Fish & Seafood Archives - Hot Thai Kitchen

Equipment

4 6-oz ramekins or another dish of your choice (see note 1)

Ingredients

3 tablespoon red curry paste
1 ¼ cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon palm sugar finely chopped or grated
2 teaspoon fish sauce
2 large eggs
3 makrut lime leaves finely julienned
5.6 oz any kind of fish filet ¼-inch sliced (see note 2)
1 ½ cups shredded cabbage and/or kale
8-12 leaves Thai basil
Banana leaves optional
Jasmine rice for serving

Garnish

¼ cup coconut milk
½ teaspoon cornstarch
sliced red chilies or julienned red bell pepper
Cilantro leaves

Instructions

Preheat the steamer on medium heat.
In a mixing bowl, add curry paste and just enough coconut milk to dissolve the paste, whisk until smooth. Add the remaining coconut milk, eggs, palm sugar, fish sauce, and kaffir lime leaves; whisk in the same direction without lifting the whisk (this is to avoid whisking in too much air) until the eggs are well combined with the liquid. Add the fish into the custard.
At this point, if it's your first time you want to check the seasoning as different brands of curry paste are not equally salty. Put a small amount of the liquid into a heatproof bowl and steam or microwave briefly until cooked. Taste and add more fish sauce if needed.
3 tablespoon red curry paste, 1 ¼ cup coconut milk, 1 tablespoon palm sugar, 2 teaspoon fish sauce, 2 large eggs, 3 makrut lime leaves, 5.6 oz any kind of fish filet
Prep the ramekins: If using banana leaves, measure the length of your ramekin from one edge to the other, and cut a strip of banana leaf along the grain to that length, and make strips just wide enough that it sits flat on the bottom. Wipe clean with a damp cloth. Line the ramekin with one strip, and place the other perpendicular to the first strip.
Banana leaves
Place the cabbage and/or kale into a heatproof bowl and steam it for 3-5 minutes until wilted. Divide the cabbage amongst the ramekins, then add 2-3 Thai basil leaves to each ramekin.
1 ½ cups shredded cabbage and/or kale, 8-12 leaves Thai basil
Distribute the fish evenly into each ramekin, then fill the ramekin with the custard, leaving about ½ inch of headroom.
Place the ramekins into the steamer and steam over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until set. The larger your ramekin, the longer it will take.
While the custard steams, make the garnish. Put cornstarch into a small pot then add a splash of water and stir just until it's all dissolved. Add the coconut milk and stir to mix. Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until it boils and is thickened. Remove from heat and pour into a small bowl; it'll thicken further as it cools
½ teaspoon cornstarch, ¼ cup coconut milk
When the custard is done, it will be puffed up and will not jiggle much when shaken. To serve, spoon a little of the thickened coconut on top, then garnish with cilantro leaves and red chilies. Serve with jasmine rice.
sliced red chilies or julienned red bell pepper, Cilantro leaves, Jasmine rice

Video

Notes

You can steam haw mok in anything as long as it's heatproof. The larger the container, the longer it will take to steam, so I recommend using smaller ramekins for a shorter cooking time, but you can also make one large one for a more elegant presentation.
You can use any type of fish you want for this dish or substitute other seafood such as shrimp, squid, or even mussels (without shell!). If you choose a tender fish like sole, basa, or barramundi, you will get a soft, melt-in-your-mouth custard, while firmer fish like halibut or swordfish will add a slight chew. If you don't eat fish, I recommend chicken cut into bite sized pieces.

The post Thai Steamed Red Curry (haw mok) appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Classic Thai Noodle Soup - Street Style

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Noodle soup or guay tiew nam ก๋วยเตี๋ยวน้ำ, is one of the poster children of Thai street food. No matter where you are in the country, you can find a shop selling some type of noodle soup near you. But this one, with clear pork broth and Asian style meatballs, is what I consider the "OG," the basic, the margherita pizza of pizzas. It's the simplest and easiest of noodle soups, and the ultimate comfort food. Make the stock in advance, and it's quick enough to put together for a weeknight meal.

If you're a fan of Vietnamese pho, you're going to love this one!

What is a "Classic" Thai Noodle Soup?

There are many, many different kinds of noodle soups in Thailand, ranging from the famous and flavourful boat noodles, the unique pink yentafo, and the rich curry noodle soup khao soi. But if you take away all of the particular spices and sauces and toppings used in other more elaborate noodle soups, this classic comforting noodle soup is what we end up with.

In Thai we call this guay tiew look chin, or noodles with meatballs, but usually you'd also specify what kind of meatballs. So here we're using fish balls and fish cakes, so it's guay tiew look chin pla. If using pork balls, another very common version, it is guay tiew look chin moo.

Fish balls and pork balls are the two most common types of meatballs used for this dish in Thailand, but you can definitely use chicken or beef meatballs instead, or sub any other kind of protein, more on this below.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the the full recipe card below. Don't be deterred by the list of ingredients! May of the ones listed are optional but I want to give you the whole range of possiblities, and the basics that you really need are not that many!

For the Pork Stock (or chicken stock)

There are times when store bought stocks are totally fine, and this is not one of them. The pork stock is the foundation of the soup, and it really needs to be made Thai style to have the right flavour and aromatics. If you don't eat pork, you can substitute chicken bones.

Pork neck bones or back bones, I prefer neck bones because it has more meat which you can either save for another dish of simply top the noodle soup with it. Sub chicken bones if you don’t eat pork.
Daikon. I used to think that daikon was an optional stock aromatic, but after having made stocks with and without daikon, I now believe it is essential. It makes the stock so sweet and flavourful, and is a must have in Thailand for stocks.
Garlic.
Onion. Onion is not actually added to stocks in Thailand, but I love the added sweetness that it gives, and don't we always have an onion around the house anyway? 🙂
Cilantro roots, or cilantro stems, smashed gently to bruise.

For the Broth

Good Thai style pork stock from above.
Soy sauce.
Fish sauce. See my post on how to choose good fish sauce here.
Sugar.
Ground white pepper, to taste

Noodle Soup Components

Noodles of your choice. The noodle soups vendors will always offer several noodle options. You can choose whichever you prefer, and I've listed them all, along with cooking instructions below.
Asian style fish cakes/fish balls, or other types of Asian style meatballs of your choice. You can buy fish cakes at any Asian grocery stores, either fresh in the seafood counter or frozen. There are many flavours, and you can use anything you like, but try to stick with ones with fewer ingredients as they tend to be of higher quality.
Other protein options: Because the soup is quite plain, I encourage you to use protein that is flavourful such as: the meat you picked off from the bones after making the pork stock tossed with some soy sauce and pepper, chopped leftover meats that is flavourful like a good steak or roast chicken, thinly sliced marinated pork or chicken, or ground pork cooked with some soy sauce.
Bean sprouts.
Fried garlic and garlic oil. Really important toppings for Thai noodle soup! You simply need to fry some chopped garlic on low heat until golden, but you can see the full recipe for fried garlic here.
Chopped cilantro and/or green onions for garnish
Optional: "tang chai" preserved cabbage bits. These are little bits of crunchy salted cabbage that we often add to our noodle soups. You can see them at the end of the video, but they are totally optional.

Optional Tableside Condiments:

Thai people always provide extra condiments for noodle soup so people can make it taste exactly how you want it. You can also make it “tom yum style” which is a hot and sour version (more on this below).

Chili vinegar, the basic version is simpley chopped chilies and white vinegar. You can also blend the chilies and the vinegar together. Read more about this on my chili vinegar post.
Fish sauce, if you want to soup to be more salty.
Sugar.
Roasted chili flakes, or any kind of spicy chili powder if you want to make it spicy. this is also needed for the tom yum style. You can buy or easily make your own roasted chili flakes.
Lime, only for tom yum style, more about tom yum style below.

How to Make Classic Thai Noodle Soup

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below, and if this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

Simmer pork neck bones in water for about 30 minutes, then skim off the scum.
Add the daikon, onion, garlic, cilantro roots/stems, and white pepper and simmer for another hour, at minimum.
Remove the pork bones and vegetables; the stock is now ready to use. Once the bones are cool, pick off the meat from the bones and you can season it with some soy sauce and use it to top the noodle soup, or save it for another dish.
If using rice noodles, soak them in room temperature water until they are fully pliable. Timing varies between noodles, more on this below.

Add soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and white pepper to the broth and bring to a boil.
Add all of the fish cakes and simmer for about 2 minutes or until the fish cakes are hot. Keep covered until ready to use.
Blanch one portion of the noodles and beansprouts in a noodle strainer or sieve for the required amount of time (varies between noodles). Drain and place into a serving bowl.
Top with the hot broth and fish cakes along with all of the garnishes.

Serve immediately with tableside condiments, if desired, or make it tom yum style (see below).

Noodle Options and Cooking Instructions

At most Thai noodle soup vendors, you will have several noodle options and they all need slightly different preparations below. You can learn more about how to cook rice noodles properly in my post on mastering rice noodles.

Rice vermicelli (sen mee) - The smallest of noodles and the quickest to prep. Simply soak them in room temp water for 5-15 mins (timing varies between brands) until they are completely limp, then drain. DO NOT OVERSOAK as these overcook very easily.
To cook, blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 3 seconds.
Small dry rice noodles (sen lek) - The most classic option. These noodles are 1.5 mm wide when dry. Soak in room temp water for 20-30 minutes or until they turn opaque white and are completely limp - they should have lost all of the kinks - and then drain.
To cook, blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 5 seconds.
Glass noodles (woon sen) - woonsen is thin, delicate, and has a neutral flavour and is delicious in boat noodles. Soak in room temp water for 10 minutes until softened before cooking.
To cook, boil in hot water for 2 minutes. You can cook all of the glass noodles at once since they take a longer time to cook, then separate into portions immediately after draining.
Fresh wide rice noodles (sen yai) - This is the noodles commonly associated with pad see ew. If cold and stuck together, microwave the noodles until they are hot and soft, so they can be peeled apart without breaking. Separate all the noodles before cooking.
To cook, blanch them one portion at a time for literally 1-2 seconds just to heat them up and wash off the oil that's used to coat them. Do not let them linger in hot water for too long because they're already fully cooked and will quickly turn mushy.
Wonton noodles or egg noodles (bamee) - These vary greatly between brands, so you'll have to change the cooking time according to what you've got.
But if you have thin wonton noodles like the one shown in the pic (fresh and coated in flour), loosen the noodles and boil them in hot water for 1 minute. If you're making many portions, you can cook them all at once and separate them immediately after draining.
Mama Instant Noodles (sen mama) - Mama are the Thai instant noodles and they are super tasty in boat noodles! Buy any flavour of mama since you won't need the seasoning packets, but make sure the noodles are the classic wheat fried noodles as shown in the pic.
Boil the noodles in water for about 1 minute, and you can cook all portions together and separate them after draining.
Medium size rice noodles (not pictured): These are 3mm wide rice noodles, but they are actually not offered in Thailand for noodle soups because they are meant for stir fries. But if these are what you have, soak them in room temp water for 1 hour until fully pliable, then blanch in boiling water for 8 seconds.

Pro Tip: Making it Tom Yum Style

In Thailand, when you go to most noodle soup shops you can order your noodle soup "tom yum" style. This is not to be confused with the famous tom yum soup. In the context of noodle soup, this means that they will make your soup hot and sour with the addition of lime juice and roasted chili flakes, and you can have tom yum style for most types of noodle soups that have a clear broth.

The fully loaded tom yum style also has coarsely ground roasted peanuts and ground pork, but the lime and chilies are the most important. I have a recipe for the fully loaded tom yum noodle soup here if you want to give it a go!

Advance Prep & Storage

The only thing that takes time is the pork stock, everything else is super easy to come together. So I would make the pork stock in advance, and that should be all you need to do.

You can also soak rice noodles in advance, drain, and keep them in the fridge. But do not soak rice vermicelli in advance as I find they tend to become mushy as they sit in the fridge and absorb excess moisture around them.

You can store leftover soup in the fridge for up to 1 week, and you can freeze it of course.

Before you start, if this is your first time, be sure to watch the video tutorial to ensure success!

Love Thai street food? You'd also love these!

