Thai Rice

Chicken Rice Curry With Coconut ( Koa Mook Gai )

This curry comes from the Muslim area of Thailand, the south, near the border with Malaysia. It is a chicken curry, made with rice and coconut milk, served with a spicy ginger side sauce. Imagine Paella crossed with Thai spices and that is very close to the style of this dish.

Ingredients for 2 People
200 gms Chicken Legs
350 gms Thai Rice
1 Teaspoon Curry Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Oil
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder
400 ml Chicken Stock

Preparation
1. Clean the chicken legs and score the meat with two or three deep cuts to help it cook.
2. Put the oil into a frying pan and fry the chicken legs until the chicken is part cooked and the skin is browned.
3. Add the coconut milk, salt, curry powder and cinnamon, into the pan and mix it together for a few seconds over the heat.
4. Turn off the heat.
5. At this point you should move the chicken and sauce into a pan suitable to cook the rice in. In Thailand we use automatic rice cookers, and we simply move the chicken and sauce into the rice cooker, however a boiling pan will work equally well.
6. Add the rice, add the chicken stock, the chicken stock must completely cover the rice and submerge it by 2cm or more, if it does not, add water or more stock.
7. Cook on a low heat until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is completely cooked

Serve With
Ginger sauce
Cucumber
Tomato

Ingredients for Ginger Sauce
20 gms Ginger
5 Small Bird Chillies
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Soya Bean Sauce
1 Teaspoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce

Preparation for Ginger Sauce
1. Mix all ingredients in a food processor and blend until fine.
2. Serve, yes it's that simple.
3. This sauce can be kept in the fridge and will last months, it is a common condiment for several Thai dishes, so you may wish to make up a batch and store it.

Young Coconut Rice With Pork ( Kao Pad Mu Maprow On )

This stir fried rice dish is made with slices of young coconut, pork and onions. Young coconut has a soft texture and can be bought in tins from asian grocers, or scooped out from green coconuts.

Ingredients
50 gms Young Coconut Meat
30 gms Pork Meat
250 gms Fragrant Rice
2 Tablespoons Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Chilli Sauce
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
4 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Clean and slice the pork meat and the young coconut meat.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan.
3. Chop the garlic and onion and fry for 30 seconds.
4. Add the rice and then all the other ingredients into the pan and stir fry, mixing as it cooks, for 1-2 minutes.

Taro and Sweet Potato Rice ( Kao Pad Purk Mun )

We call this two old friends rice, because Taro and Sweet Potato are both similar root vegetables. This is a good way to use up old vegetables and rice in a tasty stir-fry way.

Ingredients
50 gms Taro
50 gms Sweet Potato
300 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
3 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
2 Garlic Cloves
20 gms Onion (One Medium Onion)
2 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Peel the taro and sweet potato, chop into small squares and steam for 10 minutes.
2. Chop the garlic and onion together, heat oil in a frying pan and fry for 30 seconds.
3. Add the rice, taro, sweet potato, light soy sauce, sugar, salt and white pepper.
4. Fry for 2 minutes, mixing all the time.

Sardine Fried Rice ( Kao Pad Pa Ga Pong )

This sardine stir fried rice is another way to turn ordinary rice into a full meal. Sardines in cans are not expensive, and they have plenty of flavours plus the saltiness of the fish balances the rice perfectly. The final good thing about this dish is the fish itself, fish oils like the ones found in sardines are very good for you.

Ingredients 2 People
1-2 Tin Can Sardines (80gms)
300 gms Precooked Fragrant Rice
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onion
1 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/3 Teaspoon White Pepper
2 Tablespoons Chilli Sauce

Preparation
1. Chop the garlic and slice the onions.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan, and fry the garlic and onions for a few seconds.
3. Add the cooked rice and fry for 30 seconds to warm it through.
4. Add all the other ingredients including the sardines and stir fry for another 30 seconds.
5. I like to keep a sardine back as a garnish, and add it at the end.

Soft Rice Soup ( Jok Het Horm )

This is Jok, a rice soup, made with mushrooms. It's normally cooked for a very long time so that the rice becomes mushy. However to make it easier, I've cooked it normally, and run it through a blender to break the rice grains.

