My husband likes things spicy…his food that is! So I thought I’d step out of my recipe comfort zone and spice things up a bit for Valentine’s Day.
Below are my 3 favorite recipes for a tasty Thai feast:
1. Thai Iced Tea
No Thai meal is complete without an uber caffeinated and sugary Thai Iced Tea. If you’ve never tried it before you have no idea what you’re missing out on.
Ingredients: 4 Cups of Water, 6 tea bags black tea (I like to use the non-caffeinated blend below ), 3 Tbsp sugar (optional), 8 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk (divided), ice cubes as needed
Directions: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil over a high heat. Turn off heat, add tea bags, and allow to steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and stir in sugar if desired. Place pot of water in the refrigerator and allow to cool. Fill 4 glasses with ice. Pour tea over ice and top each glass with 2 Tbsp of sweetened condensed milk.
2. Spicy Mango Salsa Dipping Sauce
I use this dipping sauce on Roasted Chili Steak. It also goes well with seafood dishes. It’s sweet and tangy and the chili sauce gives it a real kick!
Ingredients: 1 ripe mango (peeled and roughly chopped), 1 large shallot (peeled and roughly chopped), 1 Tbsp rice vinegar, 1 Tbsp Sri Racha chili sauce, Juice of 1 orange, 2 Tbsp canola oil, Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions: Combine the mangos, shallots, vinegar, Sri Racha, and orange juice in a blender and blend at high speed. Carefully blend in the oil. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.
3. Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
This was our absolute favorite treat while wandering the streets of the Khao San district in Bangkok. We’d buy it from the shady street vendors, sit on the filthy curb, eat it out of a plastic bag, and people watch to our heart’s content. Oh the health risks we took before we had kids. Anyway, mango with sticky rice is the perfect and ONLY way to end a Thai meal.
Ingredients: 1 cup sweet sticky rice (must be sweet rice and not normal white rice), 3 oz. Coconut milk, 6 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 whole mango
Directions: Soak rice in warm water for 4 hours or overnight (absolutely do not forget to do this step). In a steamer, cook sticky rice until tender (about 25 minutes). In a pot combine coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring until sugar is dissolved. Transfer warm sticky rice into a large bowl. Pour coconut sauce over rice and mix. Repeat process until rice is evenly coated with sauce. Cover rice and let stand 20-30 minutes allowing coconut sauce to absorb into rice. On a plate arrange peeled mango slices next to a portion of the rice. Drizzle a little coconut milk over the rice and garnish with peanuts, sesame seeds or coconut if you’d like.
And there you have it, my favorite Thai recipes. Guaranteed to spice up your Valentine’s day, or any other day for that matter.
Did any of you get creative with the Valentine’s menu this year? I’d love to hear what was on your plate.
You are so awesome! And, you should have posted a picture of you that day because you were smokin hot!