Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango (Khao Neaw Ma Muang)

Most of the Thai restaurants have this dessert dish on their menu. Not only because it’s traditional but they are pretty simple to make. With just a few ingredients you can creates a beautiful dessert that tasted great and appeals to the eyes too. Your guest will be impressed when you serve this to them. If you haven’t tried it, give this dessert a go. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

Grilled Spicy Thai Chicken Wings

I have a love hate relationship with cilantro or coriander. Growing up, I detested this fresh herb and will throw out every piece of cilantro in my mom’s cooking. My relationship with the pungent herb only changed when I got to know Carlos. He loves this herbs and I start using it in my cooking. Over the years I learned to like it and love using it in my roast chicken. Today I used the cilantro roots for this recipe of tender and juicy grill chicken wings. You can serve it with rice or a green salad.


Ingredients:

15 chicken wings
3 cloves of garlic
2 stalks of lemongrass, thinly sliced
1” of ginger - slice
2 cilantro roots or a small bunch of cilantro
2 green chilies
3 spring onions – roughly chopped
3 tbsp of honey
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt and pepper to taste


1. In a food processor, combined garlic, lemon grass, ginger, cilantro, chilies, spring onions and ground into a fine paste. Set aside
2. Clean and cut chicken wings into 3 sections, discard the tips and cut off excess fat and skin.
3. Marinate the wings with the blended ingredients, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper for at least 2 hours or even overnight to developed more flavor.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Line the baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the chicken on the pan and roast the wings until golden brown. Turn the chicken half way through the baking for even browning.
5. You could crisp up the skin by broiling the wings for a minute or two under the boiler. Serve with warm rice or salad.

P/S I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Happy & Blessed Mother's Day to all mother's especially to my Mom in Malaysia.

Beef Curry in Peanut Sauce

This curry is deliciously rich and thicker than other Thai curries. I used the ready-made Thai curry paste which you can get from the Asian supermarket. As this is a quick curry dish so be sure to use good qulity meat. I used sirlion for this dish or rump steak will be good too.

Ingredients :

1 lb. beef (rump steak or sirlion), cut into thin strips
3 Tbs. red curry paste
3 kaffir lime leaves (torn)
1 fresh chili ( cut into strips)
1 lemongrass (bruise it)
2 cups coconut milk
1/3 cup water
2 Tbs. palm sugar
3 Tbs. fish sauce
1/2 cup of ground peanuts
Salt to taste

1. Put the coconut milk into medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat, add the curry paste, kafir lime leaves, lemongrass and slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.
2. Put in beef strips and cook for 5 minutes. Then add in the water and cover to simmer.
3. Meanwhile in a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except for chili. Add this to the curried beef, and simmer about 15 minutes or until most of liquid evoporated. Add in fresh chili, stir well, and remove from the heat.
4. Ready to serve. It is best served with steamed rice.

I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking , a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. The host this month is Preciouspea and the secrect ingredient is Coconut. The round up will be on the 1st October 2008 so do check out her blog.

Note : Sorry for the poor picture quality. The weather is really bad and gloomy and I just took a few shot of it.

Thai Basil Chicken

I found some fresh Thai basil at the Asian store the other day and decided to make a Thai dish out of it. This recipe is one of the favorite dishes of the Thai people. You can substitute the chicken with pork, beef, squid, shrimp, seafood or anything you like. Simple to prepare, it is a quick one-dish meal. The addition of fresh chilies makes the dish spicy, but you may adjust the recipe to taste by adding fewer chilies.

Ingredients :

1 pound chicken - cut into bite size pieces
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1 yellow pepper - cut in chunks
1" of ginger - slice thinly
3 small fresh green Thai Bird chilies or any kind of chilies
a small bunch of Thai Basil
1/4 cup chicken broth or water
2 tbsp Asian fish sauce (naam pla)
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1. Heat a wok or heavy skillet and add oil, garlic, ginger and stir-fry until lightly brown. Add chicken and cook, stirring constantly to prevent sticking, until all chicken turn colour about 2 minutes.
2. Add chilies, pepper, broth or water, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and stir-fry until combined. Cover and let the chicken cook for a few minutes.
3. Check seasoning, add in basil and stir-fry 30 seconds. Lastly stir in lime juice.

4. Serve with warm rice.