Notes about Recipes in this book

• Thai fish cakes

  • Ro_ on April 18, 2020

    These were nice but quite salty - probably a lot depends on the quality of the fish sauce and red curry paste you are using. Next time I'd omit the fish sauce. The cooking method worked very well though.

• Cucumber salad

  • Ro_ on November 17, 2019

    I didn't have dried shrimp powder, but did have dried preserved shrimp, so just ground some of those up in a spice grinder. However, the cucumber salad ended up too salty and fishy for my taste, so wouldn't do this again or else would use much less. I added sesame and groundnut oil to the finish salad to try to balance the flavours more. Overall this was nice but not the perfect Asian cucumber salad recipe.

• Beef or chicken satay

  • Ro_ on January 17, 2021

    Served with the peanut sauce (which I made with peanut butter instead of ground peanuts) this was probably the best satay recipe I've tried to date, and I've tried a few. Beautiful flavours, a great balance between salty and sweet - I often find that satay recipes come out much too salty for my taste. I cooked the chicken on wooden skewers under the grill (while basting with the coconut milk and oil as suggested) and then loaded up the pieces onto lettuce cups and drizzled with the sauce. Delicious.

• Peanut sauce

  • Ro_ on January 17, 2021

    Made to go with the satay. A great peanut sauce recipe - I used peanut butter instead of ground peanuts as I didn't have any of the latter.

• Dynamite drunken beef

  • Ro_ on November 17, 2019

    This wasn't nice at all, and I think it's actually probably a bit of a joke recipe. The whisky taste in the finished dish was way too strong and quite unpleasant. Also I could see there was too much whisky left in the wok after flambéing so tried to burn some off, but ended up overcooking the beef massively since it was basically boiling in the liquid. Not one to repeat.

• Chicken and bamboo shoot curry

  • wester on November 22, 2022

    No surprises here, but easy and tasty. I didn't read the recipe well before cooking and realized late that he wants cooked chicken. I just stir-fried it with the curry paste until cooked through, then added all the other ingredients. I added some water, and next time I will greatly increase the amount of herbs.

• Malaysian beef curry

  • Ro_ on October 07, 2020

    Nice but not my favourite recipe from this book. I knew the beef would need longer than the 45m stated (I gave it 1.5 hours and 2.5 would have been even better) but the flavour profile overall was a bit "blah". It was a nice enough curry, but not a recipe I'll repeat.

• Chiang Mai curry

  • Ro_ on November 17, 2019

    Needs longer than the suggested cooking time both at covered and uncovered stages, first to tenderise the meat then to reduce the sauce. The tamarind (I used 40ml tamarind puree and 20ml water) gives a really fruity note which is unusual but nice. Overall I really liked this curry. This might be nice with some sauteed vegetables (carrots, beansprouts) added right before serving maybe, or else with a veggie side as it's very meaty and brown.

• Coconut rice

  • Ro_ on April 18, 2020

    Simple but delicious coconut rice recipe. I used one standard tin of coconut milk and halved the quantity of rice. Don't need to add salt.

• Beansprouts, stir-fried with shredded pork

  • Ro_ on November 17, 2019

    This was a very nice recipe, not too claggy and salty as some similar recipes have turned out in the past. I would add a little more oyster sauce and soy sauce if making again, but not too much more. I had to used tinned beansprouts, but it would obviously be even nicer with fresh.

• Minty lamb balls

  • Ro_ on January 24, 2021

    These were nice: the glaze gave a lovely taste and finish. I think I overcooked them slightly though as they were not as tender as I would have liked. If I made them again I'd probably shallow fry instead of deep fry.

• Crispy pork in mangetout

  • Ro_ on January 24, 2021

    My pork didn't get crispy - indeed I don't see how it could when the instruction was to baste with vinegar to stop it drying out. I wonder if there's a step missing here. Anyway I didn't particularly mind it not being crispy, it still tasted good, but what I did mind was how arduous it was cutting open and stuffing the mangetout. Too fiddly, and for that reason I won't make this again.