September 8, 2015 - Radio Kitchen - Buy for Thai
One of the best aspects of the Maryland market basket is that it can support not only our indigenous cuisine, it can support cooking traditions from around the world. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino of Schola Cooking School knows, peppers do amazingly well here in Maryland, and that suggests something: Thai cooking.
Many of the essentials of Thai cooking are found here in Maryland.
Fresh herbs: cilantro, mint, Thai basil and coriander are basics.
Chiles: small green Thai bird peppers, serrano, jalapeno, and cayenne.
Shallots and garlic: these appear in many Thai recipes.
Ginger or Galangal: this gives Thai food a characteristic flavor.
Lemongrass: Another essential ingredient. Hard to find, but worth the effort.
Thai cooking starts with the preparation of a spicy paste that when mixed with water, becomes the defining "sauce" of a dish.
Here's a tasty summer salad featuring Thai ingredients.
Green Papaya Salad
5 Cherry Tomatoes
2 chili peppers
1 tablespoon dried shrimp
1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
1 clove garlic
6 green beans
2 cups shredded green papaya
3/4 lime
1 ½ tablespoons Palm Sugar
2 tablespoons toasted peanuts Optional
In Thailand, green papaya salad is made using a clay mortar, wooden pestle and a spatula. Smash a clove of garlic first. Then add green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes.
Add chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like your salad really hot. Add the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar.
Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.
However, if you do not have a big enough mortar you can crush garlic, tomatoes, green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the bowl. Add green papaya and mix well.
