Pantry Ingredients

I cook a lot of Thai food, which I find so easy to make, once you have all the ingredients on hand.  The perfect thing about this cuisine is the hard-to-find ingredients can all be bought in a large amount and frozen - to be used whenever the Thai mood strikes you.

Lemongrass:
Lemongrass is hands down, my favorite herb.  I love the smell of it.  I love the taste of it.  I even buy lemongrass oil to burn in a candle, so my house smells lovely.  Lemongrass has become quite easy to find in grocery stores lately.  In Canada, I buy it at either an Asian grocery store, or Superstore.  Sometimes Safeway carries these long stalks as well.


When purchasing lemongrass, look for a firm stalk that is pale yellow at the bottom with some green at the top of the stalk.  If it's brown or soft, it's too old.  Lemongrass is about a foot long, but to prepare it, you need to cut the bottom light yellow portion off, as well as remove a few of the outer, tough layers.  You will be left with a smaller, fibrous stalk, about 4-5 inches long.  From here you can cut this into inch wide pieces and throw into a stock for soup, or finely mince.  I actually scrape the stalk along my microplane to get a very fine mince.


I keep lemongrass in my freezer, after cutting it and removing some of the outer layers.  It keeps for quite a while in a plastic bag, and I can pull one out whenever I need to make a quick Thai meal.

Kaffir Lime Leaves:

You know that very fragrant and lovely citrus smell you associate with Thai food?  That comes from a kaffir lime leaf.  In Canada, along with Asian grocers, Save On Foods and Sobey's now sell lime leaves with the fresh herbs in the vegetable section.  I will buy as many packets as I can and place the lime leaves in a plastic bag in my freezer and pop one or two out whenever I need it in a Thai curry.  But, be sure to remove them just prior to serving, as lime leaves are a flavour enhancer - not really a delicious thing to eat (treat it like a bay leaf). 

Hot Peppers:

I love spicy food and I always keep my hot peppers in the freezer.  A great time to buy these locally is in September, when they are harvested.  You can buy big bags of these at a Farmer's Market and pickle them or just place in a plastic bag to use whenever you need to add something spicy to a meal.  I will thaw them before chopping, or will scrape onto my microplane while whole frozen, directly into a dish.  Be careful this way though...it's gets VERY spicy as there's no way to remove the seeds, so those get chopped in as well!

Ginger:

Ginger can also be kept in a plastic bag in the freezer.  Always buy a big, smooth piece of ginger, never one that is wrinkled.  You can remove the outer skin with a knife or brush a spoon along it.  Pop it in the freezer, and remove whenever you require it.  I always scrape the ginger on a microplane while frozen into any savoury or sweet dish I prepare.


Finally, can you tell which kitchen item is my absolute favorite?  Yes, the microplane.  If you don't have one, buy one at a kitchen or hardware store.  It really makes things easy whenever you need to mince or zest something.  Along with the above ingredients, lemon, garlic and parmesan are perfect to use a microplane on.