Ingredient: Cabbage

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
Uncategorized

Spring Rolls

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Cooking Class – Popiah (ปอเปี๊ยะ)

In this cooking lesson we are preparing one of the Thai versions of a worldwide popular starter and snack: Popiah, which is the name for spring rolls in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.
Spring rolls are rolled and filled appetizers which come in a large variety. Its origins are from China. The Chinese chūn juǎn (春卷) literally translated means “spring roll” and comes from a pancake filled with fresh spring vegetables.
Cooking Class - small variety spring roll
The popiah we are preparing in this cooking class is the fried one, the most common variety in Thailand. If our cooking students are interested, we teach as well the tiny snack variety shown in the picture. Other varieties of Popiah are “Salad Rolls”. This is often the choice or our more health oriented vegetarian students. The difference to the spring rolls described here is merely that it’s rolled in a different pastry and not deep fried. This way to prepare spring rolls is more common in Vietnam, which is the reason that the pastry used is called “Vietnamese spring roll pastry”. It actually is just rice paper.
For now have fun with the popiah cooking class.

Print Recipe
 Spring Rolls
Spring Roll Cooking Lesson 01
Course Snack
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Course Snack
Cuisine Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Spring Roll Cooking Lesson 01
Instructions
  1. defrost the spring roll sheets (pastry)
    Spring roll pastry
  2. Soak the glass noodles for about 10 minutes
  3. Heat oil in a wok or pan
  4. Add all the vegetables and stir fry them for a short time
  5. Add sugar, soy sauce, salt and glass noodles and stir until glass noodles are cooked
  6. Put aside at let cool down a bit
    Spring Roll Cooking Lesson
  7. Take the spring roll sheets out and start wrapping them like learned in the cooking class
    Cooking class rolling spring rolls
  8. Deep fry the spring rolls
  9. Get rid of excess oil and serve
    Spring Roll Cooking Lesson
Uncategorized

Fried Rice

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Cooking Course recipe – Fried Rice (ข้าวผัด)

Fried rice is originally coming from China and probably is the most known food export from this marvelous cuisine. It first became a staple dish in almost all surrounding countries and then made it’s way all around the world in myriads of different ways to prepare.
In this cooking lesson we will prepare Fried Rice Chicken. Of course in the variety how fried rice developed in Thailand. Like many other Thai dishes you can cook Fried Rice with a variety of meats. Seafood or just vegetarian with tofu is an option as well. The main difference to the Chinese original is the choice of rice. In Thailand this dish is prepared with Jasmine Rice instead of regular long-grain rice.
The Thai name (ข้าวผัด) is pronounced Khao Phat. Khao means “rice” in Thai, and Phad “being stir-fried.
Thai fried rice is usually served with some lime and sliced cucumber as a side.
Now it is time to get hands on experience. Have fun with this lesson of our cooking course.

Print Recipe
 Cooking Class Fried Rice
Cooking Lesson Fried Rice
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Central Thai, Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Central Thai, Thai
Servings
Ingredients
Cooking Lesson Fried Rice
Instructions
  1. Preheat a large wok or a large pan to medium heat
  2. Pour coconut oil or vegetable oil in
  3. Add garlic and fry until yellow
  4. Add chicken and fry until cooked, add egg and keep frying.
  5. Add carrots, baby corn, cabbage and peas and fry until all the vegetables are soft
  6. Add the steamed rice
  7. Add the soy sauce and the sugar and add at last the tomatoes and the spring onions
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

Print Recipe
 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

Phad Thai

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Thai cooking with Joy recipe:

Phad Thai – ” ผัดไทย “

A stir fried rice noodle dish found on literally every single night market in Thailand. Phad Thai is a real street food classic. It is pretty much a national dish, though not with a very long history. It became popular in Thailand during, and after world war II.
The recipe shown here is with the original preparation of the Tamarind Sauce, like taught in our Thai cooking lessons with Joy. It is possible to substitute this with the commonly available Tamarind paste.
Recently the Tourism Authority of Thailand published a video about this popular Thai dish:

The phase pictures in the recipe show preparing the sauce for about 4 portions at once, while the phase pictures for the Phad Thai itself show the preparation for only one portion.  To have a good result, please don’t do more than  one portion at a time or the noodles will stick together.

Print Recipe
 Phad Thai - " ผัดไทย "
Cooking Class Phad Thai Goong
Cuisine Thai
Servings
People
Ingredients
Phad Thai Sauce
Phad Thai
Cuisine Thai
Servings
People
Ingredients
Phad Thai Sauce
Phad Thai
Cooking Class Phad Thai Goong
Instructions
Phad Thai Sauce
  1. Mix tamarind with some water and use only the liquid, like learned in the cooking course, put aside. On the pic are the ingredients: Tamarind and the finished Tamarind Sauce, Palm Sugar, Red Onions and Salt.
    Phad Thai Sauce Ingredients
  2. Heat cooking oil in a pot and fry the red onions in it until golden brown.
  3. Add tamarind sauce, palm sugar and salt. Mix well.
  4. Add water, bring to boil and put aside
Phad Thai
  1. Ingredients
  2. Fry the garlic and add the egg(s) and stir until a little solid.
  3. Add Phad Thai Sauce with the noodles. Make sure that the Phad Thai sauce covers the noodles. Bring to boil and let it simmer until the noodles are cooked. At this point most of the liquid should have evaporated
  4. Add Cabbage and Carrots. Mix well.
  5. Add prawns, bean sprouts and chives. Stir well. Add soy sauce and be careful not to overcook the prawns.
  6. Ready to serve