Thanksgiving – East Meets West Style

Thanksgiving, East-West Style

I have so many Thai recipes lined up for the blog, but it is Thanksgiving time in America. I agree with the old saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

Every year (before we moved far away from my husband’s family,) my mother-in-law and I would cooperate in planning our Thanksgiving meals. They became our East-West feasts. We always surprised ourselves at how the dishes went so well together.

So I will give you ideas of what we put together for our Thanksgivings, with a roasted turkey as a main course, of course! You can roast the turkey however you like. It has never been a problem for us to pair it with other dishes. Rather than posting all the recipes we used, I found you links to the ones that are very similar to the dishes we prepared. I have made them before and they are very good. These recipes belong to a few famous chefs I usually trust and follow for good ideas.

Here are three samples of our Thanksgiving menus:

Menu # 1:

Roasted turkey (with gravy) & cranberry sauce

Mashed potatoes

Asian five-spiced ribs: try

1. Szechuan Style Spareribs Recipe : Emeril Lagasse : Recipes : Food … ,
2. Chinese Spareribs Recipe – Food.com – 449939 , or
3. Sticky Five-Spice Short Ribs Recipe : Aida … – Food Network

Thai fried rice: try

1. Real Thai Recipes » Thai Fried Rice with Chicken » Authentic Thai … or
2. Veggie Fried Rice | Annie’s Eats

My Thai lettuce salad:

• Thai Simple Iceberg Lettuce Salad

Baked sweet potatoes with marshmallow as dessert: try

• Sweet Potato Yam) Casserole With Marshmallows Recipe

Menu # 2:

Roasted turkey (with gravy)

Baked creamed spinach, try

1. Baked Creamed Spinach Recipe – Food.com – 208058 , or
2. Creamed Spinach Recipe : : Recipes : Food Network

Baked potatoes

Twice cooked duck:

• Twice Cooked Duck Recipe : : Recipes : Food Network

Asian slaw, try

1. Recipe Quest: Ming Tsai’s Asian Slaw, or
2. Grilled…Three Cabbage-Rice Salad

Vanilla ice cream with cran-raspberry sauce as dessert, try

• Holiday Cran-Raspberry Sauce | SavorSA

Menu # 3:

Roasted turkey (with gravy)

Asian pork meatballs, try

• Asian Pork Meatballs with Soy Garlic Dipping Sauce – Life’s Ambrosia

Baked layered potatoes/Scalloped potatoes, try

1. Scalloped Potatoes Recipe – Southern.Food.com – 85629, or
2. Scalloped Potato Gratin Recipe : Tyler Florence : Recipes : Food …

Cranberry spinach salad, try

• Jamie’s Cranberry Spinach Salad Recipe – Allrecipes.com

Apple baklava, or apple pie (with ice cream) as dessert

• Apple baklava by Michael Symon (Apple, Lemon) @FoodNetwork

For this year, we are sad that we do not get to be with our family again. Although we will meet my mother-in-law at her sister’s house. And I am going to make a “salsa verde” as a condiment for the turkey. I have made it to serve with our roasted chicken, and it will also be a wonderful addition to our Thanksgiving meal. This is the recipe: Roasted Chicken with Salsa Verde – Cooking Channel.

Enjoy your family and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thai Curry

Thai Curry Ingredients

It is getting cold outside and it is also cold and flu season.  This is the best time to talk about and to make some curries!

A daily Thai standard meal consists of at least 2 main dishes; one is non-spicy and the other is spicy, served with rice.  The non-spicy is to help balance the spiciness, and for small kids.  The spicy can be spicy stir-fry  or curry, which is soupy.  Thai curries can be made with coconut milk or water.  There are less herbs and spices in Thai curries than Indian ones.  That makes them milder.

There are various types of Thai curries. For the water-based, there are sour curry, southern yellow curry and jungle curry.  For the coconut milk-based; green curry, red curry, yellow curry, kao soi, massaman curry and panang curry. And they can be endless combinations of vegetables and meat, or tofu.  I will gradually post each type of the curries, which are quick, simple and delicious. The green curry I posted is a good start if you want to try Thai curry for the first time.

Why curries? You will be amazed to learn that ingredients in curry paste are medicinal. They have been used in Thai/Asian traditional herbal remedies. And I am all about promoting good and healthy eating! If you read my blog on Thai chili peppers, you already know the benefits of the peppers, which are the main ingredient in curry paste.

Ingredients in Thai curry paste are Thai chili peppers (fresh or dried), garlic, shallots, turmeric, galangal, ginger, lemongrass, cumin, coriander, dried black and white pepper, kaffir lime rind and leaves, and shrimp paste.

