Serves: 4 Preparation Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

3 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
1 ½ cup mix vegetables, sliced diagonally, raw (baby corn, carrots, zucchini, brinjal, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms)
3 tbsp tofu or cottage cheese/paneer, sauteed
1 ½ cup coconut milk (200ml appx.)
2 cups water
1 tbsp oil
Salt as per taste

Method:

1.  In a wok, heat the oil. Once hot, add the curry paste and sauté it till the water dries out and it starts oozing out oil. 

2. Now add the vegetables and let it cook for about 2-3 mins on a medium flame. 

3. Add the coconut milk. Mix. Then add water. Add salt and let it all cook until the vegetables are tender but not mashy.  

4. You can now add the tofu or paneer pieces. If you feel the curry is too thin, you may add 2-3 tbsp cornflour slurry to thicken.

5. Garnish with some fresh basil leaves and serve hot. It goes well with steamed rice or Thai Fried Rice.

Notes & Tips:

1. To make cornflour slurry, mix 1 tbsp cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water stirring to avoid all lumps. Use the smooth mixture as required.

2. The tofu or paneer/cottage cheese should be sauteed in about 1 tbsp oil to avoid breaking or crumbling later.

3. My Jain friends can make the jain paste and proceed with your choice of vegetables. For Jains, a firm cabbage leaf, broccoli, cauliflower stalks are good options too.

Do try it and let me know how it turned out! Leave your experiences or queries in the comments section!

Pad Thai

Pad Thai.. literally translates to stir fried rice noodles. So the Thai have their own stir-fried noodles too..! The Thai curry is so famous that noodles haven't been given much importance. Its a very popular street food in Thailand, especially, Bangkok. 

Traditionally, Pad Thai mainly consists of peanuts, beansprouts, garlic, tamarind, chicken/shrimp/cooked eggs.  So I did a lot of browsing on this as well. I came up with my own version of these noodles. While doing so, I also came across noodles in peanut sauce. I am going to try that next! Very simple. Folks with peanut butter handy, just spice it with red chilli, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and toss it with the noodles! 

Coming back to Pad Thai, this is fairly simple and stir-fried.

I made this as one of the mains for my Thai evening. You can use rice flat noodles or the rice vermicelli.

Its not gravy laden but not dry either. When I visited Thailand, I saw street vendors selling pad thai in cane baskets and carts. They serve it with optional condiments like chilli flakes, burnt garlic and choice of dried shrimps, prawns and omelette. They customize each, pad thai for you and sell. I noticed the street vendors use the fine rice vermicelli, whereas in restaurants, the flat variety is used. I have used both and I prefer flat. I have made a basic pad thai. You can mix in other vegetables to make it more nutritious. 

Serves: 4 Preparation Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

200gms raw Rice Noodles, (Flat or Vermicelli or both; 2 cups boiled)
1 cup bean sprouts,
½ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
½ cup spring onion whites, finely chopped (scallions)
½ cup spring onion greens, chopped
1 cup tri-colored bell peppers, julienned
¼ cup tofu, diced & fried

3 tbsp coriander, washed & chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp sesame oil (if available or use peanut oil)

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)
1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp chilli flakes, crushed

3 tbsp spinach, ribboned or chopped (optional)

1 tbsp bird's eye chilli, thinly sliced (optional)

1 tsp white pepper powder

salt as per taste

For Garnish:
2 tbsp scallion greens,
2 tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed
1 tbsp coriander, washed & chopped

Method:

1. Follow the instructions on the packet and keep the noodles ready. Usually, boil enough water with salt, then put it off heat and add the noodles and let it sit covered for 10 mins. Drain and add a tsp of oil so that they don't stick.

2. Meanwhile, in a wok, heat some sesame oil, add sesame seeds and let it crackle. 

3. Now, saute the scallion whites, bird's eye chilli and crushed garlic. 

4. Mix in the bell peppers and a tsp of salt and cook for about 30 seconds on high flame. 

5. Now add the spinach, scallion greens and bean sprouts and toss it well. Cook for another 20 seconds. 

6. Add in the soya sauce, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sugar and toss it well and cook for another 20 seconds. 

