Keith's Blog

Spicy chicken salad (Larb Gai)

1. Make the seasoning by mixing together the lime and sugar and ½ the fish sauce. Retain the rest of the fish sauce if require once tasted the salad.
2. In a wok, bring the stock to the boil
3. Add chicken and stir until cooked
4. In a large bowl mix chicken, seasoning, spring onions, shallots, coriander, chilli pepper and most of the toasted rice
5. Season and taste. Add more fish sauce/seasoning if required

NOTES:

To toast sticky rice you put the rice in a frying pan without any oil. You toast the rice until it is very brown, don’t worry about the occasional burnt one. Once it is toasted you put it in the mortar and pestle and grind it until it mostly resembles a medium coffee grind

Stir-Fried Chicken with hot basil (Gai Pad ka Prao)

1. Combine garlic and chillies in a mortar and pound to rough paste
2. In a hot wok with oil add garlic/chilli paste, cook until ‘fragrant’ (30 seconds max)
3. Add meat and cook appropriately
4. Add long beans, baby corn, onion and chicken stock. Stir until tender
5. Add seasoning and taste, adjust as necessary
6. Add basil and take off the heat.
7. Serve

Fried sweet noodles with pork (Sen Yai Pad See Eeaw)

1. Heat oil. Put in garlic. Cook until fragrant (about 60 seconds. Don’t brown)
2. Add Egg. Cook until white is quite set and then scramble.
3. Add pork. Cook until fully cooked (don’t overcook).
4. Add carrots and corn. Cook for 60 seconds
5. Add noodles, kale and seasoning. Mix in to get brown colour through the noodles. Taste and season as required.
6. Add dark soy and mix colour through as required.

Serve with Sugar, chilli powder and lime.

Deep fried chicken in tamarind sauce(Gai tord sot makham)

1. Spread tapioca flour on plate.
2. Coat chicken well in tapioca flour. Shake off excess
3. Deep fry chicken until golden brown
4. Separate out the onion sections and deep fry.

Tamarind Sauce

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl
2. Place in wok on medium heat and heat until sugar is dissolved and mix starts to thicken.
3. Taste sauce and season to taste. Chicken stock can be added to reduce salt flavour

Serve with onion on top and sauce as an accompaniment.

Is it bad that I know that this must be advertising Krispy Kreme?

looks like ginger, smells like lemon grass and tastes like a very soft ginger (not sharp).

Yep, their baby corn is about the size of a pen.  you chop the end off as close to where the corn starts as you can and peel away the remaining leaves.

Sweet chilli from yesterday….

Soooo easy and so good. No artificial colours or thickeners..

It is 1 part White vinegar, 1 part (by volume) sugar, ½ part water and 1/8 part salt, ½ part finely chopped chilli and ¼ part finely chopped garlic… OK easier…

1. Cook together vinegar, sugar, water and salt. Heat on a medium heat until the mixture thickens. Take care not to overdo it and allow it to start to caramelise. Take off heat and taste mixture at this point, add liquid as per taste.
2. Add chilli and garlic. Heat a little more to cook garlic and remove from heat… DONEJ

Penang curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Penang)

In a stone mortar and pestle pound coriander seeds, cumin and peppers thoroughly until they are a fine dust.

Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, and coriander root to mortar and pound until there isn’t any obvious sinew (quite a while, they say a good wife can do this quickly and for a while, not my words!!)

Add dried chillies and salt pound unit pieces of chilli cannot be made out from the rest of the matter (again not an easy task, right arm starting to feel it now).

Add shrimp paste and pound to mix in the paste.

NOTES:
To roast coriander seeds and cumin seeds you just put them on a flat tray in the oven. They are done when you can smell them roasting.
Soak the red spur chillies in warm salted water for 10 min before chopping them.
Only use the white part of the lemon grass. The green can be used to make a lemon grass tea.
Galangal ginger is not ginger and can’t really be substituted. It looks like ginger but doesn’t really have the same flavour
Kaffir lime is not lime. It has a skin like the outside of a brain. You only need about 2cm of a strip
Coriander root is literally that. You can get it from Coles where it is attached dirt and all to the fresh coriander. You chop off the root at the point where the green starts
To keep stir fry for a couple of minutes, let cool and put in a container in the fridge. It will keep for a few months

Panang curry with chicken (Gaeng Panang Gai)

I have to apologise for this pic.  It is a crop of another pic.  I have no idea why I didn’t take another shot but… I didn’t.  Live and learn.

Extra coconut cream to wet chicken if required

1. Put oil in wok and add curry paste, cook until paste has started to integrate with oil
2. Add coconut cream. Stir until fat separates (oil on top around bubbles. You may need to stop stirring for this to show up)
3. Add chicken and stir until completely cooked. If mix becomes too dry add more coconut cream
4. Add coconut milk and eggplants. Season with fish sauce and sugar; bring to boil on medium heat. Taste and season to taste.
5. Stir in sweet basil leaves, kaffir leaves and red chillies for about 1 minute. Taste and season to taste
6. Remove from heat and serve with Jasmine rice

NOTES:
To cut the Kaffir leaves tear off the stalk carefully so most of the leaf is still intact. Tightly roll the leaf like (I imagine) a cigar and then thinly slice the cigar rolls, don’t slice any further.