Ingredients for 2 People
150 gms Rice
4 Shitake Mushrooms
500 ml Water
1 Chicken Stock Cube (Or Vegetable stock cube for Vegetarian)
Chopped Coriander Leaves (Optional)
Chopped Ginger Root (Optional)
Fried Garlic (Optional)

Preparation
1. Soak the shitake mushrooms in water for 10 minutes.
2. Boil the rice in the water until cooked. To make the smoother texture of Jok, run the cooked rice through a food processor, or hand blender for a minute.
3. Cook it for a second time on a low heat. Add the chicken stock cube and stir until it is dissolved. If the mixture dries out, add a little more water.
4. Slice the mushrooms, add to the rice soup and cook for 5 minutes longer.
5. When the soup is served, garnish it with chopped coriander, thin slices of ginger root, and fried garlic.

Liver Soft Rice Soup ( Jog Tup Mu )

Soft rice soup is very common in Thailand, it's made by boiling rice overnight until it becomes soft, more like a fine pureé than a rice dish. There are many easier ways to make this dish though. In Thailand we have instant Jog in packets, you can also buy Rice Semolina in supermarkets in the west, this can be used to make Jog and another way is to make rice soup and liquidize it with a hand blender.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Rice Semolina
1 Chicken Stock Cube
500 ml Water
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
1/2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Chopped Coriander Leaves
1 Tablespoon Chopped Celery
40 gms Pork Liver

Preparation
1. Clean the pork liver and slice it. Cook in boiling water for 3 minutes and set it aside.
2. Into a saucepan, place the rice semolina, 500 ml water and bring to the boil.
3. Add the chicken stock cube and salt. Boil and stir for 10 minutes.
4. To serve, place the rice into a bowl, add the pork liver, chopped coriander, celery and a dash of white pepper. This is served with the usual Thai condiments, of flaked dried chillies, some fresh soya beansprouts and thin slices of ginger. All of these add the flavours and if you can, it's best to add a little of each.

Isan BBQ Chicken & Sticky Rice ( Koa Niew Gay Yang )

This is how Isan people, from the north east Thailand eat barbecued chicken. It's always served with sticky rice and since sticky rice is soaked for hours before it's cooked, you should allow plenty of time to prepare this dish. The spicy sauce is what makes this dish special. You take some of the chicken, and some of the sticky rice with your fingers, dip it into the sauce and eat. It's delicious!

Ingredients
100 gms Chicken Breast
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Honey
1 Teaspoon Salt
4 Cloves Chopped Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
Wooden Skewers

Preparation
1. Cleaning the chicken breast and chop into 3cms cubes.
2. Mix the chopped chicken with all ingredients together and leave it to marinade for 15 minutes.
3. Skewer it onto the wooden sticks, and cook on a charcoal grill until cooked. Alternatively you can cook it in the oven at 180 degrees.
4. While it's cooking make the sticky rice and sauce.

Ingredients for Hot Chilli Sauce
8 Bird Chillies
4 Cherry Tomatoes
4 Garlic Cloves
1 Red Onion
1 Tablespoon Chop Coriander Leaves
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Grill the bird chillies, red onion, garlic, and cherry tomatoes for 3 minutes until cooked.
2. Put these ingredients into a Thai mortar and pound them into a pulp (alternatively you can chop them finely by hand).
3. Add the fish sauce and salt and pound more to mix them in.

Fried Rice with Grilled Pork ( Kao Pud Muyang )

This fried rice with pork is a quick meal, often cooked for children and westerners because it is a lot less spicy than the majority of thai cuisine. It's ideal if you have left-over rice to use up, cold rice from the day before is perfect. Other variations of this dish use chicken or shrimp. In this dish we've used pork shoulder for its tasty fat content, but other cuts of pork are also suitable. Originally from central Thailand, this is a mild non spicy dish.

Ingredient, for 2 people
200 gms pork shoulder
2 cup of long grain rice
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
2 Spring Onions
50 gms Coriander leaf
1/2 bell pepper ( red or green )
2 tablespoons of oil
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
A pinch of white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Serve With
Flaked dried chillis (optional)
Sliced cherry tomatoes
Pickled onions
Lemon segment

Preparation
1. Finely chop the garlic and bell pepper.
2. Cut the spring onions to approximately 1 cm pieces.
3. Chop the pork finely into small cubes.
4. Put oil in the frying pan and put it on a high heat. The pan should be hot before adding the ingredients.
5. Fry garlic for a few seconds, to bring out the fragrance.
6. Add the pork cubes and fry until they are fully cooked.
7. Once the pork is cooked, add the raw egg and stir it in quickly.
8. Add the rice and and the remaining ingredients.
9. Fry quickly for 30 seconds while stirring. The aim is to lightly fry the vegetables and warm through the rice.

