Thai Sweet Basil Restaurant @ Andover, MA

Thai Sweet Basil is one of the best tasting Thai restaurant I’ve been to. We recently brought the in-laws there and they loved it so much; we went back there TWICE! Both times, we went for weekend lunch. This place is usually very busy during weekday lunch and does ok over the weekend. The service is overall ok, nothing to shout about but the food is mostly yummy!

Here’s what we ordered:

1) Hot & Sour (Tomyam) Shrimp Soup (left) @ $2.95. Shrimp in a hot and sour broth seasoned with exotic Thai herbs, mushrooms, lemongrass and lime juice. You get 2 large shrimp and slices of mushroom with this hot and sour soup. I wished they added more cilantro (I love cilantro) in my soup and I do prefer to have the mushrooms cooked thoroughly. With that said and even though the soup did not look as appetizing, it was still good! =)

2) Wonton Soup (right) @ $2.95. Wrapped minced chicken with vegetables in clear broth. You get 3-4 chicken wontons in the soup. I forgot to ask my FIL how the soup was, but I guess it should be quite decent as he finished it! =)

 

3) Golden Bags @ $5.95. Tofu skins stuffed with ground shrimp, water chestnuts, black mushrooms and spices. Gathered at the neck with a scallion, deep fried and served with a plum sauce. You get 4 “golden bags” with this order. I thought the golden bags weren’t wrapped as nicely as the ones we had in Lanna Thai Restaurant.  I taste mostly minced meat (chicken?) which was disappointing. The description on the menu sounded better than the actual taste of the “bags”.4) Roasted Duck Mango Curry (left) @ $8.00. Yellow madras curry and coconut milk with mango, green peas, onions, snow peas and peppers. I’m glad this came with a side of white rice (FREE!). Hubby ordered this, and it was yummy. The Mango and roasted duck (very moist) surely went well with the curry! I will so order this next time!

5) Duck Choo Chee (right) @ $7.50. Boneless roasted duck chunks are sautéed in red curry with mushrooms, baby corn, pineapple, onion, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and peppers. This was mine and I loved it too. Again, appreciate that white rice came with the curry for FREE! Duck was moist, and curry was yummilicious. I thought my curry was like a milder version of hubby’s though. I swear they taste almost the same! =P.

6) Mango Fried Rice (left) @ $7.25. Fried rice with chicken, shrimp, egg, green beans, carrot, onion and mango. Just one word….YUMMILICIOUS!!  I managed to try a spoonful, and FIL cleaned the rest!

7) Crazy Noodles (right) @ $6.95. Soft wide rice noodles fried with chicken, shrimp, onion, basil, chili pepper, eggs and broccoli. The in-laws loved this dish the first time they tried it, we went back so that they could have another round of crazy noodles! Unfortunately, the noodles weren’t good this time. They added way too much oyster sauce in the noodle this time, hence a salty plate of crazy noodles. MIL was surely disappointed the dish she was so looking forward to turn out to be almost inedible.

8) Thai Iced Coffee @ $2.50. Don’t forget to try a glass of cold Thai coffee goodness!! This is something I will order in a Thai restaurant. It’s nothing like your Dunkin/Starbucks coffee, trust me!!

This restaurant does not have a website… So, here’s the contact information for Thai Sweet Basil : 

209 N. Main St
Andover, MA 01810
(978) 470-8098

Learning The Family Secret Recipe

My MIL taught me her famous Kuih Bangkit recipe while she was here. Kuih Bangkit is a traditional cookie served in many homes during Chinese New Year. This light cookie is made from tapioca flour and will crumble and melt in your mouth!

I will not be sharing MIL’s exact recipe as this is her secret recipe and her kuih bangkits are very sought after! I’ve read other Kuih Bangkit recipes HERE and HERE and those recipes call for margarine and powdered sugar; a lil’ different from my MIL’s version. My MIL’s Kuih Bangkit recipe uses just tapioca flour, coconut milk, pandan leaves, egg yolks and sugar.I was finally able to use the Kuih Bangkit mould Anna sent me ages ago. At first, it was tough to remove the dough from the mould. So, we decided to roll and cut the cookies using cookie cutters. The cookies took a longer time to bake and cook. It took us a couple tries to make the cookies cook/bake just right. Even so, the roll and cut cookies are not as good as the ones MIL used to make using the Kuih Bangkit moulds. The cut and roll cookies were hard and crunchy.

We decided to give the mould another try, dusting more flour into the mould this time for easy removal. It worked perfectly this time and after baking, we found out that it was perfect! The new “molded” cookies were just perfect, light, slightly hard on the outside yet crumble in the inside! YUMS!!! It was definitely different and better from the roll and cut cookies!

  

The freshly baked cookies are already running out! I would have to attempt another batch on my own soon! Again sorry, I’m not able to share this recipe. After all, it’s a family secret! =P.

2009 New England Dessert Showcase

LOOK WHO’S GOING to the 2009 New England Dessert Showcase?? ME!!ME!!ME!! Well, the husband is also tagging along in this hopefully to-die-for-dessert event!! =) We found out about this event last night while on our quest to search for FREE things to do in Boston. Credit definitely goes to the husband as he was the one who stumbled upon this event and asked me if I wanna go.

The event will be held at Marriott Long Wharf, Boston from 11am-4pm. Find more information on this event HERE. If you’re interested, get your tickets HERE. Regular tickets are at $25 (and will cost more at the entrance). VIP tickets cost $40, which includes access to a reception and gift bag.

WHO WOULD SAY NO TO DESSERTS??

