Isaan

Chicken Marylands braised on a bed of deep-gold onions, with the heat dosed from a chilli tincture

Four chicken Marylands braise on 1000 g of onions cooked to deep gold.

Spatchcocked chicken in a pounded paste, cooked upright beside wood coals

A 1.2 kg chicken, spatchcocked and slashed. It marinates overnight in a pounded paste of coriander root, garlic, lemongrass and bird's eye chilli.

Isaan table sauce carrying a measured dose of chilli tincture

A table sauce that takes its heat from a fat tincture and its aroma from raw chilli flesh.

Isaan dipping sauce of toasted dried chilli, toasted sticky rice, fish sauce and lime

A dipping sauce for grilled meat. It is a wet relish, not a pourable sauce. You drag the meat through it. Two chillies do two jobs.

Isaan duck laab

Duck leg mince rendered dry in its own fat, dressed off the heat with fish sauce and lime.

The plain jaew with raw deveined Carolina reaper, dosed one pod at a time

The same toasted rice, toasted dried chilli, fish sauce and lime base as the plain jaew.

Fan oven with a steam tray below, then the top grill for the char

The same bird and the same paste as the fire method. The heat is different. A 1.2 kg spatchcocked chicken roasts on a rack at 220 degrees C fan.