Copyright

Collins

an imprint of

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by Collins 2006

Text © Keith Floyd 2006

Location photographs © Stan Green Management 2006

Food photographs (see below) © HarperCollins Publishers 2006

Keith Floyd reserves the moral right to be identified as the author of the Work.

Keith Floyd is represented by Stan Green Management, Dartmouth, Devon; telephone 01803 770046; fax 01803 770075;

e-mail TV@stangreen.co.uk

Visit www.floydonline.co.uk

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Editor: Barbara Dixon

Designer: Mark Stevens

Location photographer: Tony Hanscomb

Studio food photographer: Michelle Garrett

Home Economist: Carole Handslip

Indexer: Hazel Bell

Cover photograph[s]?: TBC - ? Michelle Garrett or Tony Hanscomb

Food photographs: (a = above, b = below, l = left, r = right, c = centre, t = top)

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

The charm of Thailand

Tastes and tools of the Thai trade

The Thai table and quantities

Sauces, pastes and dips

Curry powder

Thai green curry paste

Thai red curry paste

Thai yellow curry paste

Thai massaman curry paste

Hanglay curry paste

Penang curry paste

Chiang Mai curry paste

Panaeng curry paste

Peanut (satay) sauce

Tamarind juice

Marinades and dipping sauces

Coriander paste

Thai sweet chilli sauce

Hot tiger sauce

Hot and sweet garlic sauce

Dipping sauces

Universal Thai dipping sauce

Green mango dip

Hot, sweet and sour fish dipping sauce

Barbeque dipping sauce (nam jim kiga)

Tomato and chilli dip

Chillies in oil

Chilli jam

Thai ginger dipping sauce

Hot Thai salsa

Plum sauce

Cucumber and pineapple relish

Rice dishes

Some essentials

Steamed rice

Sticky rice

Sticky coconut rice

Fried rice with crab or prawns

Fried rice with Chinese or Thai leaves

Fried rice with prawns and bamboo shoots

Fried rice with roast pork

Fried rice in pineapple

Pan-fried rice with basil and coriander

Oodles of noodles!

Crispy rice noodles (1)

Crispy rice noodles (2)

Crispy fried noodles

Stir-fried glass noodles

Stir-fried thin and flat noodles with prawns or chicken

Stir-fried thick noodles with pork

Stir-fried egg noodles with vegetables

Vegetable rice noodles

Muslim-style noodles

Salads, snacks and street food

Minced warm beef salad

Beef salad with aubergine

Warm sour steak salad

Grilled hot and sour fish salad

Spicy crab with cucumber

Thai squid salad

Prawn and pink grapefruit salad

Prawn and fruit salad

Chicken salad with papaya

Chicken salad with fresh figs

Minced duck salad

Green pawpaw salad

Spicy carrot salad

Spicy pork salad

Pork and prawn rice paper rolls

Chilli pork and pineapple bites

Thai soy bean fritters

Thai fish cakes

Gold purses

Spicy corn cakes

Skewered green prawns with coriander and chilli

Sticky rice with prawns and freshly grated coconut

Pandanus leaves stuffed with chicken

Curried pasties

Satay chicken

Soups

Thai pumpkin soup

Hot and sour mushroom soup

Chicken, ginger and mushroom soup

Chicken and coconut milk soup

Chicken and vegetable clear soup

Duck and noodle soup

Prawn, chicken and rice soup

Prawn and lemon grass soup

Hot and sour prawn soup

Prawn and pumpkin soup

Crab and corn soup

Sweet and sour soup with sliced monkfish

Pork and vermicelli soup

Vegetables

Green bean curry

Stir-fried green beans and cauliflower

Aubergines with tofu

Baby aubergines with cherry tomatoes

Stir-fried spinach

Beansprouts with tomatoes

Vegetable-stuffed omelette

Pineapple curry

Stir-fried vegetables (1)

Stir-fried vegetables (2)

