South East Asian Recipies
There is so much to learn about a culture through its food. What ingredients are used can depend on a country’s climate but also on its history of immigration, colonization or trading that influenced its flavors. Trying new foods with my kids has been a fun way to teach them to take some risks and explore new things. There can be pleasant surprises or things that are starkly different than what we are used to eating. I hope that by trying these new dishes, my children will be more willing and open minded to trying new things in the future.
Here are the recipes that we tried during our South East Asian study by Country.
[I will be adding to this list as we go]
Thailand
Mango Sticky Rice - We used the recipe that came with the Thistle and Biscuits’s Thai unit but it was very similar to this recipe here.
Thai Fried Bananas
Chicken Noodle Soup
We also got Thai take out so we could try a few dishes such as Pad thai, Pad see-u, Masaman and Panang Curry.
Cambodia
Steamed Fish Amok - I followed this recipe below with some modifications:
I used 1 lb of Fish (instead of chicken),
I used Spinach instead of kale.
I left out all peppers in the recipe, so it wouldn’t be too spicy for our children. Then my husband and I added in chili sauce at the end,
We steamed the prepared bowls directly in the water in our dutch oven, so we wrapped the banana leaf bowls in foil.
If you don’t have access to banana leaves (which is part of the fun of making this recipe), you could also follow this recipe and skip the whole steaming part.
We did not prep our banana leaves before hand, but next time, we will pass them through a flame or dip them into boiling water.
Vietnam
Pho - Beef bone broth stew with bean sprouts, rice noodles and herbs.
Bahn Mi - barbecue pork sandwich with pickled vegetables
Spring rolls - rice paper wrapped rolls with bean sprouts, shrimp, and lettuce
Bahn Bo Hap - Steamed rice flour cakes
Laos
I thoroughly enjoyed laotion food, and really hadn’t tried it before.
We got take out and ordered the following:
Chicken Laap - Ground chicken salad with toasted rice powder, chili flakes, lime juice, fish sauce and herbs
Nam Khao - Crispy coconut rice salad with fermented pork or tofu, served as lettuce wrap.
Lemongrass Rib
Lao Pho
JEOW BONG - Sweet, spicy, and savory chili sauce to go with the sticky rice and meat.
Kua Mee - Stir-fried rice noodle, caramelized fish sauce, egg omelette, ground pork, fried garlic, scallions, cilantro, bean sprouts
Curry Puffs -
Khao Piek Sen - House-made rice flour tapioca noodle with chicken; garnished with beansprouts, scallions, cilantro and fried garlic
Lotus blossom cookie
I also cooked a few recipes out of the Hawker Fare Cookbook.
Myanmar/Burma
Mohinga - Fish curry noodle soup. (So good. I will definitely have to make this again.)
Lahpet Thoke - Tea leaf salad
Black rice pudding - Everyone loved it. Mine came out a bit crunchy though. Also, it was harder to find the black sweet rice.
For these recipes, I used the Burma Superstar cookbook.
Malaysia
We ordered food for Malaysian and tried…
CURRY BONELESS CHICKEN ROTI PLATE - Roti canai, vegetarian daal, curry chicken.
HERBAL SPARE RIBS (BAKUTEH) - Spare ribs, herbal broth, angelica root, goji berry, enoki, shiitake mushroom, fried crullers, green leaf, cilantro.
BEEF RENDANG - Beef tender, lemongrass, cardamon seed, chili paste, curry spices and coconut milk.
PEANUT SATAY CHICKEN
NASI LEMAK SPARE RIBS RICE - Curry spare ribs, traditional coconut rice, roasted peanut, fried egg, sambal onion, cucumber, shrimp cracker.
Teh Tarik - Black tea with sweetened condensed milk poured back and forth until it was frothy. Here’s a video.
Indonesia
Many of the Indonesian recipes that we tried came from the Fire Islands Cook Book by Elenor Ford.
Nasi goreng - an Indonesian fried rice recipe.
Coconut Milk Chicken -
Roasted coconut chicken
Spice Rice
Black rice pudding
Satay Chicken - Grilled chicken skewer
Green coconut chicken
Tumeric Jamu - Traditional herbal medicine tumeric drink. It has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Bandak spice tea
Philippines
We ate many of these recipes from a local Filipino restaurant.
Butter garlic shrimp
Lumpia
Pancit - We followed the recipe in the book “Cora Cooks Pancit”
Halo halo - We followed the recipe in the book “All about the Philippines”
Here are some other sites that I found helpful when finding recipes:
https://www.196flavors.com/category/continent/asia/southeast-asia/