No. Northern Thai Red Cotton Flower comes from the red cotton tree, Bombax ceiba, sometimes called silk cotton or kapok in English. The edible ingredient used in Northern Thai cooking is the dried inner flower core, not the fluffy fiber from the seed pod and not the cotton used for cloth.
In the kitchen it behaves more like a dried botanical vegetable rather than a spice:
- Soak the dried Northern Thai Red Cotton Flower to rehydrate before use
- Shred it once softened
- Cook it into broths, curries, dips, or fried preparations, the way you would a foraged mushroom or leafy vegetable
- Northern Thai Red Cotton Flower
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