Another Thai variant of a Chinese dish. These are pork mushroom and carrot parcels, we called them 'Dim Sum' but our Chinese friends say the correct name for this type of starter is 'Chow Mei'. Served as a starter or a snack, each parcel is approximately 3cms across.

Ingredient for Pastry
200 gms. Wheat Flour ( Enough for 40 )
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Eggs

Ingredient for Filling
100 gms Pork Mince
3 Shitake Mushrooms
2 Carrots
1 Spring Onion
30 gms Coriander Leaves
1 Egg
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoon Cassava Starch (Or corn starch)

Preparation for Pastry
1. Put the salt, sugar, and flour into a bowl and mix it.
2. Beat the eggs together and mix into the flour.
3. Knead it until it forms a dough.
4. Set the dough aside for 20 minutes, it should be covered with a damp towel to prevent a skin forming.

Preparation for Filling
1. Soak the shitake mushroom for 5-10 minutes.
2. Chop shitake mushroom, carrots, spring onions, coriander leaves, and garlic,into small pieces. It is easier to blend it in a food processor.
3. Add the blended mix into the pork mince and add the egg, salt, oyster sauce and cassava starch, and mix well.

Assembly
1. Cut the dough into very small balls.
2. On a slightly oiled or floured surface, roll the dough into small circles (approximately 6cms diameter).
3. Spread the filling evenly over the dough.
4. Lift up the edges into of the dought to form the sides - this will squeeze the filling into the centre.
5. For best results pleat the edges of the pastry to form pleated sides of the parcels.

Cooking and Storing
Add this point you can freeze them on a floured tray, or cook them straight away.
To cook them, place them in a Chinese steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

Serve With
Mint
Coriander
Lettuce
Sour sauce

Suggestions
If you like hot spicy food, you can insert a piece of red or green chilli into the centre of the parcel before eating it.
Another recommended way to serve them, is drissled with fried garlic and bacon in its oil, this is shown in the photograph.

These are a steamed snack with vegetables and pork wrapped up in a rice paper packet and steamed. They can be served hot as a starter or cold as a snack. You can see from the photograph that we eat this with fried garlic, it is a good idea to make a batch of fried garlic to be used as a condiment. If you like spicey food drop half a chilli into each parcel as you make them - it will create a burst of hotness as you bite into it.

Ingredients for Family
200 Pork Mince
100 gms Cabbage
100 gms Carrot
100 gms Bamboo
50 gms Glass Noodle
2 Egg
4 Shitake Mushrooms
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Ground White Pepper
5 Tablespooons Light Soy Sauce
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
4 Tablespoons Peanuts
A Little Oil
30 Sheets Rice Paper
Grease proof paper

Preparation
1. Soak the glass noodle and shitake mushroom for 10-15 minutes.
2. Take shitake mushroom and chop finely mix with the pork mince, garlic, and carrot and blend. A food processor is ideal for making this filling.
3. Chop the glass noodle, cabbage, and bamboo into small pieces and add to the mix.
4. Crush or chop the peanuts and add those. In Thailand we pound them in a Thai mortar.
5. Add the pepper, salt, soy sauce, and oyster sauce and eggs into the mix.
6. The mix of vegetables, eggs and pork will become the filling.
7. Soak the rice paper in water for 3 minutes to soften it, do not soak it too long or it will disintegrate.
8. Take a large flat plate and smear oil on it, you will assemble the parcels on this plate and the oil will prevent them sticking.
9. Prepare your steamer by covering the bottom with grease-proof paper, take a knife and cut through the slots so that the steam can go through the paper to reach the food.
10. Drop a lump of the filling into the centre of a sheet of rice paper and fold over the edges into a neat parcel.
11. Put the parcel in a the Chinese steamer, steam it for 8-10 minutes. Do not oversteam the parcel, the rice paper will become too wet if you do.

