Need Advice/recommendations On Making Thai Food In Usa.

[witold]

I tried several Trader Joe's frozen Thai food kits and bottled Thai sauces, and they are horrible. Some are outright inedible, IMO. Not even close to Thai food flavors.

I would like to make some Thai dishes at home and would like to get some advice. I know there are a million recipes out there, but I need some dishes that are very easy to make for a non-cook.

Only Thai dish I'm not interested in making is Pad Thai...

Any advice on where to start that would give me encouraging results to pursue it further?

[ShopBoy]

go to some Asian Supermarkets not Trader's Joe to look for your kit.

you should be able to find better items there.

[Jingthing]

Try out a bunch of different recipes online and tailor it to your tastes.

It might take you five or ten times to get a version that you love, but you don't have to be master chef to accomplish that.

I used to cook Pad Thai in U.S. much more luscious than anything you get at a typical Thai pad thai stall.

I went for the fancier, more royal versions of the dish. Also, most Thai restaurants in the U.S. take shortcuts with that dish; you can do much better!

Some tips, when making your liquid spice mixture use:

tomato paste

tamarind (can buy in cakes or paste)

Squid brand fish sauce

Palm sugar

All can be found at a decent Asian market in the U.S.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Jingthing

[AyG]

Virtually all Thai curries start with a curry paste. You should be able to buy these pastes at an Asian grocery store. (I don't know about the US, but in the UK supermarkets also stock a range of them.) When you're in the store, also pick up a can of coconut milk, fish sauce (as Jingthing intimates, Squid brand is very good) and palm sugar. You now have the basics to make a range of curries. All you need now is a collection of good recipes. If the recipe says to make your own paste, don't bother - just use the appropriate packet of paste.

On-line, http://shesimmers.com/ is very reliable. http://tesathome.com/recipe-collection-2/ is also good - but isn't just for Thai food, more pan-Asian, really. http://www.chetbacon.com/thai-html/thai.html is also useful, but the recipes tend to assume a higher level of understanding than the other two sites.

[Jingthing]

Sorry I totally spaced out reading the OP. He's NOT interested in making pad Thai.

Anyway, one dish I used to love to make in the U.S. was pad krapow. I made it massively spicy using a food processor for the garlic and chilies. You can use most any meat. My favorite was ground turkey!

Also I found it very easy to make tom yum.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Jingthing

[Meisgq]

Boil chicken in water, remove chicken when cooked, use remaining liquid (chicken broth) to make rice, serve chicken over rice... CHICKEN RICE. easy. The sauce is a little bit more difficult to make but not impossible with your lack of cooking skills. It's not necessarily a thai-only dish but it's easily one of the most popular.

[WilliaminBKK]

Try this online shoppe as you are in the USA for supplies, some of their recipes have videos which are very helpful.

http://importfood.com/recipes.html

[Dancealot]

The main sauces and powders for basic Thai cooking. Even if you dont use them they look very cool in your western kitchen to impress the ladies...

Check youtube and start learn cooking ka preaw moo, fast!

Edited November 24, 2012 by Dancealot

[just_Elaine]

I agree with jingthing. Try a pad krapow. Here is a link to a Thai woman's website. She wrote a cookbook something like "It Rains Fishes". I can't remember the name of it, but I don't have it with me. Anyway, she also teaches classes out of Oakland, CA (or at least she did). http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/basil-chicken-recipe.html Notes: The kaffir lime leaves and the holy basil might be hard to get. If you can't get them, use some kind of basil and leave out the kaffir lime leaves and try to make the dish.

The other dish I like to do is lahb (or laab or laap), but it requires some grinding - making the rice powder. However, it is pretty flexible and if I have rice powder, chili flakes/powder, green onions, shallots, lime, fish sauce and ground meat, it comes out good. Oh and it is good to have mint or cilantro or basil. It comes out even better with kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass. Stateside I have used hamburger meat and it is amazing how good that comes out.

[Jingthing]

That reminds me. Even though I could easily get Thai basil for pad krapow in the U.S. sometimes I would use mint leaves instead for variety. Changes the flavor of the dish but still a very Thai tasting dish.

For Tom Yum, I'm assuming availability of the fresh ingredients (which I never had a problem with):

galangal, lemon grass, kefir lime leaves. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

So it probably depends on where you live in the U.S. as to how easy or hard it is to source good ingredients.

I used to mostly buy the ingredients at a Vietnamese supermarket. I became such a regular sometimes the workers would talk to me in Vietnamese assuming I was some kind of weird looking Vietnamese dude.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Jingthing

[witold]

I just wanted to post back again after looking at the links and various recipes and instructions....

A lot of the dishes don't look difficult. They look pretty simple, actually, and don't require as many random ingredients as I thought they might.

I'm a big fan of H-Mart which is a Korean supermarket but they don't have any Thai things there as far as I could tell. I will look what sort of Thai shops are in my area. Looks like I just need some standard stringent and that curry paste to start.

It would be awesome if I could make sum tum that tastes good. One of my favorite Thai dishes.

