Cooking in the palace
32º Celsius in the shade. My shirt sticks. Colors, noise and, above all, odors explode around me. Papayas, mangoes, peppers - fruity aromas mingle with fish and the aroma of roast. This market is overwhelming me. For a moment I do not know where to look first, then I discover the frog. He is poison green, with beautiful golden eyes and about the size of two clenched fists. Jumping he dares a last escape attempt and lands in a blue plastic sieve with his conspecifics.
"Are they eaten?" I ask tentatively, and Ann nods enthusiastically. "Only the legs," she reveals, "the rest is too bony."
Annchalee, Ann for short, is my cooking teacher, a young woman with a beaming smile who shows her passion for cooking. Already as a child, she helped out at her parents' restaurant and later hung up her English studies to return to the stove. Now she brings unsuspecting "farang", as Thai people call foreigners, in the "Oriental Culinary Academy" the subtleties of Thai cuisine. Of course I have eaten a Tom Kha Gai or a curry, but I do not know exactly how the exotic spices are used and the marinades are prepared. After all, every Thai meal is a balancing act between very different tastes: The curries, for example, are sour and creamy-sweet at the same time, seasoned with sour tamarind, coconut milk, fiery chilies and a handful of basil, coriander and mint.
Where could one learn the art of cooking something like this in the legendary "Oriental Hotel"? For Asian lovers, the name has an almost magical sound. After all, not only did literary greats such as Graham Greene or Somerset Maugham stay at the headquarters in Bangkok, but also pretty much all the movie stars in the world. However, my cooking class does not take place in Bangkok, but in the sister hotel in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.
A quarter of an hour takes the taxi from the airport on the dusty country road, then we cross a narrow river. Here one expects everything possible, but not with a fairytale castle. The "Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi" is modeled on a Burmese palace, but at least twice as large. Here everything is breathtaking: from the lush park to the villas, which are grouped around a rice field. The farmers, who walk up and down there with a buffalo, are more likely to entertain the guests. In addition, a national beauty flutes, and I feel like in a costly and enormously tasteful equipment film. The most astounding thing is that this Thai Neuschwanstein has not existed for centuries, but has sprung from the imagination of an art-loving used car dealer and an ingenious megalomaniacal architect. The cooking school is also housed in one of the open pointed gable teak pavilions that characterize the traditional Thai architecture of the north.
The cooking class starts with a morning visit to the market, where we will buy and learn the ingredients for our dishes. I had not imagined it as lively as the frog.
Cook teacher Ann smiles mercilessly, presumably her own culinary challenges such as the fried giant ants, the mouth watering. The taste supposedly crispy-nutty. Nevertheless, I do not like to try it. My limit is finally reached when Ann shows us a vat in which anchovies ferment to themselves. From this later fish sauce is filtered. In the current processing state, however, the broth smells - let's say - pretty bad.
But that one must not always be guided by the smell, I learn a little later. The prickly green Durian, which is considered the queen of fruits in Thailand, has the aroma of old sports socks. In fact, it is so stubborn that it is forbidden to store it in hotel rooms or to transport it by plane, which is why it seldom reaches Europe. Of course it's me who has to try it after I've already pinched the ants. For a while, I think about making the call of a soft ice cream for the rest of the cooking class, but then I bravely put one of the soft yellow segments into my mouth. It melts creamy on my tongue like an overripe avocado. The taste is a small sensation and nothing comparable to what I know. Most likely it could be custard with a hint of chili and cheese. Sounds strange, but it tastes very, very delicious. "Aroi maak", as they say here. For our dishes, on the other hand, we need very simple ingredients such as beef fillet, grapes, coriander and garlic, which are available here in a wide variety of varieties.But even with familiar culinary herbs such as peppermint we have to relearn - taste is shaped by the education. Mint in sweets or cocktails would be out of the question for Asians; in Thailand it is used exclusively for savory dishes. Avocados, on the other hand, are considered sweet, an avocado lassi is a refreshing dessert.
Back at our castle-like cooking school, each student gets their own wok station, then Ann explains the basics of Thai cooking: whether soup, curries or pasta - everything moves between the coordinates sweet, sour, salty and spicy, which occur in any Thai dish The Thai people spice up their own dishes with so much chili that outside of tourist areas you should absolutely ask for "mai pet", that is, not so spicy.
"Small but deadly," chuckles Ann, pointing to the tiny green bird-eye chillies. The smaller, the sharper. She probably knows the mishap that will overtake me later.
As a preliminary exercise, we learn Schnippeln. Lemongrass is one of my favorite spices, but so far I was not sure which parts to use, so I limited myself to cooking the woody stalks. However, if you peel off the outer layers and cut the inside only to the end of the purple ring, the fine, crisp slices are also very raw raw.
Our first dish is a beef salad with grapes. The most important thing is the spicy sauce. It consists of green chilies, coriander roots, mint stems, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and also tastes great with fried tofu. The ingredients are crushed in a mortar until no more plant fibers are visible. It looks quite easy, at least with Ann.
