Popia Tort (Deep-Fried Spring Rolls)

On the menu for this week's Saturday Night Thai was spring rolls for lunch from David Thompson's book. We hit a winner here. Once we figured out the correct way to roll the skins it really wasn't too hard. The diagram on the back of the package saved the day.

The rolls were stuffed with shiitake mushrooms, dried glass bean thread noodles (these are really delicious), shrimp, bean sprouts, green onions, and various other sauces. We dipped them in a plum dipping sauce also in the recipe. They fried up nice and golden and crisp and were to be garnished with Chinese lettuce (still haven't found), cucumber, and Thai basil (the closest I've come to finding this is a little sign at the Ardmore Farmers' Market that says they have it, but they don't). The recipe also suggests that you could use minced pork instead of shrimp. That would probably be tasty as well.

The recipe is pretty long and involved even though it's not that difficult, but if you want it, let me know!!

Popia Tort (Deep-Fried Spring Rolls)

Learning Curve

It appears that Thai cooking is going to be quite a bit more difficult than Friday Night Chili. First of all, until we get a feel for where we can buy ingredients, we must start before Saturday; otherwise, it's an all-day affair!!

Geoff and I tested out a couple of other groceries, one at 12th & Washington and the other at 6th & Washington in Philly. The store at 6th & Washington had beautiful produce and they had tanks of live fish to buy for the ultimate freshness! Now I have never tasted frogs' legs but would not be adverse to trying them. I have no problem buying live lobster from a fish market but picking out a few live frogs!! They were all sitting there together in a terrarium (big ones!).

Challenge #1:  Sticky Rice.
The bag had no directions so I was about to make it the way I make all the other rice that I've cooked. Fortunately, I looked it up on the Internet first, because sticky rice has to be steamed and you are supposed to soak it for a minimum of one hour before steaming. We had plenty of time to do this while we prepared everything else. We jerryrigged a steamer with a strainer and let it steam. The rice was the biggest success of the evening; it was sticky, glutinous and actually just perfect.


The recipes we chose this week were from "gourmet thai in minutes" by Vatcharin Bhumichitr. We decided to make the appetizer Nam Normai (Bamboo Shoot Salad) and serve it with the sticky rice. This was really pretty good. We used fresh bamboo shoots and long beans we purchased at the Asian market. Don't make the mistake I did in thinking that we had to double the recipe because it didn't seem to have many ingredients. For an appetizer, these amounts for 4 people would have been fine.

4 ounces bamboo shoots
2 shallots, peeled
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 T lemon juice
2 T soy sauce
1 t. sugar
1 t. chili powder
2 t. dry-fried sesame seeds
10 fresh mint leaves
1 scallion, finely chopped
2 large Chinese cabbage (Napa cabbage) leaves
2 long beans, chopped into 4-inch lengths

With a knife, scrape the pieces of bamboo shoot to make long matchstick gratings, and set aside.

Grill the shallots and garlic until they are soft and give off a pleasant, slightly burned aroma without actually burning. Place in a mortar and pound them together, then set aside.

Put the broth into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the bamboo shoot gratings, the pounded shallot and garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce, sugar and chili powder and stir well. Remove from the heat. Add the sesame seeds, mint leaves, and scallion, stirring briefly. Arrange the Chinese cabbage leaves and the long beans around the edge of a serving dish, pour mixture into the center, and serve.

Yam Normai (Bamboo Shoot Salad)

Now here is where the Saturday Night Thai took a downhill twist. Our main dish for the evening was Gaeng Kolae (Southern Chicken Curry).  

Challenge #2: How do you stir-fry a whole chicken cut up into 10 pieces in a wok?
This is chicken pieces with bones and skin. After awhile the skin all falls off and I ended up taking the chicken off the bone before putting it back in the sauce. Who wants to eat chicken on the bone in a sauced dish?

But the real reason the meal was a disaster was because of Challenge #3: What is coconut cream and where do you find it? 
Let me tell you, coconut cream is not the same as cream of coconut. We looked at both of our new Asian grocery stores and could only find cream of coconut so assumed this must be the stuff. Well, cream of coconut is apparently used in pina coladas and contains alot of sugar which, in addition to the sugar added to the recipe, made this dish, well, awful. We ended up saving a little bit for Ted to taste and threw the rest down the garbage disposal.

