Ingredient: Black Pepper

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Khao Soi

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Thai cooking lesson – Khao Soi (ข้าวซอย)

Khao soi is a traditional Thai dish that originates from the northern region of Thailand, specifically from the city of Chiang Mai. It is a type of curry noodle soup made with egg noodles, a rich coconut milk-based broth, and a variety of meats such as chicken or beef. The dish is typically garnished with deep-fried noodles, cilantro, green onions, lime wedges, and pickled mustard greens.

The dish has a unique blend of flavors, with a balance of sweet, salty, and spicy notes. The base of the broth is made from a blend of spices, including cumin, turmeric, and coriander, which gives the dish its yellow color. The dish is usually served with a side of chili paste, allowing the diner to adjust the spiciness level to their preference.

The history of Khao soi is quite interesting, it is believed to have been brought to Northern Thailand by Chinese traders and has been influenced by the Burmese and Laotian cuisine. Some historians believe that Khao soi is a descendant of the Burmese dish “Ohn no khao swè” which is a noodle curry dish.

Khao soi has been a staple dish in Northern Thailand for centuries, and it has become increasingly popular in the rest of the country and around the world in recent years. It is often served at street food stalls and small restaurants, but it can also be found on the menus of more upscale restaurants.

This dish is a representation of the melting pot of cultures and influences that have shaped Thai cuisine over the centuries.

The version of the dish shown here is with egg noodles and coconut milk like eaten in the western half of Northern Thailand and very similar in the cuisine of the Shan People who primarily live in Myanmar.

Print Recipe
 Khao Soi
Khao Soi Recipe
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Khao Soi Curry Paste
Khao Soi
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Khao Soi Curry Paste
Khao Soi
Khao Soi Recipe
Instructions
Khao Soi Curry Paste
  1. Ingredients for Khao Soi Curry paste in about the right amounts for a badge which lasts for several times cooking Khao Soi. From the yellow curry powder shown in the glass you will need about 2 table spoons. The dried red chilis are soaked in water.
    Khao Soi Curry Paste Ingredients
  2. Roast the dry spices (coriander, cumin and cardamon seeds, black pepper) in a pan / wok.
    starting preperation of Khao Soi Curry Paste
  3. Grind up the roasted dry spices with pestle and mortar or a blender and put aside.
    grind up roasted dry spices
  4. Grind up the rest of the ingredients (garlic, soaked red chilis, ginger, onions, galangal, lemon grass, tumeric, salt) with pestle and mortar or in a blender.
    grinding spices with pestle and mortar
  5. Add the ground up dry spices and grind it up all together
    adding the roasted spices to the mortar
  6. Add a good amount of oil to a pan and fry the contents of the mortar or blender until the color changes to a darker hue and a fragrant smell develops. Turn off the heat and put it aside. The paste is ready.
    preparing Khao Soi Curry Paste
Khao Soi
  1. Put water in a pan or pot and bring to boil. Add the chicken legs and boil them for about 5 minutes and turn them around during the process. This is done to keep the skin intact in the further cooking process. Keep the water you boiled the chicken in.
    quick boil the chicken legs
  2. Here the ingredients with the quick boiled chicken
    Ingredients for Khao Soi
  3. Add curry paste to your liking (depending on how spicy you like the Khao Soi to be) to a pan big enough for all ingredients. Heat it up and add 4 tea spoons of yellow curry powder.
    Adding yellow curry powder to the paste
  4. The next step is adding the chicken to the pan
    adding chicken
  5. Fry the curry paste together with thhttps://www.thaicookingkohtao.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-ultimate-recipe/img/arrows.pnge chicken. In this case we added some onions, which is a variation of the dish. You can as well leave them away.
    fry the curry paste together with the chicken pieces
  6. Add about 150ml of coconut milk and add some of the water from boiling the chicken until the chicken in the pan is just covered. Add salt.
    adding coconut milk
  7. Boil it on medium heat until the chicken is cooked (about 15 to 20 minutes). During that time you can prepare the egg noodles like described in the following 2 steps.
    boiling on medium heat
  8. Meanwhile boil the main part of the egg noodles in a different pot until cooked.
  9. Deep https://www.thaicookingkohtao.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-ultimate-recipe/img/arrows.pngfry the smaller part of the egg noodles
    frying egg noodles
  10. ...and remove them and let the oil drip off.
    take out the fried noodles
  11. Add sugar, another 250ml of coconut milk and taste it. If it's not spicy enough for you, add some more curry paste. Season it to your taste. Originally it should be a balance between sweet, salty and spicy. At the end a tea spoon of fish sauce.
    add sugar
  12. Serve: Put the boiled noodles first in the bowl, followed by the chicken with the curry sauce. Add the red onions and spring onions, coriander and lime.
    Khao Soi Recipe
Stir Fry

