Tom Yum Goong - Hot & Sour Soup

It's -24°c outside right now.  Perfect weather for soup!

Fish or Chicken Stock:

1 pound fish bones (sole cod or other white fish), OR 1 chicken carcass, broken into pieces OR 1 pack of chicken wings (We used a whole chicken but kept aside the breasts and thighs etc. )
1 onion, quartered
1-inch piece fresh ginger, bruised
1 lime leaf
6 cilantro stems, stalks and roots bruised
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Wash your fish or chicken bones in cold water first.  Place in a saucepan and cover with 6 cups water.
2. Bring to a boil, skim if necessary.
3. Add the onion, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaf, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.  Return to a boil, turn heat down and simmer for 20 minutes only (no lid), for the fish stock.  For the chicken stock- simmer half covered for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat.
4. Cool, strain into a clean pot and get ready to make the soup. 

Hot & Sour Soup

Ingredients:

3 cups chicken (or fish) stock
1 1/2 cups water
1 lemongrass stem
4 red bird's eye chilies, seeded and finely sliced
1-inch piece galangal, peeled and finely sliced
3 lime leaves, torn into pieces
1 ready cleaned squid tube, cut into rings
1/2 pound cooked shrimp  (shelled is easier to eat obviously)
4 button mushrooms, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. sucanat (sugar)
3 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 red chili, seeded and finely sliced for garnish
cilantro leaves for garnish

Directions:

1. Place the stock in a large saucepan with the water.  Heat gently.
2. Trim the root from the lemongrass and slice the bottom 2 inch section into very fine slices.  Bruise the remaining stalk and add all this to the stock with the chilies, galangal, and the torn limes leaves.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the bruised lemongrass, add the shrimp, squid rings, and the mushrooms, then add the lemon juice, sugar, and fish sauce a bit at a time until you have the right balance of flavours.
5. Serve in bowls with red chili slices and cilantro garish.

I chose to start with a chicken stock rather than a fish stock and it was very delicious!  This soup is of course HOT and SOUR so be aware of the number of chilies you use.  Use less than I have if you can't take the heat.  :)

Thai Red Chili Mango Shrimp

Super fast and super easy. If you don't like your food too spicy, half the spices. I generally double the spices whenever I see a recipe. haha. I made this for my fella to celebrate Canada Day. It was a gorgeous day out, so rather than spending extra time making Thai red curry paste from scratch, I "gasp" used store bought. And I don't regret it at all! Delicious! Also, the lettuce came from my very own container garden as did the cilantro. :)

Ingredients:

150ml of organic coconut milk
2 heaping Tbsp of Thai red curry paste
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro , finely chopped
2 small red chili's, finely sliced
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
Juice of 2 limes
2 ripe mangoes
1 pound raw large shrimp, deveined with tails intact
oil for grill (coconut is best)
1 tsp. sucanat
fresh lettuce leaves
lime wedges for garnish


Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the coconut milk, curry paste, cilantro, chili, garlic and lime juice and whisk together until blended. Put half of the dressing in a lidded container for the marinade and the other half will be used as dressing.

2. Cut your mangoes and cube the fruit and divide into two half's. (youtube how to cut a mango if you have never done this). Add half of the mango to the marinade and half of it to the dressing.

3. Add your shrimp to the marinade and toss to cover. Refrigerate and marinate for at least one hour. Add one tsp. sucanat to "dressing" half of your mixture and cover in another bowl refrigerated.

4. Heat your grill to a nice hot temperature, remove shrimps from marinade (discard leftover marinade) and grill until cooked through, turning once. Just a minute or so each side.

5. Remove shrimps from heat and serve on fresh lettuce leaves. Spoon mango dressing on to your shrimp and lettuce. Serve with lime wedges. Yum!

Spicy Thai Coleslaw

I love coleslaw! This one is hot and spicy and vegan. You can play with the amount of spices if you don't like as much fire (or if it is for the kidlets).

