# Need Thai Salad Dressing Recipe



## cheers2wine (Sep 26, 2006)

There's a Thai restaurant that I frequent and they have the yummiest salad. It has lettuce, rice sticks, cucumber, diced apples, and chicken. It comes with a delicious peanut oil dressing ....anyone have a recipe for that?

Kathy


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## Chopstix (Sep 26, 2006)

The diced apples make me suspicious -- not sure if that's authentic Thai. 

Anyway, here's a recipe for Vegetable Salad with Peanut Dressing 'Salad Kaek' from a Thai recipe book written for people cooking in a Western kitchen.  

Peanut oil or sunflower oil for deep frying
2 blocks firm tofu, 5 cm square, cut into strips and deep-fried to golden brown
125g breansprouts, rinsed, drained, trimmed
125g snake beans or long beans, chopped into 2.5 cm lengths
2 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced
125g cucumber, thinly sliced
125g white cabbage, thinly sliced, then broken into strands
2 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and quartered

Peanut dressing

2 T peanut or sunflower oil
1 T red curry paste
300ml coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
4 T crushed peanuts

For the dressing, heat oil in wok and stir in curry paste.  Add  coconut milk and stir well.  Add salt, sugar and peanuts.  Stir well.  Cook briefly until coconut milk comes to the boil.  Remove immediately from heat.

Serve saladwith dressing poured over salad or on the side.


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## Mel! (Sep 26, 2006)

*Receipe*

How about this on

Peanut salad dressing

Ingredients
6 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup boiling water
4 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1 to 1 and half teaspoons of salt
3 to 4 medium cloves garlic minced
curshed pepper or cayenne to taste
2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice. 

Instructions
Place the peanut butter in a bowel. Whisk in the water, and beat until well combined. Stir in the remaining ingredients.


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## Mel! (Sep 26, 2006)

*Salad*

Cheers2wine
I just read your post again. Did u also want a list of salad ingredients?
Well, here they are
1 medium head of crisp lettuce
1 shredded or thinly sliced carrot
1 bell pepper cut into strips
1 cucumber sliced.
2 tomatoes
2 boiled and sliced potatoes
4 to 6 hardboiled eggs, cut into wedges
3 cakes tofu,plain or fried and diced
1 handful of each(or whichever ones are available): fresh cilantro, mint and basil
Optional: 1 or 2 handfuls of mung bean sprouts, potato chips instead or in addition to the potatoes. Lemon or lime wedges to squeeze over the salad. 

Mel


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## Mel! (Sep 26, 2006)

*Hello Chopstix*

Hello Chopstix

Hope u are not yet bored, with people asking u how things are going in Bangkok. But i am going there in November, so am particularly interested. 
Is it still all peaceful?

Mel


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## Chopstix (Sep 26, 2006)

Hi Mel!!  Thanks for asking!  It's all business as usual here.  There's still a lot of tourists.  Now they have the added attraction of posing for photos with the tanks and soldiers in front of parliament!  It's still very peaceful.  Wow you're coming in Nov?  What parts of the country do you plan to visit?  Maybe we can even meet up if you're in Bangkok and I'm available!  Do you like Thai food?  I know some really good places to eat out here and can recommend them to you!  Plus I can answer your questions about which places are worth visiting...


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## Mel! (Sep 26, 2006)

*To Chopstix*

Hello Chopstix

Thanks for your message.

I am a member also, of a travel forum. They will be comforted to hear that yet another Thai person says they will be safe in Bangkok. 
Last time i was in Thailand was 8 years ago. I was alone. This time i come, with my 5 year old daughter. We will go to places where a lot of foreigners go, because there are international hospitals there. This is the first time i travel so far from home, with my daughter, and if she gets sick, i want to make sure there is an English speaking hospital, nearby. Western foreigners in Asia get sick easily. 
We will be in Bangkok, for a few days, at the beginning of November. Then we will go to Ko Samui and Ko Pha-Nagan. We will stay on the islands for 3 weeks, and then return to Bangkok, for a few more days. 
I am glad, i discovered u, because the last time i was in Thailand, i did not get to try a lot of Thai food. I am a vegetarian and could not explain this in restaurants, because i dont speak Thai. 
Would there be vegetarian Thai dishes u can recommend, for me to ask for in restaurants. If so, it would be great, if u would type them in both English and Thai. 
Mel


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## Chopstix (Sep 26, 2006)

Well Mel if you do need one, Bumrungrad Hospital is the premier hospital in Bangkok.  They have interpreters (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French, German, etc.)   Hope you won't need to go though.  

I've never been to Ko Samui and Ko Pha-ngan.  I'll go to Ko Samui one day.  I'm sure you and your daughter will have fun.  

I'm sure there are Vegetarian sections in English in the menus of the better restaurants since this is a Buddhist country.  Funny though, I think most popular Thai dishes are not vegetarian because of the prevalent use of shrimp paste and fish sauce.  Although vegetables are very popular, they are normally eaten with some meat or seafood.

Vegetarian food is called 'Aahaan Jiyeh".  Worst case is you can ask the server to leave out the meat in the dishes and say 'Mai kin neua.  Kin phak thaonan.'  This literally means 'I don't eat meat.  I eat only vegetables.'  Thai language is tonal like Chinese, and there's a correct pitch and intonation when saying these words which I can't explain here. But try saying the phrases anyway, they just might understand you.

PM me before you come over.  I'll give you my contact numbers in case you run into problems here.  Or you can just give me a call when you get into town!


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## Mel! (Sep 27, 2006)

Good Morning Chopstix

Thankyou very much, for that informtion. 
When i go to the restaurants, i can just show them the words u typed for vegetarian and just vegetables, and then i will not have to try to say it properly. I am not good at speaking foreign languages. 

And thank your also, for the hospital information. It is good to have a hospital list, at hand, so i dont have to find the information, when/if my daughter gets sick. 

We are very excited about going to Thailand, together. We have been looking at picture books of Thailand, so she knows what to expect.

Mel


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## Chopstix (Sep 27, 2006)

Mel, I'm not sure that showing them the English phonetic phrases I gave you will work.  (These are just approximations of the sounds, not the actual Thai words, if you know what I mean.)  Also, the server might not know how to read English alphabet so he might not be able to make out the sounds enough to reconstruct the meaning.  I suggest that you ask the concierge at your hotel to write out the phrases in Thai characters.  

Uh-oh, looks like we've hijacked this thread.  No sign of cheers2wine though


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## cjs (Sep 27, 2006)

You may have hijacked the thread, but this is so very interesting!! I envy you your trip to Thailand Mel! Good luck and safe travels and eat well!


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## Mel! (Sep 27, 2006)

*Reply*

Hello Chopstix

I think cheers2wine will cut in, if he has something to say. Maybe he has all the Thai salad information he needs and has disappeared to the kitchen, with it. 
Maybe, i can find some Thai phrases, in the Thai alphabet, on the internet and print them out. I will look. 

Mel


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## shpj4 (Sep 27, 2006)

I like Thai food but I have never made a Thai Salad Dressing Recipe.  From what you are said there were apples in the dressing.  I have never tasted an apple in any salad but there is always a peanut butterr dressing.

Good luck


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## Mel! (Sep 28, 2006)

Thank your CJS


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