Asian Cooking: Vietnamese Food: Caramelized Pork Belly W/Eggs Thit Kho Tau Or Kaw!

Asian Cooking

Vietnamese Food

 



 

 

 

This week it's  Vietnamese food! Whoohoo! I LOVE my Asian cooking! Everyone knows I LOVE my Asian cooking! Everyone knows I LOVE my Vietnamese food! I love the flavors of Southeast Asia in my Asian Cooking. This week I am making Vietnamese food again. I am making a dish that I was introduced to by my friend Saveda Lee on her Youtube channel. This week I am making caramelized pork belly with eggs. This dish is called Thit Kho Tau or Thit Kho Kaw. This is a true 100% Vietnamese dish that is also very popular in Cambodia as well.

Thit Kho Tau is enjoyed year round in Vietnam but it's really popular during the lunar new year and this year it's the year of the Dragon! Happy New Year! Happy New Year of the Dragon! (Chúc mừng năm mới và năm hạnh phúc của con rồng!) Thit Kho Tau originates from South Vietnam. The name Thit Kho Tau literally translates into braised pork in light sauce. I think that's very interesting because when I made this dish during my research the sauce gets to be a nice dark brown and if you add some thick soy sauce to it for coloration then it will get even darker.

As in other cuisines around the world Vietnamese food like this dish of Thit Kho Tau uses certain ingredients. The traditional cut of pork for this dish is pork shoulder although my friend Saveda who turned me onto this dish uses pork belly. Well! Fat is where the flavor is with Thit Kho Tau. I live by the frame of mind that there are no rules in the kitchen and this holds true with Asian cooking as well. In my research I found people using pork tenderloin, pork short ribs, pork belly and pork shoulder. This just goes to show you that there are no rules in the kitchen.  So with this recipe for Vietnamese food I decided to use one and a half pounds of pork belly and one and a half pounds of pork shoulder. Well, I do have to watch out for my girlish figure you know! No matter which cut of pork you decide to use if you cut off to much fat then you will certainly lose so much of the wonderful flavor of this recipe. So resign yourself to eating this dish and loving it as much as I do with the fat. Remember! You aren't eating this dish everyday of the week! You can handle it!

Asian cooking is so versatile and that is why I love to cook it so much. The base of this recipe is all Saveda's recipe and then I am going to add a couple of little things here and there to give my own little twist to the recipe but believe me this recipe is all Savy's! So if you love Vietnamese food as much as I do I would urge you to try this excellent recipe! This recipe as far as I am concerned is Vietnamese soul food and the soul of Vietnamese food! This recipe is best served with a side dish of Chinese pickled mustard greens which are called Kiam Chai or Hum Choy or Chrouk Spey and/or pickled bean sprouts called dua gia (pronounced yua ya) these are some of the favorite mon chua or pickled dishes of Vietnamese people when eating thit kho tau.  Make this dish! Enjoy this dish! Make this dish you own! Enjoy the video! And thank you Savvy for a great recipe!



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Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak: My Nasi Lemak Recipe

Malaysian Food: Nasi Lemak

 

 

This week I am making Malaysian food a dish that is considered the national dish of Malayasia! This week I am going to prepare Nasi Lemak. I am doing this to fulfill a request by one of my Youtube viewers named Deeya Kaur. She is Malayasian and she has been watching some of the Asian dishes that I make and eventually she hit me up to make a Malayasian food. I asked for a suggestion from here and I got two words in reply: Nasi Lemak! I have never had Nasi Lemak nor had I even heard of Nasi Lemak before and I thought I knew Asian food. I had never experienced Malaysian food of any type and I guess now was as good a time as any. So I did some research on Malaysian food and Malaysian dishes of different types and I focused on Nasi Lemak. So this week I am going to make my Nasi Lemak recipe. I think I am going to be adding lots of Malaysian food to my Asian cooking repertoire in the future as the food looks absolutely delicious! So here it is! My Nasi Lemak recipe.

Naturally, Nasi Lemak has it's humble beginnings in the cuisine of Malay. The term Nasi Lemak means "fatty rice", not to worry there is no fat in the rice except for the content of the coconut milk and it is delicious! If you want to break the meanings of Nasi Lemak down even further you can say that Nasi Lemak means "rich" or "creamy". Originally, the way this coconut rice was cooked was by soaking the rice in the coconut milk or cream and then the mixture was steamed. Flavor is added to the Nasi Lemak by the addition of something called "screwpine" leaves or "pandan" leave. Generally the coconut rice is cooked with one or two of these leaves knotted up and put in the pot with the rice to cook. These leaves impart some of the traditional flavor to the Nasi Lemak dish. There are some additional herbs that can be added to the Nasi Lemak rice that will give it an even more spicy flavor and aroma and those herbs are lemon grass and ginger.

Nasi Lemak is traditionally served on a plate or platter that is loaded with side dishes that are wrapped in banana leaves. In most modern iterations and recipes we find that the Nasi Lemak is served on a plate or platter with a banana leaf on top and the side dishes put on top of the banana leaf. Such Nasi Lemak sides dishes as regular or seedless cucumber slices, some small fried Ikan Bilis or anchovies, roasted peanuts or roasted peanuts mixed with some friend anchovies or Ikan Bilis, quartered hard boiled eggs, and of course some hot and spicy sambal sauce. There are other sides that can be used as well such as fried chicken, fried fish, pickled vegetables, Kangkong vegetable, beef rendang, or even cuttlefish in chile called "sambal sotong". Nasi Lemak is all about whether you want your Nasi Lemak to be at some level vegetarian or not. Since Nasi Lemak is the national food of Malayasia you can find it just about anywhere. In schools, in restaurants, and even in street vendor stalls all over Malayasia! I am making my Nasi Lemak with a variety of side dishes like hard boiled egg, quail eggs in sambal (Sambal Telur), grilled ono fillets, sliced cucumbers and cashews in sambal (cashews dalam sambal). There are other side dishes that you can have with Nasi Lemak, things like fried chicken, chili cuttlefish, and vegetables of all kinds. It really is up to you to make your Nasi Lemak that way you want it to be! It is all up to you and you should try this dish at home yourself and make it yours! Enjoy!

