Thai cooking comes naturally to Veena Arora, the chef de cuisine at Delhi’s Spice Route restaurant. Arora grew up in Phattalung, a town in southern Thailand and they ate Thai cuisine at almost all meals. “We were the only Indian family in the town and we virtually lived on Thai food,” she says.

Arora has been with Spice Route, the speciality restaurant at the Imperial Hotel for the last 13 years. And nowadays, she’s conducting culinary workshops where she teaches her pupils the secrets of Thai cuisine. “Cooking Thai food is easy and depends on the use of right and fresh ingredients,” says the popular chef.

At Spice Route, Arora uses a lot of seasonal vegetables and fruits and sources a lot of her ingredients from Thailand. She also makes regular changes in the restaurant’s menu to constantly incorporate new dishes.

She trained initially at her family’s restaurant in Bangkok and moved to India after getting married in 1980. In 1994 she joined Silk Route, the Thai restaurant of the Lalit Hotel (it was then the Holiday Inn) as the Thai food consultant. Two years later in 1996 she joined Spice Route.

She shares some of her favourite recipes.

Laab Kai

Laab Kai

(Shredded chicken salad)

Ingredients
180gm chicken, minced 30gm onion 5gm glutinous rice, roughly ground and roasted 1tsp roasted red chilli powder 20ml lemon juice 1tsp fish sauce 10gm mint leaves 5gm sugar 80gm lettuce 20gm cucumber, sliced

Method
Toss the minced chicken in a wok until it is cooked. Remove it from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, except the lettuce and cucumber. Mix well. Serve it on a bed of lettuce and garnish with slices of cucumber.

Hed Phad Metmamuang

Hed Phad Metmamuang

(Mushroom stir-fried)

Ingredients
20gm onion 40gm red capsicum 40gm green capsicum 40gm yellow capsicum 100gm button mushroom 10gm black mushroom 10gm coral mushroom 5gm whole red chillies 5gm garlic 2gm sugar 10ml light soya sauce 2gm white pepper 20gm spring onion 10ml oil 25gm cashew nut

Method
Dice the capsicums and onion and keep aside. Soak coral and black mushrooms and slice (removing the hard stem). Cut button mushroom into two with stem (or into four depending on size). Fry the cashewnuts. Pour oil in a wok. Add garlic and sauté till light brown. Now, add all the vegetables except spring onions. Add all the seasonings. Garnish with spring onions, cut into diamond shapes.

Kaeng Khew Wan Chae

Kaeng Khew Wan Chae

(Vegetarian green curry)

Ingredients
200gm broccoli 200gm French beans 200gm green curry paste 750ml coconut milk 100gm Thai aubergines 100gm pea aubergines 15gm Kaffir lime leaves 50gm sugar 60ml soya sauce 5gm basil 2gm oil 200gm mushroom 100gm bamboo shoots 200gm baby corn

Method
Pour oil in a wok and add curry paste to it. Put it on a slow fire and add coconut milk slowly. Keep stirring. Add sugar, soya sauce and Kaffir lime leaves to it. Add beans, broccoli, mushroom, baby corn, bamboo shoots and aubergines. Garnish with basil and Kaffir leaves.