Thank You Everyone!!

We had our first cooking club meeting today and it was so much fun!! We had such wonderfully delicious food! Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who brought dishes to share!!

Connie demonstrated how to make sticky rice in a steamer. Who would have thought you could cook rice in a "hat"!! She also had mango, coconut sauce and sweet chili sauce for dipping. Yum!!

Allyson shared her gyosas (pot stickers) and sweet sticky rice with mango that made a delicious dessert.

Lisa's lettuce wraps were so yummy, and looked so beautiful on the plate.

Karen's Indian dish was an adventure in both flavor and fire. (It really wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be but Allyson --who made a dash for water--might not agree).

Jen Carlini's fried rice was wonderful and a perfect accompaniment.

And then of course we all enjoyed the several dishes made by Pawranee. Pawranee is half Thai and lived there for several of her teenaged years. We appreciate her taking time today to share her talents with us.

Hopefully we will have all of her recipes soon. Here are pictures of the two main dishes.

This is ginger chicken. I loved it! (recipes are below)

And this dish is Chicken with Red Curry. This was also delicious.

In addition, Pawranee made a cabbage dish and a green papaya salad that I will be craving for a long time.

Pictured below is the curry paste she recommends. The yellow one is the most mild. The red curry in the green can on the bottom is the one used today.

And here is the recommended fish sauce
Along with the best oyster sauce. All of these can be purchased at Lee Lee's market on 75th Avenue and Cactus.
And . . . below are some of the recipes. More to come soon!!

Hopefully everyone learned something new and overcame some fear of Asian cooking. Personally, I never thought I would crave something with fish sauce in it. (Papaya salad). And I am glad to finally know how to cook with and use curry since I always enjoy eating it.

And here are the recipes:

Ginger Chicken

Gai Pad Keing

4 Servings

This is one of the most popular dishes in Thai restaurants.

2 T oil 1/8 c. slivered ginger root

½ lb (225g) broken chicken 1/8 c. sliced green pepper

breast, sliced 1/8 c. sliced red pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced 1/8 c. sliced mushrooms

Cilantro for garnish 1/8 c. sliced onions

Sauce:

2 T fish sauce

1 T oyster sauce

1 T white sugar

pinch white pepper

1. Heat pan, add oil, chicken and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes.

2. Add remaining ingredients and stir-fry for 3 minutes.

3. Enjoy!

* For the amount we made the other day, I used an entire bag of chicken tenderloins.

Thai Papaya Salad

Som Tum (4 servings)

1 medium Thai green papaya ½ c. lime juice

1 carrot, shredded 1/3 c. fish sauce

1 tomato, cut into wedges 3T sugar

¼ c ground roasted peanuts 1 large clove garlic, minced

¼ c dried shrimp, soaked for 5 min in warm water

Garnishes: lime slices, chili pepper

1. Peel and seed papaya (Lee Lee’s Market has bags of already shredded papaya!)

2. Add all remaining ingredients and thoroughly mix before serving.

3. Yummy!

* When papaya is not available, ¼ head cabbage shredded thinly can be used as a substitute, but hardly compares in flavor.

* I didn’t use the shrimp for our class the other day

Lime-Fish Sauce Dressing

3 T fish sauce

3 T lime juice

1 T sugar

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Thai chili peppers (any other peppers like jalapeños can be substituted. Chunky ground Thai chilies are also an option. Not fine like cayenne, but chunky clusters. This can also be found at Lee Lee’s).

Prik Khing Chicken Curry

Serves 5-6

1. Stir-fry one can (4oz) of Prik Khing curry paste with ½ cup of oil with low heat for about 4 minutes.

2. Add 300 grams of chicken or other meat (I used an entire bag of chicken tenderloins). Slowly add 1 cup of water and stir fry until cooked.

3. Add 300 grams of long green beans (I used 2 cans of cut green beans). Stir until cooked. Sprinkle with minced kaffir lime leaves, fresh chilies, and roasted peanuts. (I didn’t use any of the garnishments).