Omelette Cha Om is a type of Thai-fried egg omelette with 'cha om' vegetable. The vegetable is quite unpleasant when uncooked, it has a sulfurous smell similar to the smell of pond weed. Once cooked, though, the bad smell disappears leaving a much more mild flavour. Cha om is also used with curry soup, and eaten as a side vegetable either fresh or boiled by Thai people.
Note, this omelette is very spicy and contains a lot of chillis, you can reduce the chilli quantity if you prefer.

Ingredient for 2 people
100 gms. Cha-Om vegetable. (use only the soft top of the shoots)
3 Eggs.
2 Red Chillies.
1 Garlic Clove.
1/2 Teaspoons white ground pepper.
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce (Omit for vegetarian).
1 Teaspoon Light Soya Sauce.
3 Tablespoons Oil.

Preparation
1. Break the egg put in a bowl.
2. Chop the Cha-Om vegetable to 4 cm lengths and add to the bowl.
3. Cut the chillies int 2 cm lengths, and add them, together with the fish sauce, light soya sauce, and pepper.
4. Mix the ingredients well.
5. Chop of garlic clove into small pieces.
6. Add the oil in a heated frying pan wait until it is hot add the garlic and fry for a few seconds.
7. Add the egg mixture.
8. Fry for 2 minutes, turn it over, fry for a further two minutes.

Serve with
Hot rice
Spicy sauce, e.g. chopped chilli and fish sauce mix.

Bamboo is used as a vegetable in Thailand, only the young ground shoots are eaten, the fully grown bamboo is strictly for panda bears! There are two main types of bamboo, plain bamboo and bitter bamboo. Plain bamboo in Thailand used to be boiled and eaten with spicy sauce containing plenty of chilli. The bitter bamboo they used to chop, and serve boiled with fried meat & chilli. You can also buy bamboo pickled. For this dish we will be using fried chicken with bamboo, similar to Chinese dishes, this is a favorite among westerners. This is a medium to hot dish, use fewer chillis if you prefer.

Ingredient 2 people
200 gms. Chicken Breast
100 gms. Can of Bamboo
5 Chillis (Mixed red/green)
3 Garlic Cloves
Half a Ginger Root Shoot (About 40 gms)
1 Spring Onion
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Water
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Clean the chicken and chop it into bite sized pieces.
2. Slice the bamboo, and spring onion, into fine pieces.
3. Chop the chilli and garlic into very small pieces.
4. Slice the ginger root into thin slices.
5. Put oil in pan turn up the heat to get it good and hot.
6. Add the chilli & garlic fry it for few second to release the flavour.
7. Add the chicken in and fry it for 2 minutes until its just cooked through.
8. Add the ingredient for the sauce to the pan, the soy, oyster and fish sauces and the sugar.
7. Add bamboo, spring onion, ginger and water, fry for minutes and serve it.

Serve With
Hot fragrant rice.

Tip
It is better to use bamboo in a can, it is already boiled and as bitter as fresh bamboo shoots.

This is an excellent side dish that adds lots of vegetables to a meat & rice or noodle main dish. The shrimp provides the flavour. You can use red or yellow peppers (capsicums) in place of the green, but green is the pepper most used in Thailand.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Shrimp.
100 gms Green pepper.
50 gms Onion
50 gms Carrots
1 Garlic Clove
3 Tablespoons Oil
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
5 gms White Pepper

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Rice

Preparation
1. Clean the shrimp, cut them down the back and remove the intestine.
2. Chop the green pepper, onions, carrot and garlic.
3. Put the oil in the pan and heat it.
4. When the oil is hot add the garlic and cook for a few seconds.
5. Add the shrimp and fry it for 1 minute.
6. Add the green pepper, onion and carrot.
7. Add fish sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper fry it for 2 minutes.
8. For a stir fry the vegetables need to be cooked for a short time on a high heat.

This dish is a spicy meat side dish normally eaten with sticky rice. It is chunky, making it ideal to eat with your fingers. In Thailand as with many cultures, there are many dishes you eat with your hands. Ensure you clean your hand thoroughly, take a chunk of sticky rice, and, using the sticky rice to cover your fingers, grab a chunk of the minced pork, then eat.

Ingredients for Family
400 gms Pork Mince
20 gms Fresh Red Chill
2 Tablespoons Flaked Dried Chilli
5 Kaffir Citrus Leaves
10 gms. Coriander Leaves
10 gms. Spring Onion
4 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Toasted Rice
2 Tablespoon Lime Juice
2 Tablespoons Water
10 gms. Fresh Mint

Preparation
1. Put the pork mince into a frying pan.
2. Slice the citrus leaves into small pieces, add to the frying pan.
3. Chop spring onions, fresh chilles and coriander and add to the pan.
4. Add fish sauce, lime juice, flaked chillis, toasted sticky rice and water to the pan.
5. Turn the heat on high and fry it until the pork is cooked.
6. Serve garnished with the mint.

