Hey everyone, if you want to dig deeper on a specific ingredient, here's where all the deep dives are listed: hot-thai-kitchen.com/category/thai-ingredients-101/ Thank you so much for watching! - Pai
There is no heat in chilli 🌶️ seeds. 99% of heat is in white flesh (veins) that are seeds attached to. Try experimenting taking seed out of Birds Eye’s chilli and chewing it. Almost no spicy effects. Than try red flesh without any white veins. Similar results 😂
You forgot the Peanut Butter for cooking like a Thai. Should I go with Jiffy or Skippy? lol I'm kidding girl. I had to make that joke because I know it bugs you. haha
My pantry is stacked with Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai ingredients, and I’m Filipino. Lol! I made your pineapple fried rice so many times in just a month. My daughter love it so much.
@@siennas2011 Same. My wife, who is French/North-African, takes care of Mediterranean and French cuisine, and I do all sorts of East and South Asian, as well as Mexican stuff. Whenever I bring back a new spice I get eyerolls. 🤨🙄
I'm obsessed with this video. I have a number of these items in my pantry, but the knowledge and tips you provide are gamechangers. Never knew/realized/occurred to me you could freeze some of these items like fresh chilies, curry pastes and LEMONGRASS! How many times lemongrass has wasted away in my fridge, I cannot tell you. Not to mention all the times I needed a lime and knew nothing about lime powder. You've changed my cooking life! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! ❤
I freeze whole limes and lemons. Works great. Also easier to squeeze. Also chop ginger into slices before you freeze it. I have tubs of fresh chilies and sliced ginger in my freezer.
@cchoi108 oh, wow, never thought you could freeze fresh lemons and limes. Will definitely be doing that,too! Thanks! 🙏 I learned the ginger trick awhile back, and that was also huge bc it was always dying before I could use it all. Now, I buy a bunch and freeze it immediately and never have to worry about being out! Gonna need another freezer, now, though. 😂
Agreed! And the Real Lime crystals are super handy! I’ve been using them in all sorts of cooking since I find fresh limes very expensive where I live. Any cuisine where you need lime (Mexican!) you’ll really appreciate having those handy Lime crystals!
@@cathybabnick7326 No need to be sad, brass tarnishes really fast and is a hassle to keep shiny and clear. I have a few inherited brass spoons and such and they just end up languishing in a drawer
Driving north 65 miles to Asian World in Spokane WA, to buy ingredients for my Thai recipes. Love this lady on great Thai recipes. Shout out from Colville Wa.
Thank you so much for providing us Thai who had been living outside Thailand for a very long times a sense of belongings to our culture and our homeland. I appreciates your knowledge, teaching and showing us how to prepared our wonderful Thai meals. Without your Thai foods cooking show and teaching, I would be so lost! Please continue keeping up all the great works you've done and much blessings to you in this new year 2025. Thank you again!
We are visiting family in Chiang Mai right now and went thru a cooking class last week. It was easily one of the best highlights of our trip. Every one of these ingredients was used in at least one of the dishes we made many were in more than one.
Did you know that you are the BEST thaï cuisine teacher?? I've been fallowing since your debute and I learn so much!!! You are a gem! Thank you so much Pailin! :)))
This is the video I’ve been waiting for! 🎉 I have most of the ‘must haves’ now, thanks to online shopping. I live in a small town in Northern Wisconsin with no access to an Asian market. So fresh ingredients are out. I did buy dried lemongrass online in hopes I could figure out how to make it work. 🤷🏼♀️ I have to say, you have the best teaching manner of all the cooking videos I watch. I learn so much from you! I’m 71 years old, a fairly confident cook, but just wanted to try new things. That’s how I became interested in cooking cuisines I’m not familiar with. You have inspired me to cook these Thai dishes! I even bought a wok! 😁 My pantry is ready, and I’m ready, thanks to you! And thank you for helping this old lady find some fresh joy in her life! 🥰🤗
I bought the Thai fish sauce, mushroom soy sauce and oyster sauce based on your recommendations in other videos. I found I have been using all three for way more than just Thai food. Slow cooker chuck roast gets the mushroom soy sauce added instead of salt. I add fish sauce to all sorts of things that I want to up the umami flavor on. Soups, roasts, almost anything that should have umami flavor will benefit from fish sauce; and once cooked, it doesn't taste fishy. I've used the oyster sauce in all sorts of sauces and glazes. Thai food is great, but the ingredients can be used for so much more.
IMO soy sauce is indispensable for making an English-style brown gravy, and Worcestershire sauce (which contains both fish sauce _and_ tamarind) gives it a nice kick.
The freezer tip is A+. The first time I made red curry paste, it took forever and I made a giant mess. Now, I can do it on a weeknight! I keep galangal, cilantro roots, makrut lime leaves, and lemongrass in the freezer in my “Thai ingredients” Tupperware, and puya and arbol chiles in the cabinet. Shrimp paste lives in the fridge and I always have white peppercorns. The only thing I need fresh is shallot and garlic. I usually make at least a double batch which gives me enough for 8-10 meals. It is SO worth making fresh if you have the space to keep the ingredients!!
Good video Pailin! What I do for fresh lime juice is I squeeze it in a juicer and put it in an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer and just defrost it whenever I want fresh lime juice
I do this, too, when I can find limes at a decent price. They are very expensive where I live. I have turned to the Real Lime crystals more often now. They work really well!
