One of our Thailand trip highlights… Pum’s Cooking School. The Patong Beach location integrates a Thai cooking experience with the actual restaurant and you get to cook in the same kitchen as the chefs preparing food for patrons. For the class, several packages are available, but we settled on the “Little Shoes” class that included instruction for three dishes. I chose to learn to cook Mussman curry with chicken, Phad Phak Med Memaung, and Phad Thai. All some of my favorites.
To begin, Pum reviewed the most popular herbs, spices and vegetables commonly found in Thai cooking. What the difference between Thai basil and regular basil? Which chilies go in each variety of curry? Is it okay to substitute ginger for galangal? All things that Pum answered.
Making curry paste
She also taught a quick lesson on some basic Thai ingredient and cooking word translations. Sure makes it easier to read a Thai menu now:
- Gai = Chicken
- Nua = Beef
- Moo = Pork (why not beef?)
- Pia = Fish
- Goong = Prawns
- Pooh = Crab
- Khao = Rice
- Med Mamuang = Cashew nuts
- Prik = Chili
- Nam = Liquid or sauce
- Phad = Fry
- Tom = Boil
- Prio = Sour
- Wan = Sweet
- Gaeng = Curry
- Yum = Soup
Mussman curry with chicken
To prepare the curry paste, we mixed several ingredients together in the mortar: red chilies, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, Thai shallot, salt, Thai sweet basil and vegetable oil. Next, we smashed all the ingredients together into a paste with the pestle. Pum instructed that it should make a sound like “Buk, buk”, not “Tuk, tuk”. Otherwise you are doing it wrong and not smashing the ingredients correctly.
Finally, to complete the curry recipie, the curry paste was mixed into a pot with sliced chicken, coconut milk, water, vegetable oil, fish sauce, sugar, green beans, and kaffir lime leaves. Stir until warm and serve.
It tasted so good!
Pum was a great instructor and really made cooking fun. She tries to make Thai food simple and easy, while using all-natural ingredients. We learned Thai cooking should be “happy and healthy”.
Oh ya, she also gave us a copy of her cookbook.
Phad Phak Med Memaung
Pum & Greg
Standing behind the steamer
Pum & Debra
