Harmony guides the cook in Thai cuisine

Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to: exe.chef@horizonmanor.comThai food is one of the most liked cuisines from South East Asia. This cuisine not only tastes good but is a true delight to the eyes also with the use of fresh ingredients and colourful varieties of vegetables used to prepare the dishes. Thai cuisine is influenced by Chinese and Indian cuisine in its preparation style to cooking style and the ingredients. Thai cuisine has five taste elements — namely sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy. Thai chefs and cooks have taken influence from foreign cuisine and have come up with their own unique cuisine. Whther chilli hot or comparatively bland, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. This is the reason you can easily notice two or more distinct flavours in each Thai dish. Today, Thai cuisine is a continued exploration of new and old, with chefs innovating fusion foods with the continual import of foreign ingredients and arrival of foreign chefs in the Thai kitchens. A lot of emphasis is given to the use of fresh ingredients like vegetables and fresh herbs in Thai cuisine. A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with fish and vegetables. The soup can be spicy, but the curry should be replaced by a non-spicy item. Basically there should be harmony of taste and texture within individual dishes and the entire meal. Common Thai ingredientsLime leavesAlso known as kaffir, lime leaves are thick, green and shiny on top and pale and black on the other side. These leaves are used in abundance in Thai cooking and have a major role to play in terms of flavour. You can tear a leaf to smell the distinct fresh aroma. You can store fresh lime leaves in the refrigerator for about two weeks. These leaves are almost irreplaceable in Thai cuisine when it comes to their flavour. If you can’t find some, omit them from the recipe rather than substituting them with something else.LemongrassLemongrass is a widely used mild citrus flavoured herb used in Thai cuisine and used for its medicinal properties in Indian cuisine. It is commonly used as flavouring in tea, soups and curries and is also suitable to use along with poultry, seafood, beef, and various types of fishes and vegetables. During my last visit to Singapore I came to know that locals use lemongrass juice to repel mosquitoes. You can store lemongrass foe weeks in refrigerator. To use lemongrass, just crush the stalk with the knife handle and then finely chop it into small pieces and use directly while sautéing the ingredient for curries.GalangalGalangal and ginger appears to be similar but are different. Galangal has a tighter skin and is lighter in colour and can have pinkish portions too. Fresh galangal is abundantly available and is widely used in Thai food preparations. Galangal is thought to have originated in Indonesia and has a pine, pepper and ginger-like flavour. There are two ways in which galangal is added in foods — one is in crushed form and the other is in thin strips. Thai people love to make spicy curry paste and even dipping sauces with galangal as an ingredient. You can store galangal in refrigerator for two weeks.Fresh Red Chilli (Bird’s Eye Chilli)The spicy red chilli hails from Mexico, Central America and South America. In Thai cuisine these chillies are highly prized for their fruity taste and extreme spiciness. They are extensively used in many Thai curries, and even salads. These chillies are not only used as flavouring agents in dishes but are used as a garnishing element in the dishes as well. However the garnish chilli is not as spicy as the cooking one. The bird’s eye chillies can be stored for weeks in the refrigerator. Thai Shrimp CurryServes 2IngredientsTiger shrimps     600 gmShallots 5-6 noLemongrass 1 stalkGalangal 1 inch cubeThai yellow curry paste 3-4 tbspVegetable oil 1 tbspBrown sugar 1 tspKaffir lime leaves 4-5 noBasil leaves few noCoconut milk 400 mlCoriander leaves 30 gmMethodPeel and thinly slice the shallots. Fine chop the lemongrass and galangal and keep them aside.Heat oil in a wok and fry the shallots until soft, add galangal and stir in curry paste and cook for a minute, stirring all the time.Add the shrimps and stir fry for 3-5 minutes, add lemongrass, sugar, kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk.Bring slowly to boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the shrimps are cooked.Adjust the seasoning and add roughly chopped coriander leaves and basil leaves.Serve hot with Thai jasmine rice or steamed basmati rice.