Thank you for a very informative video. I am an Australian, and have been to Thailand a number of times. I love the culture and the people, but I absolutely LOVE the food. I have a good friend who married a Thai woman, and she used to take me to the Asian grocery, and show me what were the best brands to buy. There are so many to choose from, it can be very confusing for a novice. Your video is extremely helpful and informative for anyone who wants to cook authentic Thai food. Very well done!👍🙏🦘
I'm literally driving to my closet Thai Supermarket here in Sheffield UK tomorrow to restock on my Thai Ingredients. Been making do with other Asian ingredients for a while simply because the other shops are closer but I'm tired of not quite getting that authentic taste. So thank you for this perfectly timed video! 🎉
Well done, spot on with the ingredients, you see these in the kitchen, you are eating Thai or Laos food. Some of my white and black friends have these ingredients too. When people make Thai food, they realize how fast and easy it is, it becomes a staple, especially the noodles and curry dishes. You look great, happy for your success, keep at it.
I really appreciate it when you show and explain sauces, noodles,rice, and all asian products etc . (And how they work, cook, and go well with). Asian food is my number 1 Favorite Food in the world. I really want to know how to cook it , understand it, and get all knowledge of it, so a Big THANK YOU!! (Maybe there is something out there in a book that explains all of this that this video is showing and telling).
I've been following you from the start and learned so much. Made so many delicious recipes. I have every staple youve mentioned, and even more. Thank you! Keep up the great work.
If anyone is looking to add the flavour of fresh chillies without it being too spicy, keep them whole. The heat comes from the pith and seeds on the inside, but the flavour largely comes from the flesh. If it doesn't break you still get a lot of the flavour and can still enjoy it. This is especially useful in slow cooked curries (Thai, Caribbean, South Asian etc.) or even western style chilli, where if you just float whole chillies you will get the flavour and the slight warm sensation, but never the hot/painful feeling.
That is sacrilege! What's the point if it isn't spicy and hot! Long live hot peppers! As Mark Wiens says, "If it's not spicy, I'm not eating!" LOL Yes! I grow my own hot peppers! There are many different hot peppers with different flavors. Those different flavors are what makes it all so interesting! Healthy Boy and Lee Kum Kee are my go to sauce companies for soy and other sauces. YUM YUM! Squeeze bottles! Why didn't I think of that?! ARRRGH! We buy our Thai Jasmine rice in 25 lb bags because it is far less expensive that all of those little bags added up. We got through a lot of it. LOL
@@steveforbes8287 100% agree. I love heat and spice. Even for capsaicin lovers like us, though, this keeping some peppers whole is still a useful technique if/when you want to adjust the levels of mouth felt heat (the painful kind) and the pepper flavour or body warmth independent of each other.
I grabbed fermented shrimp paste randomly from a Thai food stall in the market near my place. Your beef curry recipe was the first time i used it and I've been using it quite a bit since. Thank you for the fantastic recipes!
Haha I just came back from the Asian store becayse I was tired of seeing your yummy recipes and not having any fishsauce in my house It's an investment but a very clever one and I'm so hyped to get started I also found a brand new Wok on the street in a give away box Im gonna rewatch so many of your recipes vids 😂 Thank you for putting all this work in, it's greatly appreciated
I've bought the brands you recommend, and it has taken my Thai cooking from "meh" to spectacular. It's amazing at how using them really ups the flavor.
Pai! Pai! Imagine there's an amazing Thai Asian shop in Budapest, Hungary and I've found holy basil (and everything else I need - galangal, lemon grass, Thai basil). The shop assistant was an extremely smiley, helpful and kind man and he knew all the authentic ingredients to pad thai too and showed me everything I needed. 😊 By the way I found your Ytb 2 weeks ago and I've been cooking and eating Thai ever since 😃.
That's quite a shopping list that you have provided. Fortunately, most of those items are already in my kitchen. Now I have to go review those other videos and such that you mentioned. Thank you for a great list of items by which I can keep making delicious dishes.
Lime powder?! Never heard of it! I've been disappointed in myself resorting to concentrates shaped like the fruit when I can't buy fresh, so this is a game changer for me. Thank you for sharing the tip! I'm ordering the lemon and lime to try out.
Hey, new subscriber here! I studied abroad in Thailand very recently and absolutely fell in love with the food. I have been struggling to recreate flavorful Thai food at home, so this video is SO helpful. THANK YOU
Excellent! Thank you - now I am ready to stock up 👍 I am anyway a lucky guy: My Asia market in Frankfurt, Germany even sells fresh Holy Basil - holy cow!
Pailin, I have been watching your videos and making your Thai recipies for a couple of years now. I started with Gaeug Jued, because we can't find it in a restaurant ANYWHERE since we left the bay area 12 years ago. Everything I have made has been an absolute HOME RUN. The only thing that has caught me off guard thus far is how long it took me to make sticky rice, for Mango and Sticky Rice. I started it after dinner one night after having soaked the sticky rice overnight and it took me like 2 hours to complete! Yikes! Desert at 10PM with a cranky chef is not recommended! Thank you for opening up my world!
This is such a great video, I find so many times people cook from recipes, buy so many ingredients they never use again and then their cupboard fills up with stuff that sits there for years. Ask someone who lives in Sydney Australia, I predominantly cook Asian derived food, I have all the ingredients you’ve mentioned, and switched that up between Thai, Japanese, Italian, I love putting soy sauce in Bolognese, once you understand how to use ingredients in a particular way, it opens up a world of joy in cooking. What a fantastic video
I can’t believe I have everything except for kaffir lime leaves. I feel so proud. Thanks to you for introducing me to Thai cuisine from many years ago 🥹 💜
Thai palm sugar is just _deeeeelicious_ and if you've got a whole stash that you're looking to use up - it's fiendishly good grated onto softened butter spread thickly on a good white (or nutty wholegrain) bread (or just use the sugar paste like a jam). Not the healthiest or most traditional snack, but this butterscotchy sandwich with a sweet and slightly crunchy filling alongside a nice cup of hot tea has become my new idea of heaven😛
I really love this video a lot. I need to buy the palm sugar and the herbs! I have all of the other items/ingredients. Thank you so much Pai for sharing your culinary knowledge with us ❤
Our kitchen has everything in it that you mentioned...but I live in Thailand😄 Here's a useful tip from my wife for coconut milk: After buying, pour into an ice cube tray. After freezing, remove from tray and consolidate the cubes into one bag. ...I think you neglected to mention MSG😁
Absolutely true. Usually when I want to make thai food and theres one or more of the essentials missing I won't even bother. NO SUBSTITUTES. But when I'm stocked and everything is readily available, it takes less than 5 min of preperation to start the cooking.
