One Night in Bangkok

Readers, as promised I am restarting my recipe posts. I have decided that once a week I will treat Nate to a new recipe that I've never tried before. This week I decided on Pad Thai and Coconut Soup.

Coconut Soup retrieved from All Recipes

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 Tbsp grated ginger

1 stalk lemongrass, minced 

2 tbsp red curry paste

4 C chicken broth (or use 2 C vegetable broth and 2 C chicken broth) 

3 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp light brown sugar

3 cans coconut milk

1/2 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced 

1 lb shrimp, peeled and de-veined

2 Tbsp lime juice 

Salt to taste

1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, heat oil and then add in lemongrass and ginger and cook for 1 minute. Note to readers, mincing lemongrass is a pain in the behind! I sharpened my biggest kitchen knife and still struggled to chop the damn thing. Just be prepared for some struggling. 

Pour in broth slowly and stir continuously. 

Mix in fish sauce, brown sugar and curry paste and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Add in the coconut milk and mushrooms and simmer until mushrooms are soft, this took about 10 minutes. 

Add in shrimp and cook until no longer translucent. 

Mix in salt and lime juice and garnish with cilantro when serving! 

This soup has a very strange smell, not necessarily a foul smell just different from anything else I can compare it to, however, don't let this throw you off! The soup is very delicious! The shrimp were succulent and juicy, the lime juice and cilantro gave it a freshness and the red curry added a nice heat without being too spicy. 

Now readers, despite my being a kitchen perfectionist not everything always works out. However this was definitely operator error and not a problem with the recipe. 

Pad Thai retrieved from Wall Street Journal 

4 oz fettuccine-width rice stick noodles

1/4 C peanut oil (we didn't have any so I substituted grapeseed oil) 

3 Tbsp creamy peanut butter (the recipe called for tamarind paste but we didn't have any plus I wanted to add peanut taste since we had no peanut oil) 

1/4 C fish sauce 

1/3 C honey

2 Tbsp rice vinegar 

1/2 tbsp red pepper flakes

1/4 C chopped scallions 

1 clove garlic, minced 

2 eggs

1 small head Napa cabbage, chopped 

1 C bean sprouts

1/4 C cilantro, chopped

2 limes, quartered 

This was where the recipe and I decided to not be friends, Wall Street Journal told me to place the noodles in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. I followed these instructions and unfortunately my noodles were left severely undercooked (practically uneatable) so I suggest following the instructions on the package instead.

In a small saucepan on low-medium heat, heat together peanut butter, fish sauce, honey and vinegar. Stir in red pepper flakes. 

In a large skillet (or wok if you have one), heat 3 Tbsp peanut (or grapeseed) oil over medium-high heat. When oil slides easily around the pan, heat garlic and scallions for a minute. 

Add eggs to pan and scramble them just as they're about to set. 

Add cabbage and bean sprouts to pan and cook until the cabbage just begins to wilt. 

Add in shrimp and cook for 3 minutes per side (or until the shrimp form a "c"; "c" for cooked! Cute way to remember right?) 

Add drained (and hopefully fully cooked) noodles to a big bowl, add in shrimp and other ingredients, pour sauce over and toss to coat. Serve with cilantro and lime garnishes.

Despite the awful and leathery noodles, the shrimp and other ingredients had such wonderful flavors! It truly is a disappointment that these noodles turned out so horribly but oh well, you live and learn. 

Hope you enjoy this international dish, readers! It was pretty simple to make and relatively few dishes to wash and who doesn't love that?!