Coleslaw Ingredients:

3 cups finely shredded green cabbage
1 cup peeled and shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded carrot
1 handful fresh basil, chopped
1 handful fresh mint, chopped
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 bunch fresh chives, cut
1/2 cup raw unsalted peanuts

Dressing Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup tamari gluten free soy sauce
2 1/2 Tbsp sucanat (that's paddled, non-refined cane sugar)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 one inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled & minced fine
1 heaping tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Assemble all of the coleslaw ingredients together in a large bowl and toss to mix well.

2. Assemble all of the dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

3. Pour the dressing over the coleslaw, toss and serve. (you might not need to use ALL of the dressing)

Thai Food

Love Thai Food? Here are some of my favs

Thai Green Curry From Scratch

Pad Thai-alicious!

Curried Chicken Roll with Sweet Thai Basil

Thai Spicy coconut squash Curry

Coconut Rice

Thai Spicy Coconut Squash Curry

Ingredients:

2/3 cup organic coconut milk
1 tsp. salt
4 cups (about 1 small butternut squash), peeled and cubed (use a peeler to peel the squash, then cut it in half where the bulbous end meets the narrow end. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and cut into cubes.
3 tsp. sucanat
1/4 cup light gluten free soy sauce
4 deep fried red shallots (peel, slice into very thin slices lengthwise, and deep fry until golden on med/high heat in peanut oil. stir constantly and when they are deep gold, remove and drain on paper towels)


Curry Paste Ingredients:


4 red chilies, seeded and chopped fine. (less if you can't take the heat)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp finely chopped lemongrass
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp. tumeric powder
1 tsp. finely chopped cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped red shallots
1 bulb garlic, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground white pepper
1/4 cup water

note- this will make extra curry paste, you can store the rest for a few days in the fridge


Directions:

1. Make the curry paste. Place all of the curry ingredients in a blender and blend on high until a thick paste has formed and everything is fairly homogeneous. 3-4 minutes.

2. Deep fry the shallots, lay out on paper towel to cool and set aside.

3. Place the butternut squash cubes in a medium pan and cover with water. Bring to boil and turn down heat to medium and cook for another 6-9 minutes until the squash is tender. Take off heat and set aside.

4. In a medium saucepan, heat the coconut milk and 1/4 cup of the curry paste to boil over med/high heat, stirring constantly. Lower heat a bit so it doesn't burn and keep stirring. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and sucanat and stir. Season with salt and return the cooked butternut squash to the coconut milk/curry mixture. Heat through.

5. Spoon into serving bowls, sprinkle with fried shallots and serve with rice.

Pad Thai -alicious

Another Cooks Illustrated recipe! it's delicious. I highly recommend the website and the magazine. We have been fans for years. Since I am gluten free I was unable to add some chopped Thai salted preserved radish as every brand I could find had soy sauce in it (most soy sauce contains gluten). We happen to live in a city with excellent Asian food markets. If you don't, you could probably order the unusual items on line and then make it once they arrived.



Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Tamarind paste or Tamarind concentrate
3/4 cup boiling water
3 Tbsp gluten free fish sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp sucanat (or sugar if you can't find sucanat)
3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 Tbsp. peanut oil
8 ounces dried rice stick noodles
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp. salt
12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 med. shallot, minced fine
2 Tbsp dried shrimp, chopped fine
6 Tbsp chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
3 cups bean sprouts
5 medium green onions, green part only, sliced thin
fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
lime wedges for serving

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, add boiling water to the Tamarind paste or concentrate. (if you have dry paste with seeds and fiber you will want to press it through a fine strainer once you have re hydrated it. Our Tamarind paste was packed in water and already strained). Stir in Fish sauce, rice vinegar, sucanat, cayenne pepper and 2 Tbsp oil. set aside.

2. Cover Rice sticks with hot tap water in a large bowl, soak until softened, pliable and limp but not yet fully tender. (20 minutes). Drain noodles and set aside. Beat the eggs and 1/8 tsp. salt in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until just starting to smoke (2 minutes). Add the shrimp and sprinkle with remaining salt, cook tossing once in a while, until shrimp are opaque and slightly browned on edges (3 minutes), transfer to plate and set aside.

