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Published on October 17, 2007

The owner of the lovely French bistro Restaurant Platform 1 on Samsen Road, Vichaya, or "Tam", is the latest member of the family to enter the culinary business. Her mother Naovanit owns two Thai restaurants, both called Ros Sabiang, on Samsen Road and on Sukhumvit Soi 11. Tam perfected her French cooking techniques at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in London.

She recently put her skills to the test, adapting French dishes so they could be made in a microwave oven. A cookbook full of the resulting recipes recently went on sale, though Tam has reservations about the technology.

"To be honest, microwaves are just a convenience for modern life," says the 29-year-old. "If you have the time, I still recommend you go traditional when cooking. The food tastes better with time and patience - and a little love, too."

Feel free to adapt Tam's recipe for your own use:

Cream of potato soup

Ingredients (Serves 6)

  2 large  potatoes  - cubed into ½ inch squares

 ¼ cup                   - cubed celery

 ¼ cup                   - cubed onion

 

 2 cups                  - chicken stock

 ¼ cup                   - butter

 ¼ cup                  - cold fresh milk

 ¼ cup                  - corn flour

 ¼ teaspoon          - pepper

 ½ cup                  - heavy cream

 2 teaspoons         - Worcestershire sauce

 ¼ teaspoon          - mustard powder

A few sprigs of parsley

Method

Mix the potatoes, onions, celery, chicken stock and butter in a large glass bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and cook everything in a microwave oven (high, 100 per cent) for 10 to 12 minutes until ingredients are softened. Stir and blend everything in a food processor.

Mix the corn flour with cold fresh milk and season with salt and pepper. Mix the rest of the ingredients (Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder) with the blended soup. Add the corn-flour mixture and heat it on high for another six minutes, removing every two minutes to stir the mixture thoroughly. Serve hot garnished with parsley.

Tips

Tam says that when you make soup containing vegetables and meat with a microwave oven, you must always use high heat (100 per cent). But if the meat is already tender, opt for 100-per-cent heat for half the required time and a medium heat for the rest of the time.

Restaurant Platform 1

1153/1 Nakhon Chaisri Road, Samsen Nai (opposite Samsen Train Station), call (02) 617 0181, 617 0188.

Sirin P Wongpanit

 The Nation