Thai Basics

I took a second cooking class at Central Market last night. This time the topic was Thai Basics. I love to eat Thai food, but I was clueless about how to make it at home. Little did I know, Thai food is actually fairly simple to prepare, once you get a handle on the unusual ingredients. I need to make a shopping trip now to an Asian market to pick up fish sauce, chili paste, sweet chili sauce, tamarind paste, egg noodles, rice noodles, and red curry paste.

We learned how to make Shrimp and Pork Spring Rolls (not pictured, because we ate those as we continued cooking), Curried Beef Chiang Mai Noodles, Fish Cakes with Sweet Peanut Sauce, Shrimp Pad Thai...
and my absolute favorite Coconut Chicken Soup. (AKA Tom Kha Gai) Oh this soup was delicious. I can't wait to make it at home. The fragrance is beyond description, the taste so wonderful. And it's easy! That is a Kaffir lime leaf floating in the soup, by the way. Just one of the many ingredients I had never used or even heard of before last night.
As always the class was an experience. There are interesting and/or unusual people there alongside you as you chop, stir, and carry out all the steps of making these recipes. The staff is pouring wine, and the kitchen gets hot! I'm always exhausted when class ends after standing for two hours and working, but then we get to sit and eat! For dessert last night, they gave us a lemongrass ginger sorbet with a lemon cookie. Those were things we could buy in the store, and when I make a Thai feast for friends soon I think I'll buy those items for dessert. They were the perfect compliment to the meal.