Kai Jeow Cha Om (Acacia Omelette)

Day or night, omelettes are one of those perfect meals when you’re hungry and in a rush and Thailand is a great place to experience the omelette in all it’s glory. They are usually cooked in fiercely hot oil so they puff up and usually contain a small amount of filling mixed in with the egg, such as pork mince. I appreciate acacia (also known as climbing wattle or in Thailand; Cha om) isn’t something you’ll easily be able to get hold of unless you have a Thai supermarket nearby but it was something I’ve been on the look out for a for  while now and when I saw it at RaanThai the other week, I had this recipe lined up ready for it. It shares some of the properties of stink beans such as the sulphurous smell and taste and lingering odour about the person but this largely disappears at cooking time, unlike stink beans which stay potent for up to two days post ingestion.
***A word of warning- cha om is a spiky plant so you have to carefully pull all the leaves off the stems before cooking; avoiding the thorns and resulting finger injury.

For a pan sized omelette that serves one as a main or two as a side dish use:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 pack of cha- om (roughly a bowl full) Leaves, stripped CAREFULLY off the stems
• a small splash of fish sauce (nam pla) or use light soy sauce if veggie/vegan
• vegetable oil for frying

Mix the cha om/ acacia into the beaten eggs. There should be more cha om than egg. Add in the fish sauce and stir. Heat a big splash of oil in a small-medium sized frying pan and when the oil is very hot, tip the mixture in. Let it fully set underneath (about 1-2 minutes) and very carefully turn over and cook the other side for a further 1-2 minutes. When cooked, turn out onto kitchen paper to soak up excess oil then cut into pieces; fancy diamonds if you like, or slices/wedges/strips if you want to just get eating.

Pad Sai Bua Goong (Lotus Stem & Prawn Stir Fry)

Lotus stems are another Thai ingredient I’d never come across before so when I came across them at RaanThai I was quick to grab them and see what they were like. They’re hollow so hold sauce really well but don’t need to be cooked long as they quickly soften. This was a really quick, light stir fry and is very tasty, better still, it only uses 5 ingredients

For two people use:

• 100g of lotus stems, trimmed and cut into inch long pieces. As a substitute for the lotus, I would go for a crunchy veg like pak choi/ choi sum available from most supermarkets.
• 200g (or thereabouts) of raw or precooked large prawns
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of fish sauce
• vegetable oil for frying

Heat a wok on high, when it’s almost smoking, add in a swirl of vegetable oil. Toss in the garlic and straight after the prawns. If using raw, cook until they have turned more or less pink throughout. If using pre-cooked prawns, heat through for a minute before adding in the lotus stems and cook for a further minute before adding in the two sauces. Toss to coat everything well and serve.

Som Tam Mamuang (Sour Mango Salad)

Hopefully by now, if you been following me for a bit you’ll know how much I love Thai salads and som tam (unripe papaya salad) in particular. I heard about this version a while back but while I can get unripe papayas fairly easily in my home town, it’s much harder to get sour mangos- about a year ago I came across what I thought were sour mangos at an Indian community shop but they turned out to be young mangos (i.e. pale yellow but still sweet). Nice but not quite right. Last weekend I had a fantastic trip to Thai superstore RaanThai on the Wirral, Merseyside where I got stocked up on a range of Thai ingredients including quite a few I’ve never see before (recipes to follow). Anyway, they did have sour mangos in stock,meaning I could finally make som tam mamuang (also known occasionally as yam mamuang). Just a word- they’re called sour for a reason- which for my tastes, is just perfect.

For a huge portion (enough for 3-4 as a side dish/starter) use:

• 2 small sour mangos (they should be hard and green skinned), peeled
• juice of 1 lime
• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla)
• a big pinch of sugar
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 red chillies (more less if you want)
• a small handful of peanuts, lightly crushed
• a very small handful of dried shrimp (optional)

In a pestle and mortar, pound together the garlic and chillies into a rough paste; add this to a bowl. Use a julienne peeler or try the Thai way (hacking strips with a cleaver) to shred the mangos into the bowl. Throw in the shrimps and peanuts, sugar and lime juice and fish sauce. Give everything a fairly rough stir/mash about for a few moments to break up the mango a little. Have a taste and add more lime/fish sauce/sugar as to your tastes, if you feel it needs it.

Hoi Jor (Shellfish Rolls)

Having never worked with fresh bean curd sheets, these were probably one of the trickier Thai foods I’ve made and it can take a bit of practise to get the amount of filing and the role shape correct but I’m pleased with the outcome. What we’re looking at here is a pork mince and crab filling, rolled up in a bean curd sheet, steamed, sliced and then deep fried. They make a great appetiser to a healthier Thai main meal or would be perfect served alongside some other Thai snacks such as Tod Mun Pla (Fishcakes) or Po Pia Tod (Spring rolls) for canapes/buffet food. If you don’t have access to an Asian supermarket and can’t get bean curd sheet, use filo pastry instead and skip the steaming stage, making closed parcels rather than open ended rolls with the pastry.