Serve With
Garlic fry
Chilli
Coriander
Lettuce
Sour sauce (Vinegar, Chillies and Soy Sauce mixed)

In China these are made using Wonton skins: a flour based dough processed with lye to change the texture of the flour. However at home in Thailand we make our own pastry without using Lye. This recipe is much better than the frozen Chinese parcels you can buy in the supermarket, the fresh spring onion and coriander really makes a big difference.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Wheat Flour
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Oil
150 gms Pork Mince
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Pepper
3 Garlic Cloves
20 gms Coriander Leaves (approx 2 sprigs)
20 gms Spring Onion (approx 1 spring onion)

Preparation
1. Whip the egg, put into flour and add the oil.
2. Mix this into a flour dough, it is better not to overwork it - knead it only enough to make a dough. Leave the dough for 5 minutes to rest.
3. Blend the pork, garlic, spring onion, light soy sauce, salt, pepper and coriander in a food mixer.
4. Take the dough, roll it into a sausage shape and chop off little pieces (approx 5 gms) from the end.
5. Roll each piece into a ball using your hands, then using a slightly oil rolling pin, roll the ball into a thin flat circle of pastry.
6. Put the meat filling into the centre, fold over the pastry and pleat the edges to form a parcel.
7. Pre heat a fryer or deep pan of oil to 190 degrees celsius (high).
8. Drop the parcels into the oil and fry for 2-3 minutes until the pastry has just browned and the meat cooked.
9. Remove and place on kitchen paper to remove any oil.

Serve with
Sukiyaki dipping sauce or chilli sour Chinese sauce and coriander, mint and chilli. Or you can just eat them plain.

Onions are often overlooked as a vegetable. Here we have a wonderful dish of stuffed onions, all the flavour of the red onions is kept in the dish and the onion served to keep the stuffing moist. Serve either as a starter or as a side dish with soup.

Ingredients
5 Large Onions
40 gms Pork Mince
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
2 Tablespoons Chopped Carrots
3 Garlic Cloves
1/4 White Pepper
4 Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Salt
1/3 Tespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Scoop out the centre of the onion to make a hollow bowl shape. Leave two or three layers of onion on the outside.
2. Place the hollow onions in boiling water and boil for 3 minutes.
3. Mix the pork mince with the carrot, onion, white pepper, salt, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, garlic, sugar and ketchup.
4. Fry the mixture until cooked.
5. Stuff the onions with the cooked filling mixture and place in a hot oven for 10 minutes to brown them off.

Serves With
Chopped Spring Onion
Fragrant Rice

These steamed dumplings are made with pork seasoned with Thai teriyaki powder, available widely in Asian supermarkets.

Ingredients
160 gms Pork Mince
2 Tablespoons Thai Teriyaki Powder
120 ml Water
1/2 Salt
150 gms Wheat Flour
1 Tablespoon Oil
2 Tablespoons Yeast
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Greaseproof Paper

Preparation
1. Mix the teriyaki powder with water and salt, add the pork mince and mix it thoroughly, leave it 1 hour to marinade.
2. Put the yeast in the bowl, together with 50ml water, add the sugar in and leave it for 1 minute to kick-start the yeast.
3. Add the yeast mix & the oil to the flour, and mix together. Add just enough extra water to bind the flour into a dough.
4. Knead it for 2 minutes and leave it for 30 minutes in a warm place to rise.
5. Cut it into 15 equal sized pieces. Roll out each piece into a flat disc.
6. Cut a small square of greaseproof paper for each of the pastry dunplings you made.
7. Take the pastry disc, add a spoonful of the pork mix, fold up the edges to enclose the pork and form a bun shape.
8. Place the bun on the greaseproof paper square.
9. Steam for 10 minutes until cooked.

Serve With
Mint
Lettuce
Coriander

These little mushroom 'houses' are three layers made with tofu, a ball of pork mince and capped with a roof made from a mushroom. Normally in the sauce I use the shoots of garlic, these look like spring onions, but grow from garlic bulbs instead of onion bulbs and have a strong garlic flavour. If you can't find them, you can use spring onions, but it's better to find the garlic shoots if you can.

