Isaan Inspiration – Nam Tok, Som Tum and Sticky Rice

Last Sunday, I went to the Asian Market and got myself some herbs and a bag of sticky rice.  I hadn’t had any sticky rice for a long time and I had never cooked sticky rice before.  So, I was very exciting to make myself some Isaan food despite the hot weather in San Diego.  Oh well, that what ice cream and frozen beverages are for anyway!

Before get to the food part, let me share with you a little bit about Isaan.  Isaan is a Northeast region of Thailand, bordered by the Mekong River.  Isaan’s neighbor countries are Laos and Cambodia.  However, it seems to me that when people think about Isaan, we tend to think about Laos because local people are using Laos’s language as their local dialect.  Well, my mom is from Isaan and she can communicate with Laotian’s friends just fine.  It’s kind of cool; both countries are a lot alike in many ways anyway.  Come down to food, when talking about Isaan foods though, mostly people will immediately think about something spicy.  Lots of their well-known dishes are pretty much dominated by being very spicy.  Some of those dishes are Som Tum or Larb dishes and of course sticky rice is one of their must have side dish (instead of just regular streamed rice).  I remember my aunt once said to me that white rice couldn’t fill her up as good as sticky rice and I remembered giving her a weird look like she was crazy.  Until I came to the States, I realized that sometime bread just can’t fill me up as well as rice.  I mean I will get full, but it doesn’t seem to last long enough like rice.  My husband says that it’s all in my head and I suppose he could be right!

Let’s get to food!  I would like to share with you all two of my favorite Thai dishes, Som Tum and Nam Tok, which I have been trying to master them since I moved to the States.

Som Tum (Cucumber Salad)

Som Tum is usually known for green papaya salad, but you can always substitute papaya with other ingredients like cucumber, carrot, bean, and even fruits.  Som Tum (papaya salad) with dried shrimps, in fact, is called Som Tum Thai.  In Thailand, we have three main types of Som Tum: Som Tum Thai, Som Tum Pu (with salted crabs), and Som Tum Laos (with fermented fish, wildly popular in Isaan).  I’m not really into the fermented fish; the smell is just not doing it for me.

Cucumber Som Tum Ingredients:
- 1 cups shredded cucumber
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- A half of tomato
- 2-3 cloves of Garlic
- 1-2 tablespoons of dried shrimps
- 1-3 bird’s eye chilies
- 2 ½ tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- 2 tablespoons crusted peanuts (I substitute peanuts with cashew nuts)

Instruction:
Please always remember one thing about Thai Food; there will never be an exact measurement what so ever.  Not everyone like exact same taste, I prefer mine a little more sweet and sour.
1.  Prepare shredded cucumber and carrot (I used a half of a big cucumber and one carrot) by using the largest cheese grater you have.
2.  In a mortar and pestle, pound garlic, bird’s eye chilies and palm sugar together.  Then add a little bit of shred cucumber and carrot, tomato, lime juice and fish sauce and give those couple of gentle pounds to mix them well.  Taste the saucy part first before you add the rest of the cucumber and carrot because it’s not that pretty to keep pounding the cucumber.
4.  Add the rest of the cucumber and carrot and pound all the ingredients gently to mix them well.  Now, Som Tum is pretty much done.
5.  Lastly, topped the Som Tum with crusted nuts.

Steak Nam Tok

I made Nam Tok before and wrote about it in my previous post HERE.  This time, there are some changes and I think these changes are for a better.  And I think a real deal breaker is the fat in the meat.  Sometime fat is just irresistible!

