Loog Choob or Miniature fruit

Preparation of this Thai dessert will definitely enhance your creative impulse. You just need to have some wild imagination, delicate fingers, food coloring and small paint brush. Your Loog Choob is ready. To serve two to four persons you need to arrange half cup sugar, four cups coconut milk, one cup hulled mung beans, two to three bamboo skewers, and one package gelatin or food colors. The process is simple and it won’t take much time to prepare this Thai dish.

Mung bean should be boiled till it becomes soft and tender. You should make it like a pate. Coconut milk is added little at a time. Then the whole composition should be stirred in sugar. You can use low heat throughout the process. The paste should be so smooth that no one can feel a single bean kernel. The paste should be cooled before using this further. The gelatin can be prepared very easily after reading the instruction written on the packet.

After this the important part begins where you have the chance to show your talent and become popular in your kid’s friends circle. Take a small amount of the paste and shape it into a form a fruits, vegetables or if possible any animal. After that you can stick your fruit or vegetables on the skewer and this is mainly because of easy handling. After that color should be added on these with a fine brush. Gelatin will help to seal the color. The objects should be stuck to the skewer till the gelatin becomes completely set. Your dessert is ready. Place these in a plate and see the reaction of your tiny one. I can tell you from my experience you will get a warm hug and yes that’s your price…

Kow Neuw Mamuang-mango on sticky rice

Thai dishes are internationally famed. Mango on sticky rice is a traditional Thai dish which is very famous as a summer dessert. All of us know that mango is a summer fruit and that is why this dessert can be best enjoyed in the months of April and May. Mango on sticky rice is really delicious and you should taste this once in a lifetime.

You can make it in a very simple way. One ripe mango is peeled and sliced. The coconut milk and sticky rice has already been prepared and kept aside. Now, this sticky rice should be placed on a small plate and then top it with peeled mango. The coconut milk can be served by spoon on top of it to garnish the whole dish and makes it more attractive.

Thai desserts are very original and they have no similarity with the Western desserts. In Thai dishes you will always get indigenous ingredients. In Thailand, you won’t get cake made in Western style. Even many chefs don’t know how to make cake in that style. They don’t even use measuring cups while preparing some delicious cakes. The flavors are more or less mentioned as a mixture of sweet and coconut milk. A typical Thai meal always ends with a sweet dessert or some fresh fruits. If you have kids at home you can try making Loog Choob or miniature fruit. In my next post I will try to write the recipe so that you can try once and see your child’s happy face.

Kow Neuw Moon-sticky rice with coconut milk

Sticky rice is an important part in Thai dish. This is known as the core ingredient of Thai dessert and also northeastern Thai food. This dish is easy to make. The ingredients are as follows one cup sticky rice, two tablespoons sugar, one cup coconut milk and two pinches salt. Traditionally this dish was made by using a steamer. The process can be explained as at first the sticky rice should be soaked in enough water so that the rice can be covered for an hour or even sometimes overnight. Water should be there in the bottom of the steamer and the steam section should be covered with cheese or muslin cloth. The rice should be poured in the muslin cloth which is followed by covering the lid. Then the steamer is put on the stove on medium to high heat. It takes twenty minutes to cook the rice in a steamer.

Now a day all of us are habituated to use microwave oven. So, this is better to write down the process of making sticky rice in this gadget. First the rice should be soaked in warm water for about ten minutes. Soaking is important as it makes the rice soft and it also helps a lot in cooking. If the quantity of rice is one cup, the water should be little more than a cup. The cooking bowl should be made of glass. The bowl with rice and water should be covered with lid and cooked for three minutes in full power. The rice should be stirred from up to the bottom. You will fine some part of rice is cooked and some are not. Repeat the process for another three minutes. The rice should look translucent if it really cooked, or else the process of cooking three minutes should be repeated.

In the next phase the coconut milk should be heated in a pot on simmer and constantly stirred till the coconut milk thickens. Sugar and salt should be added till the milk becomes curdled. After this it should be removed from it. ¾ of the hot coconut milk should be poured over the hot sticky rice and it should be like this till five minutes. Rice will absorb the coconut milk, after which it becomes mushy. The rest of the coconut milk can be used for garnishing.

