Bami Haeng Bhet (Duck with Noodles)

Hello! It's been a long time since I've last posted anything on my blog. I guess I'd simply comes the point where I'd run out of of recipes to post, and was struggling for ideas. There has also been a distinct lack of travelling with life getting in the way and incredibly, a new baby shortly arriving in our household! So while I can still have the opportunity, I'm going to be doing a bit of posting for the time being. Interestingly for me, pregnancy hasn't diminished my love for Thai food (or any food!!) as I've had a great appetite, very little morning sickness and no odd cravings. I'm hoping that my baby girl will also eventually love these flavours as much as I do as she takes in and tastes tiny amounts of whatever I eat. Time will tell!

 To ease back into blogging, I've been bringing together collections of my old recipes on Tumblr and now have a few new ones to add as well.

This new recipe is called 'bami haeng bhet' which can simply be translated to duck with dry noodles. It's quite a simple dish, featuring a pan roasted duck breast, sliced over fresh egg noodles with a side of Asian green vegetables, or in this case, chard, with a rich sticky sauce drizzled over and crunchy bits of garlic and spring onion to top it off.

I really enjoy using fresh egg noodles, as they've a much better texture than the dried ones and are much less likely to clump together. By the way, don't be put off that the recipe suggests the noodles are dry, it just refers to the fact that they're not in a soup.

This recipe serves two

You'll Need:

• Two duck breasts, with skin, trimmed of excess flabby bits
• A pack of fresh egg noodles (ba- mi), loosened
• A large handful of your chosen Asian leafy green vegetables, roughly chopped- choi sum, pak choi etc. or in my case, rainbow chard as we grew it in our allotment
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• two spring onions, chopped
• vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce:

• A big splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of oyster sauce
• a small splash of water
• a level dessertspoon of palm sugar (or light brown sugar)

Begin by getting a pan of water on to boil and set a steamer over it. 

Let's start off by making some crispy garlic, this gets sprinkled over the finished dish. Heat a generous splash of vegetable oil in a frying pan until reaching a medium heat but definitely not smoking or the garlic will burn. Pop in the garlic, moving it from time to time, letting it slowly sizzle and gently crisp and turn golden brown over a few minutes. Drain out with a slotted spoon onto absorbent kitchen paper.

Retaining the garlic flavoured oil and a medium heat, place the duck breasts skin side down in the pan. Press firmly down to keep the meat flat and help the fat to render out and cook for around ten minutes until the skin is browned and crisp. Flip over and cook on the meaty side for a further two- three minutes, then set to one side and rest. If there is an excessive amount of oil in the pan, drain some off but leave any brown and crispy bits for now.

Hopefully your pan of water is now boiling. Set your green veggies off to steam- giving them a few minutes. Your fresh egg noodles can go in the water but will only take around one minute to cook. Drain both and set them ready in serving bowls.

Finally, to make the sauce that will go over the duck and noodles, heat up the frying pan with the garlic/duck flavoured oil and when hot, add in the soy and oyster sauces, sugar and if needed, a splash of water to bring everything together; scrape and mix in any crispy pan residue and stir, heating for a minute or two; however- don't over- reduce as you'll want some sauce to get down to the noodles below.

Slice the rested duck, place on top of the noodles and pour over the sauce, sprinkling with the crispy garlic, fresh spring onions and in Thai style, any other seasonings you fancy, such as chilli flakes, vinegar, peanuts or a little more sugar.

Ba Mee Moo Daeng (Red Pork & Egg Noodles)

If I'm honest, I've always been more of a fan of egg noodles than wide rice noodles which is unfortunate since rice noodles are much more common in Thai food than egg noodles which originate from China. So this Chinese influenced dish is one that makes me very happy. 

I took another trip through to Liverpool the other day and was excited to pick up a very long packet of fresh egg noodles in a Chinese wholesalers there so this dish NEEDED to be made! It's another classic street food dish and as ever, with all Thai street food and especially with noodles, it's fully expected that you will want to add your own flavourings to the finished dish. Just a note regarding the colour- I'm not a fan of artificial colouring and as such, the red on the pork is much more subtle than some luminous versions you can find that use food colouring to achieve a bright red shade.

For 4 portions, use:

• 1 large pork tenderloin
• 100ml of light soy sauce
• 25ml of dark soy sauce
• a big shake of Chinese 5 spice (ground fennel, cinnamon, cloves, szechuan pepper & star anise)
• fresh egg noodles (hard to give a specific amount- use your judgement!)
• 2 big handfuls of leafy/ crunchy green veg- choi sum, bok choi, pak choy etc.
• 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 3 (or more) chopped red chillies
• a big splash of rice vinegar (the clear sort)
• a splash of fish sauce
• a splash of vegetable oil
• some sprigs of fresh coriander

Begin by marinating the pork loin in a bowl in the mix of light and dark soy and 5 spice. Let it marinate for an hour then lift the loin out, placing on a baking tray and cook in the oven at 160 degrees celsius for around 20 mins. Use your discretion, if you've used a very large large loin, it may take longer.

While the pork cooks make the sauce; mix the vinegar, fish sauce and chillies. Also make the garlic oil; heat the oil and when medium hot, fry off the chopped garlic- only lightly as it's more to flavour the oil. Get a large pan of water on the boil.

