... implementation

Pestle and Mortar.

An essential requirement for gaining the true flavour of traditional curries.

For the purpose of grinding herbs both the handle and the bowl need to be very hard and very tough. The use of granite for this purpose is time proven and the implements although heavy are  easy to clean . 

Twice I have had the opportunity for a very rough comparison of curries. One made by mortar and pestle and the other machine homogenised. The comparison was conducted in good faith by the proprietors of 2 different cooking schools unrelated and in different cities. 

One was a green curry chicken. The steps in preparation of the curries were identical from firing up the wok to adding and cooking the chicken. 

I tried the machine buzzed curry paste sample first and it was just a great curry. Nothing wrong with it at all. Then tried the handmade curry and it was noticeably nicer. The second curry test was a red curried pork and a similar experiment. Once again the handmade curry was noticeably better.

The aspects that weren't proven the same were the blends of the curry or the curry recipe. I have no idea what the proportions of ingredients were or the quality was. Both the commercial curries were bought in the morning of preparation at local food markets. The blend could very well be the significant variation rather than the pestle/mortar vs the machine homogenised curry paste.

Technique:

The mortar needs to be sitting on a firm and solid foundation and in Asia this is commonly the floor or on a stone step. The base of the mortar is generally placed on a thickness of toweling to protect the bottom surface of the mortar from chipping and  to protect the resting surface from impact damage from the very hard granite vessel.

Generally dry ingredients are ground first. The technique is to raise the pestle and bring it down onto the contents and release firm grip just before contact. Repeat this action until the quality of grinding has been reached. The reason for not following through is to prevent fatigue and soreness of the arms and shoulders.

The addition of moist and wet ingredients follows in that order.

Cleaning:

Generally just a quantity of dish washing detergent and water, swirl the contents and wash with a kitchen cloth. Pour fresh water into the bowl and over the pestle and then drain dry. The granite is impervious so if the surface is clean then there won't be any carry over of aromas into subsequent mixes. The implements can be sterilised with a 1 in 50 dilution of hypochlorite bleach and stood for 10 minutes. This must be done after initial washing as organics contamination will inactivate the hypochlorite. After sterilising, simply rinse with plain water and dry.

Availability:

Widely available and in a number of sizes. Unless you are preparing huge quantities of spices and curry pastes a bowl size of some 5 inches is adequate.

In the US an excellent online and at very reasonable prices is importfood.com. There granite mortars and pestle sets are here and if you wish to purchase the earthenware khrok din and saak, the same supplier will sell this to you also.

Steamers.

The lid is placed and the timing begun.
Removing the contents: Take care. Steam is very easily overlooked and it has a much higher heat value than boiling water. Most of the aluminium steamers have external handles. Lift the tier with both handles and place on a wire grill to cool momentarily. The cooked items can removed with tongs or by lifting the tray insert with a hook arrangement and then sliding the items onto a plate. It is important to re-oil the tray before placing the next addition of items into the steamer. 

To buy this online in the US please check out importfood.com. Their aluminium decked steamers are exactly the same as these used in Thailand.

Bamboo Steamers:

Pressure Cookers.

Sticky Rice steamer.

(Nhwat and Mo Neung)

Krathip

The krathip as mentioned is for holding the cooked sticky rice. It has a base and lid and generally the lid is threaded with some kind of twine affixed to the base. To use the krathip, you remove the lid, place the base in the inverted lid and take out the rice you want by hand. Generally sticky rice is eaten by hand.You then re-cap the krathip.

Sticky rice isn't served very hot but it can be placed in a small stem vessel for a couple of minutes while remaining in the krathip.

Brass pots

Pots of brass are used to make many of the deserts that require prolonged boiling. This material is selected for its non-reactivity with ingredients commonly employed like large amounts of sugar, the higher than water boiling temperatures of the mixture and he excellent distribution of heat around the base of the pot. the same reasons they are chosen in western cultures.

Two handled brass cooking pots are available online through importfood.com in the US

Kratai: ( Rabbit scratching the coconut)

Grating coconut is a routine task for many people in Thailand. It's the way to harvest the coconut milk and coconut cream from the coconut itself. 

