Hit the spice trail for a fabulously fragrant menu from Thailand
Create delicious Thai dishes using a few simple ingredients
Chilli mango salad
Serves: 2
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 long green chillies, finely chopped
3 tsps caster sugar
Juice of 3 limes
Juice of 1 clementine
3 tbsps light soy sauce (use seaweed sauce
or gluten-free soy sauce, if you prefer)
Small handful of mint, torn
Small handful of coriander leaves, stems removed 1 ripe mango, peeled, stoned and cut into bite-sized
chunks
Jasmine rice, to serve
● Start by preparing a nahm yum dressing. Using a pestle and mortar, pound together 2 peeled garlic cloves and 3 chopped long green chillies into a coarse paste, using the caster sugar as an abrasive.
● Stir in the lime juice, clementine juice and soy sauce, then taste. The dressing should taste sweet, salty, spicy and sour in equal measure, so adjust the flavour as required.
● Next, place the mint, coriander and prepared mango in a mixing bowl with a few tablespoons of the dressing and toss well to combine all the flavours.
● Pour the remaining dressing on to a serving dish, then place the mango salad on top. It’s important not to overdress the salad as you still want to taste all the individual ingredients.
● Serve the salad with steamed jasmine rice to mop up all the dressing.
Whole spiced yellow crab curry
Serves: 2
I whole fresh crab, 500g-600g (1lb 2oz-1lb 5oz) 35g (1½oz) table salt
Lemongrass, galangal or kaffir lime leaf, optional 2cm (¾in) piece of turmeric
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 onions, roughly sliced into large chunks
1 long red chilli, roughly into 1cm (½in) pieces 1 long green chilli, roughly into 1cm (½in) pieces 250ml (9fl oz) coconut milk
1 tsp mild curry powder
1 tbsp caster sugar, plus extra to taste
2 tbsps fish sauce, plus extra to taste
2 eggs, cracked into a bowl
2 wedges of lime to serve (optional)
● First, dispatch the crab by putting it to sleep in the freezer for an hour. Alternatively, you can use frozen crab claws or 200g (7oz) pre-picked crab meat from your fishmonger.
● Bring 10 litres (17½ pints) of water to the boil in a very large pot and add the table salt. If you have any scraps of lemongrass, galangal or kaffir lime leaf from other recipes, add them, too.
● Poach the crab for 12 minutes per 1kg (2lb 2oz). Prepare an ice bath and immediately after cooking, place the cooked crab in it.
● Once cooled, remove the crab from the water and drain. Twist off the legs and claws and set aside. Separate the body and shell. To do this, press down with your palm on the body and get your fingers between the gap where it meets the shell – it will come away in one piece.
● Remove and discard the gills, as they are inedible. Scrape out the brown meat from the shell and save for later, then, using a large sharp knife, slice the body in two in one motion, so no tiny bits of shell are shattered off. Set aside for later.
● At this point, you can either pre-crack the claws using crab crackers or wrap them individually in a towel and hit gently but firmly with a pestle, leaving most of the shell on. Or start cooking the dish.
● Make a paste by pounding the turmeric and 2 garlic cloves together with a pestle and mortar.
● Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a nonstick wok over a high heat until the oil begins to smoke.
● Add the onions and chillies, then stir and toss until they begin to char. Then add the garlic-andturmeric paste.
● Cook until the paste turns golden, then pour in the coconut milk and stir in the brown crab meat, curry powder, caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of fish sauce.
● Simmer for a moment, then add the crab body, legs and claws and simmer over a low-medium heat for 2 minutes.
● Finally, stir in the eggs. Continue cooking and stirring until the eggs are cooked through and the coconut has thickened. Add more fish sauce or sugar to taste. Serve with lime wedges.