INGREDIENTS

For successful Thai cooking at home

Store cupboard – These are the essentials I have in the cupboard to cook a selection of Thai dishes at home. It’s probably no surprise to hear I buy Thai brands where ‘Product of Thailand’ is written somewhere on the bottles or packaging. I’ve stated which brands I tend to buy below to help.

 

  • Fish sauce (Squid or Tiparos)
  • Thin light soy sauce (Healthy Boy)
  • Oyster sauce (Maekrua)
  • Tamarind concentrate (Garden Queen)
  • Palm sugar (Maesri or Aroy-D) – look for Thai brands that are 100% palm sugar
  • Shrimp paste
  • Coconut milk (Aroy-D)
  • Dried shrimp (medium sized shrimp about the size of a penny coin are the most universal)
  • Rice – fragrant jasmine is best but whatever you can get your hands on will do
  • Noodles – I tend to use rice vermicelli or glass noodles the most
  • Red curry paste (Mae Ploy or Nittaya) – good to have around if fresh Thai ingredients are scarce, you can adapt a basic shop bought red paste by adding more chillies, more aromatics or even roasted dry spices to suit other purposes
  • Roasted chilli powder – I make my own but please go ahead and see what’s out there on the market
  • Blanched peanuts
  • Dried chillies – Thai bird’s eye and long red chillies for curry pastes
  • Thick dark soy sauce (Healthy Boy)
  • Yellow bean sauce (Healthy Boy)
  • Distilled white vinegar (Golden Mountain)

 

Fresh produce – I tend to stray away from buying too many fresh ingredients that carry lots of airmiles for all the obvious reasons. That being said, it’s difficult to cook Thai food without a certain number of these fresh ingredients that bring soul to the dishes. Here’s a list of ingredients I have knocking around in the fridge or pick up whenever I’m passing by Chinatown.

 

  • Kaffir lime leaves (fresh or frozen, never dried)
  • Limes
  • Thai chillies – I favour ‘prik ki nu’ and red bird’s eye chillies
  • Coriander roots (these keep well in the freezer)
  • Krachai or finger root (peel and keep in the freezer)
  • Galangal (peel and slice into pound size pieces then freeze)
  • Lemongrass
  • Shallots – smallish round ones ideally, but again use onions if not available
  • Garlic
  • Coriander
  • Mint
  • Kaffir limes (these keep in the freezer for when you need the zest)
  • Pandanus leaf
  • Turmeric (peel and keep in the freezer)