Serve With
Steamed Sticky Rice
Salad vegetables like Lettuce, Cucumber, Long bean or Cabbage.

Thai fish cakes are made from soft meat fish, green beans and starch and cooked by deep frying. They are served as a side dish with a spicy dipping or pouring sauce. Any soft meat fish will do and it's a great way to use often ignored smaller and cheaper fish.
To remove the meat of the fish: remove the head, slice it down the belly, and remove any entrails. Pull out the backbone, in soft fish this will also remove the bones. Then remove the top and bottom fins. Finally hold the fish by the skin and scrape off the meat from the skin with a flat bladed knife.

Ingredient for 2 People
150 gms Fish Meat
2-3 Tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste
100 gms Long Green Bean
1 Tablespoon Cassava or Potato Starch
Oil for frying

Ingredient for Sauce
20 gms Cucumber
10 gms Peanut
2 Big Red Chillis
3 Tablespoons Sweet Chicken Sauce
(A sweet sauce normally used for chicken, it does not contain chicken!)

Preparation
Fish Cakes
1. Pre heat a deap fat fryer to 150 degrees celsius (Medium).
2. Add the fish meat, red curry paste, cassava starch, to a blender and blend it.
3. Cut the green beans into very short pieces and mix into the mixture.
4. Take a spoonful of mixture and form it into flat round 'cookie' shaped fish cakes.
5. Drop the fish cakes into the hot oil, when the fish cake is cooked it will float back to the surface.
6. Remove from the oil onto kitchen paper to dry out the excess oil.

Preparation
Dipping Sauce
1. Chop the cucumber and chilles, and mixed with sweet chicken sauce.
2. Pound the peanuts in a mortar into smaller pieces.
3. Top the sauce off with the peanuts.
4. Serve as a side dish, or you can pour it over the fish cakes as we've done in the top photograph.

A sweet caramel tasting pork used as a side dish to rice, or where a sweetness is needed to counter a spicy chilli dish.

Ingredients
100 gms Fatty Pork (Thick Middle Bacon Cuts are Best)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
100 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

Preparation
1. Put the salt, sugar, dark soy sauce, and water in a pan.
2. Bring to the boil.
3. Chop the pork into small strips and add to the sweet sauce.
4. Cook until the sauce thickens and caramelises and the pork is cooked.
5. Serve as a side dish with rice.

This is an excellent and very tasty steamed egg omelette. It is cooked inside cups in a Chinese steamer, and when you serve it, you can either take it out of the cups (like we've done for the above photograph) or serve it inside the teacups. To remove it from the cup, place a circle of greaseproof paper in the base of the cup before cooking, this will make it easier to remove later. Then to remove it from the cup after it is cooked, run a knife around the edge and tip the cup upside down on a plate.
As a contrast, we normally eat this with a sauce made from mint coriander and chillies, however this is optional. If you are serving this as a side dish, you may prefer to omit it.

Ingredients for 2 People
3 Eggs
1 Carrot
1 Long Green Bean
1 Onion
1 Vegetable Stock Cube (you can also use Chicken Stock)
200 ml Water
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper

Preparation
1. Boil the stock cube in the water to form a soup and leave it to cool.
2. Blend the eggs with the pepper in a food mixer.
3. Add the stock to the food mixer and blend again (with the eggs).
4. Chop the long bean, carrot, and onion into small fine pieces.
5. Add the vegetables to the egg mixture and divide evenly between the cups.
5. Steam for 20 minutes.

Ingredient For Sauce (Optional)
4 Cherry Tomatoes
2 Red Chillis
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
2 Tablespoon Oil
1 Sprig Coriander Leaves
1 Sprig Mint Leaves

Preparation for Sauce
1. Chop the cherry tomatoes, chillies, coriander, and mint, very finely.
2. Mix these with the oil and vinegar.

We eat corn in everything! You will find it in desserts for it sweetness, in soups and like here, in snacks. In Bangkok, in front of the university, there are many little food stalls to feed the hungry students, including corn fritter stalls. This is one of the few Thai dishes that isn't spicy.

Ingredient For 2 People
100 gms Corn Kernels (Maize)
1 Tablespoon Corn Flour
1 Tablespoon Wheat Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
120 ml Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Pepper
200 ml Oil
Flat Frying Pan

Preparation
1. Mix all the corn flour, wheat flour and cassava starch together with the water in a mixing bowl. You can use a ready mix batter if you prefer.
2. Add the salt, pepper and corn kernels and mix.
3. Put the oil into the frying pan and preheat the pan over a medium heat.
4. When the oil is hot take a tablespoon of the mixture and drop it into the pan to make a circular fritter.
5. Fry it for a minute on each side until it is golden brown.

