This was an experiment I made today, that turned out good, but I'll make some changes to it, for next time, as noted below.
Sun. night I made a soup - it was sort of soup weather, being cool and rainy, and I wanted to use up one of those butternuts I still have out there. And I was having a craving for some Thai food, and this recipe came back to me - simple, as it only has 6 ingredients (actually a few more, as one is a curry paste, though it is a simple one), and only cooks long enough to tenderize the squash. I made a double recipe, to use up the squash, but I only added enough Thai basil for what I ate - I'll add more as it's reheated, so it's fresh every time. Making this got me craving more Thai, thus the experimental recipe the next day.
Late yesterday, I saw this huge can of garbanzos that I found when cleaning out the pantry at Mom's place (no idea why she would have bought this - had to be something that she was going to give to the church, or something like that), and I finally made myself use that, and some package of quick cook whole grains my sister gave me, because she's on that keto diet now, and not eating these things anymore. So I cooked them up last night, and "skinned" those garbanzos (thank God most of the garbanzos in those small cans I get these days are fairly well skinned!), and mixed the two, and stuck them in the fridge 'til today.
I was going to make up one of those usual dishes I make in the summer, but didn't have enough tomatoes, and it's still soaked out there. So I started thinking of some Thai flavors - starting with what I put in Som Tum, as a salad. But that dressing is a little liquidy, with all that lime juice, so I thought about using tamarind for some of the sour, since it is thick, and that made me think of the things I use in Pad Thai. So I made a dressing with some tamarind, lime juice, and a small amount of rice vinegar - something with a unique flavor, which is good in things like this, but doesn't give a strong vinegar flavor. I added palm sugar, for the sweet, 1/3c dried shrimp, 3 cloves garlic, 10 ripe Thai peppers (sounds like a lot, but could have used more - think of this amount of salad I make, adding a whole chocolate habanero, which is much hotter!), and 1/3c peanuts, crushed. Also, about 1/4c of fish sauce; I added a little bit more of this, as well as the tamarind. Since this was an experiment, I had to add a bit more of the salty and sour, until it was just right. Turned out really good, though I'll have to tweak it a little - could use a little more dried shrimp, and less fish sauce, and a few more Thai peppers, even for the other two that tried it. They think it is mild, for me! I'll harvest some more sunsugars tomorrow, and add some more to the salad. I may try some things with the leftovers, like making a chiffonade from one of the lime leaves, and adding some of it to a small bowl of this, or maybe try the same with a Thai basil leaf. I'll have to go to the Asian market tomorrow, for some more dried shrimp, among other things, having used up all of it in that soup and the salad!
All the seasonings, except the palm sugar:
IMG_20180910_210706337 by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Peppers and garlic, ready to grind up. Was going to do it in a mortar, but I felt lazy!
IMG_20180910_211606394 by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Dried shrimp, soaked, drained, and added to grind up:
IMG_20180910_211712905 by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished mix, ready to be added to the salad, along with the tamarind, rice vinegar, and fish sauce:
IMG_20180910_211830684 by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished salad. As you may see, I forgot to mention that I also added those red noodle beans, that I went out yesterday to harvest - only about a generous cup of them, which I cooked with that grain mix:
![Image](https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1891/44557001742_9670920cf5_k.jpg)
[url=
https://flic.kr/p/2aTmhgY]IMG_20180910_21563
Update: a friend and I tested the leftovers of this salad with the different herbs today. We just put about a half a cup in each of 5 bowls. Then, I
shredded a lime leaf, a couple Thai basil leaves, a regular basil leaf, and chopped up a couple cilantro sprigs, and stirred these into the bowls, leaving one w/o herbs. Then we sampled them; all were good, but we both thought that the lime leaf and Thai basil were too strong. The regular basil was better, but the cilantro was best, and we both thought that it improved on the plain batch. So, I chopped up about 3/4 c of cilantro, and added this to the salad. Before this testing, I adjusted the flavor by adding another 1/4c salted shrimp, and 10 more Thai peppers - yes, you read that right, 10 more! It definitely improved the flavor, yet, as my friend noted, it was still nowhere near as hot as the salad I make with just one chocolate habanero, in the same amount.