KY cooks – Tomyam & Fried Druken Prawn recipes from The Datai Langkawi

One of the activities we participated in while at The Datai Langkawi (see blog post) was a fun session on cooking conducted by the two chefs who are specialized in Thai cuisine at the beautiful hotel.

The session took place at the Thai Pavilion, a semi-open air restaurant that’s built on stilts and situated by the main swimming pool.

learning some tricks from the chef

Here are the two recipes you might fine useful to add to your cooking repertoire.

Our first dish was goong phad keemao, or fried drunken prawn. While the name might suggest that this dish involves alcohol, it actually wasn’t the case. Here goes:

Ingredients:

• prawn (250 gram)
• fresh cili padi (8 gram)
• onion (20 gram)
• tomatoes (20 gram)
• galangal (20 gram)
• lemongrass (10 gram)
• cooking oil (30 ml)
• garlic (10 gram)
• kaffir lime leaf (2 gram)
• thai basil leaf (5 gram)
• oyster sauce (30ml)
• fish sauce (15ml)
• pepper powder to taste

the drunken prawn doesn’t use any alcohol, halal version

Cooking instructions:

• heat oil in wok, then add garlic, chili, onion, and stir together
• add prawn, galangal, lemongrass, pepper, stir till prawn is half cooked
• add oyster sauce, kaffir lime leaf
• add chicken stock (or plain water if you don’t have chicken stock) and Thai sweet basil
• adjust saltiness with fish sauce
• serve while hot

you can cook the tomyam in either clear or “red” version

Next is arguably the most famous Thai dish of all time – tomyam gai. We made the chicken version here, but you can substitute with prawn, squid, or other seafood as well.

Ingredients:

• chicken breast sliced (60 gram)
• galangal (10 gram)
• lemongrass (10 gram)
• kafir lime leaf (5 gram)
• abalone mushroom (20 gram)
• tomyam paste (10 gram)
• fish sauce (10 ml)
• lime juice (10 ml)
• chicken stock (150 gram)
• coriander leaf (5 gram)

Haze, KY, and WeiZhi showcasing our dishes at The Datai Langkawi

Cooking Instruction:

• boil chicken stock with galangal, lemongrass and tomyam paste in small pot (leave out tomyam paste if you want clear version)
• let the ingredients reduce a little, then add chicken, abalone mushroom, and kaffir lime leaf
• let cook for another 3-4 minutes
• season with fish sauce and lime juice
• add coriander leaf before serving

After the cooking session, we sat down and had our dishes with some steamed rice. There was also some Thai dessert and white wine to complete the course. It was pretty fun and now I do think I should slot in cooking classes whenever I travel to other places. These recipes are pretty easy to follow, I’m pretty sure I’ll make them at home.

Datai was such an awesome experience, I miss it already.