Have you ever wanted to make an authentic Thai meal from scratch? Does the thought of store bought sauces make you yearn for fresh ingredients and do you love going out and trying something completely new?
Thaikhun have launched cookery classes in some of their stores – check here to see if there are any near you. You will learn how to cook a starter and main course in approximately 2 hours.
There is a complimentary drink and goodie bag to take home, all aprons and ingredients are provided so you don’t need to take anything with you. The cost is £50 per person and each month the menu changes so you learn something new throughout the year depending on when you take the class. (Feb is Thai Fish Cakes and Chicken Pad Thai – be still my heart!)
We were kindly invited along to take part in the first cookery class trial at the Metro Centre branch of Thaikhun, we have been there a couple of times now and love it so were looking forward to creating our own versions of the meals.
Having arrived at 6.30 and settled in with a drink we set about learning how to say Hello in Thai with the help of our lovely chef (Sal) and her helper for the night.
Nothing was a problem and after a barrage of questions about authenticity of Thai food in the UK and where to buy the best ingredients etc we started to make the spring rolls. Sal cooked all of the ingredients then handed out dishes of filling so that we could try our hands at making our own rolls. We all thought the pastry would be a filo type but it was much more elastic thankfully which came in handy when we man handled the filling into little tube shaped parcels of chicken, veg and noodles!
Thankfully we didn’t have to wait for these too cook as we were given ready made ones to sit and devour while they prepped the area for the Thai Green Curry. I have to admit these rolls are one of my favourites when we visit and i could quite happily just work my way through a plate of these instead of a main!
We were talked through all of the ingredients to make the green curry paste and having refused the coriander root (blurgh!) we were pleasantly surprised to hear that you don’t have to use it to have the authentic taste!
With both myself and Caroline preferring a milder curry we opted for only 4 of the small green chillies in our mix (turns out we should have only used 2!) but after a moment of tingling on the lips the heat didn’t seem too bad and a glass of water to hand made everything ok! lol
By the time the curry was cooked it was after 9.30pm and we still had to eat it! Thankfully we had no dishes to do and that made the curry taste that little bit nicer too – I hate washing up! lol
Overall I would highly recommend the classes if you are looking to broaden your cooking skills as you do learn a lot about not just the ingredients but cooking methods and lifestyle too. With it being the first class obviously there were a few issues with continuity and a lot of time felt as though it was wasted standing around but these are obviously things that will be ironed out in no time at all. The more often the classes are held, the easier it will all flow. Sal was a delight and spent a lot of time explaining things to us all and going above and beyond with regards to helping and making more ingredients etc.
I for one cant wait to visit again!
XOXO
Debbie
We were given complimentary passes to the class for purposes of this review. All views and opinions are my own and genuine.
