If you love spicy food you really owe it to yourself to try Thai food. Thai people eat more chili per person than any other country in the world! In Thailand we love our spicy foods. Many of the herbs that we use are to make the food spicy also. These herbs include lemon basil, ginger, and of course chili.
In Thailand we use many different types of chili. It depends on the dish that we are cooking and also on what region of Thailand you are in. The Thai word for chili is prik. The chili that you see the most is the standard Thai Chili. It is available almost every place you will go to in the world. There is also the same kind of chili that is often found in the southwestern US that is available mostly in Northern Thailand. It is served in lot of ways same as in the US. They use it to make pizza, sausage, eggs, and even serve it as a relish when finely chopped. Another of my favorites is prik kee nu, this is a very small, extremely spicy chili. There are often served as a condiment and used to add flavor to things like meatballs.
Chili is also used to make your curry hot. Curry is a mixture of chili and other ingredients to give the desired flavor for the type of curry. There are several varieties of curry, but we mainly use five types, green, red, yellow, massaman, and penang curries. The curry that you use depends on what you will be using with it. Different meats use different curry to get the correct flavor. If you are a vegetarian you also will want to use the right curry for tofu.
For herbs, if you have never used lemon basil in your spicy foods you are missing out! Sweet basil is what most are serving when you get basil. You already know how much flavor basil will add to you dinner. Now if you want to add flavor with a bit of spice to it try lemon basil. It looks much like the basil you normally will buy, the leaves are normally a bit smaller though. It has a great flavor and it will make your food much more spicy. It is really good when you combine with chili for extra spiciness and more heat.
Another herb that will make your food spicy is ginger. Ginger has many uses and a great flavor. You can boil it to make a tea, you can add a nice some sparkle to your grilled and baked fish and it also makes a great stir fry. There are so many uses for ginger. I recommend the fresh ginger and grind or grate it yourself. You get much more flavor than the powder that comes in the spice cans at your grocery store.
You can use all of these in your everyday cooking to give you a little spicy food any time. And if you want to try spicy Thai food you will always be using these items each time you cook!
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