Wok This Way

I had a yen for some Asian style cuisine so I decide to bust out my wok. I spent my work day poking around the internet and building a grocery list and game plan. I liked the recipes I found at Bangkok Cuisine. You can't go wrong with a name like that.

So, having hit the grocery on the way home from work on Wednesday, I assembled the ingredients for Basil Chicken, Chili Fish Sauce and Cucumber Salad. Oil, sugar, fish sauce, chilies (had to make do with what they had), lots of basil (again, not Thai basil, but basil nevertheless) and garlic (check out my spankin' new garlic press).

It looks like a terribly large mess of basil, but that is the dominant flavor for this dish and the leaves dwindle to a manageable size very quickly upon hitting the wok. As usual, I did manage to slice myself. This time on the underside of my knuckle on the left hand. I didn't really notice until I was seeding the chili peppers. Damn that stings. So does the lime juice.



Got the assembly line ready. Key for the wok. Time flies. Be prepared.



Quickly working up the Cucumber Salad. Rice vinegar, oil, onion, tomato, cucumber, fish sauce.


Soaked some rice in preparation for an easy microwaving. Don't look at me like that. This works admirably. Try it. And no, I didn't put that metal bowl in the machine, despite how fun that would have been.

Chili fish sauce. I almost didn't bother with this. It might have been my favorite bit. The aroma was tremendous. It is the one item that really brought home the "Thai" element for me. The mingling of the lime and the fish sauce and chili scents was fan-farkin-tastik. Fish sauce, chilies, shallot, lime juice.


Ready to go.

Now, the following day (that's today if you are keeping count at home), I whipped up a quick Spicy Beef with Basil. I put the beef in the freezer for a bit to make it easy to cut the thin slices I wanted. It defrosts rapidly at room temperature once you have it all sliced. Fish sauce (yes, I am getting good use out of that), chili sauce, bell pepper, onion and basil.

The line is prepped. The wok is just smoking.


Finished this off with a quick de-glazing using a smidge of chicken stock. Drizzled that over the top after plating.

Thar she blows. I like the color of the yellow (or orange, whatever, I can at least tell it ain't green) over the traditional green pepper for this dish.


I think I'm going to grill some Thai bbq pork sometime this weekend. Bring me some beer.