Pad Pak Ruam Mit (Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables)

Sometimes you just need a healthy stir fry of fresh and vibrant crunchy vegetables. Sometimes you don’t and only deep fried will do. I like a happy medium; if I do an unhealthy and/or meat based dish like my crisp garlic chicken- gai tod gratiem I like to have a dish like this to serve on the side. It creates a good balance, don’t you think?

This recipe is very flexible- use whatever combination of crunchy vegetables you have to hand…


For two people I used:

• a handful of beansprouts


• 5 or 6 baby corn, cut into chunky pieces


• a small bunch of yu choy (Chinese spinach), cut into chunks


• 3 spring onions, chopped small


• a small handful of oyster mushrooms, ripped up


• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed


• a big splash of Thai fish sauce- soy sauce is a fine substitute for veggies/vegans


• a big splash of oyster sauce- use a bit more soy or mushroom ketchup if you’re vegetarian/vegan


• a small splash of yellow bean sauce


• a big pinch of pepper


• a small splash of vegetable oil for frying

Heat a wok until hot and add in the veggie oil- throw in the garlic and stir fry for just a few seconds before adding in all the veggies apart from the spring onions. Stir fry these for about 3 minutes until they’re lightly cooked. Add in the sauces and pepper and cook for a further minute. If you like a little more sauce,add in a splash of water.

Just before turning off the heat; throw in the spring onions and stir through. That’s about it- it only takes 5 minutes to cook, so it’s a great one if you need food quickly!

Mee Grob (Crispy Noodles)

Mee Grob or Mi Krob, depending on what spelling variation is used is somewhat unknown here in the UK though it’s fairly common in the US as a take-out/ restaurant dish and may be recognisable from being mentioned in The Big Bang Theory and South Park (with varying degrees of popularity).

It does take a bit of prep time and you need to have everything ready to do the bit at the end or you can end up with soggy noodles if you wait too long but I’m sure you’ll do just fine.

Mee grob is predominantly sweet and sour, with this version nudging slightly more towards sour, which is my preference; feel free to adjust the sauce quantities to your taste.

For two people use:

• two nest of or a small packet of vermicelli rice noodles


• 5 spring onion, trimmed and shredded lengthways


• a handful of very fresh bean sprouts


• half a packet of firm tofu, cut in cubes


• 5 shallots, thinly sliced in rings


• a small handful of coriander leaves


• a big handful of prawns/shrimp (raw or cooked)


• vegetable oil for frying/deep frying


• 3 small red chillies, cut into thin strips


• 2 tablespoons of tamarind puree


• a big splash of yellow bean sauce


• a big splash of fish sauce


• juice of 1 lime


• 3 cloves garlic,chopped


• a heaped tablespoon of sugar


• a big pinch of pepper

Start by making the sauce, which can then be left until the very end. Gently heat together the tamarind, yellow bean sauce, fish sauce,lime juice, sugar, pepper and chopped garlic and let it reduce until its quite thick and syrupy.

In a wok, heat a small splash of oil. When hot, fry the prawns/shrimp until pink (if raw) and for about a minute (if they were pre cooked). Leave these on the side.

Fill up the wok with oil for deep frying. When the oil’s hot, add in the tofu and deep fry until the tofu is golden and crispy. Fish it out and leave to drain on kitchen paper. Now deep fry the shallot rings, for around 2-3 minutes, again until they’re golden and crisp and leave them to blot on kitchen paper as well.

Now the fun bit (have more kitchen paper out ready on a plate).Heat the sauce up again and keep it nearby. Get the deep frying oil very hot again and when ready, put the whole nest/slab of dried vermicelli noodles in the hot oil. It should immediately puff up about 3 times in size. Lift out after a few seconds and straight onto the kitchen paper. Repeat if you have more noodles to do.

Work quickly, pour the sauce and the fried noodles into another clean, dry wok or large pan and use a chopping/stirring action to break up and mix the noodles and sauce together. Add the cooked prawns back in and stir well.

Serve on a plate with the coriander, crispy tofu, fried shallots, spring onions, bean sprouts and sprinkle over the chilli strips.

