recipe « Thai Food and Travel Blog

Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

The Universal Vegetable Recipe

Michael Babcock, Monday, June 13th, 2011

One of Kasma’s recipes is what I think of as “The Universal Vegetable Recipe.” It can be used for nearly any vegetable of your choice and come out delicious. Let’s call it “Oyster Sauce Vegetables” because the most important ingredient is the oyster sauce. The important thing to remember is that you need a really good oyster sauce and a really good fish sauce; and the fresher the vegetables, the better!

Premium & Super Premium Oyster Sauce

There’s only one brand of oyster sauce that Kasma recommends and it is the Dragonfly brand. We have no affiliation at all with this brand. We just like it. Dragonfly makes three different kinds: 1) Dragonfly Oyster Sauce; 2) Dragonfly Premium Flavored Oyster Sauce; and 3) Dragonfly Super Premium Flavored Oyster Sauce. We like the product for two reasons: 1) It has no additives or preservatives; 2) It is the best tasting brand we’ve found.

Click on photos to see a larger image.

Oyster Sauce Snap Peas

A few years ago nearly all the Thai food manufacturers began adding preservatives and other additives to their products, which tasted and lasted just fine without them. Suddenly our Roasted Chili paste (nam prik pao) had food coloring and msg for no good reason – it was fine before. Our preferred oyster sauce suddenly had sodium benzoate. It was at that point that we decided to try the Dragonfly brand when we saw it in one of the local markets and it had no additives. The ingredients were (and are) oyster extract, sugar, soy sauce, salt and corn starch.

Initially we used the plain Dragonfly Oyster Sauce. Then we decided that we should try the Super Premium Flavored Oyster Sauce, though we had no intention of using it because it was more expensive. After we used it once we were sold – it’s the oyster sauce we recommend.

If you can’t use the Dragonfly brand, use the other Thai brand that’s readily available – Mae Krua. It, at least, doesn’t have msg. I don’t like the Chinese brands as well; they taste sweeter and less flavorful to me and most of them contain MSG.

For fish sauce, Kasma’s preferred brands are Golden Boy Fish sauce and Tra Chang. You can check out pictures of these fish sauces and information on Kasma’s other favorite brands on her favorite brands page.

Oyster Sauce Broccoli

This recipe comes from Kasma, of course. She teaches a version of it in the second class of her beginning Thai cooking series as Stir-fried Broccoli with Thai Oyster Sauce (Broccoli Pad Nam Man Hoi). Nam man hoi is Thai for oyster sauce.

By the way, this blog is my interpretation of Kasma’s recipe. All credit goes to her. Any shortcomings in this blog are mine alone.

First I’ll give the basic, 5-ingredient recipe (a 6th is optional) followed by a brief slide-show of the dish being cooked. Continue scrolling down to see the recipe with variations (adding ground pork/chicken, shrimp or mushrooms) with its own slideshow.

Universal Vegetable Recipe – The Short Version

Ingredients

Oil or fat of your choice; we recommend duck fat or lard
Garlic, chopped, as much as you like
Vegetable of your choice, as much as you like, cut in bite-sized pieces
Oyster sauce, to taste (Dragonfly Brand Super Premium Flavored brand is best)
Fish sauce, to taste (we recommend Golden Boy or Tra Chang brands)
Ground white pepper is optional

The Recipe

Heat wok until smoking hot, add oil/fat (let melt, if fat), add chopped garlic, stir briefly, add vegetable, cook for awhile, stirring occasionally, then add oyster sauce & fish sauce to taste; if necessary (to prevent burning) add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water; cook to desire degree of doneness. If desired, sprinkle in some ground white pepper at the end.

Notes

Oyster Sauce Cauliflower

If you feel you must, you can use Kasma’s recipe Stir-fried Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp in Oyster Sauce Recipe – Naw-mai Farang Pad Nam Man Hoi to get an idea of how much of each ingredient to use; or look at Stir-fried Chive Flower Buds with Shrimp and Oyster Mushrooms (Pad Dawk Goochai Gkoong Hed Hoi Nahnglom).

I recommend duck fat for stir-frying. It adds a very delicious flavor. Chicken fat or goose fat would work. Also lard. If you can’t get those, I’d recommend peanut oil. One reason I like duck fat is because if I use too much, I really don’t mind because it tastes so good without tasting greasy. The polyunsaturated oils such as soy, canola, corn and sunflower will tend to make it taste very oily if you use too much.

