Stir fried eggplant with fermented soybean and minced pork (Ma-keua Yaao Pad Tao Jieow Moo Sap)

Stir fried eggplant with fermented soybean and minced pork (Ma-keua Yaao Pad Tao Jieow Moo Sap) is one of the rice side dishes that is popular for many Thai people to eat. Because the ingredients are easy to find, it is simple to make and it still tastes delicious. Thai Eggplant is commonly known as white eggplant. Even so, you will find that there are so many colors of eggplant including light green, dark purple, white, or dark purple mixed with white, etc. Eggplant has a lot of nutrition. Thai people often use it to make many dishes such as eggplant salad (Yum Ma-keua Yaao), pound eggplant (Tum Ma-keua), etc.

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants, can use either green or purple eggplant
• 150 grams (5 ounces) minced pork or minced chicken
• 2-3 bunches of Thai sweet basil
• 3-5 Thai fresh chili (Phrik Khee Nuu), take the stems off (depends on how spicy you like)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 Tbsp fermented soybean
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• ½ Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• A little bit of salt
• ¼ cup water

How to do…
1. Rinse the basil and the eggplants with water thoroughly. Drain the basil and pluck the leaves to set aside. Cut off the eggplants ends. Then chop the eggplants into an oblique shape about 1.5-2 inches thick (or cut in half lengthwise first and then slice crosswise into about 1 inch sized pieces each). Soak the sliced eggplant in water.  Add a slight pinch of salt into it, this will help the eggplants from turning dark.

2. Pound Thai fresh chili and garlic together just enough to be coarse, set aside.

3. Set the pan on medium heat. Add vegetable oil into the pan. When the pan is hot, put the pounded garlic and chili to fry until fragrant and then add the minced pork to fry until it is done. Then add the soaked eggplants into it (drain before putting it in).

4. Season with fermented soybean, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Add ¼ cup water, stir the ingredients well together. Then put the lid on to cover the pan. Wait for the eggplants to cook for about 4-5 minutes and then open the lid. Stir again. Last, add the basil leaves. Fry until the basil leaves get soft. Turn off the heat, lift the pan off the heat and put the stir fry on the plate. (To stir fried the eggplant like this some places like to cook the sliced eggplants in hot water about 2-3 minutes prior to frying. When it is time to fry this will make the eggplants soft and cook quickly).

 

Deep Fried Banana (Gluay Khek or Gluay Tod)

Gluay Khek (Deep fried banana) is one of the Thai desserts, which is prepared by slicing bananas and then dipping them in flour and frying until golden brown. The ingredients are rice flour, scraped coconut, sesame seeds (need to be roasted before using to make them more fragrant), sugar and coconut milk, etc. Then deep fry it in a pan with hot oil.

Thai people like to have Gluay Khek (Deep fried banana) as a snack. Gluay Khek usually can be seen for sale on the footpath or vendor street in any community generally.
Ingredients

• A handful of half-ripe Musa Sapientum banana (Gluay Nam Wa), or approximately 10-12 fruits (these are the small Thai banana)
• 1 cup rice flour
• ¼ cup wheat flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp roasted white sesame seeds (or more according to your preference)
• ½ cup scraped coconut (white part)
• ½ cup palm sugar
• ¼ cup lime water
• ½ cup concentrated coconut cream
• 3-5 pandanus amaryllifolius leaves (Bai Toie), wash thoroughly and cut in half
• 3 cups vegetable oil for frying