amazing! Happy to see that I have all these ingredients in stock except for the chili paste. I thought shrimp paste would be a key ingredient. I feel like thats what elevated my thai cooking to the next level.
I wish, where I live, had more Thai ingredients in the grocery store. The cashier the other day told me that galangal was just like ginger. I laughed and kindly said thank you. Maybe? Not really? Lol anyway. I love your channel and again thank you!
Just a heads up Pai, no links onscreen for the last three recipe links you mentioned. Your videos have been a wealth of inspiration, and I've always really appreciated your thoroughness, professionalism, and Good humor. I've also enjoyed watching you grow as a creator, from the Earnest young girl you started out as to the seasoned yt pro you are now. Kudos!
I find the slowest part of thai cooking is peeling and mashing garlic with chiles. I bought a frozen container of premixed garlic and chili that I grab a spoonful of most times now. Perfect for weeknight Thai food
My fault on watching this so late I was busy all day and night yesterday. Thank you for the video also I agree you have to have the necessary essentials for any culture cuisines.
I've been using allulose in your recipes because we need a lower sugar option - it works really well. I bought aroy-d panang curry paste impulsively and it works really well in your peanut sauce (which i make with chopped cashews because of a peanut allergy in the family)
I'm eating my leftover massaman curry as I watch this (used Mae Ploy massaman for the curry paste)....I've already got most of these, but definitely saw a few I'll have to pick up!
It was a game changer for me when I discovered that my local Thai supermarket stocked frozen resealable combo packs of lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves-very convenient when you don't have a big freezer and don't have space for big packs of every single ingredient!
I live in the philippines and lemingrass is regularly available while galangal and lime leaves less so-sometimes available from friends’ gardens. I get to thailand maybe once a year and bring back loads of what i need
Excellent video. I have most of these staples, including the fresh ones in my freezer. I just wanted to mention that I have used both the canned and boxed Aroy D coconut milks, and I prefer the canned because it freezes much better.
Hi Pailin! These are so useful! Tysm! I completely understand that you are busy, but I think it might be useful if you created a video where you went through other ingredients that are less common and not common enough for a video of themselves. Like maybe talking about Pandan, banana leaves, grachai, thsi eggplant etc.
I have every single one of these ingredients in either my pantry, fridge, freezer or growing fresh outside. I also always have sweet soy sauce on hand as well as four kinds of vinegar. I have to keep it on hand as most require an hour drive each way to buy. I always buy in bulk. I just bought four whole chickens for Kai Mun Gai at my local market because they were on sale for $.88/lb. I make that dish every 2-3 weeks, using Pailin's recipe and a hybrid of her two sauces. Oh, and I always have red, green, yellow and Prik King curry on hand. I'm a huge fan of the latter curry.
Great video Pailin! Thanks for sharing! The biggest issue that prevents me from cooking more Thai food is that I have heavy calorie restrictions and a lot of the dishes are heavy on coconut milk or utilize simple carbohydrates like noodles or white rice. I'm sure there are good substitutes but I don't know them, so I resort back to Mediterranean cuisine where I at least know how to substitute all the wheat products.
I have everything except for the galangal and lemongrass, but that will change soon since I can put them in the freezer. Thanks! And green curry is my favorite to keep on hand.
At first I was a little bit skeptic towards fish sauce as a seasoning, but now I can't live without. Some phrick-naam-plaa on my fried eggs are an essential these days.
Fantastic video, so important to know the ingredients and especially the brands. Thank you Pailin! I’ve watched some of your taste test for specific ingredients and they are well done, but a quick list like this with important explanations is so appreciated!🥢🥟🍚🍜🌶💕👍🙏🏻
Excellently presented and informative video. I've been preparing Asian food for decades and over the years I have settled on pretty much the same ingredients in your video although not the same brands. Just to clarify black soy sauce and dark soy sauce differ not just due to the level of saltiness but also due to the fact that black soy sauce is sweet compared to the Chinese soy sauce. I use the Dek Som Boon brand and it contains sugar, brown sugar, and glucose as opposed to just fermented soy. Over time I have tried different brands of oyster sauce and prefer Maekrua brand Thai oyster sauce since in my opinion it has a richer flavor than other brands. One other essential in my arsenal of ingredients is chilli oil which I make myself using Thai chillis and ghost peppers. To be honest I make primarily dishes from the mainland mainly because my spouse can't abide spicy food so I use chilli oil at the table to spice things up. I also use black vinegar but I guess that's an ingredient not found in Thai dishes. I'm surprised you didn't mention sriracha sauce. It's essential in my kitchen as I use it as a garnish when I want a little less heat in my food. As for thin soy sauce I use Higashimaru brand usukuchi shoyu Japanese light soy sauce. On the occasion that I use fish sauce my go to brand is Golden Boy. I bought Squid brand many years ago and found that all I could taste was brine and sugar. Hardly any fish flavor at all. Ended up throwing it out.