After five minutes of arm training, I get an iced, orchid-scented towel and I gladly accept the help of an assistant who explains to me as he continues to ponder that my sauce is far from fine enough. The decisive mistake I make when I wipe the sweat from my face: My eyes burn like fire, and I'm out of action for several minutes. Whenever you handle chili, wash your hands afterwards!
When I recover, the rest is relatively simple: fillet of beef, rare or medium fried, cut into thin slices and mixed with halved and pitted grapes, kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped lemongrass and spicy sauce, a few mint leaves add to the salad additional fresh note. Luauwarm a perfect summer dish that can be served with rice.
Only cooking is even more beautiful than the cooking school ...
Over the next few days, I learn that most Thai dishes require no more than eight to twelve minutes. Once you get used to dealing with unfamiliar ingredients and spices, snipping and mortaring is the only time-consuming task of preparation.
The main thing is, you have the right equipment, because I am now quite professional. The day before departure, I drive to the market and buy spatulas, mortars, bamboo baskets, choppers and bowls. Of course, they are also at home in the Asia shop, but that's different. Even with the ingredients no one can fool me now: Dried shrimp, galangal, roasted minced garlic, purple shallots and three kinds of basil should survive the flight in the case unscathed, and after such perfect mangoes I can search in Germany for a long time. Let's see if the customs makes trouble with the Durian. Packed in several layers of plastic, hopefully the thing will not come up. I do not smell anything. Then I send an SMS to my friends who pick me up: "Please get meat and drinks, I bring the rest with me, I cook for you!"
Cooking Thai: addresses
Oriental Culinary Academy "Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi", Chiang Mai morning course with market visit: 5000 baht (about 100 euros) afternoon course: 3500 baht (about 75 euros)
The Oriental Thai Cooking School "Mandarin Oriental", Bangkok Morning Course: 4000 Baht (about 85 Euro), six mornings: 20,000 Baht (about 420 Euro)
Cooking Thai: Recipes
Prawns with pepper sauce
3 portions
Sauce: 4 garlic cloves, 8 coriander roots or 2 cm galangal, 6 tablespoons sunflower oil, 150 ml chicken stock, 1? 2 teaspoon ground white pepper, 6 tablespoons mushroom sauce (mushroom flavored soy sauce, substitute soy sauce and flavor with ground dried boletus mushrooms), 6 tablespoons soy sauce , 6 tsp sugar, 2 tsp cornstarch; 9 king prawns without head and shell, 50 g each of tapioca and wheat flour, fat for frying; possibly limes and peppercorns for the decoration For the sauce: Peel off garlic. Peel or scrape coriander roots. Mince both in a mortar. Fry in hot oil. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add pepper, mushroom sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Stir cornstarch in a little water and tie the sauce with it. Season to taste. Cut the prawns lengthwise at the back and pull out the black intestinal thread.Roll the prawns in a mixture of the two types of flour and fry them in hot fat. Serve with the sauce. Maybe decorate with lime slices and peppercorns. 330 kcal per serving, E 20 g, F 19 g, KH 19 g In addition: Basmati or Thai rice
Beef salad with grapes and mint
2 portions
2 slices of beef fillet à 100 g, salt, freshly ground pepper, 1 tbsp oil, 50 g seedless white grapes, 1 bunch of mint (to yield 10 g mint leaves), 1 stick of lemongrass, 2 kaffir lime leaves; Sauce: 1 red chili pepper, 10 g mints stalks, 3-4 coriander roots, 2 cloves of garlic, 4 tsp fish sauce, 4 teaspoons lime juice, 1 teaspoon sugar, 2 tbsp oil
Flatten meat with the palm of your hand, salt, pepper and fry in hot oil from each side for 2 minutes. Let the meat rest briefly to allow the meat juice to collect and then slice. Rinse the grapes cold, pick from the panicles and pat dry. Halve large grapes. Rinse mint cold and pluck the leaves. Pick up the stems, which are later used for the sauce. Remove the leaves from the lemongrass and finely chop the lemongrass. Only use lemongrass until the end of the reddish interior. Remove the leaf vein from the kaffir lime leaves and cut the leaves very finely.
For the sauce: slit the chili lengthwise and remove the seeds. Chop the chili very finely. Work with kitchen gloves. Finely cut the mint stems. Peel or scrape coriander roots and finely chop. Mix the finely chopped ingredients with crushed garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and oil.
Mix meat, grapes, mint leaves, kaffir lime leaves and the sauce and arrange on two plates. Approx. 330 kcal per serving, E 22 g, F 22 g, KH 11 g
Mango sorbet
6 balls
2 cans mango canned from the tin (drained weight 250 g), 150 g of mango juice from the cans, 2 limes, 1 tablespoon of sugar
Drain mango columns, collect juice and measure 150 ml of it. Puree with the drained mango slices, lime juice and sugar. In an ice cream machine, allow to sorbet for 30 minutes. Possibly still put in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Or fill the puree in a flat metal bowl and let it freeze in the freezer, stirring with a fork over and over again. Form sorbet into balls and serve. 110 kcal per portion, E 0 g, F 0 g, KH 25 g
