Sunday, November 12, 2006

Totally Thai

I prepared for my Sunday night stirfry with a trip to the farmers market and Asian supermarket on Saturday. At the farmers market I got a daikon radish, peppers, onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, broccoli, Thai basil, Thai chili peppers, and cilantro.






At the Asian market, I got sugar snap peas, lemongrass, ginger, carrots, brown rice vermicelli, some rice crackers, and some awesome peanut bars. The ingredients listed for the peanut bars are peanuts, sugar, and water. They helped cool us off after our spicy dinner. The Asian market is where I buy groceries for my son. He says he doesn't want to shop for food at the local markets anymore. This market really is supermarket size and we always spend at least an hour there when we go.


So here are the veggies ready for the wok - everything from the market and some of the world's biggest zucchini, which I've eaten about 2/3 of so far!



The coconut green curry sauce recipe was given to me by a local chef. It's quick and easy:

Put 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 chopped green onion, and 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger in a medium saucepan with 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Saute until onion is soft. Add 2 tablespoons white wine and cook off. Add 1 can lite coconut milk and 1 - 2 tablespoons green curry paste and bring to a boil. Let simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes. Add 1-2 tablespoons cilantro and salt to taste. The sauce will thicken more when you add it to the stirfry. You can make this ahead of time and it will keep in the fridge for a week.

Here's a shot of the veggies in the wok.

And here's a shot of it almost ready.

I also made a cold green salad to go with the stirfry, with lettuce, carrots, onions, zucchini, and broccoli.

I made an interesting dressing for the salad which I think came from Global Gourmet. I read that it is improper to serve a dressed salad in Thailand - let the guests serve themselves. To make the dressing, mix together 1/2 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup chopped peanuts, 2 tablespoons soy sauce (I used Bragg's), 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons palm sugar (I used agave), 1 tablespoon dried red chilis, and 1 tablespoon ground toasted rice. My dried chilis were not very hot, but I think a tablespoon of hot stuff might be too much. The dressing was very good and could even be used as a dipping sauce. It was my first time to toast rice and grind it up to put in liquid.

I also made Thai beancakes. I put the following in my miniprep: 1 can adzuki beans (drained and rinsed), some Thai basil, a 1 inch piece of lemongrass, 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro, 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, and 1 Thai chili. Then I formed them into patties and cooked them in a nonstick skillet with no oil. It's basically a spicy black bean burger, and oh so tasty. But I could eat a bean burger in some form every night.

So here is what we sat down to!

So many healthy veggies and some spiciness to speed up the metabolism!

For a Thai style dessert I made a mango coconut loaf cake. Have you ever heard that loaf cakes should be cooled completely, then not cut and eaten, but wrapped in plastic wrap for 24 hours so they will be more flavorful and easier to slice? It's completely true! I can't decide if I like this cake or not. I did not like it Saturday. I have a loaf pan that I love because it has perfectly square corners, but it burned the corners of this cake. I thought I would have to cut off a half inch from all sides of the loaf, but on Sunday it had softened and was perfect! Oh, but it also fell while it was cooling, so it wasn't pretty. On the other hand, Chase said it was one of his favorite desserts I've made, probably because it's not terribly sweet. (He really liked Emmy's peanut blondies!) I'm not going to post the recipe tonight, but if anyone wants to take a stab at it, I'll be glad to post it later. Mango and coconut, mmmmmmmmmm.

See, I just love those pointy corners!

So we had a fun family dinner once again. Thank you again to my son for a perfect job on the stirfry. All the veggies were done just right and he was wise and brave to add in 6 Thai peppers!

16 comments:

Candi said...

I agree that those veggies are so perfectly sliced! They look great.

The curry sauce and stir-fry sounds awesome. I haven't found a curry sauce I absolutely love yet, but I'm going to try this one!

You mentioned your son doesn't want to shop at the local markets. Do you mean the typical grocery stores? I wasn't sure if you meant the farmer's market! I love going to those. :P

I think the cake looks great! Must be those pointy corners! :)

I love your family dinners. I hope we still have those when Britty is older too!

Freedom said...

Ooooh, look at all those beautiful veggies. I get so jealous sommetimes reading all the awesome things that you americans can buy and I can't get here in Aus! But then i think at least i'm not starving in africa...
I love the square corners on your loaf pan too!

aTxVegn said...

OM - I chopped the veggies, thank you very much. Must have been that knife skills class I took!

