Thai-Style Sweet Chili Sauce – Nam Jim for the Win

As promised, here is my take on Thai-style sweet chili sauce, or Nam Jim, if you want to sound cool. I do a sort of hybrid between the cooked and fresh versions, and using this technique, I think you get the best of both worlds.

If you can’t find these beautiful Thai bird’s eye chilies, you can make this sauce with any other combination of fresh, preserved, and/or dried chilies. Things like jalapeno, red Fresno, or Serrano chilies work great, as does habanero. If it’s hot, give it a shot.

Above and beyond the array of deep-fried treats you enjoy this stuff with at your favorite southeast-Asian restaurant, it also makes an incredibly good sauce for grilled meats, especially chicken and pork. Even the most insipid boneless-skinless breast shines, once shined with this sauce.

And I wasn’t kidding about the fish sauce being mandatory. It really is a key ingredient here, so I’m counting on you to either get some, or maybe sit this one out. As always, the amounts listed below are what tastes “perfect” to me, but what do I know? So, be sure to taste and adjust before you serve. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 1 cup of Thai-Style Sweet Chili Sauce:

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup white distilled vinegar

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon ketchup

2 teaspoons sambal chili sauce

1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

6 cloves finely crushed garlic

2 tablespoons finely minced Thai chili peppers (or more of a less spicy pepper like Frenso, Jalapeno, or Serrano)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Next Up: Something with Bird's Eye Chili

Spicy Shrimp Cakes – All Killer, No Filler

I love Asian-style fish or shrimp cakes, but almost never order them at restaurants, and the reason is a little thing called “food cost. “While the best tasting, and textured shrimp cakes are made with pure shrimp, chefs have always added some type of cheap, starchy filler to make the dish more profitable.  

Oh sure, they call it a “binder,” but make no mistake, it’s there to stretch a pound of shrimp into two pounds of cakes. Home cooks have been known to do the same thing, for pretty much the exact same reasons, but if you want to enjoy shrimp cakes in their most pure form, I encourage you to give this a try. It only takes a few minutes to put together, assuming you have a food processor, but even if you don’t, they can still be yours.

You’ll just need to pile up your ingredients on a cutting board, and using a large knife or cleaver, chop until you get a paste, which will take less time and effort than you expect. Maybe five minutes of the ol' choppa choppa, and you should have something very similar to what I achieved.

You can play around with the flavorings here, and it’s not a bad idea to cook a small piece of the mixture to test for spiciness, salt, etc. And please, don’t overcook these. They only need a minute or two per side. Even if they are a little translucent inside, as they sit for a minute on the paper towel, they will finish cooking through. I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy! 

Ingredients for 8 appetizer sized portions:

NOTE: I made mine with 24-ounce of shrimp, but since it’s generally sold in pound units, these ingredients are for a two-pound batch

2 pounds raw peeled and deveined shrimp

1 rounded tablespoon finely crushed garlic

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves and stems

1 or 2 teaspoons sambal chili paste, or freshly minced hot peppers

1 teaspoon kosher salt (you can always start with 3/4 teaspoon, then cook some to taste, and adjust)

1/2 teaspoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

pinch of cayenne

Panko breadcrumbs as needed

vegetable oil for frying

Next Up: Something with Shrimp, Possibly in Cake Form

We're still a day behind due to the long Memorial Day weekend, but tomorrow I'm excited to share one of my all-time favorite Asian-inspired seafood appetizers. Stay tuned! 

Homemade Croutons Recipe

I would love to find a package of croutons to buy in my local store that doesn't contain oils we can't eat, or corn products, or garlic, etc.  But unfortunately, I am out of luck with that, so I decided to make my own.  I buy a loaf of Swiss Peasant Bread every couple of weeks from Red Apple Market and keep it in the freezer, so I use this bread to make these crunchy, flavorful, delicious croutons. The trick to this recipe is the oven temperature and baking time, and the recipe just uses what you have on hand without any measurements, so feel free to experiment with different bread, spices, and oils you might like.  These croutons are great on Caesar Salads, as well as just to snack on.  This is how I make them:

Homemade Croutons Recipe

Olive oil
Salt
Dried rosemary spice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Chop into small cubes as much rustic, day-old or semi-stale bread that you have on hand for this recipe.  Add them to a medium mixing bowl, then drizzle a little olive oil over the bread cubes.  Next add a sprinkling of salt and a sprinkling of dried rosemary spice.  Use your hands to mix the bread, oil, salt and rosemary together.  Add another drizzle of oil over the bread cubes if it looks like it might need it (don't overdo the oil), and use your hands to mix it together again.  Pour out the bread cubes in a single layer onto one or two cookie sheets sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake them in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let them cool completely before storing them in an airtight container in the pantry.

Salami Bread – Fourteen Inches of Delicious Pizza-Related Serendipity

What started out as a frustrating attempt to test some pizza dough, turned into what we’re calling salami bread. This 14-inch long loaf of delicious serendipity was a revelation, and I didn’t even get to use it for it’s most obvious purpose…to make the world’s greatest Italian submarine sandwich.

As I mention in the video, I’m not even sure I’d do a meat sub with this, but instead may just load it up with lots of Italian cheeses, as well as fresh and pickled vegetables. Then I’d find a picnic, where I could sit back to soak in the sun, and the compliments.

There are hundreds of possible variations, so that’s going to be your homework. Why wait until the unlikely scenario of having pizza dough, but no toppings? Let’s be proactive. But no matter how you roll, and I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one salami bread:

12 to 16 ounce ball of pre-made pizza dough

8-10 slices salami or other similar meat

1/4 cup tomato sauce, or other crushed tomato product

freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano to cover

scattering of freshly chopped herbs, to taste

olive oil, as needed

- Bake at 400 F. for 25 to 30 minutes until browned and cooked through.

The New June Issue of the Welcome Home Online Blog Magazine is Here!

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