The process of preparing Laab

Laab is a famous Thai dish which is relished by most of the Thai people. This is very popular in Thai feasts. Laab is also known as Larb and Laap which is a northeastern food. Laab is usually eaten as a part of a set such as salad made of papaya, laab, and sticky rice. The set is accompanied by string beans, water spinach, sliver of cabbage and Thai basil. Laab can also be served as an appetizer as well as a main course along with some other non-northeastern food. Some of the variations of Laab can be named as chicken laab, duck laab, and normal laab. Sometimes pieces of livers are added in the Laab to make it tastier.

One third of the lime should be squeezed on to the ground pork. Afterwards it should be marinated for just a couple of minutes. Thai people need small pots to cook this dish. Cast iron pans can also be used to cook the food because they become heated very soon and retain it for long. The pan should be placed on high flame until it becomes very hot. Two tablespoons of water should be added which is followed by adding marinated pork. Then the whole thing should be stirred well. At first the pork sticks to the pan but later when the juice comes out the meat loosens from bottom. The stirring should be continued. Traditionally the pork should be undercooked but it is not advisable due to health reasons.

The pork should be put in a large mixing bowl. The other ingredients should be added afterwards which include green onion, cilantro, shallot, fish sauce, lime juice, chili pepper, toasted rice, etc. Toasted rice can also be used to garnish the dish from top. It should be mixed well and tasted later. The dish is hot with little bit of tartness. All the mixed ingredients should be added to a serving bowl and then should be garnished with spearmint and toasted rice. Various vegetables like lettuce, cabbage, Thai basil, and green beans are usually added from top.

Eating and Ordering Thai Food

Thai food is really tasty if you can eat proper food in proper time. You should also know proper etiquette of having Thai food. Thai food is usually eaten with a fork and spoon. Some of the single dish meals such as steamed rice topped with roasted duck or fried rice with pork are served in slices or chunks. The spoon is used to take the food in to mouth. Thai food is internationally famed. People from around the world relish this food with great interest. Sometime Thai foods are chili-hot while sometimes they are bland. Thai cuisine can be interpreted as a combination of Eastern and Western types and now these are uniquely Thai. Thai cooking depends on many aspects such as who is cooking it, for whom is the dish being cooked, for which specific occasion, etc.

In has been seen from past that waterborne e.g. aquatic animals, herbs, plants, were the major ingredients of Thai food. Large pieces of meats are usually avoided. And that is the reason why sizeable chunks of meats are introduced to Thai food. Eating Thai food is ideal with two or more people in a group. This is useful because greater the no of the persons, greater the no of dishes ordered. When the diners are two, they should order three side dishes besides their own steamed rice plates. When the diners are three, the side dishes should be four and the counting should continue like this. Soups can be a good starter in most of the cases. Spicy dishes are usually taken to balance with the bland dishes.

The ideal Thai dish is a mixture of hot, sour, sweet and spicy. It should definitely be satisfying to nose, eyes and also palate. A typical Thai meal includes a clear soup like melons stuffed with minced pork, a steamed rice, a hot salad made of onions, lettuce, chilies, lemon juice, and mint, a fried dish, and different kinds of sauces into which food is dipped. All these dishes would be followed by some fresh fruits such as jackfruit, mangoes, grape, papaya and melon. A sweet dessert can also be added to the end part of a nice meal.

Chicken curry of Gang Gai in Thailand

Chicken curry is very common in Thailand. Thai people used to taking it almost every day. You will get this at any street vendors roaming in Thailand. Chicken curry is best goes with rice or ‘kanom jeen’ noodles. The popularity of this chicken curry can be seen in the temples where Thai people bring classic dishes like chicken curry to feed various temple patrons and Buddhists monks. Chicken curry can also be a good dish for your guests. This is very easy to prepare and ingredients are also very simple. It requires three cups water, two tablespoons fish sauce, one cup coconut milk, three to five springs of Thai basil, one and half pound eggplant, one tablespoon red curry paste and one chicken breast.

