Domestic Goddess

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.

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

1. Add the oil to a wok, allow to heat and add the tofu, frying until lightly golden, then add the garlic.
2. Add and cook the chicken
3. 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
   
   
   
   
   
4. Move the egg to the side of the wok also then add the water. To the water add the noodles, stir until tender.
   
   
   
5. Season with the oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and stir well.
6. Add beansprouts, chinese chives and stir until everything is done.
7. 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

1. Put all the dried ingredients in a mortar, pound until fine.
2. 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

1. Add the oil on a low heat, fry curry paste until fragrant, then add ¼ cup of coconut milk.
2. Add the chicken in, cook for 2 minutes and add the rest of the coconut milk.
3. Add the potato and onion. Season with fish sauce, plam sugar and tamarind oil.
4. 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.

1. Fry garli until fragrant. Add minced tofu, stir until cooked.
2. Ass water and season with oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar and mix well.
3. Add the vegetables and glass noodles. Stir until everything is done.
4. Lay out a sheet of filo pastry and spoon out 1 tbsp of filling.
5. Fold the sheet over the filling, fold in the ends, roll up tightly and seal the sheet closed with the beaten egg.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Deep fry in plenty of oil over a medium heat until golden brown.
   
   
   
   
   
7. 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

1. Soak the sticky rice in water for 3-4 hour or overnight.
2. Drain the rice grains and put in a sticky rice basket for cooking with boilin water.
3. Steam for about 30 minutes.
4. Heat coconut milk, sugar and salt and stir well.
5. Add cooked sticky rice, mix together and leave for 10 minutes.
6. Stir one more time and serve on a plate with sliced mangoes.
7. 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!