Classic Thai Noodle Soup - Street Style

This simple noodle soup is the epitome of Thai street food. Your noodle of choice, in a comforting clear pork broth, topped with fish cakes or meatballs of your choice. Prep the stock in advance and you'll have the perfect quick meal for a cozy evening.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 2

Servings servings

Ingredients

Pork Stock

2 lb pork neck bones or back bones or sub chicken bones if you don’t eat pork
3.5 L water
4 inch piece daikon peeled and large diced
1 medium onion large dice
5 cloves garlic smashed until broken
3 cilantro roots or 8 cilantro stems, smashed gently to bruise

Broth

4 ½ cups Thai style pork stock from above, see note 1
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
1½ teaspoon sugar
Ground white pepper to taste

Noodle Soup

8 oz Thai rice vermicelli noodles or another noodles of your choice (see note 2)
8 oz Asian style fish cakes and fish balls or other types of meatballs of your choice
2 cups beansprouts
Fried garlic and garlic oil recipe here (see note 3)
Chopped cilantro and/or green onions for garnish
Tang chai (salted cabbage bits) optional

Optional Tableside Condiments: Thai people always provide extra condiments for noodle soup so people can make it taste exactly how you want it. You can also make it “tom yum style,” more in the post above.

Chili vinegar
Fish sauce
Sugar
Roasted chili flakes to make it spicy or if you want it tom yum style (see blog post above)
1 Lime if you want to make it tom yum style

Instructions

For the pork stock:

Wash the bones in cold water and add to a large stock pot. Cover the bones with room temp water and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce heat to medium to medium-low to maintain a simmer, and after about 30 minutes of simmering, skim off the scum that has floated to the top.
2 lb pork neck bones or back bones, 3.5 L water
Add the daikon, onion, cilantro root or stems, garlic, and white pepper, then simmer gently for 1 more hour at minimum. You can keep it going for longer if you have time, just be sure to top up the water if needed to keep the bones submerged.
4 inch piece daikon, 1 medium onion, 5 cloves garlic, 3 cilantro roots
Once done, remove the bones with tongs and set aside to cool. Use a skimmer to fish out all the vegetables and discard; alternatively you can strain it through a colander.
The stock is now ready to be used or stored. It will last a week in the fridge and it can be frozen indefinitely.
Pick any meat off the pork bones, and you can toss it with some soy sauce and use it to top the noodle soup or keep it for another dish (you can add it to fried rice, curry, pasta dishes, anything you like!)

For the noodle soup:

If using Thai rice vermicelli, soak the noodles in room temp water for 5-10 minutes until completely pliable - DO NOT OVER SOAK THEM. If using other kinds of noodles, change soaking time accordingly.)
8 oz Thai rice vermicelli noodles
Bring a large pot of water to a boil for cooking the noodles (use A LOT of water so that temperature doesn’t drop drastically once you add the noodles). Meanwhile, add 4 ½ cups of the pork stock to another pot and add soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and ground white pepper and bring to a boil.
4 ½ cups Thai style pork stock, 2 Tablespoons soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon fish sauce, 1½ teaspoon sugar, Ground white pepper
Once the broth is boiling, add the fish cakes/balls and cook them for about 30 seconds or until heated through. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as needed, making sure the broth is strongly seasoned as it’ll be diluted once the noodles are added. Cover and keep hot while you cook the noodles.
8 oz Asian style fish cakes and fish balls
Once the blanching water is boiling, place 1 portion of the noodles and 1 handful of bean sprouts into a noodle strainer or metal sieve that fits inside the pot. Dunk the noodles into the water and shake them around for 3 seconds (or change cooking time accordingly if using other noodles). Lift the noodles out, shake off as much excess water as you can, and place into a serving bowl. Repeat with the remaining portions of noodles, waiting for the water to come back to a boil each time before you cook the next portion.
2 cups beansprouts
Ladle the broth and the fish balls over the cooked noodles, then top with garlic oil, fried garlic, tang chai, and green onions and/or cilantro.
For a hot and sour “tom yum style” add a good amount of spicy roasted chili flakes and a good squeeze of lime (about 2-3 teaspoon of lime juice per bowl), plus about ¼ teaspoon of sugar to help balance the lime.
Fried garlic and garlic oil, Chopped cilantro and/or green onions, Tang chai (salted cabbage bits)
Serve with tableside condiments, if desired.

Video

Notes

1. Please do not use store bought stock for this, it really will not be the same.
2. The weight given only applies to dry rice noodles. If using fresh egg noodles you’ll need about 12 oz for 4 servings. If using something else, please use your judgement and eyeball it!
3. Don’t skip the garlic oil! The aroma it adds to the soup is incredible and in Thailand no noodle soup is ever served without it! You can make it in advance and keep it in the fridge. More detail on my post on fried garlic and garlic ol.

The post Classic Thai Noodle Soup - Street Style appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Thai Breakfast Rice Soup with Shrimp (Khao Tom Goong)

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 14:00:55 +0000

We don't have many breakfast-specific dishes in Thailand, but of the few we do have, kao tom (aka khao tom) is an absolute classic. You can think of kao tom as the Thai sister of congee. Instead of being porridge-like with the rice grains broken down, it's more of a brothy soup with the rice still in whole grains. It's one of the most comforting dishes Thailand has to offer, and a staple in Thai breakfast buffets in hotels.

At the basic level it's simply jasmine rice added to a flavourful broth. The components can be prepped ahead, and then comes morning time it takes just a few minutes to come together!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe and some important notes about them. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

Pork stock or chicken stock, unsalted. In Thailand this would most likely be pork stock, so use that if you want to recreate the exact Thai version, but chicken stock would also be just fine. For the right flavour, homemade Thai style stock is best. Here are my recipes for Thai style pork stock and chicken stock.
Garlic
White peppercorns
Cilantro stems or cilantro roots
Shrimp, cut into small chunks, plus a few extra whole ones for garnish if you so desire.
Fish sauce, see my post on choosing good fish sauce here.
Soy sauce
Cooked jasmine rice, if you have had trouble cooking jasmine rice, see my post here on how to cook perfect rice without a rice cooker. Having said that, this recipe would work perfectly with rice that you might have accidentally overcooked or under cooked, it's a great way to use it up!

Optional Condiments

Fried garlic & garlic oil, this is made simply by frying garlic in oil. It takes less than 10 minutes to make and it keeps well so you just have to make it once. I always keep a stash in my fridge as we use it to finish all kinds of dishes, especially noodle soups. See my fried garlic recipe here. *You can buy fried garlic from Asian stores, but you won't get the garlic oil which is arguably the more flavourful part!
Green onion and/or cilantro, for some greenery 🙂
Chinese preserved cabbage (optional), this is called tang chai in Thai and it is salty, crunchy bits of preserved (salted) cabbage. It is okay to omit this as it's hard to find, it just adds salty bits to the soup which is nice.
Extra ground white pepper, to taste.

How to Make Thai Breakfast Rice Soup with Shrimp (Kao Tom Goong)

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

Pound white peppercorns until fine, then add garlic and cilantro stem/roots and pound until fine.
Add half of the garlic mixture to the small pieces of shrimp and mix well.
Saute the small pieces of shrimp in a pan with a little bit of oil just until it's cooked through.
If you're not using a nonstick pan and there is some bits of herbs stuck to the pan, deglaze the pan with a splash of stock to release the tasty bits of herbs. Then remove from pan and set aside.

If using whole garnish shrimp, sear the whole shrimp over medium high heat until browned and cooked through, set aside.
Bring the stock to a boil in a pot, add the other half of the garlic paste and simmer for one minute. Then season the broth with fish sauce and soy sauce, then taste and adjust seasoning.
When ready to serve, bring the broth to a boil then add the rice and the shrimp. Bring the soup back to a simmer, and immediately turn off the heat (if you let this simmer for a long time the rice will swell up and absorb too much stock).
Serve immediately, if you let this sit, the rice will continue to absorb liquid. Ladle into a bowl, and top with all the condiments as desired. Enjoy!

Advance Prep Tip

If you're not an early bird and need breakfast to be quick, it's totally doable! Once components are prepped, it takes just minutes to get it on the table. You can even prepare it for the week. Here's what to do:

Up to a week ahead, cook the rice, the broth, the shrimp, and the fried garlic and keep them in the fridge (in separate containers). Comes time to eat, bring the broth to a boil, and while you wait you can chop up the cilantro/green onions and set the table.

Once the broth boils, add the rice and the shrimp and let it heat up thoroughly for a few minutes, et voila! Gourmet Thai breakfast in minutes!

Recipe Card

Thai Breakfast Rice Soup with Shrimp (Khao Tom Goong)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 5 reviews

Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Print Recipe

Description

A classic Thai breakfast is khao tom, or rice soup. Comforting and satisfying, it's the perfect way to start the day. Once components are prepped in advance, the soup comes together in just a few minutes. This version uses shrimp, but chicken can be used instead.

Ingredients

3 cups pork stock or chicken stock, unsalted (homemade is best, here's a recipe!)
3 cloves garlic
¼ tsp white peppercorns
6 cilantro stems or 2 cilantro roots
~150g shrimp, cut into small chunks, plus a few extra whole ones for garnish if you so desire
1 Tbsp fish sauce
½ Tbsp soy sauce
3 cups cooked jasmine rice (this amount is flexible depending on whether you like thick or brothy soup)

Optional Condiments

Fried garlic & garlic oil
Green onion and/or cilantro, chopped
Chinese preserved cabbage (tang chai)
Extra ground white pepper if needed

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Instructions

Pound white peppercorns until fine, then add garlic and cilantro stem/roots and pound until fine. Add half of this paste to your small pieces of shrimp and mix well.
Saute the small pieces of shrimp in a pan with a little bit of oil just until it's cooked through. Deglaze the pan with some stock as needed and scrape any bits of herb stuck to the bottom. Remove from pan and set aside.
If using whole garnish shrimp, sear the whole shrimp over medium high heat until browned and cooked through, set aside.
Bring the stock to a boil in a pot, add the other half of the herb paste and simmer for one minute.
Season with fish sauce and soy sauce, then taste and adjust seasoning.
When ready to serve, bring the broth to a boil over high heat then add the rice and the shrimp. Bring the soup back to a simmer, and immediately turn off the heat (if you let this simmer for a long time the rice will swell up and absorb too much stock).
Serve immediately, if you let this sit, the rice will continue to absorb liquid. Ladle into a bowl, and top with all the condiments as desired. Enjoy!

The post Thai Breakfast Rice Soup with Shrimp (Khao Tom Goong) appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Spicy Salmon Sashimi Salad (My Fave Salmon Ever)

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

During my last trip to Thailand I visited an iconic restaurant called Jeh O Chula to try a viral instant noodle dish, which I then recreated. But while I was there, I tried another one of their signature dishes which blew me away; their raw salmon salad, which instantly became my favourite salmon dish ever. Fresh salmon tossed in a spicy, garlicky, lime dressing...it's incredibly delicious I could have it everyday. Lucky for us, it's very easy to make at home!

What is a Thai Salmon Salad?

In Thai this dish is called yum pla salmon sod (lit.: raw salmon salad), but to be clear this is not a traditional Thai dish (and salmon is not a Thai ingredient!). It's a dish that Jeh O came up with, and this is what they call it on the menu.

"Yum" is a type of Thai salad, so in theory a dish with this name can be any kind of yum that uses salmon as a main ingredient, but in this particular version, salmon is the ONLY main ingredient, and the salad dressing is the classic Thai seafood dipping sauce, nam jim seafood.

The Most Important Component: Nam Jim Seafood

There are really only 2 components to this dish, salmon and dressing, and the success of this dish relies entirely on the dressing (assuming your salmon is fresh). The dressing is in fact a sauce that's extremely important within Thai cuisine called nam jim seafood.

"Nam jim" means dipping sauce, and seafood, well, is seafood. It is the sauce that Thai people dip all kinds of seafood in. In fact, Thai people never do seafood without it, and sometimes we dip non-seafood in it as well (try it with crispy pork belly!)

I have shared a recipe for nam jim seafood before that was an all-purpose dipping sauce, but this recipe is slightly different as it was developed specifically to work in this application. You can, however, use this recipe as an all-purpose seafood sauce as well.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the the full recipe card below.

Salmon. You want to buy salmon that is safe for eating raw, so when shopping, ask your fishmonger if it's okay for sashimi. I buy mine (from Sungiven for folks in Vancouver) frozen and specifically labelled as "sashimi salmon." More on this below.
Garlic, you'll need some for the sauce, and if you want, some for garnish. Yes! Garlic for garnish! At Jeh O they put thinly sliced raw garlic on top and I was surprised to find that it actually tastes great together with the salmon. Just make sure you slice it really thin otherwise it'll be overpowering.
Chilies, I use red Thai chilies for this, and feel free to reduce or increase the amount depending on your heat preference.
Cilantro, stems and leaves all together.
Lime juice, fresh only for this recipe!
Fish sauce, read more about choosing good fish sauce here.
Palm sugar, or light brown sugar. Learn more about palm sugar here.
Salt, this is to replace some of the fish sauce to reduce the overall amount of liquid so that the sauce isn't too runny.

