Goin' on a Thai-rade

Who knew that the Thai foods we adore in restaurants can be made at home with ease! Furnished with the charming and easy-to-read cookbook Real Thai by Nancie McDermott, we prepared some truly enthaicing dishes (and many tasty condiments) for our hungry guests.

Check out our special foodscapes page for close-up images of some of our favorite ingredients.
If you're looking for images from previous episodes, visit our archives.

Step aside, lotus leaves! Banana leaves are enormous! Always on the lookout for food that comes wrapped like a present, we packaged catfish with red curry paste and basil in banana leaves and steamed the parcels for a tender delight with plenty of slow spicy heat.

Many of the ingredients for green curry paste, clockwise from top left: thai chiles; shallot; lemongrass; galanga; cilantro root; garlic; lime peel.	Our green curry with chicken is prepped and ready for the wok. Ingredients include, from top: chicken; coconut milk; thai eggplant; basil; and a dish which includes the ubiquitous fish sauce, some palm sugar, salt and pepper.	The final dish, topped with the fresh basil and some hot peppers was served with a bit of rice for a hearty, medium-spicy entree.
Our dessert started with the small, attractive, green kabocha (that's pumpkin, to you) hollowed out like a jack-o-lantern and then filled with a custard made of eggs, coconut milk and palm sugar.	Steamed for a while over simmering water, the custard puffed up and set within the pumpkin.	The cooked pumpkin was soft and easy to slice. Served at room temperature, the very sweet custard had a nice foil in its less sugary, edible, vegetable dish.