Ann Massey

Fish sauce and garlic can always be found at Ann Massey’s house in Bruce, along with jasmine rice and her rice cooker. A native of Thailand, dishes from there are what she enjoys cooking the most.

Her children always liked what she just calls “rice and egg”. It is “so simple and easy to make. You stir a little fish sauce in with 5-8 eggs. Pour them into four tablespoons of hot oil. Don’t scramble the eggs, just pour them in and let them cook. Flip when one side is done and cook the other. Take eggs out and put steamed rice on top and add a little more fish sauce,” she said.

Daughter Satrina likes rice and egg, egg rolls and green curry with chicken (a stir fry chicken dish with coconut milk, green curry and bamboo shoots, seasoned with green or red chile peppers and basil, and served over rice.)
Her kids also love egg rolls, saying that she doesn’t cook her filling first like most people. (At this point, she said she would be willing to teach someone to make the egg rolls if they wanted her to help them.)
Her submitted recipes are four dishes she cooks often and that she likes. With the stir fry vegetables, she usually uses chicken, shrimp or pork, and says the fried rice is easy.

She comes from a family of 11, and she is #10. With six older sisters who always did the cooking, she didn’t start at a young age. She says she gets better each time she makes something. Before she learned to cook, while visiting family in Seattle, she would always watch and help them in the kitchen.
Her mother-in-law, the late Maxine Massey, taught her to fry green tomatoes and squash, and make biscuits, which she is “getting better at.”  She learned to make fried apple and peach pies from her late Aunt Syble Massey, who would always invite her over for tea and fried pie.

Ann loves to watch the food channels but will usually change a recipe from there to make it a little easier or quicker. “I do a lot of experimenting–sometimes it works,” she said. Banana pudding is a favorite of her husband, Joe, and she combined a recipe from sister-in-law Vicki Massey with one from the internet to get the one she likes to use. In it she uses light whipping cream, and said she always substitutes something light whenever possible.

The Masseys like to garden, growing squash, tomatoes, corn, green beans, and for the first time this year, bitter melon, which is not easy to find. She uses bitter melon, which looks like a cucumber, to stir fry or make soup.
She loves tomatoes and always cans them for  making vegetable soup and spaghetti sauce, consisting of  tomato paste, ground hot sausage, a little ground chicken, olives, red bell pepper, red onion, garlic, mushrooms and basil.

With green beans she likes to smash garlic and red chile, cook in wok, add ground pork, then the green beans, and finally some oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, hot basil. She also grows her own basil and mint.
Ann cooks more Thai than American food, and whereas more salt might be added while cooking American, she would use fish or oyster sauce and/or sugar to Thai.
About all food she cooks she said, “Before I turn off the stove, I taste it. If needed I add fish sauce, oyster sauce or sugar. If you don’t have fish sauce, light soy sauce can be substituted.”
 Papaya Salad
1 medium dark green papaya
4 garlic cloves
6 fresh green or red chiles
4 Roma tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
3 Tbsp. Palm sugar (can substitute regular sugar)
3 Tbsp. crushed peanuts roasted, unsalted (optional)
Peel papaya, rinse under running water and shred with grater. Set aside. Put garlic cloves and chiles in mortar and mash with pestle until crushed into chunks. Add remaining ingredients and add into papaya gently. Combine all with spoon, then taste. It should be sweet, sour and spicy. Add more sugar, chile paste, lemon or lime juice, if desired.

Stir Fried Vegetables w/Meat
1 cup sliced chicken meat or shrimp
2 cups broccoli cut bite size
1 cup peeled carrot, sliced crosswise
1 cup red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
1 cup yellow bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cup yellow onion
1 Tbsp. garlic chopped
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
3 Tbsp. cooking oil
1 tsp. sugar
Fry garlic and onion until yellow, about 1-2 minutes. Add meat and fry until cooked. Then add all vegetables. Cook 2-3 minutes. Add fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Stir one minute. Cover for two minutes then turn off heat. Serve with steamed rice.

Fried Rice
3 Tbsp. oil
1 cup boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in small pieces
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1 /2 cup onion, sliced
2 eggs
3 cups cooked rice
1 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground white pepper
1 cucumber slices
Heat oil in wok or pan. Add garlic and chicken. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add onion and cook  another minute. Break in the eggs. Mix very well, then stir in rice and rest of the ingredients. Stir well. Cook 3-4 minutes and serve with cucumber. (If you like spicy, just add red chile. Taste, and add fish sauce, sugar or pepper if desired.)

Egg Rolls or Spring Rolls
1 lb. ground pork
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup onion chopped
2 cups grated carrots
3-4 cups bean threads (soak with warm water until soft, cut into small pieces)
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 beaten egg
12 egg roll wrappers or spring roll wrappers
Vegetable oil for cooking (deep fry)
Combine all ingredients except wrappers. You will use one tablespoon of filling for each roll. Place  filling in the corner of the wrapper. Tightly roll half way and fold in sides of wrapper. Continue rolling tightly until it is closed. Press to seal at the end with a little bit of tap water to close. Continue with remaining ingredients. Set deep fryer to medium/high heat. Drop in 5-6 egg rolls for a small pot. Cook until golden brown on all sides. When done, take out and put into paper towels. May serve with store bought egg roll dipping sauce.