Back to the pork. Although not advised, I do prefer my pork to be slightly pink on the inside so if you want it fully cooked, allow 5-10 minutes more. Leave it to rest and cool down for a bit then cut the loin into equal slices- about  6-8mm is perfect if you want to be specific.

When the water's at boiling point, drop in the noodles- if you use fresh they won't take long- 2/3 minutes should do it. Quickly scoop them out of the water and toss the noodles in the garlic oil so they won't stick. Throw the green veggies into the leftover boiling water and blanch for a minute (no more) before draining.

Plate everything up- flavoured noodles, a few slices of pork, some of the vegetables and pour over a generous splash of the sauce. Give the noodles a good mix and eat alongside a few stalks of coriander.

Tom Yum Boran (Ancient Soup)

And so it’s the end of the year and a final post for 2014. Tom Yum Boran (Ancient soup) a little known, old fashioned Thai recipe that was very easy to make,being sort of a cross between a Pad Thai and hot and sour soup or quite like a Thai version of a bowl of Japanese ramen. It is an excellent one for clearing heads and is both light and cleansing too. A perfect healthy new year food.


In just 6 months I’ve gained 233 lovely followers, thanks for your support and I hope you continue to enjoy reading my blog and hopefully are inspired to try out some of the recipes. Have a wonderful 2015! Naomi x


For two people, use:

• Two small nests of dried egg noodles


• a small handful of thinly sliced lean pork


• Two handfuls of bean sprouts


• Juice of a lime 


• 4 spring onions, chopped


• a small handful of peanuts, crushed


• a pinch of chilli flakes


• half a pint of water


• a big piece of galangal,bashed


• two stalks of lemongrass, bashed


• 3 cloves of garlic,bashed


• 2 small Thai chillies, split


• 6 ish kaffir lime leaves, ripped up


• a splash of fish sauce (nam pla)


• a big splash of tamarind concentrate or if you can’t get this, an extra half juiced lime

In a large pan, heat the water with the meat, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, chillies and lime leaves on a gentle heat for around 30 minutes to infuse the flavours of the herbs. If the water reduces too much,add a bit more. After the infusing time, strain out and discard all the solid herbs, leaving the meat behind. Add in the tamarind, lime and fish sauces before stirring briefly.

In a separate pan, boil water and cook the noodles before straining out and dividing the noodles between bowls. Briefly boil the bean sprouts, 30 seconds will do, before scooping out and topping the noodles with them.

Distribute the soup and pork between the bowls and sprinkle over the spring onion, peanuts, chilli flake and an extra squeeze of lime.

Khao Soi (Curried Noodles)

This is another new favourite- my husband has requested this as a regular in our house.

In other news (and I’ll come back to the noodles very soon) I’m soon to be relocating back to my home city in Lancashire :) which means I’ll no longer be stuck in a small town in North Yorkshire! Sadly this will mean an end to my Thai food stock up trips to Nong Fern in Leeds but does mean I have two Asian supermarkets on my doorstep! The very good news is, the recipes will all be continuing!

Back to the Khao Soi- for once I wasn’t lazy and did make the simple curry paste from scratch- you could use a yellow or red Thai curry paste but it’s worth giving this one a go as it’s a bit different due to the roasting process. Khao soi is a northern Thai dish and is said to take a lot of it’s influence from nearby Burma. It’s a creamy, rich satisfying noodles dish, not too hot at all.

For two people use:

• 2 skinless small chicken breasts/ 4 thighs, chopped into small pieces


• 400ml coconut milk


• 100ml water


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla)


• a big pinch of sugar


• 2 sachets of egg (yellow) noodles


• vegetable oil for deep frying


• a lime, halved

For the curry paste, use:

• 4 cloves of garlic


• 2 stalks of lemongrass (ends trimmed and outer layer peeled off)


• 6 lime leaves


• a finger sized piece of fresh tumeric


• a finger sized piece of ginger


• 3 red chillies


• a small handful of coriander roots or stalks

• 4 red shallots/ half a red onion cut into a few bits


• 4 brown/ 10 white cardamom pods


• a small handful of coriander seeds

Start out by placing all the curry paste ingredients into a packet made from tin foil. Place this foil packet over a low-medium heat hob- I did this on electric, gas works best. Don’t let the foil packet sit for too long, keep it moving to stop the contents from burning. After 5 to ten minutes, take a look inside; there should be some charring and everything should have softened up. This provides a really nice smoky flavour to the paste. Pop everything into a pestle and mortar and pound, pound, pound away until you have a course paste. I cheated a bit after a while and transferred the pounded paste to a mini herb chopper, just to get it really fine. 

Once the paste is done, heat a wok and pour in the coconut milk. Let it sit for quite a while, until reduced by half and the oils are visible on the surface. Add in all the paste and stir fry for a few minutes until cooked down. Add in the water, fish sauce, sugar and chicken and let it cook for at least ten minutes, more if you like a thicker sauce.

While the curry is cooking, boil water for the noodles, cooking for as long as needed. In another small pan, heat the oil until hot. Take a few strands of cooked and well drained noodles at a time and gently drop them into the hot oil. They will fizzle and puff up instantly. Scoop them out, and drain on kitchen paper. 

Assembly time- place the drained noodles in the bottom of a serving bowl. Spoon over a ladle of the curry. Place some of the crispy deep fried noodles on top and finally squeeze over the lime juice.