This is about my adventures in low carb Thai cooking.

Tonight I tried two sauces. One is a marinade for thai grilled garlic chicken, but I used it on pork ribs instead. The chicken is to be served with a dipping sauce. My adaptation of the dipping sauce wasn't entirely paleo since I use sugar substitutes and thickening gels, but if you used honey you wouldn't need either.

Garlic/Cilantro Marinade
3 Tbl cilantro roots (or stems and leaves) chopped coarsely
3 Tbl coarsely chopped garlic
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 Tbl fish sauce
1 tsp salt (i used 1/2)
3 Tbl of water (for grinding the paste)

I put it all in the food processor (I didn't pre-chop the garlic, just put in a bunch of whole cloves) and processed until it was sauce-like.

Then I marinated my pork in it and cooked at 450' until done. I broiled it at the end to get some crisping.

It tastes great, but with the dipping sauce it is even better!

Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce
More powerful garlic coming your way! I put this on my pork and also on my green beans. AWESOME!

1 cup of sugar (or whatever you want to substitute for that, agave nectar, honey, stevia, splenda, or a mix of sweeteners)
1/2 C of white vinegar (I didn't have any, so I used apple cider, it tasted fine)
1/2 C of water (You know... I think I forgot to add this!)
2 Tbl of chopped garlic (I used the kind from the jar, I was tired of peeling garlic, but it is denser so I used only about 1.5 Tbl.)
1 tsp of salt
1Tbl of heat -- You could use Sambal Oelek, which is just awesome, everyone should have it in their refrigerator! Or you could use Sri Rachaa sauce, or minced hot red chili peppers or dried chili flakes.

Combine and boil gently until things are dissolved. Simmer until you have a reasonably thick (I used Thick/N Not Sugar).

Indeed! I tried this one, amazing , just one of my favorites alongside with adjika and horseradish sauce.

If you have other spicy recipes, please do post them, my friends and I like it hot

I started my "box garden" today. I made myself a small planting box, 3' x 3' I think several years ago but let it go. Anyway, I cleaned it out, put in new soil and compost and planted 3 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants and 3 basil plants.

The exciting part is that I found Thai basil (finally!) at the good garden store. I was trying to get it started from seed but it wasn't really taking off. I was excited when I went to the nursery and found it there, I had to eat a leaf to make certain. It has a kind of anise flavor, maybe a touch of mint flavor too.

Horray!

Now, I need that "wild lime" tree to put on some new growth on the double! It's leaves are used in a lot of Thai cooking, and the fruit too! I learned that the usual name for it, Kaffir, is actually a racial slur. So I will call it "wild lime" now.

I love these ideas--can't wait to try them! Keep 'em coming!

This weekend I'm going to be living on Coconut Chicken soup because my intestines are unhappy with me, I think I've been eating too much coconut flour. I have posted the recipe for that in the Paleo Recipes and I think in the main recipe forum under soups.

But I also have a very big cucumber and I think there's a cucumber salad recipe in my Thai collection.

Wow! Another hit.

You'd never guess it from the simplicity of this recipe...

Thai Omlet

1/2 Tbl fish sauce
1/2 Tbl water
2 eggs
oil for wok
Siracha sauce (or other spicey hot sauce) for pouring on after

I put plenty of oil in the wok and got it hot (wok works really nicely for this but you can use a frying pan). I beat all 3 of the ingredient together well with a fork then poured them into the wok when it was plenty hot.

The egg immediately puffs up. Pull the cooked parts in, let the uncooked egg flow to the edges. Flip at some point. Put on a plate and serve with siracha sauce.

This sounds too simple to be so good but the fish sauce really is amazing with the egg and then the texture is wonderful from being fried in the wok.

Thai Sweet Sour Cucumbers

Ok, here's what I did. I had an enormous cucumber and I peeled it, deseeded, and cut it into 4 long pieces. Then I chopped those into bite sized chunks.

Mix together 1/2 cup of (white) vinegar (I used apple cider again, because that's what I had!
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar (Or whatever sweetener you use, I used liquid splenda)
Red pepper flakes to taste
A finely minced scallion or shallot or cheat and use onion powder ( I did)
1 tsp salt

Mix the liquid ingredients well and pour over cucumbers.

You can serve with chopped peanuts on top if you wish.

I think cilantro would be terrific too!

I'm so hooked on that cucumber salad.

But I made a curry that was SUPER easy and quick and very good too!

