Q&A -- Thai Cooking

[BettyK]

All right! Now we have to wait for Mamster to come up with some dates.

[mags]

Very fond of dates. Also a nice fig on occasion.

[BettyK]

Want some whipped cream too? That wouldn't be Thai anymore though

[prasantrin]

Pim + Mamster,

Thanks for such an informative class.

I've often seen the multicoloured sweets and desserts in Thailand but after a thai meal ( as if it's my last one! ), I seem to have never left any room for them.

What are they like, do you have a favourite that one could replicate at home?

I'm not sure about the protocol for replying to questions (i.e. if non-instructors may reply to question) but here I go....!

In my experience, Thais don't really eat sweets after a meal, except perhaps fresh fruit. Sweets are normally eaten as snacks and boy, are they sweet! One of my father's favourite snacks was shaved ice with flavoured syrup on a bed of stale white bread and condensed milk. Easy to do at home, but I much prefer it without the bread .

Some of my favourite Thai snacks are sticky rice with sangkaya (coconut custard--I prefer this to mango with my sticky rice, and prefer it with sticky rice than in pumpkin), roti sai mai (a soft crepe which you fill with sugar strands--sort of like hard strands of cotton candy--not to be confused with with the harder crepe filled with foy thong--can't remember its name but I think Pim mentioned it in her post about Royal Thai cuisine), and khanom bah bin (a little pancake made of glutinous rice flour--different from khanom krok). I know Kasma Loha-Unchit has a recipe for khanom bah bin in It Rains Fishes and it looks rather easy to make. I also like kluay kaek (fried bananas) and prefer it to peurk kaek (fried taro) and mun kaek (fried sweet potato). All of those would be easy to make, as would bananas in coconut milk. Oh, I love roti from the street vendors doused with a condensed milk and sprinkled with a bit of sugar. Interestingly enough, I was never able to find this in Bangkok, only in Chiang Mai. I think we just went to the wrong areas in Bangkok for this.

Other desserts that I've never been thrilled about are jackfruit and ruby and lukchup (beautiful little fruit-shaped sweets made of mung bean. They look even better than well-made marzipan fruits.). I've never really liked foy thong and it's relatives, either.

When last in Thailand I noticed a couple of cookbooks devoted to Thai desserts. I didn't pick them up, unfortunately, but if you're very interested you might be able to find them on-line.

[prasantrin]

The subject of Royal Thai Cuisine is a big one that I don’t think I can really cover here, especially considering I just staggered back to my hotel from a huge meal at the New Tayyab in Whitechapel and it’s almost 3am in London.  I’ll give a short answer here and will return to it when I get home next week.

Thanks for the informative reply. It sounds like Royal Thai cuisine would be difficult to duplicate without proper instruction . Oh well, maybe that could be the next Thai cooking class ? I'm looking forward to reading anything else you have to add on the subject!

[johnjohn]

At my local Thai restaurant the menu lists 5 or 6 different curries that it offers and a choice of chicken, beef, or shrimp with the corresponding price for the different protein. My question is - does each curry have an individual protein that it is traditionally paired with? Or better yet, could you list what protein you think goes best with which type of curry.

Great class.

Thanks

johnjohn

[mamster]

There is a wider variety of Thai curries than you are ever likely to see on an American restaurant menu, to start with, but yes, there are definitely some traditional pairings. Panang curry with beef is a superb combination. Massaman curry is generally chicken or beef. In the south of Thailand there is a wonderful yellow fish maw curry. One of my favorite curry-like dishes is the Chiang Mai noodle soup called kao soi, which is made with both a version of red curry space and some dried spices (often fresh turmeric as well). It usually includes chicken or beef.

Hope this helps get you started--try some combinations and see what you like, or ask the staff for recommendations. Hard-and-fast rules are not a big thing in Thai cooking, which is endlessly varied and inventive, but neither are you likely to have a choice of meat with every entree at a restaurant in Thailand the way you often do in the US.

[Jason Perlow]

For those of you having difficulty getting ahold of thai ingredients, check these guys out:

http://www.importfood.com

Their prices look decent and in particular, they offer a "Fresh Thai Produce" care package for $40 that contains:

10 stalks (approx 2 lbs) fresh lemongrass

fresh kaffir lime leaves (approx 100 leaves)

16 oz fresh galanga (or up to four 4+ oz pieces)

two large handfuls (approx 1 lb) Thai chile peppers.

We pack the produce carefully and ship via UPS 2nd Day Air to ensure freshness.

http://importfood.com/freshthaiproduce.html

They also offer the Thai mortar and pestle needed for the curry recipe in this course, in 3 different sizes. The least inexpensive one is $20.

http://importfood.com/thaicookware.html

[trillium]

Massaman curry is generally chicken or beef.

Or lamb...

regards,

trillium

[mamster]

I also recommend Importfood--they're based east of Seattle and I've ordered from them.

Yes, of course, massaman curry is wonderful with lamb. There's one upscale restaurant in Bangkok known for serving a rack of lamb with massaman curry. (I hope they serve it rare.)

[Pan]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but to my knowledge, "Massaman" curry is a version of Thai Muslim curry, inspired by the Malays (Yawi) in the former Malay sultanates of southern Thailand. Sheep do not do all that well in such tropical climes (for example, their fur is patchy and yellowish). Goats do much better. So I think a goat curry would be a good deal more common in Thailand than a mutton or lamb curry, but I stand to be corrected. I could also imagine a water buffalo Massaman curry...

[xiaobao12]

hey all,

I have never seen cardamom leaves. Is it a crucial ingredient? Could a few bay leaves be a good subsitute?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS AWESOME eGCI - it got my juices flowing and recently, I watched this on Youtube....the cuisine is just so awesome.

[Chris Amirault]

I've never seen cardamom leaves either....

[nickrey]

Use bay leaves as a substitute.

[Brielle]

It is best.