Thai your week together: two recipes with intense flavours offset with lightness and freshness

Thailand is the destination of choice for this week’s recipes. It’s a country steeped in culinary tradition and home to some of the world’s finest ingredients. I have spoken before of my love of southeast Asian food. The intensity of flavours, offset with a lightness and freshness, is what makes Thai food so special. On top of that, the ingredients are cheap to buy, the recipes are easy to bulk up and everything is cooked in minimal time.

I was fortunate to travel throughout Thailand and Vietnam in 2014 and can still vividly remember some of the knockout dishes. Green curries were blow-your-head-off spicy, the street food matched the hype, the roadside shacks were producing restaurant-worthy meals using camping equipment, the mangos made me realise what fruit should taste like and the local brown liquor made my head very sore.

One dish that really stood out was tom yum soup. I remember getting the early morning ferry to the island of Koh Phi Phi, a picture-postcard location with turquoise waters and white sandy beaches that evolved into a mixture of Harcourt Street meets Ibiza once darkness fell.

The key to unlocking the flavour is the infusion of prawns in the broth, along with the balance of seasoning and plenty of fish sauce

We couldn’t check in to our accommodation, so headed down to the beach with our backpacks for a few hours. An older lady in a small bamboo hut was serving soup. I think it cost the guts of 50 cent for a large bowl. The colour was slightly brown and my interest wasn’t piqued in the slightest. To say a flavour bomb went off in my mouth doesn’t do it justice. To this day, it is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

Carrot and tarragon tart

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Stir fry spiced lamb with cous cous, olives and mint

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Striploin steak with bois boudrin sauce and dressed Baby Gem

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Home-made pici with Italian sausage and courgette

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The first recipe this week is inspired by that shack on the beach in Phi Phi, using simple ingredients. The key to unlocking the flavour is the infusion of prawns in the broth, along with the balance of seasoning and plenty of fish sauce. It’s a perfect light dinner for the warmer evenings ahead.

The second recipe, pad Thai, is more Bangkok street food than idyllic islands. The sauce can be made in bulk and kept in the fridge to save you time during the week; it’s also beautiful as a salad dressing or brushed on to barbecued meats. The magic of this dish is the salty crunch of the peanuts tying everything together. Go wild with the lime juice just before serving and feel free to add chicken, pork or beef in place of prawns. If you have extra vegetables lying around the fridge that need to be used up, this is the dish for it.

Recipe: Tom yum soup

Recipe: Pad Thai