Paddy Thai - St. Patrick's Day in Bangkok

On Burns Night I wrote about Burns Night in Bradford ("Burns Night Bradford Style").  On St David's Day I wrote about Llarregub (get it? Oh never mind). And last Saturday on St Patrick's day my thoughts turned to Erin from Bangkok.

Now they celebrate St Patrick's day in Belfast and Ballymena and of course Boston in the USA but I had not expected anything in Bangkok. I was in for a surprise.  I gather there had been a parade but it was so damned hot that I stayed in the bar.

A lot of beer was sunk that night but even more pad thai. What's pad thai? An Irishman who has spent too long in the sun?  Not exactly.  It's this.

And here's how to make it:

Serves 1 to 2:

Ingredients

100 gm of dry rice noodles, pre-soaked in warn water until soft
5 medium sized prawns peeled and de-veined
2 table spoons of vegetable oil (NB never use olive oil or sesame oil in Thai cooking)
25 gm of chopped chives or spring onions
1 table spoon of palm sugar (palm sugar is from coconut trees or jaggery or even at a push brown sugar)
2 tea spoons of fish sauce
1 egg
50 gm of raw bean sprouts
1 table spoon of finely chopped garlic (or garlic paste)
60 gm of firm tofu cut into strips
1 table spoon of tamarind paste or white vinegar
1 table spoon of pickled white radish finely chopped or pickled cabbage
1 table spoon of ground roasted peanuts or cashew nuts (take your pick)
1/2 tea spoon of dry red chilli powder

Method

1. Heat oil, add garlic and fry.
2. Add prawns, tofu, bean sprouts, chives and stir vigorously (and  I mean vigorously!) and keep stirring until prawns are cooked.
3.  Add the egg and keep stirring as with scrambled egg.
4.  Add noodles, add seasoning (fish sauce, palm sugar, roasted nuts, red chilli powder, tamarind paste and radish or cabbage) while still stirring vigorously.
5.  When noodles are soft and translucent switch off the heat.
6.  Garnish with ground peanuts and chilli powder.

Serve with fresh vegetables.                                                                                                                                                                           

If you have had a jar or 4 on Paddy's day the vendor will cut up your noodles for you.  Why? Well imagine Mick or Seamus manipulating noddles with Thai eating utensils on a skinful.

Talking of which it is very bad manners to insert a fork directly into your mouth in Thailand.   You are supposed to use the fork to gather the food in your spoon.  Just so as you know.

Happy Holi Days

Today is the last day of Holi, a spring festival of fertility and harvest which also marks some Hindu legends. It has been celebrated for at least 1,400 years as it was mentioned  in the 7th century Sanskrit drama, Ratnaval.  Celebrated particularly in  North India, it falls on the day after full moon during the month of Phalunga, which overlaps with February and March.

Although originally a religious festival, Holi is now associated with colour. Revellers of all ages splash anyone within range with  buckets of water water and clouds of dye.  Not a day for suits or saris.  Ladies of a certain age who should know better take particular delight in forming gangs called tolis exchanging greetings and smearing the faces of those they meet.

The reason for the colouring is that  Lord Krishna is said to have smeared his beloved Radha with dye.  And that is why Holi is also associated with love - a little like St Valentine's day in England. In the evening there are bonfires and candles - just like Guy Fawkes day except its Holika a demoness.  Like Christmas it is a season of goodwill.   People forget their quarrels for the day.  Folk of all castes, classes, creeds, races, sexes surrender to the rhythm and let themselves go.

It's a great excuse to party with dancing on the streets and massive consumption of bhang.  What is bhang?   Well you have heard of marijuana brownies in California.  "Heavy, man!"  It is a bit like those only more so.   Being a respectable, law abiding lady you wouldn't expect me to give you the recipe for it, now would you.

One recipe that I will give you is for thandi, a milky drink with almonds.  Now it is supposed to have bhang in it but you can make it without and that's what I am telling you to do. :-)

You will need:

1 glass of water
½tsp Cardamom Seed
2 whole Cloves
2ozl of  Raisins
2oz of blanched and chopped Almond
1oz of chopped Pistachio
half the amount of melon seeds
600ml ltr Milk
1/4th tsp dry-roasted and powdered Saffron  

Fennel seeds are strong in flavour so mind how many you put in. 1½tsp

is a  good measure- add more or less to taste.

Rose petals and black pepper to garnish

Method

Soak the fennel cardamom & gloves in the boiled water. Leave to rest for 15mins, to that add the cold milk leaving 60ml of milk aside ( warm this to soak the saffron in) both types of nuts, melon seeds and raisins, and set aside for 45 mins, add the saffron milk, blend to a paste and strain, served chilled with crushed ice, garnish with a touch of black pepper and rose petals

St David's Day

Today is St. David's Day. I have been trying to think of something funny to say about Wales but not a lot springs to mind. I googled "Welsh humour".   And what came up? "Llareggub!" And I'm not referring to Dylan Thomas's masterpiece.
My late partner's dad was Welsh.  Indeed, his name was Evans.   He had no particular affection for the place.  When I once asked him why he replied "Nowt much happening in Wales. It's always shut, isn't it."

Same with Welsh food. Welsh rarebit, laver bread and apparently shepherd's pie.  So I was going to let the day pass until I learned of the Welsh community in Patagonia.   They make a really yummy fruit cake called torta galesa (literally "Welsh cake"). Here's a recipe in English.


Now I have never heard of Welsh cake in Wales and that got me thinking about the transplantation of cultures. How people from one continent have to adapt to their environment when they cross to another.


Take the first Thanksgiving, for example.   According to Wikipedia:

"The feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash."  

One year out and the Brits had already abandoned their meat and two veg.  The same sort of thing has happened with Indian food in Britain. "Balti" comes from Birmingham and hit the British scene in the 1970's not Baltistan. The idea of serving food in a cooking vessel would just not happen where my folks come from.

Returning to things Welsh I love daffodils.  My first daffodil flowered today.