Sweet hot Thai chilli sauce

I'm off to see a friend's new flat this afternoon and want to take a little housewarming present.

This quick and easy sweet chilli sauce will be perfect - I think almost everyone likes it and it's good to have a jar in the fridge to liven up grilled fish or chicken, or to serve with spring rolls, or have with poached eggs - or just about anything, to be honest!

There's plenty of time to make a quick batch which can then cool down while I get ready to go out ...

A note about measurements.  Where I've used a tablespoon, it is a measured 15ml tablespoon.  It can be easy to put in too much cornflour mixture so err on the side of caution and add a little more water if it looks very cloudy when you tip it into the pan and doesn't disperse when stirred in.  The cup I used holds 300ml water, but I judged the fractionals by eye so the liquid volumes weren't precisely measured.

To make a couple of jars or, like me, one bottle as a gift and a bowl for your own fridge, you'll need:

1 teaspoon salt, ideally coarse

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2-1 tablespoon dried crushed chillies (a full tablespoon is quite spicy)

3/4 cup distilled white vinegar (or rice vinegar)

1 and 1/4 cups white sugar

a splash of water (probably 1-2 tablespoons)

1 scant tablespoon cornflour dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

First, crush together the salt, garlic and chilli flakes, then add to a medium sized pan with the vinegar, sugar and water.

Bring to a boil and boil steadily for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Reduce the heat and stir in the cornflour mixture, then cook for a further three-four minutes.

Remove from the heat and pour into a heat proof bowl.

You can just cover this tightly when it's cool and keep in the fridge or, after a few minutes when it's cooled slightly, transfer to your chosen bottles, jars or dishes.

It will keep for about two weeks stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Hope you like this recipe - let me know what you think.

NOTE: last time I made this it went really thick, and I've no idea why! However, I put the bottle to stand in some hot water for a few minutes and it then became thinner and pourable again. 

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Kao tom - rice soup

An everyday breakfast or light meal, kao tom is a lovely nourishing rice soup - ideal plain for those a little under the weather or with added flavours for a really delicious but simple dish.

I'm currently staying for a few days to help my papa while he recovers from a bad fall.  It's a beautiful crisp autumn day and I made him a kao tom with chicken this morningto get the day off to a  good and nurturing start.

Of course I had a bowl myself too - and included an egg in mine.  The egg is optional and as it is put in the bowl right at the end before pouring over the broth it is just very lightly cooked.  So it's up to you of course how you feel about eating your eggs 'rare'!

You need cooked rice for this, so do make that first - it'll be really annoying to start cooking and then realise you don't have it to hand ...

Serves two

Stock cube (I used about 3/4 of a chicken knorr cube)

One peeled garlic clove, just flattened slightly

A little chicken (or pork or seafood or whatever you fancy) - I used about half a chicken breast chopped into small pieces

Cooked rice for two people

2-4 spring onions, chopped

Coriander (I couldn't get any fresh coriander here, so used 1/2 teaspoon of coriander from a jar, but just omit if you don't have any)

An egg per person (optional)

As usual, the dish comes together quickly, so get the ingredients out first.

Boil the kettle and then add enough water to a saucepan (the easiest way to measure is to pour into the bowls you'll be using then tip into the pan - and then add a bit more).

Add most of a stock cube and the garlic clove and bring to a simmer, then add the meat and/or fish and cook for around 3-4 minutes (timings will depend on what meat or fish you're cooking and how big the cubes of meat are).

As I wasn't using fresh coriander, I also added the jarred coriander to the pan while the chicken was cooking.

Add the cooked rice towards the end of the meat's cooking time and simmer a little longer.  When I was shown how to make this soup, I was told to cook until the 'rice gets big', as it will swell a little more as it cooks in the broth.

After maybe a minute, add the spring onions and take off the heat, and add some coriander if using.

Crack an egg into each bowl for those that are having egg.

