5th November 2012
At the minute we're trying to do
anything and everything we possibly can because we'll probably never
be in this part of the world again. One thing that we both wanted to
do was a Thai cooking class and with Stray's recommendation we booked
an all day course for 1000Bhat, about £20. We were met at the hostel
by the girls who would be taking the class and together we walked to
the local market where they explained the types of food and sauces we
would use in our dishes.
We then walked to the train station and
got a train out of Chiang Mai. The train journery was just under and
hour and when we arrived we picked up some bicycles and cycled to the
cooking school. My bike was puncture free and we cycled along some
very quiet country roads. On one side there was a river and on the
other rice paddy fields. We even cycled past a school and the
children all ran to the fence to wave and shout hello.
After about twenty minutes we arrived
at the cooking school which also acts as a farm meaning all the
produce we used was fresh and grown just feet from where we were
cooking!
Each person had an individual chopping board and gas stove and while it looked basic, it was perfect.
Each person had an individual chopping board and gas stove and while it looked basic, it was perfect.
There were about 25 people in the group
so we split into two groups and were given the option of what we
wanted to cook. Rory and I chose the same things;
Hot and sour local soup.
This was a really easy soup to make and
it tasted pretty good – nice and fresh due to the lemongrass but
spicy and sour because of the chillies and lime. The ingredients and
recipe is as follows – remember this was a single portion, so if
cooking for more than one adjust the amount accordingly;
50g chicken breast thinly sliced
Sliced lemon grass
Thinly sliced galanga (Thai ginger)
2 Lime leaves with the stem removed
1-3 fresh crushed chillies (I only used
one)
A quarter of an onion, thinly diced
Half a tomato, cut into quarters
30g Oyster mushrooms torn into pieces
½ tbsp sliced coriander
1 ½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce (you can use soy
sauce instead)
The juice of half a lime
1 ½ cups of water
1. Boil water in a pot, add lemon
grass, galangal, lime leaves and chillies. Allow water to boil
2. Add the chicken, mushrooms and
onion and gently stir.
3. Add the tomatoes and season with
fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to taste.
4. Remove from the heat and serve
with coriander to garnish.
Pad Thai.
Once we ate our soup we finished
preping our Pad Thai. This was probably my favourite dish, mainly
because it was so easy and quick to make but tasted so good. I also
felt really skilled making this dish because you use the one walk to
cook everything, even the noodles! This is one that you can't really
go wrong with so everyone should definitely give it a go!
50g of narrow rice noodles (or any
noodles really)
50g of sliced chicken
20g of hard tofu, sliced into small
pieces
10g of Chinese chives or spring onion
cut into inch pieces
30g of bean sprouts
1 chopped garlic clove
1 egg
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 ½ tbsp oyster sauce
½ tbsp fish sauce (again you can use
soy sauce)
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup of water
- Add the oil to a wok, allow to heat and add the tofu, frying until lightly golden, then add the garlic.
- Add and cook the chicken
- Push the chicken to the side of the wok and crack in the egg, allow to fry for a few seconds then break the egg up by spreading around the wok
- Move the egg to the side of the wok also then add the water. To the water add the noodles, stir until tender.
- Season with the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and stir well.
- Add beansprouts, chinese chives and stir until everything is done.
- You can also add a tbsp of tamarind sauce to season and crushed peanuts look nice on top as a garnish.
Masaman Curry Paste.
After Pad Thai we made a curry paste
which we would then use to make our own curry. Rory and I selected
the Masaman because we thought it was mild. It wasn't. Our instructor
had already laid out the ingredients for the paste so all we had to
do was give it a good smash. If you fancy making a Masaman curry
paste, this is for 2-3 people and here's what you need;
5 red chillies, seeded and soaked
2 tbsp roasted chopped garlic
2 tbsp roasted chopped shallots
1 tbsp roasted chopped lemon grass
1 tsp roasted chopped galangal (Thai
ginger)
1 tsp roasted coriander root
½ tsp roasted shrimp paste
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
½ sp coriander seed
½ tsp cardamon
½ tsp cumin
- Put all the dried ingredients in a mortar, pound until fine.
- Add the remaining ingredients, pound until a fine paste.
Masadam Curry.
Once the paste is finished you can get
started on the curry. I've never made a curry from scratch and once
again I was very impressed that we were able to make a curry sauce
using only a wok.
50g chicken breast
1-5 potatoes, cut into big pieces
1 onion, cut into quarters and separate
layers
1tsp Masaman curry paste
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp palm sugar
1 tbsp tamarind oil
1 tbsp oil
- Add the oil on a low heat, fry curry paste until fragrant, then add ¼ cup of coconut milk.
- Add the chicken in, cook for 2 minutes and add the rest of the coconut milk.
- Add the potato and onion. Season with fish sauce, plam sugar and tamarind oil.
