Essential Ingredients for Thai Cooking

In Thai cooking, there are many different ingredients that go into preparing the mouth-watering cuisine. And in most cases, they should be easy to find here in the UK. Before I moved to UK, I did worry about whether I will be able to find the right ingredients to continue cooking Thai food recipes. But thankfully, there are numerous Asian supermarkets, plus, most major supermarkets stock a lot of the right ingredients.

If you don’t have any ingredients readily available in your local area, not to worry, as most can be bought online, so you will always be able to have a fully stocked pantry to cook any Thai recipe. Below are just a few of the essential ingredients that anyone needs to cook Thai food. I will also place some links to help you find where to buy online if you have trouble finding them in your local shops.

Fish Sauce

Probably one of the most common ingredients in Thai cooking is fish sauce. You will find it very difficult to find a kitchen in Thailand that doesn’t have any fish sauce. I think it is probably used in all savoury Thai food recipes. But for Thai food, its more of a seasoning. The sauce provides a much deeper flavour compared to if you were to only add salt. If there is one thing you need to start cooking Thai food, it will be fish sauce.

Oyster Sauce

Oyster sauce is Chinese in origin, but has become a regional staple. It’s not uncommon to see more than one type of oyster sauce in the home. Oyster sauce is, predictably, made from oysters, and vary by how much salt, sugar, starch, or caramelisation goes into the process. It’s not actually fishy in flavour, but actually quite dark and developed with a briny saltiness. It’s used mostly to bring out umami flavours in stir-fry or meat marinades, and is an excellent broth booster.

Coconut Milk

Coconut milk is made from pressing the meat of fresh coconuts. In the mornings if you venture out to the markets of Thailand, you can see vendors breaking coconuts, separating the meat from the juice, and pressing out the pearly white milk. The juice, milk, and dried meat all serve as ingredients in Thai cuisine, but coconut milk is probably the most familiar internationally. It brings out a whole other level of flavour in curries and satay sauces, and has an irresistible texture and aroma in desserts and drinks. The classic Thai Green Curry, for example uses coconut to give it that rich creamy flavour.

Chillies – Dried and Fresh

In Thailand, chillies are eaten in every meal in the dish, as a garnish, or both. It’s hard to overstate how prominent chillies are to Thai cuisine, which were brought over by Portuguese traders in the 1600s and eagerly adopted. Today, it’s eaten dried, pickled, and fresh in almost every Thai dish. Often, different types of chillies are used in a single dish because of their varying nuanced flavour and heat profiles.

Garlic

Garlic is a common mainstay in cuisines around the world, and probably already in your kitchen. In Thai food, garlic is the origin story of many dishes. Soups, curries, marinades and stir-fries all begin with sautéing garlic, often with the skin on. The popular aromatic is also served as a garnish, raw or fried till crispy, for noodle soups, rice porridge, and dishes like Kao Man Gai (Chicken Rice) and Kao Ka Moon (Stewed Pork Rice).

Palm Sugar

Palm sugar is the richer, darker cousin to the typical white table sugar. Unlike white sugar, palm sugar isn’t simply sweet, it has a caramel flavour and dark, developed aroma reminiscent of crème brûlée. Because it’s less refined and processed than white sugar, it is rich in vitamins and minerals as well. Palm sugar lends flavour to sweet and savoury dishes alike, combating acidity in curries and adding layers of aroma to various desserts.

Shrimp Paste

Shrimp paste is potent. Made with shrimp and salt, then fermented, this is a strong-smelling, strong-tasting and crucial element to Thai cuisine. Though many Westerners are not accustomed to it’s fishy quality, Thai dips, sauces, soups and any curry would simply not be the same without it. Shrimp paste may not always be detectable in those forms, especially because it’s typically used in small amounts, but it carries a lot of the weight in creating that quintessential Thainess in Thai cuisine.

Tamarind Paste

Tamarind paste is made from the pulp inside Tamarind pods. This dark sticky paste is very sour, and another unsung hero of Thai cuisine. It’s why Pad Thai is so delicious, and is responsible for that tangy feeling where you always want to take another bite. Tamarind paste is often preferred over lime to balance out fats and carbohydrates in a meal in a cuisine where balance is considered very important in creating deliciousness. It’s so good at achieving a tangy “oomph” factor, that it was adopted in the West and now graces our tables in ketchup, barbecue sauces, and even Worcestershire Sauce.

Soy Sauce – Light, Dark, Sweet

Every kitchen in Asia carries several kinds of soy sauce. It’s used to bring flavour, colour, aromas, and thickness to many savoury dishes. Some kinds are used in marinades and help lend a mouth-watering sear and colour, others are only used as a seasoning at the table due to their complex blend. Dark soy sauces can be thick like oyster sauce and used for certain stir-fries. There’s even one that’s just for your eggs at breakfast.

Sweet Chilli Sauce

Sweet Chilli sauce actually has a lot going on, using many types of chillies with sugars, garlic, salt and acids to create a condiment that hits every type of taste bud. You can make this at home quite easily, but store bought comes handy in a pinch. It’s used as a quick way to season food while cooking because it has everything you need in a dish. It’s also a great dip for spring rolls, fried meats, Thai fish cakes and barbecue.

Sriracha

This sweet chilli sauce is named after the coastal town of Si Racha in east Thailand, where it’s recipe of chillies, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt was first made as a dipping sauce for local seafood restaurants. It is not commonly used in cooking, mostly as a condiment or dipping sauce. In Thailand it’s eaten every time noodles are, fried or with soup, and popular as a dip for spring rolls or to mix with other sauces.

