For this seafood dish you’ll need:

• 2 lbs of mussels (I used Blue Maine mussels)
• handful of Thai basil
• 1 bottle of panang sauce (I got a pre-made one)
• 1 tsp red curry paste

Clean the mussels really well. Pull out any seaweed that they’re in the middle of eating (this was more than I expected!) Discard of ones that doesn’t close, or that give away an AWFUL odour. When they are all scrubbed and rinsed pour in the panang sauce into a big pan and bring to a boil, while heating up dip in the red curry paste. Pour over the mussels and simmer/steam for about five minutes and put on a lid. Chop up some Thai basil, turn off the heat and mix the basil into the mussels.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 lbs octopus (cleaned and rinsed)
• 1 lbs shrimp (peeled and deveined)
• 14 oz. can of coconut milk
• 3 tbs red curry paste
• ½ cup of water
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• ½ lbs asparagus

Start out with the octopus. I cut off the legs and chopped them up in about 1-1½ inch pieces. Same with the head, cut it up into 1-1½ inch strips. When it’s all cut up heat up a big frying pan and pour in the coconut milk and then mix in one tablespoon of red curry paste, let it all mix and then add another tablespoon. Taste inbetween each time you add the red curry paste until you’ve reached desired degree of spicy. For me three tablespoons was just enough. While mixing the coconut milk and curry paste heat up a pot with water and when it’s boiling blanch the octopus for about 30 seconds then add to the coconut milk/curry mix.

Let simmer for about five minutes and then add fish sauce. Again taste the mix between additions of fish sauce. 1-2 tablespoons makes it really delicious. Also add two tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix it all together and let simmer for another five minutes.

Add about a cup (½ lbs) of any vegetables you’d like, I used asparagus and also some fresh Thai basil. Pour half a cup of water over the mix. Put a tight fitting lid on and let simmer for 10-20 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add the shrimp about five minutes before turning off the heat. Simmer with the lid on.

Serve with the coconut rice I made and garnish with Thai basil, delicious! :)

Note: I read about cooking the octopus for a long time, and it seems as if unless you slow cook it for a very long time it will have that chewy, fibrous texture. Good luck!

What we need:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1 can of water
• 1 can of jasmine rice
• 2,5 tbs unsweetened shredded coconut
• a pinch of salt

As you see I use the measurement “can” in this recipe. As simple as it sounds you just use the same can that the coconut milk came in. As a rule rice is cooked two parts liquid and one part rice. So it works out great.

In a pot pour in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and grease up the bottom and sides. It just has to be a very thin layer. This will help the rice not stick. Pour in the coconut milk, water, rice, shredded coconut and salt and let boil up. Stir every now and then. When the mixture has come to a boil lower the heat to the almost lowest possible and let steam covered with a tight fitting lid for about 20 minutes. Check in on the rice around 15 minutes into steaming and see how much liquid is left, if already has been all absorbed then you can turn it off and let steam for another few minutes without heat.

The rice is ready to serve! It is rather sweet and my suggestion is to serve it with something spicy and slightly fruity. Mangoes and shrimp in Thai chilli sauce maybe?

Served with home made tomato based curry
chilli sauce. Shrimp and broccoli.

Fire up your wok or big frying pan because we’re making stir fry. It’s very quick and super easy :)

What you need:
Shrimp
Rice noodles
Soy sauce
Garlic
Ginger
Hot sauce
Cilantro

You can add other ingredients as well of course, I am just showing you my way.

Start out with filling a bowl with water about half way and putting the noodles in it to soften. And in a frying pan, or if you have a wok, start frying the shrimp. You could toss in everything at once after the shrimp if you’d like since most of the extras are just herbs and spices and do not require much cooking time.

I add the noodles next, make sure to get as little water as possible when transfering to the frying pan. Now stir them and fry them and add the herbs and spices for delicious flavour. About half an inch cube of minced ginger (teaspoon I guess?) dashes of hot sauce, about two – three tablespoons of soy sauce. I use a quarter garlic, but I know a lot of people prefer less so I will say one or two cloves. And for the cilantro, well take a look at the picture and you’ll see :)

(I love cilantro!)

Served two people just fine, could serve three thin girls with no problem.

What you need: shrimp, lemon-grass, chilli, garlic chives, soy sauce, ginger, honey, beef, garlic, rice paper.

Preparation: Cut the lemon-grass in thin slices, half of one should be enough for what I made. Cut up some chilli, I cut up one whole and that was a little bit too much Id say. Split the garlic chives so they are “singles” and then cut them in half. De-tail the shrimp if you want, I did. Fill up a bowl with warm water, or a deep plate for the rice paper. Also put a garlic clove into your garlic press.

Cooking the shrimp: Melt a table spoon or two of butter into a pan, when it bubbles up throw in the shrimp and the lemon-grass. Stir for half a minute or so and throw in the chilli and press the garlic. Finish off with the garlic chives. Dip the rice paper into the bowl of warm water for only a few seconds, put it on a dry plate and quickly put the shrimp and vegetables onto the middle. Wrap up tightly and tie up with a garlic chive for decoration. It will stay closed even if you don’t.

Cooking the beef: I used thin beef for this, maybe only half an inch or less thick. Heated up a pan with olive oil. Hammered a lemon-grass stick, cut it up longways and fried them together with the beef. Also since I love garlic I pressed one clove onto each beef slice.

What about the soy and honey? Right. In addition to this I made my first sauce. Its pretty good, reminds me of sushi. Spicy, tangy, salty. And heres how you do it. Mix down 5-8 tablespoons of soy sauce into a little cup. Add one tablespoon of minced ginger and one tablespoon of honey. Mix around and add a little bit of sesame oil. Perfect for the beef and the rolls!

The image doesn’t represent the bok choy very well but you can see it under the Tuna.

Ill start out explaining the bok choy:
I heated up a big pan (the bok choy leaves are really big :s) And cut off all the stems, because they take longer to cook and I didn’t really like how they tasted. Put in the leaves and stir fried with ginger, garlic and soy (Hey, that’s that sauce I made!) And it was kind of like Asian spinach I guess >__>

Afterwards I made a tuna steak/fillet in the excess bok choy sauce. Put it in on medium heat. Put a cover over it for a few minutes until whole piece got colour. Then I flipped it and let fry a little bit on the other side. Just enough to get that golden brown colour.

Served the tuna on top of the bok choy with cherry tomatoes as decoration and potatoes.

Something I didn’t know about tuna: Its a really meaty fish and could really have used a good spicy sauce.