Chilli Cheese ( Experiment )

I always wanted to learn cheese making, and a friend of mine sent me a kit from cheesemaking.com, following on from my Tofu experiment, so I thought I'd have a go. I like cheese, even though it is not traditional Thai food, but it seems to miss one essential flavour. The spice of chilli, naturally!
As you can see the result is not as good as I'd hoped for. It's clear to me I should have left a little more moisture in the curd and then used more weight during the mould pressing stage. My fault, I cut that corner and the result is a crumbly cheese rather than a more homogeneous cheese. Never mind, Ricki's site has lots of tips for cheese making, and you can experiment yourself. She sells everything you'll need for your cheese making experiments.
I'm going to try cheese making again soon.

Ingredients
7.5 litres fresh or pasteurized milk (not UHT)
1 packet Mesophilic direct set culture (bacteria culture)
1/2 rennet tablet
1 tbls salt
1 very large pan
6-8 large red chillies

Preparation
1. Heat the milk to 90 degrees F, (32 degrees Celsius, room temperature in Thailand).
2. Add the bacteria culture, mix it well and leave for 45 minutes.
3. Dissolve the rennet in 1/4 cup water, and mix this well into the mixture.
4. Take a large ladle and push it down and up in the pan to ensure the rennet gets down to the bottom.
5. Cover for at least 45 minutes to let a curd form.



6. Take a long knife and make cuts diagonally down into the curd. Do not cut vertically down, as you will end up with long strands of curd, rather than cubes.
7. Next to warm it, it needs to be warmed very slowly to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (body temperature, 37.7 celsius). I just took it outside, covered into the sun and let that warm it up!
8. Stir occasionally, the curd will shrink and can be separated from the whey.
9. Pour through a cheesecloth. to separate the curds and leave them to drain further for an hour.
10. Break up the curds with your fingers, blend the chillies into fine pieces and mix them into the cheese evenly together with the salt.



11. Line a cheese mould with cheese cloth, press the curds into the mould.
12. Apply 5kg weight to the top of the mould, for 15 minutes, the 10kg for 12 hour and turn it over applying another 10kg for 12 hours. This is what I failed to do properly!
13. Remove the cheese from the mould, peel off the cheese cloth, leave under a net to air dry the cheese for 3-5 days, turning it to dry all sides.



14. Melt cheese wax in a pan, I found the easiest way is to turn the cheese in the pan rather than brush it on.
15. Mature in a coolish room for 3 months minimum.



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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Isan Chicken 'Spaghetti' ( Ka Noom Jean Nam Ya Gai )

This is a Isan style of 'spaghetti' made using a thin rice noodle and a hash sauce made from shredded chicken, fish sauce and other Isan flavours. Isan is the North East province of Thailand and makes heavy use of spicy fish sauce recipes like this one.
This dish uses Krachai, a root vegetable grown widely in Thailand that creates a mild spicy flavour. You can sometimes find bottled Krachai in Asian supermarkets, but if you cannot find this, omit it.

Ingredients for 4 People
800 gms Thin Rice Noodle
500 gms Chicken Leg or Breast with Skin
7 Dried Chillies
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Red Onions
10 gms Chopped Krachai
4 Kaffir Lime Leaves
4 Tablespoons Old Fish Sauce
4 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste
1 Teaspoons Sugar
500 ml Water
500 ml Coconut Milk

Preparation of Sauce
1. Boil the water together with the old fish, whole garlic cloves, red onion cut into halves, krachai and whole dried chillies.
2. Once it's boiling add the chicken pieces and cook for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the chicken from the sauce and set aside.
4. Remove the garlic, red onion, chilli, krachai from the stock and pound them with the red curry paste.
5. Remove the meat of the chicken and shred it using two forks.
6. Add the pulped paste and shredded chicken back into the stock.
7. Add the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, kaffir leaves and spring onion, and boil for 10 more minutes.

Preparation for Noodles
1. Boil a pan of water, add the rice noodle and cooking for 3 minutes.
2. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. Take a fork and twist the noodles into small bundles of noodle and pile the bundles onto a plate.

Serving
Stack the plate with the noodles, and vegetables and spoon the sauce with the chicken meat over the top.

Serve With
Soya Beansprouts
Chopped Green Beans
Chopped Cucumber
Chopped Lettuce

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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Sweet Chicken on a Fried Ginger Bed ( Gai Wan Noon Rung )

The point of sitting this chicken on a bed of fried ginger is the sharpness of the ginger cuts through the sweetness of the chicken source. As ever, serve this dish with rice, and eat mainly the rice using the expensive meat as a flavoring rather than the bulk of the meal.

Ingredients
200 gms Chicken Breast
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Pepper
80 gms Sliced Ginger
Oil
Sesame Seeds

Preparation
1. Chop chicken to cubes, mix it with light soy sauce, sugar, and ground pepper and leave to marinade for 10 minutes.
2. Peel and thinly slice the ginger, fry until golden brown.
3. Coat the chicken in the sesame seeds, and fry (with it's marinade) until cooked, at the end, add the ginger and fry it in the pan to pick up any remaining juices from the pan, lay it on the place and the chicken on top.
4. Eat, as ever, with fragrant rice.


