Best Food And Beverage Tips: 08/10/10

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Top 10 Must-Not-Miss Thai Food

Thai cuisine is one of the best gourmets in the world. It is well known for the diversity of ingredients, outstanding spiciness and ample medicinal properties. Most of Thai food is cooked and refined with more than two types of herbs or

spices which are beneficial to health.

The (mostly unconscious) principle Thai food is the balance of five flavors which are spicy, salty, sweet, sour and bitter. The one indispensible ingredient which is generally used in seasoning a majority of Thai cuisine is fish sauce. Thai food is eaten either as a single dish or with rice. Steamed rice is the staple food although sticky rice is more popular in the north and northeast of Thailand.

Thai food is one of many things that you should not miss while you are traveling in this beautiful "Land of Smiles". Since there are numberless delectable Thai dishes, I am writing this guideline for you to select the most distinctive and authentic ones out of the plethora of Thai signature dishes.

The following list is a top 10 rank of Thai food that you must not miss. The consideration and ranking is based on the popularity, uniqueness and authenticity of the delicacies. Here are the winners.

10. Kai Pad Med Mamuang Himmapan (Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts)
Even though Kai Pad Med Mamuang Himmapan does not represent the overview of Thai food but it is a very nice treat to your bland taste buds. Since it is by no means spicy or hot, this slightly sweet and salty chicken fried with crunchy cashew nuts is aptly satiating for children or beginners who are not used to spices.

9. Por Pia Tord (Fried Spring Roll)
Fried spring roll is one of the most popular appetizers among foreigners because it is not spicy and comes with sweet and sour dip. Spring rolls are crispy pastries with fried vegetable fillings. Though spring rolls are commonplace in many Southeast Asian countries, Thai Por Pia is different in flavors with a special dip prepared from Japanese apricot.

8. Panaeng (Meat in Spicy Coconut Cream)
Panaeng can be cooked using either pork, chicken or beef. Panaeng tastes like Thai red curry but the coconut milk sauce is relatively thicker and richer. Compared to Thai red curry, Panaeng is mildly spicy and sweet. Paneang is best served with warm steamed rice. There is nothing to dislike about Panaeng expect the fact that it can be too greasy or fleshy for some people.

7. Som Tam (Spicy Papaya Salad)
Som Tam is one of the most popular foods among Thai people for its fiercely spicy and sour flavors. Som Tam, which literally means "Sour Pounded", is a spicy salad made from a mix of fresh vegetables including shredded unripened papaya, yardlong beans and tomato. Som Tam is unique that the spicy dressing and salad vegetables are pounded and mixed in the mortar using a pestle. Somtam is usually served with grilled chicken and sticky rice. Som Tam is good for your health that it contains no fat, low calorie and high vitamins. This is a truly authentic Thai dish that will make a great impression. The only reason why I’m ranking Som Tam at No.7 (though it deserves higher rank) is its strong spiciness that might leave your tongue burned and swollen. Just say "Mai phed" (not spicy) to your waiter if you really want to try.

6. Moo Sa-Te (Grilled Pork Sticks with Turmeric)
This tantalizing sweet-flavored grilled pork sticks are refined with rich, juicy sauce made of turmeric and curry powder. Moo Sa-Te makes a savory hors d'oeuvres that will appease any taste buds. These juicy grilled pork sticks are usually served with two saucy dips – one is a mildly spicy thick sauce with ground peanuts, coconut milk and curry powder and another one is a sweet and sour vinegar sauce with chopped shallot, pepper and cucumber to mitigate its oiliness.

5. Tom Yam Kai (Spicy Chicken Soup)
Chicken soup is very good to eat when you have a cold but Tom Yam Kai or spicy chicken soup is a yummy treat that you will fall in love with just in a first sip. Tom Yam Kai is a clear chicken soup seasoned with a blend of chili, lime and fish sauce. The broth is simmered with Thai herbs as lemon grass, shallot and galangal which give it a unique and satiating aroma. My foreign friends order this tasty soup anywhere they go so you should not miss it by any means!

4. Tom Kha Kai (Chicken in Coconut Milk Soup)
Although Tom Kha Kai is another variation of chicken soup, it deserves the No.4 because of its unparalleled taste and popularity. Similar to Tom Yam Kai, the broth is prepared with many types of Thai herbs with the special addition of coconut milk that makes this soup unique. Though the soup is seasoned with chili, lime and fish sauce just like Tom Kha Kai, thanks to the coconut milk, the broth is milder and less spicy. This is probably more liked by non-spicy eaters.

