America's Test Kitchen

Today on "America's Test Kitchen," we're gonna Thailand.

Becky makes Julia a Thai classic -- hot and sour noodle soup -- Lisa reviews Frywalls, and Dan makes Bridget the ultimate crispy Thai eggplant salad.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

-Tom yum is a fragrant Thai soup loved all over the world for its hot/sour flavor and generous amount of fresh herbs.

There are lots of variations of tom yum, but today we're making one of the more popular ones chock-full of shrimp, rice noodles, and homemade chili jam.

Now, up until just a few years ago, we wouldn't have tried to show you how to make an authentic version of this soup 'cause the ingredients were too hard to find.

But that's not the case anymore, is it, Becky?

-No -- now, all of these ingredients are widely available... -I love it.

-...which is awesome.

So, we're gonna start with that chili jam.

It's called nam prik pao, and it's great on the soup, but you can also put it on rice or noodles, eggs.

So, we're starting with 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, and I have two shallots that are thinly sliced.

We're gonna cook these for 10 to 14 minutes.

We want these shallots to get nice and golden brown, develop a really savory flavor.

-Mmm.

-It's been a little more than ten minutes here, and you can smell those shallots.

-Oh, they smell delicious.

-Yeah.

So, I'm gonna scoop these out of the pot now using a slotted spoon.

So, next, I have four thinly sliced garlic cloves.

We're gonna put these in.

We want them to get nice and golden.

That's gonna take two or three minutes.

Okay, so, it's been two minutes.

You can see we're getting there.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we're putting the garlic into the bowl with our shallots, And now, next into the pot, I have ten arbol chilies.

And I took the stems off, cut them in half lengthwise.

And we could use half of the seeds, or you could use all the seeds.

-What are you gonna do?

-What do you think?

I'm using all of them.

-Yeah.

-Right?

Let's go for it.

-All the seeds or bust.

-That's right.

And you'll see, the chilies are gonna start to color that oil.

We're gonna cook this for one or two minutes until the chilies get nice and deep, rich red.

-Okay.

-All right.

So, you can see how those chilies are nice and dark.

-Mm-hmm.

-Whoo!

Get that?

-Oh, yeah.

-That'll make your eyes water.

-[ Laughs ] It smells good, though.

-It does -- it smells amazing.

So, let's take those off the heat.

And now, we're gonna strain it into a strainer.

We want to save every bit of it.

So, now we'll move over to the food processor.

Gonna take our fried shallots and garlic.

All right, and now I'll add toasted chilies.

Those go into the food processor, as well.

And now, I have two tablespoons of brown sugar -- little bit of sweetness.

Light brown sugar, 3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice.

All right, and now, we'll just buzz this up for 15 to 30 seconds.

We want it to form a nice, thick paste.

Okay, now, we'll put this back in that saucepan.

That's why we didn't wash it earlier.

-Aha.

-All right, we want to make sure we get every last drop of that stuff.

That's gold.

-[ Chuckles ] -All right, and now, I'll add two tablespoons of fish sauce -- give it a nice saltiness -- and two tablespoons of that oil that we saved.

So now, we'll put this over medium-low heat.

Okay, it's been five minutes, and you can see it's cooked down here.

This can be made up to a month in advance.

We'll clean up, and then we'll make the soup.

-All right.

-Okay, so, we'll start our soup with some rice vermicelli.

I have 4 ounces here, and we prefer the type that's made with 100% rice flour.

You can find some that have another starch like cornstarch added, but we want to go for the 100% rice flour if you can find it.

-Yeah, they have a much better texture.

-So, the type with another secondary starch added will need to soak for about 15 minutes.

The pure, 100% rice-flour type will go for 10 to 15 minutes.

-Okay.

-I have four quarts of boiling water here.

If you wouldn't mind putting the vermicelli in.

-Sure, and turning the water off?

-Yep.

Noodles go in.

