The secret of Thai cuisine
Tom yum goong
De Thai cuisine is world famous and is highly appreciated by many tourists and expats. That in itself is special because the dishes are relatively simple, but still tasty. What is the secret of Thai cuisine?
This mystery is easy to explain, everything revolves around the right balance of five tastes: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy. It may be that one of these flavors predominates as with Som Tam (a spicy papaya salad). Other dishes are served with something extra to temper the overwhelming spiciness. For example, Tom Yum Goong, which is sour and spicy, is often paired with an omelette or rice. According to some, this is also the reason why rice is always part of a Thai meal.
In addition to the many herbs and spices used in Thai food, fish sauce is often used in a similar way to salt, as it softens the flavor somewhat. This means that vegetarians will have to take this into account and be more careful when choosing food in Thailand.
There is a wide variety of Thai food for you to try, both main courses and desserts. You can also try local dishes, which taste different in every part of the country. Northern Thai meals are often served with sticky rice, Nam Phrik (spicy chilli paste), fresh vegetables and soup. The Northeast is known for their spicy and sour dishes and the essential condiment Pla Ra (fermented fish sauce). The south also has many traditional dishes known for their herbs and spices.
The secret of Thai cuisine lies in a combination of several key factors:
- Balance of flavours: Thai dishes are known for their balanced flavor profile, where sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami together form a harmonious whole. Achieving this balance is crucial.
- Use of fresh ingredients: Fresh herbs, vegetables and meat are essential in Thai cuisine. Ingredients such as lemongrass, ginger, coriander, lime leaves, and fresh chilies add distinctive fresh flavors.
- Aromatic herbs and spices: Thai dishes make extensive use of a range of herbs and spices, including galangal, kaffir lime leaf, tamarind, and Thai basil. These ingredients provide a deep and complex taste.
- Use of fish sauce and shrimp paste: These ingredients add a unique umami and saltiness to Thai dishes, which is essential to their distinctive flavor.
- The art of stir-frying: Many Thai dishes are prepared quickly in a wok, which helps to retain the freshness and nutritional value of the ingredients, while also adding a distinctive 'wok-hei' or wok flavor.
- Regional variations: Thai cuisine is extremely diverse and varies depending on region, resulting in a wide range of flavors and styles, from the spicy salads of the northeast to the milder spiced curries of the south.
- Attention to detail and presentation: Thai cuisine pays great attention to the presentation of dishes, with a focus on color, texture and garnish, which contributes to the overall dining experience.
Combining these elements with craftsmanship and passion is what makes Thai food so unique and loved all over the world.
It is controversial whether umami is a separate flavor or just a flavor enhancer. The fact is that it plays an important role in Thai cuisine (and not only there). Almost all fermented products such as fish sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, but also (aged) cheese, sausage, yeast paste, not to mention some vegetables such as tomatoes and seaweed, are packed with umami. Self-respecting cooks don't use it, but in cheap eateries the pot with glutamate (vetsin) is kept in a central place within reach and is lavishly scattered.
Personally, I find the use of lots of fresh vegetables and herbs and the short, intensive heating also characteristic of Thai cuisine. Sometimes you get the beans, herbs and bean sprouts in containers, placed raw on the table. In this respect it is a huge difference with, for example, Indonesian cuisine with its soaked and then fried spices and long stewed / braised sayurs. Here only the well-known gado gado and the lesser known nasi petjil are exceptions.
But be that as it may….depending on your personal preferences, there is plenty to enjoy all those goodies.
“Beans put on the table raw.” The body cannot process raw beans properly and it is just ballast. Some beans are even poisonous raw. I don't eat raw beans.
Hunger makes raw beans sweet…..
Yes indeed. I was also raised with this information. It was carved in stone like an eleventh commandment. “Every bean gives a tone” is what people say. And experts say that all legumes (including beans) must be cooked or at least heated to avoid fatal blood clots and other life-threatening effects. After I saw the Thais eat their raw beans carefree and I myself regularly found them barely heated in curries, I plunged into the raw bean adventure with a certain death contempt. And lo and behold… survived without any problems.
