Stock your Kitchen Part 3: Thai Cooking

Kelly Rossiter is offering ideas about cooking basics; see introduction here.

About ten years ago Thai restaurants were becoming more and more popular in Toronto. My husband loved the cuisine and gave me a Thai cookbook hoping to inspire me to cook it at home. I was all for it but reading through the recipes I realized that I wasn't going to have much luck. Lemongrass? Galangal? Kaffir lime leaves? I had no idea where to find these exotic ingredients so the cookbook got relegated to the "nice try" pile in the back of a cupboard.

Then about three years ago, I realized that many of these ingredients were now actually in my pantry so I revisited the book and started to cook. Many regular grocery stores and any Asian market should carry these ingredients. All kinds of cookbooks include Thai or Thai-inspired recipes and we are much more familiar with those tastes. So forget the take-away and we'll get you ready to cook.

Cooking Oils

Peanut oil, vegetable oil, sesame oil.

Canned and Bottled Goods

Soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, coconut milk ( I always use light coconut milk because it tastes the same but the difference in saturated fat is enormous), green curry paste.

Dried Ingredients

Sticky or glutinous rice or fragrant Thai rice, cellophane noodles, tamarind (it comes in pressed blocks).

Produce

Garlic, ginger, galangal (a relative of ginger). limes, kaffir lime leaves, Thai holy basil, lemongrass, bird's eye chilies (those are the very small red chilies which are extremely hot and should be handled with gloves when cleaning and cutting) or other hot chili, mint, coriander (also known as cilantro), tofu, mushrooms, red peppers, carrots.

Spices

Coriander seeds, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, curry powder, Chinese five spice.

Equipment

Wok, rice cooker, bamboo steamer.

Difficulty level: Easy

Need to print out a shopping list? We have put the Chinese and Thai pantry list into a pdf. download it here. download it here.

[i]Photos from Vatch's Thai Cookbook