Bangkok Thai Cooking Academy-Day 8

Another amazing day today. Was one of those extended days…made a total of 9 dishes. Five with Chef Ratch and 4 with Chef Guitar, afterwards. Today ALL the dishes were excellent.

Some new ingredients I worked with were pickled cabbage and whole mung beans. Some new techniques I learned were how to debone a freaking chicken wing, seriously? It was time consuming but very rewarding :), then I stuffed it. I also fried morning glory leaves to dip in a wonderful chicken and shrimp dip.

My two stations today (morning and afternoon) looked like this. There is always more that comes to the station at different times but I just capture what is on there at the start.

The dishes I made today were:

• Khao soy curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Khao Soy)
• Khao soy with chicken (Khao Soy Gai)
• Deep fried fish in red curry (Pad Ped Pla Thod Krob)
• Stuffed chicken wings (Bpeek Gai Yut Sai)
• Pork belly stir fried with lemongrass and sweet basil (Moo Sam Chan Pad Horapa)
• Mung bean Thai custard dessert (Mor Kaeng Tua)
• Hot and sour soup with turmeric (Kai Tom Kamin)
• Braised spareribs in pineapple sauce (Si-Khrong Moo Op Sapporot)
• Crispy fried morning glories (Yam Pak Boong Grob)
• Cucumber salad with boiled egg and prawn (Yum Tang Gwa Goong Sod)

Wow, that was a lot and oh so yummy! I have to say, i’m getting a little tired of eating ALL that food, but i’m not getting tired of preparing it. So many fun and new techniques I am learning, it’s incredible! My arm muscles are getting really buff, all that pounding in the mortar. I need the additional exercise with everything I am eating!

So, my top three dishes from today were the egg noodles in chicken curry (Khao Soy Gai), was a yellow curry; the hot and sour soup with turmeric (Kai Tom Kamin), the flavor of the broth was similar to Tom Yum broth but a Southern Thai version; and the braised spareribs in pineapple sauce (Si-Khrong Moo Op Sapparot), oh my!

Well, the chicken curry was my favorite from the first 5 dishes I made today and the hot and sour soup and braised spareribs were two of my favorites from the second half. I really don’t know which one to choose so I will just flip for it…hold on…okay, the braised spareribs with pineapple is the winner!

For the braised spareribs with pineapple, you will need:

• 400 grams pork spareribs, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 cup fresh pineapple, sliced into chunks
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice (or orange)
• 1 tablespoon seasoning sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon white peppercorn
• 1 teaspoon coriander root, roughly chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock

Steps:

1. In a mortar, combine peppercorn, garlic and coriander and pound to a paste.
2. Mix the peppercorn mixture with ketchup, soy sauce, seasoning sauce, palm sugar and stir well.
3. Add mixture to pork and combine well. You can let marinate in refrigerator for an hour or two if you have time.
4. Add pork mixture to pot and add chicken stock and juice and combine well.
5. Add pineapple to the pot and simmer over low heat until the spareribs are tender and sauce is thick, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Here are all the other dishes that I made today.

Well all, that is it for today…yes, that was enough…I only ate a couple of bites of each dish and am still soooo stuffed. The rest of the month I will be making around 9 or 10 dishes…so there will be A LOT more pictures coming :).