Fried Rice wt Lap Xuong, eggs, vegetables

This is fried rice for breakfast.

1 cup steamed jasmine white day old, refrigerated rice

Peanut oil as required 

Lap Xuong sausage,  sliced thinly

2 scallion sliced thinly and dividing the green from white sections 

2 shallots chopped

2 medium cloves chopped or minced garlic 

2 eggs, fried, chopped

1 tbls. Shoxing wine 

1 teaspoon of rose water

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons of soy sauce 

You can added additional ingredients if wanted. ( pimentos, red peppers)

 Cook sausage a dry wok over low heat, allowing the sausage to slowly give up some of its fat while cooking. When done retain for later.

Add a little oil, and stir fry, garlic and shallots, thewhites of scallion, any added vegetables.

When done, retain.

Add enough oil to fry eggs. When done, break up eggs with wok spoon. Add back rice to facilitate breaking sup eggs. Stir fry while adding the rest of the ingredients including the green scallion and sugar, wine, soy, rose water. Correct the seasonings.

TOM KHA GAI (IN 30 MINUTES!) From Woks of Life and others

Tom Kha Gai is a delicious Thai coconut chicken soup that’s emblematic of Thai cuisine’s harmonious balance of salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and bitter flavors. 

This Tom Kha Gai recipe tastes just like what you might find at a particularly good Thai restaurant, and despite its complex taste, you can make it in about 30 minutes.

I have taken liberties with the exact ingredients, pardon.

1 pound Boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 quart Homemade unsalted Chicken broth 

1 Can of Coconut cream or milk (preferably cream)

3 lemongrass stalks, bruised with back of a cleaver

1/2 or more thump ginger 

4-6 kaffir lime leaves

Thai chilies, sliced to 1/8”, qty as desired *

1/2 pound of cremini mushroom, cut into thirds of the mushroom

2-4 Splashes of fish sauce

Turbinado sugar or light brown sugar

Cilantro or Thai basil, as garnish 

Fresh lime juice

Remove the upper woody parts of the lemongrass stalks, and crushed the bulbous end with the bake of a rather heavy cleaver or chef’s knife to help release oils.

Cut chicken thighs into flats about 3/16 thick. Bring chicken stock to a boil, and add the chicken and simmer for 15 minutes until tender.

Add coconut cream

Add the herbs and chilies.

Add the mushrooms.

Add about half of the fish sauce and sugar and simmer for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat, and add most of the lime juice, holding back a little in reserve.  Taste and add more of the reserved fish sauce and lime juice to taste.

Stir in chopped cilantro

Serve on its own, or with jasmine white rice too!

* Thai chilies are hot, but it’s hot on the tip of the tongue only, and goes away 15 minutes later.

Also see Tom Yum Soup for the Shrimp variety which I also like treamendously. 

Crispier Roast Potatoes cooked in Animal Fat

Fresh Red potatoes will not only require less time, but are easier to prepare. 

Three pounds fresh red potatoes cut into triangular bite sized slices.

Salt

Pepper

Manteca (Mexica pork lard) to fry

White vinegar

Water for blanching the potatoes in acidulated water.

Bring water to a roiling boil. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (F).

Blanch the sliced potatoes for three to five minutes in water made mildly acid with vinegar. Drain in a collinder for 30 minutes. Do not pat dry. Spread on a glass dish that has been greased with lard.* 

When oven is preheated, put glass dish in oven to melt the lard. Remove pan with oven mitts. Add the potatoes, and toss to fully coat the potatoes adding a sprinkle of salt as you turn over potatoes. Cook for 1/2 hour, then turn potatoes with a metal spatula, and continue browning until a golden brown.

Remove from the oven and add pepper to desired amount. Run spatula to loosen the potatoes. 

Serve warm or the the desired heat. Garnish as desired, I use minced rosemary.

*The French used duck fat.