Pailin Chongchitnant - Hot Thai Kitchen: Demystifying Thai Cuisine with Authentic Recipes to Make at Home

Copyright 2016 Pailin Chongchitnant

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Appetite by Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House Canada LLC.

Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request.

ISBN: 978-0-449-01705-0
eBook ISBN: 978-0-14-752992-3

Cover photo of the author by Janis Nicolay
Recipe photos and portraits of the author by David Tam
Thailand photos by Art Chongchitnant
Photo on by Stephen Fortner

Published in Canada by Appetite by Random Housea division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

v3.1

To my family

Its hard for me to believe, as I am sitting here writing a Thai cookbook, that less than 10 years ago, I had a been there, done that attitude towards Thai food and was completely engrossed in the exotic world of Western cuisine. But theres something about the food you grow up with: no matter how far away you go from it, it always tracks you down.

Growing up in Southern Thailand, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with our live-in nanny, who was also the family cook, and my grandmothers, who visited from time to time. We didnt have many pre-made ingredients or time-saving appliances, so cooking involved laborious tasks like squeezing fresh coconut milk, mincing ground pork with a cleaver, and removing peanut skins. When you spend that much time working intimately with raw ingredients and witnessing their transformation into a meal, a bond is inevitable.

Ive always had an affinity for food and cooking, but the first time I left Thailand, affinity turned into right-out obsession. I was twelve years old, and my parents sent me to New Zealand so that I could learn English. I remember being thoroughly mesmerized by the variety of new foods I encountered: mashed potatoes, lamingtons, schnitzel, and fish and chips. Things that seem mundane to New Zealanders were fascinating culinary discoveries to me.

My home-stay mom noticed and fostered my passion for food; she first asked me to show her a Thai dish, so I made a Thai omelette, the first thing that almost every Thai person learns how to make. She then coached me through scones, a pineapple meringue pie, and chocolate souffls. After one whirlwind year, I went back to Thailand with a realization that there was so much more to food than I had imagined, and that I loved every bit of it.

In high school, we moved to the big city: Bangkok. With that move came cable TV, and with cable TV came cooking shows imported from abroad. I found myself glued to these shows with a paper and pen in hand, ready to write down the recipes (there were no online recipes back then!). I idolized the chefs, who looked like they were having the time of their lives, and I dreamed of one day having my own cooking show.

I left for Canada to attend university, and I was once again in a wonderland of Western food. After graduation I started cooking professionally. Convinced that cooking was what I want to dedicate my life to, I moved to San Francisco for culinary school. Why San Francisco? Someone had told me it was a great city for food, and so off I went.

Life in culinary school was a dream come true. I revelled in all the new knowledge and experience I was gaining dailyeven culinary math was so much fun to me! Being surrounded by hundreds of other passionate people energized me like nothing else had before. I admired all of my chef instructors who not only educated me, but also influenced and inspired me. That was the beginning of my desire to be a culinary educator myself.

As much fun as I was having learning about Western cuisine, I was missing Thai food. I frequented many Thai restaurants, and while there were many good places, more often than not, I left disappointed. In fact, I was angry. I was angry because I felt that Thai food was being misrepresented, and I was frustrated by the thought that people would have to visit Thailand in order to understand how delicious Thai food can really be.

Around that same time, I had a conversation with my older brother, Eddie, which would change my life. I mused to him about having a cooking show of my own, to which he said, Why dont you make your own show on YouTube? Until that moment, I thought YouTube was just a place for funny cat videos. This sparked a fire. I was so excited by the idea of having my own cooking show that I talked Eddie into being my camera man, and Hot Thai Kitchen was born in my small San Francisco apartment. While we did brainstorm different show concepts, it was clear to me that the show had to be about Thai food. It was the perfect combination of all my dreams. It would be my way of showing people how to make incredible Thai food at home. I would get my own cooking show. And I could finally become a culinary educatorit was the answer to everything I wanted to accomplish.

They say that the best way to learn a skill is to teach it to someone else, and this couldnt be truer for me. Producing Hot Thai Kitchen pushed me to study my own cuisine from the perspective of an outsider. It forced me to look at Thai food and question every element. Why do we do what we do? What is the purpose of these ingredients? How do these flavours work together to create the balance were aiming for? All these questions made me realize that I hadnt actually been there, done that with Thai cuisine. There was so much more that I didnt know, that my nanny and my grandmothers never taught me. My passion and excitement for Thai food came back at full speed, and the support from Hot Thai Kitchen fans all over the world became the fuel for my endeavour.

I wrote this book to present the knowledge that is foundational to understanding Thai cuisine in one complete package. I wanted to emphasize my philosophy: that in order to cook great food with confidence, we need to understand the dish. Certain concepts, once understood, apply across cuisines. For example, a chicken breast will always react to heat in the same way, whether the dish is Thai or Swedish. But if were trying to gain confidence in cooking an unfamiliar cuisine, then we also need to understand what makes that cuisine distinct. I want to show you the things that make Thai cuisine, well, Thai.

So what does it take to understand a cuisine that is foreign to you? There are three dimensions of any cuisine that are essential to your ability to cook it like a native: culture, ingredients, and the structure of dishes. This book will explore these three dimensions.