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.

Nam Nuang (Grilled Pork Fresh Spring Rolls)

 

So following on from last Sunday's post about fresh spring rolls, here's part two- the Vietnamese style 'nam nuang'. I was initially quite confused by the name; 'nam' meaning liquid/water/sauce in Thai. After a bit of nosing around I discovered that they are known as 'nem nuong in Vietnamese (nuong simply means grilled in Vietnamese and across a few borders, they have become Nam Nuang in Thailand. These spring rolls are a simplified version of the original but are no less tasty for it...

This recipes makes about 8 rolls; use:

• 8 dried rice paper circles

• A shallow dish of cold water

For the sausages:

• 250g of pork mince

• a heaped teaspoon of black pepper, ground finely

• a small splash of soy sauce

• a small splash of oyster sauce

For the sauce:

• a very big splash of tamarind concentrate

• a big splash of water

• a small splash of fish sauce

• a big pinch of sugar

• a small handful of chopped peanuts

• a small pinch of chilli flakes

And for filling the rolls a selection of:

• shredded lettuce and/or whole baby leaves

• mint leaves

• fresh coriander

• shredded cucumber

• sliced red chillies

First make the sauce by heating the first four ingredients in a small pan, reducing down until the sauce takes on a thin caramel consistency. There should be a good balance of sweet, sour and savoury. Sprinkle over the chopped peanuts and chilli flakes. 

Next prepare all the herbs and vegetables and set out on a plate with the sauce.

Now comes the sausages- dead easy to make, just mix all four ingredients in a bowl by hand. Take a handful and shape into a chunky sausage shape (it should be at least a couple inches smaller than the width of your rice paper circles. Place the sausages on a foil lined tray and grill on a low-medium heat until fully cooked and browned (about 6-10 minutes).

With everything ready to serve, the rice paper comes last. Take a dried disc of rice paper and dunk it into the dish of water for about ten seconds before lifting out, turning over and dunking for ten seconds more. It should now feel fairly flexible. If not, and you still feel it will snap if you tried to fold it, dunk for a further ten seconds then shake off the excess water.

Place the damp rice paper sheet on a board (it will continue to soften and become gelatinous) and fill with your choice of veggies/herbs placed horizontally across the middle of the sheet. Place a sausage on top, drizzle over some of the sauce and roll up by folding the sides into the middles then roll up from bottom to top, using your fingers to hold all the ingredients inside the wrapper.

If you're feeling sociable, serve everything on a big platter and let your guests make and wrap their own nam nuangs!

Moo Ping, Som Tam & Khao Nieow (Grilled Pork Skewers, Papaya Salad & Sticky Rice)

If I was to ever find myself on death row and had to pick a final meal, it would be this. Everything about these three relatively simple components equals complete perfection. Ever so slightly charred, grilled pork skewers (moo ping), juicy and rich with garlic and black pepper with a hint of coconut. My long time favourite, som tam (papaya salad) with it's addictive crunch and astringent sour and hot flavours and to round the whole thing off and soak up all the flavours; sticky rice (khao niew) eaten by hand. It's no wonder they're regularly found in this combined set in Thailand.

Isaan (or north eastern Thai) food is for me the pinnacle of Thai food. The use of fresh herbs and strong pungent flavours, paired with grilled meats, salads and less use of creamy/soupy based dishes equates to food heaven for me.

Doing these dishes also gave me chance to try out and show off some of my new kitchenware- the large terracotta mortar and wooden pestle (informally known as a pokpok) used for gently bashing ingredients- ideal for som tam and the woven sticky rice holder- which I lined with cling film before putting the rice in. It keeps the rice warm and finished off the cooking so the rice is the proper consistency at serving.

For the moo ping skewers (this makes 6 large) use:

• 3 pork steaks (ideally with some fat, though cut off any large rinds), cut into thin pieces
• a small handful of coriander stalks or roots
• a teaspoon of black pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• a small splash of fish sauce
• a big pinch of brown or palm sugar
• 100ml of coconut cream (the thick part off the top of a can)
• 6 bamboo skewers

In a mortar (a regular granite one, not the terracotta one above) bash up the black pepper, garlic and coriander stalks into a paste. Add this to a bowl along with the pork pieces. As a rough guide for the pork, I cut each steak into three strips lengthways and then thinly sliced each strip across (roughly 4mm wide.) I ended up with lots of small pieces. 

Into the bowl add in the three sauces and sugar, mix well and leave to marinade for around an hour.

In the meantime, soak the skewers in water (a tall flower vase works well!) so when you grill them they won't burn.