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Slow Cooker Recipes: Pork Shoulder Recipes: Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder Roast

Hi guys! This week it's back to some slow cooker recipes! This week it's going to be slow cooker recipes and it's going to be one of my pork shoulder recipes. It seems to me that I get a lot of requests from England lately. About two months ago one of my Youtube viewers asked me how I would cook a blade in pork shoulder in a slow cooker. Seems this chap uses a slow cooker on a regular basis.

So I could not get to his request as quickly as I wanted to because I had other requests but this week it's slow cooker recipes and I am going to make one of my favorite pork shoulder recipes for my Youtube viewer. This week I am making slow cooker pork shoulder in a white wine and dijon mustard sauce. I's going to be delicious!

I love slow cooker recipes! It's just one of those things that is set and forget. When I got this request to do pork shoulder recipes I really had to put some thought as to how I wanted to approach this. So I thought about the many slow cooker recipes that I know and that fact that I do not know a lot of pork shoulder recipes and I decided to cook the pork shoulder much in the same manner as I cook my beef when I did my beef bourguignon recipe not to long ago.

When it comes to slow cooker recipes I cooked the beef bourguignon in a red wine sauce and I thought that with pork shoulder recipes I could cook the pork shoulder in a white wine sauce much as I did the beef. I worked on it for a week and come up with the ideal way to make one of the best slow cooker recipes that I have had in a long time.

Pork shoulder recipes are not easy to make. You just can't throw a pork shoulder in the oven and baste it and hope that it comes out tender because it won't! It will come out like you are eating an old wallet! There is a lot of connective tissue in pork shoulder so I decided to cook the shoulder in a slow cooker with white wine, dijon mustard, andouille sausage, potatoes and vegetables!

As with many slow cooker recipes this dish will take upwards of eight hours to come to completion. Whether it's beef slow cooker recipes or pork shoulder recipes, when it comes to meat that is a bit on the tough side with lots of tissue that needs to be broken down then the best way is in the slow cooker. The slow cooker will take an average, not so tasty piece of meat and turn it into a meal fit for a king.

One of the keys to an excellent slow cooker dish like pork shoulder recipes is to pre-cook or brown many if not all of the constituent parts of the meal to put flavor into them before using them for your slow cooker recipes! In most cases to just throw your ingredients into a slow cooker or crockpot and just add some herbs and spices and let it cook away just makes for a soggy somewhat flavorless mess! This is why with my slow cooker recipes I always brown up all the constituent parts before they go into the slow cooker!
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Sweetbreads: Sweetbread Recipes: Sweetbreads With Bacon Mushroom Shallot And Garlic

Sweetbreads: Sweetbread Recipes

 



 

 

 

 

This week guys I am making sweetbreads! What are sweetbreads you ask? Well to quote my favorite chef Jacques Pepin  sweetbreads are part of a cooking set known as "essential offal." I was just a young boy the first time I had sweetbreads. I must have been 16yrs old if that and my mom was dating a real Arizona cowboy at the time and he was the one who introduced me to sweetbreads! This man whose name was Howard is also the man responsible for my initial interest in knives of all kinds and it's because of this introduction to knives that is responsible for my current skill set with knives and not just kitchen knives. The sweetbreads that Howard made were soaked in salt water overnight and then poached in water for a few minutes and then cooked in butter until they were caramelized and nut brown a bit crispy and delicious indeed! it's hard to describe how sweetbreads taste but suffice to say besides the bit of crunch from the caramelizing they were so tender you just can't believe it! They were meaty indeed with a slight sweetness flavor that I had never experienced before. I have been eating sweetbreads since then in many different ways.

So for those of you that have never had the pleasure of eating sweetbreads you may ask what are sweetbreads? Sweetbreads are the pancreas and thymus glands and calf, veal, lamb and pork! Some chefs and people call the thymus the throat sweetbread or in French cooking the thymus is referred to as a "gorge." Also in French the pancreas is referred to as the "noix." The "noix" sweetbread is from the stomach or heart and the "gorge" sweetbread comes from the animals throat.

There are of course with all things different levels of quality in sweetbreads just as there is different levels of quality in just about anything you buy. The absolute best quality sweetbreads are considered to come from veal or calves that are milk fed and the sweetbreads from lamb are highly prized as well. The best part is that sweetbreads are delicious and they are very affordable whether they come from the pig, calf, veal or lamb. In my humble opinion I think you my readers should try them all ASAP! Personally I like to consider sweetbreads as what I refer to as quite posh! Sweetbreads are made all over the world and in many different ways and I doubt that I will every get to try them all but, I will try to!

Personally, I don't find sweetbreads to be very popular where I live or anyplace that I have ever lived. A lot of people I know don't know what a sweetbread is or they have never tried them before. Sweetbreads are not the easiest dish to prepare because you have to dicker around with them a bit before you get to the point of cooking them but the dickering is well worth it. The issue with preparing sweetbreads is that they have a rather thick membrane surrounding them and the cook needs to get the membranes off the sweetbread before cooking them. The trick is to keep just enough of the membrane on the sweetbreads to keep them in one piece and discard the rest. It's a bit tricky but even if you take off all the the membrane and the sweetbreads to not remain intact you can still cook them and totally enjoy them.

Now as I have stated the sweetbreads themselves can be cooked in many different ways and are an extremely affordable and versatile food. No matter how you finally decide to cook your sweetbreads the fact of the matter is that no matter what kind of sweetbreads you are going to make either from veal, lamb, pork, beef they will all be prepared the same way initially! The first step in preparing sweetbreads is the soaking process. The sweetbreads must be soaked in cold water. It's best to have your cold water "acidulated" That sounds complicated but it's not. Acidulated water is just water that has an acid content in it from lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar or white wine. Basically this acidulated water step is no different than brining. When I brine or acidulate something I like to do it for at least 24hrs. In this case the acidulated water is designed to get impurities out of the sweetbreads. The term for this part of the sweetbreads preparation is called "degorging". Make sure that you change the acidulated water at least once every six to eight hours before moving on to the next step in the sweetbreads preparation.

The next step in the sweetbreads initial preparation is to poach or blanch the sweetbreads in cold water taht is brought up to a slow boil. There are a couple of ways to perform the poaching or blanching of the sweetbreads. The first is the cold water or you may opt to poach/blanch the sweetbreads in some kind of stock of which any will do or you can make something called a "court bouillon". A court bouillon is basically a stock of your own making using your chosen herbs and spices to poach/blanch your sweetbreads in. Basically a court bouillon is an aromatic soup of your making and in general terms a court bouillon is used in the poaching of fish and shellfish but it great for poaching your sweetbreads. After the sweetbreads have been blanched your take them from the hot liquid of your choice and put them in ice cold water to shock them. This blanching and shocking step helps to get rid of more impurities that might still be in your sweetbreads. The blanching process can take anywhere from 2 to 15 minutes depending on your needs. I usually blanch for about 10 minutes.

