Today’s adventure was a Thai cooking class. I was so excited! We started out at a local market where our guide Toey showed us different spices, seasonings, and vegetables often used in Thai food. We learned the difference between our ginger and galangal (Thai ginger). We smelled basil and holy basil (more pungent and peppery). We saw slices of turmeric, long stems of lemon grass, bushels of kaffir lime leaves, bumpy limes, and small green Thai eggplant.
Then we headed off to Thai Cottage Cooking School to begin our cooking lesson. We each got to choose a soup, a stir fry, and a curry. First we donned our bright aprons and prepped our soup and stir fry dishes. Our guide had us slice, squeeze and separate the aromatics from the veggies and the lime garnish. We cooked the soup, then stir fry, then ate! Everything was so fresh and tasty!
My first course was tumeric chicken soup and stir fry holy basil with chicken. The stirfry was my favorite dish we made. After lunch we walked through the garden where they were growing basil, limes, chilies, chives, and Thai eggplant.
Next we cooked and tried curry and mango sticky rice. The blue rice has butterfly pea flower and the green rice is made from padan leaves. It was sweet and creamy.
We cooked with such a sweet group…a couple from Austria, a mother and son from Switzerland, and a father and daughter from Australia. It was a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to try some of these recipes when we get home!
