Kanjana Home Cookery School

• Rachel_john's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Chiang Mai

Trip Start Jun 09, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Jun 08, 2006 Next
Entry

  Chiang Mai, Thailand
Saturday, November 19, 2005

At 10pm in a busy cafe on Ratchadamnoen Road, Kanjana smiles at me as she is stirring a bubbling broth of sweet smelling coconut milk. There is a buzz about this place and as the customers lick their lips with satisfaction, I instantly know that this is the sort of cooking that I want to learn. I sit with her husband, Tun, and discuss their cookery class. Unlike other schools, Kanjana cooks Thai food every day in her small cafe. Her classes can have a maximum of 2 students, and the client can choose to learn any 6 dishes of their request. The course is about 100 Bart more expensive than the other classes I have seen but with private tuition I think that it is excellent value for money at only 900 Bart (12 pounds). I select 6 of my favourite dishes and go home that evening excited, carrying a blue book containing their secret recipes. These are:

(1) Green Thai Paste and Curry,
(2) Pad Thai noodles,
(3) Ko Soi noodles,
(4) Pomelo salad,
(5) Tom Yum Koong, and
(6) Mango sticky rice

01 Thai ingredient preparation

.

The owners say that John is also welcome to join in and help assisting. I think that they mean with the food preparation but he just cheekily asks what time the food will be ready for tasting!

I start my course at 10am. Kanaja takes me to a small clean kitchen behind her cafe. As I don a cooking apron and hat I learn that she spent 17 years cooking tasty school dinners. Obviously Thai school dinners must be a lot better than the English equivalent as these meals are even better than Jamie Oliver's. Kanjana Thai restaurant has been open for the last 8 years and it is run with her husband and daughters. Upon the request of many happy customers she started her cookery classes about 4 years ago.

We start with the ingredient preparation. On the far end of the table are fresh herbs, an assortment of vegetables, chillis, beansprouts, galangal, ginger, shallots, noodles, mangos, spices, seafood and meat. Kanajana professionally goes through the ingredients required for each recipe and then I sweat profusely as I watch, taste and copy as she expertly uses razor sharp cleavers to crush and slice the ingredients before setting them out on silver trays

02 Koi Soi curry paste ingredients

.

Fresh or dried chillis are used for adding spice to dishes. We use only 3-5 chillis for the hottest dish (Thai Green Curry), and Kanjuna smiles saying that Thai people will often use 10-15 chillis in their home cooking. I am amazed at how many different types of aubergines there are in Thailand. Some are the size of peas, whilst others are long and thin. We add plenty of fresh herbs - these include kaffir lime leaves, coriander and sweet basil.

To make a green curry paste, we take a selection of dried spices and chilli and grind them using a large stone pestle and mortar. The paste has to be really smooth and the pounding process is hard work. I sweat a lot as the stone pestle is heavy after about 10 minutes of pounding and Kanjana smiles as I struggle to keep up. Today we have two pastes to prepare and I make a mental note to chop the ingredients into smaller pieces to reduce the next pounding session. The paste can be made in larger batches and kept refrigerated for around 1 week, or frozen for 1 month.

Once we have set out the ingredients for all 6 dishes, we move next door. Here there are 2 pots, one containing fresh coconut milk and the other a more dilute solution which is a half concentrate of coconut water

03 Curry paste preparation

. Kanjana makes her own cocunut juice from fresh coconut meat. It is a milky white liquid which tastes tastes sweet with a hint of sherbet. She adds that canned coconut milk is, of course also ok, although not suprisingly, not as good.

We cook the dishes one by one. I am suprised how fast Thai cooking can be. Within 3 hours, I feel pretty exhausted but nearly all my dishes are ready. John appears and helps out with the pomelo salad and mango sticky rice.

The dishes don't last very long. There is enough to feed 6 people, but we somehow manage to eat everything! John says that it is the best meal he has had for ages and we spend the rest of the day walking around with our bellies bursting. I hope that the food tastes just as good when we are back home.

THE RECIPES: (Kanajana Thai Food Restaurant, 7/2 Ratchadamnoen Rd, Soi 5, Chiang Mai 5000. Tel (053) 418368

SWEET GREEN CURRY WITH CHICKEN
A) CURRY PASTE
1/2 tblsp coriander seeds
1/8 tblsp cumin seeds
1/8 tblsp black pepper
1/8 tblsp white pepper
1 tblsp garlic (with skins)
1/4 tblsp fresh ginger
1/4 tblsp kaffir lime peel
1 tblsp lemon grass (lower 1/3 only, crushed and chopped)
1/2 tblsp chopped spring onions
2 tblsp chopped sweet basil leaves (for colour)
3-5 chopped fresh small green chillis
1/4 tblsp shrimp paste (optional)

Using a pestle and mortar pound together all the ingredients except the shrimp paste to make a smooth paste (takes around 10 minutes of hard sweating)

04 Tom Yum Koong

. Add the shrimp paste and pound for a further 2 minutes

B) CURRY DISH
1 cup of coconut milk, separated into half cup of thick and half a cup of thin (soymilk or fresh milk)
1 tblsp green paste (see above)
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp light soy sauce
100g chopped chicken (or substitute with pork/beef/pumpkin/potato/taro root)
1 chopped aubergine, 5 small aubergine (or sweetcorn, pepper)
1 tblsp fish sauce (optional)
basil for garnish

