The true flavour of Thai fusion cuisine

WITH a view of the Budaiya highway, comfortably tucked within the food court at the Country Mall is Lemongrass.

The menu boasts a range of favourites of Thai fusion cuisine including pad thai, khao pad khai and the green and red chicken curries.

Preparing this scrumptious Thai feast is chef Disawan Dhammachianum with her team.

Chef Disawan, 41, from Busaiteen, comes to the island with 10 years of kitchen experience and belongs to a family of well-known chefs in Thailand.

Although the food industry was the family choice, after finishing school chef Disawan took up finance.

But she said: "I soon realised I didn't want it as it was very stressful and I wanted to do something that gave me more peace of mind.

"So I decided to become a chef."

With the decision made, using the knowledge from a cooking course she took at the tender age of 11 and her experience from years of living with chefs, she set off on her new career.

She completed two courses, one in cooking and another in decorative food carving before she joined the Pathumwan Princess Hotel Bangkok.

She later moved onto the Holiday Inn Resort on Phi Phi Island and has also worked in the UK.

As well as authentic and fusion Thai cuisine she is also comfortable preparing Japanese, Chinese and Korean dishes and has an interest in making bakery items.

Aside from being master of her own kitchen, she has also worked as a food specialist and food stylist for corporate offices, supermarkets and packaged food companies. In the future chef Disawan hopes to write a cook book or have a cookery show on television.

Her kitchen essentials include fish sauce, oyster sauce and palm sugar which she said are very important ingredients in Thai cuisine.

For Lemongrass, keeping the local tastes in mind, she plans to introduce shawarmas with chicken green curry or penang curry to add a bit of both cultures.

Lemongrass was opened in November last year by Busaiteen Thai resident Sirirat Jenrattanasathien.

She said: "It was always my dream to open a restaurant. I wanted to name it Kingh or ginger in Thai but the name was not approved.

"We are planning on expansion and are looking at opening an outlet in Qatar. We are looking for investors interested in franchising our brand in Bahrain and rest of the Middle East.

"In our plans, we will be aiming to have a catering section and will soon offer Thai traditional cooking classes as well."

Here chef Disawan shares the recipe for one of the most popular dishes in Thai cuisine, green curry chicken.

Gaeng khiew-wann gai (green curry chicken)

Ingredients:

Thai green curry paste 2 table spoons

Coconut cream 1/2 cup

Coconut milk 2 cups

Chicken (cut into 1cm x 2.5cm) 450gm

Thai fish sauce 1/4 cups

Palm sugar 3 table spoons

Thai eggplants 1 cup

Fresh Kaffir lime leaves 6 leaves

Sweet basil leaves 1/4 cup

Red jalapeno chili (cut) 10 pieces

Method of cooking

Pour the coconut cream and green curry into a large saucepan and heat to boiling.

Add chicken (or meat), fish sauce and stir to combine and simmer for two minutes.

Add coconut milk and palm sugar and stir to combine and leave for five minutes.

Add eggplant and simmer for two minutes.

Add Kaffir lime leaves, sweet basil leaves and garnish with red chili and serve.