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Spicy Grilled Beef-Grape Salad – A Mini Thai Cooking Class with Chef Vichit Mukura, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

By on March 1, 2014 in She Deglutenizes, She Explores, She Grills, She Interviews, She Thais, She Tosses, Uncategorized

Grilled Beef-Grape Salad from Sala Rim Naam Restaurant The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok
You have no idea how excited I was to be able to get Vichit Mukura, Executive Thai Chef of the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, to grace this site with his Thai cooking knowledge and skills. For a long time this is what I’ve been wanting to share with you all. Those who have experienced his cooking at Sala Rim Naam restaurant can understand my excitement.

Chef Vichit is one of a few people the government of Thailand turns to whenever it plans a dining event of national scale. Remember when I told you about the menu of the state dinner in honor of President Obama back in November 2012? It was Chef Vichit who executed that menu (according to the mandate of Prime Minister Shinawatra who came up with the menu herself) and oversaw the kitchen operations.

There are many interesting things about the chef one of which is his passion in organic rice farming. I hope to tell you more about him and what he does in future posts. For now, please enjoy this video demo wherein Chef Vichit shows you how to make a spicy salad of grilled beef, grapes, and fresh herbs; it’s an easy dish that lays a firm foundation for not only your Thai salad-making skill but also your understanding of what Thai salads are all about. Continue Reading →

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Soured Pork Sausage Omelet – Khai Jiao Naem (ไข่เจียวแหนม)

By on February 26, 2014 in She Deglutenizes, She Fries, She Thais

Soured Pork Sausage Omelet
You remember soured pork sausage, naem (แหนม), right?

I mentioned this flavorful, fermented sausage of minced pork and strips of pork rind here for the first time 3 years ago when I wrote about naem fried rice. Not too long after that post, I told you about how you can ferment pork ribs and serve them baked or deep-fried. A few months later, I gave you another dose of naem — this time in the form of fermented, braised, and pan-seared beef short ribs. Five weeks after that, I took you to one of Chicagoan Thai food lovers’ favorite restaurants, Spoon Thai, where they made a very good version of crispy rice salad with naem. And as if naem hadn’t permeated this site enough, I dragged you all the way to Bangkok with me — through a crude, homespun video which wasn’t meant for public consumption initially — for a taste of another version of crispy rice salad with naem from one of Bangkok’s most loved vendors, Pa Yai. Continue Reading →

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Grandma’s Turmeric Chicken Stew

By on February 15, 2014 in She Braises, She Deglutenizes, She Remixes, She Simmers, She Thais

Turmeric Chicken Stew
I once wrote that if you were to make one — just one — thing out of everything that I have put up on this blog, I hope it would be this ‘very yellow’ chicken stew which my maternal grandmother used to make for us all the time. Nearly 5 years had passed since the original post went up and several recipes had been published since then, and I still feel the same way.

So I thought I would reintroduce this recipe to those who have not seen it or had a chance to give this dish a try.

This stew isn’t hard to make, but it’s somewhat particular about the steps necessary to achieve the intended result. I have learned the hard way that it doesn’t tolerate shortcuts or substitutes. So please be sure to follow the recipe exactly as it’s written — at least the first time through.

Also, I need to warn you that this stew is far from being feebly seasoned. This means that each portion of it should be consumed with a generous amount of steamed jasmine rice. After all, that’s the way the Thai people treat these so-called rice accompaniments.

For the recipe, please visit this post.

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