Profiteroles (With Corn Custard)

Updated : August 13, 2012.
Profiteroles/Cream Puffs (my guess, they originate from France) are a popular Choux Pastry. According to Wikipedia; “Pâte à choux (Choux Pastry) is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, eclairs, French crullers, beignets, Indonesian kue sus, and gougères. It contains only butter, water, flour, and eggs. In lieu of a raising agent it employs high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry.”

Growing up in Malaysia, the cream puffs/profiteroles that I usually get are filled with corn custard (and I can’t get them here in the US). Profiteroles/Cream Puffs in the US are often filled with (flavored) whipped cream and at some some fancier places perhaps profiteroles filled ice cream! Some profiteroles will get a splash of melted chocolate on top (éclairs) and some a dash of powdered sugar.
As fancy (and cute) as they may look, they are actually surprisingly easy to make and assemble. Your friends would think you slaved the whole day in the kitchen to make this dessert!! =) . I found the recipe for the puffs from my collection of cook books. Here’s the recipe for the profiteroles adapted from the book: “Best-Ever Pastry Cookbook” by Catherine Atkinson. The original recipe was for making chocolate éclairs. I borrowed the recipe to make the pastry part for my profiteroles. I've also included the recipe for the cream if you guys want to use cream filling instead of corn custard.

PROFITEROLES (WITH CORN CUSTARD) RECIPE
Pastry Ingredients:

• 9 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
• Pinch Of Salt
• 1/4 Cup Butter, Diced
• 2/3 Cup Water
• 2 Large Eggs, Lightly Beaten

Corn Custard Filling Ingredients:

• 2/3 Cup Water
• 1/4 Cup Milk
• 2/3 Cup Creamed Corn
• 1/4 Cup Custard Powder
• 4-5 Tbsp Sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Heat (medium heat) butter and water in a pan until butter melts. Increase heat and bring mixture to a boil. Remove pan from heat and immediately tip in all the flour. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until flour is mixed into the liquid.

Return pan to a low heat, then beat mixture until it leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Set pan aside and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. Add beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition until you get a smooth, shiny paste which is thick enough to hold its shape.



Spoon (ice cream scoop works great!) or pipe choux pastry into rough balls (slightly larger than a golf ball) onto baking sheet. Sprinkle baking sheet with some water. Bake pastry for about 30 minutes, until pastry are well risen (about twice the size) and golden brown. Remove from oven, and make a neat horizontal slit along the sides of each pastry to release steam. Lower oven temperature to 350F and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.



To make filling, mix together ingredients of the corn custard filling in a pan. Then heat mixture over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and let custard cool down.

To assemble, enlarge original horizontal slits and cut pastry into halves. Fill pastry custard corn. Dust with some powdered sugar (if preferred) before serving.

June’s Notes: The recipe gave me about 10 profiteroles (about 3-4 bite size). I dunno about you, but I love having lots of corn custard filling in my puffs. Therefore, I filled each halves of the pastry with corn custard before sandwiching them together. I also removed some of the softer pastry inside the pastry shell so that I can fill more corn custard in it!

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If you prefer regular cream filling, here’s the recipe from the book same book of which I extracted the profiterole pastry recipe. Note that I’ve not personally tried the recipe for this cream filling.
CREAM FILLING RECIPE
Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream
• 2 Tbsp Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• 1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tsp Powdered Sugar (**Optional)
• 1 Oz Bitter Sweet Chocolate (**Optional)

Method:
With a hand mixer, whip heavy cream with icing sugar and vanilla extract until cream holds its shape. Spoon whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with 1/2 inch plain nozzle. Squeeze filling into profiteroles and stop when cream starts protruding from where the nozzle is inserted into the profiteroles. You should have more than enough whipped cream for the profiteroles.
Here are 2 optional decorations that you could do to up-sell your profiteroles even more. Once the profiteroles have been filled, dust (with a sieve) them with the powdered sugar.
Another alternative is to microwave the chocolate for about 60-70 seconds, stirring the chocolate every 20 seconds. Once the chocolate has completely melted, dip a fork and drizzle over the profiteroles.

Takumi Japanese Restaurant @ Nashua, NH

 

I’ve recently treated my in-laws to lunch at Takumi Japanese Restaurant in Nashua, NH. Lunch at restaurants are usually very affordable and very worth the money spent. I’ve been to this restaurant in the past and have always enjoyed our meals there mostly on the weekend. This time, I decided to check out their week day lunch menu.

We went for “Takumi’s Teppan Express Lunch” which costs between $10.95 - $14.95. Prices vary with the choice of Teppanyaki entree you choose (Chicken or Calamari @ $10.95, Salmon or Shrimp @ $11.95, Filet Mignon or Scallops @ $14.95). With that choice of Teppanyaki entree, you get  a bowl of Miso soup and house salad as well as unlimited food to their mini buffet line which Takumi refers to as “Express Station”.

I chose the chicken entree while my in-laws took the shrimp entree. I thought the chicken entree was just average. The shrimp entree  (8 large shrimps) on the hand were juicy and succulent. The buffet line offers Noodles, Fried Rice, Crab Rangoon, Spring Rolls, Gyoza, Shumai, Stir Fry Beef, Chicken & Shrimp Stew, Green Beans, 2 kinds of Sushi, Shrimp Tempura, Chicken Katsu, and perhaps 1-2 more stuff. I thought the money we paid for lunch was well worth it. Everything was equally delicious and were fresh! You get quality food, cheap! And I went home with an indigestion….after one too many shrimp tempuras. =(

two thumbs up for this place! Dining room is tastefully decorated, wait staff were friendly and polite. It was a pleasant dining experience yet again…and my in-laws were definitely impressed!

Check out Takumi’s website HERE. I looked online on www.yelp.com and found that they receive good reviews from other patrons!