Moving Forward …

Since I would like to continue blogging, I have been presented with a difficult question. Do I continue posting to this site or do I create a new blog for all my not as exciting, but interesting for family posts? Taking the advice of a friend, I am going to reserve the Deckers in Thailand blog for posts regarding our past trips and future trips to Thailand. We don’t know when we will go back to Thailand but I do expect to do a few more posts regarding this trip as well as sharing some Thai recipes. (Including two that I just posted today!) I also hope to hear from our many new friends in Thailand and when appropriate I will post updates on our friends.

For those of you who would like to take a peak at the Decker Family blog you can find it at: Deckers at Large On this blog we’ll be keeping our family up to date on all the fun things we happen to be doing in sunny Florida. Expect a number of pictures of the troublesome but lovable Ernie the cat. Since we like hosting exchange students, you’ll also get to read about the joys of borrowing other people’s children. Most importantly, there will be pictures taken by the great photographer Karl Decker! Karl really has fallen in love with his new digital camera and he is seriously investigating an underwater digital camera. Something tells me we are going to be going diving more often.

We really enjoyed keeping this blog up to date for all our friends who followed along during our travels. We expect to go on many more trips so stay tuned for the next Decker adventure!

Thai Favorites! (recipes)

Here are a couple of recipes for food that is loved by the Thai people (and us too!). The first recipe is for Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Coconut Milk and Shrimp. In Thailand they actually prefer this soup with out the coconut milk. Also, the shrimp can be substituted with seafood, fish or chicken.

Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Coconut Milk and Shrimp (Tom Ka Khun) or
Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Shrimp (Tom Yum Khun)

Ingredients:
50 ounce can of clear chicken broth
1 stalk fresh or 3 - 4 Tablespoons frozen chopped lemongrass
3 kaffir lime leaves
12 - 15 medium or large raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 - 2 small red chilies finely sliced or red pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
15 - 20 cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
wedges of lime or lime juice
optional: cooked rice (Thai jasmine rice is the best!)

Preparation:
1. Pour stock into a deep cooking pot and turn heat to medium-high.
2. Add lemongrass to the pot and boil for 5 minutes until fragrant.
4. Add garlic, chilies, and lime leaves to the broth. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
5. Add shrimp, mushrooms, bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Cook for 5 - 8 minutes or until the shrimp is done.
6. Turn down the heat to low and add the coconut milk and fish sauce. Test the soup for spice and salt. Add more chilies, fish sauce, lemongrass, and/or lime juice to achieve the taste you like.
7. Serve in bowls either on it's own or over rice.

When we were making this, we couldn't find kaffir lime leaves so I just added extra lime juice.



We definitely have the advantage of knowing how this soup is supposed to taste. Once I was done adding the ingredients according to the recipe, Karl took over adding fish sauce and directing me to add other ingredients until we had achieved the taste he was looking for. This picture shows what the soup is supposed to look like.



This second recipe is a desert that is very popular. You could compare it to apple pie in America! It is Sticky Coconut Rice and Mango. If you don't like Mango (or are allergic) you can substitute just about any fruit. I personally like it with Jack Fruit! Just be aware that you have to follow the time guidelines for soaking the sticky rice or it just won't turn out right. (I always get the first batch wrong and have to make it again!)

Sticky Coconut Rice with Mangos (Khao Neeo Ma Muang)

Ingredients:
1 cup Thai Sweet Rice (available at Asian markets also called sticky rice)
1 ripe mango, cut into bite sized pieces or 1 package frozen mango
7 ounces coconut milk
2-3 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch disolved in 2 Tablespoons water
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
1. Soak the sweet rice in 1 cup water for 20 minutes, or up to an hour. (don't soak longer than an hour or it will be too soft!) Use a rice cooker, it makes this easier!
2. Add 1 more cup of water and a pinch of salt. Stir into the rice and make sure no rice is stuck to the bottom. Turn on the rice cooker.
3. When the rice cooker turns itself off, leave the rice alone for 10 - 15 minutes. (Don't be tempted to open the lid and have a look you will let the steam out and the rice won't be sticky enough!)
4. Put the covered rice in the refrigerator until cold and sticky.
5. In a saucepan, warm the coconut milk on medium heat
6. Add a pinch of salt, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir until sugar is dissolved about 5 minutes.
7. Add the cornstarch and water mixture and stir. As the sauce thickens turn the heat down to low. Remove from heat.
8. Allow the sauce to cool a bit and then stir it into the sticky rice until the sauce is mixed in and the rice is coated.
9. Serve scoops of sticky coconut rice with pieces of mango on top.

As you can see from some of my comments, the sticky rice can be tricky. First, make sure you have the right rice. See how in the picture the rice grains seem much whiter than regular rice.



Next make sure you don't over or under soak the rice. After it is cooked it should look like the following picture. As a result of opening the lid to take this picture, I released the steam that makes the rice finish cooking and so this batch of rice wasn't as sticky as it should be.



This picture shows how the rice should look once the coconut sauce is added.



And our final picture is of our exchange student Ploy about ready to enjoy a little taste of home!



We hope that you enjoy these recipes too!