The Louisville Chef

This is a very traditional Thai street food. Great for breakfast, lunch or a snack. The Thai name above is a bit generic, as it doesn\’t mention beef as pad refers to stir frying and gra prow or kaphrao refers to basil. I was craving this dish, as I used to  eat it frequently in Thailand. It’s commonly made with minced pork, beef or chicken.

It’s a bit of Thai/Chinese fusion dish, which is quite popular in Thailand, due to strong Chinese community. I like to make a big batch of fried rice and then eat the leftovers for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

I wanted to create a non meat version so I used the Boca Crumbles from the frozen food section. If you have another favorite non meat product, feel free to use it, but I do think the minced texture works well. If you want to use meat, then pork, beef or chicken work as well.

Should you want a completely vegetarian version, just omit the fish sauce and add a bit of lime juice and some extra soy sauce or Golden Mountain sauce.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
4 cloves Garlic, sliced
2 inch piece fresh Ginger Root, peeled and chopped.
1/2 Onion, sliced
1/2 Red Pepper, sliced
1 bag Boca Crumbles
Splash of Vegetable Stock
1 Tbsp Chili Paste
1 Tbsp Rice Wine
1 Tbsp low sodium Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce, or sub Golden Mountain sauce to be completely vegetarian.
2 cups of fresh Basil, torn.
Lime Juice
I Egg, fried

This marinade was a revelation to me. I got the recipe from a friend in Puerto Rico, but she said it was originally from Cuba. I decided to make a batch to marinade some meat for the grill and it was incredible.

Here are a few hints:

• Try to use the freshest ingredients and grind the black pepper and cumin as needed. Cumin has a nasty habit of turning bitter when it has been ground for a long time.
• Put your meat into a large plastic bag that seals and then lay it into an oven proof dish to avoid spills. Trust me on this one. Cleaning up leaked mojo is no fun.
• Turn over the plastic bag occasionally, so the marinade stays evenly distributed.
• If you want to use this to marinade seafood or fish, reduce your marinading time to one or two hours max. Otherwise you will end up with mushy cerviche.

Ingredients

Juice from 4 lemons
Juice from 4 limes
Juice from one Orange
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
5 cloves of garlic mashed
1 Tbsp freshly ground Cumin Seed
1Tbsp fresh ground Black Pepper
2 tsp Sea Salt
4 Tbsp fresh Cilantro

Blend all together in food processor and pour over chicken, beef or pork. Marinade in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours minimum or up to 24 hours. Longer is better. 

Remove form the bag and shake off the excess marinade and lay onto a hot grill and grill, turning occasionally until done. Serve with fried plantains, rice and black beans.

Many thanks to Wag for the image.

Since its finally grilling season, I wanted to share this wonderful marinade. This is perfect as a dipping sauce and/or basting sauce for most any meat, seafood, gyoza/dumpling or vegetable. However, I think it really shines on anything grilled.

Traditionally from Japan, it is made with the yazu fruit, which has a distinctive citrus flavor. As yazu are not easy to find here and the the prepackaged juice can be quite expensive, I wanted to find a recipe to recreate that flavor.

You can certainly buy ready made ponzu sauce, but they are packed with salt and sugar. I vastly prefer the cleaner taste of homemade.

This a relatively small batch, but feel free to double or triple it. It stores well in the refrigerator for up to two or three weeks.

Ingredients
4 Tbsp low sodium Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin
Juice of one Lemon
2 Tbsp Orange Juice
Juice of 1/2 Lime
1/2 cup Dashi, dried bonito flakes
2 inch grated Fresh Ginger Root
1 tsp Sugar, optional

Mix all ingredients into a lidded container and shake vigorously. Allow to rest overnight or up to 24 hours and then strain before using as a marinade or dipping sauce.

Brush on prior to grilling and during grilling. Brush a bit on before serving or use as a dipping sauce.

Note: If you want to add toasted sesame oil, then 1 tsp is perfect. Additionally, the dashi flakes can be found at most Asian markets or can be ordered online. 

https://www.amazon.com/Kaneso-Tokuyou-Hanakatsuo-Bonito-Flakes/dp/B0052BGLMS/ref=sr_1_9?crid=SSYYEFNEVKWD&keywords=dashi&qid=1559230604&s=gateway&sprefix=dashi%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-9&th=1

This is a traditional Thai soup. To make it properly, you need to layer the flavors, rather than throwing everything into the pot at one time.

