Pat Chapman's

THAI
RESTAURANT
COOKBOOK
Also by Pat Chapman
Pat Chapman's Favourite Middle Eastern Recipes
Pat Chapman's Chinese Restaurant Cookbook
Curry Club Bangladeshi Restaurant Curries
Curry Club ~ c k After-Work Curries
Curry Club 250 Favourite Curries and Accompaniments
Curry Club 250 Hot and Spicy Dishes
Curry Club Favourite Restaurant Curries
Curry Club Indian Restaurant Cookbook
Curry Club Indian Vegetarian Cookbook
Curry Club Balti Curry Cookbook
Curry Club 100 Favourite Tandoori Recipes
The Taj Good Curry Restaurant Guide
Pat Chapman's
THAI
RESTAURANT
COOKBOOK
Hodder &Stoughton
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It, /'.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD VII
MENUS XII
MAP XVII
INTRODUCTION
1 Thai Culinary Workshop 19
2 Crispy, Fried, Grilled, Stuffed Items 49
3 Soups 71
4 Salads 79
5 Meat 89
6 Poultry and Eggs 99
7 Fish and Shellfish I I I
8 Vegetables 123
9 Curries 135
10 Rice 149
11 Noodles 157
12 Accompaniments 167
(chutney, pickles, sauces, garnishes)
13 Desserts and Sweet Things 181
APPENDIX 1 The Curry Club 191
ApPENDIX 2 The Store Cupboard 193
GLOSSARY 195
INDEX 202
V
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FOREWORD
11 GUESS YOU either love Thai food or you don't,' I was told by a US
General years ago. He'd found out that I'd been brought up on spicy
emnes. 'It's not like Indian food at all,' he cautioned me. 'But it is spicy and
J.erby, sweet and sour, fragrant and hot. Done right it should be subtle. I
suess you'll love it.'
I guessed I would, but my problem was I"d never tasted it, and there
1lI'eI'e no Thai restaurants in Britain then. There were precious few Indian
01' Chinese restaurants, for that matter either.
The year was 1964, the location the west ofEngland. I'd not long since
jaiDed the RAF and was stationed at South Cerney, Gloucestershire. One
day, a group of us were enjoying the pleasures of our nearby 'local', when
ill came some young USAF aircrcw from their base at nearby Fairford.
Soon, in a scene full of cliches from wartime movies, we were contesting
each other to yards of ale. I don't recall who won, but the outcome was a
IUUm challenge at their base.
I remember being momentarily shocked by the raucous atmosphere of
Iheir officers' club. It was like a Dallas bar, awash with stetson wearers, the
lM>isiest of whom, a John Wayne look-alike, was playing bucking bronco,
complete with lasso and jingling spurs. His mount, the wildest of steers,
1125 a bar stool! The entire bar was yelping encouragement. We were
amazed to find out that 10hn Wayne' was not only the station commander,
he was a veteran one-star general, that same general I mentioned above.
'Make yourselfat home,' he yelled .'1 guess this ain't a bit like your mess.'
'No Sir,' we agreed, wondering ifhe'd ever peen to an RAF Dining-ln-
Night, when its normally hushed and cloistered respectability turns into a
bedlam of mess games.
VII
FOREWORD
We were struck speechless when we found out that we had to pay for
our drinks in US dollars, not a currency easily obtained at the time in
Gloucestershire. When John Wayne' got to hear ofour dilemma, he solved
it with typical American generosity: 'It's on the house for the Limeys,' he
bellowed.
Our new-found USAF friends told us they were just about to be posted
for a year to Vietnam. This was the time when President Johnson was
escalating that war. They had plenty to say aboutJohnson and the war, none
of it good. All they looked forward to were their leave periods, which they
would spend in Thailand.
As the Budweisers flowed we all waxed lyrical about leave, aeroplanes,
beer and Bangkok. We knew a bit about the first three, but nothing about
the latter. John Wayne' joined us, telling us he'd been based there. It was
then that he told us about the delights of Thai food. He was so persuasive
that we all agreed it was one of the most visitable places on earth. There
and then, I resolved to visit the country.
The opportunity came ten years later. My work took me to Hong Kong
and thence to New Zealand for a busy month. I elected to travel on the
once mighty Pan Am airline, whose round-the-world flight departed daily
in each direction out of New York. The east-bound flight first stopped in
London, where I boarded it, then flew on to Frankfurt, Rome, Beirut,
Bahrein, Delhi, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. Even though the aircraft was a
Boeing 747, the flight to Hong Kong, with all those stops, took over 30
hours. There were quicker alternatives, but Pan Am 001 had one irresistible
advantage for me - Bangkok.
Since I had a couple of days to spare, what better place to spend the
time? I was allocated a window seat in the rear-most row. Storms over
Europe, then early dark, meant there was nothing to see enroute, and I
quickly got bored with transit lounges. Dawn came in India. One of the
most memorable sights ofmy life was the early morning sun glinting on the
Himalayas, miles to the north, as we flew from Delhi to Bangkok.
I reviewed what I knew about Thailand. It wasn't much. I'd never eaten
Thai food. Nor had my midwife mother, who'd had a thing about Siamese
twins. I thought Siamese cats were the world's prettiest pets. I'd seen The
King andI and The Bridge on the River Kwai. That was about it.. I thought a lot
about those lads from Fairford, a decade previously.
Two days later, Bangkok visited for the first time, they were uppermost
in my mind when I resumed my window vantage point aboard another
plane, this time heading for Hong Kong. Shortly after take-off I saw two
USAF Phantom jets slide into formation behind and below us. They stayed
VIII
FOREWORD
... US for about half an hour, until we were over the South China Sea.
Owing much of that time we were overflying South Vietnam. This was at
IIIe climax of the Vietnam War. Even more unforgettable were the
a-ndess bomb craters, many filled with water, glinting like vast circular
ilia. I wondered what had become of my American friends. But what of
*iradvice? Was it all true?
Bangkok in the early 1970s was astoundingly different to today's
.-p-city as we approach the year 2000. I remember a smaller Bangkok in
1973 with a skyline more of trees, pagodas, palaces and temples, than of
-.u-blocks, though building was underway apace. The air was scented
... flowers, and the mighty river Chao Praya was clean and quiet. From
_.-outed canals in every direction, upon which gondolas were paddled
.,. people in national dress and bamboo hats. There were fewer people
__ and the roads were quiet and unpolluted. Cycle rickshaws still
, in.ted. The shops traded modestly out of old teak buildings.
I bad found Thailand, the land of the free. To this day it remains a
' dUJ, joyous place with many fairy-tale ingredients. Royals, palaces,
~ temples, elephants, endless fertile farms and exquisite countryside
8Ie some which spring to mind. It has a people with a noble history, a
JIXious culmre, exoticcosmme, serene swaying dance, a soft sing-song
t.guage, and dulcet gentle music from wooden xylophones. They are
.-sundingly beautiful people, seemingly always smiling, the men as
tldectable as the women. They always appear unruffled and their phrase
",mTIl; (never mind) is never far from their lips. Neither are their two
macepts of saba; (serenity) and sanuk (fun).
And what of Thai food? On that first visit, I don't recall eating at my
~ I discovered the delights of Bangkok's street vendors. Then, as now,
*r plied their culinary wares at every oppormnity (see page 1$). My two
tkys flashed by in a whirl of grazing from trader to trader, from morning to
.igbt. My travels had already taken me to many an outflung destination,
11m rd never corne across anything as varied as this. And the beauty of
!IRe( hawkers, for one who collects recipes, is that you can see exactly how
the item you are about to eat is made. So began my passion for Thai food.
It was to take a few more years before the first Thai restaurants opened
ia Britain. Without exception, they set a standard for Thai cuisine which
wz top-notch. The British public, predictably, have welcomed Thai
cuisine with open arms.
In the last three years the number of Thai restaurants has nearly
doubled to some 500 establishments up and down the country. However,
even though this represents only a three per cent share of the total British
IX
FOREWORD
ethnic restaurant market, an expansion of this volume is fraught with
danger. Lack of sufficiently well trained cooks can result in the new res-
taurants presenting a mere caricature of the very food they are trying to
present. It is all too easy to slip into a formula. It is the same at Indian and
Chinese restaurants, of which by now there are thousands. Many operate
to a formula, the net result of which is to give its cuisine a poor reputation.
This is one reason why curry, for example, has earned itself a down-market
image, which no amount of top-notch new Indian restaurants have yet
dispelled.
At worst, the Thai formula relies too heavily on Chinese cuisine, made
'Thai' by injudicious use of chilli, sugar and coconut milk. And this is not
because of a lack of Thai ingredients. Neither is it cost driven. It is simply
a lack of culinary talent in the kitchen.
Fortunately, since the Thai restaurant is still in its honeymoon period,
the media on the whole treat Thai food with respect - according it a
position almost as up-market as French.
Fay Maschler, one of Britain's most respected restaurant critics,
described this as 'wonderment' in a review in London's Evening Standard,
dated 3 March 1996. She described the formula cuisine as presented in
certain Thai restaurants as of 'monotonous quality'. She went on: 'Deep-
frying as a cooking method, sugar as a flavouring and chilli as a kick are
instantly appealing, but it is the appeal of much fast food... and has the
clinging aura of children's food.'
I hasten to repeat that this is not the case with all Thai restaurants.
Indeed, Miss Maschler took pains to point out that the particular
restaurant she was reviewing (the Nipa Thai at the Royal Lancaster Hotel),
transcended this trap ('apart from predictably banal set menu round-ups')
and she praised its food for its balance of flavour and texture sensations.
The Nipa is not the only Thai restaurant with the ability to produce Thai
food correctly. Amongst others, London's Blue Elephant remains my
favourite, with the Khun Akorn, and the Chiang Mai close behind.
The Thai restaurant boom is set to continue growing at a rapid rate.
Whether its product will remain in the ascendant is in the restaurateur's
hands. But the restaurants must be diligent if they wish to retain their
position of respect. At Indo-Bangladeshi restaurants, British diners have
become considerably more expert and discerning than they were in the
early 1980s. Soon this will be the ~ a s e in Thai restaurants.
I hope this book will help. It is from the top-notch restaurants,
including those in Thailand, and not forgetting those DIY street hawkers,
that I have assembled this collection of favourite Thai recipes. I sincerely
x
FOREWORD
IIDpe you try them all. I hope this book will introduce Thai food fans to
IIeW dishes as well as reacquainting them with their old favourites.
The ability to cook at horne never diminishes trade at the better
RSt2urants. If anything, it increases it, with the diner-cook the more able
ID tell the good from the bad. I adore cooking, as I expect you do, too. But
dIere are times when I simply do not want to be bothered. Going to the
RSt2urant on such an occasion is so much more alluring and fun. But I also
lore the challenge of being able to do it at horne.
Here, with the time to create it in the way you want it to be, and with
... book at your side, you'll find that cooking Thai food is relatively quick,
_ results completely rewarding, the variety amazing, the tastes subtle,
-' the textures superb. I'm sure you won't just like it, you'll love it.
That US General guessed right all those years ago. I expect he's still
ajoying himself. I wonder if he remembers some callow English youths
... no dollars.
Pat Chapman
Haslemere
July 1996
XI
MENUS
L
IKE MOST others, Thais eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and
dinnet: And like for most ofus, the average home meal is straightforward,
as represented in the first three example menus below. Do please remember
these are just examples. They give the way a Thai meal is strucmred (see also
Page 25). You can make your own substimtes or additional dishes.
Again, like us, Thais do enjoy their more elaborate meals when enter-
taining or celebrating. The final three examples take care ofthose occasions.
Thais are great grazers. In the cities, hawkers and market cafes make
food available on a twenty-four-hour basis. For a quick any-time graze, make
any soup or salad, or perhaps a noodle dish, from Chapters 3, 4 and 11.
I've given two more menu examples - one vegetarian and the other for
the different picnic.
To any of these examples you should add as many chutneys, sauces and
pickles from Chapter 12 as take your fancy. The suggested number ofservings
is given for each recipe, but you can adjust quantities pro rata as required.
BREAKFAST OR BRUNCH
SERVES: 1 OR MORE ---------
Khao Tom Kai (breakfast rice) page 75
Yam Naw Mia Farang (asparagus salad) page 85
Khao Taang (sweet rice crispy chips) page 70
Lemon Grass Tea page 189
XII
MENUS
LIGHT LUNCH OR TV SUPPER
SERVES: 4
KaiJeow (omelette) page 108
and/or
Pad Thai (stir-fried noodles) page 158
or
K.hai Khaeng (curry over rice). Any curry from Chapter 9 and
rice from Chapter 10.
A TYPICAL THAI MEAL
SERVES: 4
Si-Khrong Moo Tod (ribs) page 93
Tom Yam Nua (beef soup) page 73
Yam Talai (seafood salad) page 83
Khaeng Ked-Wan Gai (green curry with chicken) page 140
Khao Pad Horapa (basil fried rice) page 155
'*
I-sa Gereem Katee (coconut ice cream) page 188
Polamai (fresh fruit) page 181
A THAI PICNIC
A selection ofcold dishes for a hot day in the open air.
SERVES: 4 TO 6
Satay Moo (chicken satay) page 59
Kari Pub (curry puffs) page 60
Kanom Pang Grawp (crackers) page 70
Pia Nua Yaang Gub Aa-ngoon (salad of stir-fried beef with
grapes) page 80
Look Cheen Ping (meat balls on skewers) page 90
Khao Yam (rice salad) page 156
XIII
MENUS
A THAI VEGETARIAN MEAL
SERVES: 4 TO 6
Serve all together or as three orfOur courses.
Pak Tod ( v e g e ~ a b l e fritters) page 68
..
Pak Gaeng-Chud (vegetable consomme) page 76
..
Yam Phonlamai (savoury fruit salad) page 87
Nam Prig Ong (northern chilli vegetable) page 126
Galumbi Har Tao Hou (spicy mushroom with tofu) page 127
Khao Pad Maprao (coconut rice) page 155
..
Kruay Chueam (caramelized sweet bananas) page 184
THAI RESTAURANT
FAVOURITE FOUR COURSE
DINNER
SERVES: 4 TO 6
This menu witt requirepJanning andadvance work (see noteon page XV/).
Kanom Pang Grawp (crackers) page 70
Satay Gai (chicken satay) page 59
Por Pia Tod (prawn spring roll) page 62
Kanom-Pang Moo Gung (prawn toast) page 69
..
Tom Yam Gai (chicken soup) page 73
Yam Yai ('Large' vegetable salad) page 85
..
Talai Thai (seafood special) page 117
Khaeng Panaeng Nua (Malay-style beef curry) page 145
Khao Pad Kai (egg fried rice) page 155
..
Kruay Tod (bananas fritters) page 185
XIV
MENUS
A GOURMET FOUR COURSE
DINNER
IlISjJired by Bangkok's Shangri-La and Oriental Hotels, this meal comprises some of
the lesser known treasures from Thailand.
AT 'With the previous menu, and the Royal Feast which[oJJows, you wiJJ need to plan
the making ofthis menu. See note overleaf.
SERVES: 4 TO 6
Bai Kruay Too-ay (filled banana leaf cup) page 52
Krathak (pastry cloaked prawn) page 64
'*
Ped Gaeng-Chud Manao Dong (duck consomme with
vinegared lime) page 77
'*
Yam Kuaytiaw Sen Mee (noodle salad with mango and orange)
page 162
Nua-Look-Gaa Pad Bai-salanai (lamb stir-fried with mint)
page 97
PIa Nang Moo Issan (pork salad) page 82
Khaeng Leung Pa-Moo Yaang (yellow curry with wild boar)
page 143
Khao Niaw Daeng (black rice) page 152
'*
Fug Thawng Sang-Khaya (pumpkin custard) page 187
xv
MENUS
A RIGHT ROYAL FEAST
For aparticularlyfestive occasion.
SERVES: 8 TO 10 (FIVE COURSES)
From the Thai royal repertoire, this collection ofrecipes will require careful
planning andsome atfvance work usingfreezer andfridge. The starters, though
needing the deep-fryer on the day could, for example, comefrom thefreezer, as can
the soup, liver andcurry. Thepuddingand the rice can be put in thefridge the day
before. The salad andasparagus must be made as freshly as possible. Because there
are so many dishes, the recipes will provide sufficientfor 8 to 10people, except
desserts. Ifyou thinkyou have bigappetites, the rice and soup could be doubled.
Moo Sarong (golden thread pork) page 55
Gai Har Bai Toey (emerald parcels) page 56
Tung Tong (fried filled golden bags) page 66
*'
Tom Yam Talai (seafood soup) page 72
*'
Yam Gai Tua-Pu (chicken and winged-bean salad) page 84
*'
Tab Gai Pad Prig (spicy chicken liver) page 104
Doon Naw-Mai-Farang (steamed asparagus) page 129
Bai Horapa Tord Grob (crisp fried basil leaves) page 133
Khaeng Myanmar Ped (Burmese-style duck curry) page 146
Khao Pa-Som (black and white rice) page 152
Mee Grob (crispy noodles) page 164
*'
Khao Tom Mat Som (rubies with orange segments) page 186
XVI
....
BURMA
INDIA
IndianOaan
XVII
G
o
Q
o
South
CbinM
S,a
l'OO"E
CHINA
INTRODUCTION
T
HAILAND HAS the distinction of being the most stable country in
Indo-China, with, as we shall see, a continuous rule by a succession
of Thai kings from the twelfth century to this day. For much of this time it
was known as Siam, and although it was never occupied by China or India,
its food and its people were greatly influenced by both mighty nations.
Since its borders expanded to encompass Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam,
Malaya and Burma on more than one occasion, it is not surprising that these
influences played their important part too, especially in culinary terms.
Thailand's food, however, developed along a course ofits own, summarizing
a nation, which, far &t>m being colonized by a European 'master', managed
to banish them from its shores, at the most crucial point in its development.
When the West finally discovered Thai food, as late as the 1960s, we
quickly realized what we had been missing. Thai restaurants exploded into
our culture, first in the USA, then Australia, and, latterly, only in the last
fifteen years, in Britain. What we had been missing was neither Indian nor
Chinese. It was unique.
True, there are curries, but they are quite different from their Indian
cousins. True, there are noodle dishes, and spring rolls and wontons, bur
their flavourings and fillings are Thai, not Chinese. Rice dishes are the
suple, true, but where else can you get jasmine fragranced rice?
And if one had to use just one word to differentiate Thai food from
everyone else's, the word I'd use is 'fragrance'. In Thai cuisine, fragrance
.. comes from a remarkable balance of ingredients, especially fresh herbs,
DOtably basil and coriander. Further fragrance comes from lemon grass and
bffir lime leaves. In common with many races in Asia, Thais love chillies,
INTRODUCTION
some of which are really hot, whilst they use hardly any spices. Sour tastes
appear now and again in the form of tamarind and kaffir lime. Savoury
tastes come from garlic, onion, and ginger in the form of the indigenous
galangal. A hint of fudge-like palm sugar is countered with equally subtle
hints of salty fish sauce and shrimp paste, but never in sufficient quantities
to enable the diner to identify anyone of them. Meat, poultry, fish and
shellfish, being relatively expensive and scarce resources in Thailand,
appear in modest quantities in their cooking, combined usually with a wide
range of vegetables, lightly cooked to retain their crunchy goodness.
It is these ingredients, now becoming widely available in the West,
which correctly combined, make Thai food unique. Cooking techniques
range from stir-frying to steaming, and deep-frying to boiling. Textures
range from the crunchiest items to the softest. Hot and cold dishes are
served alongside each other.
Any culinary style is made distinctive by what ingredients are not used.
In Thai cooking, as in Chinese, dairy products are absent. Milk, cream,
yoghurt, butter and cheese play no part. In this respect, Thai cooking could
not be more different from Indian. Bread, and most wheat products, are
absent too. And the absence of .oven cooking could give Thai food
limitations. In the West, we are convinced we cannot do without all these
ingredients, yet when we enjoy a Thai meal, we are unaware that they are,
in fact, not there. Such is the strength of Thai food.
In this book I have chosen the widest range of Thai favourites that I can.
You should find all the favourites ofthe western Thai restaurant menu. But
in addition, I have included dishes which are less familiar. But I can say that
I have met each and every one of them, either on Thailand's streets,
courtesy of her fabulous food vendors, or from her restaurants, up and
down the country.
I'm looking forward to introducing you to all ofthem, but before we get
busy in the kitchen, I'd like you to join me on a journey to Thailand to find
out where she is, to meet her people, and to see how her nation, food and
restaurants here evolved over the cenmries to become so special and unique.
WHERE IS THAILAND?
C
ENTRED AT 15N latimde and lOOOE longitude, Thailand is a
tropical country bordering Indo-China, extending north to south
some 1600km in length, and at its widest lOOOkm east to west. The shape
2
THAILAND'S PEOPLE
of its 514,000 sq km land mass (which is over twice that of the UK) is very
aptly described by its inhabitants as that of an elephant's head, since the
elephant is the national animal, and is very highly revered
Most of that land mass forms the elephant's head. The mountain range
in the north and north-west forms not only the 'skull' but a natural border
with Burma. The point where the borders with Burma, Laos and Thailand
meet is delineated by the conjoining of the rivers Mekong and Ruak. This
area of outstanding beauty is known as 'The Golden Triangle'. Laos forms
the 'ears' and Cambodia the 'jaw'. The 1000km long thin isthmus is the
trunk stretching southwards until it joins the Malaysia penninsula.
THAILAND'S PEOPLE
T
HAILAND'S POPULATION is around 60 million, of which the
majority (45 million) are Thai, ofseveral ethnic groups with dialectic
differences. There are 6.5 million Chinese Thais. Ofthe two million Malay
Thais, most are Moslem.
The remainder of the population are descendants of the Mons
(Burmese), Khmer (Cambodia), Laotian and Vietnamese. The hill tribes of
Thailand's far north account for well under one million people. They are
nomadic and borderless and wear beautiful and distinctive costumes.
Ninety per cent of the population are Buddhists. The country has
27,000 temples and every Buddhist male must serve time as a monk.
Seventy per cent of the population work on the land, living in villages
of between 100 and 150 houses, typically built on wooden poles or stilts
above or alongside canals (klongs), in extended families ofbetween four and
ten people. Between them they fish, or farm chickens, ducks or water-
buffalo. They harvest 20 million tons of rice per annum.
PRONOUNCING THE THAI
LANGUAGE
I
HAVE GIVEN the Thai names for all the recipes in this book and for
many ingredients in the glossary. This is to help your ordering at the
Thai restaurant or grocery store. To those not familiar with the Thai
language, it looks strange and incomprehensible. Though it developed
3
INTRODUCTION
from Chinese centuries ago, it is not as guttural. It flows easier, and is
distinguishable by the rather beautiful sing-song intonations. This is the
result of being economical with words. I mean by this that one word can
have a number of meanings, depending on which of five tones are applied
to it. These are high, middle or low voice pitches, and a rising or lowering
ofintonation. To make it more complex, some Thai words look similar. For
example ped is duck. And pad pak paad ped pa pbet means 'stir-fried
vegetables with spicy minced wild duck'.
Whereas English has 21 consonants, Thai has some 40. The extras are
soft or aspirated sounds.
For example, 'T' can be pronounced hard (staccato) or less hard when it
becomes almost 'Th' (although it is still lighter than the English th as in
the). D can also have as many variations. When it comes to translating Thai
phonetics to English, there are therefore several ways ofattempting to spell
anyone word.
Take Tom (boil). It can also appear as Thom, thhom, dhomor dom. The Thai
word for prawn can vary from kungto ghoong. Thai vowels are equally com-
plex and generally dipthonged, or composite in sound. The English word
'ate', is an example, traversing from 'a' to 'ee'. The Thai word Khaeng
(meaning curry liquid) is an example. Pronounced soft 'k' - ar-yen-g, it can
also be spelt kaeng kaing, kaueng or gaeng and look how similar it is to kung
or gboong above. Of course to a Thai (ignoring dialects) there is only one
way to pronounce each word.
It is only the phonetic translations from Thai to English and back again
which create difficulties.
This explains why no two Thai travel or cookbooks, or restaurant
menus, written in English agree on spelling. Take the word 'noodle'. A flip
through ten books produces the following variations (in alphabetical order)
guautiaw, gueyteow, gwaytio, kuaytiaw, kwaytiew, kwaytio and kwitiaw.
In this book I have chosen one spelling method, and have applied it con-
sistently to every word. My preferred version of noodles for example, is
kuaytiaw. Where a consonant is pronounced softly I have added an 'h' to the
word. For example kuaytiaw has a more or less hard 'k' (though slightly soft-
er than our word king). Kbaeng (curry sauce) is very soft, which I have indi-
cated with the addition of the 'h' after the 'k'. All these problems occur in
translating written Thai to English.
Thais also have problems with spoken English. Some words are tongue
twisters. They cannot pronounce a trilled 'r' by rolling the tongue and a
word such as green curry would be pronounced 'gerleen khaee'. 'Th' is
difficult and's' adjacent to 'p' and 't' causes problems. So a 'three gram
4
THAILAND'S HISTORY
teaspoon' would be pronounced 'terlee gerlam tee serpoon'. The inability
to say the word 'steak' is said to have led to the invention of the word satay,
'stew' becomes satu, and 'ice cream', isa gereem.
Since I cannot string two Thai words together, my comments may
appear derisory. I assure you they are not. Thai language is beautiful, the
limitations, only when speaking English, charming.
I can't resist telling you about one tongue twisting anecdote. Dominique
and I had been shopping in the Bangkok markets. We went for lunch in a
posh restaurant, and put our carrier bags on the floor next to my chair. A
waiter carne along to take our order, tripped over our bags, and landed vir-
tually on top of me. 'Kiss me'. he said. It took us a few seconds to realise he
meant 'Excuse me', but found the combination of'exc' impossible to say! It
gives a whole new meaning to Admiral Lord Nelson's last words!
THAILAND'S HISTORY
li S HAS BEEN mentioned, the two great influences on Thai food are
I"\... Chinese and Indian. From early times, Indian and Chinese mariners
had connected their two vast countries in a trade route which compelled
them to pass through the narrow Straits ofMalacca. There they had to wait
for a change of monsoon wind direction before they could proceed.
Archaeologists know that iron tools, probably from China, were in use in
Thailand as early as 500 BC, and it is around this period that Chinese and
Indian mariners began to trade here. More significantly, the Indians
brought their religions. Dr KT Achaya, in his book, Indian Food, an Historical
Companion (OUP, Bombay), says: 'Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms could hardly
have been established aJJ O'Ver south-east Asia without sea-borne support:
Even before Buddha died in India (in about 483 BC) his religion had
spread into China along the silk route, and overland into Burma. By 300
BC Buddhism was well established in south-east Asia. Most of the area,
apart from North Vietnam, where the Chinese had settled, was occupied
by two racial groups: the Mons in the north, who originated in Burma, and
the Khmers from Cambodia.
Ports were established, the largest of which was Oc Eo, in what is now
South Vietnam. Then it was part of the Khmer empire, as was Thailand.
Archaeological excavations there have recovered a considerable quality of
Chinese, Indian and Arab artefacts. Significantly, Roman coins and jewellery
dating from the first century AD have also been found there. We know that
5
INTRODUCTION
the Romans had ventured as far as Cochin (south-west India) by this time,
via the Persian Gulf. It is unlikely that Romans actually went in person to Oc
Eo, but it is possible that, amongst the many things traded there on their
behalf, were shrimp paste and fish sauce. Undeniably both were important
Khmer ingredients, as they still are in all the countries of the region. These
tastes were important in the Roman diet too (seepage 36).
Meanwhile, in the Straits of Malacca, no major civilization had est-
ablished itself, and neither Chinese nor Khmer influence had extended this
far south. This allowed tribes people of Indian descent to settle in the
Malaysian peninsula and on many ofthe Indonesian islands. They brought
with them pepper, turmeric, ginger and a number of other Indian spices.
Nutmeg and clove were already indigenous in the Malaccan islands, and
coconut, an item they were already familiar with, grew everywhere. These
ingredients became the major flavours of the area. They were equally
popular in India's neighbour, Burma, and would have been well known to
the country's major racial group of the time, the Mons.
At around this time, about 2000 years ago, we find the first evidence of
a tribal race called T'ai or Thais, who were settled in the extreme south-
west of China on the spice route to India. Under some pressure from a
combination of other ethnic groups and the natural desire of the nomad to
explore and to expand into new territories, Thais started to migrate
southwards over the mountains. In about the ninth century, things became
more urgent as warring Mongol hordes occupied Thai territory in
southern China. What had for centuries been an insignificant trickle of
Thai families or village groups, meandering southwards, became a torrent,
and a whole race.
Most of the original Thais settled in the north of Thailand, in Lan Na
and Chiang Rai, where they found little opposition from the small groups
of resident hill tribes, whose descendants still live in this area. Rather more
serious was organized opposition between those Mons and Khmers who
occupied north and central Thailand respectively, but as is often the way
with long established civilizations, both were in decline. By 1259 the
northern Thais had driven the Mons back into Burma, and had set up
Chiang Mai as their capital.
Another Thai group, further south, were able to drive the Khmer out of
Thailand, and back into Cambodia. This group was known as the 'golden-
skinned' or Shans, which in turn became Siamese. In 1238 they established
their first great capital in the central plain on the banks ofthe mighty river
Chao Praya. Called Sukhothai Siam (the dawn ofhappiness), they changed
their language from a Chinese dialect to incorporate elements of Hindi,
6
THAILAND'S HISTORY
learned from the Mons, and developed the Thai alphabet, culmre, food
and Buddhist works of art. Under one great king, Siam grew until it
occupied most of Indo-China and part of Burma, called the Shan state.
North ofthere, the Burmese Mons were at the peak oftheir civilization,
when in 1280 the most famous of all medieval European voyagers, Marco
Polo, made an overland voyage from Peking to their great capital city of
Pagan, where Buddhist temples covered an area of 60 sq km. In his journals
he likened their food to Indian.
Polo had for seventeen years been employed as an adviser to the then
ruler of China, the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. In 1292 he decided to
sail home to Venice. Khan entrusted Polo to deliver one of his daughters as
a wife for the Persian emperor. Their route took them around the coast of
Indo-China, to Cambodia, in order to join an Indian vessel bound for
Cochin. They were received by the Khmer king at Angkor Wat. It had
become the capital ofthe Khmer empire as early as the sixth cenmry, a role
it was to maintain for 800 years. In its heyday it was an astonishing city,
covering an area of 250 sq km, with a population of one million. It was a
centre oftrade, and rice in particular was mass-produced with the aid of an
intricate irrigation network.
The well preserved remains of Angkor Wat survive to this day, beautiful,
serene, ghost-like and uninhabited, of course, and virmally impossible to
reach, thanks to the inhospitality of today's Khmer descendants. Surviving
twelfth cenmry bas reliefs show a more peaceful civilization, where pigs
forage in paddy fields, bees make honey and the people are hard at work
fishing, at their markets, gambling and cock fighting. Polo sawall this, and
his journals frequently discuss Chinese food. He tells ofenormous banquets
for thousands of courtiers, where lacquered bowls overflowed with meats,
rice, noodles and beans, soy and bamboo. Although Polo did not visit Siam,
Chinese ingredients would cenainly have been known to the Thais in
Chiang Mai, where food is served on red lacquerware to this day.
Sukhothai was not to last. A rival king set up an alternative kingdom in
1358, with its capital Ayutthaya some 300km south of Sukhothai on the
river Chao Praya. Within 200 years, Ayutthaya had become a trade centre
to rival Baghdad and Peking, attracting foreign ambassadors and merchants
from almost every country of the 'old world'. Its main expons included
teak and rice. In remrn it received gold, weapons and textiles.
The Pormguese were the first Europeans to 'discover' Siam. Vasco da
Gama, having pioneered the sea route to India round the Cape of Good
Hope in 1498, had indeed found the source ofpepper and many other spices,
but not the fabled nutmeg and cloves. The search was still on. It was made
7
INTRODUCTION
more intense by the worry that arch rivals, Spain, would pip Portugal to the
post by sailing round the world in the other direction. Afonso d'Albuquerque
took up the baton, and in a series of exploratory moves, visited Bangladesh
in 1510 and Siam in 1511, to find a mighty kingdom whose capital was
Ayutthaya. He did this one year before finding the Malaccan islands, and
their cloves and nutmeg. Portugal's most significant contributions to Siamese
ingredients were the chilli, maize and egg-based confectionery.
Other Europeans were interested in the spice trade. By the mid-1600s
the English, French and Dutch were all at the Ayutthaya court. Things
came to a head in 1688 when the local Portuguese and Dutch allied them-
selves in an attempt to monopolize Siamese trade. Phaulkon, a Greek
adviser to the then Siamese ruler, King Narai, called on the French to oust
the Portuguese and Dutch. King Louis XIV ofFrance took that to mean he
could take over Siam, and he established French troops in garrisons up the
river Chao Praya. As it happened, King Narai died, Phaulkon was executed
and all Europeans were expelled from Siam. This over-reaction led to the
beginning of Ayutthaya's decline and to a 'dark age' which lasted for 150
years. But it was almost certainly this which prevented Siam from
becoming a colony.
Since the French were largely to blame for the expulsion, it is hardly
surprising that they wrote somewhat sniffily about Thai food. Simon de la
Loubere, a French Diplomat, wrote of a 'monotonous diet of copious rice
mixed with dry fish, garlic and sweet herbs, to which a sauce of spices and
water (nam pta?) is added'. Another banished Frenchman, missionary
Nicholas Gervaise, describes shrimp paste as having a smell so pungent
'that it nauseates anyone not accustomed to it'.
Thai cooking clearly began to come together during the great court
days ofAyutthaya, where the balance between the savoury ofgarlic and in-
digenous ginger (galangal) was matched with the salty taste of fish sauce
and shrimp paste. The abundant piquancy of chilli was offset by the
fragrance of native lemon grass and lime leaves. The herbs coriander and
basil laced dishes together, their lightness offlavour matched by a lightness
of cooking. Coconut made its appearance in certain dishes, but not in all.
Dishes cooked with spicy pastes, influenced by Burma and Malaya, became
curries quite unlike those of their Indian ancestry. Rice grains and rice
noodles remained the staples.
By the time Europeans were allowed back into Siam (in 1828), they
discovered that Ayutthaya was no more, and the court was well established
in Bangkok under the Chakris dynasty. In their absence, they found that
the Mons, who for two centuries had been warring with Siam, had, after a
8
THAILAND'S HISTORY
long siege, finally destroyed Ayunhaya, her king and most of her people in
1767. A young general, Taskin, had escaped with enough survivors,
proclaimed himself king, and set up a new capital called Thon Buri, again
on the river Chao Praya, well south of Ayunhaya. Thon Buri lasted just 15
years. Taskin went insane and was ousted in 1782 by a General Chakris
who decided to build a new city on the east bank of the river opposite
Thon Buri. He called it Bangkok - 'the city of the angles' - and named
himself King Rama after the Hindu god. Bangkok signified the beginning
ofmodern Siam. Rama became the first king ofthe Chakris Dynasty, whose
descendant, King Rama IX, is the current monarch.
In Bangkok, Rama constructed a replica of Ayunhaya, complete with
palaces, temples and canals. To replace the banished Europeans, he also
encouraged a huge influx of Chinese traders, who soon established their
enormous Bangkok China Town, and their monopolies on the trade ofrice,
salt and sugar. In 1826 the Siamese army had achieved a further victory
over the warring Burmese. But this mrned out to be different. Burma never
invaded Siam again.
This was the new Siam the Europeans discovered. But how did Siam
manage to become the only kingdom in the area to avoid being colonized?
Thailand's monarchy was always powerful, its military disciplined and it
may be this that saved it from British occupation.
While the Dutch, Pormguese and French were squabbling in Ayunhaya,
the British East India Company had more pressing things on its mind than
Siam. During the 140 year European exclusion between 1688 and 1828,
Britain, through her East India Company, was building up her power in
India. The French were contained to Pondicherry and the Pormguese to
Goa, Diu and Daman. The Dutch were totally ousted. The Company
wanted to expand trade into China, and needed to secure a southerly trade
route from India. In 1786 Penang was acquired from the local sultan,
enabling the British to springboard elsewhere. In 1795 she occupied Dutch
Malacca, andJava in 1811, though these were remrned when a treaty with
the" Dutch (signed in 1815) ended disputes over Indonesia. The est-
ablishment of Singapore in 1819 as a strategically placed major port, en-
abled the Company to control all Asian trade routes. Uses for Malaya
which followed were the establishment of its tin and rubber industries.
Apart from brief periods of tenure in Siam, the Burmese Mons lost
every war they started with the Siamese. This did not prevent them from
invading Bengal, their neighbouring Indian state. The East India Company
had no particular reason to want to occupy Burma, but it equally did not
want Burma's intrusion so near to its most valuable port, Calcuna. So
9
INTRODUCTION
regular were Mons incursions between 1750 and 1820, that a considerable
Indian army was kept on permanent readiness. It took three Anglo-
Burmese wars, in 1824, 1852 and 1885, each won by Britain, before Burma
was finally annexed to Britain.
Despite being pincered between two British territories, Siam had little to
offer Britain either in assets or strategically. However, the French had made
uncomfortably close acquisitions in Indo-China. Before long they were
trying to influence King Rama IV (1851 to 1868), with, amongst other
things, advice on the building of canals to expand Bangkok's waterway
network. It was the time when the French were building the Suez Canal.
They spotted a canal opportUnity in Siam, at a point called the Kra Isthmus.
Here, the coast to coast distance at the narrowest point is just 45km. This
would cut 1600km off the India to China sea route, and it would bring
prosperity to the canal's owner. It was a serious threat to Britain, however,
as it would by-pass Singapore and lose them control of the Asian seas.
Fearing that the threat of forcible colonization was probably more likely
from France than Britain, King Rama signed a treaty with both nations in
1855. France was given Cambodia, and Britain the Shan state of southern
Burma in return for a promise to keep their hands off Siam. It did not,
however, stop the French from continuing to promote their canal scheme.
So strong was British opposition that they agreed to sign a further secret
treaty with Siam in 1897, which gave Thailand a continued 'hands-off'
promise from Britain, providing the canal was not built. Incidentally,
speculation about this scheme continues to this day. It is frequently the
subject of feasibility studies, but costs always prove to be prohibitive.
The Chakris dynasty was especially pro British. The kings all learned
English, and Rama IV's other claim to fame was the employment of Anna
Leonowens as governess to his children. Her autobiography was felt by
Thais to depict the monarch in a derogatory manner. The book inspired a
1946 film, Anna and the King of Siam, which starred Irene Dunne and Rex
Harrison. Ifthat version was considered miscast and inaccurate, worse was
to come from the offspring it spawned, a musical by Rodgers and
Hammerstein which became the defamatory (in Thai eyes) 1956 movie,
The King and I with Yul Brynner as an ignorant, naive Rama IV. Anna
(Deborah Kerr) was portrayed as being Rama's informed, nanny-knows-
best educator in things British, not to mention having a fully fledged
romance with the God King. Such a relationship would have been
impossible. In Siam, no person was allowed to look at the monarch
(grovelling face-down on the floor in his presence was not banned until
years later), besides which, Rama IV had 35 wives and 83 children. Anna
10
THAILAND'S HISTORY
would have had her work cut out looking after her charges, and one of
those was heir to the throne. Both films were banned from showing in
Thailand. The Thai nation may not have seen them, but the rest of the
world certainly did. Brynner was awarded an Oscar, and Thailand got an
image which endured for decades. The other image which Thailand would
prefer to forget was its association with theJapanese in World War II. This
too was encapsulated in another Oscar winning movie, ofwhich more later.
Back in 1782, soon after the court moved to Bangkok, Siamese food had
been refined and improved in the royal kitchens. A range of dainty
decorative finger foods had been invented using deep-frying as their
cooking medium. Pretty tides such as Emerald Parcels, Golden Bags and
Fire Crackers (krathuk) (see Chapter 2), were some of the results. Refined
salads also entered the repertoire (see Chapter 4) and a great deal of
attention was focused on producing colourful desserts, such as Ruby Eyes.
Mainstream dishes such as soups, entrees, curries, rice and noodles had
remained virtually unchanged for centuries, unaffected by outside
influences, but recipes were undoubtedly worked upon until the balance of
flavours was perfected. Presentation was given a complete new look,
unique to Thai food to this day. At the dextrous hands of the royal cooks, a
whole new art-form evolved, involving garnishing. It centred on fruit and
vegetable carving and was considered so prestigious that all daughters-at-
court, from the highest princess downwards, spent their early years
learning it, along with flower arranging and doll-making. There has been
little or no change to Thai food since those days.
Gastronomy, and cooking itself, was considered important enough for
more than one monarch to profess to be an expert. King Rama V was said
to be a dab hand in the kitchen. Even though he had been Anna's principal
charge, it is hard to imagine the God King in his pinny at the stove!
What is on record is that the British ambassador of the time, Sir John
Bowring, was a Siamese food aficionado. His diaries from 1855 contain
recipes for shrimp paste and Siamese curries.
The Chakris dynasty continued to bring western ideas into Siam, ruling
with continuity and dignity. Medicine, the printing press, roads, railways,
and humane laws were established. Slavery was eventually abolished and
women were no longer required to shave their heads. Schools and uni-
versities were founded, as were libraries and the post office. American
missionaries arrived
r
and with them the potato and the tomato made their
first appearances in Siam. Surnames were introduced for the first time, so
too was football. Driving on the left, as in Britain was made official. And
that Rama VI was pro-British was amply demonstrated in World War I,
II
INTRODUCTION
when he sent Siamese troops to fight alongside the Allies in the trenches
in 1917.
Despite all these reforms, the monarchy was still all-powerful, and
moves to establish a democratic parliament eventually came to fruition in
1932, with an army-led bloodless coup. Siam was renamed Thailand. King
Rama VII was retained as monarch, but with considerably reduced powers.
The world was in too much turmoil itself to care about Thailand.
America and Europe were reeling from the effects of the Depression.
German belligerence was re-emerging. So it was in Japan, whose people,
hit especially hard by the Depression, began to believe that they were the
natural leaders in Asia. They attacked China in 1937, and the outbreak of
World War II gave them the excuse they needed to occupy Indo-China, in
the belief that acquisition of the rubber and petroleum industries would
guarantee Japanese domination. The Thai government chose to side with
Japan in 1940, and did not oppose Japanese occupation of the country in
1941. Indeed, they went further and 'officially' declared war on the Allies,
although this was never officially recognized because the Thai ambassador
in Washington refused to deliver the document to the White House. This
lucky event gave Thailand allied status after the war.
The Japanese, however, raced on to occupy the entire Pacific Rim, the
windfall prize being the unexpectedly easy surrender ofthe massive British
garrison on Singapore, as well as those in Burma and Malaya. Many of
these unfortunate souls beame POWs and were set to hard labour as
slaves, their most notoriou project being the building of a railway to link
Singapore to India. Most cf the track already existed, but a 400km stretch
was missing mostly in Thailand, and in Burma. The Japanese saw the
achievement of this as vital to their planned occupation of India. They put
100,000 prisoners-of-war to work, literally to carve the route through the
mountains and valleys. The job took just 16 months and cost 16,000
prisoners their lives, earning the job its hideously apt name, the 'Death
Railway'. Many bridges were required, but one in particular at
Kanchanaburi, some 130km north-west of Bangkok, passed into infamy
where it crosses the local river, the Mae Nam Khwae Yai. It was David
Lean's Oscar winning 1957 film, The Bridge on the RiverKwai, which through
Alec Guiness' heroic role, focused the world's attention on this attrocity,
although few people were aware, then or now, that Thailand was the
location.
Post-war Thailand went quietly about its business, with its current
monarch, King Rama IX, succeeding to the throne in 1946. But necessary
though it may have been to reduce the power of the monarchy, it has
12
CULINARY REGIONS
created a political instability. No fewer than 31 prime ministers have been
and gone, none staying a full term. Seventeen were removed following
coups d'etat, the most recent of which tooIC place amidst much publicity
and bloodshed in 1992.
Ironically, it is Thailand's monarchy which since the twelfth century has
been so integral. Its period of European isolation and its avoidance of
colonization kept the country and its food largely unknown outside its
borders for most ofits history. And despite its coups, Thailand is today the
most stable country in south-east Asia. Communism has been kept out to
such an extent that Thailand overtly sided with the USA during the
Vietnam War. Bangkok became the nearest friendly safe city for US
military on leave, and this took Thai food to the USA. Even now there are
more Thai restaurants in Los Angeles and New York than there are in
Britain.
Bangkok during the 1960s could not have been less prepared for Uncle
Sam. Within months, parts of the city became transformed with the
widespread opening ofjazz and swing clubs, burger bars, Western restaurants,
and inevitably, brothels. Thailand blamed the GIs for the creation of one of
her 'assets' of least favourable repute, her sex bars and red-light districts.
Certainly, Bangkok began to change rapidly. Villagers and peasants flocked in
to grab whatever bits of the action they could. The population soared, as did
land prices. The tranquil tree-lined, golden pagoda-dotted landscape gave
way to a building boom. Tower-blocks sprouted first ten storeys, then forty.
Canals were filled in, losing the city its leisurely boat transport and creating
a demand for frantic road traffic, hitherto unknown. The legacy is today's
virtually permanent traffic jams, and a vastly over-populated city, which has
few of the charms it had just 25 years ago.
Outside her cities, Thailand is still exquisite, and she has benefited from
the recent tourist boom, particularly from nearby Japan and Australia.
Television travelogues have created a demand to visit formerly remote
countries like Thailand, and cheap long-haul airflights in the last decade
or so have made it possible for Europeans to discover Thailand.
CULINARY REGIONS
T
H A ~ L ~ N D DIVIDES into four regions, each of which has culinary
vartatl-ons.
INTRODUCTION
THE NORTH
The most obvious distinction here is the universal culinary adoration of
very sticky rice. Buffalo and pig (wild or domesticated) are the main meat,
thoughjame and venison are widely hunted. A range of sausages (naem) is
unique to this area. Chillies are particularly enjoyed in dishes with Laotian
influence. So are curries, and many of these have Burmese influence. The
north is still home to a number of hill tribes and the descendants of early
Burmese invaders.
Some tribal people enjoy food that other Thais despise, such as crispy
fried cicadas, ant eggs, worms and insects. Buffalo placenta is highly prized,
and the giant waterbeetle (maengtla) is pounded into a type of paste (see
pages 37) or stir-fried as a delicacy!
Tables and bowls are hand-crafted from red lacquered bamboo. The
north contains a former capital city, Chiang Mai.
THE NORTH-EAST
The poorest, most infertile, most ancient and largest area of Thailand (it
occupies one-third of the country) is the north-east. It shares most of its
border with Laos, and a little with Cambodia. Called the Issan (which in
Sanskrit means 'medieval kingdom'), it is abundant in rice, freshwater fish
and papaya. As in north Thailand (and Laos) sticky rice is favoured.
Sometimes this is sweetened and steamed inside hollow bamboo tubes.
Raw ground spiced meat (laab) is a delicacy, as are spicy ground fish in
banana leaves (hor mok). Chickens and wild birds are more common than
other meats and an Issan favourite is gaiyang- barbecued chicken. Curries
are popular, but like the north they are coconut free.
The north-east contains Thailand's second largest city, Khon Kaen and,
as far as chillies go, is the hottest region.
CENTRAL THAILAND
Also called the Central Plains, this area is dominated by the huge Chao
Praya river, which has been home to all four Thai capital cities, including
her current one, Bangkok. This over-populated (10 million) economic
heartland dominates and pollutes its immediate surroundings. But it is in
the plains where the majority of the people live and work as simple village
HAWKER FOOD
farmers, on their never-ending paddy fields and fruit orchards. Into the
Chao Praya flow many small tributaries, which make the plains the food
bowl of Thailand.
SOUTHERN THAILAND
This area is on the long, narrow isthmus which shares its northern border
with Burma, and its southern border with Malaya. Its dense rainforest
jungles earn it the name Pak Thai, and give it a humid, hot climate. Rubber;
coconut, pineapples and cashews are the main crops.
The further south you go, the more Moslems and mosques you
encounter. Hence, you will find lamb and mutton in place of pork. Sheep
meat is disliked elsewhere in Thailand.
Seafood is abundant, with rock lobster from Phuket (a main tourist
beach area) particularly prized. Two particular curries originate from this
area, both derived from Malay Indian ancestry: Panaeng with its peanut
base, and Mussaman (Moslem) curry which contains the widest repertoire
of Indian spices. They like it hot down south, the area coming second only
to the north-east.
One flavour not enjoyed elsewhere is a particularly bitter taste given by
a local bean variety (sa-taw).
HAWKER FOOD
N
o BOOK on Thai food would be complete without mention of one
of Thailand's most buoyant industries - her food hawkers.
In Victorian times every British city had them - sole traders wandering
on foot from door to door and person to person calling their wares, be it
fruit, meat, milk or snacks. Such services may be memories in the West -
but they are very much alive and thriving in Thailand.
No other country on Earth has such a diverse and prolific street food
industry as Thailand. Hawkers appear in great numbers all over the
country. They sell all manner of Thai food cooked and cold. Each hawker
specializes in a particular item or dish. Some have stalls at markets, while
the majority are mobile. Their shop is portable. All their ingredients and
tools, and even the heating system, alight while on the move, may be
contained in a simple basket, or suspended between two trays hanging from
a yoke. Or they may be built into a wheeled handcart or trolley.
At one time, some hawkers sold their wares (traditionally noodles) from
15
INTRODUCTION
teak boats on Bangkok's klongs (canals). With the infilling of many canals in
recent years these boats are all but extinct. But their hawkers aren't, and
though now land-based, their trolley, either static or mobile, has retained
the canal tradition. It is boat shaped.
The size of the hawker's unit and the amount of clutter (utensils and
ingredients) needed will vary, and gives the clue to what speciality is being
prepared and cooked. Abutane cylinder may support a frying pan or a wok
for stir-fries or deep-fries. I've seen enormous two handled brass woks full
of bubbling oil in the thronging pavements being narrowly avoided by
speeding passers-by. Clay pots containing coals heat curries and stews. A
'steamboat' (see page 71) may signify a soup. Other hawkers have glass cases
built on to their trolleys, in which they display their food. These may be
heated or chilled. The fact is that you'll find literally any of the recipes
from this book being prepared and cooked on the street at a fraction of the
cost you'd pay for it at a nearby restaurant.
This is not the only reason why they are so popular. It is part of the Thai
city dweller's joie de vivre, or sanuk, to nose about (pai thiaw) to see what's
happening. Whether they are at leisure, or busy office workers on a meal-
break, they love their hawkers. Q!Ieues throng around them all day long,
and much of the night, and they proliferate in any public places - at
markets, on busy pavements, outside shops, office blocks, cinemas, at rail-
way stations and bus terminals.
Households are not deprived of their hawkers either. In an age-old
tradition, bevies ofvendors ply the residential streets all day long, in a door-
to-door trek announced by as wide a variety of songs, calls, shouts, croaks,
honks, hoots, rings and clacks as the ready meals and snacks they sell.
RESTAURANTS
NE LEGACY Bangkok and other Thai cities do have is a restaurant
O
tradition that goes back a long time. Restaurants were, in all
probability, 'invented' in China. Marco Polo visited China twice,
briefly in 1265 and in 1275, staying there the second time for seventeen
years. In his journals he described thronged streets, market stalls,
tradesmen, food hawkers, restaurants and tea-houses. At around this time,
as we have seen, the original Thais were migrating en masse from their
homelands in south China and settling in northern Thailand.
Much of their early culmre and language was Chinese, and the notion
16
RESTAURANTS
of communal eating whether 'on-the-hoof', from market traders or seated
at the tea-house is a tradition carried on to modern times. Certainly, eating
is a popular activity and a thriving trade in Thailand. It takes place at any
price level, from expensive restaurants to cheap cafes and to prove it, in
Bangkok for example, there are over 11,000 restaurants. Bangkok is a
twenty-four-hour city, and though many of the big restaurants shut before
midnight, you can certainly buy food elsewhere all night. Being perpetual
grazers, this especially suits those Thais who like to eat little and often.
Markets operate day and night, and the streets are alive with food hawkers,
each of whom specializes in just one dish or item, be it fried, steamed,
barbecued, rice or noodles.
Bangkok's Thai restaurants have flair. They have the biggest restaurant
in the world (Tumnak Thai) with an astonishing 3,500 seats, and you still
have to book to guarantee a seat. Waitering is done very efficiently on
roller skates. Thailand also has establishments called seafood restaurants
where the diners select their own food from a supermarket section, then
have it cooked and delivered to their table. They also have some
wonderfully serene restaurants in traditional teak houses, where the diner
sits lotus-style to be served by staff in traditional costumes, often to the
accompaniment of the soft dulcet tones of Thai music from wooden
xylophones.
Many Thais are emigrating to the United States, to Europe and to
Australia, resulting in a Thai restaurant boom in all these countries.
Nowhere is this boom spreading more quickly than in Britain. In a country
whose ethnic restaurant scene has been dominated for several decades by
Indo-Bangladeshi curry houses and Chinese restaurants, it is not
surprising that Thai restaurants did not exist here before 1980. Today
every major town has at least one Thai restaurant, and a remarkable
growth is taking place.
At the beginning of 1994, Britain had 300 Thai restaurants. By the end
of 1995 there were 500. At the supermarket, Thai ingredients and ready
meals are increasing in market share. The British, it seems, have taken to
Thai food.
This is a book I have been wanting to write for some years. I hope it will
give you a greater insight into one of the world's most interesting and
delicious cuisines.
It's time to step into the kitchen...
17
...
OeMtHIMeHHt-ntMe._M*M#UMU_HtHeMe._._""
CHAPTER 2
CRISPY, FRIED,
GRILLED,
STUFFED ITEMS
T
HAI PEOPLE do not generally eat starters as a separate course in the
way we do in the West. That's not to say there isn't a vast range of
finger foods which ideally suit as starters. In a Thai meal a selection of
these might be served with the main meal and eaten in the order of the
diner's choice. The choice is varied and exciting. It is colourful in both
name and appearance, and it is just as tasty as it looks.
In this chapter I have brought together a number of my favourites.
Some will be very familiar from the Thai restaurant - satay, wontons,
spring rolls, prawn toasts and crackers. Others may be new to you - golden
thread pork, emerald chicken parcels, curry puffs, pastry cloaked prawns.
Relatively simple appetisers can be made by stuffing or filling
vegetables. Ideal for this purpose are any need no cooking, and
preferably those which can be given special treatment, such as decorative
carving. Cucumber, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, large chillies,
small lettuce leaf cups, onion cups, even celery sticks can be stuffed. As to
the stuffings, ground beef, pork or chicken, prawns, or vegetables work
well. Recipes for all these follow.
The dishes from this chapter are all so good that you may find yoursdf
composing your whole meal with starters only. And, of course, they are
great items for a large buffet party.
49
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
LAAB
Ground Items
Laab is a type of ground spicy meat or chicken from north Thailand where
it is often eaten raw in the way we eat steak tartare. Here I am using the
concept to form the ingredient(s) for stuffings or fillings for a number of
recipes in this chapter, and elsewhere.
LAAB NUA
Ground Beef
Use only good quality steak for this. It gives better, less fatty meat.
MAKES: 250G (90z) GROUND BEEF
HOg (90z) frying steak 2 teaspoons very finely
(rump or fillet) chopped green chilli (cayenne)
4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teaspoon finely cross-cut lemon
2 tablespoons fresh coriander grass (page 30)
leaves and stems 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
1/
2
teaspoon salt
1 Roughly chop up the meat, removing any unwanted matter.
2 Place it and all the other ingredients into the food processor and
pulse it until it becomes finely ground. It should be like a thick paste.
The finer it is ground the silkier is the texture when cooked.
NOTE: Do not overload thefood processor. Grinding meat is heavy work. It is better
to do it in smaller batches, then mix them together at the end.
3 To cook. Make sure the 'paste' is well mixed together then roll into
balls or squares and place them on an oven tray.
4 To cook preheat the oven to 190C (375F) Gas 5 into which put the
oven tray.
5 Bake for about 10 minutes. Inspect and if they need a little more (cut
one in half to check) bake for a few more minutes.
5
chopped red.chilli (cayenne)
1 teaspoon finely cross-cut
lemon grass (page 30)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 teaspoon fish sauce
(page 36)
LAAB MOO
LAAB MOO
Ground Pork
Use pork steak (or diced lean leg) and follow the previous Ground Beef
recipe in its entirety.
LAAB GAl
Ground Chicken
Use skinned chicken breast and follow the previous Ground Beef recipe in
its entirety.
LAAB GUNG
Ground Prawn
Use any of the above fillings, adding chopped or mashed cooked prawns to
taste.
LAAB PAK
Ground Vegetables
The principle here is quite different from the previous laab recipes.
(Indeed this is not really laab, but it is a tasty vegetable filling.) I use
mashed potato as the anchor.
200g (7oz) mashed potato
50g (l%oz) cooked peas