Rib Eye Steak Nam Tok Ingredients:
- 1 rib eye steak
- ¼ cup light soy sauce http://importfood.com/sakh1901.html
- 4 big shallots
- ¼ cup mints
- ¼ cup basil (optional)
- 1 lemongrass stalk (optional)
- 2 tablespoons crushed chili peppers
- 2 tablespoons ground roasted rice (Kao Kua)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons lime juice
- A pinch of sugar
- 1 tablespoon water

 Instruction:
1.  Marinate meat with light soy sauce for at least 20 minutes. 
2.  Prepare all the herbs - julienne mint, basil, and lemongrass.
3.  Prepared Kao Kua (ground roasted rice).
4.  Grill or pan-sear the meat, cook it about medium rare then slice it thinly.
5.  In a small pot, cook sliced meat with about table spoon of water in medium heat and it should take only a few minutes.  Then turn off the heat, add a pinch of sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, ground roasted rice and crushed chili peppers. Mix them well together, taste it to suit your personal taste preference.  Lastly add the julienned herbs and it’s done.

Usually Isaan foods like Nam Tok and Som Tum are served with sticky rice and raw vegetables.  Fresh and cold veggies can be really helpful, you know, they can rescue your tongue from being on fire!

Tuna & Imitation Crab Meat Sandwich Spread

Let’s me introduce you to an easy, quick, healthy, delicious sandwich spread.

For cooking newbie like me, tuna or chicken salad is the safest choice when thinking about making sandwich. I mean the kind of sandwich that take a little more afford than throw the lunch meat on the buns. And let me tell you eating the same kind of sandwich spread all the time is not that much fun, so I have to be a little more creative (really???). 

So, I needed change!!!  I immediately checked my fridge to see what fresh stuffs I had in there, hmmmm, not so much.  All I had left in the fridge are apples, one red bell pepper (really, it was only one left), tomatoes, carrots, some imitation crab meat, and a few eggs. That’s it (as a result of holding off on grocery shopping).

Here are the ingredients for making the tuna & imitation crab meat spread: a can of tuna, a few sticks of imitation crab meat, apple, tomato, carrot, bell pepper, Miracle Whip and ketchup.

All you have to do is mixing chopped apple and veggies, tuna, crab meat, Miracle Whip and ketchup together. I used about 1/3 cup of Miracle Whip (can be substituted by mayonnaise) and about 1 TBS. of ketchup. And I’m sure you can be pretty flexible with the veggies, but I refuse to substitute apple because that was a deal breaker to me.

This sandwich spread is so yummy and so refreshing.  It might be a lot of Miracle Whip (I’m thinking about substitute it with yogurt next time), but fresh apple and veggies made me feel very healthy.  When making sandwich I just opted out on adding anymore Miracle Whip on the breads and I must say my body seemed to appreciate it a lot --- it was heavy enough to fill me up, but didn’t make me feel uncomfortable after eating it. 

The best part is that you can have both fruits and veggies that your body needed in every bites.  How convenient!!!  You can use this spread for your lunch sandwich or you can just snack it with crackers on your picnic.  Either way, it’s great!  For sure, it had served me wonderfully on my lazy summer day!

Balboa Park - Free Thing to Do in San Diego

Happy 4th of July Everyone ^-^

One of the best options to enjoy San Diego for free is visiting Balboa Park, the nation's largest urban cultural park.  Balboa Park is a house of many museums, gardens, and San Diego Zoo.  Last weekend my husband and I went there with his family who visited us before made their way to San Francisco. It was an excellent choice!  I hadn't visit the park in awhile. 

We went to the park after had lunch at my favorite Sushi place and visited three of the gardens: Botanical Building, Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden and Desert Garden.  These gardens are open for free to public, so even better!!!  It was so nice to just stroll around the park and take pictures of these beautiful architectures and flowers after had yummy lunch in the area closed by.  Love it!!!

Here are some of my photos ^-^  

Embracing the Flowers Blossom Season ^-^

RK Cafe Sushi – Affordable Sushi in San Diego

Delicious and cheap sushi, how can I resist this place!

RK Cafe Sushi is located in Hillcrest, San Diego.  It’s on my to-go list for sushi craving.  I go there whenever I feel like having sushi without breaking my wallet.  At RK, two people can be easily fed with $30 budget.   

How great is that?

 

My favorite appetizer, Spicy Calamari, is only $4.50.  It's a calamari in kimchee like sauce (not really taste kimchee or anything, just have Korean hot pepper taste).  I also like the Seaweed Salad very much, so yummy.