I did a little Internet research and discovered that coconut cream is a very mild-totally not sweet ingredient that we will have to order online if we need it again. Some people actually eat it right out of the can! I took a photo of the dish just for fun.

Gaeng Kolae (Southern Chicken Curry)

The Beginning

As promised on our Friday Night Chili Finale, we have begun Saturday Night Thai. Our intent to explore Thai cooking began with a Christmas gift cookbook entitled, "Thai Street Food," by David Thompson. It's a beautiful cookbook filled with photographs of food and street scenes. We aren't limiting ourselves to this one book (as we did for Friday Night Chili), but will try to experiment and enjoy the cuisine as much as possible and using whatever sources we happen to find. Border's Bookstore on Broad Street is closing so we took a trip to the big sale on Sunday and picked up "Gourmet Thai in Minutes," by Vatcharin Bhumichitr.

Our first purchase was a new wok. The old one I have from the '70's with the ring has never been effective on our electric stovetop. Happily, the best woks are made from high carbon steel and they are also the cheapest. Obtaining ingredients might be a challenge but it wouldn't be fun otherwise. Mike and I went to the Reading Terminal Market on Saturday. The Website said there was a Thai market and I hadn't been there in such a long time. The Thai market was really just a little food stand, but it was a nice diversion.

So Geoff and I did a little Googling and found a market in Upper Darby called the H Mart at 7052 Terminal Square. We found the Chinese broccoli that we needed for our first recipe and took a look around to see what else we might find and I think this will be a good source. There are a couple of others in the Philly area that we'll check out next weekend (still looking for Kaffir limes and leaves).

Chinese Broccoli

We started simple with Pat Kanaa Muu Grop (Stir-Fried Crispy Pork with Chinese Broccoli) from David Thompson's book. We failed to read the blurb at the beginning of the recipe that explained that by roast pork he didn't mean roasted tenderloin but deep-fried pork belly! So despite the fact that it wasn't really crispy, it was delicious anyway.

Pat Kanaa Muu Grop (Stir-Fried Crispy Pork with Chinese Broccoli)

Here are the recipes.

Serves 2-3

1 small bunch Chinese broccoli

6 oz roast pork , cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 T oyster sauce

a little soy sauce

a few T stock or water

pinch white sugar

1 T chopped garlic

pinch salt

2 T vegetable oil

pinch ground white pepper

1) Clean the Chinese broccoli, then cut the stalks into roughly 1-1/4" lengths, peeling them if necessary. Tear or cut the leaves into large pieces.

2) Assemble the prepared broccoli and the roast pork, along with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, stock or water and sugar. Crush the garlic to a somewhat coarse paste with the salt--either by pounding it using a pestle and mortar or finely chopping it with a knife.

3) Heat a well-seasoned wok and add the oil. When it is fiercely hot, add the garlic and stir-fry briskly until it is coloured then add all the assembled ingredients and continue to stir-fry for a few moments until the broccoli is cooked.

4) Sprinkle with the pepper and serve with steamed rice.

This is the part of the recipe that we didn't do, but probably should have.

Roast Pork

8 oz pork belly

2 t white vinegar

1 t salt

vegetable oil for deep frying

1) Trim the pork belly and blanch in simmering water until itis tender to the touch but still slightly springy--this should take about 15 minutes. Drain and allow to dry, then cut the pork into two or three (1-1/4 inch) strips. Mix together the vinegar and salt then rub into the rind of the pork. Allow to dry on a wire rack in a warm and dry place for about 3 hours.

2) Pour the deep-frying oil into a large stable wok or a wide, heavy-based pan until it is about two-thirds full. Heat the oil over a medium-high flame until a cooking thermometer registers 180 degrees C. (350 degrees F). Alternatively, test the temperature of the oil by dropping in a cube of bread--it will brown in about 15 seconds if the oil is hot enough.

3) Deep-fry the pork strips over a medium heat, turning them often, until the skin begins to crackle and bubble. Be careful--the slight splutter can turn into a searing cruption that always seems to hit home. Once the pork is done, lift it out and drain on the rack. Allow to cool before serving.

I feel a little guilty providing this recipe since we didn't really use it. But it really sounds like this would have been the way to go.