Thai eggplants are usually golf ball sized but you will not get this always. So, regular eggplants will do which are readily available in the supermarkets. Chicken should be cut into pieces. If the chicken is with bones, thighs and legs can be used as bones make this chicken curry tastier.

A first half of the coconut milk should be poured in a pot. The heat can be set at medium low heat. Red curry paste should be added, followed by mixing the paste with the coconut milk. The mix should be stirred continuously. If it is splattering too much, the heat can be lowered. Chicken is usually added when red oil bubbles on top. Curry sauce is usually used to coat chicken. When the chicken is completely cooked and the flesh turns white, you can add eggplant. Rest of the coconut milk, fish sauce and water can be added later. The dish should be boiled till the eggplants become dark. The thickness of the curry depends on the amount of time you are boiling the dish as because the eggplant thickens the sauce. The basil leaves should be added just before serving. These should be quickly submerged to preserve the color. Your dish is ready to serve with rice noodles or rice.

Green papaya salad in Thailand

Green papaya salad is one of the important dishes in Thailand. This is mainly popular among Thai women. This is a northeastern Thai dish is eatable with sticky rice. The other side dishes are beef salad, laab, bamboo shoot salad, etc. Two most popular green papaya salads are best accompanied with salted crab or shrimp. When dried shrimp or peanuts are added, the salad is named as som tum Thai and when it is added with crab, this is called som tum pbooh. The other ingredients remain same in both the cases.

The ingredients can be summarized as one or one and half tablespoons palm sugar, three fourth lime, 2 cups green papaya, five cherry tomatoes, one and one and half tablespoon fish sauce, two chili peppers, one tablespoon dried shrimp, six green beans, one clove garlic, and two tablespoon toasted peanuts which is optional.

If you are preparing vegetarian som tum, dried shrimp should be avoided. You can use fish sauce or soy sauce in place of that. Sometimes lime can be replaced with tamarind and palm sugar can be replaced with regular sugar. The balance of lime juice, fish sauce, peppers, and palm sugar should be properly maintained. In Thailand shredded green papaya is available in every supermarket. Even if you are getting whole papaya, you can peel it and grate it with cheese grater with medium and large sized holes. The seeds should be discarded if there are any. Green papaya salad is usually prepared with the help of a clay mortar, spatula and a wooden pestle.

At first the clove or garlic should be smashed. Green beans and half cherry tomatoes are added afterwards. Chili peppers should be crushed and added to the salad. It should be followed by adding green papaya, toasted peanuts, dried shrimp, fish sauce, palm sugar and lime juice. The pestle is used to push up the mixture in the mortar while spatula is used to push down in order to mix well the mixture. Not much effort is required to prepare the green papaya salad so just go for it and relish it with yours friends and family.

Thai Food Preparation

Thai food is really good in taste. These are very healthy as you will always get less sweet, less salt and less spice in Thai food. Paste is a real important word while preparing Thai food. Spice can be grounded to make paste. A pastle and mortar help them in doing in an effective way. A food processor helps to grind the dry spices. After that all vegetables should be chopped well and can be kept aside. Lastly chop the meat if that is at all included in your menu. Minimum utensil and cooking tools are used in Thai kitchen. You will get ‘wok’ everywhere because this is regarded as primary cooking tool. This is a sort of deep frying pan. A wooden spoon and spatula like shovels is usually used to stir fry different ingredients. Purchasing of high quality steel wok is really advisable as because this is a one time investment.

Only soft spatula will work well on non stick cook ware. Chefs mainly use peanut and coconut oil for deep frying in Thailand. Some of the organic oils really have nutritional values. Heat tolerant oil like canola corn, sunflower, almond oil and safflower or any other nut oils are also used in preparing different Thai food.