Serve With
Sweet Chicken Sauce
Cucumber

If you think an omelette should taste of eggs, this recipe is a wake-up call. It has a strong meaty flavour with a slight spicy after-taste that is very different from a traditional 'eggy' omelette. Best of all, it's a very easy dish to make. A good way to serve this omelette is to cut it into squares, so that it can be shared between several people as a side dish.

Ingredients for 2 People
3 Large Eggs
75 gms Pork Mince
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
10 gms Coriander Leaves
10 gms Spring Onion (approx 1)
2 Big Red Chillies
100 ml Oil
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper

Preparation
1. Chop the coriander, spring onion and chillies.
2. Whip the eggs in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the pork mince, light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, spring onion, coriander, and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
4. Put oil into frying pan and preheat the oil.
5. Fry the eggs mix for 1 minute.
6. Turn the omelette over and fry the other side for a minute.
7. The omelette should be cooked and golden brown. To make sure its cooked squeeze it, and no liquid should come out.

Serve With
Salad Vegetable
Hot Rice
Sweet Chilli Sauce

If you've already made my Mu Yor recipe, then you can use it to make this spicy salad version. You can see from the photograph the spongy texture of the Mu Yor sausage caused by the ice crystals.

Ingredients for 2 people
75 gms Thai Pork Steam Sausage
30 gms Onion
4 Bird Chillies
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Fish sauce
2 Garlic Cloves
Mint Leaves
Coriander Leaves

Perparation
1. Sliced the sausage and put onto a serving plate.
2. Chop the onion, chillis and garlic finely, into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the fish sauce and lemon juice to the mixing bowl and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture over the sausage.
5. Garnish with mint and coriander leaves before serving.

Serve With
Salads
Rice

These are potato balls filled with seafood, breaded and deep fried. Eaten either as a side dish or as a snack, they're not at all spicy, so they're perfect for a children's menu. We eat them with sweet chilli sauce, but you may prefer ketchup or mustard.

Ingredients for 3 People
3 Large Potatoes
30 gms Shrimp Meat
30 gms Crab Meat
20 gms Chopped Onion
10 gms Chopped Carrot
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
40 gms Flour
1 Eggs (Whipped)
50 gms Bread Crumbs
Oil for frying

Preparation
1. Clean the shrimp, cut down the back of the shrimp and remove the black thread (the gut).
2. Peel the potatoes, cut them in half and boil them in water until cooked.
3. Mash the potatoes, and add salt to taste. (Note, do not add butter or milk!)
4. Peel and boil the carrots until cooked. Then chop the cooked carrots into fine pieces.
5. Chop the shrimp and crab meat and add the carrots, chopped onion, salt and white pepper. This will form the filling.
6. Each ball has the seafood mix in the center, then a layer of potato, and egg and breadcrumbs around the outside.
7. Prepare a bowl with the beaten egg, a bowl with flour, and a bowl with breadcrumbs.
8. Take a lump of potatoes, and form a 3cm diameter ball of potato in your hand.
9. Flatten the potato into a disc.
10. Spoon some of the filling into the center, and wrap the potato around the filling. Roll it in the palm of your hand to make a ball again.
11. Dip the ball in the flour to cover it. Then dip it in the egg, again make sure its completely covered with egg, then dip it in breadcrumbs. This mixture will make about 10 balls.
12. Preheat a deep fryer to hot (190 degrees celsius) and drop the balls into the hot oil to cook for 5-10 minutes. They are cooked when the breadcrumbs are golden.

Serve With
Tomato
Lettuce
Sweet Chilli Sauce

This pork dish is normally served in a sizzling metal hot plate. For the photograph we had to present it on a simpler plate, but when you serve it, get a stainless steel serving trays, a stand and some candles for the full 'hot pork' effect. To toast the sesame seeds for this dish, simply put them in a hot dry frying pan for a few seconds to brown them.

Ingredients for 4 People
300 gms Pork Meat (Fillet or Similar)
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
1/4 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Water
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Seeds
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
2 Tablespoons Oil
3 Garlic Cloves
Heated Serving Tray

Preparation
1. Chop the garlic and fry in the oil to release the garlic smell.
2. Slice the pork into strips and add to the frying pan.
3. Add light soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and water and fry it for 30 second.
4. Serve on a hot plate, sizzling. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Thai Rice

Another way to serve duck, this dish is made from cucumber rolled up with duck meat and the sauce (made with lemon juice, chilli and garlic) adds bite to the flavours. For this you will need duck breast to form flat slices needed to roll, duck leg won't work.