If you make a som tam salad or are doing sticky rice, now is the time to prepare the ingredients and get them ready.

Here's the link, Som Tam Recipe - it was the second ever recipe I did for this blog!

For the sticky rise it's best to just follow the recipe on the packet/ bag that you're using as it'll require a fairly specific quantity of water.

Back to the pork. Take the skewers out of the water and begin to thread the meat onto the stick; the meat strips should sit perpendicular (across) the skewer, not lengthways along it. Skewer it through the thinnest edge so that the maximum amount of meat is exposed to the grill and is easier to pull off when eating. Put plenty of meat on each skewer and pack it down; don't worry about the cooking- it's thin pieces so it will cook through.

Heat the grill medium-high and place onto a wire rack or as I did, on a baking tray with the edges of the bamboo skewers resting on either side of the tray so the meat sits clear of the bottom. The grilling takes about 10-15 minutes and twice during the cooking, take the skewers out and baste them with a light coating of the coconut cream. They're ready when they're a little smoky, have a little bit of light char and and golden brown.

Serve with the som tam and sticky rice- you'll thank me!

Yam Makeua Yang (Grilled Aubergine Salad)

This is a very healthy dish, which is fine but we ate it along with deep fried garlicky pork- khao moo tod gratiem (which will be the next post) so all was good! You could say this was the vegetarian brother of laab (chopped meat salad) as there's a lot of similar herbs and flavours used but none of the guilt. There's beautiful smoky flavours from the charred aubergine which goes great with anise and mint in the herbs and salty/sour sauce.

This doesn't take too long to make and the standard purple mediterranean aubergine does the job just fine in this case. Small Thai eggplants would be way to costly to make this dish in the UK due to how many you'd need. Long thin Asian eggplants/aubergines are another good (and more affordable option).

For a bowl of Yam Makeua (which is a perfect side dish for 2) use:

• 1 large purple aubergine/ 3 thin Asian/ 8 Thai
• 4 shallots, peeled and sliced
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 2 red chillies, sliced
• 2 boiled eggs (optional but always nice)
• a large handful of fragrant herbs- I've used sweet Thai basil (bai horapha) and mint
• juice of 1 lime
• a big splash of fish sauce or light soy sauce

Put your aubergine(s) on a baking tray and grill whole, on a high heat until the skin is blackened and the aubergines wrinkled. It took me about 10 minutes, it'll take less for the smaller/thinner aubergines. You can also toast the aubergine directly over a  flame but it will get very smoky and sets the smoke alarms off indoors so best to save this method for outdoor cookery.

As soon as the aubergine(s) come out of the grill, cover the tray with a tight layer of cling film (which will vacuum itself to the hot aubergine) but once cooled a little will allow you easily peel off the skin.

Discard burnt skin and cut the smoky flesh into strips. When cool, mix in a bowl along with all the other ingredients, serving the boiled eggs on the side.

Gai Yang Khamin (Turmeric Grilled Chicken)

So lots of you liked my sushi post yesterday? thanks for that; I do sometimes wonder whether I should include more than Thai food in this blog as we eat Asian food probably 4-5 nights a week, I guess I just know way more about Thai than any other food culture. I may start throwing in the odd non- Thai Asian post from time to time.
So it’s moving towards Autumn/ Wintertime again and the which makes taking pictures in poorly lit kitchens quite tricky so sorry for the washed out pic. It did taste really good though and was really easy to do. I’ve done a gai yang post way back here but a slightly different recipe and without the addition of turmeric.Turmeric is supposed to have cancer preventative properties so is a great food to eat.
For two portions use:

• 4-6 chicken thighs, skinned and boned, trimmed of excess fat
• a small handful of coriander roots or stalks
• a teaspoon of black peppercorns
• half a bulb of garlic
• 2 fingers of fresh turmeric
• a big splash of light soy sauce

and the sauce is simply:

• Juice of a big lime
• a big splash of fish sauce
• a few stalks of chopped coriander
• a big pinch of chilli flakes/powder
• a teaspoon of toasted rice powder (dry fry rice and grind up)

Pound all the solid ingredients in a pestle and mortar until you have a chunky paste. Put this paste along with the soy sauce and chicken into a bowl, mixing well and leave to marinade for as long as you have, ideally an hour or so.
Heat the grill on a medium heat (not too hot otherwise the spices burn and the chicken stays raw!) and grill until cooked through, with a slight char and some crispy bits. Serve with (ideally! sticky rice, a som tam salad and the spicy dipping sauce

Laab Pla Duk (Catfish Chopped Salad)

This is the 3rd recipe for laab/larb/laap that I’ve done now. It’s something we cook quite a lot in our house as it’s easy to do and is fresh tasting and filling too. It’s sort of a salad (but much better than that). Laab is a northern Thai dish and it can come in hundreds of varieties and variations. There’s even one that involves raw pigs blood (though I don’t think I’ll be giving that one a go!) This one made a good change from the chicken or pork versions I’ve done before and the grilled catfish adds a nice smoky depth to the dish. Serve with sticky rice to mop up and juices that are left.

