Thai

Tofu and Chickpea Massaman Curry

April 4, 2015 by The Partial Ingredients

I love the flavors of Massaman curry. This recipe is a take on those flavors but with a twist. Traditionally Massaman curry is made with chicken, beef, or tofu. I chose the tofu version for this recipe and added chickpeas for protein instead of potatoes and peas for more veggies. You can make the red curry paste from scratch or go to a local Thai or Asian market and pick up a pre-made version. I like to buy a few cans of the Maesri brand curry pastes on hand for busier nights. Surprisingly, I haven’t found a huge discrepancy in quality or flavor of the dish. I was pleased with how quickly the recipe came together and how flavorful the dish turned out to be. If you make a large batch of the curry paste before hand it makes for a perfect week day dinner that comes together quickly and easily.
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Thai Curry Noodle Soup with Chicken

September 14, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Lately I can’t get enough of Thai curries! The balance of savory and fresh ingredients make Thai food one of my favorite meals. This curry is a soup with rice noodles and a savory broth. The base is flavored by red curry paste and coconut milk. It’s surprisingly easy and quick to throw together yet the broth tastes like it has been cooking for hours. The chicken is very thinly sliced so it cooks in a few minutes in the hot broth. You can find red curry paste at local Thai markets or make it from scratch. I garnished this dish with plenty of fresh Thai basil, fish sauce, lime juice, green onion and cilantro.
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Thai Panang Curry with Tofu

September 8, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Does it get any better than a savory Thai broth with coconut milk and spices? This recipe is easy to make and doesn’t take long to throw together. For the curry paste I like to go to the local Thai market which saves me time but doesn’t skimp on flavor. Panang is moderately spicy and seasoned with turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and other savory spices. I chose tofu for this dish but chicken or beef can be substituted for the protein. This curry reminded me a bit of Indian curries since they often use the same spice profile. I served it with rice and garnished with plenty of fish sauce, fresh mint, lime juice and Thai basil.

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Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Peanuts

July 21, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

Curries are one of my favorite things to make. Besides being fairly easy to prep and cook, the results are often outstanding! This curry combines thinly sliced chicken, butternut squash and peanuts in a red curry sauce. You can’t really get much better than that! The best thing about this recipe is the layering of the flavors that come from the coconut milk, peanuts and red curry paste. When I’m in a pinch I buy a pre-made red curry paste from a local Thai market but when I’m in no hurry I just make it from scratch. The sauce is rich but refreshing at the same time–perfect for a cooler summer night’s dinner. I served the curry with rice and garnished each plate with green onions, fresh mint and plenty of peanuts and lime juice.
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Thai Green Curry with Chicken and Eggplant

May 31, 2014 by The Partial Ingredients

I simply can’t get enough of Thai curries. The combination of fresh herbs with creamy coconut milk and layered spices can be transcendental and delicious. This curry combines thinly shredded chicken with eggplant, red peppers, coconut milk in a fresh green curry broth. I usually make all my curry pastes from scratch but I found a pre-made version from a local Thai market that I like a lot. I recommend finding your own local asian or Thai market that has all the ingredients you need, no substitutes needed! If you do go for the homemade version, recipes can be readily found online. This recipe is easy to throw together and doesn’t require much prep or cooking time. Serve with rice and if you want to make the meal vegetarian, substitute one package of extra firm tofu for the chicken and switch out chicken stock for vegetable stock.
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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk

July 9, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

It probably seems crazy to most Americans to down a hot bowl of soup right now. This soup makes more sense to me because temperatures on the central coast just haven’t risen much at all. Next time it hits lower temperatures this soup would be perfect to enjoy on a cooler day. Better yet, you could wait until late summer or Fall when the squash actually comes into season. If you are craving roasted butternut squash like me, there’s no time like the present for a good soup.

I chose to make this soup with a few of the great flavors from Thai cooking–coconut milk, red chili paste, and a mixture of fragrant spices. I roasted the butternut squash first in the oven and threw all the ingredients into a big soup pot to simmer. The soup had a lot of wonderful flavors. I loved the flavor of the roasted squash with the creamy coconut milk, spicy chilies, and thai spices. It was pretty simple to throw together and I couldn’t be more happy with how it turned out! I served it with a side of jasmine rice and ended up mixing a few tablespoons of the rice into the soup. It turned out to be a great combination!
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Massaman Chicken Curry

May 20, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Massaman curry is a Thai dish that is influenced by Indian spices. It can be made with beef, chicken or tofu but I settled on trying the chicken version. I had this dish once at a Thai restaurant in Chicago and I have been dreaming about making it at home for a while. This recipe turned out to be quite similar to the restaurant’s and I was really happy about that! Massaman curry is a stew made with coconut milk, potatoes and served with rice. I tried to make this as authentic as possible so I avoided substitutions the best I could. The spicy and sweet flavors of this curry perfectly blended together and the finished product was really tasty! Feel free to substitute the protein for tofu, beef or pork.

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Thai Red Curry Paste

May 19, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

One of the most important steps in making Thai dishes is preparing the chili paste. The paste is a concentrate of aromatic ingredients that provides a lot of flavor for the dish. There are many variations of chili pastes but this particular one is used in Massaman Curry. It could be used in a variety of dishes as well, not just for Massaman Curry. If you have a food processor making it would be easy, but without one it will take some time to prep. You can find the paste in stores but it goes without saying that it won’t have the same amount of flavor and freshness that making it from scratch provides. It can be tough to find the authentic ingredients but if you live near or in a city there is likely a Thai or Asian market that can provide some of the harder to find ingredients.

My favorite part of making this was roasting it for a few minutes in a pan. By heating it up the flavors were released into the air and the whole kitchen smelled so good! It’s an important step since it intensifies the flavor of the paste as well. The result was a really versatile concentrate of flavors that can be used in a ton of different Thai foods. It should last for a week or two in a sterilized jar in the refrigerator.

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Red Lentil and Coconut Curry Soup

April 17, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Soups and curries are two of my favorite things and I knew I had to give this recipe a try. The flavors remind me a lot of Thai curries since the soup’s base is coconut milk. I used an Indian Garam Masala with Turmeric to give it a spicy, aromatic flavor. I toasted the spices with a few arbol chilies and ground them all together. The soup was really easy to make and all it really requires is a few hours for the ingredients to cook together. The result was a delicious and filling soup with nice coconut and curry flavors. The soup is surprisingly filling due to the rich broth and the high protein foods like chickpeas and lentils. I garnished a bowl with a drop of coconut milk, cilantro and sliced jalapeno. Plain yogurt would work great as a garnish as well. The soup goes well with rice, couscous, quinoa, or bread.
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Pad Thai

April 26, 2011 by The Partial Ingredients

Pad Thai is a dish made with stir-fried rice noodles with egg, a sauce, a protein like shrimp or chicken, and other extras like bean sprouts, and peanuts. I have had my eye on this little Thai market in the neighborhood and I went in today to see what I could find. I discovered that unlike Vons, the check out lady knew exactly where the Tamarind paste was. I could have substituted the harder to find ingredients (galangal, palm sugar, etc) for brown sugar and ginger but I decided not to. I’m happy with that decision because I can work with a new set of flavors now.

The Pad Thai turned out really nicely too. It wasn’t as rich or sweet as restaurant Pad Thai. It had a nice balance of sour, sweet, and spicy. I took note from other bloggers and prepped everything before cooking the noodles. I now understand how easy it would be to burn the noodles while you run around looking for an egg. This dish does take some work but is well worth the effort.

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