This is a common dish for Thai office workers, the reason is simple, it is widely available from street food stalls and can be cooked very quickly in a short lunch break. It is also quite spicy so its a great way to pep yourself up for the afternoon. Fried egg is sometimes look down on in the west, but its a staple of Thai cooking.
It originates from central Thailand, but can be bought everywhere, it is medium spicy.

Ingredients
200 gms pork meat
1 Onion
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Light Soya sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Suace
1 Teaspoon Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoon oil
A pinch of pepper
5 Bird chillis
5 Large red chilli
3 Garlic Cloves
5 Kaprow Basil leaves

Preparation
1.Clean the pork meat and chop it into small bite sized pieces.
2 Slice the onion finely.
3. Peel and chop garlic and chilli until fine.
4. Fry garlic and chilli in hot pan with oil until the garlic aroma comes out.
5. Add the pork and fry it until cooked, add the onion and ingredients.
6. Add kaprow basil and a pinch of pepper.
7. Fry for a few minutes long until the onions are soft, then set aside on a serving dish.
7.Clean the pan and heat some more oil.
8. Fry the egg,the egg is usually served sunny side up.

Serve With
Hot Thai Fragrant Rice
Cucumber and tomato slices

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.

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

'Tom Yum' is a spicy soup made from chilli, lime leaves and lemon juice, 'Gung' is the shrimp form of this soup. 'Tom Yum' is what people think of when they think of Thai food, it is the poster dish you must learn to cook to be able to say you cook Thai food. In the North East it's common to eat 'Tom Yum' made from chicken, it can also be made from pork or even fish.

Ingredient for 2 People
150 gms Shrimp
250 ml Water
30 gms Galanga
30 gms Lemongrass
20 gms Kaffir Lime leaves
25 gms Bird Chilli
1 Sprig Coriander
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Tom Yum Paste
1 Teaspoon Chilli Paste
2 Tablespoon condensed milk

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Rice

Preparation
1. Clean the shrimp and remove the black thread (the intestine) from the shrimp by cutting it down the back.
2. Slice the galanga and lemongrass, into short 3cm pieces and pound it in a mortar to break out the flavours.
3. Put the water in pan bring to the boil.
4. When the water is boiling add the galanga, lemongrass, kaffir, salt, and Tom Yum Paste, and wait for it to come back to biling again.
5. Add the shrimps in cook for 2 minutes.
6. Break the chillis into a mortar and pound them for a few moments to a pulp, add to the soup.
7. Add the fish sauce, lemon juce, chilli paste and condensed milk to the soup.
8. Turn off the heat and add the coriander leaves, serve hot.

This is a great way to serve fresh forest mushrooms. When I was a child in Thailand, my grandmother would take me out into the forest in the very early morning and we would pick wild fresh mushrooms to cook for dinner. You can use any combination of flavorful mushrooms, or if those are difficult to buy, you can get mushrooms in a jar from a supermarket. But you'll appreciate this dish more if you go mushroom picking at 4am to make it!

Ingredient for 2 people
150 gms Mushrooms
(We used Oyster, Saffron Milkcap, Shiitake and Viscid)
400 ml Water
30 gms Galanga Root
30 gms Lemon Grass
2 Kaffir Citrus Leaves
3 Big Red Chillis
2 Bird Chillis
1 Tablespoon Sticky Rice
2 Tablespoons Tamarin Water
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce (For vegetarian use Light Soy Sauce instead)
75g Bamboo Shoots

Preparation
1. Put the sticky rice into hot water to soak for 1-2 hours.
2. Chop the galanga and lemon grass, into 1cm lengths and pound them in a mortar with the chillies until you just break them up and release the flavours.
3. Add the pounded ingredients to a boiling pan, add the water, and bring the mixture to the boil.
4. Pound the sticky rice into fine pieces and add to the pan.
5. When the pan is boiling, add the mushroom, bamboo and add all the remaining ingredients.
6. Simmer for 5-8 minutes, until the mushrooms and bamboo are just cooked through.