Step-By-Step:

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below, and if this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

Blend all sauce ingredients until there are no more big chunks, but there are still some small bits. The amount in the recipe will likely be too small for a jug blender, so a bullet or immersion blender is great for this. Instructions for using a mortar and pestle is also provided in the recipe card.
Cut the salmon first so the pieces are about 2-inches wide, then slice them into ¼-inch thick strips.
Toss the salmon with the dressing.
plate and top with garlic slices, mint leaves, and lime slices for garnish, if desired. Eat it soon or it'll turn into ceviche!

Safety Notes on Working with Raw Salmon

In the video I mentioned that you want "sashimi grade" salmon, but actually, that is not a real grade as determined by any governing body. But I said this to make sure that you stop to question the safety, that you don't just buy any old fish at the supermarket without first checking that it is safe to eat raw. You can read more about raw fish safety in this Serious Eats article, but here's my summary for you.

Fish can be made safe for eating raw by freezing at a very low temperature (much lower than your home freezer so don't try to DIY this) so that any parasites are killed. Farmed salmon is usually free of parasites, but parasites aside, it can still be contaminated with pathogens during the handling and butchering of the fish. So it's important to buy from a supplier who will handle your fish with care and cleanliness, here are some tips for deciding where to buy your raw fish from.

If possible, buy from a vendor who specializes in seafood, rather than a generic grocery store. Not only do fish tend to be fresher from these places, you can talk to the vendors directly to ensure that the fish you're buying is safe for eating raw.
Look around the shop for clues of cleanliness: the vendor should have a shop that is clean, doesn't smell fishy, and staff should practice safe handling practices such as wearing gloves and cleaning work surfaces regularly.
One easy option is to buy sashimi from your trusted Japanese restaurant. It'll be more expensive than buying from a fishmonger, but you'll at least be sure it's safe, and you don't have to cut anything!

And once you bring the fish home, now it's YOUR turn to make sure you handle it with cleanliness and care! Here are some tipes:

Make sure you wash your hands properly, with soap, before handling the fish.
Use a fresh, clean cutting board and knife to cut the fish.
Keep your fish in the fridge until ready to use, and eat it soon after preparing.
To thaw frozen salmon, wrap it in paper towel and allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight. Thawing in the fridge ensures that the fish never reaches "dangerous" temperature (room temp) as it thaws, and the paper towel will help absorb the excess liquid that comes out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make this dish in advance?

You can make the dressing up to a day in advance and keep it in the fridge, but longer than that and the colour will start to dull and the flavour of the lime juice will not be as good.

But don't toss the fish and the sauce together until ready to eat, because once you mix the salmon with the dressing, the acid in the dressing will slowly "cook" the salmon and turn it into ceviche, which will change the texture and colour of the salmon. So ideally, you should eat this dish right away, or at least within 20 minutes of it being made.

Can I substitute another kind of fish or seafood?

Yes, absolutely, as long as you ensure that said seafood is safe to eat raw. I can see this sauce being fantastic with raw scallops, hamachi, or even tuna. The dressing will work well with any kind of seafood because, after all, it is a nam jim seafood! But be sure not to cut the seafood so thin that it will be overwhelmed by the dressing.

What if I have leftovers?

Try not to make more than you can eat as it's not gonna be the same the next day. If you do have leftovers, you can keep it in the fridge and eat it the next day, but you will discover that the salmon looks like it's been cooked; because it has been "cooked" by the acid in the sauce. It will actually still taste fine, but the texture will have firmed up significantly.

Love seafood? You'd also love these!

Before you start, if this is your first time, be sure to watch the video tutorial to ensure success!

Spicy Salmon Sashimi Salad

My favourite salmon dish EVER. Raw salmon slices tossed in a Thai seafood sauce that's tart, fresh, and spicy. It's a copycat recipe from a famous restaurant in Bangkok. A snap to make, and it's the perfect summer dish!

Course Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Servings

Equipment

Small blender such as immersion or bullet blender (see note 1)

Ingredients

Nam Jim Seafood

6 sprigs cilantro
3 red Thai chilies or more/less to taste (3 chilies is about medium spicy)
4 cloves garlic smashed until broken
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 ½ tablespoons palm sugar finely chopped, packed
⅛ teaspoon fine grain salt

The Rest

12 oz sashimi grade salmon
10-15 mint leaves
2 cloves garlic very thinly sliced (optional)
½ a lime thinly sliced for garnish (optional)

Instructions

For the Sauce:

If using an immersion or bullet blender: Add all ingredients into the blending container and blend, starting on low speed and increase gradually, just until there are no more big chunks, but some small bits are still visible.
6 sprigs cilantro, 3 red Thai chilies, 4 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 3 tablespoons lime juice, 1 ½ tablespoons palm sugar, ⅛ teaspoon fine grain salt
If using a mortar and pestle: Pick cilantro leaves off the stems and set the leaves aside for now. Finely chop the stems and add to a mortar and pestle and pound into a paste. Add the garlic and chilies and pound into a fine paste. Add the palm sugar and salt and pound until the sugar is melted, then add the fish sauce and lime juice and swirl the pestle around to dissolve the sugar. Chop the cilantro leaves finely and stir it into the sauce.

Assembly:

Pat the salmon dry with a paper towel, then cut the filet down in half or thirds as needed so you end up with pieces that are about 2-inches wide. Then cut each piece into ¼-inch-thick slices. Place into a mixing bowl.
12 oz sashimi grade salmon
Add the dressing to the salmon and toss well. Plate and garnish with mint leaves, garlic slices, and lime slices as desired. Serve immediately or within 20 minutes to avoid the salmon changing colour and firming up due to being cured by the lime juice.
10-15 mint leaves, 2 cloves garlic, ½ a lime

Video

Notes

I prefer using a blender for this, but because the amount is small, an immersion or bullet blender works better than a jug blender. If you only have a large blender and it won't blend properly, you can double the recipe and keep the extra in the fridge and use it to dip anything! Alternatively you can use a mortar and pestle which can handle small amounts of stuff (instructions provided).

The post Spicy Salmon Sashimi Salad (My Fave Salmon Ever) appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Salted Fish Fried Rice

Pailin Chongchitnant — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 23:02:37 +0000

Salted fish fried rice is comfort food for many Thai people. Such simple ingredients: salted fish, Chinese broccoli, rice and eggs...yet the flavours are just so satisfying! In Thailand we buy salted fish already made, but in this recipe I also show you how to make your own, which requires very little effort and I can make is less salty than the commercially made one so I can put more fish in my fried rice!

*In my cookbook SABAI, since it is all about weeknight-friendly Thai cooking, I have a quick version of this recipe as well.

Salted fish fried rice using homemade salt-cured salmon.

Salted Fish Fried Rice in Thailand

In Thai, this dish is called khao pad kana pla kem ข้าวผัดคะน้าปลาเค็ม which literally means fried rice with Chinese broccoli (gai lan) and salted fish. The fish would normally be salt-cured king mackerel which is commonly available at any market.

It's a simple, rustic dish you can commonly find at food courts and some ahaan taam sung shops which are street-side restaurants that offer a variety of quick, wok-based dishes.

Fun fact: ahaan taam sung อาหารตามสั่ง means "food as you order," which conveys the idea that whatever you want, as long as they have ingredients and can be booked in the wok, they can make for you. Most commonly these are simple stir fries such as pad kra pao, fried rices and stir-fried noodles.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Salted Fish Fried Rice ข้าวผัดคะน้าปลาเค็ม

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews

Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
Prep Time: 20 mins
Salmon Curing Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

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Description

A simple Thai fried rice that is surprisingly satisfying. The salt-cured salmon is very simple to make and adds salty, umami punch to this homey dish. Any leftover salmon can be added to salads, pasta, or another dish!

Ingredients

Salt-Cured Salmon

3 oz (100 g) piece salmon (this doesn't need to be precise, you will not need all of it)
Sea salt, as needed

Fried rice

2 oz (60 g) cooked salt-cured salmon (instructions below)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs
2-3 stalks (50 g) Chinese broccoli, thinly slice stems, roughly chop leaves
12 oz (350 g) cooked jasmine rice
2 teaspoons (10 ml) fish sauce
1 ½ teaspoons (7.5 ml) sugar
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
Chopped cilantro (optional)
Lime wedges for serving
Prik nam pla for serving, optional

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Instructions

To make the salt-cured fish:

Coat salmon on all sides with a layer of salt. You don't need to bury the salmon, but there should be a thick enough layer that the grains don't immediately disappear as you sprinkle them (see video for visual). L it sit in the fridge for 2-3 hours (2 hours for thinner pieces, 3 hours for thicker ones, or adjust the timing according to how salty you want the fish). Once it's done, rinse the fish then pat dry. The longer you let it cure the salty it will be, so don't forget about it!

To cook the fish, heat a generous amount of oil in a wok or a skillet over medium heat and fry the fish on both sides until golden and fully cooked. Do not be worried about overcooking the fish; we want it really thoroughly cooked.

Drain the fish on paper towel to absorb excess oil. The fish is now ready to be used. If not using immediately, store in the fridge. The fish will keep in the fridge for at least a week, and the saltier the fish, the longer it keeps.

To make the fried rice:

Chop the salted fish into small pieces. In a wok, add a little bit of oil and fry the salmon bits over medium high heat until well browned and crispy, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the fish and set aside.

To the same wok over medium high heat, add garlic and saute until it starts to turn golden. Add the eggs, break the yolk and let it set about half way, then scramble briefly. Add the Chinese broccoli and toss quickly just to coat it in oil.

Turn the heat up to high and add the rice, fish sauce, sugar and white pepper; toss until the rice is hot and all the grains are well separated, then toss in the salmon. Then spread the rice out and let it sit, undisturbed, for about 15-20 seconds so the rice can toast and brown slightly. Toss and repeat the toasting one or two more times. Remove from heat.

Plate the rice and top with chopped cilantro if desired, and serve with a wedge of lime. If you find it needs a little extra seasoning, sprinkle on a little prik nam pla. Enjoy!

The post Salted Fish Fried Rice appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Thai Tamarind Shrimp Recipe (Goong Pad Makaam)

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:15:45 +0000

Tamarind shrimp or goong pad makaam กุ้งผัดมะขาม is a simple dish that truly highlights the brilliant flavour balance Thai cuisine is famous for. Juicy shrimp are tossed in a luscious sauce that is sweet, salty and sour in equal measure, with a little heat if you so desire. Served with jasmine rice, and it's a luxurious dinner in less than 30 minutes.

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need with important notes about them. For amounts, see the recipe card below.

Shallots
Garlic
Cilantro roots or cilantro stems. Cilantro roots are super aromatic and are commonly used in Thai cuisine in steps where heat is applied. We don't use leaves here because they'd turn black in the heat. However, since cilantro in the West typically don't come with roots, you can use stems instead.
Thai chilies, to taste. A little heat is nice to balance the sweetness of this dish, but feel free to make it as spicy as you can tolerate.
Large shrimp, ideally look for shrimp that are size 21/25 or bigger (means there are 21-25 shrimp in a pound), although 26/30 will work if needed. Small shrimp are not meaty enough to hold up to the sauce.
Chicken stock, unsalted. Or water is fine in a pinch
Palm sugar gives not only sweetness but also a beautiful caramelly flavour. You can sub light brown sugar if not available. Read more about palm sugar here.
Fish sauce. Good quality fish sauce is important here as it is a main seasoning. I use Squid Brand for everyday cooking, but you can read more about choosing good quality fish sauce here.
Tamarind paste. You can buy ready-to-use tamarind paste, but make sure it is a product of Thailand and should have a brown colour with a pourable consistency. It is often labelled as "tamarind concentrate." You can also easily make tamarind paste from pulp which will give you the best flavour.
Red and green chilies, these are added mostly for colour. You can use any kind of peppers, mild or spicy, depending on your preference. For mild, bell peppers are fine, otherwise jalapenos, serranos and fresnos are all great spicy options.
Cilantro leaves for garnish.
Fried shallots, optional but recommended. You can buy fried shallots from Asian stores of make fried shallots from scratch. If buying, I recommend re-toasting them to get them crispier either by stirring them in a skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until they darken slightly, or baking them at 300°F (150°C) for just 5 minutes.
Optional fried dried chilies for garnish. This is traditionally added for garnish but it is just for looks.
Jasmine rice for serving. See how to cook perfect jasmine rice.

