World Cuisine: Thai Morning Glory Recipe

Oh how I love Morning Glory. Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about the Thai delicacy that is water spinach stir-fried with garlic and chilli. You may remember from my blog post 9 Foods You Absolutely Have To Try In Thailand that Morning Glory is one of my personal faves so I decided to have a crack at cooking it at home. Because why not, right.

The thing is, some of the ingredients are pretty hard to come by. In fact the main ingredient is, you can’t really pick up water spinach in Tesco’s these days. I mean I’m sure you could find it in a speciality store or something but who’s really got the time to go traipsing around town for a vegetable ay? So I made my own version, subbing the water spinach with pak choy and tenderstem broccoli. And guys, it’s just great. If I do say so myself.

I found a few articles online that recommended yellow soybean paste for the sauce but unfortunately that also seems to be MIA in Tesco so I subbed it for Umami Paste after a quick internet search. It’s a Japanese paste so I guess this is Asian Fusion, but like I said, still delicious. Here’s how I did it…

Thai Morning Glory Recipe

This recipe serves 2 FYI.

Ingredients

• 1 Pak Choy
• 1/2 pack of Tenderstem Broccoli
• 1 Red Chilli
• 4 Cloves of Garlic
• 1/2 tbsp Umami Paste
• 1/2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp Stir-Fry Oil

Method

1. Chop the tender stem broccoli in half and for the pak choy, cut each leaf in half lengthways.
2. To make the sauce, mix the umami paste, soy sauce and oyster sauce in a bowl. Thinly slice the chilli and the garlic cloves and add to the mix.
3. Heat the oil in a wok and add the veg and the sauce at the same time.
4. Stir-fry for 10 mins and serve.

Quick Sticky Rice

I served my Morning Glory with sticky rice which was the first time I’ve ever attempted it and I was really happy with the results. So I figured I’d share that too. Normally sticky rice recipes tell you to soak the rice for like 6-10 hours. But I like things to be fast so I followed a recipe from Food.com that was only half an hour. Much better.

Method

1. Wash the rice several times in a sieve until the water runs clear.
2. Set aside to soak in the colander for a couple mins.
3. Put the rice in a saucepan and add the same amount of water. Cover with a tight lid and bring to the boil.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes. (Don’t stir at all!)
5. Remove pan from heat and quickly stretch a clean tea towel over the saucepan, cover with lid.
6. Leave for another 15 minutes and serve.

I also decided to do little cups of rice so it looks a bit profesh. Although I didn’t have any ramekins or anything remotely professional to mould the rice so used a plastic ‘Butterbeer’ cup I had butterbeer ice-cream in at the Harry Potter Studios Privet Drive launch earlier in the year…

And voila! The end result was so delicious and tasted just like Morning Glory in Thailand, despite the vegetable and Japanese paste substitutes! Plus all available in the supermarket so that’s a winner. I threw on a splash of extra soy sauce and a sprinkling of coriander too – top notch.

Let me know if you try this recipe, I’d love to know what you think!

Have you tried Morning Glory in Thailand? Are you a fan?? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me @HeelsInBackpack!