sweetcorn
2 tablespoons fresh coriander
leaves and stems
2 teaspoons very finely
1 Simply mix the ingredients together.
51
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
HAl KRUAY TOO-AY
Banana LeafCup
There is really no substimte for banana leaves, but they are available at
Thai or Asian stores. If you can get them they're fun to use. Here they are
made into cups. Banana leaf is inedible of course, so the shape of the cup
is achieved by using staples. The cups are filled with any of the previous
smffings. Alternatively you can use rice or Hor Mok fish, see page 118.
MAKES: 8 CUPS
2 or 3 fresh banana leaves
small staples
a 12cm saucer
a pencil and scissors
Spread the banana leaf Out. Invert the saucer on to the leaf, avoiding
the main rib.
2 Mark round the saucer with a pencil. Repeat until you have 8 circles.
3 Carefully cut out the circles with scissors (a).
4 Taking one circle, fold in half (but do not crease) pinch one edge
together about 2cm deep and staple it (the drawing shows the
principle) (b). Repeat 180
0
opposite (c).
6 Open the semi-circle out to make a container. Flatten its base (d).
Staple at 90
0
round the edge. Repeat 180
0
opposite (e).
7 Now staple the points in flush to the sides. Carefully flatten the base
and you have a square 'cup' with 2.5cm walls and a 5cm base.
8 Repeat with the other cups.
CHEF'S TIP: Practise this usingpaper untityou are happy.
9 Fill the cup with cooked rice (from Chapter 10) topped with crispy
garlic or onion (page 45/48) or ready-bought fish flakes.
BAI KRUAY TOO-AY
53
d)
e)
f)
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
KAI LO 0 K KO E I
Son-in-Law! Eggs
The story is told at every occasion, particularly by cackling female market
traders. At least, that's where I first heard it, years ago, at a Bangkok food
market, translated by an effete young man, who looked more and more
embarrassed at every hand gesturing cackle from the females. Eggs are a
euphemism of course, and I pity the sons-in-law of those cacklers! My
version uses quail eggs surrounding a hen's egg. The cacklers would have
had even more fun comparing sizes.
It's a pretty dish with nearly hard-boiled eggs, deep-fried then drizzled
with chilli jam (page 170).
SERVES: 4 AS AN ACCOMPANIMENT
1 large hen's egg
12 quail eggs
oil for deep-frying
chilli jam
shredded spring onion (or lime
leaf)
coriander leaf for garnish
Par-hard-boil the hen's egg for about 10 minutes and the quail eggs
for about 3 minutes, in ample water already boiling.
2 Remove the eggs from the water and run them under the cold water tap.
3 Shell them.
4 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
5 Carefully immerse the eggs into the oil. Deep fry until the outside of
the egg goes golden (about 5 minutes).
6 Remove the eggs. Shake offexcess oil and rest them on kitchen paper,
then using a really sharp knife or a razor blade, halve them.
7 Place them attractively on a serving bowl. Drizzle the chilli jam over
them. Garnish and serve hot.
54
MOO SARONG
MOO SARONG
Golden Thread Pork
These are as pretty as their name and so clever. Who thought of them? Of
course, it was the chefs to the Thai royal family two centuries ago.
The idea is simple - and so they are to make. Noodles are wrapped
around a filling. You can use ground pork (laab moopage 51) or beef, chicken
or prawn.
MAKES: 16 BALLS
80g (30z) dried egg noodle (or fresh, if available)
HOg (90z) raw ground pork (page 51)
deep fry oil
1 Soften the dried noodles (page 161) and select 32 long strands.
2 Divide the ground pork into 16 to make balls about 2cm in diameter.
3 Press one end of a noodle strand on to a ball to make it stick.
Carefully wind it around the ball, so that the strand doesn't overlap.
Use water to help it stick. With the second strand, change direction
to right-angles and wind it over the original noodle. Tuck the end
into the centre. The pork should be entirely covered (but if it isn't it
doesn't matter).
4 Repeat with the other 15 balls (use spare noodles and/or pork for
another dish).
5 Preheat the oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
6 Lower the balls into the oil and fry for 3-4 minutes.
7 Remove from the fryer, shaking off the excess oil.
8 Rest them on kitchen paper.
9 Serve hot or cold.
55
CRIS PY. FRIED .GRILLE D.STUFFED ITEMS
GAl HOR BAI TOEY
Emerald Chicken Parcels
This delightfully named treat is another invention from the Thai royal
kitchens, whose presentation is, I believe, unique. It gets its name from the
packaging which is the pandanus leaf(page 32). This is tied around a filling,
in this case marinated chicken breast, and it is then deep-fried.
As with the Banana Leaf Cup recipe (page 52), there is no substitute for
using the pandanus leaf here, although it is available at Thai and Asian
vegetable shops. It is a long thin fibrous leaf (about 50cm x 5cm). '
To use the leaffor the parcel, it is cut in halflongways, removing the rib.
Two knots are possible: the single and the double.
Single knot
MAKES: 8 PARCELS
8 pandanus leaves 2 teaspoons red curry paste
8 pieces skinned raw chicken (page 137)
breast about 2.5em square 1 teaspoon fish sauce
I teaspoon 'magic paste' (page 36)
(page 42) 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 Divide the leaves in half longways, removing the central rib, and
ending up with a strip 36-40cm long and about 2.5cm wide.
2 Mix the pastes and sauces and spread them on to the chicken.
3 Hold the chicken against the leaf strip (about 5cm from one end) (a).
Wrap the long end of the leaf around the chicken. Bring the long end
up and round the chicken (b). Bring the long end's tip to the chicken
and loop through (c). Pull the leaf's tail through (d). Bring the long
end up and round again (e), with the tip to the chicken (t). Pull the tail
through again tightly (g). You now have a knot with two tails encasing
the chicken.
4 To cook, heat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
5 One by one, immerse the parcels, into the oil (too many too fast will
lower the temperature too much). Fry for about 10-12 minutes
(ensure the chicken is cooked right through).
6 Remove from the oil, shaking off excess oil.
7 Rest on kitchen paper.
8 Serve hot or cold.
GAl HOR BAI TOEY
Single leaf version
a) ""''--- ~
b)
f)
57
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
Double leaf version
a)
c)
b)
d)
NOTE: This knot method is not described in the text.
S8
SATAY GAl
~ $ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ $ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ % ~ ~ $ * $ * $ ~ * * * $ ~ ~ ~ $ ~ * * * * ~ ~ % % * ~ ~ * * * * ~ * * ~ ~ * * ~ ~ * * ~ $ * ~ ~ ~ ~
SATAY GAl
Chicken Satay
Satay is one of the most popular street snacks in Bangkok. Originating in
Indonesia, as beef on skewers, the story is that their name is derived from
'steak'. This word being far too much of a twister for the Oriental tongue,
the word satay was born - and excellent it is too!
Here it is with chicken but you can use beef (best steak) or pork. It is
marinated, skewered then grilled. Traditionally it is eaten with spicy
peanut sauce (page 172).
-------- MAKES: 8 SATAY SKEWERS
450g to 500g (16-18oz) skinned chicken breast
8 x 20cm bamboo skewers
MARINADE
1 tablespoons tamarind puree 2 teaspoons chilli sauce
(page 47) 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon fish sauce (page 36) 3 tablespoons ground peanuts (or
2 tablespoons soy sauce fine peanut butter)
Cut the chicken into strips about 5cm x 2cm x 1j2cm. Since these will
vary, that is just an average. Aim to get about 3 to 4 pieces per skewer
(that is, 24 to 32 pieces).
2 Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Immerse the
chicken strips, cover and refrigerate for up to 60 hours.
3 Prior to cooking, soak the bamboo skewers in water for one hour. This
gives them a greater resistance to burning during cooking.
4 Preheat the' grill to medium heat.
5 Thread 3 or 4 pieces of chicken on to each skewer, to create a contin-
uous run of chicken about 15cm long (leaving a little skewer poking
out at each end).
6 Put the skewer on the grill rack over the grill pan. Place this in the
midway position. Cook for up to 8 minutes, turning once, and check-
ing whether the chicken is cooked right through after 5 or 6 minutes
(if it isn't give it a shon while more then remove).
7 Serve hot or cold.
NOTE: A more delicate presentation can be achieved by transferring the satays from
their skewer after cooking, andputting individual strips on to toothpicks.
59
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
KARl PUB
Curry Puff
I met these on the streets of Bangkok. They are the speciality of hawkers
from south Thailand. The Curry Puffs I knew before were Anglo-Indian-
a kind of curry-filled Cornish pasty. The Bangkok version uses wonton
wrappers (though you could use thinly rolled short or puff pastry). The
filling is Thai curry. It's very spicy and makes a great snack at any time. You
can freeze curry puffs before or after frying them.
MAKES: 24 CURRY PUFFS
24 small wonton wrappers,
about Scm to 10cm square
(page 40)
24 teaspoons (about HOg
(4oz) filling (pages 50 to 51)
1 tablespoon Panaeng curry paste
(page 138)
4 tablespoons cornflour and water
paste
1 Mix the filling with the curry paste.
2 Cut a circle of about 7.5cm from a wonton wrapper (a).
3 Put some filling along the centre line ofthe circle. (b) Paste the edges
with the cornflour paste.
4 Fold over along the centre-line, and press the curved sides together to
achieve a semi-circle (c).
5 Repeat with the remaining curry puffs.
6 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
7 Put the curry puffs into the oil one by one and fry for 8 to 10 minutes.
8 Remove them from the fryer, shaking off excess oil. Rest them on
kitchen paper.
9 Serve hot or cold.
60
Curry Puff (see page 61)
KARl PUB
c)
61
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS

POR PIA-TOD
Prawn Spring Roll
The celebrated Chinese Spring Roll is world class in popularity. It consists
of a filling encased in thin pastry, which is wrapped into a tube shape.
Thailand has its own versions. Here, using small wonton wrappers and
prawn filling, is a delightful and delicate mini prawn roll.
MAKES: 30 PRAWN ROLLS
30 small wonton wrappers, about 200g (7oz) filling (pages
about Scm to 10cm square 50 and 51)
(page 40) 60g (2oz ) beansprouts, chopped
--------------------------------
1 Mix the filling with the beansprouts.
2 Lay one wrapper on the work surface.
3 Spread about 1 1/2 teaspoons offilling in near the top ofthe sheet (a).
4 Roll the top corner of the sheet over the filling (b).
5 Fold in the outside flaps (c).
6 Roll up reasonably tightly until the last corner remains (d).
7 Press this corner down with a little water. Rest the roll with this
corner underneath (it helps it to stick).
8 Make the remaining prawn rolls.
9 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
10 One by one put about 8 rolls into the oil (too many too fast will lower
the temperature too much). Fry for 5-6 minutes, until golden.
11 Remove from the fryer, shaking off the excess oil.
12 Rest on kitchen paper.
13 Cook the remaining rolls.
14 Serve hot or cold.
NOTE: Spring rolls can be frozen before or afterfrying.
F\C1:'\G P.\GE An array of tempting tasties. In the black lacquer box, clockwise from top to bottom:
Golden Bags, Fish Cakes, Golden Thread Pork, Emerald Chicken Parcels, Chicken Satay, Prawn
Spring Rolls, WOntons, Pastry Cloaked Prawn.
Outside the box from bottom left: Rice in Banana Cup, Samy Dip, Green Curry Paste, Black Rice in
Banana Cup.

