Tofu Delight

It's summer in Texas and we have a lot of peppers to spare. I adapted this recipe from a chicken version that my mom made when she visited. I love the beautiful color combination of the darker firm tofu, onions and bell peppers so I named it Tofu Delight. You can substitute chicken or pork for tofu.

As for tofu, I use firm tofu for this dish. To fry, take the tofu out from the water. Sit the tofu pieces on kitchen towels and then cover those pieces with another towel and put something heavy on top to release water from tofu blocks. That way, when you fry, it will not splash the oil everywhere. To fry tofu, cut them to bite size, fill up a pot (a dutch over is best or any medium size pot will be fine) with vegetable oil. If you have a deep fryer, you know what to do. Heat up the oil until it reaches about 350 F. If you don't have fryer thermometer, try putting a piece of tofu in and see if it start bubbling. You can also test it with a few drops of water. When the oil is hot enough, add tofu to the oil. Make sure you don't add too much tofu in there, may be a couple of handfuls. Adding too much tofu in the oil will bring the temperature down too much. Fry for about 3 minutes and take them out when they start floating.

If you follow the steps above, you will get a perfectly fried food that is not so greasy. When you fry food, it is important that your oil is hot enough. When you add food to the hot oil, the temperature of the oil will boil the water in the food and that's why it starts to bubbles. Since water and oil don't mix, oil can't penetrate into the food because of steam barrier around the food. Another very important rule about frying is that you take your food out when it's done. Foods will start floating when it's done because it gets lighter from losing so much water. Take your food out before it stops bubbling to ensure crisp and non greasy fried food.



This is super easy dish that you can make often. Right now, bell peppers are in season until it freezes so you have no excuse to not make this dish. The combination of shallot, garlic and cilantro stems is so aromatic that you guests for dinner will ask "what are you cooking?" as soon as they enter the house. You can switch things up using bit size chicken or even pork or beef for this dish. Simmer pork or beef a little longer than tofu and chicken.

Tofu Delight

3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp chopped shallots
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped cilantro stem
1/4 tbsp chopped chilies
2 cups chicken/tofu
1 cup sliced onions
2 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp sugar
3-4 tbsp soy sauce
3-4 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 cup water/stock
3 cups chopped bell peppers
a pinch of chopped cilantro
a pinch of ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan, add shallot, chilies, cilantro stems and garlic and fry until fragrant. Add chicken/tofu and stir fry. Add water, sugar, palm sugar and both of soy sauces. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the meat or tofu is darkened with dark soy sauce. Add more water/stock if needed. Add onions and stir fry until translucent. Add bell pepper and stir fry about a minute. Taste and adjust. It should taste sweet and salty. Turn off the heat and sprinkle cilantro and black pepper. Serve with rice.

Vermicelli w/ Chili Jam

The best part of running Thai Fresh, apart from working with the best employees, chatting about nothing and everything with customers, receiving deliveries from farmers, is being able to change our menu everyday all day long. It's more challenging and fun to always have to think what to make for our small rotating menu of about 14 items. I spend a lot of my time reading old Thai cookbooks, and I mean old, 20 to 30 years old, that my parents brought from Thailand when they came visit.

Creating dishes from what's around us is part of our family tradition. My mom and I were always coming up with new recipes that we could use whatever we had in our garden, our fridge and our pantry. Many times, we would make a commitment not to leave the house and come up with a meal from what we have.





I saw this recipe and it sounds so simple and delicious. You can make your own chili jam from the recipe below or you can buy it in jars from Asian grocery stores. Homemade chili jam is hard to beat. They make perfect presents in little jars tied with ribbons. This recipe is the new comfort food for me.

To serve, I put some fresh beansprouts on top with Thai chili flakes and a little of pickled jalapenos (sliced jalapenos in white vinegar, pickle for at least one day.)To make Thai chili flakes, buy dry Thai chilies and dry roast them in a pan on the stove for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, or toast them in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes. Put the chilies in a food processor and pulse until they become flakes.

Vermicelli w/ Chili Jam

Chili Jam Recipe
adapted from Thai Food by David Thomson

oil for deep frying
4 cups shallots, sliced lengthwise
2 cups garlic, sliced length wise
1/2 cup dried shrimp, rinsed
1 cu p dried long red chillies, deseeded and chopped (if you can't find the ones from Thailand, the dried ones from New Mexico will be a good substitute.)
10 slices galanga
1 tsp shrimp paste, roasted (I usually just take the amount and sit it over flame on a spoon or David Thomson suggested you can wrap it with foil or banana leaf and sit that in a pan over flame or in the oven)
1 cup palm sugar
1/2 cup thick tamarind water (to make thick tamarind water, take a ping pong ball size deseeded tamarind paste and soak in cold or slightly warm water, squeeze out the liquid and strain. Add more water to the leftover if it doesn't make 1/2 cup)
3 tbsp salt or 1/2 cup fish sauce

Heat oil in a wok or a large dutch oven, deep fry shallots, garlic, dried shrimp, chillies and galangal separately until golden. Blend them all in a food processor with shrimp paste, add a little bit of fry oil up to one cup to moisten the mixture.

In a pan, bring the mixture to the boil and season with palm sugar, tamarind water and salt or fish sauce. Simmer until quite thick, stirring regularly to prevent the paste from burning. The jam should be sweet, sour and salty with a little bit of heat. If you would like it to be hotter, you can add fried dried small Thai Chillies along with the dried big chillies.


Vermicelli w/ Chili Jam (Sen Mee Pad Nam Prik Pao)

4 oz soaked vermicelli (I prefer Wai Wai brand from Thailand. Soak the noodles in cold water for about 15 minutes)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup chicken breast, sliced into bite size, marinade with 1 tbsp soy sauce for 15 mintues)
6 tbsp Chili Jam of your choice
2-3 tbsp white vinegar
1-2 tbsp light soy sauce (make sure you use Thai soy sauce)
1-2 tbsp fish sauce to taste
1-2 tbsp sugar
2 cups beansprouts
1 cup chopped green onions


Heat the wok or a dutch oven up. Add oil, after 10 seconds, add garlic. Fry garlic until fragrant and golden, add chicken and fry until chicken is cooked. Add chili jam and stir fry until fragrant. Pour in the noodles and the rest of the ingredients except beansprouts and green onion. Stir fry until incorporated, taste and adjust. Add beansprouts and green onions, fold in the vegetable until wilted. Serve w/ pickled jalapenos, roasted dried chilies and some fresh beansprout.