A Thai Dinner by Tammy

what's on the table tonight?

Finally it's time to show off my cooking skills as a graduate of Krabi Thai Cookery School by Ya. I invited my fiance and his closed friends to try my cooking for the first time. They were a bit hesitant at first! Only big motor mouth Victor Botak (because there's two Victors, it's easier to identify him with his best trait) agree instantly on What's App to eat my home cooked Thai food. My best friend was "busy" or rather maybe she would like to see what happens first before agreeing next time to eating my food.

Anyway it's just a few simple recipes I learnt from Ya, from the picture you can see how humble I am with my food. I'm still learning to cook! forgive me sob sob.

yay finally made the mango sticky rice!

(but will be better the next time)

My mango sticky rice didn't turn out well because I didn't soak them long enough *cries* or either that the Phillips steamer was drying the rice up. I got to try again maybe after I come back from Hong Kong. I'm going to the airport soon in an hour and thank goodness I have packed! Rushing this post first so everyone can "cuci mata" while I am away for 5 days. Surprisingly it still taste really nice with the mango! Such sin dessert oh yeah ~ it was awesome showdown after eating spicy Thai food. I still have some Jasmine glutinous rice left and will attempt again to make Mango Sticky Rice until I got it PERFECT!!!

which dish do you want to try first?

friends & home cooked food = happy family

empty plates means it was good right?
(our they're all too scared of me & emptied their plate quickly)

The white fluffy rice on a big bowl was centered around the dishes. Both Victors goggle everything up and even went for seconds and thirds! I guess this means my cooking is not bad right? Mark and Daniel was quietly eating their food (I think wishing their ordeal would end quickly). Mark isn't the spicy kind of guy and Daniel if I'm not wrong, has a weak stomach? He talked about emptying quickly his "factory". I quickly served the mango sticky rice to them, not giving them a chance to run away.

Perhaps another try again and this time I'm going to invite my girlfriends to eat too. As promise here's the recipes from the Krabi Cookery School by Ya. I maintain the text because it's written by Ya and Ya, although her English is not perfect, it has the reminisce of being in Krabi and listening to her Bang Bang Chop Chop and funny English way of teaching us how to prepare Thai food. Please leave a comment if you like the recipes or my cooking horror story (my fiance says I torture the guys).

there's many types of Jasmine rice, use the right one okay?
(click here to see the difference & how to cook)

Jasmine Fragrant White Rice
1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water

Hot and Sour Prawn Soup (Tom Yam Goong Nam Khon)Ingredients
2 tbs Tom Yam paste

300 grm Prawns - washed, peeled and deveined.
2 cups Chicken stock or water
2 stem Lemon grass - lower part 1/3 only, slice into small pieces
5 Kaffir lime leaves torn into pieces, discarding the stems
3 Shallots - sliced
2 Tomatoes - cut each into 8 pieces
5 Thin slices of galangal - peeled

200grm Straw mushrooms - halved
5 - 6 Hot chillies cut lengthwise

4 tbs Fish sauce
1tsp White sugar
3 tbs Lime or lemon juice
1 stem Coriander leaves - chopped

Preparation:
Heat the stock until boiling. Add the lemon grass, galangal, shallots, prawns and mushrooms. Season to taste with lime juice, fish sauce and chillies. Add kaffir lime leaves and chopped coriander. Remove from heat and serve hot. Eat with boiled rice. Only soups are served hot in Thailand. All other dishes are eaten at room temperature.

Fried Spicy Chicken with Basil Leaves (Phand Ka)
Ingredients

300 grms Chicken breasts - thinly sliced
10 - 20 Basil Leaves
60grm Tender green beans - chopped fine
2 Big red and green chillies - thinly sliced
3 tbs Fish sauce
1 tbs Sugar
Discard the stems
2 - 2 Sweet basil leaves

2 tbs Oil

Preparation:
Put 2 tablespoons of oil into wok. Add the chicken and fry for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add half the red Chillies, Stir and add the fish sauce to taste. Add the green beans and basil leaves just before you remove from the heat and garnish with the remaining red Chillies.

Green Curry Chicken (Kaeng Kiaw Wan Kai)
Ingredients
2 tbsp Green curry paste
300g Chicken - cut into long thin slices
2 1/2 cups Coconut milk
2 Kaffir lime leaves
2 Stems sweet basil - take only leaves
2 - 3 Red chillies - cut into strips
1 - 2 tbsp Fish sauce
1 tsp Palm sugar
A pinch of salt

Preparation:

Fry chillies in coconut milk until fragrant. Reduce the heat and add chicken, coconut milk, egg plant, palm sugar, fish sauce  a pinch of salt and then taste it. When the meat is cooked through add the sweet basil leaves and remove from heat. Pork or beef can be used instead of chicken.

Mango Sticky Rice
Ingredients

1/2 kilo Jasmine glutinous rice
1 cup sugar
3 cup coconut
1/2 tbsp salt

Preparation:

Soak the glutinous rice overnight for 8 hours. Steam the rice for 25minutes. Boil the coconut milk with sugar and salt under low fire, it's ready when sugar is dissolved. When rice is ready, put into a bowl and a spoonful or two of coconut milk and let is absorb. Served with fresh yellow mango sliced into pieces.