Thai freezer filling extravaganza

[chickenfeet]

This lunchtime I staggered home with umpteen bags full of assorted Asian goodies to turn into a meal for tonight plus a fridge and freezer full of leftovers. Believe me when I spend $70 on groceries in Asian stores it's going to be a metric freezer load of food. I also took the opportunity to fortify myself for my cooking marathon with a rather good BBQ pork banh mi from the Vietnamese bakery.

The swag included:

Shrimp
Squid
Shrimp chips
Crab chips
Serrano peppers
Kaffir lime leaves
Basil
Vietnamese mint
Lemongrass
Cilantro
Fresh turmeric
Coconut meat
Coconut milk
Thai chillies
Shallots
Limes
Green papaya
Cauliflower
Red peppers
Korean cabbage
Bean sprouts
Siamese Watercress
Thai eggplants
Spring onions
Cucumber
Pomelo
Peanuts
Fresh noodles
Dried wheat and rice noodles
Big bag of Jasmine rice
Fish sauce


I'm going to make a yellow curry with the papaya, cauliflower and eggplants. Its a stock based curry with a paste of chillis, garlic, shallot, kapi, lemon grass and fresh turmeric.

The squid will be steamed with a chilli-lime sauce.

The pomelo, coconut and lots of the herbs will make a salad with deep fried shallots and peanuts..

I'll cook some of the shrimp with a coconut milk and turmeric sauce.

The Siamese watercress will be stirfried with yellow beans, chilli and garlic.

I've already made a hot, sweet nam prik which will be served with veggies and shrimp chips.

The noodles are for the store cupboard.

I've never used fresh turmeric before but I was very taken with a dish using it at a Vietnamese restaurant recently so I figured I'd experiment.

X-posted to: gastrogasm

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Oh, gawd, I'm

hungry

now!

[neko-katt.livejournal.com]

yellow curry is one of my favorites.

My mouth just started to water, thanks!

[neko-katt.livejournal.com]

PS tumeric stains the crap out of your hands.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I know!

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, oh, mmm, green papaya salad. Where did you learn to cook Thai with such virtuosity? I am impressed and appetized!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Actually the papaya is going into the yellow curry this time though salad is its normal fate.

My Thai odyssey goes roughly as follows:

Eat in first Thai restaurant in London (c.1980) and subsequently in other decent ones in Toronto and Melbourne.

Experiment with cooking recipes from Thai cook books and thinking it seems to have more to offer than even the good restos.

Go to Thailand. Eat real Thai food in restaurants and night markets and realise that the restos in North America are all detuned for farangs and that the way Thais eat is way different from how the food is presented in the west (Bangkok Garden in Toronto being something of an exception, at least as far as their set menus go).

Go back to my cookbooks but with a sense of (a)how dishes are combined to make a meal and (b) just how wildly intense certain flavours are supposed to be.

yum yum yum

[fortunatecave.livejournal.com]

post more recipes?