The third step in the sweetbreads initial preparation is to remove that membrane I was talking about earlier in this post. Just use your hands and remove the membrane/veins and do it gently. The fourth and final step of your initial preparation is a judgement call on your part depending on how you want your sweetbreads to come out or how you are going to use them in any particular dish. The optional last step is pressing your sweetbreads before cooking them. This is done by taking a plate or baking dish and lining it with a clean towel and then laying your sweetbreads on top of the towel then put another towel on top of the sweetbreads and put another plate or baking dish on top and then find some canned food and put a couple of pounds of weight on top of the sweetbreads to press them. It is best to get 5 to 10 lbs of weight on the sweetbreads to press them. Put the sweetbreads in your refrigerator for between 4 to 24 hours to get the excess water out of the sweetbreads. You want the sweetbreads to be pressed to about 3/4 of an inch. This makes the sweetbreads a bit denser and meatier. I love to press my sweetbreads because of the consistency that I get out of them this way. Remember! This is an optional step. You don't have to press your sweetbreads and they will still be delicious!

Now all the initial preparation has paid off and it's time to cook up some sweetbreads! There are tons of ways to cook sweetbreads. You can saute sweetbreads in a red or white wine or you can deep fry your sweetbreads by either battering them or dredging them the southern fried way. You can put sweet bread on the grill or cedar plank cook them. Here's one for you....Put your sweetbreads in the wood smoker for awhile and they will be yummy! You can braise them, roast them, poach sweetbreads! The ways to cook sweetbreads is endless if you really want to think about it. I would have to say that sweetbreads are my favorite form of essential offal as Jacques Pepin would say. I will be serving these sweetbreads with a side of pan seared pearl onions and artichoke hearts! Watch the video and enjoy!


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Seeds: Celery Seed

 

 

Hi everyone! I know it's been a long time since I have done a post about any herbs or spices but, I have been so busy cooking and taking requests for recipes that I forgot about doing informational posts on the things we use in our cooking endeavors and that being things like herbs and spice. So today I am going to do this little post about the venerable celery seed! It's something that I use in baking many times and I thought talking about the celery seed would be a great place to pick up on my informational posts. The venerable celery seed is not a vegetable even though many people buy celery as a vegetable and hence think that the celery seed is the seed of the vegetable. Well, it is! But the celery seed is not a vegetable, it's a fruit! It's the fruit of a plant known as the Apium Graviolens! The celery seed is a member of the parsley family which I thought was an interesting fact in itself! For those of you that have gardens and grow herb and spices the celery seed is a biennial. The celery seed is the same species of seed used to grow standard table celery. The celery seed is very small measuring in at 1/16th of an inch and is oval/ovoid and is light brownish in it's coloring.

As with many of the herbs and spice we use in this country the venerable celery seed comes to us from another country, that being India! I just love my Indian herbs and spices!
Besides being used in cooking endeavors the celery seed has been used as medicine since the time of the ancient Greeks. Around the 19th century celery seeds were being used as a vegetable in food and in other food uses such as pickling. The celery seed tastes like celery and when crushed to be used in recipes is very aromatic and slightly bitter. You would be very surprised to find out that the celery seed is used in more places than you think! Ever use Old Bay seasoning in your cooking? Guess what? Old Bay makes use of celery seeds for their aromatic qualities. Do you like to have a Bloody Mary on occasion? Of course you do! The best Bloody Mary's are made using celery salt which comes from the celery seed! If you come from New York as I do then you have had a New York hot dog I am sure over at Nathans Famous in Coney Island. Remember how it tasted? Now have you ever been to Chicago? The famous Varsity Hot Dogs of Chicago! The Chicago hot dog tastes different than a New York hot dog because the Chicago dog used celery seed in the recipe! Some other uses for celery seeds are in soups and dressings. I love chicken soup don't you? I always add dill weed to my chicken soup and then I add some crushed up celery seeds for a great taste
and an extra boost to the soups aroma! Celery seed is fantastic in coleslaw and potpies and in some countries celery seed is used in making alcoholic drinks!

So as you can see the venerable celery seed is quite a versatile spice in the kitchen. I have given you some general information about the celery seed and some recipes and foods that the celery seed is used it. Now it's your turn to explore how you can use the celery seed in your cooking endeavors. I would like to hear what you come up with! Until next time thanks for reading!







Photo Courtesy Of Howcheng

Rice: Rice Recipes: Brown Rice And Wild Rice Pilaf

Rice: Rice Recipes

 

Hi guys! This week I am making one of my favorite rice recipes! I love rice recipes and this week I am making a rice recipe that is a brown rice and wild rice pilaf! This isn't going to be a vegetarian rice dish as I am going to be using chicken broth to cook the brown rice. Rice recipes are just one of those staple dishes that people just love. Whenever I make a rice pilaf I do it the way I learned from watching Jacques Pepin. I add some oil to a sauce pan and then I put the rice in and cook it in the oil and then I add some salt and pepper and then I add the liquid and cook the rice. It always turns out great. I will be doing this for the brown rice but now for the wild rice in this recipe.

Rice recipes are just something that are easy to work with and makes a spectacular side dish or appetizer to any main course. This brown rice and wild rice pilaf recipe comes on the heel of so many of my Youtube subscribers sending me messages and emails about my new healthy meal recipes channel. I must admit that one needs to listen to their audience. My subs keep emailing me that my new channel is good but that they would rather see me do my lighter recipes, my vegetarian/vegan recipes on my regular EZCooking channel. It is in this vein that I will no longer be doing videos on my HealthyMealRecipes channel and I will just add the lighter menu's to my already existing channel. In this way people can find all of my recipes.  Having a second channel was worth a shot but I have to listen to my subs!

So today it's going to be one of my favorite rice recipes! It's going to be a brown rice and wild rice pilaf with onions, mushrooms, garlic and Pepita's! This is a dish that I put together this last week and I am sure it's going to be one of my favorite rice recipes! In this brown rice and wild rice recipe I am going for the earthy flavors of the brown rice and wild rice with addition of baby portobello mushrooms, oregano and Pepita's! No doubt, there will be lots of crunch in this recipe!