2 Tbl Red curry paste (I used Panang)
2 Tbl fish sauce
1 Cup of coconut milk
2 tsp of sweetener (I used splenda)
12 oz of canned tuna (drained, unsalted)
1/2 cup of peas (I used pine nuts... couldn't think of anything else)

First cook the coconut milk to a boil, add the curry paste and dissolve it in the milk. Add everything else in. Ready set eat!

Nancy, so thrilled you have this thread!

DH and I adore Thai food - and if we make it ourselves we know just what's in it.

So far I've only made a couple kinds of Larb (Chicken and Beef) - the ingredients are pretty simple.

I made the Tom Kha once. Both the Larb and Tom Kha I just searched on the web, found a bunch of recipes, and improvised from there. And I've made the Thai Basil Chicken stirfry from the atkins.com site a number of times.

I can't believe how different and wonderful the Thai Basil is! And you're going to have it fresh from your own garden - yum!

Keep us updated!

Cool! Glad I found another lover of Thai food.

Have you ever had Panang curry? That's my favorite curry.

I'm going to have to try Larb, I've had it in restaurants and I really liked it.

Tom Ka Kai is easy once you've made it. You can add tomatos too and it tastes great.

I've got a recipe in that book for Thai Basil with chicken and cashews YUM!

Larb is super easy - especially if you make it with ground beef which we often have laying around. I'm not sure I even measure any more - just some fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro, and some heat (usually cayenne cause that's what I have most).

We love it.

Haven't tried making any of the curries yet. I made the Tom ka once or now i'm thinking twice. There was something recently I made where I simmered the lemongrass to get the flavor out first..

We love panang - I'll have to look up this thread or online to find the recipe. We ate out once at a Thai place since changing our eating and both gained 3-4 pounds by morning - I'm sure there's extra sugar/salt/something they use..

Oh Wow, I didn’t know that Nancy, now I’ll start calling it wild lime too. I’ve just recently got hooked on Thai Food (panang in particular) and I had a hard time finding the lime leaves. I looked on line for fresh ones and found they could not be imported to Canada. I finally found some dried ones in Ottawas ChinaTown (and you’d think after how long I searched for them they would have cost more that .29 cents a bag )

Are you actually growing a “wild lime” tree - exactly the same as the Thai ones?? I’ve also been using some lime peel because I didn’t find the same flavour with the dried lime leaves.

Here's a recipe for the paste and how to use it with chicken.

Here is a recipe for PaNang curry paste


8-10 large dried chilies
6 shallots, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, sliced and bruised
1 tablespoon chopped galangal
6 cilantro sprigs
2 teaspoons shrimp paste
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts

Soak chilies in boiling water for 15 minutes to reconstitute. Remove the seeds and chop. Place in food processor with rest of the ingredients, and process until smooth. Add a little water if paste is too thick, and is not coming together.

Ingredients

1 cup chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 to 3 tablespoons Penang curry paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
sugar to taste
3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
10-15 Thai basil leaves, finely shredded

Method

Place a wok over medium high heat, and warm the coconut milk, but don't let it boil. Add the curry paste, and stir it until the oil begins to separate out and form a thin film, to bring out the maximum flavor. Add the remaining ingredients except the lime leaves and basil leaves, and simmer until the sauce is absorbed and thickened. Add the lime leaves and basil leaves and stir fry briefly before serving.

Garnish with julienned red chili, with Thai jasmine rice, and the usual Thai table condiments.

Note if you particularly like your curries hot, then replace the fish sauce in the cooking with nam pla prik (chillies marinated in fish sauce), that has had at least a week to mature.

Nam pla prik

Put two thirds of a cup of Thai chile peppers or jalapeno peppers in a 1 pint jar, and fill with fish sauce. Seal and keep for a week before using.

It's amazing how many dishes you can make with fish sauce, hot peppers and lime juice! I think next time I'm grinding up chicken thighs for the kitty I'll put some aside to make Larb.

Wow, looks like I found my Thai soul-mates at last.

I think the tree I have is the same they use. The leaves don't taste like lime peel... they taste a bit like lemon pledge smells, if that makes any sense.

I hope the dried leaves work out ok for you. I know that Galanga root and lemon grass lose most of their taste when they are dried.

This is reminding me I have to go shopping here. We're living in both Seattle and Phx right now. And Seattle has a couple HUGE asian grocery stores - lots of great stuff that really make a difference.

I can't find Thai Basil for the life of me in Phx, but up here in Seattle I just bought a big fresh bag of it... yummm - makes everything better. I'm jealous of your plants! I have a brown thumb.