POR PIA-TOD
Spring Roll (see page 62)
c) d)
Brush on some paste
FACING PAGE In the basket, clockwise, top left: Salad of Stir-fried Beef with Grapes (page 80), Son-
in-Law's Eggs (page 54), Pickled Mango (page 174), Shrimp Flakes, Hot Tamarind Sauce (page 171),
Dried Chilli Fish Powder, Black and White Rice (page 152).
Top left: a selection of crackers (page 70).
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
~ * * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ % * ~ $ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ $ $ * * ~ ~ $ ~ ~ ~ $ * $ ~ ~ ~ * ~ * * * * $ $ $ ~ ~ ~ * ~ $ * * * ~ * $ $ % $ * ~ * ~ $ ~ ~
KRATHAK
Pastry Cloaked Prawn
This is a fun recipe. It's simple and very effective with a secret to tell as
well! It is a prawn, partly encased within a small wanton wrapper, as if it's
a cloak. Its tail is exposed. It can be called Gung Hom Phah (Phah meaning
'fabric') or Pratad Lorn, but if you give it a noodle tie it is called Krathak,
which literally means 'fire-cracker' because it resembles a Thai firework!.
Either way, the trick is to keep the prawn from curling up. The secret is an
ancient one, as used in Japanese tempura (a technique using batter coating
and deep frying): make two cuts in the prawn. (see sketch).
MAKES: 16 KRATHAKS
16 raw king prawns, about 1 teaspoon 'magic paste' (page 42)
7cm long, measured after 1 tablespoon fish sauce (page 36)
removing the head and shell, 16 small wonton wrappers about
but keeping the tail on Scm square (page 40)
Wash and de-vein the prawns, keep their tails on. Then placing one
on its side, cut two slits on its inside (a) or snip with a pair of scissors
to prevent it curling when cooking. Repeat with the other prawns.
2 Mix the 'magic paste' with the fish sauce.
3 Marinate the prawns in this mixture for 5 to 10 minutes.
4 Place a wanton wrapper on the work top. Fold over one end (b).
5 Place a prawn, slits down, on the wrapper, with the tail projecting out
from the folded end (c).
6 Fold the top corner of the wrapper over the top of the prawn (d).
7 Fold one side over the prawn (e) and fold the other side over the
prawn, to create a tightly folded roll (t).
8 Tie a noodle bow (optional) (g).
9 Repeat with the other prawns.
10 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
11 One at a time, put 8 prawns into the oil (too many at once will reduce
the temperature too fast).
12. Fry for 8 to 10 minutes, until the prawns are cooked.
13 Remove from the fryer, shaking off the excess oil.
14 Rest on kitchen paper.
15 Repeat with the remaining prawns.
16 Serve hot with chilli sauce.
NOTE: These can befrozen before or afterfrying.
KRATHAK
fold
g)
f)
a)
cut
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
TUNG TONG
Fried Filled Golden Bags
Tung Tong is loose 'pastry' enclosing a filling. It is based on a Chinese
import, the wonton or treasure bag, and it is a popular snack. The treasure
(the filling) can be pork or beef, chicken or prawn, or indeed a mixture and
it is enclosed in wonton wrappers.
MAKES: 24 BAGS
24 small wonton wrappers about 12cm square (page 40)
24 teaspoons (about 1109 (4oz) ) filling (page SO)
1 Put a teaspoon of filling into the centre of the square.
2 Gather the points together to make an enclosed bag. Wet the top and
press together to seal.
3 Press the bag down on the work surface to make a flat base.
4 Repeat with the remaining wontons. Take a pair of scissors and trim
off the excess wonton wrapper to get a neat 'brush-like' effect.
5 Pre heat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
6 Pur the wontons into the oil one by one, and fry for 8 to 10 minutes.
7 Remove and rest them on kitchen paper.
8 Serve hot.
VARIATION
WaNTON CHEEN
Chinese Fn'ed Dumplings
The main difference between these and Tung Tong is size. Wonton Cheen
are much smaller and less frilly than Tung Tong. Simply follow the
previous recipe, using wonton wrappers about 8cm square. The filling is
correspondingly smaller. Wrap it creating less of a 'frill', then tidy up with
scissors, so that the Wonton Cheen's top is almost shorn. Deep fry them,
dollop some Chilli with Shrimp Paste (Nam Prig Kapi see page 169) on top.
NOTE: Wonton Cheen can be steamed as an alternative to deep-frying.
66
TOD MAN PLA
*,,*$, ' '*'* *$*''$iJI> <Ii' $ ol'%
TOD MAN PLA
Fish Cake
VARIATION: Tod Man Gung
prawn cake
These are small (4cm diameter) discs deep-fried to golden and eaten hot or
cold. They traditionally contain beans (the hard-to-get Thai wing beans, tUil
pu) but we can substitute that with Kenyan beans, mangetout or snow peas.
MAKES: 24 FISH CAKES
SOOg (180z) cod fillet very finely chopped
2 tablespoons 'magic paste' 2 lime leaves, shredded (optional)
(page 42) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon red curry paste leaves
(page 137) 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 or 2 fresh Kenyan beans, plain flour
Mash all the ingredients together to achieve a cohesive paste. Use a
little water to achieve this as needed.
2 Q!Iarter the mixture, then divide each quarter into 6 to achieve 24
equal size dollops.
3 Shape each dollop into a ball. Sprinkle some flour on to the work
surface, then press the ball flat to achieve a disc about 4cm in
diameter.
4 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
5 One by one place 8 fish cakes into the oil (too many will cause the oil
temperature to drop too fast).
6 Fry for 6 to 8 minutes.
7 Remove and rest on kitchen paper.
8 Serve hot or cold with sauces.
NOTE: They can be frozen before or after frying. For the prawn variation, add
chopped cookedprawns to taste to the codfillet.
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
PAK TOD
Vegetable Fritters
These are the Thai equivalent of the Indian pakora or bhaJi' or Japanese
tempura. They are fresh batter-coated deep-fried vegetables. Done
correctly, as in this recipe, they are light and crisp and devoid of oil. The
secrets are correct frying temperature and eating the fritters within
minutes of cooking.
Any fresh dry vegetables will do. Make your choice from cauliflower
or broccoli florets, chillies, beans, mangetout, aubergine, mushroom,
carrot, onion, spring onion, celery and courgette. Since all these vegetables
vary in density, I'm not giving a weight for them below. Make your
selection by eye (how much will everyone eat). You can, of course, use just
one vegetable, or you can 'mix-and-match' to your taste. It's up to you for
this fun-and-easy dish.
SERVES: 4 AS A SNACK OR STARTER
THE
80g (30z) cornflour (about a
cupful)
2 tablespoons coconut milk
powder
1 tablespoon red curry paste
BATTER
2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
2 or so cupfuls of raw vegetables,
of your choice, washed, dried,
prepared and cut into bite-size
pIeces.
1 Mix together the batter ingredients in a large bowl, using just enough
water to achieve a thick pourable batter. Leave it to stand for 10 to 15
minute to 'absorb' all dryness.
2 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
3 Put all the vegetables into the bowl ensuring they are well coated with
batter.
4 One by one, place about half the coated items into the fryer (too much
too fast will lower the oil temperature too quickly). Fry for 8 to 10
minutes,or until golden, turning once or twice.
5 Remove from the fryer, shaking off the excess oil.
6 Rest on kitchen paper.
7 Repeat with the second batch.
8 Serve very hot and fresh with dips and sauces from Chapter 12.
NOTE: Does notfreeze.
68
KANOM-PANG MOO GUNG
KANOM-PANG MOO GUNG
Prawn Toast
This ever-popular concept is universally found at the Chinese restaurant.
Ground prawn is spread on a small piece of sliced bread and deep-fried.
Not surprisingly it has made the transition not only to Thai restaurants but
to the Thai street trading hawkers.
The sliced bread gives the clue that this is a Western invention. But in
my view it works even better with Thai flavours.
MAKES:
4 slices white bread, crusts
removed
lOOg (3J;zoz) prawn filling
(pages SO to S1)
1 tablespoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
16 TOASTS
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 tablespoon fresh chopped
spring onions, leaves and
bulbs
2 teaspoons white sesame
seeds
1 Cut the crustS off the bread.
2 Mix the filling, paste, fish sauce and onion together.
3 Spread this evenly over the four slices, pressing in the seame seeds.
4 the slices.
5 Preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
6 Place 8 toasts into the deep-fryer one at a time (too many too fast will
lower the oil temperature too much).
7 Fry for 5 to 6 minutes, turning a couple of times.
8 Remove from the fryer, shaking off excess oil.
9 Rest them on paper.
10 Repeat with the second batch.
11 Serve hot with dips and sauces from Chapter 12.
NOTE: These items do notfreeze very well.
CRISPY,FRIED,GRILLED,STUFFED ITEMS
KANOM-PANG GRAWP
Crackers
Everyone surely knows and adores prawn crackers. Very much a Chinese
restaurant invention, they are made from rice flour impregnated with prawn
flavouring. Less known are Indonesian huge prawn crackers (called kroepruk).
The cracker has reached Thailand, although it is quite a new concept there.
Crackers come ready to deep-fry (they are virtually impossible to make
at home) in factory produced packets. Manufacturers like the worldwide
Blue Dragon range sell three types: Prawn Crackers, Chiang Mia Crackers
(made from pumpkin flour), and Phuket Crackers (made from cassava
flour).
Crackers quickly go stale after you cook them and it's easy to make too
many. To overcome this, decide before you start how many you can eat
(remembering they puffup to double size).
TO COOK: AS MANY CRACKERS A YOU WISH TO EAT
crackers
deep-fry oil
1 Preheat the deep-fryer to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
2 Add a few crackers at a time. They puff up at once.
3 Remove them with tongs or a slotted spoon, shaking offexcess oil and
rest on kitchen paper.
4 Repeat until all are cooked.
5 Leave them for at least 15 minutes,during which time they will
become crisper.
KHAO TAANG
Rice Crispy Chips
These are Thai crispy crackers or 'chips'. Rice is cooked and pressed into
a thin layer. It is then baked or fried to become crispy, and sold in bite-size
pieces, either sweetened or salry. They are available at Thai food shops.
.....

CHAPTER THREE
soups
S
OUPS ARE fundamental to a Thai meal. In fact, they are integral too,
being served not as a starter, but as part of the main course. Actually,
they do make good starters, and it is quite acceptable to serve one soup as
a starter, and another, quite different soup during the main course. There
are three kinds of Thai soup:
Tom Yam is the most famous. Literally meaning 'boiled salad', it
should be quite chilli hot, served with your choice of chicken, meat, sea-
food, vegetables, or any combination. A popular presentation is the
steamboat. This is a table-mounted stove with its coals under a cooking
tray through which runs a central 'chimney'. The water or stock boils in the
tray as the diners select their own raw ingredients, put them into the tray
and let them cook at the table.
Gaeng Chud is a Chinese-influenced mildly spiced soup, containing
meat and/or vegetables and, traditionally, coriander root. It is usually
strained and served as a consomme.
Khao Tom is a thick soup with rice and meat or poultry. Its flavouring
includes fish sauce (nam pia) chillies and tamarind or vinegar for a sour
taste. Its spiciness varies.
SOUPS
TOM YAM TALAY
Thai Seafood Soup
Encapsulating all those flavours which are so essentially Thai, this mixed
seafood soup is light and entrancing, fragrant yet tongue-tinglingly sour,
salty and light sweet, herby and - oh, it's just fantastic - you'll just have to
try it for yourself! Tom Yam is one of Thailand's national dishes.
SERVES: 4
about 2S0g (90z) mixed raw 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
seafood of your choice (king (page 36)
prawns, fish chunks, small 2 tablespoons tinned sweet-
prawns, crab legs, squid, corn or baby corn
mussels, etc.) 3 or 4 dried or fresh lime
about 700ml (1
1
/4 pints) fish leaves (if available)
stock (page 44) 1 stalk lemon grass, cut to a
1 tablespoon magic paste tassel (page 30)
(page 42) juice of 1 lime
GARNISH
some whole coriander leaves
3 or 4 red chillies
1 Prepare the mixed seafood by divesting it of unwanted matter, and
washing it, then cutting it as you wish.
2 Bring the fish stock to the boil in a 2.25 litre saucepan (or larger). Add
the seafood and all the other ingredients except the garnish.
3 Simmer literally until the seafood becomes cooked (which will be
between 5 and 12 minutes depending on the size ofthe seafood pieces).
4 Place into serving bowls and garnish.
VARIATIONS
Tom Yam has many variations which get their name from the principal
ingredient.
TOM YAM GAl
TOM YAM GAl
Thai Chicken Soup
Use 250g (90z) of skinned filleted chicken breast, cut into thin strips, in
place of the seafood. The remaining ingredients and method remain the
same.
TOM YAM NUA
Thai BeefSoup
Use 250g (90z) of lean fillet steak, cut into thin strips, in place of the
seafood. The remaining ingredients and method remain the same.
TOM YAM MOO
Thai Pork Soup
Use 250g (90z) of lean pork, cut into thin strips, in place of the seafood.
The remaining ingredients and method remain the same.
TOM YAM GUNG
Thai Prawn Soup
As beef, but use whole raw king prawns.
73
SOUPS
TOM YAM GAl NAM KATEE
Chicken Soup with Coconut Milk
This version is much richer than standard Tom Yam because ofits coconut
milk.
SERVES: 4
lSOg (Sl/zoz ) skinned chicken
breast, cut into strips
1 tablespoon sunflower or
soya oil
3 cloves garlic, finely
chopped
200ml (7 fl oz) thick coconut
milk
1 lemon grass stalk cut to a
tassel (page 30)
1 red cayenne chilli, shredded
3 lime leaves, shredded (if
available)
about 700ml (11,14 pints) chicken
stock (page 43)
1 teaspoon tamarind puree
(page 47)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons chopped spring
onion leaves
3 tablespoons very finely chopped
basil leaves
fish sauce to taste (page 36)
freshly squeezed lime juice to taste
some coriander leaves to garnish
Heat the oil in a 2.25 litre saucepan. Stir-fry the garlic for 30 seconds.
Add the coconut milk and bring to the simmer.
2 Add the lemon grass, chilli and lime leaves and stir for a couple of
minutes.
3 Add the chicken strips and continue stirring for about 3 minutes.
4 Add the stock, tamarind puree, sugar and pepper and simmer for a
final 8 to 10 minutes.
5 Add the spring onion and basil leaves. Season with fish sauce and
lime juice. Serve hot.
74
KHAO TOM KAI
KHAO TOM KAI
Rice Soup with Egg
SERVES: 4
75
1 lemon grass stalk, cut to a tassel
(page 30)
2.5cm cube of ginger, shredded
2 chicken or duck eggs
2 tablespoons chopped spring
onion leaves
2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
1 to 3 red chillies, chopped
fish sauce to taste
75g (23/40Z ) jasmine or long
grained rice
700ml (11/4 pints) chicken
stock
1 tablespoon magic paste
(page 42)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 teaspoon chilli jam
(page 170)
1 Immerse the rice in ample cold water for about 10 minutes.
2 During this time bring the stock to the simmer in a 2.25 litre
saucepan. Add the pastes, chilli jam, lemon grass, and ginger.
3 Rinse the rice several times, until the water runs more or less clear.
4 Add the rice to the soup. Stir until it is swirling around (to prevent it
sticking to the bottom of the pan).
5 Simmer for about 10 minutes.
6 Put the eggs into the soup and as the yolks start to set, break them, but
don't whisk or stir vigorously. Simmer until the rice is completely tender.
7 Add the leaves and chillies and season with the fish sauce, then ,erve
hot.
As we have seen, rice is very highly regarded by Thai people, so much so that
'let's eat' translates literally to 'eat rice'. This rice soup is regarded as one of
the best ways to 'eat rice'. It is taken at breakfast, as a snack, at lunch or dinner.
It is given to the fit, the sick and the hung-over, from babes to the elderly - in
fact it's take anytime, by anyone as a cure-all. It can be strained as a
consomme, but it is usually not, being quite thick (depending on how much
rice is used). Spicing varies the taste (or depending on its exact purpose) from
bland to pungent, the latter being more likely for 'the morning after'!
Like Tom Yam, Khao Tom can be enjoyed with mixed seafood,
prawns, chicken, beef, pork or vegetables. Here it is with egg. For a thicker
soup, double the rice quantity.
900ml (1
1
/2 pints) water
SOg (13/40Z) spring onion
SOg (I3/4oz)carrot, shredded
60g (2oz)baby sweetcorn,
sliced
30g(loz)aubergine, chopped
1 to 3 tablespoons namprig -
optional (page 168)
2 teaspoons 'magic' paste
(page 42)
SOUPS
PAK GAENG-CHUD
Mildly Spiced Vegetable Consomme
The Thai call this soup mild, but I've met this as pungently chillied
(with nam prig) as you could wish. So I've included this joy as an option. It
must be strained and served as a consomme, with, at most, a few pieces of
'something' to give it interest (here it's noodles), plus, of course, garnish.
SERVES: 4
1 teaspoon tamarind puree
1 tablespoon chopped red pepper
1 tablespoon chopped green
pepper
2 stalks lemon grass, finely
cross-cut (page 30)
1 tablespoon chopped basil leaf
3 lime leaves, shredded (if
available)
SOg (I3/4oz)spring onion leaves
light soy or fish sauce
GARNISH
a few dried egg noodles
some whole coriander leaves
red chilli tassels
1 Bring the water to the simmer in a 3.5 litre saucepan.
2 Chop the spring onions, separating the bulbs from the leaves.
3 Add the onion bulbs, carrot, baby corn, aubergine, nam prig, garlic,
tamarind, pepper and the lemon grass.
4 Simmer for about 10 minutes.
5 Add the leaves (including the spring onion leaves). Simmer for a
further minute. Strain and discard the solids (keep a few bits for
serving).
6 Season with soy or fish sauce to taste. Add the noodles. Remove the
pan from the stove and leave it for a few minutes to allow the noodles
to soften.
7 Serve into soup bowls and garnish.
PED GAENG-CHUD MANAO DONG
PED GAENG-CHUD MANAO DONG
Duck Consomme with Vinegared Lime
Duck is very popular in Thailand and is prolifically bred in the farms and
waterways all over the country. In this recipe an entire duck (skin, bones
and all) would be used. Here, I prefer to discard the fatty skin and to use
the leg, with bone. At a higher cost, you could use one filleted breast. This
recipe is inspired by Bangkok's Oriental Hotel.
SERVES: 4
500g (18oz) duck drumstick 4 dried cloud-ear mushrooms
and thigh, weighed after 1 pickled lime, finely chopped
skinning (page 171)
700 (11/
4
pints) chicken stock 1 tablespoon brine from the lime
(page 43) 1 teaspoon namprig (page 168)
2 teaspoon magic paste 6 fresh basil leaves, shredded
(page 42) sweet soy sauce
-----------
1 Separate the duck drumsticks from the thighs. Slash the flesh.
2 Bring the stock to the simmer in a 3.5 litre saucepan.
3 Add the duck, and everything except the basil and the soy. Simmer for
20 minutes.
4 Add the basil. Season to taste with the soy sauce. Simmer for a few
more minutes.
5 Serve with the duck still on the bone.
77
SOUPS
GAENG-PHET NUA GUB WUN-SEE
BeefAnd Noodle Curry Soup
Beef noodle soup is one of the most popular street hawker dishes. There
are as many versions as traders - some use minced beef, others (as here)
strips. Some use vermicelli noodles, others wide-rice noodles. Here I'm
using wun-see glass noodles. I'm also incorporating curry paste for a really
super taste.
SERVES: 4
200g (70z) lean sirloin steak 3 cloves garlic, sliced
SOg (I3/40z)glass (cellophane) 2cm cube of ginger, shredded
noodles 'Wun-see 1
1
/2 tablespoons curry paste, any
700ml (1
1
/4 pints) chicken type (pages 136 to 139)
stock 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons sunflower or leaves
soy oil 2 teaspoons namprig (page 168)
fish sauce (nam pia) to taste
GARNISH
some crispy noodles (page 164)
some fresh basil leaves
1 Divest the steak of unwanted matter and cut the meat into thin strips.
2 Soak the noodles for exactly 20 minutes in warm water.
3 Meanwhile, bring the stock to the simmer in a 3.5 litre saucepan.
4 In your wok, heat the oil, stir-fry the garlic, ginger and curry paste for
a minute or so.
S Add the beef strips and briskly stir-fry for about 4 minutes turning
frequently.
6 Add the (strained) noodles to the saucepan and the fried beef, plus the
leaves and nomprig,
7 Simmer briefly (or the noodles will enlarge too much). Season to taste
with the fish sauce.
8 Serve at once, garnished with crispy noodles (if available) and basil
leaves.


.y v
CHAPTER 4
SALADS
T
here is no salad like a Thai salad. In fact, the only resemblance with
everyone else's salad is that it is served cold. Called yam,
(pronounced 'yum'), the Thai salad is virtually a meal on its own, and a
very fragrant and spicy one at that. I can't resist saying 'yum yum' because
that's what one should say when one tastes it.
Thai salad should maintain a good balance between salty and sour, and
whilst not being obvious, it should have a slightly sweet after taste. In
Thailand it would never be served as a meal on its own or even as a course.
It is always part of a meal- and a very important part. That's not to say that
you cannot have one of these salads unnaccompanied. Try one on a hot
summer's day with a glass of bubbly!
Here are seven astonishingly varied Thai salads, and a rather special
coconut salad dressing, which can accompany any ofthe salads if you wish.
Two more salads, one rice, one noodle, appear on pages 156 and 162.
79
SALADS
PLA NUA YAANG GUB AA-NGOON
Salad ofStir-fried Beefwith Grapes
I was given this recipe by Sarnsern Gajaseni, an articulate teacher,
passionate about Thai food. While he 'knocked' this dish up for me in less
than ten minutes, he explained that odd numbers are lucky in Thailand,
(hence seven chillies), that seedless grapes cost a day's wages for a half kilo
in Bangkok and, in his charming sing-song Thai accent, he explained that
the translation of Pia Nua Yaang Gub Aa-ngoon is far more picmresque than
'beef and grape salad'. It literally means: 'a kind of spicy salad of beef
grilled, with grapes'. It is picmresque, too. And it is very tasty. Take 10
minutes to find out!
SERVES: 4
250g (90z) lean fillet steak, I teaspoon 'magic paste'
weighed after stage I (page 42)
3 tablespoons sunflower or I teaspoon palm sugar (or brown
soy oil sugar)
7 tiny Thai red bird's eye 2 lemon grass stalks, finely cut
chillies (prig kee noD) or I cross-ways (page 30)
Indian red cayenne (chilli) 3 or 4 lime leaves, shredded
20 black and/or white seedless grapes, halved
GARNISH
some curly lettuce leaves
some whole mint leaves
red chilli tassel
Divest the steak of any unwanted matter. Cut it into thin strips, about
4cm x 2cm x 4mm each.
2 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the chillies (whole) and paste and stir-
fry for 30 seconds. Add the meat strips, sugar, most of the lemon grass
and lime leaves, and briskly stir-fry for about 3 minutes, mrning from
time to time. You are trying to achieve a meat colour just browner
than pink, for maximum tenderness.
3 Transfer the meat and liquid from the pan to a mixing bowl to stop
the cooking.
4 When it is cold, add the grapes, and toss well.
80
PLA NUA YAANG GUB AA-NGOON
5 On the serving plate, arrange the curly lettuce then place the salad
on to it.
6 Garnish with the remaining lemon grass and lime leaf along with the
mint leaves, and chilli tassel.
CHEF'S TIP: To cut thin strips of meat, chill the steak in the freezer for about 45
minutes. It is then hard but notfrozen and it will cut easily.
81
SALADS