The toxins do not appear to be present in all beans. As far as I know, a type of legume, this has been scientifically proven. Although you will not do it voluntarily quickly, you can, in principle, eat the seeds of the white lupine raw without any adverse consequences.
Although a bit off Item, here comes some of that menacing language from teaching materials I personally once wrote for my students. It may be useful to take note of this as background information for a differentiated approach to Thai eating habits.
Legumes are not eaten raw. Heating is necessary to break down harmful ingredients. They contain trypsin inhibitors that hinder protein breakdown during digestion. Some varieties also contain hemagglutinin, a type of lectin. These proteins bind to the red blood cells
as a result of which they stick together and can no longer absorb oxygen. The first symptoms of lectin poisoning are vomiting, fever and mild diarrhoea. These substances are rendered harmless by heating. It is also better to briefly blanch sprouted legumes. Due to the short-term effect of heat, not only micro-organisms but also the toxins mentioned are rendered ineffective.
Favism:
Some people, especially those from the Mediterranean region, have a hereditary sensitivity to beans. That is genetically determined. This hypersensitivity is called favism and is caused by a deficiency of an enzyme in the body. The consumption of beans, peas, black and red berries and a number of medicines including acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) and anti-malarial drugs in these people causes a sometimes life-threatening haemolysis (breakdown of red blood cells) with fever, abdominal pain, back pain and possibly shock with acute renal failure. The most important therapeutic measure is to avoid the substances that cause haemolysis. 'avoidance of beans is avoidance of favism'. Contrary to what some sources state, sprouting, boiling or other processing of beans is not a sufficient measure to prevent favism. This can only be a solution for patients with a mild form of favism. Favism is closely related to glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. However, there are people with this enzyme deficiency without favism and conversely not all people with favism also have an enzyme deficiency. The exact 'why' is still unknown. A detailed report on this can be found on the English Wikipedia site. There are also very informative sites of patient associations, the links of which can be found in Wikipedia.
In my experience, the raw beans on the table are only spiced beans and they are absolutely non-toxic raw. Even with a background as a chef, I sometimes understood the added and rather tasteless beans or white cabbage nut. Thai women explained to me that it is mainly about the texture. something crunchy and sort of fresh.
Got a taste for it 5 years ago in Thailand…. Since then, we also eat Thai food at home in the Netherlands about 4 times a week. Fortunately there is a large toko "around the corner". We select recipes and especially ingredients more and more, and especially on quality, because that is what makes the big difference. We never use vetsin, although I don't have the scientific information that this would be bad.
The secret; Fish sauce, fresh (!!) lime, coconut milk (not canned), and of course peppers. In terms of peppers, I don't really care which ones these are, although bird eyes are too small for me, and the rawit peppers are closest to what I prefer. Finding the right ratio between all these basic flavors is the greatest art. Too easy it gets just a little too salty or too sour.
Preferred vegetables or meat…. doesn't even matter that much. Check what's left in the fridge and you'll get a delicious curry. Although a good curry paste is also very important for this.
In addition, lots of shrimp, lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal, and lots of chicken breast in the freezer, and a few bottles of oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce from the right brands in the cupboard, and you can make delicious Thai dishes in no time.
@Lessram do you have a recipe where you use galangal and lemon grass? Also curious how you incorporate these 2 ingredients into your dishes.
Like to cook yourself, and always curious how others do this.
Hey Gideon, Galanga (laos) and lemon grass (sereh) are frequently used in Asian cuisine. You can buy it fresh on the markets in Southeast Asia and in the fridge of the tokos in the Netherlands and the Asia shops in other countries.
The famous Thai Tom yam (gung) is a good example. you can find recipes all over www.
They are also basic spices in Indonesian cuisine. Here comes my favorite (because extra spicy) recipe of "Rendang" the most believed Indonesian dish worldwide.
