The secret to Thai food rely on two things, Thai Herbs and Thai Sauce. Herbs are all about the scent but the mouth watering taste comes from the sauce. Delicious Thai dishes come from perfect Thai sauce recipes. If you get the combination right, you are on your way to cooking perfect Thai Food.



The next time you find your self in a Thai restaurant, look over to your neighbors’ table. Often time, you’ll find small extra Thai sauce in those dishes, unless your particular Thai restaurant caters specifically to non-Thais. I guess what I’m saying is, the more Thai sauces you find on the tables the more authentic Thai food you’ll get.
It’s usually a good sign if those sauces in the small plates taste good. You can assume that other sauces probably comes from a well made sauce recipes. Better yet, if you see condiments with Thai sauce and spices on the table, you know this restaurant is pretty authentic. Thai cooking is about blending herbs, spices, and sauces together. There’s no better way to deliver all the intense flavors than Thai sauce. Thai sauce is divided into two category, cooking sauce and dipping sauce.

ผัดไทย (Pad Thai) - Pad Thai Noodle

ผัดไทย (Pad Thai) - Pad Thai Noodle
Thai Sauces:

Dipping Sauce

* Prik Naam Pla (fish sauce with sliced chili and lime juice) – a universal sauce that goes with almost every rice dishes. Some

restaurants included it in the condiment.
* Prik Naam Som (chili & vinegar sauce) – condiment used to flavor noodles
* Naam Prik Pao (roasted chili paste) – condiment used in variety of dishes (soups, salads, stir fries). Some Thais use Nam Prik Pao as jam substitute to spread on toast.
* Aa-jaad (pickled cucumber Salad) – great dipping sauce for fried fish cakes, satay, and other fried appetizers
* Naam Jiem Saate (peanut sauce) – one of the most popular Thai sauces out side of Thailand. It tastes so good people do not only use it to dip Satay but use it as salad dressing, pizza sauce substitute, pad Thai sauce substitute, and much more. The American should call it “See Food” sauce, what ever food you see you dip in this sauce.
* Naam Jiem Talay (Seafood Sauce) – yes, you’ve guessed it. Naam Jiem Talay is a dipping sauce for all your seafood need. Move over melted butter! Get ready for a fiesta in your mouth. This bad boy is full of flavor and once you take a bite, the intense combination of spicy, sour, salty and sweet will knock your socks off (if made right).
* Naam Jiem Buoi (plum sauce) – popular among kid and people who cannot handle spicy food. Nam Jiem Buoi is great for any fried dishes.
* Jig Choe (vinaigrette soy sauce) – use for making hot and sour soup and dipping sauce for pot sticker and Dim Sum.
* Naam Jiem Gai (chicken dipping sauce) – sweet and spicy sauce. Great with BBQ chicken
* Naam Jiem Seir Rong Hai (crying tiger sauce) – Crying Tiger is one of the more popular dishes in the US. Seared medium rare beef served with dipping sauce, consists of fish sauce, ground roasted rice, chili pepper, soy sauce, and lime juice.


Cooking Sauce

* Nam Pla (fish sauce) – for adding salty flavor. Use in soups, stir fry, and making sauces. You will find fish sauce in dishes like Tom Yum (hot and sour soup), Tom Kah (coconut soup), and pad krapow (stir fry holy basil).
* Nam Som Sai Choo (vinegar) – for adding sour flavor. Use in soups, sweet and sour stir fry.
* Pad Thai Sauce – use for cooking pad Thai
* Phu Khao Tong (Green lid soy sauce) – flavored soy sauce. one of the important sauce which included in many Thai stir fry sauce recipe
* See iew Dum (Sweet black soy sauce) – for making Pad See iew (Sweet sir fried noodle with chinese broccoli and meat). Ingredient in Khao Mun Khai (Broiled chicken meat over flavored rice) dipping sauce
* See iew khao (light soy sauce) – important sauce in many dipping sauce.
* Tammarin Juice – important ingredient in pad thai sauce. Included in some dipping sauce and Thai Khang Som soup (Sour soup with tammarin based)
* Oyster sauce – ingredient in many Thai stir fry sauce recipe including sweet and sour stir fry.
* Curry paste – All curry pastes have similar herbs and spices but different proportion.
o Green curry paste
o Yellow curry paste
o Red curry paste
o Mussamun curry paste
o Chu chee curry paste
o Panang curry paste
o Khua Kling curry paste (Southern Thai food)
o Khang Pa curry paste (Not popular in foreign country)
o Khang Som curry paste (Not popular in foreign country)


As you can see from the list above, Thai food rely mostly on Thai sauce. When you mix and match sauces, they become totally different dishes. Even the same dishes, different proportion make a big difference in flavor. That’s why sauce recipe is the key to separate good Thai food from outstanding Thai delicacy.
Like I said “If you got that combination right, you are on your way to cooking perfect Thai Food”.

