Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a safe one. I was ready to go back and cook today after two days off! Only two more days left. It’s kind of a bitter sweet thought. I’m excited to go back home and see my family and friends but I have loved the lifestyle here…and ALL the walking. I have to say, I thought I would have gained 10 pounds by now but I finally got a mechanical scale (cause it was cheap) and it says I’m the same weight (actually a little less) as when I left home. So, I guess I will see how accurate the scale is once I get home and weigh myself :). I’m hoping it’s not too much off :).

Some of the new ingredients I worked with today included green mango, whole origin mushroom, and dry white mushroom (kind of looks like a white coral reef). The dry white mushroom was interesting. The texture was crunchy and chewy…I liked the taste but the texture was kind of weird, like crunching on real thin cartilage. My Station today:

Today Chef Ratch showed us how to cook:

• Stuffed cucumber soup (Gaeng Jued Tang Gua Yud Sai)
• Deep fried fish with green mango salad (Pla Grapong Tord Nam Pla)
• Thai fried rice (Khao Pad)
• Mixed mushroom salad (Yam Hed)
• Crispy Lotus Blossom (Khanom Dok Jok)

The fried fish is good, as usual, but my top two today were the stuffed cucumber soup and the Thai style fried rice. I was surprised with the soup…so easy to make yet soooo flavorful for cooking up in about 15 minutes. I think I will stuff some zucchini next time, instead of cucumber. The cucumber works, but thought it would even be better with zucchini. That being said, I am going to choose the Thai style fried rice. It was very easy to make and had a clean taste…not too mush soy sauce or anything to make it heavy.

For the Thai style fried rice, you will need:

• 3 shrimp, deveined
• 3/4 cup steamed rice (use cold rice)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/2 roma tomato, seeds removed and sliced into small wedges
• 1/2 of a medium onion, sliced or cubed
• 2 stalks kale, cut in 1″ cuts
• 1/4 of a carrot, small cubes
• 1 stalk spring onion, finely sliced
• 1 slice of lime (for garnish to use when you eat)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce or fish sauce
• 1/2-1 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of pepper powder
• pinch of salt (if needed)
• 1-2 bird’s eye chili’s (green and red), chopped thinly
• 1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/4 lime, juiced

Steps:

1. Heat oil in wok and add garlic and onion and cook for 20 seconds
2. Add Shrimp (or you can substitute thin slices of chicken if you prefer) and stir fry until shrimp are nearly cooked then push all to the side of the wok
3. Add egg to the wok and when cooked break it up with your wok utensil and add the kale and carrots and stir
4. Add the oyster and soy sauces, sugar, and then rice and stir well to break up the rice.
5. Add green onions and tomato and stir then add pinch of pepper
6. Taste to make sure you do not need any more seasoning such as salt or other sauces.
7. Serve with chili fish sauce by mixing the 2 chopped chili’s, fish sauce and lime juice.

And pictures of the rest of the dishes:

Okay, that is it for today. Two more days to go! Catch you tomorrow!

Day 17 today. A lot of good and refreshing dishes. Made the last type of curry today, panang. It was good, but I still like the yellow curry we made the best and than the massaman curry second best. The difference with the panang was you ground peanuts in it too.

Some new ingredients I worked with today included shredded seaweed, ear mushrooms (very psychedelic looking :)), and fresh taro. Some of my stations today, I sometimes forget to take pictures!

Today I made:

• Panang curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Panang)
• Panang curry with pork (Gaeng Panang Moo)
• Egg tofu & seaweed clear soup (Tom Juid Tao Hu Khai)
• Pomelo salad (Yam Som-O)
• Sweet & sour vegetables with shrimp (Pad Preaw Wan Kung)
• Stir fried chicken with ginger (Gai Pa Khing)
• Steamed rice with taro chicken & mushroom (Khao Ob Peuk)
• Red curry with pork and long beans (Pad Prik Gaeng Moo Thua Fak Yao)

As usual, everything was good but I had several favorites today, and some of them surprised me. My biggest surprise came from the egg tofu & seaweed clear soup, for one, because I do not like dried seawood, blah…but it amazed me the depth of flavor it provided to the soup and how the taste kind of blended away. Another favorite was the pomelo and shrimp salad…I LOVE pomelo’s but this just didn’t sound that good as I saw what was in the sauce, but oh my gosh, when you put it all together it was amazingly refreshing and so light tasting that I ate it ALL…no, not 2 or 3 bites. You can subsitute grapefruit if you can’t find pomelos, or even apple slices. And lastly, I loved the steamed rice with taro chicken and mushrooms…such a simple recipe yet so flavorful.

