Thai Cooking Adventure around Ayutthaya Thailand

It doesn't seem to matter where you are in Thailand. You will always find a healthy, vibrant garden fed by the abundant supply of fresh water. The soil in Thailand is rich and fertile. You will find herbs and vegetables growing almost everywhere, in any spare patch of earth. To Thai people, a beautiful plant doesn't need to have flowers. It just has to produce what we need to survive in life, our food. How cool is this? Oyster mushrooms growing in this organic compound. Most of these were picked this morning, but they've left this one, which is just enough for my Tom Yum. My seafood experience continues in the riverside town of Ayutthaya, the ancient city of Siam. Ayutthaya is an amazing destination for tourists, full of history and many peaceful hideaways. We're here by the bank of the river in Ayutthaya, and going past me are little tugboats pulling enormous barges. Fantastic location, cooking our Tom Yum Goong. This is a really simple dish. Start with some plain water. You can use fish stock if you've got it, but water's fine as well. And then we add the ingredients that release all of the flavour into the water. Firstly, we've got some kaffir lime leaves, just broken into half. Some fresh lemongrass that we picked earlier in the garden. Some fresh galangal. Make sure you peel it first, otherwise it releases a darker colour into the water, and then sliced into thick chunks. And some shallots, again, nice and chunky. When you eat this soup, you want it to have a really good mouthfeel. We've also got a mixture of chillies here. We've got some dried chillies, which add more of a smoky sort of flavour to the dish, and some fresh bird's eye chillies, red and green for extra colour and extra flavour. Just allow the soup to come to the boil and then simmer for a moment. All the aromas are coming out of the aromatic herbs and spices. Perfect. Now it's time to add the fresh prawns. These are fresh river prawns. And what we've done is we've peeled them, and we've also taken the shell just away from the head, but the spider or the chest plate underneath is left on. Leave it in there, and when you eat it, you'll be surprised how delicious the whole prawn tastes. We've also got here some sawtooth coriander. Great herb. Tastes very similar to coriander, a little bit more pungent, more robust, and a slightly crunchier texture as well. Just tear that up and throw that into the soup. We have here some fresh coriander and also some oyster mushrooms, which are picked right here in the mushroom farm. And just give that one or two minutes just for the prawns to set. Don't overcook them, they'll become mushy and fall apart. And just to finish it off, some fish sauce and some lime juice. Remember with cooking, you can always increase the flavours, but you can't take them out once they're in. Add a small amount of each, about a tablespoon at this point, taste it, and then finish it off just before you serve it. It is delicious. A touch more fish sauce and it's done. And when we serve it, use a nice earthenware pot, something to really show off the characteristics of the prawns, nice and rustic and nice and colourful. We'll finish that off with just a sprig of fresh coriander, and it is so simple. Aromatic, delicious, hot, spicy and sour. Tom Yum Goong. The Chao Phraya River, which runs from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, also runs past the Ang Thong markets. They are famous for being one of the largest inland seafood markets in Thailand. The markets open at 2am and close around 11 in the morning. Throughout the night, the smaller seafood sellers, restaurants and hotels come here to load up on fresh wholesale fish. There is an incredible variety of vegetables, dry spices and herbs, sold by a variety of colourful characters, who will light up your day with a big smile and a happy heart. Thailand can never be accused of not being colourful enough. Two of my sisters have markets here in Ang Thong, and I see first-hand how hard they work. It's a fast-paced life, with three-wheeler motorbikes scooting around at the speed of light, racing with tubs of crushed ice to keep the produce cold in this hot Thailand sun. I also see how well they eat with all the fresh seafood on their doorstep. How could you possibly resist? After the break, I meet up with an old friend and I cook a fresh crispy barramundi with a hot and sour sauce. Every time I come to visit my family in Ang Thong, I like to meet with Uncle, who is a specialist