Thursday, March 21, 2013

Thai cooking lesson at Stir Crazy

The Stir Crazy cooking school with the five fully equipped double work stations
Our teacher for the evening, Noleen van der Westhuizen
You choose your recipe according to your ability and experience
Michael gets chopping. He has lots of prep to do for his rice paper rolls, which include noodles, mango, spring onion, avocado, coriander, mint and basil with a sweet Thai chilli sauce
Each of us made one
You soak the rice paper rounds in hot water, then paint on some sweet chilli sauce, choose your contents and roll up
The class in action. Lynne discussing spices she has just pan roasted with our teacher Noleen
John made stir-fried steak in oyster sauce. He left out the mushrooms, but it still tasted great
Yorke Searra, the chef, trying to blend the Penang curry paste for Lynne – a little difficult with a stick blender that was broken
Noleen tastes one of the sauces a student has made
We enjoyed a glass or two while we cooked. Lynne was so busy she kept forgetting her wine
Stir fried Thai mussels
Carmen makes one of our starters, a great Tom kha Gai (spicy and fragrant chicken in coconut milk) soup
Michelle reading the recipe carefully. Studying it before you start is essential
Twice cooked chicken in its marinade waiting for its first cooking
Then after the second cooking, it is put onto flat noodles for serving
Hard boiled eggs are deep fried....
...for the delicious starter Son-in-Law Eggs in a tamarind sauce
Lynne starts to fry off her chicken while the curry sauce reduces in the wok...
...then the chicken and thinly sliced green beans are added and briefly cooked
And finally we all sit down to a really great meal. See on the table another dish of Thai fish cakes
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

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