How to Make Tamarind Shrimp

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. If it's your first time I recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success. And for the full recipe see the recipe card below.

Pound garlic, shallots, cilantro roots and Thai chilies in a mortar and pestle into a rough paste. Alternatively, process into a rough paste in a small food processor.
In a wok or a sauté pan, sear the shrimp in hot oil over high heat until browned. Flip oand sear the other side. Turn off the heat, remove the shrimp from pan.
In the same wok pver medium low heat, add the herb paste and saute until aromatic and slightly browned.
Add chicken stock, palm sugar, tamarind paste, and fish sauce.

Turn the heat up to medium high and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved. Let sauce reduce until it is thick enough to coat the shrimp.
Add the shrimp and toss to coat in the sauce; if shrimp are not fully cooked at this point, let them cook until done.
Toss in the red and green chilies, then turn off the heat.
Plate and top generously with fried shallots, and garnish with fried chilies and cilantro, if desired. Serve with jasmine rice and enjoy!

Recipe Card

Thai Tamarind Shrimp (goong pad makam)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 12 reviews

Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: Serves 2

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Description

Tamarind shrimp highlights the flavour balance Thai cuisine is known for. Juicy shrimp are tossed in a sweet-salty-sour sauce, topped with fried shallots and served with rice. It's a quick and simple dish that comes together very quickly!

Ingredients

2 small shallots, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 cilantro roots or 5-6 cilantro stems
2 Thai chilies, or to taste
250 g (9 oz) large shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ cup (120 ml) chicken stock or water
3 Tablespoons (35 g) chopped palm sugar
1½ Tbsp (22.5 ml) fish sauce
3 Tbsp (45 ml) Thai tamarind paste, store bought or homemade (what is tamarind?)
¼ cup red and green chilies, sliced into rounds or julienned (e.g. jalapenos, serranos, fresnos, spur chilies, or red and green bell peppers)
Fried shallots, optional but recommended, store bought or homemade
Cilantro leaves for garnish
Fried dried chilies for garnish (optional)
Jasmine rice for serving

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Instructions

Pound garlic, shallots, cilantro roots and Thai chilies in a mortar and pestle into a rough paste. Alternatively, process into a rough paste in a small food processor.
In a wok or a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium high heat (if you’re making fried shallots, you can use the leftover shallot oil). When oil is hot, add shrimp and sear until browned. Flip and sear the other side. Turn off the heat, remove the shrimp from pan and set aside.
If the oil has darkened in colour, start the next step with a fresh wok and fresh vegetable oil, otherwise, you can use the same wok. Over medium low heat, add the herb paste and saute until aromatic and slightly browned.
Add chicken stock, palm sugar, tamarind juice, and fish sauce. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved. Let sauce reduce until it is thick enough to coat the shrimp.
Add the shrimp and toss to coat in the sauce; if shrimp are not fully cooked at this point, let them cook until done.
Toss in the red and green chilies, then turn off the heat. You can just pour the shrimp onto a plate, but for a more elegant presentation, remove the shrimp, leaving the sauce behind, and set them aside. Pour the sauce on to the serving plate, then arrange the shrimp on top of the sauce.
Top generously with fried shallots, and garnish with cilantro and fried chilies, if using. Serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

The post Thai Tamarind Shrimp Recipe (Goong Pad Makaam) appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Ginger Shrimp & Glass Noodles กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น Goong Ob Woonsen

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:00:30 +0000

Goong ob woonsen is a super popular Thai seafood dish I always order whenever we go to a seafood restaurant in Thailand. Glass noodles and shrimp are cooked together in a pot with lots of ginger, garlic and pepper, and the noodles soak up all the incredible flavours from the herbs and sauces. It is truly a classic, with a unique flavour that makes it a must-try dish of Thai seafood!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

Ginger Shrimp & Glass Noodles กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น Goong Ob Woonsen

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 5 reviews

Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
Yield: Serves 2

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Description

Goong ob woonsen is a classic Thai seafood dish. Juicy shrimp are cooked with glass noodles, ginger, garlic, all tossed together with an umami-rich sauce. It's one of my all time favourites!

Ingredients

Sauce:

2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp black soy sauce or dark soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
120 mL chicken stock or water

The Rest

80 g dry glass noodles (sometimes labelled "bean vermicelli" or "bean threads")
8-10 medium shrimp, head on, shell on if possible
½ tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp white peppercorns
6 cloves garlic
15 slices ginger
8 cilantro stems or 3 cilantro roots
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 green onion, sliced on a bias, or a handful Chinese celery leaves

Note: Traditionally, this dish is served right in the pot it is cooked in. So if you have a clay pot or a nice piece of cast iron ware with a lid, it would be perfect for this. Otherwise just use a regular pot and transfer it to a serving bowl after.

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Instructions

Soak glass noodles in room temperature water for 10 minutes to soften. Drain. If you want, you can cut the noodles with scissors just a couple of times to shorten them and make them easier to eat.

Prep shrimp: Trim off the shrimp's long antennae and, if you want, the sharp pointy end on top of the head (I recommend trimming this off if you're serving kids). Using pointy scissors or a small paring knife, cut the back of the shrimp shell open all the way to the tail and remove the vein. Rinse and set aside.

Mix all sauce ingredients together and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put the noodles and the shrimp into a wide bowl and pour the sauce over top. Toss the noodles and the shrimp in the sauce then let it sit while you prep the herbs, stirring it half way through.

In a mortar and pestle, grind the peppercorns until fine. Add the garlic and smash just until broken into pieces. Add cilantro stems or roots and smash them just to bruise. Add the smashed herbs, the ginger, and the oil to a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid that is just big enough to hold the noodles and the shrimp.

Heat the pot over medium heat until the herbs are sizzling. Once you can smell the herbs in the air, add the noodles to the pot along with all the sauce, putting the shrimp on top. Cover and cook over medium high heat just until you can hear the sauce boiling inside. Then lower the heat to medium low and cook for 3 minutes.

Open the pot and stir the noodles around to redistribute the sauce, then cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the shrimp and the noodles are done and the sauce is no longer pooling at the bottom. Taste, and if the noodles are not fully cooked, add a splash of water or stock, then stir and let it cook a bit longer until done.

Turn off the heat, transfer to a serving bowl (unless you're serving it right from the pot), top with green onions or Chinese celery leaves. Cover the bowl (you can just use a plate) and let the herb steam for at least one more minute or until ready to serve. Serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

The post Ginger Shrimp & Glass Noodles กุ้งอบวุ้นเส้น Goong Ob Woonsen appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Easier Weeknight Pad Thai (Sen Chan Pad Pu)

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Making a fully loaded authentic pad thai is no simple task, but if you still want to enjoy the sweet-salty-sour noodle-y goodness on a weeknight without having to resort to takeout, you're in the right place. Sen chan pad pu is one of Thailand's many "pad thai adjacent" dishes, but it uses way fewer ingredients, making it much quicker and easier to prepare. Its relative simplicity actually makes it more similar to an American takeout pad thai...but I promise it is better!

What Is Sen Chan Pad Pu?

This dish is what I like to call pad thai's easier cousin. It's a rice noodle stir fry with that same sweet-salty-sour flavour profile as pad thai, and it is made typically with crab or shrimp. Sen means noodles, and chan is short for Chanthaburi, a province in Thailand famous for making rice noodles with a chewy texture that are perfect for stir fries. And this dish is Chanthaburi’s local specialty because it features their signature product.

And not just the noodles! Chanthaburi is a coastal city with abundant seafood, so in Thailand you'll see this dish made with seafood only, most commonly crab. (Pad pu means stir fried with crab.) Since crab isn't as accessible for most people, for this recipe I'll show you how to work with both shrimp and crab.

Sen Chan Pad Pu vs. Pad Thai

On the surface the two dishes look similar - sen chan pad pu looks kinda like an orange pad thai. Indeed the two dishes share most of the core ingredients: noodles, tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar, bean sprouts and garlic chives. But sen chan pad pu is flavoured with chili paste, hence the orange colour, and doesn't have any eggs, tofu, peanuts, preserved radish or dried shrimp.

Because it's made with fewer ingredients sen chan pad pu is easier than pad thai, and I find it to be totally doable on a weeknight. Side note: you can also make regular pad thai weeknight friendly by making the sauce and doing some prep work up front, and I share how to make that happen in my post on how to make pad thai in 5 minutes!

PS. On the subject of orange pad thai, unlike in America, most pad thai in Thailand is brown, not orange (with a few exceptions). American takeout pad thai is often orange because restaurants like to add ketchup or paprika to make the colour more vibrant, but this isn't traditional.

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

Dried chilies. This is what gives the iconic orange colour. You can use spicy or mild dried chilies depending on how spicy you want it. I use a combination of 1 small guajillo (mild) and a few smaller spicier dried chilies giving me a nice medium spice level, but feel free to adjust this ratio.
Garlic
Shallots
Palm sugar. Palm sugar adds complexity to the sweetness. See my post all about palm sugar here if you want to learn more about it. You can also sub light brown sugar.
Tamarind paste. This is what gives sourness to the noodles. Make sure you buy Thai tamarind paste (aka tamarind concentrate) that is a pourable brown liquid, not Indian tamarind which is much more concentrated. You can also make tamarind paste from pulp quite easily!
Fish sauce. It's important to use good quality fish sauce. See more about how to choose good fish sauce here.
Shrimp and/or crabmeat. If you have crabmeat, you'll be making the "original" version, but shrimp also work just as well!
Rice noodles. I'm using Pine Brand (our sponsor!) which has great chewy texture because of the added tapioca starch. If using other brands, make sure you get one that is 3mm wide (⅛ inch) for the right size!
Bean sprouts
Garlic chives
Cucumber. This is served on the side to help lighten the dish. It's quite important!
Lime wedge for serving. This is optional, depends on how sour your tamarind is. I find that if you're using homemade tamarind paste, the acidity is quite strong and the lime isn't necessary, but it's always good to have on hand just in case you want that extra zing.

How to Make

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, if this is your first time I highly recommend watching the full video tutorial. For full instructions and ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.

Soak noodles in room temp water until completely pliable and then drain. (30 mins - 1 hour depending on the brand, more on this below.)
Remove seeds from the dried chilies and grind into a powder. Alternatively, soak the chilies in hot water for 30 mins until rehydrated, then pound into a paste in a mortar and pestle.
Pound garlic into a paste in a mortar and pestle, then add chopped shallots and the ground chilies and pound into a rough paste.
The paste can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen.

Saute the chili paste in oil for about a minute or so over medium heat.
Add the palm sugar and stir until mostly dissolved.
Add the water, tamarind paste and fish sauce and bring the sauce to a boil.
Add the shrimp and cook until done, then off heat and remove the shrimp.

Bring the sauce back to a boil over medium high heat and add the noodles.
Keep tossing until the noodles absorb all of the sauce, then taste, and if the noodles are too chewy, add a splash of water and keep cooking until done.
Add the shrimp, crabmeat (if using), garlic chives and bean sprouts and toss just until the bean sprouts are wilted.
Plate and serve with chopped cucumber, extra bean sprouts and a wedge of lime. Top with more crabmeat for garnish. Enjoy!

Tips and Shortcuts for Soaking Noodles

One of the keys to success in stir frying rice noodles is properly soaking the noodles. Here are some tips:

To check if noodles are done soaking, lift the noodles up and they should droop completely and have lost all kinks. I soak my noodles in room temp water because it results in the most even hydration and the lowest risk of over-soaking.
The warmer the water temperature, the shorter the soaking time, so as a shortcut, you can use warm or even hot water, but you have to drain the noodles promptly or they will over-soak and become mushy after cooking.
It is possible to over-soak noodles in any temperature water, but in room temp water, you have a big buffer, so just check on them once in a while. If using warm or hot water, they will over-soak quickly so keep an eye on them.
In the case of absolute emergency, i.e. you forgot to soak the noodles, you can soak them in hot off the boil water for exactly 3 minutes (set a timer!) and drain them immediately. I have only tried this with Erawan brand noodles size M (3mm), and timing may vary if using other brands. I don't do this regularly because the risk of over-soaking is high.

Advance Prep Tips

Here are a few things you can do in advance to make this dish even faster to make!