Cooking time can vary greatly depending on the vegetable. For instance, an Asian green such as bok choy or tat choi will cook very quickly – within a couple of minutes. Cauliflower might take up to 10 minutes to cook, depending on the size of the pieces. With the longer cooking vegetables, plan on splashing in a little bit of water if the mixture starts to burn or stick to the wok; you can also cover the wok to help it cook faster. Depending on how much water you put in, you can also add a bit more oyster sauce and fish sauce, to taste (of course).

Oil/Fat: I think most people tend to use a a bit too little fat or oil; be aware of that tendency. If the vegetable starts to stick to the pan or burn in the cooking process, you can splash in a bit of water. Don’t be afraid of the animal fats. They are the best for stir-frying. Remember that all fats and oils are a combination of saturated, monounsaturated fat (the predominant fat in olive oil) and polyunsaturated fats. Lard, for instance, contains a bit more monounsaturated fat than saturated fat and a small amount of polyunsaturated fats. For frying, saturated fats are actually preferred: monounsaturated fats and (especially) polyunsaturated fats tend to oxidize under high heat, causing free radicals that are implicated in aging. (See the article Fatty Acid Peroxidation & Free Radicals by Greg Watson.) For more information on fats and oils, see my previous blog on A “Healthy Diet”.

Made with Asian greens and mushrooms

Garlic: With garlic, try using a bit more than looks comfortable to you. Add an extra clove or two. I love lots of garlic. Give it a try.

Vegetable: What do you like? Broccoli, cauliflower, bok choi, snap peas, sugar peas, tat choi (an Asian vegetable), bok choi, Chinese broccoli (kanah in Thai), asparagus, green beans, chard, kale, collards, mustard greens . . .. Just about anything you like. Be aware that different vegetables have different cooking times. So maybe the first time, you overcook it a little. No problem, just remember what you’ve done: cook it less next time. With some longer-cooking vegetables you may need to add a little bit of water if the vegetables start to stick to the wok or burn – if that happens, just splash in some water. You can always add a bit more oyster sauce and make more of a sauce for the dish.

Oyster Sauce: How much you add will depend on a few things. Which brand are you using and how strong is it; whether you intend to eat “Thai-style” with a lot of rice, in which case you can make the dish more heavily flavored, and; personal taste preference. Taste as you go. Start out by adding a tablespoon or two; stir; taste. Add more if you’d like.

Fish Sauce: Has the same considerations as with oyster sauce, above. How salty do you like it?

Basic Recipe Slide Show

Click on “Play” below to begin a slideshow.
Clicking on a slide will take you to the next image.

Play Prev|Nextshow thumbs

These are the basic 5 ingredients for Oyster Sauce Vegetables

Asian greens, ready for stir-frying

Cooking the garlic briefly in heated oil

The vegetables have been added to the garlic & oil

The oyster sauce has been added to the dish

Stirring the oyster sauce into the vegetables

Oyster sauce and fish sauce are thoroughly mixed in

Oyster sauce Asian vegetables, ready to eat!

Universal Vegetable Recipe – Variations

Snap peas, with shrimp and mushrooms

In addition to the basic 5 ingredients you can also add:

Ground pork or chicken: Add right after the garlic and cook it pretty much all the way through before adding the vegetables.
Shrimp: Add right after the garlic, stir-fry 15-20 seconds, or until the shrimp starts to turn pink, then add the vegetables.
Mushrooms: When to add depends on type of mushroom and how well you like them cooked. If you want the mushroom to absorb more oil and garlic flavor, add right after the garlic or after the meat. Otherwise, add them after the vegetables are partially cooked or even at the same time as the vegetables. For longer cooking vegetables, add a bit later.

Recipe with Variations Slide Show

Click on “Play” below to begin a slideshow.
Clicking on a slide will take you to the next image.

Note: This recipe uses an Asian green called “tat choi” with oyster mushrooms and ground pork.

