Sticky Rice with Shrimp Topping

I decided to make a sticky rice with shrimp topping for my dad and sisters today. I stopped by the grocery store to get the ingredients before heading to my dad’s house and it turned out that the coconut that I picked out was bad.  My second sister said that she could tell by shaking it since there was very little water inside.  I was in a hurry and didn’t shake it before buying, I knew this trick also.  So I’m lacking the grated coconut for topping.

Manual, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 3200, focal length 122mm, white balance auto, evaluative metering

The sticky rice is mixed with coconut milk, a pinch of salt and sugar according to taste.  The ingredients for the shrimp topping is as followed,

2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
1 shallot thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
8 oz of roughly chopped shrimps
1 oz grated coconut
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon tamarind juice
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
parsley and kaffir lime leaves finely sliced for garnish

To make the shrimp topping, heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and stir-fry the garlic and shallot over a medium heat until they turn slightly golden.  Add shrimp, grated coconut, fish sauce, oyster sauce, tamarind juice, black pepper, brown sugar and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked.  Then adjust seasoning according to taste, the flavor should be sweet, sour and lightly salty.

To make the sticky rice, steamed sticky rice then add a pinch of salt, coconut milk, and sugar according to taste. Serve this by filing a small bowl with the sticky rice and turning it out on a small dessert plate, top with shrimp and sprinkle finely sliced kaffir lime leaves and parsley on top. This is my first time making it and it turned out pretty good.

Throwdown: Pad Thai

Aperture Priority, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, f/5, 1/60sec, ISO 200, focal length 47mm, eb -0.3step, white balance auto, center weighted average metering

Another Throwdown competition with Dallas, this time Pad Thai. Dallas posted his Pad Thai yesterday and it looks real good.  I’m a little nervous about my presentation and keeping my ingredients as original to my sister’s recipe as I can.  I made my own sauce, the Pad Thai sauce ingredients are as follow:

3 table spoon oyster sauce
3 table spoon brown sugar
2 table spoon fish sauce
1/2 cup of warm water
3 table spoon Tamarind sauce
1 and 1/2 table spoon Ketchup (optional)
1/2 table spoon salt
1 table spoon crushed red pepper (could be less)

Mix the ingredients well and set it a side. I like mine spicy, you might want to use less crushed red pepper or skip it all together if you can’t eat spicy.

As for the noodle brand, there are so many kind and I thought the OK brand would be okay for my Pad Thai and that’s what I used.  I soak the noodles in cold water for about 30 minutes, drain well before cook.

Other ingredients are,

sliced Tofu into cubes
shrimps
2 eggs
2 (small) heads of chopped garlic
2 (small) sliced shallots
1 table spoon chopped salted radish
1 table spoon chopped sweeten radish
bean sprouts
2 green onions
3 table spoon crushed peanuts for garnish
slice lime for garnish

This is what the salted radish and sweeten radish look like.

I bought my Tofu from the supermarket, make sure it’s the firm kind and even this is not firmed enough.  My sister uses the organic Tofu Cutlet that she bought from the Asian Market which I couldn’t find this time.

Please see video for cooking instructions, I shorten the video to 10 minutes, it actually took about 20 minutes to cook.

Click to watch this video on Youtube

Tum Grilled Corn and String Beans

I’m trying something a bit different today, Tum grilled corn and string beans. This is a spicy grilled corn and sting beans salad.

Manual, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/4, 1.6sec, ISO 100, focal length 200mm, spot metering, tungsten light, tripod mounted

My ingredients are sliced boil grilled corn, string beans, cherry tomatoes, a cove of garlic, fish sauce, shrimp paste, brown sugar, tamarind paste, and chili peppers.

Manual, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/5.6, 2sec, ISO 100, focal length 145mm, spot metering, tungsten light, tripod mounted

I have a poor lighting in my kitchen and taken food photo is almost impossible for me. I recently learned how to shoot in Manual Mode and really liked it, in fact I like it better than shooting in Aperture Priority Mode.  My kitchen is not very big, and obvious that I didn’t need a zoom lens to take these images but I used it here to create a composition that my wide angle lens wouldn’t be able to create. As I zoom into the food image, the background is blown out, creating a nice bokeh background. I’m paying more attention to my background now, certainly don’t want anything that would clutter the image, and a bokeh image of the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper shaker gave it a soft touch. I also used a tripod to help stabilize the image and use a 2 second timer to avoid any shaking of my camera.