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Let’s get started on this simple, and comforting recipe.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 2 lbs of Chuck Beef, or a good stewing beef, cut into larger bite sized cubes
• 2 Russet potatoes, skinned, and cut into large bite size pieces
• 4 oz can of yellow curry paste (as seen here)
• 1 stick of cinnamon, approximately 4 inches long
• 1 star anise
• 4 cardamon pods, smashed
• 2 large shallots, quartered
• 1 large onion, cut into large bite size pieces
• 2 14 oz cans of coconut milk
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of roasted, unsalted peanuts
• Cooked Jasmine rice
• 2 tbsp canola oil

You are going to treat this entire dish like a stew. It will cook low and slow for a good couple of hours, but that is OK as you will be gifted with some wonderful and tantalizing aromas during that time.

Begin by adding your cubed beef a large mixing bowl. Add in the curry paste and beging mixing the meat around, making sure the paste adheres to all of the pieces. Once done, set aside, and wash your hands with warm water and soap.

Next, heat a dutch oven if you have one, if not a heavy pot on the stove, on medium heat. Add in the oil and let it come to temperature.

Toss in the cinnamon stick, star anise, and cardamon seeds and pods. Give a good stir.  This is probably your second great smell as the curry paste was probably the first inviting smell. Let this cook for about 3 minutes.

Toss in the shallots and the onions and give another good stir. Let this cook, stirring a few times along the way, for about 5 minutes.

Next, toss in the curried meat mixture, turning up the heat to a medium high. and give a good stir. Cook, untouched for about two minutes. Add in the chicken stock, and the coconut milk. Give another good stir.

Let this come to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for about 1 1/2 hours.

Now, add in the fish sauce, brown sugar, peanuts, and the potatoes. Give a good stir, then cover again. Allow this to cook until the potatoes are fork tender. This will take about 30-40 minutes.

Give the broth a taste. Heavenly right?

Once the potatoes are cooked, the beef massaman curry is ready to serve.

To serve, add some cooked jasmine rice to a soup bowl. Using a ladle, ladle in some of the broth, potatoes, and beef over the top of the rice. Top with some more broth.

Not only the smell of this massaman curry is amazing, but I think you will agree that the flavor is also out of this world. Super tender beef, along with the chunky potatoes and onions. Well, what more do I have to say to get you make this one? Hope you enjoy.

When I began thinking about this recipe, I was looking at a beef tenderloin that I thought I would break down and stuff with duxelle, but something threw me a curveball that day and I was left wondering what I was going to do with it, and hence my further curiosity to make this Thai peppered beef.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs beef tenderloin, cut across the grain, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup of sweet soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of water
• 3 Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• Cooked Jasmine rice
• Fried Egg, optional

Begin my marinating your beef in the cornstarch, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, and cracked black pepper. Marinade for at least two hours, but no more than four.

When you are ready to cook, and this one goes fast, heat a large wok with some oil. Let it come to temperature, then add the beef. Cook for a minute or two, then toss in the garlic and shallots. Give it a good toss, cooking another minute or so before tossing in the soy sauces, sesame oil, and additional fish sauce.  Sprinkle with sugar, and add in the water. Reduce the heat to a medium, low, and give a good stir. You should see the sauce beginning to form from the cornstarch.

Add in the sliced Thai chile peppers. If you want to keep these out due to your weakness to spicy food, feel free, but trust me, the chilie peppers do give a really great balance and spice.

Cook for a couple more minutes, then serve in a bowl of cooked jasmine rice, and top with a fried egg. Trust me, this one is great. A bit of sweet, salty, and spice and when you cut into the perfectly cooked egg, it adds this creaminess that just balances everything. It is a perfect palette rocker.  I hope you enjoy.

I first encountered larb while living in Dallas and hanging out with my friend Kevin. Kevin and I would frequent his favorite Thai restaurant and do all of the ordering as he was familiar with the cuisine, and language at the time. It was always a real treat to dine with him. He knew how to balance the dishes making the entire meal complete. We would typically start with cold beer, and a bowl of peanuts. Often times we would move onto dishes like larb, fried whole fish, and other really good Thai dishes. All of them were balanced with sweet, salt, and spice.

