Thailand ………. Unbelievable

Thailand: From the moment you step off the plane your hit by it: the heat, the humidity, the culture. At Bangkok airport you are not greeted by hustle and bustle, newsagents and burger bars like you are in the UK, you are met with golden buddhas, wooden temples and calmness.

Visiting Thailand is like nothing you have experienced in England. It leaves you daunted and excited, but most of all when you get back home you feel like a different person, someone who has really seen it all.

The first time it really hit me that we weren’t on just another holiday, was on day four when walking past a coconut factory. I remember being fixated on it, not really sure what to make of it.

Everywhere you look in Thailand there are coconuts and men climbing up coconut trees with nothing but bare hands, bare feet and a rather large machete to chop one down for you to drink.

This is one of my first tips, try fresh coconut juice. It tastes nothing like what you can buy from the supermarkets.

Whilst in Thailand we learnt the about the different types of coconut milk. Coconut juice is the clear stuff that is actually inside a coconut. Coconut cream is the thick cream that you get from putting fresh coconut through a shredder, and coconut milk is half coconut cream and half coconut juice!

All this coconut talk is bringing me nicely onto my favourite Thai dish: Mango Sticky Rice! It is a sweet dish and is quite literally unbelievably tasty.

Mango Sticky Rice for four people

• 1 large ripe mango or 2 ripe smaller mangos
• 400 ml of coconut milk
• 5 small cups of sticky rice (glutinous rice)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 small cup of white sugar
• Sesame seeds to garnish (optional)
• A huge appetite as it’s delicious J

Step one: This is the long bit, but worth it in the end I promise. You need to soak your sticky rice in cold water for at least 4 hours.

Step two: Put 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence into a pan of boiling water. Then place a bamboo or metal steamer on top of your pan, with cooking muslin (or like I have done before tin foil with lots of little holes poked into it). Put your rice in the Muslin and steam it for 10 – 15 minutes or until it is cooked. Then leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Step three: Mix the coconut milk, sugar and salt together and simmer over a low heat for 3 minutes.

Step four: Remove the skin and stone from your mango and cut it into large chunks.

Step five: Divide your rice up into even portions, place your mango on top and then pour over the sauce and sprinkle a pinch of sesame seeds on top (optional).

If your end result looks like this, you are on the right track J

All the ingredients from scratch will probably cost you between £4 and £6 depending on where you buy it from. In Thailand a portion of this cost us 20 Baht which at the time was 28p!

If you do have a go at making it, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or tweeting me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and that the recipe will be a new favourite for you.

Next blog entry: Chiang Mai cooking school…. A big adventure!