Gaeng Taipo Pla (Morning Glory & Fish Curry)

Hi there everyone, firstly I hope you've had a lovely Christmas and/or some time off to relax and spend with friends and family. Let me start by apologising for my absence. I would love to say I've been having wild parties and gorging on food for the last 10 days or so but that isn't the case; in fact Christmas more or less has been thrown out of the window this year. I've been incredibly sick with a clostridium difficile infection, which developed after a course of antibiotics. I'm not home and dry yet but after a week of being rather poorly, I am starting to feel more human and am eating again. I'm also currently banned from the kitchen while infectious and on a very light diet; although am trying some Khao Man Gai (fatty chicken rice) tonight.

What with the floods/clean ups and power cuts and now this horrible bug it feels like I've been away for long enough, so it's high time to get blogging again.

This is a recipe I made a couple of weeks back that was planned during the time we had the floods; remember the swordfish I had to throw away? The week after, I bought some less expensive, but delicious steaks of hake and finally made the curry I had planned; Gaeng Taipo Pla.

It reminded me of some of the dishes we ate while we were in Malaysia in the summer, there's certainly a lot of common ingredients. It's a nice easy one to do and if you're sick of turkey and meat right now as a lot of us are after the Christmas festivities, it's a great dish- hot, sour, pungent and healthy with lots of crunchy morning glory.

For two people use:

• Two fish steaks (I used hake but any firm fish will work well)
• A very big handful of morning glory, trim off ends then cut into inch long pieces
• 200ml or 1/2 a can of coconut milk + water to make up to 400ml
• 75ml of tamarind concentrate
• A level tablespoon of red curry paste (I use Mae Ploy brand)
• A big splash of fish sauce
• A walnut sized chunk of palm sugar/ light brown sugar
• Juice of a large lime
• A few lime leaves, ripped up into small pieces

Heat the coconut milk in a wok over a reasonably high heat, gently stirring every now and again until the oils begin to separate from the coconut milk. When they do, add in the red curry paste and fry until well mixed, fragrant and the red oils can be seen. Now pop in the fish sauce, tamarind, sugar and lime leaves along with the additional 200ml water. After all are well mixed, gently pop in the fish steaks and let them slowly cook in the sauce, carefully turning over if needed after a few minutes to allow the fish to cook fully.

When you are happy the fish is cooked, use a slotted spoon or fish slice to carefully lift the fish out and put briefly to one side. Back to the pan of bubbling curry, add in the lime juice and morning glory, stirring well, cooking for only a minute or so until the morning glory is just wilted. 

Serve the curry with a fish steak on top along with freshly cooked white rice.

Goong Pad Sot Makham (Prawns Fried with Tamarind Sauce)

With Christmas just around the corner, it's the time of year when special dishes like this one are in store. I picked up a huge bag of king prawns from our local Asian food store which was much more economical than buying the tiny bags from regular supermarkets. Just a note on the prawns- I recommend using the prawns with the shell on. The sauce seems to stick to it so much better- however if you can't get shell on, don't get too hung up about it. Depending on your persuasion you can either chew the prawns, shell and all or get hands on and peel and suck the prawns as you go. 

This is a quick one to make, there is a bit of time needed to make the toppings but it's not onerous. My husband was a bit worried when I was making this that it would be too sweet; neither of us are particularly keen on sweet savoury dishes and I have used less sugar in my recipe than you may find in other versions of this dish. As ever with Thai food, you should always adjust the food to suit your own tastes. The end result is a thick sauce perfectly balanced between sour salty and sweet.

For two people, use:

• Two big handfuls of raw king prawns (shrimp) ideally with shell on
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 3-4 small red chillies, sliced
• 1 large red chilli, thinly sliced
• 5/6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• Around 75ml of thick tamarind concentrate
• Around 100ml water
• A big splash of light soy sauce
• A small splash of Thai fish sauce
• A tablespoon of palm sugar (or light brown sugar)
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Optional- lettuce leaves for serving on, coriander sprigs etc. 

Heat a large splash of oil over a medium heat and throw in the shallot slices. Gently fry for 4-5 minutes or until they become light golden. Add in the garlic and continue frying everything together until golden and crisp. Scoop out and drain on kitchen paper.

Heat up the same oil again and when hot, fry the chopped onion, until softened. Pop the small chillies, sugar, tamarind, water, soy and fish sauce into the pan, stirring until the sugar is all dissolved, and the sauce is reduced by around half. When the sauce is reasonably thick, pop in the prawns and cook in the sauce until pink (about 3-4 minutes).

Pour the prawns and sauce onto a serving plate (with a lettuce leaf bed if you wish) sprinkle over the large sliced chilli, crispy shallots/garlic and the sliced spring onion.

Pad Pla Cha (Sizzling Fried Fish)

The last week has certainly been a chaotic one- in our corner of the world we've had horrendous amounts of rain which led to wide scale flooding in our city centre, followed by our substation getting flooded, blowing up and widespread blackouts. It really was strange to have 3 days without electric, internet or even phone signal; most people also use digital phones so even a basic phone call using a landline was out. Consequently, cooking in the dark at friends and family's houses (we don't have gas here, only electric so we had to borrow) using up whatever food we had that hadn't yet gone off did not make for a productive week to run a food blog- all the shops were shut due to flood damage and having no power and even the museum where I work (unfortunately next to the river) had suffered from the flood waters so the beginning of week there was much cleaning up to be done.

This recipe for pad pla cha was made last week before all of this even began and has been waiting to get uploaded for a bit. The 'cha' part of the name describes the sizzling noise made by stir frying at high temperature, there are many variations on pad cha recipes, this is just one! I find deep frying the fish holds it together and helps absorb the flavours of the sauce. It has a couple of specific ingredients- the green peppercorns and the krachai root which give it a unique flavour.

For two people use:

• 2 small fillets of fish (I've use basa- a type of catfish)
• a big handful of flour
• 1 long Asian aubergine/ 3 Thai, sliced
• a handful of green pea aubergine
• a tablespoon of green peppercorns
• a heaped teaspoon of red curry paste (I use Mae Ploy brand)
• 2 small red chillies
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 large red chillies, sliced
• 2 fingers of krachai (fingerroot), peeled and finely chopped
• a large handful of sweet Thai basil (bai horapha)
• a large splash of oyster sauce
• a large splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of fish sauce
• vegetable oil for deep frying and a splash for the stir fry

Make a rough paste in a pestle and mortar with the small chillies and garlic, set aside. Cut the fish into thin slices and coat them in the flour, dusting off the excess. Heat a pan of oil to a depth of at least 3 inches and when hot, deep fry the fish until crisp and light golden in colour, scooping out and draining onto a paper towel. Set aside briefly.

In a wok, heat a splash of oil over a high heat and briefly fry off the chill/garlic paste and the red curry paste for around 30 seconds until fragrant. Next pop in the sliced aubergine and fry for a few minutes until slightly softened. Next in go the pea aubergines, green peppercorns, krachai and sliced red chilli and fry for just a minute. Now pop in the breaded fish and be much more gentle now, stir through and add in the remaining sauces (soy, fish and oyster), coat everything well. Finally, turn off the heat and throw in the basil leaves, briefly stirring through. 

Serve with freshly cooked rice.