The majority of the food in UK Temples is prepared by Thai cooks, and this has (along with the increasing popularity of Thai restaurants in the UK and the world wide popularity of Thailand as a travel destination) provided an introduction for many Westerners to the delights of Thai cuisine.

As I have begun to learn the elements of Thai cooking, more and more friends, having sampled my efforts, ask for recipes. On this page I intend to put some of the more popular dishes I have learned to make, I will also try to get some of the cooks at the Buddhavihara Temple to give up their secrets!

Most of my cookery I learned at the Chiang Mai Cookery School, and my recipes are generally taken from the course book 'A Passion for Thai Cooking' by Sompon and Elizabeth Nabnian who have kindly given their permission to use extracts from it in the construction of this page.

Fresh ingredients are often a problem in the West. I know of Thai and/or Chinese supermarkets in Manchester, Nottingham and London where they are available and I am sure there are others in many of the big cities in the UK and elsewhere. I have made alternative suggestions where appropriate.
The website Thailand-UK has, amongst other things, a directory of Thai food shops in the UK

Tools and utensils are easier, even the (to my mind essential) pestle & mortar 'as used by Jamie Oliver' is now available from many outlets, priced £39.95, or alternatively £5 from Chiang Mai market!

Pastes I think the secret of success is home made curry paste: a bit of a fiddle but well worth the effort. You can make larger quantities, as it keeps well in the 'fridge under oil, or you can freeze it. If all else fails, red & green varieties can be bought at most chain supermarkets - the Blue Dragon brand is good.

All pastes are made up the same way. Take your 'Jamie Oliver' pestle & mortar and grind the dried ingredients into a powder. Then add all the fresh ingredients and pound hard for at least 10 minutes until the paste is smooth. Simple. You can use an electric blender in which case you may need to add a bit of water if the fresh ingredients won't blend. Its less satisfactory and also less satisfying than using a pestle & mortar, but far less tiring.

Green Curry Paste: Nam Prik Gaeng Kheo Wan

Dried
1 tablespoon coriander seeds: roast until brown
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon salt
2 cardamom pods: roast until brown
10 big red dried chillies: remove seeds, soak & chop

Fresh
5g ginza remove skin & chop
5g lemongrass lower 1/3 only, chopped
5g kaffir lime peel
10g coriander root, chopped
15g shallots, chopped
15g garlic, crushed
5g shrimp paste
10 small red chillies

Ingredients

Fish Cakes
500g of any white fish fillets, minced
130g red curry paste
60ml fish sauce
1 egg, beaten
80g tapioca flour
10g baking powder
20g palm sugar
5 kaffir lime leaves, discard stems and thinly sliced
8 long beans, thinly sliced

Dipping Sauce
90ml water
60g sugar
15ml wine vinegar
5g chilli powder
30g roasted peanuts, chopped fine
10g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
30g cucumber, finely diced
2 - 3 small red chillies sliced

Method
To make the dipping sauce, put the water, sugar and vinegar into a pan and dissolve the sugar over a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat and boil for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the chilli powder, peanuts and cucumber. Leave to cool and garnish with the coriander and chillies

Mix all the fish cake ingredients together in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Use just enough egg to bind the mixture: if it gets too sloppy add a little more tapioca flour.

Make the fish cake mixture into small flat cakes about 5cm in diameter. There is an indescribable knack to this - work out the best way for yourself by trial and error - just use one hand.

Heat about 1/2 litre of vegetable oil in a wok. When very hot add the cakes and fry until golden brown (about 2 - 3 minutes) and then remove and put them on kitchen paper to drain. It is best to fry batches of about 5 -6 at a time.

Serve the fish cakes hot with the dipping sauce. Fish cakes freeze well, and can be made in large batches in advance of functions. Thaw out and re-heat in the oven before serving

The same recipe can be adapted to use chicken, pork, prawns or crab meat

On my very first trip to Thailand, on my first night in Bangkok, we ate at a riverside restaurant, watching the traffic on the Chao Phraya with wonder and amazement.
This dish was on the menu, we ordered it not knowing quite what to expect! It instantly became one of our favourites which we now look out for, both in Thailand and the UK.
We christened them 'chicken parcels' - a name which has stuck in our family - and are an excellent starter.
They are amazingly easy to make: here is an anglicised version, as I have never seen pandanus leaves on sale in this country. The Thai version, in leaves, is deep fried.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
4 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
1 tablespoon sesame oil
cooking foil cut into (approx) 3" squares

Method
Cut the chicken up into bite size pieces and put them into a bowl.
Roast the sesame seeds in the oven until golden brown.
Combine the seasame seeds, pepper, soy sauce, tapioca flour and sesame oil in a bown and blend together. Pour the mixture over the chicken and mix them well, so that each piece is thoroughly coated.
Leave them to marinate for at least 1 hour while you go away and make something else.
Wrap each piece of chicken in cooking foil, put them on a baking tray and oven bake for about 30 minutes at about 180 deg. C. Easy!