For two people use:

• 1 whole catfish
• 4 (Thai) shallots, sliced
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• a dessert spoon of white rice (for making khao khua- toasted rice powder)
• a big sprinkle of chilli flakes
• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla)
• juice of 1-2 limes
• 2 wedges of white cabbage
• a big handful each of herbs (I used Vietnamese mint and sawtooth culantro- regular mint and coriander are perfectly fine- I just get excited when I see Thai herbs)

Start with the catfish and get it out of the way- mine was jet black in colour and looked pretty angry- put it on foil and shove it under the grill quickly and grill until fully cooked and the skin is crispy, gently turn it over half way through the cooking; it should take 10-15 minutes altogether.
When the fish has cooled down, remove and discard the skin and pick all the flesh of the bones. Use a big knife to roughly chop the fish.
While the fish is cooling make Khao Khua (toasted rice powder). Heat the dessert spoon of rice in a dry wok and keep moving it until it starts to toast, becoming light brown and smelling slightly nutty, about 3-5 minutes. When it’s toasted, pour into a mortar and grind into a fine powder.
Add all the ingredients into a bowl (apart from the herbs and cabbage) and give everything a really good mix together. Serve with the cabbage wedge and herbs alongside.

Miang Pla Yang (Grilled Fish Wraps)

This was a really quick and simple tea, grilled fish with rice noodles, herbs, wrapped in lettuce and dipped in a sour/spicy sauce called nam jim.
It made me think more of Vietnamese food than Thai with all the fresh herbs and little cooking and I could see this being perfect bbq food for a hot summer’s day.

For two people use:

• 2 cleaned seabass or other fish
• a handful of mint leaves
• a handful of Vietnamese mint or coriander
• about half a lettuce, leaves separated
• a big handful of fresh rice vermicelli

and for the nam jim sauce…

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 small red chillies
• a few stalks of coriander
• juice of 1 lime
• a small splash of fish sauce (nam pla)

Start by grilling the fish under a medium grill. It should take about 10-12 minutes to get some colour/ a little char. Gently turn it over after half way. When it’s cooked, you’ll know; it’ll easily flake and the skin will be a bit crispy
While the fish grills, make the nam jim sauce by blending/pounding up all the ingredients. Set on a serving platter with the rest of the ingredients around.
To eat, treat it like a Thai tortilla; take a lettuce leaf, grab some morsels of fish, top with a few strands of noodles and some of the herbs. Roll the whole thing up like a cigar and dip into the sauce as you eat.

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.

Yam Neua Yang Nam Tok (Waterfall Grilled Beef Salad)

Leafy bland western salad VS pungent, fresh, filling Thai salad= no competition.

This dish shows why I love Thai salads so much. They’re incredibly healthy (yes lean beef is healthy) they punch weigh above their weight in flavours- mouth wateringly sour and tangy from the lime, aromatic and cleansing from the herbs, crunchy and crisp from the veggies, vibrant and warming from the chillies and feeling full afterwards.

There’s various debates about why this is called Nam Tok (waterfall) some say it’s because the meat is cooked rare and the juices drip out during the grilling, others because the beef is so juicy. If you’ve been following my blog recently, you’ll see this dish shares a lot of ingredients with the larb moo recipe that I posted a few weeks back.


Anyway, enough talk, for two people use:

• 2 small, very lean steaks


• ½ red onion, thinly sliced


• a big handful of coriander leaves


• 1 large red chilli, sliced


• 1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed, outer layer peeled off and sliced fine


• juice of 1 big lime


• a big splash of nam pla (fish sauce)


• a tablespoon of khao khua (toasted rice powder- see below)


• a few slices of cucumber (for the side of the plate)


• a small splash of dark soy sauce


• a small splash of light soy sauce


• a bigger splash of nam pla (fish sauce)

You want to get your steaks marinating first off. Pop them in a bowl, adding the two soy sauce and a good splash of fish sauce. Leave this for a while, while you prepare all the other ingredients and make the toasted rice powder.

