Thai Cuisine: Pad Thai, Tom Yum, Green Curry and 6 Famous Dishes

Thailand is a tropical country with fresh herbs available year-round, and its cooking relies on them fresh rather than dried: lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, coriander and Thai basil. The Chinese influence is clear in the noodles and the fast stir-frying, and the Indian in the curries — but the Thais took both in a lighter, more aromatic direction.

The core dishes

1. Pad thai

Rice noodles stir-fried quickly with egg and tofu or prawns and bean sprouts, in a sauce of tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce.

The noodles are soaked in warm water, not boiled — boil them and they disintegrate in the pan. Soaking leaves them intact and they finish cooking in the sauce.

The heat must be as high as possible and the pan wide. A large quantity cools the pan and the noodles steam instead of frying — better to cook two batches.

2. Tom yum soup

A hot and sour prawn soup, its aroma coming from lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves.

Those aromatics are for flavour, not for eating — they are removed before serving or left at the side of the bowl. They are not meant to be eaten.

Lime juice goes in last, after the heat is off. Boiling turns its acidity bitter and drives off its aroma.

3. Green curry

A green curry paste — green chilli, lemongrass, galangal and coriander — fried in coconut milk with chicken and vegetables added.

The paste must be fried in fat first — take the first two spoonfuls of thick coconut cream from the top of the tin, heat it until the oil separates, then fry the paste in it. That is what opens up the aroma.

Add the paste to cold milk and the curry comes out pale and tastes raw.

4. Mango sticky rice

Glutinous rice steamed, not boiled, mixed with sweetened coconut milk and served with mango.

The rice must soak for at least four hours and then be steamed in a basket — boiling turns it to porridge.

The coconut milk is added hot to hot rice, then rested twenty minutes so it absorbs.

5. Sweet chilli sauce

Chilli, garlic, sugar and vinegar boiled until thickened. Served with fried food and chicken.

It thickens as it cools — so do not wait for it to go thick on the heat, or it will be jam by the time it cools.

6. Thai salads (yam)

Not green salads — these are sharply flavoured dishes built on lime, fish sauce and chilli. The best known are som tam (green papaya) and larb (minced meat with herbs and toasted ground rice).

The toasted ground rice in larb is not a filler — it gives texture and a distinctive nutty flavour.

Fish sauce — the Thai salt

Fish sauce (nam pla) is the source of salinity in most dishes, not salt. Its smell is strong in the bottle but disappears completely in cooking, leaving a depth of umami with no substitute.

If it is unavailable, the nearest substitute is light soy sauce plus a pinch of salt — but the depth will not be the same.

Fresh herbs

Lemongrass is bruised with the flat of a knife before use so it releases its oils. Galangal resembles ginger but is sharper and more acidic — and ginger is not an exact substitute for it.

Kaffir lime leaves are shredded finely or added whole. And Thai basil goes in at the last second so it does not wilt.

Ingredients worth buying

• Fish sauce: the foundation — without it the flavour will not come close.
• Palm sugar: deeper and less sharp than white sugar.
• Tamarind paste: for pad thai and the sour sauces.
• Full-fat coconut milk: for the curries — the light version does not work.
• Ready-made curry paste: an excellent substitute for homemade; choose a Thai brand.

How a meal is ordered

Thai food is served all at once rather than in courses, with rice in the centre for everyone to take from.

The balance is at the level of the table rather than the dish: something hot, something sour, something mild, and rice — and you eat by taking a little of each.

Common mistakes

• Boiling pad thai noodles: they disintegrate in the pan.
• Adding curry paste to cold milk: the flavour comes out raw and pale.
• Boiling the lime in tom yum: it turns bitter.
• Boiling sticky rice: it turns to porridge — it must be steamed.
• Overloading the pan: the noodles steam instead of frying.

Where to start

Sweet chilli sauce is the easiest entry — ten minutes and it keeps for weeks.

Then pad thai (half an hour with the ingredients prepared). Green curry after that, and sticky rice last because it needs soaking and steaming.

On the heat

Heat in Thai cooking is not a display — it is a fifth flavour that balances the richness. Bird's eye chillies are small and very hot, and they can be reduced without the dish losing its identity.

The rule: use less chilli than the recipe the first time, taste, and add. Reducing the heat afterwards is impossible — you can soften it with coconut milk or sugar, but you will not bring the dish back to where it was.