Helen Brierty and Annette Fear share their expertise of Thai cooking in a new book celebrating Asian cuisine.
The chefs of internationally renowned Spirit House restaurant on Australia's Sunshine Coast bring us Essentially Thai. Helen Brierty and Annette Fear explain everything a novice or expert chef would want to know about cooking Thai dishes - essential pastes, spices, sauces, dry and fresh ingredients and the essential utensils to prepare and cook delicious recipes. They have all been tried and tested in the Spirit House's restaurant and cooking school.
After many business trips to Thailand, Helen and her husband Peter were inspired to create Spirit House restaurant to showcase modern Thai cuisine. Its success led to the addition of a cooking school and chef-guided food tours to Thailand. Spirit House has evolved into an internationally recognised mecca for lovers of Asian food.
Crispy garlic and pepper chicken with snow peas and oyster sauce
The combination of garlic, pepper and coriander root is essentially Thai and is used in simple dishes like fried rice, or as part of more complex recipes like red or green curry paste. Along with chillies, shrimp paste, fish sauce and lime juice, these are the fundamental building blocks for Thai cooking.
Just about any Thai restaurant will have a dish that is finished with crispy garlic and pepper. The recipe can be adapted for any meat or seafood and is usually served with a hot and sour-style sauce to cut through the richness of the deep-fried garlic. Use fresh garlic and if your garlic is starting to shoot, take a few extra minutes to remove the shoot with a paring knife, otherwise the paste could be bitter.
Crispy garlic and pepper paste
3 coriander roots, washed and scraped
1 tsp white peppercorns
2 heads of garlic, peeled
1 tsp freshly peeled ginger
Pinch of salt
Chicken stir fry
1 cup vegetable oil
500g chicken breast or thigh, cut into stir-frying strips
125g snow peas, trimmed
2 Tbs oyster sauce
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 tsp light palm sugar
Handful of coriander leaves to garnish
Chilli and vinegar sauce
2 large red chillies, de-seeded and chopped
1-2 small red chillies, chopped (optional)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 coriander root
1 tsp salt
4 Tbs coconut vinegar
2 Tbs white sugar
1. To make paste: In a mortar and pestle, pound the coriander, peppercorns, garlic, ginger and salt to a paste. Set aside.
2. To cook: Heat the vegetable oil to moderate in a wok and cook the Crispy Garlic and Pepper Paste until golden and crispy. Do not overcook or it will become bitter. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
3. Drain all but 2 Tbs oil and heat wok to high. Then add chicken, stir-frying on high heat until just cooked. Add the snow peas, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and palm sugar, cooking until just combined.
4. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with crispy garlic and pepper mix and coriander leaves. Serve with chilli and vinegar sauce on the side.
5. To make the sauce: Pound the chillies, garlic, coriander and salt to a paste.
6. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the vinegar and sugar.
* Recipe extracted from Essentially Thai by Helen Brierty and Annette Fear.