Soak the noodles in advance, then drain well and keep in the fridge. I rest the drained noodles on a kitchen towel briefly before storing to absorb excess water because you don't want any pooling liquid in the container or they will over-soak in the fridge. They should last in the fridge for up to a week.
Make the paste in advance. You can keep the chili paste for up to a week in the fridge or freeze it indefinitely.
Make the sauce in advance. Take it a step further and make the sauce! Saute the paste, then add the palm sugar, tamarind paste, fish sauce and water. Keep this in the fridge and it should last you a couple of weeks. You can make the sauce in bulk, but remember to measure the volume of the sauce once finished and make a note to yourself how much sauce you need per batch.

Storage and Reheating

Like pad thai, rice noodles stir fries in general do not reheat well. This is because the noodles continue to absorb moisture in the fridge, so when you reheat, the noodles will be softer than they were when fresh, and after a few days, they might even be mushy.

This is not a big deal if you have leftovers and you want to eat it the next day. It'll still taste great despite the not-as-chewy texture. But I don't recommend making this as meal prep for your lunch for the week! For that, I suggest trying my glass noodle pad thai which reheats much better.

To reheat, you can microwave or saute it in a non-stick skillet. Make sure to reheat the rice noodles until steaming hot or they will not be soft and may be a bit crunchy and rather unpleasant.

Easier Weeknight Pad Thai (Sen Chan Pad Pu)

Sen chan pad pu is a Thai noodle stir fry that has the same sweet-salty-sour flavour profile that we all love in pad thai, but is much simpler to make!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 5

Servings servings

Equipment

mortar and pestle
wok or large nonstick skillet
Coffee grinder optional

Ingredients

6 oz dry rice noodles 3 mm wide
0.3 oz dried chilies (see note 1)
2 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons finely chopped shallots
2 Tablespoons neutral oil
1.6 oz palm sugar, about 3½ tablespoons packed (or sub brown sugar) finely chopped (~3½ Tbsp)
⅓ cup water
3 Tablespoons Thai tamarind paste (see note 2)
2½ Tablespoons fish sauce
10-12 medium size shrimp peeled and deveined
3.5 oz crab meat optional
1½ cup 85 g beansprouts, plus extra for serving
4 stalks garlic chives 2-inch pieces, plus extra for garnish
2 baby cucumbers halved and sliced, or sub English cucumber
Lime wedges for serving (see note 3)

Instructions

Soak the noodles in room temperature (not cold) water for 30 mins - 1 hour. Timing will vary between brands and temperature of your water. Check doneness by lifting the noodles up with your fingers and they should be completely limp, have no resistance to gravity, and no longer retain their old shape. If you’re in a rush, you can use warm water and it’ll shorten the soaking time, but be careful not to over-soak (see more noodle soaking tips in the blog post above).
6 oz dry rice noodles
Remove seeds from the chilies by using scissors to cut them into chunks and allowing the seeds to pour out. No need to remove every last seed, whatever comes out is fine. Grind the chilies in a coffee grinder into a fine powder. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, you can cut and soak the chilies in room temp water until rehydrated (about 30 mins), then pound in a mortar and pestle into a paste.
0.3 oz dried chilies
In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic into a paste, then add the shallots and the ground chilies and pound into a rough paste.
2 cloves garlic, 3 Tablespoons finely chopped shallots
Combine the tamarind paste with the fish sauce and ⅓ cup (80 ml) of water and stir to combine.
3 Tablespoons Thai tamarind paste, 2½ Tablespoons fish sauce, ⅓ cup water
Before you turn the stove on, keep a cup of water nearby. Heat a wok or a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the oil and the chili paste and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.
2 Tablespoons neutral oil
Add the palm sugar and cook until mostly dissolved, about 30 seconds. Then add the tamarind sauce mixture and bring to a boil.
1.6 oz palm sugar, about 3½ tablespoons packed (or sub brown sugar)
Add the shrimp (if using) and cook them in sauce for 1 minute, flipping them halfway through, just until they are done. Turn off the heat and remove the shrimp, leaving all the sauce behind.
10-12 medium size shrimp
Turn the heat back on medium high and add the soaked noodles. Keep tossing the noodles with tongs until all the sauce has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and taste the noodles, and if they are still too chewy, add a splash of water, and turn the heat back on and keep cooking until all the additional water has all been absorbed.
Keep checking and adding water until the noodles are cooked through but still maintain a slight chew. (There are many factors that affect how much water you need to add, so it's okay if you end up adding a lot more or none at all, as long as the noodles are properly cooked.)
Once the noodles are cooked, add the beansprouts, garlic chives, cooked shrimp and most of the crab (if using), leaving a bit of crab behind for garnish. Turn off the heat and toss everything until just until the beansprouts are wilted.
1½ cup 85 g beansprouts, plus extra for serving, 4 stalks garlic chives, 3.5 oz crab meat
Plate the noodles, top with more crab (if using), more beansprouts, cucumber, and a lime wedge on the side.
2 baby cucumbers, Lime wedges for serving

Video

Notes

1. You can use spicy or mild chilies, or a combination, depending on how spicy you want to make the dish. For mild, I use guajillo or puya, and for spicy I use arbol chilies or the small dried chilies sold at Asian markets. If you want it a little spicy but not sure how much to add, use 1 spicy chili to be safe, and you can always add more to the finished dish.

2. You can buy premade tamarind paste from Thailand, also labelled as “Tamarind Concentrate.” Make sure it is from Thailand and that it is a brown, pourable paste. You can also make your own tamarind paste from a block of tamarind pulp.

3. You may or may not need the lime depending on how tart your tamarind paste is. If using homemade tamarind paste made according to my recipe, I find the acidity is strong enough that you don't need additional lime. But store bought paste can be quite weak, so a little squeeze can give you the extra zing needed.

The post Easier Weeknight Pad Thai (Sen Chan Pad Pu) appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

How to Cook Noodles in a Rice Cooker

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000

When I found out that people in Thailand are now cooking noodles in a rice cooker, it kinda blew my mind. I always thought of a rice cooker as something to cook only rice and rice-based dishes. But turns out, you can cook noodles, sauté things, and even finish a whole dish in it without using the stove once!

So in this post I will guide you through how to cook noodles in a rice cooker, when and why it works, and when it does not work. And then as an example, I’m going to show you how to make one of my absolute favourite Thai noodle dishes in a rice cooker - glass noodles with shrimp and ginger or Goong Ob Woonsen.

Jump to:

Thai Curry Crab: The Hidden Gem of Thai Cuisine

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Crab curry stir fry or pu pad pong garee is a classic Thai dish and a mainstay of Thai seafood restaurants. It's so good it's easily in my top 5 Thai seafood dishes. Yet, it's almost unknown outside of Thailand as very few Thai restaurants offer it.

Why? Probably because crab is expensive, and also because...well...it's not the prettiest dish you've ever seen, as you'll see, though it does dress up nicely. But it is out-of-this-world delicious AND extremely easy and quick to make. Perfect for some weeknight luxury.

What is Pu Pad Pong Garee?

Pu (pronounced bpoo) means crab, pad means to stir-fry, and pong garee means curry powder. But the name omits a key element: eggs. So more accurately it's crab stir fried in a soft custard flavoured with curry powder.

There are two versions of this dish: the original version uses a whole crab, still in the shell, chopped up into chunks and tossed into the stir fry (pic below). You can imagine how that would be a total pain to eat though - having to pick crab meat out from the gooey shell that's covered in a custardy sauce - so it is not my preference. So my family always opt for the other version that uses crab meat only. It's more expensive, but totally worth it.

Another version of this dish is made with in-shell crab, but this is difficult to eat.

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients for this dish with explanations. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

The Custard

Thai chili paste or nam prik pao. You can buy this from Asian grocery stores, or you can make it at home using my nam prik pao recipe here. If you don't have it, you can omit it and substitute about a teaspoon of sugar (the chili paste is quite sweet), but the flavour will be a little different.
Chili oil. Typically we use the chili oil that sits on top of the Thai chili paste when you buy it. If you don't have enough of this left, substitute any other kind of chili oil. This is added mostly for colour; because without the red, the curry powder will leave the dish a sort of yellow and that's not, to put it delicately, very...um...appetizing.
Evaporated milk. You may be surprised by this seemingly non-Thai ingredient. Traditionally we use coconut milk to add creaminess, but in more modern recipes such as this, you'll see evaporated milk used where a more neutral flavoured creaminess is desired. Creamy tom yum soup is another dish where evaporated milk is used (and it's totally delish btw). But you can use coconut milk instead and it will still be excellent.
Eggs
Oyster sauce. See my post on choosing the best oyster sauce.
Fish sauce. See my post on how to choose the best fish sauce.
Ground white pepper.

The Stir Fry

Fresh crab meat. You want this as chunky as possible, so no canned crab! I used dungeness cuz I'm in the West Coast, but blue crab would be even better. You can also make a shrimp version which is less common, but still good. Precook the shrimp first and proceed with the recipe as usual.
Onion, if you have sweet onion, it's really good in this.
Garlic, chopped.
Curry powder. My preference is Japanese SB brand. If you can find it, the most popular brand in Thailand is Waugh's curry powder (made in England).
Celery leaves and thinly sliced stalk. I am using this as a substitute for Chinese celery, which is what is used in Thailand.
Julienned red chilies or bell pepper, optional for garnish. If you're serving guests, garnishes are VERY important because, ungarnished, this dish does not look great to be frank, lol.
Optional: fresh chilies. This dish is typically not spicy, but it is quite tasty when it's got a little bit of heat. So you can add some chopped Thai chilies, or even chili powder.
Jasmine rice for serving.
Condiment: Though not necessary, Prik Nam Pla is a great condiment for this dish because the zing offsets the richness. A little sprinkle with some chili pieces for some heat would suffice.

How to Make Thai Curry Crab

This recipe is easy but it goes FAST so you need to know exactly what you're doing once the wok is on. You also need to know the consistency you're looking for in order to not turn the whole thing into scrambled eggs. So I highly recommend you watch the video tutorial in the recipe card before you cook in order to ensure success!

Combine the Thai chili paste and chili oil with a splash of the evaporated milk and whisk until the chili paste is no longer clumpy.
Add the remaining evaporated milk, eggs, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and white pepper. Whisk until smooth.
In a nonstick wok or skillet, sauté the onion and garlic in oil for a couple minutes on medium heat; just until the onion is softened slightly but is still crunchy.
With the heat on medium and no higher, add the curry powder and stir to mix with the oil for literally 5-10 seconds.

Add the crab meat and gently toss to heat it up for 10-15 seconds, being careful not to break up the crab.
Add custard and stir constantly, scraping the bottom, until it looks creamy and thick.
Turn off the heat and add the celery and plate immediately so that the eggs will not overcook in the residual heat of the pan.
Garnish with more celery leaves, red pepper and some extra crabmeat, if desired. Serve with rice!

Tips For Success

This recipe is pretty simple, but there are a few tips to keep in mind for best results.

I like to use a rubber spatula instead of a wok spatula for this as you'll need to scrape the eggs off the bottom constantly. It's also more gentle on the crab and won't break it up too much.
The texture of this dish is soft and creamy, so you want the onion to still be crunchy otherwise the whole dish will lack textural variety...in other words, it'll all be mush. So don't overcook the onions or cut them too small.
Do not use high heat, especially when you add the curry powder, or you might burn it. Also, if you don't work fast enough, a high heat will overcook the eggs quickly.

What to Serve with Pu Pad Pong Garee

This is a dish that I don't think should be the only thing you're serving in the meal. It's rich, creamy, and soft, and could really benefit from another dish that is light and has some crunch for texture.

Garlicky cabbage stir fry is a super easy one if you want to keep the meal simple, or one of these Thai salads would provide the bright acidity that will complement the dish well.

FAQ

Can curry crab be made in advance?

Ideally not, because it is tricky to reheat without overcooking the eggs. But it takes literally 3 minutes to cook (you can see it in real time in the video) so if you get all your ingredients prepped in advance, there should be no reason why you can't cook this right before serving.

Is there a substitute for crab meat?

You can substitute any kind of protein you'd like, actually! In Thailand we make this dish only with crab and shrimp, but you could certainly use tofu, fish, or even chicken.

Pre-cook your protein of choice first though, and then follow the recipe as is without any modifications. Keep in mind however that if your protein is bland, like chicken or tofu, you might want to marinate it a bit with some soy sauce or fish sauce before cooking.

How do I store and reheat leftovers?

Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days, but when you reheat, don't reheat it too hot or you'll overcook the eggs. Using the microwave is fine but stir it every 20-30 seconds (depending on how much you're heating) just until it's warm. Serve it on piping hot rice and it'll be fine. You can also reheat it in a frying pan, over medium high heat, stirring constantly until it's warm.

