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Beef and Chicken with Thai Curry Noodles
Summer is the season for adventure, for diving into new and strangely wonderful delights. Summer for us started last week, when we embarked on one really amazing experience: a genuine food trip into the far-flung corners of Thailand, via an authentic Thai Food Festival at the Traders Hotel Manila.?
The minute we stepped into the lobby?s Latitude restaurant, we were transported to another world. Our senses were immediately put to work. Wonderful aromas wafted from several buffet tables. There were bright silks, jewel-encrusted body and hair ornaments, brilliantly painted temple gods, flowers, paper-and-bamboo parasols. All the staff dressed like palace occupants in The King And I. Amazing, indeed.
Thailand and the Philippines are so similar, yet the cultures so distinctly different that foreigners visiting Manila for the first time after a weekend in Thailand are puzzled, especially when it comes time to eat.
Thais almost look Pinoy; our countryside rice farms cultivated by water buffalo look identical under the blistering tropical sun. Our rivers and seas produce the same luscious crabs, prawns, bivalves and all varieties of fish. So why are Thai and Filipino food as different as day and night?
Thais have a refreshing way with herbs: basil (sulasi), mint (yerba buena), the stems and roots of fresh coriander (wansuy), the white part of lemon grass (tanglad), curry leaves (from bitter orange trees) and galangal (langkawas). These are minced, shopped, peeled, fried, boiled, eaten raw. Everything is cut bite-sized.
For the food festival, guest chefs from the Shangri-La Chiang Mai prepared hundreds of dishes: soups, salads, appetizers, main courses. Fish, shellfish, beef, pork, chicken. And vegetables? Yes, vegetables. Thai chefs make one like vegetables.
We are sharing with our readers a couple of the dishes we have tried at home. Enjoy!
Thung Thong (Golden Bags)
Ingredients:
? 30 lumpia wrappers, cut into 5 inch circles
? 1 cup chopped shrimps
? 1/2 cup ground pork or chicken
? 1/4 cup minced jicama (singkamas)
? 1 tbsp. minced coriander root (wansuy)
? 1 tbsp.chopped garlic
? 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
? 1 tsp. salt
? 1/4 cooking oil for stir frying
? 4 cup cooking oil for deep frying
? 1/2 bottled sweet chili sauce
Preparation:
?Mix the shrimp and pork together with all ingredients, except spring roll sheet and chopped garlic
?Stir-fry the garlic in hot oil until fragrant, and mix in the filling mixture until done. Cool the filling.
?Place 1 tbsp. of the filling in the center of a lumpia wrapper, then fold up the sheet to enclose as in a bag. Tie the bag with a blanched onion or chive leaf. Trim the excess spring roll sheet.
?Deep-fry in hot oil, drain on paper towels or bond paper, and serve with sweet chili sauce.
Kra Pio Nue (Thai Basil Beef)
Ingredients:
?2 teaspoons oyster sauce
?2 teaspoons light soy sauce
?2 teaspoons fish sauce
?2 teaspoons garlic chili sauce
?1 teaspoon sugar
?1 teaspoon minced hot green pepper
?1 teaspoon minced garlic
?2 tablespoons vegetable oil
?3/4 pound beef flank steak, cut into thin diagonal slices
?? cup water
?40 fresh basil leaves (left whole)
Preparation:
?Mix first 7 ingredients in small bowl. Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add beef and stir-fry until medium-rare, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl, set aside.
?To the oil in the wok, add sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Add ? cup water boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Return beef to sauce in wok; add basil leaves and stir for about 1 minute, just until beef is cooked through
?Serve over plain steamed rice or noodles.
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