Rice recipes are an excellent accompaniment to any main dish and they are easy to make! So if you like brown rice and if you like wild rice then let's get together and make a brown rice and wild rice pilaf that will go good with any dish! Enjoy the video!

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Vegetarian Recipes: Italian Caponata And Marinated Mushrooms

Caponata

 

Marinated Mushrooms

 

 

This week I am making two more vegetarian recipes and they are caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati). Both are easy classic Italian side dishes that are vegetarian recipes/vegan recipes in nature and are so versatile that what these two side dishes can be used on or in is just about endless!

These recipes of caponata or as we say in New York caponade and marinated mushrooms will be featured on my new Youtube channel called HealthyMealRecipes. I have been making these dishes since I was a boy and I love them both. The caponata begins with eggplant and is combined with red bell peppers, onions, garlic, capers and in some cases pine nuts. I am allergic to pine nuts so I will be using walnuts in their place.

The marinated mushrooms  (Funghi Marinati) can be made with any mushroom you want but are traditionally made with white button mushrooms or crimini/baby portobello mushrooms. I have made this dish using oyster mushrooms and shitake mushrooms at times and they are all delicious vegetarian recipes!

I am starting out with these easy side dishes on my new channel because of the versatility these vegetarian recipes have to  offer in healthy more balanced meals that are low in fat or animal protein. I am not saying that my new channel is solely based on vegan/vegetarian recipes. I am saying that the new channel is based on a more balanced approach to eating than high fat or animal protein diets offer. So with this new channel I will be focusing on less fats and animal proteins and will strive to use healthier fats and other forms of protein.

This is where caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) come it handy. Here are some examples of how both of these vegetarian recipes can be used. The caponata is great by itself or as a sandwich on either flat breads or Italian breads. It's great on corn tortillas! Caponata is fantastic on pasta, rice, mixed with other veggies or in salads! Caponata can be blended into a paste to be used as a dip or spread or as the first layer of a brushetta. Caponata paste/spread is great on meat, fish or poultry if that is your desire. It is just a wonderful accompaniment to other food.

The marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) is another versatile side dish that also can be used in pasta, rice, salads, sandwiches, soups and with meat, fish and poultry as well. These marinated mushrooms can also be processed in food processor and made into a mushroom pate as well.

So basically the sky is the limit when it comes to these two great Italian vegetarian recipes/side dishes whether you are vegan/vegetarian or not! So without further adieu let's get going on making caponata (Caponata Alla Siciliana) and marinated mushrooms (Funghi Marinati) Enjoy the video and please visit my new Youtube channel at HealthyMealRecipes.

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Healthy Vegetarian Recipes: Gluten Free Meals: A Delicious Pasta Recipe

Healthy Vegetarian Recipes: Gluten Free Meals

 

 

Hi guys! This last week I started a new Youtube channel called Healthy Meal Recipes all one word as "HealthyMealRecipes."  This channel is devoted to looking at food from a more balanced perspective. I will be making healthy vegetarian recipes! I will also be making gluten free meals and I will explore total vegan dishes as well! I will also be cooking my more mainstream dishes from Asia and Italy but, I will be creating those dishes with a more balanced approach as well. What do I mean by a balanced approach? More flavor and less fat! More flavor and less salt! More flavor without having to put on the pounds or the blood pressure!

Now needless to say I am not a total vegetarian. I do eat healthy vegetarian recipes in my daily life and I do eat gluten free meals in my daily life as well. Many of us eat these two types of meals almost daily and take it for granted! The fact of the matter is that many of us also eat our regular diet and may not even be aware of the fact that we are allergic to white flour or that we are allergic to gluten.  We just eat what it is that we eat and just go about our daily lives when in fact some of us are greatly affected by these food types.

It is for that reason I have decided to create this new Youtube channel. Many people think that there is no flavor to vegetable dishes and I am here to tell you that I will provide to you the best tasting healthy vegetarian recipes and some very tasty gluten free meals on this new channel. Many times I will cook a dish on this new channel that looks like it's not one of my gluten free meals and then I will surprise you with the fact that it is! I will also be able to do this with many of my healthy vegetarian recipes as well. You can never tell that what you thought or think is a piece of meat might actually be a delicious piece of high quality textured protein.

So today for this blog post I am going to be making one of my healthy vegetarian recipes that also happens to be one of my gluten free meals as well. Today I am going to be making a delicious pasta recipe. I am going to be making pasta with Pasilla chilies, Roma tomatoes, and onions with Kalamata olives and Gorgonzola cheese! Now this dish is as I stated one of my gluten free meals as the pasta is made from corn and it is delicious! This dish is vegetarian but, not vegan in that I am using real Gorgonzola cheese. There are many levels of vegetarianism and some vegetarians will still eat cheese and not eat meat. If you want to make this dish totally vegan then you can use soy cheese shreds instead of Gorgonzola!

In either case this pasta recipe is delicious and packed with flavor and very little fat calories as I only use about two tablespoons of olive oil to cook the veggies and make the sauce that will be used on one and a quarter pounds of pasta! The pasta itself is made in the European Union and is certified by the University Of England at Surrey to be 100% gluten free. I am new to corn pasta myself but it makes for a delicious change to any pasta recipe that I can think of and I can think of many believe you me!

So let's start out with this one of my healthy vegetarian recipes that also happens to be one of my gluten free meals and make a delicious pasta recipe for this Sunday night! Remember! Take this pasta recipe and make it as it is or make it your own and work with it and shape it into what ever you want it to be! If you want to make it with regular pasta then do so! If you want to make it with something other than spaghetti then do so as this recipe will work with any type of pasta! I hope you enjoy the video!



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Tofu: Tofu Recipes: Greek Salad And Korean Hot And Spicy Tofu

Tofu: Tofu Recipes

 

 

 

Hi guys! This week I am doing something new. I am going to be making two tofu recipes this week in celebration of the new Youtube channel I am opening called the HealthyMealRecipes channel! Now I know what you are thinking? Tofu? Tofu recipes? From Richard Blaine? You bet! I love tofu recipes and I have been eating tofu since I was 13yrs!

