3. Cook's tips
Palm sugar is made by boiling sap collected from the coconut palm with water until it evaporates. It varies in colour and texture, from light straw to the darkest brown and can be soft or hard. Darker sugar has a stronger flavour. Substitute brown sugar.
To rid curry pastes of their raw taste they need to be ‘fried’ first. In lieu of oil, Thais use coconut milk, which is simmered until the oil separates – this is called ‘splitting’ the coconut milk. The paste is then fried in the resulting oil, before adding other ingredients. To make a curry with a thick sauce, more coconut milk is required for splitting and less coconut milk is added later.