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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Crispy Chicken Mince Parcels ( Mang Gai Tod )

The crunchy mix you see in these leaves is fried chicken flavoured with fried baby shrimp. I've used lettuce in the photograph, but traditionally we'd use betel leaves. These leaves are an acquired taste but very popular in Asia. They are the same plant that betelnuts come from, the nuts they sell on the street in Taiwan. Unfortunately they are popular because they are a legal stimulant, and I avoid them because it makes my heart flutter as though I'm nervous.

Ingredients
100 gms Chicken Breast
Oil

Ingredients for Sauce
70 gms Sour Tamarind Pulp
250 ml Water
50 gms Sugar

Side Dish
Betel leaves
Dried Small Shrimps
Dried Chillies
Peanuts

Preparation
1. Slice the chicken breast thinly and grill or fry dry (without the oil!) until cooked. This is the first stage of cooking the chicken.
2. Blend the chicken in a food processor to small pieces.
3. Now fry the chicken fragments in the hot oil until browned. Because the chicken was pre-cooked, it will not stick together and you end up with separate grains of crunchy chicken.
4. Then fry the small shrimp, dried chillies and peanuts for 30 seconds and take it out.
5. To make the sauce, mix tamarind pulp and water, squeeze the tamarind to get the sour juice out, then sieve to remove the pulp leaving only the liquid.
6. Place this liquid in a pan and boil, add the sugar and stir till dissolved.
7. Serve it by, put all fried stuff on the leaves. When you eat, you roll it up and dip it in the sauce.


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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Sweet and Sour Pork in Batter ( Mu Chup Bang Pad Peaw Wan )

The traditional Chinese favorite, that you see in many different countries, is in Thailand too. The pork is fried in batter to make it crunchy, but also because pork is expensive and batter is cheap! When I make this, I add Rosdee to the batter, this is a pork seasoning powder, similar to a stock cube in powder form. It helps bring out the pork flavours but is not essential.

Ingredients Sauce

2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Ketchup
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
40 ml Pineapple Juice (or the liquid from a tin of pineapple slices)
1 Tablespoon Cornflour
Green & Red Peppers
Tinned Pineapple
Carrot

Ingredients Pork

100 gms Pork Loin
100 gms Flour
50 gms Cornflour
1 tsp Rosdee Powder
100 ml Water
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 Small Egg
1 Tablespoon Oil
Pinch of Salt
Oil for deep frying

Preparation
1. Make the batter by mixing all the batter ingredients together except for the pork. When adding the water add it slowly and mix it in. You want a thick sticky batter, so adjust the water to give you the correct texture.
2. Leave the batter to rest for 15 minutes, the baking powder needs time to make bubbles.
3. Slice the pork into small thin strips. Not too large, it needs to cook quickly.
4. Mix the pork into the batter.
5. Heat the oil to 180 degrees celcius (medium), drop the pork into the oil and fry until golden. Split one to make sure the pork inside is cooked.
6. For the sauce:
7. Clean and chop all vegetables and stirfry with tablespoon of oil. The vegetables should be crisp, they only need fried for a minute in a hot pan.
8. Add light soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, pineapple juice and bring the sauce and vegetables to the boil.
9. Mix the cornflour with a little water, and stir into the sauce, simmer and stir to thicken the sauce.
10. Pour over the fried pork pieces.



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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Rambutans ( Ngor )

Rambutans are very pretty Thai fruit, slightly sweet but with a fairly bland taste and jelly texture. Cut around the middle of the skin twist and the skin will come off. Eat the flesh, leave the stone.

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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Spicy Mince Tomato Salsa ( Num Prik Ong )

This dish looks like a salsa but is actually a meat accompaniment to rice. It is a thick course mince sauce with a strong tomato flavor and lots of spice. The measurements here are for a medium hot dish. Serve it in a shared dish together with Thai rice, your guests should take some of the sauce and mix it into the rice on their plate and eat the rice. This has the effect of diluting the hotness, so don't be too worried about making it spicy!

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms Pork Mince
2 Medium Sized Tomatoes
5 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Onion head
30 gms Garlic
20 gms Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chilli Powder
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Kapi Paste
1 Teaspoon Sour Curry Paste
1 Teaspoon Chilli Paste
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Tamarind Water
3 Tablespoons Oil

Serve With
Cucumber
Aubergine (Eggplant)
Baby Corn
Lettuce
Hot rice

Preparation
1. Put the garlic, onion, chilli powder, kapi paste, sour curry paste, chilli paste into a blender, blend it to a paste and set it aside.
2. Blend the medium tomatoes to pulp and set them aside.
3. Put the oil in a frying pan and turn heat on medium.
4. When the oil hot add the pork mince and cook until the mince is brown.
5. Add the paste of spices you blended earlier and continue frying the mix for a minute to release the flavours.
6. Add the tomato pulp you blended earlier and cook until the tomatoes are cooked into the sauce.
7. Add the fish sauce, sugar, salt, chilli paste, tamarind water, and cook it for 1 minute.
8. Switch the heat off, add the cherry tomatoes.
9. Serve in a bowl with a sprig of coriander leaves.

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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]