The process of preparing Laab

Laab is a famous Thai dish which is relished by most of the Thai people. This is very popular in Thai feasts. Laab is also known as Larb and Laap which is a northeastern food. Laab is usually eaten as a part of a set such as salad made of papaya, laab, and sticky rice. The set is accompanied by string beans, water spinach, sliver of cabbage and Thai basil. Laab can also be served as an appetizer as well as a main course along with some other non-northeastern food. Some of the variations of Laab can be named as chicken laab, duck laab, and normal laab. Sometimes pieces of livers are added in the Laab to make it tastier.

One third of the lime should be squeezed on to the ground pork. Afterwards it should be marinated for just a couple of minutes. Thai people need small pots to cook this dish. Cast iron pans can also be used to cook the food because they become heated very soon and retain it for long. The pan should be placed on high flame until it becomes very hot. Two tablespoons of water should be added which is followed by adding marinated pork. Then the whole thing should be stirred well. At first the pork sticks to the pan but later when the juice comes out the meat loosens from bottom. The stirring should be continued. Traditionally the pork should be undercooked but it is not advisable due to health reasons.

The pork should be put in a large mixing bowl. The other ingredients should be added afterwards which include green onion, cilantro, shallot, fish sauce, lime juice, chili pepper, toasted rice, etc. Toasted rice can also be used to garnish the dish from top. It should be mixed well and tasted later. The dish is hot with little bit of tartness. All the mixed ingredients should be added to a serving bowl and then should be garnished with spearmint and toasted rice. Various vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, Thai basil, and green beans are usually added from top.

Eating and Ordering Thai Food

Thai food is really tasty if you can eat proper food in proper time. You should also know proper etiquette of having Thai food. Thai food is usually eaten with a fork and spoon. Some of the single dish meals such as steamed rice topped with roasted duck or fried rice with pork are served in slices or chunks. The spoon is used to take the food in to mouth. Thai food is internationally famed. People from around the world relish this food with great interest. Sometime Thai foods are chili-hot while sometimes they are bland. Thai cuisine can be interpreted as a combination of Eastern and Western types and now these are uniquely Thai. Thai cooking depends on many aspects such as who is cooking it, for whom is the dish being cooked, for which specific occasion, etc.

In has been seen from past that waterborne e.g. aquatic animals, herbs, plants, were the major ingredients of Thai food. Large pieces of meats are usually avoided. And that is the reason why sizeable chunks of meats are introduced to Thai food. Eating Thai food is ideal with two or more people in a group. This is useful because greater the no of the persons, greater the no of dishes ordered. When the diners are two, they should order three side dishes besides their own steamed rice plates. When the diners are three, the side dishes should be four and the counting should continue like this. Soups can be a good starter in most of the cases. Spicy dishes are usually taken to balance with the bland dishes.

The ideal Thai dish is a mixture of hot, sour, sweet and spicy. It should definitely be satisfying to nose, eyes and also palate. A typical Thai meal includes a clear soup like melons stuffed with minced pork, a steamed rice, a hot salad made of onions, lettuce, chilies, lemon juice, and mint, a fried dish, and different kinds of sauces into which food is dipped. All these dishes would be followed by some fresh fruits such as jackfruit, mangoes, grape, papaya and melon. A sweet dessert can also be added to the end part of a nice meal.

Green papaya salad in Thailand

Green papaya salad is one of the important dishes in Thailand. This is mainly popular among Thai women. This is a northeastern Thai dish is eatable with sticky rice. The other side dishes are beef salad, laab, bamboo shoot salad, etc. Two most popular green papaya salads are best accompanied with salted crab or shrimp. When dried shrimp or peanuts are added, the salad is named as som tum Thai and when it is added with crab, this is called som tum pbooh. The other ingredients remain same in both the cases.

The ingredients can be summarized as one or one and half tablespoons palm sugar, three fourth lime, 2 cups green papaya, five cherry tomatoes, one and one and half tablespoon fish sauce, two chili peppers, one tablespoon dried shrimp, six green beans, one clove garlic, and two tablespoon toasted peanuts which is optional.

