Thai menu, Days 10 + 11

Know Your Thai Curries

Sous Chefs-

Plating: Street food similar to VN menu, sauce in the center is mentioned below.
Remember that you have Long grained sticky rice soaking from Day 9 for use on Day 10 and that you must soak 2C on Day 10 for steaming and use on Day 11. Be sure to know how to handle this rice, it's different than the other's we have used.

Curries are served as a "sampler plate", meaning that a small amount of all 5 curries are served on each plate.
Know your Thai Curries - See poster above - Each curry should come to the service line in a deep 1/3 hotel pan.


 Use a  12" rimmed "soup plate" (the shallow bowls) with Jasmine Rice, with rice in the center.
Pad Thai is stir fried in batches, as needed, and served from the steam table in a deep bowl, garnishes are roasted peanuts and a lime wedge.

Chicken Rice is served from the station producing it. They will have a chaffing dish for their own rice and will plate and pick up without needing assistance from other stations.

Stir Fried Squid will be cooked in small batches for Day 11 service and be served from the steam table.

Hot and sour soup for Day 10- watch demo on how to cook shrimp in broth, make soup in a wok, hot hold. Scale to 1 gallon on Day 10.

Day 11 is Coconut Chicken soup, make 1 full recipe , just follow the recipe and taste for fish sauce and lime with me when it's done.

Salad - Green papaya, watch demo on papaya fabrication - 1/2 recipe on Day 10 and 1 full recipe on Day 11. To ba placed on street food plate.

Jasmine rice - 8 cups Day 10, 14 cups Day 11 - Talk to me about using the Western Steamer or a Rice cooker, or both.

Set up Street food station - similar to Vietnamese set-up, chaffing dish on Station 5 with 1/3 pans for hot food, cool food, salads ( there are two salads on Street Food Plate - cucumber salad and papaya salad) plates, sweet chili sauce, etc. should all be set up near the chaffing dish. Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram. Talk to me before assembling the dipping sauce so I know you have the proper ingredients, and fill the ramekins only HALF way! Peanut sauce for Satay DOES NOT go in a ramekin - hold it in a small plastic cup on the side and put a dab on top of each satay as it goes out. On Day 10 we only need enough sauce for 15 people. Day 11 - enough to serve about 65.


The Steam table will need to be used to hold the curries, the pad thai, stir fried squid and the jasmine rice. Put each curry in separate, deep 1/3 pans, same with the squid.  Pad Thai should be in a deep 1/2 hotel pan, and the Jasmine rice in a full hotel pan. Draw a diagram of the line set up and make it complete. Plates: Currys in a 12" shallow bowl with Jasmine rice, Pad Thai in a deep noodle bowl with roasted peanuts and a lime wedge on top of each. Stir fried Squid in deep 1/2 pan, the squid itself is served in a round casserole dish sitting on an ovel platter with jasmine rice sitting on the side - similar to presentation of steamed fish from Japanese menu.

Station #2 -

Chicken Rice - Scale recipe to use 2 whole chickens on Day 10 and 4 whole Chickens on Day 11. This dish is served room temp in summer, or prepared and then reheated in a wok steamer across from Table #2 in the cooler months, most westerners don't "get it" when it's served at room temp, so set up the wok steamer. Entire plate is picked up from your station. You need to make your own rice, make it pilaf style and use rendered duck fat to parch the rice. Be sure to discuss Pilaf Method with Chef before you start, this is a common area for mistakes. Pandan leaf is available from the store room- order it on supplemental if you don't see it on the invoice in the morning. For Service you will need:
- Chaffing dish to hold rice
- Shallow "gratin" dishes to hold chicken and sauce, gratin dish sits on large oval plate with rice and cucumber/tomato/cilantro garnish (this is like and undressed salad tossed together).
- Service utensils to plate. Draw a complete diagram of how the station will be set up with all components and items labeled in diagram.

Typically, there will be 9 whole chickens delivered on Day 11, NOT ALL OF THESE are for you. Station 5 needs 5 chickens to marinate for Day 12.

Yellow Shrimp Curry - 1/2 Recipe on Day 10 and 1.5x recipe on Day 11 -  Use the curry paste to make the yellow curry sauce. Make the sauce completely, except for the shrimp, and cool it. Just prior to service, heat the sauce and gently poach the shrimp in 1/3 batches in 1/3 of the sauce as needed to stay just ahead of service without over cooking the shrimp- this keeps them from over-cooking on the steam table.

Red Chili Chutni - Your responsibility to make this for the Indian Menu. It's used as a condiment, but also as an ingredient by other teams, make sure it gets made early in the day so that it can be available for others to use.

Station 3-
Make sure you find both of the satay grills (We have two) and charcoal before the supplemental goes in. I'll show you how to set it up, but it must be done early, you'll need to fire up both grills with charcoal for service on Day 11 and keep feeding the grill with more charcoal as it burns down.

