Today's lesson was how to make curry pastes, taught by the lovely Ayn who was like a Thai version of Neel. Ayn was wearing a very cool white watch (which he also owns in yellow, blue and red) and I'll now be on the hunt for it as he's told me which market to head to for it.
I skipped dinner last night as I was so full from the lesson, and I foolishly skipped breakfast too. Big mistake. We spent so long learning about curry pastes, and then we had to make one from scratch using a giant pestle and mortar. It was midday by the time we were making this and we still hadn't cooked any food to actually eat. I was close to fainting and had to ask Ayn to find me something to eat!
We learnt how to make Panaeng curry paste which was a new one to me (it included cardamon and mace) and it was hard work as I usually use a food processor. We then used our paste in our first dish (see below).
Dishes we made today:
1. Panaeng Curry with Pork (Panaeng Muu)
The paste has wonderful layers of flavour and once you've made the paste the rest is super simple and incredibly tasty. I was SO hungry by the time I'd made this that I started eating it before remembering to take a photo - hence the messy looking plate of food!
2. Fried Fish with Chilli and Basil (Plaa Nin Laad Prik Bai Horapa)
Superstar Sompon showed us this dish. The fish is deepfried and then topped with lightly cooked garlic. onion, chills, basil and coriander. Very fresh tasting.
3. Chiang Mai Curry with Chicken (Gaeng Hanglay Gai)
This dish is supposed to marinate which we didn't have time for, but even so it tasted delicious. I imagine it would be heavenly if marinated overnight. It is very quick and easy to make (if you have the Gaeng Hanglay curry paste to hand).
4. Sweet and Sour Vegetables (Phad Prio Wan Phak)
I hadn't expected to like these however homemade is always better and so was this. I even cut my carrots into hearts and my cucumber into flowers (not sure if they'll show up in the photo!)
5. Spicy Glass Noodle Salad (Yam Wun Sen)
Ayn started showing us this dish and then cut his finger and had to call in a substitute. It was quite a drama for a tiny cut! This tasted lovely and fresh however it included raw garlic and onion. I left out the garlic but I still found the onion too overpowering. If I make it again I'll use red onion steeped in lime juice.
6. Black Sticky Rice Pudding (Khao Neow Dam Piak)
This uses real black rice and is a lovely dessert. The rice needs to soak overnight though and then needs to be cooked for 30 - 45 minutes, so it is a dish that needs some planning.
No comments:
Post a Comment