Must Try Thai Basil Chicken Recipe

Saturday, July 30, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


pad kra pao gai
I was having a 'hard time' when writing the previous post on 10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok. The fact is I was drooling away when looking at those tempting and mouth-watering food photos. The great taste of Thai cuisine just lingered in my month and I decided to make this delicious Thai Basil Chicken to satisfy my craving for Thai food.

I would say this dish is by far the best Thai food I have ever attempted at home which I am very proud of. Ever since its first 'debut' on my dining table, I constantly get repeated requests for the dish. The Thai-holy-basil instantly becomes the essential in my kitchen pantry now.   
pad kra pao gai
The Thai Basil Chicken is a simple dish to prepare at home and it goes absolutely well with steamed rice and fried eggs (sunny-side-up egg). Check out the recipe here.

Ingredients
400g chicken breast (cut into bite size chunks)
1/2 cup of Thai holy basil
3 stalks of red chilies (diced) - preferably with seeds on
6-8 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 tbsp of cooking oil

Sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
corn starch solution (optional)

Directions
1. Heat up the cooking oil in the pan. Stir fry the minced garlic and chilies till aromatic.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and continue to stir til the chicken pieces are cooked.
3. Add in the sauce and keep stir frying til everything is well mix (30sec to 1min).
4. Turn off the heat and toss in the holy basil in and stir well.


The Thai version of sunny-side-up fried egg complimented the dish perfectly. Have you ever notice, the Thai fried eggs are crispy at the edges but remained runny on the yolk. These are the tips:
1. Generous amount of cooking oil
2. Crack in the egg onto the pan only when the oil is sizzling hot
3. Using the spatula, continuously splash some hot oil onto the egg
4. No flipping is required.

Surprise your family and friends with this simple to prepare Thai Basil Chicken dish. Prepare to get great compliments as the dish will definitely score!

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

Saturday, July 23, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok
Speaking about Thai food, first thing that pops up is always the spicy Tomyam soup. Do you know there are other Thais goodies you should try out other than tomyam and green/yellow/red curry which are commonly found in Thai restaurants (especially the Thais restaurants in Europe). My first visit to Bangkok has indeed opened 'my taste bud' to the authentic Thai cuisine and these are the 10 dishes highly recommend to try out when you visit Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

1. Crispy Oyster Omelette
Fried to golden brown, this crispy oyster omelette is really appealing and makes everyone drool by just looking at it. Oyster, egg and coriander matched up perfectly. I like the crispy edges and it tasted like crunchy snack.

2. Shark's Fin Soup
Packed with sea-maw, sea cucumber, shark's fin and of course generous amount of crab meat, the soup is simply irresistible. The coriander added a great flavour to the soup and immediately notch it up another level in terms of awesomeness. One of my favourite and remarkably affordable in Bangkok. I personally do not condone the consumption of shark's fin and the version I had in Bangkok is most likely imitation shark's fin due to the really low price of less than 200 THB per pot.
10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

3. Grilled Big Head Fresh Water Prawns
Grilled with no additional seasoning to emphasize the freshness and juiciness of the seafood. Yup, these prawns are fresh and succulent. No dipping sauce is required at all.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

4. Sticky Rice with Mango
Thailand is well know for its mango and rice grains (glutinous rice too). Blend in the two with coconut milk, it becomes the traditional Thai delicacy, sticky rice mango dessert. This is a dessert you should not miss when visit to Thailand as the Thai mangoes taste undoubtedly super good.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

5. Phad Thai (Stir Fried Rice Noodle)
It did not cross my mind to order a plate of phad Thai every time I patronized at the Thai restaurants. I would, after my first try of a plate of phad Thai in Bangkok. The tanginess from the tamarind juice and saltiness of the fish sauce immediately turned the plain, tasteless plain noodles to a dish with great flavours. It was really addictive as I was practically inhaling my food when having the phad Thai.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

6. Thai-style Steamed White Snapper
Sour, sweet, hot and spicy are the best words to describe the steamed fish. To keep the fish warm, the fish is served in a special fish platter which was ingeniously warm via Sterno underneath. I applauded the ingenuity on how the fish is being served which kept the fish and soup steaming hot regardless of the air-conditioned surrounding. Furthermore, I am a slow eater *wink*

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

7. Bird's Nest Soup
Bird's nest soup is packed with nutrition and it is good for the complexion too. I am not a big fan of bird's nest soup but did give a try since it is an affordable dessert in Thailand. The bird nests soups served here come in different grades and prices. Boiled egg and ginkgo nuts are served along side with the bird's nest soup. Not my liking due to the acquired taste, but worth a try.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

8. Spicy Crispy Basil with Soft Shell Crab
I sported the dish when I strolled around the food court when i saw someone ordering it. If you are like me who like chili, soft shell crab and basil, this would be the dish for you. It goes very well with steamed Thai rice. Yum!