Good with chilli dipping sauce, made as follows:

Ingredients
Vary the proportions according to taste.
Fine chopped coriander root
Fine chopped garlic, preferably pickled if you can get it
Big red chillies
Palm sugar
Very thinly sliced radish
White vinegar

Method
Put all the ingredients into a pan and simmer on a low heat until the solids are tender and the sauce is thick and syrupy (about 20 minutes)

Sorry, no photograph - a plate full of bits of aluminium foil isn't very interesting and it's a bit of a fraud using a picture out of a book where they are wrapped in leaves.

Method
Put the prawn heads and peelings in a pan with the chicken stock and bring to the boil.
Remove the prawn peelings and bring the stock back to a boil.
Add the garlic, shallots, lemon grass and ginza and bring to the boil.
Then add the mushrooms and tomatoes and bring back to the boil.
Add the chillies and fish sauce, followed by the kaffir lime leaves.
Cook gently for 2 minutes, then add the prawns and cook for about 1 minute.
Turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Serve garnished with the coriander leaves.

Adjust the heat to suite by varying the number of chillies.
Tell your guests not to attempt to eat the chewy bits of lemon grass & ginza!

Method

Put thick coconut milk into a wok and fry for 3 to 5 minutes stirring continuously until milk separates.
Then add the curry paste and fry for 1 to 2 mins.
Add the chicken and cook till it turns white.
Then add thin coconut milk, and when boiling add the aubergines.
Simmer until they are soft. Add palm sugar until it melts then and fish sauce and lime leaves and half of the basil leaves.
Turn of the heat and serve garnished with sliced chillies, thick coconut milk and the remaining basil leaves.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

500g (2 ½ cups, 1lb 2 oz) minced beef
60 ml (4 tablespoons) oil
15 cloves of garlic - smashed
30 small chillies - chopped
2 big, red chillies - sliced
250 ml (1 cup, 8 fl oz) chicken stock or water
45g (1 ½ cups, 1.5oz) holy basil leaves (ordinary basil is OK)

Sauce
90 ml (6 tablespoons) oyster sauce
60 ml (4 tablespoons) fish sauce
¼ tablespoon sugar
10 ml (2 teaspoons) sweet soy sauce

Method
Put the oil into a wok and when it is hot add the garlic and the small chillies and stir-fry until the garlic starts to turn brown. Add the beef and stir-fry until the outside is cooked (1-2 minutes). Add the sauce ingredients and stir-fry to combine. Add the big, red chillies and stir again. Then add the chicken stock and when it is boiling add the basil leaves. Cook for another 1 minute. Turn off the heat and serve.

Ingredients

Selection of shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, cucumber slices and pineapple pieces. (Peel, cut into slices, and then into semi-circles)
Vegetable oil for frying (It should be deep fried, but I actually do it in a frying pan)
1 medium-size firm-fleshed fish, cleaned. Bream is best if you can get it
The sauce:
2 tbsp limejuice
1 tbsp palm sugar
2 oz/60 g fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
3 shallots, finely chopped
2 spring onions/scallions, finely chopped
4 small fresh red or green chilies, finely chopped.

Method:

Arrange the vegetables and pineapple on a large serving platter. Set aside.
Prepare the sauce before frying the fish. In a bowl, stir together the fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Stirring constantly, add the other ingredients in turn. Mix thoroughly.
Heat a pan of oil .
Make shallow diagonal slashes down each side of the fish. This helps it cook faster, but also looks really good when the dish is presented.
Fry the fish until it is golden and cooked through, turning once or twice. Lift out of the oil and drain on paper towels, then place on top of the vegetables. Pour over the prepared sauce.

I just copy the recipes from books, but I don't always follow them exactly: don't get too uptight about precision.
If it looks OK and you like the taste it is OK
For those of you who prefer imperial measures, a rough conversion is that one rounded tablespoon of flour or something similar, is about 30 grammes or 1 ounce

Ginza, or galangal is Siamese ginger. Ordinary root ginger will suffice
Lemon grass is becoming widely available, but it is much cheaper to buy fresh from a Thai supermarket
Dried tumeric powder will suffice if you can't get fresh
I have never seen long green pepper outside Thailand. Increase the quantity of black peppercorns
Coconut milk bought in cans or packets doesn't separate like fresh coconut. I cheat and add a little vegetable oil to the wok
Soft brown sugar will do instead of palm sugar
Tapioca flour is just a thickening agent. Cornflour will do, but I now prefer the former for all culinary purposes, not just Thai cooking
Long beans are a Thai variety of French beans, which will do just as well
Fish sauce is very much cheaper when bought in large bottles from a Chinese/Thai supermarket

The Thai Buddhist viewpoint on vegetarianism

Some visitors to this page have commented on the use of meat in these recipes.
The page is intended as an aspect of Thai culture: Thailand is not a vegetarian country, and Thai monks are not vegetarian - they are not anything when it comes to food!

The monks are taught very strictly to accept whatever is offered to them, on the grounds that preferences equate to attachment, which leads to suffering; so if a monk is offered meat, he will eat it. This teaching comes from the Buddha Himself.

All Therevada Buddhists adhere strictly to the First Precept of refraining from taking life unnecessarily, and will also refuse meat that has been slaughtered especially for them. Although many Western Buddhists are vegetarian (as a separate issue) vegetarianism is not a requisite of Thai Buddhism.