Thai Curry Crab Stir Fry

Pu Pad Pong Garee is a classic seafood dish in Thailand, and one of my fave. Crab meat is stir fried in a custardy curry sauce. The flavour is to die for, and it is incredibly quick and easy to make!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 5

Servings servings

Calories 256kcal

Ingredients

The Custard

1 Tablespoon Thai chili paste (nam prik pao)
1 Tablespoon Thai chili paste oil (the red oil that floats on top of the chili paste jar) or another chili oil
¼ cup evaporated milk or coconut milk
3 large eggs
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon ground white pepper

The Stir Fry

1 Tablespoon neutral oil
¼ onion 1-inch dice (preferably sweet onion)
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
7 oz fresh crab meat set aside a couple of teaspoons for garnish
1 small handful celery leaves and thinly sliced stalk or chopped Chinese celery, plus extra for garnish
A few pieces of julienned red chilies or bell pepper optional garnish
Jasmine rice for serving
Prik nam pla optional condiment

Instructions

For the custard: Whisk the chili paste and the chili oil together to loosen the paste. Add about a tablespoon of the evaporated milk and whisk to make sure there are no lumps of chili paste remaining. Add the rest of the evaporated milk, the eggs, oyster sauce, fish sauce and white pepper. Whisk until well combined.
1 Tablespoon Thai chili paste (nam prik pao), 1 Tablespoon Thai chili paste oil (the red oil that floats on top of the chili paste jar), ¼ cup evaporated milk, 3 large eggs, 1 Tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 Tablespoon fish sauce, ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
Have all your ingredients and serving plate ready to go and within arm's reach, as the cooking goes very fast!
Place a nonstick skillet or well-seasoned wok on medium heat, then add the oil, onions, and garlic and saute for a minute or so just until the onion doesn't taste raw but is still crunchy.
1 Tablespoon neutral oil, ¼ onion, 3 cloves garlic
Keeping the heat on medium, add the curry powder and stir for just 5 seconds to infuse into the oil. Do not use high heat or the curry powder will burn instantly.
2 teaspoons curry powder
Add the crab and toss for just 10-15 seconds to heat up the crab. Be gentle, try not to break up the crab too much.
7 oz fresh crab meat
Add the custard and using a rubber spatula stir without stopping until the mixture is thick and creamy, but still looks slightly undercooked. Off the heat, stir in the celery and immediately transfer onto a serving plate.
1 small handful celery leaves and thinly sliced stalk
Garnish with red pepper juliennes, more celery leaves and extra crab meat
A few pieces of julienned red chilies or bell pepper
Serve with jasmine rice and prik nam pla, if desired.
Prik nam pla, Jasmine rice

Video

Nutrition

The post Thai Curry Crab: The Hidden Gem of Thai Cuisine appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Grandma's Garlic Shrimp Recipe

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:00:00 +0000

I've been on a mission to immortalize my grandma's dishes by putting them on my YouTube channel and blog. I’ve shared several others, and this garlic shrimp recipe is probably the easiest one. If you asked my grandma for the recipe she’d say, "There's no recipe, you just stir fry some shrimp" as grandmas do. But we know there's more to it than that because it always tastes a particular way! It’s got the sweet-salty-umami trifecta, with chunks of soft garlic. Seriously, so good.

So I set out to recreate it, but with my cheffy twists of course! It’s a go-to dish for when we had shrimp, but not much else, because all of the ingredients are Thai pantry staples. So this is a taste of simple, quick and easy Thai home cooking!

Ingredients

Here are ingredients you'll need. Very simple, basic stuff. See the recipe card for the amounts, scaling, unit conversions, and nutritional info!

Large shrimp, peeled and deveined. I recommend shrimp that are at least size 21/25 so it feels substantial. I am using size 16/20. (The shrimp size numbers refer to the number of shrimp per pound, so shrimp size 21/25 means there are 21-25 shrimp per pound. So the smaller the number the larger the shrimp.)
White peppercorns, black pepper will also work.
Cilantro stems, chopped. Traditionally we use cilantro roots, but the stems make a great substitute.
Garlic, since garlic is the main herb, try to use fresh garlic that has not sprouted. If you see green sprouts in the garlic, remove them as they can be bitter.
Oyster sauce, see my post on how to choose a good oyster sauce
Fish sauce, see my post on how to choose a good fish sauce
Sugar
Shrimp paste in oil. This is shrimp tomalley (orange stuff in their heads) that has been cooked with some oil and seasonings and it really is important in this dish. See below for what it is and how to substitute.
Cilantro or green onion for garnish (optional, grandma never garnished, lol!)
Jasmine rice for serving

Jazz it up: Topping the dish with fried garlic takes it to the next level. You can buy fried garlic at Asian grocery stores; or if you have time, make it yourself for best flavour, and you'll end up with garlic oil that is wonderful on just about everything. See my garlic pepper chicken recipe for how to make it.

How to Make Garlic Shrimp

Here are all the steps, but if this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

In a mortar, pound garlic until chunky. You wanna leave them chunky as these will be delicious little garlicky bits. Then remove all but about 1 clove’s worth from the mortar.
Add peppercorns and cilantro stems to the 1 clove of garlic and pound into a paste. This is a basic herb paste in Thai cooking called saam gler or "3 friends".
Make the sauce by combining the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, water and shrimp paste in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
Dry the shrimp well with a paper towel. If you’re leaving the tails on, be extra sure to dry the tails, as water can collect there and cause a lot of spattering in the pan.

Heat the oil in a wok until very hot, then lay the shrimp down in a single layer; you will need to do this in 2 batches. Let the shrimp sear until at least halfway cooked and slightly browned on the underside. Flip and cook the other side just until done (timing will depend on the size of the shrimp, but it should take no more than a few minutes total).
Remove the pan from the heat and take the shrimp out, leaving all the oil behind. Repeat with the other half.
Let the pan cool for at least a minute, then add the chunky garlic to the same pan and turn the heat back on to medium low. Saute for about 2 minutes or until softened and golden around the edges.
Add the herb paste and saute for about 30 seconds.

Turn the heat up to medium and add the cooked shrimp and the sauce mixture, then toss for about 30 seconds to mix and reduce the sauce slightly.
Plate and garnish with chopped cilantro and/or green onions, if desired. Serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

The Secret Ingredient: Shrimp Paste in Oil

The secret to the deliciousness of grandma's garlic shrimp recipe is mun goong, which literally means "shrimp fat". Mun goong is shrimp tomalley, the orange stuff in shrimp heads, which is a rich, flavourful substance that's actually the liver, similar to foie gras. This is the most prized part of shrimp and prawns in Thailand.

In this recipe I'm using the prepared version which can be bought at many Asian grocery stores and is labeled "shrimp paste with soya bean oil." The only brand I've seen is Pantai brand. The jarred stuff is tomalley that has been cooked with some oil, seasonings, herbs, and some shrimp meat to add some bulk, so it's easy to scoop out and use. It's delicious.

Left: Shrimp paste in oil. Right: Fermented shrimp paste. These are not interchangeable.

Do not confuse this with fermented shrimp paste or gapi. Gapi is a funky, salty, fermented gray paste that is totally different from shrimp paste in oil and cannot be used as a substitute.

Other Ways to Use Shrimp Paste in Oil

This stuff is delicious and has a not-too-strong taste, which makes it easy to incorporate into just about anything. Taste it straight up so you know what it's like and have a better idea of where you can use it; but here are some ideas.

Add it to any stir fry in the same way it's used in this recipe. It works beautifully to add umami in veggie stir fries, such as this long bean stir fry.
Add it to fried rice, like how it's used in my pineapple fried rice recipe.
Add it to fried noodles. Shrimp fat is commonly used in Pad Thai, and you can simply add a scoop of it to the sauce.
Mix it into dumpling fillings, such as my pork dumplings or siu mai.

What to use instead of shrimp paste in oil

Truth be told, grandma never used this stuff. What she used was fresh tomalley right from the shrimp heads. So if you can't find the jarred stuff, look for some head-on shrimp! Here's what you can do:

Grandma's method. She left the shrimp heads on and cooked it as per usual, and the tomalley just came out naturally as she stir fried the dish. BUT she peeled off the hard "shell" around the shrimp heads, leaving the actual head and the tomalley attached so the tomalley would come out more easily.

Tip: When you peel off the head you may notice a small black "bag" nestled in the tomalley. This is basically the end of shrimp's "vein", and if you don't like the idea of it you can use a tip of a knife to remove it.
Rendering shrimp oil. You can remove the shrimp heads and cook them in oil to render out the tomalley, then use the rendered shrimp oil to cook this dish. To see how this is done, see my glass noodle pad thai recipe.

Note that these methods will not yield the same stuff as what's in the jar, as jarred shrimp paste is seasoned and has MSG added. But it will give the same shrimpy umami effect, and you can then taste and adjust the finished sauce with a little more seasoning (or a pinch of MSG) as needed.

What to Serve with Garlic Shrimp

This is a dish that's designed to be had with rice, so that's priority #1. But I also suggest pairing it with a side of vegetables to lighten it up and to add some crunch. Here are a couple that I think would work really well:

Cabbage Fish Sauce Stir Fry. If you're cooking these because they're quick, you probably also want a quick side. This is it. The crunch and flavour work perfectly, and it only has 3 ingredients (4 if you count the pepper)!
Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan) Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce. Another simple veggie stir fry that delivers exceptional flavour. You can also cook this right in the same wok you used to cook the shrimp, no need to wash it in between!
Also, explore all of my vegetable recipes for more ideas!

FAQ

I don't eat/am allergic to shrimp, what can I use instead?

You can actually try this with chicken thigh and I think it would be delicious. You can skip the shrimp paste, as the fat from chicken thighs will also be tasty. If you're not allergic, you can still use the shrimp paste in oil even if you're using chicken.

Can garlic shrimp be made in advance?

Garlic shrimp reheats surprisingly well, so yes, you can make the whole thing in advance. You can also make the sauce and the herb paste in advance if you want it to still be "cooked fresh". The sauce will last indefinitely in the fridge, the herb paste will be good for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge.

You can also sear the shrimp ahead of time, but if you do, don't wash the wok before you do the final cook, as the oil and any bits stuck to the pan are all good flavour. If you have to wash the wok, just scrape all the oil and the bits out and save them so you don't lose that goodness!

How do I keep leftovers?

The shrimp will last up to a week in the fridge. Reheat it in the microwave but be sure not to overheat it so as to not overcook the shrimp!

How can garlic shrimp be made gluten free?

It's *almost* gluten free! The only thing is that most oyster sauce contains gluten. But lucky for you, gluten free oyster sauce is now widely available such as the green label Panda Brand or Megachef.

Grandma's Garlic Shrimp Recipe

This sweet garlicky shrimp is a dish my grandma made that is so good I still remember it to this day. Soft, chunky pieces of garlic in a sweet-salty sauce. It's so tasty, and so quick and easy!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 10

Servings servings

Calories 208kcal

Ingredients

2 ½ teaspoon oyster sauce
1 ½ teaspoon fish sauce
1 ½ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon water
1 ½ teaspoon shrimp paste in oil see note 1
8 cloves garlic
¾ teaspoon white peppercorns
8 cilantro stems chopped (see note 2)
1 lb large shrimp peeled and deveined (see note 3)
3 tablespoon neutral oil or as needed
Chopped cilantro or green onions for garnish
Fried garlic optional
Jasmine rice for serving

Instructions

Make the sauce by combining the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, water and shrimp paste. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2 ½ teaspoon oyster sauce, 1 ½ teaspoon fish sauce, 1 ½ teaspoon sugar, 2 tablespoon water, 1 ½ teaspoon shrimp paste in oil
Pound garlic until chunky. Remove all but about 1 clove’s worth from the mortar. To the garlic in the mortar, add peppercorns, and cilantro stems and pound into a paste.
8 cloves garlic, ¾ teaspoon white peppercorns, 8 cilantro stems
Dry the shrimp well with a paper towel, and if you’re leaving the tail on be sure to dry the tail extra carefully as water can collect there and cause a lot of splattering in the pan.
1 lb large shrimp
In a wok over high heat, add enough oil to coat the bottom. Once the oil is very hot, lay the shrimp down in one layer; you will need to do this in 2 batches. Let the shrimp sear until at least halfway cooked and slightly browned on the underside. Flip and cook the other side just until done (timing will depend on the size of the shrimp, but it should take no more than a few minutes total). Remove the pan from the heat and take out the shrimp, leaving all the oil behind. Repeat with the other half.
3 tablespoon neutral oil
Allow the pan to cool for a minute, then add the chunky garlic and turn the heat back on to medium low. Add more oil if needed, then saute the garlic for about 2 minutes or until softened and the edges start to turn golden. Add the herb paste and saute for 15-20 seconds.
Turn the heat up to medium and add the cooked shrimp including all the collected juices. Add the sauce mixture, then toss for about 30 seconds to mix and reduce the sauce slightly.
Plate and garnish with chopped cilantro and/or green onions and/or fried garlic, if desired. Serve with jasmine rice.
Chopped cilantro or green onions for garnish, Fried garlic, Jasmine rice

Video

Notes

1. This is the oily orange paste in a glass jar, most commonly Pantai brand. It's made from shrimp tomalley cooked with seasonings. Grandma didn't use this, but she always included shrimp heads which then let out natural tomalley. One way or another you gotta get shrimp tomalley in there.