3. Kang Keaw Wan Kai (Green Chicken Curry)
Since we are having three dishes in a row made of "Kai", you would have guessed that it is chicken in English. Not that chicken is particularly popular in Thai cuisine; it is usually used in most curry and soup. Kang Kiew Wan, literally translated as "Sweet Green Curry", is nicely sweet and slightly spicy and tastes very delightful with a proper blend of the spiciness from green curry chili paste, blandness from coconut milk, sweetness of sugar and saltiness of fish sauce. It is usually eaten with steamed rice or served as a sauce to rice noodle known as "Kanom Jeen" likewise to how you eat Spaghetti.

2. Pad Thai (Fried Noodle)
This national dish prides itself for its long history traced back in previous centuries. Pad Thai flaunts the authenticity of Thai culinary arts in using only fresh and best ingredients and the well-balancing of the five fundamental flavors. The stir-fried noodle becomes popular because it tastes yummy and comes with a choice to add in a set of seasonings to suit your appetites. Through history, Pad Thai has evolved into two different styles: the classic and the variation. The classic Pad Thai is a stir-fried noodle with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chili pepper plus bean sprouts, shrimp and tofu and garnished with crushed peanuts and coriander while another style is relatively dry and lightly-flavored. The latter is easily found in street vendors and dominant in Thai restaurants in the West but the having classic Pad Thai freshly cooked in its original country is a way to go.

1. Tom Yam Goong (Spicy Shrimp Soup)
No other dishes can defeat this renowned Tom Yam Goong as the optimal representative of Thai gourmet. Tom Yam Goong is truly one of a kind with its fierce spiciness and sourness and a blatant use of fragrant herbs including galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, shallot, tamarind and chili pepper. There are two styles of Tom Yam; the clear spicy soup and thick spicy soup. The latter is cooked by adding coconut milk or milk to the broth in order to thicken the stock and give the dish a milder flavor. Tom Yam is very versatile and can be made with prawns, chicken, fish and mix of seafood, and mushroom. Tom Yam Goong is the most popular variety of Tom Yam since Spicy Shrimp Soup is the original. Though not very surprising, Tom Yam Goong is definitely a signature dish of Thailand.

Even though it is commonly known that Thai food utilizes many health herbs and spices, there have always been debates whether Thai food is really good for health since they tend to be somewhat greasy. It is important to note that it depends on each dish; some can be highly caloric but many dishes make a good use of herbs. Garlic, for example, is very good healthwise because it can prevent heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cancer.

No matter what the food is, the same old concept of moderate intake comes into play. From Mcdonald’s burger to Japanese Sushi, a key to optimal fitness is to avoid overconsumption. Thus, a claim that Thai food is mainly coconut-based and fattening should never be an adequate reason for you to still order a Big Mac. Ravish your taste buds with Thai food - tasty and healthy!

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Persian Apricot Chicken

This recipe takes it’s inspiration from the Parsee tradition of using fruit in cooking, and is deeply rooted in the Persian ancestry of many Indians and their food.

Serves 4

175g dried apricots

4 tbsp vegetable oil

2 small pieces of cinnamon stick

2 chopped onions

500 g chicken breast diced into 2cm pieces

4 tomatoes chopped

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

salt

for the masala:

6 large dried red chillies

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

1 ½ tsp coriander seeds

2cm piece of cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp pureed garlic

4 green cardamon pods

Soak the apricots in 200ml of warm water for a couple of hours until they are soft and swollen.

Grind all the ingredients for the masala in a food processor and leave to one side.

Heat the oil in a large heavy casserole or sauté pan which has a lid. Add the cinnamon sticks, cook for a couple of minutes and add the onions, browning very slowly. Stir in the masala and fry off until the oil begins to separate. Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes turning half way through. Season with salt and add the tomatoes and apricots (and any water remaining from the soaking). Simmer with the lid on until the chicken is tender (if the sauce remains thin, uncover and allow to reduce for a few minutes until thickened). Stir in the coriander and serve immediately with Indian breads or plain rice.