Garlic acts as a carmative, a detoxifying agent and is powerful against colds, congestion and cough.

Shallots have more anti-oxidants, minerals, and vitamins on weight per weight basis than onions. Research studies show that allicin in shallots reduces cholesterol production. It decreases blood vessel stiffness and helps bring reduction in the total blood pressure. Shallots also contain more vitamins and minerals than onions, especially vitamin A, pyridoxine, folates, thiamin, vitamin C, etc.

Turmeric is a stimulant for the digestion and detoxifies the body. Curcumin, the main ingredient of turmeric and the ingredient which makes curry yellow, has blocked the growth of melanoma tumor cells and stimulated their death, according to laboratory experiments reported in the journal Cancer. Researchers say curcumin appears to affect the NF-kappa B molecule, active in several types of tumors, including melanoma, and may also be useful in treating other cancers.

Galangal stimulates the digestion and treats nausea.

Ginger, which is used in “kao soi,” is well known to help relieve stomach troubles. With its natural anti-inflammatory effects, ginger is also a common remedy for inflammation-related health problems like rheumatoid arthritis.

Lemongrass is useful against colds, congestion, fever, cough, sore throat and is a stimulant for the digestion.

Cumin aids in digestion, improving immunity and treating piles, insomnia, respiratory disorders, asthma, bronchitis, common cold, lactation, anemia, skin disorders, boils and cancer.

Coriander has been found to have antimicrobial effects, anti-anxiety, antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects,  sleep-prolonging effect,  and to be a useful remedy in the management of Alzheimer’s disease.

Black and white pepper improve digestion and promote intestinal health.

Kafir lime is a stimulant for the digestion, an antioxidant with cancer preventing properties and is used in traditional Thai medicine to treat high blood pressure.

How about coconut milk? A lot of people are afraid that coconut milk is too fatty.  But the main fatty acids in coconut milk are good saturated fat, which your body quickly turns into energy, instead of storing as fat.  It is composed of lauric acid, which is anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-fungal.  It helps boost the immune system. It is a digestible food that is very helpful in nourishing the glandular system. It is also full of vitamins.

Here are my references:

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/597525.stm
2. Ingredient That Makes Curry Yellow Effective Against Melanoma Cells
3. BBC News | HEALTH | Curry ‘may slow Alzheimer’s’
4. Shallots nutrition facts and health benefits
5. Galangal Nutritional Values and Health Benefits
6. Ginger Health Benefits | Ginger | Arthritis Today Magazine
7. Lemongrass herb (Cymbopogon citratus) nutrition facts and health …
8. Health Benefits of Cumin | Seed and Nut | Health Benefits
9. The World Super Foods – Coriander health Benefits and Side …
10. Does white ground pepper have any medicinal value?
11. The Health Benefits of Coconut Milk | Healthy Eating | SF Gate

So try some delicious Thai curries, or any recipes with some of the ingredients, and maintain a healthy body at the same time!

Shopping for Thai Ingredients – Additional

I recently tried different brands of Thin Soy Sauce; Healthy Boy brand and Golden Mountain brand, which are available at Asian grocery stores. They are good alternatives to the Dragonfly brand I use. They give the same flavor, but they are also available in smaller bottles, with easy dispensing caps.

(Please note that if you use fish sauce in your Asian cooking, keep using it whenever I call for thin soy sauce in my recipes. You do not need to worry about the thin soy sauce and the substitutes.)

Dragonfly Thin Soy Sauce

Healthy Boy Brand Thin Soy Sauce

Golden Mountain Soy Sauce

Please be informed that Kikkoman soy sauce is not a good substitute for Thai thin soy sauce.  It is for Chinese and Japanese styles of cooking.

Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce

Shopping for Thai Ingredients

Thai Pantry

I have found out it is a little inconvenient for some of us to get to Asian markets.  It can be a hike!  So I did some research online to find the best place to get what you need for Thai cooking. I found this online Thai market that has most of what I use, with a $5 flat rate for shipping (the cheapest one,) and they also offer good Thai recipes as well.

Reveal the secret of authentic Thai recipes, and learn how to cook …

I do NOT make any profits from this! I just want to do my best so you get to enjoy our family’s favorite recipes from my blog!

The next step I can do for you, if you live in my neighborhood, send me a message on Facebook letting me know what you want to make and will need.  I will get them at the Asian market during my next trip. I usually do Thai grocery shopping every other week.

Thai Jasmine Rice – Kao Hom Mali

Thai Jasmine Rice – Kao Hom Mali

You have seen on my blog time and time again “… serve the dish with Thai jasmine rice.”   So why Thai jasmine rice?

