We signed ourselves up for a Thai Cooking Course at the weekend...and what a weekend it was! My tastebuds feel alive and i'm so excited by all the delicious cuisine we created... i can't wait to get cooking!
Watch out Masterchef...
We headed to Silom Cooking school for a 2 day course, it cost 1000 bht (£20) for the day and was well worth it. You get an afternoon of cooking lessons, a 5 course meal, a drink, a cook-book and you have so much fun!
The cooking school is about 40 min from our apartment, we met at the corner of Soi 11 in Silom and from there once registered we headed to the market. Our instructor for the day 'Jay' was just hilarious! He kept us entertained with interesting facts about Thai cooking and gave us lots of handy tips for the kitchen. At the market he showed us what ingredients were needed (i'd never seen some of them in my life!) -we felt them, smelt them and learnt which ones to pic and then we set off in tuk-tuks to the cooking school!
The school is located in the back streets of Silom, so it feels like you are going into someone's home to cook. Shoes off and hands washed we had another low down on basic Thai ingredients, put on our fabulous aprons and got our cook on!
Day One...
We started off with tom yum goon soup - aka - hot and sour prawn soup!
I ordered this when i first arrived in Bangers and it blew my head off so I was a bit scared to be making one! But as the chef you decide how much little chili devils go in. (I call them devils cause they are evil!) Kev added 5, i added half a chilli and still found it hot! It doesn't take long to cook at all, once we chopped up the main ingredients (lemongrass, kaffir leaves and galangal ginger) we headed to our woks. Fish sauce is added along with a big spoon of chili paste, onions, tomatoes, prawns and stock! Bring to the boil then voila...your tom yum goon is ready! It was very yummy...but still a bit on the spicy side!
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| Tom Yum Goong |
Next on the menu was on of my favourites... pad thai gai - noodles with chicken!
This dish is super quick to make, you just need to make sure you got all your bits ready to go in the wok! Once we diced and sliced, we headed to the woks, flame on and hey presto... the pad thai was on the go! The only tricky part was cracking in the egg and making sure you scramble it before it becomes an omelette! I left out the chili for this dish...it was super delish!
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| Pad-Thai |
After the delicious pad-thai! We learnt how to make spring rolls! super easy and super delicious! You can pretty much put whatever you want in a spring roll, the art is wrapping it so all the bits stay inside! I think i rolled mine rather artistically, then cut like sushi and topped off with a sweet chilli sauce we made from big red chilies, loads of sugar and rice vinegar. Mmm - I'll defo whip this out for a starter!
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| Thai Spring Rolls |
Thai green curry -kang khiao wan gai - was up next! I'm not a fan that has anything with 'curry' in the title! But after making it from scratch, my opinion and taste buds have now warmed towards it. After cutting and mashing big green chilies (the big ones ain't spicy!) we headed to the wok to create some green curry magic. Curry paste, coconut milk, veggies, fish sauce, tamarind and voila! It wasn't bad, even could have done with a bit more spice! hehe!
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| Thai Green Curry |
As if we hadn't eaten enough, we then ended off the afternoon with a Thai classic - Mango and sticky rice! A rather odd combination, but the go pretty well together! The mango was just perfect, juicy and super tasty and the sticky rice is sweet/ sour and chewy.
We then received out 'cooking diplomas' and Silom Cooking School Cookbooks!
I've hardly used my kitchen since we've been in Bangers...but now i'm strangely excited to get in in and whip up some yummy soups, noodles and curries!
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Day Two...
The second day we headed to a different market with a different instructor, then too a different location to cook up a storm. This time it felt a bit more traditional as we sat in the floor for the lessons. Once our baskets were loaded with the ingredients, we walked a few blocks to 'very backstreet Silom', we then headed up a few flights of stairs, put the funky apron on and ready...steady...cook! We were making different dishes to the day before and had a whole new list of ingredients and met a whole new group of fellow masterchef wanna-bees! It was totally different from the day before, but just as fun and just as tasty!
First dish on the menu was tom kah gai - chicken in coconut milk! Yum! Similar to the tom yum goong we made the day before, but creamy and no spicy at all! I loved it! Thats probs cause i didnt add any chilies! Kev added about 7 and he got the upper lip sweats from the heat! It was a very yummy starter and i'll defo be making this one soon!
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| Tom Kah Gai |
Ever wondered what to do with your leftover rice? Make koh pad gai - chicken fried rice! The secret to this dish is 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce, then fry up any leftovers, scramble and egg, add the rice and there you have your super quick tasty meal! Add some soy sauce for seasoning and tuck in!
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| Khao Pad Gai |
Kevs favorite - Som Tum - papaya salad -was next on the menu! I love the look and smell of this dish, but always find it far too spicy. For Kev its never spicy enough! After slicing and dicing the carrots and green papaya, we added green beans, a tomato, roasted peanuts and garlic - lots of garlic! For the sauce...again the fish sauce, tamarind and palm sugar...mix it all up lovingly and spice as you like! Yum! Yum! I'll defo be making this one.... I'll make, take out my portion, then add a massive handful of little devin chilies and that will be for Kev!
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| Som Tum |
Another curry dish was on the menu - kaeng mus sa mum - massaman curry!
So - 5 years ago when Kev and I were last in Thailand, we were on the beach, a bit peckish so ordered a meal to share...he ordered a curry and was super yummy. The smell and flavours were amazing! Sadly we never remembered what it was called so just had the memory of this. But when we were putting the ingredients in the wok, the smells came to life and memories of that delicious curry on the beach came flooding back to me and my tastebuds.... Massaman Curry! Its sweeter that your green and red Thai curry and truly delicious! Again add how much spice you want and munch away!
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| Kaeng Mus sa Mum |
For dessert we made kluay buad chee - steamed bananas in coconut milk. I love bananas and i love coconut milk - so this is one of my fav desserts! Kev on the other hand - can't even look at it!
At this point, I was super duper full, but still found some room to indulge and satisfy my tastebuds. We then headed home - no dinner needed! I popped to the shops later to check out the Thai isle and found some key ingredients to for the cupboard... i'm now ready to get in the kitchen and get my Thai Cook on!!
For more information on any of these dishes please contact Chef Hayley @omgicannowcookthaifoodlikeapro.com
