Brunch invention - ruam mit gratiem/kao pad

There was rice left over from cooking dinner last night and I'd been planning a kao pad gai - fried rice with chicken - for brunch this morning.  I don't know why I'm saying it like this was an accident - I had deliberately made more rice last night than was needed just so that I could have kao pad today!

But I was also thinking about the ruam mit gratiem I'd made and thinking I'd like to make it again as I'm not that familiar with it yet and it was so easy and so good.

The conversation I had with myself went like this:

'Oh good! Favourite fried rice today!'

'But I kind of fancy making that stir fry again - I could try it with chicken this time.'

'If you make a stir fry though you're going to have to make more rice and there's already cold rice sitting there.'

'But I don't know which to choose - I want both!'

'Well then have both! Mix them together into one!'

So that's what I did.  I love cooking just for myself - I can experiment away and also make things as spicy as I like.  And that's generally pretty spicy.

Note that you do need cold cooked rice for this as freshly cooked hot rice is just too wet to stir fry.

Here's how to make my hybrid brunch dish.

Chop a piece of chicken breast into small pieces and also chop a nice big clove of garlic.

Get a pan hot, add some cooking oil and when hot tip in the chicken and garlic.

Cook over a medium heat - hot enough to seal the meat quickly but not so hot the garlic burns - for four or five minutes until the chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken and garlic to a bowl, tip out any excess oil and return the pan to a medium low heat.

Quickly add:

2 x teaspoons oyster sauce

1 x teaspoon fish sauce

1 x teaspoon thin / light soy sauce

1 x teaspoon sugar

1 - 2 x teaspoons dried chilli flakes (I'd suggest just one - I put in two and it was a bit too much)

Stir for a few seconds until mixed and thick and bubbling.

Then return the chicken and garlic to the pan and mix with the sauce.

Add the cold leftover rice and cook for a few minutes on a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the rice is hot right through.

Push the mixture to one side, add a little oil into the space and when hot crack in an egg.

Leave to cook for around 15 seconds until scrambling and combining with the rice and chicken mixture.

Stir fry until everything is mixed and the egg cooked.

Remove from heat and prepare any garnishes you like - I'm using a shake of white pepper, some coriander leaves and a few slices of red chilli.

Turn out the rice and chicken mixture onto a plate, or pack into a plastic bowl first to make it look nice, and add a few slices of cucumber too if you have it.

A very good brunch and I'm glad I made it, but I do still prefer a 'proper' kao pad I think.

What do you think? Let me know if you try this - or any other variation of it.

And I'm off now to make more coffee :)

---

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE  ...

Pad Thai (no further description needed!)

I love Pad Thai - who doesn't?! Ultimate comfort food.  But I've had a mental block about making it. Actually, that's not quite right as I've been experimenting and experimenting and trying out different recipes but none I felt confident enough in sharing, until I came across a recipe for Pad Thai on Chez Pim's site.  I then started making it slightly more regularly (I still have weird Pad Thai nerves!) and adapting slightly until I now have a recipe I know by heart and that I feel I can happily pass on.

If you'd like the original, you can find it here.

And here's how I make it.  The absolute key thing is to make the sauce first.  Most recipes tell you to add the tamarind, fish sauce etc into your wok whilst cooking and I just find that impossible. As, I think, do most people.

To make this dish easily, you do need to get everything together first.  And, again as usual, just cook 1-2 portions at a time - it'll just become a gluey noodley mess if you try and do too much in one pan.

Here's what you'll need to make a portion for two ...

