Base ingredients for asian food?

neviditelny · 21 Aug 2019 at 18:20

I'm planning to do an online order for some food and am thinking about giving it a go to try some asian meals. What would you say would be good base for a lot of them? To my knowledge coconutmilk/creamed coconut is quite widely used? I'm thinking in a way where I got things in the cupboard and would just have to get fresh veg/meat on the day of cooking.

robj20 · 21 Aug 2019 at 18:36

As in curries?
Don't think I've used creamed coconut yet.
Whole dried spices, coconut flour, methi leaves, ghee.
Make a batch of 50/50 garlic and ginger purée and freeze it in tablespoon amounts.
Make a batch of base gravy and freeze it, then to make a curry you just add the spices the gravy, meat and some stock.

Squid Vicious · 21 Aug 2019 at 19:28

A few things for you to get...

Fish sauce
Dark soy sauce
Shrimp paste
Palm sugar
Star anise
Dried chillies/flakes

Fresh ginger, garlic and spring onions
Fresh lemon grass when you need it, or freeze some down

BUDFORCE · 22 Aug 2019 at 07:28

"Asian food" is a bit vague, maybe be a bit more specific?

Shadowness · 22 Aug 2019 at 08:30

White wine vinegar is quite a regular ingredient in many dishes too. (or rice vinegar I think its sometimes called)

Martynt74 · 22 Aug 2019 at 08:45

BUDFORCE said:
"Asian food" is a bit vague, maybe be a bit more specific?

Yeah, by mentioning Coconut milk through i'm assuming more Thai/Malaysian based food as opposed to Chinese.

As such i'd probably go with the list @Squid Vicious posted, maybe some peanuts too for sprinking on top. But really OP you need to find recipes you like and look for common ingredients. Most stuff can be had in supermarkets without the need for specialist stores.

Scam · 22 Aug 2019 at 10:34

BUDFORCE said:
"Asian food" is a bit vague, maybe be a bit more specific?

This.

Shadowness said:
White wine vinegar is quite a regular ingredient in many dishes too. (or rice vinegar I think its sometimes called)

Um, I might be wrong but aren't they entirely different things. As in one is made from wine/grapes and the other fermented rice? The clue is in the name

My stuff;

Dark soy
Light soy
Fish sauce
Rice vinegar
Shaoxing rice wine
Hoi-sin sauce
Dried black beans
Sichuan peppercorns
Dried lime leaves
Thai curry pastes (life's too short)
Chinese chilli bean paste
Coconut milk
Bamboo shoots (in a can)
Dark brown sugar
Cornflour

That covers my usual dishes including thai curries, black bean stir fries, pad thai, sichuan style stir fries. Shaoxing is a top tip, really brings out the 'authentic' flavour in Chinese dishes.

I learnt all my Chinese cooking from Gok Wan's first cooking TV show believe it or not. The book is excellent as well. Highly recommended.

Shadowness · 22 Aug 2019 at 11:09

@Scam

I guess so

Probably got confused with rice wine vinegar and white vinegar (I have seen some recipes that mention either)

BUDFORCE · 22 Aug 2019 at 11:17

Mild chillis, garlic and ginger make a good flavour base, fry your onions slowly, so they slowly brown up, it'll release all the sugars out who h will add a sweetness.

Then if your going more Chinese, go 5 spice and soy, or more Indian go ground turmeric, coriander and cumin.

Just with those few ingredients alone YouCan do all sorts.

arknor · 22 Aug 2019 at 11:49

coconut milk sux use coconut cream or fridge it for a few hours so its separates a lot, then pour out some of the water or most of it.

I love green thai curry and it's so fast to make but you don't want it to be like water consistency.

as someone said above lifes too short, so I just get the green thai curry paste from asda, their own brand one.

the jars say use like 2 spoons, but it seems so mild I just use a whole jar

Squid Vicious · 22 Aug 2019 at 12:49

Will second @Scam suggestion of the Gok Wan cook book - lots of nice, tasty and also relatively straightforward recipes in there.

Raymond Lin · 22 Aug 2019 at 13:40

neviditelny said:
I'm planning to do an online order for some food and am thinking about giving it a go to try some asian meals. What would you say would be good base for a lot of them? To my knowledge coconutmilk/creamed coconut is quite widely used? I'm thinking in a way where I got things in the cupboard and would just have to get fresh veg/meat on the day of cooking.

