Cooks in Southeast Asia make use of pastes that combine roasted fresh or dried chillies with a variety of other seasonings. Various commercial chilli pastes are sold, but a good chile paste is also easy to make at home.
Authentic Pad Thai with rice noodles, prawns, tofu, eggs, tamarind-palm sugar sauce, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Served with traditional condiment saucers.
Rendang is the legendary Indonesian beef curry: chunks of beef slow-simmered in spiced coconut milk and tamarind until the sauce reduces almost dry and the meat turns fork-tender. Deeply fragrant and richly spiced.
Thai kanom jin nam prik curry noodles built on a fragrant coconut-moong bean sauce with red curry paste, tamarind, and crispy fried shallots and garlic. Rich, tangy, and earthy, served over soft rice noodles with long beans and sprouts.
Salat khaek: Southern Thai salad sauce of pounded chili, shallot, and peanut stirred into coconut milk with fish sauce, tamarind, and sugar. Served over potato salad.
Authentic pad thai with rice noodles, dried shrimp, fried tofu, tamarind sauce and crushed peanuts. Real Thai street food, not the gloppy Westernized version.
Lone dao jiow, a Thai coconut dipping sauce with bean sauce, shallots, palm sugar, and tamarind served with fresh cucumbers, cabbage, and green beans. Salty, sour, and sweet.
Thai Noodles with Vegetable and Curry Sauce recipe
Authentic Thai massaman curry paste pounded from scratch with dry-fried spices, dried chilies, lemongrass, galangal, grilled shrimp paste, and tamarind. Deep, complex, and aromatic.
Lone dao jiow is a Thai coconut-fermented soybean dipping sauce served warm with fresh cucumber, cabbage, and green beans. Salty, sour, sweet in every bite.
Thai satay sauce from scratch: a dry-toasted aromatic paste of chiles, shallots, garlic, and galangal cooked into coconut milk with peanuts, sesame, tamarind, and fish soy.
Gueyteow Pak, Thai noodles with blanched vegetables and a coconut red curry sauce with tamarind and crushed peanuts. A vegetarian Thai dish garnished with crispy fried potato rounds.
Thai broiled lobster in tamarind sauce with palm sugar, fish sauce, fried garlic, and crispy shallots. Sweet, sour, salty, and spicy in one stunning seafood dish.
Crispy fried rice vermicelli (mee krob) tossed with tangy tamarind syrup, bean sprouts, cilantro, and green onions. Classic Thai sweet, sour, salty noodle dish with shattering crunch.
Saus kacang is an Indonesian peanut sauce made with ground chili, garlic, shrimp paste, peanut butter, tamarind, and coconut milk. The classic satay dipping sauce.
A quick Thai wok-fried chicken with crispy garlic, red chillies, oyster sauce, fish sauce, tamarind, bamboo shoots, and fresh coriander. Bold flavor in 30 minutes.