Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm back at uni having had a week at home eating at a lot of thai restaurants, and damn do I wanna get into cooking thai food. Who has some good beginner recipes? I left my asian vegan kitchen book at home by accident =[
Also I'm cooking for one, so I need to be able to cut them down!

Apparently if you sub Sambal for the chili paste in VWaVs Thai Green Curry it's pretty good and easy. The mango summer rolls w/ thai dipping sauce is pretty easy (and delicious!), too. Same book.

Oooh totally watching this thread cause I want to make Thai food too!

Also Brooklyn Pad Thai from VWAV, no idea how authentic of a pad thai it is, but it's awesome!

I would like to find a really good Massaman curry paste if anyone has any favorite recipes to share!

The Brooklyn Pad Thai from VWAV is pretty good too!

I made thai green curry today! I went out and got thai green curry paste (shh, I'm a noob), lemongrass and chillies, added some garlic and made a vegetabley thing with coconut cream ^.^

Do you have access to vegetarian fish sauce or mushroom sauce? Get those if you can. If not, you can use soy sauce or watered down soy sauce + a little vinegar + a little sweetener in replace in recipes, because sometimes the vegan version may be missing something if you just use soy sauce, for example. I'd recommend taking out Thai cookbooks from the library and playing around. There are these, too: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Vegetarian-T ... 618&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Taste-Thail ... 18&sr=8-10

I always think my homemade thai tastes best when it has fresh Thai basil, too.



Also, I want this book: http://www.amazon.com/Asian-Fusion-Chat ... t_ep_dpi_1

Make sure you check for shrimp paste! Sounds awesome though! I did a class and bought a book from here:
http://www.spirithouse.com.au/shop/books
The one I have is a spiral-bound exercise book but it looks like they don't sell it on the site anymore. I remember there being an awesome recipe for tofu that had green peppercorns in the paste. I need to whip out that book again and veganise the shiitake out of it.
Also: I found this recipe for a vegan fish sauce if you want. I haven't made it yet, if I do I think I will cut it down quite a lot.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/49971/vegan ... itute.html

Also, see if you can find some special ingredients in their vegan forms
http://crueltyfreeshop.com.au/?main_pag ... lund9frtm3

I might buy some vegan 'shrimp paste'


and Tom Yum paste - I haven't made a vegan version yet but Tom Yum soup is the best! I've found some paste in Asian shops but they had MSG, this one looks like it doesn't.


By the way, I'm a fan of Maesri curry pastes. They shouldn't be too hard to find hopefully, I can get a whole range at my corner store.

I'm certainly no expert, but I really find that having the fresh herbs (especially lemongrass, thai basil, and kaffir lime leaves) make all the difference!

Read MessyVeggie's blog. She's doing a whole month on S.E Asian food for Vegan Mofo. And she has had Thai cooking lessons too :)

http://www.messyvegetariancook.com/vega ... food-2010/

Thanks for the link. Great blog and photos and recipes! Really makes me miss SEA.

My boyfriend cooked an awesome Thai-style curry tonight. I had him write down the instructions, it's not really a recipe because he does everything pretty much to taste. This is enough for two hungry people, with some leftovers for lunches the next day. He specifies Thai Kitchen because it's readily available here and is vegetarian, but any red curry paste will work as long as it has good flavor.

veggies: some green beans, large red pepper, half a yellow onion, half a pound oyster mushrooms, extra firm tofu

cut beans in half and everything else into short strips (say 3/8" x 1 1/2" -ish)
throw all but mushrooms into a (preheated) pot w/ a Tbsp of oil and cook for a few minutes over high heat, stirring frequently
throw in the mushrooms and cook another minute while stirring to wilt them
remove all into a bowl

Add a second Tbsp of oil to the pot, 6 minced garlic cloves, Thai Kitchen red curry paste (about 2 tsp, or to your preference) and cook over medium heat until garlic is cooked (not burnt) and paste is beginning to brown, then add 1 15oz can coconut milk and about 2 c fake chicken broth.

Now you need to season the curry sauce. The amounts that follow are rough suggestions and depending on your taste or ingredients you may need to use different amounts. You're looking for a good balance between sweet, salty, and sour, with enough spice to make it zippy but not hard to eat:

palm sugar, 1 1/2 Tbsp (or use ordinary white or "raw" sugar, the flavor is pretty similar)
red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp
juice of 1 lime
veg fish sauce, 1 Tbsp (they say you can substitute light or "thin" soy sauce for this, but it's really not the same at all)
salt, if the broth and fish sauce don't make it salty enough

When you get the sauce figured out, throw the veggies back in and cook over medium heat until the veggies are done to your liking (don't overcook). Serve over rice, preferably jasmine rice, and top with chopped cilantro.

Guilty as charged.