Thai Cooking Class

I just finished a two-week Thai Cooking class at a local high school. I had taken an Indian cooking class in Foster City about a year ago which was great fun, so I was excited to take this one in our new town, Sunnyvale.

I think I liked the Indian one a bit better - it was hands-on, and everyone in the class was able to contribute. That teacher was also very good about showing us little tricky techniques and shortcuts that really have helped my cooking. For example, I always thought that you could only use the cilantro leaves, and I learned that the stalks have just as much flavor - no use wasting them! I also learned that almost any spice in a recipe will benefit greatly from "blooming", which is cooking it briefly in a pan (either dry or with a bit of oil) before adding the other ingredients.

Anyway, the Thai class I just finished was fun, too, but it was a "demonstration" class. The teacher had a stove in the front of the classroom and cooked the dishes while we watched. We saw 7 dishes in all, including tom khai ghai soup, prawns in red curry, thai fried rice, chicken satay, salmon cakes, coconut steamed rice, and lemongrass chicken. They were all spectacularly delicious and I am happy to know how to make them. It was interesting to me how similar the ingredients in each dish were - almost everything contained curry paste, fish sauce, lemongrass, coconut milk, garlic, basil, onion, and cilantro. It's nice that these ingredients are relatively simple and easy to find (contrasted with the Indian food, which has a million crazy spices), so I think home-cooking authentic Thai might actually be pretty do-able. The main problem for me is the ubiquity of the coconut milk, which, incidentally, has 28 grams of fat per 1/6 cup serving. Pretty outrageous. There is some "light" coconut milk that I may try, which I understand is just a later pressing of the coconut, but I have been warned that the dishes won't taste the same.

Anyway, if anyone's interested, I am posting the lemongrass chicken recipe below. It is the only non-coconut milk recipe and really had a wonderful flavor. Let me know if you try it!