In her kitchen this week, Poh's guest is Martin Boetz. Born in Germany, Martin is now the Executive Chef of two restaurants, one in Melbourne and the other in Sydney. Martin began his cooking career in a western kitchen but all that changed once he had eaten at David Thompson's famous Darley Street Thai restaurant. Martin began working with David, going on to create his own take on the cuisine. Martin's food has been described as 'a singular blend of Thai and modern Australian food' and his restaurants are both popular and universally acclaimed. Martin loves Thai food because he says it makes him 'feel good' and, for him, it's all about traditional Thai recipes cooked with the best of Australian ingredients.
Fascinated by the balance of the sweet, the sour and the salty in Thai food Martin cooks two dishes which are all about balance and texture. His Orange Sour Curry is a curry where the paste is cooked off in stock with added vegetables and salmon. This is an interesting and easy curry and well suited to the home cook. Martin's other dish, a Crispy Fish Salad, is also interesting in that flathead is dried, pulverised and rained into hot oil to create fish with incredible crunch and crispness, the fish is then served with a beautiful Thai salad. To complement Martin's dishes Poh cooks a coconut based Malaysian dessert which is shaped and cooked in banana leaf and is called Kuih Koci.
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