How strong is your Thai cooking vocabulary?
Well, undeniably most people around the world relish Thai cuisines simply for the fact that it is the marriage between the flavors of sweet and spicy. Besides that it is also true that dining at a Thai restaurant is a whole lot different experience than attempting to cook, ‘foreign food’. But this notion can easily be altered if you understand or are familiar with basic vocabulary of Thai culinary terms and ingredients.
If you are a Thai food lover then it is always worth understanding the basic ingredients to many delectable Thai dishes. Apart from that you can even conquer your fears of experimenting with Thai cooking and master numerous recipes to serve your family and friends. Getting to know the basics is not that difficult, and practicing what you learn can always be fun!
Ingredient Information
As far as the ingredients are concerned, not everyone is savvy with them. Also the grocery stores in US and UK do not always offer the common Thai recipe ingredients to the buyer, especially in a more conservative area of the country. So, a visit to a larger city, or probably an Asian specialty shop, might be handy. Although a majority of these food items are available mainly as a fresh product, other items, such as fish sauce or soy sauce, can be bought off the shelf and stored properly.
Review of the Thai Ingredients
1. Cilantro– an herb that immensely improves the flavoring of many dishes. In Thai cooking it is the root which is preferred. The whole cilantro plant, with root attached, is easily available in a lot of Asian markets.
2. Coconut– coconuts can be found in loads at almost all supermarkets. Coconut water is recognized for its health benefits, the white coconut meat found inside the shell is grated and added to dishes. Besides that coconut milk is also used in a recipe.
3. Curry Paste– Curry paste is readily available in supermarket stores apart from other Asian ingredients for creating Chinese or Thai recipes. It is normally seen in a ‘red’ or ‘green’ form in the market. Curry paste is basically a mixture of various ingredients such as garlic, onion, galangal, coriander and lemongrass.
4. Fish Sauce– It is actually an extract of fermented fish and sea salt. The longer the duration of the fermentation process, the more nutty and savory, the flavor.
5. Ginger root– It is indeed a plant utilized for flavoring purposes in Thai cuisines and rendering health benefits like relief from an upset stomach, for aesthetic purposes. Fresh ginger should always be given preference over a powdered version.
6. Lemon Grass– It is primarily a grass that grown in Southeast Asia and added to a huge range of dishes and teas for flavoring.
7. Thai Chillies– Thai Chillies are quite small looking but are immensely effective in adding heat to cuisines. The unripe chillies remain green, but transform into red after ripening.