Ingredients
100 gms Tofu
4 Shitake Mushrooms
50 gms Pork Mince
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Corn Flour
130 ml Water
1 Teaspoon Fish Stock Cube
1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic Shoots

Preparation
1. Soak the shitake mushrooms for 30 minutes if they are dried.
2. Cut the tofu into 5x5 cm squares, 4 pieces, one piece for each mushroom.
3. Mix the pork mince with the light soy sauce and sugar, then roll into 4 balls.
4. Put a ball of pork onto each of the tofu squares, cap them with a shitake mushroom.
5. Steam them for 10 minutes then put into the plate.
6. Make the sauce by adding fish stock to water and boil to form a simple soup.
7. When the soup is boiling add chopped green garlic shoots.
8. Dissolve the corn flour in 20 ml cold water, add to the soup and stir until it thickens.
9. Pour the sauce over the mushroom houses to serve.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice

I showed Bi Tua leaves in todays other article, here is a typical recipe of seasoned chicken, wrapped in bi tua leaves, deep fried and served with a dipping sauce. The leaves give the chicken a subtle tangy taste, but the dominant flavours come from the dipping sauce.

Ingredients
10-15 Bi Tua Leaves
150 gms Chicken Breast
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon White Wine
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Black Peppercorns
Toothpicks (optional)
Oil for Deep Frying

Preparation Chicken
1. Clean and chop the chicken breast into bite sized pieces.
2. Pound the garlic and black peppercorns together and mix in with the chopped chicken, add all the other ingredients and mix together.
3. Marinade in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Take the Bi Tua leaves, and wrap a piece of chicken in a length of leaf. You can see from the following photographs how I do this, I wrap the chicken forming a triangle, I cut the leaf to length and tuck it into the parcel to hold it.

5. If the parcels are not tight they can come apart during frying, so you can put a wooden toothpick through the parcel to hold it if necessary.
6. Deep fry in 170 degree celsius oil for 10 minutes.
7. Serve with the following dark soy sauce.

Ingredients Dark Soy Sauce
100 ml Water
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Toasted Sesame Seeds

Preparation for Sauce
1. Boil the water & sugar in a saucepan until the water has reduced and starts to thicken. Leave to cool.
2. Add in all the other ingredients and mix.

This makes a nice starter setting up the flavours of a coming meal. The main three flavours are seafood, a bitter taste from the melon and spicy chicken. I find it's nicer to present it with the prawns coiled up into the melon slices.

Ingredients
40 gms Bitter Melon
7-8 Prawns
30 gms Chicken
2 Garlic Cloves
20 gms Chopped Onion
20 gms Dried Flaked Chillies
1 Tablespoon Chilli Paste
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Clean and slice the bitter melon. You should remove the inner seeds as they are too bitter to eat. Arrange them on a plate small enough to fit in your steamer.
2. Clean, shell, and take out the black thread of the prawns, leave the tail on for presentation. Coil the prawns into the slices of melon as in the photograph.
3. Place the plate in the steamer and steam the prawns and melon for 5 minutes.
4. For the centre we will make Nam Prick (spicy chicken sauce).
5. In a blender, mix the chicken with the garlic, onion, flaked chillies, chilli paste, salt, sugar, lemon juice and fish sauce.
6. Blend to form a course mince.
7. Preheat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the mix until the chicken is cooked through. Spoon this into the middle of the prawn plate and serve.

Serve With
Thai Fragrant Rice

Choose a good medley of flavour mushrooms for this dish, like shitake, and seps, to give it a depth of taste. Chopped Thai basil and coriander also adds to the flavour. The recipe for the Kratong pastry is here.

Ingredients for 10 Tarts
100 gms Flavour Mushrooms
1/2 Teaspoon Butter
1/2 Teaspoon Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Basil
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Corn Flour
Coriander Leaves for Garnish (Optional)
10 Small Kratong Cases (Pastry cases)

Preparation
1. Clean and slice the mushrooms.
2. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a frying pan.
3. Lightly fry the mushrooms, add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, basil and oregano and stir until they are just softened, this only takes 30 seconds or so.
4. Mix the corn flour with 50ml water, and add to the mushroom pan and continue cooking to thicken up the juices.
5. Spoon the mushroom mixture into the kratong cases and top off with a garnish of a coriander leaf.

