June 11, 2016 by Marios

Red Curry with Fish

It was my first year out of college and I was in the process of coming out to all of my friends. It was exciting and exhilarating but also a little terrifying, like a roller coaster ride. Every time I told someone I was gay, I felt my lungs expand, my heart beat stronger. Beyond the emotional changes I felt physical ones too. I slept better than ever and had a voracious appetite. I was ready to eat the world.

When I came out to my college friend Linda over the phone she suggested I come to Chicago, where she lived at the time, to visit her. I booked my flight as soon as I could. The first night there, she took me to a local Thai restaurant for dinner. I hadn’t really experienced Thai food before. There weren’t any Thai restaurants in Philadelphia where I lived for four years and I didn’t know of any in New Jersey either, where I lived at the time. I ordered some kind of curry and I fell in love. The flavors were classic: coconut, peanut, chilies, and lime. But to me they were magical. The constant back and forth between sweet and spicy, salty and sour, made me feel like a kid with ADD, not knowing which to experience first. I couldn’t wait for the next bite.

The following night Linda asked me if I had any requests on where to eat. “Let’s go back to the Thai place,” I said immediately. It didn’t matter that I was in Chicago, a city with amazing food. I wanted to eat Thai food again.

Since then, I have eaten a lot of Thai food. In New York city there are countless Thai restaurants, some right next to each other, but much like the equally countless Chinese restaurants here, most of them make terrible food. Overly sweet or watery, loaded with cheap bell peppers or drowning in cloying sauces. Some friends told us to always ask for our food “Thai style” when we order it, but it doesn’t seem to make a big difference. At least not for us.

This recipe may not have its origins from a remote region of Thailand or be the dish Thai mothers make for their children, but it’s simple and adaptable and very flavorful. It’s quick to make and does not require any special expertise or equipment. You might even like it enough to make it two nights in a row.

Red Curry with Fish – Adapted from Bon Appétit

Ingredients:

1 large shallot
6 garlic cloves
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons red curry paste
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1½ cups whole peeled tomatoes, plus juices from one 15-ounce can
1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon sugar
4 kaffir lime leaves (if not available, substitute with three strips of lime peel, using a vegetable peeler)
Kosher salt
1 pound carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 large shallots, peeled, edges trimmed, and halved lengthwise
1 pound firm white fish (such as halibut or cod), skin removed, cut into 2-inch pieces

Directions:

Pulse shallot, garlic, and ginger in a food processor to finely chop. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium. Add shallot mixture and cook, stirring often, until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add curry paste and turmeric; cook, stirring, until paste is darkened in color and mixture starts to stick to pan, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, breaking up with your hands, then juices. Cook, stirring often and scraping up browned bits, until tomatoes start to break down and stick to pot, about 5 minutes.

Stir in coconut milk, sugar, and kaffir lime leaves (or lime peel) and taste, then season with salt. Simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until mixture is slightly thickened and flavors meld, 8–10 minutes. Add carrots and shallots and pour in enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 10-15 minutes.

Season fish all over with salt and nestle into curry (add a little more water if it’s very thick). Return to a simmer and cook just until fish is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove kaffir lime leaves (or lime peel).

Spoon curry over plain white rice and serve with a lime wedge to be squeezed over curry before eating.

January 24, 2015 by Marios

Thai-style Squash Soup

You know you married the right person when, on a Friday night, he turns to you and says “This weekend, we should go get beef bones to make stock.”

And you know you live in the right neighborhood, when on Saturday you can just walk 10 minutes to the local butcher shop, where there are two butchers breaking down whole cuts of beef and pork, and you ask one of them for beef bones, and she, young, probably in her late 20s, her blond hair tied in a pony tail, puts down her knife, wipes her hands on her blood smeared apron, disappears in the walk-in refrigerator and comes back carrying a big box filled with 3-foot long beef bones. “How much do you want? I can cut them up for you,” she says.

Sure, our apartment smelled like roast beef for days afterwards but in the end we were left with a beautiful beef stock, with a delicate meaty flavor, surprising really, given the heady, almost overwhelming smell of cooked meat the bones gave off while they were roasting in the oven, before we simmered them away in a large pot filled with water, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves, and peppercorns. The stock is now in the freezer, in one-cup portions, ready to be used for any recipe that calls for stock.

Like today’s Thai-style soup. The squash season is almost at an end, but you can still find butternut squash in the stores. This is an easy recipe to make, similar to the roasted butternut and coconut soup that I’ve posted here before, but without the coconut and with a much stronger Thai character, thanks to the lime juice, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and thai chili pepper used in it. Use any stock you have in hand (chicken, beef, or vegetable). Or go find some bones and make your own. It’s worth it.