Stir-fried asparagus

Green vegetable curry

Red vegetable curry

Thai mixed vegetable curry

Vegetables in coconut milk

Steamed sweetcorn

Fish and shellfish

King scallops baked in rice wine

Chargrilled crab or lobster

Green prawns steamed with soy sauce

Green prawn curry

Prawn and pineapple curry

Stir-fried garlic prawns

Prawn omelette

Mussels steamed with lemon grass

Steamed fish curry

Peppers stuffed with curried fish

Seafood steamboat or hotpot

Deep-fried fish with sweet and sour sauce

Deep-fried fish with chillies and basil

Fried John Dory with shrimps and mango

Bass with chilli and lime sauce

Fried minced prawn and pork in seaweed rolls

Meat and poultry

Caramelised pork

Stir-fried pork with ginger

Stir-fried pork with green beans

Red pork curry

Chiang Mai pork curry

Stir-fried beef with basil leaves

Massaman beef curry

Penang beef curry

Dried fillet steak with chilli sauce

Red duck curry

Green chicken curry

Yellow curry with chicken

Stir-fried chicken with chilli jam

Stir-fried chicken with crispy basil

Thai desserts

Rice pudding with lychees

Fruit platter

Spicy coconut custard

Pumpkin custard

Candied bananas (1)

Candied bananas (2)

Deep-fried banana

Banana in coconut milk

Pumpkin in coconut milk

Sweet potato in ginger syrup

Sweet water chestnuts with coconut cream and syrup

Sticky rice with mango

Black glutinous rice with fresh coconut

Rice balls with fresh coconut

Mango sorbet

Coconut ice cream

Keep Reading

About the Publisher

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of Khun Akorn

My thanks to:

The Intercontinental Hotel, Bangkok

Pakistan International Airways

The directors and staff of the Burasari Hotel, Phuket

My long-suffering editor Barbara Dixon

My wife Tess (thank God she knows how to use a laptop!)

With thanks to Nirun Jirapermpoon

and the Siam Royal Orchid restaurant

367 Uxbridge Road, London W3

for their help with translation

Introduction

Introduction
The charm of Thailand

On this early Bangkok morning, the waiter brings me a bowl of plump, duck red Thai curry. I am drinking apple juice, it is six o’clock in the morning and yet the Intercontinental Hotel, where I am staying for free, is buzzing. Multilingual businessmen are eating with one hand while the other clamps their mobile phones to their ears. If you suffer from a hangover or jetlag, there is nothing better than this exquisite spicy food I am eating. My very good friends at Pakistan International Airways kindly flew me to Bangkok, but by the global scenic route (of course, I am not complaining because the flight was free – thank you, PIA) and, I must say, the in-flight Pakistani food is delicious. The reason I am wrecked at breakfast time like a wet sack of rice is because I flew from Heathrow to Lahore, from Lahore to Islamabad, from Islamabad to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Bangkok and did not sleep a wink.

My driver, Pata, is waiting to take me away on this Sunday morning to the huge market where I will have another breakfast, this time of succulent, ripe mango and creamy sticky rice. A hawker, standing behind his mobile kitchen, built on an elaborate tricycle, laughs with charming disbelief when I request crushed, dried chillies to be sprinkled on my mango. That, washed down with the milk from a freshly decapitated coconut, has brought me and the morning back to life. For four hours I walk up and down the crowded stalls, while my photographer is taking pictures.

A superb meal aboard Pakistan International Airways.

Naheed Tabassum, a charming member of the crew.

My good friend Mr John Nielsen of the Intercontinental Hotel, Bangkok.

Street food at Chatuchak Market, Bangkok.

Grilling sticky rice and shrimp in banana leaves at Chatuchak Market.

Luscious tropical fruit at the market.

Coconut juice is very refreshing in the heat of Bangkok.

