Galangal

This Lao-style larb recipe from chef Kris Yenbamroong is tangy, spicy, and packed with umami.

Sweet, spicy, and aromatic, these vibrantly delicious galangal-and-lemongrass–marinated beef skewers are a Cambodian street food staple. 

The spicy Thai curry paste from Brooklyn’s Ugly Baby restaurant.

Your most essential larb recipe: a spicy minced meat meant to be eaten with your hands along with herbs, sticky rice, and various vegetables.

Three restaurant gardeners share their secrets and tips.

You might think the braised pork belly is too sweet on its own. But paired with the sour kimchi and salty roe, it comes into eye-opening balance.

This vegetarian Thai curry from the restaurant Thai Fresh in Austin is less spicy and more fragrant than you might expect; add a dried chile de árbol if you like heat.

Most of these ingredients can be found at Asian markets or in the Asian section of the supermarket.

All Thai curries start with a handful of aromatic ingredients (chiles, galangal, lemongrass, turmeric, etc.) pounded into a paste with a granite mortar and pestle. The paste is then stirred into soups or stews (often with coconut milk), or used as the basis of sautéed dishes. Use a mini-processor to make the curry paste if you'd like, although this incendiary stew will take on a deeper flavor if you can use a granite mortar and pestle.

This delicious vegetable soup, called sayur lodeh in Indonesian, is popular in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Rendang is a slow-cooked dish that requires hours of stovetop nursing. It was only when I bought an Instant Pot that I even entertained the idea of making it myself.

The Thai-inspired dressing—tart and spicy and salty—plays up the sweetness of watermelon and berries while keeping the fruit salad firmly in savory territory.

Homemade green curry paste has more vivid flavor and aromatic intensity than store-bought, not to mention the freedom to control the spice level. Sopon Kosalanan of restaurant Khao King in, Queens says, “If you get it from a can, I don’t feel like it’s green curry. It doesn’t have the same aromas.” This is the recipe he makes in big batches for his restaurant every day.

Some varieties of noodles suggest soaking them in boiling water instead of cooking them; check your package instructions before preparing them.

It may seem absurd, even insulting, to attempt to reduce an entire cuisine to a few flavors, but with just a handful of Thai ingredients—nearly all of which are available at most supermarkets—you can duplicate or even improve on many of the dishes found in your typical neighborhood Thai restaurant. A few ingredients will be unfamiliar to most American cooks, but no complicated techniques are involved in either preparation or cooking. This chicken dish, which can be taken in many directions, is a good example.

Most people are introduced to galangal, a relative of ginger, by way of Thai curries and seafood soups. The rhizome is seldom used in Vietnamese cooking, but when it is, it is paired with other bold-flavored ingredients. Here, its pungent heat brightens a northern fish kho, with the bittersweet caramel sauce tempering its fire. Use the smaller amount of galangal if you want a dish with less intensity. Although salmon isn’t native to Vietnam, it takes on the robust flavors of the kho remarkably well. Fresh side pork (pork belly), which you can find at Asian markets, is the stealth ingredient here, enrobing everything with its richness to create a unique surf-and-turf combination. The result is spicy, savory, and a touch sweet.

This popular Thai soup, known in its native tongue as tom kha gai, uses some choice ingredients that may be a little difficult to find, but I’ve listed substitutes for them in case there isn’t a specialty Asian market in your neck of the woods.

This refreshing yet rich northern Thai soup is called tom kha gai. It is quite easy to prepare, and much of the flavor comes from the garnishes stirred with the soup after it is cooked: the fresh lime juice, the chiles, the cilantro leaves, and the nam prik pao, a roasted chile curry paste that can be bought in most supermarkets. The Thai red curry paste, fish sauce, and canned coconut milk called for in the ingredient list are all sold in the international aisle of the local supermarket, or you can try to get all the Thai ingredients called for through the fun, online Thai supermarkets at www.importfood.com and www.templeofthai.com.

_Opor Ayam, Java, Indonesia Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from James Oseland's book _Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It was originally accompanied by Lemongrass-Scented Coconut Rice and Lemongrass-Shallot Sambal and was part of an article by Oseland on Indonesian cuisine. A gorgeous coconut-milk curry from Java, Indonesia, perfumed with lemongrass, ginger, cinnamon sticks, and ground coriander. It's one of the benchmark dishes by which Indonesian home cooks are judged. If a young cook's opor ayam is as rich and delicate as it should be, she's well on her way to becoming skilled in the kitchen. The dish is a perfect showcase for a high-quality free-range chicken. A whole one, cut into small, bone-in serving pieces, will yield the best results, though whole chicken parts can be substituted without compromising the dish's taste. Daun salam leaves, the dried seasoning herb prized in Indonesian cooking, helps give this dish its unique aroma. I've often seen bay leaves listed as a substitute for daun salam in recipe books. While bay leaves have an aggressively mentholated taste, daun salam are subtle, with a faintly foresty flavor. The only thing the two herbs share in common is that they are both green leaves that grow on trees. Omit daun salam leaves if you're unable to find them.

If you like curries, you'll love this recipe. The sauce is rich with coconut flavor and redolent with spice. Don't be alarmed by the number of red chiles — these are mild.

Dipped in peanut sauce, these beef satés are flavor bombs on a stick. Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients — we promise you won't be disappointed if you make the sauce from scratch. (It's so much fresher and more complex than any bottled product you may have used in the past.) The meat can be marinated and the sauce prepared ahead, so you just need to grill the satés before serving.