When it comes to balancing flavour, Thai cuisine is in a league of its own. “In Thai food we have sour, we have salty, we have sweet, we have spicy,” says Merica Charungvat, owner of Thai Tide. “The challenge for Thai food is having an equal combination of each of those flavours and most dishes will predominantly have all of them balanced out together.”
Despite the huge range of regional cuisine within Thailand, that balance of flavour remains. From the curries of the south to the spicy salads of the north and the famed street food of central Thailand, just a few key ingredients unlock a world of flavoursome cooking.
Though many Thai ingredients are available in Australian supermarkets – including Valcom’s range of pastes, sauces and other ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and water chestnuts it’s worth seeking out a Thai grocer. For those in Melbourne, Charungvat recommends Sa-Biang Thong at QV in the CBD or Talad Thai in North Richmond.
Red curry paste
In Thai cuisine, red curry paste is the starting point of countless dishes. “Usually in the red curry paste, when you find it in the supermarket, it’s got ingredients such as chilli, garlic, shallot, lemon and [makrut] lime peel,” Charungvat says. “What the chef does is they put the fresh ingredients in to elevate the paste.”
For instance, Thai satay sauce starts with red curry paste before adding coconut milk and crushed, roasted peanuts. Plenty of dishes work the same way. “If you add fennel seeds to red curry paste it becomes massaman paste,” says Charungvat. “If you add coriander seeds to the red curry paste it becomes your usual Panaeng curry paste.” Whatever you’re making, take it slow with the paste. “You need to heat slowly to get the fragrance out and the flavour will be more in-depth,” Charungvat says.
Jasmine rice and sticky rice
Two staple carbohydrates but with two different styles. Jasmine rice (which is a longer grain, but shorter and plumper than the Indian basmati rice) is widely available and often served alongside Thai curries. But it’s also worth seeking out sticky rice (a short grain rice with a nutty flavour) for a style synonymous with the northern and eastern regions of Thailand.
Sticky rice is, as the name suggests, glutinous in texture when cooked. You can prepare it in a rice cooker, but Charungvat has a tip before you do. “On the bag it would say ‘new crop’ or ‘old crop’. If it’s old crop, the rice will be more muddy, opaque and it has more fragrance. You need to soak it for six to eight hours or overnight – without the soaking process, the rice, when you cook it, the middle part will be very hard.”
Fish sauce
Saltiness is a key element of Thai cuisine, and the source of the flavour varies by region. In the south it’s common to use shrimp paste, while in the north a miso-like fermented soybean paste predominates. For central Thai cooking – and as a general all-rounder – there’s fish sauce.
Thai families will often have three fish sauces, each varying in intensity and saltiness. You don’t necessarily need to buy three fish sauces, but there is a trick to cooking with it. “What you do is you put it around the side of the hot pan so that there’s a sizzling sound,” says Charungvat. “This way you lose the fishy smell and it turns into the fragrant smell and you still have the saltiness.”
Sam Kleur (or ‘Three Musketeers’)
This isn’t an ingredient as such (it’s actually three ingredients), but it is a true Thai staple. “It’s coriander root, garlic and peppercorn pounded together,” says Charungvat. “You marinate with it, you stir fry with it, you put in your Thai sausage, your Thai spring roll, your Thai dumplings in the soup and, to be honest, it’s in all your curry bases. If I had to choose one ingredient, it’s going to be this one.”
To prepare, simply pound equal parts of each ingredient – coriander root, garlic, white peppercorn – and mix with oil. It’ll keep in the fridge for weeks and take you dazzlingly close to those restaurant-level flavours.
Palm sugar
Sweetness is one of those Thai pillars of flavour, and it invariably comes from palm sugar. Produced from the sap of the palm tree, the flavour is less aggressively sweet than refined sugar.
“With palm sugar it’s very balanced, it gives colour to the dish and it’s more fragrant than the usual sugar,” says Charungvat. “You use that in all your dishes like pad Thai, all the curries, and majorly, all the desserts.” Palm sugar comes in a block, so the standard preparation is to shave it with a knife before use.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Valcom. Discover Valcom’s range of authentic Thai ingredients.
