Lard Na

I am trying to expand my Thai cooking repertoire.  Since I can now make a pretty satisfying dish of Pad See-Ew (my favorite Thai dish), I've been thinking about trying to make Lard Na, which used to be my favorite Thai dish until it was usurped by Pad See-Ew.  The dishes are really cousins...they have similar ingredients, just that Lard Na has a gravy sauce over the noodles and Pad See-Ew is a dry noodle dish.  For any one who is wondering, Lard Na (also sometimes spelled as Lad Na) has nothing to do with lard or fat.  In thai, "lard" or "lad" means "to pour" and "Na" means "face." So the name of the dish means "to pour over the face" since the gravy is poured on top of the noodles.

I made this dish when our friends came over for lunch this past weekend.  I have to say it turned out pretty authentic and we ate all of it!  

I found a few recipes online but ultimately went with one at this blog.   I slightly modified the recipe. 

Lard Na

Ingredients:
16 oz. fresh wide rice noodles
2 tablespoons thick dark soy sauce
4 chicken breast tenderloins, sliced thinly
2 cups gai lan (chinese broccoli), chopped coarsely
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/2 teaspoon bean sauce
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:
1. Marinate the chicken in 1 tablespoon tapioca flour and 1 tablespoon water.

2. While the chicken is marinating, saute the garlic on medium heat until golden brown.  Then add the yellow bean sauce and saute for 1-2 more minutes.  Add the marinated chicken and cook until it's done.

3. Turn the heat up to high and add 2 cups chicken broth.  Let the mixture boil while you add the oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce, and black pepper.  Adjust these seasonings to your taste. 

4.  Add the gai lan.  Then mix 2 tablespoons cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water.  Slowly add this mixture to the pot, stirring as you add.  The final sauce should be fairly thick and somewhat sticky.  Once it's done, turn the heat the low to keep warm while you prepare the noodles.

5. Saute noodles in a pan over high heat with a little olive oil and 2 tablespoons thick dark soy sauce until noodles are slightly charred.

6.  Pour the sauce on top of the noodles. 

Chicken Satay

I made chicken satay for the first time this past weekend.  We had our friends Stacie and Mel and their baby over for the afternoon on Saturday.  I wanted to make some Thai dishes for them to enjoy.  I got a powder mix from the Thai grocery store to make this, so I don't know exactly what the ingredients are.  I added a little coconut milk to the powder and marinated the chicken in it for about an hour.  Then I skewered the meat and cooked it on a grill pan.

Again, we started eating and I forgot to take a picture of the final product until we were half way through.  It was good though and everyone enjoyed it!

Pad Thai

For dinner on Friday I made Pad Thai, one of Mark's favorite dishes.  The key to making Pad Thai is the sauce.  In the past, I would either have my mom's friend make the sauce for me or I'd have to buy it from a Thai grocery store.  The other ingredients are relatively easy to find, but having a limited amount of sauce meant that I didn't make this dish that often.  Until recently that is.  I found a Shrimp Pad Thai recipe in an issue of Cooking Light.  They had a recipe for the sauce so I decided to give it a try.  It turned out really good!  This is the 2nd time I've made Pad Thai with this sauce and it was delicious both times.

The pad thai recipe is my own, but the sauce comes from Cooking Light.  Also, this recipe is for Chicken Pad Thai, but you could also use Shrimp, which I've done several times.  If you use shrimp though, I would recommend that you saute the shrimp separately, then add it to the dish when you add the sauce and mix everything together.  In the past, I've found that putting the raw shrimp in the dish early on makes the whole thing kind of "shrimpy" or "fishy" tasting.  Traditional pad thai has tofu on it, which I often include because I like tofu.  But of course, if tofu is not "your cup of tea", it is optional and won't change the nature of the dish.  Also, I usually put bean sprouts in it, but they didn't look fresh at the grocery store today so I opted not to use them.  I'm going to put it in the recipe though, since I usually include it.

An important ingredient to the pad thai sauce is fish sauce.  This sauce is used in a lot of Asian dishes, not just Thai ones.  I haven't been able to find it in American grocery stores around here...not sure about in Houston.  But you can definitely find it in any Asian grocery store.

Sriracha Sauce, Fish Sauce, and Rice Noodles

Last tip before we get to the recipe:  this is a "chop and drop" type of recipe.  Things cook pretty quickly once you get started, so I would prep everything before hand so you can just drop everything in as you need it.