Spoon the chicken and rice into each bowl first and top with the hot broth.

Delicious served with garlic fried in its skin, or simple condiments of sugar and dried chillies to taste.  Or just plain as it comes if you're ill or have an upset tummy!

The egg is lightly poached in the broth and adds beautiful golden swirls of yolk to the soup when broken.

I hope you like this recipe!  Do let me know if you tried it ...

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Larb moo - spicy pork salad

This spicy salad is perfect for a light lunch or supper, or served with rice to make a more substantial meal.  It's really easy to make - being more about assembly than cooking.  I like very spicy food, so do use less chilli if you're less of a fan.

Serves 2-4 depending on greediness and what else you eat with it ...

1/8 cup risotto rice (to make roasted rice)

300g tenderloin pork, minced

2-3 limes

1/2 knorr stock cube, or a teaspoon of stock granules

1 spring onion, chopped

1/2 red onion (or shallots), chopped

handful each of mint leaves and parsley, chopped

1 tbspn crushed dry chillies

2 tbspn fish sauce

red chilli, sliced for garnish

little gem lettuce leaves, to serve

Let's make the roasted rice first.  The salad will still be yummy without it, but it adds a really authentic texture to the dish.  I think this is usually made with sticky rice but, as I don't have any, I use ristotto rice (my reasoning being that risotto rice is also quite starchy) and it works fine. I'm pretty sure normal rice would work too - worth a try before buying anything specially anyway!

1. Heat a pan, and pour in the rice.  Keep turning and stirring it on a low heat until it turns light brown (in about ten minutes).

2. When it's cool (burning grains are so not fun), crush until fine - a pestle and mortar is good, a hammer or rolling pin would do. I use a coffee bean/spice grinder which makes it really easy!

Get the other ingredients together ....

... and chop and slice the onions, herbs and chilli.

I use tenderloin of pork as it's what I was originally taught to make the dish with, and for the same reason, I like to mince it by chopping it.  You could just throw it in the food processor - I tried this today for the first time and it worked perfectly.  Or, of course, you could just buy mince in the first place.

3. Heat a pan (I just used the same one as the rice had been in) and when hot tip in the minced pork and squeeze over the juice of one lime.

4. Keep stirring until the pork is thoroughly cooked which will take 5-10 minutes - but don't overcook it.  Add the stock cube or granules in the last couple of minutes.

5. Tip the pork into a bowl and stir in the spring onion, red onion, mint and parsley, and mix together.

6. Add the roasted rice powder, dried chillies, lime juice from the remaining 1-2 limes (to taste) and fish sauce and mix again.

Served in little gem lettuce 'cups' and garnished with red chilli - this is easy to eat and really fresh tasting.

I would love to know if you liked this recipe, or if you tried it with different meat, or amended it at all ... do let me know.

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Son-in-law eggs

Son-in-law eggs are delicious – boiled eggs which are then fried and served  in a sweet and sour sauce topped with fried crispy shallots and (optional) chillies.

This is is such a tangy tasty dish –  and really colourful and pretty too. Sunday supper sorted!

It’s not a precise recipe – limes vary as to how much juice they contain, chillies vary in heat and fish sauce differs in saltiness between brands.

Do just taste and taste and taste to get the sauce a perfect balance of salty, sweet and sour for you.  

The chillies are because I like to include some spiciness too, but are  entirely optional.

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To serve two, you’ll need:

cooked rice, ready to serve (if using)

cooking oil - use rapeseed or grapeseed or sunflower if not (something that will heat to a high temperature and not impart its own flavour)

2 soft boiled eggs (put the eggs into a pan of boiling water that’s also had a pinch of salt added and boil for six minutes, then remove from heat and run under cold water to stop them cooking further - and when cold, peel the eggs)

2 shallots or a quarter of an onion, very finely sliced

1 red chilli, sliced (optional)

1 clove garlic, chopped

the juice of one juicy lime

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp water

sliced spring onions and coriander leaves to garnish

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Get everything prepared and ready to go - put the lime, fish sauce, sugar and water into a bowl and the chopped coriander leaves and spring onions into another.

