My mom was an incredible cook and made the best food I have ever tasted. For years I asked her to measure what she was putting into a recipe, and I even made a semi-successful attempt at a cookbook measuring her “little of this” and “just guess” of that. What I finally came to understand is that Thai food is prepared by taste. It’s a balance of flavors – spicy, sour, salty, sweet, & savory. That balance though is heavily influenced by your own preferences, what you happen to have on hand, and the potency of those particular ingredients. So you need to develop your own taste for a dish and learn how to adjust if things don’t seem balanced. I find many dishes at Thai restaurants in the US are too sweet for my own personal tastes and definitely sweeter than what you would find in Thailand. So when following a recipe, I will start with half the sugar recommended and adjust from there.
Although there are some amazing Thai chefs out there with beautiful authentic Thai cookbooks to guide you into Thai cooking, this is not how my mom cooked in the US. She adapted to what she had and I believe this is what made her one of the most talented cooks I’ve ever known. She taught me how to cook Thai food in my home kitchen in small town Wisconsin where the nearest Asian store was nowhere near us at the time. We didn’t always have tamarind paste, lemon grass or lime kaffir, but my mom still made incredible Thai food. She kept the shelf stable staples in my pantry and would use whatever I had on hand to fill in the rest. My mom called it “better than nothing” substitutions.
So this is how I cook. I taste and adjust. Not perfect. Not always 100% authentic, but it’s definitely better than no Thai food at all. When I share recipes, I will give you guidelines, but will note appropriate substitutions when possible. So as you come along with me on this journey, I hope you will also set your sites on becoming a decent Thai cook. Believe me, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Your friends and family will still love it.
0 Comments