How to Make Southeast Asian Food with Supermarket Ingredients

Southeast Asian cuisine is all about the right flavor combinations. Here are a few ways to recreate the complex spicy, sweet, and pungent flavors featured throughout the region, using what you can find at a typical grocery store.

One of our recent go-to meals: a rice bowl with fresh veggies and nice protein, usually wild seafood.

Use molasses or dark brown sugar in place of palm sugar.

If you add fish sauce, keep in mind how salty it is and omit salt in other areas during preparation.

Use a combination of chilies and black pepper. Jalapeños or serrano peppers provide a wet, grassy low-level heat when you remove the seeds. Dried red pepper chili flakes add a strong dry heat. Black or white pepper rounds out the trifecta of heat you need from the different types of peppers.

Marinate any meat in advance. 30 minutes of lime juice, high-heat canola oil, and salt and pepper works for most proteins. Sometimes with shrimp all you need is a 15 minute soak in freshly grated ginger, crushed garlic, and oil. That will actually remove any fishy odor from the shrimp or any other shellfish.

Try to find fresh turmeric and ginger. Use these key roots in dried form if needed.

Use coconut milk for a curry base, mixed with chilies, roots, fish sauce, and lime juice.

Fried shallots add nice texture and flavor. Slice them up, fry until golden brown in high-heat oil, then dry on paper towel. Careful not to burn them.

A good recipe for rice makes a big difference. My favorite involves rinsing the rice to remove the starch, drying the rice to remove the moisture, frying the rice in coconut oil for a few minutes while stirring, cooking the rice, then once off-heat, placing clean kitchen towels between the lid and the pot. That will soak up the steam and you'll get nice and fluffy rice that's not sticky. Jasmine brown rice is a nice combination of a healthier grain and good texture if you can find it.

Buy frozen seafood then thaw. Frozen seafood is often flash-frozen which is usually fresher than the "fresh" seafood that's been sitting around at room temperature between transfer points on its way to your local grocery store. To thaw the seafood quickly, put it in a plastic ziploc bag, soak it in a large bowl of cold tap water, and run a thin stream of tap water over it for 30 minutes or so, depending on the type of protein and size.

Add in some fresh ingredients like shredded carrots, cucumber, sliced tomatoes, beans sprouts, and green onions.

Bon appétit!