Have no fear, not all the cooking I will be doing on this new channel will be tofu and tofu recipes. The dishes I will prepare on this new channel will address a more balanced approach to the way people eat! I will address vegetarian and non- vegetarian dishes alike! I have a handful of favorite Youtube channel foodies that do gluten free and vegetarian dishes that I just LOVE! I will be tapping them on the shoulder to ask if I can do a recipe of theirs on my new channel and I am sure you will enjoy their dishes as much as I have! There are many levels of vegetarianism such as strict vegan to people that are ovo vegetarian. As I learn you will learn as well! I will show examples of making dishes with things like tofu in place of say things like cheese for those that either don't or can't eat cheese as in the Greek salad I am doing here tonight. It's a tofu recipe and yes it is still delicious. I will also address my gluten free audience with delicious gluten free dishes that are sure to please! Yes! I will be making meat dishes on this channel as well but it will be lean meat dishes with balanced amounts of the meat in relation to the other ingredients on the plate.

Yes of course there will still be my trademark Asian dishes on the new channel and there will also be some of my favorite Italian dishes on the new channel although there might be some twists and turns to them! So fear not! Not all is going to be tofu! And not all is going to be tofu recipes! But tonight it will be two tofu recipes. Greek salad using a delicious marinated firm tofu in place of the feta cheese for those of use that don't eat or can't eat cheese as I stated above and a twist on a recipe that I did in the past. I made  some Korean hot and spicy chicken wings and tonight I am going to use the same Korean chili paste but I am going to use it on really firm tofu and I am going to bake it as I did the chicken wings. This particular tofu recipe is a favorite of many of my vegetarian friends. Enjoy the video!

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Salad Recipes: My Southwestern Cottage Cheese Salad

Salad Recipes

 

This week guys I am making another of my salad recipes. The summer here in Las Vegas is gone and we are now into what it our fall. It's for this reason that I am making and end of summer salad. This week I am going to reinvigorate my last cottage cheese salad recipe and reinvent it into my Southwestern Cottage Salad.  In the summer I love salad recipes and a couple of weeks ago I made one of my Mom's cottage cheese salad recipes and just added a couple of additions to it and the response I got for it was amazing! One of my Youtube subs a fellow who calls himself the baldchef had made a comment about me taking something that was retro and breathing new life into it. I was very flattered to say the least.

Also in thinking about cottage cheese I can remember when cottage cheese was like one of the most popular diet foods around and I just don't think you hear much about it anymore as a diet food. It is high protein and low carbs and is still an excellent source of calcium and can be made into more than just salad recipes. So this salad I am doing this week is just another reinvention of a cottage cheese salad. This week my end of summer salad is going to be a cottage cheese salad with the flavors of the great Southwest. This should turn out to be one of my favorite cottage cheese salad recipes to date!

For this salad I am going to add the flavors of roasted corn and black beans as well as pinto beans and roasted and salted pepitas with some cumin and chili powder. Then I am going to add some garlic,  lime zest and cilantro and lime juice and to top it all off I will add some Hatch, NM chopped green chilies and freshly ground Guajillo chilies which are more sweet than hot! You can serve this salad in a bowl or on a plate but, when it comes to salad recipes like this one I am going to stuff it into Anaheim peppers and Pasilla peppers and then put some on top of toasted corn tortillas! If you love cooling, refreshing and crunchy salad recipes then I am convinced that you will enjoy this cottage cheese salad! Make it yours! Make it one of your favorite salad recipes! Enjoy the video!

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Knife Sharpening: Kitchen Knife Sharpening: How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade

Knife Sharpening

 

This week once again the subject is on Knife Sharpening. As I stated before I have been taking requests as of late and the one's that I get the most are for Knife Sharpening. So this weeks Knife Sharpening video will discuss Kitchen Knife Sharpening.

and the subject of How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade. There is always a bone of contention when it comes to How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade. The fact of the matter is that the best way is on a standing grinder rig outfitted with a medium bristle bronze brush wheel. The bronze is softer than the steel of the knife but hard enough to straighten a rolled edge without scratching the surface of the serrated blade. The bronze wheel will also not damage or deform the scallops or teeth of the serrated blade.

Well, fact of the matter is that not everyone has a standing grinder in their homes to do Kitchen Knife Sharpening with. The other side of the story is that many people use their serrated knives for chores other than what they are meant for and in that case the edge will not stay as sharp as long. In most cases when it comes to Knife Sharpening and especially Kitchen Knife Sharpening the most difficult knife in the kitchen to sharpen is the serrated blade. Now there are many gimmicky gadgets on the market that say they will sharpen a serrated knife but, the fact of the matter is that these gadgets will also deform the scallops and teeth of your serrated kitchen knives.

I have said it before Knife Sharpening is a matter of practice and Kitchen Knife Sharpening is easier than you think. So How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade? Do you happen to have that standing grinder in your garage? If so great! Go get a medium bristle bronze wheel and I will show you How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade using it. If you are like the rest of us and don't happen to have a standing grinder then read on!

Some of the gadgets out there being sold for serrated Knife Sharpening are called "rat tail" files. These are conical tapered files made of carbide or diamond coated. The trick to using them is that you are supposed to meet the gauge of the scallops of your serrated knife and then either work the file up and down or use a twisting motion to sharpen the scallop and teeth of your serrated knife. (See Video) This is not Knife Sharpening! This is not How To Sharpen A Serrated Knife Blade! As many of you have seen me do in other Knife Sharpening videos I go through a range of grits or meshes when I do Kitchen Knife Sharpening or any Knife Sharpening chore for that matter. So if you have to use these "rat tail" files and you have to go through a range of grits how long do you think it will take to sharpen just one knife? I will tell you how long.........FOREVER!

The "rat tail" file is just one way of not doing proper Knife Sharpening. There are other systems out there like guided Knife Sharpening systems or pivot driven Knife Sharpening systems that use triangular stones or ceramics that they say will allow you to do Kitchen Knife Sharpening of your serrated blades. They will and do work to some extent but will shorten the life span of your serrated knife blades.


In reality no matter what system you choose to do Knife Sharpening on serrated blades the fact remains that in time the teeth of the blade will round out and the scallops of the blade will deform. How quickly that happens is dependent on how you sharpen your serrated blades. I have come up with a way that is fairly gentle to the serrated knife  and will allow the blade to remain functional much, much longer than if you used a Knife Sharpening gadget or Kitchen Knife Sharpening system. I use a MAC Knives white or black ceramic honing rod or a Spyderco ultra fine ceramic stone as well as my version of strop I call my "poor mans" strop. (See Video) If I feel like it I will also use my surgical black Arkansas stone for a final polish of the blade. (See Video) Is my system the "perfect" system? No! But it is very gentle to the knife and will allow you to have it for more years than if you used a "rat tail", pivot, or guided Knife Sharpening system.(See Video) I hope you enjoy the video!

