An Asian Surprise!

I recently received an awesome gift - a seat in an Asian gourmet cooking class! It was a one-day course that lasted about 3 hours, and I loved every second of it.

We began by going over the basics of Asian cooking.  The instructor, Maria, passed around a variety of common Asian herbs for us all to smell, taste, and familiarize ourselves with.  She explained how each is used in dishes as well as the best way to purchase each one (dried, frozen, fresh, etc).

After learning all about Asian herbs and spices we talked about vegetables.  We discussed how to identify, prepare, and cook with each one.  Below are a few of the vegetables we discussed.

Okinawan Sweet Potato

This is the coolest root vegetable ever.  On the outside it's a normal, slightly boring, beige/tan sweet potato.  But you slice it open, and GASP it's the most brilliant purple you've ever seen.  I couldn't believe it came from nature. I don't have a picture of the whole thing, because it didn't seem nearly interesting enough to warrant a photo. Until she cut it open. Apparently you can cook them up about the same way as a regular sweet potato.  I've got to track down some of these things.

Next we moved on to fruits.  Here is an assortment of some of the fruits we talked about.

Rambutans, Sugar apple, others

Persimmon and Lychees (my favorite!!)

 Bitter melon

(is there a word for "really, really, bitter"?) Yuck. Pretty though.

Tamarind

Really interesting fruit that's used to make tamarind paste, which is a staple in tons of Asian dishes as a base for the sauce. They're quite tart to eat plain (though I really enjoyed them), but sugar is generally added to the paste to make it sweet.

After going over the herbs and spices, vegetables, and fruits, we discussed the different types of noodles and rices used in Asian cuisine.  I never realized there was such a variety to choose from; the noodles can be made from wheat, egg, rice, Mung bean, or even yams.  This offers a range of choices to cater to different dietary needs, as well as culinary experimentation!

Next we started on our dishes for the day.  Did I mention we got to cook and enjoy a 3 course meal while we were there?! We started with a Thai Squid Salad.  Yummy

Maria taught us how to prepare squid so it's not chewy. So handy!

Sake makes everything better.

Thai Squid Salad

This was SO good! It had a great variety of flavors and textures, and I bet it was pretty healthy too. It included a tamarind paste sauce, which was nice to experience after learning about. I never would have picked the flavor out of it though.  It also featured daikon, carrots, and mint.

Next we made a sweet and sour soup.  Maria really knew what she was doing with her recipes.  I loooved this soup.  The broth was delightful but it was also surprising chock-full of vegetables and chicken! And we appreciated all the flavors so much more after learning about each of the herbs that were used.  Lemongrass was one of our favorite herbs, and it really shone through in the soup.  The addition of kafir lime also gave it some great zing.

Tom Yum (Thai Sweet and Sour Soup)

Tom Yum topped with coconut milk

While cooking this soup, Maria gave us an excellent tip for cooking with coconut milk.  She said you should always add it last to your dish or you'll risk the oil separating from the milk. I never knew this and made sure to store it away for the future.

For our main dish we got to venture into the kitchen and cook pad thai in a real wok! The wok was huge, and the flame heating it produces so much heat that it requires running water on the stove to keep everything from getting too hot. (see in the background).

Maria let some of the boys take a turn stirring the pad thai (enough for about 15 people), and it was so heavy they could barely lift it.  Asian chefs need strong arms.

Chicken Pad Thai

I never really knew all the ingredients or the amount of work that went into making pad thai. It turned out so yummy, and seeing the process made me really appreciate the dish more.

The class was hosted by Asian Gourmet restaurant in Melbourne, Florida.  If you ever get a chance to take this class I would definitely recommend it.  There is so much to learn about different cultures! It got me really excited about all the possibilities out there. I can't wait to do more of my own experimenting with Asian cuisine!