Thai-style Squash Soup

Ingredients:

6 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash, cut into 1½”-2″ cubes (from about one 2½ lbs squash)
1½ tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cups stock (chicken, beef, or vegetable)
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon water
½ tablespoon rice vinegar
½ tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 small garlic clove pressed in garlic press or grated on microplane zester
1 small Thai red chili (red bird’s eye chili), thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425° F. In a large bowl, toss together squash, oil, salt, and pepper. Spread on large baking sheet and roast in oven for about 45-50 minutes, until squash is cooked through and edges are dark brown. Let squash cool slightly.

In a blender, add roasted squash and all of the remaining ingredients. Blend until completely combined and smooth. Pour in a medium sized pot and warm over medium heat. Serve in bowls on its own, or topped with a dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream.

February 7, 2014 by Marios

Thai Coconut Shrimp Soup

So do we have a final verdict on coconut? Is it healthy or unhealthy? Is it good for you or does it clog your arteries? It seems like coconut is one of those foods that somehow managed to do a complete one-eighty a few years ago. I remember the warnings about how it was full of saturated fat, second only to palm oil, and how it should be completely avoided. Then, coconut hired the best PR person in the world and became the darling of the health nut world.

I choose to believe that it’s good for you, for no other reason than my total love for anything coconut. I’ve only recently experimented with coconut oil as a substitute for butter (with some good results) but I’ve been using coconut milk for years. And given that it’s a main ingredient in Thai cuisine, I could never give it up. Besides, who can resist a frosted, coconut cake?

So, when Bon Appétit published a recipe for Tom Kha Gai, a chicken coconut soup, that seemed simple to make and promised to be delicious, I quickly bookmarked it and prepared it at the first chance I got. Unfortunately, it was terrible. The broth was bland, the chicken was tough, and there was a taste of chicken fat permeating everything that made it hard to eat.

So, much like I did with the Caramel Garlic Chicken recipe, I set out to improve this one as well. I got rid of the chicken and used shrimp. I infused the broth with shrimp shells and let it simmer longer than the original recipe. And to add both flavor and substance to the dish, I added some carrots and potatoes, similar to what you’d get in a massaman curry.

I am proud to say that the results were lip-smacking good. Steve almost licked his bowl clean. And yes, the recipe uses coconut milk. Try it. I hear it’s good for you.

Thai Coconut Shrimp Soup – Inspired by the recipe for Tom Kha Gai in Bon Appétit

Makes 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

1 1” piece ginger, peeled
5 kaffir lime leaves (or 1/2 Tbsp. lime zest and 2 Tbsp lime juice)
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 lb shell-on raw shrimp (16-20 count)
4 oz. shiitake, oyster, or maitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps cut into 1/4″ slices
3 small potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 small carrot, peeled and sliced diagonally into 1/4″ slices
1 cup coconut milk
1 Tbsp. fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
1 tsp. sugar
1 stalk fresh lemongrass, tough outer layers removed
juice of half a lime
lime wedges (for serving)
Chili oil, sriracha, fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions:

Remove the shells from the shrimp and reserve half of the shells (discard the other half of the shells). Using the back of a knife, smash lemongrass and ginger; cut lemongrass into 4” pieces. Bring lemongrass, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, reserved shrimp shells, and broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer until flavors are melded, 13–15 minutes. Strain broth and return to saucepan; discard solids.

Add mushrooms, potatoes, and carrot and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer briskly until potatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes. Add shrimp and continue to simmer until shrimp have turned pink and are cooked, about another 3-4 minutes. Mix in coconut milk, fish sauce, and sugar and gently reheat soup. Add juice of half a lime and stir (omit this if you used lime juice instead of kaffir lime leaves).

Divide soup among bowls. Serve with lime wedges. If you want, you can also top soup with chili oil, sriracha sauce, or cilantro.

November 8, 2013 by Marios

Roasted Butternut Squash and Coconut Soup

Sometime in early February, there will come a day when I think “If I have another butternut/acorn/spaghetti/whatever squash soup/gratin/side dish I will barf.” But that day is at least two months away. Right now, it’s the honeymoon period for me and winter squash.

