Garlic

กระเทียม

Kratiam: small, papery Thai garlic, pounded into pastes, fried golden and pickled whole.

Garlic is in almost every savoury Thai dish. Thai garlic is small, with thin pink-purple skins and tiny cloves that are often used skin and all, because the skin is soft enough to pound or fry.

Pronunciation	gra-tiam
Flavour	Pungent and sharp raw; sweet and nutty fried
Used in	Curry pastes, stir-fries, dips, fried garlic, pickles
Substitute	Ordinary garlic, using a little less

How it is used

Pounded raw with chillies for som tam, pad kra pao and dipping sauces.
Pounded with coriander root and white pepper into sam gler, the base of countless marinades.
Fried slowly until golden for kratiam jiao, crispy garlic in its oil, spooned over noodles, rice soup and khao man gai.
Pickled whole in sweet vinegar as kratiam dong, which goes into gaeng hang lay and alongside rich dishes.

Thai garlic and imported garlic

Thai garlic is more aromatic and slightly less sharp than the large-cloved garlic sold in Europe. If you can only find large cloves, use about two-thirds of the amount a Thai recipe asks for, and peel them.

Buying and storing

Choose firm, heavy bulbs with tight skins and no green shoots. Keep them somewhere cool, dry and airy, not in the fridge. Crispy fried garlic keeps for two weeks in a sealed jar.

Cook’s tip
Fry garlic in oil from cold over low heat and lift it out when it is pale gold. It keeps cooking off the heat, and garlic that looks brown in the pan turns bitter.

More Vegetables

All Vegetables

Recipes with Garlic

Stir-fries

Phak Boong Fai Daeng (Stir-fried Morning Glory)

Morning glory flash-fried in a roaring hot wok with garlic, chillies, yellow bean sauce and oyster sauce: crunchy, savoury and done in a minute.

13 min · Easy

Braises & Stews

Moo Palo (Five-Spice Pork and Egg Stew)

A sweet, aromatic Thai-Chinese stew of pork belly and boiled eggs in a soy and five-spice broth, simmered until meltingly tender.

110 min · Easy

Braises & Stews

Khao Kha Moo (Braised Pork Leg on Rice)

Pork leg slow-braised in soy, palm sugar and five spice until it falls apart, sliced over rice with kale, pickles and chilli vinegar.

210 min · Medium

Braises & Stews

Moo Hong (Phuket Braised Pork Belly)

Phuket’s Hokkien-style pork belly, braised in soy sauce, garlic and black pepper until dark, glossy and meltingly soft.

105 min · Easy

Grilled & Fried

Gai Tod Hat Yai (Hat Yai Fried Chicken)

Southern Thailand’s famous fried chicken, marinated in coriander seed, cumin and garlic and buried under crispy fried shallots.

50 min · Easy

Noodles & Rice

Khao Mok Gai (Thai-Muslim Chicken Biryani)

Spiced yellow rice cooked with yogurt-marinated chicken, topped with crispy shallots and served with a sweet-sour green chilli and mint sauce.

90 min · Medium

Noodles & Rice

Khao Man Gai (Thai Hainanese Chicken Rice)

Silky poached chicken, rice cooked in the chicken stock and fat, and a punchy fermented soybean, ginger and chilli sauce.

95 min · Medium

Curries

Gaeng Lueang (Southern Sour Yellow Curry with Fish)

A bright yellow, very sour and very hot fish curry from the south, with turmeric, tamarind and green papaya or pineapple. No coconut milk.

40 min · Medium

Noodles & Rice

Khao Soi Gai (Chiang Mai Curry Noodles)

Northern Thailand’s curry noodle soup: chicken legs in a rich coconut curry over soft egg noodles, topped with a nest of crispy fried noodles.

90 min · Medium

Stir-fries

Kua Kling (Southern Dry Curry)

Minced pork dry-fried in a fiery turmeric curry paste until every grain is coated, finished with shredded makrut lime leaves.

40 min · Medium

Stir-fries

Pad Kra Pao Moo Sap (Holy Basil Pork)

Minced pork stir-fried with garlic, bird’s eye chilli and holy basil, served over rice with a crisp-edged fried egg.

20 min · Easy

Salads

Som Tam Thai (Green Papaya Salad)

Shredded green papaya bruised in a clay mortar with garlic, chilli, lime, palm sugar, tomatoes, green beans, dried shrimp and peanuts.

20 min · Easy

Grilled & Fried

Gai Yang (Isaan Grilled Chicken)

Chicken marinated in garlic, coriander root, pepper and lemongrass, grilled slowly over charcoal and served with jaew and sticky rice.

65 min · Easy

Curries

Green Curry with Chicken (Gaeng Keow Wan Gai)

A homemade green curry paste fried in cracked coconut cream, with chicken thigh, Thai aubergines and a fistful of Thai basil.

65 min · Medium

Noodles & Rice

Khanom Jeen Nam Ngiao (Northern Noodles in Pork & Tomato Broth)

Soft rice noodles in a spicy, tangy broth of pork ribs, tomatoes and dried chilli paste, topped with bean sprouts, cabbage, crispy garlic and lime.

120 min · Medium

Noodles & Rice

Pad Thai with Prawns

The street-stall classic done properly: tamarind-sour, palm-sugar sweet, fish-sauce salty, with chewy rice noodles and a bit of char from a very hot wok.

40 min · Medium

Dips & Relishes

Nam Prik Ong (Northern Pork & Tomato Chilli Dip)

A mild, meaty dip of minced pork and tomatoes cooked with a dried chilli paste, eaten with crunchy raw vegetables and sticky rice.

40 min · Easy

Curries

Gaeng Hang Lay (Northern Pork Belly Curry)

A rich, Burmese-influenced curry of slow-cooked pork belly with ginger, pickled garlic, tamarind and peanuts. No coconut milk.

150 min · Medium

Dips & Relishes

Nam Prik Noom (Roasted Green Chilli Dip)

Smoky charred green chillies, shallots and garlic, pounded into a rough dip and eaten with pork crackling, sticky rice and vegetables.

35 min · Easy

Grilled & Fried

Sai Oua (Northern Thai Herb Sausage)

Chiang Mai’s famous coiled pork sausage, packed with lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime and dried chilli, grilled slowly over charcoal.

90 min · Medium