Fried Rice with Chilli Kapi Sauce ( Kao Pad Nomprick Kapi )

Shrimp Pate (a paste of ground up shrimp) is used to make chilli sauce or for mixing with rice in a dish called 'Kao Kloock Kapi'. This recipe is quite a way to use shrimp paste, used in Eastern Thailand, it is salty and should be eaten with lots of vegetables. The egg aubergines used are Thai vegetables, very different from the larger dark aubergines easten in the west.

Ingredients for 2 People
2 Cups Thai Rice
1 Teaspoon of Shrimp Pate
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
4 Bird Chillis
3 Red Chillis.
3 Clove Garlic
20 gms. of Dry Shrimp
1 Tablespoon Lime Juce
1 Tablespoon Water
1 Green Egg Aubergine
4 Small Green Aubergine
2 Tablespoon Oil

Serve with
Sliced Cucumber
Tomato slices
Boiled Salty Egg

Preparation
1. Cook the rice, you can use day old rice for this dish if you wish.
2. Pound the garlic, bird chilli, red chilli, dry shrimp, shrimp pate and small aubergine in a pestle.
3. Add the salt, sugar, fish sauce and pound, add some lime juce water.
4. These pounded ingredients are called 'Nom Prick'
5. Slice the green egg aubergine.
6. Put the oil in pan and turn the heat on medium, add the 'Nom Prick' you just made, and stir it for a few secounds.
7. Add the rice and mix it with the other ingredients.
8. Add slice green aubergine and fry it for a few minutes more.

Herb Rice with Lemon Grass ( Kao Pad Takia )

Do you have 1 type of bread? Do Italians have one type of pasta? Well Thais have many different types of stir-fried rice! This rice dish is a type of stir-fried rice made with lemon grass and dried small shrimp. Stir-fry rice is a great way to use up left over cooked rice.

Ingredients for 4 People
350 gms Precooked Fragrant Rice
100 gms Pork
20 gms Dried Shrimp
40 gms Spring Onion
40 gms Coriander Leaves
40 gms Lemon Grass
40 gms Carrots
40 gms Sliced Ginger Root
40 gms Corn
4 Kaffir Citrus Leaves
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
3 Tablspoons Light Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
4 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Clean the pork and chop it very finely.
2. Put the oil into the pan then fry the pork with the dried shrimp for 1 minute.
3. Chop the carrots, spring onion, coriander, lemon grass, and ginger root into tiny piece.
4. Add all these chopped vegetables, the corn and the rice to the pan and fry them with the pork.
5. Add the light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and pepper and fry for an extra 2 minutes.
6. When serving the rice, garnish it with finely sliced Kaffir leaves.

Rice Omelette With Shrimp ( Koa Hor Kia Muon )

This is a nice way to present rice fried with mixed vegetables and raisins. The rice is spread over an omelette and the omelette rolled up tightly and sliced into spiral shaped cross sections. This is usually served as a dish in it's own right in Thailand, but you can also serve smaller portions as a side dish.

Ingredients
150 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
2 Tablespoons Chopped Carrots
2 Tablespoons Chopped Spring Onions
2 Tablespoons Chopped Coriander
2 Tablespoons Raisins
1 Tablespoon Dried Shrimp
1 Tablespoon Chopped Garlic
1 Tablespoon Chopped Onion
4 Shrimps
2 Eggs
3 Tablespoons Oil
4 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon White Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce

Preparation
1. Clean shrimp, cut down the back and remove the black thread.
2. Fry the shrimp in oil for 1 minute and set aside on a plate.
3. Fry the garlic in the pan to release the smell.
4. Add the onion, carrot, dried shrimp, rice, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and white pepper, and fry for 30 seconds.
5. Add the raisins, spring onions, coriander and stir, then turn off the heat. Set aside.
6. Put 1 tablespoon oil into the pan and heat.
7. Mix the eggs together and fry into the pan, swirl the eggs around the pan to spread them out. Flip the omelette over and cook on the other side.
8. Place the omelette onto a plate, spread the rice over it evenly and roll it up.
9. Slice the roll into 4cm lengths.
10. Serve with the shrimps you fried at the beginning, and slices of cucumber and tomato.

