thai chicken basil

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. With the summer fully upon us, we've been feasting on a lot of tomatoes, salads and other cold meals throughout the week. Not very interesting stuff to blog about. I do however have a mini-garden on our very windy fifth floor balcony and among other things have a large bunch of Thai Basil growing. Since I hadn't used any of it yet, it was starting to get rather unruly. Gai Pad Gra Pow, or chicken (gai) stir fried (pad) with holy basil (gra pow), seemed like a good way to use some of it.

This dish can be found in just about any Thai restaurant all over the world. It's rather quick and simple to make and doesn't require a lot of ingredients. Usually this dish is made with ground chicken, but I used diced chicken thigh today. Turkey or pork would work well for this dish as well. Ideally the dish is made with Holy Basil, which is different from Thai Basil or regular Basil. It has more of a spicy, minty quality. Any basil will do in a pinch, but if you can find Holy Basil somewhere, all the better. The sauce is a simple mix of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar dissolved in a bit of water. And don't forget the chilies! This dish is usually very spicy, but obviously you can adjust that to your tastes rather easily.

I fell in love with sticky rice in Thailand, and this seemed like a perfect time to make some. Unlike regular rice, you do need to soak the rice first (i usually soak it for 8-12 hours). Then you simply steam it for 20-25minutes minutes. Ideally I would have a special bamboo steamer, but I've found that my fine mesh strainer fits perfectly in my saucepan and works very well for this. The only trick is to keep the layer of rice a uniform thickness. You'll also want to buy special "sweet rice" for this (it's not actually sweet!). I use "Three Ladies" brand Sweet Rice. When cooked, the rice should stick together, but it'll be dry to the touch. Enjoy!

Gai Pad Gra Pow (Serves 2)
3/4 lb chicken, diced or ground
2 tsp cooking oil
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbls oyster sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 thai birdseye chilies, minced (this should make it somewhat spicy, adjust to taste)
1 cup loosely packed Holy Basil

Instructions
Heat oil in frying pan until very hot
Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds, stirring continuously
Add chicken and cook 2-3 minutes until cooked through
Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar and just enough water to thin it out a bit (1-2 tbls)
Add basil and chillies and serve immediately

thai sausage

Another brown looking dish... I really have to work on that. Well in any event, a while back I posted some pictures from my sausage making day. I ended up making 5lbs of sausages that day, including 2lbs of Northern Thai sausages. I first enjoyed these in Chicago at Sticky Rice, a great Northern Thai restaurant. Then I sampled them in Thailand, and really fell in love with their unique flavor. So when I decided to make my own sausages, trying to recreate what I'd eaten in Thailand was a no-brainer.

I found this recipe online that seemed pretty authentic. In with the ground pork went a ton of lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal (like ginger, with less spiciness), cilantro and red curry paste. The process of making sausages is pretty straightforward, although time consuming. You season the meat and let it marinate for a day, grind it, then stuff it into the casings. I used all-natural pork casings which I purchased at Butcher & Packer, and soaked in water for a few days before using. Stuffing the meat into the casings is the challenging part - particularly if you do it alone. With one hand you have to push the meat through the grinder assembly, through the stuffing attachment, and into the casing. With the other you're trying to hold on to the casing, ensuring that there aren't any air bubbles, that the whole thing doesn't get jammed. Of course everything must be done quickly to make sure it stays cold. Definitely a two person job. Now I know.

Five pounds of sausages lasts a while (in the freezer)... So today I grilled a couple of them up on the bbq and served them with baked eggplants and fried tofu topped with a red curry sauce. The flavor of the sausages is pretty much on point. I'm not sure I could make a living selling these from a food cart in Thailand, but for our purposes here in Atlanta, it sure hits the spot.

Just for kicks, Thai rice and  pork sausage balls and a garlic sausage on a stick from the streets of Chiang Mai... god I miss Thai street food!!!