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

9. Stir Fried Water Spinach
A popular dish in Thailand, stir fried water spinach or morning glory. The veggies was cooked perfectly as they still remained crunchy and packed with flavours. You will never go wrong ordering this 'pad pak bung fai daeng'.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok

10. Ruam Mitr Dessert
Nothing beats a bowl of cooling icy Ruam Mitr in coconut milk & syrup after hanging out under the hot sun. There are a variety of 'tidbits' (jack fruits, sago, coconut flesh, colourful water chest nuts etc) to opt for your crushed iced coconut milk base. Very refreshing dessert indeed.

10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok
There you go ... my list of 10 delicious and must try food in Bangkok.

Homemade Golden Curry Potato Puff Recipe

Saturday, July 16, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

homemade curry puff
Self confess that I am pretty ignorant to baking ingredients, mainly because I actually don't bake until recently when I discovered  the magic of frozen puff pasty dough in local supermarkets. There are quite a varieties of dough you can choose upon, pizza dough, tarts dough, puff pastry and even cinnamon cookies dough especially for ginger bread man cookies.

I opted for puff pastry dough on my first attempt of homemade curry potato puff. The curry puffs turned out to be remarkably delicious and I am a proud 'baker' to share my successful recipe.

What you need are: 350g frozen puff pasty dough (light butter version), 250g potatoes (cut into small cubes), curry powder, water, salt, sugar, cooking oil and an egg yolk (optional).

Instructions
1. Par boil the potato cubes in water until 80% soft. Drained the potato cubes, set aside.
2. Heat up some cooking oil in the skillet. Put in the drained potato cubes, salt, sugar and curry powder and stir fry (under low heat) until the potatoes are completely cooked. Do add in some water to make the potatoes cook evenly.
Now the filling is ready, we can start with the wrapping process.
3. Cut the pastry dough to 10cm x 10cm sheets (square shape). 
4. Place a small scope of potatoes filling in the middle of the square pastry sheet and fold it to form a triangle shape.
5. Use a fork to seal the pastry edge by slightly pressing it.
6. Pre-heat oven at 200°C and bake pastries for 18-20min until they turn golden brown.

The curry puffs can now be served. Simple recipe indeed ... 

Tips For more appealing golden color, do brush some egg yolk on the surface of the pastries before putting them into the oven. (My curry puffs turned out to be slightly pale in color as I forgot the egg yolk).

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Sunday, July 03, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

My favorite tomato sauce is always the original Heinz tomato sauce. Somehow, I did not check the label correctly and bought home a bottle of 500ml Heinz Hot Chili tomato sauce instead. Even though it was named "hot chili", it is incidentally not spicy at all. The zesty tomato sauce came with the aroma of cayenne pepper which made it an ideal ingredient for cooking. I used it for my Sweet & Sour Meatballs dish and it turned out fantastic.

Ingredients

Meatballs (pan fried), capsicum with various colors (cut into cubes), onion, ginger slices, cooking oil, corn starch and water solution.
Sauce: Heinz Spicy Chili tomato sauce, sugar, white vinegar, sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce, salt.

Direction

1. For sweet and sour sauce, mix all the sauces in a mixing bowl and set aside for later use.
2. Heat up 1tbsp of cooking oil, sauteed onion and ginger till fragrant.
3. Add in capsicum, stir well.
4. Pour in the sweet sour sauce and bring to boil.
5. Add in meatballs, stir well till all the meatballs are coated with the sauce.
6. Pour in the corn starch solution to thicken the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes.

Voila, the sweet and sour meatballs is done. I added some scallions to harmonize the warm color of the dish.


Tips

1. I used homemade meatballs for this demonstration but you may use the frozen meatballs.
2. You can substitute meatballs with fresh chicken pieces. Best to pan-fry the chicken pieces for better texture and color.
3. You may add in the fresh or canned pineapple for natural sweet and sour taste.
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