Mama Noii Thai Cookery School

Baking is more my passion than cooking. But I have wanted to cook more and use more interesting flavors and spices. All the food we've had in Thailand has been flavorful and amazing. After reading several travel blogs mentioning Thai cooking classes, I decided this was a must-do for me in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai probably has a hundred different cooking schools. They all seem to have the same cooking menu, but locations are different. I really wanted to do a cooking class on a Thai farm. I felt it would be nice to get out of the city for awhile. I also wanted to see what some Thai produce actually looked like outside of the market and on a plant. 

After contacting a few places, I found Mama Noii Thai Cookery School. It was on an organic farm, cheaper than some of the other cooking schools, and still had the same menu. Brandon decided to come with me, and we were to be picked up from our house on Monday between 8:30 and 9:00 am. We waited, but we weren't picked up. Alana kindly called the cooking school to intervene. As usual the Thais who were picking us up were confused because we weren't at a hotel or guesthouse. Despite having an exact address they couldn't find us. This has happened to us a few times before and is frustrating. I cannot understand how having an exact address is less helpful than having just a hotel name. Argh. 

We were eventually picked up and deposited at a local market where we met up with the rest of the group. We were in time for an explanation of different types of rice and then permitted to look around the market. Despite the rough start, we enjoyed the wandering the market and had hope for a good cooking experience. 

An explanation of different kinds of rice

Little turtles waiting for their demise

Live fish in tubs. We saw a woman take one out, weigh it in a bag, and than smack it hard against a wooden table to kill it for a customer. 

Fresh raw meats

Cooked meats and fish on sticks

Wandering down a produce aisle

After exploring the market we were transported to the cooking school on an organic farm near Chiang Mai old town. The farm was so green, peaceful, and beautiful. We sat at a table under the outdoor cooking pavilion and chose what dishes we wanted to cook from different categories.  

Brandon chose to cook: 

• Tom Yum Kung (hot and sour prawn soup)
• Pad Thai
• Spring rolls
• Khao Soi (Chiang Mai curry noodle dish)
• Bananas in coconut cream

Katie chose to cook: 

• Tom Som Kai (sour chicken soup) 
• Pad Kra Prao (stir fried chicken with hot basil leaves)
• Som Tam (Thai papaya salad)
• Massaman curry
• Sticky rice with mango

Choosing one dish from each category to make

After making our decisions we donned Thai farm hats and were given a tour of the farm. We saw the differences between Thai basil and Hot basil. We tried mini Thai eggplants that raw tasted like raw peas. We were introduced to several types of peppers, the most common being the Thai Bird's Eye Chili. There was a dark, wood and straw hut to grow oyster mushrooms in. The farm also had about four piglets and a dozen chickens to collect eggs from. 

Walking thru Mama Noii's organic farm

Eating a Thai mini eggplant

Eating a more normal sized eggplant

Learning about Thai Chilies from our cooking instructor, Kim

Lemongrass plant

Papayas

Feeding fish in the farm's pond

Oyster mushrooms growing in plastic bottles 

Brandon collecting an egg from the chickens. 

We enjoyed some cold water and watermelon and then started prepping for cooking. Donning some aprons and picking a chopping block we began cutting up ingredients for our first two dishes, a Thai soup and a rice or noodle dish. One of the most valuable things we learned was the three types of ingredients put in Thai food: non-edibles for flavor, vegetables for eating, and garnish for added seasoning and presentation. It was particularly helpful to know the non-edibles (tumeric root, ginger root, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, cloves, other leaves), since we'd been trying to eat them out of our dishes for the last few weeks. Now we know just to remove them when eating! 

Chopping, chopping, chopping

Everything chopped and prepped for cooking soup and rice or noodle dishes

After chopping we started cooking. We learned that when cooking Thai food you always put the non-edibles in first on high heat, then the meat, then the vegetables and lower the heat, then taste and see if there is a proper balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy and make changes if needed, finally turn off the heat and add the garnish. 

