The class began with a tour of the market to pick out the proteins and produce to be served that day. Items bought include chicken, beef, chiles of every color, curry powder, ground coconut, kaffir limes and leaves, garlic, a few types of ginger, carrots, tomatoes, pineapples, mangos...the list goes on; our baskets were overflowing.
Our instructor taught us the basics of Thai cooking and how the use of just a few key ingredients like roasted garlic, curry paste, coconut milk, and a selection of veggies and meats stir fried in a wok can make a wide variety of Thai dishes.
We learned how to make coconut milk from scratch. Ground up ripe coconut meat is mixed with a cup of water and then squeezed with your hands out over a strainer. The result is coconut milk. This process is repeated 4-5 more times in order to draw out as much coconut milk as possible from the coconut meat.
We made green curry paste the hella hard way using a mortar and pestle to mash up the ingredients. In the mixture were green chiles, shallots, garlic and lots of other green leaves. To me it smelled a lot like the fresh salsa from Henry's. It took about 15 minutes of continuous grinding before our instructor was happy with the consistency of the curry paste.
In all,we learned how to create five dishes. Sweet and sour veggie stir fry. Cashew chicken with chiles (pictured above). Beef in red peanut curry sauce. Chicken in homemade green curry sauce. And for dessert...
Sweet sticky rice with fresh mangos.
It took a lot of gut power to complete a five course meal, but that was the reward for making every dish. Taking a cooking class is a totally cool way to appreciate another culture.
PS my Thai cooking services are now available for hire.
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