Eating Thai food for a non-Thai person, who is not accustom to the culture and cuisine, is likely to think of a “pad thai”, “green curry” or “red curry”, the most commonly dishes available in a Thai eating place. However, if you love Thai food as much as I do, you would probably know or have tried “hor mok”. It is one of my favourite dish but not all Thai restaurants offer this dish in their menu. Why? I suspect it could be the unfamiliarity for people (non-Thai) to comprehend a Thai savoury dish that has no solid form or shape of an ingredient – meat or seafood – that looks like a custard or mousse.
Hor mok is one of my favourite dish. If it is in the menu, I would definitely order it. The thing I love most about hor mok is the flavour and taste. Not so much on texture. The traditional method of making hor mok is to use banana leaves and fold them into a cup with either toothpicks or staples to hold the leaf cup together. Then place in a steamer to cook.
I have improvised a bit to cook my hor mok. I didn’t have a steamer at home. In my home cooking style, one has to adjust depending on what’s available in my kitchen. Have some fun and enjoy the cooking.
Ingredients
- Banana leaves
- Lettuce leaves
- Kaffir lime leaves
- Thai basil leaves
- Fresh mix seafood
- Red curry paste
- Coconut milk
- 2 eggs
- Fish sauce
- Sugar
- Coriander leaves and red chilli for garnishing (optional)
Cooking
- Clean the banana leave. Then place them flat in a bowl. Next place shredded lettuce leaves followed by some Thai basil leaves
- Place the bowl in a pot slightly raised by 1-2 inches. Fill with water until it reaches the bottom of the bowl
- Make the hor mok base, which is a mixture of coconut milk, red curry paste and eggs
- Add the sugar, fish sauce and shredded kaffir lime leaves. Mix into the hor mok base. Then add the seafood. Mix until seafood is well coated
- Pour the seafood hor mok base into the bowl, which is prepared earlier with the banana leaves filled with shredded lettuce and basil leaves
- Cover the lid and steam until the seafood hor mok is cooked. The steaming time varies depending on the steamer, the container and portion of hor mok to cook. In my case, it takes 20 minutes
