Griffin and I have been having so much fun cooking cuisine from different parts of the world. This past weekend, we “went” to Thailand with authentic pad Thai and mango sticky rice recipes from a cookbook I got while in Thailand a few summers ago.
While we’ve been attempting dishes from places we’ve been to together, Thailand is actually someplace Griffin hasn’t been to (yet). I went there the summer we’d started dating. Literally, we had our first date and I was on a plane to the other side of the world two weeks later. I think we’d gone on…3 dates by that point? I was gone for two weeks, home for a few days, then off to Nashville again for a vacation with some college girlfriends. Needless to say, our first month or two of dating, we hardly saw one another.
But we texted almost non-stop while I was in Thailand, and he got to experience it vicariously through me. So even though he hasn’t been there, Thai cooking was still a fun and special “Qaurantravel” experience for us.
Thailand is probably the most “exotic” place I’ve been to, and it was a bucket list trip that I finally had the courage to book one cold night in December. Knowing zero Thai and very little about what I was getting myself into, I booked my trip through a travel company – Intrepid Travel. They specialize in small group travel, with a focus on responsible, ethical, and sustainable tourism. Intrepid Travel is committed to responsible travel through various ways, such as promoting local businesses through accommodations or opportunities to shop local, supporting local conservation and wildlife projects, and committing to sustainable travel whenever possible. Each tour only accommodates about 10-15 people, and they make sure all experiences are authentic and culturally appropriate. When my original trip in June got pushed back to July, a friend of mine was able to join me, and we had quite the adventure! I biked through the narrow streets of Bangkok, slept on an overnight train to Chiang Mai, spent an evening with the H’mong Hill tribe, swam with elephants, visited more Buddhist temples than I can count, paid my respects to the men who sacrificed so much at Hellfire Pass near Kanchanaburi (think Bridge Over the River Kwai), and ate a lot of really delicious food.
And one of my favorite memories from that trip was when I got to experience Thai cooking firsthand with a Thai cooking class. I learned how to make papaya salad, tom kha kai (chicken coconut soup), pad Thai, and mango sticky rice. Everyone obviously got to enjoy their own cooked meal, and left with a free cookbook from the owners. I used that cookbook as inspiration for our Quarantravel night.
Since choosing the dishes was easy, and since I’d made them before, we didn’t have to do a lot of research this time around. However, I highly suggest watching a few YouTube videos and reading a few recipes for both pad Thai and mango sticky rice. Just with any other authentic recipe, there are thousands of variations. So do the research, and choose the techniques that you’re comfortable with. For us, we didn’t veer too far off from the recipes I already had, other than to maybe add a few extra ingredients to our pad Thai that weren’t in our original recipe.
We are lucky to live in a city that has a large Vietnamese and Asian population. Oklahoma City was a sanctuary city for Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War, so we actually have one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside of Vietnam. Because of this, we have an awesome Asian district right by the neighborhood Griffin and I live in that has a kick-ass Asian food market. Finding ingredients was a breeze for these dishes because of our proximity to the Asian market. While some of the ingredients may be a little tricky to find, honestly, you could probably find the majority of these ingredients in the Asian aisle of your local supermarket. The hardest ingredient to find was honestly the rice. And not because there wasn’t any in the Asian market, but rather they sell 50 lb. bags of rice there, and finding a small bag of rice was the tricky part. We settled on a 5 lb. bag and what we’re going to do with the rest of our white sticky rice I haven’t a clue yet. I guess I’ll be making a lot of rice bowls for the foreseeable future.
Sidenote: after spending a few hours in the Asian supermarket, I’ve now decided I highly underutilize it. The meat and seafood options are incredible and very well-priced for what you get. They have a fantastic assortment of fruits and vegetables, and they sell Cafe du Monde coffee. I am here for it, ya’ll. If you have a local Asian grocery store in your area, I highly recommend you spend some time there. They’re vastly under-appreciated for the products they carry!
