Papaya Salad

Here is the recipe:



3Cups peeled and shredded green (not ripe) papaya + a carrot for color



6 Cloves of garlic



1 Tbs fish sauce



2-3 dried chilies



3Tbs Palm sugar



2Tbs Tamarind juice



2Tbs Lime juice



2Tbs Roasted peanuts



2 Tomatoes



1/4 C Fresh green beans- cut into 3in. pieces



2 Limes or Lemons - cut into small cubes



Put garlic and chilies in processor or blender and puree. In a bowl, add the sauce and peanuts and beans. Add the chopped tomatoes, fish sauce, tamarind sauce and sugar and stir. Add the lemon juice, then the papaya and lemon/lime cubes and mix again. A carrot or garnish cucumber can be substituted (instead of green papaya) -Recipe from Krabi Cookery School



I did not have most of the ingredients on hand so this is what I did:



1 Cucumber, shredded



1 Carrot, shredded



1 Tomato, chopped



1 Apple, chopped



1/2 Red onion, chopped



2 Large cloves of garlic



1 Dried chili



1Tbs Brown sugar



2Tbs Rice wine vinegar



1Tbs White vinegar



2Tbs lemon juice



2Tbs slivered peanuts (for baking)



Puree the chili and garlic and half the nuts. Pour in a bowl, add the vinegar and lemon juice, and sugar to the processor and spin to get any remnants from it. Add to the bowl with the rest of the nuts. Dump all the vegetables and apple in the bowl, mix and salt to taste. I forget to put in the fish sauce but will add it in before dinner is served. Its fine with or without. I served it with homemade bbq shredded chicken sandwiches and blue Kool-Aid. It took me less than 15 minutes and made about 3C of salad, enough for four people. I am going to throw in some shredded cabbage too and stretch it farther. Enjoy!



"If people take the trouble to cook, you should take the trouble to eat."-Robert Morley



mandy

The Everything Thai Cookbook: From Pad Thai to Lemongrass Chicken Skewers--300 Tasty, Tempting Thai Dishes You Can Make at Home (Everything Series)

Thai Recipes #1

Here is a recipe to make your own curry paste. I am substituting for what is available in the States but will include the original( ) just in case you can find it. You can probably find the paste in a jar in the supermarket but if you would like to make it yourself, here's how:



1tbs Ginger-peeled and chopped (galangal)



1tsp Lemongrass powder (2ts fresh lemongrass- lower 1/3rd chopped)



1tsp Orange peel, chopped (Kaffir lime peel, chopped)



1tbs Coriander root chopped. That's cilantro, just not the leaves.



3tbs Shallots- chopped



2tbs Garlic- crushed and chopped



2tsp Salt



1tbs Anchovy paste (shrimp paste)



10 Small dried red Chilies (for the kick! reduce to bring down the heat, but its supposed to be spicy)



3 Large dried Chilies- seeds removed and soaked in water 15min. for color



1tsp each: Pepper, Cumin, Coriander seed, ground.



3-4 Cardamom pods roasted and ground. Just use the powder, 1tsp or so, or asian stores have the pods.



Put all of it in the food processor, add a little water to get it moving. Puree till smooth. This keeps for a long time in the freezer.



If you add 2 tbs crushed peanuts to 2tbs of Red Curry paste, you have made Panaeng Curry. Substitute green chilies (15) for the small red ones and use the leaves from the cilantro instead of the root and you have Green Curry. Add a few dashes of Cinnamon and you have Masaman Curry Paste. A little turmeric powder makes the Red Curry even redder. If you want to mix this in a mortar and pestle the old-fashioned way, DO NOT add water! These curries form the base for many delicious Thai recipes. I will share as many of them with you as I have. They are all from Krabi Cookery School. I take no credit for any of them unless I give suggestions on variations I have made myself. Let me know if you try to make this!!!



"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."-Harriet Van Horne



mandy

Miss Ya Chop Chop!

I finally got to go to cooking school!!! Ok, so it was only three hours long, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Some of the dishes were prepared very quickly and at the same time as other dishes. I was concentrating so hard, Frank thought I was upset and reminded me to smile. My brow furrows when I am concentrating, but I was definitely in my happy place! The recipe book we received with the class is stained and covered with notes and my hands still smell of garlic. I was cooking, writing, taking pictures, asking questions and making videos all at the same time. It's a wonder I didn't catch myself on fire! I had so much fun I had no room to eat what we cooked. But guess what's for dinner tomorrow?

Our teacher, Mrs. Chonloya Laotong (Ya), left a prestigious cooking career to open the first Thai cookery school in Krabi. We got lost (that's when we found the pineapples) trying to find it on our own because it is at her house, a small bungalow on a dirt road that looks like nothing at all. But, walk in the gate, past the palm fronds and birds of paradise and suddenly you are in a cooking class. Open to the tropical breeze with long tables covered with everything needed for prepping and cooking, including plenty of forks and spoons for sampling.

We learned to make the bases for Thai cooking, like curry pastes; red, green and Panaeng (red with peanuts), and a seasoning made of peppercorns, cumin seed and coriander all crushed to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle. Traditionally, the pastes are also made this way but a blender makes fast work of it. You just have to add a little bit of water to get things moving. I learned what galangal is. It is the root on the right side of the plate that looks like ginger. It has its own distinct flavor but ginger can be substituted. I sliced lemongrass for the first time ever (that's the white thing that looks like spring onions). The whole class was hands on. I made Chicken with yellow curry, Thom Yam (soup) with chicken and Pad Thai with tofu. We had to prep and cook everything ourselves and at the end sat down to eat it all. Of course, most of it went into take away bags because of all the sampling. I could write a book about those precious three hours when my dreams where coming true. Thanks babe for an unforgettable day! The Packers won and I went to cooking class. We're both walking on air!

mandy

"everything, bang! bang!"-Ya