Sour Fruit Dipping Sauce

This is my favourite dipping sauce for sour fruits like mangos and apples. When I was in my childhood tomboy phase, I would climb the apple tree in our yard and pick apples before they ripened. Everytime I make this appetizer, it brings back joyful memories. This recipe is a little different from the Green Mango Salad.

Vegetarian Recipe: Sour Fruit Dipping Sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon dried chili flakes
2 tablespoons ground toasted sticky rice
1 green mango or green sour apple

Remove mango peel but not apple peel. Slice fruit thinly so that surface is size of a teaspoon. In a small bowl dissolve sugar into fish sauce. Add chili flakes and mix. Add ground toasted sticky rice and mix. Serve sliced sour fruit and Dipping Sauce separately so that individuals can take a slice to dip into sauce.

Sin Khao Bune - Vermicelli Noodle Bundles

Sin Khao Bune are rice noodles that resemble a long string like spaghetti. When purchasing sin khao bune make sure the package DOES NOT READ PHO. Pho noodles are for Lao Pho - beef noodle soup and pad Thai pho noodles.

However, sin khao bune are added to many dishes:1. Add sin khao bune in spring rolls made with rice paper.
2. Place sin khao bune into individual bowls and top with chicken curry with bamboo and long beans.
3. Toss sin khao bune with green papaya salad in a bowl before serving.

4. Make Khao Bune noodle soup - fish curry noodle soup which is fish in coconut Thai Lao curry.


Instructions on cooking sin khao bune:
1. In a large pot, add 3 inches of water and bring to boil.
2. Add dry sin khao bune noodles and cook based on time described in the package.
3. When noodles are cooked, remove from heat and run cold water into pot while draining hot water.
4. Fill cold water into pot.
5. Dip hand into pot and use thumb, pointer and middle fingers to grab about 1/2 cup of noodles.
6. Wrap hanging noodles around pointer and middle fingers to make a bundle.
7. Let noodle drain in a colander for bundles to set and hold their shape.
8. Lightly cover noodle bundles with plastic wrap to keep from drying.

Eggplant in Fish Sauce Stirfry

My aunt came to visit from Australia and she shared with me her eggplant recipe. Thank you "Ba Von" for this simple and delicious recipe.

Stirfry Recipe: Eggplant in Fish Sauce
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups water
1 long purple eggplant
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 chopped chili
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 egg
chopped cilantro for garnish

In a bowl, dissolve salt into water. Chop eggplant into bite size pieces and add into salt water for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, add sugar and fish sauce and chili. Mix to dissolve sugar. In a wok over high heat, add oil and garlic. Stir until garlic is crisp. Drain water from chopped eggplant and add to wok. Stirfry for 1 minute. Add the sugar, fish sauce and chili mixture. Stirfry for 1 minute. Crack the egg into wok and stirfry for 1 minute. Serve immediately and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve with sticky rice or khao chow and the Classic Thai / Lao Hot Sauce.

Squash with Thai Lao Custard

Happy Thanksgiving Canada! Every year I would bake pumpkin pie from scratch. This year, because of my blog, I decided to bake squash with the coconut custard filling. This traditional Thai and Lao dessert is perfect to serve after a heavy turkey dinner and requires less time than pumkin pie.

Dessert Recipe: Squash with Thai Lao Custard
1 buttercup squash
1 pepper squash
1 coconut custard recipe

Cut the squash in half and remove seeds and soft pulp. Add coconut custard mixture inside squash. Fill custard to the top.
To bake: set oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Place squash filled custard into baking dish. Bake for 1 hour.
To steam: place squash filled custard inside steaming bamboo basket. Cover squash with lid. Add 2 inches of water into steaming pot. Place pot over high heat and steaming basket inside pot. Steam for 45 minutes.

Fish stuffed with Thai & Lao herbs

The recipe describes how fish stuffed in Thai and Lao herbs can be baked, steamed in banana leaves or grilled over a barbecue. Although Thai and Lao people would steam or grill the fish, in my video, I baked a red snapper fish.

Barbecue Recipe: Fish stuffed with Thai & Lao herbs1 tablespoon chopped lime kaffir leaf
1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass
1 tablespoon chopped galanga
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons squeezed lime
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 red snapper or any white flesh fish
Sprinkle of salt

In a small bowl mix, Thai and Lao herbs with squeezed lime and fish sauce. Rinse fish under cold water to remove any debris. Cut the sides of fish. Sprinkle salt and rub into fish. Stuff fish with Thai Lao herbs.

To bake, place in the oven in 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, flip and bake for another twenty minutes. To steam, wrap in banana leaves and steam for 40 minutes. To barbeque, place over grill for 40 minutes and flipping fish over a couple of times.

Serve with sticky rice or Thai jasmine rice and the Classic Thai / Lao Hot Sauce .

Watermelon Seeds

Should anyone take a bus ride from Bangkok to Sakon Nakhon, Thailand, purchase some watermelon seeds for the road. That is what I did because the bus ride is about 8 hours long.

I can snack on watermelon seeds forever. The most important tip is to break the shell of the watermelon seed by using your back teeth because the seed is very hard.