During our stay in Thailand we wanted to be sure a take a cooking so we
could make some of the food we enjoyed back home. We originally signed up for a
half-day lesson, but when we got to the cooking school the half group was full
of duds. The instructor informed us that some people who signed up for the full
day cooking class on the organic far did not arrive and for an extra 100 baht
each ($10 total for the 3 of us) we could join the class. We jumped at our good
fortune and joined the full day class. Here is a the website with photos, recipes, and information about the school. http://www.asiascenic.com/index.php
Here are some pictures from the in town cooking class.
Class began with an introduction by the owner of Asia Scenic, Gayray.
She explained what our day would comprise of and then brought in our
instructor, Mame. For each course we went around the table and got to choose
from 3 options which dishes we would like to learn to make. Then we took a walk
through the local market. We learned about fresh noodles vs dry noodles and
what products we could find back home as substitutes. Then we went to the rice
guy and learned all about the various types of rice used in Thai cooking. We
were given 20 minutes to further explore the market. Then we hopped into van
and headed out to the farm.
Learning about fresh noodles
Coconut and how to make fresh coconut creme and milk
TOFU
store made curry paste
rice, rice, rice, rice,....
fresh fish at the market
THE largest bag of pork rinds I have EVER seen
Fresh produce
At the farm, Mame took us around and we saw all the ingredients we would be using today in our class along with some fun fruits and vegetables. First she showed us her cool mushrooms that she grew, and then we learned the difference between hot basil (which is not spicy it just grows in hot climates) and sweet basil (what we see in stores and used in italian food). We smelled fresh ginger and galangal, fresh turmeric, and picked long beans. Mame showed off the giant zucchini which were easily 4 feet long. We picked hot peppers, kefir limes, and avoided the geese that lived in the local canal.
Welcome to the farm:
Those tall leafless trees are PLUMERIA.
They are all over Thailand and grow to be very large.
Hot Thai Basil. I will have to check our local asian market for it
The mushroom cave
Our group and cool hats
Ginger vs. Galangal
Mame talking away !
GIANT zucchini
a long bean
Picking green eggplant, they are delicious in curry
undeveloped farm
After are walk through the garden, we got down to business and made our dishes. First up was stir fry. All over Thailand stir fry is considered street food because it has many of the same ingredients, just different meats and sauces, and can be cooked super fast. After our stir fry crash course we got to taste our dishes. Allison's Pad Thai was good, but Mom's hot thai basil was great, and my Pad See Ew with fresh noodles was outstanding. Next course was appetizer. I made spring rolls, which we discovered are filled with pad thai and some glass noodles. Also, Thai's do not make their own wrapper, they buy them in the freezer section at the market. Mom's green papaya salad was okay, we agreed it would be very tasty made with green apples. Allison's glass noodle salad was light and refreshing. Perfect on a hot afternoon.
Then we took a 30 minute break for the school staff to grab some lunch (they weren't eating everything we cooked like we were) and we got a chance to chat with some of our classmates. There was a young couple from France and the boyfriend had never cooked before. It was obvious to the class and the girlfriend loved how everyone teased him. There was a brother and sister from DC about Allison and my age. She LOVED everything Malaysian spicy which is even hotter than thai spicy, and he couldn't handle ANY spice. There was a single Italian woman, who was very comfortable in the kitchen and exchanged some tips with me to improve my cooking (like made risotto in a wok!). We sat next to a fun couple, he was from Great Britain with a quick sense of self deprecating humor, and she was Spanish and was eager to learn thai food so she could tone down the spiciness. There was a single Australian guy, who had little knowledge of thai food, but was planning on hosting a dinner back home for his friends so he needed to learn a few basics. And finally there was a single Brazilian woman, about my age who was very comfortable in the kitchen. Overall a fun group of people.
After our brief siesta came all the hard work. Making our curry paste from fresh ingredients. There are 4 basic curries: red, green, yellow, and massaman. Red and green curry are the same, just made with different color peppers. Red curry is a base for panang curry (just add peanuts) and a local Chiang Mai dish khaw soi. Then there is massaman which is similar to red curry but has additional spices such as star anise, coriander, cinnamon, and is made with dried chilis. Mame informed us that yellow curry comes from a powder and is sold at all markets. Very few Thai's like yellow curry because it lacks complex flavors and is rarely spicy enough. After what felt like an eternity of grinding the peppers and spices into a paste using a mortar and pestle, we could make our soup, curry, and dessert.
Making the soup was incredibly simple, the base is either coconut milk or water. and then you simply steep the herbs and ingredients in the liquid, add your protein, and wait until fragrant. Enjoy! The curry was very similar. Start with a little oil and garlic, add protein of your choice. Mix in curry paste, then coconut milk mixed with water (more coconut milk for a thicker richer curry, more water for a soup like curry). Then stir in any additional vegetables, like green eggplant or potato and reduce by 1/3. Boom delicious curry!
Our last course was dessert. Thai people do not eat dessert following a large meal like Americans or Europeans do. Dessert is more of an afternoon snack accompanied by a short rest before the long night (Thai's get moving around 10 am and the markets are often open well past midnight). Allison made friend bananas, which we will never duplicate. The banana's were raw and left a cottony texture in your mouth, yuck. Mom made sticky rice and mango. The cooking ladies kept telling everyone that mangos are out of season and are not as sweet as they are in April. But let me tell you, each mango we ate was considerably more flavorful than anything back home. The sticky rice is a dish native to the north. Northern Thai's prefer sticky rice to jasmine rice. The process of making sticky rice is long and requires a specific rice that Mame does not think we have in the states: First soak rice over night or at least 4 hours, then rinse in the morning with fresh, cool water to remove and starch still on the grain. Then place in a STEAMER basket and steam the rice for 30 minutes. To make the dessert, you then steep the sticky rice in a coconut milk mixture until all the milk is absorbed, making it slightly sweet. The dessert was okay, but we enjoyed to fresh fruit more than tough sweet rice. My dessert was the real winner, bananas in coconut milk. It was so delicious. In the class it was served warm, but we all agreed if it was cooled in the fridge and then served it would be perfect. We learned how to make the coconut milk mixture which has a light coconut flavor with a hint of salted caramel, and then you mix in cooked bananas. In the US we probably would just use fresh since our bananas are softer.
We loved our class and would highly recommend it to anyone traveling through Chiang Mai, http://www.asiascenic.com/index.php
Between Allison, Mom and I, we learned 18 Thai dishes! Pictures of our menu to follow in a second post.
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