1) Heat the coconut thick milk over low heat until the oil appears at the top of the cream. Add green paste, sugar and soy sauce (or fish sauce) and stir for 1 minute
2) Add meat and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in thin cocunut milk and boil for 2 mins
3) Add aubergine and other vegetables. Stir 2-3 times
4) Season if required with fish sauce. Cover and simmer for 2 mins
5) Remove from heat and top with basil

KOI SOI (Noodles with curry sauce)
A) CURRY PASTE
Follow the same as Green Curry paste above, but add 1/4 tblsp ginger, 1/4 tblsp tumeric to the dry ingredients, and replace the green chilli with a medium spicy red dried chilli

B) GARNISH
In a serving dish, thinly chop and place the following ingredients: pickled cabbage (kim-chee will do), and chopped coriander and spring onions, shallots and lime

C) CURRY AND NOODLES DISH
Fresh wheat noodles (or dried noodles soaked in water until soft and dried on a rack overnight)
100ml coconut milk
200ml cocunut water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp curry powder
100g chopped meat or fish

1) Separate the noodles into a large and smaller pile, shaking to remove any excess flour
2) Deep fry the small pile of noodles - this should take about 30 secs in hot peanut oil
3) Boil the remaining noodles

05 The best Thai meal ever

. They will float when cooked. Rinse in cold water and then dip in the boiling water again. Place on a serving dish and pour a little oil to prevent them sticking together
4) Boil coconut milk and add the koi soi curry paste. Then add sugar, fish sauce, curry powder. Add the meat and another 200ml of coconut water. Bring to boil

To eat, place boiled noodles in bowl, top with curry sauce and then garnish. Place crispy noodles on the top

PHAD THAI (Fried noodles)
2 tblsp peanut oil
100g chopped firm tofu (diced)
1 tblsp dried shrimps
1 tblsp pickled cabbage (diced)
100g chopped chicken/pork/beef
1 cup (100g) fresh rice noodles (glass noodles) - if using dried noodles, then soak for 5 mins in cold water
1/4 cup water
1 tblsp soy bean paste (salt/fish sauce)
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp tamarind mixed with water
1 egg
1 tsp chilli powder
2-3 tblsp unsalted roasted peanuts (cashew nuts)
1/2 cup beansprouts (or shredded cabbage or carrot)
2 stalks of chives (leeks/spring onions) in 1 inch pieces
1 lemon

1) Heat oil in a wok under medium heat until hot
2) Add tofu, shrimps and pickled cabbage and stir until brown. Next add the meat
3) Add noodles followed by about 4 tbls water.
4) Stir and turn the heat to low. Add the soy bean paste, sugar, tamarind
5) Crack the egg ontop of the noodles. Then add chilli powder, peanuts, and vegetables
6) Gently mix the egg and noodles mixture. Flip the noodles over using a spatular. Then increase heat
7) Add lemon juice and serve immediately

TOM YUM KOONG (Hot and sour soup with prawns)
1 cup water (chicken stock)
3 x2cm slices of lemon grass
1 kaffir lime leaf
3 thin slices of galangal (or ginger) with skin peeled
1 chopped shallot
1 tblsp fish sauce
1 tblsp light soy sauce
3 prawns
2 straw mushrooms (chinese or white button mushrooms)
1 tblsp lime juice (lemon/tamarind)
1/2 tomato
1 tsp chilli jam
100ml coconut milk (optional)
3-5 crushed small green chillis
1/4 cup coriander leaves (spring onions)

1) Bring 200ml water to boil in a saucepan
2) Add lemon grass, kaffir leaves, shallots and galangal. Then add fish sauce and soya sauce
3) Add meat. If using prawns, then add mushrooms
4) Add lemon juice, tomato and chilli jam
5) Cook prawns for 1 minute. Turn off heat
6) If you lke cocunut, then add 100ml of coconut milk to your dish before serving
7) Garnish with chilli and coriander

POMELO SALAD
1 red chilli
1cm very thinly sliced lemon grass
1-2 small aubergine
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1/2 tblsp dried shrimps
1/2 tblsp plum sugar (tastes like crystallised honey)
1 tblsp crushed peanuts
1 tblsp fish sauce

1) Using a wooden pestle and mortar, pound the chilli
2) Stir in the lemon grass and aubergine.
3) Add shrimp paste, shrimps, plum sugar, peanuts and fish sauce and mix
4) Add the pomelo flesh. Gently pound together (but no too hard otherwise you'll have a mushy mixture)

MANGO STICKY RICE PUDDING
1 ripe mango (we used a yellow one)
1 serving of sticky rice (I hope that suishi rice can be used as an alternative)
100ml coconut water
pinch of salt
3 tsp sugar

1) Cook the rice in water
2) Boil coconut water with salt until you see a cream on the surface of the mixture. Set aside 1 generous tblsp of the liquid
3) Add the cooked rice to the saucepan containing the coconut sauce. Stir well and serve on a plate. Pour the remaining coconut liquid ontop of the rice
4) Cut the mango (peel away skin from stem to tip. Then cut the flesh into two halves and into pieces. Place on plate next to the coconut rice
5) Pour the remaining coconut liquid ontop of the rice

Bon Appetit!

Slideshow Print this entry Share Chiang Mai hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry