Temple of Thai - a great site full of Thai recipes and grocery

The other night our international Thai student decided to make dinner for us and two of her friends as a little celebration for the end of her first semester here at our local high school. As she was looking through her Thai cookbook I was trying to find the same version online and in English to simplify the conversions. That is when we found the site Temple of Thai which had the same recipes (or at least very similar) but of course in English.

She decided to try to make two things. The first was a Spicy Papaya Salad - Som Tum, which is a salad that has an amazing amount of flavor, and truthfully I would advice anyone to try it as it is fabulous and a great side dish for any meal especially grilled meats. Now as you all know Thai food can be pretty spicy, therefore we decided just to use two Thai chillies. One thing you can do though, is not to add all of the sauce to the salad and add a few more chillies to the side sauce for those who like it really spicy.

Along with the salad we had Thai Barbecue Chicken - Gai Yang and this one was a HUGE hit amongst everyone. Even two days latter the leftover chicken was still amazingly moist, tender and juicy. It has a little bite to it, but even my toddler devoured it without any problem.  We did however not grilled it but instead broiled it.

With the leftover of the lemongrass we had, she did what she calls "Lemongrass juice" more like a tea that is extremely refreshing and cannot wait to make it again once the weather starts warming up. All you need to do is boil lemongrass in water for a while then add sugar, make sure it dissolves well then pour it in a jar with lots of ice.

Here are some photos our our Thai "daughter cooking then enjoying her masterpiece with us and her friends. Just in case you are wondering the reason for the "fire hat" is that our younger daughter decided to make her wear it! Not quite sure why though!