Dressed Up Fried Rice ( Koa Cruck Kapi Song Kruang )

This dish is Koa Cruck Kapi Song Kruang', 'Kruang' means dressed, Koa means rice. This dish is literally fried rice dressed with all the trimmings. In the photograph you can see sweet pork, sliced omelette, onions, spring onions, coriander leaves, and of course sliced chillies.

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Shrimp Paste
300 gms Precooked Fragrant Rice
10 gms Dried Shrimp
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Tablespoons Oil
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons Chopped Bird Chillies
2 Tablespoons Chopped Onions
2 Tablespoons Chopped Spring Onions
2 Tablespoons Chopped Coriander Leaves
2 Tablespoons Sweet Pork

Preparation
1. Mix the shrimp paste and dried shrimp with the rice.
2. Put oil into a frying pan and pre-heat. Chop the garlic and add to the pan to cook for a few seconds.
3. Then add the rice, fish sauce and sugar, and fry for 1 minute, then set aside on a serving plate.
4. For the omelette, put 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan, whip the eggs and fry in the pan until cooked, slice and add to the serving plate.
5. Finally onto the serving plate, add chopped chillies, coriander leaves, sweet pork, and the chopped onions and serve.

Pork & Spinach Rice Plate ( Koa Rad Pad Puk Koom Mu Groop )

This is a good way to use fresh spinach. Spinach has a lot of water and it doesn't survive other cooking methods well, but this stir-fry method keeps it whole and nutritious.

Ingredients
70 gms Pork With Rind and Fat
100 gms Spinach
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon White Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves

Preparation
1. Clean and chop the pork into bite sized pieces, keep some of the fat and rind on each piece.
2. Heat oil into the pan - enough to shallow fry, when the oil is hot add the pork and fry it until the pork is crunchy and brown. Drain off excess oil.
3. Chop the garlic, add it to te pan and fry for a few seconds.
4. Chop the spinach and add it, together with all the remaining sauce ingredients. Fry for 30 seconds, that is all it needs.
5. This is eaten with Thai fragrant rice and the usual Thai condiments, including the chopped chillies in fish-sauce that we often use to spice up a meal.

Pork Bean Rice ( Kao Ap Mu Tordang )

This dish is made from pork, beans and rice but the taste is a lot better than that description makes it sound. Pork with fat and rind is used, and the stock the pork is cooked in is used to make the rice, keeping all the flavour inside. It's traditionally cooked in a pot known as a Maw Din, but I use a rice cooker.

Ingredients
100 gms Uncooked Thai Fragrant Rice
150 Pork With Fat & Rind Attached
40 gms Tinned Red Kidney Beans (Or boil them hard for 10 minutes)
40 gms Raisins
40 gms Chopped Onion
1 Tablespoon Chop Coriander Leaves
2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/3 Teaspoons White Pepper
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
350 ml Water
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Put water into a saucepan, add salt, fish sauce, sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and white pepper then bring to the boil.
2. When the water is boiling add in the pork, and boil for 5 minutes then remove the pork from the water (keep the water).
3. Chop the pork into bite sized pieces, and put into the frying pan add oil and chopped onion and fry for 3 minutes.
4. Add the uncooked rice too, to the frying pan and fry gently for another 2 minutes. The rice will soak up any juices from the pork and onion as they all cook together.
5. Empty the contents of the frying pan into a rice cooker, add the red beans, raisings and the water you saved from earlier. You should add enough water to cover the rice & pork by at least 2 cms, if there isn't enough top it up with tap water.
6. Cook the rice for 15 minutes.

Rice Potato Omelette Cones ( Kai Hur Koa )

This is a stuffed omelette, a mixture of starchy potato and taro together with rice, all steamed together. A cheap and filling meal.

Ingredients Rice
100 gms Fragrant Rice
250 ml Water
20 gms Chopped Carrot
20 gms Chopped Potato
20 gms Chopped Taro
20 gms Corn
20 gms Peas
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Tablespoon Oil
4 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon White Pepper

Ingredients Omelette
2 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Maggi Sauce
1/3 Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Clean the rice, add the water, chop all the vegetables for the rice, and mix in. Either steam or cook in a rice cooker for 15 minutes.
2. Whip the eggs, Maggi sauce and black pepper.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan, add the egg mix and fry.
4. Add the rice into the centre and fold up the omelette.