Ready to cook with our burners and woks

The balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy is vital in Thai dishes. Sweet comes from cane and palm sugar. Sour is from lime, tamarind, and mango. Salty comes from sea salt, fish sauce, and seafood pastes. Spicy is associated with chili peppers and peppercorns. 

Learning from Kim

We took a break to eat our soups and stir fries. Both of our soups, Tom Yum Kung and Tom Som Kai were spectacular. My chicken hot basil stir fry tasted as good as our favorite street food place. Brandon's Pad Thai was good, but didn't have the same great flavor we love from the Pad Thai place we frequent. 

Tom Som Kai and Pad Kra Prao

Tom Yum Kung and Pad Thai

Just as good as the street food we've had

Delicious success! 

Next was the curries and appetizers. We mixed our own curry paste with a mortar in pestle, which was a lot of work. Our group made three different curry pastes, and it was surprising how similar they were. They all had garlic, lemongrass, tumeric, ginger, kaffir lime peel, shallots, coriander root, red chiles and shrimp paste. But then there were a couple extra ingredients depending on the curry type. The massaman curry had addition of cloves and cinnamon. The khao soi curry had the addition of curry powder, and the panang curry had crushed peanuts. 

Pounding the ingredients into Massaman curry

Using his strength to make yellow curry

Our curries turned out really well and were probably our favorite dishes of the day. I was surprised at how quick it was to actually cook the curry, only about 5 minutes. The longest part of the process was making the paste and cutting up all the ingredients. I ended up taking all of mine to-go, because I was too full at that point, and Brandon took most of his home as well. 

Making massaman curry

Rich, fall tasting massaman curry with rice

Cooking Khao Soi

Classic Chiang Mai dish, Khao Soi. Even better tasting than one we tried before in Chiang Mai. 

Rather than making out appetizers first, for some reason we made them midway through our day of cooking. I put together my appetizer of Som Tam (Thai Papaya Salad) with ease. Brandon had chosen spring rolls as his appetizer, so he had a lot more work to do. 

Making Som Tam

Som Tam (Thai papaya salad)

Brandon learning how to roll and seal a spring roll

Deep frying the spring rolls

Artistically presented spring rolls made by Brandon

Then it was time for desserts. I had selected mango with sticky rice and was really looking forward to learning how to make my favorite Thai dessert. I was disappointed to find that I didn't get to make the sticky rice. I only was allowed to take pre-steamed sticky rice and mix it in a wok with coconut milk and sugar. Really simple compared to making the rice. Sticky rice is a specific type of rice and it must be soaked overnight and then steamed for 20 minutes or so, not cooked. 

Traditional Thai sticky rice steamer

Mixing the rice with coconut milk and sugar. The green plant thing is Thai vanilla

Plating the sticky rice and mango for eating

Brandon made bananas in coconut milk. The bananas were small and they had a surprisingly sour taste. So by being bathed in a sweet coconut milk with addition of some salt, the Thai balance of flavors was present even in dessert!  

Slicing the bananas before boiling

Making the sweet coconut milk broth

We collected our to-go bags were given a cookbook with recipes and pictures of all the dishes the school makes. I am looking forward to trying to make a Thai dinner for friends and family when we return to the States. The ingredients were more everyday and dishes were easier to make than I expected. We also chatted one last time with our cooking group. Our group of six really made the experience. There was one girl from Washington DC and a mom, dad, and daughter from England/Scotland. We all clicked really well and swapped stories and compared cultures. Brandon even got to talk shop since the girl from DC was an avid user of some of the products he's worked on at TechSmith and the other family was quite interested in his work as well. It was a lot of fun and a great time of community. 

Eating with our group of six

Mama Noii Thai Cookbook

Eventually we made it back to our house. But, we had to explain at least three times again that we were not at a hotel or guesthouse, but at a private house. And, the driver went the wrong way thinking she knew best, despite Brandon giving clear directions through the old town toward our accommodation. Not the most pleasant way to end our cooking day, but alas. Such is Thailand. 

We're now Thai chefs (-ish)!