7. Mix in the noodles, crushed peanuts, coriander and tofu. Toss it gently and get it off heat. 

8. Transfer it to the serving bowl. Garnish by sprinkling coriander, crushed peanuts and scallion greens. 

Its ready to eat! Have it hot or warm! Enjoy this tangy-sweet-spicy noodles!

Notes & Tips:

1. If it feels too dry, you can add more soya sauce. But remember soya sauce is salty and the noodles are cooked in salted water so add salt accordingly.

2. Alternatively, to make it more exotic you can add boiled broccoli, carrot julienne,  bok-choy (chinese cabbage), mushrooms, asparagus etc to it. Whatever you wish to add, do not skip the peanuts, tofu and bean sprouts.

3. For Jains:

Skip the onions and garlic. Saute 2 tbsp of ginger instead and follow the remaining as it is. You may add shredded green cabbage.

Do try this and let me know whether you liked it or not! 

Thai Chilli Cakes

Thai Starters.. They don't  have that! Its soup usually that they begin with! So I had to look for something that's Thai and could be made into starters. So began the internet surfing for this. Spring Rolls is overdone. I wanted something new. And then, I came across Thai Chilli Cakes by Sanjeev Kapoor. Something innovative, easy and healthy too! I knew I had to try this.

Its a mixture of bengal gram (chana dal), chickpeas (kabuli chana / choley) and to give it the thai touch, the Thai Red Curry Paste. Its really simple. Its such a change from using potatoes is most of the tikki type starters that this recipe is a must try. Plus its shallow fried!

This recipe is adapted from here. I have followed it almost entirely with just a few optional changes. Its a protein rich recipe and can be made even otherwise as a snack or a tikki to make kathi rolls, wraps, burgers, or sandwich!! Great for kids and a healthy option for dieters.

So here it goes:

Serves: 6 Preparation Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

To be soaked overnight, boiled with salt and drained:
1 cup Chickpeas (kabuli chana / choley)
½ cup Bengal Gram (chana dal) 

Other Ingredients:
3 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
8-10 coriander stalks, cleaned and roughly cut
1 cup onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt as per taste
Oil for shallow frying, as required

Dipping Sauce:
Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Ketchup

Method:

1. In a mixer/ food processor/ grinder, take the coriander stalks and crush them into a paste. If required, add some bengal gram to it so it gets crushed well.

2. Once the stalks are crushed, add the chickpeas and balance bengal gram and crush.

Do not use any water to while crushing.

3. It should now resemble a largely smooth & moist dough. Add in the onions, coriander leaves, salt, curry paste, lemon juice and salt. Mix well.

4. Roll them out into even sized flattened balls/tikkis.

5. In a pan, put 3-4 tbsp of oil or as required. Let it heat and then place all the tikkis and shallow fry them on each side.

And its ready! Serve hot with the thai chilli sauce or ketchup!

Its that simple! Enjoy!

Notes & Tips:

1. Unlike the original recipe, I boiled and used the bengal gram, perhaps that gave a slightly loose texture to my mixture. I used about 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs. My mom felt it was loose but I felt it was alright! It cooked and tasted just the same without the bread crumbs. So you can go with your preference.

2. The quantity of curry paste will depend on the potency of it.

3. You can also crush some kaffir lime leaves with the coriander stalk to make it more thai.

4. If you are using it as a tikki, you can add some mint/phudina leaves instead of kaffir lime leaves. Serve it with coriander chutney. Alternatively, if using it in a wrap or a roll or for burgers, just get creative and use it!

5. For Jains:

Just omit the onions. And the rest is same.

A very simple protein rich jain option!

If you try it, do leave your experiences in the comment section! And ofcourse, for any queries too!

Enjoy!

Tom Kha Soup

Its been a few months having posted. I started working full time which has kept me too busy with no time for cooking or blogging!

So recently, I got the opportunity to cook for a family dinner. They wanted to try the Thai food I make.

I was dying to cook something and this was for a group of 15 people so I was all geared up for this and somehow managed to cook it all despite a busy work schedule.

The menu in Thai was Tom Kha soup, Thai chilli cakes, Corn Cheese Balls (not Thai), Pad Thai Noodles, Thai Red Curry, Fragrant Rice. I also tried to make a panna cotta using china grass which turned out to be a dud because it just refused to set! Though the spiced peach sauce I made along was a hit!