Ingredients
400 gms Duck Breast
1 Tablespoon Thai Teriyaki Powder
40 gms Cucumber
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Dried Flaked Chillies
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Water
1 Teaspoon Ground Toasted Sticky Rice
Mint Leaves
Coriander Leaves
Toothpicks to skewer the rolls with.

Preparation
1. Mix teriyaki powder with a little water, clean the duck and marinade it in the mix for at least 2 hours.
2. Grill The duck breast in the oven until it is not quite cooked. You will cook it again later and so it's important not to overcook it.
3. Slice the duck into thin slices.
4. Peel and chop the cucumber to 4x5 cm batons roll the duck around the cucumber and skewer it with a toothpick to hold it in place.
5. Dry fry these in a frying pan for 5 minutes turning them over to cook on both sides, remove from the pan and set aside.
6. Chop the garlic and in the frying pan mix it with the fish sauce, flaked chillies, lemon juice, water, and toasted rice. Fry for a minute to soften the garlic, it it becomes too dry add a little water.
7. Serve the rolls on a plate, covered with the sauce, and garnished with mint leaves or coriander leaves.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice or Sticky Rice
Lettuce
Cucumber
Green Beans

This is fish hair, actually it's fish meat made into fine hair like strands then deep fried. It is served traditionally with the sweet-sour mango & chilli sauce. You take a little of the crunchy fish hair, a little of the sour mango, mix it with your rice and eat. The best fish to use is oily fish, in Thailand we use a river fish 'Yam Baa duk Fu', but any similar oily fish can be used.

Ingredients
150 gms Fish
350 ml Oil
40 gms Chopped Sour (unripe) Mango
2 Red Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
50 gms Sugar
5 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Water

Preparation
1. Grill the fish until cooked, remove the meat from the bones and mince the meat finely with a fork. It is important to remove every bone as you will find it very difficult to see the bones once you've made fish hair!
2. Put 3cm of oil into a large saucepan and heat until it's hot.
3. Add the fish mince and fry in the oil. Spread the fish out so that it doesn't form clumps.
4. Cook until it goes brown, and remove it from the oil with a strainer.
5. Place it on kitchen paper to soak off the excess oil.

Preparation for Sour Mango Sauce
1. Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Add the fish sauce and salt, and continue boiling until the sugar has completely dissolved.
3. Turn off the heat.
4. Chop the garlic and mango and mix into the sugar sauce. Then serve.

The black fried century eggs make this quite a stunning looking plate, but the eggs are not the main taste, the spicy chicken is. Eat this as a side dish to Thai rice, served with Thai sweet basil leaves.

Ingredients for 2 People
2 Century Eggs
70 gms Chicken Breast
5 Bird Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Oil
10 gms Thai Basil

Preparation
1. Peel and chop the century eggs into quarters as in the photograph.
2. Put the oil into the pan over a medium heat and fry the eggs pieces, turning them so they are cooked on all sides. Then set them aside on a plate.
3. Mince the chicken into a fine mince.
4. Chop the garlic and chillies together and put into the pan with the hot oil, and fry until the garlic begins to smell.
5. Add the minced chicken, put into the frying pan it with garlic and chillies and fry until the chicken is completely cooked.
6. Add the fish suauce, light soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce and basil and stir fry for 30 second.
7. Serve with the century egg garnish.

Serve With
Chillies in Fish Sauce
Thai Fragrant Rice
Cucumber
Tomatoes

Windermelon is a pithy non-sweet melon used in Thai cuisine. If you can't get it, use unripe large courgettes, or for this recipe you can also use bitter melon which itself has a different taste, but works equally well. Another aspect of this dish is the seaweed used as a vegetable or garnish in the soup.

Ingredients for 2 People
300 gms Wintermelon
100 gms Chicken Breast
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onions
30 gms Carrots
1 Chicken Stock Cube
1 Teaspoon Sugar
400 ml Water
Coriander Leaves
Seaweed Paper

Preparation
1. Clean and chop off the top and the bottom of the melon then scoop out the inside.
2. Chop the chicken breast and mix it with garlic, salt, white pepper and spring onion and blend together to form a mince.
3. Boil the water & stock cube and sugar until the water is boiling.
4. Stuff the melon with the minced chicken and then add the stuffed melon into the boiling soup and simmer for 10 minutes to cook.
5. Peel and chop the carrot into bite sized pieces, put into the boiling soup and cook for 2 minutes. Add seaweed and coriander leaves and serve.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice

The sourness in this dish comes from the tamarind. In the back of the photograph you can see green vegetables, lettuce, mint, coriander leaves and other green vegetables. It's normal to eat this dish with a big mass of fresh salad vegetables like this.

