Now We're Cooking!

Learning to Make Thai Food

Thai cuisine is a big part of the Thailand experience, and, for the most part, we were really enjoying the food, so we decided to take a cooking course.  It was a pretty great experience.  We got picked up and taken to a Thai market where we were shown the various herbs, vegetables, and other ingredients that we would be using.  We didn't buy any because our class was on an organic farm where they grow everything themselves.  When we got to the farm we walked through the garden with our guide, smelling, tasting, and collecting all kinds of ingredients like Thai ginger, 3 types of basil, peppers, cilantro, Thai eggplant, lemongrass, kaffir limes, and more.

Walking through the organic garden at our cooking school

We then went into the outdoor kitchen and chose the dishes we would make.  We all got to make spring rolls, then a main course, then a curry paste to be used in a curry and finally a soup.  We each got our own station and set of ingredients for the dishes we chose.  I found I was keeping a close eye on the kids since they were using the same huge chef's knives that we were to chop their ingredients - it was a bit unnerving but they did fine.

Maya chopping her ingredients

Our main courses included fried rice with chicken, pad Thai with prawns, a cashew chicken stir fry, and chicken with holy (spicy) basil.  They were all delicious!   Lucas chose to make the green curry which got its colour from jalapeƱo peppers but was really tasty, the rest of us chose the panang curry which was less spicy and more peanuty.  The curry dishes were also delicious, so flavourful and all from natural ingredients ground together with a mortar and pestle.    After finishing the curry we were getting full, but we still had soups to make and eat.  We made hot and sour soup, chicken in coconut milk soup, hot and creamy soup, and spicy soup with sweet basil.  The soups were not our favourites, maybe just because we were so full already.

Kim and Lucas proudly displaying the result of their hard work

Maya and Chris showing their spring rolls, fried rice and holy basil chicken

It was great to spend some time out on a farm in the fresh air, preparing beautiful food and chatting with travellers from other countries.  We were happy that we all got to prepare different dishes and taste a wider variety in that way.  It was an evening well spent and hopefully we can recreate some of those dishes once we get home - they did send us off with a cookbook so we have no excuses!

Comments

  1. The Munroes12 January 2017 at 08:00

    We love hearing about your adventures! Keep the posts coming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chris29 January 2017 at 01:50

      Hello Munroes, just noticed your comment here while figuring on this blog on a fancy bus with WiFi (idle tome, finally!) hope you're well, miss you!

      Delete
  2. Unknown13 January 2017 at 14:01

    So fun! Can't wait to sample a spring roll when you bring them to work next year...heehee

    ReplyDelete
  3. Barb Blewett13 January 2017 at 20:06

    Thai cooking sounds and looks delicious. It looks warm there; you're probably not missing the second week of -27! Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown17 January 2017 at 19:04

    Another awesome blog entry and I can almost feel like I'm there in your descriptions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chris29 January 2017 at 01:53

    No, we didn't miss that weather at all Barb, although we hear it is much warmer now... hope things are good in the neighborhood!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chris29 January 2017 at 01:55

    Thanks MikešŸ™‚. Congratulations in your new job, hope its going well.

    ReplyDelete

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