All parts of the plant, that is, tender stem, leaves, flowers & fruits have a pleasant aromatic odour. It is a popular flavouring herb & spice. An annual coriander grows from 30-80 cm tall & bears little clusters of little white or pink flowers. The seeds are spherical, ribbed, & 3-4 mm in diameter. The plant grows best in sunny situations. Whole seeds are brittle & easy to grind to a fine powder. Coriander fruits are usually dry roasted before grinding to enhance flavour. It is actually the housewife’s secret of tasty dishes, it is used essential ingredient in curry powder. Coriander fruits are used to be carminative, diuretic, tonic, stomachic, antibilions refrigerant & aphrodisiac. Thai dishes are flavoured with fresh leaves of coriander.

Coriander
Scientific name:Coriandrum sativum L.
Vernacular name:Phak chi

The rind of the fruit & the leaves are used in Thai cooking. The Kaffir lime is a little tree with double leaves & a tidy lemon taste. It gives a distinctive taste to chicken & fish dishes. They are used with fruit peel in Thai cooking & medicine.

Kaffir Lime
Scientific name:Citrua hystrix DC.
Vernacular name:Ma krood

Long pepper is the entire spike of immature fruits derived from either of the above species. It resembles black pepper in taste & odour but is distinctive & is less strong. It contains about 1 percent of volatile oil, 6 percent of piperine & a pungent resin, chavicin. In traditional Thai medicine, long pepper is used as a carminative & an expectorant. It is also used as a spice in pickling.

Long Pepper
Scientific name:Piper longum Linn.
P. retrofractum Vahl
Relatives:PIPERACEAE
Vernacular name:Dee-plee

Cloves are the unopened flower buds of a little evergreen tree to a height of 10-12 metres. Cloves are picked when the buds are then dried over several days in the sun. cloves are aromatic that is warm & rich. The taste of alcove is bitingly sharp, hot & bitter & it leaves a lasting numb sensation in the mouth. To have a few cloves in the mouths keep the breath sweet. Clove has stimulating properties & is one of the ingredients of betelnut chew. Cloves go well with sweet or savoury foods. It is used for flavouring curries, spice mixtures & pickling spice. It is highly valued in medicine as carminative, aromatic & stimulant. The essential oil is used in medicine as an aid to digestion & for its antiseptic & antibiotic properties in tooth-ache. The essence is a food preservative.

Clove
Scientific name:Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr.& L.M. Perry
Vernacular name:Kan phlu

Added Saturday, April 3, 2010 in Drinking Tips 5 Comments

Tags: Black Pepper, Coriander, Curry Powder, Distinctive Taste, Fish Dishes, Flavouring, Fruit Peel, Immature Fruits, Long Pepper, Pink Flowers, Piper Longum, Piperine, Plee, Stem Leaves, Tasty Dishes, Thai Dishes, Unopened Flower Buds, Vahl, Vernacular Name, Volatile Oil