 For the sauce:

1/2 cup tamarind paste/pulp/puree - this is often available in supermarkets now although I did get mine from the Thai supermarket and it looks like this

1/2 cup fish sauce

very slightly less than 1/2 cup light brown sugar (or white if you don't have any)

1 tsp chilli powder

Other ingredients:

vegetable cooking oil

about a handful of fried or other hard tofu, sliced into bite-size pieces.  The tofu my local Thai supermarket recommended looked like this (but I'm sure any firm textured tofu would work).  The tofu's optional though so don't worry if you can't get it

one clove of garlic, minced

wide rice noodles, cooked or soaked according to instructions, ready to stir fry - enough for two people

one egg

dried shrimp - optional.  If you can get them they keep well in the freezer to use as needed.  If you're using them, you need about a tablespoon and use a pestle and mortar to fluff them up slightly (this will make sense when you do it!)

raw prawns, maybe 6-8 per person, deveined and defrosted if frozen

a small handful of peanuts, chopped or ground

as many beansprouts as you like! I use just a handful but I'm not a huge beansprout fan so you may like more

a handful of chopped garlic chives, or just normal chives if that's what you have

To serve:

wedges of lime

some more chopped peanuts

sugar

chilli flakes

OK ... start with making the sauce.  Put the tamarind, fish sauce and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil very, very, very slowly and when it starts to simmer add the chilli powder.  Taste and see if you need to adjust the flavours - it'll taste a little odd yes, but what you're after is salty first, then the sour tamarind, then a little sweetness and ending with just a touch of spicy.

When you're happy with it - and if you can't tell then just follow this the first time and adjust next time if need be when you're more confident as YES it's hard always to tell - turn the heat off and just leave the pan to one side.  This does make more than you'll need for a couple of portions but it'll keep in the fridge for a week or two.

Now you need your noodles and you want them nice and unstuck.  I tend to play with mine for a bit, gently puling them apart.  You really don't want a noodle glue and you definitely don't want to be accidentally chopping them in half.  If you can start coaxing them into lovely shiny individual noodles now it's all going to be better in the pan!

So - heat your pan and when hot add quite a bit (3-4 tablespoons) oil and then add the tofu, a tablespoon of the Pad Thai sauce and the garlic and cook for a minute or so over a medium high heat stirring all the time.

Then add the noodles and a nice ladleful of the Pad Thai sauce. Stir all the time, keeping everything moving and break up the noodles so they're not in a lump. I'd turn the heat down just a touch now. Add a little water if it becomes dry or a tiny bit more sauce - if the noodle is really sticking add a touch more oil. Cook for a few minutes until the noodle is warm and lovely and perfect (taste it).

Push the noodles to one side and crack the egg straight into the pan.  Count to about 10-15 until it's setting then toss everything together to combine.

Add the dried shrimps, raw prawns, peanuts and beansprouts and fry, stirring all the time.  Add a little more sauce if need be.  Keep it moving!

When the prawns are cooked - it'll only take a few minutes - take the pan off the heat and stir in the chives.

I love to serve this with the additional flavouring you add to taste just on the plate itself - so add some lime wedges and a small pile each of chopped peanuts, sugar and chilli flakes for people to add as they like.

Confession: I not only had a mental block about MAKING pad Thai, and then about WRITING the recipe but I've also had one about POSTING it and this has been sitting here waiting for me to press publish for ages!

Well, here goes.  And I hope you like it. Please let me know.

PS. due to the mental block, there's also very few pics on this post (I'll add some more of the steps soon).

UPDATE: I've now got a couple of beautiful pics, thanks to a photographer who came to a Tiniest Thai recently - thank you Viktoria! 

www.viktoriakuti.com

---

---

LIKE THIS?  YOU MIGHT WANT TO TRY THESE ...

Stir fried chicken or beef with cashews

So, my beautiful Big Niece has come to stay for a night - just overnight to break the journey to Cornwall. I wanted to get a picture of us together cooking dinner but there's just us here so it had to be a selfie.

And despite trying approx 6,742 times to get a shot we were actually both in, we only managed ones with one of us cut out or that were just too terrible to post. Here's the best of a very bad bunch of us looking blurry and 'super-excited' to be cooking this lovely stir fry (or maybe not!).