Play Prev|Nextshow thumbs

This smoking-hot wok is ready to receive the lard

Adding the garlic to the hot lard

Next the ground pork is added

Next the pork is broken up for cooking

Continuing to cook the ground pork

Next the (oyster) mushrooms are added

Stir-frying the garlic, pork & mushrooms

Here the pork is getting nicely browned, ready for the next step

Here the tat choi (an Asian Green) has just been added

Here Kasma is stirring everything together

Continuing to cook the dish

Here Kasma adds the oyster sauce direct from the bottle

Stirring the oyster sauce so it's evenly distrbuted

Continuing to stir-fry the mixture

Kasma adds the (Golden Boy) fish sauce - to taste.

This dish is pretty much ready to serve

The Oyster Sauce Tat Choi, plated, ready to serve

Here's another view of the dish, ready to serve

One final close-up

Play with the recipe!

I’ve already written a couple times on cooking and Thai recipes.

Asparagus, mushrooms & shrimp

Following Thai Recipes encourages you to taste and cook to flavor
Kasma’s article Cooking to Taste does the same
Learning to Cook Thai encourages you to approach recipes in the spirit of adventure and learning

In this case, I’d encourage you play around with quantities and cooking times. The first time you cook the recipe, you might want to use Kasma’s more complicated variation of the recipe on our website as a guide for quantities- Stir-fried Asparagus, Oyster Mushrooms and Shrimp in Oyster Sauce Recipe – Naw-mai Farang Pad Nam Man Hoi. On the other hand, you don’t need it and I encourage you to try what you think might work. Make the recipe your own.

Written by Michael Babcock, June 2011

Tags: oyster sauce, recipe, vegetable
Posted in Cooking, Food | 2 Comments »

Green Mango

Kasma Loha-unchit, Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Green Mangoes Make Mouth-Watering Salads

Green mangoes are an ingredient most westerners are not familiar with. One day last summer, while on a shopping trip to Asian markets near my home, I walked past two Caucasian women scrutinizing with disbelief a box of green mangoes, sitting next to another displaying perfectly ripe ones. One remarked to the other, “Why in the world would anyone pay $2.99 a pound for these hard green mangoes?” These words stopped me dead on my tracks and I couldn’t help but intrude: “Oh, but you don’t understand. It is a very Southeast Asian thing!”

Two green mangos

Young green mangoes start appearing in early spring at Southeast Asian markets and a small, unpredictable supply trickles in through mid-summer. Whenever I come across a fresh-looking batch, I can’t resist picking up a few of these precious gems to take home.

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

They remind me of childhood days during the early weeks of the mango season, when I eagerly checked under the trees in our backyard daily for freshly fallen ones that the wind, birds or squirrels might have knocked down. These excesses of nature, thinned from the trees to make room for the remaining to grow into fat, luscious fruits, are never allowed to go to waste. Sliced or shredded, they make mouth-watering snacks, relishes and dipping sauces for fish, tasty pickles and wonderful salads

Peeled green mango

The best for salads are found early in the season, before the golden ripe fruits hit the market in profusion. At that time, they are most likely to be truly young and immature, with seeds still soft and undeveloped. I pick the smallest, the firmest and the greenest – the peel revealing no hint of ripening red or yellow. Large ones, though green, are close to maturity and lose the delicious sourness that adds character to spicy salads, while those soft to the touch are ripening from too many days in shipment and storage, losing their desirable crisp texture.

A good and easy recipe follows. It is very hot and spicy, though if you do not wish to set your mouth on fire, simply cut down on the number of chillies, or do entirely without. If you are not able to find young green mangoes, this recipe work well also with tart green apples; or try any tart, crisp young fruits, such as peaches and nectarines. I usually add lime juice when substituting with fruits that are not very sour. Sometimes, this goes for some green mangoes, too, when they are lacking in sourness.

Shredding a green mango

The recipe is basically an easy way to enjoy my green mangoes by dipping the peeled slices in a sugar, salt and fresh chilli mixture. I pound cut-up small Thai chillies in a mortar, then add sugar and enough salt to make the mixture almost as salty as it is sweet. When entertaining guests unfamiliar with mangoes except in their soft, ripened state, I toss the hot sugar-and-salt dip with the crisp mango slices and serve as a meal opener or ender. Tart apples and very firm nectarines are good this way, too.

With a bit more effort, my green mangoes are shredded and mixed with chillies, sliced shallot, ground dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and a little palm sugar to make a delicious relish to serve with crispy fried fish – one very common and favorite restaurant dish in central and southern Thailand.

