I still had almost all the ingredients for the marinade of the ‘Korean’ beef dish, except the spring onions. That was a good marinade, so I decided to use some finely chopped kaffir leaves in place of the spring onions and marinate the chicken.

The mushrooms I decided to sauté in some olive oil, butter and leftover coriander. I added a bit of baby corn and broccoli, which I also had on hand.

Chicken Kaffir with sauteed mushrooms

On the whole, it turned out rather well. The one mistake I made was not filleting the chicken breast, so it took forever to cook and the marinate had more or less caramelized by the time it did. Other than that, it turned out well. This recipe would make two light meals.

Ingredients

Vegetables

Preparation Method

• Mix all of the main ingredients except the chicken together in a bowl.
• Add the chicken to the mix and make sure it gets coated well. Marinate the chicken in the sauce for at least one hour in the refrigerator.
• Just before you’re ready to cook the chicken, you can prepare the vegetables. Heat the butter and olive oil in a skillet. Add the mushrooms, baby corn and coriander. Sauté until the mushrooms begin to brown slightly, and then add the broccoli. The broccoli will take just a few seconds to turn dark green, which for me means it’s cooked just right. Spoon the vegetables onto a plate or serving dish.
• Remove the marinated chicken from the refrigerator and cook it in a hot skillet. Turn it and make sure it’s cooked through. Just as it’s getting done, you can add any marinade left to the skillet, and it will reduce quickly to a nice dark brown sauce.
• Transfer the cooked chicken to the plate along side the vegetables.

Chicken and Galangal Soup

The first part of the Thai name, tom ka, simply means “boiled galangal” while gai is the Thai word for chicken. Although the meat most commonly used in this soup is chicken, tom ka can also be made with fish, shellfish and other poultry, but the somewhat delicate flavour doesn’t hold up well against beef or pork.

As with several other Thai dishes, your main challenge here, aside from the herbs and spices, will be the straw mushrooms. Even in Bangkok, they seem to be disappearing from the markets in favor of sturdier ‘foreign’ varieties. For the photo, I had to resort to canned mushrooms, which better approximate the taste and texture that other types of fresh ones.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Combine coconut milk, Kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal in a pot and bring to a boil.
• Add chicken pieces and mushrooms, and return the mixture to a boil.
• Add remaining ingredients: Chicken stock, fish sauce, lime juice, white pepper and roasted chili sauce.
• Pour into serving bowl and garnish with a few leaves of coriander.

Chiang Mai sausage meatballs

Since most people don’t have sausage making equipment in their home, I’ve adapted the recipe to make meatballs instead. These work very well as an hors d’oeuvre with cocktails or as one of the many ‘finger foods’ forming a kahn toke style dinner. Sai-ooa is one of many popular ‘drinking foods’ that Thais enjoy with beer.

The sausage is traditionally made with pork, but it can also be found made with chicken. I’ve tried a vegetarian version, once.

Ingredients

Curry Paste

Preparation Method

• Make the curry paste by pounding all the ingredients together with a mortar and pestle to form a thick paste. Of course, you can do it the “easy way” and use a food processor.
• Mix the ground pork with the soy sauces and prepared curry paste. Sprinkle the shredded kaffir lime leaves over the mixture, pour in the water and mix thoroughly.
• Form the meat into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Arrange on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.
• Bake in a pre-heated 220°C oven for about 25 minutes.

Stir-fried pork with holy basil and garlic

The dish is most commonly made with chicken or pork, but can also be made with minced prawn or beef. I’ve even seen it on offer made with frog or pigeon. You can add more vegetables to make it a bigger dish that serves more, or leave them out entirely if you plan to serve it with several other dishes. As I said, this is an infinitely variable dish, so use your own creativity to make your own signature dish.

(4 Servings)

Preparation Method

• Heat the vegetable oil in the wok. Put in the finely chopped garlic, mouse-dropping chillies and meat, and stir-fry until cooked.
• Season with soy sauces, oyster sauce, sugar, spur chilli, fresh hot basil leaves and vegetables.
• Transfer to a serving dish.