Knife Sharpening How To Sharpen Knives In The Field

Knife Sharpening

 

 

 

Hi Everyone! This week I am going to be talking about Knife Sharpening again! I am going to be talking about How To Sharpen Knives In The Field. I have been taking requests from readers and Youtube channel subscribers lately and have been getting requests for more Knife Sharpening! So here were are. I was contacted by a United Stated Marine two weeks ago and he asked me how I would perform Knife Sharpening in the field on a knife like a Ka-Bar or any knife in the field? He told me he was using this little gadget with two tungsten carbide bits in it for Knife Sharpening.

Well, I am not really a big fan of these little pocket sized gadgets for Knife Sharpening and I would not want to be using one of them long term if someone asked me How To Sharpen Knives In The Field! You see the issue with the little carbide sharpener for Knife Sharpening is that they will work but, they will only work for a limited amount of time. You see these carbide sharpeners only work on the primary cutting edge of your knife and do nothing for the "back bevel" or "secondary edge" of your knife. Since the carbide is harder than most steels eventually your primary cutting edge will be gone because the carbide can actually tear/rip metal from your edge. That is what it's doing in the first place.

Knife Sharpening is easier to learn than most people think and it's just a matter of practice! So the little carbide is good in the short term for Knife Sharpening but terrible in the long run and for elongated stretches in the field. Another consideration for Knife Sharpening in the field I explained is that you don't want to carry a heavy stone in your pack or even a Knife Sharpening rig of some kind that takes time to assemble and disassemble. This is not a good idea is the shooting starts!

So this Marine asked me how I would perform Knife Sharpening in the field? He told me that he was not looking for the "razors" edge as that is not an effective style of edge for a soldiers field knife but, he did want to know how I would make a "workable" edge on my field knife.

Well, the fact of the matter is that the way I do Knife Sharpening in the field is basically the same way I do Knife Sharpening at home. I use DMT Diafolds. These small folding diamond plates are small in size and lightweight. I carry my DMT Diafolds in combo's of  220/325 mesh /grit and 600/1200 mesh/grit.

The DMT Diafold 220/325 for a blade that is really dull and/or rounded. This grit/mesh combo will allow you to begin the Knife Sharpening process and shape and form your basic edge. The DMT Diafold 600/1200 will allow you to thin and refine your knifes edge into something that is workable and quite sharp in the field.

I will also say that if you wish to refine and polish your edge even further when Knife Sharpening in the field then there is always the DMT Diafold 1200/8000 mesh as well that will allow you to get super polish if you want it. I use it at times just for one or two light strokes to refine a working edge in the field when camping. So in answer the the Marines question this is how I perform Knife Sharpening in the field. I have made this video to show everyone how to do it the way I do and I hope you enjoy this video! Next week I will be doing my own way of how to sharpen serrated knives at home. I hope you stay tuned to watch that one as well!




 

Knife Sharpening: How To Sharpen A Large Curved Blade A Butchers Knife

Knife Sharpening: Butchers Knife

 

This week I am doing a Knife Sharpening video on a large curved butchers knife by request of a Youtube subscriber of mine from England. He sent me a personal message last week telling me that he works in a carvery in England. In other words he is a butcher. He asked me how I would sharpen a large curved bladed butchers knife like that found in a Scimitar style of butcher knife. His contention was that it would not be an effective way to sharpen the curved blade using the Japanese style of sharpening stroke that I did in a previous video as the Japanese style of stroke might end up flattening the "belly" of the scimitar knife.

My subscriber is right to an extent in that using the Japanese style of sharpening stroke can and will flatten out the belly of his blade if not done correctly. So in thinking about the subject I decided to do a video for him on how to sharp a butchers knife.

In Knife Sharpening there are many ways to sharpen a knife and not all of them are the correct way. Knife sharpening takes time and patience and when working with something like a curved butchers knife the chore of Knife Sharpening takes even more patience to get it right.

When it comes to large knives one must consider having sharpening stones that are long enough and wide enough to provide enough "real estate" to perform the knife sharpening chore efficiently! A Butchers Knife that is large and curved demands a bit more attention to detail when performing the Knife Sharpening chore. I usually sharpen my larger knives at twenty degrees. I find this angle to be optimal and strong enough to last. I know other people that just have to have their knives sharpening at 15 degrees or better and that is a razors edge. The fact of the matter is that 15 degrees or less will not hold up to any amount of long term useage in the kitchen or in the field of butchering.

In this Knife Sharpening video I will be using My own DMT diamond plates at 220. 325, 600 and 1200 grit/mesh respectively. I will also be using my Spyderco Ceramic finishing stones at fine(roughly 1800 to 2000 grit) and ultra fine(2200 +++) Spyderco does not give the grit information on these stones so it is a bit of guess work but one you see how they work you get a good idea of the grits for these excellent ceramic sharpening stones. I will then go to my surgical black arkansas stone to put a final polish on this butchers knife and then I will be finished. So sit back and enjoy the video!






 

Salad Recipes? Cottage Cheese? Cottage Cheese Vegetable Summer Salad

Salad Recipes: Cottage Cheese

 

 

 

This week I am going to make one of my Mom's Salad Recipes! Yup! That's right, I'm not going to cook anything this week. I'm not even going to touch the stove! This week I am going to make one of my Mom's Salad Recipes and it's going to be made with Cottage Cheese!

Cottage Cheese you say! Yup! Cottage Cheese! See I was looking for something easy and tasty to do this week because to tell the truth when you run a foodie blog week after week after week there are times when it can just grind on you. I mean in a whole world of food how could someone like me hit a block in the road? It happens sometimes and you just want to take it easy for a week or two and do something simple, easy and yet delicious!

For this reason I went to my Mom this last week and talked to here about Salad Recipes! I have done Salad Recipes before as you all know but most of them take some form of cooking to accomplish. I truly didn't feel like "cooking" today so I wanted a salad.

My Mom thought about it as the conversation progressed and she landed on one of her Salad Recipes made with Cottage Cheese! I mean when I think of standard American or European Salad Recipes I am thinking of green leaves and stuff like that.