Heat goes off.

Just give them a stir.

We'll stir them every once in a while.

We'll check them after ten minutes.

So, while those sit, we'll move on to the aromatics for the soup.

So we're starting with the galangal, also known as Thai ginger.

And you want to start by peeling it.

And we're going to take the peel off, and it's a lot tougher than the regular ginger that we're used to.

So, we're gonna cut this into 1/4-inch pieces.

And like I said, very fibrous.

We're gonna smash these up, so these don't need to be perfect.

And now, we have four scallions.

We're gonna use the white parts, and then we'll cut the green parts into one-inch pieces that we'll add to the soup later.

So, my next aromatic are these makrut lime leaves.

-Ooh!

-And these have this amazing... [ Sniffs ] ...citrusy taste -- yeah, when you break it apart.

-Oh.

-Then you start to get those oils come out.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we just want to tear these up if there are any large ones.

And now, we have two stalks of lemongrass -- more of that really nice citrusy taste.

And then, I have one Thai chili.

We're just gonna cut off the stem there.

You can find these ingredients at specialty markets or online.

And now's the fun part -- we tested lots of different ways of treating these aromatics -- just slicing them.

We buzzed them up in a food processor.

But the best way was the most traditional way, and that's going at it with a pounder.

-Awesome.

-Yeah.

So, we want to release all those oils.

Here we go.

-I'm gonna take a stand back.

-[ Chuckling ] Yeah.

The scallions are a little more tender.

Go for those.

There we go.

See how it breaks apart?

Now we'll do our lemongrass.

Again, the odors are coming up, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-So, now, we're going to add this to chicken broth.

So, traditionally, this soup is made with a pork-bone broth or with just straight-up water.

More modern recipes call for chicken broth.

So that's eight cups of chicken broth.

So, the aromatics are in, and I'm adding a tablespoon of sugar just to start building those sweet flavors I was talking about.

Now, we'll bring this to a boil, and then we'll turn it down to a simmer.

We'll let it go for about 15 minutes to start to draw out all those aromatic oils.

-Okay.

-Okay, so, it's been about ten minutes, and we can check on our noodles here.

The easiest way to tell if they're done is just to give one a taste.

-Mm-hmm -- the only way to tell if they're done.

-Right, and they're perfect -- nice and tender.

So, if you'll do me a favor and drain those.

And then, you want to rinse them with cool water so that they don't clump up, And you want to rinse off any excess starch.

-Now, you said this is enough for four bowls of soup, so I'll just put about half into these bowls for us.

-All right, so, in the meantime, our broth has been simmering here for about 15 minutes, and I'm just going to strain out all these aromatics.

In Thailand, it's traditional, actually, to leave all this stuff in, but we found it's just easier to eat if you pull everything out ahead of time.

All right, so, we don't need those anymore.

They have done their job.

-Okay.

-And now, we're going to add eight ounces of oyster mushrooms.

I just pull them off like this, and if there are pieces that are larger than one inch, I'll tear them in half.

Otherwise, I'll just leave them whole.

We can leave these stems behind because they're just a tiny bit tough.

So, we're going to put this into the pot, and one Thai chili.

So, in that goes.

Next, I'm adding three tablespoons of fish sauce.

-Mmmmm.

-And remember those scallion greens that we had leftover?

So, in those go.

We'll let this simmer for three or four minutes just to get those mushrooms and scallions to soften just a tiny bit.

-Okay.

-And while that happens, we'll come over here, and we'll prepare the shrimp.

So, I have a pound of shrimp here, and I'm just gonna prepare the last couple here.

We just want to take off the tail and the shell.

-And those look like big shrimp.

Are those 21/25s?

-Yes, extra large.

And then, you want to remove the vein that runs along the back of the shrimp.

So if you just score it lightly with paring knife, there's not always one there, but there it is.

Okay, so that one's looking good.