Yam Kai Dao (Fried Egg Salad)

Salads are pretty healthy kinds of things,that is until you throw a few crispy deep-fried eggs into them! If you think a fried egg salad sounds weird; just give it a try, it’s a perfect match.

I love Thai salads- they have lots of crunchy vegetables, they’re hot, sweet, sour and salty and they usually include protein unlike a lot of western salads.

This quite easily makes a meal for one or serve with a dish or two more if serving a few people.


use:

• 2 eggs


• vegetable oil for deep frying


• a big handful of coriander leaves, torn


• 1 stalk of celery,finely sliced


• ¼ white onion, finely sliced


• 1 carrot, shredded/julienned


• ½ mooli/daikon or radish, julienned or sliced


• 2 red chillies,finely sliced


• juice of 1 lime


• 2 cloves of garlic


• a large pinch of sugar


• a splash of fish sauce (nam pla)

Throw the coriander, chillies and chopped vegetables into a bowl. Heat a wok and when hot,add in enough oil to deep fry the eggs (about 1 inch/ 3cm depth), When the oil is really hot, crack in an egg- it’ll puff up and spit so watch out. It’ll be brown and crispy in about 30 seconds, use a spatula to turn it over and cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Gently lift the egg out and drain on kitchen paper.Repeat with the other egg.

The eggs will be okay for a few minutes or so while you make the dressing. Bash up the garlic and sugar in a pestle and mortar before squeezing over the lime juice and fish sauce. Give it a mix and pour over the veggies. Cut the eggs into three or four equal piece and toss everything together quickly before serving.

Gai Tod Gratiem (Garlic Fried Chicken)

Sometimes you just need deep fried food and Thai food has plenty of it to spare. These wings are WAY better than fast food fried chicken and they don’t need many ingredients or take too long to do. All the crispy garlic bits were particularly good. This is the kind of street food dish you can find up and down Thailand. Serve it alongside a healthy salad like Som Tam or a vegetable stir fry like Pad Pak Grachet. I served these wings with the same sweet chilli dipping sauce that I made to go with last week’s Po Pia Tod (click and scroll down for sauce recipe).


For two people use:

• a pack of chicken wings (about 10)


• half a bulb of garlic (or more if you like), peeled


• a dessert spoon of black peppercorns


• a big splash of Thai fish sauce (nam pla)


• a small splash of light soy sauce


• vegetable oil for deep frying

Prepare the chicken wings by using a heavy knife to trim off and discard the tip. Then find the joint between the upper and lower part of the wing and cut them into two. Place in a large bowl. In a pestle and mortar, bash up the peppercorns- it can be slightly coarser than a powder but don’t leave big bits- pour over the chicken. Lightly bash up the garlic, just to break it into pieces, not paste and add into the bowl. Pour the sauces over the chicken and give everything a good mix,leave to marinate for up to an hour.



Heat the oil in a heavy pan or wok. The oil needs to to be hot but not smoking otherwise the chicken and garlic may burn but the chicken inside could still be raw. Gently lower the chicken pieces in, including the garlicky bits (but discard any left over sauce). I had to do mine in two batches so the pan wasn’t crowded. Fry for around ten minutes, turning over half way. The chicken should be a dark golden brown and crispy. Drain onto kitchen paper,making sure you scoop out and sprinkle the crispy garlic bits over the top when serving. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Po Pia Tod (Fried Spring Rolls)

They can be found at every restaurant serving Asian food across the world and must be one of the most popular snacks they sell but each country has their own variation on the roll. The Thai version varies from the typical Chinese one with the addition of a coriander/white pepper paste and different fillings. This recipe is vegan friendly too and would be a perfect complement to the pad see ew noodles I made a few months back.