Thai eggplants are a green ball about the same size as a large lime. The fresher the plant the longer the leaves extend down from the stalk. The fresh fruit should have white seeds however brown seeds are not a disaster. Once cut put the eggplant in water until needed otherwise it will turn brown.

Coconut cream is the first squeeze of the coconut once it has been ‘torn’ from the husk. The milk is just the cream with chicken stock (preferred) or water added.

Pomelo Salad (Yam Som-o)

1. Prepare the sauce by mixing the chili, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. Taste and adjust to taste. Set aside
2. In a bowl add Pomelo, prawns, dry shrimp, spring onion and red onion. Toss to combine. Add sauce and toss well.

NOTES:
The Pomelo is a great fruit that is the size of a grapefruit with sweet individual nodules inside. If you can get hold of it you remove the skin and all of the pith. The fruit then falls apart. The only similar taste would be a mix of green apple and a pink lady apple. This would work well but, if you can get it, get the Pomelo; it is a really delicate apple flavour that doesn’t have the fibrous feeling in the mouth of apple. If you are using it the chunks should be about the size of your thumb (assuming you are not minus your thumbs).

Thai Fried Rice (Khao Pad)

1. Make the seasoning by combining all ingredients and putting to one side
2. In a hot wok with oil add garlic, cook until ‘fragrant’
3. Add egg. Allow to fry in the English way until the white has cooked then scramble.
4. Add brown and red onion, carrot and tomato. Cook until the onion has softened
5. Add rice. Push the rice down into the wok to get full contact with the heat. Scrape the goodness from the bottom of the wok and fold in. Once a little of the moisture of the rice has been taken out add the seasoning (oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and pepper)
6. Stir in the seasoning taste and adjust to taste
7. Add kale heat for about 1 min…. Done

NOTES:
All the Kale is used. The thick stem is pealed like asparagus up to the first ‘branch’. Cut that at a 45 degree angle in 3mm slices. Take off the stems/branches remove the leaves by tearing the steam from the leaf. Coarsely chop the leaves (about 2 cm squared) and, if you like, chop the stems to add also (not required).

This is supposed to be using all the stuff you didn’t use last night (especially rice). You can put anything you want in and season up to taste just remember to keep the crunch in the vegies and add the accordingly. To prepare the rice here they use a rice cooker. The rice is cooked by a measurement basis 1cm of rice in the cooker equals 1cm of water over the top of the rice. Really easy and cheap to get a rice cooker. Just need 30cm squared on my bench to put it (given I don’t like anything on my bench permanently)

Thai Fish Cakes (Tord Man Pla)

These are a fairly crappy example but they’re mine.  the issue here was not enough pounding and the mixture wasn’t sticky enough.  they should have puffed up but didn’t due to my lack of pounding (take from that what you will).

1. In a mortar combine fish and red curry. Pound until completely combined
2. Add yolk and pound until the mixture creates the suction to keep the pestle from lifting (not a short time but makes a difference)
3. Add Kaffir, sweet basil, bean, salt and sugar. Mix well to combine.
4. oil your hands and make into 3cm balls.  Place on an oiled plate and ‘squash’
5. Deep fry until cooked through (turning constantly once they start to float), remove from oil. Allow to cool and serve with sweet chilli sauce (start of this day)

Fishcakes are plated up on an oiled plate.. another mistake I made, I didn’t make them into balls, I think Chef is going to stop talking to me.

Stir fried chicken with cashews (Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang)

1. In a wok hot wok with vegetable oil add garlic. Cook until fragrant
2. Add chicken and cook through
3. Add baby corn, mushrooms, onion and chicken stock
4. Add soy sauce, chili paste, oyster sauce and sugar. Taste and season to taste
5. Add spring onion, spur chili and cashew nuts, stir quickly and remove from heat. Taste and season further if required (back on heat)
6. Serve with rice

NOTES:
The baby corn here is about ¼ way between our full grown corn and the baby corn we get. I have no idea where to get what they have here so go with the Aussie one and triple the amount.

Sort of looks like a lemon leaf. There are two joined together. You remove the stalk and tear up to use.

The not lime lime

Next to the lime in this pic are the leaves. The little pea things at the top are the pea eggplants.

Day 1 was a trip to the market then off to the kitchen to start cooking.  We covered over what seemed like an endless supply of food.

Red curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Phet)
Red curry with chicken (Gaeng Phet Gai)
Fried spring rolls + sweet chilli sauce (Por Pie Tord)
Stir fried black pepper beef (Nua Pad Pik Thai)
Chicken in coconut milk soup (Tom Kha Gai)
Mango with coconut sticky rice (Khao Neaw Moon)

Red curry paste is really simple and, if you make heaps, great for keeping in the fridge for a few months.

