Iron Chef Thailand

Today we have booked a late afternoon cooking lesson.
 
In the morning I go up to the pool area thinking I’ll get wet for a while then read while I dry off. I dip my toes in the water - oh my - this pool is cold! Instead of plunging in I sit on the edge of the pool and dangle my legs for a while. One of the 14 lounge chairs opens up so I grab it and spend the rest of my time reading on my tablet, which is what most people are doing.

​We want a little lunch so we walk to Butter is Better Diner & Bakery. It’s a cute place with a 1950’s decor and American menu. I go for the Kentucky BBQ sandwich and William has a pastrami sandwich. We treat ourselves and share a soft, gooey chocolate chip cookie for dessert.
 
The driver for Grandma’s Cooking School pulls up to the door of the condo at 3:45 pm. We are joining six Canadians who are family/friends - it should be fun. We’re driven to the outskirts of Chiang Mai to the organic farm and cooking school.

​Our chef-instructor has us don straw hats and we are led to the garden area. There she show us some of the main vegetables, spices and fruits used in Thai cooking. Turmeric is a surprise for us, we didn’t realize it is rootlike - somewhat similar to ginger in appearance.

Back from the garden we are given sheets of paper to select some of the foods we will make today. Each person prepares their own meal, and we will eat it in stages. We start by preparing the curry paste. I have selected Penang curry (with peanuts), while William chooses a red curry. The assistants lay out the proper ingredients at each of our cooking stations then we’re chopping and muddling like crazy. The curry paste is set aside and ingredients appear for our soups. The chef provides some instructions then the eight of us are chopping and firing up the individual gas burners at our stations. Once the soups are done we move to the dining table and enjoy our efforts while joking with one another. While we have fun the assistants clean up and bring out the ingredients for Pad Thai.

​Again the chef demonstrates how to make the dish. The only variation in the recipe is the protein- shrimp, chicken or pork (or vegetarian). We chop away then fire up our woks. It is amazing how fast this dish is made - once all the ingredients are prepared. We all enjoy eating our creations, but I am getting full with two courses to go!

The last two courses we prepare are the curry and our dessert of mango sticky rice. My chicken Penang curry is perfect - I only add one of the three dynamite chili’s provided on my ingredients tray.

​We are now equipped with skills and recipes for making Thai dishes, though I don’t think that we’ll be appearing on Iron Chef Thailand anytime soon.