Serve With
Sticky rice or fragrant rice.
It is better served warm, but you can also eat it cold together with sticky rice on a picnic.

This is a spicy chicken soup with coconut milk used to soften and add depth to the soup. A citrus flavour comes from Kaffir limes leaves and lemon grass. The spicey taste comes from the chilli, so you can adjust the chilli level to suit your own taste. The quantities are correct for a medium hot soup. The dish uses galanga root, which looks similar to ginger root and is sometimes referred to as Thai ginger. Don't be fooled, it is not ginger and you should not substitute ginger.
Like other Thai soups, rather than serve your guests a bowl of soup it is more normal to serve them a shared bowl and for them to use the soup by spooning it over rice to flavour the rice.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Chicken Breast
100 ml Water
150 ml Coconut Milk
30 gms Galanga
30 gms Lemon Grass
30 gms Kaffir Leaves
1 Sprig Coriander
25 gms Bird Chilli
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
5 Cherry Tomatoes (Not Traditional)

Serve With
Fragrant Hot Rice

Preparation
1. Clean the chicken breast and chop it into strips.
2. Chop the galanga & lemon grass.
3. Pound the bird chilles in a mortar.
4. Put the water in pan and bring to the boil.
5. When water is boiling, add the galanga, lemon grass, kaffir and salt.
6. Bring the water back to the boil and add the chicken, fish sauce, lemon juice and coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
7. Add chilles, cherry tomatoes, coriander and in simmer for a further 1 minute to let the flavours spread through the soup.

This is 'show food', food to impress guests with. Each guest assembles their own parcel of ingredients to eat, wrapped in rice paper and either dips the parcel into the sauce, or drops a spoonful or two inside the parcel. It can be a little messy but is definitely fun! The sauce and pork can be prepared ahead of time, only the rice paper must be prepared just before serving. The sauce is normally served slightly warm. In the above photograph you can see a typical parcel in the middle of the plate.

Ingredients for Family
300 gms Pork Mince
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon Black Peppercorns
2 Tablspoons Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt

Ingredient For The Sauce
70 ml Water
70 ml Tamarind Water
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Peanuts Pieces
1 Chicken Stock Cube
1 Teaspoon Salt

Side Dish Ingredients
3 Garlic Cloves
8 Bird Chillies
1 Lemon Peeled and Sliced
100 gms Rice Nooddle
10-20 Rice Paper Pages

Vegetable to Serve With
Many salad vegetables can be substituted, but the mint leaves are particularly important for this dish.
200 gms Green Lettuce
50 gms Mint leaves
50 gms Coriander leaves
50 gms Sweet Basil leaves

Preparation for Pork Mince
1. Put the pork in a large mixing bowl.
2. Pound the peppercorns and garlic together in a mortar.
3. Add to the pork, together with the light soy and oyster sauce.
4. Mix the ingredients until thoroughly mixed and place in a fridge for 30 minutes.
5. Form the pork into long thin sausages, and place on a backing tray.
6. Cook at 200 degrees C (Medium) until the pork is cooked.
7. Cut it into bite sized pieces and set aside.
8. We call this 'Nam Nuang' in Thai, it is the part that the whole dish is named after.

Preparation For The Sauce
The peanuts can be prepared earlier as they are used for many Thai dishes. They are peanuts fried in a dry pan to gently brown them, then pounded in a mortar to form smaller pieces suitable for cooking and for sauces like this one.
Tamarind water is water added to sour tamarind, the tamarind is squeezed so that its juice sours the water, and the tamarind pulp is removed (and kept for future use), only the sour water is used in the sauce.
1. Mixed the water and tamarind water together in a pan and bring to the boil.
2. When the water is boiling, add the chicken stock cube and dissolve it.
3. Add the salt and sugar. Stir over the heat until the sugar begins to darken and caramelize and the sauce becomes thicker. This takes typically 10 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, add the peanuts and stir into the mixture.

