Wild Thai Stylee

While I love the flavours of Chinese and in particular Sichuan cooking another cuisine that I absolutely adore is Thai.

Thai food consists of a balance of hot (spicy), sour, sweet and salty. Usually by using the common ingredients of chilli, tamarind or lime juice, palm sugar and the wonderfully underrated fish sauce. This combination results in an absolute flavour explosion for the taste buds! There is something about the flavours in Thai food that make it taste incredibly fresh and light even when eating a coconut milk laden curry. Another wonderful ingredient is the rice stick noodle. These noodles retain a lovely chewy texture when cooked and absorb the flavours of the dish without losing their own texture, that is of course if correctly cooked! When I say cook that is slighlty incorrect as rice stick noodles need to have boiled water poured over them and left for about 10 minutes to soften. Don't boil or you will lose the lovely silky texture and it was be mush! It is also worth remembering that if you are going to fry the noodles in sauce as in this dish that if you soften them for too long you will definitely overcook them once frying.

Using the above as a base for the essence of the dish I have put together a noodle dish that has that great Thai tang! After playing around with other Thai style noodle dishes I have settled on this which goes perfectly with a cold beer! I would usually stir through a load of coriander but as S doesn’t quite have the same feeling about coriander as I do i.e. put as much as possible into pretty much every dish, I use it as a garnish and leave it off his plate completely. Which is actually OK with me as I get it all to myself!





Thai prawn & peanut noodles

200g rice stick noodles
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 whole fresh red chilli
2 tsp ground white peppercorns
1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tbsp peanut oil
250g prawns
2 tbsp grated or chopped palm sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
Juice of ½ lime
100g crushed roasted peanuts
A handful of bean sprouts
1 Lebanese cucumber, washed and thinly sliced
Lime, coriander and sliced red chilli to garnish

Method

Bring a pot of water to the boil, turn off the heat and soak the rice noodles to packet instructions. Rinse under cold running water until cool and drain.

Finely chop the garlic and chilli.

Heat a wok over high heat and add the peanut oil, then the garlic and chilli. Stir-fry for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Now add the prawns and stir-fry a few more minutes until they are pink and cooked through. Add the palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, white pepper and the tamarind. Taste, it should taste sweet, salty and sour all at once. If it needs more salt add a little fish sauce or if too rich, just add a little water.

Add the noodles, bean sprouts and peanuts, mixing them well into the prawns, cook for a further minute, and toss in the cucumber.

To serve

Divide into individual bowls, garnish with a slice of lime, sliced red chillies, peanuts and coriander & serve.