Visit the Salamander Cookshop Blog to find out more about our seasonal recipes and cooking tips. We also welcome your comments and suggestions.

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Everybody Loves Chicken - Ways to Prepare the Popular Meat

Chicken is one of the most popular meats to be eaten in the world. Everyday, millions of people consume chicken in a variety of ways. They may choose to grill, bake, smoke, or fry it, or use it inside

another dish such as a casserole, salad, soup, or pasta. Fast food restaurants here in the USA alone thrive on their sales of chicken related dishes, such as sandwiches, nuggets, wraps, and salads. With so many people consuming the meat, there must be hundreds of recipes out there, wouldn’t you agree?

Recipes for chicken dishes can vary greatly in many ways. Some are simple, five minute recipes that can be prepared for just a couple of people after a long day at work. Others may take all day to cook, and combine a number of ingredients with the chicken. The complexity of these recipes can vary as well. A salad, for example, would just comprise of cooking the chicken and tossing it with some vegetables. Other dishes, such as chicken and dumplings, would require the cutting of the meat and the dough, and then allowing both to cook in a pot for hours.

I personally like to prepare my chicken in a variety of ways. My recipe box is full of hundreds of chicken based creations that I could not possibly choose one favorite! Grilling chicken outside is always fun when you are having a family cookout. Warm chicken soup is very nice to eat in the cold of the winter. Chicken wraps make for a quick, healthy lunch. I would guess that I love chicken so much that I consume it almost daily. The best thing about cooking chicken is that the possibilities are endless…You could cook chicken every day for a year, and never eat the exact same meal twice!

Grilled Ginger Apricot Chicken Breasts

3 chicken breasts, split (with bone in)
1/3 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Prepare a medium-hot fire in grill.
In a small saucepan, warm preserves, lemon juice, ginger, mustard, salt and
pepper over medium heat, stirring, just until preserves melt, about 2 minutes.
Grill chicken, skin side down, 10 minutes.
Turn and grill 5 minutes.
Brush with some of glaze and continue to grill, turning occasionally and
brushing with more glaze, until chicken juice run clear when pricked with a
knife, 15 to 20 minutes longer.
Stop basting about 5 minutes before chicken is done.

Serves 6

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The Minerals in Your Food

THERE was a time when the role that minerals play in nutrition was not appreciated. The emphasis in nutrition was on proteins, fats (such as butter, lard, oils) and carbohydrates . Then men

began to discern that good health depended also upon other factors, such as vitamins, and that even certain minerals, found in the body in very small amounts, were indispensable.

Concerning these minerals we are told that they carry a clear message: “Man cannot exist elsewhere.” Also that “had man [come into existence] on another planet, he would have had a different mineral composition.” This is just what we should expect in view of the Bible’s account of creation as found at Genesis 2:7: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.”

Interestingly, the fact that Jehovah God originally gave man “all vegetation bearing seed . . . and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed” as food is also borne out by a study of these minerals. While the body carefully guards many of these minerals, not so with potassium, obtained mostly from fruits and vegetables. Daily the body expels a certain amount of potassium regardless of how much is taken in, requiring daily consumption of potassium-rich foods. This has caused a team of leading nutritionists to ask, “Could it be because man originally lived on fruits and vegetables?” Yes, undoubtedly that is the reason.

Scientists today list over a hundred elements as being found on this earth. However, some of these are man-made. As many as sixty of the natural elements have been found in living things and some forty have been found in man.

Not included here for special consideration are the four major elements described as “having a molecular weight of 16 or less.” These account for 96 percent of the body’s composition. They include oxygen, 65 percent; carbon, 18 percent; hydrogen, 10 percent; nitrogen, 3 percent. The fact that 75 percent of the body’s composition is oxygen and hydrogen would seem to show the need of daily drinking sufficient liquids.

“Macro” and “Micro” Minerals

What is being considered here are the “macro” minerals and “micro” or “trace” elements or minerals. The macro elements comprise a total of about 3.5 percent of the body’s composition. They exist in quantities of less than 3 percent and more than 1/100th of 1 percent.These are calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine and magnesium.

The micro elements account for the remaining about 1/2 of 1 percent. Among the more important micro or trace elements are iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, molybdenum, cobalt, fluorine, chromium and bromine.