The coconut is split and the inside surface is scraped on the serrated edge of the attachment affixed to the stool. When the flesh has been scraped out then it is placed into some water and squeezed collecting the oil rich milk. This can be repeated twice and the extracts kept separate. 

The milk is allowed to separate into oil rich and oil reduced layers. The oil rich layer is the so-called coconut cream. This is decanted and depending on the amount of cream vs milk required may be kept separate and used or mixed back with the oil poor liquid to make a standard coconut milk. The milk and cream have very short shelf life and if the intention is to keep it beyond immediate use then it is boiled to sterilise the liquid and refrigerated. This may prolong the usefullness for an extra day or so.

The Tandoor oven.

This vertical cylindrical oven is presumed to be part of the evolution of the oven from the original ground pits to the "modern" horizontal masonry ovens seen commonly. Its origin may go back as far as ancient Mesopotamia and not be a semitic creation at all.

The Tandoor is used for cooking in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Transcaucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia as well as India and Bangladesh. Its effectiveness comes from both radiant and convectional heat. It operates at temperatures up to 480 C ( 900 F) and is traditionally fired with charcoal or wood.

There are modern designs that operate either on electricity or gas. The high operating temperatures has probably been associated with the cuisines where the Tandoor is typically used and lower heats would change the whole character of the foods. There are many restaurants around the world with Tandoor ovens and some very adventurous DIY people who build them in their backyards.

Charcoal Stoves (Tao Fai).

These are a great creation. They allow for the efficient capture of the generated heat which means only small amounts of fuel, normally charcoal is burned as the fuel.

before gas these were often the primary cookers used throughout countries like Thailand and Malaysia. They are still a commonly used stove in Laos, Cambodia and Burma. China uses a variation of this where by the stove is created to hold one block of compressed black-coal. This is an exceptionally efficient stove but the smoke and bituminous smelling fumes produced by the burning of the inferior coal doesn't allow for open cooking but rather for closed cooking in pots. China has what is best described as ovens with a hole in the top for the wok, generally of a very generous size, to sit in. This is then fired by small amounts of charcoal and occassional timber and straw. The heat is generally applied at a very intense level for a very short flare time of the fuel.

Knife Sharpening Technique.

Sharpening/honing kitchen knives takes seconds and should be performed each time the knife is used.  A sharp knife is safer and easier to use. 

The technique for honening a knife with a "steel" is very easy and straight forward and is within the ability of food preparers. The video explains the process very clearly.

If your knife is beyond honeing then you need the bevel to be reground. This requires the use of a grinder or special grinding stone. Most easily done by taking your knives to a tradesman or maybe to your local butcher.

The purpose of honeing is to adjust the edge so that it is straight. A straight edge gives you the optimum cut.

Khanom Krog Pan 

Khanom Krog are a delicious Lao confection or desert made with coconut cream and rice flour. They are one of the discovered delights by some travellers to both lao and Thailand. 

Traditionally served as a breakfast food and available as street food or market food. They are wickedly delicious and quite easy to prepare.

The unique requirement is the Krog Pan or cooking platter that is set above the heat source. Once again a good quality supply is from Importfood .com in the US

Bahulu Mould

Bahulu moulds are used for making confection and savoury cakes in  Malay cuisine. It's very similar to the Khnom Krog pan in that it's a metal pan with indented cups to hold the batter as it cooks. The Bahulu mould has a patterend base and motifs are variable sometimes indicating the type of bahulu that it is. Once again traditionally it was placed over a heat source of glowing charcoal, greased and filled with the batters which may have been a single or multiple addition. 

The Bahulu mould may be difficult to find out of Malaysia and once again the intuitive place to locate these in Malaysia would be a bakery supplies outlet. In other countries I really think that your only potential source would be a Malaysian restaurant or Malaysian family who may be able to advise you on possible availability.

There's the hit and miss possibility of web searches as these things may appear from time to time.

© Used with the very kind permission of Lydia Teh.