thai food herbs & spices

If you have never seen a lemon grass plant, it is as shown in the picture. This plant can be grown easily in tropical climate and it do not need much cares to prosper.

Besides, its wide usage in thai foods, it can also be used as the natural mosquito repellent due to its strong aroma. You just simply need to cut away the tips of the leaves for the aroma to be released

Ingredients
- 625g mixed seafood such as raw prawns, squid, white fish fillet, scallops and mussels
- 900 ml Seafood Stock
- 3 lemon grass stalks (bruised)
- 5 coriander roots (bruised)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 125g straw or mixed mushroom
- 1 onion (quartered)
- 4-5 red and green chillies (slightly crushed)
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 5 kaffir lime leaves (torn or shreded)
- 3 tablespoons lime/lemon juice

Steps
1. Prepare the mixed seafood
2. Put the stock, lemon grass, coriander and fish sauce in a saucepan and heat to boiling point
3. Reduce the heat, add seafood and cook for 2 minutes
4. Add the mushrooms, onion, chillies, tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves and lime/lemon juice
5. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, taking care not to let the tomatoes lose their shape
6. Turn into a serving bowl, garnish with a few kaffir lime leaves and serve

Basil is found commonly in Thai cooking. It is normally used to stir-fried with chicken/beef or added into the curry.

In Thailand, these intensely aromatic dark green with purplish flower head plants are often eaten raw as a herb or nibbled with raw vagetables and spicy dip.

There are a few varieties of basil found in Souteast Asia like Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, "Holy" Basil which are used varying in different Thai dishes

Raw coriander leaves are widely used as granish and flavouring in Thai and Chinese foods.

The coriander root is crushed together with garlic and black pepper to be used as basic seasoning for some of the Thai food.

Besides the leaves, coriander seed is claimed to be the most commonly used spice in Asian food. They are present in almost all blends of curries.