Nope! Mom told me that back when she was a child here mother would make a Cottage Cheese summer salad with vegetables that was cold and refreshing. Here mom would either serve here Cottage Cheese vegetable salad plain on the plate or in a bowl, or she would stuff veggies with it.

My mother and I both did some research online this week and truly didn't find anything close to what her mom used to make her. So I thought that since this was one of my mom's favorite Salad Recipes that I would give it a go! I mean I LOVE Cottage Cheese don't you? It's a really versatile food.

So this week it's Salad Recipes! I am going to make a Cottage Cheese vegetable summer salad and I am going to stuff it into a bell pepper, a tomato and some button mushrooms and a cucumber. This salad recipe is going to have lots of crunch with the additions of cucumber, radish, scallion, walnuts, peeled celery, and the freshness of cilantro to boot! So go ahead and kick back and enjoy the video and enjoy the Cottage Cheese vegetable summer salad! One of my favorite Salad Recipes!


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Spaghetti Recipes: Pasta Alla Caruso!

This week I thought I would make another one of my favorite spaghetti recipes, Pasta Alla Caruso or Pasta Con Fegatini Di Pollo, Aglio, Cipille E Funghi! This is one of the great spaghetti recipes: Spaghetti with chicken livers, garlic, onions and mushrooms! Of the many spaghetti recipes that I do this one is named after one of my favorite opera tenors, Enrico Caruso was born on February 25, 1873 in Naples, Italy and he died on August 2, 1921 in Naples, Italy, his homeland!

Enrico Caruso was a foodie at heart long before the word foodie ever came to be and he loved to cook and this dish was one of his favorite spaghetti recipes just as it is one of my favorite spaghetti recipes! Enrico Caruso dominated the opera scene of the day at the Metropolitan Opera house in New York City for eighteen years. Caruso, As an early foodie we come to find that Caruso loved chicken livers and incorporated them into this dishes whenever he could and as he did with San Marzano tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic to create one of his favorite spaghetti dishes which we now call Pasta Con Fegatini Di Pollo, Aglio, Cipolle E Funghi or Pasta Alla Caruso!

Enrico Caruso loved to use pale yellow chicken livers if they could be found as they are usually fatter and have a sweeter taste than the usual dark red chicken livers that you find in supermarkets today. So if you plan to make this dish you should check with your local butcher or supermarket to make sure you get the fatter yellow chicken livers. As with so many spaghetti recipes it is best to saute the chicken livers separately from the spaghetti sauce and then reincorporate them later in the sauces development. You will get a hint of the livers flavor in the sauce when you remove the livers from the saute pan and sweat down the garlic and onions. Then once reincorporated into the sauce you will have all the flavors of the dish together making for a lovely pasta dish experience.

Many folks don't know that chicken livers are widely used in Italy for both spaghetti recipes and other recipes as well. One example would be chicken livers being used for Tuscan chicken liver crostini. Also there are times when the chicken livers are just sauteed in olive oil with garlic and onions and served on a plate. This is done in so many cultures that this is why I love food so much because many peoples from all over the world so many times do the same things with food! Food is one of the glues that bind us all together as human beings and I think the similarities in how we prepare foods is one of the things that bring us together.

It really has been awhile since I have made any of the spaghetti recipes that I enjoy and in my house I rarely go more than three days without eating some kind of pasta dish or I go through PWT's(Pasta Withdrawl Tremors) if I don't have my pasta hit! So when I thought about what I wanted to cook this week I was listening to a Caruso CD and viola! Here it is! Pasta Alla Caruso! As far as I am concerned Enrico Caruso could have been a famous chef with his knowledge of spaghetti recipes that he developed for himself and his knowledge of the food of his native home of Naples, Italy. Many people don't know this but during the time that Caruso was singing opera at the Metropolitan in New York City he out of his own pocket sponsored the immigration and citizenship of over a dozen chefs from his home in Naples, Italy and he helped them to open restaurants in what is now known as "Little Italy" in New York City! There you will find some of the best Italian food anywhere in the world and that includes Italy herself! I consider this to be a great benefit for the Italian food community in New York City that has lasted all these years and has made New York one of the finest cities for foods of the world! As an early foodie a neat little factoid is that when Enrico Caruso was not singing at the Metropolitan he would be working in the kitchens of some of the restaurants that he helped to open! For all we know Enrico Caruso could have been the Jaques Pepin of the Italian food world!

Now in the anals of food history there is some conjecture as to the origins of Pasta Alla Caruso. Some historians think Caruso invented the dish and named it after himself and this is or course the story that I ascribe to! Other historians believe that one of Enrico Caruso's chef friends created the dish and named it after the great tenor. Well, the only one that will ever know for sure is Enrico Caruso! Either way Pasta Alla Caruso is still one of my favorite spaghetti recipes!

My friends look at me like I am crazy at times. "Your adding chicken livers to tomato sauce?" You bet I do! Chicken livers add a creamy and pungent richness to the sauce and in unison with the earthiness of the mushrooms, garlic and onions this dish makes for an excellent primo piatto(first course) or a lovely main course!

Enrico Caruso had a distinguished 25yrs career in opera that spanned from 1895 to 1920 and he performed at the Metropolitan opera house in New York over 800 times before he passed away leaving us without his great talent as both a great tenor and a great chef! I would like to think that if Enrico Caruso was alive today that he would have his own cooking show and he would be teaching us how to make great spaghetti recipes!

I think back to the days when I hated music classe in high school and college and how I couldn't stand classical music or opera. Now here I am almost 50yrs and I find it hard to listen to most of the new music out there and I find myself drawn to listening to the opera! I LOVE Maria Kallas Callas the greatest soprano operetta to ever grace a stage, and I LOVE Luciano Pavarotti who as Caruso is one of the greatest tenors of the modern era! But as far as classics go I Love the sound of Enrico Caruso and one of his favorite spaghetti recipes which is now one of my favorite spaghetti recipes, Pasta Alla Caruso! Enjoy the video!



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Thai Food Recipes: Thai Salad Recipe: Yum Woon Sen Salad Recipe

I just love Thai food recipes! They are so varied and unique that you can do just about anything you want with them. On of my favorite aspects to Thai food recipes is the wide array of flavors and textures that you find in Thai foods! This is why I am writing about the recent Thai salad recipe that I had for dinner last night. It has been really hot here in Vegas lately. We have had temps around 101 to 107 and humidity between 20 and 40 percent which is huge out here in the high desert.

