Brekky: Thai rice noodles with coconut & shrimps

Living in Wollongong, Australia, is living in changing temperatures. Now it is summer and it can be piping hot, but after a day or five most of the time it will start to rain due to the location of the escarpment, and temperatures will cool down to 21-24 degrees.

Yesterday  temperatures were on the rice again (27 degrees), today it is 30 degrees already. In this weather I alway prefer to eat cold Japanese style noodles, or noodles from Southern parts of China or Southeast Asia.

Thai rice noodles with coocnut and shrimps

Today I prepared myself a noodle dish from the Southern parts of Thailand for beakfast. If you cook dishes from Southeast Asia, you should give fresh ingredients a try. It tastes so much better!

Make your own coconut milk

If you  have to use coconut, as in this dish, buy a fresh one and make your own coconut milk from freshly grated coconut. Fill a small bowl with water and soak the shredded coconut for 30 minutes. Squeeze the grated coconut after soaking in a bowl and there it is: 'coconut cream'. If you want to prepare milk, at some water again, leave it for thirty minutes and squeeze it again. This is called 'coconut milk'.


* Tip: if you want to open a coocnut, look for the three dots on the top. One of them is easy to prick with a skewer. Turn the coocnut upside down, after you created a small hole, and remove the water, this is called 'coconut water', and very tasty to drink. After removal of the water lay the coconut in your hand and use the back of your knife to smash it a couple of times. The tough skin will break and you remove the fresh flesh.

How to prepare?

The Thai noodles I prepared this morning are made from soaked dried thin rice noodles. First I  prepared a paste from shallots, chillies and shrimp paste. I added the paste to the coconut milk, with some salt, sugar and tamarind. Finally I added the noodles and shrimps. After cooking I fried them a little bit. If you use tamarind paste, more sugar, and you fry them a bit longer they will become a little bit darker in appearance, which is delicious as well, especially in the Thai weather. But I decided to make it a little bit lighter in taste.

These noodles are served with cucumber, blanched bean sprouts and stir-fried string beans.