Put a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and when hot add the cooking oil.

The oil needs to be hot before you add the eggs or they could stick.

Add the eggs and the onions and fry for a few minutes until the onions are starting to brown at the edges and the eggs browned all over.

It’ll take maybe 3-5 minutes and you need to keep turning it all - the eggs do NOT like being fried and will spit hot oil so be careful.

Add the chilli (if using) to the onions for the last minute or so.

When browned, removed the onions/chilli mixture to one space and the egg or eggs to another, ready to add later.

Put the pan back over the heat and add a little more oil and/or a splash of water as the garlic goes in next and it likes a gentle entry. Don’t let the garlic stick - add a little more water if needed.

After 30 seconds or so when the garlic starts to release it’s gorgeous scent, add the sugar-fish sauce-lime-water bowl and bring slowly to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for a minute or two - if you want a thinner sauce, add more water, if you want it to thicken more perhaps cook for longer or increase the heat.

When done, it’s just about assembling the dish.

Put the rice onto a plate, add the egg/s and slice them in half. pour over the sauce and top with the onions and chillies.

Garnish with sliced spring onion and chopped coriander leaves (if liked) and a few slices of red chilli (again, if liked!).

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Kai jeow - Thai omelette

A rainy Sunday calls for possibly the most comforting of all comfort foods, a savoury Thai omelette served with rice and a chilli dipping sauce.

Quick and easy to make, I like it best made with a little ground pork and spring onion, but occasionally have it plain, when its simplicity is somehow also luxurious. For a more substantial veggie option, fry some sliced peppers and mushrooms in place of the meat.

I’d put the rice on to cook first so it’s ready to serve as soon as the omelette is cooked.

With that underway, make the nam prik sauce, which will keep in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to two weeks and goes with almost everything – plain rice, grilled meats, baked fish, noodle dishes and many, many more.

There are probably a million different variants of this sauce, so do adjust the lime juice, fish sauce or sugar to your own taste.

4 tablespoons fish sauce

juice of 1-2 limes

4-6 sliced birds eye chillies (today I used two green and then two normal red chillies as I didn’t have birds eye)

1-2 teaspoons sugar

2 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly to dissolve the sugar.

Note: to be honest, you can make an extremely good sauce with literally just fish sauce and some chopped chillies - and this is what I usually make as it really couldn't be any easier.

And now for the kai jeow.  This makes one.

cooking oil

a little ground/minced  pork (maybe 1-2 tbspn)

two eggs

fish sauce

soy sauce

one spring onion, chopped

white pepper

coriander

Heat a wok or frying pan and add quite a bit of oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

When the oil is very hot add the pork if using and cook for two or three minutes.

While the meat cooks,  break two eggs into a bowl and add a couple of dashes each of fish sauce and soy sauce, the chopped spring onion and a shake of white pepper.

Beat the egg mixture until frothy – you want as much air in it as possible – and then pour it into the very hot oil, where it will start to go fluffy.

Cook until brown and slightly crispy on one side, then turn and cook until the other side is browned too but the inside still soft.  Just fold in half if you don’t want to try to flip it all at once.  I tried and broke this one, but hey ho.

Make the rice look nice by packing it into a little plastic bowl (china doesn’t work for me, only the plastic one), putting the plate on top and turning it out.

Add the omelette on top, sprinkle with chopped coriander, and serve with the nam prikdipping sauce.

So is this the most comforting of all comfort foods?

Let me know what you think …

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Yam moo grop - crispy pork belly salad

Moo grop is the delicious pork belly that can then be used in so many dishes (if you can manage not to just eat it hot and freshly cooked, that is) … and I’m going to have to work on cooking that properly as today I used strips of pork belly and really over-cooked them.