Too much of Tom-yum and honestly its just a thai version of clear soup. So this time, the experimental bug in me wanted to try cooking something new. I have been to Thailand and while I was in bangkok, a dear local friend took me to a Thai vegetarian restaurant and made me taste a vegetarian Tom -Kha, the taste of which still lingers at the name! So I thought let me try this. Its predominant flavour is lemon grass & ginger with mild flavour of coconut milk. The lemony tangy bit will be appreciated on Indian palate!

And with the monsoon setting in, this soup will warm you up and keep the colds and flues at bay!

I went through a lot of recipes, mostly non-veg and finally came up with my own version of this recipe.

Traditionally, its made with chicken, shrimps or other thai seafood. Tom-kha mean chicken galangal. I was skeptical about the pieces of galangal being appreciated in the soup so instead I crushed them in the red curry paste. I tried to make it more textural and flavoursome in the vegetarian version.

I had to make it keeping the diet restrictions of my guests in mind. But my recipe will give you the authentic version of making it. You can then move around with your diet restrictions.

This is low calorie and low fat soup!! So all you guys on a diet can try too!!

So here we go:

Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures as I was too busy cooking and then serving! I'll update it when I make it again!

Serves: 4 Preparation Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
1 cup of vegetables, diced (onions, green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, babycorn)
2-3 tbsp of mushrooms, sliced (button, oyster, porcini, enoki)
½" galangal, sliced (optional)
½" ginger sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1 stalk lemon grass, diagonally sliced (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ cup coconut milk
¾ cup lemon grass extract*
2 cups vegetable stock or water
Salt as per taste
1 tbsp oil (optional)

 To be tied into a bouquet garni:
5-7 coriander stalks
4-5 basil leaves
2 lemon grass stalks
1 kaffir lime leaf (optional)

For Garnish:
3 tbsp of coriander, washed and chopped

Method (if using oil):

1. Heat oil, fry the Thai red curry paste till oil starts oozing from the sides. Then add all the veggies, mushroom, ginger, galangal and tomatoes. Sauté in the paste till all the vegetables are coated with it. This will take about 1 min of continuous sauteing.

2. Now add the coconut milk. Mix well.

3. Then, add the lemon grass extract and the vegetable stock. Add lemon grass stalks and salt as per taste.

4. Once this mixture is hot enough drop in the bouquet garni.

5. Let all the vegetables cook in this flavoured stock till tender and boil for 5 mins. Cover and cook.

6. Squeeze in some lemon juice and put it off heat.

7. Garnish with coriander. Serve hot.

Method ( without oil):

1. Heat the vegetable stock or water. bring it to a boil.

2. Add in the curry paste, coconut milk, lemon grass extract.Mix well.

3. Add in all the vegetables, ginger, galangal, mushrooms, tomatoes and lemon grass stalks. Season with salt and let it cook. Drop in the bouquet garni as well. Cover and cook.

4. It should be done in 10 mins, squeeze in the lemon juice and bring to a boil and its ready to serve!

Notes & Tips:

1. The curry paste is spicy so no other spices required. If you want it more spicy, add in another teaspoon of the paste and mix well.

2. My guests included kids, who were fussy about vegetables in soup. So after the soup was ready, I scooped out a handful of vegetables and blitzed the rest. I was very worried it will change the taste. But hey! it did not!! And it made it thicker... obviously!

But I would not recommend blitzing it as that's not how the soup is served!

3. You may add 2tsp of cornflour slurry while boiling if you want it thick.

4. The choice of vegetables & mushrooms is entirely upto your preference.I'd suggest cooking the veggies until almost done as residual heat will cook it further. Also, because overcooking is very common while making soups destroying the nutritional value!

5. If you can't decide, go with this mix:

Veggies: Babycorn, onions, tomatoes, lemongrass, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, ginger

Mushrooms: Oyster, Button (either or both)

6. For Jains:

Its really simple, just omit the onions. No difference to taste. Proceed as it is. It tastes delicious without mushrooms also!

Let me know how it turned out! Please leave your experiences in the comments section. If you have any suggestions, ideas or made any changes to this recipe, I'd love to know!

Let it rain while you enjoy this delightful soup with your loved ones!

