Thai curry

Dishes in Thai cuisine made with curry paste

Thai curry (แกง, ) is a dish in Thai cuisine made from curry paste, coconut milk or water, meat, seafood, vegetables or fruit, and herbs. Curries in Thailand mainly differ from the curries in India in their use of ingredients such as fresh rhizomes, herbs, and aromatic leaves over a mix of dried spices.

The first Thai dictionary from 1873 CE (2416 in the Thai Buddhist calendar) defines kaeng as a watery dish to be eaten with rice and utilizing shrimp paste, onions or shallots, chillies, and garlic as essential ingredients. Coconut milk is not included in this definition and many Thai curries, such as and , do not feature it. Curries in Lanna (northern Thai) cuisine, with only a few exceptions, do not use coconut milk due to coconut palms not growing well, if at all, in the climate of the Thai highlands. The spiciness of Thai curries depends on the amount and kind of chilli used in the making of the paste. Even within one type of curry the spiciness can differ widely. The word "curry" figures in the Thai language as "kari" (กะหรี่), and refers to dishes using either an Indian style curry powder, known as phong kari in Thailand, or to the dish called kaeng kari, an Indian influenced curry that is made with spices that are common to Indian dishes but less often used in these proportions in Thai cuisine. Kung phat phong kari (prawns fried with egg and curry powder) is an example of a dish using the Indian style curry powder. Although is also defined as being of "watery" substance, the thickness of the sauce can vary considerably from broth like to that of a thick stew, and it can even be a completely dry dish. Representatives of dry curries, dishes which are (stir )fried with a curry paste, are and and are representatives of the more broth like curries. and resemble stews. (a steamed fish curry), (curry aspic from northern Thailand) and noodle dishes such as are also seen as Thai curry dishes as they all use curry pastes in their preparation. The dish called is an exception to the rule that a should contain chillies, garlic, onions and shrimp paste. It is a clear Chinese style meat and/or vegetable broth with mixed vegetables and often also minced pork, tofu and glass noodles. The name translates as "bland curry" but it is seen as being a tom, a soup, and it is therefore also often called tom chuet.

Most Thai curries are made with meat, fish or shellfish as their main ingredient. Vegetables and fruit, but also certain tree leaves such as from the Acacia pennata (cha om) and the Ficus virens (phak lueat), and flowers such as those of the Sesbania grandiflora (dok khae) and banana (hua pli), can be added. Curries that contain mainly vegetables are, for example, kaeng liang (mixed vegetables) and kaeng nomai (bamboo shoots). Ingredients were dictated by regional and seasonal availability: both pork and chicken (possibly first domesticated from wild jungle fowl in what is now Thailand) are easily available, and so are many varieties of fish, and shellfish, both fresh water species from the many rivers, lakes and rice paddies, as well as salt water species from the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Other traditional ingredients in Thai curries include frogs, snakes, snails, wild birds and game such as Sambar deer and wild boar. Commonly used vegetables in curries are Thai eggplant (makhuea pro), yardlong beans (thua fak yao), and different types of squash and pumpkins (fak).

Fresh kaffir lime leaves (bai makrut), fingerroot (krachai), or fresh herbs such as Thai basil (horapa) are often added to Thai curries. Kaffir lime leaves and krachai are often cooked along with the other ingredients but fresh herbs such as Thai basil are nearly always added at the last moment to preserve the full taste and serve as a contrasting note to the flavours of a curry. Fish sauce is not only used when cooking the curry as a flavouring and for its salty taste, but it is usually also available at the table as a condiment, mixed together with sliced green bird's eye chillies for those that prefer their curries more salty and spicy. Sugar (traditionally palm sugar) is used with curries that need to be sweetened. Besides lime juice, tamarind juice can also see use in sour curries as the souring agent such as in kaeng som. To achieve the most fragrance from the ingredients in a curry paste, the curry paste is often first fried together with vegetable oil or coconut oil that has separated from the coconut cream, before adding in the other ingredients.