Instant noodles come in a wide variety of flavors – enough to fill an entire aisle at most supermarkets – including tom yam, seasoned pork and duck. For the most part, the noodles themselves are dried egg noodles, ba-mee in Thai, but you will also find a few styles of glass and rice noodles as well.

While the various flavors are nice, and I usually have one or two of them around, I also like to use plain noodles and flavor them myself. This recipe is based on a Singapore brand I’ve tried and quite like, but it’s hard to find in Bangkok so I created my own version. Whether using a flavored brand or unflavored generic noodles, I always have some vegetables as well as some cooked ground pork to add into the soup to give it more flavor and substance. Just noodles is rather dull.

Black Pepper Noodles

This vegetarian version is quite good, and will probably have enough ‘meaty’ taste to satisfy non-vegetarians. Broccoli and baby corn are my favorite vegetables to keep around, but asparagus, carrots and others are good. The meaty taste comes from the mushrooms, which I purchase dry. If using fresh ones, they’ll need less cooking. I prefer fresh ground pepper for this recipe.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Bring a small amount (about one cup) of water to a boil in a small saucepan.
• Add the garlic, baby corn and shiitake mushrooms.
• Once the mushrooms have softened, add the noodles.
• While the noodles are cooking, stir together the black pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl.
• As soon as the noodles have softened completely, stir in the broccoli. I prefer broccoli that is only lightly cooked, so as soon as the colors darken, remove the pan from the heat and pour off any excess water.
• Stir the pepper mixture into the cooked noodles, mixing thoroughly, and then transfer them to a serving bowl.

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.

Sweet and Sour Pork

I also like sweet and sour stir fry because you can use just about whatever is at hand, in truly typical Thai fashion. Some kind of meat and onions are about the only real requirements. You can add any other vegetables you may have, such as baby corn, long beans, bell peppers and of course pineapple makes an occasional appearance as well. If you like a bit more sauce, which goes well with rice, you can try adding some Thai style chili sauce or even ketchup with some ground chili. Even the sauce can be improvised using whatever is at hand, such as tomato sauce, vinegar, pineapple juice, etc.

This particular recipe, which I’ve translated from a Thai cookbook, is somewhat unusual in that it calls for shiitake mushrooms, as well as a lot of vegetables. Although I haven’t tried it, I believe that if you left out the meat entirely, this would make a good vegetarian dish. You can use soy sauce in place of fish sauce.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Heat some oil in a wok and stir-fry the garlic until it is fragrant. Add the pork and stir-fry until cooked through.
• Season with the fish sauce, sugar and vinegar. Then add the mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and banana chillies.
• Check the seasoning and add more vinegar if the dish is not sour enough.
• Stir the tapioca flour into the three tablespoons of water, then add to the stir-fry along with the prawns, if desired. Remove from heat as soon as the prawns are cooked and the sauce thickens. Sprinkle the chopped coriander over the stir fry.

Custard Filled Pumpkin

The difficulty with this recipe is, of course, finding a pot large enough to fit your pumpkin, or a pumpkin small enough to fit in your pot! The size favored for this weighs in at around 500 grams, or one pound.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I didn’t make this dish for the photograph. I purchased the slice of ready-made dessert from a stall in the market where I live in Bangkok.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Thoroughly wash the outside of the pumpkin. Cut a circular hole around the stem of the pumpkin, about three to four inches in diameter. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and stringy bits inside the pumpkin. Rinse out the inside of the pumpkin and dry with a clean cloth or paper towels.
• Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add in the coconut cream and palm sugar, and mix slowly until thoroughly blended to a smooth texture.
• Fill the pumpkin with the custard mixture. Now comes the tricky bit: the entire pumpkin needs to be steamed in a double boiler. You can improvise one with a large sturdy ceramic bowl placed in a soup pot. Thais use a woven basket wedged over a pot of boiling water.
• Keep the water boiling until the custard begins to set, then reduce the heat and continue to steam for about 20 to 25 minutes more. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• The dish is usually served at room temperature, and is simply sliced like a cake, then served whole – skin and all.

Pork Stir-fried with Long Beans

This recipe also calls for red curry paste – krueng gaeng ped – to be used. You should be able to find this in an oriental grocery, or use the recipe linked to below. You can of course use fresh string beans if long beans aren’t available. If you can find real long beans, one thing some cooks like to do is tie the beans in a knot. Cut the beans in four to six-inch lengths and then just tie them in a knot. Long beans are flexible enough to do this. Regular string beans will snap if you try this.

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Fry the curry paste in the oil over medium heat until the paste releases its fragrance, add the pork and stir-fry until cooked.
• Add chicken stock, sugar and fish sauce. Mix well. Add the yard-long beans and stir to mix.
• The dish is typically garnished with a sprinkling of finely sliced red spur chilli and shredded kaffir lime leaves.

Minced Pork Omelet

(4 Servings)

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Grind the garlic and black pepper together.
• Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add the garlic-pepper mixture and salt. Beat until thoroughly mixed.
• Heat a wok over medium heat. Add a generous amount of oil, and when hot toss in the ground pork and stir it until well browned.
• Reduce heat to medium and pour in the egg mixture directly into the center of the wok or frying pan.
• Fry until the underside of the omelet is golden brown, then turn and fry the other side until golden.
• Garnish with some chopped coriander and serve with a chili sauce.

Variation: I like a little chopped coriander mixed in with the eggs.
 

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Simply grind all the ingredients together until they form a smooth paste.

Korean Grilled Beef

I made this for the photo with just a small amount of beef. If I were using the full 500 grams, I would be tempted to double the marinade to make sure the beef was well coated.

The recipe calls for ‘Chinese’ cooking sherry, but strangely I could only find Japanese cooking wine in the supermarket. It also provides a recipe for a dipping sauce, but I found that it was totally unnecessary. With a good coating of the marinade, the beef is quite delicious without the sauce. If you can’t find pickled garlic to use the juice, then just plain vinegar will probably do.

The recipe calls for the white sesame seeds to be roasted. To do this, just spread the seeds out in a hot dry skillet. Shake the pan once or twice to turn the seeds. They will brown in a few seconds.

(4 Servings)

Ingredients

Dipping Sauce

Preparation Method

• Mix all of the main ingredients except the beef together in a bowl.
• Add the beef to the mix and make sure it gets coated well. Marinate the beef in the sauce for at least one hour in the refrigerator.
• If you want to use the dipping sauce, prepare it while the beef marinates. Put the garlic juice, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir together. Microwave the mixture until it comes to a boil. Remove it from the oven and stir in the rest of the ingredients.
• Remove the marinated beef from the refrigerator and cook it on a grill, or hot skillet. It will cook very quickly if sliced thin.
• The beef can be served with the dipping sauce and some steamed vegetables, such as asparagus, whole baby corn and carrot sticks.