Ingredient: Carrot

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
Curry

Phanaeng Curry Chicken

Posted on by Alf Birnecker

Thai Cooking Lesson – Phanaeng (พะแนง) Curry Chicken

The Phanaeng (or Panang, Penang) Curry is originating from central Thailand and the recipe goes back hundreds of years. The word Phanaeng comes from the Khmer language meaning cross, mostly used for a cross-legged seating position. Traditionally the chicken was placed in a cross legged position upright on the grill. The chicken was bathed in the curry paste with grounded peanuts and then brushed with the same mixture over the whole cooking process. Later the process was simplified by cutting up the chicken in large pieces and, instead of being prepared on the grill, it went to the pot where it was cooked in the sauce. In this cooking lesson you will learn how to cook the Phanaeng Curry Chicken or, if you are vegetarian, Phanaeng Curry can be prepared as well as a vegetarian dish with Tofu.
At home you can use the now widely available ready made pastes. However, more tasty is of course to make your Phanaeng Curry Paste from scratch.

Print Recipe
 Penang Curry Chicken
Cooking Class Penang Curry
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Central Thai, Thai
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Central Thai, Thai
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Cooking Class Penang Curry
Instructions
  1. Ingredients for one portion. As you can see there is quite a bit more curry paste than a tea spoon. One tea spoon is for a European palate with very little tolerance for spicy food. Just start with a tea spoon and add more if you like it more spicy. You can always add more paste until the very end of the recipe. Just keep in mind that you can't reverse the process :-). As for the vegetables the amounts can vary as well according to taste.
  2. Fry the curry paste with the oil in a wok
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  3. Add coconut milk until all the paste is covered
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  4. Bring to boil
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  5. Add baby corn and carrots and a bit of water. Add oyster sauce, sugar and salt. Bring to boil again.
  6. Add chicken and stir it in.
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  7. Add sliced lime leaves and pineapple and bring to boil and add more coconut milk and fish sauce
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  8. Add the sliced long beans and chilly peppers
    Phanaeng Curry Chicken Recipe
  9. Serve with rice