Shallots

Shallots are garlic’s partner in Thai cooking, they often go hand in hand as the star aromatics. It is also featured in curry pastes, or condiments, and a critical starting-point for many Thai dishes. In Thailand, shallots are a rich purple and add a zesty freshness to many dishes. White or yellow onions, which are sweeter and not as bold, are not used very often in Thai cuisine. In Thai, they are called Hom Dang, where “Hom” means “good smell”.

Galangal

Galangal looks a lot like ginger, but tastes quite different. Galangal has a very sharp citrus flavour that doesn’t really compare to ginger’s spicy freshness, so don’t be fooled- they can’t be used interchangeably. Galangal is smoother, paler, and much firmer, and can’t be grated. It is widely used it soups, curries, and stews throughout Thailand. It’s an essential component to famous dishes like Tom Yum and Tom Kha.

Lemongrass

Though lemongrass is widely used throughout South East Asia, it finds a special home in Thailand. It looks similar to spring onions, with a firmer base and tightly packed woodier leaves. Along with galangal and kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass is part of the holy trinity of Thai flavours. Lemongrass’s anti-bacterial, digestive, and anti-oxidant properties have made it a popular ingredient in both foods and drink.

Ginger

In Asia, ginger is only used fresh. It is a very popular base ingredient that goes into countless dishes, but Thailand is the only region where galangal is preferred. Ginger is mostly seen in dishes with a Chinese influence, such as stir-fries or steamed with seafood. Ginger is also used in chilli dips, or added to a soy sauce dip along with some garlic and chillies to enhance flavours. Ginger is more yellow than galangal, and tender. This means you can peel it with a spoon, which is helpful because of it’s knobbiness. Ginger can also be grated easily, unlike galangal.

Turmeric – Ground and Fresh

Turmeric a cousin of both ginger and galangal, is mainly used fresh in Thailand. Similar in form, but much thinner and orange, Turmeric’s colouring is so potent that your fingers will stain for a day or two after handling It raw- wear gloves! It’s flavour isn’t as bold as ginger and galangal, and its many health benefits have been held in Thailand for centuries. Turmeric is used to bring amazing colours, nuanced aromas, and nutrition to many Thai dishes.

Lime

Lime is used in Thai cuisine towards the end of the cooking process or as a garnish to add some freshness to a dish before eating it. Lime garnishes are surprisingly common, served with soups, noodles, and fried dishes at restaurants for eaters to add their preferred amount. Lime is also big in sauces, one of the most popular sauces is just lime juice, fish sauce, and raw chillies. Its the Thai equivalent of salt and pepper on dining tables.

Kaffir Lime Leaves

Cooking with limes don’t preserve the fresh citrus notes favoured by a Thai palette, which is why it’s typically served at the end. However, cooking with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves create a robust, layered mix of freshness and aromas that the world knows as distinctively Thai. The dark, thick kaffir lime leaves are bruised and cooked whole in soups and curries, or sliced for dry dishes.

Thai Basil

Basil in Thailand is different in the west, and not just in usage. Thailand basil is actually a different variety of the plant than the “regular” basil seen in the west, i.e. Italian basil or sweet basil. If you can’t find Thai basil in the supermarket, then it’s probably better to substitute with mint rather than Italian basil; they are just that different. Thai basil has purple stems, and are much stronger in flavour and aroma. It’s a little spicier and has notes of cinnamon and mint.

Star Anise

Star Anise is one of the most incredibly unique aromas you will ever come across, which makes it impossible to substitute in a dish. It’s what gives Vietnamese Pho it’s literal star power. It looks like a star, and is treated like bay leaves are in the West: common in soups, cooked whole, and not eaten. It’s mostly found in dishes with a Chinese influence, in Northern regions, and in noodle soup broths.

Cinnamon

Unlike the west, cinnamon in Thailand is used in savoury dishes, giving their already-potent dishes some added punch. It’s featured in Massaman curry, and is typically used with red curries accompanying star anise and other rich aromatics. It’s a component of the famous Chinese five-spice powders, and also used to brighten up soups and as a marinade for barbecued meats.

Rice

Rice is synonymous with tradition in Thailand, a country that has been shaped by its economy and politics for centuries. White rice is served steamed for every meal of the day. It’s also cooked with broths into porridge, or ground up into flour to make noodles or baked into desserts. Sticky rice with mangoes and coconut milk are a popular dessert in Thailand. Its omnipresence means you can’t eat Thai food without eating rice.

Noodles

Noodles are the second most popular carbohydrate delivery vehicle in Thailand. They are served fried, or in soups and curries, with fresh vegetables and stewed meats or meatballs. Noodles in Thailand are made from rice flour, but come in many shapes and sizes. There are long, thin, clear vermicelli noodles, long curly yellow noodles coloured with egg yolks, short twisted noodles for frying, flat white noodles like those seen in Pad Thai, and many more. Most noodle dishes have a traditional noodle type to cook with, but noodle stalls often carry several types for eaters to choose from. They range from cheap instant noodles, to more expensive hand pulled Chinese yellow noodles.

Now your turn…

Do you have any questions about what ingredients to use for Thai food? Do you need help with any Thai recipes? Let me know in the comments below and I will get back to you with some help and advice.