A Thai Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

Today we had a cooking class at the Smile Organic Farm cooking school. After riding around in a van to pick up around 12 people, we stopped at a local market so we could taste Thai fruits from the area. These were all new to me, I had never even heard of the fruits we sampled! After getting back in the van and driving some more, we finally arrived at the farm to start our cooking class. 

Once we arrived, our guide, Chef K, gave us a tour of the garden where they get their fruits, herbs and vegetables for cooking. We wore pink aprons and big hats to protect us from the sun. As we learned more about the garden, we discovered it wasn't just food they grew - they also had herbs as well as flowers that stained your hands purple! Chef K continued the tour and explained what each vegetable was and if we would use it in the class.

Chef K showed us how to make the inside of a spring roll and taught us how to properly stuff and wrap so we could eat them. They were delicious!

We made multiple dishes that night and used a mortar and pestle to crush up the things we needed to make the curry paste. For the stir fry, we used a big wok to put in the vegetables, rice, herbs and other ingredients to make the dish. There were different kinds of soup we could choose to make, I wanted to learn how to make chicken and coconut milk soup. It was delicious!

The best part of the night was getting to eat all the delicious foods we made together with the rest of our class! We took home enough leftovers to have another meal - and it tasted just as good when we reheated it.