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Published: February 8th 2011
Fresh Produce
at the local market 9.30am, time for our ‘free’ cooking course – it was free because we were charged DOUBLE for our hill tribe trek by SK House by ‘accident.’ Anyway, it was something we both wanted to do at some point and so this was the perfect opportunity. It wasn’t far to the school but we were still given a free shuttle. The class was limited to 9 so it would be easy to get to know people. First on the bus was a Canadian guy speaking very loudly, a Maori guy from New Zealand with THE biggest dreadlocks I have ever seen – they touched the floor. An Indian couple from London and Australian woman from Sydney joined us.
The school was down a quiet street alongside a couple of other cooking schools. We gathered around the table seated on cushions on the floor, the room was completely open into the street and the sun shone in. We were first introduced to the types and also the importance of rice in Thailand and then chose our 6 dishes that we would attempt to cook from a menu. We were then whisked away up the road
Thai Basil
Tastes a lot like tarragon to the local market carrying tiny bamboo baskets. The market was bustling and we huddled around our guide so we could hear “This is a jelly mushroom” “This is a mouse chilli” “This is a green papaya” “Thai Celery” “Lesser Ginger” “fermented crab” the weird and wonderful list went on. It was great to be finally told what half these exotic foods were in the Thai market! He popped a handful of ingredients into each basket. It felt like we had been shopping, without the hassle. We were then shown various coconut products and also fish, before being given time to ramble off and look for ourselves.
Back at the school we were given a plate of tasty Thai snacks to try including rice crackers, honey and sesame nuts, dragon fruit, glutinous rice and banana treats, jackfruit, rose apple, and guava. At this rate, I was going to be full before we had even started. But it was straight to the chopping board to prepare my first dish; ‘Stir fried curry prawn.’ We were shown step by step how to cut and prepare each ingredient, which was far more easy and organised than I
Yellow and White Tofu
same same but different had expected. I had imagined trying to follow a crumpled recipe sheet whilst watching someone from a distance, attempting to remember it all, forgetting and then burning everything. But this dish was so quick and simple to prepare and the actual cooking was even quicker – add the oil add the curry powder, add the veg, then prawns and then stir-fry for about a minute and then it’s done! It was a miracle! It actually tasted fantastic! Very spicy though. After cooking we all met back up at our table and sampled each other’s dishes. We were also all surprised how quick and easy it all was, but then again we did have a Thai cook watching over us.
My next dish was Papaya salad which I had first sampled in Koh Phangan – tangy and crunchy with a touch of lava, delicious if you don’t mind dealing with burning red lips afterwards. There were only 3 of us making this dish; the others didn’t know what they were missing out on. Ste was on the table next to me preparing fish cake. Our instructor directed our attention to the mouse chillies, the very
same chilli I’d mistakenly taken a nibble of on our jungle trek. 1 for mild, 2 for medium, 3 for hot…I’ll take 5 in mine..! Bearing in mind that these chillies were smaller than my little fingernail and a nibble of one practically blew my head off, I was thinking she must have been insane. First we crushed 6 tiny garlic cloves and 3 chillies (spicy!) together in a pestle and mortar. Then added palm sugar (shoooogar), and lime juice (from limes we gave a Thai massage to beforehand, and juiced using a spoon) and gave it a stir. It was then time to grate the carrot and papaya, which for some reason I seemed incapable of doing! Instead of nice fine strands, I kept hacking big chunks out of them. The rest of it was plain sailing – throw in the grated ingredients and give them a pummelling and a stir, et voila! Probably the tastiest salad I’ve had in a long time, if I do say so myself and the spiciest!! I tucked in with steam whistling out of my ears. I also had a try of Ste’s fish cakes which were delicious, with sweet chilli dip.
Fermented crab
ground up to make a seafood stock Next on the menu was Chicken Coconut Soup. This was the first dish Stephen and I actually cooked together! He is so amazing at cooking. The best in the world! He outshone everyone in the class. He should have been the teacher really… (yesss. and that wasn’t Ste’s addition to the journal!!) No really, he wanted to stand next to me so he could criticise my work from over his shoulder. (No I didn’t – Ste). Seriously though, we were presented with a sectioned bowl of ingredients – we chopped chilli, coriander, Thai spring onion and ginger, crushed lemon grass, sliced onion, oyster mushroom and tomato and we were ready for action. Basically we heated coconut milk in a saucepan and added all the usual suspects like fish sauce, sugar and lime. Once it was boiling we put in the herbs and spices, then the chicken and finally all the vegetables. It was ready in a flash! Cooking should always be this quick and simple and then I might enjoy it a bit more. Very flavoursome, but I couldn’t manage very much and I wanted to save room for the Paneang Curry. We then broke
for lunch! Ha!¬ Instead of eating, we shared food related stories whilst resting our full bellies. And laughed at how all travelling stories eventually steer towards food and how much we miss certain foods back home, like roast dinner – mmm thinking about it now even makes me excited. Mum has apparently frozen us a Christmas meal, complete with mince pies for when we get back home.
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