The wonderful world of Thai cooking is an around-the-clock adventure. The abundance of ingredients in this fertile kingdom is just the start of the saga. In the north all manner of vegetables flourish in rich soil. Rice paddies in the center of the nation yield different varieties of the country's main staple and in the south tropical fruits cover the ground like weeds. The harvests from the seas that surround the country yield all manner of seafood and fish. Before the sun comes up, trucks laden with produce, chickens and pigs rumble along rough farm tracks and onto the roads that lead to the hundreds of markets throughout the kingdom. There is a daily market in every major town. Restaurant owners mingle with the chefs of top hotels and the general public to barter for the goods, and the produce is fresh - in this tropical heat things have to move quickly before they spoil.
The markets are bursting with piles of spices, mountains of lemon grass. Sweet and pungent smells mix with the odor of chickens. Fish markets are normally held in the afternoon when the fishermen return with their catches. Much of the shrimp comes from large coastal farms where the creatures are reared like plants.
When problems arose with export quotas of shrimp a glut hit the local market and prices plummeted. When the European community put a limit on the amount that could be imported some politicians wanted to cancel orders placed for the European Airbus and deal with the US to buy Boeing jets. Their plan was to trade prawns for planes. The idea seemed logical to the Thai minds, but it failed. One can imagine the reaction of a Boeing employee being handed a bag of shrimp instead of a paycheck.
Most tourists, when they arrive in Thailand, have little or no experience of Asian cooking. Perhaps their local Thai or Chinese restaurant or maybe a program on television is about the extent of it. However, nothing can prepare you for the sight of the real thing. I say sight because that is the first thing that hits you. Most of the incredible array of vegetables, fruits, pastes, spices, fish and meats is totally unrecognizable to the western eye. Wandering through a local market, even if you don't actually buy anything, is a fascinating experience. Do go early and do go with a strong stomach. The sight of pigs' heads all hanging up in a row at 6 o'clock in the morning can be a little challenging.
One of the easiest ways to understand the concepts of Thai cooking is to take a class at one of the hotel cookery schools. I went to The Boathouse Culinary Workshop for a weekend class under the direction of chef Tamanoon Pumchun. This excellent course gave me an understanding of ingredients and hands on practice of techniques. Step-by-step, he takes you through the blending of flavors, the use of herbs, the methods of chopping and pounding in a mortar, the preparation and presentation so important to Thai cooks. A definite side benefit is that you get to eat what you have prepared. Normally, within families, the food is all served in the center of the table and the whole family sitting down to eat together is still an important part of the day.
Thai meals, which feature lots of vegetables and fish, are normally very low in fat and the diet, while simple, is healthy and tasty. Tasty, of course, is a relative word. With the heavy addition of lemon grass, ginger, garlic and chili peppers, what is pleasantly spicy to them can be knock-your-head-off spicy to foreigners.
Street Vendors
Walking through city streets you experience a world of food unlike anywhere in Europe or the United States. From the street vendors with their barbeque pots or small gas rings to the glamorous hotels and top restaurants with their head chefs and exquisite table settings the food here is simply different. The Thais love to snack. Small, spicy tidbits wrapped in little packages of leaves or perhaps in small plastic bags tied at the top filled with soup or curry can be bought on most street corners or outside office buildings. Fish balls, grilled dry squid hanging on racks, tiny coconut puddings all sold from carts or maybe a motorcycle sidecar.
Sticky rice packed into bamboo canes or wrapped in banana leaves makes an easy takeaway for busy workers. Or in Chinatown joak porridge with fish, meat or egg is a favorite with the Chinese Thai. The carts may move from place to place or sometimes set up shop in the same location everyday but locals know what time to expect their favorite seller.
Thai food is internationally famous. Whether chili-hot or comparatively bland, balance 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.
