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!