Sexy Roll

Washington Roll

Sexy Roll and Washington Roll are my two most favorite rolls at RK Cafe Sushi.  They are like $7 each, such a good price. 

Here you can read more of what the Yelpers talk about RK. 

La Jolla Cove - San Diego Weekend

Summer is here in San Diego.  I love summer!  There are so many tourists visiting here for their summer vacation and I love to play tourist.  It’s so fun to walk around the city with my camera in hand at all time and feel shameless to take as many shots as I want. 

Here are some pictures from La Jolla Cove over the last weekend.  It’s one of the most beautiful and busiest beaches in San Diego, as you can see from the pictures so many activities going on here.  If you get to visit San Diego, I'm highly recommend you to visit the Cove!

Kai-lan (Gai Lan) – Chinese Broccoli Series

This post is my adventurous of using Chinese broccoli or Kai-lan (also called Gai Lan) in my cooking.  Chinese broccoli is good for us in many, check this nutrition facts out!  For this adventure, I ended up using Chinese broccoli for four dishes: Kai-lan Stems Spicy Salad (Yum Kan Kana), Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce, Pad See Ew, and Drunken Noodle.

Kai-lan Stems Spicy Salad (Yum Kan Kana)
In Thai, Chinese broccoli is called Kana.  Kan means stem, so combine them together Kan Kana means Chinese broccoli stem.  I have been cooking this one a few times already, so I can be braved and post about it.  My recipe was adapted from Young Healthy Guide website, which is in Thai language.

Ingredients:
- A cup of diced Chinese broccoli stems
-  ½ cup of diced carrots
-  ¼ cup of sliced onions (eight white or red onion is fine, but I ran out of them, so I had to use shallots)
-  A cup of sliced chicken
-  3-5 bird eye chilies
-  4-5 cloves of garlic
-  3 TBS fish sauce
-  3 TBS lime juice
-  1 TBS palm sugar

In a pot of boiling water, cook broccoli stems and carrots quickly.  I mean really quick, just count one to five and take them out and place them into iced cold water to preserve their crunchiness.  In the same pot, cook chicken until they are done and leave the cooked chicken in the big bowl.

For the sauce, smash garlic and chilies by using mortar and pestle then add palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.  Mix the sauce well together, taste it and see if you need to and any more fish sauce, lime juice or sugar.  It should lead with the sour taste.  Lastly, add cooked veggies, sliced onion and the sauce with the chicken and mix them all together.  Now it’s done and ready for you to enjoy.  I must warn you, this dish is really garlicky.  If you have a problem with garlic, you definitely not going to like it.

Pad See Ew

In Thai, “Pad” means stir fried and “See Ew” means sweet (dark) soy sauce.  Basically, Pad See Ew is a stir fried noodle with sweet soy sauce.  I really like these two Pad See Ew posts from I Just Love My Apron and Chez Pim.  You can read the posts HERE and HERE.  After reading these two posts, I came up with my Pad See Ew Chicken.

I had trouble working with noodles, but it came out good much better than I expected.  So far, my husband gives me 5 out of 10 in taste scale.  That magic number “5” is giving me hope because my previous attempt was so disaster and it scared him when he heard that I was going to make a Pad See Ew.  That said I still need more practice to get the taste right, but I am on the right track.

Drunken Noodle 

Drunken Noodle or Pad Khee Mao is so similar to Pad See Ew in many ways.  I don't think it got famous until I was at least in my middle school (well, that's still at least 15 years ago).  This dish is more almost to me the combination between Pad See Ew (stir fried noodle with sweet soy sauce) and Pad Krapow (stir fried with Thai basil).  I adapted my recipe from U Can Cook Thai website which is in Thai language.  If you check out the link, you will see that the ingredients are very similar to those in Pad See Ew.  The main differences are that in Drunken Noodle, you will need chilies and you will use less of sweet soy sauce.  It’s a spicy dish and I enjoy it a lot.  This one my husband gives me 6 out of 10 scales.  So, I’m coming close.  The noodle is still being hard on me.  I guess more practices are what I need.  