Anyway, photography distraction over. We're making a chicken stir fry with cashews that I always think of as quite a special dish - a rich sauce, crunchy nuts, soft chicken and a bit of heat from the fried whole dried chillies.

I wanted the bigger dried red chillies ideally but only had the small ones and to be honest I used too many - next time I make this I'll use fewer (the right quantity is listed in the ingredients but the pic shows too many).  I think the big ones might be a little milder and I would have chopped them into smaller pieces after frying. The chilli issue is up to you though - use as few or as many as you like of course.

The quantity we made serves 2-4 people depending on, well, everything - hunger, greed, what else you're eating with it, etc so just adjust quantities as you wish and do taste and taste before and during adding the seasonings.

If you're serving with rice make that first and keep warm until ready.

Enough for us two as well as a portion leftover we used ...

1/2 a white onion

2 spring onions

2 cloves of garlic

2 chicken breasts

1 fresh red chilli to garnish, if using

vegetable oil, for frying

about half a cup of plain cashew nuts (not roasted or salted)

4-5 whole dried chillies (or to your taste)

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

a good glug of oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

a shake of white pepper

boiled or steamed rice, to serve

Prepare the ingredients: chop the onion into smallish chunks rather than dicing finely; slice the spring onions using as much of the green stalks as you can; mince the garlic; cut the chicken into slices; and slice the fresh red chilli if using.

Put quite a bit of oil, about 4 tablespoons, into a frying pan or wok and when hot add the cashew nuts.  Fry, stirring, over a medium heat until golden brown - this will take a few minutes. When brown remove from the oil, drain on kitchen paper and set aside.

Return the pan to the heat and add the dried chillies to the hot oil and cook for around 30-60 seconds until they turn dark and crispy. Again, remove from the pan, drain on kitchen paper and set aside. If using big whole chillies, cut them into smaller pieces or crumble them with your fingers when cool.

Drain off some of the oil if necessary so around 2 tablespoons remain, let cool very slightly and then return to the heat and add the garlic, stirring straight away so it doesn't burn.

After perhaps half a minute - but sooner if the garlic is turning colour - add the chicken and keep stirring, first to seal quickly and then to cook through. This will probably take 4-5 minutes.

Add the onions, cashews and chillies and stir fry for a couple of minutes until the onions are translucent but still with a bite to them.

Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce and spring onions and cook, stirring, for another minute or two.

Add the sesame oil and a shake of white pepper, stir in and remove from the heat.

Serve topped with slices of fresh red chilli if liked and with plain rice.

This is very good with beef too as the sauce is lovely and rich - but it needs cooking slightly differently as the beef doesn't take long to cook. Slice the steak into thin slices and dredge with approx half a tablespoon of plain/all purpose flour.

Then after cooking the cashew and the dried chillies fry the beef in the same hot oil and again drain on kitchen paper.

Cook the garlic, then the onions (I used red as didn't have white) and I added some red pepper too.  Then add the beef along with the cooked dried chillies, cashews, seasoning sauces and spring onion.

I think I actually prefer the beef to the chicken version but both are very good.

This is a really nice easy special dinner.  Let me know what you think ....

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ...

Pad krapow gai - spicy stir fried chicken with Thai basil

This is my favourite food of all time, my I-could-eat-this-every-day, my oh-I-did-eat-it-everyday-for-about-a-year food - and I still eat it around once a week. It's a perfect breakfast, especially in bright hot sunshine with an iced coffee, it's great with a kai dow (fried egg) on top of the rice. It's good with prawns, pork or squid but I like it best with chicken. There isn't an occasion it doesn't suit, and it cures headaches, hangovers and heartbreak too. Honestly!

It might not be my last-supper dish but I'm not sure ... contenders on that list wouldn't pass the could-I-eat-it-every-day criteria for favourite food.  What's your favourite food? What's your last supper food? My last supper could be a seafood platter or perhaps rack of lamb, dauphinoise potatoes and a green salad with mustardy dressing. Or a pad krapow.  Anyway ...

