This week, I am turning to Thailand for inspiration, creating two dishes that pack a punch without breaking the bank. Thai cuisine is as satisfying as it gets for me: a perfect blend of seasoning, quality ingredients and the light touch that doesn’t leave you fit for the couch. Thai food is built on the pillars of spice, salt, sour and sweet, often combined with herbal notes from fresh produce and herbs and umami depth from the range of sauces and condiments you’ll find below.
Anybody who has been to Thailand will be familiar with the incredible range of street food and flavours on show every day. One thing I noticed on my travels was the leaning toward the sweeter side of the palette versus our European yearning for salt and acid. The recipes this week, while not fully authentic, will try to lean into the flavour profiles you’ll find on the side of the street in southeast Asia.
One thing that makes this cuisine so appealing is the use of everyday ingredients at its heart. You’ll see chicken breast and vegetables alongside rice, peanuts and prawns poached in an aromatic broth based around coconut milk and seasonings. Some of the ingredients will require a finer comb through the supermarket, but nowadays, they’re all more widely available. Still, you can save the search party. For both this week’s dishes, feel free to sub out the protein or vegetables for anything you have in your fridge. The beauty of this style of cooking is the tolerance for clearing out the leftovers. These are the recipes I turn to on a Wednesday evening to get the family fed rapidly without having to compromise on flavour. When you first buy the sauces and condiments it’s a stretch, but these become store cupboard staples that will keep giving week after week.
The first recipe is a street food classic: pad kee ao, or drunken noodles. It’s a simple bowl of noodles that gets fire charged at the end with a syrup consisting of oyster sauce, soy, fish sauce and brown sugar topped with chilli, Thai basil, peanuts and rayu dressing from the jar. I’ve used cabbage, pepper and broccoli here, but feel free to use what you have, so long as it’s cut down into small chunks.
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The second dish includes a recipe for your own home-made green curry paste. They key to this is the shrimp paste at its heart, and it relies on the caramelisation in the pan. A Nutribullet will make light of creating the paste and it’s a handy recipe to freeze down in ice cube trays to keep the aromatics fresh and vibrant. A dash of cornflour in the broth will stop it all from going grainy in texture and the prawns get poached at the end to finish it off. Delicious cooking.
Tip of the week: Make your own green curry paste and freeze it down in ice cube trays to keep it fresh. These are like your own home-made stock pots for cooking during the week. Add them to some chicken in a pan, a soup or to the recipe above.