Thai rice dish with green mango

One of my cooking students once asked whether I had any idea what her new Southeast Asian neighbors did with the unripe, green plums they liked to pick from her tree. After trying the green mango salads in class, she understood and began to enjoy the fruits from her plum tree earlier in the season than she had in the many years she had lived on her land.

I teach the following recipe in my evening Series Set F (class 1) and Weeklong Set C (day 1, as “Hot and Sour Green Mango Snack”).

See our website for more in Thai recipes.

This recipe is also available on our website – Sliced Tart Crisp Green Mango with Chillies and Salt (with additional notes and pointers).

Sliced Tart Crisp Green Mango with Chillies and Salt – (Mamuang Yam Prik Gkap Gkleua)

Ingredients

2 cups small, thin bite-size slices of crisp green unripe mango
4-6 Thai chillies, cut into thin rounds
1/2 – 1 tsp. sea salt
2-3 tsp. granulated sugar
2 Tbs. freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1/2 to 1 lime)

The amount of sugar and lime juice to use will depend on how green and sour the mango is. The quantities suggested above is for a firm, crisp green mango that has started to yellow just a little.

Simply toss all the ingredients together well and enjoy!

Serves 3 to 4 as a snack.

Green Mango Salad

Written by Kasma Loha-unchit, June 2010.

Tags: ingredient, mango, recipe
Posted in Food, ingredient | 1 Comment »

Green Papaya

Kasma Loha-unchit, Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Green, Unripe Papaya Makes Spicy Salad

In Thailand, green papayas are probably eaten more often than ripe papayas.

On the island of Samui in the Gulf of Thailand is a lovely family-run beach resort. Idyllic seaside bungalows are surrounded by some of the most beautiful papaya trees I have ever seen.

A green papaya

The first time I stayed there, I was so charmed by the unusual stature of these trees with their majestic, deeply cut foliage. Clinging to the trunk of each tree must be at least a dozen large, emerald green fruits, soon to ripen in the tropical heat. I remarked to the owner that he must never need to worry about having enough sweet, luscious papayas to satisfy the steady stream of tourists who come and stay at his resort.

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

Peeled green papaya

He chuckled and replied, “I have never seen a single fruit ripen on any of my trees. The papayas I serve my guests I have to order from the mainland. Papayas on this island never have the chance to ripen!”

I knew exactly what he meant. Papayas are more often than not picked by locals while still green to be made into a spicy salad, a favorite food among Thai, as well as Laotian, Cambodian and Vietnamese people. I wouldn’t be surprised if more papayas are consumed green and crisp in Southeast Asia than golden orange and soft. A tribute has even been made to this fruit in its unripened form in the film “Scent of Green Papaya,” with a prominent scene showing green papaya being chopped and made into salad.

Shredded green papaya

Green papaya has a very mild, almost bland, taste, but it is the medium through which robust flavor ingredients take body and form. It picks up the hot, sour, sweet and salty flavors, giving them a unique crisp and chewy texture unlike that of any other vegetable. When made into salad, you wouldn’t know that it was mild and timid; you remember it only as bold and spicy.

Unripe papayas are readily available in various sizes and shapes during the summer at many Asian markets. Select one that is very firm with shiny green peel suggesting that it is as freshly picked as possible. Even green fruits will eventually ripen and turn soft if allowed to sit around for some time.

Fixings for Green Papaya Salad

There are many ways to make green papaya salads, with varying degrees of hotness, sourness and sweetness. The hottest salads are probably made in northeastern Thailand and Laos where they are eaten with barbecued chicken and sticky rice as a staple food of the populace. There, the salads are made by bruising julienned green papaya with garlic and very hot bird peppers in a large clay mortar with a wooden pestle, then seasoning with lime juice, fish sauce and other flavorings.

Give the green papaya salad recipe a try.

See our website for more Thai recipes and more Thai ingredients.

Green Papaya Salad Set-up

This recipe is also available on our website as: Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam).