There's just one admission to make .... and that's that I'm not actually cooking a pad krapow at all.

There are two types of basil used in Thailand, both different to our Mediterranean basil. Thai sweet basil, horapha, is a bit aniseed-y and is used in Thai curries and - I learnt today from the ladies at Tawana supermarket  - can be used in a pad keemao (drunken noodles) where I  thought you could only use krapow.

Ah, krapow. Krapow is the other Thai basil, holy basil, and it gives this dish it's name - literally 'stir fried with holy basil'. It's really peppery and unique. It's also really hard to grow in our climate and it's even hard for the Thai supermarkets to get hold of.

I really wanted my favourite food today so I went to one of my favourite places, Tawana supermarket on Chepstow Road, W2. It's a total treasure trove of delights plus I get to practice my Thai as well. And it soothes the soul.  Here's just a selection of the treats in store ...

And here's the goodies I brought home ... including packets of holy basil seasoning I'll use for another, lazy, day.

But the sad news is they had no krapow. Again. So I bought horapha and therefore what I'm actually cooking is pad horapha gai. It is still so good.  If you can get krapow then do! If you can't but you can get horapha, great! And it you can get neither, just make it without. Without is how I have it most weeks (pad krapow sans krapow) and still I love it.

It's a really spicy dish but you bash the chillies into pieces big enough to flavour the dish but not to eat unless you want to.  When I was taught to make this it was with the chicken alone - I've added the chopped pepper and mushrooms so do add veg or not as you wish.

Here's how I'm making my favourite dish ever tonight. Cook your rice first and then assemble the ingredients - as always, it cooks quickly.

Vegetable oil

Half to one chicken breast

Approx 6-10 small chillies (depending on size and how spicy you like it)

Approx four garlic cloves (or eight if you have small Thai garlic cloves)

Sliced red pepper and mushroom, or other sliced veg, if using

1/2 knorr chicken stock cube

Thick soy bean sauce or rich soy sauce

Oyster sauce

A good pinch of sugar

A handful of holy basil or sweet basil leaves, if using

Tear the basil leaves from the stalks, if using, and discard the stalks, and chop the vegetables into small pieces, if using.  Mince the chicken breast by chopping very very finely, as small as you can. I know some restaurants serve this dish with the meat in bite-sized pieces but I much prefer it minced as I was shown.

Peel the garlic - the quickest way is to squash the garlic with the flat side of a knife - and remove the stalks from the chillies and then place in a plastic sandwich / freezer bag.

Bash with a rolling pin until the chillies and garlic are all in small-ish pieces. If the bag splits don't worry just fold it and keep bashing!

Now put a frying pan or wok over a medium heat and when hot add a good glug of cooking oil. When hot add the chicken, and stir. When starting to seal tip in the garlic and chillies and cook until the chicken is completely sealed.

Add the vegetables if using and stir fry for another couple of minutes.

Add a splash of water, crumble in half a stock cube, a good dash of bean/soy sauce and a couple of dashes of oyster sauce plus a good pinch of sugar and stir it all in.  Here's a pic because I forgot to include the oyster sauce at the start.

Cook for another couple of minutes then throw in the basil and remove from the heat immediately.

Stir in the basil until it wilts and serve with the rice. Best dinner ever. Do you agree?

PS. Yes, I did make a huge portion. I love it!

PPS.  If you like pad krapow, you'll also like pad keemao  … give it a try :)

---

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ... 

Spicy stir-fried squid

In my mind I'm at the fishing port of Ban Phe, whiling away the time before the ferry to Koh Samet by having a a very spicy squid dish and squinting in the sun.  An afternoon on beautiful Samet can't really be beaten - silver sand, perfect sea, a cold beer and a Thai massage on the beach under the trees before the speedboat back to the mainland.  Day dreams.