Ingredients for Pork Balls
250 gms Pork Mince
1 Tablespoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoons White Pepper
2 Tablespoons Wheat Flour
100 gms Crushed Ice
Hand Blender or Food Processor
Water for Boiling
Cold Water
Wooden Skewers

Preparation for Pork Balls
1. Put the pork mince into the blender, add salt, white pepper and blend together for a few seconds. Add the crushed ice, tablespoon by tablespoon, and blend for a few seconds each time to mix it in.
2. Place a saucepan full of water onto boil.
3. Take a spoonful of the pork and smooth it out into a ball. I oil the palms of my hands and make the balls by hand, but you can also pass them between two teaspoons to make them round.
4. Drop the balls into the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Then remove them and drop them into cold water. Finally remove them and leave to dry on a plate.
5. Ideally leave them overnight in the fridge, they will firm up.
6. Take the pork balls and skewer them on wooden skewers, the ideal method for cooking is a charcoal barbecue grill, but an oven grill or hot dry frying pan can also be used. You should cook the balls until brown, turn them repeatedly to cook evenly.
7. Place them on a plate.

Ingredients for Tamarind Sauce
300 ml Water
20 gms Tamarind Pulp
100 gms Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoons Chopped or Crushed Peanut
2 Tablespoons Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoons Corn Flour

Preparation for Tamarind Sauce
1. Boil the water with the tamarind pulp, remove the tamarind pulp and squeeze out any juice it still has by pressing it inside a fine sieve, so that the juice goes back into the pan.
2. Add the brown sugar, salt and fish sauce and boil for 3 minutes.
3. Mix the corn flour with 3 tablespoons of water and stir into the saucepan. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens.
4. Add the crushed peanuts and chopped coriander leaves and serve immediately.

Serve With
Lettuce
Chinese Cabbage
Cucumber
Mint Leaves
Coriander Leaves

This sauce is cooked until the sardines dissolves into the sauce, making a soft smooth onion sauce with a very strong taste of salty sardines. This is a very economical way to eat sardines, with the taste spread throughout the sauce, but is also ideal for people who don't like fish bones.

Ingredients
1-2 Sardines
200 ml Coconut Milk
100 ml Water
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Sliced Onion
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Remove the meat from the sardine and put into a saucepan. Add the coconut milk and heat over a medium heat stirring all the time until the fish meat is broken up into the coconut, this only takes a few minutes.
2. Sieve the coconut milk into another pan to remove any stray bones and skin.
3. Fry the sliced onions with the chopped garlic and oil for 30 seconds to just soften them.
4. Add the onions and garlic to the coconut milk pan, add the sugar and heat gently for 2 minutes.
5. Add red chillies to taste.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice
Aubergines
Green Beans
Cucumber
Cabbage
Lettuce
Red Chillies

Eat this with sticky rice, the crunchy pork is my favorite part of this dish, yum.

Ingredients
50 gms Pork with Rind and Fat
40 gms Pickled Bamboo
30 gms Spring Onion
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Toasted Rice, Pounded
2 Teaspoons Flaked Chilli
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce

Preparation
1. Boil the pork until cooked, dry with kitchen paper,then deep fry in hot oil to make it crunchy. Finally chop it into strips and set aside.
2. Rince the bamboo carefully, chop it into thin strips, chop the garlic and spring onions finely aswell.
3. Put all the other ingredients except for the pork, into a frying pan and fry together for 2 minutes.
4. Mix in the crunchy pork pieces and serve.

Serve With
Steamed Sticky Rice

This omelette is made from Pork Nam, a raw pork, & garlic dish you can buy from Asian grocers in parcels or you can make yourself.

Ingredients for 2 people
1-2 Eggs
50 gms Nam Mu (Raw Pork Parcels)
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Whip the eggs, add the white pepper and fish sauce and mix.
2. Preheat oil in the frying pan.
3. Slice the nam into slices. Fry for 20 seconds, then pour in the egg and cook for 30 more seconds on each side.

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Rice
Chopped Chillies

These steamed balls are made from squid and flour on the inside and are wrapped in pork meat & spring onions on the outside.

Ingredients for Squid Balls
500 gms White Squid
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/3 Teaspoon White Pepper
2-3 Tablespoons Crushed Ice
Boiling Water
Cold Water

Ingredients for Pork
150 gms Pork Mince
1-2 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onions
2-4 Garlic Cloves
1/3 Teaspoon Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Egg

Preparation
1. Place a pan of water onto boil.
2. Chop the squid, place in a blender, add salt and white pepper and blend for 2 minutes, add the crushed ice and continue blending until the ice is broken into tiny pieces in the mixture.
3. Take spoonfuls of the squid mixture and drop them into the boiling water, cook for 1 minute, then remove them and drop them into cold water for 30 seconds.
4. Mix the pork mince with all the remaining ingredients.
5. Wrap the squid balls in the mince mixture.
5. Steam for 20 minutes.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice
Chilli Sauce
Sweet Chicken Sauce

A typical Thai sauce used as a side dish to flavour vegetables and rice. This is made with a long green aubergines, which you can see in the ingredients section.

