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Khao Soi

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.

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Khao Soi
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
Curry

Phanaeng Curry Paste

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.

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Phanaeng Curry Paste
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

Massaman Curry Paste

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
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.