Crites Family Stuff

Ingredients for 4 servings

• 15 spring roll sheets
• 3 oz mung bean noodles (vermicelli, or bean thread)
• .5 cup shredded cabbage
• .33 cup dried fungus
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2.5 cups cooking oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• .5 cup ground pork or ground chicken
• .5 cup shredded carrots
• .5 tbsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp wheat flour or tapioca flour

Steps

1. Defrost the frozen spring roll wrappers. They will dry easily, so always keep wrappers covered with moist kitchen towels as you work on one at a time.
2. Soak the dried fungus in warm water until it is soft. Drain and set aside.
3. Soak mung bean noodles in warm water for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. The mung bean noodles will appear transparent, drain the water completely. Cut them into short pieces (2 inches) and set them aside.
4. Take 1/4 cup of water at room temperature in a small pot and put wheat flour or tapioca flour into it, mix this as well as you can. Put pot on very low heat and stir contents for about 3 minutes to make a paste. Set this aside.
5. On medium heat, add 1 tbsp of oil into a frying pan, wait for 1 minute then add chopped garlic to it. Stir fry for half a minute. Add ground pork or chicken and stir fry for about 5 minutes.
6. Add shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, fungus, mung bean noodles and stir well.
7. Add soy sauce, salt, ground black pepper and stir well. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the meat is done. Remove from heat and allow this to cool.
8. To roll the spring rolls: put one wrapper on the cutting board or plate, put 1 tbsp of stuffing on the wrapper about 1-1/2 inches from the edge. Fold the edge towards the stuffing, firmly roll up the spring roll one time. Fold both side edges and then roll them up to the end. Use a little flour paste on the end to bind the wrapper. Place the rolls under a moist kitchen towel to prevent them from drying out, and take them out just before frying.
9. On medium heat, pour 3 cups of oil in frying pan. Check if the oil is hot enough by putting small piece of spring roll wrapper into hot oil. If it's hot enough, the oil will sizzle around it. Fry 3 to 4 spring rolls at a time until golden brown. Place them on a paper towel.
10. Serving: The spring rolls taste best when served warm with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. The best way is to cut them into half to make sure they are not too hot to eat.

Tips: You can try using half ground shrimp and half ground pork to add a different texture and flavor. For vegetarian, you can omit the meat.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• .67 cup water
• .5 cup sugar
• .67 cup vinegar
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 cucumber, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 long hot pepper, sliced (or red bell pepper) (optional)

Steps

1. In a small saucepan, on medium heat, stir sugar and water until they bubble. Then remove from heat.
2. Add vinegar and let it cool down.
3. Place all ingredients in a serving bowl. Chill and serve.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• 2 tbsp tamarind liquid
• 5 tbsp peanut butter (I prefer chunky natural)
• 2 tbsp red curry paste
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 1.5 cups coconut milk

Steps

1. Tip: In Thailand, people use peanuts ground instead of peanut butter. However, peanut butter is more convenient and common in the American kitchen.
2. In a saucepan, add coconut milk and heat it up at medium heat.
3. As it is heating, stir in the curry paste and break the paste into small pieces. Mix well.
4. When you see red oil simmering to the top, add the peanut butter, sugar, fish sauce and tamarind liquid. Stir.
5. Taste, you should be able to taste all three flavors: salty, sweet, and sour. If it becomes too thick, add a few teaspoons of water to thin the paste.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 lb pork or chicken
• .25 tsp tumeric powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• .5 cup coconut milk

Steps

1. Soak bamboo skewers at least half an hour so that the ends do not burn on the grill.
2. Slice pork or chicken into thin strips (about 1/4 of an inch thick) that will fit onto the skewers.
3. Marinade the meat with curry powder, sugar, coconut milk and salt for the same amount of time that you soak the skewers. (I do both at the same time.)
4. Thread the pork or chicken onto the bamboo skewers. I find that stuffing the skewers gives me a moister, tastier result that is more tender than when it is stretched tight.
5. Grill and serve with peanut sauce and cucumber in vinegar.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• 8 rice papers
• .5 cup Thai basil leaves
• 16 sprigs cilantro (cut off the stem)
• 8 shrimp (peeled, cleaned, boiled)
• 1 cup rice noodles (rice stick)
• 4 leaves green leaf lettuce
• .5 cup mint
• .5 cup grated carrot
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken

Steps

1. Tips: For vegetarians, you can omit the chicken and/or add tofu if you prefer.
2. Soak about 1/4 of a package of rice noodles in warm water for 5-10 minutes. Boil some water in a small pot, drain noodles and put in boiling water for 1 minute and drain. Rinse bean sprouts and cook in microwave for 1 minute. They should be lightly crispy.
3. Put one piece of rice paper at a time under water for about 10 seconds. Take rice paper out of water and lay flat on cutting board or plate.
4. About an inch from one end of rice paper, put these ingredients in layers in the following order: small piece of green leaf lettuce, cooked rice noodles, 3-4 basil leaves, 2-3 mint leaves, 2 sprigs cilantro, some bean sprouts, shredded cooked chicken, grated carrot.
5. Fold the end over the ingredients and fold 1 more time, fold the other two sides over. Lay shrimp (slice shrimp in half so that one spring roll that uses only one shrimp looks as if there are 2 shrimps) on the rice paper. Continue to fold rice paper to the end.
6. Serving: Dip spring roll into sweet chili sauce, or peanut sauce. It's good to prepare and eat them fresh. Refrigerating them is not recommended, the rice paper will get hard.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• 2.75 cups sticky rice - uncooked
• 3.25 sticky rice - uncooked if using Mae Ploy brand coconut milk
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cup sugar
• .75 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Steps

