This recipe comes courtesy of Khun Tanes, chef at Fat Boys Restaurant, East Sheen, who was awarded a prize for outstanding cooking during the 2011 ATBUK Thai cooking course with Ajarn Srisamorn.

Between September 5th and 8th 2011 a group of chefs from various Thai restaurants across the UK took part in a very special cooking course hosted the University of West London and established by ATBUK (The Association of Thai Businesses in the UK) in conjunction with the Royal Thai Embassy, London.

Ingredients

• For the Gaeng Som Chilli Paste:
• 3-4 large dried chillies – reduce or increase the number of chillies according to taste
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 6-7 small shallots, chopped
• 1 table spoon shrimp paste
• vegetable oil for frying
• For the Gaeng Som Curry:
• 2 cups Chinese white cabbage
• 1 white radish
• 2 cups cauliflower
• ¾ cup green beans
• 1 cup of cabbage
• 1 ¼ cups of grilled white fish meat (snakehead fish if possible)
• 1 cup of tamarind juice from wet tamarind – more can be added to increase sourness
• 3-4 table spoons sugar
• 1/3 cup fish sauce
• 5-6 cups water

Method

• To Make Gaeng Som Chilli Paste:
• 1. Soak the dried chillies in water until soft. Remove stalks and deseed.
• 2. Fry the chillies, garlic, shallots and shrimp paste until fragrant. Transfer to a pestle and mortar, add the salt and pound together.
• 3. The chilli paste should appear quite moist and not too dry.
• To Make Gaeng Som Curry:
• 1. Clean then chop the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Removed the meat from the pre-grilled fish taking care to remove all bones.
• 2. Lightly pound the fish with the chilli to mix them together. Heat the water in a pan over a high heat. When the water begins to boil add the chilli mixture.
• 3. Start to add the vegetables that will take the longest to cook (cauliflower, green beans and radish).
• 4. Add the tamarind juice, sugar and fish sauce along with the cabbage to the curry.
• 5. Check the taste of the broth which should be made up of sweet, sour and salty.
• 6. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are cooked through. Serve with fried fish if desired.