Green Papaya Salad Recipe (Som Tam)

Ingredients

6-8 large cloves garlic, cut each into 3-4 pieces
8-15 Thai chillies (prik kee noo), to desired hotness – each cut crosswise into 3-4 segments with seeds
1 cup long beans, cut into 1 1/2-inch segments
2 tsp. small dried shrimp
1 small whole salted crab (bpoo kem), cut into 6 pieces – optional
1 Tbs. palm sugar, or to taste
Juice of 2-3 limes, to desired sourness
1 medium (about 2 lb. size) very firm, unripe green papaya, peeled and julienned into long strips to yield about 4 cups
2-3 Tbs. fish sauce (nahm bplah), to taste
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbs. chopped unsalted roasted peanuts

If you have an average-size Laos-style baked clay mortar with wooden pestle, you may need to make the salad in two separate batches. With an extra-large carved palm wood mortar and pestle, the salad can be made in a single batch as follows.

Pound the garlic and Thai chillies together until they are pasty. Add the dried shrimp and pound to crack. Follow with the salted crab (if using) and long beans and pound well to bruise.

Add the palm sugar, juice of two of the limes, and fish sauce and stir well. Add the julienned green papaya. Toss well with the seasonings. Then, pounding with one hand and stirring with the other, bruise the green papaya until it picks up all the flavorings and seasonings. Taste and adjust as needed with more fish sauce, lime juice or palm sugar to the desired flavor combination. Ideally, for a Thai, the salad should be very hot and sour with only a light sweetness at the back of the tongue.

Add the tomato pieces at the end, stir and bruise lightly to blend in with the rest of the salad. Transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with peanuts.

Serves 6 with a side plate of raw vegetables, as desired, in a multi-course family-style meal.

Green Papaya Salad

Written by Kasma Loha-unchit, May 2010.

Tags: fruit, papaya, recipe, salad
Posted in Cooking, Food, ingredient | No Comments »

Kabocha Squash

Kasma Loha-unchit, Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Golden Winter Squash Pairs with Coconut Milk to Make Colorful Sweet Treats

Numerous new varieties of colorful winter squashes are now available in the fall, but I still favor the Japanese kabocha (which means “little pumpkin”) for my cooking. It has a sweet and nutty flavor, smooth and creamy texture, low water content that does not dilute flavorings in my dishes and none of the stringiness characteristic of many kinds of western pumpkins. Because of these attributes, many of my cooking students have found it to be exquisite for making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.

Kabocha Squash

With kabocha, I don’t have to wait until fall to make my favorite pumpkin dishes. It is available most of the year round, from all kinds of markets, including many chain supermarkets. This is because it is a dry squash that grows easily and stores extremely well, sometimes for up to six months in a cool, well-ventilated room.

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

Cut Open Kabocha Squash

Smaller, flatter and more disc-shaped than the common pumpkin carved at Halloween, kabocha squashes average 2-5 pounds in size. They are eaten by Asians at various stages of maturity. Less-mature, deep green ones with light yellow flesh are cooked as vegetables in stir-fried dishes, curries and vegetable soups.(See Kasma’s recipe for Golden Pumpkin Coconut Soup.) As they ripen, the forest-green peel turns a paler grayish green, tinged with splotches of yellow and gold. Inside, the flesh becomes a brilliant shade of orange-gold, much more concentrated with flavor and natural sweetness. At this stage, these golden squashes make a perfect base for all kinds of irresistible and colorful desserts.

Sliced Kabocha Squash

I am particularly fond of two sweet treats my mother frequently made while I was growing up in Southeast Asia. One recipe (Sweet Soup of Kabocha in Coconut Milk) is given below and the other Sangkaya is found on our recipe page. They are easy to make and delicious, combining the goodness of the “little pumpkins” with the rich flavors of coconut milk. Whenever I come across a beautiful ripe kabocha at the market, I couldn’t resist taking it home to turn into these tasty treats for friends and cooking students. They are delightful in cleaning the palate following a spicy meal.

Select a fully-ripened kabocha with good weight for its size – one splashed with golden hues on a grayish green exterior. But if you are not able to find a ripe one, substitute with any ripe golden winter squash, such as the tasty sweet dumpling, delicalata, kalabasa or buttercup.

See our website for more Thai recipes and more Thai ingredients. You might also enjoy our post on Thai (Sweet) Snacks – Kanom Wahn.

This recipe is also available on our website as Sweet Soup of Kabocha in Coconut Milk.

Sweet Soup of Kabocha in Coconut Milk Recipe (Gkaeng Buad Fak Tong)

Ingredients

Kabocha in Coconut Milk

3 cups cut ripe kabocha squash
2 cups or one can of unsweetened coconut milk (preferably Mae Ploy brand)
2 Tbs. palm or coconut sugar (or substitute with brown sugar)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Cut the kabocha squash in half, scoop out the seeds and peel off the greenish skin. Cut into strips about 2 inches long, 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick.

