Sabai: 100 Simple Thai Recipes for Any Day of the Week

by Pailin Chongchitnant

Overview

100 easy Thai recipes to help you cook sabai all week long from YouTube superstar and bestselling author of Hot Thai Kitchen Pailin Chongchitnant.

INCLUDES THE NATIONAL POST’S TOP MOST POPULAR RECIPES OF 2023!

Sabai: The state of being when you're at ease. Comfortable. Relaxed.


Pailin Chongchitnant knows that a busy schedule can make learning new recipes seem intimidating—whether you’re familiar with the cuisine or not. In her second book, Pai will empower you to make Thai food part of your everyday routine, with a compilation of authentic and straightforward recipes, like Beef Laab or Green Curry Chicken with Winter Melon, that are quick to make and delicious to eat. From prepping, to cooking, to eating, the dishes in this book can be done sabai sabai, as the saying goes.

Pai takes you through every recipe with her signature level of detail and warm, encouraging style. And she’s thought of plenty of shortcuts, tips, and tricks to get dinner on the table, no matter how hectic the day has been. There are even QR codes linking to her YouTube videos on tips, techniques, and more to support you every step of the way.

Whatever you’re in the mood for, you’ll find inspiration in Pai’s easy, yet flavorful, creations:

• SNACKABLE APPETIZERS like Fish Sauce Wings or Roti with Yellow Curry Dip
• SNAPPY MAINS like Weeknight Khao Soi or Minimalist Pad Thai;
• SIMPLE YET SATISFYING DESSERTS like Banana Coconut Sundae or Black Beans & Sticky Rice.

With a full section on Thai pantry staples and common ingredient substitutions, Sabai has everything you need to make your favorite dishes at home. You’ll also love the section on how to compose the perfectly balanced Thai meal, with specific recipe pairings and ideas to make sure you’ve got the sweet, salty, sour, and spicy elements covered. Step into the kitchen, relax, and let your taste buds—and Pai—be your guide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525611714
Publisher:	Appetite by Random House
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	151,074
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

PAILIN CHONGCHITNANT was born and raised in Thailand. After attending the University of British Columbia, she made her way to Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in San Francisco, and began cooking for both Western and Thai restaurants. She is the creator and host of Pailin's Kitchen, a popular cooking channel on YouTube with over 1.5 million subscribers, which takes an educational approach to Thai cuisine, and the author of Hot Thai Kitchen. Visit her at www.hot-thai-kitchen.com

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

The Two Things I Want
After more than 12 years of teaching people all over the world how to cook Thai food, I’ve had a lot of time to think about what it is that I ultimately want people to take away at the end of my lessons. And I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two things.

First, I want people to experience the Thai flavors that I grew up with. While Thai food at most restaurants outside Thailand is enjoyable, ask any Thai person living abroad and they will all agree that it can be a challenge to find one that really tastes like home.

Second, and perhaps more important, I want people to feel that they can cook real Thai food, and that they can do it regularly, on any given night of the week. I’ve been amazed by the number of emails I’ve received over the years in which the writer uses the word “intimidated” to describe how they felt about cooking Thai food before watching my videos. I want to assure you that it’s not any harder than any other cuisine, and it’s not more complicated. There is a bit of a learning curve if you’re new to these ingredients and techniques, but it will all fall into place with a bit of practice.


Cooking Thai Food Is Not Hard
For many of us, cooking food from an unfamiliar cuisine usually starts out as a project. You take the time to read the recipe, watch a YouTube video or two, make a trip to a specialty grocer or even a few . . . it’s a real investment! And it’s truly upsetting if, after all that, the recipe fails. And even if it doesn’t, the whole process can still feel like a lot of work.

This first experience too often leaves people with the wrong impression that this new cuisine is too difficult or time-intensive, and so it gets relegated to the land of “weekend projects” forever. Few people realize, though, that it has nothing to do with the cuisine itself.

Cooking any new cuisine for the first time is going to be a bit of work because there’s a lot to deal with that you don’t normally have to when cooking your “comfort cuisine.” You have to get to know the ingredients, source them, and then actually read the recipe word for word because you don't know how to wing it. It's a bit like learning how to ride a bike, and it can seem like you'll never get your feet off the ground.

But I can assure you it’s not the fault of the cuisine itself, because when I was living in Thailand, I tried to learn Western cooking, and wow . . . what’s oregano? What’s a potato masher? Canned tomatoes—people can tomatoes? Imagine doing that when you couldn’t google any of it. It left me thinking, “Man, this farang food is hard!” It happens to everyone.

But once you try a few dishes, get to know some of the ingredients, and understand some new techniques, it will click. Then next thing you know, you’ll have enough ingredients in your pantry to pull off many Thai dishes on a whim, and you’ll have the confidence to do it too.


Some Thai Dishes Are Complicated, but These Recipes Are Not
When most people think of Thai food, they’re usually thinking of dishes served in restaurants or by street vendors in Thailand. But those dishes represent only a fraction of Thai cuisine, ones cooked by professionals. Dishes cooked in the home are much more manageable and simpler. Thai people need quick weeknight dinners too, you know!