Preparation For the Side Dish Vegetables
1. Slice the garlic
2. Slice the chilles
3. Slice the lemon removing the skin.
4. Boil the rice noodles for 3 minutes, remove from the heat and place in cold water. Roll the noodles up into parcels to make them easier for your guests to eat.
5. Soak the rice paper pages in warm water for 3 minutes until just soft. Add the pages one by one to the water to keep them separate. This should be done just before serving, if the rice paper is left in the water too long they will become too soft. After soaking remove them and place on a plate, or let your guests remove them from the water themselves. You can always soak more rice paper if needed, so experiment a little first.

How to serve
Your guest takes a page of rice paper in their hand, adds meat and vegetables, mint leaves, coriander and if they like, a bird seed chilli to make it spicy. They add a teaspoon or two of the nut sauce, fold the rice paper into a parcel then eat the parcel. If you like spicy food, you can also add dried flaked chilli directly to the sauce.

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.

Danger, here be monsters! This is the typical dish of Thailand consisting mainly of papaya, chillis, seasonings, chillis and more chillis. If you like chilli this is the dish for you. The recipe varies from province to province, in the North East they add some fish sauce for flavour, in other provinces it can contain pounded small crabs, or pounded pickled crab. Sometimes mango is added to give a sour taste. The recipe below is typical of North East Thailand.

Ingredients for 2 People ( medium spicy )
1 Papaya
5 Bird Chillis
5 Big Red Chillis
2 Clove Garlic
1 Lemon
1 Tablespoon of Old Salty Fish
1 Tablespoon of Fish Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
4 Cherry Tomatoes

Serve With
Any Salad of Vegetables

Preparation
Importance: you must have a proper Thai Mortar to pound the ingredients.
1. Chop the papaya into fine strips.
2. Pound the garlic and chilli to break it up
3. Slice the lemon and tomatoes.
4. Add the old fish sauce, fish sauce, sugar,1 slice of lemon and sliced tomatoes, and pound them a few times.
5. Add the papaya and pound again untill everything is mixed.
6. Taste it and add more fish sauce to salt, or more chilli to spice it to your preference.

This dish is a spicy Thai curry softened with coconut milk. Do not omit the coconut milk it is essential to the dish, but the vegetables can be interchanged with western vegetables. If you can't get the green aubergine, use a suitable green frying vegetable rather than purple kind. The curry is ready mixed paste commonly used in Thailand, you can get this from an Asian grocer.

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms. Pork
50 gms. of ready make red Curry paste
200 ml. Coconut Milk
100 ml. Water
50 gms. Green Bean
50 gsm. Green Aubergine
1 Tablespoon Oil
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Rice

Preparation
1.Clean pork and chop into small bite sized pieces.
2. Slice the green aubergine and chop the green beans into 3 cm pieces.
3. Put half the coconut milk (100 ml). in a hot pan until the coconut steams and turn the gas down to medium
4. Add the red curry paste and stir it until the coconut and curry are mixed together.
5. Add the pork and stir again until the pork is cooked.
6. Add fish sauce, sugar and salt to taste.
7. Add the remaining half of the coconut milk and the water and bring to the boil.
8. Add the vegetables and simmer until the vegetables are just cooked.

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.

Green Chicken Curry it a favored dish from Central Thailand, and visitors to Thailand love it because it not too spicy and easy on the palet. A good meal for an evening dinner, here it is cooked with chicken legs but you can use chicken breast instead if preferred. I recommend corn fed chicken, it has much more flavour and a softer texture. There are lots of herbs & spices in the sauce, in old times these would be prepared by hand, luckily today thats not necessary, your local Asian supermarket stocks green curry sauce all ready to use. Note, you can eat the herbs too.
Originally from central Thailand, this is low to medium hot.

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms. Green Curry Sauce
4 Corn Fed Chicken legs
200 ml. Coconut milk
150 ml. Water
4 Red Thai Chillis
6 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
4 Basil Leaves
3 Kaffir Leaves (Asian Lime Leaves).