Ingredients for 2-4 People
5 Green Peppers
3 Long Green Aubergines
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Red Onions
2 Coriander Root
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chopped Mint Leaves

Preparation
1. Wrap the green peppers, aubergines, garlic and red onions into tin foil packets. The foil will keep in the juices. Place the foil packets in a frying pan and fry until the vegetables are soft and cooked.
2. Open the packets, take the garlic and red onion into a Thai mortar, add the coriander root and pound the mixture until they are well broken up.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients, and pound again.
4. Serve with vegetables.

Another Thai side dish, this is a minced fish sauce used to add flavour the rice. The fish used is Patu, which is a Thai fish with a taste like mackerel.

Ingredients
3 Patu Fish
5 Tablespoons Old Fish Sauce
600 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
5 Bird Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Red Small Onions
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chopped Mint Leaves

Preparation
1. Mix the old fish and water in a pot and heat until it is boiling. The smell is quite strong, you may with to open windows. Add the patu, and boil for 5 minutes.
2. Grill the garlic, chillies and red onions until cooked. Then pound in a Thai mortar to break them up.
3. Remove the meat of the fish from the bones, and add the meat to the mortar. Try not to take any of the bones.
4. Pound until it is well mixed.
5. Add lime juice, chopped spring onions, coriander leaves and mint leaves and serve.

There are several similar Thai recipes that consists of a salty thing added to coconut milk to make a rich salty sauce. The saltiness in this one comes from the yellow beans. Many of these recipes are popular in Thailand, but they don't really translate to the west, I think it's because the taste is nice but the sauce isn't much to look at.

Ingredients
250 ml Coconut Milk
5 Tablespoons Yellow Bean Sauce
100 ml Tamarind Juice
2 Tablespoons Sugar
100 gms Pork Mince
50 gms Shrimp Mince
1 Tablespoon Sliced Red Onion
1 Tablespoon Sliced Chillies
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves

Preparation
1. If you prefer a smooth sauce, blend the yellow beans to a smooth paste, I prefer to have some texture.
2. Boil the coconut milk over a medium heat, add the yellow bean sauce, add the pork mince and the shrimp mince and lower the heat.
3. Add the tamarind juice (tamarind pulp squeezed into water to make sour water), add the sugar and stir tomix.
4. Take off the heat, chop the chillies, coriander and onion and add to the sauce and serve.

The eggs should form a fine mesh around the filling, but try as hard as I could, I couldn't get it looking as good as the master chefs of Thailand can, when they make this dish for the King.

Ingredients
4 Eggs
400 Pork Mince with Fat
50 gms Shrimp Mince
50 gms Chopped Onions
2 Garlic Cloves
10 gms Coriander Root
1/3 Teaspoon Black Peppercorns
3 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar
A Little Oil
20 gms Coriander Leaves Chopped
5 Big Red Chillies Sliced

Preparation
1. Pound the garlic, coriander root and peppercorns together in a Thai mortar until they are finely ground.
2. Put a little oil in a frying pan, and preheat over a medium heat burner.
3. Fry the pounded garlic mixture in the oil for 5 seconds just to release the flavour.
4. Add the pork mince, shrimp mince, and sugar and fry for 1 minute until cooked.
5. Whip the eggs until frothy, put a flat frying pan over a low heat and add a little oil, then take off the heat.
6. For this we want to spread the mixture in lines, I used a spatula with 5 prongs. I dipped it in the eggs and drew the spatula across the pan to form 5 lines, then the other way to make a mesh. You can also you your fingers if the pan isn't too hot.
7. Cook very slowly and carefully.
8. Chop the coriander leaves and red chillies finely and mix into the pork.
9. Spoon the pork onto the mesh and fold over the edges to form a parcel.

Serve With
Fragrant Rice

Yes that is pork mince inside the fried balls. Yes that is sugar frosting on the outside. Yes I haven't made a mistake, that's how we eat them. This dish is not as radical as you might think, it's has the same flavours as sweet-sour meat dishes.