PLA NANG MOO ISSAN
Pork Salad
Shangri-La is the place of one's dreams. Bangkok's Shangri-La Hotel's
dinner buffet is aptly named. It is staged (yes, that's the word for it is theatre)
every night on their expansive open-air terrace, beside the river Chao
Praya. A million white pea lights adorn the trees and trellises. A team of
chefs (dozens of them) in gleaming whites arrive in procession with their
feasts of dishes, which they layout in decorative order in a number of
pavilions and a central table from which the diners select their fill.
I can safely say it's the best buffet I've ever had. This salad from
nonhern Thailand is one dish which regularly appears. It uses minced
pork, but its outstanding subtlety is the use of pork rind, so soft and
delicately cooked that you'd believe it to be translucent thin noodle strips.
SERVES: 4
150g (5
1
jzoz) minced lean pork shredded
6 pieces bacon with rind I or 2 red chillies, sliced
SOOml (18 fl oz) water I teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
2 lemon grass stalks, cut long- I tablespoon chopped purple basil
wise into tassels (page 3U) leaves
2 tablespoons sunflower or 2 tablespoons chopped radiccio
soya oil leaves
I stalk lemon grass, cross-cut SOg (13/40Z) beansprouts
(page 30) 4 very finely chopped spring
3 or 4 lime leaves (if available) onions, leaves and bulbs
GARNISH
some radiccio leaves
basil leaves
Cut the rinds offthe bacon and snip into 4cm lengths. Keep the bacon
for some other use.
2 Bring a halflitre (18 fl oz) of water to the simmer. Add the rinds, and
the lemon grass stalks cut longways. Simmer for 20 minutes.
3 Add the minced pork and simmer for 10 minutes more. Strain,
keeping the water, now a rich flavoured stock.
4 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the minced pork, and rinds, cross-cut
lemon grass, lime leaves, red chillies and fish sauce and stir-fry for
about 10 minutes. Add in about lOOml (3
1
/2 fl oz) ofthe stock little by
little. Keep the rest for another use. Take the pan off the heat.
S When it is cold, add the remaining ingredients and garnish.
82
YAM TALA!
YAM TALAI
Seafood Salad
I expect by now you agree with me that the Thais have wonderful seafood
recipes. Yam Talai seafood salad is their king of salads. And to emphasize
the point, my version here uses king prawns as well as small prawns, squid,
mussels and cod.
SERVES: 4
2 stalks lemon grass, finely cross-
cut (page 30)
3 lime leaves, shredded (if avail-
able)
1 red chilli, sliced
1 tablespoon sliced fresh green
bell pepper
3 or .. spring onion leaves and
bulbs
1 tablespoon very finely chopped
coriander leaves
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
some fresh beansprouts
GARNISH
8 king prawns, shelled
300g (101/20Z) small prawns
8 squid rings
12 mussels out of shell
lSOg (SI/20Z) cod steaks,
chopped
200ml (6 fl oz) water
2 lemon grass tassels (page 30)
2 tablespoons sunflower or
soya oil
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 clove garlic, chopped
Heat the water in a saucepan. Add the lemon grass tassels and the
seafood. Simmer for about 4 or 5 minutes. Strain, keeping the water
(now a stock) for later.
2 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the shrimp paste and garlic and briskly
stir for 30 seconds. Add the seafood, cross-cut lemon grass, lime
leaves, red chilli, green pepper and spring onions and stir-fry this
mixture for about 3 minutes.
3 Add the coriander leaves and fish sauce, stir-fry for a few seconds.
4 Allow to cool. Garnish with fresh beansprouts.
SALADS
YAM GAl TUA-PU
Chicken and Bean Salad
This is a very pleasant salad. Tua-pu are winged beans, rather strange in
shape, which are sometimes available at Thai grocers. Asuitable substitute
is mangetout or snowpeas. But there's more to this recipe than its name
suggests. It has coconut milk which makes it really creamy, and it also has
toasted peanuts.
SERVES: 4
200ml (7 fl oz) coconut milk 200g (70z) winged beans or
250g (90z) chicken breast, Kenyan beans or mangetout,
skinned and chopped into sliced
thin shreds about 3cm x 1 red cayenne chilli, shredded
3mm x 3mm 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
2 stalks lemon grass, crosscut (optional)
(page 30) 3 or 4 spring onions, bulbs and leaves
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36) 2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
3 or 4 lime leaves, shredded 50g (13/40Z) peanuts, toasted and
(if available) chopped
some lettuce leaves
some green cayenne chilli,
chopped
some toasted desiccated
GARNISH
coconut (page 35)
hard-boiled egg, crumbled
some chilli jam to drizzle on
(page 170)
1 Bring the coconut milk to the simmer in your wok.
2 Add the chicken, lemon grass, fish sauce and lime leaves and simmer
gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3 Add the beans or mangetout, chilli, sugar and continue to stir-fry for
about 5 minutes.
4 Add the spring onions, basil leaves and the peanuts. Stir in and when
sizzling, remove the wok from the heat.
5 When cold, put it into a serving bowl on a bed oflettuce, then garnish.
whole coriander leaves
shredded spring onion leaves
YAM NAW MIA FARANG
YAM NAW MIA FARANG
Asparagus Salad
This salad uses fresh asparagus, a very popular seasonal Thai vegetable. It
is really simple to make using minimal ingredients.
SERVES: 4 AS AN ACCOMPANIMENT OR STARTER
3S0g (120z) fresh asparagus, 1 or 2 red cayenne chillies,
weighed after stage 1 chopped
3 tablespoons sunflower or 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
soya oil 1 teaspoon fish sauce
3cm cube of ginger or (page 36)
galangal, shredded 1 teaspoon sweet soy sauce
GARNISH
lime wedges
some chilli jamto drizzle on (page 170)
Wash the asparagus and cut off the stalks from the point where they
get pithy.
2 Steam them briefly to soften (or microwave).
3 Heat the oil in the wok and stir-fry the ginger, chillies, and sesame
seeds for about a minute.
4 Add the asparagus and stir-fry for a further 2 or 3 minutes.
5 When cold, add the fish and soy sauces, garnish and serve at once.
YAM YAI
'Large' Vegetable Salad
Concise in its description, as ever, this literally means 'large' salad. Large in
this context means a wide mixture of ingredients, the bulk of which are
vegetables. There is no limit to which vegetables you can use, and in what
combination. Here is my example. Thais would generally add some kind of
cooked meat and shrimps. I've given an option here (which I met in
Thailand), using duck egg and duck liver, which can be omitted if you
peefer.
85
SALADS
SERVES: 4
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
lOOg (31I2oz) celery, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped red bell
pepper
6cm cucumber, cut into small
cubes
4 or 5 spring onions, bulbs and
leaves
lOOg (31/20Z) beansprouts
1 large carrot, shredded
6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
50g (}3/40Z) button mushrooms,
chopped
6 to 8 spinach leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon very finely chopped
coriander leaves
2 tablespoons chopped basil leaf
6 tablespoons sunflower or
soya oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3cm cube of ginger, shredded
1 tablespoon cross-cut lemon
grass (page 30)
BOg (30z) duck liver (option-
al) cut into strips, 4cm x
5mmx5mm
1 teaspoon fish sauce
(page 36)
2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon palm or brown
sugar (optional)
1 or more red chillies,
cross-cut
----------- GARNISH
1 duck egg hard-boiled and some chopped chives or garlic chives
chopped (optional) toasted desiccated coconut
some toasted peanuts (page 35)
Heat the oil in your wok. Stir-fry the garlic and ginger for 20 seconds.
Add the lemon grass and liver and briskly stir-fry for a couple of
minutes.
2 Take the wok offthe heat and add the fish and soy sauces, the ketchup,
sugar, chilli and vinegar mixing in well. Allow to cool.
3 Mix the vegetables and leaves, and the above mixture together. Test
for seasoning, adding more fish sauce if needed.
4 Place the lettuce leaves as a bed on your serving dish then carefully
arrange the salad on top. Garnish and serve.
NOTE: The coconut dressing on page 88 goes particularly well with this recipe.
86
4 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
2 teaspoons fish sauce
(page 36)
1 teaspoon palm or brown
sugar
1 tablespoon very finely
cross-cut lemon grass
(page 30)
1 or more green chillies,
chopped
1 clove garlic, very finely
chopped
4 chopped spring onion
leaves only
2 tablespoons very finely
YAM PHONLAMAI
YAM PHONLAMAI
Savoury Fruit and Winged Bean Salad
No cooking needed for this one. I love its sweet and savoury contrasts and
so do the Thais. You can choose any fruit but my personal preference (as
in this recipe) is to be sure to have a mixture of citrus fruits, plus melon
plus strawberries and/or raspberries. More often than not Thais would add
prawns or shredded chicken, but I prefer not to. You can do that in another
dish, thus maintaining a uniqueness in this salad.
SERVES: 4
chopped purple basil leaves
1 tablespoon very finely chopped
coriander leaves
8 lime segments, all pith removed
8 orange segments, all pith
removed
8 grapefruit segments, all pith
removed
12 strawberries, quartered
16 raspberries, whole
1 small honeydew melon, in bite-
sized pieces
16 seedless black grapes, halved
200g (70z) water melon in bite-
sized pieces
some crisp lettuce leaves or radiccio
GARNISH
some cut mint leaves
some shredded lime leaves
Mix the oil, fish sauce, sugar, lemon grass, chilli and garlic together
and chill in the fridge.
2 Just prior to serving wash and prepare the fruit.
3 Mix with the dressing in a large bowl.
4 Arrange the lettuce leaves on the serving dish. Arrange the salad
carefully on the leaves. Garnish and serve.
NOTE: The coconut dressing, over, is epecially good with this salad.
87
SALADS
<} 'il 'il% % %%$% .. $*"'***'** $% %$:<% %*i,*,* M 'H,*<:it
YAM ADS MAPRAO
Thai Coconut Salad Dressing
This dressing requires thin coconut milk. The third pressing or the
thinnest liquid from the can (see page 35) is what you need, otherwise the
dressing becomes too rich. It will keep in the fridge for a few days (or it can
freeze). Use with salad as with French dressing.
MAKES: 27 5ML (10 FL OZ) DRESSING
150ml (1/
4
pint) thin coconut 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
milk 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed
50ml (2 fl oz) rice vinegar lime juice,
2 to 4 tablespoons chilli jam 2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
(page 170) 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
Simply mix everything together, chill and serve.
88
CHAPTER 5
MEAT
M
EAT IS popular in Thailand. In ancient times any meat was eaten,
including rodents and reptiles!
Today, in descending order of popularity, it is pork, beef and lamb or
mutton. Pigs are farmed in most parts of Thailand, although pork is not
eaten in the Moslem area in the deep south. Wild boar (called jungle pig)
is prevalent in the forested hill areas, particularly in the north, as is
vemson.
Beef is universally popular with both the majority Buddhists and
minority Christians and Moslems. It is not eaten by the minority Hindus,
to whom the cow is sacred. Beef is less readily available in Thailand than
pork, the cattle being smaller and yielding far less meat than their Western
counterparts. Buffalo is as popular as cattle, veal is rare, being too expen-
sive. Incidentally, dairy products are rarely used in Thai cooking.
Sheep and goat rearing is virtually non-existent in Thailand except in
the Moslem areas. Indeed, most Thais hate the smell and taste of such
meat. But mutton and lamb dishes do exist, and I have included one recipe
in this chapter specifically for lamb.
Buddhists are not allowed to slaughter meat, Moslems do that task,
except for pork which is undertaken by the Chinese. Raw meat is not
uncommon, especially in the north Issan district, in the form of a pounded
spicy dish called /aab (page 50) lightly resembling our steak tartare.
I should point out that you can substitute any meat for any other in
most of these recipes.
I have chosen a diverse selection of dishes in this chapter, and I hope
you will try them all, including the frogs' legs with sweet basil on page 98.
MEAT
LOOK CHEEN PING
Meat Balls on Skewers
Look Cheen Ping literally means 'balls, Chinese, skewered'. Also known as
Pad Look Cheen ('fried balls Chinese') or Tod Man Nua ('fried balls,
meat'), I hope by now you've got the picture, including the fact that the
Chinese had an influence. Meat balls are a very popular street food, either
grilled, deep fried or oven baked. They make great snacks or starters, or can
be served as pan of the main course.
MAKES: 16 MEAT BALLS
500g (18 oz) raw ground beef, 1 tablespoon 'magic paste' (page 42)
pork or chicken mixture 50g (1
3
/4 oz) spring onion leaves,
(pages 50 and 51) very finely cbopped
deep-fry oil
1 Mix the raw mixture with the paste and the spring onion leaves.
2 Divide the mixture into half and half again to make 4 equal size
lumps.
3 Take one lump and divide that into 4 and roll into balls. Repeat until
you have 16 balls.
4 Heat the deep fry oil to 190C and put 8 balls into the oil, one at a
time (too many too fast lowers the oil temperature). Fry for 6 to 8
minutes. Remove and rest on kitchen paper.
S Repeat with the other 8 balls.
6 Put 4 balls on to each skewer. Serve hot or cold.
CHEF'S TIP: The.re can be oven bakedfollowing the recipe.r on page.> 50 and 51, or
grilled.
NAEM
NAEM
Chiang Mai Sausage
Several kinds of sausages are found in the north-east of Thailand. Many are
enjoyed raw. This is not to our taste, so here is my Westernized version of
Naem, using butcher-made sausages. You 'de-case', them and mix the
sausage meat with further ingredients, then re-case them and, hey presto!
The problem of grinding meat to a paste and making a casing is solved in
one! Please note: because you're adding other items, there will be some
excess sausage meat, which can be used as a basic for the recipe on page 50.
MAKES: 16 SAUSAGES
16 pork or beef sausages with chopped
80 per cent meat content 4 tablespoons chopped spring
100g (40z) cooked rice onion leaves
2 tablespoons 'magic paste' 1 tablespoon fish sauce (page 36)
(page 42) 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
2.5cm cube of ginger, finely 1 teaspoon red curry paste (page 137)
Without separating the sausages from their 'strings', very carefully
empty the sausage meat into a mixing bowl. Since you only need
about three-quarters of the meat, remove about one quarter of it and
freeze or use for something else.
2 Add the other ingredients into the bowl and mix well.
3 Now comes the tricky bit. You have to pump the mixture back into
the sausage skins. The best tool is a food syringe - alternatively, use
an icing bag and large nozzle. Take care doing it. Leave a little space
between each sausage to allow for twisting the case. And don't overfill
them.
4 To cook, preheat the oven to 190Cj375F/Gas 5. Put the sausages
onto a greased oven tray and cook for 45 minutes. Don't prick them
unless you want them to burst.
5 Serve as part of the main course, or as a snack or starter.
CHEF'S TIP: You can purchase sausage skins from butchers who make their own
sausages.
MEAT
MOO GRaB KAEP
Crispy Fried Pork with Crackling
Roast pork is absolutely exquisite when its skin is properly cooked. It is
crispy and crunchy and we call it crackling. Also called Moo Grob, Thai
people adore this treat too, but without ovens they create it in different
ways, the best of which - for the crispiest results - is deep-frying. This has
the extra benefit of removing excess fat. Serve it as an accompaniment or
garnish, or mixed into other dishes. Pork rind can be obtained from any
butcher. It is easiest to buy it by size rather than by weight.
MAKES: 36 PIECES
Piece of pork rind, totalling about 18cm x 18cm
deep-fry oil
1 Cut the rind into 36 bite-sized pieces, each about 3cm x 3cm.
2 Heat the deep-fryer to 190C (chip-frying temperature). One by one
put about 18 pieces of rind into the fryer. Fry until pale golden (the
time will vary according to the thickness of the rind and its fattiness
- so between 8 to 12 minutes).
3 Remove from the fryer. Rest on kitchen paper.
4 Repeat with the other batch.
5 Leave to rest. Keep it warm for about 10 minutes during which time
it will crisp up. Serve warm.
SI-KHRONG MOO TaD
SI-KHRONG MOO TaD
Deep-Fried or Barbecued Ribs
Barbecued ribs are, of course, a world class, world-wide phenomenon, as
likely to be found in Paris as in Beijing. Pork is the meat, marination is the
game, and it is of course, a Chinese speciality. It is equally at home in
Thailand, where the marinade is deliciously Thai.
An alternative Thai name for the dish is Grat Dook Moo Tod. Our
alternative name is spare ribs. There is nothing spare about this dish. It is
good at any time and easy enough to make.
MAKES: 8 RIBS
8 pork spare ribs (each weighing about 100 - 110g (40z) )
THE MARINADE ----------
200ml (7 fl oz) thin coconut 2 teaspoons palm or brown sugar
milk (page 35) 2 teaspoons pureed garlic
1 tablespoon fish sauce 2 teaspoons red curry paste
(page 36) (page 137)
GARNISH
fresh coriander leaves, chopped
snipped chives
1 Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large, non-metallic bowl.
2 Lightly score the flesh of the ribs. Ensure they are well coated with
the marinade. Cover the bowl with film and leave it in the fridge for
24 to 48 hours.
3 To cook, preheat the grill to medium. Line the grill pan with foil. Put
the pan rack into place.
4 Shake off any excess marinade (keep it for later) and place the ribs on
to the rack. Place the grill pan in the midway position.
5 Grill for 5 minutes. Remove, turn the ribs, and baste them with spare
marinade.
6 Grill for 3 more minutes. Baste again (if you have any remaining
marinade) and grill for a final 3 to 5 minutes until cooked right
through, and slightly singed.
7 Garnish and serve.
93
MEAT

TUA LUEANG JEOW
Soya Beans with Pork and Prawns
$ $:!I> $ ,(>*$ $ $* **'*
This combination of meat and shellfish is much adored in Thailand. Here
we use lean, coarsely minced pork (though minced beef, veal or chicken
would be equally good) and small prawns. This combination is augmented
with tinned soya beans, and delicious Thai flavourings.
SERVES: 4
3S0g (120z) coarsely minced 2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
lean pork 1 tablespoon lemon grass, crosscut
HOg (90z) small shelled (page 30)
cooked prawns 200g (70z) tinned soya beans
3 tablespoons sunflower or (black or yellow)
soya oil 1 or more green chillies, chopped
400ml (14 fl oz) tinned 2 tablespoons basil leaves, chopped
coconut milk
GARNISH
fresh coriander leaves
some toasted peanuts
1 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 or 3 minutes.
2 Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and lemon grass and bring to the
Simmer.
3 Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add a little water
at any time if it seems too dry.
4 Drain the soya beans and add them and the remaining ingredients to
the wok and simmer for 10 to 15 more minutes.
5 Garnish and serve.
F.\CI:"G P.\GE Top to bottom: Rice Salad (page 156), Red Chilli Sauce (page 169), Pickled Mustard,
leli: (page 1H) and Malay-style BeefCurty (page 145).
F.\CI:"G :"EXT P.\GE Thailand's favourite Green Curry with Chicken (page 140) with Rice Noodles
Salad with King Prawn, Mango and Orange (page 162) and Black and White Rice (page 152).
In the foreground is Thailand's national flower, the orchid, and two Chilli Sauces (pages 168-170).
94
PANEANG NUA
~ 4 4 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ $ * ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ * $ $ * ~ * ~ ~ * % ~ * $ * $ * ~ ~ ~ G $ ~ ~ $ * ~ % * ~ * * * * $ * * G
PANAENG NUA
Chilli Beef
If I've been a little restrained on chillies throughout this book, then this
recipe will make up for it. It is hot so be warned.
SERVES: 4
300ml (liz pint) thin coconut
milk
2 stalks lemon grass, crosscut
(page 30)
150g (5
1
,lzoz) toasted peanuts,
chopped
4 tablespoons freshly chopped
basil leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped
coriander leaves
4 tablespoons chopped spring
onion leaves
1 teaspoon palm or brown)sugar
(optional)
GARNISH
700g (Il,lzlb) lean stewing steak,
cut into bite-sized chunks
4 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
6 white or green cardamoms
5cm piece cassia bark
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
1 tablespoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
250g (90z) onion, finely
chopped
7 to 21 green Thai chillies
(cayenne)
red chillies, shredded
snipped chives
some coconut cream (see page 3$)
"-------
Heat the oil in a 2.75 litre casserole dish. Stir-fry the 'magic paste' and
the shrimp paste for about 1 minute. Add the onions and chilli and
stir-fry for about 3 minutes.
2 Add the meat and seal it by stir-frying for 5 to 8 minutes.
3 Stir in the coconut milk and lemon grass and put the casserole (with
its lid on) into the oven pre-heated to 190Cj375FjGas 5.
4 Remove after 20 minutes. Stir and add a little water if it is too dry.
Return to the oven.
5 Remove again after a further 20 minutes, this time stirring in the
remaining ingredients.
6 After a further 20 minutes, it has had an hour in the oven and it
should be really tender (if not, return to the oven until it is).
7 Test for seasoning, adding more fish sauce if it needs it.
8 Garnish and serve.
95
MEAT
NUA TOD KRAPAO GROB
CriSpy Fried Beefand Holy Basil
As I described on page 82, Dominique and I were enjoying a truly
magnificent open-air dinner buffet at Bangkok's river bank Shangri-La
Hotel. This delightful light stir-fry was one of the dishes we chose. On the
table next to us were 10 young enthusiasticJapanese salesmen. They were
evidently entertaining their two Thai guests, and trying hugely to impress
them. The Singha beers flowed as fast as the adjacent river, and the food was
equally abundant. It wasn't long before a clutch ofcameras appeared, and in
a pass-the-parcel scene, amid much giggling, everyone snapped everyone.
The call went up for a group shot. Being the nearest 'volunteer', I was
conscripted as cameraman. 'Say cheese', I said. To a man, the 10 Japanese
replied 'Cheeser'!
SERVES: 4
600g (11/4Ib) lean fillet steak, 8 tablespoons crispy fried onion
weighed after stage 1 (page 48)
200g (7oz) holy basil leaves 2 teaspoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons sunflower or (page 36)
soya oil 1 tablespoon cross-cut lemon grass
4 cloves garlic, sliced (page 30)
2.5cm cube of ginger or 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
galangal, shredded (optional)
1 Deep fry the basil leaves, following the recipe on page 133.
2 Divest the steak of any unwanted matter. Cut it into thin strips about
4cm x 2cm x 4mm each.
3 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 30
seconds.
4 Add the meat strips and briskly stir-fry for about 3 minutes, turning
from time to time. You are trying to achieve a colour just browner
than pink, for maximum tenderness.
5 Add all the remaining ingredients except the basil and stir-fry for twO
minutes.
6. Add the deep-fried basil leaves, toss together then place them into a
serving bowl.
7. Garnish and serve.
NOTE: To cut meat into thin strips see Chefs Tip page 81.
NUA-LOOK-GAA OAD BAI-SALANAI
NUA-LOOK-GAA PAD BAI-SALANAI
Lamb Stir-fried with Mint
Lamb is scarce in Thailand, and it is true to say that most Thais will never
eat it. Flocks of sheep are found where there are Thai Moslems, generally
near the Malay border.
I encountered a recipe similar to this at the Gypsy World seaside
restaurant. It nestles in the coconut palms of Phuket's Siray (Ko-Sire)
island. Known for its Buddha surveying the scene in recline on its hilltop,
and its sea gypsy village and sea food, it was an unlikely place to find lamb.
This recipe calls for coconut. When the chef calls for it, assistants simply
pluck them from the trees. I think this restaurant is probably the luxury I'll
have on my own desert island.
----------- SERVES: 4
700g (II/
2
Ib) lean leg of lamb, 6 or 7 spring onions, bulbs and
weighed after stage I leaves, cross-cut
4 tablespoons sunflower or I or more green chillies,
soy oil shredded
Scm cube of ginger or galan- 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed
gal, shredded lime juice
SOg (I3/40Z) tinned sliced I teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
bamboo shoot 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
200ml (7 fl oz) thick coconut 6 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
milk leaves
GARNISH
some fried cashew nuts
red chilli tassels
fried garlic (page 4.5)
Divest the lamb of any unwanted matter. Cut it into thin strips about
4cm x 2cm x 4mm each.
2 Heat the oil in your wok. Briskly stir-fry the lamb strips for about 4
to 5 minutes.
3 Add the ginger and bamboo shoots and enough of their liquid to stop
the sizzling.
4 Stir-fry for a further 2 minutes then add the remaining ingredients.
5 When simmering, garnish and serve.
97
8 frogs' legs on the bone
4 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
3 teaspoons fried garlic
(page 45)
8 tablespoons fried onion
with prawn (page 48)
I or more green chillies,
MEAT
GOHP PAD HORAPA
Frogs' Legs with Sweet Basil
I persuaded a taxi driver to take me to Bangkok's Chatuchak weekend
market, with the help of a few hundred more Bhats (the local currency)
than he deserved. To be fair, he had kept saying 'far far'. I eventually fell in
that this actually meant, 'did I want the fast route' The perpetual traffic
jams take their toll on morale, but the extra money pays for the faster toll
roads, it seems. But before I reached them the driver sped into a petrol
station saying 'waterloo - one minute please'. It took a few bewildered
seconds to realize what he meant. Having relieved himself I soon found
myself at the market. There in 16 acres of stalls you'll find every
conceivable item for sale, including a huge animal section. There I saw tiny
puppies, rodents, baby chicks (dyed blue and pink), all sorts of fish, giant
black scorpions, snakes, ducks and huge gulping frogs. 'Good to eat,' urged
one trader. In the absence of a cooker and a good recipe, I declined. I later
did find a good recipe and here it is, for those who enjoy frogs' legs.
SERVES: 4 -----------
chopped
3cm cube of ginger or galangal,
shredded
2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
200ml (7 fl oz) chicken stock
(page 43)
6 tablespoons chopped holy basil
leaves
Heat the oil in your wok. Add the garlic, onion, chilli and ginger and
stir-fry for about 2 minutes.
2 Add the fish sauce and stock. When simmering, add the frogs' legs.
3 Stir-fry for 10 to 12 minutes at the simmer. The stock will reduce
somewhat, but keep the liquid balance by adding a little water now
and again.
4 Add the basil. Raise the heat. Stir-fry for a further 5 or 6 minutes.
Check that the legs are cooked and serve.
CHEF'S TIP: Frogs'legs are about the size ofchicken drumsticks, theirflesh is white
and the texture resembles chicken. They are much more appetising than they sound.
They are available ready preparedfrom game butchers.
9
8
...

CHAPTER 6
POULTRY AND
EGGS
C
HICKEN IS very popular in Thailand, and the birds are farmed so
prolifically that it is more available than other meat. Most of
Thailand's population are farmer villagers and most keep chickens (over 80
per cent). Big cities are supplied by chicken-rearing units, and at the
markets, cocks, hens and baby chicks are readily available live, although I
am not sure that immersing fluffy yellow one-day-old chicks in pink,
purple or green food dye is to be applauded, cute though they look on sale
in huge trays.
Poultry is generally cooked on the bone, skin on, in Thailand, for the
sake ofeconomy. Apan from grilled or baked recipes, I remove the skin and
use filleted chicken. What is to be applauded is the wide diversity of
recipes to choose from in Thailand. My choice here includes chicken
barbecued, stuffed, livers and a stir-fry. Wild birds are popular from the
tiniest to the largest and I've represented that with a quail recipe.
As with chickens, many farmers breed duck, and it is rapidly becoming
as popular as chicken.
I believe there is more innovation in the cooking of eggs in Thailand
than anywhere else. In this chapter I've given an omelette and a scrambled
egg recipe. Thais deep-fry eggs by simply breaking them gently into deep-
fry oil. Try that sometime - no recipe needed. Or they poach them by
breaking them gently into boiling water. Perhaps the most fascinating egg
recipe is Son-in-Law's eggs. All is explained on page 54.
99
POULTRY AND EGGS
GAl YAANG
Barbecued Chicken
All over Thailand you encounter street traders whose trolleys have stoves
with burning coals upon which they are barbecuing chicken pieces. The
smells are irresistible and there is always a queue of salivating, jabbering
Thais, waiting impatiently for their order to cook. This simple concept,
requiring a short marinade then a grilling, originated in the north-east Issan
area of Thailand. Try it when you're next barbecuing, though this recipe
uses the grill.
SERVES: 4
4 chicken thighs and drumsticks (each in one piece)
THE MARINADE
2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce 200ml (7 fl oz) tinned coconut
2 tablespoons fish sauce milk (page 35)
(page 36) 2 teaspoons chilli sauce (page 169)
2 teaspoons magic paste (page 42)
GARNISH
crispy fried onions with prawns (page 48)
some basil leaves, shredded
It is optional whether you remove the chicken skin or not. Thais
don't, but you'll need to cook the chicken for about 3 to 5 minutes
longer if the skin stays on to make it really crispy.
2 Slash the chicken pieces with a sharp knife. This gives more surface
area for the marinade to reach.
3 Mix the marinade ingredients in a large non-metallic bowl.
4 Work the marinade into the chicken pieces, including the gashes.
5 Leave them to marinate. If you are in a hurry, 30 minutes will do. If
you have time, cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for 24 to 60
hours (.ree page 22).
6 To cook: preheat the grill to medium heat. Line the grill tray with foil
shiny side up (it helps to reflect the heat and keeps the tray cleaner).
Put the grill pan rack into the pan.
7 Shake any excess marinade off the chicken (keep it for later). Put the
100
GAl YAANG
chicken on to the grill rack and put the pan into the midway position
under the grill.
8 Grill for 5 minutes. Turn and baste with spare marinade.
9 Grill for 5 more minutes.
10 Check to see if it is fully cooked. It will probably need 2 to 3 minutes
or more a side.
11 Garnish and serve with dips and sauces.
THAI TIP: Barbecuing will take a little longer but will give the best results.
Alternatively, the oven can be used (at 190'Cj375'FjGas 5) for 15 to 20 minutes,
turning once.
101
POULTRY AND EGGS
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * t ~ * * ~ ~ t ~ * ~ # * # * * * ~ ~ # $ * ~ * * * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ # ~ * * ~ ~ ~ ~ * * ~ * * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * * * * * ~ f
OD GAl SORD-SAI
Stuffed Chicken Breast/Wings
Traditionally, this dish uses chicken wings. Each has the two 'arm' bones and
a pointed tip. You have to remove the two bones without tearing or breaking
the flesh, thus creating a pouch. Keeping the skin on is essential. I have to say
de-boning is not easy - it requires patience, practice and a small, sharp knife.
The result is worth the effort. If it is all too much for you, the recipe works
almost as well using skinned breast, in which it is easy to create a pouch.
SERVES: 4
12 large or 16 small chicken
wings
250g (90z) raw pork stuffing
(pages 50 anti 51)
4 tablespoons fish sauce
(page 36)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons chilli sauce
(page 169)
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 cupful cornflour (about
200g/7oz)
6 tablespoons coconut milk
powder
De-bone the wings, creating one piece pouches. Do this by carefully
scraping the flesh away from the bones. Start at the end opposite the
tip and ease the skin and flesh back as you go. Remember to .keep the
skin on. When the first bone is revealed, cut and break it away at the
joint (keep the bones for stock).
2 Put the stuffing into the pouch, but don't overfill it or it will spill out
when cooking. Leave enough space at the top to 'close' the pouch by
using the skin as a flap.
3 Mix the sauces and the ketchup together in a mixing bowl. Coat the
stuffed wings. Leave them to marinate for 1 to 12 hours (see page 21).
4 To cook: preheat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
5 Mix the flour and coconut powder in a bowl and dab one wing in it.
Put it into the deep-fryer.
6 Repeat until the fryer is full (using half the wings). Cook for 12 to 15
minutes (depending on size). Test that the chicken is cooked right
through. Shake offexcess oil and rest on kitchen paper in a warm place.
7 Repeat with the remainder of the wings.
NGTE: The amount offilling given above will be more thanyou need (better too much
than too little). Use up any surplusjilling by rolling into balls anddeep-frying at the
same time as the wings.
102
GAl PAD MAMUANG-HIMAPAN
GAl PAD MAMUANG-HIMAPAN
Sliced Chicken with Cashews
Cashew nuts grow freely in Thailand. This combination of chicken and
cashew with its reddish sweet sauce, laced with fresh green herbs, really
makes the most of itself. Use raw, unsalted cashews, and chicken breast for
a really quick and easy dish.
SERVES: 4
SOOg (180z) skinned chicken 1 or more red chillies chopped
breast cross-ways
200ml (7fl oz) sunflower or 2 tablespoons chilli jam (page 170)
soya oil 4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
200g (7oz) raw shelled 2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
cashew nuts 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
3 teaspoons crispy fried 6 tablespoons spring onion leaves,
garlic (page 45) cross-cut
6 tablespoons crispy fried 2 tablespoons chopped fresh
onion (page 48) coriander leaves
1 red bell pepper, thinly 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
sliced leaves
GARNISH
some snipped chives
some lemon grass, cross-cut
1 Chop the chicken into strips about 4cm x lcm x 5mm.
2 Heat the oil in the wok and fry the cashew nuts for a few minutes,
briskly stirring all the time. They rurn golden very quickly and burn
even more quickly, so watch for that.
3 When they are golden, quickly remove them from the oil with a
slotted spoon, and rest on kitchen paper.
4 Remove most of the oil (keep for other use). You now need about 4
tablespoons which you heat in the wok.
5 Add the chicken strips and stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
6 Add all the remaining ingredients (except the cashews and leaves)
and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Ifit wants to stick, at any time from now on,
use just enough stock or water to release it.
7 Add the cashews and leaves and stir-fry for 2 or 3 minutes.
8 Garnish and serve.
13
POULTRY AND EGGS
TAB GAl PAD PRIG
Spicy Chicken Liver
I happen to think chicken liver has a better taste than lamb or pork liver. In
fact, so does duck, goose and turkey liver. Since these are tiny, I collect
them up in the freezer until I have enough to use for a recipe. Thais
happen to adore chicken liver too, as this rapid stir-fry proves so admirably.
The alcohol is a trick used by more than one canny Thai chef. My
suggestion is that you have more of the same to refresh you while you stir!
SERVES: 4
500g (18oz) chicken (or other 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
poultry) liver 1 or more red chillies, cross-cut
4 tablespoons sunflower or 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
soy oil (optional)
4 tablespoons crispy fried 4 tablespoons chopped holy (or
garlic (page 45) purple) basil leaves
4 tablespoons crispy fried 1 tablespoQn chopped coriander
onion (page 48) leaves
6000 (2 fl oz) port or madeira
GARNISH
some snipped chives
some lemon grass, cross-cut
Cut the liver into strips, which will vary in length because of the
actual liver size, but should be about Icm x 5mm in thickness.
2 Heat the oil. Add the liver and briskly stir-fry for 3 or 4 minutes.
3 Add the remaining items and continue to stir-fry for 2 minutes (until
the liver stops oozing red when rested for a minute or so).
4 Garnish and serve.
14
4 boned quail
BOg (30z) raw pork stuffing
(pages 50 and 51)
2 tablespoons chopped
NOK KRA-TA PAD PRIG
NOK KRA-TA PAD PRIG
ChiJli Q..uai/
Small birds are eaten all over Thailand. Pigeons, sparrows, and who knows
what are all avidly consumed. My favourite small bird is quail. Here is a
super recipe of my own. Quail, preferably boned if you can obtain them, are
best. Specialist quail farms do sell them boned so ask your game butcher.
Here, they are marinated then stuffed, roasted then glazed. It sounds more
complicated than it is, but the results are well worth the effort.
SERVES: 4
cooked prawns
2 tablespoons very finely chopped
basil leaves
1 teaspoon lemon grass, cross-cut
THE MARINADE
4 teaspoons sweet soy sauce 2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
1 tablespoon red curry paste 150ml (S fl oz) thick coconut milk
(page 137) 1 teaspoon chilli sauce (page 170)
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup 4 tablespoons clear honey
GARNISH
some lime leaves, shredded (if available)
some red chillies, shredded
some whole coriander leaves
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a non-metallic bowl. Work
the marinade into the quail, inside and out. Cover the bowl and
refrigerate for 24 to 60 hours (see page 21).
2 To cook: preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
3 Mix the pork, prawns, leaves and lemon grass together.
4 Carefully put one quarter ofthe pork mix into the quail, but don't overfill
it, or it may spill out during cooking. Repeat with the other quails.
5 Place them on an oven tray, basting with any excess marinade. Bake
for 10 minutes.
6 Heat the honey and fish sauce in a small pan. Baste it on to the quail.
Bake for a final 5 to 8 minutes.
7 Garnish and serve.
lOS
POULTRY AND EGGS
PED TOM PHET
Spicy Duck Casserole
Duck is very popular in Thailand. It is eaten on celebration days, and
where duck is concerned any day is a celebration day; Duck is widely bred.
Most farmers have some for eggs and meat, and there are an increasing
number of duck breeding farms popping up, particularly around the major
cities. The duck the Thais breed is an Aylesbury hybrid - white, but less
plump than its Western counterpart.
Wherever there are Chinese in Thailand you'll find Peking duck for
sale. But there are many Thai recipes using duck. This delight works well,
casseroled in the oven.
SERVES: 1-
4 skinless duck breasts, each 300ml (liz pint) chicken stock or
weighing about IS0g to 200g water (page 41)
(5 to 70z) 200ml thick tinned coconut
2 teaspoons 'magic paste' milk
(page 42) 3 tassels lemon grass (page 30)
1 teaspoon green curry paste 3 to 5 whole lime leaves (if
(page 136) available)
4 teaspoons crispy fried 50g (13/40Z) Thai pea aubergines
garlic (page 45) (if available)
6 tablespoons crispy fried 1 or more red chillis, shredded
onion (page 48) 3 or 4 Chinese dried mushrooms
4 tablespoons sunflower or (see Chef's Tip)
soya oil 2 teaspoons fish sauce (page 36)
2cm cube of ginger or 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
galangal, chopped (optional)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste 2 tablespoons very finely chopped
(page 36) coriander leaves
GARNISH
4 tablespoons fmely chopped basil leaves
some red chillies, shredded
1 Cut the duck breasts into bite-sized pieces.
2 Heat the oil in a 2.25 to 2.75 litre casserole pot. Stir-fry the pastes for
30 seconds and the duck pieces for about 5 minutes.
106
PED TOM PHET
3 Add the garlic, onion, ginger, stock, coconut milk, lemon grass and
lime leaves. Put the casserole, lid on, into the oven, preheated to
190C/375F/Gas 5.
4 Remove after 20 minutes, stir and add the aubergines, chilli and dried
mushrooms, and return to the oven.
5 Add the remaining ingredients and, in the unlikely event it needs it,
a little water, stirring well.
6 Give it a final 15 to 20 minutes so it has had a total of50 to 55 minutes
in the oven.
7 Garnish and serve in the pot.
CHEF'S TIP: To reconstitute dried Chinese mushrooms, discard the stems, place them
in a large bowl. Pour in enough boiling water to fill the bowl Leave to soak for 30
minutes, then drain. Cut into pieces.
POULTRY AND EGGS
KAI JEOW
Thai Omelette (various fittings)
The Thai omelette is, as you'd expect, prepared attractively. No simple
round shape for the Thais. It is carefully folded into a square which con-
tains a typically fragrant filling. It makes a good light meal on its own, or it
can, of course, be part of a main course. The recipe below is for a single
omelette. Double or quadruple the q ~ a n t i t i e s for two or four, etc.
MAKES: 1
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
1/2 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
80g (30z) raw stuffing
(pages 50 and 51)
OMELETTE
1 teaspoon crispy fried garlic
(page 45)
1 teaspoon chopped red chilli
1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
2 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon chopped cooked
prawns
1 tablespoon cooked sweetcorn
1 tablespoon butter
Heat the oil in the wok. Add the pastes and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add
the stuffing and stir-fry for 2 or 3 minutes.
2 Add the garlic, chilli, leaves, tomatoes, prawns and sweetcorn and stir
in until it is sizzling brightly.
3 Strain off any liquid (reserving it for stock).
4 Beat the eggs.
5 Heat the butter in a large flat frying pan.
6 Pour the beaten egg into the pan, swirling it round to the edges and
cook on medium heat until it firms up.
7 Immediately spread the filling around to a square shape in the centre
of the omelette.
S Now fold the sides in to create a square of about 12cm sides.
9 Carefully turn it over, applying a little heat then remove it. Garnish
and serve hot.
108
HED-FAANG-NU GUB KAI-KUAN
HE D - FAAN G - N U G U B KAI - KUAN
Mushroom with Scrambled Egg
A simple, satisfying snack or TV dinner. Here I'm using tinned straw
mushrooms, but you can use any type offresh mushrooms. Being so simple,
I've portioned it for two. Halve for one, double for four. Eat it hot and fresh,
or try it cold as a sandwich filler for lunch at your work place - but make
plenty, you'll have to share it, or you'll be the envy of your colleagues!
SERVES: 2
1 teaspoon crispy fried garlic (page 45)
1 tablespoon thick coconut milk
5 or 6 straw mushrooms, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped spring onion
leaves
1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
salt to taste
white pepper to taste
3 or 4 large eggs
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon yellow curry paste
(page 138)
1/2 teaspoon lemon grass cut
crossways (page 30)
1 or more red chilli
----------- GARNISH
some snipped chives
1 Heat the butter in a small non-stick pan. Add the paste and stir-fry
for 20 seconds. Add the lemon grass, chilli and garlic and stir-fry for
20 seconds more.
2 Add the eggs, unbeaten, and gently work them into the stir-fry.
3 As they start to set, after about a minute, add the coconut milk,
mushrooms and the leaves.
4 Season to taste and remove from the pan just prior to it setting really
firmly,
5 Garnish and serve hot or cold.