They still tasted good though in this spicy salad that we had with rice. I know that for a fact as we dived in and started eating and completely forgot to take any pics!

So you’ll have to trust me on this one, that these pork belly strips, when over-cooked were still good … (no I’m not posting a pic of them when cooked!). I rubbed salt into the scored rind, and massaged in a little soy sauce, Chinese five-spice and a tiny drop of olive oil.

And that those bits of rice and carrots looked totally different and much prettier at the start of dinner than they do at the end.

Anyway, if you can cook some pork belly with lovely soft meat, and crispy skin, and then cut it into cubes (and not just eat them there and then) … do try putting them into this salad.

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I've made it again! 

This time I cooked the pork belly much better ... 

into the remoska - but you could put them in the oven covered with foil

oh my goodness, delicious

Yes, I did remove most of the fat ...

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If you’re serving with rice,  then cook the rice first so it’s all ready to go when you’ve assembled the salad.

For two people, I used:

approx 400g crispy pork (2 slices pork belly each)

1 pretty huge carrot, or of course use two normal sized

Half a white onion

2 tomatoes

2 sticks of celery

3 spring onions

And for the dressing:

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1.5 teaspoons sugar (I only had granulated but caster would be better if you have it)

2-3 birds eye chillies depending on how spicy you want it!

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Shred the carrot, finely slice the onion, and slice the tomatoes, celery and spring onion …

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Here's the salad the second time I made this ... and the dressing ...

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In a bowl mix the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar until the sugar dissolves and then add the chillies.

Add most (or as much as you like) of the dressing to the salad and with clean hands toss it all together to properly combine.

Serve in a big pile on a plate with perhaps some coriander if you have any and if liked to garnish, and with rice, and with the remaining dressing in a bowl in case people want more.

Next time I make this, I’ll make sure to get a picture.

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I did! And here it is ...

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Thai-style roast chicken - sort of gai yang

There’s so many reasons for choosing to cook what we do every night for dinner – often it’s planned, or something needs using up, or it’s just what you fancy.

But tonight … tonight I chose to cook this purely and simply because I wanted to chop it up.

Yup. I just really wanted to chop a whole chicken bones and all with my cleaver and see if I could do it ‘Chinese style’ rather than neatly carving it.  And that is the reason we are having roast chicken tonight.

Oh … and because I have some cucumber dipping sauce left over from the weekend I think will go well with it.

So, easy delicious roast chicken.  Just put into a bowl – or straight into a remoska if you also have one (I love mine – plus my oven’s on the blink):

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp ground coriander

6 drops doTerra lemongrass essential oil OR

1 stalk of lemongrass (outer tough part removed, cut into a few pieces + bashed with a rolling pin)

Zest of a lime

4 tbspn fish sauce

2 tbspn oil

Mix it all together and rub over and into the chicken (if using lemongrass stalk just throw it in the roasting pan).

Then cook until done! It takes about 90 minutes.

And then the exciting bit! I looked at a few videos and read some instructions and attempted to chop it all up.

Definitely the fun bit!

Serve with rice and sweet chilli sauce and cucumber sauce if – like me – you have some to use up.

Any day is better for being a roast chicken day …

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Chilli cashews

Spicy, salty, warm cashews and a cold beer to go with some Saturday night box-sets?  Yes please!

Any nuts will be tasty if you don’t have cashews, it’s just that cashews are the traditional ones for this more-ish Thai bar snack and to my mind work best.

Measurements aren’t really needed here but this will be enough for one or two.

So … put the wok or frying pan on a medium-low heat whilst getting the ‘ingredients’ together, and of course do adjust to taste.

scant tablespoon oil

around 200g cashews

a clove of finely chopped garlic

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1/2 tsp each salt and sugar

Add the oil to the pan, and when hot, tip in the cashews, garlic and chilli flakes, and stir-fry until the cashews are browned, probably around 3-5 minutes.