Larb is something I really like to make. It is a perfect snack, any time of the day. It is kid friendly (minus the chile peppers), and it is a perfect dish to eat with jasmine rice, or better yet, sticky rice.

Ingredients: [Print this Recipe]

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 lb of ground chicken
• 2 shallots, minced (approximately 3 tbsp)
• 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, chopped
• 1/3 cup of toasted rice powder
• 2-5 Thai chile peppers, minced
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp palm sugar, or regular sugar
• 1 whole lime, juiced
• Cooked rice, jasmine or sticky rice

You can find all of these ingredients are your local Asian store.

Begin by adding the oil to a large skillet and warm it to a medium, high heat. Once the oil is heated, add the ground chicken and begin cooking until it is fully cooked. This is will take about 10 to 15 minutes.

During this time, prepare the remaining ingredients. If you have never toasted rice before, add about 1/2 cup of rice to a dry skillet. Bring it to medium heat, and give it a good shake about every 2-3 minutes. Your goal is to brown the rice, and once brown, add it to a coffee grinder to make into a course powder.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, make sure you break it all up with a wooden spoon as you do not want any clumps. Drain off any excess water from the chicken, then add the chicken to a mixing bowl.

Add in all of the remaining ingredients, and give it a good mix. If you are serving kids, I would suggest removing the chile peppers from this recipe, or divide the mixture before adding the chile peppers. I would recommend 1-2 chile peppers for the mild at heart, and 3-4 chile peppers for those that love the heat. Regardless if it is one chile or four, the balance is perfect.

Serve in a small bowl with a side of rice. My entire family loves larb. It is just packed with flavor. That sweet, salty, and spice is just something out of this world, and I think you would agree. Better yet, you have just had something you have never tried before, toasted rice. Well, and maybe even fish sauce or sticky rice.

There was one night where our neighbors got really excited when they talked about this Thai pizza they had from a local take and bake pizza joint in town. They boasted how awesome this pizza was. Thai pizza, really? The funny thing is, is that I could not stop thinking about this idea of Thai pizza. After all, I make dough all the time and knock out the ‘call out your own pizza’ night at least once a week, so this idea of how awesome a Thai pizza was, was something I had to make my own.

I feel I have a pretty good sense of Thai food, and probably have made, or tried more Thai food from the average person, so here is what I came up with. I will definitely make this again and will most likely deliver this pizza to the neighbors to see how it compares.

Ingredients:

• Your favorite pizza dough, rolled out to about a 1/4 inch, 12 inch diameter
• 1 cup of cooked chicken, shredded
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• 1/2 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup of sweet Asian chili sauce, 1 tbsp for drizzle
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• 2/3 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
• Fresh basil (optional)
• Flour
• 1 tbsp fine corn meal

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone in the oven. If you do not have a pizza stone, get a large baking sheet in the oven, large enough to house your dough.

Begin by adding some flour to your rolling surface. Take your dough that has already risen, and lightly knead it. Roll out the dough, about a 1/4 inch thick, or however your like the thickness of your crust.

Lay the dough down on a pizza wheel with corn meal if you have one, otherwise a surface where you can slide the entire pizza onto the hot cooking surface. The corn meal helps assist with the pizza dough and toppings slide off easily.

Spread the Asian chili sauce on the surface of the dough. Not too thick, not too thin. Add the sliced shallots and zucchini. Top with the red chili flakes and shredded chicken. Top with the cheese.

Place in the oven on your cooking surface and cook for about 15 minutes, keeping an eye on your crust and toppings so they do not burn. Every oven is different.

Once the pizza dough is golden around the edges and the cheese is nice and bubbly, remove from the oven onto a pizza tray.

Drizzle more of the Asian chili sauce over the top, top with the crushed peanuts and fresh cilantro. If you are feeling naughty, top it off with some fresh basil.

Slice and serve.

Every bite was pretty darn awesome. You get the great pizza crust with the sweet heat from the chili sauce, and the shallots, cilantro, and zucchini, along with the great crunch from the peanuts made this one a pizza that is hard to beat. So always remember when you are talking about food with other folks, and you see how excited they get about a particular item, make it your own! Enjoy.