*.$$$.** $
..
CHAPTER 7
FISH AND
SHELLFISH
E
ARLY ARRIVALS in Thailand settled along the waterways. Fish was,
and very much still is, Thailand's major staple. It is eaten fresh and is
popular sun-dried. From tiny carp to huge mackerel, it is gutted and
boned, pressed flat and salted, then clipped into huge drying frames to dry
in the sun. It is kept this way for two weeks, by which time it has become
translucent and quite hard. Fish is also skewered and smoked. Dried fish
and squid is available from Thai shops, and, when reconstituted, can be
used in some of these recipes.
Fish is enjoyed at every meal. For breakfast it is served with rice, at
other meals it is served in soups, with salads and noodles and in curries.
Thai shellfish has an inexhaustible repertoire of recipes. Of course, it is a
flavour which is integral to nearly all Thai dishes via Shrimp Paste (kapee).
Prawns of all sizes (dried and fresh) appear in most Thai dishes - it's so
easy to pop them in while you cook.
In this chapter is a mixture of fish recipes from different Thai regions
which are all well worth trying. There is a grilled recipe from the north,
and a fried recipe from the south. There is a steamed fish recipe, and the
unique Hor Mok PIa where minced fish is steamed in a banana leaf cup.
My recipes in this chapter simply tip the iceberg. But they are
favourites of mine. Talai Thai is a popular seafood special, Poo Cha is
Thailand's adorable 'beloved' crab, and I could not miss the clam recipe -
since clams are indigenous to Thailand.
III
FISH AND SHELLFISH

YAANG PLA CHONABOT
Issan-Style Grilled Fish with Vegetables in a Tart Sauce
The river network and lakes in the north-east Issan district of Thailand
abound with freshwater fish. There are numerous freshwater fish on sale at
the markets, most never seen in the West. This recipe comes from
Chonabot, a town not far from the Laos border. It is famous for its Thai silk
and cotton, and especially for tie-dyeing.
SERVES: 4
4 freshwater fish (such as carp, perch, salmon or trout), gutted and
filleted with head otT, each weighing about 175g to 200g
(6 to 70z).
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(pllge 42)
1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
(pllge 36)
THE PASTE
1 teaspoon red curry paste
(pllge 137)
150ml (5 fl oz) thick coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons chilli jam
(pllge 170)
300mI (1/2 pint) fish stock or
water (page 44)
20 to 24 pea aubergines
(if available)
6 Thai aubergines, quartered
6 baby sweetcorn, halved longways
4 oyster mushrooms, quartered
1 teaspoon or more fish sauce
(pllge 36)
4 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
1 tablespoon tamarind puree
1 Mix the paste ingredients together.
2 Smear each of the fish both sides with the paste.
3 Preheat the grill to medium hot. Line the grill tray with kitchen foil
(to catch the drips and make cleaning easier). Put the grill rack into
the tray. Put the fish on to the rack.
4 Place the tray at the midway position and grill for 8 to 10 minutes.
The fish should by then be cooking but not burning.
5 Remove the tray, turn the fish and continue grilling for 5 to 8 minutes.
6 During stages 4 and 5, heat the oil in the wok.
7 Add the oyster sauce and chilli jam, and when sizzling, add the fish
stock or water.
II2
16 to 20 uncooked king
prawns, with head, tail and
shell still on
3 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
GUNG WAN
8 Bring to the simmer.
9 Add the aubergines, sweetcorn and mushrooms.
10 Season with fish sauce and add the leaves and tamarind, and simmer
for about 5 minutes (or until the aubergines are cooked).
11 To serve, put the fish onto their respective serving plates. Pour the
sauce and vegetables over the fish and serve at once.
GONG WAN
Sweet Herbal Prawns
This is a really simple dish and it is one of many which you encounter in
Bangkok's Seafood Market Restaurant. Here in a vast, jostling neon-lit
supermarket you take your basket and wheel it past displays of fresh fish,
or seafood on crushed ice, or live in tanks. Make your choice. Take it to the
checkout. Pay and tell them how you'd like it cooked. Take a seat and
before long your chosen dishes appear cooked and delicious. Use raw
unpeeled prawns for the greatest effect here.
SERVES: 2
3 teaspoons palm or brown sugar
(optional)
2 teaspoons chilli jam (page 170)
2 tablespoons tomato chutney
100ml (3
1
12 fl oz) fish stock or
water (page 44)
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pia)
1 Wash the prawns.
2 Heat the oil in the wok. Add the prawns and stir-fry for about 6 to 8
minutes, depending on their size, until they are nearly cooked. Add
the remaining ingredients and stir-fry briskly until the prawns are
fully cooked and coated with the sauce.
2 red mullet, gutted and
filleted, each about 20cm
when the head and tail are
removed
4 teaspoons ground sea salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
oil for deep-frying
FISH AND SHELLFISH
PLA TORT
Crispy Fried Fish
Asimple dish which is similar in concept to certain Indian fish dishes. This
particular recipe hails from Pattani, which is in the far south of Thailand,
close to the Malaysian border. Pattani was once a Portuguese base and has
a mainly Moslem population. PIa-too is a type of mullet which abounds in
the Gulf of Thailand. It is rubbed with salt and turmeric, then deep fried.
The sauce which accompanies it must contain cashew because, according
to legend, a beautiful Chinese woman hanged herself from a cashew nut
tree, having cast a spell on the adjacent mosque, then under construction,
which she didn't want finished. The year was 1578. The mosque remains to
this day, unfinished and somewhat derelict, but the curse was not entirely
successful, as it has been worshipped in since that time.
SERVES: 2
100ml (31;z fl oz) nampia prig
(page 170)
lOOg (3V20Z) toasted cashew nuts,
chopped
4 tablespoons chopped holy basil
leaves
lime wedges
1 Wash and dry the fish inside and out, and cut small gashes into flesh.
2 Mix the salt and turmeric together and rub this liberally into the fish.
3 Heat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature). Place both
fish into the oil and deep-fry for about 10 minutes.
4 During stage 5, mix together the nampia prig, cashews and leaves.
5 Serve the fish with lime wedges and the cashew sauce.
1 kilo (2l/4Ib) medium size
clams in shell
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
HOI-LAI PHET
% ~ ~ $ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ' $ ' ~ * ~ ~ ~ $ $ ~ 4 * * * 4 ~ 4 ~ ~ $ ~ % $ ~ $ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ $ $ $ $ ~ ~ ~ $ ~ * ~ * ~ .
HOI-LAI PHET
Spicy Clams
Clams are a hard hinged double shell (bivalve) part of the mollusc family.
They are native to Thailand and China - the first recorded use being in a
Chinese census dated AD754, which advises us that the inhabitants of the
River Yangtze fished for Venus clams. Clams are available fresh and frozen,
in large, medium and small sizes. Medium (also called petite neck) are
specified in this recipe, yielding about 50 clams in shell to the kilo. Their
meat is plump and creamy in colour.
SERVE: 4
1 teaspoon chilli sauce (page 169)
200ml (7 fl oz) fish stock (page 44)
1 stalk lemon grass cross-cut
(page 30)
1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
Thaw the clams if frozen. Give them a good rinse under cold running
water to remove any grit or shell fragments.
2 Steam them for between 5 and 7 minutes. As they start opening,
remove them from the steamer. If any fail to open after, say, 10
minutes, discard them.
3 Heat the oil in your wok. Add the magic and chilli pastes and stir-fry
for 30 seconds.
4 Add the stock or water and the lemon grass, and when simmering add
the clams, and stir-fry for up to 2 minutes.
5 Add the leaves and the fish sauce, simmer for a minute longer then
serve hot.
115
field mushrooms, in strips
chilli shredded
FISH AND SHELLFISH
PLA NUENG PRIG MANAU
Spicy Steamed Fish with Lime
A Chinese bamboo steamer is the perfect container for steaming fish. Use
any smaller flat white fish such as plaice, lemon and Dover sole, brill, dab,
flounder, magrim, skate and witch sole.
SERVES: 2
2 flat white fish (see above), 2.5cm cube of ginger or galangal in
gutted, but not filleted, each thin strips
weighing about 300g (1Ioz) 1 teaspoon yellow curry paste
2 teaspoons 'magic paste' (page 138)
(page 42) 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
2 stalks lemon grass, cross-cut (optional)
2 stalks lemon grass in tassels 40ml (1
1
12 fl oz) nampia prig
3 lime leaves (page 17U)
2 sticks celery, chopped 100ml (1
1
/2 fl oz) fish stock
2 whole green chillies (page 44) or water
2 tablespoons sunflower or 1 pickled lime, chopped
soy oil (page 173)
GARNISH
red bell pepper in strips
spring onion leaves in strips
lime wedges
1 Wash and dry the fish inside and out. Pack its pouch with the paste
and the cross-cut lemon grass.
2 Bring 1.5 litres water to a rolling simmer, adding the lemon grass
tassels and lime leaves.
3 Put the fish into the steamer basket (one fish per basket) along with
the celery and chilli.
4 Put the lidded baskets above the simmering water, for 15 minutes.
S Meanwhile, heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the ginger and curry
paste for 30 seconds. Add the sugar, nam pta prig and fish stock and
simmer for about 10 minutes during which time it should reduce to a
thickish sauce. Add the pickled lime.
6 To serve, pour the sauce carefully onto the dinner plates, place the
fish on top, garnish with the strips of mushroom, chilli, red pepper
and spring onions with a lime wedge.
116
TALAI THAI

TALAI THAI
Thai Seafood Special
Seafood is a matter of great importance to the Thais. When you walk around
the markets, wherever you are, you'll find a vast array of produce, which if
it's not still alive, you know was fished just hours before. It is a rare luxury in
the West, unless you live near a fishing port with quay-side markets. We rely
on refrigeration, or even freezing, with the consequent deterioration in taste.
There is no better way to cook fish and shellfish than over coals, and this
recipe works no better than with fresh produce, which benefits from its quick
marinade. Of course, the grill or the oven can substitute.
SERVES: 2
2 jumbo prawns, each weigh- 1 small cleaned squid body
ing 100g (31/20Z) after (about 12cm long) cut into rings
peeling 8 mussels in shells
6 king prawns, weighing a 8 scallops out of their shells
total of about 150g (51/20Z) 4 fresh sardines, whole, each about
after peeling 10cm long
24 to 30 whitebait
THE MARINADE
2 teaspoon chilli sauce
(page 169)
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 egg
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed
lime juice
200ml (7 fl oz) thin coconut milk
2 tablespoons soy oil
2 tablepoons fish sauce
(page 36)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons panaeng curry
paste (page 138) .
1 Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large non-metallic bowl.
2 Wash and dry the seafood. Place it all into the marinade. Cover and
leave in a cool place for 1 hour.
3 Preheat the barbecue to white hot (or preheat the grill to medium or
the oven to 190C / 375F / Gas 5).
4 Place the items on the barbecue and cook until ready. These items are
gorgeous with fresh crispy baguettes, salad and cold rose wine on a
hot summer's day.
FISH AND SHELLFISH
HOR MOK PLA
Ground Fish in Banana Leaf
This dish is immensely popular in Thailand, though it is rarely seen in
restaurants outside the country. I particularly like it, or perhaps I should say
them. For they are fish cakes. And they are more cake-like than the fish
cakes we are used to in the West, or even those on page 67. They are made
from a batter which, when steamed, sets and rises a little. Traditionally the
batter is poured into moulds made from banana leaves (see page 52), but if
you don't have banana leaves, dariole moulds will do, though they obviously
lack the charm. In order to create a green surround I've used an
untraditional method which is to line the mould with spinach leaves.
SERVES: 4
200g (7oz) filleted cod steak
150g (51120z) cooked peeled prawns, chopped
THE PASTE
4 tablespoons chopped spring
onions, leaves and bulbs
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
2 teaspoons green curry paste
(page 136)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 tablespoon lemon grass,
finely cross-cut
1 egg
200ml (7 fl oz) thick coconut milk
1 teaspoon rice flour
1 tablespoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 or more red chilli, very finely
chopped
1 tablespoon chopped basil leaves
8 to 12 spinach leaves
TOPPING
6 tablespoons thick coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut milk powder
1 tablespoon rice flour
GARNISH
lime leaves, shredded
snipped chives
red chilli
uB
HOR MOK PLA
1 Mix the paste ingredients together in a food processor and grind to a
thick pourable paste. Add the cod and prawns and pulse it, using just
enough water to maintain the pourable paste.
2 Soften the spinach leaves in the microwave or steamer. Line them
into the dariole mould (spinach can be omitted if you use banana
leaves).
3 Pour enough mixture into each container to come to Smm below the
top.
4 Mix the topping ingredients together and spoon this to fill each
container.
5 Bring 1.5 litres water to a rolling simmer, adding the lemon grass
tassels.
6 Put the containers into one or more steamer baskets, which you put
lids on above the simmering water. Steam for 15 minutes.
7 Garnish and serve.
CHEF'S TIP: Containers will vary size-wise, so although I have stated 4 containers,
you may need more to use up the mixture. They will freeze after stage 4.
FISH AND SHELLFISH
POO CHA
'Beloved Crab'
My wife, Dominique, cannot find anything good to say about crabs. She
detests their appearance, the way they move, their smell and their taste.
The same goes for all shellfish. Which is unfortunate because I love 'em. So
I couldn't agree more with the Thais who go as far as calling this dish their
'beloved crab', or their 'darling' dish.
Crab meat is mixed with ground pork and Thai fragrant ingredients. It
is then loaded into the crab shells, coated with beaten egg and fried in the
wok in sufficient oil to cover the crabshells.
SERVES: 4
2 edible cooked brown crabs, each weighing around 400g (14oz)
THE STUFFING
1 teaspoon yellow curry paste
(page 13K)
1 or more red chilli, finely
chopped
2 tablespoons spring onion leaves
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
500ml (18 fl oz) vegetable oil
2 eggs
GARNISH
4 tablespoons raw pork
stuffing (page 5'1)
1 tablespoon chopped cooked
prawns
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
some snipped chives
Remove the crab claws and legs. Extract the flesh using pliers and a
special pick. Remove and discard the tail, then twist the body out ofthe
shell with a knife. Discard the finger-like grey gills and the stomach
behind the eyes. Keep both the white and brown meat. Wash the body
shell. Using pliers, crack off the top shell and discard. Wash again. The
yield from a 400g (l40z) crab is around 150g to 180g (5 to 60z).
2 Mix the crab meat with the pork and prawns, pastes, chilli, onion and
fish sauce.
3 Press this mixture into the crab shells then chill them in the fridge for at
least an hour or overnight (it helps to keep them in the shell at stage 5).
120
POO CHA
4 Heat the oil in the wok.
S Beat the eggs. Generously coat one crab. Place it into the wok on its
back. Add the second crab.
6 Fry for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the wok shaking off the excess
oil. Rest on kitchen paper.
7 Garnish and serve hot.
-
121
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CHAPTER 8
VEGETABLES
I
HAVE TO SAY that, in truth, this chapter is a little 'artificial'. The fact
is that few Thais are vegetarian and few Thai dishes turn up on the
table as vegetable only. As often as not, they'll have prawn, chicken or meat
included. That's not to say that Thai vegetables are not interesting. They
are diverse and traditional. By that I mean they are, to this day, largely
confined to those vegetables which were indigenous to Thailand centuries
ago. This includes aubergines, banana, cabbage, celery, cucumber, gourd,
mushrooms and spinach. Interlopers from China, far back in time, include
beansprouts, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts and the ubiquitous soya
bean, in the form of bean proper or tofu.
Within the last couple of decades two newcomers have arrived in
Thailand as cash crops - asparagus and baby corn. This selection of veg-
etable recipes gives a wide range of tastes and textures and one or more
dishes can be served with your main course.
One more observation about vegetables. Dominique and I were on the
outboard Thai Airways flight to Bangkok on our research trip for this book.
The middle-aged couple behind us were particuarly irritating during the
early part of the long flight. He had put on his headphones and she kept
talking to him. Both were deliberately loud in haughty OTT accents.Jarringly
so, in fact. Eventually silence fell when they were given the dinner menu.
Steward Isares asked what choice they'd like. The man said, 'Oh, it isn't
five courses?'
'No, Sir, they are your choices.' Rather miffed, he ordered the
vegetarian option, she, the meat.
Later Isares appeared with the meals, one vegetarian, one meat.
'Sir,' he said, 'you are a vegetable?'
'Yes,' mouthed Dom and I.
12
3
VEGETABLES

PAD PAK RUAN (OR

Stir-Fry Mixed Vegetables
Choose any vegetables which stir-fry quickly. These include: carrot,
mushroom, snowpeas, mangetout, green beans, capsicum, beansprouts,
Chinese cabbage, white cabbage, spinach, etc.
You should keep the vegetables as crispy and crunchy as possible, to
retain all their goodness.
SERVES: 4
450g (lib) mixed vegetables halved, and their liquid
(examples above), weighed 6 slices tinned bamboo shoot,
after preparing quartered, and their liquid
2 tablespoons sunflower or 2 tablespoons chopped red bell
soya oil pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped 4 or 5 spring onion bulbs and
1em cube of ginger or leaves, chopped
galangal, chopped 2 tablespoons chopped flat bladed
1 teaspoon oyster sauce parsley
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
4 tinned water chestnuts, leaf
Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds. Add
the oyster sauce and when sizzling, add the fish sauce, water chestnuts
and bamboo and 4 tablespoons oftheir liquid (keep more for later).
2 When this is simmering add the mixed vegetables and peppers and
stir-fry for 2 minutes.
3 Add the spring onion, parsley and basil and 4 more tablespoons of
tinned liquid.
4 Stir-fry for 2 more minutes then serve.
THAI TIP: Freeze the remaining tinned liquidfor stock.
12
4
SATU
SATU
Vegetable Stf7JJ
I only met this dish once on a visit I made to southern Thailand, years ago.
I was told it was a 'village' dish with an Indonesian influence. It was here
that I was told about Thai peoples' difficulty in combining letters's' and 't'
(see satay, page 59). Sam is a 'corruption' of the word stew. The version I
encountered was slowly cooked in a brass two-handled wok. I've translated
that to a casserole and the oven for perfect results.
SERVES: 4
HOg (51/20Z) large potatoes,
peeled
HOg (51/20Z) red sweet
potatoes (American yams),
peeled '
lOOg (31/20z)carrot, peeled
1 medium size onion
4 celery sticks
200g (70z) fresh sweet corn
(when in season)
600ml(1 pint) boiling water
3 or 4 stalks lemon grass cut
into tassels (page 30)
3 or 4 whole lime leaves
4 tablespoons sunflower or soy oil
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
4 tinned tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
(optional)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
4 tablespoons chopped spring
onions, leaves only
2 tablespoons chopped basil
1 Chop the potatoes and carrot into large pieces.
2 Halve the onion.
3 Cut the celery sticks into longish lengths.
4 Cut the sweetcorn off the cob.
5 Preheat the oven to 190Cj375FjGas 5. Boil the water and put it
into a 2.25 litre casserole pot with the lemon grass and lime leaves.
Add the mixed vegetables and put the pot, lid on, into the oven.
6 After 20 minutes, heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the paste for 30
seconds, add the tomatoes, the ketchup, soy, sugar and fish sauce and
when sizzling, transfer it to the casserole, mixing it in well.
7 After a further 15 minutes the potatoes should be cooked (if not carry
on casseroling until they are). Add the spring onions and the basil.
8 Let it stand for about 5 minutes, lid on, out of the oven.
9- Serve with rice or noodles.
12
5
VEGETABLES
#.$f
NAM PRIG ONG
Northern Chilli Vegetables
Also called Pak Nam Prig, this dish is a northern Thai speciality. I
encountered it near the Burmese border, where it is a simple staple. The
vegetables are raw - crudites - and are dipped into a searingly hot chilli
sauce in which, often as not, there will be minced pork. Here I've
substituted minced mooli (white radish) to make it a vegetable dish (albeit
with shrimp paste and fish sauce).
SERVES: 4
THE VEGETABLES
Your choice of crudites for example: cauliflower and/or broccoli flo-
rets, spring onions, celery sticks, carrots, peppers, chillies, cucumber,
baby sweetcorn, etc. Judge the amount you want to-serve by eye
rather than weight. '
THE SAUCE
HOg (90z) white radish 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
(mooli) 1 tablespoon tomato chutney
3 tablespoons sunflower or 4 tinned tomatoes, chopped
soy oil 1 or more tablespoons chopped
2 cloves garlic, very finely tiny red Thai chillies (or Indian
chopped
1teaspoon shrimp paste (pag 36) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh
1teaspoon chilli sauce (pag 169) coriander leaves
4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 Wash and prepare the vegetables. They are best in sticks or strips or
chunky for dipping. Arrange them as individual portions on 4 side
plates.
2 Run the white radish through a hand or electric mincer.
3 Heat the oil in the wok and stir-fry the paste for 30 seconds.
4 Add the fish sauce, tomato chutney, tomatoes and chilli and stir-fry
for 3 or 4 minutes.
5 Add the minced radish, the coriander and the basil. Mix in well.
Remove the wok from the heat and serve the sauce hot or cold,
alongside the crudites.
126
GALUMBI HAR TAO-HOU
# 't*'t't$ 't**''li''\t
GALUMBI HAR TAO-HOU
Tofu Wrapped in Cabbage Leaves
Although this and the next recipe are the only encounters with tofu, or tao-
hou, in this book (see page 39), it is not to imply that tofu is a minor
ingredient in Thai cuisine. It appears here, there and everywhere as do
other ingredients such as minced pork and prawns, and there is nothing to
prevent you adding tofu to virtually any savoury dish in this book. ()
Here it features as a major ingredient, in a typically attractive Thai ,.
presentation, so pretty it's well worth the effon to make. Soft bean curd
(tofu), available from Chinese or Thai stores, is moulded with flavourings
to a sausage shapes, softened cabbage leaves are tightly formed round the
sauages. Thai garlic chive leaves (or long halved spring onion leaves) are
then rolled decoratively round the sausage, which is then steamed.
MAKES: 8
2 teaspoons very finely chopped
garlic
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1 teaspoon chopped red chilli
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
lime wedges
12 large Chinese leaves
16 long garlic
300g (101/20Z) fresh soft white
unsalted bean curd (tofu)
100g '(31120z) thick cottage
cheese
1 egg
Steam the leaves and chives until they are soft and translucent but do
not overcook them.
2 Discard the water from the tofu.
3 Mash it with the cottage cheese, egg, garlic, basil, chilli and coriander
and salt.
4 Divide it into 8 and mould into sausages.
5 Place one sausage onto a cabbage leaf, fold the leaf over the ends and
form it into the tofu sausage. Note there are spare leaves in case of
tears, etc.
6 Now wrap the long chives around the sausage.
7 Put into the steamer and cook for about 5 minutes.
8 Serve hot or cold with lime wedges.
12
7
VEGETABLES