It is the rainy season and the humidity and temperature are insupportable. However, the charm of Thailand is washing over me like soft rain and it is funny to think that fifteen or sixteen years ago I was sitting in a hotel eating breakfast, but that time in Newcastle. We were about to film a BBC programme called ‘Far Flung Floyd’ and were due to go to Thailand. The general manager of the Gosforth Park Hotel told me I would enjoy meeting Thai hotelier Khun Akorn and his wife Chompanut. I asked him how he knew more about my life and my work than I. Enigmatically he said, ‘Wait and see’ and lit a cigar and swept out of the room.

I must point out that at that time, Akorn owned the largest hotel chain in Thailand, an empire that stretched from virtually the borders of Burma to the enchanting island of Samui. Akorn is sadly no longer with us, but because of him, and indeed his wife and his staff, every door in the country was opened to us during our filming. In his philosophical and altruistic way, Akorn wanted no commercial credit for what he did. He didn’t want his hotel logos to appear on camera, he just wanted to assist us to show that Thailand is a magical destination. I frequently stayed with Akorn on Samui and, over a bottle of Black Label, we would talk of food and wine and Buddhism, while he puffed on an aromatic cigar as the waves lapped onto the nearby beach. I dedicate this book to him and his family.

These grilled sticky rice in banana leaf rolls are jolly good.

The wonderful beaches of the island of Phuket, getting back to normal after the Tsunami.

So, here I am again, and now we’ve travelled to Phuket, where I’m having breakfast once again. Believe you me, breakfast is a very important meal in my life, because you never know the events that may unfold throughout the rest of the day. I am sharing my breakfast with Mr and Mrs Minah. They are sitting in the hanging basket of orchids just above my head by the pool, chirping happily here in the charming Burasari Hotel, where we are staying. From time to time, they hop onto the table for a few grains of rice or another sugar cube. I am eating boiled rice soup and pieces of roast pork, lashed with chillies, chopped spring onions and fresh coriander. It is hot, but I am feeling good.

A chance to chill out in Phuket – Pearl Island is in the background.

Believe it or not, I’m drinking tea.

These fish are so spanking fresh.

After breakfast, our hosts at the hotel, the managing director, a charming lady called Khun Lilly, the general manager, Mike, and the food and beverage director, Mark, take us on a gentle tour around the island.

Phuket was badly hit by the Tsunami of 2004, but apart from the emotional scars, it is pretty much back on track. The hotels are back in business, the great little tumbledown beach restaurants are back in business and, of course, the shopping areas are throbbing with people. There are some wonderful beaches, but if you want to get away from the crowds, you can go up into the richly wooded hills or take a long-tail boat to one of the many tranquil little islands that seem to float in clear, turquoise water – so clear that you can see the shoals of multi-coloured fish dancing around close by.

We stopped for lunch at a beach restaurant that Mike knew well and had some spicy, tangy salads – virtually the signature dish of Southern Thailand, the fiery prawn soup Tom yam goong and spanking fresh bream, dorade and other fishes simply grilled over charcoal by smiling, busy, cheerful ladies. It is too hot to drink wine, particularly in the daytime, so recommended drinks are – and this is what the locals have – freshly squeezed lime juice and soda, ice-cold Thai beer, or green tea (although many Thai people favour very watery whisky).

We sat on the beach under a banana leaf-thatched roof and watched the long-tail boats hurtling by and fishermen coming back with their catch to go and unload it against picturesque wooden piers.

A wonderful array of Thai pancakes at the Damnoen-Saduak floating market in Bangkok.

A painted lady noodle seller of Damnoen-Saduak floating market.

The Slam winery vineyard.

The following day we flew back to Bangkok and checked into the Intercontinental Hotel, before taking an air-conditioned (essential) car ride down to Bangkok’s famous floating market. This is a complex of canals with pretty houses built on their edges, where you can take boat rides in cigar-shaped, traditional Thai punts, paddled gently through this labyrinth of waterways by smiling ladies. Tied alongside the main landing stage are dozens of these charming little boats, each with a lady in it, sitting cross-legged, selling their freshly picked produce – all kinds of greenery, lemons, limes and other fruits. Some are making delightful little Thai sweets, or stir-frying noodles, or grilling racks of prawns and small fish.

