Cooking School

Friday 16 March we went to Thai Farm Cooking school.  It was an all day affair, and we had to get up at 730amish! agh!  in order to get breakfast.  The van picked us up at 845am and we were off to the market.  This was the Ruamchok Supermarket and it was super! Super big, super clean and super variety.  Our instructor, Joy, took us about the market and explained different food to us as related to what we would cook later.  Then she gave us about 10 minutes to look around and ask her questions about anything.  Some folks got a coffee - B & I just meandered...

outdoors, but under cover Thailand's version of a giant Costco fresh produce department...lol

Joy talks about the different kinds of rice and B inspects it:

Eggsactly what I was thinking! lol! Look at the tiny splotchy ones in lower right hand corner & even pink ones!

3 main ingredients in all Thai food: soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce

coconut everything!

B flirts, ah talks with gals from Pennslyvania

Just monkeying around...

Of course kids are always in the market area:

"rice, rice baby"

starting em early - addiction to phone lol!

After the market we journeyed about 20 minutes to the farm. First thing we did was to make a Thai curry paste & then we toured the farm (which was actually a giant garden).  Just about every fresh ingredient we used in our foods is grown there.  We did not actually pick our own, but it was interesting to see how stuff grew.  I actually think I could be a cook if things were like this at home: pots & pans ready for you, foods washed and prepped waiting to be cut, and you just take your dirty dishes to the sink...later they magically appeared clean...lol

B is not sure his apron is big enough...hmm, Mama checks

here you try this one...

yep much better!  after that she spoiled him, always collecting his dishes and bringing his food...

Joy poses in class - I think she wants to be a model, not a cooking teacher...lol  Jess we tried to convince her to come home with us - she cooks and does massage!

learning to make curry paste

curry paste is made with mortar and pestle

group photo

More later - gonna join B in his afternoon nap...
After our nap we headed out to the Saturday evening local market - this one was touristy but more hand crafted.  But allow me to finish up about cooking school.
The next class was how to make rice - white rice, wash and put in the rice cooker...lol  Sticky rice, soak overnight and wash, then steam for about 4 hours.  They use a bamboo basket instead of a collander to drain rice and steam it over boiling water.

Joy rinses rice

sticky rice in bamboo basket 

and onto stove to cook while we go "farming"

Farmer G and Farmer B with model Joy...

B learns about fresh herbs

Joy explains about plants

4 kinds of peppers - the smaller, the hotter!

B chops up ingredients for soup

mushing my soup spices - I left out the hot & spicy stuff...no onions either lol!

left soup is Chicken Coconut milk soup (mine) and B's, Shrimp Tom Yam soup

B stirs his soup

My soup was delicious, but B used all of his fixins, even the ones he did not like, so he ate the shrimp and some of the broth...

my coconut soup was yummy and I might even make it at home...

Next up - egg rolls

fixins for eggrolls

B hands me tamarind sauce for egg rolls

"wok right in, step right up"

B "woks like a man"

our egg rolls are ready to be cooked - guess who rolled the "burritos"?

B adds his 2nd egg roll to the fryer...you let them slide down the side of the wok & the grease won't spatter

And the finished product looks like this and was super tasty - would have been better with chicken or pork, but yummy all the same...

next was Curry dish - I had yellow curry and B had green

my yellow chicken curry cooking - no onions and about a shake of curry

mine is on the left and B's on the right - the red and green were for photos, we didn't eat them...lol

ingrediants for cashew chicken

We put the finished curries aside and fixed next course.  This time everyone made the same thing - cashew chicken...

Joy teaches about cashew chicken

Joy says, "taste your dish - is it too spicy? too late! haha! No, if it's too hot, add sugar - too sweet, add fish sauce..." good tip, huh?

tasty looking cashew chicken and we made it ourselves...

B with "mama" after she spoiled him all day - he ain't gonna get that kind of service at home lol!

eating our 2 main dishes - cashew chicken and curry

We were stuffed after all those dishes and all agreed we needed a nap, but we still had dessert to prepare: traditional Thai dessert - mango and sticky rice.  The first one is how it is supposed to look, but she said we could make anything we wanted, so B and I played with our food...lol  

mango and blue dyed sticky rice prepared by Joy

B tries his dessert - I liked the sticky, sweet rice and thought I was gonna get to eat his mango, because he does not like it - but hmm, his disappeared...   That was the final course and the end of a great day.  At first, I think B was reluctant to go, but we both agreed it was terrific and inexpensive considering we got transportation, a full 6 course meal, entertainment by Joy: comedienne & model, and a full day with a fine group of folks from the US, Austria, and France.  I would recommend Thai Farm Cooking School for sure...lol

So that was yesterday, I will tell you all about today, tomorrow... have a great one!