Top 5: Rosa’s Thai Cafe store cupboard essentials

1) Thai fish sauce: This is absolutely crucial for most Thai dishes, from stir-fry to salads. I cannot live without it!

2) Palm sugar: This is the secret to giving your curries that extra depth and rounded flavour.

3) Roasted chilli paste: It is based on a family recipe that’s in my Cookbook (p. 210). You can add it to Tom Yum soup, noodles, or even salads to add (lots of) spiciness to your dish.

4) Galangal & Lesser Galangal: The combination of these two is magical and adds such complexity and distinctive flavours to many curry pastes.

5) Keffir Lime peel & leaves: It is one of the harder ingredients to find fresh ones, but you can get them frozen in most Asian supermarkets. The peel adds the lovely scent and oil to curry pastes. The leaves are great for garnish; the trick is to fry them up slightly so they’re crispy and aromatic!

Saiphin Moore is author of Rosa’s Thai Cafe: The Cookbook, available here