A very simple starter, to illustrate how plum sauce is used. This dish is simply cubes of deep fried tofu, with plum sauce as a dipping sauce and coriander garnish.

Ingredients
200 gms Tofu
Oil for Deep Frying
Plum Sauce
Coriander Leaves for Garnish

Preparation
1. Take the tofu and pat it dry on kitchen paper, this is to avoid the hot oil spattering. Cut into large cubes, 2cms on each side.
2. Heat the oil medium to 180 degrees celsius.
3. Fry the tofu cubes until brown, remove and drain on kitchen paper.
4. It really is that simple, you serve with plum sauce and garnish with some chopped coriander leaves to add a little colour. Serve with beer as a snack.

Crab sticks are those cheap sticks of white fish with a pink strip painted on them. They may not be a top quality cut of fish, but their shape makes them ideal for making this steamed starter.

Ingredients
10 Crab Sticks
200 gms Fish Mince
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
1-2 Coriander Roots
1-2 Carrots
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
Seaweed Paper

Preparation
1. Peel the carrots, coriander root and garlic. Chop them finely.
2. Then mix the fish mince (the minced flesh of any white meat fish), chopped carrot, garlic, white pepper, coriander root, oyster sauce, and light soy sauce together and mix well.
3. Take the seaweed paper, lay it down on a flat cloth or sushi mat, spread some of the mixture thinly over the seaweed paper, place a line of crab sticks along one edge and roll up the paper into a roll.
4. Cut the roll into 4cm lengths.
5. Steam for 10 minutes to cook.

This is a very small plate of pork balls, and noodles served as a starter or with an alcoholic drink as a snack. The pork is seasoned with red teriyaki powder seasoning which gives it it´s distinct taste.

Ingredients
Green Noodles
150 gms Pork Mince
1 Tablespoon Teriyaki Seasoning Powder
1/3 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Coriander Roots ( Pounded )

Preparation
1. Mix the pork mince and teriyaki powder, salt, sugar and punded coriander root.
2. Leave to mix for 30 minutes, then roll the meat into mini balls of pork.
3. Boil a pan of water, and add the noodles. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove and rinse with cold water. You can keep the boiling water to reuse to steam the finished dish.
4. Take the noodles and pork balls and set them on small plates. Steam the whole plate until the pork is cooked (10 minutes or so), then serve.

The shrimp tail is the give away on this dim-sum dish. Inside the parcel is a shelled shrimp, surrounded by pork mince and seasonings. The tail of the shrimp gives a nice handle to pick it up with.

Ingredients
100 gms Pork Mince
10 gns Pork Fat
100 gms Shrimp
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
3-4 Garlic Cloves
2 Coriander Roots
Wonton Skins (Pastry square, available from an Asian grocers)

Preparation
1. Mix the pork mince, pork fat, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, white pepper, garlic, and coriander root together in a blender and blend to a smooth mixture.
2. Take a wonton skin, spread the pork mixture over it, evenly.
3. Shell and clean a shrimp, leave the tail part of the shell on for decoration.
4. Place a shrimp in the middle and bring the edges of the pastry up around the shrimp tail so that the tail pokes out of the top.
5. Steam in a Chinese steamer until cooked, (approximately 10 minutes or so).

Serve With
Sour Soy Sauce (Or Soy and Vinegar mixed)
Chilli
Fried Garlic
Lettuce

These red pork pyramid shaped parcels are yet another steamed snack, served as a starter. The red layer is made from seasoned pork, the inner layer filled with noodle.

Ingredients for 2 People
50 gms Bami Noodle (Pre Cooked)
150 gms Pork Meat
1 Tablespoon Red Teriyaki Seasoning Powder
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 /4 Teaspoon White Pepper
2 Garlic Cloves
10 gns Chopped Spring Onions
10 gns Chopped Coriander Leaves
10 Wonton Skins (The pastry papers you buy premade)

Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients except for the wonton skins and noodles in a blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
2. Lay down a wonton skin, and spread a thin layer of pork evenly over it.
3. Pile cooked bami noodles in the middle, and bring the corners of the wonton pastry into the centre. You can see from the photograph, I crimped the edges of the pastry together, they normally stick together very easily, but if you have difficulty, brush with egg.
4. Place in a Chinese steamer and steam for 10 minutes.

