Duke's Pad Thai restaurant in Cayce

 

Viv and I popped into Duke's today for a late lunch.  This is definitely my No. 2 Thai place in town.  Sorry, Duke's, but Mai Thai has held my loyalty for many years now, but I like you guys too!

Viv is a big fan of the Thai Tom Yum soup at Duke's, so that's her go-to when we come here. Their description is spicy sour base with mushrooms, red peppers, basil and cilantro.  Viv likes hers with extra mushrooms. Also, she likes to order the large bowl, so there's more for supper tonight. 

I chose a dish I haven't had in quite a while and have missed.  Pad See Eew. Duke's description of this dish is wide rice noodles with egg, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini in a Thai soy sauce.  Mine today also had some bean sprouts, so BONUS! It was delicious and as good as I remember. 

If, by chance, you haven't made it across the river to Duke's, get on it!  They also have a separate, yet together restaurant on site that specializes in bahn mi. The two are under one roof, open to each other, so you can order from either side or both.  This is great for when you're with friends and someone might want pho or curry and the others wants boba tea and bahn mi sandwich.  Check them out!

Homemade Egg Rolls!

I was reviewing my blog recently and noticed that over the last couple/few years, my posts and cooking habits have been very Asian-heavy.  I'm not complaining. I love all Asian cuisines. Well, with the exception of some Asian countries like Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan...not a big mutton fan. So, in keeping with my Asian persuasion, I present our simple dinner tonight.

Carrot and Ginger Soup with Homemade Pork & Shrimp Egg Rolls. I'm patting myself on the back.

I'm pretty sure I've told you all about this soup before.  It's insanely easy: carrots, onion, ginger, broth, garlic and some half and half to finish.  Delicious and packed with vegetable goodness.

Ever made your own eggrolls?  Again, insanely easy.  In my opinion, an eggroll is one of those things where you can take extreme poetic license, kind of like how I do with fried rice, burritos, omelets, etc.  You can literally use whatever you have and roll it up in an eggroll (or wonton) wrapper and go to town. The only thing that may take a little practice is your rolling technique, but again, slow down, pay attention to what you're doing and you'll realize it's just not that hard.

Tonight's concoction consisted of:

1/4 lb ground pork mixed with 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp Shaoxing wine and about 1/4 tsp white pepper.  I think white pepper that you find in grocery stores tastes weird, so I use white pepper powder that I get at the Asian market near Dutch Square.  Mix this up and set aside while you heat up your wok, or skillet.

Shred about 8 oz cabbage; you can use regular green cabbage but I prefer Napa. Chop about 3-4 cloves of garlic, and a tsp of ginger. Slice about 2-3 green onions, julienne about a 1/4 cup bamboo shoots, and roughly chop about 1/2 cup bean sprouts.  You'll also need about 1/2 of julienned carrot, but here, I cheat with grocery store matchstick carrots in the bag. And, lastly you'll need about 20 medium sized shrimp. 

Start with a hot wok, and cook the pork mixture, breaking meat up with a wooden spoon.  Remove to a large bowl.  To wok, add 2 tsp oil then garlic and ginger. Stir fry just until it becomes fragrant. Then add cabbage, carrots, and salt. Stir fry until vegetables are becoming tender but still have some bite. Remove from heat and add to bowl with pork. Mix in green onion, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts. While this cools, cook shrimp in wok just until they start to turn opaque (they will cook more later.) Chop them into pieces, as big or small as you prefer. 

Once your filling is cool enough to handle, assemble your egg rolls.  You can fry them, which is traditional, but they can also be air-fried or baked.  Your choice. We fried them tonight and they were GBD (golden brown & delicious.)  I went to a nearby Chinese restaurant and bought a couple containers of their homemade hot mustard. Don't bother with that garbage in the packets. Our little dinner of soup and eggrolls was super yummy and easy. My kinda meal. 

Buffalo Shrimp Salad: Simple!

Trying to clear out space in the fridge for the Thanksgiving casseroles that are to come. Tonight that included using up some shrimp I had thawed plus some practically restaurant-quality Ranch dressing I made the other day. 

I decided to put together a "trash can" salad using everything I could from the refrigerator. Result was pretty satisfying.  And super easy and quick, two of my favorites qualities on a weeknight.

I like to soak my shrimp in some milk with a little garlic powder, oregano, paprika, and pepper.  Then, I mix up some flour and panko with the same herbs in a ziploc.  Once well coated, I fry them up quickly and drain on a wire rack.

For the buffalo sauce, I did the super simple preparation: melted butter and Frank's Red Hot sauce. Once the salad was assembled, I dunked the shrimp in the sauce then topped the salad with them.

My salad consisted of Romaine, cheddar, black olives, carrots, artichoke hearts, bacon bits, homemade ranch and then my lovely spicy shrimp.  

My only chronic salad flaw is I never correctly estimate how much lettuce I actually need. I always end up with way more than I need.  Thankfully, we have 3 guinea pigs, so the excess Romaine doesn't go to waste!

We are Asian food fanatics!

 

Yes, we've been on a kick lately.  It happens.  Japanese- everything from the hibachi joints to sushi. Thai- making it ourselves and stocking up various curry pastes from our favorite Asian market.  Chinese- digging dumplings, which we prefer our own homemade versions!

Viv is a dumpling devotee.  But it's only been this week that she wanted me to show/teach her to make them from scratch.  She's really been getting into cooking recently, which makes me so happy, of course.  We found round Hong Kong style dumpling wrappers at our favorite market, Asian Market on Dutch Square Blvd. I just gave Viv the basic run-down verbally, and while I was out working, she whipped up the filling herself.

