- Intro to Thai Cooking
- Flavour of the Month: Coriander
- Article of the Month: Vegetable Proteins
- Site of the Month: Taste for Living
- Cooking Tips: Wokking and Stir-Frying
- Recipe Update
- General News and Site Update
- Chocolate Pudding (vegan)
- Sticky Rice (vegan)
- Stir-Fried Leafy Greens (Puk Bung Fidaeng) (vegan)
- Coconut Red Curry with Tofu (Panang Tao-hu) (vegan)
- Thai-Fried Noodles (Pad Thai) (vegan; ovo option)
- Thai Spicy Soup (Tom Yum) (vegan)
- Pumpkin Muffins (vegan)
- Risotto With Butternut Squash and Sage (lacto/vegan)
- Sweet Potato, Apple, Leek and Bean Casserole (vegan)
- Pumpkin and Potato Fries (vegan)
- Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (vegan)
- Apple Cake (lacto)
October 2000
In this issue:
Introduction
to Thai Cooking
Modern Thai food could be called the ancient
fusion cooking. It is the result of centuries of adaptation of various
foreign cooking methods and ingredients introduced by traders, to native
Thai ingredients. Stir-frying and deep frying were introduced by the Chinese,
while Portugese missionaries introduced chili peppers from South America.
Ghee and dairy products, introduced from India, got replaced by coconut
oil and milk, while stronger Indian spices were eventually replaced with
the subtler flavours of galangal and fragrant herbs.
Unlike Western meals which are traditionally served in "courses", a Thai meal will be served all at once. It will generally consist of a soup; curry dish or spiced salad; vegetables, meat or fish with a dip; and rice. Deserts are sometimes served. Most important to a Thai meal is the harmonious blend of tastes and textures found in both the individual dishes and the Thai meal as a whole.
Thai cooking is quite regional. Food from the south of Thailand will be quite hot, salty and sour. Curries cooked with a lot of spices predominate and meat is less common. In central Thailand, food is hot, salty, sweet and sour. Here soup or curry with rice and a variety of condiments is the most popular meal. As you travel further north, sticky rice becomes more popular. Thai meals in the North generally consist of sticky rice, curries or soups, and boiled vegetables. Flavours are mild or hot, salty and sour, but never sweet. In the northeast, salads are very popular and food is hot, salty and sour. Condiments are used a lot and spices are less prevalent.
Basic cooking utensils used in Thai cooking are the wok, a wok, a wok and... well, a steamer! Two kinds or mortar and pestle are also used: a large wooden (usually coconut) one used for making salads, and a smaller stone one used for making chili pastes.
Basic ingredients include chilies, garlic, lemon grass, keffir lime, galangal, coriander leaf and root, coconut milk, fermented fish sauce, shrimp paste and soybean paste. Vegetarians should be aware that many seemingly vegetarian dishes may be prepared with fish sauce, shrimp paste or dried shrimps.
Recipes:
Sticky
Rice (vegan)
Stir-Fried
Leafy Greens (Puk Bung Fidaeng) (vegan)
Coconut
Red Curry with Tofu (Panang Tao-hu) (vegan)
Thai-Fried
Noodles (Pad Thai) (vegan; ovo option)
Thai
Spicy Soup (Tom Yum) (vegan)
Amanda's Kitchen
Links:
Common
Thai Ingredients
Vegetarian
Substitutions in Thai Cooking
Other Links:
Eating
Off the Streets: Food Cruising in Thailand
The
Global Gourmet - Thailand
Adventures
in Thai Cooking and Travel
A Vegetarian Thai
Restaurant
ChuChai (100% vegetarian;
vegan-friendly)
4088 St. Denis, Montreal,
Qc (514) 843-4194
Thai. A vegetarian Thai
culinary delight. A must visit. The meals
are prepared with mock meat
but most carnivores wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.
'beef" panang is a personal favorite as is the sticky rice and mango for
desert.
Full service. Open daily.
VISA/MC. $$ - $$$
Coriander (Chinese Parsley or Cilantro)
The first recorded use of coriander was in Egypt in 1500 BC where it was used primarily as a funeral herb or occasionally as an offering to the gods. The Hebrews also use coriander as a ritual herb at passover. The Chinese consider coriander to be an herb of immortality, whereas Central Americans believe it protects against evil. In western culture, a woman eating coriander is said to ensure her children a future of creativity and inventiveness.
Coriander was believed to have been introduced into Europe by the Romans as an ingredient in vinegars and herbal remedies. Coriander has been traditionally used medicinally to treat burns and increase breast milk. Common modern uses include reducing flatulence and bad breath, easing digestion and soothing aching joints.