What to choose…hum, I think I will go with the steamed rice with taro, chicken, and mushrooms. Was just wonderful and not spicy at all, something my family would appreciate!

For the steamed rice with taro, chicken and mushrooms, you will need:

• 1/2 cup jasmine rice, pre-cooked
• 1/4 cup taro, chopped in 1″ cubes
• 50 grams chicken, 1.5″ chunks
• 3″ piece of Chinese sausage, sliced thin
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 2-3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 tablespoon dried shrimp (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons pork fat (or 1 tablespoon of cooking oil)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of pepper powder
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon seasoning sauce
• pinch pepper powder
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon oyster sauce

Steps:

1. Marinate chicken with 1 teaspoon each of sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Add 1/4 teaspoon of pepper powder. Mix to combine and set aside.
2. Saute (or deep fry) taro until golden brown (do not burn) then take it out and mix together with rice, set aside.
3. Brown chicken pieces in same pan as you sauteed taro and remove from heat.
4. In a wok, heat oil and throw in garlic, browned chicken, mushrooms, Chinese sausage, dried shrimp (if using), and season with soy sauce, sesame oil, seasoning sauce, pepper powder, salt, sugar, and oyster sauce (last 7 items in ingredients list).
5. Stir until chicken is done, add a small ladle or two of chicken stock at this time so chicken doesn’t stick.
6. Throw in rice and taro mixture and 1/2 of the green onions and combine well, set aside for a minute.
7. Heat clay pot (or other pot that you may be using) and add pork fat or oil to the bottom. Once heated add the rice mixture and put the lid on to heat. You can either heat it in the oven or on the stove top (we did the stove top on medium heat.)
8. When you hear the rice start crackling on the bottom of the pot leave to heat another minute or two and turn off heat…for a total of about 5 minutes.
9. Open lid (be careful to not burn yourself from the steam) and top with remaining green onions and enjoy!

And the other dishes I made today:

That’s it for today. Catch you tomorrow!

Hi All, today we moved on to green curry paste, as one of my teachings and dishes…I really enjoyed it. We always have the choice of how many chili peppers to put in our paste, in case we don’t want it to be overly spicy. Even though I like spicy I used 1…but it still seemed pretty spicy, and I only used 1/2 of the paste in the green curry dish I made…I must have gotten a good one!

We went for a tour of the market again, to show the incoming students what I saw the first day. It was nice to see again, I saw a lot of things I didn’t see the first time.

Today each of us prepped our own station ingredients. It was fun, but hectic! We also made our own tamarind sauce…pretty easy. You take a tamarind root and boil in water, let cool then smash all the meat off of it with your fingers, then you boil it again so it lasts a long time.

The dishes I learned to make today included:

• Green curry paste (Nam Prik Gaeng Kheao Wan)
• Green curry with chicken (Gaeng Kheao Wan Gai)
• Thai style fried rice noodles (Pad Thai)
• Sweet sticky rice with Longan and coconut cream topping (Khao Nieow Piak Lam-Yai)
• Stir fried seafood with spicy basil (Talay Pad Kra Pao)
• Crispy fried mussel pancakes (Hoy Tord)
• Tofu and soy milk (Tao Hoo)

The most fun dish to make today, because I didn’t think it would be so easy, was the Tofu. I won’t see how much it firms up, or how it tastes, until tomorrow but the process was easy. My two favorite dishes today were the pad Thai and the green curry with chicken. So yummy! But, i would have to choose the green curry with chicken since it had a wonderful balance of flavors.

For the green curry with chicken, you will need:

• 50 grams chicken, sliced
• 1-2 tablespoons green curry paste
• 1 Thai eggplant, cut in 6
• 5 pea eggplants
• 1-2 kaffir lime leaves
• 8 sweet basil leaves
• 1/4 red spur chili, sliced or julienned (reserve 1/2 for garnish)
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1-2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1/2 tablespoon palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

Steps:

1. Add oil to wok and 1-2 tablespoons of green curry paste, stir vigorously until fragrant.
2. Add coconut cream and and stir until oil rises to the top.
3. Add chicken and fry for about 2 minutes, until chicken turns white.
4. Add coconut milk, eggplants, palm sugar and fish sauce and simmer until eggplants cook.
5. Then add sweet basil and kaffir leaves, some of the red chili’s and cook for 10 seconds.
6. Serve with rice, if you desire.

Some of the other dishes I made today:

The pad Thai was wonderful. Chef taught us different ways to present it. See below for some additional presentations of this dish.

Well, that is it for today. I will be having class tomorrow too, Christmas day, so stay tuned for some more. Happy Holidays to All!!!