From there we move to the curiously named ‘Floating vineyards’, which are about 30 km outside the city and which take hours to get to because the Bangkok traffic is appalling. Since there is so much water available, these vines are planted on little raised, rectangular islands and they are irrigated twice a day by the simple expedient of a sluice gate. Hitherto, I had not known that Thai wine was produced in Thailand and, although quite expensive, it was jolly good.

Back to Bangkok and we hurtle around as many restaurants as possible to check out what is happening in this big city. Then, after a sightseeing tour, at lightning speed, of the incredible golden Royal Grand Palace, we get back, exhausted but happy, to the air-conditioned freshness of the hotel. We had been on the go for twelve hours this particular day and, after a shower and change of clothes, I sank happily into the comfortable bar and, as is the Thai custom, had a refreshing Johnny Walker Black Label with lots and lots of iced water.

It might be a precarious way of checking the grapes, but the end product gets my approval.

The stunning Royal Grand Palace, Bangkok.

To my amazement, I saw a chef walking towards me in his immaculate whites and white clogs and, my goodness me, it was an old friend of mine, Marcel Nosari, now the executive chef of the hotel and trying to control 600 cooks, perish the thought! It was an invaluable meeting because he had just opened, in stark contrast to the beach bars and street vendors’ chariots, a light, airy and exquisite Thai restaurant in the hotel, called the ‘Charm Thai’. This served modernized and stylishly presented food, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but because my assistant Adrian cannot take spicy food of any kind, I managed to get special dispensation for him to have a fine steak, fresh vegetables and potatoes. I had a delicious deep-fried fish with chilli and cucumber sauce, followed by a spicy papaya salad and then a relatively hot yellow beef curry. The meal was finished by a sour tamarind sorbet and it was time for bed.

The next day, we took a terrifyingly fast, bouncing, long-tailed boat ride up the river past rickety little shacks standing perilously on stilts, and past the wats, all the while Tony the photographer shooting away like mad.

I rustled up this plate of refreshing papaya salad with my old friend Marcel Nosari, executive chef of the Intercontinental Hotel.

A trip down the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok.

The bananas are creamy and cheap.

The colourful Chao Phraya riverbank.

Scenes from Klong Toey Market, Bangkok.

The city streets were heaving with stalls, food hawkers, errand boys carrying huge sacks of rice on their heads, women with huge wicker baskets filled with fruit and vegetables, open-air butchers, and fresh chickens crowded into igloo-shaped bamboo cages. But, Mark and Mike say it is time for us to go back to Phuket. We had to fly back there to meet the architects and designers who, I hope, are going to follow my suggestions for the creation of Floyd’s Restaurant at the Burasari Hotel in Patong. We spent three days poring over plans, discussing menus and staff requirements, and although it is hard work starting any kind of enterprise like that (especially when you have to be au fait with Thai time), if you approach it gently as, by the way, everything that you do in Thailand should be approached, you will see why one smile makes two.

Keith Floyd

Burasari Hotel

Patong

Phuket

Thailand

2005

Tastes and tools of the Thai trade

Thailand is a magical and exotic country formerly known as Siam, with a famed royal family who endure and are adored by the Thais to this day, and I have been very lucky to have travelled north, south, east and west since I first went there in 1984. Thailand was never invaded or colonized by a European power. It is true there were skirmishes with Burma, but in the grand picture they are, today, completely insignificant. More important, though, are the gastronomic invasions that have taken place, which the Thais have welcomed, embraced and fused into their own rich, culinary heritage.

In Thai cuisine you will find the influences of Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia and, of course, China. But perhaps the most significant invasion came not from the region but from South America when, in the sixteenth century, Portuguese merchant men introduced to Thailand the signature taste of chillies.