HED GUB TAU-HOU KHAENG
Spicy Mushroom with Tofu
A traditional combination with pleasing results of colour contrasts (black,
grey and white) and chewy textures. Use several types offresh mushroom
for greatest effect. Examples include field, button, beefsteak, straw and
oyster mushrooms. Several varieties are often available in mixed packs at
supermarkets. The tofu is available in blocks.
SERVES: 4
200g to 250g (7 to 90z) mixed 1 teaspoon 'magic paste' (page 42)
fresh mushrooms 4 to 6 spring onion bulbs and
(see above) leaves, cross-cut
200g (7oz) firm tofu 150ml (114 pint) vegetable stock or
2 tablespoons sesame oil water .
2 teaspoons white sesame 1teaspoon fish sauce
seeds (page 36)
1 Clean the mushrooms, peeling only if necessary.
2 Cut them into larger rather than small pieces.
3 Cut the tofu into cubes about 1.5cm square.
4 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the seeds and paste for 30 seconds.
Add the tofu and when sizzling, add the onion, stock and fish
5 When simmering, add the mushrooms.
6 Stir-fry for a couple of minutes (until everything is hot) then serve.
128
DO ON NAW-MAI-FARANG
DOON NAW-MAI-FARANG
Steamed Asparagus
It has to be fresh asparagus, of course. So when the season comes, do what
the Thais do and enjoy it at any and every meal. For breakfast with
scrambled duck eggs it's astounding. Use the tastier green variety in
preference to the white. For brunch lunch or munch, just try it!
SERVES: 4
approx 900g (2Ib) bunch of 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
asparagus (optional)
3 tablespoons sunflower or 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
soy oil 150ml (5 fl oz) vegetable stock or
1 clove garlic, chopped water
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36) some knobs of butter
1 teaspoon light soy sauce holy basil leaves
1 Cut the stalks away from the asparagus where it becomes tough and
discard it.
2 Steam the asparagus for about 15 minutes or microwave it for about 3
minutes. (Don't boil it - it becomes mushy and loses flavour.)
3 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the fish
and soy sauces and the sugar and pepper.
4 When sizzling, add the stock or water and stir-fry for about 3 minutes
to enable it'to reduce to a thicker consistency.
5 To serve, place the asparagus into a serving dish and pour the sauce
over it. This minimizes the risk of breaking the fragile tips. Garnish
with butter and fresh holy basil leaves.
12
9
300g (lOl/20Z) swamp
cabbage (pak-boong) or
spinach coarsely chopped
200g (7oz) fresh sweetcorn
kernels
4 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
VEGETABLES
KAO-POT PAK-BOONG PAD
Stir-Fried Sweetcorn and Spinach
Sweetcorn is hugely popular in Thailand. And it's not just baby corns.
Gorgeous, golden, plump, full size corn-cobs grow prolifically for much of
the year and their flavour is just out of this world.
This recipe combines these golden nuggets with the velvety green of
Thai spinach (pak boong) also called, rather unglamorously, swamp cabbage
because it grows in swampy sites! It has a rather more attractive name -
water morning glory. It has narrow triangular leaves, and hollow stems,
both of which are used in this recipe, and is available from time to time
fresh in Thai or Chinese shops where it is known as kaeng kung. Failing that
use ordinary young spinach with soft usable stalks.
SERVES: 4
4 cloves garlic, chopped
150ml water
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar
(optional)
1 teaspoon chopped red chilli
(Thai or cayenne)
1 Steam, boil or microwave the sweetcorn to readiness.
2 Heat the oil in the wok, stir-fry the garlic for 30 seconds.
3 Add the water, fish sauce, sugar, chilli and the swamp cabbage and
briskly stir-fry for about 3 minutes.
4 Add the sweetcorn. Stir-fry until it is hot then serve.
MAKHAU BREEO-WAN
MAKHUA BREEO-WAN
Sweet and Sour Aubergine
There are a number of Thai aubergine varieties, one of which is the shiny
club-shaped purple-black variety so popular in India. Other Thai types
vary from the small green 'pea aubergines' (makhua puong) .to the larger
cream or yellow varieties. Called just makhua, one can see why they are
called egg plants, since they are that shape. No Thai cookbook would be
complete without a recipe for aubergine.
Available from Thai shops, they are actually somewhat bitter
especially the pea version.
To overcome this you should soak the aubergines in brine. This sweet
and sour recipe suits aubergines well.
SERVES: 4
100ml (3
1
ti tl oz) sweet white wine
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped spring
onion leaves
1 tablespoon chopped holy basil
leaves
salt to taste
350g (12oz) aubergines,
weighed after stage 3
3 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
2 cloves garlic chopped
4 tablespoons palm or brown
sugar
60ml (2 tl oz) water
1 Put the water and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
2 Add the aubergines (pea aubergines whole and other types peeled
and halved with seeds scooped out).
3 Soak them for up to 3 h ~ u r s then drain them.
4 To cook, steam the aubergines for 12 to 15 minutes (or until tender-
it depends on their size).
5 Heat the oil in the wok. Add the garlic and stir-fry for about 30
seconds. Add the sugar and water, white wine and vinegar and stir
briskly until the sugar dissolves.
6 At a rolling simmer stir until this becomes more syrupy.
7 Add the aubergine and the remaining ingredients.
8 Stir for a little longer until it thickens, then serve.
VEGETABLES
NAM PLA WAN PAK-CHEE
Sweet and Sour Coriander
If you adore that musky taste which is coriander as much as the Thais do,
then this/sweet and sour dish is for you. Coriander alone is not enough to
make this a side dish. The addition of Chinese leaves (Galumbi) and
optional dry prawns brings out the very best from the coriander.
SERVES: 4
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
1 tablespoon tamarind puree
(page 47)
1 teaspoon fish sauce
(page 36)
60ml (2 fl oz) sweet white wine or
sherry
1 tablespoon palm sugar
GARNISH
lOOg (31/20Z) dried prawns
(optional)
300g (lOl/20Z) Chinese leaves
lOOg (31/20Z) coriander
leaves, stems and roots
4 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
2 teaspoons 'magic paste'
(page 42)
2 teaspoons crispy garlic (page 45)
4 tablespoons crispy onion (page 4l!)
some holy basil leaves
1 Soak the prawns in ample water for a couple of hours or more.
2 Chop the Chinese leaves into coarse shreds, and the coriander leaves
and root rather finer.
3 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the pastes for 30 seconds. Add the
tamarind, fish sauce, wine and sugar.
4 When it is simmering, add the leaves and stir-fry until they are
glistening and hot.
S Drain the prawns, and add them, stir-fry for about S minutes.
6 Garnish and serve.
BAl HORAPA TORD GROB
BAI HORAPA TORD GROB
Crisp-Fried Basil Leaves
This is more of a garnish than a fully fledged dish. It is simple, especially
when you have the deep-fryer operating. Simply deep-fry fresh basil
leaves. In a whoosh, they go really crispy. You can serve these leaves with
any other dish and they are superb.
SERVES: 4 AS AN ACCOMPANIMENT
60 or 70 whole Horapa basil leaves, removed from their stalks
1 Heat the deep-fry oil to 190C (chip-frying temperature).
2 Add enough leaves to cover the surface area of the pan and no more.
Press them under the oil with a slotted spoon then release them.
They will whoosh up and cook virtually at once.
3 Remove them with the slotted spoon, shaking off excess oil, and rest
on kitchen paper.
4 Repeat with the remaining basil.
CHAPTER 9
CURRIES
I
BELIEVE SOME confusion exsits in the West about Thai curries.
Newcomers to the Thai restaurant expect to find a creamy rich Indian-
style curry delivered to the table. They are nonplussed with the somewhat
watery, but very colourful, fragrant dish which appears.
Thai curries are very spicy being laced with intensely hot chilli. The
integral ingredients are ground into a curry paste (krungj which can be
bought as a product. This is fine if you are in a hurry, but
they are all, in fact, generally very chilli hot. Fresh ingredients are better.
Here I have given recipes for six pastes which are to be used fresh. Four are
'colour-coded' - red, green, yellow and orange and these are four of the
most popular Thai curries. Two pastes are for southern Thai curries which
are influenced by Malay Indians, and are nearest to Indian curries (es-
pecially the Mussaman curry). Both of these are known as karee or gari
(curry) whereas the Thai word for curry is khaeng-literally meaning spicy
liquid.
The six recipes which follow are one of each curry, each with a
different main ingredient. However, any of the curries can be cooked with
any main ingredient, so feel free to mix and match.
A final word about Thai curries (apart from the fact that they are
absolutely delicious, and that you should serve at least one with every main
course), is that you'll find hawkers and restaurants in Thailand called Khao
Khaeng. It literally means 'curry over rice', and since its a meal in itself, I
suggest you try one now for yourself.
135
CURRIES
H'N'h,n'H'Nfn'M'HfHIHI.'NtHIHiM'HIHtHIN'.
KRUNG KHAENG
Curry Pastes
Thai Curry pastes
Each of the six recipes below will give you enough curry paste to make one
curry (which serves four). It is much better to make your paste up freshly each
time. It not only gives the dish a brighter coloul; but it tastes brighter, too.
The method for making the paste is the same for five of the six:
KRUNG KHAENG KED-WAN
Green Curry Paste
---MAKES: ENOUGH PASTE FOR ONE GREEN CURRY
2 tablespoons sunflower oil l/Z teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 tablespoons chopped green liz teaspoon ground cummin
bell pepper 1 tablespoon chopped fresh
1 to 7 green cayenne chillies coriander leaf shredded
3cm ginger or galangal, 1 teaspoon very finely chopped
chopped lemon grass
60g (40z) spring onion leaves l/Z teaspoon shrimp paste
2 cloves garlic, halved (page 36)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
Mulch everything down in the food processor, using just enough
water to achieve a thick paste.
THAI CURRY PASTES
KRUNG KHAENG PED DAENG
Red Curry Paste
---- MAKES: ENOUGH PASTE FOR ONE RED CURRY
2 tablespoons sunflower oil 1
t2
teaspoon ground cummin
2 tablespoons chopped red 2 tablespoons holy purple basil
bell pepper (if available)
1 to 7 red cayenne chillies 1 lime leaf shredded (if available)
3cm ginger or galangal, 1 teaspoon very finely chopped
chopped lemon grass
60g (40z) carrot, chopped 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
2 teaspoons paprika (page 36)
1
t2
teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
Mulch everything down in the food processor, using just enough
water to achieve a thick paste.
KRUNG KHAENG SOM
Orange Curry Paste
MAKES: ENOUGH PASTE FOR ONE ORANGE CURRY
2 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
3 tablespoons chopped
orange bell pepper
1 to 7 orange Thai chillies
3cm ginger or galangal,
chopped
60g (4oz) carrot, chopped
1cm fresh turmeric root (if
available), chopped
or 11:3 teaspoon ground
turmeric
1/
2
teaspoon ground coriander
1
t2
teaspoon ground cummin
1 tablespoon chopped fresh
coriander leaves
1 teaspoon very finely chopped
lemon grass
1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
Mulch everything down in the food processor, using just enough
water to achieve a thick paste.
CURRIES
KRUNG KHAENG LEUNG
Yellow Curry Paste
MAKES: ENOUGH FOR ONE YELLOW CURRY ----
2 tablespoons sunflower oil or liz teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons chopped yellow 1/
2
teaspoon ground coriander
bell pepper liz teaspoon ground cummin
1 or 2 yellow scotch bonnet 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
or Habanero chillies leaf
3cm ginger or galangal, 1 teaspoon very finely chopped
chopped lemon grass
lcm fresh turmeric root (if 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
available) 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 Mulch everything down in the food processor, using just enough
water to achieve a thick paste.
KRUNG KHAENG PANAENG
Malay-style Curry Paste
MAKES: ENOUGH FOR ONE PANAENG CURRY
2 tablespoons sunflower or 1 teaspoon ground coriander
soy oil liz teaspoon ground cummin
5 to 7 red cayenne chillies 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
2 tablespoons chopped red 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36
bell pepper 1 teaspoon lemon grass, very finely
12 cloves garlic, halved cross-cut (page 30)
2 teaspoons 'magic paste' 4 tablespoons chopped spring
(page 42) onion leaves
4cm ginger or galangal, 1 teaspoon green peppercorns
chopped (fresh or in brine)
1 Mulch everything down in the food processor, using just enough
water to achieve a thick paste.
KRUNG KHAENG GAR I MUSSAMAN
KRUNG KHAENG GARI MUSSAMAN
Moslem-style Curry Paste
MAKES: ENOUGH FOR ONE MUSSAMAN CURRY ----
THE SPICES
4 cloves 1 teaspoon cummin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds 4 to 6 white or green cardamoms
5cm piece cassia bark
8 to 12 dried red chillies
2 or 3 dry lime leaves
(if available)
2 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
6 to 8 cloves garlic
3cm cube ginger or galangal
4 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons lemon grass, very
finely cross-cut (page 30)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
Heat a dry wok on the stove. Put the spices in and dry roast for about
a minute, stirring continuously, ensuring nothing burns. Note the
aroma!
2 Transfer to a cold bowl and let it cool down.
3 Grind it as finely as you can in an electric coffee grinder, spice mill
or mortar and pestle.
4 Put the remaining ingredients into the blender, and using just enough
water, mulch them down to a puree.
5 Pulse in the ground spices.
6 Serve with rice.
139
CURRIES
KHAENG KEO-WAN GAl
Green Curry with Chicken
Green curry is probably Thailand's most popular dish, inside and outside
the country. Cooked correctly it is a delicate blend offragrance and flavour,
of subtle colour (it should not be lurid green) laced together with creamy
coconut milk. Traditionally, pea aubergines are used in this curry. If these
are unavailable, omit them or use other aubergines or even green peas. Here
is all of that magic, using chicken.
SERVES: 4
700g (lll2lb) skinned chicken coconut milk
breast 1 stalk lemon grass, cross-cut
20 to 30 pea aubergines 2 or 3 lime leaves, shredded
3 tablespoons sunflower or 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
soy oil 2 tablespoons chopped basil
1 batch green curry paste leaves
(page 136) some fresh chopped coriander
40000 (14 fl oz) tinned leaves
GARNISH
whole and shredded lime leaves
1 Soak then cook the aubergines if you are using them, following steps .
1 to 3 ofthe recipe on page 131.
2 Heat the oil in the wok. Add the green curry paste and stir-fry for
about 1 minute.
3 Add the coconut milk, the lemon grass, and lime leaf and simmer for
about 5 minutes stirring occasionally to allow the coconut to thicken.
'It may look as though it is curdling - but it cannot do this so don't
worry.
4 Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.
S In the unlikely event it thickens up too much, add water as required.
6 Add the cooked aubergines, fish sauce and the leaves. Continue to
cook for about 5 more minutes. Test that the chicken is fully cooked
by cutting one piece in half which should be white right through.
7 Then garnish and serve.
KHAENG PED-DAENG PLA
KHAENG PED-DAENG PLA
Red Curry with Fish
As with the preceding green curry, red curry should be a delicate blend of
red ingredients, which when mixed with coconut will give you a subtle red
colour (not a lurid one). In this example I am using fish.
SERVES: 4
700g (II/
2
Ib) firm white fillet- 1 batch red curry paste
ed fish steaks (eg: cod) cut (page 137)
into bite-sized pieces 400ml (14 fl oz) tinned coconut
3 tablespoons sunflower or milk
soya oil 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
3 tablespoons chopped basil leaves (manglak ifavailable)
GARNISH
some strips of red pepper and lime leaves
a few small pink onion strips
Heat the oil in a wok. Add the red curry paste and stir-fry for about 1
minute.
2 Add the coconut milk, the lemon grass and lime leaves and simmer for
about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to allow the coconut to thicken.
It may look as though it is curdling, but it cannot do this, so don't
worry.
3 Add the fish and cook for about 7 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently. If
it needs a little water, add it sparingly to keep things mobile.
4 Add the fish sauce and the leaves and continue to cook for about 3
more minutes, or until the fish is fully cooked.
5 Garnish and serve.
CURRIES
KHAENG SaM SUPPAROT GUNG
Orange Curry with Prawns and Pineapple
Yet another colour variant, this one found less often than the previous two.
Using orange ingredients and garnished with orange wedges, it produces a
most attractive curry. Here, I'm using prawns.
SERVES: 4
600g (ll/b) peeled cooked
prawns, any size
lOOg (31/20Z) fresh pineapple,
in bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
1 batch orange curry paste
(page 137)
1 stalk lemon grass cross-cut
(page 30)
1 teaspoon green peppers in
brine
2 or 3 lime leaves, shredded
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
2 tablespoons chopped holy basil
leaves -
GARNISH
some orange wedges, pith removed
a green chilli tassel
some snipped chives
Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the orange curry paste for about 1
minute
2 Add the coconut milk, the lemon grass, peppercorns and lime leaves
and simmer for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally to allow the
coconut to thicken. It may look as though it is curdling, but it cannot
do this, so don't worry.
3 Add the remaining ingredients. Stir-fry until they are hot right
through.
4 Garnish and serve.
142
KHAENG LEUNG PA-MOO YAANG
KHAENG LEUNG PA-MOO YAANG
Yellow Curry with Grilled Wild Boar
If you are a gemstone enthusiast, Chanthaburi, the 'City of the Moon',
close to Cambodia, is the place to go for rubies and sapphires. You'll also
find Vietnamese and Cambodian people, Christianity, smuggling, crabs
and noodles. Wildlife also abounds, and there are several national parks,
and pa-moo Gungle pig or wild boar as we know it), is quite prolific. Here is
a yellow curry recipe, using wild boar which is just stupendous, and
available from game butchers. Pork can be substituted.
SERVES: 4
7S0g (llb lOoz) lean leg of 2 lemon grass stalks, finely
wild boar, weighed after cross-cut (page 30)
stage 1 3 or 4 lime leaves, shredded
2 tablespoons sunflower or 250ml (9 fl oz) chicken stock
soy oil (page 43)
1 batch yellow curry paste 2 tablespoons sesame oil
(page 138) 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
250ml (9 fl oz) tinned 2 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
coconut milk 1 tablespoon chopped coriander
GARNISH
chopped red chilli
snipped chives
Divest the meat of all unwanted matter, then cut it into 4cm by 2cm
by 4mm strips.
2 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the yellow curry paste for about a minute.
3 Add the coconut milk, the lemon grass and the lime leaves and
simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, to allow the coco-
nut to thicken. It may look as though it is curdling, but it cannot do
this, so don't worry.
4 During stage 3 heat the sesame oil in a clean frying pan. Stir-fry the
boar strips for about 5 minutes, turning frequently.
5 Add the meat to the wok and continue to stir-fry for about 5 more
minutes. During this time add the chicken stock bit by bit.
6 Add the fish sauce and the leaves and stir-fry for a final minute or two.
Check that the boar is cooked and tender (it certainly should be by now).
7 Garnish and serve.
143
CURRIES
KHAENG MUSSAMAN HED GUNG
Moslem-Style Curry with Oyster Mushroom and Prawns
The further south you go in Thailand, the closer you get to the Malaysian
border, and the more Thai Moslems you'll find. At the town of Sarnn, for
example, is a gold-domed mosque, near which are a number of yoh khaeng
(Indian flat bread with curry) stalls. One curry you'll be sure to get there is
called Mussaman. This curry is the nearest in style to Indian you'll get in
Thailand. Here is the typical Mussaman taste with oyster mushrooms and
prawns.
SERVES: 4
1 batch Mussaman curry paste
(page 139)
4 tablespoons coconut milk
powder
1 stalk lemon grass cut into a
tassel (page 30)
2 or 3 lime leaves
salt to taste
24 cooked king prawns,
peeled but with tail on, each
weighing about 22g to 2Sg (loz)
4 tablespoons dried prawns
200inl (7 fl oz) fish stock
4 to 6 oyster mushrooms
3 tablespoons sunflower or
soy oil
2 star aniseed
2 or 3 white (or green)
cardamoms
SPICES
Scm piece cassia bark
2 or 3 bay leaves
GARNISH
some red chilli in strips or whole
some chopped fresh coriander leaves
1 De-vein and wash the king prawns.
2 Put the dried prawns into the stock and leave them to soak for an hour.
3 Quarter the mushrooms.
4 Heat the oil. Stir-fry the spices for 30 seconds. Add the Mussaman
curry paste and continue to stir-fry for a further minute.
S Add the soaked prawns, the stock, coconut milk powder, lemon grass and
lime leaves and bring to the simmer, stirring for a couple of minutes.
6 Add the king prawns and the mushrooms and simmer for 3 more
minutes. Salt to taste.
7 Garnish and serve.
144
KHAENG PANAENG NUA
KHAENG PANAENG NUA
Malay-style BeefCurry
Traditionally the dish should turn out dryish, its gravy thickened with
peanut, its colour deep reddy brown.
SERVES: 4
700g (11/zlb) lean stewing
steak or leg of lamb,
weighed after stage 1
80g (30z) toasted peanuts or
4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
150ml (5 fl oz) tinned
coconut milk
1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 batch Panaeng curry paste
(page 138)
150ml (5 fl oz) chicken stock or
water
1 stalk lemon grass, cross-cut (page 30)
2 or 3 lime leaves, shredded
4 tablespoons chopped holy (or
purple) basil leaves
GARNISH
some whole toasted peanuts
some red bell pepper slices
some red chilli slices
1 Divest the meat of any unwanted matter and cut it into km cubes.
2 Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
3 Put the peanuts, tomato puree and ketchup, coconut milk, sugar and
fish sauce into the blender - to achieve a thick puree using a little
water as necessary.
4 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the curry paste for about one minute.
5 Add the meat cubes and briskly stir-fry for about 3 minutes.
6 Put the stock, puree, lemon grass and lime leaves into a 2.75 litre
casserole pot and put it, lid on, into the oven.
7 After 20 minutes, inspect and stir. It should be beginning to dry up.
8 After 15 minutes, inspect again. It will be reasonably thick and dry
now, so add enough water to keep it mobile.
9 Repeat stage 8 after 15 more minutes, this time stirring in the fresh leaves.
10 Remove the pot after a further 10 minutes. It has now had an hour in
the oven, and the meat should be nicely tender (if not, carryon
casseroling), the gravy fairly thick. Salt to taste. Garnish and serve.
145
CURRIES

KHAENG MYANMAR PED
Burmese-Style Duck Curry

Chiang Mai is Thailand's northern-most province. Although it shares its
border with Burma there is no official passage between the two countries.
There's little reason for the tourist to visit here, although there is beautiful
wild countryside. There is also the fascinating elephant training camp for
young elephants near Mae Taeng, as an all year round alternative to Surin's
November elephant round up festival.
More alluringly, there's Burma so close, yet inaccessible over the bor-
der. Few tourists visit the town of Ban Thaton. Even Thais call it 'world's
end'. But ifyou do ever want a wonderful few moments of tranquillity, stay
at the River Lodge Hotel, which is on the Mae Nam Kok river. Here
amongst palms, peace and hill tribes, you can wish for few better places for
the world to end.
This recipe uses a river duck, curried Burmese-style. It uses plentiful
turmeric, chilli and galangal and is based, chef told me, on a dish he
frequently has when he pops over the border to call on his friends and
relatives. In Burma, this dish is called Bairthar Hin.
SERVES: 4
700g (II/2Ib) skinned duck I teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
breast I teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
6 cloves, garlic I tablespoon tomato puree
Scm cube of ginger or I tablespoon tamarind puree
galangal (page 47)
2cm cube of turmeric root 200ml chicken stock or water
(if available) (page 43)
8 tablespoons crispy fried 2 tablespoons very finely chopped
onion (page 48) fresh coriander
4 tablespoons vegetable oil 4 tinned tomatoes
salt to taste
SPICES
1 teaspoon powdered turmeric
I teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
h teaspoon cummin powder
KHAENG MYNAMAR PED
Grind the garlic, ginger, rurmeric root and onion in the blender, using
just enough water to achieve a thickish paste.
2 Cut the duck breast into bite-sized pieces, and put into a non-
metallic mixing bowl.
3 Add the paste and work it well into the duck. Cover and refrigerate
the bowl for at least 12 hours.
4 To cook, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
5 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the spices for 30 seconds. Add the
shrimp paste and stir-fry for 30 seconds more. Add the duck with all
the marinade and briskly stir-fry for about 3 minutes.
6 Transfer to a 2.75 litre lidded casserole with the fish sauce, tomato
and tamarind purees and the stock. Put the pot into the oven.
7 Remove after 25 minutes. Stir well, adding the remaining ingredients.
Rerum to the oven.
8 Remove after 25 to 30 minutes more. Salt to taste.
9 Serve with rice.
147
RICE
KHAO SUOY
Rice by Boiling
This is the quickest way to cook fluffy rice, and it can be ready to serve in
just 15 minutes from the water boiling. Two factors are crucial for this
method to work perfectly. Firstly, the rice must be basmati or jasmine
fragrant rice. Other rices will require different timings and will have
neither the same texture nor fragrance. Secondly, this is one of the few
recipes in this book which requires precision timing. It is essential that for
its few minutes on the boil, you concentrate on it, or else it may overcook
and become stodgy. The pandanus leaf is (like bay leaf) a flavouring option.
A small portion of dry rice per person is 225g (8oz) -large is 350g (120z).
SERVES: 4
225g to HOg (8 to 120z) basmati rice
1.2 to 1.75 litres (2 to 3 pints) water
5cm (2 inch) piece of pandanus leaf
1 Pick through the rice to remove grit and impurities.
2 Boil the water. It is not necessary to salt it. Chop up the pandanus leaf
and add it into the water.
3 Whilst it is heating up, rinse the rice briskly with fresh cold water
until most of the starch is washed out. Run boiling kettle water
through the rice at the final rinse. This minimizes the temperature
reduction of the boiling water when you put the rice into it.
4 When the water is boilingproperly, put the rice into the pan. Start timing.
Put the lid on the pan until the water comes back to the boil, then remove
the lid. It takes 8 to 10 minutes from start to finish. Stir frequently.
5 After about 6 minutes, taste a few grains. As soon as the centre is no
longer hard but still has a good al dente bite to it, drain off the water.
The rice should seem slightly undercooked.
6 Shake off all excess water, then place the strainer on a dry tea towel
which will help remove the last of the water.
7 After a minute, place the rice in a warmed serving dish. You can serve
it now or, preferably, put it into a very low oven or warming drawer for
at least 30 minutes. As it dries, the grains will separate and become
fluffy. It can be held in the warmer for up to 90 minutes. Or it can be
cooked and reheated in a wok (quickly stir-fry without any oil).
15
KHAO PLAO
KHAO PLAO
Rice by Absorption
Cooking rice in a pre-measured ratio of water which is all absorbed into
the rice is undoubtedly the best way to do it. Provided that you use basmati
rice, the finished grains are longer, thinner and much more fragrant and
flavoured than they are after boiling.
It's useful to know that 300g (lOoz) is 2 tea cups of dry rice, and 600ml
(20 fl oz) is about 11;3 volume of water to 1 of rice. This 1: 2 ratio is
easy to remember, but do step up or step down the quantities as required
in proportion. For small appetites, for instance, use 225g rice to 450ml
water (80z to 16 fl oz) to serve four people. For large appetites use 350g
rice : 700mI.
Cooking rice does need some practice, but after a few goes at it you'll
do it without thinking. Here is my foolproof method.
300g (lOoz) basmati rice
600ml (20 fl oz) water
1 Soak the rice in water to cover for about half an hour.
2 Rinse it until the water runs more or less clear, then drain.
3 Bring the measured water to the boil in a saucepan (as heavy as
possible, and with a lid) or casserole dish with a capacity at least
twice the volume of the drained rice.
4 As soon as it is boiling add the rice and stir in well.
5 As soon as it starts bubbling put the lid on the pan and reduce the
heat to under half. Leave well alone for 8 minutes.
6 Inspect. Has the liquid on top been a b s o r b e d ~ If not, replace the lid
and leave for 2 minutes. If and when it has, stir the rice well, ensuring
that it is not sticking to the bottom. Now taste. It should not be brittle
in the middle. If it is, add a little more water and return to the heat.
7 Place the saucepan or casserole into a warming drawer or oven pre-
heated to its lowest setting. This should be no lower than 80C/175F
and no higher than 100C/210F/Gas 1/8. You can serve the rice at
once, but the longer you leave it, the more separate the grains will be.
Thirty minutes is fine, but it will be quite safe and happy left for up
to 90 minutes.
lSI
RICE
KKHAO NIAW DAENG
Black Glutinous Rice
This variety of rice m u ~ t not be confused with American wild rice. Thai
black rice is a glutinous variety, readily available from Thai shops. Its
grains are shoner than jasmine fragrant rice but longer than white
glutinous rice. The colour of the grain varies from pale buff to dark burnt
coffee. It looks as though it has been roasted, but Thai black rice is
naturally this colour. It is widely used in Thai desserts (see Chapter 13)
and is generally cooked by soaking and steaming to produce sticky rice.
It may well be untraditional, but I prefer to cook this rice so that its grains
are separate. This is best done by boiling (see page 150). The extraordinary
phenomenon here is that before long the water goes purply-pink.
The outcome of boiling white and black rice together is very pretty.
Here the black rice is fully cooked on its own and the water drained, the
result is a deep reddy-brown rice with a delicious firm nutty texture.
SERVES: 4 ------.-----
225g to 350g (80z to 12oz) Thai black glutinous rice
1.2 to 1.75 litres (2 to 3 pints) water
1 Pick through the rice to remove grit and impurities.
2 Soak the rice for an hour, then rinse it with a few changes ofcold water.
3 Boil the water and follow the recipe on page 150 from its stage 2 to
its end.
CHEF'S TIP: As this rice has its husks stitt on it witt take longer to cook than rice
without husks.
KHAO PA-SOM
Black and White Rice
Again, it is not traditional to mix black and white rice (except for desserts) but
it is really superb in appearance, and the taste and texture are equally superb.
To prevent the white rice going pink, the black and white rices must be
cooked separately then mixed prior to serving. Mix cooked white rice from
the recipe on pages 150 or 151 and black rice from the previous recipe.
15
2
KHAO NIAW

KHAO NIAW
Sticky Rice
Glutinous or sticky rice, called Mao niaw, is grown in the Issan hill district
ofnorth Thailand, and is a shorter, fatter grain than fluffy rice. It is cheaper
and the locals say it is more filling. To achieve a sticky texture, so sticky
that you can squeeze the cooked rice into a ball, the way the northerners
like it, requires a long soak of at least six hours, preferably twelve. This
totally saturates and softens the grains.
The rice is then transferred to a moist cloth which is put into a
purpose-made hat-shaped basket which is placed over a water-filled clay
pot. The rice is then steamed for half an hour. Here this is simulated using
a saucepan, clean tea towel and a strainer.
SERVES: 4
225g to HOg (80z to 120z) Thai glutinous white rice
I.S to 2 litres (2 to 3 pints) water
1 Soak the rice for at least six hours. Drain it and rinse it several times.
2 Bring the water to the simmer. Using a large enough strainer, line it
with a clean white tea towel. Put the rice in and the strainer over the
saucepan. It must not touch the water.
3 Put the lid on and steam the rice for about 30 minutes. Inspect from
time to time to ensure there is ample water.
4 To serve, scrape the rice off the tea towel and place it in a bowl.
153
RICE

KHAO PAD
Basic Thai Fried Rice
Khao Pad simply means 'fried rice', and it is eaten at any time in Thailand
from breakfast to bed time. Unflavoured rice is rarely eaten (except by the
sick and infirm). But you do need one of the recipes given earlier in this
chapter to create fried rice.
Absolutely any ingredient can be incorporated with Khao Pad -
chicken, meat, seafood, vegetables, herbs, fruit, etc.
Here is my basic recipe for fried rice, which is tasty enough to be eaten
as it is with your meal. I have then given a number ofvariations for you to try.
These are simply examples and you can invent your own combinations, too.
KHAO PAD TAMADA
Ordinary Fried Rice
1 batch rice cooked by either
of the methods on pages 150
or 151
2 tablespoons sesame,
sunflower or soy oil
1 or 2 cloves garlic (optional)
finely chopped
4 tablespoons spring onion leaves
1 stalk lemon grass cross-cut
(page 30)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1/
2
teaspoon sugar (optional)
Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the garlic, onion and lemon grass for
about 30 seconds.
2 Add about half the rice (which can be hot or cold), briskly stir-frying
it to mix it. Add the remaining rice and, when sizzling, the fish sauce
and sugar.
3 Stir it in well, and serve when it is hot right through.
Add the items below at the end of stage 2.
1
54
KHAO PAD TAMADA
KHAO PAD NUA
BeefFried Rice
Add 140g (50z) fried rump steak strips
KHAO PAD MOO
Pork Fried Rice
Add 140g (50z) fried pork strips
KHAO PAD KAI
Egg Fried Rice
Add 2 eggs scrambled or omletted
KHAO PAD GUNG
Prawn Fried Rice
Add cooked peeled prawns or king prawns
KHAO PAD SUPPAROT
Pineapple Fried Rice
Add some pineapple chunks
KHAO PAD HORAPA
Basil Fried Rice
Add some chopped holy basil leaves
KHAO PAD MAPRAO
Coconut Fried Rice
Add some fresh grated coconut
KHAO PAD NAM PRIG
Chilli Fried Rice
Add some chopped red and/or green chillies
ISS
RICE
KHAO YAM
Rice Salad
From southern Thailand comes this delightful salad. It is served cold, and
it's up to you what ingredients you add to your rice. Here is my example.
SERVES: 4
1 batch rice cooked by either pepper
of the methods on pages 150 1 or 2 green chillies, cross-cut
or 151 (optional)
1 tablespoon sesame or 2 tablespoons crispy fried onion
sunflower oil (page 48)
3 tablespoons cooked sweet- 1 teaspoon lemon grass, finely
corn kernels cross-cut (page 30)
1 tablespoon strips of red bell 1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
GARNISH
some of the above items
plus a sprig of basil
some 'ribbed' cucumber slices
1 Mix everything together.
2 Garnish and serve cold.


