Garlic (krathiam)

Essential Ingredients pad thai

Garlic (krathiam)

Garlic is elementary in Thai cooking, providing background flavor enriching all sort of dishes, from mild to spicy. Fried garlic(krathiam chiao) together with the fragrant oil is an essential garnish for most noodle soups and dry noodle dishes. Simply coarsely chop garlic and fry in hot oil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

Garlic (krathiam)

Normally both fried garlic pieces and the fragrant oil are used together. But if only fried garlic pieces are needed, just strain them from the oil. In addition, garlic in whole cloves is pickled to eat with snacks, garnish noodle dishes like mi krop, or make sauces as in Dry Sukiyaki(suki haeng).

Note that the garlic in our recipes is of Thai variety with head and cloves much smaller than regular garlic. Yet it smells stronger and more flavorful. If you have to use the regular garlic, you had better double or triple the quantity of chopped or minced garlic to make up for its flavor. if measured in term of cloves, you may halve the number of cloves or simply go easy with the specified amount. Use more of garlic does not significantly change the flavor of the dishes since most of Thai foods are flavored with many other ingredients.