Curries

Thai curries start with a paste. Chillies, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal and shrimp paste are pounded together, fried in coconut cream until the oil separates, then loosened with coconut milk or stock. The colour of the paste gives most curries their name: green from fresh green chillies, red from dried red ones, yellow from turmeric.

The curries here cover the whole country. Green curry and massaman come from the central plains and the old royal kitchens, gaeng hang lay from the north with its Burmese ginger and tamarind, and gaeng lueang from the south, a thin, fiercely sour curry with no coconut at all.

Each recipe explains how to make the paste from scratch and how to use a bought one, how long to fry it, and how to balance the finished curry with fish sauce, palm sugar and something sour. Serve them with jasmine rice in the centre and south, or sticky rice in the north.

If you are new to Thai curries, start with green curry: it shows the whole method, from pounding the paste to cracking the coconut cream, in under an hour. Massaman and gaeng hang lay are slow braises that are even better the next day, so they suit cooking ahead for guests.