Petica's posterous http://peticawatson.posterous.com a place to plonk stuff posterous.com Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:56:16 -0800 Thai snake head fish recipe http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/02/24/thai-snake-head-fish-recipe http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/02/24/thai-snake-head-fish-recipe I'm not sure you'll find snake head fish here, so we'll have to try this with any white fleshy fish I reckon. It's the typically Thai flavours of the sauce that are so important and the crispy fried skin of the fish that gives the deliciously satisfying texture on the tongue. Ooh - and if you can find half a thing of bamboo you could use it as a plate! [caption id="attachment_664" align="alignleft" width="600" caption="Snake-head fish"]
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[/caption] Fry the fish - veg oil - or why not try coconut oil if you have some - much healthier. Or olive oil. Make sure the oil's really hot before putting the fish in and be careful to not let the skin stick to the pan. When it's fried, put it to one side. Now chop up: 1 tblespn of galangal and another tblespn of ginger, or 2 of ginger (grated) 1 tblespn of lemongrass 2 shallots, chopped finely 2 red chillis, small - sliced then crushed in a pestle & mortar 2 tblespns of coconut milk Then put a little more oil in a wok, and put in the mixture and fry until the wafting of lovely flavours begins. Then add 1 tblespn of soya sauce and a spoon of sugar. Then the Thais add monosodiumglutamate MSG) but we're not going to do that, we'll just add a bit of a crumbled stock cube instead. Not too much. Simmer all this for a bit then pour over the fish!

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Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:48:10 -0800 Thai green papaya salad (Som Tam or Pok Pok) http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/02/08/thai-green-papaya-salad http://peticawatson.posterous.com/2010/02/08/thai-green-papaya-salad One of my favourite Thai dishes of all time, but to make it in the UK you've got to find where they might sell green papaya and dried shrimps. Asian supermarkets will, but charging 10 times the few baht you'd buy them for in South East Asia - I just bought one green papaya for £4.80!  AND it's flown by air so food miles and carbon footprint are huge, but just once in a while it's nice to have a treat. I guess you could replace the green papaya with rice noodles and prawns, but that makes it a different salad.. I learned this in Cambodia but I've changed the recipe since the Thais make it better I think. (The Cambodians were getting carried away adding oyster sauce and tomato ketchup into the mix, sorry but yuk!) There are loads of variations on this recipe, just fiddle around with the ingredients till it tastes how you like it. You need a pestle and mortar if you want to do this properly really! Everything, even the shredded papaya, needs bruising in it. You'll also need a julienne stripper to shred the papaya, and v useful for other veg like carrot too.

Ingredients (serving 1)

A large handful of shredded green papaya A small handful of dried shrimps, chopped 1 small Thai red chilli, chopped Some green beans, chopped into 2cm lengths - can be lightly steamed or raw, in fact if you have a tendency to over-boil veg then don't go anywhere NEAR the saucepan with these! Half a clove of garlic, peeled and chopped 1 large handful of cherry tomatoes, halved 2 small handfuls of roasted peanuts (it’s fine if they’re salted) 1 tablespoon of palm sugar - ordinary sugar if you have none, but try and always buy unrefined 1 tablespoon of fish sauce lime juice - at least 1 lime if not two or 3 Thai basil

Method

peel the papaya, and shred with a julienne shredder into thin strips. Pound the green beans, red chilli and garlic in the mortar. Throw in the peanuts and dried shrimp and pound again, then add the palm sugar and tomatoes and pound again, lightly. Now introduce the lime juice, fish sauce and a large handful of shredded papaya. Give one last quick bruise and mix.
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