Chillies and Thai cooking are symbiotic. From the explosively dynamite hot, tiny bird’s eye chillies, right through the gamut of this exquisite vegetable to large peppers, green, yellow and red, chillies are extremely important to Thai cooking, and make vibrant displays in huge wicker baskets all over the country. Whether chopped fresh and popped into dishes or compounded into pastes, they are indispensable. Another vital ingredient is fish sauce, which is used throughout South East Asia instead of salt. Tiny fish, often anchovies, are laid out on the beach in their thousands and allowed to dry before being put into vats and left to ferment; incidentally, the Romans had a similar sauce that was called liquamen.

Red chilli paste is available ready-made from the markets.

Juicy, aromatic limes.

Local honey.

The Thais just can’t get enough fresh and dried chillies.

Bowls of fermented fish at Klong Toey Market.

The explosive tastes of Thai food are also enhanced by the citric and sour flavours provided by lime juice, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and tamarind, and are then softened with either coconut water or coconut milk and the indispensable masses of fresh basil, mint and coriander – just loosely ripped up and chucked onto the top of any dish, they give a crunchy freshness and combat the fiery tastes.

In the north and north-west of Thailand, on the Burmese border, in the lush forests and jungles of places like Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai, where wonderful rivers flow and working elephants bathe, you will find fiercely hot curries and salads. Even in the twenty-first century, the lore of the hunter-gatherer is reflected in the leaves and vegetables that are used for these salads – very often served with a warm dressing of chillies, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice – and in the very distinctive cooking of this region. Obviously, Bangkok, an international city, will cook, display and sell the delights of the whole country and, of course, the dreaded McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and all the other appalling effects of American gastronomic imperialism.

As you progress south towards Malaysia, you will, as you do in Kerala in southern India, enter the world and the land of the coconut – so important in the rich, creamy, spicy, subtle, fragrant curries and the delicate, but deliciously sweet puddings.

A few of the many vegetables used in Thai cookery.

Preparing palm sugar.

Coconuts awaiting collection by boat at the Damnoen-Saduak floating market.

In this slender volume, I am saddened that I do not have the space to eulogise at length over the subtleties and fundamentals of Thai cooking, so here, in a plain and straightforward way, are some brief, but important guidelines:

Basic utensils

Since in Thailand most of the cooking is done in huge aluminium vats over charcoal-fired barbeques, or in woks, or even, such as is the case with the famous sticky rice, cooked in bamboo tubes about 7.5 cm/3 inches in diameter (or baskets) over a low charcoal fire, it is going to be quite difficult, in our highly sophisticated Western kitchens, to replicate the amazing flavours that these simple heat sources create.

Cooking up a storm at the floating market.

The indispensable wok, for sale at Klong Toey Market.

These baskets are used for cooking sticky rice.

Sticky rice for sale, alongside wooden pestles and mortars.

The chopping boards are sturdy and need to be to withstand all the use they’re put to.

Unidentified frying objects.

The colours and shapes of turned wood are very attractive.

Charcoal-fired cooking stoves.

Since a lot of Thai cooking is done in woks, it is good to have a high-flamed gas stove, or, indeed, a powerful bottled-gas camping stove – you can cook outside when it is not raining. You will need a couple of woks, a small one and a large one. If you have an electric cooker, buy flat-bottomed woks; if you have a fiery gas cooker, buy round-bottomed woks. You need a large pan for deep-fat frying, with a wire basket for straining. You need a couple of large bamboo steamers with lids and a suitably large pan the same size as the steamer so that it can sit on top of the boiling water. I do think an electric rice cooker is a really brilliant idea. Not only does it mean you will cook rice perfectly every time, but the rice will stay hot without spoiling for up to a couple of hours, and since the essence of Thai cooking is rice placed in the centre of the table, while everything else is just an accompaniment, this means that you can serve a small portion of rice time after time with each successive dish. For the serious-minded and those with ample time, a large, heavy pestle and mortar is de rigueur for preparing your pastes and salads. For those with less time, invest in an electric food processor. You will need sensible tongs to turn and lift the food; you will need wooden spoons or spatulas for stir-frying; a set of very sharp knives, and some substantial chopping boards. Should you find yourself on holiday in Thailand, you will notice in the markets that their chopping boards are mostly circular and cut from the trunk of a tree, upon which they deftly chop everything from chickens to vegetables with an extremely sharp cleaver – not for them a posey little knife rack filled with blunt knives acquired from some readers’ offer in a magazine.