Keep the heat medium to low so the garlic and chilli don’t burn.

Once the nuts are brown, remove from heat, add the salt and sugar to taste and mix well.

And then just try to wait until they’ve cooled down a little before eating!

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Tod mon pla - Thai fishcakes

Working on a recipe to recreate my favourite tod mon pla is an ongoing labour of love.  I make them obsessively, trying things out and changing ingredients and quantities, then stop for a while before taking up the challenge again.

Having needed a break from the last round of experimenting, I haven’t given them a go for a couple of years.  I’ve previously tried making them with egg and with coconut milk, I’ve used different fish, I’ve even made a non-fish version with pork as well as made endless variations of the cucumber and peanut sauce.

I love the little slices of green beans hidden in tod mon pla, but for a while couldn’t work out how to get them to be slightly more well cooked, still with a bite, but not crunchy.  I now blanch the sliced beans before using.  An added benefit of blanching green vegetables is that it means they stay a really bright green, which is a great trick for keeping green veg in stir fries looking fresh too.

It may well be my life’s work to refine these hot morsels of deliciousness!  Here’s where I am with them today.

Makes 8 fishcakes.

1/2 lb / about 225g white fish

1 tbspn red curry paste

1 tsp fish sauce

1 green chilli

1 tsp sugar

zest of 1/2 –  1 lime

squeeze of lime juice

handful of coriander leaves, chopped

a few green beans, sliced in very fine rounds

oil for frying

Put a pan of water on to boil for the green beans.  

Then put all the fishcake ingredients (except the beans!) into a food processor, if using, or mortar or other heavy bowl for pounding if not.

Mix or pound until smooth – but be careful if using a food processor as it will come together really quickly and you don’t want it pureed.  Turn the mixture out into a bowl.

As soon as the water comes to the boil, drop in the slices of green beans for around 20 seconds, drain and rinse in cold water to stop them cooking any further.

Add the beans to the mixture and combine.

Then just roll into eight little patties – squeezing out any juice – and flatten.  They can be cooked straight away or, as I did, popped in the fridge for half an hour or so to firm up a little more.

While they firm up, make the cucumber dipping sauce.  Quantities are up to you! The only things I think you really need for this are:

cucumber

green chilli

carrots

rice or white wine vinegar

sugar

peanuts

Today I also used a spring onion and a piece of ginger.

Chop all the vegetables really finely (or get the food processor to earn its keep again).

Combine approx two parts vinegar with one part sugar, but do keep tasting until you like it, perhaps adding a little more sugar, and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the chopped vegetables and top with crushed roasted peanuts, either as they are, or toasted in a dry pan first.

Today, I also added a splash of soy sauce at the end.  So just experiment and see what you like.

Back to the fishcakes …

Heat a wok or frying pan and then add quite a bit of vegetable cooking oil, around 3 tablespoons, as they should be almost deep fried.

Add the fishcakes to the hot oil, cooking in batches if need be, and cook for 1.5 – 2 minutes each side.

Drain on kitchen paper and eat immediately with the cucumber dipping sauce.

And then please let me know what you think in the comments box below!

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Gai gratiem - garlic chicken

It’s taken me a while to work out a recipe I’m happy with for this.

The main difficulty I’ve had with it is that what I love about having this in Thailand is the Thai garlic itself. The cloves are smaller and the skins are wispy paper thin – you just squash them rather than peel and those beautiful thin skins go crispy when fried and add such lovely texture to the dish that it just tastes different without that dimension.

Not much I can do about this though, so I’ve tried a few different recipes and ended up with this that I think gives all the flavours I want.  I’ve also eaten it before with very crispy chips of garlic on top but I’m not so successful at making those without them often tasting a bit burnt so I’m not adding those in this version.

It’s a very simple dish, often eaten just over rice for lunch or without rice as a snack with a drink. There is a lot of garlic in this but somehow you don’t end up smelling of old garlic the next day!

