receipe | weltgereist

‘Mai pet!’ is probably one of the first things an Expat in Thailand learns to order food ‘no spicy’. Often the mild versions of Thai food are still too spicy for Europeans. By now I got used to the spicyness and I learnt to love the Thai kitchen, therefore the following blog entry.

During my time in Chiang Mai I participated in a Thai cooking course together with my travel mates. We decided for the cooking school ‘Thai Farm Cooking School’ which is situated a bit outside of the city. We booked our course via telephone, but there is also an office of the cooking school in the city center of Chiang Mia. The cooking course cost 1000 Baht, and the money was definetly worth it! The course included travel to and from the farm, the preparation and eating of 6 dishes, and a cooking book with all the dishes which were cooked during the course. The supply of cooking courses in Chiang Mai is huge, and without being able to compare, I would definetly recommend this school to anyone. The sourrounding in the nature is beautiful, we cooked partially outside, and the cooking instructor spoke really good English and constantly joked around.

One of my favourite dishes in Thailand is ‘Tom Yam Kung’, a sour soup served with shrimps. During the cooking course I finally learnt how to prepare that dish myself – and of course I would like to share this with you guys.

Ingredients – for 1 person:

1 stalk lemon gras, 1 big tomato, ¼ onion, 2 kaffir lime leaves, 2 small pieces galangal, 1 lime, some mushrooms, 4 shrimps, 2 tablespoon fish sauce, ½ teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon shrimp-chili-paste, 2 cups of water, 1 spring onion, some coriander leaves, 1 leaf of Thai parsely, 2 small green chili peppers as you wish

Preparation:

1. First you need to get the water boiling in a pot. The lemon grass should be cut in half and added to the water together with the kaffir lime leaves (without their stems).

2. The tomato as well as the quarter of the onion can be cut in big pieces and added to the cooking water. Now also the galangal can be added. If you want to have it more spicy you might want to add the crushed chili peppers now.

3. Next the fish sauce, suger, and shrimp-chili-paste can be added. The lime is squeezed into the water and the shrimps and mushrooms can be added.

4. When the shrimps are cooked, the stove can be turned off and the chopped herbs and spring onion can be added. Finally you can season the soup with sugar, lime, fish sauce to make it more salty, or add spices.