Have you ever tasted something so delicious that it feels like a culinary revelation? That's exactly how it feels to bite into a perfectly cooked beef short rib. I’m deeply in love with them, the rich slow cooked meat practically falls off the bone, leaving you craving for more. No wonder I’ve fallen head over heels for this underrated cut of meat. Gone are the days when you had to visit a specialty butcher to get your hands on beef short ribs as well, thanks to supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Waitrose More ..read more

 I come from north-east Thailand, a region also known as Issan. Every year there is a festival called Bun Bang Fai  which is held to celebrate the coming of the rainy season so essential to our rice crops. It takes place over three days starting with Buddhist ceremonies and traditional dancing, by the second day events become far more raucous thanks to the liberal use of alcohol and the Thai desire for “sanook” which means “fun” in English. This means by the third day most of those taking part awake with huge hangovers for which the most popular cure is usually more beer or rice whis ..read more

 I firmly believe that Khao Soi should be ranked as one of the world's great dishes. You can call it a curry or you can call it a noodle soup and it is both of those with more on top, literally on top! A broth of aromatic curry paste and orange-tinged coconut milk with tender chicken falling apart for you, boiled noodles lurking underneath and becoming coated with fragrant oil as they break the surface. Crispy noodles on top you can manipulate and dunk into the sauce. And then as if that wasn't enough you get to add accompaniments of your choice, raw shallots, pickled cucumbers or mu ..read more

This is the essential Thai dipping sauce you see all over Thailand. An absolute must for the Pad Kaprow recipe but also used to spice up almost any dish, particularly grilled meats or similar. And for many Thais they can't think of eating a fried egg without some Prik Naam Pla to top it. More than anything, it sums up the Thai food tastes of sour sweet and salty. Spicy? Of course that also depends on what chillies you use for this, and if you're prepared to do the extra work of separating out the seeds and the white pith it will be a lot less spicy. However, if you have to go that far this rea ..read more

This is a dish that is incredibly easy and quick to prepare. If you have a bag of frozen seafood in the freezer the whole dish can come together in the time it takes to cook the rice. Talking of rice, I find myself increasingly turning to black rice, healthier than white rice and an interesting texture. My favourite at the moment is Gallo Venere black rice which can be found in most supermarkets, and I certainly prefer it over supermarket own brands. Portion sizes are always subjective, but this would feed three people at my table! Ingredients. One packet of My Thai Curry green curry paste. Yo ..read more

 This is possibly Thailand's best loved dish, and I can't count the number of times I have been asked to make a paste for it. My answer has always been no. Sure I could sell it, but it would feel like theft, this has none of the complexities of an authentic curry paste nor are the ingredients difficult to source, it's a simple stir-fry with easily obtainable ingredients. Ok, there is an argument to be made that Thai holy basil is far from easy to obtain, so difficult in fact that if you have eaten this dish in the UK, or almost anywhere outside Thailand, it's highly doubtful that it would ..read more

 My first confession is that that I never thought I would be sitting here writing a recipe for a Thai Curry pie, but times change and we change with them or stagnate. My interest was sparked on my first trip back to Bangkok after the pandemic, chicken curry puffs have long been a popular Thai snack but savoury pies, usually steak and kidney, were very much something that was restricted to the Bangkok expat pub scene. All that had changed, bake shops were springing up outside the traditional tourist areas and Thai's themselves were getting heavily into savoury pastry. Trending restaurants ..read more

This is such a quick and easy dish to make and yet so versatile and packed full of flavour. You can substitute prawns for chicken and mix and match on the veggies as well, whatever way you do it you’re in for a treat! Using the quantities below this will easily serve 3 hungry people, but it also scales up easily and you don’t have to be exact about quantities. I like to use “straight to wok” or easy cook noodles, my personal preference is for the thicker Udon style noodle, but you can really go with whatever you prefer. I recommend to cook this no more than an hour or so before you plan t ..read more

This is a totally delicious way to serve roast chicken as well as being very simple to prepare. Cooking a whole chicken this way is practised in various forms throughout Asia, sometimes pot roasted, sometimes over hot coals and with many different curry pastes. Often cooked in the home, rather than restaurants, which is probably the reason why many Westerners are not familiar with the dish. Well, now is the time to change that and I promise you that you won't regret it! You can be flexible with the vegetables in the dish and even change the curry paste if you wish. Not the most elegant of dish ..read more

I often like to garnish my dishes with finely cut kaffir lime leaves. The technique is known as a chiffonade and can also be applied to other herbs such as basil. This is achieved by taking a few lime leaves and stacking them on top of one another, rolling them up tightly and using a sharp knife to slice finely as in the picture. For more information on where to obtain Kaffir lime leaves follow this link ..read more