Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake Ryan
Does anyone have any suggestions for a good Thai food cookbook or recipes for thai food that I can make at home?
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David Thompson's books are really good.
Amazon.com: David Thompson: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
Be warned though, they're not for the faint of heart. His recipes are authentic, meaning that they use a lot of ingredients that may not be easy to find, and can be very labor intensive and time consuming.
Some of the ingredients you might need...
Easy to find ingredients:
lime, ginger, fish sauce, condensed milk, garlic, shallots, dried hot red chiles (bird chiles, Thai chiles, or you can use some Mexican ones like japonese or chile de arbol), cilantro, sweet basil, tomatoes, peanuts, rice (jasmine, glutinous, etc.), rice noodles, cabbage, mango
Harder to find ingredients:
Coconut milk or coconut cream- pretty easy to find in regular grocery stores nowadays in cans, better selection and cheaper at Asian markets though. They sometimes have it in Tetra Paks which is preferable.
Lemongrass- You can buy tubs of it from the freezer section at Asian markets. It's very cheap and convenient this way and retains most of the flavor of the fresh lemongrass. You can also grow some very easily. It's about as easy to grow as any other grass.
Kaffir lime leaves- you can find these at many Asian or international markets, or you can just buy a Kaffir lime tree and keep it as an attractive house plant that doubles as a convenient herb
Cilantro root- hard to find, even at Asian markets. Growing your own is an option
Palm sugar- or you can use jaggery which is found at Indian stores and is made from date or palm sap. Or you could use brown sugar, piloncillo (found in Mexican stores), or some other type of unrefined or semi-unrefined sugar, though the flavor may not be quite the same.
Galangal- spicy rhizomes that are related to ginger but have a different flavor. It can be hard to find, even at Asian stores. You can order it on the internet and keep some in the freezer. Dried galangal powder is not recommended, frozen rhizomes are a lot better.
Japanese-style long, skinny, purple eggplants- very common at Asian stores.
Small green Thai eggplants- harder to find
Straw mushrooms- easy to find canned at Asian stores, and sometimes fresh or frozen.
Thai basil- easy to grow your own, or use sweet basil. Thai basil has a strong anise scent though.
Holy basil- same as above, you can keep it as a house plant over winter. It has more a peppery/clove type of flavor. Other kinds of basil aren't a good substitution.
Lemon basil- very citrusy/perfumey flavor, other types of basil not a good substitute for lemon basil either
shrimp paste- comes in jars at Asian stores
culantro- Asian, Hispanic, Caribbean, or International stores
green mango- same as above
Thai tea mix- Asian stores
There are also pastes you can use as short cuts. The store here sells various curry pastes- red, yellow, green, panang. They're all pretty good. Not as good as homemade, but they're really convenient. You can doctor them up with some additional fresh ingredients if you want.
You can also buy pastes that you use to make Tom Yum. Just mix with water and add straw mushrooms and shrimp. You can also add some lime juice, galangal, fresh basil, lemongrass, or whatever you want to give it a more fresh taste.
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