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. 

Pad Thai

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. 

Thai Chicken Salad

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. 

Coconut Tapioca Pudding 

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. 

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup 

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. 

Thai BBQ Chicken with a Sweet and Spicy Sauce, and a side of Pan Herb Noodles. 

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! 

- Becca Bites.  

Beyond making homemade pasta, I upped the anie and decided to go for a full romantic Italian dinner. Admittedly, I did not do this challenge this week. I didn’t do much cooking this week, but this is a meal I’ve been wanting to share. Without throwing too many unwanted details out there, my boyfriend and I do the long distance deal. So, when we get to see each other we try to make the most of our time together. Often that includes cooking with and/or for each other. 

(Please forgive the poor photo quality. They are from my phone as I did a camera fail and left it at home).

The menu:

Pasta e Fagioli, recipe from Giada De Laurentiis 

Tartra (A Savory Flan), recipe from the The Taste of Italy 

Casoncelli Camuni, recipe from The Taste of Italy 

Ricotta and Rum Cake Trifle, a mixture I threw together that was inspired from The Taste of Italy

The Pasta e Fagioli was a straight forward hearty soup that we both enjoyed. It was balanced but flavored nicely from the fresh herbs and pancetta. I would recommend this recipe, and will definitely be making it again. 

The tartra was a little lackluster, but being that I decided on a whim to make one more thing due to left over ingredients, I wasn’t too disappointed. I won’t post the recipe to this, unless someone requests it. 

Now, we get down to business. This the main event, making pasta from scratch for the first time. My boyfriend didn’t have a rolling pin, so me and a cylindrical vase had to work it out. After working out a system with the vase, I was able to create a nice smooth sheet of dough, spoon the tasty filling out and create somewhat presentable ravioli type pockets. It certainly isn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made, but it was delicious! The success absolutely lies with the recipe, because I’m sure I made several attempts to sabotage it. I will post this recipe shortly. 

I also made a tasty trifle that I enhanced with rum, but I forgot to take pictures of it since we didn’t eat it until hours after this massive meal. 

All in all, making a from scratch Italian meal was fun and we definitely enjoyed the end product. The thing I found the most stressful was the time management and overlapping demanded of making 4 items at once. Hopefully I will continue to improve in that area to avoid stressing out. 

Enjoy! 

- Becca Bites

As requested by mimieats. Here is the recipe I use for Chicken Tortilla Soup. I have made this recipe my own with some trial and error, but it originally comes from a wonderful book The Best Soups and Stews. This book tests out different ways of making famous soups, and then comes up with it’s own, unique approach based off of the response they receive from taste tests. 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped (Doesn’t need to be too fine because it will cook thoroughly. I like bigger chunks)
1 large clove of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons of chili powder
2 quarts of chicken stock – homemade or other (I use whatever I have on hand) 
1 tablespoons of lime juice
1 lime to serve sliced with finished soup
12 ounces of skinless chicken breast 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
3/4 cup of frozen corn 6 flour or corn tortillas, cut in strips (I’ve tried both, and I think I like the corn best)
2 medium avocados, diced
2 cups grated white cheddar, cheddar or monterey jack cheese  (I like to use a mixture, but go with whatever I have on hand)
½ cup of cilantro leaves
2 medium jalapenos, seeded and sliced

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and chili powder.
• Immediately add the chicken stock and raise the heat to the mixture comes to a boil. Then, reduce to low.
• Add 2 tablespoons of lime juice.
• Now add the raw chicken breast. Poaching it in this rich broth gives the chicken a delicious flavor. Cover the pot and let chicken cook until it is no longer pink.
• Remove the chicken from the stock and set aside to cool. (This is when I often go to bed. I put the chicken (separately) and the stock into the refrigerator and cook the rest the next day. Obviously that isn’t necessary, just easier if you want to get a jump-start on dinner the night before.)
• Raise the heat to about medium (If you are using refrigerated broth, make sure it is completely hot first.) Then, add the tomatoes and corn and let them cook into the broth for about 10 minutes.
•  Turn heat to low, and forget about the soup for a little while.
•  Heat enough canola oil in a pan to cover the tortilla strips. Once the oil is hot enough (definitely not smoking), add the strips of tortillas and allow them to crisp, turning them over once. Remove with a slatted spoon.
• Now it’s time to serve the soup. Check the soup and make sure the corn and flavors are to your liking. If they are: 
• Shred chicken with hands and place a portion at the bottom of each bowl.
•  Add the tortilla strips and avocado (I’ve made this before when avocados were close to impossible to find. So, mine were definitely not ripe. I cooked mine in the broth after the chicken was removed.) Ladle the soup on top, and of course add cheese. I also like to add more tortilla strips on top, so there is a variety of a texture. Sprinkle a generous helping of the fresh cilantro, and finish off with your comfort level of jalapenos and squeeze of fresh lime.

If I’m serving this for people, I stop at the cheese and tortilla strips and let everyone add as much or as little of everything else. However, I can’t stress enough not to skip out on the fresh lime at the end. This is what my boyfriend swears by in this recipe.