For the khao khua (toasted rice powder); put a small handful of plain white rice into a dry wok and turn on the heat. Keep gently moving the rice round and after a few minutes, it will start to toast and have a good nutty smell. Once it’s reached a light brown colour, quickly pour the rice into a mortar before it starts to burn. Grind up the rice into a fine powder and keep in a sealed tub for when you need it.

So after the meat has marinated, lets say an hour or two. Heat a non stick frying pan up (no oil) or turn on the grill (whichever method you prefer). You want to cook the steak for only a minute or two either side so it ends up rare- medium rare. After the steak is cook, slice it into fine strips and put it, along with any juice into a bowl. Throw in the rest of the ingredients (onions, chillies, coriander, lemongrass, lime juice, fish sauce and the rice powder) mix very quickly together and serve on a plate with the cucumber slices on the side.

Yam Moo Yang (Grilled Pork Salad)

I know I promised more pork and here’s the first of two. However, this must be one of the healthiest ways to eat pork, super lean, no oils and a load of veggies and spices. It took hardly any time at all to make and works really well as a lunch for next day (just don’t pour the dressing over until you eat it). A perfect example of using the Thai 4 flavours (salty, sweet, sour and spicy) to make salad come alive!

For two people use:

• a lean whole piece of boneless pork (tenderloin, leg etc.)


• half a white or red onion, cut into strips


• a stalk of celery, cut in thin slices


• about 15 cherry tomatoes, halved


• a big handful of coriander leaves and stems, ripped up


• a small handful of mint leaves, ripped up

and for the dressing use:

• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled


• 3 red chillies, roughly chopped


• a big pinch of sugar


• juice of 1 lime


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla)

If you need to, trim the pork of any extra fat before placing in onto a foil lined tray and under a low-medium grill, keep a close eye on it and keep turning it so it doesn’t burn, depending on the size/shape of your pork, it may be about 15 mins. Once cooked, check to make sure its cooked all the way through before cutting into fairly thick slices. Leave to one side.

Now make the dressing, pound up the garlic and chillies in a mortar before adding in the sugar, lime and fish sauce. Put all the salad ingredients into a bowl, throw in the pork and briefly coat everything in the dressing before eating. 

That’s it, very easy!

Moo Satay & Ajaad (Pork Satay and Cucumber Pickle)

(or the satay that isn’t really). If you’re wondering why there are no sticks that’s because I forgot to buy them before I made the recipe. It was too late to go out and buy them so just imagine the meat came on sticks ok?

This dish takes a little bit of prep time but is fairly straightforward to do, both the sauce and the pickle can be made ahead of time.


Ingredients for enough for two:

For the marinade:

• 200g of lean pork, cut into reasonably thin slivers


• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder


• 1 stalk of lemongrass, trimmed and very finely chopped


• a big splash of light soy sauce


• 1/3 can coconut milk


• a big pinch of sugar

For the peanut sauce:

• a heaped tablespoon of Massaman curry paste (some supermarkets sell this)


• the remaining 2/3 can coconut milk


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla) an easy supermarket find these days


• a large handful of salted peanuts


• a small splash of tamarind extract (if you can’t find this add the juice of half a lime)


• a heaped tablespoon of sugar


• 4 cloves of chopped garlic


• a small piece of galangal (use ginger if you can’t get it), very finely chopped


• 3 small red chillies, very finely chopped


• 4/5 kaffir lime leaves, shredded and chopped very fine (some supermarkets sell them fresh, dried are pretty rubbish- use lime zest instead


• 1 stalk of lemon grass, trimmed and very finely chopped

For the cucumber pickle:

• 3-4 inch piece of cucumber, peeled, seeds scooped out then finely chopped


• a small piece of red onion/ shallot very finely chopped


• 1 or 2 small red chillies, very finely chopped


• a big glug of white wine vinegar


• a big pinch of sugar

Start with the pork marinade- place the pork in a bowl and add all the ingredients listed. Stir well then leave somewhere cool for at least 1 hour, longer if you want.


While the pork marinades, make the pickle. Mix all the pickle ingredients in a small bowl and leave it to sit while you made the peanut sauce.


Start off by toasting the peanuts over a medium heat in a frying pan. Keep watching them and moving them about so they don’t burn, toast until they just begin to change colour. Take them off the heat, pouring in to a pestle and mortar and crush them. Take them out and put them to one side for now. Put all the herby ingredients (garlic, galangal, chilli, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves in the mortar and bash these up into a more paste- like substance. Into the empty frying pan, over a medium heat; add this paste and the leftover coconut milk and the remainder of the sauce ingredients. Let this heat through for 5 minutes, before adding the crushed peanuts. It’ll take a while, maybe 15 minutes, but very slowly reduce this down until you have a thick and gloopy sauce. this can now be kept to one side until serving time.