Nam Prik Ong is basically a Thai dish that consists of ground pork, tomatoes, garlic, and chilis, and is commonly served as an appetizer or side dish. The flavor brings all of those Thai flavors you would expect, and should be eaten with vegetables, pork cracklings, or rice.

Let’s get started.

• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 large shallots, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 Thai Bird Chili, diced
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• Small handful of fresh cilantro sprigs
• Roasted peanuts
• Fried Pork Skins
• Broccoli florets
• Cucumber wedges
• Pea Pods
• 1 tbsp canola oil

There are probably a couple of ways you can make this dish, but this is my take on it, and was primarily done because of a conversation I had with a coworker.

Begin by adding the shallots, chili, and garlic to a large mortar and pestle. Begin crushing the ingredients, mashing everything. Get a spoon to assist, mixing with the spoon and crushing with the pestle. Once you have a mashed consistency, add in the raw pork and tomatoes. Continue the process, mashing the tomatoes into the pork, and garlic mash.

To a large, heated skillet, add in the oil. Scoop out your pork mixture and add it to the skillet. Cook the pork mixture on medium to high heat until the pork is cooked through, stirring along the way.

Toss in the fish sauce, sugar, salt, and lime juice. Give it a good stir and continue to cook for a few additional minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

When you are ready to serve, add a mixture of vegetables to a serving dish. This is a scoop and eat dish. Forget the spoons. Use the veggies or pork cracklings. The platter consists of cucumbers, pea pods, peanuts, cilantro, cracklings, broccoli, and fresh cilantro.

Add the pork to a small serving bowl and add this to your serving platter.

To eat, take a crackling or vegetable, scoop some of the pork mixture, top with a fresh cilantro sprig, and pop it into your mouth. Finish off with a couple of roasted peanuts.

The result is everything delightful. Not only is it fun to eat but you get the ultimate in flavor. That sour, salt, sweet, and a little spice, make every bite worth taking. Hope you enjoy.

But let’s face it, we were on our own in the morning, and whether we wanted three bowls of fruity pebbles, or something warm on the stove, we were responsible for that. I am not sure what age it was before I got tired of eating cold cereal and really wanted a warm breakfast before heading out in the cold, but I turned to making things like eggs, bacon, and toast quite often. I would watch my dad make his breakfast on the weekends, and figured I could do the same. Eggs, as simple as they look to make, can be tricky to make especially if you are wanting them sunny side up, or over easy, or heck for that matter, scrambled.

It was not too long ago when I wanted to kick up the standard plain omelette, and give it a boost in flavor. That is when I thought of the Thai omelette, otherwise known as Kai Jeow. A Thai omelette is simple to make, but the importance in flavor here is the use of fish sauce, along with a bit of soy sauce. If you have never had a Thai omelette, well, now is your chance. This is comfort food through, and through.

Ingredients:

• 2 whole eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tsp fish sauce
• dash of soy sauce
• Chives, diced (optional)
• 1 tbsp Sriracha sauce
• Canola oil, enough to generously cover the bottom of your skillet
• Cooked rice, optional

Begin by adding the fish sauce and the soy sauce to the eggs. Beat them until they become foamy. Set aside.

Get a skillet onto the stove, add the oil, enough to shallow fry, and bring it up to a medium high heat. You will want the oil to begin to smoke a bit before adding the eggs.

Once the oil is heated, add the eggs. You will notice that they will begin to puff up a bit. This is normal. Continue cooking for about a minute or two. With a slotted spoon, lift the egg up. you should have a golden brown on the bottom side. Once golden in color, carefully turn over, cooking the other side. Once this side is cooked, remove the omelette with the slotted spoon, removing as much of the oil as possible.

To serve, fold the omelette over like a satchel, sprinkle with the chives, and most importantly, serve with the spicy Sriracha sauce. The great thing about this omelette is not only the flavor and texture, but it is a dish that you can serve with practically anything. You can even stuff it with ground meat such as pork or beef. Me? I like it served plain, dipping every bite into the Sriracha sauce. The subtle flavor of fish sauce, and the balance of spice really make this one a must make, any time of the day. Enjoy.

