Thai Pork Soup

How to cook... Pork Soup

Pork Soup (soup moo) ซุปหมู This is the Thai version of pork soup that is a little on the spicy side. In the ingredients below you can see diced potatoes, pork, carrots, Chinese celery, lime, stock cube, bird eye chillies and plum tomatoes. You could use chicken instead of pork. Boil the pork in the stock until nearly cooked. Add the carrots and potatoes and continue to boil until cooked. Next add the plum tomatoes and Chinese celery. Season with fish sauce, salt and sugar. Take it off the heat and add the lime juice and slightly crushed bird eye chillies.

How To Make Thai Green Chicken Curry

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Thai Green Chicken Curry Recipe. One of Thailand's most renowned dishes, this spicy and colourful curry looks wonderful on the plate and goes perfectly with white rice. Delight in our Thai Green Chicken Curry recipe.

Step 1: You will need…

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4 chicken thigh fillets, boneless, skinless and cut into bits 200 g green beans, halved 1 tbsp oil 250 ml coconut milk 120 ml water 6 kaffir lime leaves , available from oriental food stores 1 bunch of chopped spring onions, for garnish ½ tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp shrimp paste ½ tsp ground cumin 3 small fresh chillies 3 green shallots, finely chopped 2 cm of galangal, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 stem of fresh lemon grass, chopped 1 handful of fresh coriander 2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped 2 tbsp oil 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 sharp knife 1 cutting board 1 blender 1 spatula 1 small frying pan 1 piece of aluminium foil 1 wok or large, deep frying pan 1 large stirring spoon

Serves: 4 Preparation Time: 6 minutes Cooking Time: 20 minutes

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   Step 2: Make the curry paste in 3 steps

   For the first step of making the curry paste, roast the coriander and cumin seeds without any oil in the frying pan for 2 minutes, shaking the pan constantly. Secondly, wrap the shrimp paste in a little foil and cook under a hot grill for 2 minutes, turning the package over twice. Thirdly, mix the roasted spices with the shrimp paste for 5 seconds in the blender. Add all the remaining spices in the Curry Paste list together with the oil: green chillies, shallots, galangal, garlic, lemon grass, coriander leaves, lime leaves and blend for a few seconds, till the mixture forms a smooth paste.
   
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   Step 3: Cook the spices

   Next, heat the oil in the wok on medium heat, add the curry paste and cook for a minute, stirring constantly, till it becomes fragrant.
   
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   Step 4: Finish the curry sauce

   To complete the curry sauce, add the coconut milk and water to the wok and bring gently to a boil. For a thicker curry sauce, you can use half coconut cream and half coconut milk.
   
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   Step 5: Cook the chicken

   Now, add the chicken pieces as well as the beans and lime leaves to the sauce and mix well. Leaving the wok uncovered, simmer for about 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. Add the fish sauce and stir till thoroughly blended.
   
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   Step 6: Garnish the meal

   Finally, place the curry in a serving bowl and garnish with the spring onions.
   
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   Step 7: Serving suggestions

   The dish can be served with a bowl of white rice and pickled cucumber.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Thai Papaya Salad(Som tum)

Green papaya salad is the most popular dish among women in Thailand according to a survey I heard on TV there. It is a Northeastern food that is eaten with sticky rice and other Northeastern dishes such as laab, beef salad and bamboo shoot salad.

The two most popular types of green papaya salad have either dried shrimp or salted crab. Green papaya salad with dried shrimp and peanuts is called som tum thai. The green papaya salad with salted crab is called som tum pbooh. The majority of the ingredients are the same. My mother likes it with both dried shrimp and salted crab.

2 Servings

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1 1/2	tablespoons	palm sugar
3/4		lime
2	cups	green papaya, shredded
6		green beans
1	clove	garlic
1 1/2	tablespoons	fish sauce
1	tablespoon	dried shrimp
2		chili peppers
5		cherry tomatoes
2	tablespoons	peanuts, toasted	Optional

Many Asian supermarkets have shredded green papaya and that is what I use. However, if you can only find whole green papaya, the papaya can be peeled and shreded using a regular cheese grater with medium to large sized holes. When you get closer to the center, you will see the white immature seeds inside. Stop and move onto another part of the papaya. Discard any seeds that got into your bowl.

In Thailand, green papaya salad is made using a clay mortar, wooden pestle and a spatula. Smash a clove of garlic first. Then add green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes. Add chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like your salad really hot. Add the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.

However, if you do not have a big enough mortar you can crush garlic, tomatoes, green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the bowl. Add green papaya and mix well. Serve with sticky rice and a sliver of cabbage, green beans and Thai basil.

For som tum pbooh, omit the dried shrimp and toasted peanuts and add salted crabs instead. I microwave the salted crabs for 30 seconds before adding them to the papaya salad to kill any residual bacteria. Add only half of the fish sauce called for because the salted crab can be quite salty.

Tips and substitutions
For a vegetarian som tum, omit the dried shrimp and substitute soy sauce for fish sauce.

Some people use tamarind in place of lime. Regular sugar can be substituted for palm sugar. I normally omit the peanuts because I prefer it without.

The balance of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and peppers listed here are guidelines. Som tum is an individual dish that you will find you might like your with more, say, lime juice than what the recipe calls for.