These fish with the fish roe inside, are called Capelin in English, at least that's what I think they're called. They are a sardine sized fish that come close to shore to spawn and fishermen catch them in the shallows when they're full of eggs. The yellow eggs, or roe, are left inside after gutting the fish. You can buy them at the supermarkets of Thailand, if you ask for 'blah-khai' (literally fish-egg), the fish monger will know what you're asking for, or print out the photo after the break to show him.
I was at the opening of Mega Bangna shopping mall, and at an all-you-can-eat buffer there, I ate these BlaKhai fried in breadcrumbs.

Continue reading "Fish with Roe in Breadcrumbs" »

Although it's not what you expect when you make cheese bread, these are sweet and covered in bakers mayonnaise. It's rare to find bread that isn't sweet in Thailand and good cheese is often expensive, so it's common to find cheaper cheese dishes like this with added sugar to add an extra layer of flavour to them. I'd like to be enthusiastic about the sweet Thai versions of western foods. But I think they're a tragedy, all high calorie and high sugar and soft texture.
Bakers mayonnaise is just a sweeter mayonnaise, and Pacto 3 is a flour improver, if you don't use it, the texture will be firmer, but not unpleasant. Without the Pacto 3, you also can't work the dough as much, work it like a regular bread dough.

Continue reading "Sweet Cheese Bread Fingers ( Ka Noom Pang Cheesestick )" »

My grandmother loved this recipe, but if you don't boil and rinse the Bi Khee Lage (the plant in the sauce) enough it is too bitter. A quick shortcut is to use the canned, which you can buy in Asian grocers.

Continue reading "Bitter Ribs ( Gang Khee Lage Gar Doog Mu )" »

Have you ever seen those detailed fruit carvings you commonly see in Thai restaurants? Making those carvings is a skill. I've embedded a video showing how it's done below. A large part is the special narrow pointy knife needed to do the delicate carvings. You do need the right tool for the job. I've managed to find a trade supplier for those knives at the BIG+BIH trade show. They've promised to email me a list of retailers who sell the knives to the public, for the moment their website is here: Kom Kom Products (Website), in Bangkok .

Continue reading "Fruit Carving Knives" »

Over on my Thai life blog, I'm covering Songkran, the Thai New Year, in Chonburi. Although I don't have time to make a lot of recipes at the moment, I'd like to point this out to you. In Thailand its common to salt fruit like pineapple, or orange juice with a little salt. Why not try it?

These traditional cookies are fried peanuts cookies, cooked in very hot oil, in a special metal ladle. When I was young we would buy these in the market stalls freshly made, but supermarkets in Thailand also sell them now.
Ideally to make these you need a flat metal round ladle, a bowl shaped metal ladle tends to collect the mixture in the middle, leaving the cookies thick in the middle, but overcooked at the edge. You end up with all the peanuts in the middle too!
The ladle is preheated in the oil, the mixture poured in, and lowered into the oil to finish cooking.
The limestone water is the water from dissolved limestone used to stiffen the mixture. It's optional, but makes the cookie more crunchy.
If you use the baking soda you get a fluffed up cookies, if you omit it, you get a flatter crisper cookies (as in the photos).

Continue reading "Thai Peanut Cookies ( Tuar Pen Taut )" »