I’ve been ordering Thai stir fry’s with the latest Deliveroo deals and now I’m hooked.
I’ve tried making Green curries, lemon grass chicken etc. and it tastes like sh*t even though I’m following recipes.
What the secret? Where should I be buying the sauces etc and where are the secret recipes?
cooking asian at home is pretty easy, If you can stand the mediocre (at best) taste from the packet or Jar mixes then it is easy. If not then just grab a few recipes of items you like online (yes it can take a bit of trial and error to find what you like, especially as you probably won't be piling in the MSG to add taste like many of the takeaway restaurants do), you will quickly get an idea for the spices you need to make a good assortment of tasty recipes and knowledge of what spices you like and just as importantly don't like and best of all they will taste a lot better than the crap you buy in a packet.
It will takes time, experience and the right cooking utensils, pot, pans and wok
Asian foods has a lot of spices and herb, certain dishes required certain pot, pans or wok and it takes a bit of time to get the ratio right with herb, sauces and stuff
I have Asian chef in the house and I don’t know how she does it. Hundred of dishes all in her head, Everything is off her head, no cook book
a bit of this, a bit of that
Cook and stir, taste and then yeah a bit more of this and that then when it done perfect every time.
And heat is very important in Asian cooking big gas is best, we have gas burner similar to restaurant burner
A healthy sized pinch of msg. Seriously.
Chinese background here - try to start with the easier dishes such as chop suey i.e. just marinaded beef or chicken strips, some Aussie style veggies that normally comes along when you order Chinese (e.g. celery, carrot, onion etc) and just stir fry it.
I always separate the veggies and the meat so that each is cooked before mixing together, that way you don't overcook it. If you like add some oyster or hoisin sauce to make it a little more tasteful.
Lastly don't forget to add some thickeners such as starch (mix with water) to make it not so runny.
Hope it helps and enjoy :)
I love the Valcom range for Thai flavours.
+1 for Valcom. Particularly their green curry paste; usually sells out in my local coles pretty quick.
The red one was good, we used it for fish cakes.
The key to Asian cooking is either MSG or fish sauce.
Fish sauce, in so many dishes you would expect it 👌
and fry fry fry..
Also something people forget a lot- big heat. Gas is best
Simplest way to get started
Bite sized chicken breast
Your choice of noodles (i use udon)
Frozen veges (there's stir fry, or you can choose whatever - avoid broccoli cos they're huge)
And your sauce is just soy sauce and oyster sauce - honestly just add to taste.
Salt and white pepper to finish off
Sesame oil at the end
Feel free to add bok choy, choy sum, your choice of fresh asian veges (leafy)
Like this can be done in 10 minutes and it's edible on the regular.
https://www.recipetineats.com/lamb-shanks-in-massaman-curry
Easypeasy recipe and you can swap out lamb shanks for any other tough cut of meat.
I learnt to cook "Asian Food" at community college. The chef was chinese but she taught Thai and several of the chinese styles. It was a taste of everything. We made a lot of dishes I wouldn't normally attempt.
The best thing was learning how to make Red & Green curry paste from scratch. Make 500gm lots and freeze as ice cubes
You mean TAFE? Was it a cert 4 kinda course?
You mean TAFE
No, at community college. No qualification at the end, it's just for interest, general knowledge and broadening social connections. We would take wine and beer and have a feast with what we cooked.
It was a few years back and I think covid has shrunk the offering.
https://www.sydneycommunitycollege.edu.au/courses/lifestyle/…
https://www.sgscc.edu.au/courses/leisure-courses-st-george-s…
Do you specially mean Thai food, or Asian food in general?
Does it taste really good when you cook non-asian food?
Also where do you get the recipe from? Have you tried following some more popular YouTube videos?
Most homes lack the ability to create wok smell. It needs strong and concentrated fire to the wok to quickly stir fry the ingredients. It is sometimes call wok fire.
not sure it's even an authentic dish, but how do i make (thai) yellow chicken curry like the shops? I use the Ayam paste, but it's missing something.
Use less paste than it tells you and try and balance the flavours by adding sugar, lime leaf, fish sauce and even tamarind if you have. Palm sugar is preferred by many but any will do. Fry off the paste and then add the coconut milk/cream.
Double whatever your garlic and salt servings are
If it taste like sh*t, that means you are not following the recipe to the book. Watch some Youtube videos for step by step instructions.
I shared a recipe above for Thai Green Curry but wanted to throw in another one that's not as well known unless you're familiar with Hong Kong local cuisine. It's not a stirfry or a curry like you were asking for but i really feel this dish is one of the simplest and tastiest meals you can whip up in about 10minutes and that's Macaroni in soup with Spam and egg. This dish is a bit of a East West fusion breakfast meal that has become a post-WWII HK diner staple. It's pretty good any time of the day if you ask me. So here's how you go about it. Slice up a can of Spam and start to pan fry it (will need about 4-5min on med heat each side all up). Deli ham works too, with this u can skip the frying and just add at end. Boil water and cook elbow macaroni pasta until al dente (8mins or so, Balducci is the best if you can find it). About the time you flip the Spam, crack a couple of eggs on the frypan. Get another smaller saucepan and make the soup base: boil 1-2 cups of water and add 1 heaped teaspoon of chicken stock powder (i use Massel), one splash of soy sauce, white pepper to taste and some dried chopped chives. Drain the cooked pasta and transfer to soup in sauce pan before pouring into bowl. Top with cooked Spam/ham and egg. Enjoy with a milk tea or coffee for a full HK diner experience. This is my comfort food and is also a great bachelor recipe being so simple. Hope you give this one a try and like it.