Red Curry Rice Balls ( Nam Koa Pun )

These are eaten with Nam (raw pork) and fried dried chillies. This is classic Isan food, cheap, bulky and tasty! It's a way to use up left over fragrant rice.

Ingredients
500 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste
3 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sugar
100 gms Ground Coconut
4 Large Eggs
Oil For Deep Frying
Dried Chillies

Preparation
1. Mix the fragrant rice, red curry paste, fish sauce, sugar, ground coconut, and eggs together and mix until sticky. Make into large balls, approximately 6cms diameter.
2. Heat the oil in a deep fryer to medium (about 180 degrees celsius), and fry the rice balls until they go brown. You want the ball to cook slowly so it cooks through the centre.
3. Fry the dried chillies for 10 seconds.
4. To serve, break the ball up, add some lemon juice, fish sauce, fried chilli and mix together.
5. This dish is normally served with raw pork nam. ( nem )

Salmon Rolls ( Salmon hur Sarhia )

Another Japanese influence, these salmon and rice rolls served with wasabi are made with Thai fragrant rice rather than sushi rice and is all the better for it! We like things spicy in Thailand, and so I've put some extra wasabi in the rice.

Ingredients
150 gms Salmon
1 Teaspoon Salt
3 Teaspoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vinegar
250 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
Seaweed Paper
Wasabi Paste

Preparation
1. Mix fragrant rice, salt, sugar, and vinegar together and leave in the fridge while you cook the rest.
2. Fry the salmon until cooked, then mince the flesh.
3. Lay a sheet of seaweed paper on a sushi matt. If you don't have a sushi mat, a cloth or plastic bag can be used.
4. Spread on a thin layer of rice, the a little wasabi, then a thin layer of salmon.
5. Roll it up, use the sushi mat to pull it tight together.
6. Leave it rolled up in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Dip a sharp knife in water, then use it to cut the roll into slices.

Rice Rolls ( Kao Hor Thang )

Another influence from Japan, these rice and cucumber rolls are a fun gop-gam dish to eat with wasabi and Thai beer. The sesame seeds give a nutty taste, the rice gives bulk and the cucumber crispness.

Ingredients
1 Cucumber
Sesame Seeds (Toasted)
150 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Mix fragrant rice with the vinegar, sugar, and salt.
2. Chop the cucumber into long batons.
3. I use a plastic bag to roll up the sushi, but it's more common to use a sushi mat - a mat made of sticks used to roll up sushi.
4. Moisten the mat with a spray of water.
5. Spread the toasted sesame seeds over the mat, then spread the rice over the top.
6. Put a line of cucumber batons along one edge of the mat, and use the mat to roll up the rice around the cucumber.
7. Cut into 3-4 cms pieces with a wet knife.

Rich Chicken Stock Rice (Kow Man Guy)

This dish is also sometimes made with noodles, the chicken is cooked in a large stock pan and the resulting rich (slightly fatty) chicken stock is used to cook the rice. It's worth buying a corn fed chicken for this as the fat under the skin will give it extra flavour. 'Pickle Garlic Water' is the juice from a jar of pickled garlic used to impart a strong garlic and slight vinegar taste. Daikon Radish is a large white radish used to give flavour to soups, if you can't locate this vegetable use Swedes instead (Rutabagas).
There are 3 parts to this dish, a main plate for rice and chicken, a small soup bowl, and a sauce used to spice the dish.

Ingredient for a Family
Soup Ingredients
3 Cups of Rice
1 Whole Corn-fed Chicken
4 ltr Water
1 Garlic Head (Approx 6-8 Cloves)
1 Teaspoon pepper corns
1 Tablespoon Coriander leaves
5 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
4 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
3 Teaspoons Sugar
2 Tablspoons Pickle Garlic Water
1 Tablespoon Salt.
1 Daikon Radish
1 Stock Chicken soup.
1 Big boiling pan.

Ingredients for Sauce
1 Ginger root.
2 Teaspoons Soya Bean Sauce.
1 Tablespoon Salt.
1 Teaspoon Sugar.
2 Teaspoons Vinegar.
3 Chillies.
2 Garlic Clove.

