Thai Cooking Adventure , Aussie Thai BBQ

After spending so long away from family and friends, I thought that the best way to share the flavours of Thailand was inviting my family for a barbeque on the river, cooking everything Thai style. But first, I need to find the ingredients here in Australia. Let's go shopping. You can find everything you need at the supermarket or Asian market, but first we should know where a lot of these ingredients come from. Companies like Tangola are importing ingredients by the pallet load to keep up with the demand from Asian grocers and restaurants. Now apart from the Thai ingredients you'll find in a standard supermarket, this is where you find the really, really traditional stuff. Now it's called a video shop, but it's not just videos, they have everything Thai. Tiny, pokey, just like Thailand. Love it. Let's go have a look. And have a look at this. This in Thai is called krok, which is the vessel for making som tam. You can get anything at a Thai video shop. And over here, look at this. For sticky rice, or kao neo, which is glutinous sticky rice. I think I might do this for the barbeque as well, perfect. So down in my favourite shop in Springvale, I come here all the time. The best place to come to find really true, authentic Thai ingredients. Over here, I've already found banana leaves, which we're going to need for our wrap fish, and these banana flowers. These are the ones we used in sukhothai, in the fried rice. Amazing that we can find it right here in Australia. And here, fresh green papaya. Nice and green, really crunchy, perfect in that som tam. Pea eggplants. This is what we talked about with curries, red curry, green curry. The pea eggplants are fantastic. Nice and bitter. Don't use peas, pea eggplants. Over here, we also have some Thai basil. Now the Thai basil, as we said before, nice and aromatic, high in aniseed, really lovely herb. And the sawtooth coriander. This is the one that people are always asking where you can find it. Right here, Asian markets. We're going to get the snapper, which we're going to put on our barbeque, full of those wonderful Thai flavours. What's awesome here is the fish is so fresh, and you can ask these guys, they can cut it, cut it exactly how you want. Okay, so I've borrowed some of the stuff here from the market here in Springvale, because I want to cook this dish right here. It's called Yum Moo Yor. And that's the pork loaf that we picked up earlier in the Thai shop. This is really fantastic stuff. But I'll cut that in one second. Firstly, we need to make the dressing. Now a yum dressing is, again, that equal balance of something salty, something acidic, and something sweet. But this one's a bit different. We have here, actually, a coconut sugar, which is really delicious, a bit different than palm sugar, about two tablespoons. And then to that, again, we add a couple of tablespoons of the fish sauce. And then some fresh, lovely lime. Really nice and juicy. Perfect time for limes right now in Australia. So squeeze about half a lime. This one's really big, so half's perfect. Ordinarily, one lime would be perfect. And then we give that a stir. Okay, so now that's stirred, we add our other ingredients. Some fresh red shallots, just finely sliced. And the shallots go into the salad. And now we take some of the sawtooth coriander. No need to cut the sawtooth coriander. Just tear it up into little pieces. Then to that, some fresh coriander. Again, just torn. Keep it nice and rustic, nice and fresh. Let the flavours speak for themselves. Some fresh chilli. Two or three chillies. I would suggest three hot chillies. And just cut into little pieces. You can leave the seeds in for some extra heat as well. And in the salad that goes. Then some fresh tomato. Just about a quarter of a tomato is fine. Just cut into strips. And then those leaves from the celery herb. It's not actually celery, but it does have the flavour of celery. And again, just break them up, but don't break them too small. Leave them nice and chunky, nice and bold. Something to crunch on when you're eating it. And then we add the pork loaf. Now, the pork loaf is wrapped in the banana leaves and it will leave a green tinge on there, but that's perfectly fine. That's very normal. We just cut that in half. And there you have it. It would be the Thai equivalent of, say, Devon. So if you can't find this one, get Devon and it would work just as well. So about eight slices is perfect. And then our prawns, our tiger prawns that I've peeled already, but picked up from the market right here. They go in. And then give it a good stir. Okay, and after it's had a really good stir, that's it. We just simply put it on the plate. The colours are just