Chiang Mai, D19: Organic Cooking Class

The day came to turn two hos into housewives. Ian and I learned how to cook!

On Monday, Jeab from Diva arranged for us to take a cooking class at Sammy’s Organic Thai Cooking School. Sammy himself picks us up at 9AM. Because we were the last two students on his route, we got to sit up front in the cab of his songthaew. We notice right away he likes to crack jokes. He’s an older guy, probably in his 50s, and has a very soft voice. He laughs and says "Good, good" after everything which eases the awkward silences. It also reminds me of Beyonce's "Drunk in Love" so I'm pleased.

The first stop is the market. Sammy hands out a piece of paper with five categories: Soup, Appetizer, Curry, Main Dish and Dessert. Ian and I pick different things so we know how to make a variety of dishes. Sammy tells us he’s going to gather the ingredients so we have ten minutes to walk around the market and meet by the coconut machine.

"You listen to me and you can go home and start your own Thai Restaurant! Good, good!"

The market is very authentic. They have every part of all the animals. The vegetables are fragrant, as are the fish. Ian and I are walking around separately and this chick from our class strikes up a conversation with Ian. She’s from Colorado and she hits on Ian the whole class. Actually, it was competition between her and a woman in her 50’s who’s on a GIRLLLLSSS  TRIPPP. She notices Ian and she picked similar meals and says, “Hey we could go to dinner sometime,” all flirty and suggestive. 

We meet back at the coconut machine. Sammy shows us how coconuts are shredded and milked. He uses the machine and lets us all have a sample of the coconut shavings. 

Sammy then walks us to the next stall where there are many types of rice. I seriously did not know there were so many types of rice. The rice we were cooking with was jasmine and sticky rice. Sticky rice is something particularly available in the northern parts of Thailand where weather conditions are right for it.

Back in the songthaew, we drive another 20 minutes to Sammy's farm. His farm is 10 acres and has a lot of different crops growing, though his main production is rice.

Sammy has an outdoor cooking area that features a big long dinner table that runs parallel to a rectangle of stoves that each student gets to cook on. We sit at this long table and are handed our aprons. Sammy promises to show us the ingredients used today, followed by cooking, eating at 12:30, napping in hammocks then back to cooking and eating. Class will end around 3:30 and we will be home before 5PM. Sounds like the perfect date to me.

He takes us to his garden where he cuts some ingredients for us. He passes around samples of thai ginger, lemongrass, three different types of basil, etc., all of which was grown on his property.

Time to cook!

We go back to the long table and we get plates of herbs and spices that we are going to use in our chosen curries. Ian is making a green curry and I’m making yellow. We each get our own pestle and mortar. Inside is cumin. And we begin!

We chop everything up and add it to the mortar. There are a lot of ingredients to chop and you have to chop them finely because they are going to make a paste. Then we pestle. We pestle away and away and away. This is a laborious process. I told Ian we'll save curry-making for anniversaries. After working for about five minutes we get to see a beautiful, fragrant paste. 

The paste is transferred to a bowl and the bowl is taken to the stove. We both have a bowl of coconut milk on our stoves. We add our curry paste to the milk and set it to simmer. More ingredients to chop and add. Smells. So. Good. I Can’t. Stop. Taste. Testing. We finish and we pour it into a bowl. I’m salivating. We’re told to put a lid on it, now it’s time to make soup.

Ian's Pride and Joy

DAFUQ?

It’s only 11AM and we don’t eat until 12:30! NOOOOOOOOOO! 

I hold back tears and start making a soup. 

Seriously? We started with delicious coco-creamy curry and now I’m adding veggies to water? I forgot I get irritable when I’m hungry. Soup wasn’t so bad- didn’t take too long to cook at least, plus I could sneak a bite or two of curry while it boiled. We finish the soup, set it on a shelf under our stove and went on to cook our main dish.

Sammy's wife is leading the class at this point, and he walks around telling people "I can tell this isn't you first time cooking... maybe your second! Good, good."

I made chicken with cashews and Ian made chicken with chilis and holy basil. We use a wok and now I will be a spokesperson for a wok; I love it. It was magic. I chopped, added ingredients, and out came the perfect meal in five minutes.

Lunch time!

So between my dishes and Ian’s, we had made green curry, yellow curry, chicken and coconut soup, thai spicy soup, chicken with cashews and chicken with chilis and holy basil. We feast like kings. The yellow curry was the winner, everything else was a close second.

 

Sammy had promised us hammocks and naps, and hammock and nap we did! We had a little over an hour until the second half of class started. Ian and I swung in hammocks next to each other overlooking one of Sammy’s (out of season) rice fields. It’s silent. Everyone is sleeping or soaking up the sun. You hear every bird, in the distance or roosting quietly overhead in the hammock huts. It’s so relaxing. I barely even notice when a bird poops in my mouth.

Even Sammy's bathroom is a relaxing oasis:

Wakeup! Tea time! Everyone gets a lemongrass tea. Time to make appetizers and desserts. I learn how to make chicken bites wrapped in some long leaf. Others make spring rolls. A few make papaya salad. Everyone snacks. 

For dessert Ian makes a pumpkin custard and I learn to make mango and sticky rice. Sammy tells me "When you use sticky rice don't touch your hair... but you can touch your friend's hair! Good, good." A couple near us makes bananas and cream and shares it with us. We are in heaven!

It’s 3:30 and time to go home. I am stuffed. We each paid $32 for what would have easily been $100+ with a Groupon in the states. We didn't even have to do the dishes!

Sammy gives everyone a cookbook with all of the day's recipes in it, so now I can cook these things for all of you! Good, good.