1. Soak the sticky rice and cook it as directed in recipe how to cook sticky rice.
2. While the rice is cooking, put coconut milk, sugar, salt, vegetable oil in a saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat when it boils.
3. After rice is cooked, put the sticky rice in a big bowl and pour the coconut mixture over the rice. Coconut mixture should cover the rice, stir evenly. Cover for 10-15 minutes to let coconut milk soak into the rice.
4. Serve warm with fresh mango that has been sliced.

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Ingredients for 4 servings

• Lukewarm water
• Rice

Steps

1. In lukewarm water, soak sticky rice for 2-1/2 - 3 hours (or overnight in room temperature water).
2. Fill half of the steamer pot with water. Drain the rice and put it in the bamboo basket. Cover the rice with any lid (if you don't have a lid, aluminum foil will work). Set the bamboo basket over the steamer pot.
3. Bring to boil and let it steam for 10 minutes.
4. Stir, so the rice at the bottom moves to the top.
5. Steam for 10 more minutes and stir again.
6. Steam for 10 more minutes. The color of the rice will turn clear when it's done. Taste to see if it's soft enough. If it's still not soft enough, steam just 5 minutes more and check again, until it's done.

Tips: You can re-steam the rice if it's too hard later on, because Utah weather is very dry compared to Thailand. To clean the bamboo basket, just let the rice that sticks to the basket dry and it will come off when wiped with your hand.

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Ingredients for 2 servings

• 1.5 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 cups green papaya, peeled and shredded
• 3 Thai green beans, cut into half
• 1 tbsp dried shrimp
• 5 cherry tomatoes (or regular tomatoes sliced into small pieces)
• 2 tbsp toasted peanuts
• .75 lime
• 1 clove garlic
• 1.5 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 Thai chili peppers

Steps

1. In Thailand, people use a clay mortar and wooden pestle. Smash a clove of garlic first, add chili peppers, and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like it really hot, then crush them more.
2. Add green beans and cherry tomatoes cut in half (or regular tomatoes cut into small pieces). Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of tomatoes.
3. Add shredded green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar, and spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.

Tips: If you do not have a big mortar, you can crush garlic, chili pepper, tomatoes and green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar to bowl and mix well. Add shredded green papaya and mix well.

1. As always, the balance of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and chili peppers listed here are guidelines. This is an individual dish that you might like yours with more lime juice or sugar or chili pepper than what the recipe calls for.
2. Serve with sticky rice and wedges of lettuce or cabbage.

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Ingredients for 6 servings

• 2 lbs pork or chicken
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• .5 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• .5 tbsp ground white or black pepper
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

Steps

1. Tips on Meat: If using-whole chicken, cut into small pieces. Chicken legs, make a cut into the legs 2-3 times. Chicken thighs, take out bone and skin. Pork, use pork chop that is not too thick.
2. Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and marinate the meat over night in the refrigerator, or at least for 2 hours. Grill the meat on low or medium heat until golden brown. You can also fry it in a non-stick pan with small amount of vegetable oil on medium heat until golden brown.
3. Serve with sticky rice and dip with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (Mae Ploy).

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Ingredients for 3 servings

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup shrimp
• 2 limes
• 1 lemon grass
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 Thai chili peppers
• 1 cube Knorr chicken bouillon
• .5 cup straw mushroom (can) or Enoki mushroom
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 5 sprigs cilantro
• 1 tbsp Nam Prig Pow (Thai chili paste with bean oil)

Steps

1. Start boiling the water in a quart pot. Add Knorr chicken bouillon. Peel and devein the shrimp and set them aside.
2. Cut lemon grass into pieces, 2-3 inches long. Use the back of your knife to pound the lemon grass, just to bruise it to release the flavor. Drop the lemon grass in water and let boil for 5 minutes.
3. Put 1 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tbsp lime juice into individual bowls you will serve the soup in. Set them aside.
4. Remove the middle stem from the kaffir lime leaves and add the leafy part to the pot.
5. Add drained straw mushrooms or Enoki mushrooms (cut off the bottom root).
6. Add crushed chili (if you don't like it hot, cut down on the chili peppers or do not crush them, just leave them whole for decoration).
7. Let it boil, then add shrimp.
8. Add Nam Prig Pow and stir to dissolve it. Turn off the heat.
9. Serving: Scoop immediately the shrimp, mushroom and liquid into the individual serving bowls (that were set aside). You will see that the broth becomes cloudy because of the lime juice. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve. If you use only one big serving bowl, put 3 tbsp fish sauce and 3 tbsp lime juice in the bowl and follow the same steps.

Tips: Be careful, the peppers can be hot. Take a small sip at a time. Add more fish sauce and/or lime juice if it tastes bland. Do not eat lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves.

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