Thai Cooking In Ning’s Kitchen

Come here to learn how to cook  Authentic Thai Food

One of the biggest things you need to do in order to be able to prepare Authentic Thai Dishes is have the right ingredients to use. You can always go to your local Asian food market or order online. One of the best places we have found on the internet is efooddepot . They have Food from all the different Asian countries. Shipping is very reasonable.

The most important ingredient you will need is Fish Sauce.

You have to use this to get the real Thai taste.  Shown in the photo are two popular brands sold.  Squid Brand is made the slow way with no additives and The Three Crabs Brand has Fructose instead of sugar and Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein added to it to speed up the fermentation of the Fish Sauce.  Both have Anchovy Extract, salt and sugar.  Both taste excellent.

It’s beneficial to grow some of your own herbs.
The leaves and any fruit that may grow on the Kaffir Lime tree are very useful in Thai recipes.  If you live in a area that experiences a cold winter, the use of a grow light may be necessary.  The Kaffir Lime Tree should be kept in temperatures of 60°F or above.  It will grow very good in the summer months.

This is  Thai Basil or Cinnamon Basil.
This plant here is at the end of its life.  It is one we brought in from our garden. We will start new plants in February so that they get a good start before planting outside this spring.

One of the most important tools to use in Thai Cooking is a Mortar and Pestle.  It is used to smash or grind pepper, garlic and any other herb or spice you use.  The Mortar and Pestle pictured here is made of granite.  Do not get the clay version of this tool.  They will break very easy.  The clay version is used primarily to make salad and not meant to do heavy grinding.

Thai Vegetables used in Thai cooking.

Thailand has over 200 different kinds of vegetables grown there. Many are used in a verity of ways in Thai cooking. Thai cooking will use any where from the roots of some to the stems, leaves and shoots of young plants.

Plants that use the roots are Krachai, Ginger, Galanga, Turmeric, Daikon Radish, Taro Root, Boniato, Yucca Root, Lottus Root, Cilantro Root and Bean sprouts.

Stems used for cooking are Lemon Grass, Sugar Cain, Cilantro any of the Chives and Green onions.

Leaves used several types of Basils, Water Spinach, Mint, types of Broccoli, Types of cabbage, Bitter Melon Leaves, Kaffir Lime tree and Pea leaves. There are many kinds and this short list is some of the more common used.

Some of the seeds and seed pods used would be, Bitter Melon, Long Bean, Many kinds of Egg plant as Thai, Cherry and Purple Egg Plant, Squashes and Gourds and Pickling Cucumbers. Spice seeds used Thai Chili, fresh and dried. These give Thai food most of the heat. Also used are green black pepper seeds. This is un-dried peppercorn seeds.

Some flowers used are Thai Edible Flower, you can find these frozen imported from Thailand and Banana Flowers. Bamboo shoots are used in Thai curries, this can be found to in Asian stores. Banana leaves are used to for wrapping up food for steaming.

The lists above as mentioned are some common ones used that Ning uses. There are many more than mentioned here. Some can be found in Asian stores. There are always different combinations to use in many of the Thai dishes, so if you can not find a certain kind, you can substitute with an other of the same type.

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