How to do…
1. Peel the Musa Sapientum banana and slice it lengthwise into thin pieces, each fruit should be cut into at least three or four pieces.
2. Mix rice flour, wheat flour, salt, baking powder, palm sugar, roasted white sesame seeds, scraped coconut, lime water, and concentrated coconut cream together in a large bowl. Stir until flour and palm sugar dissolve well and until all ingredients are mixed well.
3. Pour the vegetable oil into the frying pan and set it on high heat. Wait until the oil is hot. Put the cut pandanus amaryllifolius leaves to fry in the pan for the fragrance. Then scoop them out.
4. Dip the prepared banana from step one into the mixing flour. Take the pieces of banana that have the mixing flour covering the entire pieces to fry in the pan. Fry until cooked, golden and crisp (the cooked bananas will be rise). Turn the bananas while frying too. Then scoop the cooked bananas out to drain the oil.
5. Put and organize the deep fried bananas on the plate. Serve them as a snack or an appetizer.
Tip : A delicious deep fried banana will usually use the Musa Sapientum banana (Gluay Nam Wa) that is not completely too green or too ripe to cook. And when frying them you must fry in the hot oil so when the bananas are cooked then they will turn golden brown and delicious. The taste of deep fried bananas that you get will be sweet, fatty and have a sweet smell. It will have the crispness from the flour that covered outside and inside will be soft with banana meat.
Note : The banana that is used to make more delicious deep fried banana than Musa Sapientum banana is Musa (ABB group) banana (Gluay Nang Ya or Gluay Nang Phaya) from the South of Thailand. If cannot find these then may be use the other types of bananas such as Musa (AA group) bananas (Gluay Kai), Musa (AAA group) bananas (Gluay Hom) or Musa Sapientum banana (Gluay Nam Wa) to cook instead. Or you can even use taro and sweet potatoes to cook instead of banana. But for taro and sweet potatoes, flour and fry them after peeling the skin off. They also need to be washed first. Then cut them into pieces about 0.5-1 cm thick.

Published April 10th, 2011

Tags: Deep, Fried, Banana, (Gluay, Khek, Gluay, Tod)

Tod Mun Plah Grai (Fried Fish Cake Thai Style)

Tod Mun Plah Grai (Fried Fish Cake Thai Style) is another popular recipe for those who like to have fish. In addition to being easy to find to eat and for sale in a busy general community area Tod Mun Plah Grai is also an easy dish to make on your own at home. Or if inconvenient to make it yourself, you can buy it pre-made and then fry it yourself.

How to make Tod Mun Plah Grai so tasty and delicious, here are some tips and steps to do.
Ingredients

• 300 grams (10 ounces) Notopteridae fish meat (you can substitute any mild white fish), crushed or finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp red curry paste
• 1 cup long yard beans, finely chopped
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt, bring to thawed in 1 Tbsp ice cold water
• Vegetable oil for deep frying

How to do…
1. Bring the Notopteridae fish meat, red curry paste, long yard beans, kaffir lime leaves, and egg to mix and knead together until sticky.
2. Season with fish sauce, sugar and salted water and knead until sticky and well mixed.
3. Add the vegetable oil into the wok and place it on medium heat. When the oil is hot then reduce the heat to low. Then put the Tod Mun in to fry, by making it into a thumb sized ball and spread it out into a flat disk about 1 cm thick and 1 ½ -2 inches in diameter. Fry until it cooks and turns golden on both sides. When it is cooked, scoop it up to drain out the oil. Arrange on a plate and serve with the sauce.

The sauce ingredients

• ½ cup Thai sweet chili sauce
• 2 small cucumbers
• ½ -1 tsp pounded fresh Thai chili (depends on whether you like more or less spicy)
• 2 Tbsp grounded roasted peanuts (optional, depends on your preference)
• 2 coriander stalks, coarsely chopped

How to do the sauce…
1. Wash cucumbers with water thoroughly. Then cut in half lengthwise and thinly slice crosswise.
2. Add Thai sweet chili sauce into a mixing bowl. Follow with cucumber, fresh Thai chili, peanuts and coriander. Stir well. Then serve with Tod Mun.
Tip
Immerse the bowl that holds the Tod Mun mixture in crushed ice or refrigerate it over night. And then fry it the next day, so this will allow Tod Mun to inflate, rise, and look delicious.