All right, so it's been about four minutes, and you can see that the mushrooms have softened just a little bit and the scallions, too, so now it's time to add our shrimp, and it's traditional to leave them whole.

If you like, you could cut them in half cross-wise for easier eating, but I like them whole.

And now we're gonna kill the heat, and we're just gonna let this sit with the lid on for four to five minutes.

That way, they're gonna be perfectly plump.

They won't turn rubbery.

-Mm.

-They'll be just right.

All right, it's been five minutes, so let's take a look, and we'll see how our shrimp are doing, and we want them to look opaque just like that.

-Nice and curled.

-Yep, just right, nice and pink.

So now I'm gonna add 12 ounces of halved fresh cherry tomatoes.

-Ooh.

-And that'll just add a really nice pop of color, little bit of acidity and some sweetness.

Now 2 tablespoons of lime juice, and we're getting close to the moment we've been waiting for.

I just want to give it a quick taste, so I have some fish sauce and some sugar, and I'm gonna see if it needs any more salt or sugar.

Ooh, I think it's just right.

I'm gonna add a tiny bit of sugar because it's pretty acidic and spicy.

All right.

Let's do it.

-Okay, and so the hot soup goes right over the cold noodles and heats those noodles through.

-How beautiful is that?

-Oh, the tomatoes add a lot of color, I have to say.

-I have more condiments for us.

Here is some cilantro.

-I like a lot of cilantro.

-Yeah, I do, too.

And then here is some Thai basil.

-Okay.

-And you could tear those up, the large ones.

-Ugh.

-And some Thai chilies here if you want it to be even a little hotter.

-Just a little.

-Yeah.

And then a nice squeeze of lime, and I just drop it right in because that's, like, the cool way to do it.

-Oh, got you.

-All right.

-Thanks for the tip.

-Okay, and finally the jam.

-How much can I add, like, that much?

-Oh, yeah, as much as you like.

-All right.

-Almost looks too pretty to eat.

It's so beautiful.

-Almost.

-Ugh, wow.

That broth with all those layers of flavor and that jam on top... -So fresh.

There's so much going on.

I almost don't know what to think about first -- the sweetness, the sour.

-The fresh herbs, the tender noodles.

This is the kind of soup that cures whatever ails you.

-And how about that jam?

-Mm-hmm.

-Cannot skip that jam.

I really think it makes the soup.

It adds so much depth -- the savory, sweet, spicy.

I know I'm going on and on about it.

[ Both chuckle ] -The jam is pretty good.

-It's so good.

-And the shrimp are perfectly cooked.

-Mm-hmm.

-Becky, this is delicious.

Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-So if you want to make an authentic pot of tom yum, start by making a spicy chili jam.

Cook rice noodles and build a flavorful broth with lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and galangal.

After cooking mushrooms and scallion greens in the broth, remove it from the heat and stir in the shrimp.

To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls filled with noodles and garnished with lots of fresh herbs and that amazing chili jam.

From "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a killer recipe for Thai hot and sour soup with shrimp and noodles.

Mm.

-This absurd-looking, floppy ring of silicone -- actually pretty amazing.

It's called the Frywall stovetop splatter guard, and it actually does contain splattering oil when you're frying or sauting in a skillet, keeps your kitchen a little cleaner.

Look how easily it drops into place, and it stays put even when you're cooking.

Comes in 8-, 10-, and 12-inch sizes to fit different pans.

Now, when we sear chicken thighs, its high walls contain the oil splatter.

Another great use for this -- we piled 32 cups of chopped kale in the Frywall in our 12-inch skillet and sauted all of it successfully.

Without the Frywall, we could only fit 9 cups.

Now, even though it seems really floppy when it's out of the pan, if you notice when it's in the pan, it really stays in place, and it's surprisingly easy to work around the high sides when we were stirring the greens or turning the chicken.

It's also easy to clean 'cause this whole thing goes right in the dishwasher, and it rolls up for storage.