Ingredients

The Thais relish virtually every kind of green vegetable that there is, from Morning Glory, which is a form of lily pad, through to long green beans called Snake Beans. They can be between 30, 38 or 45 cm/12, 15 or 18 inches long. If you can find them, well and good, but I have substituted them with French green beans, a.k.a. haricot vert, which need to be topped and tailed and cut according to the recipe. They are a very good alternative.

Galangal or Thai ginger.

Krachai, a relative of ginger root, but milder than ginger or galangal.

Lemon grass.

Where recipes call for shallots or onions, please use red shallots and red onions.

Many Thai dishes require some sugar. Unless otherwise stated, this should be palm sugar or soft Demerara (or soft light brown sugar).

The basic dark green leaves used in Thai cooking are known as Chinese kale. In good Asian stores this is known as Gai larn. For ease of accessibility, I have substituted pak choi or choi sum. You could, of course, also use spinach.

Thais favour galangal over fresh root ginger because it is slightly sweet and more tender than ginger, but either can be used. Another great favourite, and member of the ginger family, is fresh turmeric root, a little yellow-ochre knobbly root about the size of your little finger. You might find this in good Asian stores.

When using lemon grass, remove the outer leaves and use the bottom 15 cm/6 inches of the stalk (or the white part only as specified). If you can’t get lemon grass, use dried lemon grass (add a little extra for flavour), or the zest of 1 lemon (zest from 1 lemon = 2 stalks lemon grass).

An essential ingredient for cooking Thai food is kaffir lime leaves. However, if you can’t obtain them, 1 tablespoon lime or lemon zest = c.6 kaffir lime leaves. If you are substituting dried leaves for fresh, they are much less flavourful, so use twice as many as the recipe calls for and, if possible, add dried leaves to the recipe earlier than you would fresh in order to extract the maximum amount of flavour.

Green curries, in particular, benefit from a few fresh green peppercorns; however, if they are difficult to find, buy green peppercorns pickled in brine, rinse them well and drain them. They make a fair substitute. The ones from Madagascar are particularly good.

Most Thai curries use baby aubergines the size of a large pea. They may be difficult to source outside of London, Manchester, Bradford and Leeds and other large cities, although you may find them frozen. If you are unable to find them buy small aubergines, cut them into 1 cm/¹/₂ inch cubes and leave the skin on.

Where white vinegar is required, try to buy first a) white coconut vinegar, b) rice vinegar, or c) white wine vinegar.

Not for the Thais mean little bunches of spring onions from the supermarket. Their leaves and herbs are super-fresh.

For frying oils, use coconut oil for stir-frying, if possible, and good-quality vegetable, corn or sunflower oil for deep-frying.

Thai curries differ dramatically from Indian ones. The Indian kitchen largely uses dried and often toasted spices. The Thai kitchen uses fresh herbs and spices, often toasted, to make a ‘wet’ curry paste. Thai curries can be severely hot, so take care with the chillies, especially the small bird’s eye chillies. These tiny little things are absolute dynamite. As a rule of thumb, the seeds are the hottest part of the chilli and the pith the next hottest, and most chillies are fairly mild if these elements are removed – I leave it to you.

What these pineapples lack in size they make up for in sweetness.

Pounding the spices for a curry paste at the Intercontinental Hotel.

These mixed nuts are sold ready-chopped.