Just order takeway
Ok, here is how you make the perfect Green Curry, use Maesri Green Curry Paste from Woolies or somewhere like that, chuck the whole can into a saucepan with a touch of vegetable oil or peanut oil, add a squirt of garlic, ginger and lemongrass from those tubes you buy.
Add about a cup of chicken stock and a can of coconut milk(if you want it thicker use Kara UHT Coconut cream(get it from asian shop), add a few good shakes of squid brand fish sauce, a little bit of sugar and a squirt of lemon or lime juice(fresh), add 5 or 6 kaffir limes leaves(very important). Simmer it for a little bit, then adjust the balance with more fish sauce/sugar/juice until you get the seasoning and salt/sweet/sour balance you want(add more curry paste if it is not strong enough for your taste), let it sit for a bit then take out the kaffir lime leaves.
While it is all cooking, i cut a brown onion into big square chunks(make sure you separate the layers), cut some green and red capsicum into similar size square chunks, cut some zucchini, i usually cut it down the middle, then peel the sides and top then cut on an angle, gives it a nice striped look, cut some whole long red chillies into 1.5cm chunks, top and tail some green beans then cut in half and some snow peas if you want too, i don't like eggplant in my curry but you can add some if you wish, if you can find the small "Apple Eggplants", they are the best, also thinly slice chicken breast and cook your rice in the background(i prefer basmati over jasmine).
Now that all your ingredients are prepped, add the onion, capsicum and chillies to the sauce, add a tin of bamboo shoots, cook for a couple of minutes, then add green beans, then a minute later add the zucchini, snow peas and chicken, also add a huge handful of thai basil(super important) then stir it all around and put a lid on till the chicken is cooked(will not take long) then serve on rice.
I also make a fresh herb salad to put on top which takes it to the next level by putting fresh bean shoots in a bowl with coriander leaves(with bits of stem), a couple of mint leaves(not too many and pick them into pieces), thai basil leaves, red chilli strips, and shallots(spring onions)(the green part) cut into strips, mix it all around put on top of curry and sprinkle on some fried shallots/ fried onions.
You will love it and although it seems that there a few steps involved, it is so quick and easy to make(less than half an hour from start to finish), the most important parts that are non negotiable are the kaffir lime leaves and as much thai basil as you can get, these are the two flavours that give you that "Thai" flavour, especially the thai basil, good luck
Anyone have a recommendation for a good carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the gas stove? Live in a tiny apartment without much balcony at the moment so can't get a jet engine burner
Most Ayam sauces are good to go.
MSG
Using a hot forge like gas stove not a shit tier induction or electric stove.
Cook hot, cook fast
Secret is sugar and msg.
You probable don't have the culture in you to make it. Just like Jamie Oliver.
you need to determine what type of asian cuisine you like,
each cuisine has their basic core ingredients that form the basis of it's flavours. understanding what each one of those does will help you understand and give you a better result.
i.e
thai - fish sauce, palm sugar, coconut cream, tamarind and limes.
japanese - mirin, soy sauce, dashi, konbu, vinegar, sugar
big contrast in flavours
3 and a half minutes on High….BING !
I can't believe people recommending flavour/spice packets, lol. I found it was more complicated than doing it from scratch, you hardly get a wipe of sauce per plate, it costs more, it doesn't taste near as good, etc.
I started with a UK video series and then book by "Ching He-Huang" called "Chinese Food Made Easy." At least some of those episodes are on youtube - and that is where I usually go now. i.e. If I try something and like it, or hear of something I think I'll like, I write it down, then search youtube. After a while you can tell just by watching who is doing it best.
After a while you'll note you're using many of the same things, which are in those spice packets. Once you have those on hand, you're not restricted to meals that need a skimpy packet of sauce.
e.g. With Chinese food the most frequent ingredients are garlic, ginger, chilli, dry sherry, a flavourless oil like peanut or rice bran oil, cornflour or potato flour, dark soy sauce for colour, light soy sauce for flavour, oyster sauce, chicken stock, sesame oil for at the end of cooking. Then many dishes are just variations with the meat or veg cut differently, or one or two lesser-used ingredients added in like honey, orange juice, star anise, hoisin or black bean sauce, and/or coating the meat in batter and frying it twice first (produces a crispier result), etc.
Anyway, that's where I'd start… Write down dishes you like, watch a few/several youtube videos through carefully noting what they do, and pick the one that makes the most sense or looks closest to what you can see yourself doing.
Seeing someone do it in a youtube video is better than a book, because you see the cook do things that are omitted from books and edited TV cooking shows.
Then I bookmark those videos, or if it's something I cook all the time, I write down simplified steps in a text file on my phone so I can do it any time without watching the video again. Due to many dishes being a similar cooking method, you only need a few steps.
My neighbours & I had never spoken before. She saw me outside a few months ago, told me they were moving, and said, "I'm going to miss the incredible smell drifting over from your place." (and for years I was a "meat and 3 veg" or baked dinner guy).
Oh and useful tip: When you buy spring onions from ColesAldiWorths, get ones with the roots still attached. (At least one of them, maybe two, I think it's Coles and maybe Aldi, rip all the roots off!). When you slice them leave the last 1cm attached to the roots and stick them in ANY dirt (rip 50cm square of grass out of your lawn if you have to) so a little of the white bit is below the surface. They grow fast. Cut them off again at that 1cm mark (or a bit more), and this time leave the roots in the ground and they'll keep growing. They taste better too because the places that supply ColesAldiWorths harvest them far too late when they taste more like sour grass clippings than the way they should taste, which is what I would describe as tender and nearly sweet.
You probably forgot a vital ingredient. Like coconut cream in a curry.
subtle asian cooking, I especially love Harvard Wong's recipes/stories
Yan can cook… so can you.