Papaya Salad

Sabaidee..

Another greeting in Lao language, sounds just like Thai and this word it's very common used in Thailand as well.

Som tam or papaya salad, one of the dish that I made recently and one of the most popular dish in Lao and Thailand. I miss this food so much. Sometimes I just want something that feel like home even if I'm not there.

It was not easy to find green young papaya here and even if they have, the pice are pretty expensive. After few days looking for this thing, at the end I managed to find it in the Asian grocery store not far from our new place.

PAPAYA SALAD

Ingredients;

1-2 cup shredded green papaya
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2-4 Thai chilli
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 teaspoon dry shrimp, optional
Palm sugar
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Toasted crushed peanuts

METHOD;

- Take the chilli and garlic and gently bash with mortar and pestle, or food processor.
- Add shrimp paste, dry shrimp and continue bashing.
- Add shredded papaya, tomatoes, and season with palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.
- Stir and pound a bit more to blend with the flavoring and seasoning. Taste and adjust flavors to the desired hot sour sweet and salty taste.
- Sprinkle with crushed peanut on top.

Egg Fried Noodles

Bonjour,

I love to cook egg fried noodles since I was a teenager. Until now, I make fried noodles quite often for my family back in my hometown because this dish it's something everyone can enjoy together. Fried noodles are always been my choice especially during afternoon tea with family.

When it comes to Asian cuisine itself, in many event, in the restaurants or in the street food stalls, the two main dishes are often rice and noodles.

This simple mee goreng telur or egg fried noodles are one of my all time favorite noodles. Everyone can do it, so let's cook this simple fried noodles.

EGG FRIED NOODLES

Ingredients;

1/2 packet dry chinese noodles (for 1-2 person) prepare as per package direction
I onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1-2 red chilli, optional
1 egg
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up little oil in a wok or saucepan and fry onion and garlic until fragrant.
- Add chilli and crack the egg, let it cook a while and scrambled.
- Add the noodles and stir-fry for a minute.
- Season with light and dark soy sauce and taste with salt and pepper.
- Stir well and cook for another minute.
- Serve with another fried egg on top and voila, mee goreng ready!

Bon appetite!

Fish in Spicy Soy Sauce

Hello,

I've not been eating mackerel for a couple of months now. Perhaps I'm missing something, so last few days, I bought some fresh mackerel and I ate it alone. I just fried them, eat with spicy tamarind sauce and it happen I have some leftover fried mackerel and for the second round, I cooked them with some sauce.

Fish in spicy soy sauce or we called it ikan masak kicap pedas is a Malaysian style fried fish cooked in spicy soy sauce but for those who dont't eat spicy, just skip the chilli, as simple as that. For the certain food like this, fish, prawns or vegetables with gravy and so forth, they are nothing more than of individual preference, no rules. We can choose to add in more or less seasoning and sauce depend on our preference.

FISH IN SPICY SOY SAUCE

Ingredients;

1-2 mackerel or any kind of fish
1 onion, sliced
4 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
5-6 dry chilli, soak in hot water/ or fresh chilli
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 cup tamarind juice
2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Prepare the fish, rub with turmeric powder and salt, then fried. Set aside.
- Blend together shallot, garlic, ginger and chilli, set aside.
- Heat up little oil in a saucepan and fry blended shallot until fragrant.
- Add coriander and cumin powder and cook for few minutes.
- Add the slice onion, tamarind juice, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and let the sauce thicken a bit.
- Lastly add fried fish and season with salt, sugar and pepper if needed.

Thai Egg Fried Rice

Sawadee ka...

Hello in Thai language, a basic Thai words that everyone should know whenever we are in Thailand. When I was working in Laos few years ago, both Thai and Lao language have something in comman. They understand each other just like Indonesian and Malay language. We understand each other even the accent was a little bit different.

I love to hear when people talk in a different language and their language is so beautiful. It's not easy to learn, speaking other language was difficult for me but to know a few words from other country is quite amazing actually.

Now, back to the food and my appetite was on the hunt for Asian food to fulfill. There is more Asian food that I have been having lately. One of those are Thai food and yesterday I've made a simple and quick Thai egg fried rice.

THAI EGG FRIED RICE

Ingredients;

1-2 cups leftover cooked rice
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Thai red chilli, optional
1 egg
Thai fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat little oil in a wok or saucepan and fry onion, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
- Add cooked rice and mix well.
- Season with fish sauce, oyster sauce and pepper.
- Push the rice to the side and add egg. Let the egg cook for a while, scramble and stir with rice for a second and voila, the fried rice ready.

Taan-ah-haan hai a roi!

Fried Prawns With Spices

Bonjour,

Prawns and prawns again, but there was a time when I feel I don't know what to cook or what to do with prawns. At the same time, I still want to do something with it because prawns are my absolute favourite, all the time.

I recently felt like to eat a little bit of something with spices. To cook as simple as possible, I begin to marinade my prawns with some spices and let it sit for few hours in the fridge. And there is my simple fried prawns with spices for dinner.

FRIED PRAWNS WITH SPICES

Ingredients;

200g prawns
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder or paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 onion, sliced
1-2 red chilli, sliced (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Marinate prawn with garlic, ginger and all spices, chilli, cumin, coriander and turmeric powder and let sit for 1-2 hours.
- Heat little oil in a pan and fry onion and red chilli until aromatic.
- Add marinated prawns and cook until the prawns are cooked through.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve while they are still hot.

Bon appétit!