Today we have a plain soup for you called "kaeng jeut pla meuk". If you like seafood and don't like it to be spicy then you might like this. In the ingredients pictured below, you can see coriander, spring onion, minced pork mixture and washed squid.

You first need to wash and clean the squid. Then prepare the stuffing with a mortar and pestle. Gently pound together the pepper and garlic and then mix in the minced pork, soy sauce and one egg. In the meantime, bring a pot of stock to the boil. Add the stuffed squid and cook until done. Add the chopped coriander and spring onion. Season with soy sauce to match your taste. Sprinkle on top some fried garlic. Come back next week to www.thai-blogs.com for another Thai food recipe.

The Thai food recipe we have for you this week is Stir-fried Chicken with Garlic Plant. In Thai it is called "kai phat ton kra-thiam". As you can see in the picture below, there are only two main ingredients: chicken and garlic plant. This needs to be sliced diagonally and washed.

Heat some oil up in a pan and when it is hot add the chicken. Add some stock so that it doesn't dry out. When it is nearly cooked add the garlic plant. Season with oyster sauce and light soy sauce. To thicken the sauce, you need to add an equal amount of corn starch and water. Taste again and add more seasoning as desired. We will have another Thai Food Recipe for you next week at www.thai-blogs.com and www.EnjoyThaiFood.com.

Where we live in Paknam, it is close to the sea, so we have access to a large variety of seafood. Today we will show you how to cook "pla meuk tod". Our version here is stuffed with minced pork. In the picture of the ingredients below, you can see the washed squid on the right and the minced pork mixture on the left.

You need to wash the squid thoroughly and then slice it open at one end. Next, use a mortar and pestle to gently pound garlic, black pepper and the minced pork. We also added soy sauce and an egg to this mixture. This was then stuffed into the squid. We then used a matchstick to close the end and then deep fried it in hot oil. For the sauce we used bottled chilli sauce. But, you could also make one using a combination of vinegar, sugar, salt and spur chillies. Put the first three ingredients in a pot and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the spur chilli and keep stirring until it thickens. Come back to www.thai-blogs.com next week for another Thai food recipe.

On the first day of every month, we have the Paknam Food Festival in our town down by the river. During the recent event they promoted the sale of traditional Thai food. One of my favourites is this glutinous rice dessert that contains a banana and black eye peas. In Thai it is called "khao tom mad" or sometimes "khao tom pad". Other ingredients include thick coconut cream, salt and sugar. It is wrapped in banana leaves and tied together with thin strips of bamboo. Everything is natural and certainly beats the modern practice of using foam boxes as containers.

Here is a brief outline on how to cook. Wash the long grain glutinous rice and then soak in water for three hours. In the meantime, mix thick coconut cream, salt and sugar together and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add this to the rice. Next put this mixture into a pot over a low heat and stir until it dries out. Next, put some mixture onto a sheet of banana leaves. Place on top some black eye peas and the ripe banana. Then add some more rice mixture. Wrap this up in the banana leaves. Tie two of these packages together. Finally, steam them for two hours.

I will be posting more pictures of this event in our ThailandQA Forums.

There are many different kinds of "tom yum" though for me I prefer "tom yum kung" which comes with fresh shrimp. This one is called "tom yum het sot" which is the sour and spicy soup with three kinds of mushrooms. In the ingredients pictured below, you can see, from the top, lemon grass, galangal, Chinese celery, shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, rice-straw mushrooms and kaffir lime leaves. I cook tom yum nearly every week as it is supposed to be good for your health. I normally use chicken and one kind of mushroom. Lately I have been cooking "egg noodle tom yum" a lot which I will share with you later.

Put some water in a pot and add the sliced galangal, lemon grass, kaffir limes leaves and chillies. You need to tear the kaffir limes leaves and not cut them. Once it comes to the boil add the three kinds of mushrooms. Season with sugar and light soy sauce. Once everything is cooked, add the celery and turn off the heat. Finally add the lime juice. You need to taste it to make sure that you have a good balance. Come back next week to www.thai-blogs.com for another recipe.

This week we have a crispy egg salad for you which is called "yum khai foo" in Thai. In the ingredients pictured below, you have on the left onion, bird eye chilli, palm sugar, tomatoes and two eggs. On the right you can see carrots, lime, Chinese celery and blanched ground pork. You can also add some garlic.

To cook you need to fry the egg first until crispy. Take it out and drain on some tissue before cutting into bite-sized pieces. Mix together bird eye chillies, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Lightly crush it with the flat blade of the knife. Next add the blanched ground pork, sliced onions, tomatoes and carrots and mix it well. Finally add the sliced egg and chopped Chinese celery. We will have another Thai Food Recipe for you next week at www.thai-blogs.com and www.EnjoyThaiFood.com.

Today we have another vegetarian dish. It is Chu Chee Tofu or "chu chee tao-hoo" in Thai. As you probably know, tofu is often used as a meat substitute in many Thai dishes. In many cases, the finished product looks like the "real thing". In the ingredients below you can see the red curry paste and coconut milk at the top, white tofu on the right and red chilli, palm sugar and kaffir lime leaves on the left. You can use yellow tofu if you like which you will find to be a little saltier.

Cut the tofu into slices much like you do for a cake. Fry this in a pan of oil. Next, heat some coconut cream in a pan until the oil surfaces. Add the red curry paste. Stir it well. You may need to add a bit more coconut milk in order to make a smooth paste. Season it with light soy sauce and palm sugar. Next, add the fried tofu and some more coconut milk. If it is too salty then add some more sugar and coconut milk. I haven't said how much seasoning as it is normal to adjust to your own taste. Finish by adding the kaffir lime leaves and spur chilli. We pre-fried the kaffir lime leaves but you don't need to do that. Come back next week to www.thai-blogs.com for another Thai food recipe. The food blogs are now archived at our www.EnjoyThaifood.com website.