We got the butcher at Publix to grind some pork for us. Then, Vivian used that, some chopped serrano pepper, finely chopped carrot, green onion, ginger, garlic, an egg, and some soy sauce to create the dumpling filling.  We wrapped them up, and off to the races.  If you've never made your own, it's quite simple.  The most challenging part is learning the various methods to folding and crimping the dumpling. But, simply folding and sealing is ok; no need to be fancy. 

You heat a very thin layer of oil in a skillet. Place dumplings bottom (flattened) side down to fry and get golden crispy. Then, you (carefully) add about a 1/3 cup water and smack a lid on that baby. Crisping up the bottoms before adding water keeps them from sticking; skip this step, and you have a stuck on mess (thus the name potstickers.) Turn the heat down to med-low and let them steam about 3-4 minutes. Then, remove lid, turn heat up a bit to cook out any remaining liquid and to make sure dumpling bottoms stay crisp. Now, get your chopsticks and get ready to have (IMHO) better than restaurant dumplings.

I like mixing up a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar, thin slices of ginger and sliced green onion.  

Tonight, we wrapped them all up, cooked a few, served with some sauteed baby bok choy and put the rest of the dumplings in the freezer for another day!

Alley Street Eats in Rosewood

Everyone in the neighborhood has eagerly awaited the opening of Alley Street Eats. I read an article about these folks and their concept.  Asian street food, of different styles.  The decor is cool and modern. The menu is extensive without being overbearing and features the variety we so desperately need in our area.

Viv and I shared shrimp and zucchini tempura to start.  Their tempura is light and crispy, just as it should be.  Next, we had an order of the Sichuan wontons. 

These are delicious.  Pork wontons with soy, scallion, cilantro and garlic. I was expecting them to be spicy, given "Sichuan" but they were actually pretty mild, but very flavorful.  I bet next time I can just ask for them to be spicy and they would oblige. 

Next, we had the Yaki Udon Noodle with shrimp.  This was also quite delicious. Soft, pillowy Udon noodles in a soy based sauce with red bell pepper, scallion and mushroom.  The shrimp were nicely cooked, which as we all know, can be a 50-50 shot in some restaurants.

Viv and I are excited about this place.  We've often lamented the fact that almost every Chinese place we know of has a zillion dishes on their menu, yet they all taste the same.  We love, love, love Mai Thai but sometimes the trip to W.C. just isn't in the cards. And, our Korean and Japanese choices are limited.  Now that we have Alley Street Eats right here in the neighborhood, we can get our Asian food fix much more readily!  Here's the link to their MENU. Support our locals!

Passionate about Panang!

I LOVE THAI FOOD. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

 Panang Curry is one of my all-time favorites.  Recently, I saw Jet Tila making Chicken Panang on his show.  I found his recipe online, modified a bit, and made a fantastic dinner tonight.  Panang is rich and deeply flavored with coconut, basil and fish sauce.  One thing I changed about Jet's recipe is that I had to omit tamarind paste because our lame ass grocery stores act like this is an ingredient that I made up.  Not having the time or energy to go across town for it, I omitted it. He calls for the ever-exotic (NOT) bamboo shoots. My Publix, which has been sucking tailpipe lately, had no bamboo shoots at all.  I broke down and had a little "Come to Jesus" meeting with the manager over this. I also had no makrut lime leaves, so I subbed in basil, in chiffonade. 

Look at these beautiful ingredients!  I thinly sliced the chicken at a bias, so it cooks in no time.  Basil from my dad's giant plant. Jet Tila calls for red bell pepper, onion, zucchini and basil.  I used all that, but added pea pods and carrots. 

Before I tell you how I put all this together, here's an important detail I learned from Jet. When you are using coconut milk, DO NOT SHAKE IT UP first. Open the can and scoop off the cream that rises to the top. You'll use this to start your curry sauce, or "roux" if you will, then stir up the milk in the can.

Chicken Panang Curry

• 2 boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 2 cans full fat coconut milk, 3 TBS cream set aside
• 4 TBS Panang curry paste (see your Asian market)
• 6 large basil leaves (or lime leaf if you can get it) cut into ribbons (chiffonade)
• 1/2 c. onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 zucchini, sliced
• 1/2 c. bamboo shoots
• 1/2 c. pea pods
• 1/2 c. sliced carrots
• 1/2 c. chopped basil

1. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat coconut cream over med-high. When it starts to sizzle, stir in the curry paste, like you're building a roux.  Add in the onion and half of the lime leaf, or basil ribbons. Stir fry the paste until it starts to thicken, dry out and becomes fragrant, about 1 minute. If it starts to sputter, add a small amt of coconut milk to keep the paste moving. Cook until it's about the consistency of peanut butter.
2. Stir in remaining coconut milk. Increase heat a little (don't walk away from it!) and bring to a good boil. Allow the curry to boil until it reduces by about 25%, or coats the back of a wooden spoon, 10-15 minutes.
3. Reduce to a simmer. Add chicken, fish sauce, sugar. Let chicken cook a couple minutes, then add the pea pods, bell pepper and carrots and cook another 3 minutes or so. Then add in your zucchini and bamboo shoots. Stir in the chopped basil. Serve over jasmine rice and garnish with the remaining basil ribbons. 

At first, I worried that the curry was going to be too spicy for Vivian, so we had milk at the ready, but after getting all our vegetables and chicken in the sauce, it all leveled out and she didn't need the milk after all. It still had a little punch to it, but in a good, balanced, level way. This is one of the best Thai curries, in my opinion. It's got all the elements that Thai cooking is known for: sweetness, spiciness, protein and veggies all together in harmony. And, it takes practically no time to make this dish. You'll be so happy with yourself when you make it.