The Thai Kitchen

- Equipment and Utensils
- Essential Techniques
- Cooking Methods
- Traditional Recipes
- Characteristics of Thai Food and Seasoning
- A Note for Vegetarians

Essential Techniques

Thai techniques are employed with a dexterity as deliberate as the placement of the stove in the traditional kitchen.

KNIFE WORK

Most food is chopped or minced in order to ensure quick cooking. In rustic cooking, little knife work is used apart from rudimentary cutting and slicing. More refined cooking relies a great deal on honed knife work. Often intensely flavored ingredients are finely shredded so that they will not dominate; and with so many being used, this allows each ingredient to be tasted. Sharp knives are essential for this. The item should be cut into the required length before being sliced to the desired thickness and then finally shredded.

Mincing (grinding) of meat or fish is achieved using a very sharp, heavy knife or even a cleaver. When these ingredients are minced in a machine they are torn, squashed and heated as they are forced through the grate of a mincer - most probably some good time before they are bought. Mince made like this will probably have been oxidised by its exposure to the air, and therefore will taste flat and fatty. Hand-chopped mince is almost fluffy in comparison, and it tastes more defined. Mostly pork, chicken, shrimps or fish are minced, and they should be chopped quickly with a knife or cleaver until clearly, cleanly and plainly minced. A sprinkle of salt while doing so will sweeten the meat or fish as it cooks. Some also like to add a point of garlic - a small piece that literally sits on the point of a sharp knife - to give a certain richness.

ROASTING AND GRINDING SPICES

With the exception of peppercorns, all spices are roasted before use to revitalise their fragrance. Each should be roasted individually, as they take different times to roast. Spices are roasted by heating them very slowly in a heavy pan or wok, tossing regularly to prevent scorching, which would impart an acrid finish. When the spices begin to crackle, toast and color, they are ready. Grind spices very finely, preferably in a spice grinder; if grinding in a mortar, use the pestle in a circular movement. Always sieve the result to remove any chaff.

All dried spices should be kept in an airtight, dark container - ideally refrigerated - to extend their life. It is best to roast and grind spices when needed, although any leftover spice mixture can be rejuvenated by heating it through over a low heat. This, however, should be a last resort, not general practice.

MAKING PASTES

Traditionally, all Thai pastes are made with a mortar and pestle. Individual ingredients are added gradually, in a given order, from the hardest and driest to the softest and wettest, with each being reduced to pulp before the next is added. As the ingredients are pounded they release their fragrance; the balance of the paste can be perceived in this aroma, and is adjusted while being made. The recipe is used as a guide, not gospel, and so can - and should - be altered to achieve a balance. Traditional recipes are vague regarding quantities, as it is expected that the cook will alter the ingredients according to what actually happens in the mortar.

Pastes for nahm prik relishes, and other simple pastes, are always made with a pestle and mortar and can be fairly coarse. However, a curry paste should be puréed as finely as possible. Because of the volume of ingredients in some curry pastes, a blender or mincer can be an expedient solution, but purists insist that a hand-made paste is quite superior - both in texture and taste - to one made in a food processor. The ingredients are smashed, crushed and pounded with a pestle and mortar, not ripped, torn and shredded; the tastes are balanced and layered, rather than whirled into a pulp.

PRESERVATION: DRYING, PICKLING, AND FERMENTING

The Thai kitchen employs many techniques to preserve ingredients when they are plentiful for use in times of need. Perhaps the simplest is by salting and drying. The ingredient - usually fish or shrimps, but occasionally meat - is rubbed with salt or marinated in brine, fish sauce or soy sauce for a period of time before being dried in the sun. Sometimes food is preserved just by steeping in salt or sugar without being dried. Alternatively, it may be pickled in a brine or syrup made from salt, sugar, or both, dissolved in water or vinegar.

Fermented products are used in all types of Thai cooking: in soups, relishes or curries. Most notable are the two ancient fermented ingredients of fish sauce and shrimp paste, without which Thai food would be fundamentally different. One of the most elemental ways of fermenting is in rice-rinsing water - that is, water that has been used to wash rice before cooking - since dissolved enzymes in the rinsing water encourage fermentation. This is effectively controlled spoilage: once the food has sufficiently fermented, it is preserved.

- Adapted from Thai Food, by David Thompson