Rendang
INGREDIENTS
10 candlesticks
2 onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
piece of fresh galangal (galanga) of 3 cm
2 rawits, coarsely chopped (small pepper, possibly replaced by red pepper)
2 tbsp ground coriander seeds (Ketumbar)
2 tbsp cinnamon powder (Kayu manis)
1 tbsp cumin (Djinten)
1 tbsp turmeric (turmeric)
4 cloves (Tjinkeh)
vegetable oil or coconut oil for frying
1 kg beef steak, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cans of coconut milk of 400 milliliters
1 lemongrass (Sereh)
2 cinnamon sticks
4 djuruk purut leaves (kafir lime)
2 daon salam leaves
1 tbsp tamarind paste (asem)
salt
100 grams santen (coconut block)
100 grams of ground coconut
Rendang is a typical case of next day best, making a day (or two) in advance is recommended.
Preparation method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 ºC and roast the keminuts for approx. 10 minutes. Make a bumbu by grinding the onions, garlic, ginger, galangal, rawits, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, kukurma, keminuts and cloves in a food processor. You can also use a mortar or oelek for this, which is good for your muscles.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Fry the meat on all sides until it is nicely browned. Do this in batches, if you put too much meat in the pan it won't brown properly. Set the meat aside.
3. Heat some more oil in the pan and fry the bumbu until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Keep stirring well so it doesn't burn. Return the meat to the pan and add coconut milk, along with just enough water to cover the meat.
4. Tie a knot in the lemongrass stalk and add to the pan along with the cinnamon sticks, jeruk purut, daun salam and tamarind. Season with salt, not too much, you can always add more later. Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat so that it simmers gently. Now let the rendang stand without a lid for about 2-3 hours, until it has boiled completely dry. And of course stir occasionally. In the final stage, you can gently fry the mixture due to the presence of the fat. If it boils dry too quickly, you can add some water so that it does not stick.
5. Cut the santen and add it to the rendang along with some water (about a glass). Put the shredded coconut in a dry frying pan and over medium heat. Keep stirring the coconut until it is golden brown. Add the coconut to the rendang and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
Taste the rendang and season with salt if necessary. The meat should fall apart slightly when you stick your fork in it, but not so far that it is actually pulled pork.
Selamat makan
ps the dish prepared in this way definitely does not need a flavor enhancer!
Simplicity graces the kitchen. The great French masters already said that 100 years ago.
Jean-Paul Pelleprat
It is only at the beginning of this century that (Umami) next to our four basic tastes, was discovered as a fifth taste (besides: sweet/salty/sour/bitter)
So it has been scientifically established that it really is our fifth taste.
And that it can be/is a flavor enhancer, may be clear, but that is salt as well!
We taste these five with our tongue.
But all our taste sensations are a combination of those five that our tongue can distinguish and the rest that go through our sense of smell, and there are many thousands more. We don't really taste that, but we experience it as flavours.
ผงชูรส (phǒng choe: rót) = monosodium glutamate (MSG) (โมโนโซเดียมกลูตาเมต) = Ve-tsin อูมา มิ (Oe-ma-mí)
Dear Ronald,
I like to remark about ผงชูรส (phǒng choe: rót) = monosodium glutamate (MSG) (โมโนโซเดียมกลูตาเมต) = Ve-tsin อู มามิ (Oe-ma-mí).
I think it's about Prftptjrboem = Proemprofpjort.
Piet
When we talk about "Som Tam" it does not belong to Thai cuisine. That is Esan food, but with a Thai variant. Just like Takkaten Tod, fried grasshopper, Kalok Yaang kaw nio, roasted squirrel, Yam Mengkutschi, dung beetle salad and Laap Lued raw buffalo meat topped with uncooked buffalo blood and a pinch of Ki Pia, the bile of the animal also belongs to the Som Tam and its not available in any Thai restaurant.
Kerry and coconut is widely used in Thai cuisine and of course many noodles from China. Lots of influences from Malaysia.
You can't ignore the flavor and fragrance enhancer Ashinomoto,
:Remember" said my teacher in the Shangri La Hotel "we can not ignore the spoon and fork"
Enjoy your meal,