Using authentic ingredients, and also learning to perfect each dish. Every asian country that produce soy sauce has their own flavour profile. It's important to use Thai condiments, for that specific Thai flavor. Recipes are only guidelines. Adding a pinch of MSG is also common among thai chefs. Tiparos is also a good fish sauce, or Red boat from Vietnam. Phu Quoc Island is known for its fish sauce production. Megachef is a good oyster sauce for those who can't eat gluten.
As a "classically" trained chef I use fish sauce all the time in dishes that are not remotely SE Asian. There are all sorts of things which call for an anchovy filet but that means opening a can and then what do you do with the rest of the can? Fish sauce is, almost, the same thing and you can control how much you use without waste. Fish sauce, SE Asian style, is not all that different from garum and that certainly is where using anchovies as flavoring in the West came from.
What a great hack! You’ve just unlocked what should of been a common sense home cook in a bind alternate thought 😅 I love making Caesar dressing and never thought to use fish sauce instead of anchovies or worsteshire sauce, thanks for the idea.
I make Roman style cacciatore and use anchovy paste instead of whole anchovies. My problem with canned anchovies is I'll use what the recipe calls for and then eat the rest on the spot. Anchovy paste also works well with salads. Very convenient.
@@johnbrandolini2915 😅 when something is good we don’t limit ourselves! I’ve never had an anchovy, I’m a vegetarian but make an exception with the Caesar dressing.
@ Good to hear. We are not vegan; however, we limit our protein intake to roughly 100 to 150 grams. I do all the cooking in our house and my meals emphasize veggies while playing down protein and carbs. I usually prepare seafood once a week. Canned anchovies are like candy for me. 😁 Word of advice with regards to fish oil. Some of the brands out there are loaded with sugar and salt.
@@johnbrandolini2915 so you’re a cat but in person form 😅 I’m so bad with the nutrition labels, I mostly look at the ingredient lists to make sure it’s vegetarian and bypass nutrition labels. I’ll take a peek now that you’ve mentioned it ☺️
There was only one item we don't have in our pantry, and that was the Thai Chilli Paste. We have ginger, galangal, tumeric and lemongrass growing in raised beds in the backyard, and have a small affair lime tree growing next to our front steps. In the next week we will be adding a bed of Thai basil as well.
This was so useful just for the coconut milk fat content info- I got the Arroy brand (canned) and am pretty sure it's the reason my curry finally turned out like a nice rich restaurant curry, after always being slightly disappointed in my Thai curries. (Plus your red curry pumpkin recipe) 😋
Hey Pai. This is an absolutely wonderful compilation of Thai 'must have' ingredients. I was wondering if you could add Thai Shrimp Paste aka Gapi to this list? That, in my opinion, would provide a sense of closure to the pantry. By the way, I'm lucky to have all these ingredients plus a few more that you use regularly, including a favorite of yours, the Golden Mountain sauce!! I was able to source it on Amazon and I'm from India. 😊
Extremely lucky that my standard neighborhood Western grocery store (Market Basket in Somerville, Mass.) has a bizarrely good selection of Asian ingredients. Market Basket is based in Lowell, which has a huge Southeast Asian immigrant population--historically Vietnamese, today mostly Cambodian. They have an aisle for basically every immigrant group in the Boston area. Greek, Portuguese, Brazilian, etc. I've never seen another Western supermarket that regularly stocks shrimp and crab paste, fermented tofu, makrut lime leaf, and whole stem galangal. I've even found holy basil there on one or two occasions, although they stock Thai basil regularly.
@@ValTass14 OMG yes! We say it's a PvP-enabled zone. Most chaotic grocery store ever, but so well-stocked. I was there a few weeks ago when it was basically empty for some reason, and it was the eeriest thing ever.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey everyone, if you want to dig deeper on a specific ingredient, here's where all the deep dives are listed: hot-thai-kitchen.com/category/thai-ingredients-101/
Thank you so much for watching! - Pai
There is no heat in chilli 🌶️ seeds. 99% of heat is in white flesh (veins) that are seeds attached to.
Try experimenting taking seed out of Birds Eye’s chilli and chewing it. Almost no spicy effects. Than try red flesh without any white veins. Similar results 😂
You forgot the Peanut Butter for cooking like a Thai. Should I go with Jiffy or Skippy? lol I'm kidding girl. I had to make that joke because I know it bugs you. haha
My pantry is stacked with Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai ingredients, and I’m Filipino. Lol! I made your pineapple fried rice so many times in just a month. My daughter love it so much.
Same! We home cooks literally have everything to make from Indian to Asian to Mexican and Italian and more!
@@siennas2011 Same. My wife, who is French/North-African, takes care of Mediterranean and French cuisine, and I do all sorts of East and South Asian, as well as Mexican stuff. Whenever I bring back a new spice I get eyerolls. 🤨🙄
@ 😂 omg! I’m not alone then!
I'm obsessed with this video. I have a number of these items in my pantry, but the knowledge and tips you provide are gamechangers. Never knew/realized/occurred to me you could freeze some of these items like fresh chilies, curry pastes and LEMONGRASS! How many times lemongrass has wasted away in my fridge, I cannot tell you. Not to mention all the times I needed a lime and knew nothing about lime powder. You've changed my cooking life! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! ❤
I freeze whole limes and lemons. Works great. Also easier to squeeze. Also chop ginger into slices before you freeze it. I have tubs of fresh chilies and sliced ginger in my freezer.
@cchoi108 oh, wow, never thought you could freeze fresh lemons and limes. Will definitely be doing that,too! Thanks! 🙏 I learned the ginger trick awhile back, and that was also huge bc it was always dying before I could use it all. Now, I buy a bunch and freeze it immediately and never have to worry about being out! Gonna need another freezer, now, though. 😂
Agreed! And the Real Lime crystals are super handy! I’ve been using them in all sorts of cooking since I find fresh limes very expensive where I live. Any cuisine where you need lime (Mexican!) you’ll really appreciate having those handy Lime crystals!
