I didn't know a cooking class could be so much fun or require so much eating. Yui has been running a fabulous cooking class out of her home in Chiang Mai for the past 11 years. Trip advisor ranks her cooking class as one of the best activities in Chiang Mai. She loves food and teaching and both passions come through in her class. She has appeared on the local food network and is scheduled to have another ten episodes filmed in the coming months. She also travels throughout the world to teach Thai cooking. On the wall are multiple news articles about her class, including one by the Boston Globe. Her dreams are to spread Thai cooking throughout the world and to help local farmers earn more money by cutting out the middle man. We each made six Thai dishes during the eight-hour class. The class cost about $40.
Our outdoor kitchen with a stove for each of us.
From the moment you meet Yui, you can tell she has a good heart and a passion for learning. Her parents own a farm and seem to be a jack of all trades in the world of agriculture. They grow a variety of vegetables and make coconut cream and milk on the farm. They also have chickens and pigs, which she feeds daily. She grew up working in the market selling the goods produced on the farm. They also made curry paste, a physically intensive task. She attributes her stint as a nationally ranked javelin thrower to the arm muscles she built making curry paste.
Yui has traveled to New York City and told us we can buy all the ingredients we need to make Thai food at Bangkok Market in Chinatown. She also told us the American substitutions we can make and how to adapt our cooking because the food is not fresh (for example, don't follow the directions on the package for dried rice noodles--don't cook them, just soak them in cool water for 15 minutes then drain). She also gave us her cookbook (which has helpful tips scattered throughout) and her email address for questions about Thai cooking.
First on the menu was Pad Thai, my favorite. If it doesn't have tamarind paste, it isn't Pad Thai.
My cooking station.
We learned how to crack an egg with one hand. It took all my concentration and about 2 minutes for me to crack one egg, but it eventually happened.
Anna was equally as proud of her newly acquired skill.
In a flash, we had pad thai. Yui made it seem so easy. The key to avoiding a sticky pile of noodles is adding the noodles directly to the wok, then adding the liquid to the edge of the wok, letting it run down the edge before it hits the noodles. She also adds the garlic to the wok before the oil to avoid burning the garlic.
Fish heads for our Tom-Yam-Kung soup, eyeballs and tentacles included. She instructs not to butterfly the shrimp because you lose all the flavor. If you pierce the bottom of the shrimp, you can hook the vein and pull it out without butterflying it.
We also got the inside scoop on hot peppers. The hotness depends on the maturity of the pepper, not the color. The more mature the pepper, the hotter it is. The mature peppers are softer and have yellowish seeds, unlike the young ones which are firmer and have more translucent seeds.
Some tasty soup. Lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves are the staple flavors.
Hard at work making green curry chicken. Coconut cream forms the base of the curry. Coconut cream, also called 100 percent coconut milk, is the first squeeze from the coconut flesh. The remaining presses produce coconut milk. They cut the flesh to include some of the shell, which contains the coconut oil. In the US, the coconut cream is made only from the flesh, so you have to add a little oil to make good curries.
A machine for making coconut cream.
Anna made red curry so we could taste both. Yui now uses pre-made curry paste and suggests we do the same. She gave us a list of 12 ingredients which should be in the paste. If it isn't in there, she told us just to add those ingredients to the pre-made paste. Cumin and coriander are often missing. We also added a dash of turmeric to the green curry to make the color brighter.
We feasted together throughout the day.
Yui took us to a local market to teach us how to shop for the ingredients. Brownish galangal root has more flavor. Kafir lime leaves can be bought in bulk and frozen. Palm sugar hunks can last a year. Light brown sugar serves as a good substitute for the palm sugar.
The good brand of fish sauce, which is made from fermented anchovies and is available in the US.
The best oyster sauce. It is also available in the US.
Some kind of crab mush. Yui just said it smells badly and moved on. I have to agree. I got some on my hand when I lifted up the lid to take this picture. I'm pretty sure I can still smell it on my hand.
Yui said most sales people work in the market 365 days a year and only skip a day to attend a funeral. Hard work warrants a good nap...she was passed out.
Back to work making cashew chicken stir fry. Yui gave us a basic recipe that can be adjusted based on the ingredients. More meat, add more fish sauce; more vegetables, add more soy sauce; more of either, add more oyster sauce. For one serving: 1/2 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp. soy sauce, 2 tsp oyster sauce.
Tasty and a quick meal to prepare.
We made it to advanced Thai cooking--the spring roll. She makes a "glue" by heating 1 part cornstarch with 10 parts water.
The best wrappers to use.
We sautéed up the inside meat and cabbage before frying the rolls. The key to wrapping them is to fold the sides of the wrapper at a 5 degree angle before rolling it. A little glue on the edge to seal them, and they were ready for frying.
I was committed to passing the spring roll frying test.
Not too shabby for a first timer. It turns out cutting them is an art too.
We saved the best dish for last--mango sticky rice. We ate half the dish before Anna remembered we forgot to take a picture. You have to soak the sticky rice overnight, especially in the US because our rice isn't as fresh, and is therefore drier. Sticky rice is a special high gluten type of rice. After soaking it, you steam it for 15 minutes.
A steaming device concocted by Yui.
A good basket for steaming the rice. It has openings to allow the steam to enter. Hi, Anna. I see you love this basket.
We used 200 percent coconut cream to make the topping. You place the coconut cream in the fridge to let the cream separate, then use the top cream for the coconut sticky rice topping. Three tablespoons of the cream are mixed with a dash of salt and about 3/4 tablespoons of sugar then mixed. Add sticky rice and let sit, then add fresh mango and a touch more coconut cream. Yui sometimes eats it for breakfast-- one more reason to love her.
The gang from our cooking class (and Yui's daughter).
A cozy drive back to the hotel in Yui's old VW van. She is pretty sure that she could buy a motorbike if she trades in her three cars.
A 5:15 drop off at the hotel, followed by a 5:30 pick up for the airport. By 7, we were on our way back to Bangkok.
It was a short stay in Bangkok with an early departure for India in the morning.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand
No comments:
Post a Comment