2. Traditionally we use cilantro roots, which are hard to find. But if you have them, use about 3 roots.

3. I recommend using shrimp that are at least size 21/25. I am using size 16/20.

Nutrition

The post Grandma's Garlic Shrimp Recipe appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Thai Pineapple Red Curry with Shrimp

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 13:00:08 +0000

When It's Okay to Use Canned

I do not like canned pineapple. Generally I find them flavourless. So when I want pineapple, I will usually spend the time to cut up a whole one. However, I ended up with canned pineapple out of panic (see video intro for the story!), so I had to come up with a way to use it in a way that will still be delicious.

Then it occurred to me that a pineapple curry is the best place for it, because the flavour of the curry is so strong that the pineapple does not need to be perfect for it to end up as a delicious dish!

Watch The Full Video Tutorial!

All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video to ensure success! And if you enjoy the show, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you!

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

Pineapple chunks, packed in juice NOT in syrup (or about 1¾ cups fresh pineapple)
Red curry paste (or to taste)
Coconut milk
Water or unsalted chicken stock
Dried shrimp (optional), finely chopped or ground into a fluff in a coffee grinder
Makrut lime leaves (kaffir lime)
Fish sauce
Chopped palm sugar (or brown or white sugar)
Cooking tamarind (what is tamarind and how to make it?)
Red bell pepper, julienned
Shrimp, peeled and deveined
Jasmine rice for serving

How to Make Thai Pineapple Curry with Shrimp

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success.

Drain pineapple from the juice and place the chunks in a mixing bowl. (You can discard the juice or mix it with some soda water for a sparkling treat!)
Take 2-3 pieces of pineapple at a time in your hand and squeeze the juice out of them. Do not drain this juice; just leave it in the bowl. Do this for all the pineapple pieces; you want the pineapple to give up the juice so they can absorb the curry sauce.
In a medium pot, bring ½ cup coconut milk to a boil over medium heat, then add red curry paste and stir to mix with the coconut milk. Reduce the heat to medium low and keep cooking, stirring frequently, until the paste is very thick and you may start to see coconut oil separating out of the paste.
Once the oil has started to appear, keep stirring the paste for a few more minutes, deglazing with a little bit of coconut milk if it's sticking too much to the bottom of the pot.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, pineapple and the juice you squeezed out, dried shrimp, and ½ cup of water or stock.
Tear up makrut lime leaves into big chunks, twisting as you tear to bruise the leaves and allow the aromatic oils to come out, and add them to the pot. Simmer on medium low heat for at least 5 minutes to allow flavours to mingle.
Add fish sauce, sugar, and tamarind to taste; how much you need will depend on the flavour of the pineapple, so add less and then taste and adjust as needed. You want the curry sauce to have just a little bit of sweetness and tartness to match the pineapple.
Add bell peppers and cook for 1 minute.
Add shrimp and cook for 1 minute or just until fully cooked, then remove from heat.
Taste and adjust final seasoning (pro tip: you can never taste too many times when you cook!) and serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

The Most Important Step: Squeeze the Pineapple!

The one step that might be surprising, but is SO important, is for you to squeeze the pineapple pieces (whether you use fresh or canned). This is a key step that will "de-saturate" the pineapple pieces from their juice, making room for curry sauce to penetrate and mingle so that it doesn't feel like you're eating a curry and then suddenly interrupted by a bite of pineapple! This is key to creating a "cohesive" flavour in the dish. I believe one reason that many people dislike pineapple in savoury dishes is because it doesn't feel like the sweet-tart pineapple belongs in the otherwise savoury food.

More Easy Thai Curry Recipes

This is a curry I consider weeknight-friendly because it's so fast and easy, with very minimal chopping since the pineapple comes pre-cut. And if you're into "quick" also check out how to make panang curry because that is another really quick and easy curry, with no pesky vegetables to chop, and it's incredibly delicious!

If you're an Instant Pot user, try this Instant Pot Massaman Curry that makes a weeknight meal out of something that would normally take many hours!

For something unusual? Into food mashups? You've got to try these epic red curry tacos. The flavours coming from them is INCREDIBLE, and you can even make it without going to the Asian grocery store!

Recipe Card

Thai Pineapple Curry with Shrimp

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 26 reviews

Author: Pailin Chongchitnant
Yield: 4 servings

Print Recipe

Ingredients

1 can pineapple chunks, packed in juice NOT in syrup (or about 1¾ cups fresh pineapple)
4-5 tablespoon red curry paste (or to taste)
1½ cups coconut milk
½ cup water or unsalted chicken stock
2 Tbsp dried shrimp (optional), finely chopped or ground into a fluff in a coffee grinder
7-8 makrut lime leaves (kaffir lime)
1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
2-3 teaspoon chopped palm sugar (or brown or white sugar)
About 1 Tbsp cooking tamarind (what is tamarind and how to make it?)
Half a red bell pepper, julienned
350g medium sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
Jasmine rice for serving

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Instructions

Drain pineapple from the juice and place the chunks in a mixing bowl. (You can discard the juice or mix it with some soda water for a sparkling treat!)
Take 2-3 pieces of pineapple at a time in your hand and squeeze the juice out of them. Do not drain this juice; just leave it in the bowl. Do this for all the pineapple pieces; you want the pineapple to give up the juice so they can absorb the curry sauce.
In a medium pot, bring ½ cup coconut milk to a boil over medium heat, then add red curry paste and stir to mix with the coconut milk. Reduce the heat to medium low and keep cooking, stirring frequently, until the paste is very thick and you may start to see coconut oil separating out of the paste. Once the oil has started to appear, keep stirring the paste for a few more minutes, deglazing with a little bit of coconut milk if it's sticking too much to the bottom of the pot.
Add the rest of the coconut milk, pineapple and the juice you squeezed out, dried shrimp, and ½ cup of water or stock. Tear up makrut lime leaves into big chunks, twisting as you tear to bruise the leaves and allow the aromatic oils to come out, and add them to the pot. Simmer on medium low heat for at least 5 minutes to allow flavours to mingle.
Add fish sauce, sugar, and tamarind to taste; how much you need will depend on the flavour of the pineapple, so add less and then taste and adjust as needed. You want the curry sauce to have just a little bit of sweetness and tartness to match the pineapple.
Add bell peppers and cook for 1 minute.
Add shrimp and cook for 1 minute or just until fully cooked, then remove from heat.
Taste and adjust final seasoning (pro tip: you can never taste too many times when you cook!) and serve with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

The post Thai Pineapple Red Curry with Shrimp appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Crispy Pad Thai - Mee Krob Song Kreuang

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 13:00:00 +0000

Just when you thought pad thai couldn't get any better, I hit you with a crispy version! Okay, this dish isn't actually known as crispy pad thai. It's called mee krob song kreung which can be translated to "crispy noodles deluxe." But that doesn't really tell you much about what's going on here, and the ingredients (tamarind, beansprouts, garlic chives, tofu, etc..) and the flavour balance (sweet, salty, sour) are very similar to pad thai - so I prefer "crispy pad thai" as it is a much more informative name.

This recipe is part 2 of my mee krob series. In the first post I shared how to make the sweet and sour crispy noodles and have it on its own as a savoury snack. And in this post I share how to turn those noodles into a luxurious meal in minutes. So you will need to check out part 1 first for the complete recipe.

Dressing Up Mee Krob

The "mother recipe" for this dish is mee krob or sweet and sour crispy noodle treats which can be eaten as snacks on their own, and are very addictive. But this dish is a great way to dress up the mee krob and turn them into a meal.

To be honest I think once you start snacking on mee krob, you'll probably eat it all in a very short time, so if you want to make crispy pad thai I suggest setting some aside in advance. Not to mention it's easier to make it from noodles that have not been compacted into blocks.

Sweet and sour crispy noodles (mee krob) can be served on their own as addictive snacks

What You'll Need:

Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make mee krob song kreuang. Very similar to pad thai, right? The only two differences here are the noodles and using cashews instead of peanuts.

Left to right, top to bottom: Garlic chives, beansprouts, mee krob noodles, pressed tofu, lime, shrimp, roasted cashews, egg.

Some Ingredient Notes:

NO AMOUNTS NEEDED. Yes, isn't that great? I've provided ingredient amounts in the recipe but you don't really need them, except for the fish sauce amount for the egg ribbons (which I forgot to include in the photo!). Since the noodles are already perfectly seasoned, everything else here are just add-ins, and you can add as much or as little of each ingredient as you want.

If you like a lot of noodles and only a little bit of other stuff, great. You want a lot of bean sprouts and tofu for something healthier? That works too. Having said that, you might find it helpful to watch the video below for a visual guide of approximately how much to add.

PRESSED TOFU. This is the firmest type of tofu available, and it's sometimes sold under the name "bean curd." There are generally 2 types, "plain" and "marinated" (the marinated is sometimes called "savoury"). Either will work, but here I am using marinated which is brown on the outside. It doesn't have a strong flavour, so you don't need to change anything in the recipe if you use the plain type. You can find these at Asian grocery stores where all the other tofus are.

GARLIC CHIVES. If you don't have garlic chives you can use green onions instead, but if you do I would chop them small as they are stronger tasting than garlic chives.

SHRIMP. Shrimp are the most classic protein, but you can also substitute chicken instead, or omit and add more tofu. If using chicken, I would marinate it with a little bit of soy sauce or fish sauce so that it will have some flavour in itself. The recipe card below will have more details on this.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Crispy Pad Thai

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, but as I mentioned, this post doesn't include how to make the noodles themselves, so if you haven't seen that, check out the Sweet and Sour Crispy Noodles Recipe first. I also recommend you check out the full crispy pad thai video tutorial in the recipe card below to ensure success.

1. Make a thin egg crepe. 2. Slice into ribbons. 3. Cook off shrimp or other protein 4. Sauté the tofu.

5. Add the crispy noodles, tearing them apart and tossing briefly to heat up. 6. Add veggies and egg. 7. Toss to wilt the veggies slightly. 8. Top with shrimp and cashews and serve with lime.

The post Crispy Pad Thai - Mee Krob Song Kreuang appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Hot Thai Tuna! - Red Curry Stir Fried Tuna

Pailin Chongchitnant — Fri, 21 May 2021 13:00:00 +0000

It takes a lot for a recipe to be worthy of the "Hot Thai" designation. My Hot Thai Chicken recipe was the first to be released to rave reviews, and it now has over 1 million views. This dish deserves this title because it transforms the humble canned tuna into a dish that is bursting with flavours. It has all the iconic flavours of Thai food that we love: red curry, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and even has extra "loog doad" chilies! (More on that in the video.) It's also healthy, gluten-free, and can be done in less than 30 minutes!

Inspired By a Southern Thai Dish: Kua Gling

The idea for this dish came to me because I was thinking about a fiercely spicy southern Thai dish called kua gling where ground meat is stir fried with a southern style curry paste. I was looking for something to do with canned tuna, and my mind connected the dots. After trying it, I was pleased to discover that the combination worked incredibly well.

What You'll Need

Left to right, top to bottom: Canned tuna, turmeric (or powdered), oil, Thai chilies, red curry paste, shrimp paste (optional), palm sugar, black pepper, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves.

Step-By-Step: How to Make Hot Thai Tuna

Be sure to check out the detailed recipe and full video tutorial in the recipe card below - but here's a bird's eye view of what you'll need to do.

1. Grind black pepper until fine. 2. Add turmeric and grind into a paste. 3. Add shrimp paste and pound to mix. 4. Add curry paste and pound to mix.

