Floyd’s Thai Food

Copyright

Collins

an imprint of

HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by Collins 2006

Text © Keith Floyd 2006

Location photographs © Stan Green Management 2006

Food photographs (see below) © HarperCollins Publishers 2006

Keith Floyd reserves the moral right to be identified as the author of the Work.

Keith Floyd is represented by Stan Green Management, Dartmouth, Devon; telephone [phone]; fax [phone];

e-mail [e-mail]

Visit www.floydonline.co.uk

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Book produced for Collins by Essential Works Ltd

Editor: Barbara Dixon

Designer: Mark Stevens

Location photographer: Tony Hanscomb

Studio food photographer: Michelle Garrett

Home Economist: Carole Handslip

Indexer: Hazel Bell

Cover photograph[s]?: TBC - ? Michelle Garrett or Tony Hanscomb

Food photographs: (a = above, b = below, l = left, r = right, c = centre, t = top)

39 cr; 44; 56; 58 tr; 60 c; 63; 67; 69 bt; 70; 76; 77; 83 tl; 84 c; 86–7; 90–91; 101; 108 tl; 110c; 112; 114–115; 119; 124 tl; 126 C; 127 l; 133 b; 138–9; 160 tl; 161 tr; 162 c; 166–7; 176–7; 186

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or here in after invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007213498

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2014 ISBN: 9780007361045

Version: 2014-07-08

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

The charm of Thailand

Tastes and tools of the Thai trade

The Thai table and quantities

Sauces, pastes and dips

Curry powder

Thai green curry paste

Thai red curry paste

Thai yellow curry paste

Thai massaman curry paste

Hanglay curry paste

Penang curry paste

Chiang Mai curry paste

Panaeng curry paste

Peanut (satay) sauce

Tamarind juice

Marinades and dipping sauces

Coriander paste

Thai sweet chilli sauce

Hot tiger sauce

Hot and sweet garlic sauce

Dipping sauces

Universal Thai dipping sauce

Green mango dip

Hot, sweet and sour fish dipping sauce

Barbeque dipping sauce (nam jim kiga)

Tomato and chilli dip

Chillies in oil

Chilli jam

Thai ginger dipping sauce

Hot Thai salsa

Plum sauce

Cucumber and pineapple relish

Rice dishes

Some essentials

Steamed rice

Sticky rice

Sticky coconut rice

Fried rice with crab or prawns

Fried rice with Chinese or Thai leaves

Fried rice with prawns and bamboo shoots

Fried rice with roast pork

Fried rice in pineapple

Pan-fried rice with basil and coriander

Oodles of noodles!

Crispy rice noodles (1)

Crispy rice noodles (2)

Crispy fried noodles

Stir-fried glass noodles

Stir-fried thin and flat noodles with prawns or chicken

Stir-fried thick noodles with pork

Stir-fried egg noodles with vegetables

Vegetable rice noodles

Muslim-style noodles

Salads, snacks and street food

Minced warm beef salad

Beef salad with aubergine

Warm sour steak salad

Grilled hot and sour fish salad

Spicy crab with cucumber

Thai squid salad

Prawn and pink grapefruit salad

Prawn and fruit salad

Chicken salad with papaya

Chicken salad with fresh figs

Minced duck salad

Green pawpaw salad

Spicy carrot salad

Spicy pork salad

Pork and prawn rice paper rolls

Chilli pork and pineapple bites

Thai soy bean fritters

Thai fish cakes

Gold purses

Spicy corn cakes

Skewered green prawns with coriander and chilli

Sticky rice with prawns and freshly grated coconut

Pandanus leaves stuffed with chicken

Curried pasties

Satay chicken

Soups

Thai pumpkin soup

Hot and sour mushroom soup

Chicken, ginger and mushroom soup

Chicken and coconut milk soup

Chicken and vegetable clear soup

Duck and noodle soup

Prawn, chicken and rice soup

Prawn and lemon grass soup

Hot and sour prawn soup

Prawn and pumpkin soup

Crab and corn soup

Sweet and sour soup with sliced monkfish

Pork and vermicelli soup

Vegetables

Green bean curry

Stir-fried green beans and cauliflower

Aubergines with tofu

Baby aubergines with cherry tomatoes

Stir-fried spinach

Beansprouts with tomatoes

Vegetable-stuffed omelette

Pineapple curry

Stir-fried vegetables (1)

Stir-fried vegetables (2)

