Archive | She Deglutenizes RSS feed for this section

Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) – Part Three: The Notable Ingredients and Garnishes

By on June 25, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Fries, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Thais


I have proposed in the first part of the Pad Thai series that the best pan to use to make Pad Thai is a wide, flat-bottomed pan with a nonstick surface, short rims, and great heat retention ability. In the second part of the series, I have proposed that the best rice noodles to use in Pad Thai is flat rice noodles between 2 to 5 millimeters in width (measured before soaking). In the same post on the noodles, I’ve also cautioned you against blanching or par-cooking the noodles prior to stir-frying for that is the surest way to get your noodles to clump up and your Pad Thai completely ruined.

In this post, I will be making comments and suggestions on the ingredients and garnishes that help make your homemade Pad Thai that much closer to the most common version found on the streets of Bangkok. You may not have seen some of these ingredients before in all the versions of Pad Thai which you have had outside Thailand. But I can assure you that none of these ingredients is foreign to most Pad Thai enthusiasts in the motherland. And this is undoubtedly a yawn-inducing post to them for, you see, Pad Thai is such an ordinary food that is found everywhere in Bangkok, and these common ingredients are found right along with it. Everywhere. Every day. Almost all the time. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed

Thai Sour Curry (Kaeng Som – แกงส้ม)

By on June 12, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Rants and Muses, She Simmers, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Thais


If those who follow me on Twitter have wondered why it took me so long to finally publish this post on Thai Sour Curry or Kaeng Som (แกงส้ม) after I’d announced it nearly two months ago, check out the length of this post. There’s so much to say about this curry, so many possible angles from which to approach the subject. When you see how much information I’ve been forced to relegate to the footnotes to keep the length of this post reasonable – and it looks like I’ve failed miserably – you’ll understand the procrastination.

After all, it’s kaeng som[1], one of the grande dames of Thai curries, we’re talking about. It’s the curry that captures so very well the flavors associated with traditional Thai food. A short, quick post would be disrespectful.

We loved kaeng som in our family. We loved it so much that it was served at least twice a week, or more if you count the leftover meals. And on the days when I didn’t have kaeng som at home, it would be served at school. If Brillat-Savarin is right, then I am nothing but a big bowl of kaeng som. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed

Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) – Part Two: The Noodles

By on June 4, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Veges

pad thai recipe

The noodles are soft enough when they can be twirled around your fingers without breaking

Different people use different yardsticks to measure the quality of Pad Thai. For me, the noodles represent that which makes or breaks this dish. True, the noodles alone don’t make a good plate of Pad Thai, but they do form the bulk of it. And when the noodles are badly cooked, they invariably drag everything down with them. In light of this, a post focusing on nothing but this ingredient is, in my opinion, entirely justified.

Many people place the highest importance on the seasonings. Pad Thai seasoned with ketchup? Blasphemy, they cry. Well, it’s not that I disagree with that. It’s just that, personally, if better choices aren’t available, I would choose ketchup-flavored Pad Thai with properly cooked noodles over perfectly-seasoned Pad Thai with mushy, gummy noodles any day. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed
Older posts Newer posts