Vegetarian Phad See Ew

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Vegetarian and healthy Phad See Ew (ผัดซีอิ๊ว)

Our Phad See Ew recipe here reflects our strive for healthy cooking. This Chinese influenced noodle stir fry dish is traditionally done with copious amounts of oil and sugar, and rather few vegetables. The owners of street food stalls and restaurants soon realized, that Phad See Ew sells better like this. It tastes good but so does other junk food.
Doing some research I found this wonderful little video for preparing this dish which shows nicely what I mean:

Apart from the health aspect there is as well a little difficulty in replicating the shown way of preparing the dish. Watching the video I couldn’t help having an old song of Talking Heads in my head: Burning Down The House 🙂

We disagree that you need absolutely searing heat, Thai burners and the tin woks used in Thai street food stalls and restaurants to produce a tasty Phad See Ew. Our experience is rather, that for most westerners it is very difficult to get a good result with the traditionally used woks. These are very thin and light, and get hot very fast. If you don’t know exactly what you are doing, it’s a perfect recipe for disaster but not a very tasty dish.

We added a few more vegetables, reduced the use of cooking oil a lot and increased the cooking time just enough that someone who didn’t grow up using a wok can cope.

Have fun cooking and enjoy a tasty, healthy and fast to prepare meal!

 

 

 

 

Print Recipe
 Phad See Ew
Pha See Ew cooking lesson
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Thai
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Thai
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 7 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Pha See Ew cooking lesson
Instructions
  1. Get your ingredients ready. Shown are ingredients for 1 portion. Don't do more than 2 portions at a time, otherwise the noodles will inevitably turn out soggy.
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class Ingredients
  2. Heat oil in a wok and start with frying the garlic
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class
  3. Add tofu cubes
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class
  4. Add egg and fry until a little solid
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class Recipe
  5. Add the noodles
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class Recipe
  6. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce (not too much), oyster sauce, sugar and pepper
    Phad See Ew Cooking Class Recipe
  7. Add vegetables and mix well. It's done when the vegetables are cooked (they still should have a good bite to it)
    Phad See Ew Recipe
  8. Serve with lime and a bit of chilly powder
    Phad See Ew Recipe
Curry

Phanaeng Curry Paste

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Coooking Lesson – Phanaeng Curry Paste (น้ำพริกแกงพะแนง)

The shown recipe is for a slightly altered version of the original Phanaeng Curry Paste. Joy is leaving the shrimp paste away, which is difficult to obtain in western countries and not that great to handle because of its pungent smell. Another advantage of leaving the shrimp paste away is, that this makes the Curry Paste suitable for vegetarian and vegan cuisine.
This Phanaeng Curry Paste works perfect with Joy’s Phanaeng Curry recipe. This is as well an alteration of the original Thai recipe and very popular with our students.

Print Recipe
 Phanaeng Curry Paste
Phanaeng Curry Paste Ingredients Overview
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Phanaeng Curry Paste Ingredients Overview
Instructions
  1. The shown amounts are sufficient for about 10 portions, depending on how spice you would like the dish to be
    Ingredients Phanaeng Curry Paste
  2. First mince the wet ingredients which are: dried chilies soaked in water, lemon grass, red onions, garlic, galangal, ginger and tumeric.
  3. ...until it looks like this and put aside
    ready to put aside
  4. Roast the dry ingredients for the curry paste which are: coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black pepper and dried chilies
    Roasted Coriander Seeds,cumin Seeds,dried Chilli And Black Pepper And Crush To The Powder
  5. After roasting put the dry ingredients in the mortar and grind them
    Dry ingredients in the mortar
  6. ...until it looks like this
  7. Now it's time to mix the pre prepared dry and wet ingredients together
    Mix well
  8. To save time you can now use a blender with hardly any impact on the taste
  9. Heat up some cooking oil, add the paste, stir well and add some coconut milk for the creamier texture and bring to boil
  10. Here the finished result
    Done
Curry