Candi - Chase loves the farmers market. He says he's not going to the "regular" grocery store anymore, except for "bathroom" items!

Freedom - I'll bet you have plenty of foods we envy as well.

madeinalaska said...

Thai food is my favorite! It's kinda strange it was hard to be a vegetarian in Thailand (well, not so much vegan as dairy is not a big part of their diet- except for eggs.. they are a HUGE part of their diet).. you would think that it wouldn't be. But, I found it to be a VERY meat based society. Tofu was only available in the bigger cities. But I did find a lot of really, really yummy Indian food.

Anyway..I am so jelous of all of your very beautiful produce!! I can get lemon grass here but it is always very old and dried, I can't get curry leaves (I should try and grow them huh?) and well, when we go to the big city we always stock up on lime leaves then freeze them.

It is nice to hear you are still having family dinners. My oldest son who is 20 has moved away and man o man -I miss him!

bazu said...

Add me to the list of sad northeners jealous of your produce! I couldn't stop staring at those perfect stalks of lemongrass. Your dinner looks like something I would eat in a second, kudos to you and your son on whipping up such healthy and flavorful creations. Yum!

Nikk said...

C'est magnifique! :)

I love love LOVE anything Thai! It looks so good...and that is a wonderful chopping job.

Candi said...

Oooh ok! That makes sense! :) I love farmer's markets, and sadly, ours have closed for the winter. :( I'll be enjoying your market finds though while waiting for ours to open again in the spring!

I laughed at the cute comment you left on my blog about the cupcake and the tiny dot of frosting! It really does look like a dot of frosting, but I have no self-control like that...the frosting was piped inside the cupcake and we put SO much in that it came out the top! I was thinking of putting a chocolate ganache over that, but it was already too much sugar! Anyhow, the comment made me laugh because I didn't realize it looked like just a dot of frosting! Lol!!

Anonymous said...

I love how you lined your veggies up in such a perfect line before they went into the wok.

madeinalaska said...

opps.. I guess I didn't make myself very clear.. When I was in Thailand THEY ate ALOT of eggs..
For example eggs for EVERY BREAKFAST>> and I went on a outing and that provided a lunch for us... I opted for the vegetarian lunch.. yep, It had a fried egg right on top of the noodle dish.. (NOTE TO SELF>> MUST BE WAYYY MORE SPECIFIC!!!)

The cook book I referred to was the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine.. OHH how I would recommend it. It is a real beauty!! full of nice photos, wonderful writing and fabulous recipes!! some raw.. It is a vegan cookbook worthy of the coffee table! yet all the recipes I have tried have truly been restaurant quality meals!!
The other cook book I mentions was The Real Vegetarian Thai.. this one I have used far less.. but it does offer vegan options.. as I mentioned in my blog substituting the egg for brayannas 'chicken' ..
Here is to hoping you have a wonderful week
take care
Julee

Jackie said...

What amazing colors. I can only imagine how wonderful it all tasted.

That salad dressing sounds marvellous.

urban vegan said...

Looks like you had a Thai-riffic meal. I'd love to find those peanut bars at my friendly local Asian grocery.

JENNA said...

I love thai. My husband hates thai. Its a problem. I love how perfectly you cut the veggies! It would make any knife skills instructor proud! I have never heard or seen a recipe that says to wrap a loaf cake in plastic and leave over night before eating. Interesting. I'm going to ask the chef at my job about it tomorrow if i remember.

JENNA

Ben Kaelan said...

Mmmmm curry! You're torturing me; I can't have curry but it's so yummy.

Anonymous said...

Wow - that plate of veggies all cut up is so pretty. I am just in heaven looking at them.

Ben Kaelan said...

Hey I wanted to come back and ask you something. Those gluten free banana muffins you posted; was the recipe from a cookbook or your own creation? Would you care to share that recipe with me? I'm always curious about the gluten free world :)

Emmy said...

All the food looks wonderful. So bright and colorful!!! I'm still jealous of the wonderful Asian market you have near you :) That's some good looking lemongrass you got. And oh the coconut green curry sauce...that looks super yummy. The Thai Beancakes sound great too and very easy to make. Love that heart shaped carrot you put on top of the beancake. What a cute edible garnish :)

The Mango Coconut Loaf Cake sounds interesting. I'm intrigued that it has to be wrapped in plastic for a day before eating.

Glad Chase really liked the peanut blondies :)