A snack straight out of a Bangkok bakery, these little pies are ideal at this time of year with all the western parties. They are mini bite sized pies (pasties) filled with a Thai green curry pork. A mix of west and east. I used store bought puff pastry, but you can also make your own pastry.

Ingredients
100 gms Pork
2-3 Tablespoons Green Curry Paste
4 Tablespoons Evaporated Milk
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Oil
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Eggs
Puff Pastry

Preparation
1. Mince the pork with the chopped onion and put into a frying pan.
2. Add the oil and curry paste and fry together for 4 minutes. Add salt and evaporated milk and fry for 2 more minutes. Set aside and leave to cool.
3. Chop the coriander leaves and add them to the mix. They add lots of green colour, as well as taste to the pies.
4. Beat the egg in a bowl, and prepare a baking sheet by dusting it with flour.
5. Cut a circle of pastry using a round cutter approximately 7-8 cms in diameter. Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into the centre. Put beaten egg around the rim, fold it over into a semi-circle and crimp the edges with your fingers.
6. Glaze the pies with some of the egg to help them brown.
7. Place in the over at 190 degrees celsius until cooked, approximated 20-30 minutes.

In our house we eat this as a 'gop-gam' dish (a snack dish to eat at the end of the day with beer or whiskey), but usually they're made smaller and eaten as an appetizer. The pastry is a basic shortcrust pastry that is baked separately into cup shapes. The fillings are made later with Thai flavours, curries and spicy fish etc.. In the photograph above you can see two sizes, in the 3 flavours we made, but feel free to experiment.

Ingredients for Pastry (Makes 18+ Large or 25+ Small Cups)
150 gms Flour
60 gms Butter
1 Egg Yolk
Water
A baking tray with cup shaped impressions

Preparation for Pastry Cups
1. Place the flour and butter in a large mixing bowl.
2. Rub the butter into the flour using your finger tips. Once you've finished you should end up with a fine breadcrumb like mixture.
3. Add the egg yolk and just enough water to form a pastry dough.
4. Flour the baking tray so that the cups don't stick.
5. Roll the pastry onto a floured surface, cut out circles and place them into the baking tray.
6. Bake for 10 minutes at 190 degrees celsius until just brown and cooked.

Spicy Sardine Filling
This filling is shredded sardines with a Thai spicy sauce, for Kratong Tong that bite back! There is approximately enough filling to fill 6 larger cups with these ingredients.

Ingredients for Spicy Sardine Filling
1 Can Sardines in Tomato Sauce (Approx 90gms)
2 Red Chillies
1 Teaspoon Sliced Lemongrass
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Chopped Coriander Leaves

Preparation for Spicy Sardine Filling
1. Slice the chillies, lemongrass and coriander leaves.
2. Mix with the sardines and sauce from the can and salt.
3. Drain off excess liquid.
4. Spoon into the pastry cups.

Pork Curry Filling
This filling is pork & potato filling and the main taste is curry. The ingredients are enough to fill 6 large pastry cups.

Ingredients for Pork Curry Filling
50 gms Minced Pork
1 Clove Garlic
Pinch Pepper & Salt
1 Small Onion
1 Teaspoon Curry Powder
1 Tablespoon Oil
200 gms Potato

Preparation for Pork Curry Filling
1. Boil the potato until its cooked, dice it into small cubes.
2. Pound or chop the garlic until it is fine.
3. Cut the onion into fine pieces.
4. In a frying pan, add the oil, the mince, the onion and the garlic and fry until the pork is cooked (3-5 minutes).
5. Drain off excess oil.
6. Add the curry powder, salt and pepper, mix into the other ingredients and fry for a further minute.
7. Take off the heat, and mix in the chopped potato, its now ready to use as a filling.

Other Filling Ideas
You can use western ingredients too, in the photograph, for example, we also made a vegetarian filling with mashed potato, carrot and sweet corn. Or perhaps tuna and sweetcorn, or potato and shrimp are more to your liking.