Coriander is often used in Chinese and South-east Asian cooking, hence the common name Chinese Parsley. However, it is possibly better known for it's role in Indian cookery. It is also often found in Central American cooking. Coriander is a strongly flavoured herb with highly aromatic leaves when crushed. The dried seeds have a slightly sweeter and spicier taste than the fresh leaf. The seeds are commonly found in Indian, North African and indonesian cooking. Both coriander leaf or seed mix exceptionally well with lentil or tomato dishes, and makes a great flavouring to soups and salads.
An annual growing up to two feet, the plant in native to the Mediterranean and Middle East, preferring a temperate climate and dry soil. It is commonly cultivated in India, South America and California. The lower part of the plant itself resembles parsley, but the upper leaves are feathery and thread-like. In the summer and autumn, small white or mauve flowers bloom, followed by round, green berries (seeds) that drop as soon as they ripen. Coriander seeds dry well, the leaves are best preserved in oil. For tips on preserving your own freshly-picked coriander, visit Drying and Storing Herbs.
Article of the MonthJeejeebhoy KN. Vegetable proteins: are they nutritionally equivalent to animal protein [comment]. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2000 Jan;12(1):1-2.
On the basis of the rate of animal growth, proteins have been traditionally classed as high quality, such as egg and milk protein, or low quality such as gluten. In general, vegetable proteins are of low quality but soy protein is an exception. This article is a comment on another paper presented in the same issue of the journal (p5-11) that showed that enteral formulations consisting of soy protein administered to inactive patients with Crohns Disease and lactose intolerance are as effective nutritionally as enteral formulations containing milk protein.
Site
of the Month
Taste for Living: http://www.tasteforliving.com.
Don't be fooled by the names of the recipes
on this site! This web site is filled with vegetarian, mostly vegan, recipes
that are generally fat free and dairy free, but are adaptation of traditional
american foods. It even has a section called "All-American Junk Food".
The site also contains helpful nutritional information including good lists
on non-animal sources of calcium and protein. An good site for beginner
vegetarians to sort out the facts from the fallacies of vegetarianism,
and to load up on good recipes that don't sound or look to "weird".
Wokking and Stir-Frying
The best woks are traditional ones made out of iron or carbon steel. For stir-frying it is better to use one with one long handle at the side, so you can hold the wok yet be far away from the heat of the stove and the very hot oil. Woks with two smaller side handles are best for steaming and deep frying because the wok is steadier to move when full of liquid. When buying a wok, look for one that has deep sides, is fairly large (14 inches or 35 cm in diameter), and is made of a metal that is not too thin.
before using your wok for the first time, it is important to "season" it. Scrub the wok well, rinse and dry it. Place the wok over a low heat and wipe it lightly with vegetable oil. Let it heat for about 10 minutes then let it cool. Wipe the wok with a dry cloth to remove the dark film. Repeat the process of heating, cooling and wiping until the cloth comes away clean. Clean a seasoned wok with plain water, never soap. Do not scrub the wok or this will remove it's protective coating. A wok brush made of a bundle of bamboo splint is ideal for cleaning a wok (available at most Asian stores). Let the wok dry thoroughly over a low heat before storing it.
For stir-frying, heat the wok over a high heat until it is extremely hot. Add a little oil and when that is hot and slightly smoking add the crushed or chopped garlic, ginger, and other spices as specified in your recipe. As the mixture begins to cook, add the other ingredients. To stir-fry, your must stir and fry the ingredients simultaneously using a wooden spatula while gently rocking the wok (actually it's more like lightly toss and fry). This should help cook everything evenly and quickly. Slow stir-frying (i.e., wok not hot enough) produces limp, partially-steamed vegetables. At the end of cooking, you can sprinkle wine, sesame oil or a fragrant herb to produce an aromatic smell.
When stir-frying veggies, it is important to cut them into sizes that will take the same amount of time to cook. If you are working with particularly hard, solid vegetables, after a few minutes of stir-frying on high heat reduce the heat to very low and cover the wok for a few minutes with it's steaming lid. This has the effect of steaming the veggies but retaining their crispness.
Recipe UpdateIt has still been a really busy month and there are no signs of the pace letting up as my 9-5 job approaches its busy season. Recipes, articles and cooking tips continue to be added to the site but I have grown negligent in verifying whether posted links and organizations still exist. Please, if you find any errors on my site, or in this newsletter, let me know!
Amanda's Kitchen is still looking for people to write articles for it's web site and on-line newsletter. This is a labour of love, so contributions will be credited but unpaid. For more information e-mail AmandasKitchen@yahoo.ca.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter and the Amanda's Kitchen web site are not prepared by a registered dietitian, nurse, doctor or other medically-qualified individual. Any health and nutrition information provided by Amanda's Kitchen is designed to support, not replace, information provided by a registered dietitian or healthcare provider. Where appropriate, Amanda's Kitchen has endeavoured to support information contained on the site and newsletter by providing references to source data and, where possible, specific HTML links.
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