Thai Cooking 102- a 2nd Day

Ava in the market with her basket

I had way too much fun in my first cooking class and had to take another. Ava, a friend from massage school, accompanied me this time. We were each picked up at our accomodation and taken to a spa which also hosts cooking classes. No one else was signed up and we had ourselves a private lesson! We were taken to a nearby market that smelled very strongly of dried shrimp paste (about the equivalant of week old wet cat food).
She showed us some different spices, noodles, curry pastes, and had to buy some vegetarian meat replacement for my dishes. I think it was freeze dried wheat gluten, however I am not sure and may never be. All I know is that it didn't have to soak very long before being ready to use.

Wheat Gluten chunks?

                                                                                     The first dish we each cooked was a soup. I chose to make Tom Kha Kai, a vegetable soup with shrimp. I am not sure I will be able to remember how to recreate this soup when I return home because I did not take as many photos, nor is the recipe in the "cook" book our teacher gave us. Ava made a chicken noodle soup which looked great, but I think she learned that she only needed to use about 2 chilies instead of 4 as her soup was just a bit too spicy for her!

We really enjoyed our day together at the cooking school. It was funny because we would be presented with the vegetables to be used in our meal and then just kind of left to our own means of creating what to do with it. When our teacher would see that we were ready, she would hand us some oils and sauces or just start pouring them herself into the pan. I found the other school to be far more structured as in they would tell me when to cut my eggplant, how many times, and then where to put it once I was ready to cut my next vegetable. I think I might have learnt and remembered more from the first school, but I think I had more fun just hanging out with Ava and eating on this day.

We each also made a stir fry dish. Mine was with the wheat gluten and basil. It tasted better than it looks, and I think I could figure out how to make this at home, however I would replace the wheat gluten with noodles, skip the eggplant, and add other vegetables. The sauce and flavor were great though!

The next portions to prepare were our side dishes! Ava made deep fried spring rolls, though she thought she was going to make them fresh or "live" as they appear on many menus.
I had no idea what deep fried pandamus leaves were, so I chose that dish. My teacher replaced chicken with tofu, made a simple marinade of oyster sauce with sesame seeds, covered the tofu in it, and then had me wrap the tofu oragami style in the leaves.

    

Unfortunatly this dish did taste exactly how it looks- like deep fried burnt tofu wrapped in leaves! Oh well, live and learn! And I think I have learned, when I return home I will attempt to make something similar to this- Either chicken or banana wrapped in banana leaves and then fried.

 Ava became pretty full sooner than she expected and decided to make a dessert rather than a main course. Loving curry as much as I do, I could not pass up making one even though I too was feeling a bit stuffed. I smashed myself up a curry paste and then cooked away!


 All in all, it was a great day of eating and though I cant really remember how exactly to cook what I made, I think I at least will go home with some great ideas!