Ader1

I've seen it put in green curry Ken but not in the paste. Although the zest of the kaffir lime is used in the paste.

I recently spoke to a friend of mine who is Thai. She has some friends who own a restaurant. I asked her to find out for me which paste they use to make their Green Curry. She was told Nittaya. I thought this would be the case as I spoke to another restaurant cook who said the same. Anyway, she added that her friends also put into the curry some blended Thai sweet basil (as well as some sweet basil leaves) at the end. She said to me that Westerners can't take the amount of paste which a Thai can and the curry turns out anaemic. The basil gives it extra colour and taste. She also said that they put in some extra lemon grass and galangal. Really to stretch out the Green Curry Paste taste without the heat and additionally adding a more attractive green colour. She also meantioned that you can put in Pepper leaves to add green colour (again blended). I've read this somewhere before....I think Thompson's book. What I'd like to know is anybody worked in a Thai restaurant and knows of the kind of quantities they use to make a kind of more westernised Green Curry? I will in time contact my friend again when I get the chance....she lives in another European country. But it will be interesting to hear if others here have heard of this style of Green Curry cooking.

Anybody tried..... www.wandethaicooking.com? This is meant to be a school for teaching Thais to become chefs and more recently I believe they've started offering these courses in English.

I can try freezing them but I've tried it with Thai Sweet Basil and they turn almost black. I've read that this is the case so it wasn't just me. In a Thai Green Curry....you wouldn't want black bits bobbing around on top of it. Maybe there isn't an effective way of preserving basil. Thanks for the replies.

How do I go about doing this? I've got some Holy Basil which isn't possible to get around here but I've managed to get some over the net. I read in the book 'It Rains Fishes' that the author has dried Holy Basil in the past for later use. I've also seen dried Kaffir Lime leaves in the shops which might also be a good idea in the future for me. How does one go about doing this? Just stick them in an airing cupboard or whatever? I'm going to buy a dryer one day but they are quite expensive. Any help much appreciated.

Anybody know of how to keep Thai basil. I know that the sweet (Harapa) turns dark once frozen. Is there another way? How about the Holy Basil? It's a problem for me as there are no shops around here selling these.

I tried this out earlier today and I am very pleased with the result as seen in the picture. One thing....when I put in the Garlick etc the Garlick soon began to burn. I turned down the heat. Maybe I should have cut down on their stir-frying time and gone onto the next stage sooner? Or maybe I should have put in the Garlick after the onions? Any ideas please? The next time I will use a milder curry powder so as not as hot (some of my family can't endure much heat) but still use more of it as I think it needed a bit more flavour. It was very nice though. Thanks Ce'Nedra.

The reason I asked here is that I have found the commercial pastes not being able to replicate what I get in Chinese take-aways/restaurants. I will try the one above though posted by Ce'nedra.

Hey thanks. I've saw one of her programmes on tv a couple of years ago but I didn't watch the series because of other commitments. But maybe she can help.....? Have you seen this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/chinesefoodmadeeasy/ I'll have to get that book of hers? Have you tried any of her recipes? NB Which one of her books do you have?

Thanks Ce'nedra, Do you mean add add star anise to an Indian Curry powder? Do you live in the UK? Have you tried one of these dishes which I am talking about? Thanks.

Thank you all very much. I'll be looking into all the suggestion made.

Does anybody here know how the make the curries as one would find in a Chinese Restaurant found in the UK. There are commercially availabe pastes out there (eg Goldfish) but from what I've found, they don't quite replicate the restaurant experience. Anybody know how the Chinese make their curries in UK restaurants? Are they similar on the continent or say HK? Cheers.

Thank you both for your replies and suggestions. I think I'll buy the Bourdain book. Just looked at it on Amazon and it looks interesting and some cheap used copies going. For those of you who have gone through Catering college....would college text books have in them what I am broadly looking for?

I have been looking for a cookbook which tells you about techniques that restaurants/fast food places employ to make food preparation easier eg Cooking or grilling a meat then freezing it to be re-heated at a later time. I saw this cook boiling sausages once and she said that they now had changed colour throughout and she only need to fry them to finnish them off once they were ordered. I also saw the same cook pre-pepare mashed potatoes and then freeze them I believe. She was Thai and her Engish was not very good so I didn't learn from her as much as I would have liked. Maybe these are things that you can just learn on the job or maybe there is a book or books which give short-cuts like the ones above not necessarily those though. I would also like to learn more about the thawing of meats and how long they may be kept once thawed? How to cooks know when something has gone off? Is it the smell or the look of the food or maybe a combination? Thanks in advance. PS I entitled the thread "....with restaurant techiniques" but I suppose "....kitchen techniques" would be usefull too.:-)

Thanks. But what is it though? Is it dark Soy sauce? It can't be light because I saw the bottle and the recipe specified light as an additional ingredient. Edit: I see that it isn't a Soy Sauce from the following link. I understood her correctly then that it wasn't a Light or Dark Soya Sauce. http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/seasonings/ingredient-spotlight-maggi-seasoning-091316

I watched this Thai lady make some Wantons. I was familiar with all of the indredients except for something which she called 'Maggy' or 'Maggi' Soya. According to here it wasn't dark Soya or light Soya but I can't be sure of this although her English was reasonable. Have you heard of Cai daw (not sure of the spelling) but the fried egg on top of rice. She said that the 'Maggi' Soya sauce was good with that. Any ideas?

I want to buy a nice and simple Thai cookery book. I've got a few already including the Thompson book. I'm considering either getting the 'It Rains fishes' book by Kasma or 'Crying Tiger' by Supatra.....at least for now. Or would somebody suggest the 'Hot Sweet Sour' book. What I particularly like about the Kasma book is that she suggest brands to use eg Mae Ploy and a brand of Coconut too. Any suggestions?

djyee100, Thanks. And that's an excellent Thai food resource you posted. ;-)

djyee100, That Jungle Curry looks great. Did you get the recipe from Kasama's book or web site? Sorry I havn't read this whole thread.

Anybody know what goes into a Burmese Curry Powder. I've got Susan Chan's book and I can't find the recipe in there although she does mention it often.

I can't get any Galangal where I live. I can get hold of it when I visit a large city or on-line. I was thinking of the next time I go to London.....to visit any Asian shop and buy lots and then somehow preserving it. I read in D Thompson's Thai Cookery book that one could use Galangal preserved in brine. How could I do this myself? Brine is salted water isn't it? Any pointeres as to what I should do? How long would it keep? Thanks, David.

Both ways I encountered these have been mentioned here....namely, a sprig in Jungle Curries and also in Green Curries. I can't remember this always being the case. Anybody know if it's possible to grow these in the UK?

Hi debbster, Have you attended this course yet? If you have, could you share your impressions? Thanks.....

OK HKDave....thanks for that. Do you know of one which you would recommend? Thanks.

Do any of you have a base sauce recipee? Thanks.