5. Saute curry paste in oil until aromatic. 6. Add palm sugar and stir until dissolved. 7. Add tuna and toss until well mixed. 8. Add lemongrass and makrut lime leaves.

9. Add chilies if desired. 10. Serve with rice and enjoy!

How to Serve

For those unfamiliar with the Thai way of eating, you might be looking at a pile of tuna on a plate and wonder how exactly you're supposed to tackle it! Well as with all other Thai dishes, the answer is: with rice.

In Thai we have this term kluk kao which means to toss something with plain rice. Some Thai dishes are just perfect for "klukking" with "kao", especially ones that are spicy and intensely flavoured, and this is one of them.

But it is more versatile than that! Here are a few ways I can think of using your Hot Thai Tuna:

Toss with jasmine rice.
Eat with plain congee (this is my favourite way)
Add to scrambled eggs
Use as a filling for omelettes or quesadillas
Eat with something creamy like mayo or avocado. This works really well as the dish is dry. Try filling a sandwich or top an avocado toast?

How to Choose Sustainable Tuna

When tuna is irresponsibly caught, it can be highly destructive to the marine ecosystem. Depending on the gear used, juvenile fish or some endangered species can be accidentally caught and killed. So when shopping, look at cans that say pole-caught, troll-caught, pole and line caught, FAD-free, school caught, free school, or unassociated, or look for eco-certification labels by the Marine Stewardship Council.

I highly recommend reading this short article by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program which gives tips on what to look for when buying canned tuna. And click around the site while you're there for other useful info on the subject.

HOT THAI TUNA! Stir Fried Tuna in Red Curry

Tuna stir fried in red curry paste and other Thai herbs. It's an incredibly flavourful dish that is super versatile. Toss it with rice, eat with congee, add to an omelette, or anywhere you can use tasty spicy tuna!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 8

Servings servings

Calories 165kcal

Ingredients

Semi-Homemade Southern Thai Curry Paste

½ teaspoon black peppercorns
1 ½ inch turmeric root sliced (see note*)
3 tablespoon red curry paste
1 teaspoon fermented shrimp paste (gapi)

Hot Thai Tuna

2 cans tuna, no salt added 260g total drained weight
2-3 tablespoon neutral oil
1 stalk lemongrass bottom half only, thinly sliced
3-4 makrut lime leaves thick stems removed, thinly julienned
1 tablespoon palm sugar finely chopped
Fish sauce to taste
Chopped cilantro garnish optional
Red and green chilies for garnish optional (see note**)
Jasmine rice or congee for serving or see above for other suggestions

Instructions

Make the curry paste:

Grind the black peppercorns in a mortar until fine. Add the turmeric and grind into a fine paste. Add red curry paste and shrimp paste and pound to mix.

Make the stir fry:

If your tuna was packed in water, add 3 tablespoon of oil to a wok. If the tuna was packed in oil, you can reduce the amount you add to 2 Tbsp. Add the curry paste, turmeric and black pepper in a wok and saute for 2 mins over medium heat until aromatic.
Add the palm sugar and stir until dissolved.
If it looks a little dry, you can add a small splash of water to loosen the paste so it will mix more easily with the tuna, then add the tuna and mix well until the curry paste is evenly distributed. Keep stirring until the tuna is dry and crumbly.
Add the lemongrass, lime leaves, and chilies if using them; toss just to mix and turn off the heat.
Taste and add fish sauce as needed. It's important to taste before adding fish sauce because some curry pastes are already quite salty to start.
Toss in cilantro if you wish, and serve.

Video

Notes

* If you don't have fresh turmeric, substitute 1 teaspoon of ground turmeric.

** You can add a small handful of whole red or green Thai chilies which people can eat for extra heat (see video for more about this) or if you just want the colour without the heat, use bell pepper.

Nutrition

The post Hot Thai Tuna! - Red Curry Stir Fried Tuna appeared first on Hot Thai Kitchen.

Spicy Thai Shrimp Cakes (tod mun goong)

Pailin Chongchitnant — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 00:50:40 +0000

Bring a Thai flare to your dinner party with these spicy shrimp cakes! This is my own hybrid recipe between our traditional Thai fish cake (tod mun pla) and Thai shrimp cakes (tod mun goong), combining the best features of each.

These addictive appetizers are crunchy on the outside and tender and bouncy on the inside. They're as tasty as crab cakes, but easier and more affordable to make! They can also be prepped ahead of time (see below for details), making it easy to serve these at a party.

You won't find this unique dish in any Thai restaurant so that's a treat!

Shrimp Cakes, Fish Cakes, and the Hybrid

Traditionally in Thailand shrimp cakes are plainly seasoned, served with plum sauce, and they don't taste particularly Thai. In fact, they tend to be more associated with Chinese restaurants. But I love the crunch and the bouncy texture of these shrimp cakes, and wondered if there are ways to make them a little more Thai.

Traditional Thai shrimp cakes. They are often shaped like a doughnut to help them cook through before the breadcrumbs burn.

Thai fish cakes, on the other hand, are suuuper flavourful thanks to the red curry paste, but they are deep fried without breading or batter, so they don't end up looking particularly pretty, and they don't have the crunch. It is also a little more finicky to get the right fish for the right texture.

These are Thai fish cakes which are very flavourful, though not crunchy and less pretty. They're served with sweet chili sauce.

So I got the idea to make the crunchy, beautiful shrimp cakes, but borrowing the bold red curry flavours of Thai fish cakes and its sweet chili sauce. The result was stunning. In fact, it's so good I'm surprised this is not (yet) a thing in Thailand!

Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you'll need to make this recipe. For amounts, check out the full recipe card below.

The Shrimp Cakes

Raw shrimp. I prefer using fresh shrimp for this recipe because commercially frozen shrimp have an ice glaze around them. When they thaw, the melted ice makes the shrimp very wet, and if not dried well, the extra water will cause your mixture to be too runny to form into balls. So if you have to use frozen shrimp, dry them off super-duper well after thawing. You could even let them air dry in the fridge for a few hours to be safe.
Egg
Red curry paste. Store bought curry paste is fine for this but they do vary quite a bit in saltiness and heat level. I use Maeploy for this. See my post here comparing the most popular brands of Thai red curry paste.
Coconut milk
Makrut lime leaves, (aka kaffir lime leaves) centre rib removed and very thinly julienned
Long beans, chopped into ¼" pieces. You can substitute French green beans (the small, skinny ones). You can also do a combination of long beans and corn as I have done in the video.
Fish sauce. The amount of fish sauce you need will depend on how salty your curry paste is. For your first time, I recommend mixing everything without the fish sauce, and then cook a small amount of the mixture on a frying pan or in the microwave to taste, so you know where you're starting from.
Sugar
Panko bread crumbs. Panko style breadcrumbs have larger flakes and will give the crunch and texture they're supposed to have.
Oil for frying. I use canola oil, but vegetable oil or other neutral flavoured frying oil is fine.
Fresh cucumber slices for serving, optional.

Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

You can certainly buy Thai sweet chili sauce from many grocery stores, but the homemade version is much better and is quite easy. This recipe makes a small amount, but if you want to make it in bulk and keep in the fridge, here's my sweet chili sauce recipe. Alternatively, plum sauce would also work.

White vinegar
Sugar
Mild red chilies, chopped into small pieces. A red bell pepper will work, as will any other mild red pepper you have available.
Garlic
Thai chilies, add as much as you like to customize the heat level of your sauce (or add none at all).
Peanuts, roasted and crushed, optional
Cilantro for garnish, optional, or sub green onions

How to Make Shrimp Cakes

Here are all the steps to make this recipe. If this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success, especially the shaping and breading technique!

For the Shrimp Cake Mixture

Add the coconut milk to a sauté pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring constantly, to reduce the liquid until it becomes a thick paste. Let it cool completely in the freezer while you prep other ingredients.
In a mixing bowl, add the cooled curry paste, chopped long beans, corn (if using), makrut lime leaves, sugar, and fish sauce.
Grind the dry shrimp and the egg in a food processor until it looks like a smooth paste, stopping the scrape the side of the food processor bowl a few times. Add the shrimp mixture to the mixing bowl and stir everything together until well mixed. Put this mixture in the fridge, covered in plastic wrap, while you make the dipping sauce.

For the Dipping Sauce

In a mortar and pestle, pound together the chilies and the garlic into a paste and transfer the mixture into a small pot. Add the sugar and vinegar and let simmer for 2-3 minutes to thicken. The mixture will also thicken as it cools. (Alternatively, blend the chilies and the garlic together with the sugar and the vinegar until coarsely blended and transfer to the pot.)
While the dipping sauce is cooling, shape and fry the shrimp cakes.

Shaping the Shrimp Cakes

*It's best to watch the video tutorial to see how this is done.

Divide the shrimp cake into roughly 1 tablespoon portions using a small disher or a spoon (the resulting balls should be about 1-1.25 inches in diameter, so you can roll one up to check the size.)
Put the panko bread crumbs into a wide, shallow bowl. Wet your hands with water and roll each shrimp cake portion into a ball (or patties, if you go that route). It's important to have wet hands otherwise the shrimp mixture will stick to your hands.
Drop the ball into the panko until there is no more room in the bowl.
Spoon the panko over the shrimp cake to cover the balls, and with dry hands, grab each shrimp cake and gently press the panko onto the surface and set them on another plate.

*You can make larger pieces, but in that case I would make patties, or the doughnut shapes as per the pictures of traditional shrimp cakes above. Large balls will take too long to cook.

Frying the Shrimp Cakes

See alternatives to deep frying below.

Add oil to a pot until it's at least 1" deep and heat it to 350°F (175°C). Drop the shrimp cakes into the hot oil and fry for 2-3 minutes or until the bread crumbs are a deep golden brown. They will puff up and may crack slightly, which is expected.
Place finished shrimp cakes on a paper towel-lined plate to drain excess oil. They will continue to darken slightly as they sit.

To Serve

Right before serving, add the crushed peanuts and chopped cilantro to the dipping sauce and serve alongside the shrimp cake.
Serve these with some fresh cucumber slices to add a touch of crunch and freshness!

Making Shrimp Cakes in Advance

There are a few ways to go about prepping these in advance:

You can shape and bread the shrimp cakes up to one day before and keep them covered in the fridge, then fry them when ready to serve.
You can fry them ahead of time, then reheat them in a 375°F (190°C) oven for about 8 minutes or until warmed through.
The dipping sauce can be made far in advance without the peanuts and cilantro, which should be added when serving. The sauce should last you a few months in the fridge so you can make this in bulk if you wish.

Reheating Leftovers

These reheat surprisingly well! Heat them in an air fryer for about 5 minutes at 350°F (175°C), or in a pre-heated oven on rack for about 8 minutes at 375°F (190°C).

Alternatives to Deep Frying

If you are opposed to deep frying, you can shallow fry them instead.

To shallow fry: Form the shrimp cakes into ½-inch thick patties rather than balls, then shallow fry them over medium-high heat for a few minutes per side, until the panko is golden brown. Use enough oil so that it comes halfway up the patties.

You can also try baking them, but you will need to bake and brown the panko first as it will not brown in the oven once they're on the shrimp cakes.

Drizzle or spray the panko with a little oil and toss them with your hands to distribute the oil. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake in a 400°C (200°C) oven for about 5 minutes, until golden brown. Keep the oven on.
Form the shrimp cakes into ½-inch patties instead of balls and then coat them in the panko. Bake them for about 8-10 minutes or until they are cooked through.

Thai Shrimp Cakes Recipe

These shrimp cakes are flavoured with Thai red curry paste. Crunchy on the outside, bouncy on the inside, these are absolutely addictive and perfect for any dinner parties! See advance prep tips above.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 30

Sauce making time (optional) 20

Servings servings

Equipment

Food processor

Ingredients

The Shrimp Cakes

10.5 oz peeled & deveined shrimp see note 1
1 egg
3 tablespoon red curry paste
¼ cup coconut milk
3 makrut lime leaves centre rib removed and very thinly julienned
½ cup long beans or green beans chopped into ¼" pieces. Or do a combination of long beans and corn
1 teaspoon fish sauce see note 2
1 teaspoon sugar
1½ cups panko breadcrumbs
oil for frying I use canola oil
Fresh cucumber slices for serving

Sweet Chili Sauce (Store bought is fine too)

¼ cup white vinegar
¼ cup sugar
¼ red bell pepper or another mild red pepper (in Thailand we use spur chilies)
1 clove garlic
1 Thai chili or to taste, optional
2 tablespoon crushed roasted peanuts optional
2 sprigs cilantro chopped, optional