Just a few dishes so far. But I am loving the diversion from classical techniques. Building the sundries is a real time killer, and the shopping list is a pain of course, but the pay off is definitely there so far. I am a huge fan of thai, except for the restaurants that serve it here. Going to have to make the pilgrimage to Brooklyn as some point.
Som Tam Thai and Sii Khrong Muu Yaang (green papaya salad and grilled pork ribs) with sticky rice
Yam Makheua Yao (grilled eggplant salad) prior to assembly
This combined was a food epiphany. I have never had thai like this. The flavors were explosive. The profile was brand new, strong fish sauce, but it’s right on, as is the fried garlic and egg. What an incredible dish that is just not difficult to do. I used japanese eggplant with no issues, plenty of structure still there after charring.
Had a friend come over and try the recipe for wings the other day. They weren’t bad, but not my favorite either. Checked out the book and it looks really interesting. Want to try a few other things.
Nice. I don’t think I knew about the book. Had a great lunch at the PDX location with Vincent F. (not going to try and spell). Of course Bob Wood would not approve. Too salty.
The closest asian market is in Irvine and I didn’t want to drive there this weekend. Only missing component was dried shrimp, which is pretty important so I look forward to an even better version. That grilled eggplant salad was off the chain.
If this book has the Pok Pok chicken recipe, then I recommend that very highly. My buddy, a former professional chef, made a couple of these rotisseried chickens for us a few months ago. The recipe looked very involved but those birds were incredible.
Forgot a pic at first. This recipe is very basic and quickly approximates Thai take out, although it can be much better of course if you have good ingredients and wok skills (I was short on both). The sauce in this one does not take care of the salt so you need to be careful to dial it in as you finish, if there wasn’t enough in the shrimp stock. Since I omitted the shrimp stock, I went with vegetable stock and added peanuts. It was still delicious. I also used the garlic oil I made while frying the garlic chips this weekend, and sprinkled in some garlic chips at the finish. My veggies were onion, bell pepper, cabbage, green bean, sugar snap pea, just because that is what I had.
Did he make them spicy or not spicy? Having had quite a few of these over the years, I’ve found that the ones that are not spicy are fine - but not great. The spicy ones can be dynamite, they seem much more balanced (less sweet) and on point. However, I have not made them out of the cookbook since I can walk a short distance and pick them up at Pok Pok Noi…
Phat Phak Ruam Mit (vegetable stir fry) with shrimp
This time I spared nothing. Wild 20ct shrimp, had to peel and vein. Chucked the shells in for a stock. I went standard mirepoix but I had some lemongrass and ginger laying around and won’t lie, I smashed a couple pieces and threw it in. Bay leaf, some garlic, I had 0.5lb of shrimp with 4 cups of water and reduced it down to 2 cups. And it was delicious.
So for those that don’t have the book, I made a shrimp stock and now need to blanch some veg.
Sprouts stay out of course. Chill these quickly after about 30 seconds blanch.
Now to get the heat on. Don’t know how many btu’s I need, but more than this. I fire up the sides just to get the edges of the wok. Helps a little.
By the way, after needing to fry some garlic chips and reserve some oil to make recipes from this book, it turns out I won’t cook anything without them. So, I stir fry with the reserved oil, and at the very end of cooking I throw in the chips just to warm them up.
I long greatly for thousands more BTUs on my wok at this point, but without question this is the greatest stir fry I have ever encountered. Savory, spicy, funky, a touch tart and sweet, with amazing textures and pops of flavor. I tossed in the bean sprouts at the end and then garnished with cilantro. The shrooms were done on the side and the shrimp seared in that pan.
The cooking order here is pretty simple. Blanch veg. Heat oil. Add chilis. Stir fry veg for a minute or so. Add the oyster sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, simple syrup. Go another minute or so. Then add the 1/4 to 1/2 cup shrimp stock and go for a minute or so to crisp up the veg.
Tried a few of the recipes… som tam thai papaya salad was good though pretty standard, stir fry brussels sprouts was meh (i’m a devotee of charred oven baked sprouts), salt crusted fish w chile sauce was pretty amazing (though not entirely unique - comes down to quality of fish, and this technique is not very specific to Thailand, which he calls out in the recipe).
I haven’t but I think I need one. The wok was a xmas gift so I’m putting it through the paces. I’ll sneak one into the pantry. I can see how the home cook needs one to make up for the lack of burner power.
I used a carbon steel wok for awhile. An unfortunate kitchen mishap made me need to buy a new wok so I went with a cast iron one. Holds heat way better. Especially since your tossing in a lot of cool/room temp sauces that might not brings the pan temp down quickly
Where do you get good Green Papaya. We had a great Green Papaya salad at a hole int he wall Thai Place in The Berkshires a few years ago but I was never able to replicate it because I could not finds the fruit. At one point I found what I thought was it and used a Mandolin to make julienne pieces but it was so unripe it was horrible.
