Turning over a new leaf
As anyone who lives here can testify, green leaves are as crucial to Thai cuisine as lettuce is to a Western salad or mint to English roast lamb. Among the most widely used are coriander leaves: the herb grows more readily in Thailand than in the temperate climes of Europe where the crushed, dried seeds are commoner ingredients in recipes. Buy some seeds (sold as a spice) and unless they have been adulterated, they will sprout easily in pots. And don’t ignore the root. Crushed with garlic and chili, it makes the most widely used seasoning in Thai food.
Similar looking Chinese celery (ken chai) also boasts foliage that looks a bit like European parsley (one of the names for coriander is Chinese parsley). Like coriander, it is often grown in containers, a good choice for apartment dwellers with a part-shaded balcony. As with coriander, use a cut-and-come-again approach, picking stalks as needed. Because of its strong flavour – not remotely like conventional celery – it is normally added sparingly to cooked dishes.
Basil is, along with coriander, the most used leaf herb in Asia. It is also the most widely grown, partly on account of its tendency to germinate like a weed. In our household, we have no need to buy basil; it appears in the garden in the most unlikely places. Ocimum basilicum, or bai horapa in Thai, is the commonest variety, similar to the sweet basil so beloved of Italians that they venerate it as the ‘royal herb’. In Italy, it is the key ingredient in pesto sauce.
The dark green leaves sprout from reddish stems and produce purple flower heads,and are sometimes picked and eaten raw. But the thin leaves are tough: hence they are usually macerated, along with other herbs, and added to curry pastes. Chopped and liberally included in meat dishes, their distinctive aroma permeates the food. My Thai partner dislikes the smell and carefully picks out the offending leaves and puts them on my plate. Mai pen rai.
Two other less common varieties are lemon basil and the so-called ‘holy’ basil. Lemon basil also flourishes everywhere, a smaller leaved and bright green version of sweet basil. Known as bai manglak, it has a lemony scent and its soaked seeds are used in a dessert made with coconut milk. Holy basil, so-named because it is a sacred Hindu herb, has narrow leaves and is rarely eaten raw.
On the other hand, mint (mentha arvensis, or bai saranae) is eaten fresh, often in salads or green platters. The variety cultivated is mostly spearmint (shades of Wrigley’s chewing gum) and like its cousins, peppermint and apple mint, it needs plenty of water and some shade, commodities not always consistently available in Phuket’s gardens. Once established, it is an extremely vigorous herb; it grew like a weed in my London patch. Packets of seed are available, so it is worth a stab, especially if sown in a container with rich soil that gets regular watering. As most farang know, mint sauce, made with chopped mint leaves, vinegar and sugar, is a natural accompaniment to roast lamb.
Fennel (foeniculum vulgare) is another herb more associated with temperate climes and especially the Mediterranean where its attractive leaves, delicately feathery like those of dill, are used to flavour sausages and fish dishes. Italians love the bulbous root of Florentine fennel, using it in pastas and stews. However, in Southeast Asia, only the seeds, which have a mild, aniseedy tang, are used as a spice; a key ingredient in Indian garam masala dishes and in some Thai curry pastes.
Finally, the kaffir lime (citrus hystrix). A small tree rather than a herbaceous perennial, it is known in Thailand as bai magrut and grown principally not for its fruit but for its bright green leaves which have a distinctive double lobed appearance. Unlike limes, this variety has a darker green, warty skin, but little juice; it is the perfumed leaf which is a staple of Thai cuisine. Like the equally tough bay leaf, it is usually left uneaten after being added whole to provide a distinctive lemony edge to soups, especially tom yam.
So all of these herbs can be cultivated, even if you have only a patio. And surely that is good news… A moveable herbarium. Both useful and decorative.
Patrick Campbell’s book ‘The Tropic Gardener’, described in one Bangkok review as the best book on Thai gardening for 50 years, is available for B500 (half price) to personal callers from 59/84 Soi Saiyuan 13 in Rawai (Tel: 076-613227 or 085-7827551).