I love curry paste, whether it be red or green, with the addition of coconut milk. It could be some of the best gravy when cooked, and poured over rice or noodles. To me, it screams flavor, but also comfort, and so with the little knowledge I had while looking at what these people were eating, I decided to come up with my own broth, creating a really killer laksa.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of large shrimp, shells on
• 1/2 lb of white, flaky fish (catfish or cod)
• 7 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate
• 14 oz coconut milk
• 4 oz red curry paste
• fresh bean sprouts
• cilantro springs
• 2 oz bamboo shoots (optional)
• lime wedges
• Sambal chili paste
• Thai Bird’s eye chili (optional)
• Rice noodles, cooked per order

Begin by peeling and deveining your shrimp. Reserve the shrimp and the shells. Heat the oil on medium heat in a soup pot. Once heated, toss in the shells of the shrimp. The goal here is to create the base of your stock, and in our case, a seafood stock. Cook the shells for about 5 minutes, mixing along the way.

Add in your water and the salt, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to a medium-low, cooking for about one hour.

Now that you have your shrimp stock, remove all of the shells with a slotted spoon, making sure you get all of the shells out. Add in the cod or catfish, and let cook another 20 minutes or so. Using a couple of forks, begin to pull apart the fish in the broth, flaking it into very small pieces.

Let this continue to cook. During this time, take a small sauce pan out and place on medium heat. Add in the curry paste and cook for a few minutes, stirring to break up the paste. Add all of the paste into the stock, and give a good stir. Cover, and continue to cook, letting all of the curry flavor settle in, roughly 20 minutes or so.

Now that the laksa is almost complete, add in the coconut milk, bamboo shoots, and shrimp, giving a good stir.

Bring about 6 cups of water to a boil. Take your rice noodles, in my case, I like to use a banh pho noodle which is a Vietnamese flat noodle, used in soups such as Vietnamese pho. You can find these noodles in Asian markets, and they are now beginning to show up in local grocery stores in the ethnic aisle. Vermicelli is another nice option.

To a large bowl, add about a handful, if not more of the dried noodles. I like to break mine in half, being careful not to explode the noodles all over my kitchen. Add the boiling water, and with some tongs, stir around, cooking the noodles. These will only take a few minutes to cook, so keep an eye on them as they will get mushy if you do not remove them shortly after they cook in the water.

To your serving bowl, add the cooked rice noodles. Ladle in the delicious broth, making sure you get a few shrimp, bamboo shoots, and the cooked fish. Make sure the broth covers the noodles. Top with a generous amount fresh bean sprouts, cilantro sprigs, and serve alongside lemon wedges, sambal chili paste, and a Thai chili for additional heat.

This noodle soup, in my opinion, is the best for breakfast or brunch. A soup that really is good any time of the day, and a soup indeed deserves slurping, the smacking of lips, and the occasional sniffing from the heat of the chili paste.

• 1 whole stalk of lemongrass, minced
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp Sriracha sauce
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 cup of coconut milk
• Thin cut pork chops, bone in, 4-6 chops
• cooked rice, optional

Yes, I said grilling. Wisconsin was recently hit with some really warm weather, of which melted all of our snow. So as soon as I saw my grill on the deck, I immediately thought of grilling something before the next wave of snow would hit us. Let’s begin on this really simple marinade that packs incredible flavor into these pork chops.

Begin by adding all of your ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well. Take your pork chops and add them to a gallon size ziploc bag. Add in the marinade, seal the bag, and give a good toss, making sure you get all of your pork chops coated. Place the bag in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Remove the bag from the refrigerator, let it come up to room temperature. Get your grill preheated to a medium to high heat, making sure your grill grates are nice and clean, then add the chops. Close the cover, and cook for approximately 1-2 minutes. Open the cover, lift each chop and rotate about 45 degrees. Cover and cook an additional 1-2 minutes. Repeat, however this time, flip the chop over. Your overall cook time should be around 8 minutes or to your desired doneness.

Remove and plate with simple white rice. Trust me when I say that when you bite into these chops you get such a wonderful flavor, and one that will definitely be the talk at the table. After creating the marinade, I thought this would also go well with chicken, fish, or shrimp. Enjoy!