Done properly, this is one of the world\’s great soups. Even better, it is very low in fat and very tasty. Note: I\’ve adjusted some of the quantities of ingredients to make it even better.

I have heard from a few people that some of the ingredients are somewhat hard to find. If you have a local Asian market, they often keep the galangal and kaffir lime leaves in the freezer section. Both freeze very well.

Barring that, here is a great Thai produce site to find everything you need. Use what you need of the lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves and freeze the rest. https://importfood.com

6 cups low sodium Vegetable Broth
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 – 3/4 lb Shrimp, shelled and deveined with shells, heads and tails retained.
3 pieces of sliced Galangal, softened with back of your knife.
2 stalks Lemon Grass, peeled and tough ends cut off and softened with back of your knife.
3 cloves Garlic, peeled and mashed.
3-5 fresh Thai Chilies, sliced in half.
8 Kaffir Lime leaves
1 Tbsp Chili Paste with Soya Bean Oil, see picture and note below.
1 cup Fresh Oyster Mushrooms, chopped into bite size pieces.2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
3-4 fresh Limes, juiced
Fresh Cilantro for garnish.
Begin by heating up your oil in a medium to large stock pot. Then add in your galangal, garlic, chilies and lemon grass and retained shrimp shells and sauté them briefly until the aroma starts to release.

Add in your vegetable broth and kaffir lime leaves  bring it up to a soft simmer. Allow this to gently simmer for about 20 minutes.

Then strain off the broth and return to your pan. Add your chili paste and oyster mushrooms. Simmer for 3-4 minutes and then add your fish sauce and shrimp. Cook just until the shrimp turn pink. This will take only a minute or so.

Add your lime juice, adjust to taste, top with fresh cilantro and remove from the heat and serve.

Note: Sugar is often added to Tom Yum Koong, but I found the chili paste I used was quite sweet, so I omitted any additional sugar. If you can find Thai Nam Prik Pao (Roasted Chili Paste) then you might need the sugar. If so, 1 tsp would be suffcient.

It’s said that this classic French dish is what created Julia Child’s life long passion for French cuisine.

It is very good and it\’s flawless in its simplicity and attention to detail. It uses copious amounts of clarified butter and is finished with brown butter. Add some lemon juice, salt, pepper and fresh parsley and there you have it. As always, I suggest you prepare the classic dish and taste it before you start to change it around.

I wanted to try and create a slightly healthier version utilizing a plant based butter and EVOO. I really didn’t know if it would work, but I have to say I was very happy with the results.

As I had some really lovely capers on hand, I added those, which made this more of a fish piccata, but cooking is about experimenting.

Since there are so few ingredients, it’s very important to use the freshest you can find. If you can’t find Dover sole, which can be tough  then a good substitute is Pacific Dover sole. It’s not actually sole, not from Dover, obviously, but a flounder.


Ingredients

1 lb Sole filets
Flour for dusting the filets
Salt and Black or White Pepper
6 Tbsp Earth Balance or similar plant based butter. Mykonos vegan butter would work well here. Keep 2 Tbsp aside to finish the sauce.
2 Tbsp EVOO
Juice of one Lemon
3 Tbsp Capers, optional
Freshly chopped Parsley

Preheat you over to its lowest setting. As you are going to cook the filets in batches, the oven will keep them warm.
Begin by seasoning your flour with salt and pepper. Then season your filets, knocking off any excess flour.

Heat your sauté pan over medium/ high heat add in 1/2 of the butter (2 Tbsp) and 1/2 of EVOO and wait until the butter is sizzling and gently place in half of the filets, without crowding them.

Sauté until golden brown and flip over. Usually it’s about 2-3 minutes per side depending on thickness. Remove from the pan with your fish spatula and on a warm plate and into the oven.

Then same procedure with the rest of the filets. And into the oven.

