Master Chef eat your heart out
Having taken some time to get over our various ailments yesterday, we chose to embark on a Thai cooking course today. This involved choosing 6 dishes to prepare... and eating them all! I struggle to eat 3 meals in a day, it felt like Thailand's version of Super-size me! How do the locals stay so small and thin?
We started the day being picked up by our transport to the class. When we arrived, we joined the rest of our group. There were about 2-3 groups in total, but the class sizes are small so they taught us all separately. Our group consisted of 2 other Brits, 4 Aussies and 2 Danes.
We each picked what we would want to eat and they made up a shopping list from that. We then headed to a local market to purchase the ingredients. This in itself was an education as they taught us about all the different types of vegetables and fruits used in Thai cooking (some of which I suspect I may never see again in my life, some of which I did actually recognise). It was a good introduction to the market and we saw some interesting sights, such as bright pink eggs. Apparently these are fermented chemically and then the inside turns a brown colour. It's supposedly quite nice!
After the markets, we headed back with our bamboo baskets to the cooking class to begin our cooking. It began with a snack prepared for us, which was very interesting (many local fruits and nuts, including roast apple!). Then it was into the kitchens. We mingled with the other groups at this point as everyone was making different things. I made some lovely noodles - the session resembled an Allo Allo episode as the teacher started by saying "watch this, I'll show you only once!" And then boom, we were off to cook our own! It was really quick and easy, but how she did it without a recipe book in front of her I don't know! Practice I guess.
Then we ate said noodles. Dish 1. Onto Dish 2, which for me was Spring Rolls. These too are very easy to make, but I was both disappointed and relieved to learn they use pre-made pastry for the rolls. I was quite proud of my efforts, but was already feeling full so couldn't eat them all.
Dish 3. This is the one I wasn't so keen on, soup. I did my very best to keep it as mild as I could - I chose the biggest chillies, added everything they told me to to keep it mild, and yet somehow it still ended up being way too spicy! Even Chris thought it was a tad on the hot side.
We had a little break by this point (phew).
Onto Dish 6, Dessert, which we made before Dishes 4&5 for some reason. I chose deep fried banana. Really easy to make, not so easy to eat! These went off somewhere while we then moved onto Dishes 4&5. This was a curry paste, and a Thai Curry. I chose the Chiang Mai style noodles. The curry paste was pretty hot, but then we were able to control the temperature. I successfully managed to make a milder curry, but I'd eaten so much I still couldn't eat it all.
So when they brought out the bananas we'd previously prepared, there was no way I could eat everything I'd made. It was all really nice (except the soup), but I was full to the brim. No dinner needed for me tonight!
We came away with a recipe book detailing everything we'd learnt today which will come in really useful when I get home. Watch out folks, I could be inviting you to a Thai banquet on my return... if I can ever find any of the ingredients again!
We started the day being picked up by our transport to the class. When we arrived, we joined the rest of our group. There were about 2-3 groups in total, but the class sizes are small so they taught us all separately. Our group consisted of 2 other Brits, 4 Aussies and 2 Danes.
We each picked what we would want to eat and they made up a shopping list from that. We then headed to a local market to purchase the ingredients. This in itself was an education as they taught us about all the different types of vegetables and fruits used in Thai cooking (some of which I suspect I may never see again in my life, some of which I did actually recognise). It was a good introduction to the market and we saw some interesting sights, such as bright pink eggs. Apparently these are fermented chemically and then the inside turns a brown colour. It's supposedly quite nice!
After the markets, we headed back with our bamboo baskets to the cooking class to begin our cooking. It began with a snack prepared for us, which was very interesting (many local fruits and nuts, including roast apple!). Then it was into the kitchens. We mingled with the other groups at this point as everyone was making different things. I made some lovely noodles - the session resembled an Allo Allo episode as the teacher started by saying "watch this, I'll show you only once!" And then boom, we were off to cook our own! It was really quick and easy, but how she did it without a recipe book in front of her I don't know! Practice I guess.
Then we ate said noodles. Dish 1. Onto Dish 2, which for me was Spring Rolls. These too are very easy to make, but I was both disappointed and relieved to learn they use pre-made pastry for the rolls. I was quite proud of my efforts, but was already feeling full so couldn't eat them all.
Dish 3. This is the one I wasn't so keen on, soup. I did my very best to keep it as mild as I could - I chose the biggest chillies, added everything they told me to to keep it mild, and yet somehow it still ended up being way too spicy! Even Chris thought it was a tad on the hot side.
We had a little break by this point (phew).
Onto Dish 6, Dessert, which we made before Dishes 4&5 for some reason. I chose deep fried banana. Really easy to make, not so easy to eat! These went off somewhere while we then moved onto Dishes 4&5. This was a curry paste, and a Thai Curry. I chose the Chiang Mai style noodles. The curry paste was pretty hot, but then we were able to control the temperature. I successfully managed to make a milder curry, but I'd eaten so much I still couldn't eat it all.
So when they brought out the bananas we'd previously prepared, there was no way I could eat everything I'd made. It was all really nice (except the soup), but I was full to the brim. No dinner needed for me tonight!
We came away with a recipe book detailing everything we'd learnt today which will come in really useful when I get home. Watch out folks, I could be inviting you to a Thai banquet on my return... if I can ever find any of the ingredients again!
posted by wobblepop at 12:02 pm
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