Thai cooking class

The social group put on a Thai cooking class a few weekends ago and I jumped at the opportunity to join in. I have always wanted to take a cooking class as my style is what I would call “few ingredients with little prep”. This was more of an observation class vs. hands-on, but it was still interesting to watch how to cook Thai food, which I am not very familiar with but my husband loves.  Chef Linly told us how Thai food hits many taste profiles – sweet, salty, bitter, sour. We started with Green Chicken Curry (Gagn Kiew Waan, one of Kev’s favorites). I learned through Chef Linly that she prefers coconut milk powder to canned coconut milk because, particularly in Doha, you can never be sure of the consistency or condition of canned milk. Once she reconstituted the coconut milk she heated it in a pan with oil, curry paste, Thai sweet basil and various spices - then the pieces of chicken breast cook in the bubbling mixture. Here is my first hint as to why Thai food tastes so good… LOTS of oil and LOTS of sugar. Every time I turned my head back to the stove it seemed another pour of oil or sugar was going into the pan.

Chef Linly then moved on Pad Thai, which looked exhausting to make but tasted spicy and delicious.  She finished with Black Pepper Beef (Nua Pad Pik Thai Dam).  All in all, I learned a lot of oil and sugar goes into Thai cooking and I am just not so familiar or comfortable with large amounts of either in my food!  I have made a lighter version of the green curry at home (twice now!) and it’s gotten two thumbs up from the husband.  My favorite quote from Chef Linly – “don’t be stingy!”  Chef Linly hosts classes out of her villa and you choose three dishes out of a list of 37.  All you need is 6 people!  For details call 4486-2849 or 5549-9364 or email linly_stelljes@hotmail.com.