Healthy dip for vegetables- Soya bean dipping sauce

If you love vegetable, you will surely love authentic Thai food.  In the old day, most Thai have a meal with at least one curry paste or dipping as a main dish, and we eat them with lots of vegetable as side dish. The side dish and the rice would soften the spicy of curry pastes. This soya bean dipping or “Loan-Taaw-Jeaw” is not so spicy, even a child can easily eat it, but also has lots of vegetable as side dish like most curry pastes or Thai dippings do.

Healthy dip for vegetables- Soya bean dipping sauce

½ cup Soya bean

3 tbs. Ground prawn

3 tbs. Ground pork

1 ½ cups Coconut milk

4 Shallots, sliced

3-5 Goat chili

3 tbs. Sugar

3 tbs. Tamarind paste

½ ts. Salt

1. Boil coconut milk until the some coconut oil is on the top
2. Sieve soya bean and blend with 2 shallots. Put them in the coconut milk
3. Add ground prawn, ground pork and goat chili. Use low temperature and boil until cooked.
4. Flavor with sugar and tamarind paste.
5. Serve with fresh vegetables ie. cucumber, coriander, long bean sprout as side dishes.

Photo:

- http://www.painaidii.com

Easy curry sauce recipe- Northern spicy meat and tomato dip

Northern spicy meat and tomato dip (Nam Prig Ong) is an easy curry sauce recipe from Northern Thai region. Despite the name is “spicy”, it is just mild in taste (according to my tongue). If you have a chance to come to northern Thai region-Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lampang, etc- and have local dinner, I’m sure that this dish would be one in the menu list. It is one of the most famous Northern Thai (or what we called Lanna) food.

Easy curry sauce recipe- Northern spicy meat and tomato dip

9 Dried chilli (or 2 tbs. crushed chilli)

3 tbs. Shallot

2 tbs. Garlic

1 ½ tbs. Shrimp paste

1 ts. Salt

1 tbs. Galangal

1 tbs. Palm sugar

1 ½ cup Ground pork

4 cups Tomato, thoroughly sliced

2 tbs. Fish sauce

1 tbs. Coriander root

Coriander, spring onion for topping

1. Crushed dried chilli, shallot, garlic, coriander toot, galangal, salt and shrimp paste together.
2.  Add palm sugar, ground pork, and sliced tomato.
3. Fried the curry paste with oil. Flavor with fish sauce.
4. Top with coriander and sliced spring onion.

This  homemade curry sauce has lots of fresh vegetable as side dishes.  Of the fresh vegetable that Thais eat with this menu are cucumber, coriander, cabbage, yardlog bean, etc. Surely this menu will be good for your health! Though Northern Thai people usually eat this dish with sticky rice, jasmine rice is okay. I myself sometime use this easy curry sauce recipe as a pesto for pasta and it’s get along really well. Kind of fusion food. :) You can also try it if you’d love to. 

Photo:

- http://library.cmu.ac.th

Another chicken satay peanut sauce recipe

I have post a peanut sauce using peanut butter as an ingredient. This is another easy chicken satay peanut sauce recipe that use curry pastes from Masaman curry and red curry.



Chicken satay peanut sauce

 1/4 cup Masaman curry paste

1/4 cup Red curry paste

1/2 cup Peanut, roasted and grounded

1 cup Coconut milk

2 tbs. Fish sauce

2 tbs. Palm sugar

1. Boil coconut milk until it has some oil on the surface.
2. Fried Masaman curry paste and red curry paste with coconut milk
3. Add roasted and grounded peanut
4. Flavor with fish sauce and palm sugar

As I said in the previous peanut sauce post, you can use this sauce as a dipping, sandwich spread, or topping. If the taste of this chicken satay penut saucde recipe is too spicy for you, just lower the quantity of the curry pastes. Enjoy!

Photo:
- http://www.zabzaa.com/

Recipe for cucumbers and onions in vinegar

This is the recipe for cucumbers and onions in vinegar or what Thai call "Ajad". It's a side dish with many Islamic dishes Thai cuisine adopted. Satay, Indian curry (Kang Kari) etc.

 

Cucumbers and onions in vinegar

10 Cucumbers, sliced

5-6 Shallots, sliced

5 Goat chili, sliced

½ cup Vinegar

½ cup Water

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tbs. Salt

1. Just boil vinegar with sugar and salt
2. Wait until the temperature cool down. Add cucumbers, shallots, and goat chili

Easy, eh? The word "Ajad" believe to be derived from "Ajar" in Java-Malay language. It's a common side dish eat by many Asian countries that adopted Islamic culture ie. India, Indonesia, Malasia, but the ingredients are a little bit different. Beside Islamic dishes, this recipe for cucumbers and onions in vinegar can go together with authentic Thai food like fish pancake (Tod Man) 

Photo:

- http://makerfood.blogspot.com/2010/08/1.html

Easy Thai peanut sauce recipe

Here is an easy Thai peanut sauce recipe. This recipe is not an authentic Thai but is the adapt version by using a common ingredient in many western house, peanut butter.



Thai peanut sauce

1 tbs. Peanut oil

8 Shallots, chopped

8 cloves Garlic, chopped

1 tbs. Ginger, chopped

4 Red goat chili, chopped

1 cup Peanut butter

400 ml. Coconut milk

1 tbs. Soy sauce

4 tbs. Palm sugar

3 tbs. Fish sauce

1 Kaffir leaf

4 tbs. Lime juice

1. Fried shallot, ginger, garlic, and goat chili with peanut oil for 5 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature and add all the left ingredients and cook for another 10 minutes.
3. Bring the kaffir leaf out.

