Class #1 - Thai Cooking

I signed up for 10 cooking classes through PCC. If you live in the seattle area, I recommend trying them out. They recently added a lot more vegan classes. I typically try some of the recipes after the class to see how I compare on my own, so that's what I will post. Unless I get lazy and bring a camera to class.


The first class was Thai Cooking. I have been to a class taught by Pranee before. She is awesome and tells the class lots of tips and tricks about Thai cooking and ingredients. I will totally take a class with her again. Her website has some recipes on it - not the ones from class.


It was a hands on class, with the room split up into 4 groups each making 1 recipe. I was on the summer rolls station. I have made them before, but that was ok because every so often we'd rally around the stove as a group was cooking their items. So on the other recipes, I only missed out on the chopping. The class was really fun.


Here are the other 3 recipes that I have since made at home.


Tom Kha Ja. A soup that is sort of like tom yum - lemongrass/coconut flavor. The bulk of the work is chopping. The actual cooking time is very short. Once the veggies are cooked, the soup is done. I'd say less than 20 minutes of cooking time. The white stuff is extra coconut milk. Other optional toppings were salt and cilantro.

Tod Man Kaopod, a type of corn fritter. They were mainly rice flour and some wheat flour, corn, green onions and I forget the rest. They slightly were better in class, and I'm not sure if that was because I was starving or because the expert was there watching ;-). I made them fried:

and baked (sprayed now and then with oil to prevent sticking and to help get a good crunch). Not much of a difference between fried and baked taste wise.

Por Pia Sod, the dipping sauce for the summer rolls, which I used for the Tod Man. It is AMAZINGLY good. It's best not to make it too often or you will become a dipping sauce addict.

Pad Kee Meo, a stir fry with noodles sort of like Pad See Eew, but less greasy and lots more veggies. This tasted better in class and I think it was because I should have doubled the sauce that you cook the noodles in. My noodles ended up being dry, but I was able to compensate. I will definitely make this again. One tip I learned was to serve this with some toppings:

• sugar - surprising
• cayenne pepper or chili powder
• chopped jalapenos in vinegar