Serve With
Hot Fragrant Rice or Rice Noodles

Preparation
1. Clean the corn fed chicken legs, ensure all feathers are removed and trim.
2. Warm half of the coconut milk until it is just near boiling.
3. Add the curry sauce to the pan and stir until the coconut milk is well mixed with the curry.
4. Put the corn fed chicken legs in and stir it for 2 minutes
5. Turn the heat down to medium
6. Mix the remaining coconut milk with the water, and put add it to the pan slowly, stirring at same time.
7. Leave on a low boil for 20 minutes.
8. Then add the salt, sugar, red chilli and fish sauce in to taste. The taste should be a salt,sweet, curry
9. Cook for a further 2 minutes to cook in the seasoning, then switch off the heat.
10. Add the basil and kaffir leaves together with the cherry tomatoes.

Remarks
Before serving, it is better to let it cool slightly.

Pad Thai is a fried noodle dish, although there are many dishes called Pad Thai, all are essentially the same: fried rice or glass noodles with chilli and other ingredients for flavouring. Here we use glass noodles. Be careful when choosing your noodles, they must be soaked and fried, a good quality noodles survives this cooking process, poor quality noodles will break into unpleasant small pieces. This is a quick cook dish from central Thailand, you add the chilli when it is served, so your guest can choose to make the dish spicy or mild. For the pounded peanut, it's better to choose a dry unsalted peanut, roast them it in a dry frying pan and pound them in a Thai mortar until they form smaller pieces. Alternatively you can chop the nuts by hand. These can be prepared ahead of time and stored in a cool dry place for a long time.

Ingredients for 2 people
1 Small Pack of Glass Noodle
1 Egg
50 gsm. of Dry Shrimp
50 gms. of Tofu
2 Small Red Onion
50 gsm. Soya Bean Shoots (Beansprouts)
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
2 Tablespoon Chilli Sauce
1 Tablespoon Peanuts ( pound to fine pieces )
1 Teaspoon Dry Flaked Chilli
3 Tablespoons Oil

Serve With
Fresh Soya Bean
Green Lettuce

Garnish With
Sugar
Peanuts ( pounded to fine pieces )
Dried Chilli ( pounded to flakes )
Lemon or Lime Slice

Preparation
1. Soak the glass noodles in water for 5 minutes to soften them.
2. Chop the tofu into small squares,
3. Slice the red onion into smaller pieces.
4. Clean the fresh soya shoots and chop off the roots.
5. Put the oil in a hot frying pan with the dry shrimp, and fry for 30 seconds
6. Move it to one side of the frying pan to make room to fry an egg.
7. Break the egg in hot oil and stir quickly for a few seconds to break it up.
8. Add the glass noodle and other cooking ingredients and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Spicy Pork Salad is a Thai style salad. This is a dish of spicy pork that is served as a snack at parties or at home with beer or whisky. You might have a beer and pizza, but Thai people have a beer and spicy pork. The chilli content in the dish 'cuts' through the beer. Medium hot.

Ingredients for 2 people
200 gms Pork
150 mlts Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
4 Red Chillis
2 Green Chillis
3 Garlic Clove
2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce.
1/2 an Onion.
1 Teaspoon Chopped Celery

Serve With
Salad Vegetables
Beer or Whisky

Preparation
1. Clean the pork and slice into strips.
2. Put the water in pan to boil, add the salt.
3. When the water is boiling, add pork in the pan and boil for 2 minutes.
4. Put the chilli, garlic, fish sauce, lemon, celery, into a blender and blend until fine.
5. Chop the celery into tiny pieces, take only 1 teaspoon and put it in the mix with the spicy sauce.
6. Take the pork of the hot water put in the plate and add some salad vegetables to decorate it.
7. Pour the spicy sauce ontop of the pork and serve with drink or for a snack.

This is an ever popular dish with westerners. It is the Thai version of banana fritters, unlike the western version, coconut batter is used and the bananas are smaller and less ripe because they hold their shape and texture better when deep frying. The quantities shown are sufficient for 10-12 small bananas. You will need a deep fat fryer or wok filled with oil to cook this.