Add your retained 2 Tbsp of butter to the sauté pan, add your capers, chopped parsley and lemon juice and reduce for maybe 1 minute. Pour this sauce over your warm filets and serve immediately.

Note: if you would like a more traditional dish, then omit the capers and just add your retained 2 tablespoons of butter and lemon juice to the pan and reduce. Then pour the sauce over the filets and sprinkle the fresh parsley on the top.

This is simple to make and ready in minutes. Packed with flavor and so satisfying. I’ve adjusted the recipe so that really works well over pasta.

There are so many recipes for bagna cauda and it is commonly used in Italy as a dip for raw vegetables. It translates as “hot bath”. It is wonderful as a dip, but over pasta, it think it’s incredible. It’s an umami bomb.

The only critical steps are to use the best possible ingredients, as there are not many and to finish the pasta in the saucepan with a bit of pasta water to really coat the pasta and create a creamy texture.

Finally, as it is an oil/butter based sauce, I think a long thin pasta is a better choice.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Butter
5 cloves Garlic, smashed
1/4 cup Onions, finely minced.
2 Oz tin of flat Anchovies in Olive Oil
Splash of White Wine
Juice and zest of one medium Lemon.
Chili Flakes to taste
Freshly ground Black Pepper
1 lb Spaghetti or Linguine
1 Tbsp fresh chopped ParsleyFreshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Begin by starting your water for the pasta. I tend to salt it a bit less than normal, as the anchovies are salty.

Add your butter to a saucepan that will be large enough to accommodate the pasta for finishing. If this is not an option, then you can finish in the pasta pan. A 14\” inch sauté pan is perfect.

Add your garlic and onion and gently sauté them. Add your anchovies with the olive oil from their can. I find this gives a really nice flavor. This is why they need to be packed in olive oil. Sauté them until the anchovies melt into the sauce.

When you water is boiling, add your pasta and remember to cook it about two minutes less than al dente, as you are going to finish it in the pan.

Add your lemon juice, zest, white wine and black pepper to the saucepan and keep the heat at medium to thicken the sauce.

Use a Pyrex cup to dip out about 3/4 cup of the boiling pasta water and set it aside. Drain your pasta and put it back into the saucepan or the pasta pot and increase the heat to medium high. Toss with the sauce, a bit of the cheese and the pasta water a bit at a time until it becomes creamy. About two additional minutes.

Finish with the parsley and the rest of cheese and serve. 

After:

There are so many recipes for this dish, but basically they all have a few commonalities. Onion, ginger and garlic purée and tomato base with additional ground spices. The names okra, bhindi and lady fingers are used interchangeably. 

Some recipes include an additional step of precooking the bhindi/okra in half the oil and setting it aside. I can understand this, as it keeps the okra from getting slimy, which was a frequent concern in the recipes I read. I was lucky in that my okra was very fresh, so I didn’t have that issue. Bottom line, if you are at the market and all the South Asian customers are buying okra, it is likely very fresh. 

Additionally, many recipes called for adding something acidic to keep the okra from going slimy. I felt lemon juice would work well, and was happy with the results.

One additional note. Many recipes called for using cumin seeds. As I had literally just run out, I substituted black mustard seeds. It tasted fine, but I think the cumin seed would have been slightly better.

Ingredients

1 lb fresh Okra
3-4 Tbsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin Seed or Black Mustard Seed
1 large Onion, puréed
2 inch piece Ginger Root, puréed
6 cloves Garlic, puréed 
2 Green Chilis, sliced lengthwise
3/4 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Red Chili Powder
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup chopped Tomatoes
1 tsp dried Fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

Prep the okra by washing them throughly and drying them completely. Cut off each end and then cut them into bite size pieces. I could have cut my pieces slightly smaller. 

Add the oil to your pan and add the black mustard or cumin seeds. Once they start popping, add your onion, garlic and ginger purée and allow it to turn slightly golden brown. Add the chili powder, turmeric and garam masala and salt and sauté for a minute or so to take off any rawness of the spices. Add the okra and the lemon juice and cook for 6-8 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and fenugreek leaves, cover and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Uncover the pan and cook away any excess moisture. This is dry masala, so you don’t want it soupy. Serve with basmati rice.