Red Curry of Vegetable Soup

This is so easy, filling and delicious. Perhaps not an authentic Thai dish, but if you have all the ingredients which you will do if you are a fan of Thai food, it takes no time at all to make.
I served it with a dollop of yoghurt and some pappadams for a change, definitely not Thai !
A great hearty meal for a winter Sunday night.
Play around with the vegetables, but use a starchy one as it will help thicken the soup.


2 cups chicken stock ( vegetable is fine too )
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped into smallish even pieces
1 large zucchini sliced and quartered
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
handful of chopped coriander
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
plain yoghurt
Lime leaves, finely sliced
pappadams
Rylstone olive oil

Fry the curry paste in the oil until fragrant.
Add the chopped onion and garlic and stir until translucent. Add the chicken stock and coconut milk and combine together.
Add the sweet potato first and simmer gently until nearly cooked. Then add the zucchini and chopped coriander. Lastly add the seasoning, brown sugar, fish sauce and salt. Taste and adjust if necessary.
As the vegetables are cooking the liquid will thicken. Simmer gently until all vegetables are soft.
If you feel its too thick add some more stock, too thin, cook a little longer.
Serve with yoghurt and poppadoms and garnish with lime slices.

Pork and Veal Thai Meatballs with Yoghurt sauce

Getting in the mood with a touch of Thai, again. I had some of the yoghurt sauce in the fridge  from my vegetable pasties and it was also delicious with the meatballs.
Fresh ingredients and beautiful aromas of freshly chopped coriander and mint, have you salivating for these before you have cooked them.
They can be adapted and made a lot smaller for finger food for a party.
Serve them with a really fabulous salad and when the weather gets a bit warmer a mango salsa would be beautiful with them too.


1kilo pork and veal mince
1/2 red capsicum
1 small red onion
2 cloves garlic *
2 teaspoons minced ginger *
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
3 tablespoons chopped mint
1 stalk lemongrass finely chopped
2 tablespoons Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce or to taste
1 egg beaten
S&P
Canola or peanut oil

* I used for this recipe a minced  bottled garlic and ginger bought from an Asian supermarket

 Finely chop onion, capsicum, lemongrass and whole garlic and ginger if not using minced.
Add these along with the chopped mint and coriander to the pork and veal mince. Mix thoroughly and add Sweet Chilli Sauce  and the beaten egg to bind the mixture. At this point you can add salt and pepper.

Shape the mixture into balls  about the size of golf balls. If making them this size a kilo will make about 20 meatballs.
Heat the oil in a shallow fry pan and add the meatballs. Don't put them all in at once and don't overcrowd the pan. Turn them to make sure each side is evenly cooked.
Drain on paper towel and serve when ready with the yoghurt sauce, or alternatively serve with extra Sweet Chilli sauce
They can be made earlier and reheated. They also freeze well.

Thai Salmon Cakes with Sweet Ginger and Chilli Sauce

Last year whilst staying at Peregian Beach, for our bi annual Big Chill Weekend with our Queensland friends, my gal pals and I , decided to stay on for a few extra days. Having eaten at the Spirit House at Yandina many times we were very keen to do a cooking course there. So Shelley, Angela, Fiona, Pip and I  spent the day with the Katrina Ryan, one of the cooking school chefs. She has worked alongside Neil Perry and was a fabulous teacher, we loved our day with her and came home very inspired! Make sure you do a course from the many on offer if you are having a holiday at Noosa.

We all purchased goodies from the shop after our class and I  bought the frozen curry pastes back to Sydney in a cooler bag . Delicious and so convenient, they come in individual sachets of Red, Green and Yellow pastes. This is what inspired me for the recipe. All of the ingredients I had in the pantry or fridge. Fresh fish is of course beautiful , but I was using what I had at hand.The sauce was made from a bottle of Buderim  Sweet Ginger Sauce, also from Queensland! There are many readily available chilli with ginger sauces you can substitute.

2  400 gram Tins Salmon

1 small red onion chopped

2 sachets of Spirit House Red Curry Paste or 60 grams of a bottled prepared Red Curry Paste

1 tablespoon Fish Sauce

2 tablespoons chopped coriander

2 tablespoons chopped mint

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

1 egg

 ½ cup mashed potato for binding

Remove the salmon from the tin and place into a large mixing bowl. I also remove the black skin and the tiny row of bones you will find running through the middle of the salmon

Mix all of the ingredients together and form into rissoles or small cakes, Set aside in the fridge.You may crumb them if you wish, which I do if I have crumbs handy. When ready, fry them gently each side in a shallow pan with a little rice bran oil. I like to use this as it has a high smoking point.

Serve with the sauce. I served it with light salad of greens, cherry tomatoes, toasted almonds, lots of chopped mint and coriander and very thinly sliced orange quarters. Now it is getting colder you may like vegetables and mash.

1 tablespoon Chilli sauce from a bottle

3 tablespoons Sweet Ginger Sauce 

1 tablespoon Fish Sauce