A trader prepares her wares at the Chatuchak Market.

These birds will be despatched for you at the market, or you can do the deed yourself at home.

Let’s put Thai curry paste on the line! Are you blender-lazy or pestle-proud? Traditionally, Thai curry pastes are made with a pestle and mortar. The ingredients are added gradually in the given order, starting from the hardest and the driest to the softest and the wettest, with each being reduced to a pulp before the next is added. As the ingredients are pounded, they release their fragrance and the balance of the paste can be sensed in the aroma and can be adjusted while the paste is being made. My recipes for curry pastes must be used just as a guide. They are not written in stone, it is not gospel and it is not rocket science. Sometimes, for instance, you may find that the shallots or the galangal you are using are sharper than usual, so touch, taste, smell and adjust. Needless to say, making a curry paste by hand is time-consuming, onerous and messy, but the result is genuinely superior – both in texture and balance of flavours – to one made in a food processor. Pastes made by hand have an integrity and intensity of flavour and the loving serenity that no machine can ever equal. However, these days, when everyone seems to lead such busy lives, you’ll probably want to use the food processor.

One of the most agreeable things in fine Thai restaurants is the sight of serene but smiling ladies in traditional costume sitting cross-legged on a bench-cum-table carving fruit and vegetables into exquisite shapes to garnish so many Thai dishes. They spend years acquiring their exquisite art and it is a joy to watch their patient skill. If you have the time and the patience, you may wish to emulate them.

The Thai table and quantities

Eating Thai food (which, by the way, is not served as a procession of starter, vegetable, main course and pudding) is meant to be a sociable affair where all the dishes are presented as they are cooked. Soups come in a large bowl and are eaten throughout the meal, not before it, and, certainly in Thailand, the food is not necessarily served hot. Some food is placed on platters, passed around and eaten with a spoon and fork, not with chopsticks.

For some mad reason, food editors seem to require measurements, weights and cooking times all in precise detail. Now, most food in Thailand, and indeed throughout Asia, is cooked outside on the simplest of equipment by people who have never read a cookery book or watched a TV cookery programme, they just cook instinctively. If you have only a small amount of chicken, then you have only a small amount of chicken, so you stretch the meal with rice or noodles. Please be warned that all the measurements, cooking times and weights in this book are absolutely approximate. No Thai person would ever dream of weighing out 275 g/10 oz of noodles or 225 g/8 oz of rice.

Anyway, that is my lecture over. I hope it has been helpful!

Preparing the ingredients for a curry at the famous Pet-Palo-Huahaheng Duck Restaurant.

These ladies were happy for me to try their food.

Sauces, pastes and dips

Sauces, pastes and dips

White onions.

Fresh root ginger.

Pet-Palo-Huahaheng Duck Restaurant.

The Thai people like their food hot and some of the world’s hottest chilli peppers are grown in Thailand. So, as you would expect, chillies play an important part in their curry sauces, pastes and dipping sauces.

These sauces and pastes are an indispensable part of Thai cooking, and home-made ones are well worth the effort. Many of the pastes can also be used as marinades, dipping sauces or to flavour a simply cooked bowl of rice or noodles. Chilli sauces are also used in salads.

Regional varieties are found throughout Thailand, but the basic curry pastes combine dry spices and fresh herbs with ginger, garlic, chillies and citrus juice and leaves.

Dipping sauces provide a contrast to the food they’re serve with – cooling dips for hot and spicy dishes, or fiery dips to accompany less highly flavoured food.

Khun Phol Tantasathien, owner of the Spring Restaurant, was great company.

Curry powder

1 tablespoon cloves

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

3 tablespoons cumin seeds

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

3 tablespoons dried chilli flakes

3 tablespoons turmeric powder

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons white peppercorns

4 cardamom pods

1 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the cloves, coriander, cumin and fennel seeds for 40–50 seconds until they release their fragrance, then grind to a powder in a spice grinder.