In reality, it's been a really hectic day and I haven't had time to go to the shops so need a store-cupboard dinner - and I want it fast too! Frozen squid rings are a store-cupboard staple for me as they defrost quickly in a bowl of water, changed a couple of times as the ice comes off them, and are then also so quick to cook.

This easy recipe uses the nam prik pao (chilli paste in oil) recipe as well as fresh chillies, just to layer up the heat.  You could make it without the chilli paste too, just add more chopped fresh chillies. You can of course make it with less, but I like this dish fiery hot.

Don't leave out the fresh mint and coriander - they make this simple dish something much more special.

Cook your rice first so that it's ready, as the squid cooks so fast. To save both time and washing up, I just threw some chopped green beans and broccoli in with the rice for the last few minutes' cooking time rather than cooking the veg separately.

Quantities for this dish are really up to you, but to serve two I used:

cooking oil

two cloves of garlic, chopped

one large milder red chilli and two birds eye red chillies, sliced

a 300g bag of frozen squid rings, defrosted

a tablespoon of  nam prik pao chilli paste

a teaspoon of sugar

half - one tablespoon fish sauce to taste

two spring onions, sliced

a handful each of coriander and mint leaves

Chop and slice the garlic, chillies and spring onions, and tear the leaves of the herbs into small pieces so that everything's ready to go.

Heat a wok or frying pan and add the cooking oil, swirling to cover and when hot add the garlic and chopped chillies and cook for about 30 seconds over a fairly high heat.

Add the squid rings and cook, stirring, for a minute then add the chilli paste and cook for a further minute.

Turn the heat down a little to medium and add the sugar, fish sauce and spring onions - and cook, still stirring, for another minute until the sugar dissolves.

Take off the heat and stir in the mint and coriander leaves, and serve immediately with rice and green vegetables.

Let me know if you make this and if you liked it!

Update:

I just made this again without chilli paste but with another couple of fresh birds eye chillies and it was much hotter with just fresh chillies! My eyes are watering and I'm a chilli freak. I also used a mix of prawns and squid and yes it was hot but it was also super tasty - the mint makes it really interesting. This is a very good dinner.

---

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ... 

Kao pad gai - fried rice with chicken

Everyone loves a kao pad, a fried rice.  It's got to be one of my favourite everyday meals and it's obviously easy as easy can be to make, right?

Well, you'd have thought so. I definitely did as having watched my friend cook hundreds of the things in the restaurant in Thailand it looked simple enough, and when she showed me step-by-step how to make it, this is all I wrote down (if you can call this scrawl writing) as it seemed so obvious!

And then when I got back to the UK and went to make it, I just couldn't get it to work. It was ... fine ... but it wasn't right.

I've practiced a bit since then and it really is easy to make - but there are a few more things to be aware of to get it right than I had scribbled on my note.

I think the main things are firstly the importance of using cooled rice rather than freshly cooked as the steam and heat of the fresh rice is too wet to stir fry and, secondly, not being scared of cooking relatively quickly with quite a high heat. You just can't make this over a low heat, it won't work.

I'm making my kao pad today in the traditional way, keeping it quite plain with onion, spring onion and garlic the only veg. I'm also using chicken but you can use whatever you want - pork, seafood, even sausage pieces, or any vegetables of your choosing. I think mushroom fried rice works really well. Lots of versions of kao pad add a few pieces of chopped tomato too.

There are no exact measurements here, but do get everything you need prepared and to hand before you start cooking.

For one, you'll need

cooked rice - this is best when it's a day old and slightly dry and the grains are nice and separated. Cook and when cool keep in the fridge until you need it, or just cook the rice in the morning and leave out, covered, to use later

cooking oil

about a quarter of a white onion, or a few slices, chopped

one garlic clove, flattened and chopped

a smallish piece of chicken, perhaps a third of one breast, sliced and chopped into small pieces (it needs to cook quickly)

soy sauce

fish sauce

about a third of a chicken stock cube

a pinch of sugar

one egg

a couple of spring onions, sliced

coriander or chopped chives to garnish

cucumber slices and lime wedges to serve

fish sauce and red chilli for the nam pla prik

Heat your pan over a medium heat, add some oil and when hot sauté the onion and garlic for a minute until translucent.