That is what this book is for. My goal for this book was to put together a compilation of authentic recipes that are straightforward and quick to make, or what I call “weeknight friendly,” while giving you just enough of the “Thai Cuisine 101” info to support you without overwhelming you. For a deeper dive into the foundational principles and cultural context of Thai cuisine, my first book, Hot Thai Kitchen, is a great resource.


Recipes You Can Cook Sabai-Sabai
I have never believed in enticing but unachievable promises like “15-minute meals,” because we all know those 15 minutes don’t include unpacking your grocery bags, washing your vegetables, or doing dishes because you need that pan again, and you have to make sure you chop quickly and do absolutely no cleaning as you go.

I picked the recipes in this book based on whether I can use the word sabai to describe the process of making them. Sabai is the Thai word that describes the state of being at ease or comfortable. Relaxed. Not rushed. Easy-peasy. From prepping to cooking to eating, everything is sabai-sabai, as we like to say. Essentially, these are dishes that are simple, with no tedious, time-consuming steps— definitely no skewering or individually wrapping anything (okay, the salad rolls on page 40 require wrapping, but it’s quick and totally worth it ). Finally, these recipes are hard to screw up. Nothing here requires you to be particularly skilled or precise, so you can actually cook sabai-sabai. Some recipes, such as for braises and stews, may require relatively long hands-off time, and some benefit from an overnight marinade. These are perfect for making on your day off when you’ve got the time, which makes the day-of an absolute breeze.

In other words, all of these are dishes you can pull off on a weeknight, with opportunity for advance prep if you’re into that. Ultimately, I’d love for Thai food, with the help of this book, to be part of your regular meal repertoire. I hope you love reading and cooking from this book as much as I have loved writing it.

Editorial Reviews

Are you, like I once was, a Thai food enthusiast with little or no knowledge as to how one actually cooks it? Don’t worry! Sabai is comfortable, not intimidating, but also clear and concise in its ap- proach to getting you started cooking Thai food, and achieving results that give you the confidence to dive more deeply into this amazing cuisine.”
—ANDY RICKER, chef/owner of Pok Pok restaurants

“Pailin’s wonderful book is the perfect way to bring real, delicious Thai food to your everyday meals. She’s such a warm guide and has so much to show us about Thai cooking and eating.”
—MAANGCHI

“Over the years I’ve had so many good results following Pailin Chongchitnant’s recipes, videos, and advice that I’ve come to trust her implicitly. Her newest book, Sabai, is a particularly appealing resource for folks like me who love Thai food and are always on the lookout for recipes that balance flavor and authenticity with practicality. Pai’s inimitable talent for empowering her readers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to transform Thai cooking from a once-in-while project to a simple weeknight meal makes Sabai an essential book for any Thai food lover.”
—J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT, author of The Food Lab, The Wok, and Every Night is Pizza Night

“The most famous recipes in a cuisine are often the ones made in restaurants or for special occasions, but those are usually also the most difficult and time-consuming—and not representative of everyday home cooking. Here, Pai takes you into the comfort of her home kitchen with the food she makes on the regular. One could argue that makes it an even truer representation of Thai cooking. I, like so many thousands of others, turn to Pai’s Thai cooking expertise over and over because she’s so good at communicating the nuances of the cuisine with joy, ease, and clarity. With this endlessly helpful and usable book, she expands into a critically important, and critically overlooked, side of Thai food: the easy and accessible dishes that make up everyday home cooking.”
—DANIEL GRITZER, Senior Culinary Director, Serious Eats

“What a deliciously compelling book this is. Pai utterly succeeds in her mission to bring us the full-throttled flavors of Thai cuisine in a clear, calm and totally achievable way. The recipes showcase the mouthwatering flavors we know and love of Thai food but set out for a contemporary home kitchen. Beginning with helpful (rather than overwhelming) information on essential ingredients and notes on how to balance the key flavors, by the time the first recipe is presented, we are at ease—in a state of sabai—ready to cook! I will be cooking my way through this entire book, beginning with the Old-School Pad Gaprao, Pounded Cabbage Slaw, and the Thai Street-Style Sundae. Mid-week Thai at home never looked so good.”
—HELEN GOH, co-author of Sweet: Desserts from London’s Ottolenghi

“Sabai is joyous, life-changingly delicious, and gloriously fresh. Pailin’s easy recipes are pitch-perfect, introducing us to the kaleidoscope of flavors from her Thai heritage, while remaining easy and accessible, the sort of meals I can effortlessly whip up any night of the week. This book belongs in every kitchen.”
—LARA LEE, author of Coconut & Sambal: Recipes from My Indonesian Kitchen

“Some cookbooks are born of generosity. Sabai is one of them. In it, Pailin Chongchitnant shares knowledge gleaned from a lifetime of experience, removes common barriers to entry for Thai cooking, and banishes the futile expectation of perfection, all in the service of one big- hearted goal: to empower any curious cook to bring true Thai cooking into their own kitchen.”
—DAN SOUZA, Editor in Chief, Cook’s Illustrated

From the Publisher