Some Super Thai Recipes - Chicken in the Straw

Our cook at the River Kwai Farm was a genius who had worked for various embassies in Bangkok. Using the fresh vegetables and the ducks and chickens we kept live on the farm, she invented some great Thai dishes. Stewed duck with red cabbage, shredded papaya fried in coconut batter, and our signature "Chicken in the Straw". Jars of Col. Sandler's hibiscus jam sold by the thousands.

Chicken in the Straw:

This is a traditional Thai recipe making use of the rice straw that piles up after the rice harvest.

Ingredients:

Broiler chicken, better on the lean side
Maggi sauce, pepper, and some garlic marinade

Cooking:

Stake the broiler on a wood stake in the ground
Cover with a standard, square 20-litre kerosene tin
Leave open about 2" or so at the bottom
Cover it with rice straw, then light it, and cook for about 12 minutes

Fried shredded papaya:

This is a recipe invented by Auntie Jeem, our cook, who almost convinced us when she said it was fried battered shrimp.

Ingredients:

Koki breading flour
1 semi-ripe papaya

Cooking:

Bread the papaya and deep-fry in cooking oil
This is definitely one of the must have dishes in Thailand, I have this pretty regularly while sitting on the tree house deck in Khao Sok enjoying my beautiful surroundings.

Hibiscus jam:

This is made from a flower common in the tropics, which is known in some countries as rosella. It is a member of the hibiscus family with salmon-colored flowers. As the seed pod develops, a really dark red fruit develops around the seed pod (calyx).

Ingredients:

1 kg sugar
1 kg fresh hibiscus fruit removed from the seed pod
Shredded peel of 2 limes
___ water

Preparation:

Put the fruit in a blender for just a moment, chopping into small pieces Cook in a heavy pan or pot (brass is best but not necessary Remove from fire when still liquid as it will solidify when cool.

Enjoy.

I have spent 40 years in Southeast Asia, mostly in the jungle. I developed eco-resorts in Thailand, starting with the River Kwai, then Khao Sok National Park, Krabi, and Phra Thong island, a beautiful and still pristine island north of over-developed Phuket ( http://www.goldenbuddharesort.com ). In all of these, we raised the environmental awareness of both local people and tourists.

It works. At Phra Thong, we sponsored a 10-year turtle conservation project. Villagers told us they didn't eat turtle meat anymore because their kids told them it was a bad thing! At Krabi, villagers stopped shooting the gibbons because they saw how much the tourists loved them.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Sandler
http://EzineArticles.com/?Some-Super-Thai-Recipes---Chicken-in-the-Straw&id=5886715