These various minerals have an importance in nutrition far beyond the extremely small amounts that are found in the body. Calcium, the major one of these, represents only about 1/70th of the body’s composition. And there is from 400 to 500 times as much calcium in the body as there is iron. Then again, there is twenty times as much iron as there is copper, and five times as much copper as there is iodine in the body. Yet iodine is essential to good health even though it is found in the body only to the extent of one part in 2.5 million or more.

Man has still much to learn about the presence and value of these minerals in the body. As one medical journal expressed it: “New knowledge concerning minerals both macro and micro opens up bright vistas in the prevention and treatment of disease, as well as in the maintenance of optimal nutrition. . . . They offer a treasure-house of exciting opportunities for investigators.”

Basically, the minerals in the body serve two functions. One is that of building blocks; the other is that of regulators of the body’s processes by combining with vitamins, with other minerals and with enzymes. In fact, a number of these minerals serve quite a variety of valuable purposes in the body.

In considering information on minerals it is well to keep in mind that nutrition is by no means a science on which there is general agreement as there is with, say, mathematics and physics. There is some disagreement as to the exact proportions of these elements in the body, as to just where to draw the line between macro and micro elements and as to which trace elements are essential. But what is known can be very helpful.

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How to Make Inari Sushi

One of the cheaper and more popular types of sushi in the market nowadays is the Inari Sushi. It is made by stuffing sushi rice, and even some vegetables into small pouches of deep fried bean curd

or tofu, also more popularly known in its Japanese term as aburage. Instead of the usual Nori seaweed or soybean paper, aburage is used in this sushi. Aburage can either be sold in packets or packaged in cans, and is widely distributed throughout most Japanese specialty stores or supermarkets. This type of sushi is also called by some famous nicknames, like pocket-sushi and brown-bag sushi. But whatever the monikers may be, this type of sushi is easy to make, less expensive, and tastes really good!

Following the simple procedures below can have you making your own Inari sushi in no time.

Inari Sushi Rice Recipes

Ingredients:

4 deep fried tofu pieces, cut into half

2 cups prepared sushi rice

3 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons Mirin or sweet Japanese cooking wine

1 and ¼ cup Dashi or fish stock

Salt

¼ cup shredded carrots (par-boiled)

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (toasted) optional

Pickled ginger (for garnish)

Steps

1. Since the tofu is deep-fried, it is necessary to get rid of the excess oils. Do this by soaking them in boiling water. Cool for a while, and then cut them into half. This makes 8 tofu pouches in all.

2. Combine soy sauce, sugar, dashi and mirin in a small pan. Bring to a boil over slow to medium heat. Add the tofu pockets to the boiling sauce. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, over slow heat, and completely covered. After 20 minutes, turn off heat, and drain the tofu. Squeeze them dry and set aside.

3. Combine sushi rice, carrots, and the toasted sesame seeds.

4. Stuff the rice mixture into the cut tofu, carefully folding over the ends to secure it.

5. Arrange in a plate and garnish with the pickled ginger.

This recipe yields 8 servings of Inari Sushi

Some useful tips:

• Some canned tofu are seasoned and already cut into serving pouches. Therefore, you can do away with the simmering in soy-sauce and mirin mixture. However, boiling the tofu in the sauce is most ideal, as it will ensure more flavor.

• Mirin is a kind of Japanese cooking wine, sort of a sweeter version of the usual sake. The mixture in making this wine usually consists of steamed mochigome rice, shochu (Japanese liquor), and komekoji (rice yeast). These are then fermented to make mirin. There are actually two types of mirin available in the market. Hon mirin contains 14 percent alcohol. Shin mirin has less than 1 percent alcohol, and is therefore more ideal for cooking. Shin Mirin is often bottled and has a yellow gold color. Mirin is also used to prepare seasoning for sushi rice.

• Aburage is often confused with Atsuage. While both are soybean products, and are deep fried, aburage is of the thinner variety. Atsuage is also triangular in shape, thick, and ideal for simmered soups, added in stir fries, or served with soy sauce. Aburage is often shaped into squares and rectangles. This makes the aburage perfect when stuffed with sushi rice and made into Inari Sushi.

• Dashi or fish stock is relatively easy to make. A cup of Katsuobushi or dried fish flakes can be combined with 2-3 cups of water, and then boiled over low heat. Then the fish flakes can be strained to retain the fish stock.

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