The Seventh Dish

Larb is sort of like the meat sibling of som tam; They are made from different ingredients, but go incredibly well together.

It’s a staple dish of Thai Isaan food, it’s easy to make, and it’s a brilliant combination of ingredients. A spoon of larb (ลาบ) followed by a ball of fresh sticky rice, is one of the great flavor combinations.

Larb is a Thai salad, but it’s not a vegetable salad, instead it’s a meat salad. The minced pork is wonderfully seasoned with fish sauce, chili flakes, lime juice, toasted sticky rice to give it some crunchy texture, and a wonderful assortment of fresh herbs to bring it all together.

Laab Moo is a dish originating from the North-East (Isan) region of Thailand. It is popular throughout the country and you will find it at eateries from the very North to the deep South. Traditionally it’s eaten with sticky ric.

Larb is most often made with chicken, beef, duck, fish, pork or mushrooms, flavored with fish sauce, lime juice, padaek, roasted ground rice and fresh herbs. The meat can be either raw or cooked; it is minced and mixed with chili, mint and, optionally, assorted vegetables. Roughly ground toasted rice (khao khoua) is also a very important component of the dish. The dish is served at room temperature and usuall.y with a serving of sticky rice and raw vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (460g) ground pork
• 1 cup cilantro leaves
• 2 green onions (scallions)
• 15 mint leaves
• 2 stalks lemongrass, just the bottom 2 inches, outer leaves removed and discarded
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, very thinly sliced
• ½ a whole shallot, finely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon toasted rice powder
• 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
• juice squeezed from 1 and ½ limes
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (adjust for preferred spice)

http://www.templeofthai.com/recipes/laab-moo.php

The Sixth Dish

If you love the flavor of the curry, but the stir fry cooking method, you’ll love this Thai recipe.

Along with chicken stir fried with holy basil, chicken stir fried in red curry paste, known as gai pad prik gaeng in Thai, is one of my favorite quick and easy Thai street food dishes.

The best thing about this dish is that it’s available at nearly every single Thai stir fry street food restaurant, and while it’s excellent on the streets, it’s even better when you make it at home using freshly made red curry paste.

This gai pad prik gaeng recipe is really easy to make, as long as you already have some Thai red curry paste available.

The Thai red curry paste forms the base of flavor for this gai pad prik gaeng (chicken fried with red curry paste).

The paste is a thick curry presenting a vivid red color due to phrik (chili peppers). Confusingly enough, the Thai name indicates that ginger (khing) is used in this dish, which in fact is not the case. Recipes for the phrik khing curry paste usually include lemongrass, garlic and galangal.Very often, also in Thailand, red curry paste is used instead

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 300 grams, I used about 1.5 chicken breasts for this recipe
• 3 strands of Chinese long beans (or about ⅓ cup of chopped string beans)
• 3 – 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce (here’s the fish sauce I usually use)
• ½ teaspoon sugar (depending on your preference)
• 1 tablespoon oil for stir frying

Stir Fried Pork with Chili Paste | Pad Prik Khing | ผัดพริกขิง

The Fifth Dish

Pad See Ew, which means “stir fried soy sauce noodles, is an extremely popular Thai street food meal and probably the most popular noodle dish at Thai restaurants in Western countries. The unique technique with Pad See Ew is the cooking of an egg in the wok. Bits of scrambled egg gets stuck to the other ingredients and the char it creates adds to the authentic flavour of this dish. Pad See Ew is traditionally made with Sen Yai, which are wide, thin fresh rice noodles.

The name of the dish translates to “fried (with) soy sauce” and it is very similar to the char kway teow of Singapore and Malaysia. Phat si io is normally stir fried dry while another similar dish, rat na (in Thai) or lard na (in Laos), is served in a thickened sauce and generally has a lighter taste.^[2][3]

Phat si io is made with dark soy sauce (si-io dam), light soy sauce (si-io khao), garlic, broad rice noodles called kuai-tiao sen yai in Thai (commonly abbreviated to just sen yai meaning “big strip”), Chinese broccoli, egg, and some form of thinly sliced meat — commonly pork, chicken or beef — or shrimp or mixed seafood.

Phat si io is sometimes also called kuai-tiao phat si-io, which reflects the general practice of using flat rice noodle as the main ingredient. However, other types of noodles may also be used.

Ingredients you’ll need

• 2 TB oil for frying
• 3 cloves garlic
• 300 grams wide flat rice noodles (in Thai they are known as: sen yai, but you could also use Chinese chow fun)
• 200 grams chicken (or pork or beef)
• 1 handful of chopped Chinese broccoli (kailan)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• ½ tablespoon dark sweet soy sauce
  
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• Garnish you pad see ew with dry chili flakes, black or white pepper, and vinegar for sourness if you like

                                        http://hot-thai-kitchen.com/pad-see-ew-new/

The Forth Dish

One of the most famous of all Thai foods, and what I think is one the best soups in the world, is Thai tom yum goong.

What I love most about tom yum goong is the flavors of lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, fresh Thai chilies, and fresh lime juice, that all combine to create a healthy and soothing broth that will light up your taste buds.

If you’re looking to cook an awesome and authentic soup, try this tom yum soup recipe.

This recipe is for local Thai street food style tom yum soup – it’s not the fancy kind – but follow this recipe for the authentic taste you’ll find in Thailand.

