All Thai’d Up and other fun puns

What is it with Thai restaurants and their corny names? I’ve heard of En Thai Sing, Thai Riffic, Thai One On and many more wittily named Thai places. It seems so much at odds with a cuisine that is so finely balanced and steeped in culinary tradition. Thai people do have a great sense of humour though especially in the local restaurant industry. Are the corny names just a Sydney phenomenon, will have to do some research…

So our last class for this term and the fourth of our foray into the Asian cuisines is the delicious food of Thailand. One of the students had been away to Thailand for two weeks and requested we wait for her to return to try these dishes. I always enjoy the comparisons between authentic cooking and my adjusted recipes that cater for vegetarians. It has taken a long time to develop recipes that have the depth of flavour and variety that is achieved when including fish sauce and other meat products.

I usually substitute fish sauce with Healthy Boy Thai Mushroom Soy Sauce (there’s that Thai humour again!). It has a similar salty and earthy flavour to fish sauce. It’s made with fermented soy beans and dried Chinese black mushrooms. You can find the pretty bottles at the Asian grocery store.

Another vegetarian substitute is Mushroom Oyster Sauce. Use this in place of the regular Oyster Sauce for stir fries and vegetable dishes because “oyster sauce” in not a euphemism, it actually is made from oysters.

As with Indonesian cuisine I substitute Shrimp Paste/ Terasi with Fermented Black Beans. Check the labels of the jars or tins in the grocery store carefully as some do contain fish sauce or dried shrimp.

Apart from that almost any Thai recipe can be converted to a vegetarian meal using tofu, saitan or mushrooms. Though I’ve never tried to make a veggie Massaman Curry, that dish really is all about the meat, maybe big field mushrooms would work?

So this week’s recipes are Pad Thai, Red Curry Vegetables w/ Tofu, Pumpkin and Zuchini Stir Fry and Sweet Sticky Rice with Pineapple (though in the photo I served it with mango).

I’ve posted most of these recipes before:

Pad Thai

Pumpkin & Zucchini Stir Fry

Red Curry Vegetables with Tofu

Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut

Hope you have a chance to try them before next term starts again. The next course runs from 1 May to 26 June. You can enrol online here: http://www.cityeastcc.com.au/course/wovc 

cheers,

Lorena xx

Mmm... Meatless Monday!

Serve this mild curry with steamed Jasmine rice and quinoa.

Mild Coconut Vegetables withTofu

1 teaspoon vegetarian red curry paste (recipe below)
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
250 grams pumpkin, peeled and diced
2 cups broccoli, beans, bok choy, peas, snow peas (to taste)
handful of button mushrooms, wiped clean
3 cups water
1 tin coconut milk
1/2 packet puffy tofu, cut in half (cooked chick peas also work well)
coriander/ kaffir lime leaves to garnish
mushroom soy sauce, to taste
Squeeze lemon or lime juice to finish

Method
1. Heat 1/2 cup of coconut milk till boiling, gently fry off the onion and garlic for 3 minutes
2. Add water and all the hard vegetables (potato, carrot, pumpkin)
3. Simmer for 10 minutes till vegetables have softened
4. Add the tofu (or chick peas), mushrooms and bring to the boil
5. Add the green vegetables and cook till tender
6. Add the remaining coconut milk and simmer for 1 minute
7. Taste and adjust seasoning adding mushroom soy sauce for saltiness, lime/ lemon juice for sourness.

Serve over steamed jasmine rice and a lemon or lime wedge

Thai Red Curry Paste (Vegetarian)

2 tablespoons coriander seed
1 tablespoon cumin seed
1 tablespoon whole peppercorn

7 large red chillies, de-seeded
10 small dry red chillies
5 red shallot
7 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon chopped coriander root
2 inch piece galangal
2 lemongrass stalk
2 teaspoons kaffir lime rind
1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons black soybean paste (or miso paste)
¼ cup coconut milk

Vegetable oil for storing in jar
1. Dry roast coriander, cumin and peppercorns in a frypan until fragrant.
2. Pound the the roasted seeds in mortar and pestle until they are powdered.
3. Place the next set of ingredients in the food processor with the pounded spices and pulse.
4. When all are combined add the soybean and coconut milk and blend till smooth.
5. Spoon into a sterile jar, top with vegetable oil and refrigerate till use.
6. Keeps a minimum of two months.
7. Always fry/ cook paste before use.