Gai Pad King (Chicken Fried with Ginger)

This ubiquitous dish is found on every Thai restaurant menu up and down the country (UK), it's one of those dishes that gets overlooked in favour of something more exotic, spicier and perhaps ''more traditionally" Thai. However, it's one of the healthiest stir fries out there with lightly cooked crunchy vegetables, low fat- high protein chicken and mushrooms and immune boosting ginger and chillies.

The ginger is used as a vegetable meaning this stir fry is full of fragrant and peppery ginger flavours. Easy to make, very quick to cook, colour and packed with flavour, it made a great weekday dinner.

For two people use:

• two small chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 small onion, cut in slivers
• 3/4 spring onions, cut in inch long pieces
• a large piece of ginger, peeled (2-3 inches long) and cut into thin slivers
• a handful of Chinese wood/jelly ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft then drained and cut into strips
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 small red chillies, chopped
• a pinch of sugar
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a small splash of fish sauce
• a small splash of vegetable oil for frying

Get the oil heated up in a wok until it's nice and hot, throw in the onion and stir fry, letting it get some colour. Next in goes the chicken, stir frying for a couple of minutes until it's white and mostly cooked through. Add the garlic and spring onions next, giving them a quick turn in the wok. Now add in the mushrooms, ginger and chillies and mix well.

Finally add the sugar and three sauces, toss everything to get it well coated and serve- it shouldn't take more than five minutes to cook.

Bua Loy Nam King (Floating Lotus in Ginger Syrup)

I don’t do many Thai desserts as I’m not a huge dessert eater but as this dish isn’t too sweet I thought I’d see what it was like and actually, it’s really good. Bua Loy means floating lotus as the rice balls, floating in syrup, resemble lotus, floating on a pond. A lot of versions for bua loy seem to be in coconut milk sauces where as this one is in a warm, spicy ginger ‘soup’.
The trickiest thing is getting the consistency of the dough right- too dry and it’ll crumble, too wet (even a tiny bit) and it turns too gloopy to handle.
To make 4 portions use:

• 150g of sticky rice flour
• 50g of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 50g of black sesame seeds
• cold water
• 50g more of brown sugar
• a chunk of ginger, cut into thin slices, no need to peel
• 200ml of water

Use a blender or food processor to turn the sesame seeds into powder. In a heavy pan heat the palm/brown sugar and mix the seeds in- and the sugar melts, it should create a sticky, not dry paste. Put to one side.
In a bowl put the rice flour and VERY slowly add dribbles of water, kneading the flour until you have a firm dough. Pinch off golf ball sized pieces of the dough and use your fingers to make a flat circle. Pinch off some of the sesame paste, place on the dough and roll up enclosing the paste into a smooth ball. Repeat to use up all the dough/paste.
Heat a pan of water until boiling and gently drop all the rice balls in. Let them simmer for 3-4 minutes until floating and fully cooked through- test one if you want to make sure the dough is fully cooked and no longer floury; it should be bouncy and chewy. Use a spatula to lift out the rice balls and immerse them in cold water to stop them cooking.
Empty the pan and refill with the 200ml of fresh water. Add in the extra brown sugar and ginger slices and heat slowly for at least ten minutes to create the ginger infused syrup.
To serve, place a few of the rice balls into the bottom of each bowl and pour over a generous amount of the hot syrup, sieving out the ginger slices.

Gaeng Hang Lay (Northern Curry)

I’ve been enjoying exploring some of Thailand’s lesser known curries recently. Green and red are so popular here in the UK, with Massaman, Penang and Jungle following behind somewhere. Along with the recipes I’ve posted recently for Gaeng Kari (Indian style curry) and Khao Soi (Burmese style curried noodles) I feel there are still some amazing Thai curries that need better representation here in the UK, Gaeng Hanglay is one of them. It’s a dish from the north of Thailand, and like another northern curry, Gaeng Pha (jungle curry) it doesn’t use coconut milk. It shares ingredients from both Burmese and Indian cuisines. As there are a few stages to making this curry, it does take a bit of time, around 3 hours altogether, but it is definitely worth it.


This recipe gives three big portions or four small ones:


For the hang lay spice mix:

Toast the following spices in a dry frying pan until starting to brown (but not burn!) then grind in a pestle and mortar:

• a heaped teaspoon of Szechwan peppercorns


• 6 dried red chillies


• a heaped tablespoon of coriander seeds


• a heaped teaspoon of cumin seeds


• ½ nutmeg, crumbled


• a heaped tablespoon of powdered turmeric

For the pickled garlic use:

• a bulb of garlic, peeled


• a pinch of sugar


• a pinch of salt


• a big splash of white wine/ rice wine vinegar


• a splash of water.

Mix everything and leave to pickle for at least an hour. This will keep for a week at least.


For the curry paste:

Pound up all these ingredients in a pestle and mortar, start with the tougher ingredients and add the spice powder and shrimp paste (if using last). It’ll take a while but pestle and mortar does give the best results:

• a tablespoon of your hang lay spice mix


• 3 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed, outer layer peeled off and finely chopped


• ½ red onion, roughly chopped


• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped


• a finger sized piece of galangal, roughly chopped


• a few pieces of fresh turmeric, roughly chopped (use a tablespoonful of dried if you can’t get fresh)


• a heaped teaspoon of shrimp paste (leave out if you don’t have access to an Asian supermarket.

For the curry use:

• 300g of pork, cubed. I used pork loin but left the fat on


• about 20 Thai shallots/ regular shallots are fine too, peeled but left whole


• a handful of peanuts


• a large piece of ginger, peeled and cut into strands


• your pickled garlic + a big splash of the pickling liquid


• the rest of your hang lay spice mix


• a big splash of dark soy sauce


• a big splash of fish sauce


• a big splash of tamarind juice (use lime if you can’t get tamarind)


• water  as needed


• a big pinch of sugar


• a small splash of vegetable oil for frying

In a bowl, start by mixing together the meat, curry paste and dark soy sauce, letting it marinate for an hour or more, if you have time.

In the meantime, toast the peanuts in a dry frying pan, when they have brown edges, turn them out and leave for later.

When the meat has marinaded, heat the oil in a wok or heavy frying pan. When it’s hot, add in the meat and fry to seal the meat and render out some of the fat. After 5 minutes of cooking, add in the shallots and fry for another few minutes before adding in the pickled garlic and juice, peanuts and ginger. Give everything a good stir then add in the rest of the spice mix. Stir again before adding the fish sauce, tamarind and the sugar. Slowly add in water until you can only just see the tops of the ingredients poking out before leaving the curry to simmer for at least an hour. From time to time, give the curry a stir and check the water level; adding more if needed. The pork should be soft and the sauce shouldn’t be too thin when it’s ready.

Serve with fluffy or sticky rice.