Shirmp Paste, Ka-Pi

Now we are talking stinky - stinky but delicious. I believe every nations have their own delicious-stinky foods that they have to cringe their noses when smelling it, but when putting it into the mouth, it is like seeing the heaven on earth. Shrimp paste is a perfect fit in that category.

It is one of the important ingredients in South East Asian cooking. It's made from krill, Thais call Kueey shrimp. Fresh krill are fermented with salt over night, made into paste the next day then brought it out to Sun-dry for a day before storing it in an air flowed container for another seven days to be used later . We call the finish process Ka-Pi.


Ka-Pi is widely made trough out the area coast where krill are found. Kra-Pi made from krill give a very delicious gentle salty taste and not too pungent smell - in my mom' s words "Lovely Smell"....

Shrimp paste can be pricey depends on the quality of shrimps used for making Ka-Pi. Some qualities of Ka-Pi are good for making all kind of curry pastes such as red, green, Massaman curry paste etc. Those Ka-pi have strong salty taste and smell and quite dark in color, which make a perfect taste once mixed with water.


As for the dishes that uses Kra-Pi as a main ingredient which normally show off the taste of Ka-Pi, such as spicy shrimp paste dipping called Numprik Kra-Pi or the rice dish called Kaw Klook Ka-Pi (cooked rice tossed with Ka-pi) we would use Ka-Pi that is not too strong in taste and smell. In these dishes, Ka-Pi will be grilled with very low heat before using to make it more "delicious" smell.

Some women might love to splurge on their perfume....well, that's not the case of my mom. Mom loveees to splurge on Ka-Pi. She's always proud of herself if she got top-notch Ka-Pi from someone, somewhere and will announce it to everyone who happens to set foot in her kitchen, and she will make to-die-for Numprik Ka-Pi that everybody loves.

Palm Sugar, Num Taal Puk

Palm sugar is one of the most important ingredient in Thai cooking. It gives the sweet taste more rounded in food. In Thailand, this kind of sugar can be made from the sap of Palmyra palm and sap of coconut palm.

When I was about 10, during the school break, my aunt would take a vacation and take me to many interesting places for me to see and learn things by myself. One of the trip that I still remember is going to the place where the palm sugar is made locally.

coconut trees on the Haad Kuad beach, Koh Pa-ngan, Thailand

There I learn how the sugary sap was collected out of the palm trees into a bamboo container, which is later transferred into a big pot on an open fire, ready to slow cook the sweet liquid into thick caramel-ly sugar.

I also learn that the sugary sap can be fermented and make into coconut wine. I was then even allowed to taste it. I had no idea why the adults love it, to me, it was like sugar canes go bad...yuk!


In Thailand you can find palm sugar in many shapes and forms, depends on what kind of palm sugar, I mean what kinds of palm tree they are made of.

But, I'm not going to go that far because it would take more than a page to talk about it. Out of Thailand, you can find palm sugar at most Asian groceries. They come in a form of either hard cake or soft paste.




This soft paste in container is usually sealed with wax on the surface, just use a tip of the knife to pick off the wax and you are good to go.

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.

Nam Pla Prik, Chili Fish Sauce

Nam Pla Prik

If you ask my mom to choose between fish sauce and fine, expensive perfume, I'll bet with my head chopped off, she goes with fish sauce.

Nam = water, Pla = fish, Prik = chili

If you love eating and cooking Thai food, you have got to make friend with fish sauce. It is a bit stinky for those who don't acquaint with, but, don't you agree that some stinky cheeses are dead on delicious by either themselves or with other foods, and that makes no difference with fish sauce. Some friends of mine ask how do we, Asian, enjoy this stinky sauce? I would say, "The same idea you enjoy the stinky cheeses."


Fish sauce is made from fresh fish, such as mackerel or sardine fermented with layers of salt and slowly press to get the liquid up to a year. It is an essential ingredient for most South East Asian cooking. To get good fish sauce, look for a little bit light in color not a very dark one.