around here in cooking the perfect grilled prawns. Cooked over hot coal, I just love to watch them pop and crackle while the colours of the prawns transform. Lung has been doing this for years. He's an absolute master of grilling prawns. It's a real art form. They're so fresh, they're so clean. Can't wait to see what he's doing with these today. So they've been cooking now for about two minutes. The heat on these grills is so intense. It's amazing how fast they cook. A couple of minutes on that side, we've turned them over. And they're beautiful. The way the colours change from that vibrant blue to this lovely gold orange. It's a lovely colour. Lung's just told me that in a minute he's going to make a Nam Jim dressing, which is a really fresh, salty, sweet and acidic, beautiful dressing. Perfect with these prawns. Uncle, how much is the prawn? 500 baht. Okay, so they're not that expensive at all. Amazing to think that you can have two of these fat prawns for just 50 baht. That's about $1.50. So Uncle's brought out the ingredients to make this dressing. We've got some coriander, some salt and some sugar, some fresh lime juice and a mixture of small Thai garlic and fresh green chillies. When you're making your own Nam Jim, leave the skin on the garlic. It gives it so much more character and more body. Then Lung adds some lime juice or lemon juice would work perfectly well and then some sugar to give it the sweetness. If you don't have white sugar, palm sugar or even brown sugar would work just as well. Lung likes to add a little bit of salt and water to his recipe. However, you can leave both of these ingredients out and the Nam Jim will taste just as good. Give it a little bit of a stir and bring all of the flavours together well and allow that sugar to dissolve. Add some fish sauce and then it's ready to go. Remember, it's completely up to you what herbs you add. The most traditional herb in Nam Jim is fresh coriander. Chopped or picked, it adds so much flavour to the Nam Jim. I really can't wait to get stuck into this. There's nothing better than fresh grilled seafood with a Nam Jim sauce. Already ready to go. That is just unbelievable. I'm going to have one. Look at this. Grab the prawn and break it apart. The meat is so juicy and the skin just peels off so easily. Simple as that. Really smoky, really fresh. Get it right into the Nam Jim dressing and really let the flavours get in there. Throw it in the mouth and enjoy. Incredible. Uncle, it's delicious. Very good. Uncle, thank you very much. Thank you. It's delicious. Amazing. Grilled river prawns at the seafood market right here in Ang Thong. Perfect. So for all the barramundi lovers out there, we're doing a Pla Rad Prik, which is a crispy fried barramundi with a chilli garlic sauce. It's a really delicious dish. So before we fry the fish in the hot oil, we need to make some incisions along the side. Make sure the cuts are nice and deep but don't cut right through the fish. Now we just have to flour the fish but we only flour it very lightly. It just aids in it being more crunchy. Make sure the flour gets inside the cuts on the fish as well. If you can't have wheat flour, corn flour or potato flour would work just as well. Okay, dust off any excess flour before you fry it. The fish is so firm. Very firm flesh. It's a great fish to cook. Okay, and then we put it into the hot oil nice and gently. While the fish is frying, make sure you baste it with the hot oil so that both sides have the chance to cook from the very, very beginning. Okay, place that on a little piece of paper towel. Just to drain off the excess oil. And now to make the sauce. We start with just a tablespoon or two of oil. And make sure you don't have the heat too high. You don't want to burn the garlic. Just let them gently fry. A couple of tablespoons of garlic. Two tablespoons of chopped chilli. Really hot, spicy dish this one. Great flavours in the wok. Now, some palm sugar. About one tablespoon of palm sugar. And just let that melt gently. Again, if you don't have palm sugar, white sugar is perfectly fine. Perfectly fine. Just to balance that sweetness, we're using some tamarind. In this recipe, you could use vinegar as an acid, but I think tamarind is more unique, more individual. And to balance the acidity of the tamarind and the sweetness of the palm sugar, some fish sauce. Roughly equal amounts. Just a quick taste. It's incredible. Don't need to change it at all. Okay, so we take the fish that's been drained and place it onto our