I’ve so usually eaten Italian meals ready by Italians (each in eating places and at house) and have studied so many Italian cookery books, web sites, blogs, and boards, that I’m assured when I’m cooking Italian meals and know when it tastes like it’s presupposed to style, and when it doesn’t. Though I’ve been getting ready Thai meals for some years now (click on right here for an summary of all Thai dishes on my weblog) and prefer it so much, I had by no means been to Thailand and so I’m not as assured about Thai cooking as I’m about Italian.
As I’m in Thailand for the primary time proper now, I believed it will be a superb alternative to achieve some confidence. Firstly by consuming loads of Thai meals in eating places right here, in addition to road meals. I’ve eaten in Thai eating places within the Netherlands and in different international locations, however was not impressed (and seen they used factory-produced curry paste and the like). It was clear to me that the flavors had been ‘westernized’ to attraction to the native public. After a few days, I do get the impression that even right here in Thailand it’s troublesome to seek out eating places (or road meals stalls) that serve genuine flavors, as even right here the meals is tailored to vacationers (extra candy, much less spicy, even avoiding cilantro). I’m OK with much less spicy than ‘Thai spicy’ as a result of I’m not used to that (each your palate and your digestion have to be educated to have the ability to tolerate such spicy meals), however loads of the meals I had right here was much less spicy than what I put together myself at house.
One other means of attending to know Thai delicacies higher is after all to take a Thai cooking lesson by an area. There are loads of Thai cooking courses right here in Chiang Mai, however they largely goal at absolute rookies who hardly know put together meals from their very own nation. They usually begin by explaining the distinction between dry and recent chillies, or between ginger and galangal. So I might in all probability not study something from these, and determined right away {that a} class in a bunch was not going to work for me. With some googling I found a web site known as Touring Spoon, a platform to ebook personal cooking courses with house cooks around the globe. Via them I booked a personal cooking expertise and lunch with Pea (dinner can also be out there). I had ‘warned’ her that I used to be already fairly skilled, so she tailored our session to be extra superior. However I additionally particularly requested her to arrange some dishes collectively that I had ready earlier than, to discover any variations collectively.
We began with a tour of the backyard, the place Pea grows her personal greens and herbs. There had been a flood not too long ago, so every thing needed to be replanted.
Betel leaves (for Miang kham, see under).
Candy thai basil (horapa) and holy thai basil (kaprao).
A sort of inexperienced beans which might be very tender and you’ll eat uncooked in addition to steamed.
You possibly can see the inexperienced beans higher on the entrance of this photograph.
A light tasting herb used for omelette.
Lemongrass.
Most cuisines have a ‘holy trinity’. For Thai cooking it’s chillies, garlic, and shallots. (For Italian it’s onion, carrot, and celery.) The flavour profile of most dishes begins with the trinity and builds from there. Pea defined that house variations of Thai dishes usually have much less substances than restaurant variations, as a result of folks use what they’ve. And so substances like shrimp paste or coriander root may be omitted or substituted (e.g. extra fish sauce if you happen to don’t have shrimp paste). (Pea talked about that she used coriander root largely as a barbecue marinade for meat, pounded along with garlic and peppercorns.) We had been going to make some ‘house cooking’ dishes from the Northern Thai delicacies.
As a welcome Pea had ready Miang kham for me. This can be a snack of recent betel leaves that you just stuff with small items of recent ginger, shallot, lime (you might be presupposed to eat the lime with the pores and skin), roasted peanut, dried shrimp or crispy fried tofu, dried coconut, and chili, and a sauce. The sauce is made by mixing 2 cups of lemon grass, 2 cups of palm sugar, 1/2 cup of shallot, 1/2 cup of finger ginger, and 1 teaspoon of salt till easy, after which simmering in a saucepan till gentle brown (however served at room temperature).
We began by making a Panang Curry, a dish that I’ve made earlier than. Crucial substances for purple or inexperienced curry are proven within the photograph: the holy trinity of chillies (recent inexperienced or dried purple), garlic, and shallots; salt, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, galangal, and turmeric root (the latter to enhance the colour) for the curry paste, kaffir lime leaves and non-spicy chilies as garnish, and fish sauce and palm sugar for seasoning. To make it a Panang Curry, we make a purple curry paste and add floor cumin and floor coriander. In comparison with the model I ready earlier than, the principle distinction is much less substances; lacking are peanuts, white pepper, coriander root, and shrimp paste.