Thai Green Curry

Continuing further with the thai cuisine, here is the quite famous Thai Green Curry. A yummy, healthy and colourful main course for the thai taste buds!

Let us first start with the Thai Green Curry Paste - the base of this curry.

Serves: 5 - 6 Preparation Time: 15-20 mins Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

For Green Curry Paste:

2 green chillies
1/2 cup coriander, chopped
2-4 kaffir lime leaves or lime leaves
5-6 green basil leaves
4 stalks of lemon grass
4  garlic cloves
1" ginger
1/2 tbsp brown sugar or regular white sugar
2 spring onion, roughly quartered, only whites
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, whole
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground (optional)
3 tbsp oil (optional)

For Green Curry:

1 1/2 cup coconut milk (200ml appx.)
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup baby corn, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup carrots, sliced diagonally
1/2 cup broccoli, florets
3 tbsp tofu or cottage cheese/paneer
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup zucchini, sliced
1/4 cup brinjal, diced
Oil
Salt as per taste

Method:

1. In a mixer/food processor/blender, take all the ingredients under 'For Green Curry Paste' and blend it into a coarse paste. You may use a little water if required. Mix it well and keep aside.

2. Now to proceed further, chop all the vegetables as under 'For Green Curry' and keep aside.

I did not use all the veggies due to taste preferences, hence feel free to use as per your taste.

I used colourful bellpeppers instead.

3. Now, take a deep vessel and heat some oil. Now fry the paneer or tofu pieces until slightly brown and keep it aside. This will ensure that they don't break while stirring.

4. In the remaining oil now sauté the green curry paste until the water dries out and it starts oozing out oil. 

5. Once done, now add the vegetables and let it cook for about 5 mins. 

6. Add the coconut milk diluted with equal amount of water. Add salt and let it all cook until the vegetables are soft.  If you feel the curry is too thin, you may add 2-3 tbsp cornflour slurry to thicken.

7. Garnish with some fresh basil leaves and serve hot. It goes well with steamed rice or Thai Fried Rice.

Notes & Tips:

1. To make cornflour slurry, mix 1 tbsp cornflour with 2 tbsp cold water stirring to avoid all lumps. Use the smooth mixture as required.

2. Lime Leaves, lemon grass and basil are core ingredients hence make sure you use them. Availability of lime leaves could be an issue, then increase the quantity of lemon grass. 

3. I have used Dabur's coconut milk. You can use the fresh coconut milk as well. 

4. I did not add any oil while grinding the curry paste to make it less oily and it did not make any difference to the taste.

5. I directly added all the vegetables after frying the curry paste. Alternatively, all the veggies mentioned can be deep fried, drained and added after step 6. I find this too oily & unhealthy so prefer adding them raw. 

6. My Jain friends can omit garlic & onions in the curry paste and increase the amount of coriander to 3/4 cup. Adjust the lemon grass & basil flavours accordingly and proceed. As for the veggies, use as per your preference. 

Thai Red Curry Paste

The very traditional thai red curry paste is used in many preparations apart from curry.

You can always make a cup of this and freeze it and use as and when required. Though making it fresh is always better. But those crunched for time, the former option works well!

So lets go ahead with the recipe. 

I recently made it using galangal and kaffir lime leaves,have updated the same. 
Galangal is a species of ginger family which is native to thailand. Similarly, kaffir lime is of the lime family native to thailand. In case you do not find kaffir lime, indian lime/lemon leaves would do as well. If doing so, just increase the quantity as kaffir lime is potent in flavour than regular lemon/lime leaves.

Makes: 1/2 cup.  Preparation Time: 5 - 10 mins. Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

4 Dry Red chillies, soaked in hot water or 3-4 tbsp of red chilli powder (Kashmiri preferably)
2 thai red bird chillies (optional),
2-3 medium sized kaffir lime leaves,
2" galangal block (optional)
½" ginger block, (if not using galangal use 2" ginger block)
4-6 garlic cloves, 
1 tbsp cumin seeds,
1 tbsp coriander seeds,
3-4 shallots, small sized, quartered (madrasi/sambar onions)
¼ tsp white pepper powder or black pepper powder, whichever is handy
2-3 stalks lemon grass (2 if thick, 3 if thin), roughly halved
5-6 red or green basil leaves (red is difficult to get here, so you may substitute with green)
few stalks of coriander 
1 tsp salt

Method:

1. De-stem  & de-seed the chillies soaked in water. Be careful not to let the seeds touch your skin as it may sting you later! or simply use gloves! I skipped this step and it tasted the same, so you may do that too. 