@@cchoi108 I make crushed garlic and ginger into ice cube trays ( from my Indian cooking)
@@cchoi108do you freeze it whole or wedged?
Bottled Lime juice to clean your brassware - I laughed out loud! Very true, my friend.
I use it to remove scale from the electric kettle, because MiL can't stand the smell of vinegar! XD
Best line in the entire video. I think Uncle Roger would laugh too.
Sad to report that I don't own a single thing made of brass.
@@cathybabnick7326 No need to be sad, brass tarnishes really fast and is a hassle to keep shiny and clear. I have a few inherited brass spoons and such and they just end up languishing in a drawer
Driving north 65 miles to Asian World in Spokane WA, to buy ingredients for my Thai recipes. Love this lady on great Thai recipes. Shout out from Colville Wa.
Thank you so much for providing us Thai who had been living outside Thailand for a very long times a sense of belongings to our culture and our homeland. I appreciates your knowledge, teaching and showing us how to prepared our wonderful Thai meals. Without your Thai foods cooking show and teaching, I would be so lost! Please continue keeping up all the great works you've done and much blessings to you in this new year 2025. Thank you again!
We are visiting family in Chiang Mai right now and went thru a cooking class last week. It was easily one of the best highlights of our trip. Every one of these ingredients was used in at least one of the dishes we made many were in more than one.
Chiang Mai also has such unique flavors and dishes! ❤
Did you know that you are the BEST thaï cuisine teacher?? I've been fallowing since your debute and I learn so much!!! You are a gem! Thank you so much Pailin! :)))
This is the video I’ve been waiting for! 🎉 I have most of the ‘must haves’ now, thanks to online shopping. I live in a small town in Northern Wisconsin with no access to an Asian market. So fresh ingredients are out. I did buy dried lemongrass online in hopes I could figure out how to make it work. 🤷🏼♀️ I have to say, you have the best teaching manner of all the cooking videos I watch. I learn so much from you! I’m 71 years old, a fairly confident cook, but just wanted to try new things. That’s how I became interested in cooking cuisines I’m not familiar with. You have inspired me to cook these Thai dishes! I even bought a wok! 😁 My pantry is ready, and I’m ready, thanks to you! And thank you for helping this old lady find some fresh joy in her life! 🥰🤗
I bought the Thai fish sauce, mushroom soy sauce and oyster sauce based on your recommendations in other videos. I found I have been using all three for way more than just Thai food. Slow cooker chuck roast gets the mushroom soy sauce added instead of salt. I add fish sauce to all sorts of things that I want to up the umami flavor on. Soups, roasts, almost anything that should have umami flavor will benefit from fish sauce; and once cooked, it doesn't taste fishy. I've used the oyster sauce in all sorts of sauces and glazes. Thai food is great, but the ingredients can be used for so much more.
Oyster sauce and fish sauce are really versatile even in western cooking! They just add richness and depth to things.
IMO soy sauce is indispensable for making an English-style brown gravy, and Worcestershire sauce (which contains both fish sauce _and_ tamarind) gives it a nice kick.
The freezer tip is A+. The first time I made red curry paste, it took forever and I made a giant mess. Now, I can do it on a weeknight! I keep galangal, cilantro roots, makrut lime leaves, and lemongrass in the freezer in my “Thai ingredients” Tupperware, and puya and arbol chiles in the cabinet. Shrimp paste lives in the fridge and I always have white peppercorns. The only thing I need fresh is shallot and garlic. I usually make at least a double batch which gives me enough for 8-10 meals. It is SO worth making fresh if you have the space to keep the ingredients!!
Love all the side quests in this video! Really shows off your back catalogue.
Good video Pailin! What I do for fresh lime juice is I squeeze it in a juicer and put it in an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer and just defrost it whenever I want fresh lime juice
I do this, too, when I can find limes at a decent price. They are very expensive where I live. I have turned to the Real Lime crystals more often now. They work really well!
Thank you for a very informative video. I am an Australian, and have been to Thailand a number of times. I love the culture and the people, but I absolutely LOVE the food. I have a good friend who married a Thai woman, and she used to take me to the Asian grocery, and show me what were the best brands to buy. There are so many to choose from, it can be very confusing for a novice. Your video is extremely helpful and informative for anyone who wants to cook authentic Thai food. Very well done!👍🙏🦘
I'm literally driving to my closet Thai Supermarket here in Sheffield UK tomorrow to restock on my Thai Ingredients. Been making do with other Asian ingredients for a while simply because the other shops are closer but I'm tired of not quite getting that authentic taste. So thank you for this perfectly timed video! 🎉
I bought the book- it is beautiful as well very good.
Well done, spot on with the ingredients, you see these in the kitchen, you are eating Thai or Laos food. Some of my white and black friends have these ingredients too. When people make Thai food, they realize how fast and easy it is, it becomes a staple, especially the noodles and curry dishes.
You look great, happy for your success, keep at it.
I got Sabai for Christmas and I'm so excited to cook more Thai food!
Super comprehensive list! Thanks so much for the valuable info! Cant wait to stock up on some essentials!
I really appreciate it when you show and explain sauces, noodles,rice, and all asian products etc . (And how they work, cook, and go well with). Asian food is my number 1 Favorite Food in the world. I really want to know how to cook it , understand it, and get all knowledge of it, so a Big THANK YOU!! (Maybe there is something out there in a book that explains all of this that this video is showing and telling).
I've been following you from the start and learned so much. Made so many delicious recipes. I have every staple youve mentioned, and even more. Thank you! Keep up the great work.
