Pad Thai

Disclaimer – I have been told ‘There are 40 Million Thais and 50 Million recipes for Pad Thai.’ so this may not be quite what you were expecting

40g Tamarind Pulp (or buy a jar of tamarind from any decent supermarket with an Asian section)

1/2 Cup of Boiling water

2 Tablespoons Palm Sugar

1/3 Cup Sweet Chilli Sauce

1/3 Cup Fish Sauce (Soy sauce if you want to do a vegetarian version)

375g(15oz) Rice Noodles (Wide)

500g Prawns, Chicken, pork or Tofu (Firm and fried ideally)

2 Cloves of Garlic Crushed (or 2 teaspoons of lazy Garlic)

1 Tablespoon of grated or minced Ginger

2 Small red chillis Coarsely chopped

1 Tablespoon peanut oil

10oz Pork Mince (Or Quorn for Veggie)

3 Eggs Beaten Lightly

2 cups of Bean Sprouts

4 Spring Onions (Salad Onions) Sliced thinly

1/3 Cup coarse chopped Coriander

1/4 Cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts (Unsalted ideally)

Soak the Tamarind pulp in boiling water for 30 minutes, strain it into a bowl (Obvioulsy if using pre strained tamarind you don’t have to do this)

Mix in bowl with sugar and sauces, reserve

Cook noodles until soft (or of course you can use straight to wok noodles)

Shell prawns, devein but leave tail on or slice meat or Tofu into bite size pieces 

blend Garlic, Chilli and ginger to form a paste (you can add 2 tablespoons of dried shrimp and dried turnip to this if you can get it, for a more authentic taste)

Heat oil in wok, stir fry paste until just fragrant, add mince, stir fry until cooked through.

Add meat and stir fry for one minute, add egg stir fry until egg just sets, add noodles, tamarind mixture, sprouts and half the onion, stir fry, tossing gently until combined.

 Remove from heat, toss remaining spring onion, coriander and nuts, through the Pad Thai, serve with lime Wedges.

Muy Arroy! 

 

Pork Fillet Saltimbocca

Saltimbocca means ‘leaps in the mouth’

Pork Fillet (one piece)

Parma ham or Proscuttion (they are the same thing, but don’t say that if front of a Spaniard or Italian)

Sage leaves (fresh)

Butter

1-2 (or more) cloves of Garlic

Slice the pork fillet thinly, lay on a sheet of greaseproof paper, cover with a second and bash to flatten with a mallet or a rolling pin.

Curse and suck fingers, do it again more carefully.

season with salt and black pepper

place a piece of Prosciutto onto each piece of pork, then add a sage leaf, pin the whole lot together with a cocktail stick.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the garlic – crushed ideally (or you can use lazy garlic like me)

Fry the pork 2-3 minutes a side, serve with crusty bread or Dauphinois potatoes.

Barbados Cream – The Dessert of the Gods

And as simple as one could wish

10oz Double Cream, whip until stiff

Add 15oz Plain Yoghurt and mix

Pour into a bowl and cover liberally with Dark Muscavado Sugar, place in fridge overnight to set.

Enjoy.

This will serve 4-5 people and leave them likely wanting more, for  larger desert just increase all the ingredients keeping the cream:Yougurt ratio at 2:3

 

Thai Style Fishcakes (can also use minced pork, chicken or any other meat)

500g Meat or fish  (This works great post Christmas with leftoever Turkey)
1 Egg
1-2 Chillis
1-2 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
3 Spring Onion (Finely Chopped)
Small handfull Coriander
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
10 Thin Green Beans Thinly Sliced
1-2 Tsp Yellow or Massamun Curry paste
Peanut or Sesame Oil for Frying

Blitz ingredients in a food mixer until a smooth Paste, then form into small patties, shallow fry in batches until brown, then transfer to kitchen towel to drain.
Serve cold or warmed with a sweet chilli dip

Crying Tiger Steak

Crying Tiger Steak

Steak, 2-4 pieces of about 6 oz’s each, this is finger food traditionally served as a starter, but again can be served as part of a meal.

For Marinade
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1-2 Tsp of Tamarind Paste
1-3 Red Chillis (This is to taste, i use 2-3, you could even add more)
2-3 cloves of Garlic
1/2 Cup warter
1 Tbsp Peanut oil

Place the steaks in this marinade for at aleast 2 hours, preferably overnight, turning occasionally

Sauce (this is a dipping sauce)
1/4 Cup Fish Sauce
1/4 Cup Lime Juice
2 Tsp Palm Sugar
1-2 Cloves Garlic (Crushed)
1 Spring Onion (Finely Chopped)
1/2 Tsp Tamarind
Mix together until you get a small liquid then add 6-7 coriander sprigs finely chopped

When ready to eat, fry the steaks to taste (no more oil needed), rest until they can be handled the slice into thin strips and serve with the dipping sauce

Hot and Sweet Crispy Beef

Hot and Sweet Crispy beef
(Serves 2-3 or more if you are having several mains, this usually splits between 6-7 of us)

1 TIn Corned Beef
Fish Sauce 1 Tbsp
Palm Sugar (Honey or Maple syrup will do, or even regular sugar at a pinch) 1 Tbsp
3-4 Spring Onions (Finely Chopped)
2-3 Cloves of Garlic (Crushed)
1-3 Red Chillis (to taste, I use 2)
1 Packet Wide noodles (Striaght to wok or if dried cook while frying corned beef and leave ready to add)
Coriander (one Handful)

Mash the corned beef up so that it is reasonably spread out and seperated then put in Wok or deep frying pan with a little (very little) oil, fry until crispy keeping it moving, once crisped pour it onto kitchen roll to drain off the fat, wrap it in several layers and leave to one side.