If you are preparing vegetarian som tum, dried shrimp should be avoided. You can use fish sauce or soy sauce in place of that. Sometimes lime can be replaced with tamarind and palm sugar can be replaced with regular sugar. The balance of lime juice, fish sauce, peppers, and palm sugar should be properly maintained. In Thailand shredded green papaya is available in every supermarket. Even if you are getting whole papaya, you can peel it and grate it with cheese grater with medium and large sized holes. The seeds should be discarded if there are any. Green papaya salad is usually prepared with the help of a clay mortar, spatula and a wooden pestle.

At first the clove or garlic should be smashed. Green beans and half cherry tomatoes are added afterwards. Chili peppers should be crushed and added to the salad. It should be followed by adding green papaya, toasted peanuts, dried shrimp, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. The pestle is used to push up the mixture in the mortar while spatula is used to push down in order to mix well the mixture. Not much effort is required to prepare the green papaya salad so just go for it and relish it with yours friends and family.

Remarkable Thai dishes

Thai dishes are literally world famous. Some of the Thai dishes are very popular in the western countries. As main ingredients you can add some of the protein side dishes such as pork, chicken, beef, tofu, duck or some delicious seafood. In Thailand you can have an array of dishes that you can enjoy with your friends and family. The dishes are really mouth watering where essential proteins, vitamins and carbohydrates are present in adequate quantity. You can have different dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For different parties you can choose to serve different dishes. People will love to enjoy the Thai delicacies as they have some intrinsic taste within itself.

For breakfast Jok and Khao Tom are famous. Jok is a rice porridge which is a renowned name in Thailand. Khao Tom is rice soup in Thai style. It is best combined with chicken, pork or shrimp.

Pad Thai is a rice noodles fried with sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and tamarind pulp. Other ingredients are peanuts, seafood, tofu, and egg that are combined with chicken. Khao pad naem is another Thai dish where fried rice is combined with sausages. Khanom chin namya is a round rice noodles. Often it is topped with curry sauces, the taste of this dish comes best when added with some fresh vegetables and leaves. Khao pad gai is a type of fried rice mixed with chicken. Pad see ew is actually noodles fried with see ew dum i.e. think soy sauce and also nahm plah or fish sauce. Pork and chicken can also be added with this.

Pad nais a type of rice noodles mixed with beef, seafood, shrimp, pork and chicken. Pad kee mao is an interesting Thai dish. This is Thai noodles mixed with basil leaves. Khao soi is a crispy noodle made of wheat. Sweet chicken curry soup is added with this dish. Khao khluk kapi is rice mixed with shrimp paste. This is garnished with pork and vegetables. Gai pad grapao is softened chicken with chilly, garlic and also basil leaves.

These are some of the important dishes in Thailand. You can try anyone of them as all the dishes are excellent to eat and also easily digestible.

Prepare Khao Pad Grapow

This authentic Thai dish is Thai Stir-Fried Rice prepared with chicken and basil leaves. If you want to treat your friends with this dish you just need four cups of cooked cold Thai Jasmine rice. The rice should be cooked four hours before.

The ingredients of the dish are very interesting. It includes 1 pound ground or minced chicken, 6 whole pealed Shallots, 1 cup holy basil leaves, 2 tablespoons fish sauce i.e. nam pla, 1 cup chopped long beans, 4 whole cloves garlic, 1/4 cup mixed red & green Thai chilies, 1tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon palm sugar, and 1 teaspoon ground pepper. Variation can be done by adding a medium sized onion that is diced properly and also sliced green onions. In some cases combinations of both can also be done.

Pad Grapow can be prepared where the garlic, chilies and shallots re ground together in a mortar and pounded together. Then the paste should be fried in a hot wok with little cooking oil. The frying should be continued till the aroma comes out. Then add the chicken and continue frying for another two minutes. Remaining ingredients should be added afterwards. Stirring should be continued till the chicken is cooked properly. Them remove the dish from the wok and keep aside. It is not necessary to clean the wok.

After this, start preparing the fried rice. Put one tablespoon oil in the hot wok. Add cooked rice in the wok and constant stir it until the whole rice get heated. Add the pad grapow and stir fry it for next three minutes. The two things should be mixed thoroughly.

This Thai dish should be served properly. A fried egg can be placed at the top. You can serve some hot and sour Tom Yam soups, some curries and also other authentic Thai food.