Recipes By Sherry Rujikarn
5 recipes found
Pesto alla Trapanese (Pasta With Tomatoes, Almonds and Mint)
There’s an inspiring casualness to the best Italian cooking: Combine a handful of high-quality, local ingredients, season them simply and let them be. A great example is pesto Trapanese, a simple sauce that digs deeply into the Sicilian soil it comes from. Rich almonds and fruity olive oil mingle with fragrant herbs while tangy tomatoes make it brighter and sweeter than green pesto, its more famous cousin from Genoa. This mint version, adapted from “Made in Sicily” (Ecco, 2012) by Giorgio Locatelli, the London-based chef and restaurateur, swaps out the traditional mortar and pestle for a food processor but keeps the earthy soul of the dish intact. Besides tossing this pesto with pasta, try spooning some over fish, shrimp or roasted potatoes.
Satay-Style Grilled Chicken Thighs
A familiar sight on many Thai menus in the U.S., chicken satay typically involves grilled skewers of marinated chicken, charred and stained with spices, and served with peanut sauce and perhaps a cucumber relish on the side. This recipe gives the dish a one-plate remix by bringing all the same flavors together, in slightly different proportions, and placing them atop rice. Because of its sugar and fat content, the coconut milk in the chicken marinade chars up beautifully on the grill, while the chile in the cucumber relish — served as an abundant garnish here — balances out the sweetness of the dressing. Replacing the traditional peanut sauce, chopped peanuts add pops of crunch. Get ahead by putting together the salad and marinade the day before and storing them in the fridge until you’re ready to make the chicken.
Kai Jiew (Crispy Fried Thai Omelet)
This classic Thai omelet — with just enough fish sauce and sugar to enhance its pure eggy flavor — is equally friendly to home cooks, serving as a staple in dorm rooms and home kitchens alike. Unlike its French cousin, cooked softly in butter, kai jiew is cooked through in a generous amount of oil, making it delicately crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Beaten with cornstarch and poured into a hot pan, the eggs puff and sizzle as they cook. Serve this as is over a pile of fragrant jasmine rice or alongside curries or stir fries.
Pork Laab
The magic of pork laab (also known as moo larb or laap) lies in the simple yet strikingly effective combo of fresh herbs and toasted rice to season this ground meat salad. Cilantro, scallions and mint balance the richness of the meat, while the nutty flavor of the ground rice — an essential component of laab — complements the zingy lime juice. Many Thai recipes call for ingredients that can be tough to find in the U.S., but this northern Thai salad is an outlier. You can opt for dried Thai chiles, if you’ve got them, or you can achieve your desired heat level by grinding up crushed red pepper.
Chile-Lime Crispy Rice With Roasted Vegetables
Cool-weather eating can mean heavy flavors and dishes that rely on richness to wake up your palate. This recipe makes a sharp left by combining sweet, caramelized vegetables with an ultrabright, spicy dressing and unexpected pops of crunch and chew from skillet-crisped rice. Serve as is, or toss in chopped peanuts, cooked shrimp, ground pork or shredded chicken for added protein.