In a saucepan, heat the coconut milk with the two kinds of sugar and salt until well blended. (Salt brings out a rich, caramel flavor from coconut milk.) Bring to a boil, add the squash pieces and cook over low to medium heat until tender (about 7-10 minutes). Serve warm for best flavor.

Serves 6 to 8.

Another (sweet) recipe with coconut milk is Tapioca Black Bean Pudding.

Tags: dessert, kabocha, kanom, recipe, snack, squash
Posted in Cooking, Food, ingredient | 2 Comments »

Tapioca – Sagu (or Sakoo)

Kasma Loha-unchit, Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Warm Tapioca Puddings Give Comfort on Cold Evenings

The tapioca pudding in Thailand is quite different from what westerner’s are used to.

Tapioca pearls

Traditional wisdom in the Orient tells us to eat foods in accordance with the elements of the season in order to stay healthy. In the hot season, we eat milder and lighter foods, such as clear soups, oil-less sour salads and leafy greens, and drink cooling teas like those made from chrysanthemum flowers and pennywort leaves. In the cool season, our diet shifts to include richer and spicier foods like curries, coconut soups, and creamy coconut custards and puddings.

Among the puddings I so loved as a child are those made with tapioca pearls swimming in a warm coconut milk soup. They sometimes contain other flavor and texture elements such as starchy black beans or barley, crunchy water chestnuts, smooth creamy strips of young coconut meat, chewy sticky rice, or sweet corn kernals. These puddings warm the tummy and calm a child’s restless spirit on cool winter evenings. At the same time, they are nutritious, easy to digest, and relatively light compared with dairy-based western desserts.

Uncooked tapioca pearls

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

In most of Asia, tapioca pearls and the puddings made from them are called sagu, sago or sakoo – derived from a Malayan word for the sagu (pronounced “sah-koo”) palm tree (Metroxylon sagu). The sagu palm grows naturally in swampy areas of tropical Asia and is believed to have originated in the Molucca islands of Indonesia. From there, the palm found its way to the rest of Southeast Asia and to India. This 12- to 17-foot palm in the same family as the coconut palm lives for about fifteen years, after which it dies standing. During its decline, a shoot sprouts from the underground root to produce a new tree which carries on the life of the dying parent.

Tapioca pearls cooking

Since ancient times, natives on the islands of Indonesia have used the dense starchy core of the dead sagu palm’s trunk for food. The starch is made into small pellets and dried in the sun so that they can keep until needed for cooking into both savory and sweet dishes. A very common preparation is to cook the starch into a thick porridge and mix with sweetened coconut milk to make the age-old pudding that is now enjoyed throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and the rest of the Asian subcontinent.

Before rice cultivation was introduced in the fifteenth century, sagu was an important staple carbohydrate food on many of the islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Even today, the southeastern islands of the chain where sagu palms grow abundantly continue to rely on it, especially during seasons when rice yields are insufficient to feed the populations. A full-grown tree can yield as much as 600 to 800 pounds of starch for consumption. Besides the starch, the fruit of the sagu palm makes a good snack; the leaf fronds, like those of the coconut palm, are valuable thatching material for roofs; and the fibrous, peely bark can be woven into mats for use as siding for homes, into flat trays for drying foods and into storage baskets.

Tapioca with water chestnuts

It is believed that sagu as a food has been around for over a thousand years. In his explorations of the Spice Islands, Marco Polo encountered and sampled it, and later, in the booming international maritime trade of the eighteenth century, sagu was among the prized commodities from these islands, favored especially by Chinese merchants. Even western merchants in those days became intrigued with sagu and brought it to their homeland where sagu pudding soon became a popular dessert.

Tapioca black bean pudding

Though sagu palm starch is still used to make puddings, it has been replaced in much of Southeast Asia by the starch from the manioc or cassava root, which grows prevalently, take much less time to mature and are easier to harvest. Most of the tapioca pearls imported into America today are made from the latter. In Southeast Asian markets, they come in tiny round pellets in a choice of white, light green and purplish pink. The colors are natural –– the green from the fragrant juice extract of pandanus leaf and the pink from the lovely purple flower of a tropical vine called anchan. Occasionally, you might encounter a mixture of louder colors like bright orange and red, which are from artificial food dyes.

