Fried Curried Rice

From Thai Vegetarian Cooking, Vatcharin Bhumichitr, Pavilion, 1991.

When there is cooked rice left over the most obvious thing to do is to make a fried rice. I varied from my usual mix to try out this different one.

I prepared all of the ingredients first. An onion and a potato were finely diced. A garlic clove was chopped. Half a cup of peas were measured out. I made a sauce mix of 3 tablespoons soy sauce, ½ teaspoon sugar, a teaspoon curry powder and ½ teaspoon white pepper. It was time to begin.

In a wok I heated about 2 tablespoons olive oil and fried the garlic for a minute watching carefully to see it did not burn. Two cups of boiled rice went in next and was stirred around to ensure that all the grains were separated. Now the rest of the ingredients went in and were cooked for a minute or two more. The rice was served with sliced cucumber.

This was an acceptable fried rice though I do prefer the one that was taught me. The curried one was quite subtle and seemed to lack a bit of bounce.  I think perhaps it needed something like a chutney to accompany it.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Spicy Quick-Fried Beans

From Thai Vegetarian Cooking, Vatcharin Bhumichitr, Pavilion Books, 2003.

Before beginning this recipe I had to make a red curry paste. It was only a matter of pounding all of the ingredients in a mortar until they became a paste. The ingredients used were dried red chillies (7 in all), coriander seeds, chopped galangal root and lemon grass, some salt, and chopped kaffir lime peel, garlic and shallots. From the wonderful smells that rose at the pounding I could tell it was going to be a good curry paste.

 The remainder of the dish was an easy one.

Beancurd was cut into blocks and fried until brown.

From then it was only a matter of heating up a wok and frying chopped garlic for a few seconds and then adding the red curry paste. The rest of the ingredients were added in the order of beans cut into 3 cm lengths, light soy sauce, sugar, ground roast peanuts and chopped kaffir lime leaves. The last to go in was the fried beancurd.

This was served with rice with peas. What a tasty way to have beans. Next time I make a red curry paste I’ll save some to use with beans.

This was another successful recipe from Thai Vegetarian Cooking. It's good when you can find a recipe that manages to make a good vegetarian curry paste without having to use ingredients such as fish sauce.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Rice Soup

From Thai Vegetarian Cooking, Vatcharin Bhumichitr, Pavilion Books, 2003.

I had some boiled rice over from a previous meal so looked for something in which to use it up. Thai Vegetarian Cooking seemed an obvious choice to look as I had successfully made other Asian dishes from it.

Firstly some dried Chinese mushrooms were soaked in hot water.

While they were soaking I fried some garlic in olive oil until it was golden coloured. This was then taken off the heat and saved.

The boiled rice was placed in a pan of boiling stock and all the other ingredients added to it. They were the Chinese mushrooms sliced, some preserved radish, light soy sauce, sugar, chopped fresh ginger and ground white pepper.

The mixture was stirred for a minute and poured into bowls for serving. The saved oil and garlic was poured over this and it was garnished with chopped spring onions and coriander.

I fully enjoyed this. It was like a very thin congee, light and full of flavour. When there’s some boiled rice left over in the future I must remember this for it’s a fast, simple way to use it up and gain a tasty dish.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Steamed Stuffed Won Ton

From Thai Vegetarian Cooking, Vatcharin Bhumichitr, Pavilion, 1991.

I really wanted to succeed with making won ton and I felt sure that with this book I would probably not go wrong. So far, all that I have made from Thai Vegetarian Cooking has been a success.

It was not difficult making the filling. Boiling an egg and chopping the white couldn’t be easier.  Making a paste in the mortar and pestle with coriander roots and peppercorns no problem. Frying some garlic in oil to make a garlic oil was pretty basic.  Chopping and mixing the final ingredients: bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and onion, and some bindings like flour and egg white, together with flavourings like soy sauce, sugar and the paste was the most difficult process so far.

It was filling the won tons and making them into the required shape where I fell down. The instructions were not completely clear in that it just said to gather the edges together and crimp them to form a money bag. I tried to close the bags tight which apparently was not what was required. They would not stay closed. The bags would not hold together. I have a feeling that I did not get the filling satisfactorily sticky to hold the pastry. After a lot of squeezing and binning of a few, some cursing and complaining, I had enough to put in the steamer.

They were all right, I suppose, but they weren’t right. They had a nice crunch and the flavour was not too bad, but they looked wrong.

I have since been shown what they should have been. The money bag is left open rather than closed tightly.

I might have another try at a later time, perhaps from a different recipe.  

                                                                                                                         

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