How do I make my curry taste like the stuff from a Thai restaurant?
I know a big part of it is making sure to get authentic curry paste. What else would I need to make something like a nice tofu curry (6/5 spicy) that would taste like the stuff I could get as takeout?
My partner is from Thailand. She affirms get authentic curry paste. She says to get it at an Asian grocery store, not from an American store. She says get the good coconut milk as well. And she suggests using fresh chilis, lime leaves, and basil.
And she suggests using fresh chilis, lime leaves, and basil.
To be clear for the gringos in the chat, these would be "Thai chili peppers", "kaffir lime leaves", and "Thai basil", all of which should be readily available at your nearest Asian market.
You snip some leaves off the citrus tree in your backyard, add some jalapeños, and sweet basil you're gonna have a whole different dish.
Without knowing the specific curry you’re looking to replicate makes it hard to make specific recommendations but a few things have helped me up my game.
The first is what you use to add a sour note. In the west we often use lime juice, which is great to add sprinkled at the end, but you need to get some tamarind paste for the depth of flavour. It also adds sweetness, but you can instead use some sugar, preferably brown or palm.
Fish sauce is a must to round out the depth of umami and I find soy really doesn’t work for me. If that’s a no-go because of dietary restrictions you might have to add some yeast flakes with the soy sauce, but it’s not going to have the same depth.
If you can get galangal, use it. Same with lemon grass. But again all depends on the specific curry.
It’s usually “green” that I go for, sometimes red.
Just imagine a little hole in the wall place where the menu is in Thai, with your options being “red,” “green,” or “massuman” and the staff will respond well to the white guy asking for it to be “thai spicy.”
Check out Pailin from https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/, she’s legit. She’s got an incredible amount of videos on her cooking channel, including what brands are good.
Happy cooking.
Penang or GTFO.
Seriously though, a good Thai recipe book on curry or an online source you trust is going to be your bet here, and not subbing out ingredients for the western equivalent.
Elsewhere people have already mentioned avoiding certain shortcuts, but I think you’re going to have to make some allowances the first time around, like a food processor versus using a mortar and pestle. As you track down more ingredients over time, try them out. You might have to go to multiple stores.
Lots of excellent advice in the thread already (could kick myself for not including shrimp paste!) but the truth is there are no surprise ingredients or techniques.
What works for us is Cock brand red curry paste.
I use this one and it is awesome.
https://www.amazon.com/Mae-Ploy-Yellow-Curry-Delicious/dp/B007VAMIPM
Mae Ploy is legit.
"Tastes like it's from your local Thai restaurant" is different than "tastes like it's from Thailand"
The TL;DR is that the Thai government has sponsored many Thai restaurants around the world as a form of diplomacy. Menus and recipes have largely been standardized by the Thai government, but adapted to local tastes.
Personally, if I want takeout style Thai curry, I use maesri brand curry paste cans. They are cheap and don't take up much space, and they have instructions on them like "add curry paste and 100 ml coconut milk to wok and cook till fragrant. Add 400 g protein ...". It's easy to keep a selection on hand of the different flavors. Yeah, it won't be the same as doing it 100% from scratch, but a lot of Thai restaurant food like pad Thai is notorious for requiring a lot of ingredients.
Thanks for this! I had no idea.
Excellent use of soft power.
You want a good curry paste, so not Thai Kitchen if you're in the US. You can make your own if you're feeling fancy but I rarely bother tbh. Cook it in a splash of coconut milk until it starts sizzling, then you can add the rest of the milk. The other big thing is get some lime leaves, they'll make a huge difference.
Great question and I hope other know the secret.
One thing I've heard is that you're supposed to heat activate your curry by cooking it alone for a couple of minutes before adding other ingredients.
It depends on what specifically you like about it I suppose. The main things that hit in Thai cooking are the aromatics: galangal, ginger, lemongrass...etc.
Understanding which of those flavors you like in the restaurant version is key to making it well at home, so maybe understanding what type of curry paste is best for you is the best way to go about it.
Check this: https://thewoksoflife.com/thai-curry-paste/
Curry paste, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, and fish sauce (add near the end) are the most important things. Cock brand curry paste is the best I can get where I live and works very well (red/green, or yellow if you want it milder). For the fish sauce, the brand is less important, but Squid brand is good. I also think the rice is pretty important, so try to get decent Jasmine rice (store-bought works fine).
First of all no blender. Mortar and pestle. Shrimp paste (add lateron) I prefer dried shrimp, salt, sjalots (no onion), garlic, galanga (no ginger), Thai basil, lemon grass, birds eye green or red peppers, coriander roots. Pound for half an hour until smooth paste. I like to add toasted cumin and coriander seeds, sellery, lemon and curry leaves. Oh and start reducing a can of coconut cream and reduce to oil to fry the pounded mixture, add proteine, add stock....then add more coconut cream towards the end when the proteine is done.
May ploy paste. It's what most Thai people in Australia use. It's the bomb.
Mai ploy? May ploi?
Last time I looked for an answer, I found Dan Toombs "The curry guy" but I haven't had a chance to try out any recipes yet. They have a YouTube channel and some books. Depending on how you like your media.
Fry your curry paste for a little while to get it releasing the flavors. And when you put in coconut milk, don't let it boil or it separates and gets oily.
Every thing you know is a lie.
Galangal