 

Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan) with Oyster Sauce

My last Gi Lan dish is prepared with oyster sauce.  I made stir fried with oyster sauce all the time, but actually never made this dish by myself.  This dish is super easy and goes so well as a side dish for steak.  My recipe is adapted from Malisa’s Food Blog.  You can read her post HERE.

 

Ingredients:
-  1 bunch of fresh Gai Lan

-  2 TBS of vegetable oil
-  2 TBS of sea salt
-  3 TBS of oyster sauce
-  1 tsp of brown sugar
-  2 TBS of chopped garlic
-  2 TBS of chopped ginger
-  1 TBS of water

Add salt and oil into the pot of boiling water.  Soon the water comes to a boil, place clean Gai Lan into the pot for couple of minutes and immediately take the Gai Lan out and place them in a bowl of ice cold water to keep them tender.  Then prepare oyster sauce in a small sauce pan.  Heat oyster sauce, brown sugar, garlic and ginger in a low heat for a few minutes.  Add water if the sauce look a little too thick.  Arrange Gai Lan on the serving plate and top them with the sauce.  Now we're done and the Gai Lan is ready to be served!

 

Thai Curry: Pork Green Curry (Gang Kiew Wan)

Green curry is probably my most favorite Thai curry.  I’m very surprised by many big name chefs who made green curry with cilantro leaves.  Really, that’s a big misunderstood I haven't heard such thing like that before.  I even talked about that with my aunt and she confirmed me that the real recipe only uses cilantro roots, not leaves.  Somehow, I see people in Thailand use cilantro roots a lot for cooking and the leaves to me are more like decorating.

Ingredients needed for Pork Green Curry (Gang Kiew Wan) in this recipe are pork, green curry paste, coconut milk, egg, sugar, vegetable oil, all purpose flour, salt, seasoning sauce, Thai basil, bird eye chilies, kaffir lime leaves, vegetable of your choice.  With this recipe, mostly people use Thai eggplants and pea eggplants, but I used Thai eggplants, red bell pepper and carrot. 

This recipe purposes to be best for a little fatty pork, so I just used couple of pork chops that came with a little fat. Just to help bring out the flavor.

Marinate thinly sliced pork with egg, a little bit of vegetable oil, about 1 tsp flour and sugar. I used brown sugar just that I have a love for brown sugar, no any other reason behind. Let the pork marinate for about 20 to 30 minutes while you’re preparing other stuffs.

Tip for Thai eggplants: Soak the eggplants in salted cold water after you cut them will prevent them from turning black.  They are like apple, somehow turn black (dark) easily after already been cut.

Cooking Time:

On medium heat, cook about 1/3 can coconut milk for couple minutes then add the curry paste (I used about 2 Tsp) to cook with it.  Use the condense part of coconut milk from the top part in the can.

Wait until it’s boiling, then add the marinated pork and couple of kaffir lime leaves to cook.  Wait till the pork is cooked then add the veggies, the rest of the coconut milk, and a pint of salt and sugar.

Let it cook a little longer to make sure the veggies are cooked.  Garnish the pork green curry with basil and chilies and it is done!

P.S. Feel free to make any suggestions or comments.  I would love to hear from you!

Leftover Ideas from Steak, Bacon and Groud Pork Soup (Stock)

My leftover ideas are Tom Yum Goong Noodle (Shrimp Tom Yum Soup), Sukiyaki (super easy version),
Yum Bacon & Apple, and Yum Nua (Spicy Steak Salad).

My goal is to be creative and makes a healthy meal from the leftover food and whatever I have left in the fridge. Let just say it's a fridge cleaning project! My leftovers are the porterhouse steak dinner, crispy bacon from my breakfast, and pork stock (I made it from ground pork, carrot, onion, salt and pepper) that I kept it frozen for a few days.

 (Shrimp Tom Yum Noodle)

(Sukiyaki)

(Bacon & Apple Salad)

(Spicy Steak Salad)

Please note, all of these menus are not going to be authentic. They are adapted menu and I had so much fun with them.