It’s a simple, elegant and quick recipe and it doesn’t need to be with chicken – beef, pork or squid work as well. My favourite is probably with slices of pork tenderloin.  I’m sure tofu would be good too – please let me know how it turns out if you make a version with tofu.

So, for one with rice as a main meal, I used:

about 3-6 garlic cloves depending on size

1 chicken breast

about 1 tablespoon cooking oil

1/2 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp white sugar

a scant tablespoon light soy sauce

a scant tablespoon fish sauce

coriander leaves, to garnish, and lettuce leaves to serve

cooked boiled or steamed rice, to serve, if using

Smash gently the garlic with a flat knife and remove the skins. Is it possible to ‘smash’ gently? Perhaps I mean squash with a bit of force. Either or, up to you …!

Then chop quite finely.

Slice the meat and bash a bit with a rolling pin to flatten – you want the pieces in slices rather than chunks but quite flat so they cook very quickly and your garlic won’t burn.

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat until hot and add the garlic then cook for maybe a minute, stirring all the time so it doesn’t burn and until it is just starting to go a little brown.

Add the meat and again keep stirring constantly until it is cooked through. This will probably take around four minutes and do just cut or pull a piece open to check . If it’s sticking at all add a splash or water – in fact I would do anyway just to ensure the garlic doesn’t burn.

Add the pepper, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce and another splash of water if needed to make sure it mixes together.

Mix then turn up the heat and cook rapidly for a minute or two until the sauce reduces and there is very little sauce left.

Then either serve on a plate with lettuce in the traditional ‘bar snack’ style and garnish with coriander leaves, or have with rice as a more substantial meal.

I really like the flavours of this and the slight heat from the white pepper makes a change from chillies!

Do let me know if you liked this …

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Stir fried pork with chilli and garlic

Ok so first up - this isn't going to be a very well written post.  I feel rotten.  I've had the biggest stinker of a cold for a week and all the cliches are true. Yes I feel like I'm wading through treacle and yes I feel like I'm underwater and can't hear properly. Sore throat, coughing fits, the lot.

Anyway, because I do love food, I take a bad cold as a sign to follow the old adage and 'feed a cold'. However I'm not entirely sure this meant go out and drink champagne on Tuesday. Or to go and sit outside in the cold pretending it was warm and eat tapas on Wednesday.

Haha ... so now, right now, at this blissful end of this trying-to-just-push-through-it week, right now -  it is Friday AND the Friday before the bank holiday weekend and NOW I am going to feed my cold chillies.  Or rather feed (and hope to kill it with) chillies.

This is a really nice and easy dish and you don't have to overdose on chillies if you don't want or need to.

It's not really a specific recipe as such, just a very easy dish with some traditional Thai flavours.  I did rather make it up as I went along and very good it was too.

Cold or no cold, I recommend a dose of this.

Make your rice first and then get together the ingredients.

This is roughly enough for two but do just decide for yourself on quantities and what looks right to you.

About 1-2 tbspn cooking oil

2 cloves garlic

4 red bird eye chillies

Approx 250g pork mince

1/3 knorr chicken stock cube

splash of water

1 tbspn light soy sauce

1 tbspn fish sauce

A pinch of sugar

2 spring onions sliced

a small handful coriander leaves chopped to garnish, if liked

Prepare, slice and chop all the ingredients and put a pan on over a medium high heat.

Add the oil and when hot, add the garlic and chillies and fry, stirring for up to 30 seconds, until it smells good.

Add the pork mince and stir fry for a few minutes then add the stock cube and splash of water and continue stirring until the meat is browned.

Add the soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar and cook, stirring, for a few minutes until cooked through.

Remove from heat, add the spring onions and coriander (if using) and stir in.

Serve with rice.

Simple, delicious, and - I hope -cold-curing! I'll let you know if it is  and in the meantime do let me know if you made this and if you liked it ...

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