I made a Thai salad recipe last night called Yum Woon Sen which is a Thai salad recipe that can be served hot or cold. I prefer mine to be chilled. I made this salad recipe because I didn't want to turn on my oven for a long period of time adding heat to my house. I did have to fry up some garlic and shallots for this Thai salad recipe but that was only for a couple of minutes at a stretch. I did have to boil some water to cook the noodles but no extended periods of heat in the kitchen this week.

The Yum Woon Sen Salad recipe is made with mung bean noodles that are called by many names in the Asian markets that you may shop at. Names like Saifun, Glass noodle, Glass thread, Mung bean thread, and Cellophane noodles. This neat little noodle isn't clear like glass until you cook them but I love the rubbery texture of this noodle and it sucks up the flavors of whatever they are mixed with.  These mung bean threads really make a  great Thai salad recipe.

There are as many variations of Yum Woon Sen as there are Thai people eating it. My  version of this Thai salad recipe will use dried shrimp that are fried. In some restaurants they add large cooked shrimp to the Yum Woon Sen salad recipe to dress it up a bit and that is fine.  Street vendors in Thailand make this Thai salad recipe with shrimp, pork, sausage and other seafood types like squid. Remember: "There are no rules in cooking!"

I have found that the two most popular Thai food recipes out there are Tom Yum Goong soup and Pad Thai! I find that many people are more familiar with these two Thai food recipes and are not to aware of Thai salad recipes. So the next time you go to your local Thai restaurant order up a plate of Yum Woon Sen you will love it! The best thing to do is to make it at home yourself because you can do so much with the recipe and make it to your exact liking and you will find that Yum Woon Sen is one of those Thai food recipes that are very versatile indeed! So check out my video and then make some Yum Woon Sen and make this Thai salad recipe your own!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0vnn9Oaro
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Thai Food: Thai Recipes: Nam Prig Pad Thai Chili Paste

Thai Food: Thai Recipes

 

 

This week I am making one of my favorite and easy Thai Recipes,  Nam Prig Pad the famous Thai chili sauce/paste that is used in Thai Food cooking and it's also famous for causing a terror alert in Soho, London England sometime back in 2007 when a Thai restaurant was making it's own Thai Nam Prik Pad. The smell of the burning chili peppers set someone off and they contacted the authorities and off the cops went only to find a humble restaurant making their own chili paste! Now if that won't make chili paste famous I don't know what will?  Why am I making Nam Prig Pad you ask? Well I guess by this point that many of you that visit my blog know that I LOVE Thai Food and I love to work with Thai Recipes. I love the flavors of Southeast Asia, Thailand, Viet Nam etc. I find that Thai Food has a certain versatility and interchangeability that food from other cultures doesn't have in my humble opinion. The flavors! The aroma's! Oh man! Just can't be beat! Well I do a fair amount of Thai Recipes and other Asian dishes on this blog of mine and I always try to add my own twist to the recipes I make. Last week I made another of my favorite Thai Recipes called Thai Pad Cha which is one of my favorite Thai Recipes. It's a seafood Thai dish. The dish uses a sauce combination of soy sauce, oyster sauce and fish sauce. I thought to myself that this was going to really salty so I decided to substitute Nam Prig Pad in place of the oyster sauce.  So I used the Nam Prig Pad and then during this last week I received about 15 email from people asking me to make Nam Prig Pad on my Youtube channel. So I did! Nam Prig Pad is good in so many Thai Recipes but, it give many other foods a great flavor as well. Nam Prig Pad makes a delicious BBQ sauce and makes for a KILLER grilled cheese sandwich! No really!  Try it!


Thai chili paste or Nam Prig Pad is the paste that is very often used in Tom Yum Goong soup and other Thai Food. It is usually a dark brown to black chili paste from Thailand. The color of the chili paste depends on how much your roast  your chili peppers. There are many Thai Recipes for Nam Prik Pad but the base of the recipe is garlic, shallots, and dry chili peppers some salt and sugar usually palm sugar and in some cases there is the addition of tamarind paste, shrimp paste and dried shrimp. You can buy tamarind paste in your local Asian market in a jar or in block form but just make sure that when you buy the tamarind that it is only tamarind and water with no other ingredients in it. If you can't find it at your local market you can get it here online.

From what I am to glean in my research about Thai Food is that what I was calling Nam Prik Pad/Pao which is how I learned to call this Thai food mixture is actually supposed to be called Nam Prig Pad! Pad means stir fried. In Nam Prig Pad the ingredients are meant to be grilled and then ground up and then fried in oil and some sugar is added. The sugar acts as a kind of preservative and that is why Nam Prig Pad can last for months on your counter top. On the other hand Nam Prig Pow is when the ingredients are grilled and then ground rather than ground and then stir fried. Most Nam Prig Pow in jars are just the ingredients of Nam Prig Pow being fried and having sugar added to it and that's that! The problem is that most people including me have used the name Nam Prig Pow and Nam Prig Pad as meaning the same thing in Thai Recipes and it's not! Lesson learned! Another interesting fact about Nam Prig Pow is that in many places it's called Nam Prig Dang or red chili paste because of the deep reddish color that comes from the redness of the chili peppers. There are many varieties of Nam Prig Pad that you can get in jars at the local Asian market but in the last year I have gotten into making my own style of Thai Recipes of Nam Prig Pad. Some smoother than others. Some browner than others. Some more rustic than others.

I have made the standard Thai recipes of Nam Prig Pad using the chili peppers, sugar, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste and dried shrimps. As I stated there are many ways to accomplish making Nam Prig Pad. I have also made it with dried squid, dried scallops and dried cuttlefish. This week I am just going to show you how to make one of  the standard Thai Recipe of Nam Prig Pad with just a couple of additions and changes. These changes are as follows. I am going to be using Molasses instead of palm sugar or brown sugar. I mean brown sugar is just sugar with molasses added to it anyway! Palm sugar is sweet  and brown sugar is sweet and imparts that sweetness to the Nam Prig Pad. Molasses on the other hand is already dark in color and will impart some darkness and richness to the Nam Prig Pad and will also all more depth to the sweetness and in my opinion more character. I will also be adding some lime juice as a preservative and some cooked lemongrass to the mix as well. So if you love Thai Food as much as I do then sit tight and enjoy the video!


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