Originally, Thai cooking reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plants and herbs were major ingredients. With their Buddhist background, Thais shunned the use of the meat of large animals. However, later influences introduced more substantial use of meat, which is often shredded and laced with herbs and spices.
Traditional Thai cooking methods were stewing, baking and grilling. Chinese influences saw the introduction of frying, including stir-frying and deep-frying. Culinary influences from the 17th century onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Chilies 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 adept at Siamese-ing foreign cooking methods, and substituting ingredients. The ghee (clarified butter) used in Indian cooking was replaced by coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted for other dairy products. Overpoweringly pure spices were toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galangal. Eventually, fewer 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 dinners 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.
Recipes
We invited two chefs, an Englishman and a Thai, to give us recipes that could be produced in Western kitchens but still give an authentic reminder of the culinary treats of Thailand.
The Brit was Kevin Cape, executive chef aboard the Eastern & Oriental Express. Kevin has worked throughout the world and spent many years training under legendary Michel Bourdin, executive chef at London's Connaught Hotel. During his early days in London he became interested in Asian cuisine and spent his spare time working in London's Chinatown. In addition to several assignments in the UK, Kevin has worked in France and the US, and made visits to Asia as a guest chef at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and the Mandarin Hotel in Singapore before joining the Eastern & Oriental Express. At his last post in Britain, Kevin was executive chef at the Tarnhouse Hotel in Cumbria, where he was awarded a three-star rosette by the Automobile Association, and the Salon Culinaire Gold Medal. He has his own Website: www.kevincape.freeservers.com. The first recipe is for a soup we enjoyed aboard the Eastern & Oriental. The recipe serves 10.
Thai Scented Pumpkin & Yellow-pepper Soup
Ingredients:
Two yellow peppers, diced
500 g of pumpkin, cleaned
200 grams of sweet potato, diced
One large potato, peeled and diced
One large white onion, peeled and diced
One leek, diced
50 g of garlic, coarsely chopped
50 g of galangal (kha), sliced
25 g of chopped kaffir lime leaf
500 ml coconut milk
Yellow curry paste to taste
3 liters of chicken stock
Preparation:
Simply sweat the vegetables in the herbs until you get the nice aroma. Add the chicken stock, allow to simmer very gently until all the vegetables are completely cooked. Allow to cool. Remove the hard herbs (lemon grass, galangal). The vegetables are then liquidized and passed through a medium sieve. Then reheat, add the coconut cream, this is placed in the soup cup, garnish with coconut milk and julienne of lime leaf. Baby corn muffins make a nice accompaniment.
Grilled Shrimp with Sweet & Sour Sauce.
For these recipes I thank The Boathouse executive chef Tamanoon Pumchun, a genial Thai with an international reputation. Chef Tamanoon has traveled extensively in Europe gaining knowledge of European cuisine as well as conducting seminars on Thai food. He has published The Boathouse Cookbook and the number of people taking his cooking classes is in the thousands.
Ingredients:
200g [7 oz] large shrimp, cleaned and de-veined
Pinch of salt and pepper
125ml (½ cup) sweet-and-sour sauce
Sweet and Sour Sauce:
1 tbs oil
3 or 4 small red chili peppers, finely chopped
2 tbs garlic, finely chopped
1 cup coriander or cilantro leaves, with roots if possible
175 ml (2/3 cup) vinegar
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
2 tbs oyster sauce
250 ml (1 cup) chicken stock
Sauce Preparation:
Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, hot chilies and coriander root and cook until just tender.
Add the remaining ingredients; simmer for five minutes, stirring constantly.
Yields about 375ml (1½ cups) which may be stored in the fridge.
Shrimp Preparation:
Marinate the shrimp with salt and pepper (about five minutes) and grill on a charcoal grill or pan grill until cooked. Set them aside.
Warm the sweet-and-sour sauce and pour over the grilled shrimp. Serve decorated with more cilantro.