The Thai jasmine rice has been recognized worldwide as one of the best rice available. It is a long-grain white rice, with nice natural aroma, slightly clingy, not sticky, not dry, soft, silky smooth and a little sweet. It is one of the most prestigious, aromatic and healthiest rice. It has been served to Thai royal families for centuries. Thai people call it Kao Hom Mali, meaning Rice Fragrant Jasmine. It releases a sweet smell like a jasmine during the cooking process. It is a good source of carbohydrates, iron, zinc, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin(vitamin B-3) and protein. It is fat-free and sodium-free. It is very versatile.  You can serve it with any kind of main and/or side dishes and it makes your meals even more enjoyable.

Here are some resources if you are interested to learn even further:

1) Jasmine Rice Health Benefits, Nutrition Facts, Nutritional Value

2) Vitamin B3 (Niacin)www.umm.eduA Member of the University of Maryland Medical System  |  In Partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine

3) Take Steps to Reduce Cholesterol

There are different grades of the jasmine rice. A 100% jasmine rice is usually marked Premium, or 100% Super Quality. Otherwise they are very good or good quality with 5%, 15%, or 30% mixed with other white rice. The better grades are more expensive, and they are usually available at Asian grocery stores. Nowadays, big U.S. grocery stores carry Thai jasmine rice but you may pay more for it, and it may not be the highest quality.

The jasmine rice originated in Thailand and it is imported to the U.S. and all over the world from Thailand only.  The export of the rice has become larger and larger since it has become more popular worldwide.

Recently, because of its popularity,  the Thai jasmine rice production has been threatened by U.S. companies who tried to claim monopoly rights to the rice by getting a Patent on Thai jasmine rice.  U.S. and China have been trying to copy the genetics of the rice so they can grow it domestically.   And that is an unfair practice to the poor farmer families in Thailand, who have farmed for centuries and developed the rice to its current best form.  Without the rice they will have nothing!  Here is the full story: GROUPS TAKE LEGAL ACTION TO END US ‘BIOPIRACY’.

How to cook the Thai jasmine rice?

Ratio: 2 cups of uncooked Thai jasmine rice (*100%-New Crop, please see tips below) to 2 cups of water

2 cups of uncooked Thai jasmine rice make about 4 1/2 – 5 cups cooked rice.

• In an electric rice cooker: If you love eating rice, it is a good investment to buy one.  It makes the cooking process a piece of cake!

1. Place 2 cups of rice in a pot.
2. Rinse the rice well a couple times.
3. Add 2 cups of water, shake the pot a little to level the rice so it gets cooked evenly.
4. Put the lid on, press the “cook” button and walk away!
5. The cooking process will take about 20 minutes.  The cook button will turn off automatically.  Some people serve the rice right away.  I prefer my rice a little softer, so I let it sit in a “warm” setting for at least another 5 minutes before serving.

• If you don’t have a rice cooker, use a non-stick stew pot with lid:

1. Place 2 cups of rice in the pot.
2. Rinse the rice well a couple times.
3. Add 2 cups of water. Shake the pot a little to level the rice so it gets cooked evenly. Put the lid on.
4. Cook over medium heat and bring to a soft boil.
5. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, for about 20 minutes.
6. Check the doneness, it should be cooked through and soft to the bite. Not al dente! (Continue cooking if it’s al dente.) If at this point, the rice is still really wet, uncover the pot so the moisture gets released and the rice does not get mushy!
7. Remove the pot from the heat, keep the lid on and allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes. You may gently fluff it up with rice or wooden spoon, then keep it covered. Serve warm.

Tips:

• Rice can also be cooked without measuring. My secret (after cooking rice for over 30 years) is to place rice in a pot, rinse well a couple times and add water just enough to cover the rice by about 3/4″.  OR, after shaking the pot a little to level the rice top, I lay my clean hand flat on the rice and if the water just covers my hand, it’s perfect!
• *You will need more water if the rice is not 100% jasmine rice.  The higher percent mixture of the other white rice, the more water you need – up to 2 1/2 cups for 2 cups of rice. It gets a little tricky when packages don’t give you the information. So you need to guess the first time you cook it, then adjust accordingly next time! You may also notice on rice bags being labelled “New Crops”, or “Old Crops” (or the year of harvesting.)  The old-crop jasmine rice will need a little more water than the new-crop!
• Please do not add any salt, butter, oil, etc. when cooking Thai jasmine rice!
• It takes some practice before you cook your rice just right. But it is not difficult!