Green Curry Paste

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Super fast green curry paste – พริกแกงเขียวหวาน

This is the curry paste you can prepare for just one dish! We usually advice our cooking class students to use ready made pastes at home. In this case it is different. If you are using a blender, you can manage all in less than 20 minutes. And using the amounts shown you have enough for a family and still can keep the rest in the fridge to use it up to a week later.
Already finished? – Here is what to do with the paste: Green Curry Recipe

Print Recipe
 Green Curry Paste
Lemongrass,galangal,garlic,red Onion,turmeric,black Pepper,green Pepper,green Chills And Salt
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Lemongrass,galangal,garlic,red Onion,turmeric,black Pepper,green Pepper,green Chills And Salt
Instructions
  1. Here the ingredients for the green curry paste in the right amounts. The amount of salt added you can see in the next picture where the ingredients are already added to the mortar.
    Ingredients Green Curry Paste
  2. Put all above ingredients + some salt (preferable sea salt) in a mortar.
  3. Crush and grind the ingredients into a fine paste - We are using pestle and mortar for the beginning and then put it into a blender to save time
    Crush and grind into a fine paste
  4. And here we are already ready to use the paste in our cooking class
    Ready to be used in the green curry cooking lesson
Curry

Massaman Curry Paste

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Cooking Lesson – Massaman Curry Paste (พริกแกงมัสมั่น)

The ingredients for Massaman Curry Paste are much easier to obtain than the ingredients for the distinct Thai curries. Massaman Curry is influenced by the tastes of the Indian cuisine. Indian spices are much wider spread and most of them are readily available even in a normal supermarket in the western world.

Another difference to other Thai Curries is, that most ingredients are roasted in a pan before being pounded in the mortar. You will enjoy the fragrance of the spices filling your kitchen. You can safe time by using a blender but since the blender is cutting the fibers in opposition to crushing and separating the fibers, the result is not as satisfactory taste wise as doing the hard work with pestle and mortar.

Of course you can always buy the ready made paste, but after preparing this curry paste yourself and tasting the result, we are pretty sure that you will try to find the time for doing it yourself.:-)

Print Recipe
 Massaman Curry Paste
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. The ingredients for the paste are: Lemon grass, galangal, garlic, red onions, ginger, dry chilies, black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamon, bay leaves, cinnamon, whole cloves and dried red peppers.
    Ingredients Massaman Curry Paste
  2. Roast the coriander seeds, together with the cardamon, cumin seeds, black pepper, cinnamon and bay leaves until it all smells nice and the color changes.
  3. For the best taste use pestle and mortar to grind the roasted ingredients to powder. However, nowadays there is usually a blender used, which saves an enormous amount of time and elbow grease. Remove the powder mix and put aside.
  4. Add the dried peppers, which were soaked in water and some salt
  5. Add all the remaining ingredients
  6. Add the powder mix with the paste
    Massaman Curry Paste
  7. Now it's time to put all the ground ingredients together with some oil in the blender
  8. Cook in the pan, use what you need for your Massaman Curry and keep the rest in a jar to use later
Recipe Notes

Like in most recipes for our cooking classes we do not list exact amounts - just have a look at the ingredient pic and the phase pic to get an idea. If you attended our cooking class it should not be a problem at all.

Soup

Tom Kha

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Cooking Class Recipe – Tom Kha (ต้มข่า)

The recipe for this cooking class is the most common variety of Tom Kha, which is Tom Kha Gai, or Chicken Galangal Soup.