For about $29, the Frywall is a real innovation to keep your kitchen a little bit cleaner.

-It used to be that you could only find one type of eggplant at the supermarket, and it was this, the good old globe eggplant.

Now, this is classic.

It doesn't have a lot of flavor, so it's going to take on any flavors that you add to it, and you would either stuff it or roast it, grill it, saut it, stir-fry it, just about anything, very versatile, but now you can find some other varieties.

These three all have more seeds, and they're a little bit drier.

This particular one is an Italian eggplant, and it's a little spicier.

This one is Chinese.

It's got a nice sweet flavor, and then this little guy here, this is a Thai eggplant.

It's full of lots of seeds.

It's pretty dry, and it's a little bit spicy.

It's actually great to eat raw.

Then we started seeing some heirloom varieties show up.

This one is called graffiti.

Inside it's a little bit sweet.

It's actually great to eat raw, as well.

And then this little one is an Indian eggplant.

It has a lot of little seeds in it.

It's got great flavor, but, again, it's a lot of work if you're making a big dish with lots of them.

And this one is called a Japanese eggplant.

It's what we're going to use today.

It's pretty firm on the inside, a little bit of sponginess like a globe, really good texture.

Dan is going to take this, and he's going to use it to make a Thai-inspired salad.

-That's right.

So I love this salad.

It's packed with so many different textures and flavors, tons of herbs.

It's really, really fresh.

It can stand up on its own with some rice.

It's great with grilled meats, and it all is based on this intense dressing.

-Alright.

-We're going to start with that.

-Sounds good.

-So I got my trusty blender here, and we're going to build a dressing that is based on the Thai dish or sauce called nam prik, and there's a ton of different variations on it, but it's always really intense, lots of umami from fish sauce.

You have acidity from lime juice, lots of aromatics.

So this one starts with 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of unseasoned rice vinegar.

We also have 2 tablespoons of lime juice.

So the next ingredient is a really cool Thai ingredient called palm sugar, so it's made by crystallizing Asian palm sap, and it's got a really nice flavor.

It's a little bit more mild than brown sugar.

If you can't find it, brown sugar is an okay substitute here.

-Got you.

-But it comes in these little pucks.

Just have to kind of crunch them with your knife and break them up a little bit.

So it's going to go in, so that's 2 tablespoons of palm sugar.

-Okay.

-I also have a 1-inch piece of ginger that's really coarsely chopped and peeled, and I have two garlic cloves that are just super coarsely chopped.

Blender is going to do all of our fine work for us.

-I like this.

-And a half Thai chili seeded and then sliced thin.

So we're going to blend this until it's mostly smooth, which takes about 1 minute.

[ Food processor whirs ] Okay, that looks great.

So I'm going to transfer this over to our serving bowl, actually, and we're build the entire salad right in here.

So we've got our dressing made.

Now I'm going to start with the tomatoes.

I've got a cup of cherry tomatoes here.

Want to cut them in half and get them into that dressing nice and early so they can pick up tons of that flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm going to use a fun little trick here -- the two-lid method of cutting all of the tomatoes at once.

-This is one of my favorite hacks.

-It's so fun.

So the bottom lid is facing up so has that nice rim there, and then this one goes down here, and then I like to come down here when I do it so you can see that you're going straight through and just straight working.

-And you got to have a really sharp knife for this.

-That definitely helps.

-Also works with a serrated knife.

-Oh, yeah, that'd be great.

-Mm-hmm.

-Awesome.

-Perfect.

-Perfect, all those nice in halves.

-Look at that.

It's crazy.

Every single one is in half.

-Nice, right?

-Yes.

-Awesome.

So we'll just transfer this over to our dressing.

Okay, so now we're going to get into the eggplant, so we need 1 1/2 pounds total for this recipe.

I've already prepped some there, but I want to show you how we do it on this one here, so I like to peel back this cap a little bit here.

