Dried Yeast

In Thailand we use dried yeast rather than fresh, traditionally we didn't have fridges in Thailand and some upcountry villages do not have electricity, so dried yeast keeps where fresh yeast would go off.

Yeast is used sometimes as a raising agent as in the west, but mostly to ferment rice to make alcoholic beers and wines! You'll need this and sticky rice to make next weeks Rice Wine (Sato) recipe.


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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Bituoy & Pumpkin Dessert ( Won Fug Thong Bia Tai )

This is a two layer dessert, a jelly bottom layer and a top creamy layer that comes from mashed pumpkin. It's the combination of the two textures that make this a nice dessert. The flavouring for the green one is Bi-Tuoy (the bubblegum flavouring made from Pandan leaves). You can also buy pandan essence in shops if you can't get the leaves.Ingredients For Lower Layer 20 gms Bi Tuoy (Pandan) Leaves300 ml Water100 gms Sugar5 gms Agar Agar Jelly PowderIngredients for Pumpkin Layer 230 ml Coconut Milk100 gms Pumpkin20 gms Sugar A Pinch of Salt5 gms Agar Agar JellyPreparation1. Lower Layer: Blend the bituoy leaves with water, bring the mix to the boil and simmer for a minute. Strain into a second pan you keep the green liquid and throw away the leaf pulp.2. Add the sugar and agar to the hot green liquid and stir until dissolved. Pour into a tray and leave to cool and set with the tray at a slant, it makes for a prettier effect.3. Pumpkin Layer: Cut the pumpkin into large cubes and boil in water until soft. Drain and mash.4. Mix the mashed cooked pumpkin, coconut milk, sugar, agar, and salt and heat while stirring till the sugar has dissolved and the mix is smooth.5. Leave to cool a little and pour over the bituoy layer, but be careful, agar sets very quickly, you want it to be cool enough to pour on the bituoy layer, but not to let it set. If you are more use to using gelatin as the setting agent agar can be a surprise - it sets above room temperature.

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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]

Sweet Glazed Fish ( Bla Wan )

This is traditionally one of the ways we preserve fish in Thailand. In other countries they salt fish, and even though we can now freeze fish, they keep the salted fish for the flavour they remember from their childhood. The same happens in Thailand, we can freeze fish, but the sweetened taste of dried sweet fish has become a tradition.You can use most types of fish. Fillet and flatten the fish, or get your fish monger to do it and hang it to dry for a day in a cool dark place before beginning to remove excess moisture.Ingredients 200 gms Dried Fish Fillets150 gms Brown Sugar 1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds Preparation1. Boil the brown sugar in a little water until it completely dissolves.2. Add the sesame seeds and fish, and continue boiling off any water to form a thick sugar syrup.3. Make sure the fish is well coated with the sugar, then hang them up to dry.4. I hang mine in my kitchen, you can see from the photo below my string and clothes peg solution to drying fish! Underneath the fish is a plate for the excess sugar to drip onto.5. Leave for 1-2 days to dry out, then store them in the fridge or a cool dark place away from flies. Once preserved like that they can usually be eaten up to 6 months later provided they haven't gone moldy.

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[Source: Appon's Thai Food Recipes]