Once we were back home with our loot, which included Chang Beer (I was very excited to find Chang beer so close to where I live. It’s one of the only Thai beers and apparently it’s fairly easy to find in the US. Another beer I loved and had often in Thailand was Leo beer. Have yet to see it in Oklahoma, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled) and some sake, we were ready to prep our rice. The mango sticky rice took the longest, so we made sure to start soaking it early in the afternoon. It is recommended you soak sticky rice for a few hours at the least, but you can even leave them overnight if you want to.
After draining the rice and transferring it to a steamer (also purchased at the local Asian market), I began prepping for the pad Thai. The trick to making pad Thai is it is a quick process. You want to try to have all of your ingredients prepped before you heat up your wok so you can quickly grab each ingredient needed and quickly add it to the mix. Another important tip is to make sure you soak your dry rice noodles for at least 15-20 minutes prior to cooking, unless you plan to use fresh rice noodles. You want them to be fairly limp when ready to add to your wok.
While Griffin worked on peeling and deveining our shrimp (major pro tip: buy peeled and de-veined shrimp…it is so much easier and quicker. We learned that the hard way!), I worked on the sauce for the mango sticky rice. Do not let the process of creating this delicious dessert intimidate you. It is actually so super simple to make, and it’s delicious! The sauce is a simple combination of coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Once the sugar dissolves, remove the rice from the steamer into a separate bowl, mix the sauce in with the rice, and let it sit for 30 minutes. That’s literally it. Other than a separate mixture of coconut milk and salt to drizzle on top when ready to serve, that’s all it takes! I can’t believe I almost psyched myself out of making it. The hardest part of the whole process was properly cutting the mango slices! (Not as easy as you’d think. I had to look up a quick how-to before chopping, as mangos have a giant pit in the middle that you do not want to try to cut into. Speaking from past experience…it’s messy, and you’re left with not much mango.)
Once the sticky rice was “marinating,” and Griffin was done prepping our shrimp it was time to cook! With all the ingredients prepped and ready to go, it took all of maybe 10-15 minutes MAX to make our pad Thai. The trickiest part to making pad Thai is adding the fried egg. You want to make sure you move any ingredients already in the wok out of the way and allow the egg time to set before incorporating int into the mixture. I’d say I did okay with this. It takes practice!
Sidenote: it’s worth the investment to buy an actual wok for pad Thai. While a large skillet would probably work if you don’t have a wok and don’t plan on making many Asian dishes in the future, you can find a decently priced wok for not that much and it’s worth having around for any noodle-based dishes. I’ll be honest…I bought our wok about a year ago and this was our first time using it. But now that I’ve used it, I can’t wait to try out many more recipes with it! Invest in a wok, it’s a must-have for any adventurous foodie cook.
When it was all said and done, I’d like to say we made an excellent pad Thai. We both commented that I could have been more generous with the sauce. I highly encourage you to make your own pad Thai sauce rather than trying to find pre-made store-bought. It’s so simple, and you can customize it to your liking. Just make sure when making your sauce you remember the four main flavors of all Thai food – sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. Popular ingredients in pad Thai sauce include fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, tamarind juice, ground peanuts (optional), and chili powder or some other spice. We also incorporated some garlic chili sauce into ours because we wanted to be sure it had that kick. I definitely could have made more as I actually added a few more noodles at the last minute, but it still tasted delightful! Next time I’ll remember to be much more generous with the sauce!
All in all, it was a great Thai cooking experience! Would you try it? Comment below and let me know your thoughts!
Note about the recipes: since I got the cookbook from a cooking class and it was created locally by the owners of the cooking school, I cannot reproduce them here. However, there are tons of recipes online for both pad Thai and mango sticky rice! I also encourage you to check out the cooking school I went to – Cooking@Home Thai Culinary School! They were wonderful, friendly, and so helpful! They even have some photos of their cookbook in their photo gallery!