Thai Food Cooking

Different cuisines have different distinct tastes. While most countries usually have one distinct taste that characterizes most of their dishes, Thai food is one of the few cuisines that boast such a wide and unique blend of unforgettable flavors. Its sweet, spicy, salty and sour tang give the pallet a memorable gastronomic journey while each distinct taste fight for attention as they explode in your mouth with its vibrant and surprising contrasts.

The necessary equipment

Don't be daunted by the special equipment needed in preparing and cooking Thai food. Although, traditional Thai cooking use special utensils and cooking aids that may not be present in your kitchen, you can probably find a suitable substitute for them in your cupboards.

For instance, the mortar and pestle is used by the Thai to blend and mince their flavorings and spices. Just like any other cooking technique, this is done to set off and intensify the flavors of the ingredients. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can use a regular food processor for this. You can also use a coffee grinder instead.

As for cooking rice, an ordinary rice cooker will do to set off the lavish taste and scent of Thai jasmine rice. While a rice cooker makes steaming rice a convenient breeze, if you don't own one, you can use an ordinary stainless steel pot with a lid. Just cook at low heat, using the correct ratio of water to rice.

Although if you want to purchase authentic Thai cooking utensils, you can easily find and order them from thaigrocer.com.

Key ingredients

Cooking is an art and so it is mainly a creative endeavor with gastronomic outcomes. Feel free to experiment and substitute ingredients when cooking Thai food. However, whatever you do, stay clear of dried spices and ingredients. If you're cooking Thai food use only fresh ingredients. Dried ones do not compare to the vibrant burst of flavor that fresh ingredients give.

When you visit an Asian market you will find most of the spices used for Thai cooking in the freezer section. Frozen food ingredients are just as good or sometimes may be better than fresh ones. For more information about Thai food ingredients and where to find them, check out thaifood.about.com

It's all in the timing

Thai food is cooked using a wok for stir frying which was influenced by the Chinese. Just like in Chinese cooking, the wok must be extremely hot before you start to add in the ingredients of your Thai recipe. Remember also that as you add more ingredients into the wok, the heat is dispersed; so remember to keep it very very hot when cooking.

The benefit of cooking with a very hot wok is that you won't over cook your food because it is done before it loses much of its nutrition. This way also, it will cook before it absorbs much oil from the wok.

Because the wok is extremely hot, you need to have all your ingredients to hand and already chopped. With such a hot wok, everything happens really quickly once you begin to add ingredients to the wok.

There will be no time to cut, chop and mince once you start so have them all ready and within reach before hand. For more tips on cooking Thai food as well as useful information that you might need, check out thetempleofthai.com

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