Gaeng Som is a water-based Thai sour curry that can also be described as a spicy seafood and vegetable soup. Literally Gaeng means curry and Som means sour. The curry paste is easy to make from scratch, as it is … Continue reading Gaeng Som (Thai Sour Curry with Shrimp)
Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve been paying more attention to the presentation of the food that I cook — as it is only by photos (and words) that I can show my creations. However, I always put flavor first. Making … Continue reading Thai Royal Flower Dumplings (Chor Muang)
This recipe is posted exactly 9 years after I posted for the first time on this blog. Over 3 million views and 1,400 blog posts later, of which more than 1,200 recipes, I am still blogging regularly (although not as … Continue reading Mu Shu Pork Sous-Vide
Kimchi stew has great depth of flavor because it is spicy, savory, sweet, and sour. I’ve adapted Maangchi’s recipe for sous-vide, which ensures that the pork will be tender and succulent. This is wonderful comfort food for this time of … Continue reading Kimchi Stew Sous-Vide (Kimchi-jjigae)
Thai food is so much better if you make your own fresh curry paste from scratch. Fresh curry paste is not just spicy hot, but also very fragrant and complex. The secret to juicy tender fish in your curry rather … Continue reading Thai Red Fish Curry with Squash
We love eggplant and we love Thai food, so it was no surprise that we loved this when our friend Melvin prepared this for us according to Pailin’s recipe. Although you could also make it with regular eggplant, it is … Continue reading Thai Eggplant Salad (ยำมะเขือยาว)
Green papaya is an intriguing ingredient to me, because it is just an unripe papaya, but here in the Netherlands costs about three times as much as a ripe one. The green papaya itself doesn’t have much flavor and provides … Continue reading Thai Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum)
I have never been to Thailand, but I love Thai food (so I should probably go there at some point, if only for the food). Luckily my friend Melvin has been to Thailand many times, so together with Thai bloggers … Continue reading Mango and Sticky Rice (Kao Niew Mamuang)
These duck lettuce wraps are somewhat similar to mandarin pancakes with peking duck, but a lot less work to make (and a lot lower on carbs, if that matters to you). The crunchy lettuce with the flavorful filling has a … Continue reading Duck Lettuce Wraps
Curing fish improves its texture for cooking sous-vide, and this miso cure also adds flavor. This recipe is often prepared with black cod, a type of fish that is not available here. I prepared it with salmon instead, and it … Continue reading Miso-Cured Salmon Sous-Vide
My friend Melvin is great with Asian food. The other day he prepared this mackerel in Thai red curry sauce for us, and it was so good that I wanted to make it myself as soon as possible. Melvin got … Continue reading Mackerel in Thai Red Curry Sauce (Choo Chee)
The first thing I made with my homemade kimchi was a kimchi pancake, again using a recipe by Maangchi. Kimchi pancakes are popular in Korea and I can see why as they are very tasty: crispy and crunchy with a … Continue reading Kimchi Pancake
Kimchi is probably the most famous Korean food. To make kimchi at home, I used Maangchi’s recipe for traditional napa cabbage kimchi. What makes the recipe ‘traditional’ is to leave the cabbage leaves whole rather than chopping them. The only … Continue reading Homemade Kimchi
Thanks to the recipe that was included with the jar of XO sauce I had bought for another dish, I have now discovered another great way of making fried rice next to my usual recipe. The blend of flavors is … Continue reading Ground Beef and XO Fried Rice
Making your own Thai green curry paste from scratch is so worth it. If you have a blender it is very easy and the hardest part could be sourcing the ingredients. Fresh curry paste has more depth of flavor and … Continue reading Thai Green Curry with Sous Vide Beef and Eggplant
Beef rendang is the national dish of Indonesia. I’ve already blogged my recipe for Rendang many years ago. Back then, I didn’t think it made sense to prepare it sous-vide, as an important part of making Rendang is reducing and … Continue reading Beef Rendang Sous-Vide
We love Taiwanese food so much that it keeps coming on the blog (and that we are already thinking about when to there again). We liked the “three cup” scallops and squid so much, that I decided to try it … Continue reading Three Cup Chicken (Taiwanese Chicken with Thai Basil)
Steamed Chinese buns with a meat filling are known as “bapao” in the Netherlands. It is very popular snack food. You can buy them in the supermarket and heat them up in the microwave. The quality is not very good … Continue reading Chinese Steamed Buns with Beef Short Ribs Sous Vide Filling
BBQ’ed octopus is a popular street food at Taiwanese night markets. The photo above was taken at a night market in Taipei, but we saw it everywhere. Large octopus legs are put on a skewer and cooked slowly above a … Continue reading Taiwanese Night Market BBQ Octopus
One of my favorite dishes in Taiwan was ‘3 cup’ scallops. The name refers to the sauce, which includes equal amounts of soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil. But the star of the dish is the Taiwanese basil, which … Continue reading Taiwanese Scallops with Basil (‘3 Cup’ Scallops)
We really loved the street food in Taiwan. On the island of Cijin that is part of the harbor city of Kaohsiung, we had very tasty oyster cakes. You could also call them fritters, because the oysters are deep fried … Continue reading Taiwanese Oyster Cakes
Our friend Marjolein makes great Asian style food, and we really liked this variation on the well-known Peking duck that she prepared for us. Usually Peking duck is all about the skin, but in Marjolein’s version it is all about … Continue reading Duck Breast with Hoisin and Pancakes
These oysters are a famous dish from Chinese restaurant Nam Kee in Amsterdam, because a book and movie have been named after them (and because they are so good). The oysters are steamed with a Chinese black bean sauce. You … Continue reading Steamed Oysters with Black Bean Sauce (Oesters van Nam Kee)
Haddock (schelvis in Dutch) is the lesser cousin of cod, but that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare a nice dish with it. Still inspired by our Taiwan trip, I decided to pan fry it and serve it with Asian flavors. … Continue reading Pan Fried Haddock, Asian Style
Whenever we tried vegetables in restaurants in Taiwan, they were always prepared quite simply: stir cooked (first stir fried and then steamed by adding water) with garlic and sometimes some additional ingredients like ginger, chilli, tiny shrimp, or a bit … Continue reading Taiwanese Stir Cooked Cabbage with Tiny Shrimp
As Taiwan is an island we traveled along the coast, it is not surprising that seafood was abundant and fresh. Squid was available as street food (recipe to follow in the summer) and stir fried in restaurants. At 旗后活海產 on Cijin … Continue reading Taiwanese Squid with Thai Basil and Ginger
During our vacation in Taiwan I discovered that I really liked the cuisine: high quality fresh ingredients, prepared simply but skillfully to allow the flavor of the ingredients to shine. Vegetables were often prepared very simply: stir fried with a … Continue reading Gai Lan
When choosing a restaurant in Taiwan, do not let the (lack of) decor fool you, as it does not say anything about the quality of the food. Besides, most restaurants look like this so you would probably starve if you … Continue reading Taiwanese Stir Fried Shrimp With Black Beans
In Taiwan we had a lot of fried rice. Every restaurant makes it in a slightly different way. Constant factors seemed to be green onions (scallions) and eggs. Often tiny dried salted shrimp were added. Sometimes diced ham or slivers … Continue reading Fried Rice
This is the first of a series of dishes that we really enjoyed in Taiwan and I wanted to recreate at home: dumplings that have soup in them, that will burst open in your mouth as you eat them. They … Continue reading Steamed Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao)
