Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Thai Herbal Marinade Paste


When I was watching Daisy from the Daisy Cooks talking about her Sofrito, the herbal mixture she uses for her cooking, it surprised me how close the Spanish and Thai cooking is.

As for Thai cooking, these three pals, Cilantro roots, Garlic and pepper, play a very important part as a marinade paste to give a freshness, herbal scent to your nose, especially for meat that have a strong meaty smell. If you wonder what those distinctive fragrant in Thai grilled chicken or Barbecue Pork is, the secret is here.


Now that you love cooking Thai food, from now on, stop throwing away cilantro roots. Those are the gems. Here in the US, in most super markets, cilantro roots are more likely cut off, only the leaves and stems are left for use. That makes me cry.

Many time I have to use the cilantro stems to substitute for the roots, the part of cilantro that give out the strongest fragrant. Whenever I get cilantro with the roots are still intact I save them up by making them into this marinade paste and freeze them up to use it later.

Thai barbecue pork marinated with herbal paste

Only easy pounding is needed

Clean the cilantro roots with water thoroughly, use mortar and pestle, pound cilantro roots, garlic, black or white peppers and a pinch of salt into a paste. Use them to marinate meat, fish and seafood as the recipes call for.

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