4. While skillet is off heat, add the remaining oil to the skillet & swirl to coat. add garlic, & diced shallot, set skillet over med. heat and cook for 1 1/2 minutes, add eggs to the skillet and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until just scrambled (20 seconds). Add noodles & dried shrimp to eggs, toss to combine. Pour the fish sauce/Tamarind mixture over the noodles, increase heat to high and cook, tossing occasionally until noodles are coated. Add the peanuts, bean sprouts and most of the green onions and the shrimp to the skillet. Cook, tossing frequently until the noodles are tender.

Serve with cilantro and lime wedges as well as a little garnish of green onion and peanuts.

delicious!

for a feast, serve with coconut rice

and green curry

Curried Chicken rolls with Thai Sweet basil

so good. so delicious! It's on my fav list now.
serve as is or add some diced hot red peppers for a little kick if you can stand it.
Adapted from this amazing book

Ingredients:
24 gluten free organic corn tortillas
3 Tbsp. macadamia nut oil
2 leeks, trimmed, cleaned and cut into thin 1 1/2 inch strips
5 carrots, peeled and julienned
2 turnips, peeled and julienned
2 1/2 Tbsp. Chinese sake

Home-made curry powder ingredients: blend together into a paste
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
8 cloves garlic- crushed
1/4 cup of very finely chopped fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground tumeric
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 pound boneless , skinless, chicken breasts, cut into 1/6 inch slices

Coconut sauce- blend together-
1 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. sucanat

1 cup fresh sweet basil leaves, coarsely chopped.

Directions:
1. wrap corn tortillas in foil in packets of 6 and warm in the oven at 300°F

2. heat a wok or heavy skillet over med/high heat. add 1 1/2 Tbsp. of oil and heat 30 seconds. Add the leeks and stir fry for 1 minute (until softened). Add the carrots, turnips, and rice sake, and toss lightly, cover, turn heat down to med. and cook for 2 minutes (until vegetables are tender). transfer the vegetables to a bowl ,cover, and set aside.

3. Reheat the wok, add remaining oil, heat 30 seconds, add the home-ground curry powder and cook for 20 seconds, or until very fragrant. Add the chicken, turn up the heat to high, and stir-fry until the meat loses it's pink color and the slices separate. Add the coconut sauce and cook for about 10 minutes, until the mixture thickens. Add the leek mixture and chopped basil, toss lightly, and transfer to a platter. To eat, spoon some of the curry mixture onto a tortilla and wrap it up.

Thai green curry chicken

Ingredients:
1 small chicken or 1/2 of large chicken cleaned, de-boned and chopped into pieces
1 red & 1 green bell pepper, de-seeded and chopped into bite size pieces
3 whole kaffir lime leaves
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 4 to 3 inch lengths (remove dry outer leaves and cut off bulb)
1 cup loose fresh asian basil
handful fresh cilantro chopped
1 tablespoon dry shredded coconut for serving

Green Curry Sauce Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
3 green chillies minced
1 small cooking onion, minced
3 cloves garlic pressed
1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
1/2 Tbsp ground coriander
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp gluten free soy sauce
1 cup fresh coriander, chopped
1 tsp. sucanat
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2.Place chicken pieces in a large covered casserole dish
3. mince and stir all of the green curry sauce ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Pour the sauce over the chicken. add lemongrass lengths plus lime leaves. stir well
5. cover and place in oven. bake for 45 minutes at 375.
6. after 45 minutes, remove from oven, add bell peppers, stir well and return to the oven for 15 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, stir the curry and taste test, may need more fish sauce (for salt), lime, (for less salt) or coconut milk (to tame spicy) or sucanat (to tame sour)
8. remove lemongrass stalks. do not eat the lemongrass.
9. serve with a generous sprinkling of fresh basil, coriander and shredded coconut.

goes well with my coconut rice recipe.
add some sprouts on top for extra taste