• ChefGrumpy on January 14, 2021

  This is the book I bought years and years ago - and then didn't cook any recipes because "so many unfamiliar or hard to get ingredients" (and youthful impatience). I later picked up her "Quick and Easy Thai" and began cooking excellent Thai meals. (As she writes in the introduction to Q&E Thai: "I first encountered Thai food as a Peace Corps volunteer...once I had returned home to North Carolina I began learning how to cook it in my Western kitchen. Ingredients and equipment were difficult to find at that time, but to me the challenge was a plus...[later, i move to California and ingredients were easier to get] Soon I was teaching Thai cooking classes around the country... and writing two of my previous cookbooks. 'Real Thai' (1992) and 'Real Vegetarian Thai' But then she had kids & "I began to understand the despair I had seen on some of my students' faces as I presented a recipe with 23 ingredients and 19 steps." Real Thai is authentic, but Q&E Thai is the one I use.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Pork sautéed in red curry paste (Moo paht peht)

  • chezlarios on September 10, 2022

    I used pork emincé, 2 cups of diced eggplant rather than 1/2 cup, and twice as many green beans. Skipped the lime leaves. Served with a side of jasmine rice. Excellent flavors!

• Chicken with graprao basil (Gai paht bai graprao)

  • ellabee on April 03, 2014

    p.28. Simple stir-fry, delicious. Used chicken breast in thin slices from inch chunks, half jalapeno for the minced chile, whole Fresno for the rings, half the bag of Thai basil from FtY. Repeated with cubes of firm tofu subbed for chicken; still delicious, but tofu soaked up all the liquid so served with less rice.

• Spicy shrimp soup with lemongrass and lime (Tome yum goong)

  • chezlarios on January 16, 2021

    Used store-bought Thai ground chilis in oil rather making my own roasted chili paste. I'm not sure if it's the equivalent, but it was way too spicy for us (and we normally like spicy food!). Would try only a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon of the stuff next time, and maybe fewer fresh chile peppers, too.

• Rice noodles stir-fried with fresh chilies and holy basil (Kwaytiow paht ki-mao)

  • ellabee on March 20, 2013

    p.56. Substituted cellophane noodles for the wide rice noodles, pork shoulder chopped fine for ground pork. Added thickly sliced mushrooms sauteed separately in oil infused with ginger & garlic. An area Thai restaurant offers this as 'drunken noodles'. A good pairing with Winter squash soup with lemongrass and coconut milk (Veg Cooking for Everyone p. 216).

• Rice noodles with spicy minced pork sauce, Thai-Yai style (Kanome jeen nahm ngiow)

  • chezlarios on May 11, 2025

    It was good (have to add salt though, recipe didn't call for any), but it took quite some time (2 or so hours?), and probably wasn't worth it considering all the work (and dishes) that went into it.

• Sautéed mushrooms with pork and white pepper (Paht heht)

  • amraub on February 24, 2013

    Very quick and easy with a nice depth of flavor. Wilted in spinach at the end to reduce the monochromatic look of the dish.

• Hot sour catfish soup (Tome yum plah dook)

  • chezlarios on May 07, 2023

    Recipe calls for catfish but I used shrimp instead. Really nice - but not 4-6 (full) portions! I ate it with rice on the side to make a "full" meal - really only 2-3 portions, and quite light.