If anyone is looking to add the flavour of fresh chillies without it being too spicy, keep them whole. The heat comes from the pith and seeds on the inside, but the flavour largely comes from the flesh. If it doesn't break you still get a lot of the flavour and can still enjoy it.
This is especially useful in slow cooked curries (Thai, Caribbean, South Asian etc.) or even western style chilli, where if you just float whole chillies you will get the flavour and the slight warm sensation, but never the hot/painful feeling.
That is sacrilege! What's the point if it isn't spicy and hot! Long live hot peppers! As Mark Wiens says, "If it's not spicy, I'm not eating!" LOL Yes! I grow my own hot peppers! There are many different hot peppers with different flavors. Those different flavors are what makes it all so interesting!
Healthy Boy and Lee Kum Kee are my go to sauce companies for soy and other sauces. YUM YUM! Squeeze bottles! Why didn't I think of that?! ARRRGH!
We buy our Thai Jasmine rice in 25 lb bags because it is far less expensive that all of those little bags added up. We got through a lot of it. LOL
@@steveforbes8287 100% agree. I love heat and spice. Even for capsaicin lovers like us, though, this keeping some peppers whole is still a useful technique if/when you want to adjust the levels of mouth felt heat (the painful kind) and the pepper flavour or body warmth independent of each other.
I grabbed fermented shrimp paste randomly from a Thai food stall in the market near my place. Your beef curry recipe was the first time i used it and I've been using it quite a bit since. Thank you for the fantastic recipes!
Haha I just came back from the Asian store becayse I was tired of seeing your yummy recipes and not having any fishsauce in my house
It's an investment but a very clever one and I'm so hyped to get started
I also found a brand new Wok on the street in a give away box
Im gonna rewatch so many of your recipes vids 😂
Thank you for putting all this work in, it's greatly appreciated
I've bought the brands you recommend, and it has taken my Thai cooking from "meh" to spectacular. It's amazing at how using them really ups the flavor.
Pai! Pai! Imagine there's an amazing Thai Asian shop in Budapest, Hungary and I've found holy basil (and everything else I need - galangal, lemon grass, Thai basil). The shop assistant was an extremely smiley, helpful and kind man and he knew all the authentic ingredients to pad thai too and showed me everything I needed. 😊 By the way I found your Ytb 2 weeks ago and I've been cooking and eating Thai ever since 😃.
This is very comprehensive! Awesome video as always.
That's quite a shopping list that you have provided. Fortunately, most of those items are already in my kitchen. Now I have to go review those other videos and such that you mentioned. Thank you for a great list of items by which I can keep making delicious dishes.
Lime powder?! Never heard of it! I've been disappointed in myself resorting to concentrates shaped like the fruit when I can't buy fresh, so this is a game changer for me. Thank you for sharing the tip! I'm ordering the lemon and lime to try out.
I asked (half in jest) for a lime in my gin & tonic on a flight once and they gave me an individual packet of lime powder... and it did the trick!
Hey, new subscriber here! I studied abroad in Thailand very recently and absolutely fell in love with the food. I have been struggling to recreate flavorful Thai food at home, so this video is SO helpful. THANK YOU
Excellent! Thank you - now I am ready to stock up 👍
I am anyway a lucky guy: My Asia market in Frankfurt, Germany even sells fresh Holy Basil - holy cow!
Wow, lucky for sure! I’m jealous!😅
a lot of larger asian stores in Germany sell it, I was surprised too! It's always the same importer of course :D
No way! Give me addresses I'm driving from France!
so much pleasure to watch, thank you! and so many amazing tips as well!
Pailin, I have been watching your videos and making your Thai recipies for a couple of years now. I started with Gaeug Jued, because we can't find it in a restaurant ANYWHERE since we left the bay area 12 years ago. Everything I have made has been an absolute HOME RUN. The only thing that has caught me off guard thus far is how long it took me to make sticky rice, for Mango and Sticky Rice. I started it after dinner one night after having soaked the sticky rice overnight and it took me like 2 hours to complete! Yikes! Desert at 10PM with a cranky chef is not recommended! Thank you for opening up my world!
Thanks to you over the years my pantry is complete of all of these ingredients including the Bonus ones.
Thank you for this great video 😍
This may be your most helpful video yet! Thank you! PS Great color for you!
Thank you for the brilliant explanation.
This is such a great video, I find so many times people cook from recipes, buy so many ingredients they never use again and then their cupboard fills up with stuff that sits there for years. Ask someone who lives in Sydney Australia, I predominantly cook Asian derived food, I have all the ingredients you’ve mentioned, and switched that up between Thai, Japanese, Italian, I love putting soy sauce in Bolognese, once you understand how to use ingredients in a particular way, it opens up a world of joy in cooking. What a fantastic video
I can’t believe I have everything except for kaffir lime leaves. I feel so proud. Thanks to you for introducing me to Thai cuisine from many years ago 🥹 💜
Frozen is the best way to go
Thai palm sugar is just _deeeeelicious_ and if you've got a whole stash that you're looking to use up - it's fiendishly good grated onto softened butter spread thickly on a good white (or nutty wholegrain) bread (or just use the sugar paste like a jam). Not the healthiest or most traditional snack, but this butterscotchy sandwich with a sweet and slightly crunchy filling alongside a nice cup of hot tea has become my new idea of heaven😛
Excellent, many thanks my Thai cooking has gone from strength to strenght cos of your channel
Massive Thankyou
I really love this video a lot. I need to buy the palm sugar and the herbs! I have all of the other items/ingredients. Thank you so much Pai for sharing your culinary knowledge with us ❤
Very timely for me as I build my Thai pantry. Hello from Toronto.
This is the best video on the internet, thank you!