incredible. I love all those fresh herbs. And there you have it, right here in the Springvale market, yum moo yaw. But you know what? I'm actually really hungry. And in Springvale, there's so many different places. And one of the most commonly eaten things around here is a Vietnamese roll. So I picked one up earlier, right here. Nice and crunchy. Why not? A bit of cross-culturalism here. Some Thai and some Vietnamese. Look at that. Whack that in there and lunch is done. It's so nice to have the contrast of the crusty loaf together with those soft, juicy prawns. And not to mention that dressing soaking into the bread. After the break, I'll show you some simple marinades for our Thai barbecue. So we're back from the market. I've got all of the wonderful produce. And now I have to get some really great dishes ready for our barbecue this afternoon. I'm gonna show you a few marinades and also a couple of desserts. We've got some fantastic sirloin beef here. I'm going to make some satay skewers and a peanut sauce to go with it. I'm also going to do some chicken wrapped up in pandan leaves with a lemongrass marinade. And also, I'm going to show you a couple of desserts, which is something we haven't done in the series so far. A coconut custard and also some yummy taro pearls cooked in a coconut syrup. Really delicious. But first, we're going to start with the beef skewers. The marinade. Really, really simple. We've got some fresh garlic. About one teaspoon of fresh garlic. And I've also got some gluten-free stock powder. About one teaspoon of that. About one teaspoon of turmeric powder, just to add some colour to the satay. And then some sugar. About one tablespoon of sugar. And then some finely ground white pepper. About one teaspoon. Then we're going to add a small amount of oil. Maybe two tablespoons of oil. And what that does is it actually lubricates the meat first. So when you cook it on the barbecue, you don't have to oil the barbecue. You just take them straight out and straight on the barbie. And then some satay powder. Now, the satay powder does have some ground peanut. So if your kids are allergic, don't use it. You can use a mixture of cumin powder, coriander powder and some paprika, and it will work just as well. And then some oyster sauce. About two tablespoons of oyster sauce. And that's it for the marinade. Just give that a quick stir. And we can set that aside. Now, for the beef. Today we're using sirloin beef. And sirloin's a really good cut for satay because it's quite lean, but also you can cook it medium or even medium rare and it still eats really juicy. One of my favourites. Then we just take off the back fat and then cut that into two inch lengths, about three millimetre thick. So that's done. All we need to do now is put the meat into the marinade and let it sit there for at least two hours. If you can give it overnight, that is much better, but two hours is enough. And then give it a really good stir to make sure the marinade really pushes deep into the meat. Okay. To put it on the skewers. I've had the skewers soaking here in cold water for at least a few hours. What that's going to do is allow the skewer to go on the grill and not burn. Take the pieces of meat, and there's two ways of doing this. One, if you want to do it for an appetiser, something simple and quick, just put one piece of meat just like that so it's nice and thin and they cook really quickly. The other way you can do it is you can fold the meat through the skewer. They take a little bit longer to cook, but they end up a little bit more juicy as well. And then afterwards, just give it a light squeeze just to form it into a nice even shape and it will cook perfectly. Okay, so now we just need to make our satay sauce for those skewers. Really simple. Some oil. One tablespoon of vegetable oil. And then some curry paste. You could use red curry paste. This one here is Penang curry paste. Okay, and then just cook the curry paste in the oil first. Once all the wonderful aromas have come out from the shallots, we add the satay powder. And then give it one minute just for the flavours to come out. Then we add some coconut milk. One and a half tins. And then just allow those flavours to really absorb into the milk. Okay, so now we add the peanut butter. We have about 200 grams of peanut butter. Crunch or smooth, your choice. And just smooth that out so there's no lumps. And then to that, we add some salt. About one and a half teaspoons of salt. And then some white sugar. About three tablespoons. Give that a good stir. And next we need to add some palm sugar. Now you can use whole palm sugar if you like and grate it. What I like to do is make a palm sugar syrup by adding palm sugar and water together and just cooking it until it becomes like a honey consistency. So we've got 200 grams of palm sugar. It's lovely once you add the palm sugar, the colour of the sauce completely changes. Okay, we're nearly there. To give it some crunch, we add some crushed peanuts. About half a cup. And this here is crushed shallot. So it's dried crispy shallots and then just put into a mortar and pestle and pound it until it becomes nice and fine. That goes in as well. And then to finish it off, some tamarind pulp. The tamarind pulp's nice and sour and it gives it that zing and it really complements the sugar and the salt that's in there as well. And then we need to let that cook for about 10 minutes while the flavours develop. However, with peanut butter, it has got a high fat content. So if you cook it by itself, it will start to split. So important to add about quarter of a litre of water and then let it cook and then continue to cook it down till the water's disappeared to the right consistency. To take that to the barbecue, I'm going to use this, which is actually one of our rice bowls here at the restaurant, but it's perfect to hold it hot all the way down to the pot. And it's done, satay sauce. Don't forget, roti bread dipped in satay sauce. It's my kid's favourite. Our second marinade for this Thai-Aussie barbecue, chicken pandan. Pandan leaves are used in Thailand every day. They add flavour to meats, into curries. They can also add flavour into desserts as well. They're a very robust, strong leaf. So you need to give them a bit of a twist and loosen them up first. And then we're going to cut them ready to wrap the chicken. So I'm going to cut them into about eight inch lengths. Okay, now our marinade, very simple. One teaspoon of white pepper and then a tablespoon of chopped lemongrass. Use fresh lemongrass, much more flavour. Some oyster sauce, one and a half tablespoons. Naman hoi. And then some garlic, one teaspoon of freshly chopped garlic. Some sugar, about one and a half tablespoons. And then some fresh coriander root. The coriander root has got a really great flavour. Quite often we buy a bunch of coriander, use the leaves and throw away the stems and the root. They're great in curry pastes, great in soups and really good in marinades as well. About one tablespoon. Okay, we give that a stir. And then we need to cut the chicken thigh. You can use chicken breast, but thigh is so much richer, juicier and also has a little bit more fat in it. So it barbecues really well, it bastes itself while it's cooking. Take the chicken thigh and then just cut off any excess fat before you start. Then cut the thigh into three pieces and then in half. So then we have six nice, even pieces of the chicken thigh. And then we put the chicken thigh back into the marinade and again, give it a good stir and let the marinade get deep into the meat. Overnight is best, but two hours is fine as well. And now for the fun part. We take one pandan leaf that's been softened, get one piece of the chicken thigh and then wrap it around. Take another pandan leaf and then on the opposite way, wrap it around again. Take a soaked skewer in cold water and then push it through and then just repeat the process until you have about four pieces on one skewer. After the break, it's barbecue time as my family give me a hand with the cooking. Okay, so the time has come to make our Thai dessert. Not only is this one of my favourite desserts, but it's also the most popular dessert right here at Vanilla Orchid. It's called coconut custard. It's a steamed coconut custard. Really simple, about four steps, really tasty. Okay, firstly, we take four eggs. Give them a good beat until they're broken right up nice and smooth. To that, we then add 550 mils of coconut cream or one large can. Now, when you use the coconut cream, in Thailand, they use the first squeeze, which is called the head squeeze and it's much thicker. So when you buy coconut milk, you can buy the thicker and the thinner. The thicker one is better for the custard. Again, just mix that together. And then we add 400 grammes of palm sugar syrup. Great thing about this dessert is it's gluten-free and it's dairy-free as well. Then we have some young coconut meat. And what I've done is with the young coconut meat, cut it into little strips like julienne and put about four or five pieces into each mould. And then pour that mixture into a jug and then transfer it to the ramekins. Now, what I like to do when steaming custards is to steam them in a steamer. However, if you don't have a steamer, what you can do is grab a tray with some hot water in the bottom, put the ramekins in there and then put it into an oven at about 150 degrees. It might take about 45 minutes until they're set. They'll be wobbly like a jelly. However, with this method, take a cartouche or a piece of greaseproof paper, place it over the top and that stops the drips of water from falling back on top of the custard. Put the lid on and we're done. This method is a little bit quicker, so it should be ready in about 20 minutes. The coconut custards are so versatile. You can eat them warm or cold and are delicious with fresh fruit like jackfruit or rambutan. OK, so the last thing we need for every Thai barbecue, kalnel or sticky rice. These are the steamer baskets we saw in the market yesterday. So all we have to do, put that in the steamer and the sticky rice, it's glutinous rice, has been soaking in cold water overnight, so the water has really soaked deep into the rice. That's why it cooks so well with just steam. Pour that into there, whack a lid on top and about half an hour, it'll be wonderful. If you've been enjoying the dishes we've been cooking on Duncan's Thai Kitchen, why not give them a go at home? I've put pen to paper and now a selection of my favourite easy-to-follow recipes from the series are available in the latest cookbook, Duncan's Thai Kitchen. Splashed with crisp, colourful photos and a few simple hints along the way, with this book, you will find it easy to create your very own Thai kitchen at home. Log on to duncansthaikitchen.com to reserve your copy and view the latest in videos, photos and recipes. And don't forget to visit our Facebook page to see what's going on with other events and information. On the way to the barbecue, I needed a few more quick ingredients, some sweet chilli sauce for dipping the chicken in, some fresh tamarind pulp and palm sugar is just what I need for the Thai papaya salad. So good that these ingredients are available in the Asian aisle right here in my local supermarket. So we're down here at the Warrandyte State Park and I thought I'd come a little bit early before everyone arrives because I want to get this snapper cooking because it's quite a large snapper. Really great, simple way to barbecue fish. Firstly, with the snapper, just make a couple of large incisions into the side of the fish. That just helps the flavour to get in. It also allows the heat to penetrate the fish as well. Now, what I'm going to do is actually stuff the fish with some aromatic herbs. I've got some pandan leaves here, just whole, and some fresh lemongrass. And with the lemongrass, I've just bashed it a few times just to release some more of the flavour and just simply twist that up. Okay, take the fish and then place those into the cavity. I've also got some fresh ginger, which will add a really lovely spice to the fish as well. And then simply just wrap the fish in the banana leaf and that's going to protect it while it's on the barbecue. And then we just take this, which is a fish grilling basket, place the fish into there, and then we put it on the barbie. So all of the family is here and it's time to get the food ready. Julia has made a start on the som tum and I need to get the grilled meats on. I marinated the lamb chops in oyster sauce, garlic, coriander root and sugar. So sweet and delicious. Time to put the chicken wrapped in pandan on the grill. It'll take 10 minutes and don't worry if the pandan leaf turns black. Inside, it is so sweet and succulent. I've brought some Thai sai grok sausages filled with sticky rice and pork from the restaurant. I can't wait to see the kids' faces when they taste all those wonderful flavours. The satay skewers are the last thing to cook as the tender beef will cook within four minutes. I think I can actually hear Tung-hee's grumbling. In Thailand, calamari is cooked whole and then sliced and dipped in the nam jim dressing. Stunning flavours. Make sure you present your food with crisp herbs, fresh lime and all of the various dipping sauces. It will look so colourful. One of the best things about eating Thai style is the sharing of food with the family. Eat from the table as you wish to do. Don't be shy as food is fun and it's a huge part of our lives. For another dessert, I got the kids to mix some steamed taro root with glutinous rice flour, rolled into balls and boiled quickly and then served in a coconut milk, pandan and sugar syrup. They are so delicious. The coconut custards are silky and smooth. A perfect barbecue. So there you go. An Aussie barbecue doesn't have to be just about chops and sausages. Add some Thai flavour. But, of course, a barbecue is nothing without your family and friends. Australia, I want to say thank you for embracing Duncan's Thai Kitchen. It's been a real privilege to bring this to you. I can't wait for series two. Thanks very much and sawadee hap. Sawadee hap.