For loads of rolls (like 20) use:

• a pack of square spring roll wrappers (freeze what you don’t use)


• half a block of tofu, cut into very small cubes


• half a bag ( two handfuls) of beansprouts


• about 15 dried wood ear (Chinese) mushrooms- re-hydrated in boiling water and then sliced fine (use shitake mushrooms chopped if you can’t get wood ears)


• a small handful of coriander leaves/stalks/roots, roughly torn


• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled


• a teaspoon of white peppercorns


• cup of water (for sealing edges)


• vegetable oil for deep frying

Make a paste of the coriander, garlic and white peppercorns in a pestle and mortar, you should end up with about a tablespoon. Mix this with the tofu cubes and set all the other filling ingredients around you for easy access.

Take a single spring roll sheet and lay it in front of you with a corner pointing towards you (i.e. so it’s a diamond not a square). Lay a thin line of beansprouts across the widest point from left to right, leaving a gap at both points. On top of this put a small sprinkling of mushroom and on top of that a spoonful of tofu cubes. Fold up the bottom point over the filling, fold in the left then right points, roll the whole thing towards the top point and use a drop of water to get the top point to stick. If it’s too full you won’t be able to roll it up and if it’s under-filled it’ll be saggy- it takes a bit of practise to get the right amount of filling!

To cook, heat the oil until medium hot and gently lower the rolls in (don’t do too many at a time). The odd one may burst but don’t worry. Cook until golden, about 2 minutes. Drain on kitchen roll and serve with sweet chilli sauce.


If you want to make your own sweet chilli sauce that tastes way better than the bottled variety here’s the recipe…


(enough for 20 rolls or) use:

• 3 red Thai chillies for a hot version/ 1 red jalapeno for a mild version


• 1 garlic clove, peeled


• a small splash of white wine vinegar


• a big splash of water x2


• a tablespoon of sugar


• a teaspoon of cornflour

In a herb chopper/ small blender, mix the chillies, garlic, vinegar and 1 big splash of water. Heat this mixture (gentle heat) in a small pan for a minute or so until the sugar is all dissolved. In a small bowl mix up the other big splash of water into the cornflour-make sure there’s no lumps. Pour this into the pan and mix gently, it will thicken straight away into chilli sauce.

Khao Pad Sapparod Goong (Prawn & Pineapple Fried Rice)

Happy New Year!! I’m looking forward to bringing you lots more Thai recipes this year and I’m excited to be able to use my new camera that I got for Christmas- Canon 1200D to record the food I make. I’m just starting to get the hang of using depth of field to get some parts in focus, some out.

For our new year supper I made Khao pad sapparod goong and for a touch of retro glamour, it had to be served in a pineapple half (optional but looks great!).  Everything for this recipe can be found at a regular supermarket


For three large/ 4 small servings use:

• 1 ripe pineapple, cut in half and carve out the flesh into cubes. I used about 2/3rds of the pineapple and ate the rest as dessert.


• 1 cup of cooked and COOLED white rice- yesterdays rice is best-i used fresh it’ll go mushy.


• a big handful of raw prawn/shrimp


• around 10 green beans,chopped in half


• one small onion, roughly chopped


• 3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped


• 4 spring onions, trimmed and sliced


• a big splash of oyster sauce


• a big splash of fish sauce


• 1 egg


• a tablespoonful of curry powder


• one or two red chillies, chopped


• a sprinkle of fresh coriander leaves


• a wedge of lime


• (optional- but good) a small handful of cashew nuts)


• vegetable oil for frying

Heat a splash of vegetable oil in a wok and when hot throw in the onion, stir fry for a minute or until it starts to get some colour.

Next add in the garlic and chilli, stir fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Throw in the green beans and fry for about two minutes, until they begin to soften.

Next shove everything to one side of the wok and break in the egg on the empty side.Let it start to set and gently scramble before letting it set again, then scramble. After the egg is fully cooked, mix everything back together again.

Add in the prawns and cook them until they start to turn pink (around a minute). Pineapple goes in next,again, just cook lightly to cook out some of the juice.

Now tip the cool cooked rice in, along with the curry powder and stir well. Add the oyster and fish sauces and gently, mix everything together.

Almost done, mix through the cashew nuts and spring onions and serve into the pineapple halves, if you use them. Top with the coriander and lime wedge.