Article provided by ThaiSauce.net.

Khaaw Pad American (or Khao Pad American) literally translates to ‘American Fried Rice’. At first I thought that this was a dish Thai people thought was popular in the US. But recently I heard that this dish was made up by Thai cooks during the Vietnam war era, to give US service men something the Thais thought they’d want to eat while over here in Thailand during breaks. This explanation makes more sense to me. It’s almost like the Thai cooks put all the things they thought of when they thought of American food, and fried them up with rice. And while this isn’t so much ‘Authentic Thai Food’, it’s become a popular dish 40 years later with kids — it’s one of the most popular lunch items at the university where I studied Thai. This recipe was requested by Diane in Brooklyn, NY. Enjoy!


Ingredients:
* 1 cup cooked jasmine rice, a bit dried out
* 1/4 cup chopped onion
* 2 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
* 1/2 tablespoon golden mountain brand soy sauce
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil for egg & hot dogs, 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil for frying rice
* 1 teaspoons butter (yes, really)
* 1/2 tablespoon raisins, soaked in hot water for 2 min and drained



Directions

1. Cook the rice, and dry out a bit, best is mostly covered overnight in the fridge. If you’re going to make it right away, cook with a bit less water than normal, and let air out for 10 minutes or so before cooking
2. Fry the egg in a good amount of oil (about 4 tablespoons) on high heat. The egg should bubble up and sizzle like crazy if the pan is hot enough. The edges should brown and get crunchy too. When browned, remove and set aside.
3. Cut the ends of the hot dogs in an X pattern, up about 1/3 of the way. This will create extra surface area to get crispy when you fry it. (See picture).
4. Fry the hot dogs in the oil, until crispy, set aside with the egg. Dump the remaining oil.
5. Fry the onions in 1 teaspoon of fresh oil on medium high until translucent, then add the butter. When the butter is melted, throw in the rice.
6. Stir well to mix, and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
7. Add the ketchup, golden mountain soy sauce and raisins. Stir well and cook for another minute or two.
8. Put on a plate and top with the fried egg and hot dogs.



Note:

While this dish almost always has a fried egg as a side, the meat 'side' can vary. Usually you see fried hot dogs, fried sausage, fried ham or a fried chicken leg.


Article provided by Cee (www.realthairecipes.com)

Pad Kee Mao is a versatile dish. It can be made with noodles, spaghetti, without noodles and served on rice, with seafood… you name it. Essentially you can make anything ‘kee mao’ by including a lot of chilies, fresh peppercorns & holy basil. In Thai, ‘pad’ means to stir-fry, and ‘kee mao’ means someone who likes to drink too much. ‘Kee’ literally means ’shit’, and adding ‘kee’ in front of any verb means it’s a bad habit. ‘Mao’ means drunk. So, a ‘Kee Mao’ (shit drunk) is someone who has a bad habit of drinking! What this has to do with this dish, I’m not 100% sure. I’ve heard that this is a common drinking food, and also that it’s a good cure for a hangover. Your guess is as good as mine.



You'll Need:
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 1/4 cup (1/4 kilo, 1/2 lb) fresh wide rice noodles
* 1/2 cup baby corn (about 6 ears)
* 1/2 cup white tofu, pressed (or 1/2 cup seafood such as squid & shrimp, or meat pieces)
* 2 tablespoons fresh peppercorns
* 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
* 1 tablespoon smashed small thai chilies
* 1 sliced orange chili (about 1 tablespoon)
* 1/2 cup packed holy basil leaves & flowers
* 1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
* 1 teaspoon black soy sauce
* 1 1/2 teaspoons golden mountain soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon white soy sauce or fish sauce (or more to taste)
* 2 teaspoons white sugar
* about 4 tablespoons water
* 1/4 teaspoon vinegar



Directions

1. Separate the noodles by peeling them apart one at a time. Set aside.
2. Prepare your ingredients: Slice the baby corns into 1/2 lengthwise. Crush the garlic and chilies, and set aside. Pick off the leaves & flowers of the basil, and set aside. Chop the large chili into rings.
3. If you’re using tofu, pre-fry it in hot oil until browned. Set aside.
4. Add the oil to a pan, and heat on high until it’s dancing around. Then add the garlic, chilies and green peppercorns. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.
5. When the garlic turns light brown, add the veggies & meat/seafood if adding. Keep stirring and cook until finished, about a minute. You may need to add a few tablespoons of water to help things not stick.
6. Add the tofu (if adding), then the noodles. You may need to add a bit more water if the pan gets too dry. Don’t add a lot, or the noodles will get mushy.
7. After frying for a minute or two, add the soy sauces, sugar and oyster sauce. Stir well to mix.
8. Add the basil & vinegar. Stir to mix. When the basil is wilted it’s done.