We used a blender to make the curry paste, though the quantity was a bit small for the blender to work effectively (however I don’t like utilizing mortar and pestle). Pea eyeballed all the quantities fairly than utilizing measurements, and inspired me to style the curry paste additionally earlier than cooking it and adjusting it to my private taste. Thai meals is a couple of stability between the 4 S: Spicy, Bitter, Candy, and Salty. She additionally mentioned that everybody has a private choice as to what’s the most well-liked stability between these 4. She agreed with my stability of bitter, candy, and salty, however would make it extra spicy (as could possibly be anticipated as I’m not used to as a lot chili as Thai).
We used some cooking oil or coconut oil to get the blender going to make the paste. This meant that as an alternative of utilizing the coconut cream that floats on prime of coconut milk, we may fry the curry paste in a dry pan (because it already incorporates oil). This makes the curry extra creamy, as a result of within the remaining dish we may have each the oil and the coconut cream. Pea mentioned the colour of the curry paste would have been extra purple if we had soaked the dried purple chillies for an extended time.
The hen was added, together with a little bit of coconut milk. Pea added the coconut milk steadily. It was hen breast, so it cooked in a short time. We tasted it once more and added some extra cumin and coriander and seasoned the curry with palm sugar and fish sauce. (Lime juice is just not utilized in Panang curry.)
When the hen was cooked, we added julienned purple chili (non spicy) and kaffir lime leaf, stirred, after which turned off the warmth.
The hen Panang curry was achieved and I loved it with some rice.
Within the meantime, Pea was making an omelette by mixing an egg with the inexperienced feathery herbs and a splash of fish sauce.
The omelette was fried on each side…
…till barely golden. The omelette was one of many meals to have with the Nam prik kapi dip that we had been going to make subsequent.
Nam prik kapi is a dip of fermented shrimp paste, candy shrimp paste, recent chilies, lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce, and garlic.
We began by pounding garlic with chilies and palm sugar.
Then two varieties of shrimp paste had been added.
That is the candy shrimp paste, sweetened with palm sugar.
The dip was completed with fish sauce and lime juice, to make it extra liquid in addition to for the flavour. After including these, it was essential to style to verify the stability was nonetheless proper. I added some extra palm sugar after which it was good. Pea added some chilies as garnish for many who would really like extra spiciness.
The nam prik kapi was served with fried fish, the omelette, steamed eggplant, beans, and bitter melon, and uncooked cucumber, eggplant, and beans.
Pea additionally let me style a dip that was made for the dinner they had been internet hosting within the night, which contained eggplant, tomato, shallots, recent chili, garlic, and fermented fish sauce. Regardless of the fermented fish and chili, the flavour of this dip jogged my memory considerably of ratatouille.
The following dish we had been making was Gaeng Som, a bitter fish soup that I had made earlier than with shrimp. We began by mixing the same old trinity of chili (partly as floor chili), shallots, and garlic.
Then water and tamarind had been added and blended.
The fish (tilapia) was poached in water with salt and a bouillon dice. (Once I made Kaeng Som myself, I used fish heads and bones to make the inventory.)
A little bit of the cooked fish was added to the blender to thicken the soup and to offer it a extra fishy taste.
Then the contents of the blender had been added to the soup…
…adopted by the greens: bok choy and a stalky vegetable.
The greens had been boiled solely briefly, to maintain them crunchy. (Notice that I might normally separate the inexperienced leaves from the bok choy and add them later, and permit the fish to poach within the scorching soup with out boiling it.) As a result of the greens launch water, the soup needed to be tasted to regulate the seasoning. It wanted some extra fish sauce.
The ensuing Kaeng Som was very good. Pea let me additionally style some pork soup that was being made for that night, which was very good as effectively.
The ultimate factor we made was Nam prik ong, a pork and tomato chili dip. You possibly can guess that we began once more with the holy trinity of (dried purple) chili, garlic, and shallots.
This was fried in a little bit of oil, after which floor pork was added.
When the pork was nearly cooked by means of and damaged up, diced tomato was added. It is very important use bitter tomato for this, to get sufficient of a bitter word within the dip.
The tomatoes are cooked solely briefly, after which the dip is seasoned with fish sauce. It’s fascinating to notice that, in contrast to in most Italian recipes, the tomatoes are usually not peeled and seeded. However in any other case that is nearly like a watery model of a (southern) Italian pork ragù (in south Italy chili is utilized in nearly every thing and they might use onions as an alternative of shallots). The flavour is just not watery, however the texture is certainly extra watery than Italian ragù.
The Nam prik ong was served as a dip for greens and a few extra omelette.
This cooking class has reached the aim I had with it, to grow to be extra assured in my Thai cooking. I realized to be extra relaxed about it, received to know some good dips, and improved by pestle and mortar approach.