Red curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Phet)

In a stone mortar and pestle pound coriander seeds, cumin and peppers thoroughly until they are a fine dust.

Add lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, and coriander root to mortar and pound until there isn’t any obvious sinew.

Add dried chillies and salt pound unit pieces of chilli cannot be made out from the rest of the matter.

Add shrimp paste and pound to mix in the paste.
NOTES:
Soak the red spur chillies in warm salted water for 10 min before chopping them.

Only use the white part of the lemon grass. The green can be used to make a lemon grass tea.

Galangal ginger is not ginger and can’t really be substituted. It looks like ginger but doesn’t really have the same flavour.

Kaffir lime is not lime. It has a skin like the outside of a brain. You only need about 2cm of a strip.

Coriander root is literally that. You can get it from Coles where it is attached dirt and all to the fresh coriander. You chop off the root at the point where the green starts.

The roasted seeds are bought just as normal and then roasted in the oven.  You can do heaps at once and then put them in the cupboard  for up to a couple of months.  Don’t skip this step, it makes a huge difference.

To keep stir fry for a couple of minutes, let cool and put in a container in the fridge. It will keep for a few months

Red curry with chicken (Gaeng Phet Gai)

The compressed image looks a bit rubbish, click on the image to get the full sized version (and much better quality). I should have cleaned the plate but… I didn’t

Extra coconut cream to wet chicken if required

1. Put oil in wok and add curry paste, cook until paste has started to integrate with oil
2. Add coconut cream. Stir until fat separates (oil on top around bubbles. You may need to stop stirring for this to show up)
3. Add chicken and stir until nearly cooked. If mix becomes too dry add more coconut cream
4. Add coconut milk and eggplants. Season with fish sauce and sugar; bring to boil on medium heat. Taste and season to taste.
5. Stir in sweet basil leaves, kaffir leaves and red chillies for about 1 minute. Taste and season to taste
6. Remove from heat and serve with Jasmine rice

NOTES:

Thai eggplants are a green ball about the same size as a large lime. The fresher the plant the longer the leaves extend down from the stalk. The fresh fruit should have white seeds however brown seeds are not a disaster. Once cut put the eggplant in water until needed otherwise it will turn brown.

Coconut cream is the first squeeze of the coconut once it has been ‘torn’ from the husk. The milk is just the cream with chicken stock (preferred) or water added.

Deep fried spring rolls (Por Pie Tord)

 
Plain flour and water mixed for glue on wrappers
 

1. Add 1 tab of vegetable oil and garlic in wok. Fry until fragrant
2. Add chicken and fry until cooked
3. Add all vegetables, cook briefly. Add all seasoning ingredients. Taste and season further if required
4. Add glass noodles and cook briefly (1-2 minutes, until cooked)
5. Put mix on plate and allow to cool

Rolling spring rolls

1. Place wrapper on flat surface shinny side down (side that is less pitted)
2. I’ve tried to put together a rundown of how to roll this but it is taking way too long. If you want to know you’ll have to have me round and give me alcohol J. Here it is in words…
3. With wrapper point facing you put 1 heaped tablespoon of fill in the second quarter from the bottom (fill should not be over the ½ way point).
4. Fold the first ¼ over the fill so that it touches the midpoint and use that to press and roll back making the fill into more of a round fill.
5. Holding the fill tight roll until you pass the midpoint and then fold the two sides in so they roll under.
6. In the last quarter get some paste and ‘glue’ the tail to the roll. Put on a tray with the joint facing down so that it has chance to stay stuck.
7. Fry in vegetable oil until brown
8. Serve with sweet chilli sauce (recipe to follow once I find it but really simple and tasty)

Stir-Fried Black Pepper Beef (Nua Pad Pik Thai)

1. Prepare marinade, add beef and leave for more than 30 minutes
2. Mix all seasoning ingredients well. Put aside
3. Heat 1 tab of vegetable oil in wok. Add beef and cook until it is 80% done. Add onion, bell pepper and chicken stock. Mix and taste. If required add seasoning.
4. Remove from heat and serve.

Chicken in coconut milk (Tom Kha Gai)
Funny on this one… in Thai Tom means Boil, Kha means coconut and…. Gai means chicken

1. Place coconut milk in a pot bring to a boil
2. Add galangal, lemon grass, coriander root and kaffir leaves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and season further if required
3. Add chicken and cook until chicken is done
4. Add coconut cream and bring back to boil
5. Add sliced mushrooms, tomatoes and chillies
6. Add fish sauce and sugar. Taste and season further if required
7. Leave lime juice as long as possible to prevent over cooking (Exposes the acidity and an unpleasant taste). Add lime juice and work quickly to season if required

I really hope they don’t make us make/eat these.