When it comes to Thai cuisine, herbs and spices are very important. When you use them properly in the right combinations, herbs and spices help to give Thai cooking the proper balance of the four tastes: sweet, spicy, salty and sour. Almost every recipe in Thai cooking will start out with some kind of paste. You can buy Thai pastes that are already made, including those based upon green, yellow and red curry, but these spice mixes are not going to give you as much aroma or flavor. Also, pastes made from mixes do not have as many nutrients. In a Thai kitchen, pastes are made from and used with a whole spice or herb. Some of these may be fresh and others may be dry. They are then pounded into one with a mortar and pestle. This is the old-fashioned way of making pastes and many Thai chefs still swear by this technique. However, a food processor is much more convenient and it does a good job. Many Thai pastes begin with onions, garlic and chilies that are either green or red. You can add many other herbs and spices to these. These include coriander, galangal, green peppercorns, Thai chili powder, lemongrass and turmeric. Also, Kaffir lime leaves are a very frequent ingredient. This will give a very unique flavor of Thailand to a dish that is simmering on the stove. Lemongrass is used in many ways in Thai cuisine. For many dishes, lemongrass is chopped up and pounded. In others, it is cut into pieces and then bruised so that it releases its lovely flavor and scent into soups. Galangal is related to ginger, and so is turmeric. If you are not able to find galangal, you can use ginger instead. You often can find galangal in the frozen section in Asian grocery stores in the United States. The roots of galangal and ginger provide significant nutrients and strong flavor to many traditional Thai dishes. Of course, you cannot cook real Thai food without a lot of fresh basil on hand. Thais use many types of basil in their recipes, such as sweet and holy basil from Thailand. When you are doing a Thai meal, you will need to have a number of sauces ready. It will depend on the dish, but fish sauce is as critical to a Thai dish as soy sauce. If you do not eat meat, you can use soy instead of fish sauce. Remember that there are two kinds of Thai or Chinese soy sauce - light and dark. Light is used all the time in Thai cooking, and dark is stronger and is used more rarely. Another key ingredient you want to have is shrimp paste. This is a paste that tastes stronger than fish paste, and you do not want to use too much. Also, many Thai recipes have some form of coconut in them. Usually you will need to have coconut milk available. You should always have some high quality coconut milk in the fridge. Do not worry about coconut milk raising your cholesterol; recent studies indicate that it actually will lower your bad cholesterol and raise your good cholesterol. No Thai dish is complete without some good, fresh mushrooms. Many types are used in the Thai kitchen, such as wood ear, straw and shiitake. All Asian stores will have a good variety of mushrooms. Another ingredient to have on hand is jasmine rice, or you also can use brown rice that is made from whole grain from Thailand. Other rice that is used in Thai desserts are black rice and sweet rice. As you can see, there are many tasty and important ingredients in Thai cooking, so you should give it a try. Lawrence Reaves writes for Proctor Silex, a kitchen appliance company that offers affordable products inlcuding slow cookres, toasters, and coffee makers. For more information on these products and others click here.
Related Articles -
Thai, Spices, Thai Cooking, Seasonings,
|