A Step Off The Beaten Path

On Sunday we were picked up early from our hostel and spent the whole day on a Thai farm located an hour outside of Chiang Mai.  Time for Thai Cooking School!!!!!  We were joined by six other amazing folks – Americans, Germans and Canadians. Our cooking teacher for the day was the amazing Ning…

Our cooking teacher Ning with Anna

On our way to the farm, we stopped at a large open air market.  Anna likes to refer to this as Thai HEB.  Amazing!  We were pleasantly overwhelmed (a common feeling lately) by what we saw, heard, smelled, and tasted.  The many vendors displayed rice, Thai condiments, exotic fruits and vegetables, many unidentifiable meats, large pots of curry dishes, and desserts.  We learned about the many different types of rice and how to prepare sticky rice (soak and steam) and jasmine rice (boil).  Once we made it to the sauce isle, things got complicated – fish sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chili paste and tamarind sauce to name a few.  (Interesting note – tamarind sauce and vinegar can be used interchangeably in the US but not in Thailand.  In Thailand, vinegar, though it looks the same, is a harsh chemical product never used for cooking.  Instead, to impart a tangy flavor, tamarind sauce is made by boiling the tamarind fruit in hot water.)

Kind of like Central Market, but not. Rows of prepared curries, soups, and vegetables. Purchase what you want and take home for a quick meal. Tasty!

Yummy little coconut pancakes, 7 for 50 cents.

Checking out the open air market

Next, we visited the section with curries and learned the difference between red, green, and yellow curry.  Red has mature dried chilies, green has fresh chilies, and yellow is basically red curry with turmeric added.  Our specific area of interest concerned our favorite curry, Panang. Panang is red curry with peanuts added to the curry paste.  Once we arrived at the farm, we each chose a curry type, pulled out the mortar and pestle and went to work creating homemade curry from raw ingredients.  Wow!  Curry making is not for the timid.  Imagine the sound of ten people using all their might to create a few tablespoons of curry- all while our host Ning is screaming,“Faster, faster, faster, faster!” 🙂  All the curries contained shallots, galangal, kaffir lime rind, garlic, lemongrass, Thai ginseng, roasted cumin and coriander seeds, salt and the chilies specific to the type of curry being created.  

Evan making Panang curry. Hard work!

After curry, we started making the other dishes.  During the day, we made 5 dishes total – soup, stir fry, curry, appetizers and dessert.  For each type of dish, we could choose between 1 or 2 options.  They were all great, but my favorites were the soup and dessert.  For the soup, we each had the option of making either Tom Yam (clear spicy broth) or my choice, Tom Kaa Gai (little bit spicy coconut broth).  For the dessert, we could make Sticky Rice with Mango or Coconut Bananas.  In both desserts, we boiled fresh beet root in the coconut cream to create a pretty pink color.

Mango Sticky Rice

Gage making spring rolls

An amazing day spent with amazing people.  Cooking, relaxing, learning with loved ones and fellow travelers.  So fortunate.