Another of my favourites to cook is this sweet and sour dish called “moo pat priaw waen” in Thai. However, you do need to practice it a bit in order to correctly balance the flavours. You can see the main ingredients we used in the picture below. Starting at the top, we have onion, spring onion, straw mushrooms, chopped garlic, tomatoes, cucumbers and chicken in the center. Make sure that everything is pre-cut to bite size as Thai people don’t normally use a knife during their meals. This also means that cooking time is reduced. So, make sure that you have all your ingredients ready prepared. In this dish we also added spur chili, but you could use bell pepper instead.
Add the chopped garlic to the oil in your pan and cook until golden brown. Next comes the chicken. You can use pork if you like. Add the mushrooms, tomatoes, tomatoes and onion. Finally add the chillies and spring onion. Next comes the seasoning. You need to do this step by step with a tasting of the sauce at each interval. Season with tomato sauce, white vinegar (the sour taste), sugar (obviously the sweet taste), and light soy sauce (the salty taste). Some recipes call for fish sauce but I prefer light soy sauce. This is a bit sweet so don’t put in so much sugar. If you find it too salty then add more sugar. Next add chicken stock. Give it all a good stir. Finish by adding some tapioca flour in order to thicken the sauce. I haven’t given any meaurements as this is all trial and error. It is really up to your personal taste as to how sweet or sour you like it.
We will have another dish for you next week at www.thai-blogs.com. Feel free to send us your suggestions for what you would like to see us cook. If you are missing our Friday Lunch Menu where we bought street food every week, the archives are now up-to-date at www.thaistreetfood.com. We have also added Thai for each menu item. Don’t forget our Thai Food Forums where you can ask questions about buying and cooking Thai food.
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