Meanwhile add a little more oil and stir fry the garlic, chilli and spring onion until the spring onion softens, then add the palm sugar and fish sauce and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Add the corned beef back in  and stir thoroughly, then add the noodles and stir until cooked, once the noodles are cooked through add the handful of torn coriander, toss trhough and serve at once.

Godzilla GMK All Monsters Attack

Well, I’m back, meandering down a cinematic byway littered with fallen Kaiju and mangled wreckage of Japanese military equipment, dodging nimbly between Godzilla’s footprints.
This film is part of the ‘Versus’ series, where Godzilla films were not tied to a strict timeline, generally the first film had happened but no others, thus resulting in several different origin stories, this one is very different from the rest, in fact in some ways it inverts the Japan as victim theme that is the usual motif of Godzilla and shines a light on some aspects of recent Japanese history that the Japanese authorities have been doing their best to bury.
This godzilla is animated, or possessed, by the spirits of those who died as victims of the Japanese during the ‘Asian holocaust’ between 1937 and 1945, a figure somewhere between 7 and 30 million, mostly Chinese. the figures are so widely varying because China had no real functioning government before or after the war and the Japanese, unlike the Germans did not keep meticulous records of their crimes. Not unnaturally these unquiet dead have decided to use Godzilla to level Japan.
This idea is quite interesting as it forces our heroes, one of whom is the daughter of a Japanese officer to face a part of Japan’s history that they would rather forget, Certainly there are plenty of people still alive now who would probably feel that extensive urban clearance by a radioactive monster is the least Japan deserves.
While the films makers or it’s characters do not try to justify or play down the crimes that Godzilla is avenging they do make the point that it is not really fair to victimise the Japan of the 21st Century for crimes comitted sixty years ago, of course Japanese mythology is replete with vengeful ghosts who do not care who they wreak their revenge on as long as it is somebody.
It seems Japans own spirits or Kami agree as they have activated Japan’s guardian monsters to repel Godzilla, in this case Mothra, Kaiser Ghidorah and peculiarly Baragon. I say peculiarly because he is not an established Godzilla monster, originally it was to have been Anguiras.
This is explained to our heroes by an aged priest who is trying to ensure that the monsters appear on time, Kami it seems are not equipped with alarm clocks.
Meanwhile on a small Island a very familiar set of footfalls announces that Godzilla is back, interestingly the victims are a small family of fisherfolk who we are made to feel a little sympathy for and introduced to before their homes are flattened.
Meanwhile a group of rowdy teenagers are killed while sailing a stolen boat on a lake, which grows a suspiciously large cocoon later on.
Also the Japanese Self Defence Force is testing a new ‘tunneler’ missile and tracking an underground disturbance, additionally there are reports of a giant monster in Japan, clearly Godzilla has returned.
Excpept he hasn’t yet, the giant monster in Japan is Baragon, something that our heroine suspects and is confirmed by the arrival of the only surivivor from the island a traumatised young woman who is placed in hospital when she arrives in Japan.
Sadly for her it is this city where Godzilla chooses to come ashore. Immediately the differences are noted, this version seems, for want of a better term – eviller – than previous incarnanaions, whereas the others were forces of nature, impersonal and utterly unconcerned for the most part with humans this one seems to actively try to kill people.
The surivivor is killed when her hospital is levelled by a flick of the tail that seems at once both casual and quite deliberate, this Godzilla is spiteful. When he first uses his trademark atomic breath the result, seen by schoolchildren on a nearby mountain is the classic nuclear flash followed by a mushroom cloud, a powerful image for Japanese, possibly implying that the use of atomic weapons was a form of divine, or infernal, punishment?
In any case the defender monsters leap into the attack, Baragon, making an undavised solo foray is summarily dispatched, Mothra and Ghidorah in a tag team fare better but ultimately it is left to the human characters to work their own salvation.

This is the oddest of tha series I have encountered, it is certainly as dark in tone as the first film, and the new origin of Godzilla is a surprising twist that I doubt anyone expected The effects are some of the best of the whole series, especially for the Kaiju themselves who for once really seem to mesh properly with their enviroments and the human actors.
The Godzilla suit looks properly nasty continuing the spiky and toothy trend of the later movies – but there is one glaring problem, at least for western audiences, Gozilla’s eyes.
The eyes on the suit are blank white orbs, now in japanese and some other Oriental mythologies this symbolises demonic possesion or origins, unfortunately to most westerners it makes Godzilla look blind (and unfortuantely like Master Po from the old Kung Fu series) which rather jars.
Nonetheless it’s an interesting film that deserves a bigger audience. 7/10

Recipe – Kevins Quick Thai Style BBQ Marinade

This was whipped up on a bank holiday morning to marinate some pork steaks for the afternoon.
It seemed to be a hit with all and sundry.
1 Tbsp Peanut Oil
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Kaffir Lime Leaf (crumbled)
1 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tsp Tamarind Paste
1 Tsp Lazy Garlic
1 Red Chilli – Finely sliced – you can add more for extra spice
mix together, place meat in marinade turning to fully coat, turn occasionally until ready to cook, this will easily d 4 pork or beef steaks or chicken breasts, maybe up to 6.