Famous Spicy Thai Ingredients.

Shallots; horn lek; Allium ascalonicum. This small red onion is a very important ingredient in most Thai dishes but the quantity may be reduced if you find you do not like it.

Spring onions; ton hom; Allium fistulosom. These green onions are used for garnishing soups and salads and as vegetables.

Lemon grass; takhrai; Cymbopgon citratus. The plant looks like a tuft of coarse grey-green grass. The lower part of the stalk is used fresh for flavouring and as an ingredient in certain dishes. It is indispensable for torn yam but a piece of lemon peel might make a good substitute.

Gingers are herbaceous plants indigenous to the tropics. We have many kinds of native gingers whose roots are used to flavour food and as vegetables.

Common ginger: khing; Zingiber officinale. Fresh roots or "hands" are young and plentiful in the rainy season. While these roots are plump, pale yellow and pink we pickle them, crystalize them and make a drink out of them. Young ginger pounded with a little salt, pepper and garlic is good too as a marinade for chicken or beef. For the rest of the year we make do with old ginger which is more fibrous and much spicier. Ginger keeps well and is therefore obtainable in Chinese stores abroad. There it is called green ginger.

Siamese ginger; kha, Alpinia galanga (siamensis). The roots are larger and whiter than common ginger. It is always used in making curry pastes and a few slices are usually added to fish or chicken stock. The flowers are edible, dipped in batter and fried, served with nam phrik.

No English common name; krachai; Kaempferia pandurata. The tubers of this ginger look like a bunch of yellow brown fingers. Krachai is always added to fish curries and nam ya, and peeled and served as a raw vegetable with Khao chae.

Turmeric; khamin; Curcuma longa turmeric. These small bright orange roots provide the yellow colouring for curries or vegetables. Turmeric powder is easier to use. White turmeric: khamin khao; Curcuma sp. These roots are white and about the same size as the common ginger. Used as a raw vegetable it tastes only slightly peppery and has a pleasant tang. The flowers are used boiled as a vegetable with nam phrik.

Cumin or cummin; yira; Cuminum cymi-num. This annual is native to Egypt and the name is pronounced kumm-in. The small ridged, light brown seeds, so similar to caraway and fennel, taste and smell quite different and have to be heated to release their aroma. The Thai word yira is given both to caraway and to fennel seeds, presumably because of the similarity of appearance, though in actual fact only cumin is used in Thai cooking, mainly in the making of curry pastes.

Mace; dofc chan; Myristica fragrans. The orange outer covering of nutmeg, the fruit of an evergreen tree native to Indonesia. It is used in the making of Matsaman curry paste.

Nutmeg; luk chan; Myristica fragrans. The nut is enclosed in a very hard brown shell. It is used in the making of Matsaman curry paste.

Cloves; kanphlu; Eugenia ammatica. Cloves are the dried flowerbuds of an everoreen tree native to the Molucca Islands. They are almost as expensive as saffron because crops often fail, because they are much used in Western cooking and because the oil is antiseptic. We use it in Matsaman curry and to chew as

About The Author-- Vipp Rongsit is an editor specialize in Thai food & Thai recipes.
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