This week on Tuesday night my husband and I went to a Thai restaurant. Our favorite. Upon leaving the restaurant I asked myself "Why couldn't I make Thai soup and Pad See Ew?" So.. I found a few recipes that looked good and picked up the ingredients to try them.
First on the menu was the Tom Ka Gai soup. I followed the recipe exactly except for my own variations. Because I was not too brilliant and didn't end up having any chicken I substituted shrimp. I also added portobello mushrooms (because face it... Walmart just doesn't carry Shitake mushrooms) I also dropped the amount of Cayenne pepper in it to 1/8 of a tsp because I knew my kids wouldn't like it if it was too spicy. Of course there was no guarantee they would love it if it wasn't but you want to at least try to set yourself up for success when feeding children, not failure.
Halana and Bodan are my best little helpers and did much of the stirring and pouring. Much to their dismay they thought that the fish sauce smelled a little bit funny. I was happy to say that each child did at least taste the soup and they didn't hate it. I'm thinking that the next time I make it they will like it just a little bit more. The key to getting kids to eat everything is to keep feeding it to them and never assume they won't like something.
We also made the main dish of Pad See Ew. I did have to make a few variations to this recipe, the main one being the rice noodles. Because of the limitations of having to pick up food while at work (I give away samples at Walmart-don't laugh) I had to just get the box mix of rice noodles. So, they came out a little soggier than I'd like and didn't quite have the perfect "fried" taste. The kids all ate it up though! I only used 1/8 of a tsp of cayenne instead of 1/4 tsp and I'm glad I did. Even with less cayenne pepper, the Pad See Ew still had a bit of a kick to it. It was just right. The kids all ate their whole serving!
Here is the link :)
Since I was going to also be serving my rice loving Colombian brother in law, I also made some rice in the rice cooker. With the leftover rice I sliced up some mangoes, squeezed some La Lechera (sweetened condensed milk in a squeeze bottle) over the rice and microwaved it for 30 seconds! I just felt like it completed the Thai meal night... I thought it was really yummy, and I will definitely have mango rice for dessert again.