  
Tom Yum Goong Noodle (Shrimp Tom Yum Soup)

For a full version, please see my previous Tom Yum post. It's the same way, just less ingredients. In the soup bowl, mix fish sauce, lime juice, Nam Prik Pao and a little bit of crushed red pepper together. To make sure I like the taste, I added a little bit of boiled pork stock to the mixed sauce and kept tasting it until I liked it. Then add cooked shrimps, lettuce (could be any vegetable) and noodle (already soaked in the warm water) to the soup bowl. Lastly just add boiled pork soup to the bowl and now time to enjoy your soup!

Sukiyaki (super easy version)

Really, this is super easy version. All I really need is Sukiyaki Sauce that I bought from Asian grocery. The sauce that I have at home is a little too sweet for me, so I added chopped garlic and chilies, lime juice and salt to it. The same way with the noodle, all you have to do is to prepare cooked shrimps, vegetable, and noodle in a bowl. Then add the boiled pork stock and the sukiyaki sauce on top. And now you're set for this spicy sukiyaki soup!

Yum Bacon & Apple (Spicy Bacon & Apple Salad)

For this salad menu, you will need chopped crispy bacon, chilies, apple and shallot, lime juice, fish sauce, and a little bit of sugar. I didn't use sugar because the apple that I used was pretty sweet already. And all you have to do is to mix the ingredients together and it's ready to be served!

 
Yum Nua (Spicy Steak Salad)

For the salad part, I used tomato, cucumbers, and onion. For the dressing part, I crushed garlic and chilies together in the mortar and added lime juice, fish sauce and sugar to the garlic and chilies. I like to caramelize sugar before using it; I think it tastes better that way. Then mix the salad and the dressing together before topped with sliced steak.


Here you have it -- my leftover ideas!

Eating Out at Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory's special menu today - Pecan Crusted Catfish Fillet.  Not that bad, but I personally not  impressed with this dish.  It's a little too much herbs and spices on the fish which makes it so hard to taste the fish.   The bright side is that the side dish, sauteed corns, is very yummy.  Anyway, deep fly is still my most favorite way to prepare catfish so far even if it's not that the healthiest way.
 

Eating Roundup - My Food Journey Part 1

Here I am with my Eating Roundup!!! In My Food Journey Part 1, most of my meals were taken places in San Francisco where I enjoy visiting so much.  I enjoyed eating so much during my trip in Frisco, but I also did a lot of walking too.  So I guess that made it even for me :)

Breakfast in Santa Barbara @ Cajun Kitchen

 Belgian Waffle from their special menu - Big portion and tastes so good.

Spiced up my long road trip with their File Gumbo - It was an excellent choice!

My First Dinner of 2010 in San Francisco

Yen Ta Fo - Pink Seafood Noodle from Siam Thai, San Francisco - Good noodle dish, tastes just like the one I had in Thailand, but I was disappointed with their Spicy Noodle.

Enjoyed Calamari at Fisherman Grotto.

Snacking during my Tea break at the Japanese Tea Garden.

My first Chinese meal of 2010 in San Francisco @ R & G Lounge

This place is a very nice dine-in Chinese restaurant.  By far, it is one of the cleanliness (at least it looks nice and clean) Chinese places I had been to in San Francisco.  The restaurant is really famous for its Salt & Pepper Crab (you can tell by looking around the restaurant, almost every table ordered it).  Too bad I didn't get to try it because some people in my group was not a seafood lover and I felt bad to make them loose their appetite.

Salt & Pepper Scallops - Main star! It's so good that I didn't even want to share with anyone. And I can see why the Salt & Pepper Crab will be a good one (next time, next time).

Their Special Beef - really sweet, fun to have a few bites. It's more like an appetizer than a main course to me.

There Treasures with Black Bean Sauce - Another great choice! It's a combination of tofu, eggplant, bell peppers stuffed with shrimp in black bean sauce. 

I think this one is Mongolian Beef - hope I'm right. Not recall much about it, but I think it is decent.  Everything we ordered turned out good. I had such a great time and there was no disappointment at all.

See you again in Part 2