Gastronomy

After visiting Thailand and enjoying all the delicious food there, one thing I have a difficult time finding is green papaya. I can travel about an hour to the asian market to find it, however I recently found some people use alternatives, such as cabbage and julienned broccoli stalk which seems to work. So I looked around at some of the different recipes and came up with this.

Ingredients

• Dressing
  • 4 tbsp lime juice
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 3 Thai chilis sliced into small slices
• Salad (Choose which ingredients you like)
  • Green papaya or cabbage or broccoli stalk julienned
  • Green beans cut into bite sized pieces
  • Cherry or grape tomatoes halved
  • Bell pepper strips
  • Shrimp
  • Crushed peanuts for topping (optional)

Directions

Create dressing muddle the ingredients together and let set for about 10 minutes for flavors to combine while making salad. Prepare the ingredients and add to a bowl. Add dressing to bowl and mix. After mixed well serve and enjoy.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 shallots (thinly sliced, 1/2 yellow or brown onion can be used also)
7 cloves garlic (sliced)
3 – 4 Thai chilies (de-seeded, if desired, and sliced into 1/4 to 1/2″ slices)
1 pound ground pork (Ground Chicken can be used also)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
⅓ cup low sodium chicken broth (Water with 1/2 tsp of chicken bullion powder can be used)
Fresh Thai Basil leaves (about 1/2 cup packed, also regular Basil can be used also)

Directions

Heat frying pan or wok over high heat and brown ground pork. Set aside in a bowl. Add onion, garlic, chilies and oil and stir fry for about 2 minutes. Add back in pork and cook an additional couple of minutes. Then add the liquid ingredients and sugar. Cook for an additional 3 minutes stirring to cook flavors into the meat. Finally add in the Basil and cook an additional minute till the basil wilts. Server over rice.

Notes

Sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and broth can be added into a bowl and mixed before cooking and then added in all together to make it easier when cooking. Can be served with a fried egg if desired.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound green beans ends cut and cut into 3-6″ pieces
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of Siaoxing Cooking Wine
• 4 cloves of garlic finely minced
• 2 tablespoons ginger finely minced
• 1 tablespoon of Black Bean sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Bring enough water to cook beans to a boil. Add beans in for about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside to drain. Heat oil in a frying pan and add garlic and fry for about 1 minute till fragrant. Add in pepper, ginger, and green beans fry for about 2 minutes. Add in black Soy Sauce (Can be regular Soy Sauce also), Black Bean sauce and about 2 tablespoons of water. Stir and cook for an addition 2 minutes. Remove from pan and serve.

Ingredients

For the Sauce:

• 2 TBLS Fish Sauce 
• 2 TBLS Soy Sauce
• 2 TBLS Distilled Rice Vinegar

For the Lemongrass Pork Stir-fry:

• 1 pound Ground Pork
• ½ TSP Kosher Salt
• 2 TBLS Canola Oil
• 1 Onion – thinly sliced
• 2 Lemongrass stalks finely minced
• Ginger 2 TBLS minced
• 6 Thai Chilies choped roughly
• 1 Red Bell Pepper sliced
• 9 Garlic cloves – minced
• 4 TSP Brown Sugar, or more to taste
• 4 TSP Corn Starch + ½ cup Water
• 1 TBLS freshly squeezed Lime Juice
• 1 TSP freshly cracked Black Pepper, to taste
• 1 TSP Crushed Red Pepper Chili Flakes, to taste
• 2–3 TBLS chopped fresh Cilantro

Directions

Add pork to pan frying and crumbling till browned. Set aside and remove extra fat from pan. Add oil to pan along with onion, garlic, peppers, lemongrass and fry on high heat for about 2 minutes. Add pork back in and stir till mixed. add in rest of ingredients stir and lastly add in corn starch & water. Cook an addition 2 minutes stiring around till sauce coats everything. Serve over rice, topping with cilantro and a wedge of lime on the side.

Ingredients

• 6 Ripe Fish Peppers w/seeds removed
• 3 1/2″ slices of onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1 oz vinegar
• 3 oz water

Directions

Add ingredients to sauce pan and boil for 5 mins. Blend in blender till smooth. This makes a delicious spicy sauce. Additional ingredients can be added to add an more and different flavors, like pineapple to give it a tropical taste or other fruits. Also for a less spicy sauce, remove the membrane from the inside of the pepper.

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup white vinegar
• 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 cup water
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground mustard
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions

Add ingredients into pan heat and stir to boiling. Boil for a few minutes, then serve. Makes a very tangy BBQ sauce