Thai Food Recipes and CookBooks

Thai food is internationally famous. Whether chilli-hot or comparatively bland, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai. The characteristics of Thai food depend on who cooks it, for whom it is cooked, for what occasion, and where it is cooked to suit all palates.

Originally, Thai cooking reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plants and herbs were major ingredients. Large chunks of meat were eschewed. Subsequent influences introduced the use of sizeable chunks to Thai cooking. With their Buddhist background, Thais shunned the use of large animals in big chunks. Big cuts of meat were shredded and laced with herbs and spices.

Traditional Thai cooking methods were stewing and baking, or grilling. Chinese influences saw the introduction of flying, stir frying and deep-frying. Culinary influences from the 17th century onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Chillies were introduced to Thai cooking during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who had acquired a taste for them while serving in South America.

Thais were very adapt at 'Siamese-ising' foreign cooking methods, and substituting ingredients. The ghee used in Indian cooking was replaced by coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted for other daily products. Overpowering pure spices were toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galanga. Eventually, fewer and less spices were used in Thai curries, while the use of fresh herbs increased. It is generally acknowledged that Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly, whereas other curries, with strong spices, burn for longer periods.

Instead of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal is served all at once, permitting diners to enjoy complementary combinations of different tastes. A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. A spiced salad may replace the curry dish. The soup can also be spicy, but the curry should be replaced by non spiced items. There must be a harmony of tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.

Thai Herbs and Spices

Thai Food uses several different types of herbs and spices in everyday cooking and recipes. The proper combination of all these ingredients is regarded as an art form in Thailand, one that requires both skill and time. The preparation of a single sauce can take several hours of grinding, tasting and delicate adjustments until the exact balance of flavours is achieved. Only then, can the true glory of Thai cooking be fully appreciated.

You can find a list and explanation of Thai Herbs and Spices here: http://asiarecipe.com/thaiherbs.html and http://www.phuket-tourism.com/where_to_eat/spices-herbs.htm 

Setting Up A Thai Kitchen

You need a few utensils to start. A wooden chopping block, a set of knives, a set of mortar and pestle (an electric blender will also do), a Chinese-style frying pan or wok, a soup pot and a brass pan for desserts should be enough for daily cooking and an occasional dinner party. Spoon and fork are the only cutlery you need.
Thai cooks always have at hands dried chilies, garlic, shallot, shrimp paste, and a good bottle of fish sauce.

Preparing Thai Food

Titbits
A simple kind of  titbit is fun to make. You  need shallots, ginger, lemon or lime, lemon grass, roasted peanuts and red phrik khi nu chillies. Peeled shallots and ginger should be cut into small fingertip sizes. Diced lime and slices of lemon grass should be cut to the   same  size. Roasted peanut should be left in halves. Chillies should be thinly   sliced. Combinations of such ingredients should be wrapped  in fresh lettuce leaves and laced with a sweet-salty sauce made from fish sauce, sugar, dried shrimps and lime juice.

Dips
Mixing crushed fresh chillies with fish sauce and a dash of lime juice makes a general accompanying  sauce for any Thai dish. Adding some crushed garlic and a tiny amount of roasted or raw shrimp paste transforms it into an all-purpose dip (nam phrik). Some pulverised dried shrimp and julienned egg-plant with sugar makes this dip more complete. Serve it with steamed rice,   an omelette and some vegetables.

Salad Dressings
Salad dressings have similar base ingredients. Add fish sauce, lime  juice and sugar to enhance saltiness, sourness and sweetness. Crushed chillies, garlic and shallots add spiciness and herbal fragrance. Lemon  grass and galanga can be added for additional flavour. Employ this mix with any boiled, grilled or fried meat. Lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, cut spring onions and coriander leaves help top off a salad dressing.

Soup Stocks
Soups generally need good stock. Add to   boiling  water crushed peppercorns, salt, garlic, shallots, coriander roots, and the meats or cuts of one's  choice. After prolonged boiling and simmering , you have the basic stock of common Thai soups. Additional galanga, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, crushed fresh chillies, fish sauce and lime juice create the basic stock for a Tom Yam.

Curries
To make a quick curry, fry curry or chilli paste in heated oil  or thick coconut milk. Stir and fry until the paste is well cooked and add meats of one's choice. Season with fish sauce or sugar to taste. Add water or thin coconut milk to make curry go a longer way. Add sliced eggplant with a garnish of basil and kaffir lime leaves. Make your own curry paste by blending fresh (preferably dried) chillies, garlic, shallots, galanga, lemon grass, coriander roots, ground pepper, kaffir lime peels and shrimp paste.

Single Dish Meals
Heat the cooking oil, fry in a mixture of crushed chillies, minced garlic, ground pepper and chopped chicken meat. When nearly cooked, add vegetables such as cut beans or eggplants. Season with fish sauce and garnish with kaffir lime leaves, basil or balsom leaves. Cooked rice or fresh  noodles added to the frying would make this a substantial meal.

Thai Fruits

Thai fruits - - including mangoes, mangosteens, clurians, pineapples, watermelons, papayas, rambutans, longans, lyches, tamarinds, pomegranates, palm fruits, oranges, pomeloes, jackfruits and more than 20 kinds of bananas- - are available all year round.

From January to April, grapes, jackfruits, java apples, tangerines, watermelons and pomegranates are in season. Next come mangoes, lyches, pineapples, clurians and mangosteens.

From July on, longans will ripen, and also langsats, jujubes, passionfruits, pomeloes, rambutans, sugar apples and again tangerines, grapes, watermelons, bananas, coconuts, guavas and papayas are available thoughout the year. Some harvests are celebrated in style, with colourful festivals, sometimes featuring a pageant of local beauties.

In early April, the Paet Riu Mango Festival is organized in Chachoengsao. Probably the most popular and typical of Thai fruits, the mango deserves this honour. In May, Songkhla promotes its fruits with a bazaar, fruit carving demonstrations and a Miss Southern Thailand Pageant. In June, Chanthaburi exhibits delicious provincial fruits, including the king of them all, the exquisitely delicious durian.

In September, to honour pomeloes, a fruit and floral float procession is held in Nakhon Pathom, near Bangkok.

What Comprises a Thai Meal

Titbits
These can be hors d'oeuvres, accompaniments, side dishes, and/or snacks. They include spring rolls, satay, puffed rice cakes with herbed topping. They represent the playful and creative nature of the   Thais

Salads
A harmony of tastes and herbal flavours are essential. Major tastes are sour, sweet and salty. Spiciness comes in  different degrees according to meat textures and occasions.

General Fare
A sweet and sour dish, a fluffy omelette, and a stir-fried dish help make a meal more complete.

Dips
Dips entail some complexity. They can be the  major dish of a meal with accompaniments of vegetables and some meats. When dips are made thinly, they can be used as salad designs. A particular and simple dip is made from chillies, garlic, dried shrimps, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and shrimp paste.

Soups
A good meal for an average person may consist simply of a soup and rice. Traditional Thai soups are unique because they embody more flavours and textures than can be found in other types of food.

Curries
Most non-Thai curries consist of powdered or ground dried spices,  whereas the major ingredients of Thai curry are fresh herbs. A simple Thai curry paste consists of dried chillies, shallots and shrimp paste. More complex curries include garlic, galanga, coriander  roots, lemon grass, kaffir lime peel and peppercorns.

Single Dishes
Complete meals in themselves , they include rice and noodle dishes such as Khao Phat and Phat Thai.

Desserts 
No good meal is complete without a Thai dessert. Uniformly sweet, they are particularly welcome after a strongly spiced and herbed meal.