In case you already had a look at our Tom Yum cooking class recipe you know that Tom (ต้ม) means “cooked” in Thai language. Kha (ข่า) means Galangal, as well known as Thai Ginger of Galgant. But this is not what most foreigners remember when they have eaten this famous Thai dish. It is the creamy coconut milk which is the base for this soup. The coconut milk softens the heat of the spices and gives you a nice afterburn in the throat.
Now let’s go to the hands on experience with the recipe for this cooking class:

Print Recipe
 Tom Kha
Tom Kha Gai
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Tom Kha Gai
Instructions
  1. Ingredients for one shown on a plate: Chicken, mushrooms, baby corn, carrots, kaffir lime leaves, spring onions, lime, galangal, cherry tomatoes, garlic, red onions
    Cooking Class Tom Kha
  2. Add coconut milk to a sufficient sized pot.
  3. Add the galangal, chopped lemon grass, chopped onion, baby corn, carrots, garlic and some water.
    Cooking Class Tom Kha
  4. Bring to boil.
  5. Add sugar, salt, chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and the rest of the coconut milk.
    Cooking Class Tom Kha
  6. Boil until chicken is cooked and add kaffir lime leaves, spring onions, black pepper, lime juice and if you like some coriander
    Cooking Class Tom Kha
Uncategorized

No Name

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Thai Cooking Class – No Name Vegetable (โนเนมผัก)

Hardly found in any restaurant outside of Thailand, this cooking class is about a Thai snack, which is very popular with westerners, visiting the island destinations in the South of the country. The dish literally has no name in Thailand. It is a snack originating out of times of poverty, when people scrambled to make a living. This dish was made out of scraps. The name is probably not older than a few decades. It probably was named when American soldiers on leave from the Vietnam War were asking for the name of the dish. The Thai script in the title sounds “No Name Pak” with “Pak” meaning “vegetable”.
In our recipe for the cooking class is already mentioned in the ingredients “… and more vegetables of your choice” which can be taken face value – just experiment with any scraps you have at hand. They work as well with minced meats like pork and chicken and as a more sophisticated variety with prawns.
This snack is served with some tomatoes and lettuce. As a sauce you are usually given the same sweet chilly sauce which accompanies spring rolls when ordered in a restaurant. On our picture the sauce is a homemade sweet chilly sauce which preparation we will show you in another Thai Cooking Class recipe. If you like, you can prepare the curry paste yourself: Red Curry Paste

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 Cooking Class No Name
Cooking Class No Name Ingredients
Course Snack
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Course Snack
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Cooking Class No Name Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Have your ingredients ready. The 2 little bowls on the plate are the Red Curry Paste and the finely chopped lime leaves. Behind the plate you see the tempura and rice flour.
    No Name ingredients
  2. Add all the vegetables, egg, red curry paste, salt and sugar into a bowl. If you are vegan, just leave the egg away.
  3. Add tempura and rice flour
  4. Add a little bit of cold water and mix well
    No Name Thai Cooking Recipe
  5. Heat up the cooking oil in a pan
  6. Add more flour if it is too wet and start spooning it into the hot oil. Just take spoon full and scoop the mixture off the spoon with another spoon or fork.
  7. Fry until golden brown
    Cooking Class No Name frying
  8. Serve with sweet chilly sauce and decoration to your liking
    No Name Serving Example
Uncategorized

Thai Ginger Chicken

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Thai cooking course – Phad King Gai (ผัดขิงไก่)

Thai Ginger Chicken is a Chinese influenced Thai dish with high popularity all over the country and in Laos. Phad King is as well prepared with a variety of other meats like pork and beef or as well vegetarian with tofu. The most important ingredient is the Ginger which gives this Thai dish it’s unique characteristic taste. It is served with rice.

Print Recipe
 Thai Ginger Chicken
The pictures show a slight variation of the recipe with no mushrooms, but sweet corn and a few other amendments. Feel free to experiment yourself since ingredients for every recipe in the world are not written in stone, but a very important thing in good cooking is choosing the freshest ingredients.
Cooking lesson koh tao
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Cooking lesson koh tao
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a pan and add garlic, ginger and onions
    cooking class phase 1
  2. Then add chicken. Stir until it is cooked.
    Cooking Class Phad King Gai Phase 2
  3. Now you start to add all the sauces - first soy sauce and dark soy sauce
    Add soy sauce and dark soy sauce
  4. Add sugar and a bit of water. Heat until it boils.
    Sugar and Water
  5. Then add oyster sauce and mushrooms.
    add mushrooms
  6. Taste it and add more sauce if it still doesn't taste right.
  7. At the last minute add red pepper and spring onions.
    At last add spring onions and red peppers
  8. Stir a bit, then turn off gas