While my wife was recently away on a business trip, I came home wandering what to make for dinner. I have to be up front with you and say that I much more enjoy cooking for my wife, then I do for myself. With that said, when my wife goes out of town, I immediately think of making something a bit more spicy, and that typically lends itself to Thai flavors. At first I thought of making a quick and simple dish known as laab or “larb”, but I already had set aside some chicken the night before as I still had to make something for the kids.

Polling the kids that night, I quickly realized they wanted nothing to do with chicken, and they wanted to make pizzas out of flour tortillas. I was fine with that. While they created their pizzas, I created something pretty amazing and what I will call Thai chicken bites. Tender chicken breasts, pounded ever so thin and stuffed with basil, kaffir lime leaves, and Thai chili peppers. The kicker is the breadcrumbs. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Fresh basil leaves
• 2 Kaffir lime leaves, thinly sliced
• Thai chili peppers, seeds removed, thinly sliced
• 1 lime, zested
• 1/2 cup of jasmine rice, toasted and crushed
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp water
• Toothpicks
• olive oil

Begin by heating a large skillet on medium heat. Add the rice to the dry skillet, and begin to toast the rice. This should take about ten minutes. Make sure to shake the pan to make sure all sides of the rice get toasted. Once fully tested, remove the rice from the skillet, and place in your spice grinder, grinding into a medium crumb. I say medium as you do not want a dust, as you still want some of the texture of the rice.

Next, get two large sheets of plastic wrap as you will lay the chicken breast on on piece, cover it with the other, and pound it out with your meat mallet. Pound the chicken breasts from the middle, outward, pounding about a quarter inch thick. Repeat with the second chicken breast.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Next we will get the dredging stating together. Get three dishes ready. To one add the flour, the next add the beaten eggs and water, and the next the rice crumbs.

Lay out the chicken, add the basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves, some of the lime zest, and the chilies.

Roll into a log shape, and secure with two toothpicks.

Roll the chicken into the flour, then then egg wash, then the rice crumbs. Repeat with the other piece of chicken.

Lightly drizzle the bottom of a baking sheet where you will place with chicken piece with a bit of olive oil. Place a chicken log onto the baking sheet, and drizzle more oil on top of the chicken. Repeat with the other chicken roll. Place in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until your chicken is fully cooked, and the crust is a nice golden brown.

Remove the toothpicks, slice, and serve. Garnish with lime wedges.

The flavor of this chicken has Thai flavors written all over it. The great lime taste from the zest, and the aroma from the kaffir lime leaves is pretty amazing. Just the right amount of heat, and the texture from the rice breadcrumbs really make this dish a home run.

Kevin really opened my eyes when it came to Thai cuisine. Many of his friends were Thai, and many worked and owned a great Thai restaurant in Dallas. Kevin would shuttle me to the restaurant, where he would pretty much do the ordering. Anything from fried whole fish with a chili sauce, or what we always kept ordering, which was larb moo, and sticky rice (cow nee ow). The two go hand in hand together, much like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Larb is basically minced meat, whether it be beef or chicken, cooked just until juices have ran clear, and then mixed with really great ingredients. The sticky rice is then formed into small balls, and padded to pickup the larb. This is an ‘eat with your hands’ dish, which I also really love. Larb moo, sticky rice, and a cold beer, really make this a great Thai dish.

Thanks to Kevin, for allowing me to explore and create dishes like this!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of sirloin, cut into very small pieces
• 1/4cup of jasmine rice, toasted and ground
• 2 limes, juiced
• 4 tbsp of fish sauce
• 2 large shallots, cut into thin pieces
• 3 tbsp of scallions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 cup of fresh mint leaves, loosely packed
• 4 Thai chilies, halved

Take half of the shallots and add them to the sirloin, and mix well. Add this mixture to a hot skillet, and cook just until the juices run out. Add in the fish sauce, and lime juice, cooking just another minute. Transfer to a mixing bowl and let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Add in in the remaining shallots, scallions, cilantro, mint, and chilies. Mix well.

Place in serving bowls, and serve with Thai sticky rice.