**The Art of Cooking with Herbs**

When it comes to cooking, herbs are an essential component that can elevate a dish from bland to grand. There are two main categories of herbs: fresh and drying herbs. Fresh herbs are those that are typically used raw or added towards the end of cooking, while drying herbs are preserved through dehydration or freezing to be used later.

For our pantry staples, we focus on using the following dried herbs: garlic, allspice, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, and chili powder. These herbs can be used as a spice blend in various dishes, such as curries, stews, and stir-fries. We also use them to make marinades and paste, which can add depth and complexity to our cooking.

In addition to these dried herbs, we also have a variety of fresh herbs that are commonly used in Thai cuisine. These include Thai basil, holy basil (also known as Jota paw or Kapow), lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and chilies. We use these herbs to add freshness and fragrance to our dishes, and they can be used in a variety of ways, such as making infusions, chopping them finely, or turning them into pastes.

We also have three major ways to use fresh herbs: infusion, fineness, and paste-making. Infusion is when we cut the herb leaves or chop them finely and add them to boiling water or broth to make a flavorful liquid. This method is often used in soups, stews, and braises where the herbs can infuse their flavors into the dish for an extended period of time.

Another way to use fresh herbs is by finely chopping them and adding them to dishes like stir-fries, salads, and salsas. In these forms, the herbs are easily recognizable and add a burst of flavor and freshness to the dish. Finally, we can also turn fresh herbs into paste, which can be used as a marinade or as an ingredient in sauces.

Our finishing herbs, on the other hand, are those that are typically added towards the end of cooking to finish off a dish. These herbs are delicate and can quickly lose their flavor and fragrance if cooked for too long. The two most commonly used finishing herbs are Thai basil and holy basil (also known as Jota paw or Kapow). We use these herbs to add freshness and fragrance to our dishes, and they can be added in the form of whole leaves or chopped finely.

We also have a few other finishing herbs that we occasionally use. These include green onion and cilantro, which are often used together in salads and other dishes. Green onion is a staple ingredient that adds flavor and texture to many Asian-style salads and soups. Cilantro has a fresh and citrusy flavor that pairs well with many ingredients.

Finally, there's sawtooth coriander, which is not as commonly used but can add a unique flavor profile to certain dishes. Overall, our pantry staples of dried herbs provide the foundation for our cooking, while our finishing herbs add the final touches to make a dish truly special.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmental boundaries you might have around cooking Thai food and some of you are excited to start  but where do you start that brings me to the second reason why a lot of people don't cook  ethnic food at home is because they don't know where to begin in order to begin you need some  basics the basics include ingredients and what I like to call structure okay so let's first talk  about ingredients now I've got lots of ingredients and I can talk about all the stuff that we used  obviously but what I've chosen are part of what I call the basic Taipan tree and the basic type  and tree are things that are versatile they're used often and they're the stuff that if you  were to randomly walk into a Thai person home you'd find most of these in there and there's  lots so in order to help you mentally organize the stuff I divided them into six different categories  according to function okay we've got sturdy herbs finishing herbs salting agent acids sweets and  then others is just there to catch anything that I couldn't put anywhere else so let's talk about  first sturdy herbs and put this down so that all if you can see so 30 herbs I call them sturdy  Earth's because they don't wilt as opposed to basil and cilantro and delicate things like  that sturdy herbs things that we commonly use include lemongrass this is the lungo and then  kaffir lime leaves these are what I call the Thai Trinity I call them the tight Rinna tea because  they're used often together and we also the way you use them is actually very similar so first  lemongrass I want to show you how to prep them first before I talk about how to use them comes  whole like this sometimes it's trimmed but if it's not what you want to do is you want to cut off the  dry top bit cut off the knob at the end and then any dry bit outside you want to peel off okay  this is where the flavor is most concentrated you want to cook with this this stuff the top you can  throw it into stock or something if you want to but this is what you want to cook with it's very  tough so what you want to do is you want to smash it down help brews its so the flavor release more  easily with the back of your knife that's it and then to store this is how I store them I just cut  them into pieces like this and store them in a free a ziploc bag it lasts in your freezer for  months and months okay because you're not they sometimes sell lemongrass in four and you're  not going to use four lemongrass in the near future so that what you want to do galangal look  similar to a ginger because it is also a rhizome just like a ginger except the flavors are yin  and yang Ginger's hot galangal is cool it has a flavor similar to like a pine forest it's really  refreshing and woodsy you don't need to peel it and we don't use this part only only the hard part  here you just want to slice them into thin round and in this form and you can come up and smell  and taste and do whatever you want to do with them afterwards store them in this form in the freezer  as well for months when you freeze them make sure they're not on top of each other all those thick  lay them flat and once they're frozen then you can toss them together so that's that and then finally  the kaffir lime leaves my favorite favorite herb in the world it's got a really unique citrus ease  flavor freeze them just like this don't need to do anything okay this is the fruit of the kaffir  lime we don't cook much with this we use it in curry paste and little things like that most  of the time this is what you're going to use now other than these we also use garlic Allah shallots  also a lot and then Thai chilies high chilies you can also freeze forever in fact I freeze all four  of these in one ziplock bag because most of the time I'm going to use them all together anyway  now how do you use these sturdy herbs there are three major ways to use dirty herbs one is as an  infusion when you cut them big like this or in rounds this one of you roughly tear it let it  infuse like you would a bay leaf in a boiling liquid except it doesn't take half an hour to  stew a couple minutes after the water comes to a boil you've got it okay so that's an infusion now  if you're going to put it in the soup in this form you do not eat it because it's very tough  it's very hard it can be highly unpleasant and in fact dangerous if you try to I've got stories but  afterwards for off-camera so the next thing you want to do is well another way to use it is to  finely chop them if you finely chop them you can toss them into a stir fry a salad and things like  salsas or dipping sauces in that form you can eat them they're edible just not when they're big like  this now the third way you can use it is you take a step further and turn it into a paste either  using a mortar and pestle or you can use a fancy grinding device if you'd like in the paste form  you can turn it into a marinade use it as part of a curry paste or use it in dips okay so very very  versatile so that's our sturdy herbs next we're going to move on to finishing herbs finishing  herbs I call them finishing herbs because you add them at the end of the cooking process to  finish off a dish these are delicate things you do not want to cook because they'll turn black  and they lose their fragrance most commonly we know of Thai basil okay Thai basil are becoming  more and more mainstream now they're available in quite a few places there's also another type of  basil that we use it's not doing so hot but it's called holy basil these are the two Basil's we  use often this is a little harder to find so you wouldn't worry too much if you can't find it just  want to let you know it's there it's available this is called Jota paw this is called Kapow  okay the flavors are a little bit different this is more hot and peppery okay now this one the way  you want to use them is you can use them in stir fries in soups in curries but you want to finish  whatever it is you're cooking turn off the heat throw the fresh leaves in and toss it and let the  residual heat of the of the dish wilt it that way the color remains green and the fragrance remain  fresh okay other than these we also use a lot of green onion and cilantro now green onion is lunch  row I want to talk about them together because we often use them together in fact we refer to them  as a unit we call this done home party which just means green onion cilantro it's like the universal  garnish anything that looks like it needs a splash of green the way you would do with parsley rough  chopped green onion cilantro sprinkle it on it'll also add a nice flavor to it we also use these  a lot in salads in fact almost all of our salads will contain the compact G in there okay so these  are great these are the basic finishing herbs on top of this we also use sawtooth coriander  but we don't use them very often so I just wanted to mention them don't need  to worry about it's not a part of the basic pantry so these are our finishing herbs nextyou\n"