Palin's Kitchen is a gold mine. Thank you!
Since I developed a milk protein sensitivity a couple of years ago, Thai and other east Asian cooking has become a lifesaver for me.
this is my year of cooking more thai dishes! thanks
Our kitchen has everything in it that you mentioned...but I live in Thailand😄
Here's a useful tip from my wife for coconut milk: After buying, pour into an ice cube tray. After freezing, remove from tray and consolidate the cubes into one bag.
...I think you neglected to mention MSG😁
Absolutely true. Usually when I want to make thai food and theres one or more of the essentials missing I won't even bother. NO SUBSTITUTES.
But when I'm stocked and everything is readily available, it takes less than 5 min of preperation to start the cooking.
Thanks for this, Pailin. This is a fantastic video.
Thanks to you I have all 10 of these ingredients at home plus a few more. I haven't tried the Thai Chili Paste but I will.
Amazing video!
I am sharing it with family and foodie friends!!! 🎉
amazing! Happy to see that I have all these ingredients in stock except for the chili paste. I thought shrimp paste would be a key ingredient. I feel like thats what elevated my thai cooking to the next level.
I wish, where I live, had more Thai ingredients in the grocery store. The cashier the other day told me that galangal was just like ginger. I laughed and kindly said thank you. Maybe? Not really? Lol anyway. I love your channel and again thank you!
Thank You so so much Palin you'll never know how much I appreciate this and you
I bought a bag of dried galangal and that stuff is great, lasts a long time and I always have some.
Just a heads up Pai, no links onscreen for the last three recipe links you mentioned.
Your videos have been a wealth of inspiration, and I've always really appreciated your thoroughness, professionalism, and Good humor. I've also enjoyed watching you grow as a creator, from the Earnest young girl you started out as to the seasoned yt pro you are now. Kudos!
Excellent explanations!!
Terrific video!! Loved it ❤
I find the slowest part of thai cooking is peeling and mashing garlic with chiles. I bought a frozen container of premixed garlic and chili that I grab a spoonful of most times now. Perfect for weeknight Thai food
My fault on watching this so late I was busy all day and night yesterday. Thank you for the video also I agree you have to have the necessary essentials for any culture cuisines.
That is a super useful video. Thank you!
And its so cool that it is related to so many videos :)
Very good video! And thanks for covering the product's shelf / refrigerator life!
Great vid for a Thai pantry!! Thanks!
love your channel
so informative
thank you
Thank You!
I don’t get to make Thai dishes as often as I like.
Thank you for these useful information, I always buy yours 🥰💐
I've been using allulose in your recipes because we need a lower sugar option - it works really well. I bought aroy-d panang curry paste impulsively and it works really well in your peanut sauce (which i make with chopped cashews because of a peanut allergy in the family)
this is invaluable knowledge! great video
I'm eating my leftover massaman curry as I watch this (used Mae Ploy massaman for the curry paste)....I've already got most of these, but definitely saw a few I'll have to pick up!
Perfect! Everything i have wanted to know in one place...shopping tomorrow .....at the Big C
It was a game changer for me when I discovered that my local Thai supermarket stocked frozen resealable combo packs of lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves-very convenient when you don't have a big freezer and don't have space for big packs of every single ingredient!
I live in the philippines and lemingrass is regularly available while galangal and lime leaves less so-sometimes available from friends’ gardens. I get to thailand maybe once a year and bring back loads of what i need
Excellent video. I have most of these staples, including the fresh ones in my freezer. I just wanted to mention that I have used both the canned and boxed Aroy D coconut milks, and I prefer the canned because it freezes much better.
Im Thai in abroad and my pantry have everything she said 😂 great job 👏
YOU Truly are the BEST!!!
Hi Pailin! These are so useful! Tysm! I completely understand that you are busy, but I think it might be useful if you created a video where you went through other ingredients that are less common and not common enough for a video of themselves. Like maybe talking about Pandan, banana leaves, grachai, thsi eggplant etc.
Always a pleasure to watch.
i'm a chef as well and i love this girl❤
I have every single one of these ingredients in either my pantry, fridge, freezer or growing fresh outside. I also always have sweet soy sauce on hand as well as four kinds of vinegar. I have to keep it on hand as most require an hour drive each way to buy. I always buy in bulk. I just bought four whole chickens for Kai Mun Gai at my local market because they were on sale for $.88/lb. I make that dish every 2-3 weeks, using Pailin's recipe and a hybrid of her two sauces. Oh, and I always have red, green, yellow and Prik King curry on hand. I'm a huge fan of the latter curry.
Great video Pailin! Thanks for sharing! The biggest issue that prevents me from cooking more Thai food is that I have heavy calorie restrictions and a lot of the dishes are heavy on coconut milk or utilize simple carbohydrates like noodles or white rice. I'm sure there are good substitutes but I don't know them, so I resort back to Mediterranean cuisine where I at least know how to substitute all the wheat products.
I have everything except for the galangal and lemongrass, but that will change soon since I can put them in the freezer. Thanks! And green curry is my favorite to keep on hand.
At first I was a little bit skeptic towards fish sauce as a seasoning, but now I can't live without. Some phrick-naam-plaa on my fried eggs are an essential these days.
Fantastic video, so important to know the ingredients and especially the brands. Thank you Pailin! I’ve watched some of your taste test for specific ingredients and they are well done, but a quick list like this with important explanations is so appreciated!🥢🥟🍚🍜🌶💕👍🙏🏻
You can soften palm sugar (both the paste kind and hard kind) by putting it in the microwave for a few seconds.
I'm a huge fan of chinese chili crisp and now I feel the need to find thai chili paste. It sounds delicious.
Very well explained, Pailin.