Herbed Coconut-milk Soup with Chicken or Seafood
Ingredients:
1.5 liters (6 cups) coconut milk
750 liters (3 cups) chicken stock
6 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
15 g (½ oz) galangal (kha), sliced
1 stalk of lemon grass, cut into pieces
8 whole birds-eye chilies (prik kii noo)
400g (2-½ cups) chicken or seafood, sliced into 4cm (1-½ inch) strips
16 small straw or button mushrooms
120ml (½ cup) lime juice
4 Tablespoon Thai fish sauce (nam pla)
Preparation:
Combine coconut milk and chicken stock in a pan and place over a medium heat. Add the kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lemon grass and chilies.
Stir in the chicken or seafood and mushrooms and cook until the soup begins to boil.
Remove from the heat and adjust seasoning to taste with fish sauce and/or lime juice. Serves six.
A world-wide survey of Thai restaurants was conducted discover the two most-requested dishes. And the winners were: Tom Yum Kung, the hot-and-sour shrimp soup, and Kaeng Khiao Wan, the green curry. And here are the recipes for those two.
Tom Yum Kung
Normally made with prawns but you can use chicken or fish. The dish is flavored with chilies and kaffir lime leaves and to be truly authentic Tom Yum is often cooked and served in a hot-charcoaled bowl.
Ingredients:
3 cups (24 fl oz/750ml) water or light chicken stock
8 oz (250 g) shrimp/prawns, shelled and divined
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 kaffir lime leaves (bai-ma-krut)
3 leaves of fresh or dried galangal (kha), thin sliced
¼ cup fish sauce (nam pla)
2 stalks lemon grass/citronella (ta-krai), lower 1/3 portion only, cut into 1-in (2.3 cm) lengths
5 hot green Thai peppers (phrik khi nu), optional
½ cup sliced straw mushrooms
¼ cup (2 fl oz/60ml) lime juice
1 tsp roasted chili paste (nam phrik pao)
1 tsp cilantro/coriander leaves (bai phak chi), chopped
Preparation:
Bring the stock to a boil over medium heat. Add the garlic, lime leaves, galangal, fish sauce, lemon grass, and shallots, then the mushrooms and chili peppers, if using. Simmer for two minutes. Add the shrimp and reheat to boiling. Cook until the shrimp are pink, opaque, and firm but no longer than one minute. When the shrimp are cooked, place the lime juice and chili paste in a serving bowl. Pour the soup into the bowl, stir, and garnish with cilantro leaves.
Kaeng Khiao Wan
A green curry cooked with coconut milk, sweet basil and chilies. Coconut milk gives curry a mild, almost sweet flavor. Green chilies add more spice. Kaeng khiao wan can be eaten with rice noodles known as Khanom jeen kaeng khiao wan.
Ingredients
Green curry paste:
2 stalks lemon grass, bottom part only, cut into ½-in(1-cm) pieces
1 tablespoon galangal (kha) or fresh ginger, sliced
1 teaspoon cumin
½ cup fresh cilantro/coriander root (rak phak chi)
8 garlic cloves
10 green Thai chili pepppers (phrik khi nu)
10 jalapeño peppers (phrik chi fa)
1 teaspoon chopped shallot
¼ teaspoon minced kaffir lime skin (phio ma krut)
Other ingredients:
2 cups (16 fl oz/500 ml) coconut milk
1 lb (450g) beef or chicken, cut into ½-in x 2-in (1-cm x2.5-cm)
¼ cup (2 fl oz/60ml) chopped garlic
4 tablespoons fish sauce (nam pla)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup Thai eggplant (ma-khuea phuang) or tinned bamboo shoots
½ cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) coconut cream
6 fresh kaffir lime leaves (bai ma-krut)
4 or 5 sweet basil leaves (bai horapha)
Preparation:
Place all the green-curry-paste ingredients in an electric blender and process until smooth, or pound in a mortar. Pour the coconut milk and green curry paste into a large saucepan and heat to boiling. Add the beef or chicken, fish sauce, sugar, eggplant, coconut cream an garlic. Cook at a slow boil for 5 minutes. Add the kaffir lime leaves and basil leaves. Remove the contents to a serving bowl and garnish with red jalapeño pepper (phrik chi fa daeng).
