Suchard on Tooley Street is fantastic and whenever I bring a new friend there, I always make them order the Thai Green Curry with Prawns and Coconut Rice. It's absolutely gorgeous.
Near me there's also Smile's Thai Cafe which is a cute Bring Your Own Bottle joint but they could do with having bigger rice portions.
One of my favourite dishes though is kai pad med ma-maung which is chicken stir fried with cashew nuts. I love how Marie's Cafe on Lower Marsh makes it and this is my version of it.
One thing regarding making any kind of South East Asian food though and that's the quality of the wok. If you are really serious about making fabulous stir fries, it's really worth the effort of creating yourself a well seasoned wok. I picked mine up from a Chinese supermarket for a few quid, scoured it with wire wool and washed it out with washing up liquid and water. This must be the ONLY time you EVER wash the wok with washing up liquid. Then I dried it off and wiped oil around the inside of the wok and put it on a high flame. The silver wok then magically blackened to dark brown / black. From then on, after cooking with the wok, I gave it a quick rinse under the hot tap and then dried it off on the stove followed by a quick wipe of oil. If any food sticks to it, just use some water to boil it off but don't ever, ever use washing up liquid. This will just ruin the seasoned non-stick coating you are trying to create. After a while, you'll find that your wok is pretty much non-stick and a volcanic kind of crust will form on the outside of the wok as well. This carbonisation is what will give your food what Cantonese people call "wok hei" which loosely translates as "the breath of the work". This is the indefinable smokiness that gives great SE Asian food that amazing taste.
Here are the photos followed by the recipe!
kai pad med ma-maung - Thai Chicken with cashew nut stir fry
For two people
200 gms Chicken thighs which is about three thighs (I much prefer the juiciness of dark meat), thinly sliced
A small handful of Cashew Nuts
1 small onion sliced chunky
1/2 a Red / Green Pepper (I always have a bag of ready sliced peppers in my freezer)
Handful of dry shitake mushrooms that have been soaked for an hour in warm water and then sliced (I honestly believe that all households should have these in stock as they keep for ages and just add the most amazing flavour)
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
Splash of light soy sauce to taste
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
3 Garlic Clove, crushed
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 fat red chilli sliced
Dry toast the cashew nuts until golden brown and put to one side.
Put in one tablespoon of oil on a high heat and quickly stir fry the onion, peppers and mushrooms and put to one side.
Gently heat up the other tablespoon of oil and add the garlic and chilli.
When it smells fragrant, whack up the heat and add the chicken.
When the chicken starts to brown, season with the white pepper, add the nuts, onions, peppers and mushrooms followed by the oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce.
Turn down the heat a little and stir fry until the chicken is thoroughly cooked through. I also usually put in a few tablespoons of water as well to make a bit more of a sauce.
Serve with steamed rice and lashings of chilli oil. Enjoy!
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