Preparing and Serving a Thai Meal

As I was growing up in Thailand my mother, aunt and I would prepare meals for the entire family. Since most of my immediate family lived in a small village close to us, we prepared meals for 10-15 people. However, the recipes I am including here are meant for four to six people to enjoy the Thai experience with the help of The Garlic Lady.

A typical Thai dinner for four to six people includes a large bowl of rice, one or two soups, a stir-fried veggie dish, a curry dish and a spicy meat or fish dish. Since my family lives on a canal we mainly ate fish. We also raised our own chickens so we ate a lot of chicken dishes. A plate of fresh veggies is also served, with a spicy pepper condiment to dip the veggies in.

I should add my family lives in exactly the same house I grew up in, on that same canal, and continues to raise chickens. Since beef is more affordable in Thailand these days my family eats beef several times a month.

This may seem like a lot of work and a lot o food, but this is how Thais eat every night. Our dinner meal is a time when the entire family comes together. It is a very important daily social event.

We do not worry about serving the various dishes uniformly heated, and much of the preparation is done in advance of mealtime. The key is to have a few basics on hand, such as fish sauce, rice, coconut milk and red curry paste (homemade or canned) and to have all the ingredients cut up and ready to cook.

Start by preparing a curry paste. Once prepared, it will keep in the fridge for about two months. Next, begin steaming the Thai Jasmine rice on a burner or in a rice cooker and begin preparing the curry dish, which involves mixing the curry paste into the coconut milk and simmering the ingredients with veggies and fish, chicken or beef .

Once the curry dish is cooked, set it aside, in the pot, near the heat until ready to serve. Then start the soups, which are usually made from either chicken, beef, seafood stock or black soy stock. While the soups simmer, chop the ingredients for the spicy fish, chicken or seafood and the cooked veggie dish. Both of them are stir fried and cook in just a few minutes.

Finally, make the pepper condiment in one step by mashing the ingredients with a mortar and pestle (my family calls this device a pepper banger). The pepper condiment can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to two weeks.

It is customary to eat a Thai meal with a large spoon for mixing the different dishes with rice. A fork is used to hold the food stationery while the spoon cuts or scoops. Thai people do not customarily use chopsticks. Although the Chinese community in Thailand does use chopsticks.

Each person is served a large portion of rice. Then bite-sized pieces are spooned from the various dishes of food, to be mixed with the rice. Everyone serves themselves.

I hope that the above information has been helpful in your understanding of preparing and serving a Thai meal. If you need more information or have questions or comments, you can write me:

garliclady@garliclady.com