Trying my hand at Thai cooking

[MaggieTheCat]

Sure, I've made curry before, but it's usually either a sauce out of a can or a sauce made with the yellow curry powder you get at the grocery store (which isn't bad, but it's not what I'm looking for.) I've also made Indian curry out of garam masala, which is excellent, but again...not what I'm looking for.

I want to try making my own red curry paste to make sauces out of. I have a pretty simple recipe that calls for dried red California chiles, dried Thai bird chiles, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, onion, and turmeric.

From what I understand, the California chiles are the common ones you can get pretty much anywhere and are found in a lot of Asian restaurant dishes; I actually already have some of these. Ginger, garlic, onion, and turmeric are equally easy to get. It's the Thai bird chiles and the fresh lemongrass I'm a little concerned about. I've never even heard of Thai bird chiles and am not sure I can get them; I'm also not sure if I can get fresh lemongrass. I've read that lemon and/or lime zest and extra ginger are a halfway decent substitute for the lemongrass; the recipe also says that any other hot chile will work in place of the Thai chiles. I'm just not sure what to look for when we go to the grocery store. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[trailerparkmedic]

Try checking out Whole Foods or Central Market. I've found they have better produce sections and I've found lemongrass at Central Market. I'm not sure what to do about the Thai chilies though. Are there any Asian markets in your area? That's where I find my weird stuff, but my city has a large number of Asians.

[lupo pazzesco]

Try checking out Whole Foods or Central Market. I've found they have better produce sections and I've found lemongrass at Central Market. I'm not sure what to do about the Thai chilies though. Are there any Asian markets in your area? That's where I find my weird stuff, but my city has a large number of Asians.

Second the Whole Foods suggestion, that's where I find stuff I need. Never been to Central Market, though. No, wait, went to the one on Westheimer once, years ago. I wanna go again!!

TPM is right, though, we've got a lot of little Asian areas here, so it's easier to find what I need depending on the kind of dish I'm making, (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.)

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Just make sure you know what Thai bird chilies look like. That way, if they're called something different, you can still nab them. I second the Asian groceries. They have amazing stuff, and I only ever buy my jasmine green tea from any of the local ones-- they're the only ones that seem to have the peculiar type I like (yes, not particular, )

[MaggieTheCat]

We do have a pretty nice Asian grocery store that we went to once a few months ago. It's kind of a chore to get to 'cuz it's quite a ways away from where we live, but next time we're sorta in the area, I'll be sure to stop in and stock up on some stuff. Thanks.