Today we did a full did cooking class at the Thai Kitchen Cookery Centre in Chiang Mai. I can’t get enough of the Thai food, and today the cooking school took a group over to the markets, taught us about and picked out some traditional Thai ingredients, and took us back to the centre to cook and eat all day. We made Prawn and coconut milk soup that was so spicy I broke out in a sweat and my nose started to run; green curry paste to use in our green curry chicken; cashew chicken stir fry that was salty and sweet and made my mouth water; spicy papaya salad that, again, made my nose run; mango sticky rice for dessert; and finished off the day with shots of Thai whiskey with our Thai cooking teachers. I just woke up from a food coma, but my belly was so happy today. Here are a few recipes from my favorite dishes from today.

Cooking my chicken curry

Green papaya salad (sumtum)

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic with skin peeled off

2-4 small “Thai chocolates” (chillies)

½ tablespoon coconut sugar

30 centimeter long beans broken into 4cm pieces

2 tomatoes

2 cups green papaya grated

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons of skinned dry roasted peanuts

Preparation

1. Peel the green papaya. Shred into strips and keep separate.

2. Take the skin off the garlic and put into the mortar.

3. Add chillies and pound with the pestle.

4. Add coconut sugar, long beans and pound again.

5. Add tomatoes and gently squash with pestle.

6. Add papaya, lime juice, fish sauce, peanuts.

7. Bring the ingredients into the middle of the mortar with a spoon in one hand and pound with the pestle in the other for about one minute.

8. Eat!

Stir fried chicken with cashew nuts (gai pud met mar mooung)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons soy bean oil

4 cloves Thai garlic crushed and chopped with skin on

250 grams chicken sliced finely in 3cm strips

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon salty soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 brown onion sliced

4 spring onions cut in 4cm strips

2 large sundried “Thai chocolates” (chillies) cut in 3cm strips

10-15 pre-roasted unsalted cashew nuts

Preparation

1. Heat soy bean oil on medium heat in a wok for 30 seconds.

2. Add the garlic and stir until it becomes fragrant.

3. Add the chicken and stir fry until it is three quarters cooked.

4. Add the oyster sauce, salty soy sauce, sugar, onion, spring onion, and sundried chillies. Fry until fully cooked.

5. Switch off gas and stir in cashew nuts.

6. Serve hot with steamed jasmine rice.

Mangoes with sticky rice (kao neow mamuang)

Ingredients

Rice:

1 cup sticky rice

½ cup thick coconut cream

4 tablespoons sugar

½ tablespoon salt

Topping sauce:

4 tablespoons thick coconut cream

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon corn flour dissolved in 4 tablespoons water

Accompaniments:

1 large ripe sweet mango

1 teaspoon deep fried mung bean seeds or toasted sesame seeds

Note: white sticky rice must be soaked – overnight in cold water or for 5 hours in warm water or for 15 minutes in boiling water prior to making dish.

Preparation

1. Drain the rice. Rinse and place inside wet cloth sack (pillow cases are fine) and then inside a bamboo or vegetable steamer. Bamboo is preferable. (Use 2-3 wet cloth sacks if using a metal vegetable steamer or a Chinese bamboo steamer).

2. Steam over boiling water for 40 minutes until rice is tender.

3. Make the sauce for the rice by placing the thick coconut cream, sugar and salt in saucepan on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

4. Using a rice paddle or large spoon, massage this mixture into rice, spoonful by spoonful. Set aside while you make the topping sauce.

5. Make the topping sauce by placing salt, sugar, coconut cream and corn flour and water mix in a small saucepan on medium heat until sauce thickens.

6. Peel mango and slice into 12 pieces. Arrange on two plates. Beside the mango, place a spoonful of rice, top with a dribble of sauce, and sprinkle seeds on top.
7. Eat by placing a little of everything in each mouthful.