That’s it! This easy Thai peanut sauce recipe is not so spicy but kid of sweet in the taste. May be your kid would love this dipping.

When I was a child and my mom bought satay from any street food vendor, the sellers usually sell satay with bread. Bread could get along with this sauce very well! You can use this sauce as a sandwich spread for a quick meal inthe morning. With additional decoration, this sauce can also be use as a topping for canape.

I have another version of an easy Thai peanut sauce recipe that use curry pastes as ingredients. I will post it in the early upcoming month.

Photo:

- http://topicstock.pantip.com/food/topicstock/2012/01/D11621030/D11621030.html 

Sweet Asian chili sauce for Thai food

An easy sweet Asian chili sauce recipe. Sweet chili sauce is a common Thai dipping for fried or grilled meats (chicken, fish, fried meatball, etc.) The sweet and sour taste will reduce the greasy of the dish. The chili also add your appetize. This sauce is not so hot, just mild spicy.

Sweet Asian chili sauce

4 Red goat chili, picked out all the seeds

12 Bird’s eye chili

4 cloves Garlic

½ ts. Salt

½ cup Vinegar

1 ts. Sugar

1. Blend bird’s eye chili, goat chili, garlic, and salt.
2. Add vinegar and sugar with the blended ingredients. Stir till all the ingredient thoroughly mixed.

This sauce is sweet and not so spicy. I have heard that some foreingers use this sauce as a dressing for their salad. They stock this instant sweet chili sauce for 4-5 bolttles in their refrigerator! 

There are some instant sweet Asian chili sauce brands selling in the market. The most well known for Thais is "Mae Pranom". However, I have not see this brand selling on the net. You can use "Pantainorasing" brand instead. This is another good brand. Amazon also has it. Another good brand is "Mae Ploy" which has many sizes for you. I will review about all these brands later.

Photo:
- http://www.รายการอาหาร.com/

Panang curry paste for easy Thai curry recipe

Here is the Panang curry paste for easy Thai curry recipes that you can cook. 

Panang curry paste

½ ts. Salt

9-11 Dried goat chili

6 Shallots, sliced

10 cloves Garlic, sliced

1 ts. Coriander seed, crushed and powdered

1 tbs. Cumin, powdered

1 ts. Pepper

2 Lemongrass, sliced

1 tbs. Galangal, chopped

6 Coriander roots

2 ts. Shrimp paste

2 tbs. Peanut, roasted

Blend all the ingredients on the blender. You can add a little bit of coconut milk in the blender. I will post about chicken panang recipe in the next three days.

Making curry pastes take time and some tricks to make them good. Most of Thais today usually buy them from fresh markets, rarely make any paste by themself. You can  buy panang curry paste from amazon.com. My family use Mae Ploy brand and it's taste quite good so I picked the links below for you. (The Maeploy links below are also offer free super saver shipping) In addition, I used Lobo sometimes when I was abroad.  Just follow the instructions on the packgage. It is easy and tasty. For Mae Ploy or any curry pastes, you should keep them in a refrigerator after you open the lid.

Photo:
- http://maewfood.blogspot.com

Thai seafood sauce -Thai dipping sauce

This is the common Thai dipping sauce which is spicy with the flavor of garlic and chili. Thai cuisine use this sauce in many steamed or grilled seafood dishes. Lately I've found some cook shop using this sauce as a dipping for roasted chicken, and it tastes really good.

 

Thai sea food sauce

2 tbs. Chopped garlic

1 tbs. Chopped bird view chili

4 tbs. Fish sauce

4 tbs. Lime juice

1 tbs. Sugar

Just mixed them all in the blender and blend them for 1-2 minutes. This Thai dipping sauce is easy, right? I have another seafood sauce recipe from my friend using some interresting ingredient like pineapple that I will post it later. (A lot of my friends try that recipe and they all say it's really tasty!)

Photo:
- http://www.wongnai.com/

Fish sauce with bird’s eye chili (Nam Pla Prig)

If you have a chance travel to Thailand and visit Thai restaurant or any a la carte food shop, you should see a little cup or a little glass bow filled with brown liquid and chopped chili on the table. It is one of the most common sauces in Thai food. We call it “Narmpla-prig” or “Prig-narmpla” and use it to flavor any a la carte dish. It is too easy that I hesitate to put it on the blog, but since it is so common in Thai meal I’ll tell you this Thai sauce recipe and how to prepare it (I dare not say “cook”). 
 

Fish sauce with bird's eye chili

2-3 tbs. Fish sauce                              

4-5 Bird’s eye chili (the amount of chili vary with how spicy the sauce you prefer)      

A little bit of sugar (additional ingredient)

Just chop the chili and mix in fish sauce (and sugar if you prefer). That’s it! Well, too easy right? So I tell you some additional choices. Some Thais add a little bit of lime juice in the sauce. Some may add chopped shallots and/or chopped garlic. You can also make fish sauce with Thai paprika and crushed dried shrimp. Also, some Thais put unripe fruit like mango or ripped fruit that have sour taste. 

There're a lot of fish sauce selling in amazon.com, but in Thailand the most famous brand are Tiparos and Squid. You can buy them from amazon.com via the links below.

There will be more Thai sauce recipes to come!

Photo:

- http://lekkathaifood.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_1941.html