The healthiest feast in town

NOOROR SOMANY Steppe, the chef at Blue Elephant – firmly believing that we are what we eat – has created a sumptuous five-course menu packed with healthy organic ingredients to bring out that inner beauty. 

The “Health & Beauty” menu on offer all this month doubles as a fund-raiser for the Queen Sirikit Centre for Breast Cancer, for which Noorer serves as an ambassador. This time she prepared a feast of organic, anti-oxidant delights to fend off the risk of cancer, again with part of the proceeds going to the centre.

“I met this lady when I was supervising a cooking class in the US,” Nooror says. “She was 80-something and still looked so young and vibrant. I asked her what her beauty secret was and she said, ‘Organic food.’ That’s how I came up with this menu, using the most organic ingredients I could find. It’s more than 70 per cent certified-organic herbs, vegetables and meat from the Surakij Farm.” 

Whet your appetite with Pan-Seared Landes Foie gras, accompanied by mixed vegetables with homemade dressing, and three “mini-starters”. 

One is Thai-style egg custard (kai toon) topped with steamed salmon, which has a pleasant sweet aftertaste from the shredded onions and mushrooms. On the same plate is a spicy and herbaceous “crepe” of stir-fried crabmeat with southern curry paste (kua kling) wrapped in soft paper sheet – just a little spice to make your mouth water. 

The last mini-starter is a dry dip made of crispy seabass, grated coconut, peanuts and shallots, known collectively as pla nam, to be enjoyed with curried chicken sausage and leaves from the tong lang tree. The tart leaves alleviate the sausage’s oiliness and at the same time make the heavily spiced dip more rounded and easy on the palate. In terms of health benefits, these dark green leaves with their characteristic yellow lines are packed with phosphorus, beta-carotene and vitamins B1, B2 and C. 

Next comes the soup, a thick and creamy bowl made with pumpkin, carrot, pounded dry fish and coconut milk and flavoured by shallots, shrimp paste and lemon basil, with a sprinkle of truffle oil. It’s a western take on kaeng liang and is fragrant, peppery and surprisingly refreshing. 

There are two options for the main course – Wagyu beef or prawns – both accompanied by enticing dishes. There’s red curry with baby mussels and pineapple – very pleasant thanks to the tangy-sweet pineapple and terrific with the savoury mussels – and stir-fried seabass with cumin leaves. The highlight of the latter is actually the cumin leaves, which deliver a delightfully pungent fragrance and a powerful kick. 

You can also have a kaffir lime chilli relish that’s actually shrimp paste chilli dip (nam prik kapi) with the juice of kaffir lime rather than common lime. This is probably one Thai cuisine’s most tantalising dips and, when super-tangy lime juice is replaced by the more delicate and fragrant kaffir variety, the result is even more pleasing. You get a bunch of veggies, fresh and boiled, to dip, too. 

If you opt for the beef, we recommend having it grilled and with a long-bean salad. The beef emerges tender and is so perfectly marinated that it needs no sauce. The crunchy bean salad cuts the richness of the meat. 

The spicy seared almond prawns topped with chilli paste are also nice but don’t quite grab the attention when accompanied by all those heavily flavoured side dishes. 

Leave room for dessert, because it’s a super-sour and wonderfully refreshing karonda sorbet, perfect for cleansing the palate after the feast. Served alongside is a slightly sweet and airy pudding made of rice cereal. 

 

 

ORGANIC OR NOTHING

>>The “Health & Beauty” menu is on offer at Blue Elephant Cooking School & Restaurant for lunch and dinner all this month. It costs Bt1,980.

>>Blue Elephant is on Sathorn Road, next to the Surasak BTS stop. 

>>Reservations are recommended at (02) 673 9353-8, 

www.BlueElephant.com