The Food Canon

Farmed salmon is cheaper these days. They freeze well and defrost quickly. My Mum-in-law's helper will pack the fillets individually and we will take out a few on nights when we are doing a quick dinner.

If you are not familiar with cooking Thai dishes, perhaps this can be a good recipe to start with.

This Thai dish, by the traditional name Pad Ga Prao is one of my favourite dishes.

A one-plate wonder, Chef McDang calls it a Thai national fast-food dish. Think of the aroma of fried minced beef -  with Maillard flavours in abundance - combined with fresh basil leaves, chillies, fried egg and rice. It is indeed the perfect meal.

The good news is that you can easily cook this in your own home. I agree with Leela of SheShimmers in her post of the same dish that you don't need to be an experienced cook to do this well.

What are "Maillard flavours," you may ask?

Readers of this blog and cooks will know that I have a fascination for Thai dishes. (Check the list here)

The thing is, I do enjoy cooking them. There is a simplicity, balance of flavours and a refined quality about the recipes which I find attractive. Most are fast to make, some under ten minutes of cooking time. The essential  ingredients are available here and so they can be made 'from scratch.' And presentation wise, they always look appealing and appetising.

The good thing about dabbling in another cuisine is you can get new ideas for your own. Already, I am thinking that my Mum's Nonya Chicken Curry can be modified to improve on its presentation and taste experience.

I have made green curry chicken many times, improving the recipes along the way as I begin to understand this dish more. I was in a cooking class in Bangkok recently and some ideas I picked up added to my learning experience.

Even if you have no interest in this dish, there are ideas you can pick up regarding the fundamentals of curry-making. So, read on. 

Tom Yum Soup: All the photos were taken from my Iphone 3 GS - they don't look too bad. Won't be changing my name to Food Apple anytime soon though.

I love to cook (what's new).

And I love cooking lessons.

If I have the time and opportunity to learn from someone , I will.

My best teacher? My late mum of course.

The best class was her commercial kitchen. Not that she had the time and patience to give me a "class." At a very young age, I became a free extra hand in her kitchen. Something needed to be washed, chopped, pounded, squeezed or stir-fried. When I become strong enough to hold her wok chan in her large commercial work kitchen - which looked even huger to a child - I did. I simply had to learn because she needed help. My Mum was a patient woman and hardly lose her temper when something went wrong. And she had this great sense of humor, which you can imagine, can be rather crude and colorful in her native Hokkien and Cantonese.

I am in Bangkok and interestingly, yesterday, I went back in time as we learnt how to squeeze coconut milk, pound in the granite mortar etc.

"Waste not, want not."

You may have heard of this phrase and it is a good one to remember for home cooks.

I try to adhere to this motto but with time, I realise that it is easier to 'waste not' if one gathers more culinary experience and confidence. I am also learning to store my veggies and herbs, using the usual housewives tricks and tips.  

I have a batch of week-old basil and kaffir lime leaves which did not looked like they could go any further. And some leftover coriander roots which I was keeping for use in another dish.

"Waste not?" Yes, indeed. Lets do a dish with these. 

"Want not?"

I have in possession some lovely young galangal carried in all the way from Banchang, Thailand.

They were gifts from some of our friends there.

There are many lovely dishes one can whip up with these beauties. One of them is Tom Kha Gai, the delicious soup dish which has often been overshadowed here by the more popular Tom Yum.

The word "Tom" means "to boil". "Kha" means galangal and "gai" means chicken. The main infusion herb used here is galangal. And just in case you think I can speak Thai, I got inspiration for this recipe from The Principles of Thai Cookery by Chef McDang

If you have the right ingredients, this soup is easy to make. If you do not have these young beauties, the older Malaysians ones will do.

My experiments with Home Sous Vide (pronounced suːˈviːd/) continues. I am simply intrigued by this cooking method. I have already blogged my first experience with Roast Ribeye Beef.

So, what do I think about the Sous Vide Magic (SVM) gadget? Bang for the bucks, it is one of the best kitchen gadgets I have had in recent times. For USD160, it opens up a new method of cooking, extending the multitasking capacity in my kitchen. I would never have imagined that the rice cooker area can be used for anything other than cooking rice. And not to mention, it has been put to egg service regularly for my household and for parties.

Savour it hot.

(Note: I have updated the recipe - read this)

I have been hoping to write up a recipe on Tom Yum Soup, a thought which I had already mentioned in the first article of this blog.

Last Sunday, as usual, I was reading and enjoying Christopher Tan's "Ask a Foodie" column. I nodded in agreement when I read his article on making a good Tom Yum. You can find out more about Chris' work here. And this morning, I read in the papers that it is no 7 on CNN list of the world's 50 most delicious food.

I have always been fascinated by a good bowl of Tom Yum Soup. While on my honeymoon in Phuket 18 years ago, I enjoyed a bowl of Tom Yum Goong with steamed rice. That experience has never left me. The problem is that most of the variations of Tom Yum which I had since were less than satisfying. These variations always seem to have so much in them that they crowd out the real Tom Yum, leaving only faint echoes of the one I had.

I reckoned that I simply needed to demystify this dish myself if I want to have it on my table. When I was in Banchang last year (an hour's drive from Bangkok), I visited the local wet market. It was very clean and the herbs and spices were displayed neatly. I saw many packets of the "Tom Yum trio" and I bought a bagful. That began a series of experiments before I got it right. It would have helped if I had a copy of The Principles of Thai Cookery by Chef McDang then or read this article by Chris Tan.

This an exotic dish, at least to those less familiar with Thai cooking.

I have yet to apply a difficulty rating to the recipes here but this will not fit the category of 'difficult.' At least to me, it is a whole lot faster and easier to make than our local Nonya Curry Chicken.

If green curry is commonly associated with chicken, red curry seems to go with duck. Both of them are the stars in popular Thai cuisine and this dish is a good way to introduce Thai cuisine to a newcomer. Infuse with the incredible fragrance of Sweet Basil leaves, this dish is a sure winner.

Now, if you intend on roasting your own duck, the difficulty rating will hit the insane level. I do not see why you would want to do that as it plays second fiddle to the curry. And roast duck stalls are aplenty in Singapore. In fact duck is so popular here that there is one that is used to ferry foreigners around.

Fillets being poached in the pan

It is interesting to note the colorful names which Thais give to some of their curries. Literally. Red Curry, Yellow Curry, Green Curry. This is mirrored in their politics- red, yellow...

I had some bottles in my larder for some time, coming in red and green. Since I had to cook a dish at a coming Alpha Course, salmon lightly poached in Thai red curry came to mind.(I have since then posted another Thai recipe - Roast Duck in Red Curry Sauce which contains more info on good Thai paste which you can get here...)

This is a recipe inspired by my favorite Thai cookbook by Chef McDang, with of course, some home and local adaptation. If you want to begin to understand Thai cuisine, this book is a good place to start with. 

This dish looks great, and you can get it cooked in less than 30 minutes, including preparation time. Salmon is readily available, and you can get them at super-marts, filleted and individually packed. This should be an easy dish for most.