A ready biryani cooking sauce, for building the meat and gravy layer without making a masala from scratch. Cooked with the meat before the rice is layered over it.
A ready tikka cooking sauce, used as a marinade for chicken before grilling or as the gravy it finishes in. Saves building the marinade from separate spices.
Ready garlic paste, for dishes that want garlic on its own. Saves peeling and grinding at the start of a service and keeps the quantity consistent between cooks.
Ready ginger garlic paste, the base almost every South Asian curry starts with. Replaces peeling and grinding both aromatics at the start of every service.
Ready green chilli paste, for adding fresh chilli heat without chopping. Stirred into curries, marinades and dips, and easier to portion consistently than whole chillies.
Green chutney, the fresh herb-based sauce served with grilled meats, sandwiches and fried snacks. Sharper and lighter than the tamarind chutney it usually sits beside.
Mango chutney, sweet rather than sour, served with curries and cold meats and used as a glaze. The chutney most familiar to guests on an international menu.
Ready onion paste, the slow part of a curry base done in advance. Where a gravy would normally start with onions browned down over twenty minutes, this goes straight into the pan.
Jasmine rice, the fragrant long grain that Thai food is normally served on. Cooks softer and stickier than basmati, which is what makes it hold together beside a curry.
The paste for massaman, the mildest and richest of the Thai curries — slower, sweeter and closer to a braise than the red or green. Usually made with beef or chicken and potato.
A red curry kit, packed as a set so the curry can be made without sourcing the components separately. Suits a kitchen cooking Thai occasionally rather than every service.
The paste for Thai red curry — fried off in the pan before coconut milk goes in, which is what separates a made curry from a poured sauce. Takes chicken, beef, duck or vegetables.
Garlic pickle, made with whole cloves softened in the pickling. Strong enough that it is served in small amounts, usually beside rice or a plain curry.
Mango pickle, the sour and hot condiment served alongside rice, dhal and roshi. The most familiar of the pickles carried and the one most often asked for by name.
A mixed pickle, served in a spoonful beside a rice plate or a curry rather than eaten on its own. The all-round choice where one pickle has to suit every dish on a buffet.