Stir-fried asparagus

Green vegetable curry

Red vegetable curry

Thai mixed vegetable curry

Vegetables in coconut milk

Steamed sweetcorn

Fish and shellfish

King scallops baked in rice wine

Chargrilled crab or lobster

Green prawns steamed with soy sauce

Green prawn curry

Prawn and pineapple curry

Stir-fried garlic prawns

Prawn omelette

Mussels steamed with lemon grass

Steamed fish curry

Peppers stuffed with curried fish

Seafood steamboat or hotpot

Deep-fried fish with sweet and sour sauce

Deep-fried fish with chillies and basil

Fried John Dory with shrimps and mango

Bass with chilli and lime sauce

Fried minced prawn and pork in seaweed rolls

Meat and poultry

Caramelised pork

Stir-fried pork with ginger

Stir-fried pork with green beans

Red pork curry

Chiang Mai pork curry

Stir-fried beef with basil leaves

Massaman beef curry

Penang beef curry

Dried fillet steak with chilli sauce

Red duck curry

Green chicken curry

Yellow curry with chicken

Stir-fried chicken with chilli jam

Stir-fried chicken with crispy basil

Thai desserts

Rice pudding with lychees

Fruit platter

Spicy coconut custard

Pumpkin custard

Candied bananas (1)

Candied bananas (2)

Deep-fried banana

Banana in coconut milk

Pumpkin in coconut milk

Sweet potato in ginger syrup

Sweet water chestnuts with coconut cream and syrup

Sticky rice with mango

Black glutinous rice with fresh coconut

Rice balls with fresh coconut

Mango sorbet

Coconut ice cream

Keep Reading

About the Publisher

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of Khun Akorn

My thanks to:

The Intercontinental Hotel, Bangkok

Pakistan International Airways

The directors and staff of the Burasari Hotel, Phuket

My long-suffering editor Barbara Dixon

My wife Tess (thank God she knows how to use a laptop!)

With thanks to Nirun Jirapermpoon

and the Siam Royal Orchid restaurant

367 Uxbridge Road, London W3

for their help with translation

Introduction

Introduction

The charm of Thailand

On this early Bangkok morning, the waiter brings me a bowl of plump, duck red Thai curry. I am drinking apple juice, it is six o’clock in the morning and yet the Intercontinental Hotel, where I am staying for free, is buzzing. Multilingual businessmen are eating with one hand while the other clamps their mobile phones to their ears. If you suffer from a hangover or jetlag, there is nothing better than this exquisite spicy food I am eating. My very good friends at Pakistan International Airways kindly flew me to Bangkok, but by the global scenic route (of course, I am not complaining because the flight was free – thank you, PIA) and, I must say, the in-flight Pakistani food is delicious. The reason I am wrecked at breakfast time like a wet sack of rice is because I flew from Heathrow to Lahore, from Lahore to Islamabad, from Islamabad to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Bangkok and did not sleep a wink.

My driver, Pata, is waiting to take me away on this Sunday morning to the huge market where I will have another breakfast, this time of succulent, ripe mango and creamy sticky rice. A hawker, standing behind his mobile kitchen, built on an elaborate tricycle, laughs with charming disbelief when I request crushed, dried chillies to be sprinkled on my mango. That, washed down with the milk from a freshly decapitated coconut, has brought me and the morning back to life. For four hours I walk up and down the crowded stalls, while my photographer is taking pictures.

A superb meal aboard Pakistan International Airways.

Naheed Tabassum, a charming member of the crew.

My good friend Mr John Nielsen of the Intercontinental Hotel, Bangkok.

Street food at Chatuchak Market, Bangkok.

Grilling sticky rice and shrimp in banana leaves at Chatuchak Market.

Luscious tropical fruit at the market.

Coconut juice is very refreshing in the heat of Bangkok.

It is the rainy season and the humidity and temperature are insupportable. However, the charm of Thailand is washing over me like soft rain and it is funny to think that fifteen or sixteen years ago I was sitting in a hotel eating breakfast, but that time in Newcastle. We were about to film a BBC programme called ‘Far Flung Floyd’ and were due to go to Thailand. The general manager of the Gosforth Park Hotel told me I would enjoy meeting Thai hotelier Khun Akorn and his wife Chompanut. I asked him how he knew more about my life and my work than I. Enigmatically he said, ‘Wait and see’ and lit a cigar and swept out of the room.

I must point out that at that time, Akorn owned the largest hotel chain in Thailand, an empire that stretched from virtually the borders of Burma to the enchanting island of Samui. Akorn is sadly no longer with us, but because of him, and indeed his wife and his staff, every door in the country was opened to us during our filming. In his philosophical and altruistic way, Akorn wanted no commercial credit for what he did. He didn’t want his hotel logos to appear on camera, he just wanted to assist us to show that Thailand is a magical destination. I frequently stayed with Akorn on Samui and, over a bottle of Black Label, we would talk of food and wine and Buddhism, while he puffed on an aromatic cigar as the waves lapped onto the nearby beach. I dedicate this book to him and his family.