-Mm-hmm.

-There's good eggplant under there, and it's easy to just lop it off if you're not careful.

I'll just take that bit off.

And so I'm going to halve this lengthwise first, and then we're going to cut 1 1/2-inch pieces cross-wise.

-Okay.

-So, most eggplant recipes, there's some prep involved with the eggplant before you actually go to cook it, right?

-Sure.

-It's a funky vegetable.

It's packed with air pockets.

We want those air pockets because when we dress this eggplant later on, we want it to have a place to go, all that dressing to move inside, so we want to preserve those, and we found the best way to do that was actually toss these guys with some salt and then microwave them for a little bit.

So I have 1 teaspoon of kosher salt here, and I'll just toss that in here.

Looks great.

So now for our microwave setup.

If we were to put the eggplant just on the plate and cook it, a lot of liquid comes out, and it essentially stews in that liquid.

-Right.

-We want dehydration, and so we found that having something that wicks away moisture was really helpful.

Coffee filters are perfect.

They're designed for high heat.

They do a good job of absorbing moisture.

If you don't have coffee filters, you can work with paper towel, but you want to use an unbleached one that has no ink on it.

This is a double layer of coffee filters over the whole bottom.

So our eggplant doesn't stick to the coffee filters, I'm going to do a light spray of cooking spray.

Okay, and we want roughly a single layer here.

We don't everything to be on top of one another.

You get more steaming that way.

-Got you.

-So I'm going to go into the microwave now on high power for about 10 minutes.

We're looking for these to shrink down quite a bit to about an inch in size.

-Well, eggplants' porous structure means that it can absorb a lot of oil, and in many recipes, we want to prevent that, so we pretreat the eggplant with salt.

When we sprinkle eggplant with salt and let it rest, the salt draws water out of the cells and into the pores.

Pectin and hemicellulose dissolve out of the cell walls and into that water.

This process softens the cells, collapsing the pores and gives the whole eggplant a jellied consistency.

Then when we cook it, there aren't many pockets left for oil to seep into.

For this recipe, however, we want the eggplant to have pockets so it can soak up all of that luscious Thai dressing, so we treat it in the microwave instead.

As the eggplant cooks in the microwave, water comes out of the cells, but instead of filling the pores, the water boils off, leaving behind a partly dehydrated eggplant with lots of little pockets.

When we fry the eggplant on the stovetop, there's still enough water left so that it comes out as steam, creating a barrier that keeps the frying oil from seeping in.

The fried eggplant still has lots of pockets intact, so it can readily absorb our flavorful dressing.

And that's why the microwave is key to perfectly cooked eggplant that's going to soak up our beautiful dressing and not the bland frying oil.

-So, we have our beautiful dehydrated eggplant here.

So it's a 10-minute cook.

About halfway through, I flipped them over just so they cook really evenly.

-Okay.

-I've also got vegetable oil, and that is heating over here, and if you can see, there's not a lot of oil.

-No.

-That's just 2 cups.

We wanted to use as little as possible, and we found that we can get all the way down to 2 cups of oil... -Very shallow, shallow fry.

-...which is awesome, yep, and we want that to be at 375 degrees, and that is perfect.

Great.

-Alright.

And they're fairly dry, which is a good thing when you're adding it to hot oil.

-Exactly.

Get less splattering.

-Mm, a good sound.

-So I'm going to cook these, stirring pretty frequently until they're deep golden brown, and the edges are nice and crispy.

Takes anywhere from five to seven minutes.

-Mm.

-Crispy fried shallots are one of our all-time favorite garnishes.

Once they make their way into your repertoire, they will infiltrate your cooking in many, many delicious ways.

Let's get started.

We need the shallots sliced thin here, about 1/16 inch.

I'm going to add the shallots to 2 cups of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan.

I'm going to turn the heat to high.

I'm not afraid about cranking it here.