Excellently presented and informative video. I've been preparing Asian food for decades and over the years I have settled on pretty much the same ingredients in your video although not the same brands. Just to clarify black soy sauce and dark soy sauce differ not just due to the level of saltiness but also due to the fact that black soy sauce is sweet compared to the Chinese soy sauce. I use the Dek Som Boon brand and it contains sugar, brown sugar, and glucose as opposed to just fermented soy. Over time I have tried different brands of oyster sauce and prefer Maekrua brand Thai oyster sauce since in my opinion it has a richer flavor than other brands. One other essential in my arsenal of ingredients is chilli oil which I make myself using Thai chillis and ghost peppers. To be honest I make primarily dishes from the mainland mainly because my spouse can't abide spicy food so I use chilli oil at the table to spice things up. I also use black vinegar but I guess that's an ingredient not found in Thai dishes. I'm surprised you didn't mention sriracha sauce. It's essential in my kitchen as I use it as a garnish when I want a little less heat in my food. As for thin soy sauce I use Higashimaru brand usukuchi shoyu Japanese light soy sauce. On the occasion that I use fish sauce my go to brand is Golden Boy. I bought Squid brand many years ago and found that all I could taste was brine and sugar. Hardly any fish flavor at all. Ended up throwing it out.
Using authentic ingredients, and also learning to perfect each dish. Every asian country that produce soy sauce has their own flavour profile. It's important to use Thai condiments, for that specific Thai flavor. Recipes are only guidelines. Adding a pinch of MSG is also common among thai chefs. Tiparos is also a good fish sauce, or Red boat from Vietnam. Phu Quoc Island is known for its fish sauce production. Megachef is a good oyster sauce for those who can't eat gluten.
As a "classically" trained chef I use fish sauce all the time in dishes that are not remotely SE Asian. There are all sorts of things which call for an anchovy filet but that means opening a can and then what do you do with the rest of the can? Fish sauce is, almost, the same thing and you can control how much you use without waste. Fish sauce, SE Asian style, is not all that different from garum and that certainly is where using anchovies as flavoring in the West came from.
What a great hack! You’ve just unlocked what should of been a common sense home cook in a bind alternate thought 😅 I love making Caesar dressing and never thought to use fish sauce instead of anchovies or worsteshire sauce, thanks for the idea.
I make Roman style cacciatore and use anchovy paste instead of whole anchovies. My problem with canned anchovies is I'll use what the recipe calls for and then eat the rest on the spot. Anchovy paste also works well with salads. Very convenient.
@@johnbrandolini2915 😅 when something is good we don’t limit ourselves! I’ve never had an anchovy, I’m a vegetarian but make an exception with the Caesar dressing.
@ Good to hear. We are not vegan; however, we limit our protein intake to roughly 100 to 150 grams. I do all the cooking in our house and my meals emphasize veggies while playing down protein and carbs. I usually prepare seafood once a week. Canned anchovies are like candy for me. 😁 Word of advice with regards to fish oil. Some of the brands out there are loaded with sugar and salt.
@@johnbrandolini2915 so you’re a cat but in person form 😅 I’m so bad with the nutrition labels, I mostly look at the ingredient lists to make sure it’s vegetarian and bypass nutrition labels. I’ll take a peek now that you’ve mentioned it ☺️
There was only one item we don't have in our pantry, and that was the Thai Chilli Paste. We have ginger, galangal, tumeric and lemongrass growing in raised beds in the backyard, and have a small affair lime tree growing next to our front steps. In the next week we will be adding a bed of Thai basil as well.
This was so useful just for the coconut milk fat content info- I got the Arroy brand (canned) and am pretty sure it's the reason my curry finally turned out like a nice rich restaurant curry, after always being slightly disappointed in my Thai curries. (Plus your red curry pumpkin recipe) 😋
Hey Pai. This is an absolutely wonderful compilation of Thai 'must have' ingredients. I was wondering if you could add Thai Shrimp Paste aka Gapi to this list? That, in my opinion, would provide a sense of closure to the pantry. By the way, I'm lucky to have all these ingredients plus a few more that you use regularly, including a favorite of yours, the Golden Mountain sauce!! I was able to source it on Amazon and I'm from India. 😊
Thank you for a great video. Great information. Some is hard to get a hold on here in Sweden, but I finally found a Asian Store. :)
Got 'em all, plus Healthy Boy sweet soy sauce. Game changer. Thanks for this episode.
It’s kinda funny that I’m a Ukrainian but have all these ingredients in my fridge / shelf. But I’m just love cooking, especially Thai dishes. :)
Perfect video. Thank you so much.
This is an instant subscribe for me ❤
Great video. I think I've seen you use the Golden Mountain Seasoning sauce multiple times. I thought it would make the list.
Extremely lucky that my standard neighborhood Western grocery store (Market Basket in Somerville, Mass.) has a bizarrely good selection of Asian ingredients. Market Basket is based in Lowell, which has a huge Southeast Asian immigrant population--historically Vietnamese, today mostly Cambodian. They have an aisle for basically every immigrant group in the Boston area. Greek, Portuguese, Brazilian, etc. I've never seen another Western supermarket that regularly stocks shrimp and crab paste, fermented tofu, makrut lime leaf, and whole stem galangal. I've even found holy basil there on one or two occasions, although they stock Thai basil regularly.
Hahah, I used to live near that Market Basket. We called it the Thunder Dome. We are so lucky to have Market Baskets in MA!
@@ValTass14 OMG yes! We say it's a PvP-enabled zone. Most chaotic grocery store ever, but so well-stocked. I was there a few weeks ago when it was basically empty for some reason, and it was the eeriest thing ever.
@@itmightbeciaranweird! Not very market-basket-like