Back to the pork- thread the meat onto skewers and cook under a medium high grill for about 10 minutes, turning as needed. Let them get a little bit of char to them. If, like me you forget the sticks, just lay the pieces of meat onto a foil covered grill try in one layer and cook in the same way.


Finally, grab your three components and get dipping!

Sai Oua (Thai Sausage)

I’m back! I’ve been away for a week or so, having escaped from my little Yorkshire town for a bit- It’s been a busy week of weddings, conferences, visits to the capital and travelling up and down the country so time to enjoy some great Thai food again. Sai Oua (which actually means stuffed intestines- or basically sausages to you and me) are pretty much the same as our regular sausage, they usually come in the style of a Cumberland sausage, i.e. in a big coil but yellow from turmeric and full of Thai flavours. When buying at the Thai food stall you can ask for whatever length of grilled sausage you desire, or can even buy the whole coil. The picture below isn’t the prettiest but it is damn tasty and I wholly recommend you give the recipe a try.

This makes enough for 2 people:

• 6 pork sausages of your choice (please use decent ones though)


• 25g of red Thai curry paste (roughly a heaped tablespoon)


• two stalks of lemongrass, trimmed and very finely chopped


• a few stalks of coriander, stem is best, very finely chopped


• a small knob of galangal very finely chopped (some supermarkets have it)


• a few kaffir lime leaves, very finely chopped (some supermarkets sell fresh)


• a big teaspoon of turmeric powder


• a pinch of sugar


• a small splash of Thai fish sauce (nam pla) all supermarkets sell it

Into a bowl, squeeze out the sausage meat from the skins, then add all the other ingredients. Mix gently but thoroughly by hand until everything is well blended, and your fingers are probably bright yellow. Wet your hands and form the meat into sausage shapes again. I should say by the way, this recipe presumes you don’t have a sausage maker. If you do, by all means make a long coil in the traditional way. But otherwise, place your hand rolled sausages under a grill and cook on a medium heat until a little char forms and the meat is cooked right through, about 10-15 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and ideally a cucumber pickle (recipe to follow soon) or your favourite chilli dipping sauce.

Gai Yang & Nam Jim Jaew (Grilled chicken with dipping sauce)

Grilled meats are a Northern Thai speciality. Often, you’ll come across gai yang served alongside my favourite Som Tam (papaya salad) and Khao Niew (sticky rice). The dipping sauce is one of several Nam Jim sauces that are made in Thailand and at some point I’ll do a post just about sauces and condiments. Anyway, Nam Jim Jaew is the type of sauce that’s specific to grilled meats, there are several other varieties.


For 4 (snack) or 2 (main course) You’ll need:

• 2 chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and each cut into 4 strips


• 2 stalks lemongrass, top, bottom and outer layers peeled off and the rest very finely chopped (all the big supermarkets sell it fresh)


• 6 cloves of garlic


• a small handful of coriander stalks, or roots, chopped


• a big splash of fish sauce (nam pla- an easy supermarket find)


• a small splash of dark soy


• a big pinch of sugar


• a sprinkle of white (or black) pepper

In a pestle and mortar, bash up the lemongrass, garlic, coriander, pepper and sugar. Do it bit by bit if you need to. Add the rough paste to a bowl with the chicken. Pour on the soy and fish sauce and mix well. Leave it to marinade for as long as you can, ideally a few hours.


While marinading, make the Nam Jim Jaew sauce. You’ll need:

• 1 level teaspoon of white rice


• 4 red birds eye chillies


• 2 cloves garlic


• a few stalks and leaves of coriander, very finely chopped


• a pinch of sugar


• juice of 1 lime


• a good splash of fish sauce


• a very small splash of dark soy sauce

Start by dry frying the small amount of rice in a really hot wok or frying pan. When it’s toasted and light brown get it quickly into a pestle and mortar or it’ll burn. Grind it up into a fine powder and pour it aside for now. In the now empty pestle and mortar, bash up the chillies and garlic into a rough paste. Tip this into a small bowl along with the chopped coriander and sugar. Pour on the soy and fish sauces and finally stir through the powdered rice (known as Khao Khua) which will thicken the sauce slightly- if it’s over thick, add extra lime juice and fish sauce.


Back to the chicken- lay on a grill tray/ baking sheet and grill at 200 degrees/ 400f/ gas 6 and grill for about 5 minutes either side until really hot all the way through. Serve piled high alongside the dipping sauce.