Palm Sugar

Thai papaya salad is an ideal summer side dish and packs up well if you want to take it with you.

Toasty, nutty fried tempeh coated in a caramelized spice paste—plus lots of vegetables for good measure.

It's our favorite unrefined sugar for baking, cooking, and sprinkling with wild abandon.

Depending on your personal preference, you can brush off and discard the peppercorns before cooking, or leave them on for stronger flavor.

Loaded with fresh herbs and sturdy kale and then set off by a bright and spicy dressing, this salad from Hot Joy is an ideal counterpoint to the more decadent dishes on the table.

Is it hot? Sure, it’s hot. But the bracing pickled cabbage, cooling fresh herbs, and sweet-tasting rice will help keep the flames in check in this incendiary dish from Thai-Kun.

Done well, this should be crunchy, fresh, spicy, sour, and a little bit funky. Taste as you go and adjust as needed.

Use prepared massaman curry paste to speed up the preparation of this massaman chicken recipe.

You’ll never serve ice cream without candied peanuts again.

Thai salads are full of crisp vegetables and fruits mixed with intense condiments.

This peanut sauce recipe is based on my mom's version, which accompanies Gado Gado. Raw peanuts are roasted on the stovetop or in the oven, and then ground. You'll also have to hunt down tamarind pulp and lime leaves, but it's worth the trouble—the addition of freshly roasted peanuts and fragrant herbs makes for unsurpassed flavor.

Large chunks of pork shoulder are braised in a Vietnamese-style caramel sauce (made from a combination of fish sauce and palm sugar) that’s laced with Thai chilies, ginger, garlic, and shallots. Serve the fork-tender meat with plenty of rice and some sautéed pea shoots or greens.

Tom Yum is made so many different ways that no two batches are really ever alike. Simultaneously spicy, tart, and sweet, this soup grows on you the more you eat it. Try it along with rice to cut some of the heat, or eat it throughout a meal for a welcome contrast.

Any party host knows that food served on skewers is just plain fun. These chicken satés are made from thigh meat, so they don't dry out during grilling, and the palm sugar in the marinade helps get the meat nice and caramely brown.

Packed with peanuts and spiked with Thai curry paste, this chunky sauce nearly explodes with flavor and spice. Placed near the chicken satés or the crab-and-pork spring rolls, a bowl of it will quickly disappear.

The mild flavor of mahimahi is a perfect match for this wonderfully balanced tamarind glaze. The famously tart fruit is sweetened with brown sugar and brought to life by soy sauce and lime juice.

Khao Neeo Mamuang — Thailand Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid and are part of our story on Lunar New Year. You need sticky rice (also called sweet rice or glutinous rice) for this classic Thai-Lao sweet. The recipe for making it at home is very simple. As with most of the sweets in Southeast Asia, you can eat Coconut Milk Sticky Rice as a snack or serve it as dessert.

Thai cooking frequently makes use of cilantro roots; their flavor is more pronounced than that of the leaves.