Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy-Day 10

Hi All, day 10 brought about a lot more food. I have to say my belly is getting a little puffy. I need to just try 1 bite of each dish instead of 2 or 3…but it’s so hard. Especially today when we made Asian fried bread stick…I ate like 7 of them. Oh boy, time to slow down on the eating :).

My station today had a lot of new things on it. Some new items included young ginger, Maggi sauce, salted soybean paste, pickled radish, Chinese celery, pickled Chinese cabbage, Chinese sausage, and fermented (soured) pork.

The dishes I made today included:

• Rice congee (Joke)
• Thai grilled pork and sticky rice (Khao Neaw Moo Ping)
• Stir fried morning glories (Phad Pak Bung Fai Daeng)
• Asian fried bread sticks (Pa Tong Koh)
• Rice porridge with fish (Khao Tom Pla)
• Boiled rice served with condiments (Khao Tom Gui)
• Crispy rice salad with soured pork (Yam Naem Khao Thot)
• Crispy egg noodles in gravy (Ba Mee Krob Rad Na)

I did some more “arts and crafts” today with banana leaves. Made little rice bundles with them. So fun and what a cute presentation of the rice.

My favorite dish today was the crispy rice salad with soured pork. Everything came together wonderfully. In making this dish I realized how to make the Italian arancini di riso (rice balls) too, it has to be a similar process.

For the crispy rice salad with soured pork, you will need:

• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 three inch piece of fermented pork, sliced
• 1-2 kaffir lime leaves, rolled up and julienned
• 3 slices fresh ginger, julienned
• 1-3 small shallots, sliced thinly
• 2 stalks coriander
• 1 tablespoon peanuts
• 2-3 dried hot chilies
• 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup tempura flour
• 1/4 cup water, approximately

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, mix well the rice, red curry paste, and egg yolk, then shape into 2 inch balls, set aside.
2. In another small mixing bowl, add tempura flour and enough water to make an medium consistency batter, mix well.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a wok or pot, over medium heat. When hot, dip rice balls into batter and fry them until golden brown and crispy on the outside. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, add several rice balls, break them up into chunks with your hand, and the fermented pork and mix well.
5. Add the kaffir lime leaves, ginger, shallots, coriander, fish sauce, lime juice, chili flakes, and sugar to a bowl and mix well. Poor over rice ball mixture and combine well.
6. Place on serving plate and garnish with peanuts and dried hot chilies.

And pictures of the other dishes I made today:

The flavor on the below dish was good, but I think I would prefer it better with pork tenderloin, if using pork. The pork pieces they tend to use for this has a lot of fat on it, which I prefer not to eat. Don’t you love those little rice bundles?

I’m really enjoying all the sea bass that I’m getting to eat. I LOVE sea bass and anywhere I go (Italy, Greece, America) it seems like it’s one of the expensive fishes. But here it’s so inexpensive, what a treat that I get to eat some almost every day!

That is it for today. Another productive day of cooking and learning! Catch you tomorrow.