No Fixed Abode: Woks cooking?

Wed 24 Feb 2016 - Thai cooking class

Today we had a cooking class booked for the afternoon so we spent the morning in the hotel room researching and preparing the next few days for our trip to Cambodia. At lunch time we took a Tuk Tuk ride, Yvonne’s first, to Lumpini Park for a stroll around some grass and trees. Whilst looking over the lake we spotted a large lizard swimming around that then made a couple of exploratory forages ashore before disappearing up a drainage pipe. Not sure what he was after. Then we passed a lady practising some sort of weird tai chi movements with a sword - not someone to be messed with. After sitting in the shade people watching it was time to make our way along Silom street to the appointed meeting point for the cookery lesson.

At the designated corner we met our classmates: a mother and daughter from Hong Kong, a couple from Vienna, three Korean girls and a Chinese guy. What an international group. With our names checked off the list on a clipboard we headed off to the market to meet our teacher, Jam, and buy the ingredients for our meal. Jam explained the differences between various sorts of chillies, showed us four different forms of ginger (never knew there was more than one) then discussed the various vegetables - the Thais seem to have many forms of the same plant: eggplants, limes, bananas… With all the ingredients bought we jumped into 3 hot and sweaty tuk tuks and sped off to the house where our lesson was to take place.

All the info about the cookery school we’d seen online had shown us a purpose built venue but Jam, who shared our tuk tuk, explained that the school was going so well there were now two classes and ours was taking place at the owner’s house. After snaking along a few alleys we arrived at the house, left our sandals at the entrance and went into a lovely home full of stuff from around the world. First item on the agenda was making the coconut milk for the dessert rice. Kneeling on traditional cushions on the floor Jam showed us how to hack open a coconut then use a traditional scraping bench to shave the ‘meat’ from inside. As this was such a slow and laborious process she pointed to five bowls of shavings already prepared by a machine and set us kneading the meat in warm water with our hands then squeezing out first the cream, then repeating the process to get the milk. All the cream and milk was then mixed with some rice and left to soak.

Onto the starter, Pad Thai (fried) noodles. Moving to the chopping room we sat around a large table with 10 chopping boards and a scary knife to slice and dice the accompanying spices before moving outside to a small courtyard with a line of woks and gas burners. Jam explained the key of Thai cooking is the correct use of high and low heat and barked out ‘high’, ‘low’ or ‘gas off’ at the appropriate time as we first fried a sauce then added the noodles. Finally to the best room of all; the dining room, to scoff our first dish. Delicious.

Next we made spring rolls filled with chopped vegetables and two types of mushrooms, one of which was like a jellyfish. This was accompanied by a salad of sliced green papaya and carrot that two of the group had made using a julienne peeler, which was then ‘smashed’, Jam’s term for using a large wooden mortar and pestle, with some chillies, ginger and limes. Back in the chopping rooms Jam showed us how to roll the contents in some wafer thin sheets and seal them closed using a ‘glue’ made from cornflour, before back out to the woks to deep fry them while Glenn stirred the accompanying sweet (4 spoons of sugar!) chilli sauce until it was bubbling and wonderfully thick.

The main course was a massaman curry. We shared the chopping of the sauce curry paste ingredients then it was out for more ‘smashing by Jam, the austrian and the chinese guys, for a long while, to mash everything together to a paste. Back to the woks for more shouts of ‘high’ and ’low’ while Jam patrolled up and down the line giving advice on when to add the chicken, potatoes and various spices. The curry was delicious and was served with some steamed rice that some assistants had already made.

Immediately afterwards we enjoyed the chopped mango and coconut rice we’d helped with at the start of the class. All very pleased with ourselves we chatted about what we’d learned and how good the food was before saying our farewells and heading our separate ways.

With no dinner required that night Yvonne stayed home and Glenn went out shopping for some deodorant (Boots two for the price of one even in Bangkok!) and a USB charger.