Ingredients
10-12 Small Bananas
100 gms Rice Flour
100 gms Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
200 mls Water
100 mls Coconut Milk
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoons Sesame Seeds
3 Tablespoons Sugar
4 Tablespoons Desiccated Coconut

Preparation
1. Peel and slice bananas into two halves.
2. Cut bananas into short lengths (7-8 cms approximately, the exact size is not important)
3. Combine all the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl and stir until mixed.
4. Heat the oil to 190 degrees C. (The hottest setting on a typical deep fat fryer).
5. Dip the banana pieces into the batter and drop into the hot oil.
6. Fry until the batter is cooked and golden.

Don't try to fry too many pieces at once, they will stick together. Dust with icing sugar for presentation.

Chicken & Pork Noodle Soup, is a cheap food sold from street stalls in major Thai cities. Thai people don't cook this at home, not just because its so widely available on the street, but also because it takes a lot of preparation work and has many ingredients. Although not as convienient to make yourself, it is well worth it. It is a great 'show' food, each diner receives a generic pot of noodles with chicken and pork, and chooses the seasonings they prefer. The soup can be prepared the day before. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon. Available all across Thailand, it is very mild & not spicy.

Ingredient for Family of 5
Packet of Rice Noodles
1 Large boiling pan with 3 litres water.
1 Chicken Carcass with chicken meat
2 Pork Bones (To make stock)
1 Chicken stock cube
3 Tablespoons Light Soya Sauce
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Salt
2 Tablespoon of Pickle Garlic Water
6 Garlic Cloves
Whole Back Peppercorn
1 Coriander Root
1 Chinese Radish

Ingredients for Seasoning
Dried Flaked Chilli
Sugar
Ground Peanuts
Vinegar
Fried Garlic in Oil
Pork Rinds

Garnish With
Pak Bong (Or Green Leaf Vegetables).
Soya Bean Shoots
Fried soya curd cubes

Preparation
For the Soup
1. Start by bringing the pan of water to boil, we will add the ingredients when it is boiling.
2. Grind the garlic, coriander root, and peppercorns together and add to the boiling pan.
3. Add the fish sauce, light soya sauce, sugar, salt, and garlic pickle water, to the pan.
4. Chop the radish into 1cm slices for this soup we need 3 or 4 slices, add to the pan.
5. Add the chicken carcass and pork bone and leave on a low boil for 1 hour.
6. Once the soup is ready, remove the chicken, and shred any meat on it.

For the Garnish
7. Chop of the pak bong into 4cm pieces
8. Put the pak bong and soya shoots into cold water.

To Serve
9. Boil water in an clean pan.
10. Put the noodles into the boiling water, they will cook in less than a minute. Ideally put the noodles into a seive and lower the seive into the boiling water, so that the noodles can be cooked and removed quickly.
11. Place the noodles in a bowl, with some shredded chicken together with some stock from the soup.
12. Let your guest choose which other garnishes to add to the bowl. Its normal to add lots and lots of garnishes to add different flavours and textures.

The western tradition is that the dessert is sweet. The Thai tradition is slightly different, the Thai word for dessert is 'kanom' and covers all types of post main course dishes & snacks. This leads to some very strange desserts and this is one of them. The top layer is whiter and made from coconut milk and is very salty, the lower layer is very sweet and contains corn. The idea is that the two layers balance out, when eating this dessert you should take some from both layers with your spoon - a little sweet and a little salt.

Ingredients for Sweet Part
100 gms Rice flour
150 gms Sugar
150 ml Rose Water
30 gms Corn Flour

Ingredient for Salty Topping
100 mls Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
2 Teaspoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds

Preparation for Sweet Part
1. Mix the sugar and the with rice flour.
2. Add the rose water and stir until the flour is well mixed.
3. Place on a medium heat and keep stirring until the flour is cooked - it will lose its whiteness and become more transparent.
4. Add the corn and stir to mix it in.
5. Spoon it into the base of the serving dishes and leave to cool.

