I absolutely love me some Thai food. However, it is a recent love discovered over the last couple of years. Growing up with Puerto Rican and Hungarian food influences didn’t exactly lend itself to making Pad Thai on Wednesday nights. That was black beans and rice night.
Over the last few months, I have spent some time making dishes with Thai influences. I’ve stocked up on the tamarind paste, the fish sauce, the coconut milk, etc. So in honor of how delicious Thai food can be, and my freshly stocked Thai inspired pantry, this week is Thai food week.
I have cravings for Pad Thai on an almost weekly basis, but I never realized how capable I was of creating this dish successfully (without using any pre-packaged sauces, flavor mixes, etc.)
The recipe I used was a mix of about 5 different recipes I found to be “authentic” (hah, not like I would actually know). I’ve only made this dish twice, so I’m going to play around with it some more before I post a recipe.
I found the recipe from the Food Network, so it doesn’t exactly scream authentic, nor was it tricky to make. I ignored the specifications of the recipe, just using the ingredients as a guide. The takeaway from the dish is definitely the peanut lime dressing. So good! See full recipe.
This was delicious! I tried to track down the recipe I used, but being incredibly organized, I have lost it. It was almost identical to this, if you want to give this dessert a try.
This was surprisingly my favorite dish of the week’s cooking events. I expected it to be a nice way to use some leftover chicken, but this blew me away! True to it’s name it is the perfect comfort food, but the blend of flavors, the coriander and coconut standing out in my mind, makes this far superior to the noodles in chicken broth I eat when I’m sick. Here’s the recipe I roughly followed.
Another successful meal! The noodles I just threw together for an interesting side. I like to use bean sprout noodles, because they soak up flavor nicely, cook almost instantly and are better for you than a bunch of white flour.
The BBQ Chicken is all about the marinade. I can’t believe I’m just now realizing how amazing lemon grass is.
Well, that wraps this week’s long winded cooking challenge. What types of foods or specific recipes should I try next? I definitely need some inspiration!
Chinese food is something that I could eat any time. Much like Mexican food, it is rarely a bad idea. However, for some reason it’s one of those foods that I always turn to a restaurant for. Chinese food is not necessarily the most complex food to tackle, but it’s a stretch for me since I rarely use the flavors in my own kitchen. Therefore, this weeks challenge was a week long event, a week of cooking (not ordering) Chinese food.
Chicken Fried Rice
Orange Beef and Fried Rice
I have to give credit to my boyfriend on the Orange Beef adventure. We made this together and he is definitely the reason why it turned out to be so delicious.
Orange Beef and Ramen
Without question, I will be making my own Chinese food more often now.
Enjoy!
- Becca Bites
Tonight’s dinner: Thai BBQ chicken with a sweet and spicy sauce, and a side of herb noodles.