Nam Pla Prik is considered as a cannot-live-without condiment to Thai food. We put it on rice, fired eggs, fried fish, fired rice, just like the Westerners put salt & pepper to their foods. It is a mixer of fish sauce, mince chilies and a wedge of lime (some might sprinkle a little bit of sugar in it).

Sunny Side Up Eggs


Once, one of my American customer walked into the restaurant I worked with, the first question he asked,"Do you serve Nam Pla Prik with your food? because I am gonna need that." Yep! he knows how to eat Thai food.

limes Talk.

If you ask me, one thing I would choose to always have it in my kitchen, that thing has to be limes. Since I have been cooking for myself, I've noticed that I never leave my kitchen to be without limes.

Lime is a common ingredient for Thai cooking, so that most Thai houses with a bit of land are more likely growing them in their own properties. As far as I remember there are two lime trees and many more of kaffir lime trees in my mom' s edible garden. I asked her once why she grew so many of them, she said, "for sharing with other people so they don't have to buy it." She doesn't believe in buying things that can be grown in one own backyard, and yes, we never have to buy these kind of things.



In the US, especially here in New York, kaffir limes and leaves are S*O* expensive. From the fact that they can't grow in the cold weather condition, they have to be shipped from the West, and are not always available which makes me sad sometimes. That is not the case for limes, limes are everywhere. I recently found that I can buy four limes for one dollar at a nearby Asian super market in my neighborhood. I am happy about it already, but if I converted the price to Thai Baht and told my mom about it, she would call me back home.



Smooth skin is juicer than pore skin.
Choosing right limes is the key for getting the most juice out of them. I think it would be wise sharing this in my blog since this is a Thai kitchen - we use a lot of limes in Thai food. Look for limes that have smooth skin - smooth skin tells you that these limes have very thin skin and when they have thin skin, more juice will come out, and you can leave the bad limes for those who doesn't read this blog...what?...too mean of ME?...alright you can share it with them later.



The "bad" limes, limes that I will leave them there in the basket forever are limes that have visible pores on the skin - dedicates the hard, thick skin - just by squeezing a little, thick skin limes produce less juice or, like my mom would say, they are not ripe enough to fully produce juice.

Now that you know, at least, how to get juicy limes, be prepare for an extreme taste of my foods.

Crispy garilc in oil, kra teem jeew. A secret that need to be told.

In my last post I was talking about what I call "A jewel for Thai soup." I put in my Jok. It's called Kra Teem Jeew which is simply Crispy garlic in oil. Kra Teem means Garlic. We use this nutty smell, golden crispy garlic in oil, yes I said nutty smell, to bring the food to another level of taste and delicious smell. It really makes a different when you put these in.



It's basically kind of garlic infused with oil, but the difference is it is infused with high temperature oil - high enough to make garlic get golden and crispy.
We put it into the dish that have "almost" plain smell or very light in taste, for example clear soup(Kang Jed type), Jok, noodle and many more to complete Umami, if I can say. My kitchen never be with out it. It's SOO easy to make, but a little trick need to be told since garlic get burn easily once the oil get very hot...don't you blink.



Garlic in your hand?
- 1 big head of garlic
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- tiny pinch of salt



1. With a garlic press, press all garlic cloves.
2. Put pressed garlic into a small sauce pan, in goes the vegetable oil and salt.
3. Bring the pan to low heat, let the garlic and oil heat up together, stir often as they start to heat up, so there will be no lump of garlic stick at the bottom of the pan.

NOW DO NOT BLINK

4. turn off the heat as soon as you see the color of the garlic starts to change to light golden then let them continue cooking in the hot oil with out the heat. If you let them bubbling in the pan with the heat still on till they turn golden right in the pan , it's too late - you will end up with burning garlic and a nasty, bitter garlic in oil.



let them cool down and pour them into clean little jar. I always clean and save up those little artichoke hearts jars after I finish them. These garlic in oil can be kept up to a month. Now you've got a jewel of Thai cooking - a little secret that need to be told.