I’m not one to shy away from elaborate recipes but everyone needs some quick and easy recipes as well in their arsenal. This is definitely one of mine. It’s not an authentic recipe at all and in fact was created from leftovers from other recipe videos I had been working on. The results are so good, I’ve been making this quite regularly.
In this recipe you get the flavor and essence of Thai Red Curry Chicken in a BBQ form. What’s not to love?
Like all Thai food lovers, I’m obsessed. From Red to Green curry, Satay & Panang to Khao Soi, I’ve made and relished it all. When I heard of Pad Kaprow Gai or Pad Gra Pow, I was fascinated as I’m a huge fan of Basil. This dish compared to some of my other Thai dishes is very easy to put together and does not use a lot of ingredients.
My love affair with Thai food never ends and last Christmas I visited my favorite restaurant Suko Thai with my coworkers and tried Khao Soi for the first time. Typically I will order a Pad Thai or a Green Curry, but someone mentioned that I should really try it, so I did. I was fascinated with the concept of a soupy gravy with noodles and topped with crispy noodles.
I did some extensive research online to find out everything about this dish. It’s origin is traced right up to Burma and was brought to Thailand, in particular the Ching Mai region by Chinese immigrants. The spices in this curry are very different from the typical Thai spice blends. Here black Cardamom, Coriander & Turmeric are key and everything is mellowed down with Coconut milk.
Although I’ve made this recipe with Chicken, it’s also made with Beef, Shrimp & even Tofu!
The recipe for the spice blend in this recipe is good for 4 times this recipe. I either store it in the fridge, or portion it out and freeze it.
My obsession with Thai food is fairly recent but pretty intense. I always loved Chinese food, but Thai food combines ingredients like Coconut milk and spices like Cumin and Coriander which are very popular in Indian cuisine as well. I started mastering the basics like red and green curry and moved on to Massaman & Panang. Each spice base has someone the same ingredients but are very distinct in their taste.
The Massaman curry base is very unique – spices like fennel, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon and black peppercorns are pounder together with the usual suspects, red chillies, shallots, lemongrass, ginger and galangal. And of course it’s finished off with fish sauce and shrimp paste. If you like to make a vegetarian or vegan version of the paste substitute light soya and spicy bean paste for the fish sauce and shrimp paste. I’ve used this to make a delicious Thai Massaman Noodle Salad and in a Peanut sauce and now I’m going to simmer chunks of meat in this blend of spices and creamy Coconut milk. This curry is hearty, cooked together with potatoes, studded with peanuts and served with some Jasmine rice, you gotta try it.
This Easy Weeknight Meal salad is made with delicious Thai ingredients that smother gluten free glass noodles made with bean thread. It’s tossed together with Shrimp poached in Lemongrass and garlic water, and enhanced with fresh Basil and Coriander leaves. It’s also served with sugar snap peas and red pepper. The star here is the Massaman Curry paste that just ties everything together with it’s unique blend of spices, herbs and aromatics.
I’ve been making Thai food for a while now. It’s amazing how authentic your dishes can taste when you follow the instructions of great YouTubers like Pailin from Hot Thai Kitchen and Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube star Poo. We’re also very lucky in Toronto to easily find great ingredients like fresh Lemongrass and Galangal.
In many ways, Thai food is very similar to Indian food and yet very very different. This salad is wonderful as you can eat it cold and save leftovers for lunch. It’s also potluck perfect!
Over the last couple of years I’ve experimented with various Thai flavours and have become very familiar with it’s Sweet, Sour and Salty trilogy. From Red & Green curry pastes to Pad Thai, I’ve made it all and loved it and now it is time to perfect the Massaman curry paste blend. In a lot of ways as one of my subscribers pointed out, Thai cooking is very similar to Indian. Spices & Chillies are roasted for this blend and then ground together with Garlic, Lemongrass, Galangal & Shallots with Lime Juice and either bean paste or shrimp paste to make a delicious blend.
This will store in your fridge for a few weeks and you could also freeze it. It’s great in a Massaman Curry obviously, but I also use it in a Peanut sauce to accompany my Satay and in a Massaman Noodle Salad.
1 tsp each Fennel seeds, Coriander seeds, Cloves, Cardamoms, White Peppercorns, Black peppercorns & Cinnamom sticks
6 dried Red Chillies
2 tbsps each Garlic, Galangal, Lemongrass and Shallots
Juice of 1 lime
2 -3 tbsps Chilli bean paste or Shrimp paste
4 – 6 tbsps Chilli Oil
Instructions
Lightly toast all the dry spices and chillies and grind to a powder
Add the Garlic, Galangal, Lemongrass and Shallots, Chilli bean paste or Shrimp paste & Chilli Oil and grind it in your food processor to a smooth paste
If using a mortar and pestle, remove the shells from the Cardamom.
I don’t cook Mussels all that often but my husband just purchased a lovely batch of Mussels from Prince Edward Island and I decided to treat them to some Thai Treatment with in this delicious recipe of Thai Green Curry Mussels. These shells are going to cook up in a delicious Thai Green Paste and they will open up with the heat and inherit those unique Thai flavors!