Ingredients for Filling
50 gms Yellow Beans
150 gms Pork Mince
20 gms Chopped Spring Onion
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar

Ingredients for Balls
240 gms Sticky Rice Flour
120 gms Rice Flour
Warm Water
Oil for Deep Frying
200 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Soak the yellow bean in water overnight.
2. Steam the beans for 15 minutes (I place a little foil in the steamer and steam them on that).
3. Pound the beans to a pulp.
4. Fry the pork mince to cook it, add salt, sugar and spring onions and stir-fry.
5. Mix in the yellow bean paste and make into small balls of approximately 1 1/2 cms diameter.
6. Mix the two flours together, add the warm water slowly, mixing as you add it.
7. Pinch off balls from the mixture, approximately 3cms in diameter.
8. Flatten the balls, add one of the pork bean balls in the middle, fold up the pastry around the outside and pinch the steam closed.
9. Roll the ball between the palms of your hands to make it more round.
10. Heat oil to 180 degrees celsius.
11. Fry the balls until brown.
12. Heat 100ml of water with 200gms of sugar in a saucepan until the water thickens, but don't let it go brown.
13. Let it cool a little until the sugar starts to crystalize. Then add the balls and stir them around to frost the balls. Careful it will be hot.

Remember 'nam'? The raw pork dish? After a fw days it can get too old to eat, and its better then to cook with it. This is a sauce made from pork nam, typical of Isan. This sauce is eaten with crunchy green vegetables, and raw baby sweetcorn.

Ingredients
220 Coconut Milk
30 gms Pork Nam
2 Tablespoons Salty White Yellow Bean
2 Tablespoons Sugar
5 gms Chopped Red Small Onion
5 gms Chopped Red-Green Chillies

Preparation
1. Boil the coconut milk in a pan over a medium heat until steam comes off it. Mince the pork name and add, together with the yellow beans and sugar, cook for 1 minute.
2. Add the chopped chillies and sliced onions and serve immediately.

This is a very dry, spicy pork, with a texture almost like powder. It's served as a side dish, and eaten with rice or noodles. It's normal to garnish it with sliced omelette or other items, but that is optional.

Ingredients
200 gms Pork Mince
5 Red-Green Bird Chillies
1 Garlic Clove
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
2 Teaspoons Lime Juice
2 Eggs (For Omelette Garnish)
1 Tablespoon Oil
Sliced Tomatoes to Garnish

Preparation
1. Fry the pork mince until cooked and dry. Drain off any excess fat.
2. Blend the chillies and garlic, add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir into the fried mince and place on a serving plate.
3. Which the eggs, and fry in a little oil to form an omelette. Slice and use to garnish the dish.

Hoisin is usually served in Peking Duck dishes, but it's easy to forget it's an excellent barbecue sauce. This has plenty of flavour, considering it's such a simple dish.

Ingredients
500 gms Chicken Breast
3-4 Tablespoons Hoisin Sauce
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Slice the chicken breast into slices, mix with the hoisin and leave for and hour or two to meld.
2. Skewer onto wooden sticks, grill over a barbecue or under a grill for 15-20 minutes. Brush with a little oil if they get too dry.

Serve With
Fragrant Rice
Lettuce
Chillies

A very unusual soup, slightly spicy with the taste of cinnamon. The eggs make it a very filling meal rather than a soup, often served with rice to pad it into a full meal. This is something of an aquired taste, if cinnamon flavored boiled eggs are not for you, you may prefer to try one of the more common Thai dishes first and work up to this.

Ingredients for 2 people
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
4 Boiled Eggs
4 Piece of Brown Dry Tofu
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Pepper Corn
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaf
1 Teaspoon Dark Soya Sauce
1 Tablespoon Light Soya Sauce
1 Level Teaspoon Salt
2 Level Tablespoon Sugar
1 Chicken Stock Cube (Or Vegetable Stock for Vegetarian)
200 ml. Water
1 Teaspoon Oil

Preparation
1. Pound the garlic, pepper corns, and coriander together in a pestle.
2. Remove the shell of the boiled eggs.
2. Put the water to boil and add the stock cube in a boiling pan.
3. Heat a frying pan, add the oil and the pounded garlic, pepper, cinnamon and coriander mix and fry.
4. Fry lightly until the garlic is softened.
5. Add the dark Soya sauce, light Soya sauce, salt, and sugar and stir it to mix it.
6. Add the whole boiled egg in fry them for a second to take on some of the flavours.
7. Put the fried ingredients into the boiling pan containing the chicken stock & water.
8. Cut the tofu into bite sized pieces and add to the boiling pan.
9. Boil for 10 minutes and turn heat on low for a gentle simmer for a further 30 minutes.
10. Leave it for cool then serve warm.

Suggestions
It is better to leave this to rest overnight for the cinnamon fragrance to infuse throughout the eggs.

This dish looks like a salsa but is actually a meat accompaniment to rice. It is a thick course mince sauce with a strong tomato flavor and lots of spice. The measurements here are for a medium hot dish. Serve it in a shared dish together with Thai rice, your guests should take some of the sauce and mix it into the rice on their plate and eat the rice. This has the effect of diluting the hotness, so don't be too worried about making it spicy!

