Sauces and other ingredients

Chilli paste (Nam prik)

May be bought or made at home. Nowadays most Thai people buy ready-made pastes in the market. You can buy them yourself in any Asian supermarket in a packet, jar or tin.

Mushroom sauce (Sauce-het-hom)
This is made from soy sauce with mushroom extract and brings out the flavour of the food. You can use light soy sauce as a substitute.

Fish sauce (Nam blah)
Made from small fermented fish. Used instead of salt because it has a better flavour. However, you may use salt, iffish sauce is unavailable. Use light soy sauce as a vegetarian alternative. Occasionally you may find vegetarian fish sauce.

Oyster sauce (Namann hoy)
This is made from soy sauce with oyster extract and brings out the flavour oftbe food.

Dark soy sauce (See-u-dam)
Sometimes known as Black Sweet Soy sauce. Made from soy beans, it is a slightly thick and sweet sauce. There is no sustitute for this and you can just leave it out of your recipe.

Light soy sauce (See-u kao)
Made from soy beans and is more salty than dark soy sauce. Used the same way as fish sauce and you can also use fish sauce as a substitute.

Palm sugar (Nam taan peep or Nam taan ma - prow)
Used with desserts and gives a fuller flavour than commercial sugars. Comes in blocks or pieces. You can use brown or Demerara sugar as a substitute.

Read more...

Thai noodles

Noodles are a little similar to spaghetti in that they contain exactly the same basic ingredients with some variations but come in different thicknesses and lengths.

Rice noodles

Made from rice flour

• Goo-a jap: the widest noodles about 6 cm.
• Sen lek: about 1,4 cm
• Sen yai: about 2 1/2 cm
• Sen: about 3 mm or you can use sen lek

Egg noodles

Made from wheat flour and egg

• Ba me loo-ang: yellow noodles 1,4 cm in width
• Ba me yolk: green noodles (vegetable dye) 1,4 cm in width

Mung bean noodles

Made from mung beans

• Woon-sen: Glass noodles 2mm in width 

Read more...

Cooking rice

Cooking rice in a large rice cooker
Put 1 kg of rice in a bowl with water to wash off any impurities. Put through a colander and place the drained rice in your lice cooker. Add enough water so that the water level is about 4 cm above the rice. Turn on the switch. The rice will be ready to eat in about 30 minutes. The rice cooker will switch itself off automatically.

Cooking sticky rice
Soak sticky rice grains in water overnight, about 1 kg of rice to 2 ½ liters of water. Drain the rice grains and put in a large sticky rice basket for cooking with water. The water level should be 1 cm above the rice. Steam for about 30 minutes. When the rice is slightly soft and clearer in color then it is done. Remove from pot and serve in smaller individual baskets. If you are cooking rice for a dessert such as mangoes and sticky rice then you need only soak the rice for about five hours.

Sticky rice
Sticky rice and black sticky rice are types of rice. They do not become sticky from cooking. Sticky rice is the staple of the North and North Eastern peoples. Usually sticky rice is cooked in a bamboo basket specifically for this purpose. This keeps it from drying out as the moisture is held within the bamboo. It is used for sweet and savory dishes and is good to eat hot or cold. It is also used to make the infamous Maekong and Sengtip whiskeys.

Read more...

Chillies

Large chillies are less hot and spicy. Medium chillies are medium hot and spicy. Small chillies or Bird Chillies are very hot and spicy. Please note that internationally the spelling for 'chilli' varies greatly, you may come across chili, chi lie, chilli, chile, it is all the same and there appears to be no standard spelling.

Preparing chillies: when you touch or chop chillies, be careful not to touch your eyes or any other soft or sensitive skin on your body as it will burn hot, you can always coat your fingers in vegetable oil first. The spiciest part of the chilli is actually the membrane holding the seeds. After touching or chopping chillies wash your hands thoroughly with lemon or soap. You can also rinse your hands with milk or rub butter on them - dairy products neutralise the acids. Wait at least half an hour before you touch your face, eyes or private parts, i.e. going to the toilet!

To freeze chillies: roast and peel them and then you can keep them in an airtight container for up to six months.

If you 'burn' your eyes then wash out your eyes immediately in clean water by opening and closing the lids many times giving your eyes an eye bath for a few minutes. They will sting for about 15-20 minutes but should clear after that.

If you 'burn' your mouth while eating a spicy dish then have some plain rice, bread, milk yoghurt, salt water, banana, peanut butter, ice cream, these will cool down your mouth quite quickly. Capasacin, the chemical that causes the chillies spiciness, is oil and is thus not soluble in water so just a plain glass of water won't help!

As a plant, chillies survive only because when birds eat the peppers, the seeds remain whole in their droppings and can germinate. Birds are not bothered by the capsaicin and mammals, which chew seeds, tend to steer clear of chillies! Chillies are actually a genus of the nightshade family, Solanaceae and are native to Central and South America, they were most likely introduced to Thailand by Spanish and Portuguese traders in the early 17th century.

Chillies contain the following nutrients: Calcium, folate or folic acid, iron, lysine, magnesium, phenylalanine, phosphorous, Potassium, tryptophan, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C (fresh chillies are a richer source than oranges) and Riboflavin.

The heat of the chilli pepper is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), multiples of l00 units. Thai chillies average around 70-80’000 units from zero units for the bell pepper. The hottest chilli pepper is around 550’000 units though this is still being disputed. The American Wilbur Scoville, a chemist, invented the method of ‘heat’ calculation in 1912. He called it the Scoville Organaloptic Test and used human subjects to measure the heat. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) has now replaced this particular method though units are still calculated in SHU.

You can of course just experiment yourself and see how 'hot' you get!

Read more...

Coconut Cream and Coconut Milk

Normally for fresh coconut cream and coconut milk we use only warm water into which we mix freshly grated coconut so that we can squeeze out the cream and milk. You should use warm water so that more coconut milk may be extracted and so that there is a better aroma and flavour. If you use cold water then you will get less milk and a weaker flavour. If you use hot water then you will be extracting too much coconut oil. The coconut cream and milk comes from the meat of the coconut. Every coconut has the watery juice, which you will find inside after you split open the coconut, this does however not have enough flavour for cooking.

Use 1 kg of grated fresh coconut with 400 ml warm water to squeeze out the coconut cream.

Concentrated Coconut Cream: Heat 30ml of normal coconut cream and mix with 1 teaspoons of rice flour or corn flour water (to make the flour water, mix 1/2 teaspoon of flour with 1 tablespoon of water).

Use 1 kg of grated fresh coconut and 600 ml warm water to squeeze out the coconut milk

Substitutes for coconut cream and milk
You can use tinned coconut milk instead of coconut cream. For your own coconut milk use 3 parts of coconut cream and 1 part of water. Powdered coconut and desiccated coconut are only used for making desserts and sweets.

Read more...