He bought about 2 lbs and 12 oz and they need to be cleaned and inspected. I’m going to scrub all the crud off with some steel wool and discard any shells that are open or cracked. Some of them will have something that looks like a beard, just tug on them to remove them. It’s typical to lose a few ounces in shells that are cracked or open. It’s great if you have the luxury to hand pick your mussels, mine just came in a package and I’m left with about 2 lbs of useable shells.
In my wok, I’m going to add 1 tbsp of Coconut oil and saute 1 ½ cup of shallots. Next add some Thai Red chilies and follow that with 4 tbsps of Thai Green Curry paste. Please note that both my chillies and my Green Curry paste were previously frozen. You know how I always tell you that you can make extra and freeze it or throw leftovers in your freezer? This is where I get a chance to practice what I preach. The green curry paste does get slightly darker once frozen, but the aroma as it hits the oil is incredible! And of course you can also use store bought paste.
I’m also going to add a tbsp of fish sauce and dump all the Mussels in. I love to watch them open up with the heat at this stage. Add 200 ml of Coconut Milk and stir. Taste for salt and add more fish sauce if required. I’m going to stir this a few times to ensure the mussles take in all those Thai flavours and cook for about 7 – 10 mins. Enhance the flavor with some fresh Thai Basil leaves and this is ready to devour and shellabrate!
It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been living in Canada and it wasn’t until a subscriber reminded me, that I remembered how much I love Tom Yum soup. Now although I have been to Thailand, my memories of Tom Yum actually come from Dubai in the Middle East. This may seem strange, but Dubai is very similar to Toronto in it’s culinary diversity. While developing this recipe I ate bowl after bowl of Tom Yum from different restaurants to make sure I captured all of flavors that make this perfect in one bowl. While this soup may seem like it has a lot of ingredients, it’s really simple to put together and its combination of sweet, salty, spicy and salty is second to none. Like with many other recipes, there are different versions of this soup Shrimp, Chicken & Vegetarian and the ingredients for the different proteins differ slightly. I LOVE Shrimp, so my first preference would be to make Tom Yum Goong – Tom means to boil, Yum refers to ingredients used in a Thai Salad and Goon means Shrimp or Prawn.
Toronto is a melting pot of cultures and it’s easy to find ingredients like Lemongrass, Galangal, Thai Chillies, Lime leaves and many others. I always freeze leftover ingredients so I have those on hand if fresh is not available. Since I’m making a Shrimp Tom Yum, I use with 4 .5 cups of my homemade Shrimp stock. This is made my sautéing Shrimp shells and then letting them boil in water to extract the flavor. You can also use store-bought stock. The Shrimp stock INMHO is one of the most important ingredients to get this soup rocking. This is then infused with Lemongrass, Galangal, Lime leaves and Thai Chilies. I also add Shrimp paste, Coriander stem, Mushrooms, Button and Enoki, fish sauce, Palm sugar and Coconut milk and once the broth is perfect, Shrimp is poached in this liquid and cooked till perfect. The sour comes from a squeeze of fresh Lime and I also use whole head on Shrimp together with Coriander & Lime leaves and Thai Chilies as garnish.
Watch how I clean the Shrimp while leaving the head and shell on below.
This recipe is far from authentic, but it is packed with Thai flavours and is party perfect. When I develop recipes for large crowds, I’m always thinking about flavor, impact and stretching the budget. A chicken spring roll is soooo boring but offer a Thai Red Curry Chicken Spring roll and you have them begging for more. Using bean noodles or glass noodles in this recipe really stretches the filling to make this appetizer economical.
The stars are the authentic Thai flavours – Lemongrass, Galangal, red Chillies, Garlic. The first thing we need in this recipe is a great red curry paste, you can either use store bought paste or try my incredibly fragrant and delicious blend. Click here This red curry paste is going to enhance the filling to give it an authentic Thai flavour.
One word of warning – the moisture from the filling can seep into the wrappers making them soggy and cause them to break. Do not leave this on your counter top for too long. Either fry or freeze them immediately to avoid a disaster. During the making of this video/post with all the behind the scene delays, my spring rolls were a tad soggy. Frying these caused them to burst, spilling the contents into the oil. To save the spring rolls I already rolled, I simply double wrapped them and they were perfect!
Make these today, I guarantee that you will love them!
In a large wok, sauté 1/2 cup shallots in 2 tsps of Chilli oil
Add 3 tbsps of red curry paste and 1 lb of ground Chicken
Prepare 150 gms of bean noodles, these are also known as glass noodles and they just need to be soaked in some hot water
Clip them with some scissors and throw them into the sautéed chicken
You want the noodles to be at no longer than 2-3 inches or they will be difficult to fill the spring roll wrappers
Add 1 tbsp of fish sauce, 1/2 cup diced red peppers and 1/2 cup diced
Throw in some chopped peanuts, but this is totally optional
Finish with a squeeze of lime, give it a good mix and leave it in the fridge to chill
Once this is chilled, add a 1/2 cup of Coriander or Cilantro leaves
Separate the Spring roll wrappers on the board
Add some filling to the top, roll, fold over, add flour paste to secure, roll and finish with more flour paste
Once you have a whole batch ready, you’re ready to deep fry them till golden brown
Serve them with a nice Thai sweet Chilli sauce
You can make these ahead, line them on some parchment paper in a line without touching and freeze them. Once frozen they can be bagged and stored in the freezer and cooked straight from frozen. You would just need to adjust the cooking time so they heat up all the way through.