CHAPTER 11
NOODLES
K
UAYTlAW, (pronounced git-dtee-oh), is the general Thai word for
noodles. They are all made from a flour dough, which is cut or
extended into strips of varying thickness. Which flour is used determines
the type of noodle. The three types used in Chinese cuisine are rice flour,
wheat flour and mung bean flour. They all start life from a sheet rolled out
from the dough. Rice noodles are the most prolific.
The noodle is named according to its thickness. Kuaytiaw senyai is wide
at around 2cm to 3cm per strip. Sen lek (or rice sticks) is narrow at 5mm per
strip, and sen mee is thin at 1 to 2mm. Afurther rice noodle is the wiry very
thin variety which resembles white birds' nests. Also called rice vermicelli
noodles, these are known in Thai as kuaytiawjeen.
Wheat noodle dough always contains egg yolk which gives rise to its
name egg noodle - kuaytiaw - ba mee in Thai. These are about 2mm thick
and are usually relatively straight but can be produced in a lightly curled
form. Mung bean noodles (kuaytiaw wun-sen) are very thin thread-like hard
noodles (see page 162), called glass or cellophane noodles.
Some noodles are available fresh (or you can make your own - see
page 165). All are available dried in packets and they just need recon-
stituting. The thinnest noodles can be deep-fried to create a gorgeous
crispy texture (see page 164). All noodles can be reconstituted in water,
though unlike pasta (spaghetti in particular) they don't need prolonged
boiling.
157
NOODLES
* * * ~ $ $ * 4 4 ~ % $ * * * * ~ $ $ ~ ~ * ~ $ * * $ * $ * $ ~ $ * $ $ * * $ * * ~ * $ $ $ * $ * * ~ $ $ $ $ $ $ * * $ * * * * ~ *
PAD THAI
Thai Stir-Fried Noodles (national dish) or Dragon Fry
Of all the famous Thai dishes, Pad Thai has to be the most prolific. You'll
see it everywhere you go in Thailand. It is easy to cook, and has the
simplest name - Thai Stir-Fry. Ids a noodle dish to which almost anything
can be added according to your taste. It is indeed a national dish.
At its simplest, it is available from street hawkers who carry their kit on
two baskets suspended from a yoke which balances on their shoulders. One
basket contains a lighted charcoal fire above which bubbles a pan of boiling
water. The other basket has all their raw ingredients. Noodles, prawns, beef,
chicken, tofu, eggs, vegetables, herbs and garnishes. Pad Thai is also
available from kiosks, cafes and the smartest restaurants. Wherever you go
on the streets, you'll see well-dressed office workers and shop assistants
queuing for their Pad Thai, for their early hours breakfast to last thing
bedtime snack, and gobbling down the contents of their bowl with chop-
sticks and Chinese spoon. You'll pay pennies for it from the hawkers and
pounds for the same dish at exclusive restaurants.
It traditionally uses sen lek (small rice noodles), but ba-mee(egg noodles)
are equally acceptable.
This dish was given a spirited name by a charming Korean friend of
mine, Yungoo Rhee, when her PR company, aptly called 'Oriental Matters',
set about working for Blue Dragon. She called the dish Dragon Fry.
SERVES: 4
11Og (40z) dried egg noodles
3 tablespoons sunflower or
soya oil
2 cloves garlic, very finely
chopped
3cm cube of ginger, shredded
1 teaspoon red curry paste
(page 137)
1 teaspoon chilli sauce
(page 169)
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
200ml (7 fl oz) stock or water
100g (31/20Z) skinned chicken
breast
100g (3
1
/zoz) lean pork
8 cooked king prawns
20 to 30 dried prawns
(reconstituted in water)
1 tablespoon chopped red bell
peppers
1 or more red chillies, chopped
2 or 3 tablespoons beansprouts
3 tablespoons chopped spring
onions, leaves only
2 tablespoons chopped basil
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
sweet soy and/or fish sauce to
season
PAD THAI
spring onion tassels
chilli tassels
GARNISH
spring onion leaves in long shreds
toasted peanuts
lime wedges
1 Cut the chicken and pork into 4cm x 2cm x 3mm strips.
2 Bring a litre of water to the boil in a 2.25 litre saucepan.
3 Break up the noodles a little, as you add them to the saucepan, and
move them around to help them break up.
4 Take the pan off the heat and put it to one side.
5 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the garlic, ginger, red curry paste and
chilli and oyster sauce for 30 seconds.
6 Add the stock or water and when it is simmering, add the chicken and
pork. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Add the prawns and continue
simmering for a further 3 minutes.
7 Add the remaining ingredients.
8 When this is simmering, drain the noodles and add them to the wok.
9 Season with soy and fish sauce.
10 Garnish and serve.
FACING PREVIOUS PAGE Clockwise from the top: FragrantJasmine Rice, gushing from its strainer basket
(page 149), Black Glutinous Rice (page 152), Chilli in Fish Sauce (page 36), Cucumber Chumey (page 174)
and in the traditional cooking pot Moslem-style curry with Oyster Mushrooms and Prawns. (page 144).
Note the Pandanus Leaves (pages 32 and 56) and Cassia Bark.
FACING PAGE Thailand's celebrated national dish - Pad Thai (page 158). A meal in itself, it always
contains noodles, and here it also has King Prawn, Chicken and Beef.
Note in the background: bottled Fish Sauce (page 36), a special Thai Paste (story page 42) and the
coconut scraper.
159
NOODLES
KHAI-SOI LAMPANG
Northern Style Curried Noodles
At the time of the British Raj, when Burma was part of the Empire, a vast
trade took place in teak. In those days the border into Thailand was open
and the ancient northern temple Thai town of Lampang became a teak
trade centre. It still retains teak buildings and a relaxed provincial charm.
It also gained notoriety because, the story goes, the venerated Emerald
Buddha stame (actually made from jade) was being transported to a royal
palace in the 16th cenmry. However, the elephant in charge of transport
apparently refused to move the tiny 0.6 metre high scame beyond
Lampang. It stayed there for some time before being taken to the royal
chapel at Bangkok's Grand Palace, where it now resides.
Lampang's other legacies include pony-trap taxis, curried noodles and
plentiful noodle shops. This dish, closely resembling Burma's national
noodle dish, Kaushwe-/(yaw, is rather different from normal Thai flavours.
You can garnish this with the indigenous fruit of Lampang, the longan,
a berry available from Thai shops, when in season.
110g (4oz) egg noodles
lOOg (31I2oz) skinned chicken
breast, shredded
lOOg (31/20Z) tiniest cooked
baby shrimps, shell-on
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
1stalk lemon grass cross-cut (page 30)
2 teaspoons nampia prig (page 17(1)
2 tablespoons spring onion leaves,
cross-cut
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
leaves
1 tablespoon chopped mint leaves
salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground
coriander
SPICES
112 teaspoon ground cummin
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
GARNISH
some red pepper slices
some freshly ground black pepper
some lime wedges
160
KHAI-SOI LAM PANG
Put the noodles into a saucepan ofboiling water and rorn offthe heat.
After a couple of minutes, stir and carefully loosen the noodles.
Repeat a few minutes later by which time they will be fully softened.
2 Heat the oil and stir-fry the 'magic paste' for about 30 seconds. Add
the spices and 3 tablespoons of water and stir-fry for a further minute.
3 Add the chicken and the shrimps and continue to stir-fry for 5
minutes, adding just enough water to keep things mobile.
4 Mix in the lemon grass, the nampia png and the leaves.
5 Drain the (hot) noodles and add them into the wok.
6. Stir-fry until the chicken is fully cooked. Salt to taste.
7 Garnish and serve.
161
NOODLES
YAM KUAYTIAW SEN MEE
Rice Noodles Salad with King Prawn, Mango and Orange
This is a very colourful salad using flat medium-sized rice noodles (sen Jek
seepage 157). They should have a satisfying al dente texture, and they work
exceptionally well served cold in a salad. The fruit, in this case orange
wedges, adds to the glamour, as you can see in the picture on the cover.
SERVES: 4
1l Og (40z) sen lell rice
noodles
1 tablespoon sunflower or
soya oil
2 tablespoons chopped spring
onion leaves and bulbs
2 tablespoons chopped
coriander leaves
1 tablespoon chopped mint
leaves
8 cooked, peeled king prawns
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed
lime juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed
orange juice
salt to taste
GARNISH
some orange wedges, pith removed
red and/or green chilli tassels
some crispy fried garlic and/or onion (pages 45 and 48)
Soak the noodles at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes then
check that they are softened then drain them.
2 Add the remaining ingredients, mixing them well in. Salt to taste.
3 Garnish and serve cold.
BOg (30z) wun-sen glass
noodles
2 tablespoons sunflower or
soya oil
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
(page 36)
4 tablespoons, very finely
chopped onion
6 tablespoons coconut milk
250ml (9 fl oz) fish stock or
water (page 44)
/
WUN-SEN PAD TAENG-KWA KRATEN
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WUN-SEN PAD TAENG-KWA
KRATEN
Glass Noodles Stir-Fried with Cucumber and Pickled Garlic
Glass noodles (wun sen) are, as described on page 157, made from soya
beans. They are only available dried, not fresh, and resemble thinly spun
fibre-glass in colour, texture and taste too, when raw. They are hard to eat
raw and hard to break. Once softened they are very palatable, becoming
clear, hence their name glass or cellophane noodles. In Thailand, they
appear in salads, and soups or as a spring roll stuffing. Another favourite is
casseroled with prawns. Here they are stir-fried with optional minced pork,
cucumber and pickled garlic.
SERVES: 4
1 teaspoon fish sauce
100g (3
1
I2oz) cooked minced pork
(optional)
1 tablespoon chopped red bell
peppers
10cm pieces cucumber, cut into
small cubes
1 teaspoon soy sauce
3 or 4 cloves pickled garlic,
chopped (page 173)
GARNISH
some finely chopped coriander and/or manglak basil leaves
1 Use kitchen scissors to cut off the amount of noodles you wish to use.
2 Soak them in warm water for 15 to 20 minutes, until they are
translucent and soft.
3 During stage 2, heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the shrimp paste for
30 seconds. Add the onion and stir-fry for 30 more seconds.
4 Stir in the stock and fish sauce, and when simmering add the cooked
pork and peppers.
5 When again simmering, drain the noodles and add them to the wok.
Stir until warm then add the cucumber, soy, pickled garlic and once
hot, garnish and serve.
NOODLES
MEE GROB
Crispy Fried Noodles with a Sweet Sauce
Mee Grob (pronounced krob), means literally 'noodles crispy'. This typical
Thai shorthand so much understates the outstanding qualities of this dish,
that it is easy to pass over it on the Thai restaurant menu. But it is nearly
always there - and Thais know how good it is. It's another national dish.
Professional Thai chefs soak the noodles then deep-fry them, claiming
crispier results. This method is, frankly, really dangerous, adding the water
to the hot oil makes it become explosive. My method is to use the noodles
dry. When fried, they whoosh up quickly in the oil, but do not splutter, and
if left for a while, they became perfectly crisp.
The sauce is poured over the noodles. Serve it as a crunchy, tasty side
dish.
SERVES: 4
II Og (4oz) spring onion
leaves and bulbs, finely chopped
2 teaspoons (or more) chilli jam
(page 169)
20 to 24 dried prawns, reconstituted
in water and drained (optional)
oil for deep-frying
HOg (9oz) wiry rice noodles (sen-mee)
6 tablespoons sunflower or
soya oil
50g (t3/40Z) palm or brown
sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
150ml (5 fl oz) water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
GARNISH
some chopped spring onion
some red pepper shreds
----------
Heat the sunflower or soya oil in the wok. Carefully add the sugar, fish
sauce, vinegar and water to the wok (it will splutter if the oil is too
hot). Then increase the heat whilst stir-frying for about 5 minutes.
2 Add the garlic, spring onions, chilli, and the prawns, and stir-fry for a
further 2 minutes. You should now have a fairly glutinous syrupy
texture. Take off the heat.
3 Heat the deep-fryer to 190C. Split the noodles into 3 or 4 bundles.
Carefully put the first bundle into the deep fryer. It will whoosh up
and swell. Once the sizzling stops (in less than a minute), remove it
and drain. Cook the remaining noodles in the same way.
4 Prior to serving, reheat the sauce in the wok. Pour the sauce over the
noodles. Garnish and serve at once.
KUAYTIAW LOT
$ $ $ ~ ~ ~ ~ * * * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ ~ $ ~ $ * * ~ ~ * % ~ 0 $ 4 * % 0 * * ~ * * * ~ $ $ ~ ~ * ~ # ~ ~ ~ $ % ~ ~ * ~ * ~ 0 ~ * ~ *
KUAYTIAW LOT
Steamed Rice Noodle Spring Roll
These are like spring rolls except that the wrapping is a noodle sheet and
the cooking is by steaming. The smffing can be any of the variations on
pages 50 and 51. The rice sheets can be purchased ready to use at the Thai
shop, where they are called sen yai neung,
MAKES: 4 ROLLS
1 batch rice noodle dough (see below)
4 tablespoons raw filling of your choice (pages 50 and 51)
Roll out the dough to a large thin square (2mm to 3mm) and cut it
into 4 smaller squares which should be about 12 to 15cm per side.
2 Place one tablespoon of filling along the centre of a sheet. Fold and
roll as shown in the drawing on page 63.
3 Place the rolls into the steamer basket and steam for about 8 to 10
minutes.
KUAY TIAW
Noodles
Making noodles yourself is acmally very easy. You make a dough then
either roll it out and cut into thin strips with the knife, or use a pasta-
making machine. Professional noodle makers use neither device. They can
make the thinnest strands simply by pulling the dough out by hand. If you
ever get the chance to see it being done, don't miss it. Meanwhile, over the
page is the technique for doing it at home.
MAKES: 250G (90z)
/
NOODLES
BA MEE
Egg Noodles
2S0g (90z) plain flour
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
Mix the flour with the egg, oil and salt, and just enough water for it
to become a soft, sticky dough.
2 Either roll the dough out flat and cut strips as thinly as you can or use
the pasta machine.
SEN YAI
Rice Noodle Sheet
2S0g (90z) rice flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
Use the same method as for egg noodles (omitting the egg). Use the uncut
sheet for the recipe on page 165.
Optionally you can incorporate finely chopped red and/or green
chillies into the dough.
166
CHAPTER 12
ACCOMPANIMENTS
N
o THAI MEAL or snack would be considered complete without a
number of sauces, dips, chutneys and pickles. You'll often see a tray
of four flavourings presented with the meal at restaurants in Thailand.
These are sweet (straight sugar) salt, hot (chilli powder) and sour
(tamarind). Other popular Thai flavours include factory-made ground
dried fish or dried prawns. Such delights can be combinedwith any of the
aforementioned four flavourings, especially with chilli. Next time you visit
a Thai shop, search them out. There are a good many on offer. Also seek
out bottled, vinegared pickled vegetables. In addition, you'll now find a
wide range of Thai ingredients available from good supermarkets, such as
Tesco.
On pages 173 and 174 I give six such recipes ifyou prefer to make your
own, and they are easy to make. The other recipes are all equally easy and
include five chilli recipes, two tamarind recipes, the celebrated satay dip, a
'sour' soy dip and, quickest ofall, I think, cucumber chutney which literally
takes but seconds.
ACCOMPANIMENTS
NAM PRIG
Hot Chilli
It's chillies with everything in Thailand. If you are able to visit a Thai shop,
you'll find they stock tiny red and green fresh chillies - prig kee noo,
mentioned on page 33. Failing these, use red cayennes (as used in Indian
cooking), Nam means liquid, prig means chilli and this sauce, because it is
vinegar based, lasts indefinitely. It matures with age. Use it with virtually
any savoury dish.
----------- MAKES: ABOUT 350G (12oz)
225g (8oz) tiny Thai red 75ml (2
1
/2 tl oz) distilled white
cayenne chillies vinegar
6 cloves garlic, very finely 50ml (2 tl oz) bottled lemon juice
chopped 2 tablespoons fish sauce (page 36)
25ml (1 tl oz) water
De-stalk the chillies. Put everything into the blender and mulch
down to a puree.
2 Pour into sterilized jar(s).
168
NAM PRIG DAENG
NAM PRIG DAENG
Red Chilli Sauce
\This chilli sauce is cooked first. It is oven roasted then ground. Make a large
batch which saves on smells and washing up. It will not preserve beyond a
few days, however, so use the ice-cube mould and the freezer (see pages
22-4) to keep the surplus. Silicha brand is Thailand's most popular bottled
chilli sauce. Made in Silicha, a district near Pataya which specializes in the
manufacturing of chilli sauces, it is available from Thai shops.
MAKES: ABOUT
20 cloves garlic, whole but
peeled
225g (8oz) onion, quartered
12 to 20 fresh red cayenne
chillies
31 OG (11 OZ) SAUCE
1 tablespoon palm or brown sugar
60g (2oz) dried prawns
4 tablespoons sunflower or soy oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce (page 36)
2 teaspoons salt
Put the garlic, onion and chillies into the oven preheated to 180C
and bake for about 30 minutes.
2 Allow to cool then put them into the food processor, with the
remaining ingredients and pulse down to a thick paste, using just
enough water to achieve it.
3 Freeze the surplus, as described above.
NAM PRIG KAPEE
Chilli with Shrimp Paste
This is Thailand's favourite hot sauce, containing her two favourite
ingredients: chilli (prig) and shrimp paste (kapee). Here I'm using some of
the namprig from page 12/1. It keeps indefinitely.
MAKES: ABOUT 100G (3lJ20Z)
90g (30z) nam prig (hot chilli) (page 169)
1 teaspoon shrimp paste (page 36)
1 teaspoon 'magic' paste (page 42)
1 Mix everything well.
2 Pour into sterilized jar(s).
ACCOMPANIMENTS
NAM PRIG PAD
Chilli Jam
This is a particularly tasty chilli syrup. Thais would use the ubiquitous fish
sauce/shrimp paste combination in this, but I've called them optional, so
that this sauce rings the changes. It will keep indefinitely.
MAKES: ABOUT
6 to 12 fresh red cayenne
chillies
225g (80z) castor sugar
1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
350ML (12 FL oz)
(optional page 36)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional
page 36)
2 teaspoons salt
Mash the chillies down as finely as you can in a blender using just
enough water to achieve it.
2 Boil 300ml (10 fl oz) water. Add the sugar, chilli mash and simmer
until you get a thickish paste.
3 Add the salt. It should still be pourable when cold. If it isn't, add a
little water. Pour into sterilized bottles.
NAM PLA PRIG
Chilli in Fish Sauce
Thailand is favourite, ubiquitous accompaniment. Simple to make. Keeps
in the fridge for a week, but will freeze. Note the traditional number of
chillies.
MAKES: 100ML (3 FL OZ) SAUCE
60ml (2 fl. oz) fish sauce
(page 36)
40ml (1
1
/2 fl. oz) water
21 Thai prig kee noo chillies
(page 3.1) red and green or 5
cayenne chillies
Mix the sauce with the water in a bowl. Cross-cut the chillies into the
thinnest possible rings. Put them, seeds and all, into the bowl. Ready
to serve.
17
NAM PRIG MAK-KAM
NAM PRIG MAK-KAM
Hot Tamannd Sauce
Hot and sour is what this sauce is. As with the previous recipe, you use
some of the namprigfrom page 168 to which you add tamarind. It will keep
indefinitely.
MAKES: ABOUT 235G (8oz)
17Sg (6oz) namprig (hot chilli) (page 169)
60g (2oz) tamarind puree (page 47)
1 Mix everything well.
2 Pour into sterilized jar(s).
NAM MAK-KAM PAK-CHEE
Tamannd and Coriander Dip
This delightful combination ofsour from the tamarind and musky from the
coriander is quite superb, if a bit of an acquired taste. Since this does not
keep beyond a few days in the fridge, this recipe makes a small batch.
MAKES: ABOUT 100G (3V20Z) --
2 tablespoons tamarind puree (page 47)
2 teaspoons 'magic paste' (page 42)
SOml (2 fl oz) water
1 teaspoon salt
1 Mix everything together well.
2 Chill and serve.
ACCOMPANIMENTS
NAM JIM SATAY
Satay Peanut Dip
Goes with satay (see page 59) like love and marriage or a horse and carriage
- but it is equally good accompanying other starters from Chapter 2. This
version ofsatay sauce uses peanut butter and saves you a great deal of time
grinding fresh peanuts to a paste.
MAKES: ABOUT
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon 'magic paste'
(page 42)
6 tablespoons smooth peanut
butter
160G (51;20Z) SAUCE -----
4 tablespoons thick coconut milk
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce (page 36)
1 teaspoon chilli sauce
(page 169)
1 Heat the oil in the wok. Stir-fry the 'magic paste' for 30 seconds.
2 Add the remaining ingredients and briskly stir-fry the mixture for a
couple ofminutes, adding just enough water to keep it thick but pourable.
3 Serve hot or cold.
NAM JIM SIIYU
Sour Soy Sauce
So simple, so effective as a dip with crispy items. It keeps indefinitely, so if
you like it, make up a large batch.
MAKES: 150ML (1;4 PINT) SAUCE
60ml (2 fl oz) dark soy sauce
80ml (3 fl oz) rice vinegar
1 tablespoon palm or brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Mix everything together.
2 Pour into sterilized bottles.
MANAU DONG
MANAU DONG
Pickled Lime
Thai food has a wonderful balance of sweetness, heat and fragrance. This
tan pickle proVIdes the ideal contrast to the palate. It's easy to make, lasts
indefinitely and is delicious. Here I give the method for Manau Dong -
pickled lime.
MAKES: AMPLE PICKLE
12 limes
300ml (112 pint) rice wine
300ml (112 pint) rice vinegar
400ml (13 fl oz) water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Bring the vinegar and water to the simmer. Add the limes and turn off
the heat. Add the salt and sugar.
2 When it is cool put it into suitable sterilized lidded jars. Top up with
vinegar/water mixture if needed.
3 Leave it to mature for a month or two then use as required.
PAK DONG
Pickled Mixed Vegetables
500g (18oz) mixed, prepared raw vegetables (choose from cauli-
flower, carrot, shallots, baby corn, white cabbage, etc.)
remaining ingredients and method as pickled limes, above
----------------------------
KRATHIEM DONG
Pickled Garlic
40 to 50 plump peeled garlic cloves
remaining ingredients and method as pickled limes, above
173
ACCOMPANIMENTS
KIAMCHAI DONG
Pickled Mustard Leaf
A particular Thai speciality. It is simply leaf in brine. Also called mustard
cabbage, it is sometimes available fresh in Thai shops (or Chinese shops as dai
gai chot). Alternatively look and ask for this one ready bottled in Thai shops.
MAMUANG DONG
PickledMango
4 or 5 peeled, pitted sour mangoes
remaining ingredients and method as pickled limes, above
PRIG DONG
Pickled Chillies
HOg (90z) cayenne or Thai chillies, de-stalked
remaining ingredients and method as pickled limes, above
TAENG-KWA YAM
Cucumber Chutney
This is a refreshing chutney, and it takes but seconds to make. Serve it at
once or else it discolours quickly.
MAKES: ENOUGH FOR 4 PEOPLE
Hem cucumber 2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped red 6 tablespoons wine vinegar
bell pepper 112 teaspoon salt
1 or 2 green chillies, chopped 1 tablespoon palm or brown sugar
Peel the cucumber, cutting it into rectangular shape. Cut it into 5mm
cubes. Cut the red pepper into O.5cm squares.
2 Mix the chilli, soy, vinegar, salt and sugar together in a bowl.
3 Just prior to serving, add the cucumber and pepper, stir and serve.
174
VEGETABLE CARVING
VEGETABLE CARVING
V
EGETABLE CARVING is an art form which was developed in the
Thai royal kitchens centuries ago to garnish the court food.
Originally, real flowers were used. It still is a Thai tradition, as can be seen
with the orchids in some of the pictures in this book. When real flowers
were out of season it must have occurred to an artistic royal chef that
vegetables could be carved to represent flowers. Food dyes transformed
white radishes into elaborate purple orchids.
Vegetable carving became a kitchen specification, and soon the most
elaborate carvings were the result. Using virtually any vegetable or fruit,
and creating not only all types offlower, but a huge range ofstill-lifes, nets,
baskets, fish, animals and birds.
The method and the results follow the ancient traditions, and it takes
years of apprenticeship to become expert. Some complex examples are
shown in some ofthe photographs in this book. They were kindly supplied
by the restaurant nominated as Britian's number one Thai by my Good
Curry Guide, London's Blue Elephant.
If you feel inclined, you could experiment with such carving by
copying the pictures. You'll need a sharp knife, small carver, plenty of
patience and lots of practice. The results are rewarding and the carvings
will keep covered with a damp cloth in the fridge for a day or two.
A really foolproof method of making pretty little garnishes is by using
the tiniest marzipan/confectionery cutters. Available at cookshops, they
come in all sorts of shapes - hearts, fish, animals, diamond, etc.
I've given some methods for simpler garnishes, such as chilli or spring
onion tassels, tomato roses, white radish daisy and for fun, how about a
cucumber and carrot frog!
CHILLI OR SPRING
ONION TASSELS
Tassels are really easy to make and are an attractive garnish that will make
any dish look very professional and appetizing. To make a tassel you need
a thin-walled vegetable with a thick top at one end and a hollow thin part
at the other. Both chillies and spring onions are ideal candidates.
175
ACCOMPANIMENTS
SPRING ONION TASSELS
Peel away any discoloured greenery and then trim off enough of the
green part to leave about 5cm attached to the white bulb. Trim offthe
hairy roots. Wash the spring onions well.
2 Using a small, sharp paring knife, make cuts down the length of the
green, away from the bulb, leaving most of the bulb uncut. Turn the
onion round a little and repeat the cutting process until all the green
part is cut into Imm threads.
3 Immerse the onions in a bowl of iced water and leave in the fridge for
between 2 and 24 hours. The effect of the chilled water is to tighten
the structure which causes the threads to curl backwards.
CHILLI TASSELS
VEGETABLE CARVING
1 Wash the chillies hut leave the stalks on. Snip off the tip.
2 Cut down the length of the chilli, with a pair of sharp nail scissors,
leaving 1/6 of the chilli uncut at the stalk end. Using the scissors,
remove any pith and discard with the seeds.
3 Immerse in a bowl of iced water and leave in the fridge for between
2 and 24 hours.
WHITE RADISH DAISY
a)
b)
..-
\ ...... _--- /
" "
\ ...... ------' /
'....... ."
"""- ---'
To make, say, 12 daisies you need a peeled white radish (mooli) cut
to a cylinder 4cm diameter by about 12cm long.
2 Using a really sharp paring knife or safety razor blade, cut the 'petal'
pattern on the top end ofthe mooIi, about 1cm deep (a). Now cut the
mooli cross-ways at about .75cmdeep. The petal and 6 spare triangles
will come free (b).
3 Repeat 11 more times.
4 Put a toothpick through the centre so that it just protrudes on one
side of the petal.
5 Cut the carrot into thin slices and cut 12 circles about .scm diameter
(c).
5 Put the carrot on to the just protruding toothpick.
6 Place the daisy into a garlic chive stem or green drinking straw and
arrange in a vase.
ACCOMPANIMENTS
TOMATO ROSE
1 Choose a firm, slightly underripe, tomato about 5cm in diameter.
Remove the stalk and cut off the top to a point just under it.(a).
2 Turn the tomato upside-down and using a very sharp paring knife or
safety razor blade, start a cut about 3mm thick and 1.5cm wide.
3 Keeping this skin in one piece, work spirally downwards round the
tomato until you have removed all the skin (b).
4 You now should have a long piece of skin and the centre of the
tomato (which you can keep for some other use).
5 Roll the skin firmly round itself to create a spiral (c). Sit this on the
slice you cut off in stage 1. Press it down and shape it like a rose.
CUCUMBER FROG
Bound to raise a smile is this little frog, made from cucumber and carrot.
With a little ingenuity you could alternatively/also make mice, penguins,
sharks, rabbits, etc.
cucumber
carrot
1 Take the end of the cucumber. Make a 30
0
cut at a point about Scm
down the cucumber, cutting up to about 6cm (a).
2 Sit the cucumber down on its diagonal end, and visualize your frog.
Cut away a flat piece at the top for its face, and carry this down for
its tummy (b).
3 Cut a small slit on each ofits sides (to represent its knees and to hold
. its paws) (c).
VEGETABLE CARVINGS
a)
h)
c)
n
d)
e)
Of)
o
4 Cut 2 paws and 2 legs from spare cucumber, green side up (d). Cut
the eyes' pupils from green cucumber (e).
5 Cut two eyes (f) and the tongue (g) from thin carrot. Fit the tongue
into the face cutting a slit as required. Fix the carrot eyes using broken
toothpicks, leaving a small amount protruding onto which you fit the
green bit of the eye (f).
6 Wedge the paws into the slit and toothpick the legs underneath. And
that's your frog (h).
DESSERTS AND
SWEET THINGS
A
s WE HAVE seen, most Thai people do not eat their meals in courses.
Everything, including sweet dishes, is served together. Maybe this is
one reason why the Thai sweet dish repertoire is very limited. As we have
also seen, Thai cooks usually add a little sugar to their savoury dishes.
That, too, makes sweet dishes less important. Until recently, Thai
households lacked ovens, and that fact, coupled with their scant use of
dairy products, also helped restrict the range of desserts.
Fresh fruit (po/amat) is universally popular with the full range of
tropical items available at different times ofyear. Rice and bananas are the
other major players on the Thai pudding menu. However, there are other
relatively simple delights, and my selection here presents you with as wide
a variety of choice as you need - from fritters to ice-cream and sugared
nuts to sweet rice balls.
For want of a better place, I've ended up with lemon grass tea on page
189. It's absolutely gorgeous and very refreshing, and ifI were you I'd make
some now. It's a great way to end a Thai meal, too.
181
DESSERTS AND SWEET THINGS
NAM TAN HIMAPHARN
Sugared Toasted Cashews
These nuts are superb to chew on at any time. Raw cashews (not salted
ones) are either dry-fried or deep-fried (which is better) and sugared.
Make a large batch - they keep for months.
MAKES: 500G (180Z) NUTS
SOOg (180z) raw cashew nuts SOg (2oz) granulated sugar
600ml (1 pint) oil for SOg (2oz) white rock sugar
deep-frying
1 Heat the oil in the wok.
2 Add the cashews, stirring all the time. As soon as they start going
golden, rum off the heat and remove them from the oil and rest on
kitchen paper.
3 Put them in a bowl. While they are still hot, mix them with most of
the granulated sugar.
4 Let them cool, then add the remaining sugar.
S Store in an air-tight tin.
KHAO NIAW MAN
Sticky Sweet Rice Baits
These marble-sized balls from northern Thailand are served cold. They
are very easy to make, but you should use Thai glutinous rice so that they
hold together. The rice is narurally white, but it is traditional to colour
some of the balls with green, red and yellow (sometimes even blue and
purple) food colouring. The only effective way to achieve this is to use
tartrazine food colours. These can be omitted if you have an aversion to
them.
Alternatively, you can use the Thai method of soaking the rice, which
is to steep it in thin coconut milk for 4 hours.
KHAO N lAW MAN
110g (4oz) glutinous white
nce
200ml (7 fl oz) thin coconut
milk (optional) with 200ml
(7 fl oz) water
or 400ml (14 fl oz) water
SERVES: 4
30g (loz) coconut milk powder
1/2 teaspoon ground white or
green cardamom
castor sugar to taste
food colouring if required
desiccated coconut
SYRUP
150ml (5 fl oz) water
100g (31/20Z) castor sugar
1 Soak the rice for about 4 hours in thin coconut milk (optional) water
mix, or all water.
2 Bring 225ml (9 fl oz) water to the boil.
3 Drain the rice.
4 Add the rice to the boiling water in the pan. Stir it to ensure it is not
sticking to the bottom of the pan, then let it boil for about 10 to 12
minutes. It will have absorbed the water. Turn into a bowl and add the
remaining ingredients apart from the syrup. Mix well, let it cool.
5 If you want to colour the balls, divide the rice mixmre into the
number of colours you require, plus white, and while it is still warm
add a different colour to each but one batch of rice. Allow to go
completely cold.
6 Meanwhile, make the syrup. Boil the water, add the sugar and boil
until you get a thickish syrup.
7 Sprinkle desiccated coconut on to a work surface and roll out the
mixmre into balls, the size of your choice.
8 Place them in a serving bowl. Pour the syrup over the balls. Put in the
fridge for 2 to 4 hours.
9 Serve chilled.
DESSERTS AND SWEET THINGS
KHAO PA-SOM MAMUANG
Mango with Black and White Sticky Rice
Sweet sticky rice is one of Thailand's most popular puddings, especially
when topped with sliced mango. Usually, it's white rice but I came across
this combination of white and black rice at Bangkok's Royal Orchid
Sheraton Hotel where they simply named it Khao Gloo-ay - orchid rice.
It gets the name because of the colour the black rice gives to its boiling
water. It is orchid pink. Combined with white rice, and contrasting with the
orange ofthe mango it is quite striking, as the photograph adjacent to page
OOjp8 shows. An alternative fruit to mango is star fruit.
SERVES: 4
150g (Sl/
20Z
) white cooked, 30g (loz) thick coconut milk
still warm, glutinous rice 1 tablespoon white caster sugar
(page 151) pinch of salt
150g (Shoz) black cooked, 2 tablespoons tinned mango juice
still warm, glutinous rice (syrup)
(page 152) 4 tinned mangoes, halves
2
3
Cook the rices separately then mix them still warm, ensuring that
enough pink water distributes evenly enough to achieve the orchid
pink colour on the white rice.
Add the coconut sugar, salt and mango juice, mixing in well.
I'
Put into a serving bowl. Top off with mango halves, sliced into strips.
KRUAY CHUEAM
Caramelized Sweet Bananas
By the time you have cooked bananas in syrup, the flavour of the actual
banana is somewhat immaterial. So any bananas will do well. However, for
appearance, tiny 'apple bananas', available from better greengrocers, are
my favourite.
KRUAYCHUBAM
SERVES: 4
4 large or 8 apple bananas, 1 cup (240ml) water
peeled 1/
2
teaspoon salt
1 cup (120g/4oz) granulated 125ml (4 fl oz) coconut milk
sugar 8 lemon wedges
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and simmer until it
becomes a syrup - the longer you simmer the thicker the syrup -
that's up to you.
2 Add the whole bananas and, keeping them whole, continue to simmer
the syrup until it is thick enough to form threads off the spoon.
3 Place on to individual serving plates. Squeeze on the lemon juice and
offer the coconut milk as an option, hot or cold.
KRUAY TOD
Banana Fritters
You'll find the banana fritter just about everywhere you go in the Far East.
Thailand is no exception.
MAKES: 16 FRITTERS
4 large ripe bananas 1 tablespoon palm or brown sugar
1 large egg pinch salt
2 tablespoons custard powder milk as required
2 tablespoons cornflour or 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
riceflour some castor sugar
2 tablespoons thick coconut milk lime wedges
1 Mash up the banana with the egg, custard powder, flour, coconut milk,
sugar and salt. You need a thick batter which drops off the spoon, so
add just enough milk to achieve this.
2 Heat the oil in a flat frying pan.
3 Dollop 1 tablespoon of batter into the pan. Press it flat to make a disc
about 7cm in diameter.
4 Repeat with 7 other dollops. Fry for a couple of minutes.
5 Turn over and fry the other side for a couple of minutes. If you want a
perfect regular shape, you may need to shape it with a spatula as it cooks.
6 Rest on kitchen paper and repeat stages 3to 5for the remaining 8 fritters.
7 Dust with sugar and serve hot with lime wedges.
18
5
12 tinned water chestnuts
some drops of cochineal
(optional)
lOOg (3
1
I;zOZ) thick coconut
milk
SOOg (18oz) Greek-style
DESSERTS AND SWEET THINGS
KHAO TOM MAT SOM
Rubies with Orange Segments
The dish with a gorgeous name, invented, of course, for the Thai royal
court centuries ago. Traditionally it uses red rice water (created from black
rice - see page 152).
Water chestnuts were carved into marbles (or as elaborately as the
carver wished) and were steeped in the dye for 12 hours or more. Thick
coconut milk cream was also dyed and just prior to serving the chestnuts
were placed in the pink coconut and served. You can use cochineal to
achieve this. Or you can omit it altogether and settle for white. This
traditional dish is rather rich so I have modified it by incorporating
raspberry yoghurt and topping off with orange segments. It tastes superb,
is easy to make and it looks excellent too.
SERVES: 4
yoghurt, raspberry tlavoured
1 tablespoon caster sugar
pinch of salt
some orange or tangerine seg-
ments
freshly grated coconut
1 Carve the water chestnuts to any shape you wish (or leave them as
they are).
2 Add the cochineal to the water chestnut liquid from the tin.
3 Steep the water chestnuts in this liquid for 12 hours (keep it in the
fridge).
4 To serve; drain the water chestnuts.
5 Mix the coconut milk and yoghurt with the sugar and salt.
6 Put it into individual serving bowls.
7 Add the water chestnuts.
8 Top off with the orange/tangerine segments (from which you have
removed all pith).
9 Garnish with freshly grated coconut.
10 Serve chilled.
186
FUG THAWNG SANG-KHAYA
FUG THAWNG SANG-KHAYA
Pumpkin Custard .
This is a classic Thai dish which looks harder to make than it is. Acoconut
custard is cooked inside a partially scooped out pumpkin. You can use a
honeydew melon, alternatively. It is steamed, after which it is firm enough
to cut into thin wedges. The contrast of the orange pumpkin/melon flesh
against the white custard is very pretty. Its alternative name is Khanom
Maw Gaeng (Baked Custard in a Melon).
SERVES: 4 OR MORE
1 20cm diameter pumpkin or 250ml (9 fl oz or 1 cupful) thick
honeydew melon coconut milk
3 eggs 90g palm or brown sugar
3 egg yolks pinch salt
1 Cut off the top of the pumpkin (or melon). Keep it aside.
2 Scoop out all the seeds leaving as much flesh as you can and creating
a cavity of a size to hold about 1
1
/2 to 2 cupfuls of custard.
3 Whisk the eggs, yolks, coconut milk, sugar and salt together and pour
this mixture into the pumpkin, which, depending on the cavity size,
will hopefully come to the top of the hole. Put the pumpkin lid on.
4 Place the pumpkin onto a deep oven tray onto which you pour
enough boiling water to come at least 6cm up the tray.
5 Put the tray into the oven, preheated to 170C/335F/Gas 3 1/2 and
bake for 30 minutes.
6 Inspect - the custard should be nearly firm. Top up with more boiling
water and bake until the custard is firm. (Actual finishing time will
depend on the exact pumpkin thickness, so inspect as required.)
7 To serve, discard the top. Cut the pumpkin into wedges and serve hot
or cold.
DESSERTS AND SWEET THINGS
*#ti#$.$f$#
I-SA GEREEM KATEE
Coconut Ice Cream
As I've mentioned in the introduction (see page 3) elephants are very
highly revered in Thailand, none more so than the so-called white ele-
phant. In reality white elephants are pale grey or two-tone patches of dark
and pale grey. They are albino, though, with pink eyes. But an elephant as
white as a sheet is a mythical being - hence the expression 'a white ele-
phant'. What's all this to do with ice cream, I hear you ask?
Ice cream is as popular in Thailand as everywhere else, although it's
quite a new concept there. So new that the Thai words for ice cream are a
modification of the English words. Saying 'ice cream' is as tongue twist-
ingly hard for Thai people, as saying satay (see page 59) and the variations
I have heard are 'i.fa-gJeen' and 'ai-tim'.
You're still asking why elephants? Few Thais have fridges; so it's
impractical for them to make ice cream at home. The ubiquitous street
vendors were quick to latch on to ice cream selling, and they are supplied
by factory brands. There are a number, of which my favourite is without
doubt 'White Pig' brand! So all this talk about elephants, is I'm afraid a red
herring. I just like talking about them!
SERVES: 4
450ml (16 fl oz) double cream IOOg (31I2oz) castor sugar
125ml (4 fl oz) thick coconut 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
milk 1 teaspoon custard powder
4 large eggs pinch salt
Using a hand or electric whisk, mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla, custard
powder and salt together.
2 Heat the cream and coconut milk in a non-stick pan, stirring
frequently, until it starts simmering.
3 Then transfer it to a large heat-proof glass bowl which fits comfort-
ably over a saucepan of boiling water.
4 Once the milk is simmering, whisk in the egg mixture. Keep whisking
until the mixture is thick enough to coat a spoon.
S Allowit to cool. Transfer to suitable tub(s). Place in the freezer for about
3 hours. Remove and mix thoroughly. This breaks down ice crystals.
6 Repeat an hour later. Do this 2 or 3 times - the more you do it, the
smoother the ice cream - then leave it to freeze properly (24 hours
minimum) until you wish to use it.
188
I-SA GEREEN KATEE MANUANG
7 Allow it about 10 minutes to soften a little before serving. Dip your
ice cream scoop into warm water between each scoop.
NOTE: Ifyou have an ice cream maker, churn it according to its instructions until
you get the required texture, and serve.
VARIATION
I-SA GEREEN KATEE MANUANG
Mango Ice Cream
Adelicious variation is to add pulped mango to the above ice cream recipe.
SERVES: 4
2 halves tinned Alphonso sweet mangoes
1 Pulp the mango halves down to a puree.
2 Stir the puree into the ice cream mixture at the end of stage 4 above.
3 Proceed to the end of that recipe.
LEMON GRASS TEA
Here is a totally refreshing brew. It is designed to be enjoyed boiling hot, of
course, but for an exciting change, chill it, add crushed ice and sip it on
the hottest summer day! Apparently it was a favourite 'tipple' of Queen
Victoria. We are amused!
PER CUP
1 stalk lemon grass, cut tassel method (page 30)
1 teaspoon honey (optional)
squeeze of fresh lime juice
1 Boil 200ml (7 fl oz) water in a pan with the lemon grass.
2 Transfer to a cup. Add the honey and lemon.
FACING PAGE 'Foreground: Red Curry with Fish (page 141); hehind: Seafood Salad (page 83), and in
the tiny bowl, Chilli Jam (page 170),
FACING NEXT PAGE Sugared Toasted Cashews (page 182), Mangoes with Black and White Sticky
Rice (page 184) and Rubies with Orange Segments (page 186).
:::;::::..
SI#* $ "$It"*' *'HSI SIll' *'i'* -'<I **l*lMM'
APPENDIX 1
THE CURRY CLUB
PAT CHAPMAN always had a deep-rooted interest in spicy food, curry
in particular, and over the years he built up a huge pool of information
which he felt could be usefully passed on to others. He conceived the idea
of forming an organization for this purpose.
Since it was founded inJanuary, 1982, The Curry Club has built up a
membership of several thousands. We have a marchioness, some lords and
ladies, knights a-plenty, a captain ofindustry or two, generals, admirals and
air marshals (not to mention a sprinkling of ex-colonels), and we have
celebrities - actresses, politicians, rock stars and sportsmen. We have an
airline, a former Royal Navy warship, and a hotel chain.
We have fifteen members whose name is Curry or Curries, twenty
called Rice and several with the name Spice or Spicier, Cook, Fry, Frier or
Fryer and one Boiling. We have a Puri (a restaurant owner), a Paratha and
a Nan and a good many Mills and Millers, one Oal and a Lentil, an Oiler,
a Gee (but no Ghee), and a Butter but no Marji (several Marjories though,
and a Marjoram and a Minty). We also have several Longs and Shorts,
Thins and Broads, one Fatt and one Wide, and a Chilley and a Coole.
We have members on every continent including a good number of
Asian members, but by and large the membership is a typical cross-section
of the Great British Public, ranging in age from teenage to dotage, and in
occupation from refuse collectors to receivers, high street traders to high
court judges, tax inspectors to taxi drivers. There are students and
pensioners, millionaires and unemployed... thousands of people who have
just one thing in common - a love of curry and spicy foods.
Members receive a bright and colourful quarterly magazine, which has
regular features on curry and the curry lands. It includes news items,
recipes, reports on restaurants, picture features, and contributions from
members and professionals alike. The information is largely concerned
with curry, but by popular demand it now includes regular input on other
exotic and spicy cuisines such as those ofThailand, the spicy Americas, the
Middle East and China. We produce a wide selection of publications, .
including the books listed on page ii.
THE CURRY CLUB
Obtaining some of the ingredients required for curry cooking can be
difficult, but The Curry Club makes it easy, with a comprehensive range of
products, including spice mixes, chutneys, pickles, papadoms, sauces and
curry pastes. These are available from major food stores and specialist
delicatessens up and down the country. If they are not stocked near you,
there is the Club's well-established and efficient mail-order service.
Hundreds of items are stocked, including spices, pickles, pastes, dry foods,
tinned foods, gift items, publications and specialist kitchen and tableware.
On the social side, the Club holds residential weekend cookery courses
and gourmet nights at selected restaurants. Top of the list is our regular
Curry Club gourmet trip to. India and other spicy countries. We take a
small group of curry enthusiasts to the chosen country and tour the
incredible sights, in between sampling the delicious food of each region.
If you would like more information about The Curry Club, write
(enclosing a stamped addressed envelope, please) to: The Curry Club, PO
Box 7, Haslemere, Surrey, GU27 IEP.
APPENDIX 2
THE STORE CUPBOARD
T
HE ITEMS listed include the spices and specialist non-perishable
ingredients needed to make the recipes in this book. I have not given
quantities because they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. The
items marked" are used in many of the recipes. The others are frequently
called for.
Many items listed are available by post from The Curry Club, see
Appendix 1. Supermarkets, such as Sainsbury, also have good ranges of
specialist ingredients.
Sugar
.. palm sugar (nam taa peep)
brown sugar
castor sugar
granulated sugar
white rock sugar
Tinned
baby sweetcorn
beansprouts
black or yellow soya beans
bamboo shoots
water chestnuts
straw mushrooms
mangoes III syrup
Various
clear honey
cloud ear (dried) mushrooms
peanut butter
shelled raw peanuts
shelled raw cashew nuts
.. shrimp paste (kapee)
" dried prawns
193
rice flour
rice vinegar
nce wme
sea salt
tamarind block
tomato chutney
tomato puree
wine vinegar
Sauces
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce
sweet soy sauce
(ketchup manis)
oyster sauce
" fish sauce
Dried Noodles
egg noodles (ba-mee)
flat rice noodles (sen-/ek)
glass noodles (num-sen)
wiry rice noodles (sen-mee)
vermicelli noodles
(kuaytiawjeen)
THE STORE CUPBOARD
Coconut
coconut desiccated
" coconut milk tinned
" coconut milk powder
Oils
" sunflower
" soya
vegetable
sesame
Rice
"jasmine and/or basmati, long
grained rice
Thai black glutinous rice
Thai white glutinous rice
Spices - ground
chilli
" coriander
" cummin
paprika
" turmeric
" white pepper
Spices - whole
bay leaves
black peppercorns
cassia bark
cloves
coriander seed
cummin seeds
dried bird's eye chillies
" green peppercorns dried
and/or in brine
" lime leaves, dried
star aniseed
white or green cardamom
white sesame seed
Bottled Items
These should only be bought as substitutesjOrfresh items. Blue Dragon Thai range is
available worldwide.
minced basil
minced chilli
minced coriander
minced garlic
194
minced ginger
lemon grass sticks in water
green curry paste
red curry paste
THAI GLOSSARY
T
HIS EXTENSIVE glossary includes some items not specifically
mentioned in the recipes. It is intended to be used as a general ref-
erence work. It is also worth checking the index to see whether a particu-
lar word you want can be found elsewhere.
As certain Thai ingredients are used in the food of neighbouring
countries, I have in relevant cases given Burmese, Malayan, Indonesian,
Philipino, Laoation and Vietnamese words too, in order to help you locate
the ingredients at specialist stores.
A
aahaan - food
aahaan pa - jungle food
aubergine - makua mUtIng
pea - makua puong
B
baan - house
bai -leaf
bai karl - curry leaf
bai kruay - banana leaf
bai toey - screwpine leaf
(pandanus)
bamboo - pha;
bamboo shoot - norma;
banana - kruay
basil- (see p28)
sweet basil - horapa
ba; mangJak - bush basil
ba; grapao or krapa - holy
basil
bai makroot lime leaf
bai krawan cassia leaf
bai saranae - mint leaf
Bangkok - krung thep
(City of Angels)
bay leaf- see cassia leaf
bean - tua
195
bean curd - taohou
fried - tao nagork tod
pickled - tao nagorkyee
sprout - tua nagork
beef- nua or neau
bergamot - see lime leaves
bread - kanom pan
breeo - sour
breeo wan - sweet and sour
bua luang -lotus
C
cabbage - galum plee/galumbee
cashew nut
cardamom - luk gravan
cassia - ob cheuy
cassia leaves - ba; krawan
cauliflower - dauk ka Jam
cellO chai - celery
chaa - tea
cheen - Chinese
cheh-soak
chicken - ga;
chilli - prig- see also prig
chilli - There are a great many
varieties ofchilli, which are the
fleshy pods of shrub-like bushes
of the capsicum family. Chillies
range from large to small, and
GLOSSARY
colours include green, white,
purple, pink and red. They are
now the most important heat
agent in Thai cookery. They vary
in hotness from mild to
incendiary-like potency. (see p32)
chilli powder - prigpon
Chinese - Cheen or jiin
chudjjuedjjeud - clear soup/
consomme, minimally spiced
cinnamon - ob cheuy
clove - gram poo or kran ploo
coconut - maprao
coconut milk - nam katee
Cooking terms
boil- tom
bake - ob
bake/toast/roast - bing
rawjhalf cooked - dip
boil/cook in water - dom/tom
deep-fry - tod/tord
fried - hor
fry - haeng
soak - cheh
steam - nuengfdoon
stir-fry - pad
fried - dao
pound/pulverize - dum
refrigerator - too yen
Cooking utensils
cherng kran - cooking
(portable) stove
kude maprao - coconut grater
krok/ sok - mortar/pestle
ka po - perforated press mould
krathong - shell shaped brass
mould to make batter cups
coriander leaf- pak chee
coriander seed - look pak chee or mellet
pak chee
crab - poo/bu
cucumber - taeng kwa
cummin - melktyira (yeera)
curry - karee - is only used to
describe Indian-style curries in
Thailand, and they are different
from Thai curries (see khaeniQ
green curry - khaeng keo wan
hot Thai curry - khaengpcd
(khaeng is liquid ped is
peppery)
mild curry - khaeng karee
Moslem curry - khaeng mat
saman or Mussaman
see also krung (paste)
curry pastes - krung
red curry paste - krung khaeng
peddaeng- mainly for meat
(beef)
green curry paste - krung
khaeng keo wan - mainly poultry
orange curry paste - krung khaeng
som - often shrimp/prawn
yellow curry paste - krung khaeng
kung- mainly chicken/beef
Mussaman krung khaeng - in
Moslem style
Panaeng krung khaeng - in
Malay style
D
Danu keson - type of mint used in
soups (Malay, Thai, Vietnamese)
dauk chand - mace
dauk ka lam - cauliflower
daun pandan - long pointed pan-
danus (screwpine) leaf used to
flavour curry (Malay, Thai,
Vietnamese) and wrap around
food parcels
deep-fry - tod
dessert - khong wan
dom-boil
dong - pickle
dried fish - pia haeng
dried shrimp - gung haeng
GLOSSARY
dry-haeng
duck- ped
E
egg- kai
hard-boiled - kai tom
fried - kai dao
scrambled - kai kuan
omelette - kaiJiaw/}iew
eggplant - see aubergine
F
fish types
cat fish - pia duk
cockles/clam - hoi lai
crab- poo
cuttlefish - pia nueg
eel pta tai
grouper - pta phad
lobster - gung ta lay
mackerel - pia in see
mussel - hoy man poo
oyster - hoy harng rom
pomfret - pia chalamet
prawn - gungfti
scallop - hoy phat
sea bass - pia ka pong
shark - pta chalarm
shark fin - hoo pta chalarm
shrimp - gung narng
squid - pia muek
tuna - pia 0
fish - pta
fish sauce - nampia (Thai)
nga pya (Burmese)
nvoc nan (Vietnamese)
paris (Philippine)
It is the runny liquid strained
from fermented anchovies, and is
a very important flavouring
agent.
frog (leg) - gohp/kob
fruit types
durian - durian
kanoon - jackfruit
197
lamut- sapodilla
Ian yai - longan
leenchee - lychee
mafueng- star apple, carambola
malakor- papaya
mamuang- mango
mungkut - mangosteen
noi nar- custard apple
puak taro
sakay - breadfruit
supparot - pineapple
G
gaeng - soup/spicy broth/curry - see
khaeng
gaeng chud - consomme (bland not
spicy)
gai - chicken
galangal -
A tuber related to ginger which
comes in varieties called greater
or lesser. It has a more peppery
taste than ginger (which can be
substituted for it). It is used in
Thai cooking where it is called
kha, and in Indonesia (laos) and
Malay (kenkur). It is available in
the UK in fresh form (rare), dried
or powdered.
greater galangal - creamy flesh,
delicate flavour, used extensively.
kha (Thai)
Lengkuas (Indonesia)
Laos (Indonesian)
lesser galangal
alpinia galanga
(or lesser ginger) - or Zeodary.
Orange-red flesh, less delicate.
krachai (Thai)
kencur(Malay)
Can be powdered - (kaempferia
Pandurata)
galumbee/galum plee - cabbage
garlic - krariam
ginger - khing kha tue
GLOSSARY
ginger, lesser - krachai (galangal)
gohp/kob - frogs' legs
gram poo - clove
grat dook - meat chop/spare rib
grob - crispy
gueuteow - see noodles (all types)
gun chian - dried pork sausage
gung - prawns/lobster
(crustaceans)
gung foi - prawns
gung narng - small prawns
gung ta lay - lobster
H
haeng-dry
haeo cheen - water chestnut
hed - mushroom
hed hom - dried chinese mushroom
hoi- fried
hor mok - steamed curry served in
banana leaf
horapa - see basil
hua hom - onion
J
jasmine essence - yod nam
jasmine - malee- used in desserts and
nce
jeow/jiaw - fried
jiin - Chinese - see cheen
KK
kaffir - lime leaves
kai - egg
kai jiaw - omelette
kanom-cake
kanom pan - bread
kaopot - sweetcorn
kapee - see shrimp paste
karee - curry
kencur powder - see ffJlingal
khem -salty
kha - see galanffJl
kha min - turmeric root
khaeng - curry liquid or spicy soup
khao - see rice
khao niaw - glutinous rice
khao pad - fried rice
khantoke - north-eastern style of for-
mal eating (banquet), seating at
low tables
khing - ginger
khong wan - dessert (sweet food)
klong - river or canal
klong krang - board to make shells
krachai - lesser ginger
krachup - water chestnut
krapal - see basil
kratiam - garlic
kratong - banana leaf cup
kratong mould makes batter cups
krob (see grob) - crispy
kruay - banana
krung - paste
krung khaeng - see curry paste
kuaytiaw noodle
kude maprao coconut grater
kung - see gang
L
lao -liquor
laap - issan kind of steak tartare
lemon grass takrai (Thai)
serai (Malay)
Afragrant leafed plant which
imparts a subtle lemony
flavour to cooking. Use
ground powder (made from
the bulb) as a substitute.
lettuce - pak kaat
lime - manaa
lime leaves makrut or citrus leaves.
Used, fresh or dried to give a
distinctive aromatic flavour.
kaffir (Indonesian)
powdered/ground - pew
makrut
lobster - gung ta lay
look chand nutmeg
GLOSSARY
look gravan - cardamom
look pak chee - coriander seed
Ion - sauces cooked with chilli and
coconut milk
M
mace - dauk cband
rna la kor - papaya
mai - bamboo shoot
makrut/makroot - see lime leaves
mak kam tamarind
makua - aubergine
makua puong - pea aubergine
makua taet - tomato
mangluk (bai) sweet basil. (leaf)
mamuang - mango
man balls (meat balls)
man yam
man farang - potato
man thet - sweet potato
manao -lime
mango - mamuang
maprao - coconut
meat - neua/nua
beef- nua
lamb - kaeb or nua took gaa
moo- pork
nua- beef
pork- moo
mellet pak chee - coriander seeds
mellet yira - caraway, cummin,
fennel
milk- nom
mint - see danu keson and bai saranae
moo -pork
mortar and pestle - krok and sak
mushroom - bed
straw mushroom - bedfaang
dried Chinese cloud-ear - hed boo
nu
oyster
dried - bed haeng
N
nam-water
nam cha-tea
nam katee coconut milk
nam man-oil
nam man hoi - oyster sauce
nam pIa - see fish sauce
nam prig - chilli sauce
nam som- sour water (vinegar,
orange)
nam tan -sugar/syrup
nam tan peep or puek - palm sugar
nem - spicy sausage
neua -meat
nom - milk
noodle - kuaytiaw See also p157
normai - bamboo shoot
nua - beef
nueng - steam
nut- tua
nutmeg - too chand
o
ob - bake (op)
ob cheuy - cinnamon/cassia
oi - sugar cane
okra - kra jeap
omelette - kai jiaw
onion - bua hom
orange -som
oyster sauce - nam man boy
p
pa -jungle
paad - mince
pad - stir-fry
pak - vegetables, green leafed
pak chee farang - parsley
pak chee - coriander leaf
pak kaat - lettuce
pak kaat hau - white radish
pak thawng - pumpkin
pandanahs leaf- bai tory
panaeng - peanut based (Malaysian)
curry sauce
199
GLOSSARY
papaya - ma Ia kor
parsley - pak cheefarang
pasin - sarong like, traditional long
skirt
paste - krung (curry paste)
paw pia - spring rolls
pea aubergine makua puong
peanut - tua lisong, sei pancreng
ped- duck
pew makrut - ground lime leaf
pbet - pungent, peppery, spicy
pickle - dong
pineapple - supparot
ping - skewer
pIa - fish
pia grob - smoked fish
pia kem - salted (dried) fish
pIa raa - fermented fish
poo - crab
pork- moo
poultry
bird - nok
chicken - gai
duck- ped
quail - nok kra ta
poy kak bua - star aniseed
praew - sour - see also breeD
prawn family (crustaceans) - gung
prawns - gungjOi
prig - chilli
prig chee - long red chilli
prig haeng - dried chilli
prig pon - chilli powder
prig thai - black pepper
prig toom - bell pepper
puak - taro/dasheen
pumpkin - pak tha7JJt1g (jug thong)
pungent - phet
Q
quail- nok kra-ta
R
raa - see pia raa
radish white - pak kaat haa
ram wong - Thai dance circle
200
rempah - see daun pandan (Malay)
rice - /thao
khao haun malee - jasmine fragrant
flce
/thaD jao - ordinary rice
khao niaw- sticky (glutinous) rice
rice noodles - see noodle
S
sago -saku
salad - yam
salt - kem or kua or glaa (rock salt
kem med)
saus prig (bottled) - chilli sauce
sausage (dried pork) - gun chiang
sen lek - wiry rice noodle
sen mee - small rice noodle
sen yai - rice stick noodle
sesame seed (white) - tee olaa
sesame seed (black) - nga
shrimp paste - kapi
Usually in rectangular block,
dark brown in colour or
greyish yellow.
blachan (Malayan)
nga pi (Burmese)
kapi (Thai).
mam tom (Vietnam)
Vital flavouring for the
cooking of those countries.
shrimps - see prawns
gungnarng
- see fish
sii yu - soy sauce
soak - cheh
som-orange
som or pomello, shaddock, Thai
grapefruit, shatkora
sord sai - stuffed
soy sauce - nam siiyu
soy bean - taa lueang
sweet - wan
sweet and sour - breeo wan
sweetcom - kaopot
spicy- pcd
spring onions - ton hom
GLOSSARY
spring roll - pawpia
star aniseed - poy kak baa
steam - nueng
stuffed - sod sai or yadsai
sugar - nam tan (tal)
sugar cane - oi
supparot - pineapple
T
taeng kwa - cucumber
taeng mo - watermelon
takrai - see lemon grass
talay - seafood
tamarind - mak kam
taro - puak
tao hou - bean curd
At table
fork-sawm
spoon - chawn
chopsticks - ta kiap
recipe - dam rap
restaurant - raan aharn
menu- manoo
glass - kaew
tee ola - sesame seed
tod - deep-fried
tofu - see bean curd
tom - boil
tomato - makua taet
tong - bag, basket, cup - see kratong
ton hom - spring onions
tua - bean or nut
tua fak yaw - long bean
tua nagork - beansprout
turmeric - kha min
U
uon - fat, plump
V
vegetables - pak mangsawirat
asparagus - naw mai farang
aubergine - makua
banana flower - hua plee
bean - tua
beansprout - tua nagprk
cabbage (white) - galum plee
celery - kuen chai
bitter gourd - mara
bottle gourd - nam tao
cucumber - taeng kwa
long bean - tuafak yaw
melon - Jug
mushroom - hed
okra - kra jeap (jiab)
onion - hua hom
pepper (green bell) - pnk toom
pumpkin - Jug thong
ribbed gourd - buab
spinach - pak boong
spiny gourd (kakrol) - pak
khaao
sweetcorn - kao pot
tamarind - makaam
taro - puak
tomato - makua taet
white radish - pak kaat hua
vermicelli noodle - wun sen
w
wan-sweet
water-nam
watermelon - taeng mo
water chestnut - krachup or haeo cheen
wun sen - vermicelli noodle
y
yaang - BBQ, roasted, grill
ya dong - herbal liquor
yai -large
yam - salad, often with meat or
seafood (pronounced 'yum')
yam - (potato-like tuber) - man
yeera - cummin - see melletyira
yen - cold
yum- salad
201