plate that's been presented here. And simply take that sauce and pour it all over the top. Just gently from one end to the other. It looks stunning. What an amazing dish. And then garnish it with some cut spring onions. And there we have it. A really crispy fish with a lovely sauce. Chili and garlic on a crispy barramundi. Pla Rad Prik. After the break, I travel to one of the most sacred places in Thailand. And I'll show you a traditional local rice noodle dish that is only cooked in this region. Four hours east of Bangkok is Korat City. The business epicentre of one of Thailand's largest rice producing areas. This is the gateway to the northeast and the gateway to Isan. Isan food is so unique, it's a cuisine all of its own. Let's explore Nakhon Ratchasima and all of the wonderful food that this region is famous for. Pad Mee noodles are famous in Pimai. These 15 restaurants in a row selling exactly the same noodle dish is testament to that. Next to the restaurant is one of the most special places in Pimai. The trees of Sanyam. This is one of the most sacred sites in Pimai. All of these banyan trees have joined together and become one. It's the most incredible thing I think I've ever seen. So we're here in Sanyam in Pimai in front of those amazing trees that we walked through. I'm going to be cooking a dish here which is Pad Mee Moo Kap Gai which is a very traditional noodle dish only cooked here in Pimai. In this dish there's a very unique noodle that's only made right here in Pimai. Mee Pimai. They're so delicate like fairy floss and they're bound with this little bit of twine. So unique. Love it. So we're just going to light the gas. In Pimai they cook the noodles on these wok burners. Really simple. Okay, we'll get a medium heat going there. Great. First ingredient we start with is some oil. We save just a little bit of oil for the egg when we add that later. Okay, add some baby garlic, some Thai garlic. And then to the garlic we add the pork and the chicken. Just give that a minute to fry but don't overcook it because by the time you add the noodles and the liquids it's going to continue to cook. Okay, now we add the sauce. This is what's unique about Pad Mee is the noodles are actually dry and then cooked in the sauce rather than cooking them in water and then adding them to the dish. Now this liquid here, it's a mixture of tamarind, fermented soybeans, tomato and chilli sauce. About three quarters of a cup goes in. And then we add some fresh water, just under a cup. Wait for that to boil before we add the noodles. Okay, now we add some sugar, just some brown sugar, raw brown sugar. About a tablespoon. And a full tablespoon of dried chilli. This noodle dish is quite spicy. And now we add the noodles straight in, dry like that. Break them up a little bit. They're so fine and so delicate that they absorb the moisture almost instantaneously. Smells so good. Okay, once that moisture has absorbed into the noodles, we add our vegetables, some bean shoots and some gai lan, the Chinese broccoli. Okay, then push that to the side, add a little bit more oil and then we crack our egg into that oil and cook it on the side. Mix it all together with the egg and we're done. It's time to serve it on a plate and garnish it. I love the colour from the chilli, the chilli sauce and the tomato. It makes it so unique. On top and then to garnish it, some fresh baby spring onions, which you can sort of just dig into it, crunch it. Some fresh lime to squeeze over and some little bean shoots to finish it off. So there we have it, a traditional dish from Pimai. Pad mee moo kap gai. Really incredible simple. The ancient ruins of Prasat Hin, one of the most haunting experiences you can take in Pimai. The temples date back to the 12th century and its architecture is compared to that of Angkor Wat. Built during the Khmer Empire, the temple was placed at the end of the ancient Khmer highway facing southeast towards Angkor in Cambodia. The complex is over one kilometre long and has been preserved as a national treasure. If these walls could talk, I'd certainly stop and listen to hear the stories of a people long ago in Thailand's history. When walking through these sacred structures, I can't help but be amazed as to how these carved solid stone walls were placed with such care and precision over 800 years ago. On the next episode, I head back to the family village in Pimai. I learn how to make fresh rice noodles, catch up with my family and cook a delicious spicy chicken and coconut soup.