Chicken Pad Thai

Ingredients:

3 tbsp Olive Oil

4 cloves garlic, coursely chopped
4 medium sized eggs
4 chicken tenderloins, cut into bite-sized pieces
3/4 of a container of extra firm tofu, cubed
1 bag (13-15 oz) uncooked flat rice noodles
4 stalks of green onions
1/2 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
2 cups bean sprouts

All the ingredients, ignore the coffee maker and toaster oven in the background

Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients:
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
3  tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
3  tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp Sriracha sauce

Directions:
1. Soak the rice noodles in warm water until they are soft. I never cook them first, even if the package directions say to.  I just soak them until they are soft, then add them to what I am cooking.  Once soft, drain the water and then use kitchen scissors to cut noodles in half--makes it easier to eat them.

2. Mix together all the ingredients for the Pad Thai Sauce and set aside.

3. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add oil to pan; swirl to coat.  Add garlic to the pan and fry until lightly brown.  Add eggs to pan, scramble them, and cook it until the scrambled eggs start to brown (you want it to be decently browned).  Add chicken and tofu to the pan.  Stir occasionally until chicken is cooked through.

Garlic, Egg, Chicken, Tofu--eggs have browned

4. Add the sauce and mix with all the ingredients in the pan.  (There's going to be excess liquid in the pan from the sauce, but the noodles will soak that up).

5. Add the noodles to the pan and stir everything together so that the noodles absorb the sauce and all ingredients mix together.

6. Lastly, add the green onions, nuts, and bean sprouts and mix everything together for about 1 minute.

7. Remove from heat and serve. 

Pad See-Ew

I grew up eating a lot of Thai food since my mom is from Thailand.  My FAVORITE Thai dish is Pad See-Ew (which is loosely translated into stir-fry with soy sauce).  For some reason, I never thought I would be able to make it.  It seemed too complicated.  As I'm expanding my cooking repertoire and gaining more confidence, I decided to give it a try.  My main challenge is that it's harder for me to find the ingredients here in NJ.  I went to two different Asian grocery stores in search of the supplies I needed.  Luckily, I found what I needed at the 2nd grocery store, which happens to have a lot of Thai products.

The two ingredients that were tricky to find were sweet soy sauce and Chinese broccoli (also called kai-lan).  You could substitute regular broccoli for the Chinese broccoli, but I'm a purist and it's one of my pet peeves when Thai restaurants use American broccoli for this dish.  I don't think there is a substitute for the sweet soy sauce though.  The one I used is a product of Thailand.  It says "sweet sauce" on the back of the bottle and on the front it says "Kwong Hung Seng Sauce" with a picture of a dragonfly.  You'll probably have to go to an Asian grocery store to find it and look in the section with soy sauces.  When I made this, I also used fresh rice noodles, which I found at the Asian grocery store, but dried noodles will also do just fine and I think they are easier to find.  Look in the Asian food aisle of your grocery store for a package of dried rice noodles.  I'm giving you the recipe using dried noodles since you probably have a better chance of finding them.   

Without further ado, here's the recipe for Pad See-Ew:

Ingredients:
1 lb. wide or thin rice noodles
3 tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
6 cloves chopped garlic
3 eggs, at room temperature
3 tbsp low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce
3 tbsp thick, sweet soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic chili sauce
dash of black pepper
1/2 lb. beef, sliced into thin strips
4 stalks Chinese broccoli



Pickled jalapeno peppers (Soak sliced jalepeno peppers (cut into 1/4 inch rings) in white vinegar for 2 or more hours)


Directions:
1. Soak rice noodles in room temperature water until soft and pliable.
2. Cut Chinese broccoli into pieces that are about 3 inches long.  Cut stems by slicing diagonally to ensure even cooking.
3. Mix together low sodium soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, sugar, garlic chili sauce, and black pepper in a small bowl.
4.  Heat oil on high setting in a deep pan or wok.
5.  Add the garlic and cook until browned (not burnt).  Add eggs and scramble together with the garlic.  Break up the egg as it cooks.  Once eggs are cooked and pieces are slightly browned, add the beef.
6.  Once beef is mostly cooked through, add the Chinese broccoli.  Continue to cook on high heat until meat and eggs develop a slight char and broccoli has wilted.
7. Add the noodles and pour the soy sauce mixture over the noodles.  Fold the noodles and the sauce in with the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well.
8.  Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately with pickled chili sauce.