What a perfect food they are. Large and substantial, they keep for long periods of time without the need for refrigeration. They are nutritious and oh so flexible. They can be roasted, boiled, mashed, sliced, blended, you name it. And to top it all, they are sweet, with natural sugars that caramelize under a blast of heat, adding notes of things tropical, far from the cold winters where they reside.

Needless to say, everyone and their mother (literally) has a recipe for butternut squash soup. But I wanted to create my own. I chose to pair butternut squash, roasted at high heat to get some nice caramelization, with coconut, admittedly a classic pairing. I kept things simple and used a selection of mostly Thai flavors. The soup lets the squash shine but it with the unmistakable background of lime and ginger and fish sauce.

The soup is lovely as is, but I’ve found that it really comes alive with a few drops of hot sauce sprinkled on top. I’ve been using Louisiana hot sauce with great success. To make it more substantial, you can add some sautéed shrimp like in the photos here. Or, as I did last weekend, place a small mount of Trader Joe’s Dried Kimchi in the center of each bowl of soup. The combination was phenomenal.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Coconut Soup

Serves 3-4 as appetizer

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs (650 gr) peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into 1 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 red thai chili pepper, roughly chopped (optional)
Hot sauce or chili oil (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place butternut squash cubes in large bowl, add oil, and mix well with your hands. Place on large baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes, turning once or twice, until the edges of the squash cubes begging to turn brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes.

Place roasted butternut squash and the remaining ingredients (except the chili oil or hot sauce) in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour in a medium pot and heat over medium heat. If the soup is too thick, add some more stock, one tablespoon at a time to thin it out.

Serve hot with some hot sauce or chili oil if you like.

June 28, 2013 by Marios

Thai Chicken with Basil

When I tell people that I love to cook, the first thing many of them ask me is “what’s your favorite thing to cook?” I am always stumped by that question. I mean, with all the different foods and cuisines and ingredients in the world, how could I have just one thing that is my favorite thing to cook?

Some ask me a variation of that question: “What type of cuisine do you most like to cook?” That’s a better question but one that I still have no answer for. There was a definite time about 20 years ago when I went through a Chinese phase. I bought books and woks and steamers and cooked Chinese food all the time. I had a mini Caribbean phase, mainly due to a cookbook someone gave me, and a mini Indonesian phase, again because of a cookbook I bought at a used-bookstore. But nowadays I cook food from many different cuisines.

However, there is one type of cuisine that I have cooked very little from even though it’s one of my absolute favorites to eat: Thai food. I don’t know why but I never cooked much Thai food. Maybe it’s because nobody ever gave me a Thai cookbook. Nevertheless, Thai food (good Thai food) is an absolute delight to eat. Sweet and spicy, with huge umami flavors thanks to the use of fermented fish in the form of dried shrimp or fish sauce (nam pla), with abundant use of chiles and herbs, Thai food is a real party for your mouth.

Unfortunately, most of the time in New York we get to eat bad Thai food with goopy sauces and huge chucks of the ubiquitous green and red italian peppers. I once ordered a pad thai at a restaurant in my neighborhood that was downright inedible. I mean, how difficult is it to make pad thai?

So a couple of years ago I decided that I would take matters into my own hands for at least one Thai dish. I chose chicken with basil because I had a lot of basil that I needed to use and because I generally like the dish when I get it in restaurants. I did a pretty extensive research online and found a lot of recipes but I finally settled on one. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where I got it. Fortunately, it’s a winner

This is a deceptively simple dish to make. It takes a little time to prepare and almost no time to cook. But it packs so much flavor, it will knock your socks off. Don’t be concerned that there is only a little sauce in your pan when you’ve finished cooking. It doesn’t need a thick and syrupy sauce like what you’d get in most restaurants. Serve it over plain white rice and you’ll see what I mean.

Thai Chicken with Basil

Makes 2 servings

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam)
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 medium onion, cut into very thin slices
2-3 fresh red chiles, cut into very thin slices
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups lightly packed basil leaves (holy basil or thai basil is best but regular green basil works fine too)

Using a very sharp knife, slice the chicken breasts crosswise into thin strips, about 1/4 inch wide. Then turn the cutting board 90° and chop the chicken strips into very small pieces. It should end up looking like coarse ground chicken. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken with the fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and sugar and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.

In a large nonstick frying pan or a wok, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes, until the onion has softened. Stir in the chiles and garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds longer.

Remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon and add it to the hot pan (very little marinade will remain in the bowl). Cook until no longer pink, stirring, about 3 minutes. Add the marinade left in the bowl and cook 30 seconds longer. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil until it’s wilted.

Serve immediately over plain rice.