Has anyone mastered Thai food yourself?

[Anonymous]

I love Thai food - I could almost eat it every day if my budget would allow it. Since I cannot buy it nightly, I'd really like to learn how to make some of these dishes myself. Wondering if anyone has learned to cook really good Thai dishes at home? I've never tried the Thai kits sold at the grocery store, but that might be a good place to start. I really like the Ka Prow dish with basil and chilis as well as the Panang Curry (orange colored, kind of coconutty/ peanutty). Where to start? What ingredients make Thai authentic and what others can be subbed in with something common in grocery stores?

[Anonymous]

i once tried to make tom yum soup from scratch. turned out meh.

but i did discover that the pastes that are sold in asian grocery stores make thai cooking pretty darn easy. e.g. red curry paste, pad thai paste, tom yum paste, etc.

[Anonymous]

You will need fish sauce (that's what makes it salty). If you like the chili basil stuff, you will need to go to an asian store to get Thai chilis (skinny, about 2 inches long, red & green), and Thai basil. If you want to make curry, you can go with a kit. Just make sure to get good coconut milk, and not the reduced fat kind. You can follow the curry recipe on the back of the curry jar. I made panang curry following the recipe and it came out pretty good. Finally, thai food is really sweet, spicy and salty at the same time. You will feel like you're putting a lot of sugar (usually brown sugar) into something, but just follow the recipe and then taste. Adjust it next time if it seems too sweet. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I got this cookbook about 15 years ago and I use it a lot. It is set up really well- the best part being the photos of what is required. I canot recommend it enough if you want to make your own thai food. http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Easy-Thai-Cuisine-Cookbook/dp/4889960945

[Anonymous]

OP---I'm with you---I could eat Thai every day.

The Thai Market in Silver Spring is great. A Thai friend told me that she shops there all the time and then just adds some extra ingredients to the bottled/canned curries---just like I would doctor up canned spaghetti sauce. Key ingredients:

Palm sugar---can buy it at Thai market---the difference in taste to regular sugar is subtle in the recipe but there
Fish Sauce as suggested above
ditto for red dry chilis which will store forever or the green fresh ones that you can freeze.
Best time saving tip (works for Thai and Indian): combine equal parts minced fresh garlic and peeled chopped ginger in a food processor and make a paste. Use about 2 or 3 bulbs of garlic and a couple of big pieces ginger. Spread the paste between sheets of wax paper and freeze flat in freezer. When a recipe calls for chopped ginger and chopped garlic (and most Thai recipes call for both)---just break off a chunk from the freezer.
And to really make it taste authentic---buy frozen kaffir lime leaves at the Thai market and keep in a bag in the freezer. You tear them up (no stems) into the dish in tiny pieces just before serving.

Panang Recipe:Two big boneless chicken breasts, sliced thinly on the diagonal---slicing on the diagonal is key---it creates more surface area for the flavor to sink in

One 14 oz. can coconut milk---lite is fine

Two big teaspoons of storebought red curry paste (or more to taste)

1 T of combined ginger/garlic puree

1 red bell pepper sliced into strips

1 to 2 thai chiles (either dried red or fresh green) finely chopped (I sometimes buy the green ones and freeze them). Either scoop out seeds or leave in, depending on how hot you want it.

¼ c of chopped thai or regular basil

1 T palm sugar (or brown sugar)

2 T fish sauce

2 heaping T of organic peanut butter---crunchy. Like the kind Trader Joe’s sells.

4 torn up kaffir lime leaves (no stems) (these are hard to find and you can skip it, but it really does add real Thai flavor)

Chopped cashews---handful



Salt and pepper chicken and sauté in a little bit of vegetable oil until slightly cooked

Add ½ can coconut milk and stir in the paste until blended

Add ginger/garlic, fish sauce, chiles and sugar---cook 2 minutes

Add peanut butter, bell pepper and cashews and cook 5 minutes

Then add kaffir lime leaves and basil immediately before serving.



Serve over rice. This takes about 10 minutes to cook if you already have the chicken cut up---since you’re basically just dumping in a bunch of ingredients and you can chop the basil while the chicken cooks for 2 minutes in the curry paste.

It’s even better the next day after flavors have melded.

[Anonymous]

Wow, great advice for the garlic/ginger paste!

[Anonymous]

keep the cookbook suggestions coming! i get overwhelmed with the volume of ingredients, though...

[Anonymous]

I haven't ordered anything or used their recipes, but I found this website a while ago and it looks promising:
www.importfood.com

[Anonymous]

A lot of Thai dishes are super easy to make. Just get one of the easy cookbooks and you'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone!! I love the garlic/ ginger paste idea too! I live close enough to a Grand grocery store that I can get the authentic Thai ingredients and freeze them. I will definitely invest in a color photographic cookbook that gives detailed instruction and keep trying until I get at least some basics down...

[Anonymous]

Definitly experiement and start with something simple. My experience cooking Thai is that nothing really every turns out horrible. Some things just turn out better than others. You'll get a sense of the right mix of spicy as you practice. Whenever possible, I do try to make my own sauces. The prepackaged ones are easy and taste good, but can contain a lot of chemicals. Thai from scratch can be extremely healthy. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of Thai dishes are super easy to make. Just get one of the easy cookbooks and you'll be fine.

Hi, OP. I'm this PP. I have the cookbook "Thai in Minutes". I love it. It has pictures of the recipes, and it's so easy. Many of the recipes are like "put the ingredients in the pan, then cook".