These grilled sticky rice in banana leaf rolls are jolly good.

The wonderful beaches of the island of Phuket, getting back to normal after the Tsunami.

So, here I am again, and now we’ve travelled to Phuket, where I’m having breakfast once again. Believe you me, breakfast is a very important meal in my life, because you never know the events that may unfold throughout the rest of the day. I am sharing my breakfast with Mr and Mrs Minah. They are sitting in the hanging basket of orchids just above my head by the pool, chirping happily here in the charming Burasari Hotel, where we are staying. From time to time, they hop onto the table for a few grains of rice or another sugar cube. I am eating boiled rice soup and pieces of roast pork, lashed with chillies, chopped spring onions and fresh coriander. It is hot, but I am feeling good.

A chance to chill out in Phuket – Pearl Island is in the background.

Believe it or not, I’m drinking tea.

These fish are so spanking fresh.

After breakfast, our hosts at the hotel, the managing director, a charming lady called Khun Lilly, the general manager, Mike, and the food and beverage director, Mark, take us on a gentle tour around the island.

Phuket was badly hit by the Tsunami of 2004, but apart from the emotional scars, it is pretty much back on track. The hotels are back in business, the great little tumbledown beach restaurants are back in business and, of course, the shopping areas are throbbing with people. There are some wonderful beaches, but if you want to get away from the crowds, you can go up into the richly wooded hills or take a long-tail boat to one of the many tranquil little islands that seem to float in clear, turquoise water – so clear that you can see the shoals of multi-coloured fish dancing around close by.

We stopped for lunch at a beach restaurant that Mike knew well and had some spicy, tangy salads – virtually the signature dish of Southern Thailand, the fiery prawn soup Tom yam goong and spanking fresh bream, dorade and other fishes simply grilled over charcoal by smiling, busy, cheerful ladies. It is too hot to drink wine, particularly in the daytime, so recommended drinks are – and this is what the locals have – freshly squeezed lime juice and soda, ice-cold Thai beer, or green tea (although many Thai people favour very watery whisky).

We sat on the beach under a banana leaf-thatched roof and watched the long-tail boats hurtling by and fishermen coming back with their catch to go and unload it against picturesque wooden piers.

A wonderful array of Thai pancakes at the Damnoen-Saduak floating market in Bangkok.

A painted lady noodle seller of Damnoen-Saduak floating market.

The Slam winery vineyard.

The following day we flew back to Bangkok and checked into the Intercontinental Hotel, before taking an air-conditioned (essential) car ride down to Bangkok’s famous floating market. This is a complex of canals with pretty houses built on their edges, where you can take boat rides in cigar-shaped, traditional Thai punts, paddled gently through this labyrinth of waterways by smiling ladies. Tied alongside the main landing stage are dozens of these charming little boats, each with a lady in it, sitting cross-legged, selling their freshly picked produce – all kinds of greenery, lemons, limes and other fruits. Some are making delightful little Thai sweets, or stir-frying noodles, or grilling racks of prawns and small fish.

From there we move to the curiously named ‘Floating vineyards’, which are about 30 km outside the city and which take hours to get to because the Bangkok traffic is appalling. Since there is so much water available, these vines are planted on little raised, rectangular islands and they are irrigated twice a day by the simple expedient of a sluice gate. Hitherto, I had not known that Thai wine was produced in Thailand and, although quite expensive, it was jolly good.

Back to Bangkok and we hurtle around as many restaurants as possible to check out what is happening in this big city. Then, after a sightseeing tour, at lightning speed, of the incredible golden Royal Grand Palace, we get back, exhausted but happy, to the air-conditioned freshness of the hotel. We had been on the go for twelve hours this particular day and, after a shower and change of clothes, I sank happily into the comfortable bar and, as is the Thai custom, had a refreshing Johnny Walker Black Label with lots and lots of iced water.

It might be a precarious way of checking the grapes, but the end product gets my approval.

The stunning Royal Grand Palace, Bangkok.

To my amazement, I saw a chef walking towards me in his immaculate whites and white clogs and, my goodness me, it was an old friend of mine, Marcel Nosari, now the executive chef of the hotel and trying to control 600 cooks, perish the thought! It was an invaluable meeting because he had just opened, in stark contrast to the beach bars and street vendors’ chariots, a light, airy and exquisite Thai restaurant in the hotel, called the ‘Charm Thai’. This served modernized and stylishly presented food, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but because my assistant Adrian cannot take spicy food of any kind, I managed to get special dispensation for him to have a fine steak, fresh vegetables and potatoes. I had a delicious deep-fried fish with chilli and cucumber sauce, followed by a spicy papaya salad and then a relatively hot yellow beef curry. The meal was finished by a sour tamarind sorbet and it was time for bed.