Pad Thai
Another favourite dish is wok-fried rice noodles with prawns. This is a signature dish of the White Elephant Restaurant at the JW Marriott hotel in Bangkok, and we thank them for providing this recipe.
Ingredients:
100 g shrimp meat
30 ml cooking oil
20 g bean curd, diced
10 g dry shrimp
10 g pickle turnip, chopped
15 g shallot, sliced
100 g thin rice noodles
20 g bean sprouts
15 g Chinese flat onion leaves
1 lemon or lime wedge
1 tbs finely chopped peanuts
Pad Thai Sauce:
30 g tamarind juice
15 g fish sauce
20 g palm sugar sauce
10 g ketchup
Preparation:
Combine tamarind juice, fish sauce, palm sugar sauce and ketchup in a saucepan, bring to boil over a low heat until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens, put aside.
Place the frying pan on the heat, add a little oil. When its smoking, stir-fry the shrimp, bean curd, dry shrimp, pickle, turnip and sliced shallot. Stir them constantly and add one beaten egg. Mix in the rice noodles and add the Pad Thai sauce. When the noodles are light brown and soft, add the Chinese flat onion leaves and bean sprouts and mix well.
To serve, garnish with a lemon or lime wedge, Chinese onion, chili powder, ground roast nuts or banana blossom.
Most countries have their regional dishes. You'd have a hard time getting biscuits with country ham and gravy in New York or a platter of haggis in London. Thailand is much the same, and there are a few dishes that are special to the island of Phuket.
Khanom chin are Thai rice noodles; these are normally eaten with curried fish or shrimp. Though it is available in any part of Thailand, khanom chin of Phuket has a richer flavor and is served with a variety of fresh and preserved vegetables. It is a typical local breakfast, and it is also delicious when complemented by beef curry or chicken curry.
There are two styles of fried noodles that Phuket claims as its own. One is mi hokkian or mi hun (soba noodles), which are fried with fresh shrimp, pork, shellfish and green cabbage. The other, originating in Sapam Village, is mi sapam with seafood and gravy on top. Ho Mok is steamed curried fish (or other seafood, often crab) with vegetables, wrapped in a banana-leaf or foil container. It should be eaten with steamed rice. Namphrik Kung Siap is Phuket-style hot shrimp paste with sweetened crisp shrimp, eaten with fresh vegetables.
When talking about Thai curry, foreigners will probably think of chicken or beef curry only. If you are in Phuket, why not try Phuket's kaeng luang (sour curry with fish and vegetables), a popular southern curry with an unusual taste.
Cooking Classes
They are available all over in Thailand, and may be conducted in homes and guesthouses as well as at the top hotels. The course at the Oriental in Bangkok is world renowned, and the management hopes that similar success will come to their new super-resort in Chiang Mai.
For those in a hurry, the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok offers a different approach to Thai cooking classes. It's all done in a few hours and apart from the knowledge you gain you will have a diploma from one of the world's top hotels.
You start at 8:30am when the class is taken from the hotel in air conditioned comfort to the Or-Tor-Kor fruit and vegetable market, which isn't air conditioned or quite as comfortable. Here you'll learn your kha root from a pomelo (that's a very meaty oversized grapefruit). Then it's back to the hotel where the cooking class begins at 10:30am. You'll have 90 minutes of hands-on cooking learning simple favorite Thai dishes.
Then comes the best part: At noon everyone sits down to a fine meal at the Salathip Restaurant. At 1:30 you're free to leave, armed with a diploma and a souvenir apron, which will impress your neighbors on your return. It's a great experience, but don't expect to know it all in one busy morning.