The Beef Satay - 1/2 recipe for Day 10 and 2x recipe for Day 11. Trim off external fat and collagen from Flank steak and let me show you how to cut it for satay. You will trim and cut the meat, then put it on skewers, THEN marinate it. Talk to me or one of the people from Station 5 Day 8+9 about how to set up the Satay grills,the Satay grills need charcoal and it needs to be lit far enough ahead to be hot when needed but not so far ahead that it's run out of heat by the time you're ready to cook. Speak to chef about how to light coals, Be sure to feed fresh coals to the grill before you leave for family meal so you'll have a hot fire when you return for service on Day 11. Also be sure to check that we have some charcoal when you place your supplemental order in the morning When service is over, place hot charcoal in a hotel pan to cool, then add water before putting in the compost.

Peanut Sauce - Should be made on Day 10 and used for both days. When cooled to use the following day, it needs to be reheated gently, and it may break - it's an emulsion. If it DOES break, fix it the same way you would fix a hollandaise or mayonnaise (and if you think I mean "use an egg", you need to do more research). Peanut sauce should be held at room temp on the street food line and a small dab placed onto each skewer as it's plated.

Yogurt for Indian Menu - and understand recipe from Indian recipe section. The amount may vary depending on the block, but carefully follow this procedure::
 - Heat milk
 - Add dried milk powder to hot milk, stir to dissolve
 - Place NEW 2 qt plastic containers and lids in steamer to sanitize for 2-3 minutes
 - Remove steamed containers from steamer
- Place containers in deep hotel pan
- Fill containers with hot milk
- Place lids on containers to seal
- Add ice to hotel pan to surround sealed containers
- Check temperature of milk occasionally
- When Milk temperature reaches 105F degrees, remove plastic containers from ice
- remove lids from containers
- Add approximately 1 oz. of existing yogurt to each container of warm milk, whisk to combine
- Place lids back onto containers to re-seal
- Place containers in warm place over night - see chef for details of where to store milk, it varies with season and ambient room temperature.


Station #4 -
Scale the meats to make 2# of the Massaman and Jungle and Green Curry on Day 10, and 3# on Day 11. It's important to start them early, so hustle. Use a small rondo or large sauce pot with a cover - size matters here, too big and you'll burn the curry, too small and it's too crowded - remember to keep covered until the meat is tender to avoid drying out and burning by evaporation. Also remember that you can braise in the oven if the range gets crowded later in the morning, if you don't have room on top of the stove, you can finish in the oven. The braises should go to the steam table in deep 1/3 hotel pans - -covered.


Station #5-

Duck Curry, the duck should have been marinated on Day 9, we'll use 1/4 of the marinated duck on Day 10 and the rest on Day 11 - recipe is pretty self explanatory. Pan Roast Duck, while duck is roasting, prepare sauce. When both duck and sauce are finished, hold both separately. Near service, gently heat sauce, add duck and gently heat duck in sauce. Ask for clarification on the blog if you need it. Served from a deep 1/3 hotel pan on the steam table.

Remember - we'd like to render out the duck fat left from butchering the ducks on Day 9


Fish cakes - We need to make 1# of fish on Day 10 (1/2 recipe), use the older fish left over from Day 9 first.  Double on Day 11 - we can shape and size the cakes to meet the required number of portions for each day. It's important that you have a VERY sharp knife to hand mince the fish. Also very important that the long beans are sliced into PAPER thin rounds, if you slice them thicker, the cakes fall apart. Please ask for a demo on slicing the beans before you start. Cakes should be fired in a 325F fryer in small batches as needed for service and put on the street food station in 1/3 pans. I will show you how to form them. They will be served on the street food plate - talk to the sous chefs ahead of service so they can direct you on where to put them when they are cooked, fry them as close to service as possible.

Day 11 - Prepping Tandoori chicken - the marinade requires red chili chutney. This is made by Station #2 for the class. Be sure to check with them early in the day to discuss when it will be available to you. Also be sure to speak with station #2 and get your chickens for marinating.


Station #6
Pad Thai- 1x recipe on Day 10 and 3x recipe on Day 11. This is a  Stir fried dish and will be cooked "ala minute" in batches for Day 11 service, divide MEP into 4 batches, it's ok to combine ingredients for sauce ahead. Make sure to have lime and peanuts for garnish. Served from 1/2 hotel pan in steam table into deep noodle bowls. Be sure NOT TO OVER SOAK THE NOODLES - about 5 minutes in very hot tap water(NOT BOILING WATER). The idea is for them to be pliable, not ready to eat. In the wok you will add more liquid and heat and they will become done at that point. Here's an updated Video of the procedure. Follow this one in class, please

Seafood "yam" is the seafood salad. Make 1x recipe for Day 10 and 1.5x for Day 11. It's easy to make, hold at room temp in a 1/3 or 1/6 pan for use on the street food station.

Pork Vindaloo - Please talk to me about the advance prep on this dish for the Indian menu, the amount we prepare varies each block.. Follow recipe for 1st stage of the paste - this is important to do on Day 10 and follow through on Day 11, DON'T forget to do it.