Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

This week my chosen theme for Blogging marathon is 1 cuisine 3 dishes! Thankfully Valli had whittled down the cuisines to American street food, Arabian cuisine, Thai Cuisine, French cuisine! Where we had to choose 1 cuisine and make 3 dishes . Even with this the choice was difficult and I had to go back to the old childhood way of choosing my cuisine… do inni mine mini mo…J

Finally I landed on Thai Cuisine …

Food in Thailand has harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish.

 Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai.

Thai cooking originally reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle where Aquatic animals, plants and herbs were major ingredients, meat was avoided. Subsequent influences introduced the use of sizeable chunks of meats in Thai cooking.

As most Thais are Buddhist, hence Thais shunned the use of large animals in big chunks. They were laced with herbs and spices and shredded.

In the traditional Thai cooking stewing and baking, or grilling were used but with Chinese influences frying, stir frying and deep-frying were imbibed in the cooking.

Not only the Chinese but Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese also influenced the Thai cooking. Did you know that chillies were introduced during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who had acquired a taste for them while serving in South America?

Thais are adapt at integrating foreign cooking methods and substituting ingredients. Like the ghee used in Indian cooking is replaced by coconut oil and coconut milk substituted for other dairy products. Spices are toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galangal. In Thai curries fresh herbs are used. Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly.

Like in Indian cuisine in Thai cuisine a Thai meal is served all at once, permitting dinners to enjoy complementary combinations of different tastes.

There must be a harmony of tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.

Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Adapted from here 

Total Time: 20 minutes

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Noodles:

• Rice noodles, 1 packet



Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

• 3 tblspn oil

Spicy Peanut Sauce:

• ½ cup spring onion, chopped the greens and onions separated
• 1 cup carrot, finely shredded 
•  2 cups   mixed fresh vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, beans, red, yellow and green capsicum
•  3 tblspn garlic, minced 
• ½ tblspn ginger, minced
• ¼ cup honey
• ¼   cup peanut butter
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 3 tblspn rice vinegar
•  ½ tblspn chilli-garlic sauce
• dhania /coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

• Cook the rice noodles according to package instructions. In my case they were soaking the noodles in hot water for 45 minutes.
• Set aside.
• Heat the oil in thick kadhai/wok over high heat.
• Add onions, carrots, stir-fry veggies, garlic and ginger. Sauté until vegetables soften.
• Add honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and chilli-garlic sauce and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes.
• Drain the noodles and toss them in the kadhai/wok. Mix well.
• Serve warm garnished with spring onion greens and dhania/ coriander leaves.

Thai Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#48

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Pad Thai for Thailand

Pad Thai

Again I go back to Wikipedia  which says that , “Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand. Balance, detail and variety are of paramount significance to Thai chefs. In his book The Principles of Thai Cookery, renowned celebrity chef, writer and authority on Thai cuisine McDang wrote

"What is Thai food? Every country in the world has its own food profile. It reflects its culture, environment, ingenuity and values. In the case of Thailand, these words come to mind: intricacy; attention to detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor.

We not only pay attention to how a dish tastes: we are also concerned about how it looks, how it smells, and how it fits in with the rest of the meal. We think of all parts of the meal as a whole - sum rap Thai (the way Thais eat), is the term we use for the unique components that make up a characteristically Thai meal."

Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy. Australian chef David Thompson, a prolific chef and expert on Thai food, observed that unlike many other cuisines:

"Thai food ain't about simplicity. It's about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it's got to have a smooth surface but it doesn't matter what's happening underneath. Simplicity isn't the dictum here, at all. Some westerners think it's a jumble of flavours, but to a Thai that's important, it's the complexity they delight in.”

So this is my attempt at making Thai Food... I have in the past tried my hand at Veggie Thai Curry, A delicious rice in coconut milk( I realize now I have never got down to posting it) and some others that I have forgotten about!!

But this was totally different as I had guests at home my daughter’s friends, making this and the Blintzes taking pics and pouring rain things were in a chaos. Finally I did not get to taste any  of the Pad Thai as the kids had  loved it and finished it all.

My kids are thrilled about it. They keep reminding me that i have not eaten this awesome dish.etc etc.... Well I do want to  eat this instead of drooling over the pics.... This is my entry for Blogging Marathon were we are on a whirlwind tour around the World in 30 days!!

Pad Thai

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Recipe Source: here and here 

Ingredients:

• 1 ½   cups flat rice noodles
• 4 tbsp oil
• ½  tblspn garlic, chopped
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 cup cabbage, finely sliced
• 4-5 baby corn, sliced
• 3 tbsp peanuts roasted and roughly chopped
• ¾   cup paneer  cubes ( I did not use)
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 ½ tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• ¼  cup chopped spring onion greens

For The Garnish:

• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped
• 1 tbsp  spring onion greens, chopped
• 1 tbsp  coriander (dhania) , chopped

Method:

•  In large bowl soak rice noodles in warm water to cover until they are limp and white, about 45 minutes in my case. Please follow the instructions of your package.
• While noodles are soaking mix lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, chilli sauce and 1 tablespoon water in small bowl. Set aside.
•  In kadhai/wok  heat oil over high heat.
• Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry 30 seconds.
• Add the beans sprouts, then add carrot strips and green onions and stir-fry 1 minute.
• Add peanuts and baby corn, mix well and cook on a high flame for 2 to 3 minutes stirring continuously.
• Add lime juice mixture.
• Drain noodles and   add to kadhai/ wok along with the cabbage.
• Cook covered  until they soften and curl, about 1 minute.
• Divide mixture among serving plates, sprinkle with peanuts and garnish with a slice of lime and coriander.

Pad Thai

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

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Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!