To Prep
Place the dried chillies in a bowl of warm water and set aside for 3-4 mins, then drain.
Place the drained chillies, garlic, lemongrass, shallots, shrimp paste, kaffir lime rind and water in a blender. Blend to a smooth paste.
Vegetables
Panang Curry Paste
To Prep
Place the dried chillies in a bowl of warm water and set aside for 3-4 mins, then drain.
Combine the drained chillies, garlic, lemongrass, shallots, galangal, shrimp paste, kaffir lime rind, spices and water in a blender. Blend to a smooth paste.
Thai Sweetscorn Salad (Tum Khao Pod)
To Cook
Lightly crush garlic, chilli and palm sugar in mortar and pestle.
Add the shrimps, long green beans and pound a few times to bruise the beans. Add the peanuts and pound a few more times. Add lime juice and fish sauce to taste.
Add the cherry tomatoes and lightly crush. Add the sweetcorn and pound lightly. Use spoon to mix all ingredients. Put on plate and serve.
Tip
Do not over pound, grind or crush ingredients.
Thai Stir Fried Prawns and Green Beans (Pad Prik Khing Goong)
To Cook
Heat the oil in a wok or large heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add the curry paste and stir 2-3 mins until aromatic.
Add the fish sauce and palm sugar and stir.
Once the sugar has dissolved, add the prawns and continue to stir until the prawns are seared on both sides.
Add in the green beans, sliced long red chilli, torn kaffir lime leaves, and stir well.
When the prawns are cooked, add in the pork rind, julienned and finely chopped kaffir lime leaves and mix well.
Garnish with the julienned long red chilli and remaining kaffir lime leaves before serving.
Tom Yum Prawns (Tom Yum Goong)
To Cook
Place chicken stock in deep saucepan and bring to boil. Add the shallots, lemongrass and galangal and return to the boil.
Add the prawns, mushrooms, kaffir lime leaves and chillies, then stir for 1-2 mins or until the prawns are just cooked. Adjust taste with fish sauce and lime juice.
Serve the soup garnished with the coriander.
Riceberry Hot Smoked Salmon Salad
To Prep
Place the cooked riceberry and oil in a bowl. Add all ingredients and mix well. Adjust taste with salt and pepper. Ready to serve.
Northern Thai Rice Noodles with Spicy Pork Sauce (Khanom Jeen Nam Ngiaw)
To Make Pork Stock
Put pork ribs, water, lemongrass and salt into a pot. Bring to boil and simmer for 1 hr.
To Make Curry Paste
Pound all chillies and salt in a mortal until it becomes a smooth paste.
Add galangal and coriander roots, pound until smooth. Add fermented soybean, garlic and shallot, pound until it becomes a smooth paste.
Add shrimp paste and mix through.
To Make Spicy Pork Sauce
Fry curry paste in hot oil for 2 mins, add minced pork and cook for 3 mins. Then add pork stock and cooked pork bones.
Add all remaining ingredients and bring to boil, then reduce to simmer. Continue to simmer for 10 mins.
To Serve
Place cooked rice noodles on a serving plate and ladle spicy pork sauce to the side. Place the remaining serving ingredients on a small dish and serve the noodles with the side dish.
Seven-Vegetables Warm Chicken Salad (Yum Thawaai)
To Make Curry Paste
Pound the soaked dried chillies and salt in a mortar until smooth. Add galangal and lemongrass, continue to pound until it turns into a smooth paste.
Add garlic and kaffir lime zest, pound. Then add garlic and shallot and pound until smooth.
Add shrimp paste until mix through.
To Make Sauce
Pour half of coconut cream into a saucepan, cook on high heat until oil split. Add curry paste, then the ground dried fish. Keep frying for 2-3 mins.
Add the remaining coconut cream and water. Bring to boil.
Season with the remaining sauce ingredients, cook until everything is dissolved. Set aside.
To Blanch Vegetables
Pour coconut cream, water and salt into a pot and bring to boil.
Blanch bean sprouts until cooked. Remove and set aside. Then blanch all vegetables one by one, separately. The last one MUST BE banana blossom.
To Serve
Arrange everything on a plate and sprinkle all garnishes on top. Serve.
