I Love Thai Food

I know it's been a while since I posted, but life has been hectic.  A week ago, I attended a Thai Dinner Party cooking class.  I have always loved Thai food and discovered that it is not as difficult as I had expected to prepare..  A lot of preliminary cutting and chopping but it comes out excellent.  For my Table, I changed the menu a bit from what we did and made some adjustments in the recipes.  Overall I liked this and the spicy heat did not make my lips numb as they did in class.  Here is what was on Marilyn's Table:

MANGO SORBET 'MARTINI' WITH BASIL SUGAR RIM
CHICKEN SATAY WITH SPICY PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE
SHRIMP PAD THAI

The martini is very simple and done in a blender.  Chopped mango, simple syrup, and lime juice in a blender until smooth.  If it is too thick, add a bit of water.  Run a lime around the rim of a martini glass and dip in a plate of sugar and finely minced basil.  Rum or Vodka is optional and I chose to leave it 'virgin'.  A nice and  sweet, but not too sweet drink to serve with the satay and peanut sauce.


Chicken strips are woven on to wooden skewers that have been soaked in water.  They are marinated in lime juice, canola oil, soy sauce, fish sauce and a bit of red pepper.

While they marinate, make the dipping sauce.. Peanut butter, lite coconut milk, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar and a bit of red pepper flakes are mixed together.  The chicken strips are removed from the marinade and grilled until done.  The dipping sauce is excellent with the chicken.

Pad Thai was a new experience for me.  I had not worked with dried rice noodles before, but found them to be easy to work with.  The noodles are soaked in hot water until they soften, drain and cut up or leave whole, your choice.  In a wok heat peanut oil and saute garlic intill golden, add beaten egg and stir until egg is cooked.  Mung bean sprouts, chopped scallion greens, rice vinegar, fish sauce, sugar and chili-garlic sauce are added.. Heat through.  I had oven roasted a pound of shrimp earlier so I did not add the shrimp until the end and just to heat thourgh.  Plate and top with more green scallions and chopped peanuts.  I will do this again, but perhaps add another egg and more green scallions. The roasted shrimp were perfect and I was happy I had not cooked them in the mixture.

My original plan was to also have a spring roll, but the papaya I bought was very bitter, so perhaps another time.  Thai food is a new favorite and soon I will prepare more from this Asian country.

Next week I will travel north to visit family in Middleton.  Grand daugher is home from her first year in college and I am anxious to here about her adventures.  I will take a Whoopy Pie Cake to celebrate.  We also will visit Mineral Point for an outing.  I hope to be back in a couple of weeks with another Table.

Enjoy the nice weather, I think winter is finally finished with us.....