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Thai out some exotic flavours
THE beauty of Thai food is in its contrasts - hot, cool, sour, sweet, crunchy and soft and all with a wonderful citrus tang. If you've ever been on holiday to Thailand, you'll notice there are restaurants and food stalls everywhere you look, filling the air with wonderfully exotic smells. The tropical monsoon climate is responsible for the abundance of fruit and vegetables they can grow, which includes varieties of everything we get in the West and at least 50 per cent more. The country's location means there have been many outside influences on the language, culture, religion and cuisine, all combined to create a style of their own. The Thai diet is very healthy. There are many vegetarians ...
Thai Style Fish Cakes
INGREDIENTS | 400g white fish fillets, skinned | 3tbsp Thai red curry paste (we used Thai Taste) | 1 egg | 2tbsp breadcrumbs | A good dash of fish sauce | 75g fine green beans, topped, tailed and finely chopped | Zest of one lime, plus the juice to serve METHOD 1 Place the fish, curry paste and egg into a food processor and blend to a thick paste. Tip into a mixing bowl and add the breadcrumbs, fish sauce, green beans and lime zest. Mix together thoroughly and form into fish cakes about 2-2.5cm thick. Place on a lined baking tray and cover with cling film. 2 Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to ...
Ainsley Harriott’s WEEKEND BITE
Thai-style mince with fragrant rice There are many lovely flavours associated with Thai food. Here I've taken a classic bolognese and added some of those flavours to create something really special. Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 20 minutes Serves: 4 Ingredients: 250g long-grain or Thai fragrant rice 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 onion, halved and sliced 1 garlic clove, chopped 1 red pepper, cored, seeded and roughly chopped 450g turkey or pork mince 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder 175ml chicken stock 2 teaspoons cornflour 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce handful of fresh basil leaves salt and freshly-ground black pepper1Cook ...
Some Thoughts on Thai and American Fusion Approaches to Food
Various fusion approaches to food are more or less well-known, but Thai peanut sauce in America appears to be an interesting example of developing a product to market as authentic which does not correlate for the most part with food in Thailand. Peanuts are used in Thailand in many dishes, but generally in a form different from the products found in America. In America, peanut sauce seems to be a product which has taken on a lot more prominence, like when a flashlight illuminates a relatively small piece of the landscape, in an attempt to symbolize the food of Thailand more generally. Thai food is also widely known for health benefits, and many studies support this ...
Getting Introduced to Thai Food
Are you having a standard American dinner tonight? Bored with chicken, potatoes, salad and pasta? Thinking of Thai food but nah it seems hard to cook? Well, Thai food should be easy and quick to prepare. In Thailand, street food or food vendors are everywhere in a city or small town. There are all kinds of street food, appetizers, noodle soup, curry, desserts, fruits, etc. I would say this is our way of life in Thailand. It is common to find a very good food vendor, even better than a restaurant. Most street vendors in Thailand did not go to a culinary school. How do they make such yummy food? Mostly it is from helping ...
The Thai Mango – A Luscious and Precious Staple
The Thai mango is known as "Ma Muang" in Thai, although this varies by region. For example, in the Northern region a mango is also known as "Pae," and in the South as "Pao." The mango is rich in symbolic meaning. As part of the feng shui tradition, for generations many Thais have believed that growing a mango tree on the south side of the house will bring prosperity to the family. More broadly, mangoes are so widely enjoyed in Thailand and surrounding countries that they truly do represent a precious part of the culture. There are perhaps more than one hundred types of Thai mangoes, many of them hybrids developed in Thailand. The mango ...
How and what do Thais eat?
The majority of Thais do not use many of the formal eating manners of Westerners; Thais have their own set of manners based largely on practices of communal eating. Thais put a lot of emphasis on eating as a social activity. For Thais, eating should be a simple pleasure and does not involve complex rituals of etiquette. Today, a fork and spoon are widely used, and the general practice is to use the fork to push food onto the spoon. The spoon is generally held in the right hand and serves as the only utensil from which to take bites. Eating straight from the fork is considered crude. The use of the fork and spoon ...
Creating Thai Food To Your Taste
The art of Thai cooking has been developed and refined over many centuries. This art has placed emphasis on the harmonious blending of various ingredients, particularly as the individual ingredients can vary by freshness and so forth. Without harmony the taste and the dish fall short. The art of Thai cooking not only emphasizes harmony of taste, but also places value on the use of color and texture in a dish. Over the centuries, most Thai dishes have drawn from the realm of herbs, roots, plants, spices and seeds to perfect the flavor, texture and presentation of a dish. The five elements of taste in Thai food are: sweet, salty, sour, spicy and bitter. There are ...
Mouth-Watering Thai Desserts
Thai cuisine is famous for its intriguing delicacy and spiciness. However, Thai desserts have been overlooked. The three Thai desserts famous outside of Thailand are mango with sticky rice, deep-fried bananas and coconut ice cream. There is a broad tradition of desserts in Thailand over the centuries which offers many ideas and choices. Thong Yip, Thong Yod and Foi Thong Thai desserts have long been with the Thai people, certainly back to the Sukhothai period (1238-1350). Thais had long traded with China and India, which helped in exchanging cultures and traditions as well, including food. In the Ayuthaya period (1350-1767), Thais started trading with Western countries. The Portuguese were the first westerners to introduce the use ...
Thai Coconuts – What More Could You Want?
Coconuts are the seeds that grow coconut trees. Given time, a coconut will sprout and take root. The juice and flesh of the coconut provide water and fertilizer to grow the young new tree. Coconut trees are grown throughout Thailand on raised beds with irrigation canals on each side. In some places, trained monkeys even harvest the coconuts. Coconuts provide juice to drink, flesh for eating or for making coconut milk, and play a role in many non-food items as well. Coconut trees are treated as propitious in Thailand. They are often included in gardens along with other trees that include the word “ma” – for example, ma muang (mango), ma la gor (papaya) and ma ...
