DIY Thai

I don’t normally write about food we’ve cooked ourselves, but I’m making an exception today to recount our experiences of the Kao Hom Cookery School in Chiang Mai. This was the first time we’d ever done a cookery class and we were blown away not only by how much fun we had, but just how amazingly tasty the food was… and we cooked it all ourselves (with a little help from a few friends!)

The school itself was in a beautiful setting - a Lanna style outdoor kitchen with work stations and cookers, surrounded by a herb and vegetable garden and an orchard. Our teacher was the charming and patient Tim, the owner of Kao Hom.

First up on the menu was Kai Ho Bai Tei or Chicken Wrapped in Pandanus Leaves with Home Made Chilli Sauce. This involved marinating the chicken in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, white wine, white pepper, garlic and coriander roots before wrapping it in the Pandanus Leaves (an art-form in itself) and then deep-frying them in the wok.

The Chilli Sauce couldn’t have been easier and we have now sworn never to buy shop-made chilli sauce again! (Yeah, we’ll see how long that little resolution lasts…) Sugar, vinegar, water and salt boiled down to a syrup in a saucepan and allowed to cool before adding in pounded garlic and red chillis.

The results were truly outstanding – we had this dish once before in a restaurant in Bintan, but let me tell you – our version kicked butt!

Next up was Yum Woonsen, a Glass Noodle Salad. This had all sorts of weird and wonderful ingredients thrown in – Thai pork sausage, wood ear mushrooms, white fungus, dried shrimps, pork mince and shrimps. These were all boiled in a sieve in a pan of boiling water for various lengths of time before being tossed together with the noodles. What really made the dish though was the Dressing – sounds simple enough – fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic and chillis but oh, so delicious!

The next dish, the Panang Neua or Beef Panang Curry, was the winner of the day. A thick, creamy red beef curry, made doubly delicious by the fresh home-made red curry paste (I confess we didn’t make the curry paste ourselves), freshly squeezed coconut milk and freshly ground peanuts. Oh yes, believe me, there is a curry God! We could have stayed all day just eating this dish.

But no, we had dessert to attend to - Sa-koo Piak or Tapioca Pearls with Young Coconut Flesh. This was one time I wasn’t sorry to have pigged out before the dessert – it really wasn’t that great, especially the bizarre salty coconut milk that was poured over the top. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste. Personally I’d rather acquire more of the Beef Panang Curry...

If we could cook this well at home, we’d never need to go to a restaurant again… but where would be the fun in that? And what on earth would I blog about?…

Kao Hom Cookery School, Chiang Mai – www.kaohom.com