Bring water to boil over high heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and tamarind paste (break apart the tamarind paste with your fingers as you add it). Add the shrimp, bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Add the onion, nam prik pao and straw mushrooms. Boil for another 7 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through. Add the chile peppers and tomatoes. Turn off the heat. Add the lime juice. Taste to adjust the seasoning, adding fish sauce to taste. Garnish with cilatantro, roasted whole chili peppers and a splash of coconut mik if desired and serve hot.

http://www.thethailandlife.com/tom-yum-kung-soup-recipe

The third dish

Tom kha soup – Tom kha gai is probably the second best-known Thai dish in America, with pad Thai being the first. Literally translated, tom kha gai means “chicken galangal soup.” It’s made from chicken lightly poached in a silky coconut milk broth which has been infused with galangal (kha), lemongrass, and makrut or lime leaves. Luckily for those of us who enjoy this Thai soup at restaurants, the hardest part of making tom kha gai at home is simply tracking down the galangal, lemongrass, and limes leaves. And hunting for these few ingredients will be well worth the creamy, savory, spicy, sweet soup that results in their procurement.

Ingredients

In Thailand, most tom kha kai recipes typically include coconut milk, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, Thai chili peppers, coriander (or dill weed), straw mushrooms (or shiitake or other mushrooms), chicken, fish sauce, and lime juice. Fried chilies are sometimes added.

http://rasamalaysia.com/tom-kha-gai-recipe-thai-coconut-chicken-soup/

 

 

 

 

The second dish

Massaman Curry is a Southern Thai curry which has a lot of Indian influence. Massaman is an old way of saying “Muslim”, for many of the dry spices were carried to Thailand by early Muslim traders. Like Indian curries, this curry is heavy on dry spices and very aromatic. It’s typically served with rice or roti, and sometimes with a side of ajaat.

from http://www.recipeshubs.com/lamb-massaman-curry/19284

-The flavors of the massaman curry paste (nam phrik kaeng matsaman) come from spices that are not frequently used in other Thai curries. 

-Cardamom,cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cumin, bay leaves, nutmeg and mace would, in the 17th century, have been brought to Thailand through trade mainly dominated by Muslims

-These are combined with local produce such as dried chili peppers, cilantro (coriander) seeds, lemongrass, galangal, white pepper, shrimp paste, shallots and garlic to make the massaman curry paste. 

-This paste is first fried with coconut cream, and only then are meat, potatoes, onions, fish sauce or salt, tamarind paste, sugar, coconut milk and peanuts added. Massaman is usually eaten with rice, in a meal together with other dishes. 

-Due to its Muslim roots and therefore Islamic dietary laws, this curry is most commonly made with chicken, but there are also variations on this dish using duck, beef, mutton, goat, or, less commonly so,pork.

First well known dish of Thailand

Today, I will explain you the most popular dish is called ” Pad Thai.”

From http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/pad_thai.html

Ingredients  

-Stir-fried rice noodle dish commonly served as a street food and at casual local eateries in Thailand 

-Made with soaked dried rice noodles, stir-fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, and flavored with tamarind pulp, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic or shallots, red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often chopped roast peanuts. Also contain other vegetables like bean sprouts, garlic chives, coriander leaves. May also contain fresh shrimp, crab, squid, chicken or other proteins. Vegetarian versions may substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce and omit the shrimp.

History 

-A dish of stir-fried rice noodles is thought by some to have been introduced to Ayutthaya during the time of the Ayutthaya Kingdom by Viet traders, and subsequently altered to reflect Thai flavor profiles. Others believe that the dish is of Chinese origin

-Plaek Phibunsongkhram promoted Pad Thai in his campaign to establish Thai nationalism. Thailand was a main exporter of rice, and the government hoped to increase the amount available for export. As prime minister of Thailand between 1938 to 1944 and from 1948 to 1957, Phibun hoped to Westernize the country. In 1939, he supported the change of name of the country from Siam to Thailand. At the time, wheat noodles were very popular in Thailand, but Plaek Phibunsongkhram sought to eliminate Chinese influence. His government promoted rice noodles and helped to establish the identity of Thailand. As a result, a new noodle named sen chan was created.

-Pad Thai was made popular in Thailand during World War II. Pad Thai has since become one of Thailand’s national dishes.

Thai Cuisine

Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Australian chef David Thompson, a prolific chef and expert on Thai food, observes that unlike many other cuisines, Thai cooking rejects simplicity and is about “the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish”. Thai chef McDang characterises Thai food as demonstrating “intricacy; attention to detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor”, as well as care being given to the food’s appearance, smell and context.

Thai cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines in the world. In 2011, seven of Thailand’s popular dishes appeared on the list of the “World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods (Readers’ Pick)”— a worldwide online poll of 35,000 people by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. They were: tom yam goong (4th), pad Thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and moo nam tok (36th).

Thai cuisine and the culinary traditions and cuisines of Thailand’s neighbors have mutually influenced one another over the course of many centuries. Regional variations tend to correlate to neighboring states (often sharing the same cultural background and ethnicity on both sides of the border) as well as climate and geography. Northern Thai cuisine shares dishes with Shan State in Burma, northern Laos, and also with Yunnan Province in China, whereas the cuisine of Isan (northeastern Thailand) is similar to that of southern Laos, and is also influenced by Khmer cuisine from Cambodia to its south, and by Vietnamese cuisine to its east. Southern Thailand, with many dishes that contain liberal amounts of coconut milk and fresh turmeric, has that in common with Indian, Malaysian, and Indonesian cuisine. In addition to these four regional cuisines, there is also the Thai royal cuisine which can trace its history back to the cosmopolitan palace cuisine of the Ayutthaya kingdom (1351–1767 CE). Its refinement, cooking techniques, presentation, and use of ingredients were of great influence to the cuisine of the central Thai plains.