2 Add the remaining ingredients to the ground spices in the grinder and whiz to a powder. Store in an airtight jar.

Appreciating the shade at the Damnoen-Saduak floating market.

Dry-frying my spices for a curry paste, in the kitchens of the Intercontinental Hotel.

Ingredients for the Thai red curry paste.

The sauces and pastes below are used in recipes throughout the book. The dips, starting on page 51, will all go with kebabs, prawns and finger foods.

Thai green curry paste

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

6 fresh green chillies, chopped a handful of finely chopped fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon chopped fresh lemon grass

1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander root or coriander leaves and stalks

2 red shallots, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 cm/¹/₂ inch piece galangal (Thai ginger) or fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

4 or 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped, or zest of 1 lime

6 black peppercorns

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

1 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds for 40–50 seconds until they are toasted and aromatic. Tip into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

2 Put the powder in a food processor with all the other ingredients and whiz to a fine paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Thai red curry paste

7 long, dried red chillies, deseeded

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1¹/₂ teaspoons coriander seeds

¹/₄ nutmeg, ground

2 tablespoons finely sliced fresh lemon grass

2 tablespoons finely chopped red shallots

1 tablespoon finely chopped roasted red shallots

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

zest of 2 limes, finely chopped

10 white peppercorns

a large pinch of salt

¹/₂ teaspoon shrimp paste

5 cloves

1 Soak the chillies in hot water for about 15 minutes, then drain.

2 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds and the nutmeg for 40–50 seconds until they release their aroma. Tip into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

3 Put the powder in a food processor with all the other ingredients and whiz to a paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Thai yellow curry paste

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

6 fresh red chillies, chopped

¹/₂ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¹/₂ teaspoon ground cloves

1 fresh lemon grass stalk, chopped

2 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 tablespoons turmeric powder

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

1 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds for 40–50 seconds until they are toasted and aromatic. Tip into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

2 Put the powder in a food processor with all the other ingredients and whiz to a fine paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Thai massaman curry paste

This comes from southern Thailand.

3–4 dried red chillies

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

¹/₂ cinnamon stick, crushed

2–3 cloves

6 cardamom pods, crushed

5 black peppercorns

2 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped

1 fresh lemon grass stalk, finely chopped

3–4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 cm/¹/₂ inch piece galangal (Thai ginger) or fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

1 Soak the chillies in hot water for about 15 minutes, then drain.

2 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods and peppercorns for 40–50 seconds. Tip into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

3 Put the powder in a food processor with all the other ingredients, including the chillies, and whiz to a fine paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Hanglay curry paste

This comes from northern Thailand.

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

5 dried red chillies, crushed

2 fresh lemon grass stalks, finely chopped

4 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped

2.5 cm/1 inch piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

2 tablespoons Demerara or palm sugar

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon shrimp paste

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

1 tablespoon tamarind pulp mixed with a little water (remember to remove the stones)

1 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the coriander and cumin seeds for 40–50 seconds until toasted and aromatic. Tip into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.

2 Put the powder in a food processor with all the other ingredients and whiz to a fine paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Penang curry paste

This is one of many Malay influences to be found in Thailand.

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

15 dried red chillies, deseeded

3–4 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 fresh lemon grass stalk, finely chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander root or coriander leaves and stalks

2.5 cm/1 inch piece galangal (Thai ginger), finely chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped

1 tablespoon shrimp paste

1 Heat a wok or heavy-based frying pan and, without adding any oil, dry-roast the coriander seeds for 40–50 seconds until toasted and aromatic.

2 Put the coriander seeds in a food processor with all the other ingredients and whiz to a thick paste (add a little water if the mixture is too stiff). Store in a jar in the fridge for 3–5 days.

Chiang Mai curry paste

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped

5 cm/2 inch piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated

2 large, fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

1 fresh lemon grass stalk, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

¹/₂ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

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