For around 15 rolls (not all will be equal in shape) use:

• a packet of fresh bean curd sheet (roughly 2/3 A4 sized sheets)
• 100g of fresh or tinned crab meat (shredded/ chunks/white/brown it’s all good)
• 200g of pork mince
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons of rice flour
• a small handful of coriander (stalks are ideal)
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• a teaspoon of black peppercorns
• 4 spring onions, very finely chopped
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of Chinese rice wine (Xiaoxing/ Shaoshing or sherry)
• vegetable oil for frying
• Sriracha sauce for serving

Start by pounding the pepper, coriander and garlic into a paste in a mortar. Add the paste to a bowl along with the pork, crab, egg, flour, spring onions and liquids. Beat together well. The mixture should have the consistency of a loose meatloaf/ sausage meat before cooking.
Lay a sheet of bean curd in front of you (landscape). Divide the mixture equally between the amount of sheets of bean curd you have and place one portion of the mix in the middle/bottom part of the bean curd sheet. Spend a bit of time getting it into a roughly even sausage shape, leaving about 2 inches free from either edge. Fold the sides in first, then roll the whole thing up, leaving the seam underneath the roll. Repeat to use up the rest of the bean curd/ mixture.
At this point you’re supposed to start tying the roll into sections, like a Christmas cracker- for me it didn’t work. Even using wide thread slowly cut through the soft bean curd like a cheese wire before the roll got anywhere near tight enough.
Instead, for this next step, I recommend just keeping the rolls seam side down. Heat a steamer/ colander over a boiling pan of water. Gently place the filled rolls into the steamer and allow to slowly cook in the steam for 15 minutes. Check the water levels in the pan periodically to make sure it hasn’t boiled dry.
When the time’s up, remove the steam cooked rolls, leave them to cool for a while and then use a very sharp knife to cut them into 1 inch long slices- be careful to keep those loose ends tucked under for now.
Heat a frying pan with oil to a depth of ½ inch. It needs to be hot but not smoking. Carefully lower in the rolls, cooking in smaller batches if needed. The bean curd bubbles up and goes brown and crispy fairly quickly. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, gently turning the rolls over on all sides until all the bean curd,and the filling is golden brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper before serving.
Feeling lazy after all this effort, I served my hoi jor with a dipping bowl of Sriracha but by all means, make/use a chilli sauce of your choice.

Yam Pla Muk Yang (Grilled Squid Salad)

As far as salads go, this one was pretty epic and has been voted in our house as ‘the best Thai dish so far’. The squid was lightly charred, smoky and soft (no rubber bands here) and the salad was crunchy, zingy with lime juice, salty from the fish sauce and had a cleansing heat from the red chilli and fresh herbs. Is it weird to be in love with one of your own recipes? It may still be winter and pretty cold but with this salad, a roaring fire and an ice cold Singha beer, you could 'almost’ be sat by the beach on a Thai island :)

For two people use:

• roughly 500g of baby squid (I used a frozen box of Fiesta del Mar brand, thawed)
• a few leaves of iceberg lettuce (enough to cover your plate)
• 3 or 4 small shallots, peeled and sliced fine
• 3 tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into wedges
• 1 stalk of celery, cut into thin slices
• a small handful of mint leaves, loosely torn
• a handful of coriander leaves, loosely torn
• 2 small red chillies, chopped
• a big splash of fish sauce
• juice of 1 lime
• vegetable oil

Prepare all the vegetables and herbs and arrange them on a serving plate/platter. Make the dressing; stir together the lime juice, fish sauce and chilli and leave until the end.
Prepare the squid- Pull out the head from the body, Cut off the tentacles above the eyes, discard the rest of the head. Peel off and discard the two fins/flaps on the side of the body. Peel off and throw away any speckled skin on the body; you’ll be left with a white body. Slide a sharp knife inside the body, and cut down one side then open out. Scrape and throw any remaining goo inside the squid and the long plastic-like quill. There’s probably lots of youtube videos for visuals but use your knife to lightly score diagonal hatchings on the inside of the squid- don’t cut all the way through. Then cut the scored squid into inch square pieces.
Heat a small frying pan until it’s very hot then add a very small amount of vegetable oil. When the pan starts to smoke, working in batches,

add in a few pieces of squid at a time (it’ll curl up, let it get a little charring but remove when the squid is no longer translucent (about 30 seconds). If it needs it add a drop more oil to the pan. Watch when doing the tentacles- they tend to spit when being pan fried.
When all the squid’s done, drop over the salad and pour the dressing over everything before serving.

