Thai Cuisine Recipe

This version of Tom Yum soup (the popular Thai spicy soup) is eaten in the North of Thailand, it is made with chicken rather than the shrimp (tom yum gung) eaten in the south and coast. If you prefer chicken its a good spicy soup.

Ingredients for 2 People
150 gms Corn Fed Chicken
8 Bird Chillies
2 Garlic Cloves
20 gms Lemon Grass
20 gms Galanga
4 Kaffir Citrus Leaves
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablspoons Tamarind Water
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
50 gms Straw Mushrooms
300 ml Water

Preparation
1. Put water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2. Chop the lemon grass and galanga into 3cm lengths and add to the pot to make a soup base.
3. Pound the garlic and bird chillies and add into the soup.
4. Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces, then add to the soup and cook for 3 minutes.
5. Cut the straw mushrooms into half and add to the soup.
6. Add the fish sauce, salt, tamarind water, lemon juice, and kaffir leaves into the soup and cook for an additional 30 seconds.

Serve With
Hot fragrant Rice

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.

Kang Kon Chinese is a popular green leaf vegetable of China, that has spread to Thai cuisine. This dish is essentially a stir fry of pork, seasonings and this Chinese vegetable. It is quite difficult to obtain in Europe, a suitable alternative is spring cabbage. In Bangkok it is often served with plain rice soup for the late night revelers coming back from the discotheques. This originates from neighboring China and is a mild dish.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Kang Kon Chinese
200 gms Pork Meat
2 Cloves Garlic
A Pinch White Pepper
1 Tablespoon Oil
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salted Fermented Soya Beans
1 Teaspoon Sugar

Preparation
1. Slice the pork into strips.
2. Crush the garlic
3. Cut of the kang kon chinese into 4 cm pieces, clean it and put it on the plate.
4. Put the oil in hot pan until very hot. Stir fry dishes require a hot pan and short cooking time.
5. Fry the pork for a minute.
6. Add the garlic and other ingredients and fry it for few seconds. The aim is to flash fry the vegetables without letting them go soggy.

Serve With
Hot fragrant rice or rice soup.

Thai food can be overwhelming, with lots of strange ingredients and foreign vegetables. So here we have a very simple and very tasty recipe using sardines! We used sardines in oil, but you can also use sardines in tomato sauce, in which case you don't need the tomato puré. This should be served with fragrant Thai rice, but can also be served along with salads.

Ingredient for 2 People
2 Cans of Sardines in Oil
2 Teaspoons of Tomato Puré
20 gms Lemon Grass
20 gms Coriander Leaves
50 gms Onion
2 Red Chillis
2 Bird Chillis
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce

Preparation
1. Remove the sardines from the can.
2. Mix the oil from the can with the tomato puré in a small mixing bowl.
3. Slice the onion, lemon grass, and chilles, and add to the bowl.
4. Add the fish sauce and lemon juice and mix all the ingredients together well.
5. Pour over the sardines.
6. Chop the coriander put around the edge of the sardine plate.

Serve With
Hot rice or salads.

This is a great 'gloopy' noodle dish. The noodles are drenched in a sticky salty, slightly sweet and very very delicious sauce. Use pork with a little fat for extra flavour.

Ingredients for 2 People
300 gms Flat Rice Noodle
1 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Oil
150 gms Pork
300 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Chicken Stock Cube
2 Tablespoons Cassava Starch (Use corn starch if you can't find it)
100 gms Broccoli

Preparation of Noodles
1. Soak the noodles in water for 20 minutes.
2. Put the oil, dark soy, sugar, and fry with noodle until the noodles are cooked.
3. Set aside on a plate.

Preparation For Soup
1. Boil the water and add the chicken stock cube, light soy sauce, and fish sauce to form a sauce.
2. Add the pork to the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the cassava starch to 70 ml of cold water and add to the sauce pan and stir to thicken the sauce.
4. Chop and clean the broccoli and add to the sauce pan. Turn off the heat.

Condiments to Serve With
Flaked Chilli Powder
Vinegar with Chopped Chillies
Sugar
Chopped or Pounded Peanuts

How to Serve
Place the noodles on a deep rimmed plate.
Spoon the sauce, broccoli and meat over the top.
The sauce should pool a under the noodles (which is why you need a deep rimmed plate).
Each guest can select which condiments to use on their dish.

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 is classic rich coconut ice-cream, served in a Thai style. Thai ice-cream isn't really iced cream, it's often made from non dairy products. This recipe contains taro, a root vegetable whose starchiness gives the ice-cream a soft smooth texture. You can also use sweet potato if you cannot obtain taro.
This recipe is much easier if you have a hand blender, during the preparation you will need to blend the ice-cream repeatedly as it freezes, this is done to break up the ice crystals that form. It is much easier to do that with a handheld blender or egg beater. Finally, the decoration is made from a gummy coloured mixture of cooked sticky rice flour, this is also very typical Thai, but you can use whatever toppings you like, although not strictly Thai, rum soaked raisins are popular in my house among the adults.

Ingredients
800 ml Coconut Milk
200 gms Sugar
5 gms Salt
100 ml Skimmed Milk
75 gms Taro or Sweet Potato
5 gms Corn Flour
Ice-water To Rapidly Cool the Mixture

Preparation
1. Chop the taro or sweet potato into large cubes and steam until cooked through.
2. Heat the coconut milk in a sauce pan on a very low heat (about 55 degrees celsius, this is nowhere near boiling, it is simply hot to the touch).
3. Mix the corn flour with 100 ml water and add to the coconut milk in the saucepan.
4. Add the sugar, salt, and skimmed milk, to the saucepan and stir until everything is dissolve.
5. Warm it to 65 degrees C and keep stirring it. Do not let it boil.
6. Mash the taro cubes with a fork and add into saucepan and using a hand blender blender the contents of the pan until the mixture is completely smooth and the taro has disappeared into the liquid.
7. Warm the pan a little higher to 80 degrees C for 4 minutes. Again it must not boil. This is to cook the flour through, without permitting it to become a thick sauce.
8. The mixture should be cooled quickly and then put in the fridge, the best way to do with is to empty it into a containing that is sitting in ice water.
9. Once it is cool enough, put it into the freezer until frozen.
10. While it is freezing ice crystals will form, every few hours you should remove it from the freezer and blend it with a hand blender to break up the crystals.

Sticky Rice Ball Topping (Ruam Mid)

These are used as the topping, they have a gummy texture and a rose smell, if you prefer you can use vanilla essence in water for a vanilla smell or other fruit essences. You can use coconut essence if you really want to emphasize the coconut taste.

Ingredients Red, Green and Yellow Food Colouring
9 Tablespoons Sticky Rice Flour (3 tablespoons for each colour)
4 1/2 Tablespoons Rose Water (1 1/2 tablespoons for each colour)
300 ml Cold Water
Water for boiling

Preparation
1. The colours need to be made up separately, steps 2 - 4 should be repeated for the red, green and yellow shapes in separate cups.
2. Drop the red food colorings into a cup and add 1 1/2 tablespoons of rose water.
3. Add 3 tablespoons of sticky rice flour to the cup and mix to a paste.
4. Pinch off small amounts of the paste and roll into tiny (corn sized) balls, or small sausages.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for yellow and for green food colouring.
6. Boil water in a saucepan and drop the balls and sausages into the boiling water.
7. They will swell slightly when cooked, it only takes a couple of minutes. One cooked, scoop them out with a sieve and drop into the cold water.
8. Mix a few with the ice-cream just before serving.