Garlic is everywhere in Thai cooking. Thai garlic has small cloves with thin, papery skin, often so thin that the cloves are crushed and cooked with the skin still on. It is milder and sweeter than many European varieties, but it is used generously: a stir-fry for two can easily take five or six cloves.
Garlic is the start of countless dishes. It is fried in oil before anything else goes into the wok, pounded into curry pastes and dipping sauces, and pounded with coriander root and white pepper into the classic Thai trio known as sam-kloe, the base for marinades and soups. Sliced thin and fried slowly, it becomes crispy fried garlic, scattered with its fragrant oil over noodles, rice soup and salads.
In your kitchenThe wok is hot, the oil shimmers, and the garlic goes in first.
How to use it
Crush it in the mortar
Pound garlic with a pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle. It releases more flavour than chopping, and small Thai cloves can go in with their skin on.
Fry it golden
Slice it thin and fry it slowly in neutral oil until pale golden, then lift it out at once. It keeps cooking after it leaves the oil, and dark brown garlic tastes bitter.
Make the Thai trio
Pound garlic, coriander root and white peppercorns into a rough paste. Use it to marinate chicken or pork, or as the base of a clear soup.
Store it dry and airy
Keep whole bulbs in a cool, dry place with air around them, not in the fridge. They keep for weeks. Crispy fried garlic keeps in an airtight jar.