Thai Take Out at Home: Staples and Tools

Sorry for the absence! Hopefully it won't take me a month to get the next post ready. Let's get started!

Most of the recipes I'll be sharing can be made with food items from your typical grocery store and you should also already have all the basic tools needed. There are just a few things that will make the dishes authentic and easier to make.

The first and in my opinion, the most important, thing I'm going to address today is nam pla, or fish sauce. Go ahead and cringe in disgust. Wikipedia defines it as "a condiment that is derived from fish that have been allowed to ferment." There's really no appealing way to put it. If you have an aversion to seafood, but enjoy Thai food, you're going to have to accept that you enjoy fish sauce. I can assure you that the Thai cooks use it at your favorite restaurants. We put it in almost every dish: papaya salad, beef salad, curries, larb/lopp, pad thai, kuey tweal (Thai noodle soup), basil, etc. I don't recommend substituting with soy sauce or salt. You will find that your dish is missing something or in some cases completely ruined. In fact 90% of the time when we taste something to make sure it's ready to serve, it almost always needs more fish sauce (we add a few squirts at a time because it's very intense) If you add one thing to your pantry for Thai cooking, it would suggest you get nam pla.  Oh, and it's very high in sodium, so use sparingly or get a low sodium version.

The bottle in the middle is dark or black soy sauce. It is sweet and thick in comparison to the regular soy  sauce. I use it mostly for stir fry. It's not neccessary, but I'm sure down the road a recipe will call for it, so I wanted to share. The Kikkoman, I rarely use for Thai cooking, but it doesn't hurt to have this on hand for Asian inspired dishes. All should be available at your local Asian market (most grocery stores also have them but they are much more expensive!!) I'm pretty sure they are all offered in low sodium versions. I need to start buying those....I just looked at the sodium content for the first time in my life. Yikes!

I try to always have lemon, lime, garlic, onion, lemon grass, and tomatoes on hand. We go through tomatoes regulary. The lemon, lime, garlic & onion keep really well and we use them in almost all of our cooking. The lemon grass comes in a stalk. It's in a vase because I'm rooting it so that I can stick it in dirt and let it grow all summer - then I'll have endless lemon grass. If you have a black thumb you should still be able to grow lemon grass. I barely paid attention to mine last year, put it in poor sandy soil, and it still grew like crazy!

Here's another one that's not necessary, but if you want to go all out - go ahead. You want a balance of sour, sweet, and spicy, and palm sugar achieves the 'sweet' I wish I had these because ours is a big block of it that's not easy to handle or store. You can sub brown sugar or just leave it out like my mom. I've noticed that many of the restaurants around here are adding more and more sugar to their dishes. It depends on the cook and restaurant but....sugar sells. Thanks, America.

The last and most exciting element - heat! The best thing to do is grow your own or buy a bag like the one pictured (again, Asian market) and stick it in the freezer so they last longer. If you are catering to different sensitivity levels, you don't have to completely omit the pepper. We usually split everything into two batches - one hot, one mild when we have company or family member who doesn't prefer so much spice. You can also substitute other peppers if you'd like.

I use this as a topping, additional heat or to make a dipping sauce. I eat it on my egg and rice in the morning, pasta dishes,soups - everything. Use whatever kind you like. This container is $3 and lasts forever. Even with daily use!

I got tired of editing and this was a sorry picture to begin with, but just to show you...We go through more rice than most, so we buy these huge bags of jasmine and sticky rice. It saves a LOT of money and they last us about 6 months. Right now they are about $25

Here are our rice cookers. The steam basket on the left is for sticky rice. I'm not sure if you can make it in a normal pot or rice cooker. I know you can make jasmine rice on the stove top in a regular pot.

On the left is a mortar and pestle, or as my grandmother calls it, 'cloke.' You can make papaya salad without this, but it is soooo much better if you have one of these. The flavors are more cohesive with this method. This large one is $15 at the Thai Market on Racetrack. I haven't seen large ones anywhere else. I've only ever used it for making papaya salad, but I'm sure my grandmother used hers for curry pastes and other sauces. 

I use a food processor right for mincing meat of for basil and larb. I cut the meat into cubes and let the machine do the rest. If you don't have one all you need is a great knife and some built up anger to get rid of. 

She wanted to take home one of everything!

I don't have a picture but cilantro and Thai basil (not sweet! save that for Italian cooking) are also really important. To save money I grow mine. You can grow it year round (bring it indoors during the winter). If you don't want to mess with seeds, I've seen transplants for thai basil at both at Lowe's Home Depot. Cilantro is available everywhere but the Thai basil you will only find at an Asian market. Oh! I almost forgot! Dry roasted, unsalted peanuts and cashews are handy and yummy snacks. We never have them on hand because we usually snack too much.

When you go to the market, if you have any trouble finding what you need, just ask for help! There are other ingredients, but I'll address those when the dish comes up. You don't want to overwhelm your budget and pantry.

If you are local, I recommend the Thai Market on Racetrack Rd. It's across the street from the complex with Calvary Emerald Coast and Network Video.

Thai Take Out at Home

I'm introducing another "series" here on my little piece of Blogland. I'm asked all the time if I can teach someone how to make Thai food or pass on the recipe, so I'm going to compile what I've learned from my grandmother and parents here to share with you!

I've been very blessed to grow up learning how to cook Thai food. My mother, Praphaphorn (we call her Phyllis) was born in Bangkok to my grandmother, Ratana.  They moved here when my mother was very young (I believe just a few months old). There is a rather abundant Thai (asian in general) community in this area. I'm assuming thanks to the large military community.  I've been frequenting places like Thai Saree, The Bangkok House, and the Thai Market most of my life. I remember sitting in my grandmother's salon munching on imported goods, the most memorable dry shredded squid and her showing me how to roll up balls of sticky rice. I also remember hating bamboo shoots, but stealing sips of the broth from my moms red curry. My brother and I have always had some sort of spice in our food - since the womb. For me it's not luxurious or exotic, it's normal. Don't take this wrong. I've had my fair share of meat and potatoes. My dad's parents are a whole different culinary heritage, primarily Italian-American from my grandmother Rose, but that's another story for another time.

When Cameron and I were first married I quickly realized that the only healthy and affordable dishes I  felt confident making were curry, papaya salad, beef salad, and several variations of stir fry. I could follow any recipe but when it came to throwing dinner together in a pinch on a budget these were my defaults. I've come a long way over three years, but I still find this to be true. Tonight for example, what did I do with the steak I needed to cook? Minced it, stir fried it with some basil, garlic & peppers, and threw some jasmine rice in the cooker.

I'm no culinary genius, but most Thai dishes revolve around a few basic ingredients. I'm sure you're familiar with the flavors -  lemon, lime, thai basil, cilantro, garlic, fish sauce, etc. Once you stock your pantry with the key items, you'll be set. My first "tutorial" post will be focused on this.

Here's a little forewarning. As with every culture, there are as many variations of a dish as there are families in that country. Thai people are very frugal and use the most of every resource. So, after you read or try a recipe, before you write it off as unauthentic please consider that I'm working with how my grandmother passed down her "recipes." She doesn't use recipes and measurements and every time she makes a dish it turns out different. If we have flank steak we use flank steak for beef salad. Sometimes it's a london broil. I prefer a few crushed dried shrimp and peanuts in my papaya salad. My mother can't stand it that way. I'm going to try to focus on keeping the recipes basic and simple and give tips to modify them to your tastes.

I'm so excited and can't wait to share these with you! At the end of the week look forward to locating and navigating a store of imported Asian goods!