Thai Sour Curry with Deep Fried Barramundi (Gang Som Pla Tord)
To Cook
Place all Sour Curry Paste ingredients into a pot and put on high heat to bring to a boil. Boil for 4 mins until the dried chilli is soft.
Use a stick blender to blend all the ingredients until smooth.
Add palm sugar, tamarind paste and fish sauce for seasoning. Keep boiling for 1 min, then turn the heat to medium for simmer.
Add white radish and cauliflower, keep cooking for 4 mins. Then add green beans and continue cooking until all vegetables are soft, which takes about 10-15 mins.
Meanwhile, add fish sauce to the fish and mix well. Coat with potato starch and deep fried until golden brown.
Dish out curry into a bowl and place deep fried fish on top. Serve.
Tip
For soups without coconut milk or cream, using a stick blender instead of pounding speeds up the process and yields the same aroma and flavours from the spices.
Double Cooked Duck Leg with Red Curry Sauce (Gang Dang Ped Tord)
To Make Double Cooked Duck Leg
Put all ingredients in a pot. Bring to boil, then simmer for 1:40 hrs.
Drain the poaching liquid.
Leave it until cold then deep fried in hot oil.
To Make Thai Red Curry Sauce
Fried curry paste in medium heat oil until fragrant. Then add half of coconut cream and cook on high heat until oil split.
Add remaining coconut cream and sugar, continue to cook until sugar dissolved.
Add blended pineapple and mix well.
To Make Pineapple Yoghurt Sphere
Put sodium alginate in water, mix well with a blender.
Leave in a fridge for 1 hr.
Mix yoghurt and pineapple together.
Put yoghurt mix in squeeze bottle.
Squeeze the yoghurt mix in sodium alginate water. Take the sphere off then place in water. Set aside.
For Sauteed Spinach
Saute spinach in medium heat oil.
Season with salt and pepper.
To Make Roasted Trusted Tomatoes
Preheat oven at 190°C.
Season tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Put in the oven for 2-3 mins, set aside.
To Make Caramalized Fig
Dip the cut sides with sugar then use a blowtorch to torch until caramelized. Set aside.
To Make Coconut Cream Espuma
Put all ingredients in a pot, stir until well mixed.
Place on medium heat until salt is dissolved (don’t boil coconut cream)
Use a stick blender to blend on highest power until foam appeared.
Use only the foam to serve.
To Serve
Assemble all ingredients together, following your imagination.
Thai Boat Noodles
To Make Broth
Dry fry galangal, coriander roots, coriander seeds, cinnamon, star anise and peppercorn until fragrant.
Add onion and garlic, fry until slightly charred.
Add 3L water and bring to boil.
Once boiled, add daikon, pandan leaves, chicken, pork and seasoning.
Bring broth back to boil, skim off froth from the meat.
Simmer broth for 2 hrs, add the remaining 1L water and continue boiling for another hr.
Taste the broth and add seasoning if required.
Strain the broth and it is now ready for the noodles.
To Marinate Pork
In a bowl, mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and oil together.
Place the sliced pork tenderloin and mix thoroughly.
Set aside and marinate for minimum 15 mins to 1 hr.
To Serve
Blanch the noodles, bean sprouts and spinach in boiling water, then separate them into individual serving bowl.
In the simmering broth, add in the meatballs and marinated pork, stir them until cooked. Once cooked, divide them evenly onto the serving bowls.
Add the fresh Thai basil and pour the broth into the serving bowls.
Add fried garlic and oil, top with coriander, pork cracklings and chilli flakes/powder (optional) and serve immediately.
Thai Beef Noodle Soup
To Cook Beef Broth
In a big pot, add water and the beef bones then bring to boil. Skim off any foam on the surface. Once the foam are cleared, add star anise, black peppercorn, cinnamon, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, kaffir lime leaves and onion.
Simmer for minimum 2 hrs and it’s possible to cool the stock and keep overnight.
To Cook
Prepare the dry rice noodles according to the directions on the package.
Freeze the beef for 15 mins before slicing it thinly.
Blanch the vegetables in a pot of boiling water with some oil and salt and set aside.
In individual bowls, divide the rice noodles, raw beef and the blanched vegetables equally.
Bring the broth to boil then ladle the broth onto the prepared bowl until the broth covers the raw beef.
Add the Thai basil, coriander and chilli, serve with a lime wedge.