Preparation for the Topping
1. Mix the sugar, flour and salt together.
2. Add the coconut milk and stir it until well mixed.
3. Put it on low heat and stir it until the flour is cooked.
4. Spoon it out ontop of the sweet mixture and place in the fridge.
5. Put sesame seed in a small frying pan, heat the pan and brown the seeds for the rich nut fragrance to develop. This takes only 30 seconds or so.
6. Drop a few sesame seeds onto each serving.

Notes
Corn is typical for this dish, however pear can be used too if corn does not appeal to you. You can serve this dessert still warm if you prefer.

This is an unusual cold Thai drink available in cans, but here we make it fresh. It looks like frog spawn, but don't let that put you off, those little gelatin lumps with black centres are actually Thai basil seeds. Thai basil has a smaller leaf than you see in Italian cooking, but the seeds are widely available. When you add water the seed swells into small soft balls and these give an unusual texture to the drink. The traditional flavouring is rose water, but you can flavour it with vanilla or peppermint essence if you prefer, or try adding the seeds to Iced Tea for tea with texture!

Ingredients for 2 Drinks
5g Thai Basil Seeds
500ml Water
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Honey
200ml Rose Water
Crushed Ice for Serving

Preparation
1. Using a tea strainer to hold them, rince the seeds under a tap to clean them.
2. Soak the seeds in 100ml water.
3. With the other 400ml of water, warm it with the sugar and honey until the sugar is fully dissolved. Taste it, you can adjust the sweetness to your own preference at this point, remember that the drink will be slightly more dilute once the other ingredients are added.
4. Leave to cool back to room temperature.
5. Once the water is at room temperature, and the basil seeds have swelled mix them all together, the rose water, the sweetened water and the water with the basil seeds.
6. Chill and serve over crushed ice.

This fish is left for 3 days to allow it to sour as a result of slight decay (the salt in the recipe stops it completely rotting). In Thailand, many homes don't have fridges and food goes off in the heat very quickly. Sometimes this isn't such a bad thing and a little bit of decay adds a lot of flavour. Just like you have 3 month old cheese, so we have soured 3 day old fish!

Ingredients
200 gms Fish (Hake Cod etc.)
5 Tablespoons Salt
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
2 Tablespoons Fragrant Rice

Preparation
1. Clean the fish and gut it.
2. Dissolve the rice flour in 300ml water, soak the fish in this liquid for 5 minutes, then rinse. This will help clean the fish.
3. Pound the garlic, salt and fragrant rice together.
4. Spread the pounded mixture over the fish and inside the cavity of the gutted fish.
5. Place in a plastic bag and leave at room temperature for 3 days.
6. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the contents of the packet (including the pounded garlic) in hot oil until the fish is golden and crispy.

Serve With
Garlic Cloves
Big Red Chillies
Lots of Coriander Leaves
Lots of Mint Leaves

This is a delicious, slightly salt, slightly sweet, very filling dessert from Thailand. The salt balances the sweetness of the sauce and ripe mango. The sticky (glutinous) rice is like a solid rice pudding base to the dish.

Ingredient For 4 people
100 gms Glutinous (Sticky) Rice
2 Mangos
200 ml Water
100 ml Coconut Milk
100 gms Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Rice Flour

Preparation
1. Soak the glutinous rice in some water (enough water to cover it) for 3-4 hours. This will make the sticky rice easier to cook.
2. Steam the rice for 15 minutes to cook it through.
3. Into a sauce-pan, put the water and sugar, and bring to the boil. The sugar should dissolve completely.
4. Add the cooked sticky rice into the sugar pan and stir well to mix it.
5. In a different sauce pan, put the coconut milk, the rice flour, and salt and cook it on a low heat for 5 minutes or until the coconut milk thickens from the flour.
6. Peel the mango and slice the flesh into thin slices.
7. To serve, put a bed of the sticky rice on a plate, followed by a layer of mango slices, and pour some of the coconut sauce over the top.

A more traditional cut of pork, the thigh, is used in this dish. It is boiled with its skin until the meat is very soft and the fat almost jellied, and scented with spices like star-anise and cinnamon. The meat is so soft it practically disintegrates when you stick the fork in it. The Mirin Whiskey is a white cooking spirit from Japan, any other strong alcohol can be substituted.