There's so much moisture in shallots that needs to be driven off before they start to darken or turn crispy.

It should take about four minutes over high heat for the pan to come to a boil.

The shallots will lose their bright pink color, and they'll start to wilt slightly.

It's been about four minutes now, and the oil is bubbling away nicely.

I'm going to let it cook for another 8 to 11 minutes until it starts to turn golden.

The shallots have been cooking for about 15 minutes now, and they're starting to turn golden.

Things can move quickly here, so I'm going to reduce the heat to medium-low.

This will give us a wider window to catch them when they're just right.

It should take another two to four minutes for them to start to turn deep golden.

It's been about three minutes now, and they're deep golden.

It's really important to strain them when they're still golden rather than brown.

Otherwise, they could turn bitter.

Now, whatever you do, don't throw that oil away.

We'll come to that in a minute.

I'm going to spread the shallots over a double layer of paper towels set on a rim baking sheet.

I'm going to hit them with 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

I'm going to give them a quick blot, slide them onto the sheet, and we're going to finish these in a 200-degree oven.

Finishing the shallots in a low oven will drive off any excess moisture and won't risk overbrowning.

It should take about 15 to 25 minutes for the shallots to be crisp and dry to the touch.

The shallots are out of the oven and have cooled completely, and they're looking perfect.

Now, most cooking oil is destined for the trash, but this golden oil is infused with a rich fried-shallot flavor that has a ton of uses.

Making these fried shallots at home is worth it.

-Ugh, this eggplant looks so good.

Going to use my skimmer here to get it out and onto some paper towels.

Gorgeous.

So we want to blot off any excess oil we can.

Okay, that looks awesome.

Now we just transfer over, so we'll just kind of stir this in here, get it nice and coated.

Now for the copious amount of herbs that we're using in this recipe.

We have all of this rich, intense flavor.

We want to brighten it up with all the herbs.

We've got 1/2 cup of cilantro here.

And this is kind of just picked leaves.

-Mm-hmm.

-We also have 1/2 cup of mint leaves, leaving them whole, and 1/2 cup of Thai basil leaves.

So we're just going to toss this together, and then I'm going to take half of these herbs and fold them right in.

-[ Breathes deeply ] -Let those wilt down just a little bit.

Alright, so that's mixed in, and the final bit goes right on top.

Want to keep that nice and fresh.

-Beautiful.

-And the final flourish is 1/2 cup of fried shallots, which are one of the best ingredients you can ever work with, in my mind.

-[ Sniffs ] As soon as everything hits that hot eggplant, which is still a little bit warm, I'm sure, by this point, it just releases the aroma into the air.

That's so good.

Mm.

Alright, I'm going for the gold here, right to the eggplant.

-Mmm.

-It's so true.

Eggplant -- we always talk about it being a sponge.

-Mm-hmm.

-This is working in our favor here.

-That's what you want it to do.

-It's what you want it to do because you want to get every last bit of that dressing into your mouth.

So good.

-So good.

-Tangy, salty.

Love the fish sauce.

-Super savory, yeah.

-Mm, a little bit sweet.

The palm sugar is very interesting.

-Mm-hmm.

-And the texture of the eggplant, it's nice and soft, but you're right.

Still around the edges, it's got a little bit of crispness just there.

-Little crispness, and then you get the crispy shallots on top, which -- good on top of everything.

-Exactly.

Thanks, Dan.

-You're welcome.

-Well, this beautiful eggplant salad starts with very potent dressing.

Stir cherry tomatoes into the dressing and set that aside.

Salt and microwave eggplant, then fry until crisp.

Toss with the dressing.

Add a cilantro-mint-and-basil mixture and sprinkle with fried shallots.

So from "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a beautiful, crispy Thai eggplant salad.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season along with our testings, tastings, and select episodes on our website, that's americastestkitchen.com.

Mmm.

-Let us help you with dinner tonight.

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