I was surprised to find on my return home to Bangkok that there weren’t many references – on-line or in print – for Cambodian foods. As a result, I had to guess at the recipe, and I don’t even know what the name of this dish is, since a transliteration of it was not included on any menus I glanced at. In future trips to Cambodia, I’m going to have to look into this and see if I can find some local references. If you know the Khmer name of this dish, please leave a comment.

Chicken with Lemongrass and Holy Basil

(4 Servings)

Preparation Method

• Heat the oil in a heavy skillet or wok. Add the lemongrass, onions and spur chili, and sauté over medium heat until the onions are wilted.
• Add the chicken; continue to saut&eacut; until the chicken is browned. Add the oyster sauce and chicken stock.
• Allow to simmer for a few minutes until the liquid is reduced to a sauce.
• Stir in the holy basil leaves and continue cooking for a little while longer, until the holy basil leaves are wilted.

Crispy Basil Leaves

Some crispy basil leaves make a nice garnish for this dish. In Thailand, where holy basil is cheap and plentiful, some chefs like to completely smother the dish in these leaves. Making them is easy. Simply heat some oil in a skillet or wok until it’s very hot, then drop a few leaves into the hot oil. They will fry up in just a few seconds, so you need to remove them quickly and place on a paper towel to drain. It doesn’t take much oil, but it does take a bit more than you’ll need to stir-fry this dish. I set aside the excess oil for future use, since it will take on some of the fragrance of the holy basil.

Cashew Chicken

I’ve jazzed up the typical recipe a little with the addition of a marinade and some sweet peppers. I also like to pan roast the cashews for use in this dish.

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Pour the orange juice, soy sauce, salt and pepper over the chicken and marinate for about 30 minutes.
• Heat the oil in a wok over medium flame. Stir-fry the garlic. When it begins to color, add the chicken and continue stir-frying until the chicken is cooked through, about three minutes.
• Add the cashews, chillies, onions and pepper. Continue cooking and stirring until the onions are soft, about four minutes.
• When serving, garnish with the sliced spur chili, coriander leaves and some additional spring onions.

There is another theory that mussaman curry originated in southern Thailand, where it may have been based on dishes introduced by Arab traders. Since this curry is one of the few well know Thai dishes that uses beef rather than pork, it seems possible that the name mussaman is a corruption of ‘Muslim.’

Mussaman curry is one of the most complex of all Thai curries. It uses many more ingredients than most curries, and also takes more time to prepare than almost any other dish. The extra time is largely due to the use of potatoes, although a ‘long time’ to prepare a Thai dish is 20 minutes or more, compared to most other curries that require 10 minutes at most.

Mussman Curry with Chicken

Mussaman Curry Paste

First, you have to make the curry paste.

Ingredients

To prepare the curry paste, grind together the dried chillies, coriander seeds, fennel, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom seeds, shallots, garlic, galangal and lemongrass to form a fine paste. Add the roasted peanuts and grind them into the paste.

Mussaman Curry Recipe

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

Heat the coconut cream in a large pot to simmering. Stir in the prepared curry paste and continue to simmer until the fragrance is released. Add five tablespoons of fish sauce, five tablespoons of the tamarind juice and two tablespoons of the granulated sugar. Mix well until the fragrance returns, then add one tablespoon of the palm sugar.

Heat the coconut milk along with the meat in a pot. When it begins to simmer, pour in the coconut cream mixture along with the remainder of the seasonings.

Add the new potatoes and test the taste. Add more tamarind juice to make it more sour, or additional salt if needed.

When the potatoes are nearly done, add the onions, shallots, peanuts, cardamom leaves and cardamom seeds. Remove from heat.

Chicken Green Curry

Green Curry Paste

First, you have to make the green curry paste.

Ingredients

To prepare the curry paste, grind all of the ingredients together until you have a smooth paste. Store excess paste refrigerated in a tightly sealed jar. It will keep for several weeks at least. In fact, it’s best if you make the paste a day or two before you need it. The paste tends to get better with a little age!

Chicken Green Curry Recipe

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Fry the green curry paste in vegetable oil until the aroma is released. Add the thick portion of the coconut milk and continue stir-frying until the aroma returns.
• Add chicken and when the chicken is about half cooked, add the remaining coconut milk.
• Add eggplants and lime leaves. When cooked through, add seasoning: chicken powder, fish sauce, palm sugar, fresh milk, chillies and sweet basil leaves.