Ingredients for Family
500 gms Pork Leg With Skin
10 gms Ground Cinnamon
2-3 Star-anise
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Teaspoons Black Pepper Corns
2 Coriander Roots
4 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
5 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Salt
80 gms Sugar
1 Chicken/Meat Stock Cube
2 ltrs Water
2 Tablespoons Mirin Whisky
3 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Clean the pork leg. If the pork has hairs, burn the hair over a hot flame and scrape them off with a knife.
2. Pound the garlic with the black pepper corns and coriander root in a Thai mortar.
3. Fry the pounded garlic mix in a frying pan till the garlic smell is released.
4. Add the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, Mirin whisky and pork leg.
5. Fry the skin of the pork leg, turning it to make sure the whole skin has been fried for a few minutes. Cover with a lid and fry for 5 more minutes.
6. Boil water in a large sauce pan, add a meat stock cube to the pot, together with salt and fish sauce and leave it to simmer and for the cube to dissolve.
7. Add star-anise and cinnamon into the pot and the fried pork and other fried ingredients, simmer for 2 hours.

Serve With
Brocolli leave or Spinach Leaves
Pickled Cabbage
Spicy Chilli Sweet Sour Sauce

This noodle curry dish is standard faire among Isaan Thais (North Eastern Thais). The predominant taste is of fish sauce & chilli rather than curry, but this can be a bit overwhelming so you may prefer to increase the chicken and peanuts if you are not accustomed to authentic Thai food. You can use either pork or chicken in this recipe.

Ingredient for Family
200 gms Chicken Breast
50 gms Red Curry Paste
50 gms Peanuts
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
300 mls Coconut Milk
200 mls Water
200 gms Flat Rice Noodles

Serve With
100 gms Cabbage
50 gms Cucumber
50 gms Green Beans
100 gms Lettuce
35 gms Coriander
20 gms Mint

Preparation
Curry Sauce
1. Put coconut milk in a boiling pan and bring to the boil.
2. Add the red curry paste and mix.
3. Mince the chicken breast then add to the curry pan.
4. Cook until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
5. Add the water and bring to the boil again.
6. Add the fish sauce, sugar, and salt, and cook for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, toast peanuts in a dry frying pan to bring out the smell. The pound them in a mortar, or chop them into smaller pieces and add to the curry sauce.

Noodles
1. Soak noodle with warm water for 15 minutes.
2. Steam for 5 minute, then rinse with cool water.

Vegetable
1. Slice cabbage for into small strips.
2. Cut the cucumber into small triangles.
3. Chop the green bean into short 1cm lengths.
4. Chop coriander into 3cm lengths.
5. Clean the mint, and take only the leaves.

To Serve
1. Place all the vegetables on the plate.
2. Top off with the cooked noodles.
3. Ladle sauce over the noodles until the sauce covers the whole dish.
4. Serve.

Pig ears are a very underrated part of the pig. They have a soft meat and plenty of fat for taste. Here's how we prepare them in Thailand as a snack to eat with beer or whiskey.

Ingredients for 4 People
200 gms Pork Ears
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 Tablespoons Salt
75 gms Sugar
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
10 gms Chopped Coriander Leaves
400 ml Water

Preparation
1. Cleaning the pork ears remove any hairs, chop into 4cm chunks for cooking.
2. Boil the water in a sauce pan with the salt, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar.
3. When the sugar and salt are dissolved add cinnamon into water.
4. Add the pork ears into the pan and simmer slowly for 1.30 hur.
5. Slice the pigs ear thinly to serve.

Serve with
Spicy Sour Sauce
Alcoholic Drinks

Ingredients for Sauce
5 Bird Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Teaspoons Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoon Vinegar

Preparation
1. Pound the garlic with the chillies until they are well broken up.
2. Add the salt, sugar and vinegar, and pound it slowly just to mix.
3. Serve in a bowl, or over the sliced pigs ears.