INDEX
asparagus salad, 85
aubergine, sweet and sour, 131
ba mee, 116
bai horapa tord grob, 133
bai huay roo-ay, 52
baked custard in a melon, 187
banana:
fritters, 185
leaf, 31, 52, 118
sweet, 184
barbecued:
chicken, 100
ribs, 93
basil,28
crisp-fried, 133
with beef, 96
with frogs legs, 98
beans:
soy with pork and prawns, 94
with chicken salad, 84
wirh fruit salad, 87
beef.
curry, 145
ground,50
noodle curry soup, 78
salad with grapes, 80
satay,59
sausage, 91
soup, 73, 78
with basil, 96
with chilli, 95
beloved crab, 120
black rice, 152
black and white rice, 153
sweet with mango, 184
Burmese-sryle duck curry, 146
cabbage, with tofu, 127
caremelised sweet banana, 184
cashews, with chicken, 103
cassava cracker, 70
Chiang Mai sausage, 91
chicken:
barbecued, 100
emerald parcels, 56
green curry, 140
ground,51
liver, 104
salad with bean, 84
satay,59
soup, 73, 74
stock,43
stuffed breast, 102
with cashews, 103
chilli, 32
beef, 95
jam, 170
pickled, 174
quail,105
sauces, 168 to 170
tassels, 176
vegetables, 126
Chinese fried dumplings, 66
Chinese leaves, 132
clams, spicy, 115
coconut, 33
chicken soup, 74
ice cream, 188
salad dressing, 88
consomme,
duck,77
vegetable, 76
coriander, 29, 42
sweet and sour, 132
tamarind dip, 17l
crab,120
cracker, prawn, 70
crackling, with pork, 92
crispy fried:
basil leaves, 133
beef and basil, 96
fish,1I4
garlic, 45
noodles with a sweet sauce, 64
onion, 48
pork with crackling, 92
rice chips, 70
cucumber:
carved frog, I 78
chutney, 174
curry:
beef,145
beef and noodle soup, 78
Burmese-sryle, 146
chicken, 140
duck,l46
green with chicken, 140
Malay-sryle, 145
Malay-sryle paste, 138
Mussaman, 144
noodle, 160
orange, 137
red,137
yellow, 138
custard, pumpkin, 187
daisy, radish, 177
decorative egg net, 46
deep-fried ribs, 93
doon naw-mai-farang, 129
dragon fry, 158
202
dressing, salad, 88
duck,
casserole, 105
consomme, 77
curry, 146
egg and liver salad, 85
egg:
duck, in salad, 85
net, 46
omelette, 108
rice soup, 75
scrambled, 109
son-in-Iaw's, 54
egg noodle, making, 166
emerald chicken parcels, 56
fish - pia:
crispy fried, 114
curry, red, 141
fishcake,67
grilled with vegetables, 112
ground in banana leaf, 118
sauce, 36
spicy steamed with lime, 116
stock,44
fish sauce, 36
fried:
filled golden bags, 66
rice, 154,5
fritters:
sweet banana, 185
vegetable, 68
frog, cucumber, 178
frogs' legs with sweet basil, 98
fruit:
fresh, i81
savoury salad, 87
fug thawng sang-khaya, 187
gaeng-phet nua gub wun-,ec, 160
gai - chicken:
hor bai toey, 56
nam gaeng chud, 43
pad mamuang-himapan, 103
satay, 59
tom yam, 73, 74
yaang,IOO
galangal, 41
galumbi har tao-hou, 12 7
garlic:
crispy, 45
pickled, 173
with prawn, 46
ginger, 40
glass noodles with cucumber, 163
INDEX
gohp pad horapa, 98
golden bags, fried filled, 66
golden thread pork, 55
grapes with beef salad, 80
grat dook moo rod, 93
green curry with chicken, 140
ground items, 50, 51, 118
gong - prawn:
hompha,M
wan, 113
hed gob tau-hou khaeng, 128
hoi-lai phet, 115
hor bai roey, 56
hor mok pIa, 118
hot: chilli sauces, 168 to 170
hua-hom jeow, 48
tamarind sauce, 171
ice cream:
coconut, 188
mango, 189
i-sa gereem:
katee, 188
manuang, 189
Issan grilled fish, 112
kai jeow, 108
hi look koei, 54
hi ta-khay, 46
kanom-pang:
grawp,70
moo gong, 69
kao pot pak boong pad, 130
kari pub, 60
kaushwe kyaw, 160
khaeng - curries, 135
keo- wan gai, 140
leung pa-moo yaang, 143
myanmar ped, 146
musaman hed gong, 144
panaeng nua, 145
ped-daeng pIa, I'll
sam supparot gong, 142
khai-soi lampang, 160
khao (rice), 149
mamuang, 184
niaw, 153
niaw daeng, 153
niaw man, 182
pa-som, 152
pad,l54
pad tamada, 154
plao,l5\
sticky sweet balls, 182
suoy, 150
taang,70
tom kai, 75
tom mat SOffi, 186
yam, 156
khanom maw gaeng, 187
krathak, M
krathian jeow, 45
krathiem dong, I 73
kroepruk, 70
kruay:
chueam, 184
tod,I85
hung khaeng:
gari mussaman, 139
leung, 138
keD-wan, 136
panaeng, 138
ped daeng, 137
sam, 137
kuaytiaw, 165
lot, 165
laab,50
gai,5\
gong, 51
moo, 51
Dua, 51
pak,51
lamb stir-fried with mint, 97
lapakchee prig Thai, 42
'latge' vegetable salad, 85
lemon grass, 29
tea, 189
lime leaves, 30
limes, 30
vinegared, 77, 116, 173
liver:
duck in salad, 85
spicy chicken, 1O'f
look cheen ping, 90
magic paste, 42
makhua breeo-wan, 131
Malay-sytle beef curry, 145
mamuang dong, 1H
manau dong, 173
mangaswarit, 124
mango:
ice cream, 189
prawn salad, 162
with rice, sweet, 184
meegrob,lM
mildly piced vegetable consomme, 76
mint, 31
with lamb, 97
moo grob hep, 92
moo sarong, 55
moslem-style curry with
mushroom and prawn, 144
mushroom:
and prawn curry, 144
with scrambled egg, 109
with tofuI, 28
Mussaman curry, 144
mussels, 83, 117
mustard leaf, pickled, 174
naeo,91
nam gai gaeng chud, 43
namjim:
siiyu, 172
satay,l72
nam mak kam, 47
pak chee, 171
nam pak gaeng chud, 44
nam pIa:
gaeng chud, 44
prig, 170
wan pak chee, 132
nam prig, 168
gaeng, 169
kapee, 169
mak kam, 171
ong, 126
pad,I70
nam tan himapharn, 182
nok ha ta pad prig, 105
noodle making, 165,6
noodles:
crispy fried, 1M
cutried, 160
curry soup, beef, 178
glass with cucumber, 163
spring roll, 165
northern chilli vegetables, 126
northern-style curried noodle, 160
nua look-gaa pad bai-salanai, 97
nua tod hapao grob, 96
ad gai sord-sai, 102
omelette, 108
onion, crispy, 48
orange curty with prawns and
pineapple, 142
pad:
look cheen, 90
pak man, 124
pad Thai, 158
pak dong, I 73
pak gaeng chud, 76
pak nam prig, 126
pak tod, 68
panaeng curry, 145
panaeng nua, 95
pandanu leaf, 32, 56
pastry cloaked prawn, M
peanut dip, 172
ped tom phet, 106
pickled items, 173 to 4
pickled lime, I 73
pineapple, with prawns curty, 142
pIa:
nang moo Isan, 82
nua yaang gob aa-ngoon, 80
nueng prig manau, 116
torr, 114
polamai,181
poo cha, 120
pork (moo):
barbecued ribs, 92
fried with crackling, 92
golden thread,S5
ground,51
ribs, 93
rind, 82, 92
salad,82
satay,59
sausage, 91
soup, 73
sweet herbal, 113
wild boar curry, 1'f3
INDEX
with soya beans and prawns, 94
por pia tod, 62
poultry - see chicken, duck and
quail
pratad 10m, 64
prawns, 37
cloaked,64
crackers, 70
curry, moslem style, 144
curry, orange, 142
fish cake, 67
ground,51
salad, 83, 162
special, 117
spring roll, 62
toast, 69
with soya bean and pork, 73
prig dong, 174
pumpkin:
crackers, 70
cusrard, 187
quail, chilli, 105
red curry with fish, 141
rice:
absorption, 151
hlack, 152
black and white, 152
boiled,I50
crispy chips, 70
fried,154
noodles salad, 162
salad,I56
soup with egg, 75
sticky, 153
sticky sweet balls, 182
with mango, sweet, 184
tice noodle making, 165
rice noodles salad with king
prawn, 162
rubies with orange segment, 186
salad:
asparagus, 85
beef with grapes, 80
chicken and bean, 84
coconUt dressing, 88
noodle, 162
pork,82
rice, 156
savoury fruit, 87
seafood,83
vegetable, 85
sardines, 117
satay,59
may peanut dip, I 72
satu, 125
sausage, 91
savoury fruit and winged bean
salad,87
scallops, 117
seafood:
salad,83
soup, 72
special, 117
sen yai, 165
sbrimp paste, 36,42
si-khrong moo tod, 93
skewers, 59, 90
son-in law's eggs, 54
sour soy sauce, 172
soy, 38
soya beans with pork and
prawns, 94
soya sauce, 39
sour, 172
spare ribs, 93
spicy:
chicken liver, 104
clams, 115
duck casserole, 106
mushroom with tofu, 128
spinach and sweetcorn, I 30
spring onion tassels, 176
spring roll, 62, 165
squid, 83, 117
steamed:
asparagus, 129
fish,1I6
rice noodle spring roll, 165
sticky rice, 513
stir-fried:
mixed vegetables, 124
noodles, 158
sweetcorn and spinach, 130
stock, 43, 44
stuffed:
chicken breast, 102
vegetables, 49
sugar, palm, 38
sugar toasted cashews, 182
sweet and sour:
aubergine, 131
coriander, 132
sweeteorn and spinach, 130
sweet herbal prawns, 113
tab gai pad prig, 104
raeng kwa yam, 174
talay Thai, II 7
tamarind:
and coriander dip, 171
puree, 47
sauce, hot, 171
tempura, 64, 68
Thai:
coconut salad dressing, 88
omelette, 108
sea(ood special, 117
stir-fried noodles, 158
tom yam soups, 72, 73
toast, prawns, 69
tofu,39
wtapped in cabbage, 127
tomato rose, 178
tom yam: 71
gai,73
gai nam katee, 74
gung, 73
moo, 73
nua, 73
24
pIa, 67
talay, 72
tod man gung, 67
tua lueng jeow, 94
tuhng tong, 66
turmeric, 41
vegetable:
carving, 175
consomme, 76
fritters, 68
ground,51
mixed, stir-fried, 124
northern chilli, 126
pickled, 173
salad,85
stew, 125
stock,44
with grilled fish, 112
vinegared lime, 77, 116, 173
water chestnuts, 186
white radish daisy, 177
wild boar curry, 143
wonton cheen, 66
wonton wrappers, 40, 60, 64, 66
wun sen pad taeng kwa haten, 163
yam (salad), 79
aus maprao, 88
gai tua pu, 84
kuaytiaw sen mee, 162
naw mai farang, 85
phonlamai, 87
ralai,83
yai,85
yaang pIa Chanobot, 112
yellow curry with grilled wild
boar, 143
Here you'll find everything
Thai from a light munch to
a long lunch and from a
tasty TV snack to a
dinner-party banquet.
With this book in your
kitchen, you'll
always be able
to tum out
tasty Thai
delights.
346
'': '.
IS B N 0-'340-68034-2 >--, ,
9 78034
In his first book on Thai food, Pat Chapman reveals his long-
standing enthusiasm for this increasingly popular cuisine.
His Thai Restaurant Cookbook contains a wealth of information,
as well as 120 favourite mouthwatering recipes.
As you'd expect from the founder of Th; Cu;";Ciub, Thai
curries are well represented. But there are many more Thai
recipes waiting to be discovered. Choose from crispy starters,
c r u n ~ y salads, sumptuous soups, and wonderfl4 fragrant meat,
poultry, fish and vegetable main courses, rice and noodle dishes,
tasty accompaniments and desserts.
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