Gai Pad Pong Karee (Chicken Fried with Curry Powder)

Soft chicken and egg pieces, a few crunchy vegetables and a mild yellow curry powder stir fry served over rice; this is great comfort food, just what you want on an autumn evening. 

As far as stir frys go, this is a great one as you won’t need to look hard for the ingredients (apart from possibly the nam prik pao- roasted chilli paste) and you can be eating it in around 20 minutes. It’s another classic Thai street food dish (although it’s often made into a luxury version by being served with crab or other seafood). Evaporated milk (although not a common ingredient in savoury recipes in the UK anymore) still crops up in Thai food quite regularly (such as tom kha gai soup) and is interchangeable with coconut milk (though obviously will give a less sweet flavour whilst still retaining the right creaminess). Mild curry powder gives it it’s bright yellow colour and makes it popular for little ones too.

For 4 portions use:

• 6 medium sized chicken thighs (skinned, boned and trimmed of fat), cut into small pieces
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 100ml of evaporated milk
• a heaped dessertspoon of nam prik pao (roasted chilli paste)
• a heaped dessertspoon of mild curry powder
• a large handful of crunchy veggies (I used some green beans and green/yellow bell peppers)
• 1 onion, sliced
• a few red chillies, chopped into a few bits (optional)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• vegetable oil for frying

Prepare the sauce first as it’ll all get poured in together- mix in a bowl the eggs, evaporated milk, nam prik pao, curry powder, soy sauce and oyster sauce. This will make things much quicker and easier.

In a wok, heat the oil until reasonably hot and stir fry the garlic for a few seconds before you add in the onion. The onion needs a minute just to soften, we’re not looking for colour. Now add the chicken. Cook the chicken until it’s more or less completely white and cooked through. Toss in the rest of the veggies and stir fry for a further minute then pour in the sauce. It’ll take a few minutes but as the egg cooks you’ll get something that resembles a lightly scrambled texture; i.e some solid and fluffy bits and still a little liquid- that’s the consistency you want. Don’t worry about it looking slightly curdled- that’s how it’s meant to be!!

Serve over hot fluffy rice and enjoy- this dish is like having an warm blanket wrapped around you.

Pla Pad Prik Thai Dam (Fish Fried with Black Pepper)

Deep fried fish, lots of garlicky spices and crunchy vegetables- you can’t really go wrong here. I suspect this is one of these dishes that may have started out as tourist food but has ended up being just as popular with the Thai people.
It’s a quick easy to make dish that doesn’t use any obscure or hard to track down ingredients. It’s a nice contrast to have two kinds of heat from the smoky black pepper and the fiery chillies. It didn’t last long on our plates anyway!! Serve with fluffy white rice.
For two portions use:

• a large, skinned sea fish fillet (I used haddock- pollock, coley, catfish or ling are also good) cut into large chunks
• 1 & ½ bell peppers (whatever colour you fancy)
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• 2 spring onions, cut into large pieces
• 4/5 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
• 2-3 small red chillies, chopped fine
• a dessertspoon of black pepper, ground
• a cup of plain flour
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• vegetable oil for deep frying/ stir frying

Start off by coating the chunks of fish in the flour. Heat a deep pan or wok and when hot, gently drop in the fish and deep fry until lightly golden and crisp- roughly ¾ minutes. Cook in batches if needed so the pan isn’t overcrowded and drain on kitchen paper.
In a clean wok, heat a splash of oil until really hot and throw in the sliced onions and peppers, stir frying for 3 minutes and allowing the bottoms to get a little char. Throw in the spring onions, garlic, chillies and ground pepper (it’ll make you cough!) stir frying for another 30 seconds before adding in the fried fish and both sauces. Briefly stir fry (gently so the fish doesn’t break up) so everything is coated in sauce and serve with rice.