My First Gai Pad Gra Prau

My First Attempt

Servia finally found some Holy Basil as I mentioned yesterday. I took a bunch of recipes off line but I made my own combination based on my memory of my favorite Thai restaurant in the city of my Alma Mater. This was my favorite dish. My version of it was way way too salty because the fish sauce we got was insanely salty. I really needed oyster sauce but I couldn't find any at the store where I got the chicken and the peppers. Here is a version of my recipe (serves 4-5 people):

Ingredients

• 1 lb of chicken breast, cut into bit-sized pieces
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 6 sections of garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, sliced thinly
• 5 dried jalapenos with seeds, minced
• 3/4 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced medium-thin
• 2 red chili peppers (small), sliced into thin strips
• 1/2 a green bell pepper in thin slices
• 1/2 a red bell pepper in thin slices
• 1/4 cup holy basil leaves, fresh
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup fish sauce-- this was a complete disaster because of the salt. My suggestion would be 1/4 cup rice wine instead
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking sherry (optional)
• 1/4 lime's worth of juice

Directions

• Do all preparations.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a wok
• Add in the dried jalapinos, garlic, and shallots and cook for 1 minute.
• Add in the mushrooms and cook for one minute.
• Add in the peppers and cook for two minutes.
• Make a whole in the vegetables in the center of the wok. Pour in the sesame oil and then stir in the chicken and the holy basil. Cook the chicken until it is white on all sides but not brown.
• While the chicken is cooking, mix the sauce together
• Pour the sauce into the wok and cook for 3-5 minutes (until chicken is cooked through).
• Serve over jasmine rice.

Anyway, I will continue to experiment. It is my favorite dish and I will make it work eventually.

Holy Basil: Present and Accounted For

Servia is a genius. She finally found some holy basil! She found the plant lurking alone in a Home Depot amongst other herbs. I cooked with it for the first time tonight. It was good, but not perfect (I made a slight error with fish sauce). More updates after my German final tomorrow.

Three Teacup Chicken

I finally got with the times a few days ago and made myself an iGoogle account so I could see RSS feeds (not from blogger) in a convenient location. When I made the page, it asked me what my interests were, and I indicated various things, including cooking. Now, on my iGoogle page it provides two recipes each day for my viewing pleasure. This is excellent!

Excited about the recipes and unable to obtain the necessary Holy Basil for my Gai Pad Gra Pow, I decided to try out a dish that showed up on my iGoogle called Three Teacup Chicken. The only modifications to the recipe were forgoing the option anise and adding the optional dried red chili. I got out my barely-used wok that Cerinthus found someone giving away at the end of the last school year and set to work (with lots of help from Servia).

The chicken and "broth" in the wok

Brown jasmine rice.

The chicken and broth poured over the rice.

It was wonderful! We served the dish with jasmine brown rice and were both delighted with the result. I recommend it highly for anyone who likes Asian food: delightful, mildly spicy, and light but filling. Enjoy!

(Gai) Pad Gra Prau/Prao/Pow

I love a Thai dish called Pad Gra Prau at the Thai restaurant up the street from my Alma Mater. However, i have not been able to find it at any of the other Thai places that I have visited. The reason is that it seems to be called (Gai) Pad Gra Pow, apparently pronounced "Pot kapow" (according to this website) which is usually rendered something like "chicken basil" on American menus. I wanted to make some for myself. Apparently, the key ingredient is something called Holy Basil, which is a spicy basil that flavors the dish. Is there another name for this plant? Grocery stores seem to regard the term with a lack of understanding and I cannot seem to find holy basil anywhere. I may just have to grow my own...