My mother and I went to the cookware store Sur la Table, a competitor to William & Sonoma, to participate in a cooking class. The class was called Thai restaurant recipes, my mother had a coupon for ages so she decided that since I was home, it would be a fun activity to do together. We had a great time, our teacher was wonderful, she spoke clearly and engagingly, she kept the pace from both lagging and rushed, we, the class, were able to keep in time to her directions while learning about techniques and ingredients. Did we learn anything? I have to say no because after decades of cooking, we are familiar with so many cooking techniques and my interest in Asian cuisine has exposed me to all of the ingredients the chef introduced us to, but I enjoyed doing the recipes the way the chef directed the class, it was interesting to see someone else’s take on it.
Another feature of the class that made it so much fun was the lack of cleanup, we dirtied dishes, utensils and pans to our heart’s content, no cleanup for us, the sous chefs had that task. After our lesson, we all came together and had “dinner”, we started with the classic Thai papaya salad, followed by lemongrass chicken, a new recipe for me, and I particularly enjoyed eating the lemongrass chicken with our take on the classic pad Thai, the two dishes, I found, complimented each other perfectly since they shared very similar flavor profiles. We used all of the standard Thai herbs and seasonings such as green onions, fish sauce, garlic, shallots, peanuts and palm sugar, so the marriage of the lemongrass chicken and pad Thai made sense. We even made dessert or part of the dessert, our chef provided us with a delicious mango sorbet, she had made it prior to the class, using an ice cream maker Sur la Table sells, we made the whipped coconut cream, it was surprisingly yummy, I don’t like sweetened coconut as a rule but the mango sorbet went so well with the coconut whipped cream, I finished mine in just a few bites, I wanted more it was so good.
My mother and I left the class quite pleased with the class and I’ll admit it, ourselves lol. I’m fairly sure we will be doing this again, what makes the prospect of another class so appealing is the variety of cuisines, techniques and topics they offer. I look forward to it.
laurieanichols 