Serve With
Cucumber slices
Tomato slices

Preparation
Preparing the Stock Soup
1. Clean the chicken inside removing the innerds and remove the fat around the bottom.
2. Put the water in big boiling pan and place on a medium heat.
3. Pound the garlic, pepper corn, and coriander leaves together until they are well mixed and add to the boiling pan.
4. Add the stock cube, fish sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, salt, pickle garlic water to the boiling pan.
5. Chop the radish into thick sliced and it in the boiling pan and close the lid on.
6. When the soup is boiling put the chicken in and close the lid, turn heat down to simmer the soup and cook it gently for one and a half hours.

Preparing the Rice
7. Take about 1.5 ltrs of the soup from the pan and put in a rice cooker with the rice. If you do not have a rice cooker, use a pan on a gentle heat. Cook the rice gently until the stock has been absorbed and the rice cooked through.
8. Add more stock if the rice needs it.

Serving Chicken
9. Remove the chicken from the stock pan and leave to dry.
10. Chop it into bite sized pieces.
11. Place the rice, chicken and vegetables on a plate as in the photograph. Each person should also receive a small bowl of the chicken soup.

Preparation for the sauce
12. Pound the ginger, garlic, chilles in a pestle until well mixed.
13. Add the soy bean sauce, sugar, salt, vinegar and pound it again until the sauce is mixed.
14. This sauce should be served alongside the dish, guests can add a little or lot depending on their taste in chillis.

Stir Fried Rice ( Kua Pad Mu )

Stir fried rice is a great way to use up uneaten rice, but just because it's a meal made from leftovers doesn't mean it can't be rasty! You can substitute chicken or fish for the pork, whatever you have leftover.

Ingredients for 2 People
500 gms Ready Cooked Rice
100 gms Pork
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Egg
1/2 White Pepper
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Lght Soya Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Oil
50 gms Red Pepper
50 gms Carrot
50 gms Onion
Chop Coriander Leaves for Garnish.

Preparation
1. Chop the garlic and fry with a little oil.
2. Chop the pork into small bite sized pieces, and put into the frying pan to cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the egg, mix the egg to break it up as it cooks
4. Add the rice and fry until it is warmed through.
5. Chop the red pepper, carrot and onion into tiny pieces.
6. Put the carrot, red pepper, onion, light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, and white pepper into the frying pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to mix.
7. Add a little coriander to garnish.

Spiced Rice With Pork ( koa Mu Ap Gapi Mor Din )

More use of my traditional pot with this recipe. This is a slow cooked rice and pork dish, that couldn't be simpler to make. I cook this on a raised stone platform over the fire (the candles in the photograph are just to make the photo more interesting!) but you can also just make this in a rice cooker.

Ingredients
50 gms Fragrant Rice
50 gms Red Rice
100 gms Pork Three Layers (Mat+Fat+Skin)
1/2 Teaspoon With Pepper
5 gms Dried Chillies
2 Teaspoons Shrimp Paste
6 Garlic Cloves
6 Small Red Onions
4 Tablespoons Coconut Milk
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Slice the pork and fry till browned and cooked through.
2. Put all the ingredients except the two types of rice, together in a blender and blend until fine.
3. Add this to the pork and fry this for 10 seconds just to release some flavour, add the rice and mix together, then transfer the whole thing to the pot.
4. Pour enough water into the pot so that there is 2cms layer of water above the rice.
5. Cover and put on the stove until the rice has absorbed all the water and cooked through. The water should boil, the rice will cook through and all the flavours be absorbed by the rice.
6. Obviously if you're using a rice cooker, you transfer the ingredients into the cooker instead of the pot, add the water and let the rice cooker do it's job.

Farmers Lunch ( Kao Hur Bi Thong )

Under the sweet sausage is favoured rice, this is a typical farmers lunch, wrapped in banana leaves, steamed, and taken into the field to eat when they are hungry. The Thai sweet sausage you buy in Asian grocers in packs, its a very famous style of almost candied pork and if often used in spicy dishes to balance the spice.

Ingredients
250 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
Salty Egg Yolk
Sweet Thai Sausage
Banana Leaves

Preparation
1. Clean and dry the banana leaves then cut it into 8x10cm pieces, fold up the edges and staple to form a gartong. This should fit in your steamer, so check its size.
2. Mix fragrant rice with light and dark soy, and sesame seed oil.
3. Spoon the rice into the gartong, slice the sweet sausage and layer over the top.
4. Take the yolk of a raw salty egg and place it in the middle.
5. Steam the whole package for 10 minutes, this will cook the egg and warm the rice. Finished