Use the small pellets for the following recipe. For a more substantial, chewy texture, try the larger pearls the size of fish-eye pupils in the first recipe, or use it in savory soups for both an interesting visual and textural component, as well as a source of carbohydrate.

See our website for more Thai recipes and more Thai ingredients.

This recipe is also available on our website as Tapioca Black Bean Pudding.

Tapioca Black Bean Pudding Recipe (Sakoo Tua Dtam)

Ingredients

Tapioca black bean pudding

1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup small tapioca pearls
2 cups, or 1 can coconut milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar, to taste
1 tsp. sea salt, to taste

Pick through and discard any shriveled beans. Cover with water and soak for two or more hours.

Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the beans and return to a boil. Simmer covered over low heat until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally and adding more boiling water if the beans are drying up. When tender, stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup sugar, and simmer a while longer for the beans to absorb the flavorings. [Beans may also be cooked in a pressure cooker, adding the salt and sugar when the beans are cooked.]

When the beans are in their last stretch of cooking, heat 2 cups of water in another saucepan. While waiting for the water to come to a boil, rinse the tapioca pearls in a fine-mesh strainer under running cool tap water until thoroughly wet. Drain and let sit a minute or two for the pearls to absorb surface water, then add to the boiling water. Reduce heat and stir frequently until the pearls clear (8 to 10 minutes). If the mixture becomes too thick, add a little more water to help cook the tapioca until all the pearls are cooked through.

Make a coconut sauce by combining the coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a saucepan. Heat and simmer about 5 minutes to thicken slightly.

When both the beans and tapioca are cooked, mix them together and pour in the coconut sauce. Stir to blend. Serve warm. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Notes:

As with many Thai snacks and desserts, the coconut cream topping is salty sweet to contrast with the bottom layer of pudding which is sweeter. The saltiness makes the cream taste richer; the cream is not meant to be eaten by itself, but together with its sweeter companion.

Written by Kasma Loha-unchit, October 2009.

Tags: beans, dessert, recipe, tapioca
Posted in Cooking, Food, ingredient | 2 Comments »

Garlic Chives and Flowering Chives

Kasma Loha-unchit, Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Garlic chives and flowering chives are vegetables found in Asian markets that may not be familiar to westerners.

Garlic chives

Members of the onion and garlic family are indispensable in my cooking. Crushed garlic, diced onions, chopped shallots and sliced green onions are routinely added to salads, soups, stir-fried dishes, marinades for grilled foods, dipping sauces, and curries and stews. They provide the background foundation upon which other flavors are layered to bring about the depth and complexity of flavor typical of many exquisite Southeast Asian dishes.

In the early spring, I also look for green garlic and various types of leeks at local farmer’s markets, which not only make wonderful companions in stewed meat dishes, but star as the main attraction in vegetable dishes. Come the warm and sunny months of late spring, summer and autumn, luscious bundles of green and yellow garlic chives (also called “Chinese chives”) and irresistible bunches of long-stemmed chive flower buds draw my attention at Asian markets.

Chopping garlic chives

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

The garlic chives cherished by many Southeast Asians are not the green leaves of garlic plants, but are a kind of leafy chives with a distinct garlic flavor. Not at all like the skinny, fragile-looking, round-and-hollow stemmed chives sold in tiny bundles in western supermarkets and used sparingly as a seasoning herb in western cuisine, garlic chives are long (8 to 15 inches), flat and rather wide (1/4 inch) in comparison, and are usually sold in large bunches as they are frequently cooked as a vegetable on their own right (indeed, in parts of China, they are known as “jewels among vegetables”).

Garlic chives, ready to cook

Of course, they also serve as a flavor-enhancing herb in a wide variety of dishes, from soups and salads to fish, meat and egg dishes. They are sometimes eaten raw, cut into inch-long segments, in salads and noodle dishes; or stuffed into dough mixtures to make chive cakes for snacks and appetizers.

Garlic chives come deep green in color, as well as white or yellow. They are one and the same, the latter grown in the dark, preventing chlorophyll from developing. This growing method, called “blanching”, weakens the stems and causes them to grow a bit more curly than straight. Because it also inevitably weakens the plants, blanching is done only once or twice a season following healthy harvests of green chives, thus, limiting the availability of yellow chives.

