Chiang Mai Cookery School - Day 5

Well, my final day. I’ve loved my cookery course, and the hotel with the wonderful food, pool and people. It’ll be a shame to leave. Also, the double bed and air-conditioning were amazing.

We began the day with vegetable carving. Using some special knives, we hacked our way through a variety of vegetables. And now, for my use as well as your entertainment, I’m posting the three guides.

Tomato Rose - start by cutting the base flat, leaving about 1cm of skin

Flick it up

Begin skinning in a circular pattern, not to thin or thick

Finish peel

Roll one way, flesh inside

Curl and arrange on plate

Tomato Lotus Flower

Cut 1cm into top

Repeat to make a cross

Repeat to create 8 segmants

Slice from each line down 1cm in depth, 1cm from the bottom

Repeat to all lines

Using the flat of the blade, pry them all out

Should look like this, only better

Hold firmly in hand

Carefully, slice the skin from the flesh, leaving some at the bottom

Should look like this

Bend them back, try to make a clean cut

Artfully arrange

Carrot Leaf - with a slab of carrot, take off one side of skin

As shown

Flip over, and slice diagonally and down skinned side - it should make a leaf shape

Score lines 1cm from top and bottom, and one down the middle

Cut out the middle, cutting diagonally from each side

Only neater

Cut leaf shapes, using two smooth motions

Repeat both sides

Tada!

Slice off the bottom corners, following the leaf shape

Slice into the middle section, following shape

Cut down from leaf above, taking out the chunk

A beautiful carrot leaf/holly leaf/Christmas tree

Next up was a mediocre (in my opinion) meal. Clear soup with minced pork. I guess I’m not a big soup fan. I wasn’t a fan of the soft tofu and the glass noodles just make me feel queasy.

This was countered by the introduction of spring rolls. After we chopped a lot of vegetables, we artfully arranged them into rolls, and in true Chinese tradition, deep fried them. I think I like the Vietnamese style – raw – more than this. At least I can pretend to be healthy. Still, with chilli vinegar sauce, it was delicious and crunchy.

We began preparing for lunch then, starting with red duck curry. It was meant to be too spicy, due to the amount of coconut cream poured in. It was amazingly creamy, and the curry really suits the duck. Though, it had an odd ingredients list. Grapes and pineapple? I’ve never been a fan of fruit in savoury, like Hawaiian pizza, and I’m no convert. When I make it at home, less fruit and maybe some more duck.

Though, perfection followed. Chicken and ginger. Like the chicken and cashew nuts, this dish is so simple yet incredible. I think we used too much onion for my taste, but the fried ginger tastes so delicious I didn’t care. Definitely one to try again.

By this time the day was drawing to a close, and time for the light meal and pudding. The light meal was chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves. A Thai dish you can get on every street corner along with wrapped sticky rice and egg. It has its own carrying wrapped, so it’s often used as fast food. Again, for me as much as you – tutorial.

"Chicken Style" - taking the leaf, bend the stalk end up, like a head, and the leaf end up longer, like a tail

Cross the leaf over the front of the head

Pull round and tie in a knot - make sure tail is still long

Pull tight and pour in chicken mix in the pocket

Pull the tail over, locking the chicken mix, and slot through the other side

Pull tight, and congrats! One chicken meal

Then deep-fry and devour

Finally was the daddy of all Thai puddings, mango sticky rice. After steaming the rice, we made the sauce, a surprisingly complex way. It involves the right balance of salt in the sauce, it sounds awful, but the salt really compliments the absurd sweetness of the mango. The whole thing comes together for a heady meal of sweetness that’s heightened by the coconut milk and salt. It’s not just about loading up on sugar, it’s about accenting that flavour. Amazing. So amazing I forgot to take a picture.

So, I left the house of Sompon behind to continue my adventure. Chiang Mai Cookery School was brilliant, a lot of food cooked very well by some talented chefs. Their English was very good and the ingredients were of high quality. My only qualm is that we did next to no preparation. I would have liked to do some more washing and peeling of exotic vegetables. But then again, we did six different dishes every day, there wouldn’t have been time otherwise. I checked into Walai Guesthouse and promptly unpacked everywhere. Good thing I have a twin room, one bed for sleeping, one for stuff.