Thai Party

Craig Love is making Pad see ew, Suzanne Love the ginger and chicken stir fry. Pictured at bottom right is the beef and bamboo curry being made by Charlene Love.

We were in the mood for Thai food, but didn’t want to go out to a restaurant this time. We decided, along with our daughter, to have a Thai party at our house! So we invited friends and family over for an evening of fun and trying out new Thai dishes. We began by looking on the internet for some good recipes. There were quite a few on several different sites but the ones that appealed to us the most were at ThaiTable.com. We chose to make three main dishes: pork and garlic stir fry, chicken and ginger stir fry, and beef and bamboo shoot curry served over rice. Also from that site we choose recipes for two appetizers and desert. For the appetizers we made were marinated grilled pork on skewers with peanut sauce and cucumbers salad and for desert we made pumpkin in coconut milk.

We tried out all the recipes a couple of times before the party, just to make sure we didn’t have a complete flop when our guests were here. Our daughter likes to experiment with new cooking methods, so during the process of selecting dishes to serve, she learned how to make rice noodles. They turned out better than ones from the store.

The recipe for making rice noodles that we used is at asiarecipe.com/ricenoodles.html. We thought it was not too difficult to make but it takes a little time. It is necessary to make them up ahead.

Some ingredients that were called for are not ones we use on a regular basis. Most of the local supermarkets have things like kale, coconut milk and bamboo shoots. Some of the recipes that called for vegetables like Chinese broccoli gave suggestions for substitutes like bok choy that were also available locally. Thai food can be very spicy. But when you make it yourself, it can be anything you want. Most of the recipes we used said that the dishes were usually seasoned at the table to taste.

The cucumber and shallot salad was prepared ahead of time. The vegetables and meat were also cut up beforehand. Desert was another thing that we were able to prepare ahead of time. The pumpkin desert is really made with winter squash, not pumpkin as we know it.

When all our guests had arrived we put the pork skewers in the broiler. As soon as they were done we served them and the salad as appetizers and immediately started the three main dishes. With three of us cooking at once, one using an electric skillet and two at the stove, we made all these dishes simultaneously, which was a lot of fun.

One of the main dishes we made is called Pad see ew. It is a type of stir fry combining pork, garlic, rice noodles and Chinese broccoli. The dish is easy and only takes a few minutes to make. Another dish was ginger and chicken stir fry. It features mushrooms, garlic, ginger, and chicken stir fried with some sugar and fish sauce. For stir frying, we usually use a frying pan but a wok would probably work better. Some of the dishes can get voluminous when adding noodles or greens. The other main dish we made was beef and bamboo shoot curry. It uses curry paste, fish sauce, bamboo shoots, coconut milk and beef, then is served over rice.

After dinner we played an enjoyable round of Balderdash. Many laughs were had by all present.