2. Put all the ingredients in a mixer/food processor and blend it into a coarse yet smooth paste. You can use the leftover water of the chillies, about 2-3 tbsp while blending.

Thats it! Ready to use! 
I do not have a good picture of it, but it should look something like this:

Notes & Tips:

1. The quantity of lemon grass really depends on the variety used. Hence make sure its a potent one as lemon grass is one of the core flavours of the paste. The stalk we use is the thick stem and not the leaves we use for making tea!

2. Jains can omit the garlic & shallots and proceed with the rest.  

3. You can adjust the spiciness by adding or reducing the amount of chillies. 

4. Thai bird chillies are tiny red coloured chillies which are really potent. So use carefully. You can entirely omit the dry red chillies and use only the bird chillies. But note that the colour of the paste will not be as red. 

5. If you are preserving it, outside, add enough oil (3 tbsp for a cup of paste) and store. 
If frozen is your way, add 1 tbsp oil and store.

Do try the paste and let me know how did you use it. Please leave comments about your experiences with it.

Thai Corn Fritters

We made this for entrée along with the salad. This may look similar to my Zucchini & Corn Fritters, but it definitely tastes a lot different. 

I simply love anything with corn. But I think, even the non-corn lovers will like it! 

We use two types of corn here, the American style yellow corn and the Indian aka desi white corn. Its an interesting combination!

So here's the recipe:

Makes 18 - 20 fritters. Preparation Time: 15- 20 mins. Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow corn kernels, boiled
3/4 cup white corn, raw coarse paste
1 green chilli thinly sliced,
2 tbsp curd (yoghurt)
2 tbsp Thai Red curry paste
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
2 tbsp cornflour
3 tbsp maida
2 tbsp lemon zest
Salt as per taste
Oil for shallow frying

Method:

1. Crush the white corn into a rough paste. Now squeeze out the water from the mixture.

2. Mix in rest of the ingredients into a loose dough. Add salt in the end. Incase if it is too loose, you may add some torn bread to soak up the excess moisture. Alternatively, you may also coat them with bread crumbs.

3. Divide them equally into small flat balls and shallow fry them.

Thats it! Its ready!! Serve with hot & sweet dip or our versatile ketchup! 

I served it with garlic mayonnaise. That went well with it too!

Notes & Tips:

1. If white corn is not available, you can substitute it with yellow corn. Though half crush about half of them. 

2. Please find the recipe for red curry paste here. Alternatively, you can use the ready made paste, easily available in stores stocking international foods.

3. To make it more crispy you can also coat it with some rice flour and proceed with shallow frying.

Som Tam Salad

So I start with my Thai evening recipes. The most popular Thai salad Som - Tam which basically means pounded or grated papaya. Originally,  a salad of grated papaya, beans, hot chillies, prawns, chicken and peanuts. The vegetarian Som-Tam is a different, fresh, crunchy and tasty start to a thai evening.

Serves 4 -5. Preparation Time: 20 mins. Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup green papaya, grated (1 small sized)
1/2 cup cowpea beans, finely chopped (chawli, yardlong beans; 1 thin bunch)
3/4 cup roasted peanuts, pounded coarsely (salted will do)
1/2 cup coriander, chopped
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp tamarind pulp
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp green chillies, crushed
salt as per taste

For Garnish:
1 tbsp crushed peanuts

Method:

1. Grate the papaya. Finely & thinly chop the beans. Pound the peanuts roughly. We do not need a powder, hence be careful about the texture while crushing it.

2. Now in a small bowl, mix the dressing, soya sauce, tamarind pulp, brown sugar and salt. 

3. In the salad bowl, mix the papaya, beans, chillies, coriander, peanuts, garlic and the dressing. Toss it well several times. 

Top it with some crushed peanuts! So simple.. its ready!! Enjoy!! 

Notes & Tips:

1. You can substitute brown sugar for normal white sugar.

2. I hand chopped the beans, but you may use a food processor to roughly chop them. 

3. For Jains: Omit the garlic. It wont make much difference.