Easy Thai-style Cookery from the Australian Women’s Weekly is certainly very Thai, but not quite as easy as you’d first think from the title. The recipes in this book definitely required a trip to a well stocked Asian grocer, and is not very vegetarian friendly – though there are one of two recipes in the book which have no meat or meat products in them.
The recipes themselves aren’t too difficult, they’re relatively quick to make which is good, fiddly – which isn’t surprising given how many ingredients are in some of the recipes – and fairly tasty. I say fairly because some were very flavoursome, while others weren’t all that interesting – but were more interesting if you blended them with other dishes. Overall I’d give the 3 out of 5 stars, and I’m still wondering if I’ll keep the book or find it a new home.
Beans with Ginger and Coconut Milk
Ingredients:
- 500g green beans
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 stems finely chopped lemon grass
- 2 tablespoons fresh red chilli, chopped
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 4 cups (about 350g) shredded cabbage
Method:
- Cut beans into 5cm lengths. Heat oil in wok, add lemon grass, ginger and chilli, cook until oil begins to bubble.
- Stir in coconut milk and beans, bring to boil, simmer, uncovered, for about 3 minutes or until beans are just tender. Serve bean mixture over cabbage.
Notes on this recipe:
- I’m fairly certain that whoever cooked the demonstration dishes (all of them in this book) did not cook the recipe that is listed on this page. The version pictured looks like the coconut milk was simmered after the beans were removed until it was a paste and then the beans were stirred through said paste, and that was served on the cabbage. You may or may not want to try this at home
- This dish was a bit bland really.
Lamb Fillet in Chilli and Coconut Milk
Ingredients:
- 800g lamb fillets
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 3 small fresh red chillies, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon palm sugar
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 cup peanuts, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
Curry paste
- 3 dried chillies, chopped
- 1 dried kaffir lime leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon galangal powder
- 1 stem fresh lemon grass chopped
- 1 teaspoon shrimp powder
- 1/3 cup boiling water
- 4 green shallots, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
Method:
- Cut eat lamb fillet into 3 portions, pound each piece with mallet until 1/2 cm thick. Heat oil in pan, add lamb, cook until well browned all over, remove from pan.
- Combine 2 tablespoons of curry paste with chillies in pan, stir over heat for about 2 minutes or until fragrant.
- Add coconut milk, sauce, sugar, juice and nuts, stir until boiling. Add lamb to pan, simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes or until lamb is tender. Just before serving, stir in the coriander.
- CURRY PASTE: Combine chillies, lime leaf, galangal powder, lemon grass, shrimp powder and water in a bowl; stand for 20 minutes. Drain chilli mixture, discard liquid. Blend or process chilli mixture with remaining ingredients until a coarse paste forms.
Notes on this recipe:
- I made a mistake and purchased shrimp paste instead of shrimp powder. In the end this wasn’t too bad, but it did make the sauce a lot saltier than it may have been otherwise.
- Again whoever photographed this recipe, photographed something else that is similar to, but not the same as this recipe. I think they might have deep fried the lamb in this photo – using the spice paste and some coconut milk as a batter.
- It’s all arse about to put the spice paste at the end of the recipe, when it is one of the most time consuming parts of the recipe. It also makes 3 times more spice paste than required – which is a waste.
- This was tasty however, and we enjoyed it
Sticky Rice Custard
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup short grain rice
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted
Custard:
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Method:
- Lightly grease 6 (1/2 cup capacity) ovenproof dishes. Combine rice, sugar, coconut milk and water in pan, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed.
- Spread rice evenly into prepared dishes. Pour custard evenly over rice. Sprinkle with seeds.
- Place dishes in baking dish, pour in enough hot water to come halfway up sides of dishes; cover dishes with foil. Bake in moderate (180C) oven for about 1 hour until custard is set. Remove dishes from water, cool, refrigerate until cold. Serve custards with fresh fruit, if desired.
- CUSTARD: Whisk eggs, milk and sugar together in a bowl.
Notes on this recipe:
- This dish was rather plain, and without the sesame seeds to add flavour, it would have been bland.
- I don’t understand why the recipe authors put the custard recipe bit at the end, and not in the middle where it belonged.
- This is one of the few recipes in the book where my photo and the demonstration photo bear a resemblance to each other.
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