Stir-frying garlic chives

The Chinese prize yellow chives for their pretty color, succulent texture and subtle flavor; but because they are more fragile and perishable and their supply more limited, they command a rather high price. The more common green variety, on the other hand, is abundantly available almost year-round in most Asian markets at inexpensive prices. Unlike the curly, fleshy and limp yellow chives, which are not bundled, they can be recognized by their distinctly flat, straight, fairly stiff, deep green leaves tied together in hefty bunches.

Garlic chives in wok

Much more precious than either green or yellow garlic chives are flowering chives – oval unopened buds borne on long, stiff, angular green stems. This is reflected in the price, from $2.50 per pound and up, but in most instances, just about the entire stems are edible, not just the buds. The buds have a pungent garlic flavor, while the stems are delectably sweet and crisp. If the stems are unusually long (more than 8 inches), the bottom inch or two can be a bit fibrous and should be trimmed off and discarded. Otherwise, the entire stems can be cut into one-and-a-half-inch segments and stir-fried quickly with oyster sauce, by themselves, or with mushrooms and shrimp to make a quick-and-easy, delicious and nutritious one-dish meal.

See our website for more in Thai recipes and information on more Thai ingredients.

This recipe is also available on our website (Stir-fried Chive Flower Buds with Shrimp and Oyster Mushrooms).

Stir-fried Chive Flower Buds with Shrimp and Oyster Mushrooms

(Pad Dawk Goochai Gkoong Hed Hoi Nahnglom)

1 bunch chive flower buds on long stems – about 3/4 to 1 lb., or substitute green garlic chives
1/2 lb. oyster mushrooms
1/3 lb. small shrimp, shelled and butterflied
3 Tbs. peanut oil
3-4 Tbs. oyster sauce*
2-3 tsp. fish sauce*, to taste

If the bunch of chive flower buds you bought has thick stems at the bottom, cut and discard the bottom 2 to 3 inches that seem tough and fibrous. Cut the remaining stems into 1 1/2-inch segments.

Separate the oyster mushrooms into individual caps. Cut the larger ones in halves or thirds, so that they are bite-size pieces.

Heat a wok until its surface is smoking hot. Add the oil and let heat 10 to 15 seconds. When hot, toss in the shrimp and stir-fry until they begin to turn pink on the outside. Follow with the chive bud-and-stem pieces and stir-fry another minute or so, or until they are partially wilted. Add the mushrooms and toss to mix them in with the chives and shrimp. Sprinkle in enough oyster sauce to lightly coat the vegetables. Stir-well. Salt to taste with fish sauce. Stir-fry another minute or so, or until the chives are cooked but still crisp. (If you are substituting green garlic chives for the chive flower buds, the cooking time will be much shorter as they wilt faster.)

Serves 6 to 8 with rice and other dishes in a shared family-style meal.

*Recommended brand of oyster sauce is “Dragonfly Super Premium”; recommended brands of fish sauce are “Golden Boy” and “Tra Chang”, both from Thailand.

The finished dish

Written by Kasma Loha-unchit, September 2009.

Tags: chives, garlic chives, recipe
Posted in Cooking, Food, ingredient | 2 Comments »

Posts Tagged ‘recipe’

The Universal Vegetable Recipe

Universal Vegetable Recipe – The Short Version

Ingredients

The Recipe

Notes

Basic Recipe Slide Show

Universal Vegetable Recipe – Variations

Recipe with Variations Slide Show

Play with the recipe!

Green Mango

Green Mangoes Make Mouth-Watering Salads

Ingredients

Green Papaya

Green, Unripe Papaya Makes Spicy Salad

Green Papaya Salad Recipe (Som Tam)

Kabocha Squash

Golden Winter Squash Pairs with Coconut Milk to Make Colorful Sweet Treats

Sweet Soup of Kabocha in Coconut Milk Recipe (Gkaeng Buad Fak Tong)

Tapioca – Sagu (or Sakoo)

Warm Tapioca Puddings Give Comfort on Cold Evenings

Tapioca Black Bean Pudding Recipe (Sakoo Tua Dtam)

Notes:

Garlic Chives and Flowering Chives

Stir-fried Chive Flower Buds with Shrimp and Oyster Mushrooms

List of authors:

Pages

Archives

Categories