Organic Cooking...Yes Organic!!

Molly and I went to an Organic Thai Cooking Class this weekend. Yes...I know that everyone is laughing because I LOVE organic food, so when I heard about this place I couldn't resist! We began the day going to an outdoor market where our teacher showed us all different varieties of rice and the types we would be using in our dishes. We then proceeded to walk around and look at all the beautiful fresh fruits and veggies (once again I could only wish we had this in the States:). When we were done, we hopped back in the truck and headed to the farm. The farm is owned and operated by a local Thai family about 30 minutes outside of the city. As we arrived two little girls came running around the corner yelling "hello." Our teacher, Nam, started laughing and told us that those were his daughters. Nam started this farm a couple of years ago and it has grown into a great business. His wife, mother, mother-in-law, father, etc, all help with the farm and cooking classes. So, of course it made me even happier that we spent a little extra money on the class because we were helping with sustainability and a local family:)

We started off with a quick tour of the farm and Nam showed us what they do to grow "organic" and what produce we would be using in our dishes. We then went to a gazebo, which was over a pond, sat down at the table and began to prepare our food. We each choose 5 dishes to cook, so Molly and I picked different ones so we could share and hopeully help each other cook them back in the States. My choices were; red curry paste, red curry with chicken, thai vegetable soup, pad thai, papaya salad, and mango with sticky rice. We first pounded our ingredients for the curry using a mortar and pestle (which is a staple kitchen tool in Asia). I only used two chilies for my paste because I do not like food too spicy; however, some people used 4 or 5! After our paste became a nice constancy we moved into the kitchen and started making the rest of the dish. I realized that when I cook with coconut milk back in the States, I do not use nearly enough. Thai people LOVE coconut milk, as do many Asian countries and Molly and I have became addicted to it also.

After we made three of our dishes (red curry with chicken, thai vegetable soup, papaya salad) we sat down and ate! I loved everything that Molly and I cooked; however, my favorite dish was the papaya salad. It is so delicious and has such a good crunch! Everyone in our group passed their dishes around so we all could have a little taste of everything. We then walked around and let the food rest because we knew we had two more dishes to make!!

Our last meals we made were pad thai and mango with sticky rice. Hands down Thai dessert is wonderful! They use so much coconut milk and it adds a little flavor of heaven:) Even though we were full, we devoured the dessert, plus tasted everyone else's. We had such a great group of people to cook with, which always makes any experience better, plus Nam made us laugh the whole time...I can't wait to cook some of these things for my family!