Khanom Piak Orn (Jackfruit Sweets)

As it’s been a while since I last made a Thai dessert I thought it was time to do another. We don’t eat a huge amounts of desserts and sweets in our house as my husband and I both prefer savoury food but sometimes it’s nice to try new things. Thai desserts/ sweets do have a tendency towards being either really very sweet or an (unusual for Western tastes) mix of sweet and savoury ingredients in one recipe. Like this one, the sweet ones also lean towards being quite heavy and sticky. So this recipe does go a long way and is best made for lots of people to share. To the best of my knowledge, the Thai name literally means wet board sweet.

Makes 1 tray (enough for lots of people!) use:

• 2/3 can of evaporated milk
• 2/3 can of coconut milk (remainders of both can be frozen if needed)
• 250ml water
• about 3 or 4 pieces of canned jackfruit (mango would work well too), finely chopped
• 100g sugar
• 120g of rice flour
• 3 tablespoons of cornflour
• desiccated coconut 

Line a 1 inch deep baking tray with parchment paper first off. Then gently heat together the two milks, water and sugar in a large pan until the sugar has dissolved. Pop in the jackfruit and give it a stir. Gently tip the two flours in and keep stirring, make sure everything is mixed until smooth and keep stirring. After 5 minutes or so the mixture becomes very thick and paste like. Pour it out into the lined baking tray and sprinkle with the desiccated coconut. Leave it somewhere cool to set and after a few hours it can easily be cut into your preferred shape with a large knife.

Mi Ga Ti (Coconut Milk Noodles)

This was a big success in our house, I’ll definitely be doing this one on a regular basis. Wide flat rice noodles,served with a creamy, fairly sweet red curry coconut milk based sauce, served with  bean sprouts, garlic chives and an omelette. Classic Thai street food, it’s quick and easy to make and very satisfying. Oh and it’s a very mild Thai dish so if you struggle with spicy heat,give this one a try.

For 3 portions use:

• a large handful of pork mince (roughly 120g)
• half a pack of tofu (it freezes well) cut into cubes
• a pack of fresh rice noodles, pulled apart into individual strands (or 1 nest of dried noodles per person)
• 2 large handfuls of bean sprouts
• a small handful of Chinese garlic chives (or regular chives), cut into inch long pieces
• a tablespoon of red curry paste (I used Mae Ploy brand)
• a tablespoon of peanuts, roughly crushed
• 1 can of coconut milk
• a large pinch of sugar
• a big splash of tamarind concentrate (or juice of 1 lime)
• a big splash of yellow bean sauce

Optional Toppings:

• 2 egg omelette, rolled and sliced- recommended!!
• lime wedge
• cucumber slices
• extra Chinese garlic chives and bean sprouts
• chilli flakes
• half a red onion, finely sliced
• extra crushed peanuts

Prepare the toppings that you want to use, including your omelette. I used all the above though the extra chives and bean sprouts aren’t really necessary and were more for presentation.
Heat the coconut milk in a large pan, when starting to boil, add in the red curry paste and stir until it’s fully mixed. Add in the raw mince and break up in the sauce, cooking for around 5 minutes until it’s almost cooked through. Add in the tofu and garlic chives, stir again. Throw in the crushed peanuts, sugar, tamarind/lime and yellow bean sauce. While this cooks for a further 5 minutes, prepare the noodles…
If using dry, boil for a long as the packet suggests. If using fresh, drop the noodles into hot (doesn’t need to be boiling) water for up to 1 minute. No more or they’ll turn to mush. Check every 10 seconds or so to make sure. Drain and divide amongst the plates.
Back to the sauce; it should be reasonably thick now, have a check and a taste to see if it’s to your liking (adjust sweet/sour to your taste). Divide the sauce over the noodles and add as many of the toppings as you like.

Pad Pak Bung Fai Daeng (Hot Fire Morning Glory)

This is something I make pretty regularly as an accompaniment to other Thai dishes I make. I don’t really see it as being a ‘veggie’ dish. It easily can stand up to other protein based dishes in it’s own right as it has so much flavour and texture. It’s a seriously potent dish. If you ate this in Thailand you may get the showmanship involved with it’s cooking process. The dish is so named for the flames that erupt around the wok when cooked over a raging gas burner.

For two portions use:

• a bunch of morning glory, washed, trimmed and cut into finger length pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 small red chillies
• a big pinch of sugar
• a big splash of oyster sauce (substitute mushroom ketchup for vegans)
• a big splash of soy sauce
• a small splash of yellow bean sauce
• a big splash of water
• vegetable oil for frying

Bash up the garlic and chilli in a mortar into a rough paste. Heat a wok and when hot, swirl in the vegetable oil. When smoking, throw in the garlic/ chilli paste, stir fry for just a few seconds before throwing in all of the morning glory. Stir fry briefly for a minute. Now add in the sugar, three sauces and water. Stir fry for a further minute and turn out on a plate. For some reason, this always tastes better, and the sauce has a better consistency if you leave the dish somewhere warm to sit for 5 minutes. I often make this then leave it in the oven while finishing off another Thai recipe. Serve with white rice