Also, does anyone know what the street vendors baste the chicken livers in?

[whatchamacallit]

If you live in a big US city - there are now many small mom-and-pop Thai markets. If you have 99-ranch market - go there and get the following ingredients to be stored in your pantry:

1. Green curry paste (Nam Phrik Gaeng Khieo Wan)

2. Red Curry paste (Nam Phrik Gaeng Phed)

3. Massaman Curry Paste (Nam Phrik Gaeng Massaman)

4. Phanaeng Curry Paste (Nam Phrik Gaeng Phanaeng)

5. Rosted Chili Paste (Nam Phrik Phao)

6. Yellow Curry Powder

In thailand you can buy the above from any traditional thai market, or most supermarket. Once opened, you can store them in your fridge and will last many many months.

Another must have store-bought sauces/ingredients that should be available in the states are:

1. Fish sauce

2. Oyster sauce

3. Soy Sauce

4. Coconut Milk

5. Lime (juice)

6. Palm sugar (if can't find - use brown sugar)

7. Dried chili

With the above curry paste and sauces you can create almost all thai dishes. Of course you may need fresh ingredients depending on what thai dish you are intending to prepare - most thai dishes will need the following - if you are lucky enough to find these in your neighborhood asian market - then by all means: go get them - you will have a real authentic thai dishes!!!!

Cilantro

Galangal

Lemon grass

Kafir Lime leaves

Sweet Basil leaves

Mint leaves

birdseye chili

=====================================

These are just a few popular thai dishes you can make with the above ingredients:

Tom Kha Gai (Chicken Coconut Soup) - you will need to buy fresh straw mushrooms or button mushroom

Panaeng Gai (Chicken Panang Curry Sauce)

Gaeng Khieo Wan Gai (Green Chicken Curry)

Gai Phad Bai Kaphrao (Fried Chicken with Holy Basil) - you may have a hard time getting holy basil in the state - but it can be omitted.

Gai Phad Med mamuang Himmapan (Fried Chicken with cashew nuts)

Phad Benjarong (Assorted friend meat with vegetables in oyster sauce)

Gaeng Phed Pet Yang (Red Curry with Roast duck)

Khao Soi Gai (Egg noodle in Chicken curry soup)

Laab Gai/Moo (Spicy minced chicken or pork salad)

Gung Tord Krathiem Phrik Thai (Stir-fried shrimps/chicken with garlic pepper)

Gai Satay (Chicken Satay with peanut sauce)

Massaman Nuea (Beef Curry in Mild Peanut sauce)

Pla Gao Rad Phrik (Deep-fried Garoupa chili sauce)

and many many many many more.... good luck.

[wayned]

If you live in or near a big city there are asian markets where all of these ingredients are available. But if you don't,and live in say, East Bumfluk, UK, you might have to rely on mail order: See this for an example: http://www.thai-food-online.co.uk/

[jacnl2000]

“It Rains Fishes” is the first book of Kasma Loha-unchit (1950) published in 1995. This book received the IACP award in 1996. Pad krapow recipe from that book:

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/basil-chicken-recipe.html

One could add large rings of unions and green beans cut in pieces of approx. 1 cm. length.

... the holy basil might be hard to get. If you can't get them, use some kind of basil and leave out the kaffir lime leaves and try to make the dish.

In Thailand krapow is not hard to get. Let one of your Thai family members dry those leaves in the sun for you first before sending them to you by registered mail (ThaiPost). Cost of sending them to you by registered mail is cheaper or similar to [certainly not more expensive than] the prize of those leaves in your shop.

[nalaknarak]

“It Rains Fishes” is the first book of Kasma Loha-unchit (1950) published in 1995. This book received the IACP award in 1996. Pad krapow recipe from that book:

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/basil-chicken-recipe.html

One could add large rings of unions and green beans cut in pieces of approx. 1 cm. length.

... the holy basil might be hard to get. If you can't get them, use some kind of basil and leave out the kaffir lime leaves and try to make the dish.

In Thailand krapow is not hard to get. Let one of your Thai family members dry those leaves in the sun for you first before sending them to you by registered mail (ThaiPost). Cost of sending them to you by registered mail is cheaper or similar to [certainly not more expensive than] the prize of those leaves in your shop.

Thanks for sharing

[californiabeachboy]

Just to add another dish, I recently cooked pla duc pad phet (river fish in a red curry sauce) here in the US. I am just learning to cook and it was very easy.

If you google pla duc pad phet (or pla doog ped ped) I think you can find the various recipes. All the ingredients are readily available in Asian (and some non-Asian) markets here in the US.

I like Trader Joe's but not for Thai food - they tone it down so much is is tasteless to me.

We are starting to see a lot of fish here called "swai" which I understand comes from the mekong delta and is a cousin to the catfish. That is what I used, but think you can use any white fish.

Have fun!

PS - sorry after posting I noticed this was an old thread, not trying to bump it up, but don't see a delete button, so will leave it up. Still have fun!

Edited May 17, 2013 by californiabeachboy