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms Pork Mince
2 Medium Sized Tomatoes
5 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Onion head
30 gms Garlic
20 gms Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chilli Powder
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Kapi Paste
1 Teaspoon Sour Curry Paste
1 Teaspoon Chilli Paste
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Tamarind Water
3 Tablespoons Oil

Serve With
Cucumber
Aubergine (Eggplant)
Baby Corn
Lettuce
Hot rice

Preparation
1. Put the garlic, onion, chilli powder, kapi paste, sour curry paste, chilli paste into a blender, blend it to a paste and set it aside.
2. Blend the medium tomatoes to pulp and set them aside.
3. Put the oil in a frying pan and turn heat on medium.
4. When the oil hot add the pork mince and cook until the mince is brown.
5. Add the paste of spices you blended earlier and continue frying the mix for a minute to release the flavours.
6. Add the tomato pulp you blended earlier and cook until the tomatoes are cooked into the sauce.
7. Add the fish sauce, sugar, salt, chilli paste, tamarind water, and cook it for 1 minute.
8. Switch the heat off, add the cherry tomatoes.
9. Serve in a bowl with a sprig of coriander leaves.

This is a side dish of quails eggs in a spicy sugar-caramel sauce. In Thailand we normally use larger duck or even chicken eggs, but for the best ratio of sauce to egg the smaller quails eggs are perfect.

Ingredients for 2 People
7 Quail Eggs
Oil for Frying
3 Red Chillis
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chopped Onion
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Sugar

Preparation
1. Boil the eggs for 5 minutes, remove them and place in cold water. Peel off the shell and cut in half.
2. Put oil in the frying pan and fry the quail egg halves until they are brown, remove and put on the serving plate.
3. Slice the chilli and the garlic and put in frying pan with 1 tablespoon oil, fry for a minute to release the flavours.
4. Turn the heat to medium, add the light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and vinegar and fry until the sugar caramelizes and the sauce thickens and becomes brown.
5. Pour the sauce over the eggs.
6. Add the raw chopped onion over the eggs, together with the chopped coriander leaves.

Serve With
Cucumber
Tomato
Salad
Fragrant rice

Mu means pork, Gop means crunchy and as you'd expect the main part of this dish is the crunchy pork. It is normal to use thick strips of bacon, or similar cuts of pork with the skin still present. However not everyone likes the crunchy skin, so you may prefer to remove it. The pork can be prepared ahead of time.

Ingredient for 2 people
150 gms Fatty Pork
200 ml Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
100 gms Broccoli
4 Red Chillies
2 Garlic Clove
1 Tablespoon Light Soya Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation of Crunchy Pork
1. Add the salt to the water and bring to the boil.
2. Add the pork to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Take it off the heat and leave the pork to dry. You can prick the pork all over with a fork, it will help to make it crunchier.
4. Once it is dry, deep fry in hot oil.
6. The finished pork should be very very crunchy.

Preparation
1. Chop the garlic and fry it in a hot frying pan for a few seconds to release the garlic fragrance.
2. Chop the crunchy pork into bite sized strips, and put it in the frying pan with the garlic.
3. Add light soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar, and stir fry it for 1 minute.
4. Slice the red chilles in halves and the broccoli into florets and add those to the stir fry.
5. Fry for a few minutes longer, to just lightly cook the broccoli.
6. Serve with hot fragrant rice and optionally, the chilli sauce below.

Preparation for Chilli Sauce
1. Chop a red chilli finely, and chop a garlic clove finely.
2. Put those in a bowl together with a single slice of lemon.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of fish sauce.
4. Thats it, a spicy chilli sauce - this is a common condiment, if the dish isn't spicy enough, you can add a teaspoon or two to your rice.

Recall 'Lap/Lab' is a Thai spicy salad dish. You can 'lab' almost anything, this variation is the flesh of a catfish made into a lab salad.

Ingredients
200 gms Catfish or Larger
1 Tablespoon Sticky Rice
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 Tablespoon Sliced Garlic
1 Teaspoon Flaked Chillies
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander
1 Tablespoon Chopped Spring Onion
1 Tablespoon Sliced Kaffir Lime Leaves

Preparation
1. Dry fry (toast) the sticky rice until brown.
2. Pound the rice to a powder.
3. Grill the catfish until cooked, remove the flesh and mince it with a fork.
4. In a saucepan, place the mince with all the other ingredients.
5. Warm through, while stirring for 2-3 minutes, just to meld the flavours.
6. If you like spicy food you can chop some fresh chillies and add them after you remove it from the heat.

Serve With
Salad Vegetables
Steamed Sticky Rice
Fragrant Rice