Thai Toast with Cucumber Salad

Today I'm walking you through one of my favorite things to eat...Thai toast! I've said for years that my favorite restaurant is Lek's Taste of Thailand. I've been eating there for about 30 years. Seriously. Before I was married, I would eat there every Friday night with friends. I introduced Gerald to Lek's as soon as we started dating. He doesn't love it like I do, but he knows it's my favorite, so he has a dish or two he'll eat there just to make me happy! Jewell planned a surprise dinner there for me and my besties on my 50th birthday. You get the idea. I really like it.

Their Pad Thai is my favorite, but every now and then, I'll opt for an appetizer platter. My favorite thing on the sampler platter is the Thai toast. I decided that it would be a fun addition to the menu for one of my BFF's birthday lunches! I searched several recipes, and then adapted them to what I thought would taste most like Lek's version.

From what I read when studying recipes, Thai toast is a popular afternoon snack and one of the first dishes that young Asian children learn to cook. The fact that it is fried and that kids make it was a little surprising to me! Anyway, I decided if little kids could make it, so could I! I made it again recently at the beach. It was a tight kitchen, and we were also rolling sushi. I decided to try something that really paid off. I par-baked the toast before frying. This is not the standard way to make it, but in my opinion, it was brilliant, and it solved a lot of problems. The recipe below reflects this adaptation.

Thai Toast with Cucumber Salad

1 large, but skinny, French bread loaf (or two if short)

1 lb bulk sausage (I use Jimmy Dean regular flavor)

5 cloves of minced garlic (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

three dashes soy sauce (I only use Kikkoman low sodium)

1/4 tsp sugar

red pepper flakes to taste

4 eggs, beaten

a bunch of cilantro

canola oil for frying

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the sausage, garlic, salt, pepper, soy, and red pepper flakes. Set aside. Cut the French bread into 1.5" thick slices. Spread about one tablespoon of the sausage mixture onto each piece of French bread. Place all on a cookie sheet, and bake about 15 minutes, until sausage is basically cooked and bread begins to dry out and toast. Set aside to cool for about 30 minutes. 

Beat eggs. Pinch off cilantro leaves, discarding woody stems. Heat about an inch of canola oil in a large skillet. Carefully dip each piece of toast into the egg mixture, top with a couple of pieces of cilantro and place facedown in the hot oil. Turn occasionally until the egg is cooked and the toast is brown. Remove to paper towels to drain. Adjust your heat so the oil doesn't burn. Cook all toast. Serve with cucumber salad.

By par-baking the sausage and toast, it cuts down on the cooking time. The sausage is basically cooked 

in the oven, so you're just crisping it all up. It also is a lot less messy. When I dipped the uncooked sausage and toast into the egg, it would fall off. It also took longer to cook them, and my oil began to burn.

Cucumber Salad

2 shallots or one small red onion, sliced

2 cucumbers, cut in half, deseeded, and diced

1 jalapeno, deseeded and finely minced

2 c water

1 c white sugar

6 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar

cilantro for garnish

(You can use white vinegar, but I like to use the seasoned rice wine vinegar that I use to make my sushi rice. It has much more flavor!) Mix water, sugar, and vinegar, until sugar dissolves. Set aside while you prepare onions and cucumber. Add jalapeno. Add cucumbers no more than 30 minutes before eating. I think they break down too much and lose their crunch if you let them sit in the liquid too long.

This makes a lot. We don't usually have leftovers, but I don't think it would reheat well.

I like to take the prongs of my fork and poke holes in the toast, then add the salad to the top. The juices soak in, and it's so good! 

We also had baked crab rangoon. 

I was super pleased with the way my sushi turned out. It looked great and tasted even better!

I need to buy the next online sushi course. It's more advanced and has different flavor profiles. Although this one will be hard to beat!

Here's one last look at my tablescape. Definitely one of my favorites!

I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!

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