When you are starting the stir fry, please keep that in mind all your ingredients are closely placed. Because when you start something you won’t get time to look back actually. For all the stir fry the flame should be at medium high or high because with this heat the dish is expected to be good. If the oil in your wok splatters sometimes, think that the heat is too high. Lastly garnishing is another important part. Make sure that the serving plate is clean. Also see that your guests are around as Thai foods are at its best when serving hot from the wok.

Thai Cooking Methods

The authentic Thai food cooking is always a great challenge for all Thai chefs and cooks. The secret of preparing an excellent Thai dish lies in the preparation of the ingredients. It takes a lot of time to arrange the ingredients in preparing Thai food than in actual cooking. If you are using wok, you should be extra cautious. Thai cooking is usually very fast and also furious. Thai stir fries are cooked in high heat and for a short time period. In this type of cooking the important ingredients remain in the food such as vegetables containing vitamin remain intact and it enhances the food value. Thai cooking is usually done in a simple manner. Previously clay pot utensil and natural wood were used in Thai cooking. Now a day they are using gas, microwave oven, glass utensil and many more advanced things but the excellent taste of Thai food remain the same as before. Some of the simple cooking methods are discussed as below:

Boiling: Boiling is regarded as an important part of Thai cooking. Soups and curries are famous all over Thailand. ‘Tom Yam Goong’ is a good example of boiled Thai food.

Grilling: Thai people love to consume fresh seafood and grilled meats. The taste enhances if the grilled foods are dipped into ‘Nam Phrik’ i.e. sweet and sour flavored dips.

Stir Fry: This method of Thai food cooking has been influenced from China. Though stir fried dishes are common in all over Thailand still ‘pad thai’ demands special attention.

Salads: Salad is always specially dressed in Thai style. ‘Yam’ is kind of salad which is very famous in Thailand. simple ingredients like lemon juice, fish sauce, salt, garlic, chili, and also shallot are used to garnish it in a lucrative way. Some of the popular salads of Thailand are pork salad, beef salad, shrimp salad, and papaya salad.

Stews: Thai monarchs were educated in western country like Europe and brought back the western culture as well as the western taste in food. One of such imported dish in Thailand is known as stew. Thai people love eating beef tongue stew.

Eating Habits and striking Thai meals in Thailand

Thailand is always rocking when the topic is about food. Thai foods are excellent in taste. People from all over the world relish Thai food because of its taste and food value. Some of the Thai dishes are so tasty that they can easily boast of their origin. No one will forget the taste of these delicious dishes if tasted once in his lifetime. Freshly-steamed Jasmine rice, shrimp soup, chicken green curry, spicy papaya salad with crisp vegetables and ‘pad Thai’. You cannot forget one or the other. Don’t forget to take Thai dessert ‘kanom’. Fresh fruits are common in Thailand and that is why people prefer to eat lot of them. You should not forget to taste the sweet-smelling sticky rice garnished with juicy mango.

An authentic and traditional Thai dish consists of soup, curry dish, salad and a lip smacking dessert. Spicy and mild dishes are mixed to balance the taste and also neutralize in a better way. Thai people enjoy spicy dishes in all the time including morning time. Thai meal is served in a single time. For breakfast they usually like rice topped with curry and a fried egg. ‘Prik nam pla’ or chilies sliced in fish sauce usually accompany the dish. ‘Kao niew moo ping’ i.e. grilled pork with sticky rice is favourite among the office goers who want something ready to cook. In Thailand, lunch is normally heavy while dinner is always shared with friends and relatives. In the evening they like to take some light snacks. Thai people have a common tendency to eat more. Though they take normal three time food still they have elongated snacking of ‘gin len’ in between meals. You will get food everywhere in the city. The varieties are fresh orange juice, lots of fruits, ‘look chin ping’ or grilled meat balls, roti pancake with condensed milk with banana, egg and fried bugs, etc. All these street foods are available in incredible low prices.

Thai people love to share food with friends and family. Even in restaurants also you will have the option of sharing of food. It enhances the growth of friendship and also socializing with lot of people at the same time.