New Thai Food

Book excerpt: New Thai Food celebrates the delicious and unique flavors of Thai food - and always with a keen eye on the balance of the essential taste senses of sour, sweet, salty and bitter. Recipes cover starters, salads, soups, curries, seafood, meat and poultry and desserts - as well as a handy section on the basics of this cuisine. Although not everything might be found in a domestic fridge or cupboard, the ingredients and techniques are not complicated - they're pitched to an adventurous cook keen to explore the vibrant tastes of Thailand. Get started with some good fish sauce, chillies and sugar - and you're almost done. Starters include betel leaves with smoked trout, galangal & trout roe, as well as fish cakes, while salads include beef salad with apple eggplant and the classic green papaya salad but with the addition of coconut rice. The curry chapter includes the familiar - red duck curry - and more adventurous options, including spiced curry of spatchcock with chilli. Seafood, meat and poultry dishes are all flavorsome and straightforward to prepare. The desserts play on the familiar tastes of Thailand - durian, palm sugar, tapioca and mango - for a deliciously sweet ending.