As said by others, you need to narrow it down, to the country, or if its Chinese, sometimes to the province. One country to the country next door can be drastically different. Korean foods have many dishes that is vastly different to Japanese food for example.

Korean food have lots of spices, and that red chilli paste call Gochujang is found in a lot of dishes.
In japanese it is Miso that is used widely.
In Chinese, it depends...
Philipines is a culture mix pot of a lot of influences from indian curry to Chinese spices.

Narrow it down, then get a cookbook for those cuisines.

Lartyconshayo · 22 Aug 2019 at 13:43

good cookbook here for nice veggie / vegan fare - utilises a lot of the ingredients mentioned in this thread - I'm rapidly putting on weight I'm eating so much from it !

https://www.waterstones.com/book/east/meera-sodha/9781785176586

Scam · 22 Aug 2019 at 16:35

arknor said:
I love green thai curry and it's so fast to make but you don't want it to be like water consistency.

Each to their own but all green curries I've had either in Thailand or a restaurant have come in a bowl and somewhat resembled soup. I might be entirely wrong but that's how I envisage 'authentic' for that particular dish. I don't want something thick and creamy, that's for mild indian curries like butter chicken imo

Squid Vicious said:
Will second @Scam suggestion of the Gok Wan cook book - lots of nice, tasty and also relatively straightforward recipes in there.

His beef, broccoli and black bean is a staple in our house, as is the cashew nut stir fry. Some excellent recipes in there - they are relatively simple but more importantly they work!

robj20 · 22 Aug 2019 at 17:16

Lartyconshayo said:
good cookbook here for nice veggie / vegan fare - utilises a lot of the ingredients mentioned in this thread - I'm rapidly putting on weight I'm eating so much from it !

https://www.waterstones.com/book/east/meera-sodha/9781785176586

Love her Fresh India book.

Lartyconshayo · 22 Aug 2019 at 19:05

yeah I love Fresh India too but this new one is easier and with great results

Raymond Lin · 22 Aug 2019 at 23:23

Beef & Broccoli is American

Broccoli isn't a vegetable found native to China, it is a dish created by American immigrants in the 1920's.

Scam · 23 Aug 2019 at 11:43

@Raymond Lin well you learn something new every day. It's probably under 'takeaway favourites' in Gok's book anyway. Hey, at least it uses proper black beans.

Doctor McNinja · 23 Aug 2019 at 18:07

robj20 said:
Make a batch of 50/50 garlic and ginger purée and freeze it in tablespoon amounts.

There's a range of frozen Garlic and Ginger by Cofresh. Each pack is 400g and it's frozen in 20g chunks... which is about a level tablespoon I believe. They're no substitute for fresh garlic and ginger but if you're gonna be freezing them anyway, there's no difference in taste as the freezing process is what takes away the punch heat from fresh garlic. The same is true of when you'll be cooking the garlic for a long period of time, which also destroys the punchy, fresh notes.

neviditelny said:
I'm thinking in a way where I got things in the cupboard and would just have to get fresh veg/meat on the day of cooking.

One store cupboard ingredient you could by that can sit fairly happily along side both definitions of "asian" is rice. I by my rice 20KG at a time. I go with Tilda in the blue packaging. It's not the best but it's better than most and when bought in 10 or 20KG bags, it works out as being around the same price as the supermarket own brand value stuff (which is inferior in taste and texture). As long as you store it away from sunlight and in a container to keep pests out, rice will last for ages.

[EDIT] Another recommendation that applies to both definitions of "asian" is the spices. Although the spices will be different for each cuisine. Buying spices in bags rather than supermarket or name brand jars works out much, much cheaper (most of the time). I'd say the quality is better too. Case in point being Star Anise. Not only does it feature in many asian dishes it's also great in western dishes when used to boost meaty, umami notes. when your frying of the veg for a Bolognese, popping in a single small Star Anise makes a subtle but significant difference.

neviditelny · 23 Aug 2019 at 19:38

Sorry for no further input here until now. The reason why I didn't specify more exactly what asian foods would be because I do try to cook a bit of everything. The main reason why I wanted a variety of stuff to keep in the cupboard is that I don't drive so would either have to order online or take the bus to the shops. Hence I thought I would buy things like coconut oil, spices etc to have at home and only pick up the fresh produce for the meals (I stock buy meat from the butchers though so it would mainly be vegetables to be picked up).

@Doctor McNinja I'm going to get some rice from an asian shop in town on Wednesday. Will ask for some advice in there as well about what more to get.