Turn the heat up to medium high and add the chicken.  Keep turning it as it cooks so that it quickly all goes white. If juice is coming out of the chicken you may not have your pan or oil hot enough - it needs to seal quickly. Cook for a few minutes.

Then add the rice, again turning it quickly in the pan to separate the grains and get them all hot through. Add a few dashes of soy sauce and one of fish sauce, crumble in the piece of stock cube and sprinkle over the sugar. Keep turning the rice mixture the whole time and cook for a couple of minutes.

Push the rice mixture to one side and add a bit more oil. After a few seconds to allow it to heat up crack the egg into this space and let it cook a little (I count to 15), then mix in to combine the scrambling egg with the rice.

Keep turning, then add the sliced spring onions and cook for another 30 seconds.

Turn it out into a bowl, or pack the rice into a small plastic dish, put a plate over the top, and turn over to get the lovely traditional rice serving shape. Scatter with chopped chives or coriander leaves if using and serve with cucumber slices and lime wedges for squeezing over.

Best served also with some nam pla prik - just a little fish sauce in a bowl with sliced chillies.

Many people like to eat this with a fried egg on top - fry your egg in more and hotter oil than you would for an English breakfast egg so that the edges go crispy.

I had this a couple of days ago for lunch - a mushroom fried rice cooked without egg but with a teaspoon of nam prik pao (so no need of extra chillies that day) and a topped with a fried egg.

However you make it, it's bound to be delicious ... let me know what you put in yours.

---

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ...

Stir fried pork with chilli and garlic

Ok so first up - this isn't going to be a very well written post.  I feel rotten.  I've had the biggest stinker of a cold for a week and all the cliches are true. Yes I feel like I'm wading through treacle and yes I feel like I'm underwater and can't hear properly. Sore throat, coughing fits, the lot.

Anyway, because I do love food, I take a bad cold as a sign to follow the old adage and 'feed a cold'. However I'm not entirely sure this meant go out and drink champagne on Tuesday. Or to go and sit outside in the cold pretending it was warm and eat tapas on Wednesday.

Haha ... so now, right now, at this blissful end of this trying-to-just-push-through-it week, right now -  it is Friday AND the Friday before the bank holiday weekend and NOW I am going to feed my cold chillies.  Or rather feed (and hope to kill it with) chillies.

This is a really nice and easy dish and you don't have to overdose on chillies if you don't want or need to.

It's not really a specific recipe as such, just a very easy dish with some traditional Thai flavours.  I did rather make it up as I went along and very good it was too.

Cold or no cold, I recommend a dose of this.

Make your rice first and then get together the ingredients.

This is roughly enough for two but do just decide for yourself on quantities and what looks right to you.

About 1-2 tbspn cooking oil

2 cloves garlic

4 red bird eye chillies

Approx 250g pork mince

1/3 knorr chicken stock cube

splash of water

1 tbspn light soy sauce

1 tbspn fish sauce

A pinch of sugar

2 spring onions sliced

a small handful coriander leaves chopped to garnish, if liked

Prepare, slice and chop all the ingredients and put a pan on over a medium high heat.

Add the oil and when hot, add the garlic and chillies and fry, stirring for up to 30 seconds, until it smells good.

Add the pork mince and stir fry for a few minutes then add the stock cube and splash of water and continue stirring until the meat is browned.

Add the soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar and cook, stirring, for a few minutes until cooked through.

Remove from heat, add the spring onions and coriander (if using) and stir in.

Serve with rice.

Simple, delicious, and - I hope -cold-curing! I'll let you know if it is  and in the meantime do let me know if you made this and if you liked it ...

---

---

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE ...