Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to:
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Thai food is known for its unique combination of taste and seasoning — mainly hot and spicy yet balanced enough to bring out different flavours in every dish. The common flavourings used are fish sauce, shrimp paste, lemon grass, lime leaves, coriander leaves, galangal, ginger, garlic, fresh red chilli, basil, cardamom, cinnamon and curry powder.
Curry is the mainstay in Thai cooking. Soups are savoured with most of the meals, served with rice or noodle dishes. The rice eaten is either plain or sticky rice, rolled into balls. Rice is also used in a variety of desserts.
Thai cuisine is a harmony of various cuisines of the neighbouring regions. The dishes suit almost all the palates. Also one more reason for the immensely popular Thai cuisine is the way it is presented which makes it more appetising. Thai fruit and vegetable carving is an art, which makes you feel fascinated with its delicate presentation. Thai food also carries the value of nutrition and medicine obtained from using fresh ingredients such as vegetables, spices and herbs, without artificial flavourings. The below recipe is one of the very simple yet popular dish of Thai cuisine and can be easily prepared using few ingredients. This will introduce you to the world of Thai cuisine.
Lime and chilli steamed fish
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
King Fish fillet 1 kg
Garlic 2 tbsp
Lime juice 2 tbsp
Lime leaves 1 tbsp
Cilantro leaves 2 tbsp
Thai red chilli 1 tbsp
Fish sauce 2 tbsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Black pepper, crushed to taste
Garnish
Thai red chilli 1 no
Lime slices to garnish
Method
Wash and clean the fish fillet and pat dry them and keep aside.
In a mortar, pound garlic, cilantro, chilli and lime leaves to a coarse paste.
Combine lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, salt and pepper and mix well.
Add this to the coarse ground mixture and make a paste.
Marinate the fish with this paste and refrigerate the fish for an hour
Heat water in a steamer and place the fish fillet in it and steam for 12- 15 minutes.
Once cooked, garnish with red chilli slices and lime slices.
Serve with choice of jasmine or plain rice.
Banana bread
Don’t throw away those soft over ripe bananas instead use them to bake your own banana bread. The origin of this bread is related to Australia where a National Banana Bread Day is also celebrated on February 23 every year. This bread is rich and sweet enough to be called a cake, it can also serve as a homemade dessert.
Banana is the main ingredient. It should be ripe or over ripe as the sweetness of banana increases when it is ripe. The mashed banana is then mixed with flour, sugar, yoghurt, baking powder and soda and then baked. Variations of banana bread also include nuts, dried or candied fruits, choco chips, biscuit crumble or fruit jams and many more ingredients that you can decide to include. This is an eggless variant of the banana bread and the result is really nice.
Ingredients
Flour 300g
Baking soda 1tsp
Baking powder ½ tsp
Yoghurt 300g
Castor sugar 280g
Oil 200ml
Over ripe banana 180g
Garnish
Banana 1 no
Icing sugar to garnish
Method
Sift flour with baking powder and baking soda and keep aside.
Mix yoghurt and sugar till the sugar is dissolved.
Add oil and mix well to combine the above mixture.
Mash the banana and add to the above mixture.
Gradually add the flour while stirring the mixture.
Combine well top avoid lumps.
Bake in a greased tray in a preheated oven at 170 degree C for 30 minutes.
Check by piercing with knife in the cake, if it comes out clean the cake is cooked.
Allow the cake to cool down at room temperature and cut into desired size pieces.
Serve garnished with banana slices or icing sugar.
Lime and chilli steamed fish
