One of the Nichols’s favorite: Larb

Tags

ground pork, lettuce, postaday2014, Thai

These are most of the ingredients for Larb, a Thai recipe that normally uses ground beef, but as you see from my pictures, you can use ground pork or ground chicken if you like. The only ingredients that I didn’t take a picture of are the fish sauce, the red pepper flakes and sugar. This dish is so easy to prepare, all it takes is chopping; chopping the shallot, chopping the mint, the cilantro and the scallions. The lettuce needs to be washed and the uncooked rice needs to be toasted and ground. The only thing left to do after that is sauté everything in the ingredient list.

The best part is now to come; spoon the yummy goodness of the Larb into the lettuce cups and eat up!

I need my vegetables

Tags

food, postaday2014, Thai, vegetables

Tonight my hubby and I were walking around in Newton, Massachusetts scoping out what to have for dinner. We had the choice of pizza, Bertucci’s, Pub food or Thai. I chose Thai because we had been to the restaurant before and I knew that we hadn’t hated it. My hubby had said pizza, but he loves Thai as much as I do, so he was agreeable to my whim.

Browsing down the menu, I recognized many of the dishes, but what was running foremost through my mind was that I had a serious craving for vegetables, a lot of them. Happily, under the heading “pan sautéed dishes” there was Vegetables, Vegetables and that was exactly what I had in mind. When the waiter came, my hubby ordered Siam spring rolls to start, he ordered Pad Thai for himself and I ordered Vegetables, Vegetables for myself; the waiter asked if I wanted white or brown rice, I ordered the brown rice.

The spring rolls came and were the usual standard fare, no surprises which is in and of itself a good thing. They were good and this restaurant was generous in its offering; we were given six, so we each got three. When the main courses came, I was very happy with what I had ordered, the was a variety of vegetables; summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, spinach, onions and peppers and they were beautifully presented in a light sauce made with chicken broth, lemon grass and subtle garlic notes, combined with the brown rice and I was more than happy, I felt good eating it and it was delightful to eat. My hubby’s Pad Thai was very good, I was a nice lady, I shared some of my vegetables with my hubby and he said that it made for a lovely combination, they complimented each other in flavors perfectly.

I have to admit that when I was little, I would have never imagined in a million years that I would at some point crave eating vegetables, but as time progresses, I crave my vegetables more and more and meat less and less. I could go without steak very easily, chicken and pork are getting boring for my tastebuds so that leaves fish and duck. But tonight was all about the vegetables and I came away very satisfied.

I love my vegetables, my mommy would be so proud. 🙂

Great Thai food in New York

Tags

food, New York, pie, postaday2013, Thai

We are back in New York visiting my mother. She is funny, she has recently joined the Facebook ranks and my posts get cross posted onto Facebook. I completely forgot that I had friended her just a week or so ago. Actually my hubby suggested that we bring some of the pie to my mother’s so that we could surprise her, he is sweet like that, he wanted to impress my mother with my baking skills, so I walked in through the basement and I called up to the kitchen “I brought you a surprise!” My mother called back down to me “Is it the pie?” I almost fell over, I walked up the stairs and asked her “how did you guess?” And as calm as anything she replied “I read about it on Facebook” She is one smart cookie, my mother is and by the way the conversation was all in French, except for the word Facebook.

As I’m writing this, I have a very full belly from the wonderful Thai food we had at SriPraPhai restaurant in Woodside Queens. We ordered a delectable shrimp salad, it was served on a bed of lettuce with sliced red onions, lime juice, cilantro, it was light, slightly spicy, but still refreshing. We also ordered steamed dumplings that weren’t doughy at all, the were more filling than dough and nicely seasoned, we all were nodding happily as we were chewing.

The main courses were two different sets of textures and flavors. I had ordered Pad Thai, the safe choice, just in case I made a mistake with the other, soft-shelled crab with egg, curry powder and scallions. The Pad Thai was very good, but the soft-shelled crab was in my opinion out of this world. I remember that I used to look forward to soft shell crab season with much anticipation, but for the past few years, I have gotten over my delight, I don’t know why but I did. Tonight, I devoured my small share of the soft shell crab, it was served cut up into portions, deep fried and the batter was light and nicely seasoned and the egg was scrambled mixed with a light touch of the curry powder, the vegetables were more than the simple scallion, there was red pepper and celery, thinly sliced and the sauce was delicately flavored with curry powder. There was nothing heavy handed in the composition of this delicious plate. Like I said, I had ordered the Pad Thai to be safe and we had all enjoyed it, but not to the extent that we had inhaled the crab.

What I had known before and was impressed upon me again tonight is that I don’t know enough about curries and other Thai techniques, I went out on a limb, trusting nothing really, just hoping that I made a good choice, luckily I did. I look forward to doing it again and experiment with more unknowns.

This restaurant was a new experience for us, my mother had eaten there previously, but that was about ten years ago, I am so glad that my mother had the great idea to dine out tonight because I will not forget the phenomenal soft shell crab concoction that I had tonight.