- Stir and once everything is well heated you can check the flavour of the curry and if you're feeling brave, add more curry paste! If it's too hot they add sugar, a teaspoon at a time, and it really does make the heat more bearable. Also, it doesn't thicken so don't worry about that.
Spring Rolls.
We also made spring rolls – I was a
bit nervous about this one but it was really easy, they tasted really
nice and they were a lot of fun to make. Again, this is an easy one
to try, you can't really go wrong and you can probably put most
things in them, depending what you like.
30g soaked glass noodles, cut into 6cm
lengths
30g minced tofu
20g Chinese chives, cut into 3cm
lengths
20g bean sprouts
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp cooking oil
½ – 1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp oyster sauce
½ tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)
1 egg beaten
sheets of spring roll wrappers – we
were told we could use thin filo pastry to wrap the spring rolls.
- Fry garli until fragrant. Add minced tofu, stir until cooked.
- Ass water and season with oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and mix well.
- Add the vegetables and glass noodles. Stir until everything is done.
- Lay out a sheet of filo pastry and spoon out 1 tbsp of filling.
- Fold the sheet over the filling, fold in the ends, roll up tightly and seal the sheet closed with the beaten egg.
- Deep fry in plenty of oil over a medium heat until golden brown.
- Serve with sweet chilli or a plum sauce.
Sticky Rice and Mango.
To finish we made sticky rice and
mango, a popular dish which is the Thai equivalent of rice pudding.
I'm not really in to mangoes but the rice was suprisingly good and a
really nice meal to finish on.
100g sticky rice
½ cup coconut milk
2 tsp coconut cream
2 tbsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
50g freshly sliced mango
- Soak the sticky rice in water for 3-4 hour or overnight.
- Drain the rice grains and put in a sticky rice basket for cooking with boilin water.
- Steam for about 30 minutes.
- Heat coconut milk, sugar and salt and stir well.
- Add cooked sticky rice, mix together and leave for 10 minutes.
- Stir one more time and serve on a plate with sliced mangoes.
- Finish by pouting the coconut cream over the cooked sticky rice pudding.
When we were sufficiently full to
bursting we were given recipe books and cycled back to the train
station where we took a red cab, the Chiang Mai equivalent of a tuk
tuk, back to our hostel. Today was one of my favourite days. The
course was so enjoyable and I feel not only that I learnt something
but that I'll be able to make these dishes when I go home. We also
felt that the day was really well organised from taking a train to
the country to cycling along the quiet country roads. The cooking
school was in an idyllic setting and all the ingredients were of a
really high standard. We were even impressed with the little things
like having cold drinking water available and toilet roll in the
toilets – seriously, it's unheard of in Southeast Asia!
After some down time in the hostel we
went to dinner with the group. We went to a really cool Thai
restaurant where you can get a meal for 50Bhat but we were still
stuffed from cooking so I had a Fanta for a cheeky 18Bhat and Rory
tried a Chang beer which was a bargain at 55Bhat – two drinks for
just over a pound, not too bad!
We then went to a Muay Thai Boxing
match. I'm not really into boxing, I liked the Rocky movies but two
men beating each other up doesn't really apeal to me, however, this
is the national sport of Thailand and I'd heard good reviews. We
forked out 400Bhat each, about £8 which is quite pricey but we'll
only be here once. We made our way to the venue and were warmly
greeted by our first genuine Lady Boy. Rory and I had been expecting
a stadium but this was really just a car park, covered with a
corrugated iron roof with a ring in the middle that was surrounded by
an assortment of seats and some bars. To be honest, it looked pretty
illegal, as if we were about to be raided by the Police and it
completely stunk of smoke but we took our ringside seats and the show
promptly started .
We were waiting for the Thai equivalent
of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee to bust out and start fighting but
instead two children came out. They must have been about eight,
definitely under ten and they were kicking each other in the head,
throwing elbows, knees and punches continually for five rounds. Muay
Thai is a cultural thing and before the fight began you could see the
fighters praying and performing rituals but I was still pretty
shocked that there were children fighting. I was wondering how they
felt about figting, thinking that perhaps they'd been forced to fight
by their parents but as soon as the match was over they broke into
big smiles, hugged each other and started laughing. It was so
surreal.
I wasn't overly impressed with the
boxing, the best bit was when they put about ten blindfolded boxers
into the ring and had them fight blind. Even that was a little bit
strange and obviously for the entertainment of tourists so probably a
pretty terrible thing for them to have done. As soon as the fighting
was over Rory and I headed back to the hostel for an earlyish night.
This is our last night in Chiang Mai and while I've enjoyed myself,
I'm excited to travel towards Laos and away from the cities!
P.S I copied these recipes from the
book so sorry if they sound a bit odd! And sorry for the length of this bad boy - who knew I had so much to say about food! ha!
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