Nong's Thai Kitchen - by Nongkran Daks & Alexandra Greeley (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Only one chef has proved her mastery over celebrity chef Bobby Flay in the Food Network's Pad Thai Throwdown challenge: Nongkran Daks.

Now, the master chef and owner of Virginia's renowned Thai Basil restaurant shares her secrets for creating Thai cuisine's most beloved dishes at home--using ingredients that can be found in most grocery stores.

In Nong's Thai Kitchen, Daks teams up with veteran food writer Alexandra Greeley to show readers how to prepare classic Thai recipes such as:

• Chicken with Thai Basil
• Shrimp Soup in Coconut Milk
• Spicy Beef Salad with Mint Leaves
• Roasted Duck Curry

Thai food is famous for its balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot flavors. This unique symphony of tastes and sensations is why Thai restaurants and cookbooks have entered the mainstream. What most people don't realize is that once elusive Thai ingredients such as fish sauce, lemongrass, coconut milk, cilantro, basil and shallots are now easily found, making it easy to prepare mouthwatering Thai dishes at home for far less money than they would cost in a restaurant. All the recipes in this essential Thai cookbook are healthy, easy to make and inexpensive, so step into Nong's Thai Kitchen and begin a culinary journey to the tropical heart of Asia!

Review Quotes

"...highlights restaurant-quality Thai cooking in a way that is approachable to the home cook." --Tara's Multicultural Table blog

"[...] It was easy for me to embrace and enjoy the cookbook Nong's Thai Kitchen by Chef Nongkran Daks and Alexandra Greeley. [...] This new Thai cookbook is the source for anyone who loves Thai cooking and will appeal to both beginners and experts in the kitchen. There are 84 doable recipes for everyday cooking. I have cooked several recipes since I got this cookbook." --Betty Ann Besa Quirino, Asian in America Magazine

"A chef in suburban Washington, D.C., Daks offers recipes for all manner of Thai dishes to re-create at home. Ever-popular satay can be grilled indoors or out, and the spicy peanut-coconut sauce that makes satay almost universally appreciated turns out to be easy to reproduce from ingredients available in most well-stocked supermarkets. Nong wants her food to be good for you, too. She offers a non-sugary nut snack that looks like savory peanut brittle. Sweet corn, not often seen in Asian cooking, makes a striking cold salad that would complement any buffet table. --Booklist

"I had the joy of cooking with Nongkran and trying my hand at her Pad Thai recipe. You'll never want to order it from your local restaurant again. What makes the dish is her sauce which was a spicy sweet glaze that coated every noodle. After begging Nongkran I was lucky enough to get the recipe and now everyone's lucky to have it. I've now cooked Nongkran's Pad Thai a few times for both friends and family." --Samantha Brown, host of several Travel Channel shows including: Girl Meets Hawaii, Passport to Europe, Passport to China, Great Weekends and Samantha Brown's Asia

"In Nongkran Daks's books, difficult recipes become easy enough for a novice. Recently, I made one of the recipes you'll find in Nong's Thai Kitchen. Once I had the ingredients in hand, I was able to prepare a delicious dish in five minutes. So I salute the author." --Charas Srisutham, Thai Airways International

"Master chef Nongkran Daks has created a gorgeous, colorful and delicious collection of authentic Thai recipes assembled after years of travel and teaching Thai cooking. Her passion for this global popular cuisine is evident as she explains what makes Thai food so captivating. [...] In addition to all of the classic Thai favorites, Daks includes the famous Pad Thai recipe, with which she beat celebrity chef Bobby Flay on the Food Network's Pad Thai Throwdown challenge in 2008." --The Foreign Service Journal

"Nongkran Daks was born to be a chef, and has been uncompromising in her standards for using fresh, top quality ingredients to create bright, authentic flavors served in her restaurant, Thai Basil, in the Washington, D.C area. ... The secret for her success is the fresh ingredients and her masterful blending of Thai herbs and spices. No one makes these dishes better than Nong. We are very pleased to learn that she will again be sharing the secrets of her best dishes with discerning cooks in this new cookbook." --Darryl Johnson, former U.S Ambassador to Thailand

If you're looking to include a local author on your cookbook wish list, this recipe from Nongkran Daks's most recent cookbook might convince you to go in the Thai direction. She's the chef-owner of Thai Basil in Chantilly, Va., a master chef and cooking instructor who has collected her most approachable dishes in this slim volume. --Washington Post

About the Author

Nongkran Daks is the executive chef and owner of the Thai Basil restaurant in Chantilly, Virginia. Part master chef and dedicated teacher, she makes her cuisine come alive in all its authentic, traditional glory. She has taught Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese cooking in Bangkok, Beijing, Honolulu, Vientiane, Laos and Washington, DC. Nongkran is the author of several Asian cookbooks and enjoys sharing the secrets of authentic Thai cooking with students in her cooking classes. Nongkran's most popular dish is Pad Thai, and she proved her mastery of it when she won Food Network's Pad Thai Throwdown challenge against celebrity chef, Bobby Flay.

Alexandra Greeley is a food writer, cookbook author, editor, reporter, food critic, staff writer, and freelance writer and editor, both in the United States and in Asia. She has also worked as a staff food editor for Vegetarian Times magazine. She served as the food writer & editor for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and has been a restaurant reviewer and editor for Gayot.com. She's a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and is the co-founder of the Washington DC chapter of Slow Food USA.