Note:

It's common in Thailand to eat this with spaghetti (yes, from Italy) which has been pre-boiled for a few minutes to just before al-dente. You can leave the noodles out all together (you might need to lower the amount of sauces and spices) and serve with rice.

Tofu can be substituted with bite-sized sliced pieces of seafood (mussels, clams, white-meat fish, shrimp or squid), chicken, pork or beef. Throw it in before you add the vegetables.

You can add chinese cabbage, carrots, white onion or thai rice mushrooms instead or in addition to the baby corn. It's up to you!

If you cannot find fresh peppercorns, substitute with 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Add it at the end when you add the vinegar.

In the US, when I ordered this dish, it usually came out with a lot of sauce, not quite that spicy, with the wrong basil, no fresh peppercorns and bell peppers in place of thai chilies. This version here is authentic, using the correct basil (holy basil - 'bai ga-prao') and orange chilies instead of bell peppers. I would totally NOT recommend using bell peppers in this dish. The flavor is really strong and overpowering, and not 'Thai' at all. A lot of cooks outside Thailand substitute spicy chilies (prik chee faa, prik leung, prik kee nuu, etc) with bell peppers. Better to leave them out! You can, however, substitute the orange chili with jalepenos, if that's all you have.

Thais season their noodle dishes at the table with a 'kreung brung' — a small seasoning container which contains a separate cup each of chili powder, vinegar (with pickled chilies), fish sauce (with yet more chilies) and sugar. You then season your noodles to your liking. I added vinegar to this recipe, to make it easier. Normally you wouldn't add vinegar in the wok, you would season at the table.

Article provided by Cee (www.realthairecipes.com)

Garlic and Pepper Crusted Pork is a recipe which my friend P-Mala made up. She’s been a professional cook for 20 years, and is one of the best in Thailand! She was patient enough to teach me how to make this recipe, step by step. In fact, she’s so generous, she has agreed to let me come by on a weekly basis to learn some of her special recipes. Keep a look out for more recipes by P-Mala!




You'll need:
* 1/2 kilogram (about 1lb) pork steaks, boneless loin cut
* 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped coriander roots, with about 2" of the stem still on. (about 2-3 roots)
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup garlic cloves, de-skinned
* 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
* 1 1/2 tablespoons white soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon white sugar
* 1/2 cup tempura or all-purpose flour


Directions

1. Smash the cilantro roots and salt in a stone mortar & pestle until a paste.
2. Add de-skinned garlic, and smash. Then add peppercorns and smash until paste.
3. Cut your meat into 4 equal slices, and put in a bowl. Add your paste, soy sauce and the sugar. Mix to cover the meat. You can also stab the meat a bit with a fork so the marinade seeps in better.
4. Coat with flour. Refrigerate, covered, for at least 10 hours.
5. After you’ve waited, fry on medium heat in about 1/2″ of oil. Cook until the meat is cooked through and dark brown, flipping once (about 2 minutes on each side). The meat will be pink and not white, since it’s marinated. Do not overcook or burn the garlic crust.
6. It’s best to wait until cooled before cutting, so you don’t lose any juice.

Note:

Serve with Prik Naam Bplaa: 1 tablespoon fish sauce with a chili sliced into rings. This dish can be a one-plate-dish with rice (sticky rice is a great match), or you can serve with a many-dish meal. You can either marinate the day before, or make it in the morning to eat at dinner.

Article provided by Cee (www.realthairecipes.com)

Shallots are used in Thai cooking almost as much as garlic. The shallots which are found in Thailand are smaller than the European varieties, and are a touch more flavorful.




Preparation: To prepare shallots, first cut off the bottom (roots) and then peel off the paper skin. As with any onion, it’s best to not stand directly over the onion, so that you don’t get the onion fumes and start to cry. Keep cutting the shallot lengthwise starting from the first cut you made before. Shallots taste really yummy when cut thin.

Storage: Shallots can be stored unrefrigerated for many weeks at a time. If the bulb is soft, it’s time to buy new shallots!

Recipe provided by Cee (www.realthairecipes.com)