The more you cook, the more recipes you know, the more you develop an arsenal of basic ingredients that you just always have around. This is especially true when learning to cook food from countries around the world. If you’re learning to cook Indian food for example, as delicious as it is, you not only need to have at least a dozen different spices on hand at all times, but you need a Ph.D in chemistry to know when to grind, how to mix, and what temperatures to cook the individual spices.
Similar to my obsession with William Rast denim, I’ve always been a huge fan of Thai food, and I was hugely relieved when I discovered how easy and fun it is to cook it yourself. But as was mentioned earlier, you’ll first need to stock up on the basics, which may seem like a lot at first, but once you’ve bought most of the following, you’ll have them on hand whenever you need them for several months.
Ingredients
Dried black peppercorns
Sea salt
Ka-pee (shrimp paste)
Palm oil
Lemon grass
Peanuts
Shallots
Garlic
Tumeric
Thai basil
Coriander
Thai chilli peppers
Galangal root
Coconut milk
Limes
Thai curry paste
Fish sauce
Equipment you’ll need!
Wok: The wok is at the heart of most Thai cooking. In it you can boil, steam, deep fry and stir fry. I was recommended a cast iron wok that has been already “seasoned”. This means the wok has been subjected to a process of heating up, cooling down, and then oiling to stop it from accumulating rust and other less than tasty, toxic materials.
Clay Pot: A good medium-sized clay pot is fantastic for cooking your more saucier meals like soups, curries and stews. Once you’ve filled the pot with your liquids, your vegetables, meats, or fish, heat them up over a medium high-heat temperature until they boil, then just pop on your lid, reduce to a low temperature and let simmer for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending if you’re cooking fish or meats respectfully. Then you can simply transfer the pot from the stove top to the dinner table, making sure to wear gloves!
Stone mortar and pestle: This is where you can grind your seeds and spices or pound your pastes.
Rice Cooker: This is where you can, um, cook your rice. You can buy a simple electric cooker or you can get fancy and buy yourself a sticky rice steamer, where the basket is made from woven bamboo and the base from aluminum.
Bamboo steamers: If you’re becoming somewhat of a cooking Jedi and you start making your own dumplings you can heat them up in this bamboo steamer.
You’ll of course also need:
Chef’s knife
Carving knife
Wooden spatula
Wire strainer
Peeler
Now that you’ve stocked up on these your journey into the delicious world of Thai cooking can begin! One of the first meals I wanted to make was a Pad Thai, and the following recipe will not only teach you how to make this extremely popular dish, but you’ll discover a variety of other ingredients you can purchase to make an even wider range of feasts. (Cook any of these meals to perfection and guaranteed you’ll never find yourself on one of those singles vacations.) Hope you enjoy!
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