Elisabeth’s Culinary Expansion

“A Pad Thai Weekend”.

My daughter has the strangest taste buds. What she likes astounds me. When I am convinced it will be a battle to get her to eat something the kid loves it. Maybe it has been too many years making special menus for her, which we’ve have stopped, no longer cow-towing to a little misanthropic me-firster in the meal arena. It is frustrating because I have always loved food and using healthy ingredients and preparation techniques while Elisabeth has always been finicky and demanding about what she wants to eat. It is so true what we say in Kids and a Cook: taste buds change and children need to be given many chances to try new things. Because, you just never know.
This weekend we were my best friend’s lake house in Upstate New York. Henry is married to Keek who comes from Thailand and she somehow lassoed Michelle and I out of the kitchen and did the cooking. We had brought the goods for dinner and had every intention of putting on a great meal for them and their sons; nevertheless, it ended up being a meal of Satay, Pad Thai and a salad of marinated green papaya.
The chicken Satay skewers were really good. The pork ones we had for lunch on Sunday better yet.
Thai food is great year round and covers the taste bud gamut: hot, sweet, salty and sour yet it is distinct and harmonious. Keek sautéed the chicken for the Pad Thai with garlic in a pan. Then she cooked the well soaked rice noodles, normally pale, but turned into a beautiful bright orange from the paprika Keek added. She added the eggs (and sometimes will substitute a not quite ripe green papaya and carrots, instead of bean sprouts, julienned into shoestrings.) Keek uses a mortar and pestle to grind the garlic, tamarind (or white vinegar, I’m not sure), fish sauce, sugar and other spices into a paste an adds crushed peanuts then everything gets heated through back in the wok. Authentic Pad Thai calls for chili peppers too, but due to Michelle’s allergy to hot chili peppers we omitted them. You know, it wasn’t missing a thing. Some lime juice evened out the flavors.

Elisabeth winced at the Satay skewers I was grilling, but when I gave her one and it sufficiently cooled, she took a bit and her face lit up like, well, –like kid at Christmas time. “This is good.” She said and eagerly ate at least four more. When we all sat down to the Pad Thai, she looked at it with some chagrin. “What’s this?” She asked with suspicion.
“”Eat it. It’s got everything you like.” We countered.
She tried to roll the noodles around her fork looking for a way to stall actually eating. When she did take a bite she stated “This is good!” and continued eating. Then she ate two ears of corn. (I told you I brought food admittedly stacking the menu with things I knew my kid would eat. The Thai cuisine was a surprise for me.)

The julienned papaya not used in the Pad Thai, along with some more sliced carrots for texture and balance was made into a bright white salad. Keek marinated it in fish sauce, vinegar, shrimp paste or soy sauce, honey and crushed peanuts (I was on the grill with the Satay skewers so I am not dictating proportions in this article). Keek made two versions one hot and one not. Both were clean, crisp, tart yet sweet. The hot version with the chili peppers was, well hot. But not so much that it obliterated the flavor components, which is perilous when dealing with strong ingredients.

For Sunday Lunch, Elisabeth didn’t wince once at the food we put on the table but went at it like an old pro.

This was Home Cooking like it should be, and it was authentic. Keek has only been in America less than10 years. And they just came back from 20 days in Bangkok and Phuket. The food was nothing like take-out: oily, fake in color, or covered in a glutoney sauce. It was made fresh and at home and for the family. And Keek relished talking about her personal food experience with Michelle while she cooked.
Ingredients for Thai food are available at most supermarkets and, of course, at Asian markets. Most towns have one.