Monday, May 18, 2009

Thai Party Platters

I recently took the Thai Party Platters class at PCC, taught by Pranee Khruasanit Halvorsen. I love her classes because she makes the best thai food. The food was very simple to prepare, but very flavorful and fresh tasting.

Here is her website. Her blog contains recipes and videos. She is also on youtube. She doesn't solely cook vegan, but the recipes are easy to veganize. My note taking was obviously wishy washy because I forgot to write down what to replace shrimp powder / fish oil with. I think it was dried mushrooms (probably shitake). UPDATE: Chessa also took this class and thinks it's salt or soy sauce to replace the fish oil. I agree :)

Here is an article about Pranee that has links to recipes on the righthand side. I'm already scoping out the soup, squash dumplings and cocktail recipes. mmmm... Tom Yum Martini.

It's pretty obvious that I'm part of the Pranee fan club. If you're in the Seattle area, you must take one of her classes. She does teach some 100% vegan classes at PCC (those are the ones I take).

Nam Takrai Saparod aka Lemongrass Pineapple Cooler. This was really refreshing. It also had some mint in it.
Satay Hed Horm aka Grilled Spicy Shitake Mushrooms. OMG. Spicy goodness in a mushroom.
Prik See Ew aka Spicy Soy Sauce. This is used in Thailand just like we use salt and pepper.
Kao Phad Takrai aka Lemongrass Fried Rice with edamame and tofu.

Phanang Portobello Mushrooms in homemade Phanang Curry

Makrua Pao aka Grilled Eggplant.

The Phanang curry is sitting on top of the eggplant in the picture below.

I'm definitely going to make this curry paste, because it tastes about a million times better than any other phanang curry that I've had before. When she added it to the coconut milk for the dish, she used a higher ratio of paste to coconut milk than you get in a restaurant, so it was full of flavor and not watery.

The whole class took turns grinding the curry paste for around 25 minutes. One poor guy got stuck w/ the majority of the grinding, so he deserves some props. Lets just say that the food processor is our friend :).

My crystal ball sees a Thai feast in my future. And it will be a feast because I have all the recipes from the other classes I've taken with Pranee :)


~~~~~

Here's little Peepa worshiping the April sun on a battered up tarp in the cat cage.
I'm sure some of you will wonder where his collar is. He's not wearing it because he had balance issues from his seizure/stroke like episode - which he recovered from. The question is have I recovered from freaking out over him? Sort of.
He is now ok enough to wear a collar. I'm all about collars, tags and microchips.

Now I'm off to take Kobie to the park.

9 comments:

Chessa said...

I just took this class last week, wasn't it awesome?! Those shiitake mushrooms were amazing. One guy got stuck doing most of the grinding in our class, too! It was hilarious. Pranee is awesome, I would totally take another one of her (vegan) classes. Let me know if you try the curry paste in the food processor, I'm curious to how it compares with the mortar and pestle (not that I'm looking to buy a 30 lb mortar and pestle!)

After class she pulled me aside to say that she plans to put a specifically vegetarian section on her blog, so yay for that! I slipped it into the conversation that I would pretty much kill for her version of massaman curry, so hopefully she'll provide.

Oh, and I think for the fish sauce thing she said it depended on the dish, that salt would replace it in soup but you could use soy sauce in curries. I think...

wingraclaire said...

Lucky you to have all those cooking classes available to you! Enjoy your feast!

Tara said...

All of the food looks amazing! The lemongrass cooler seems especially nice. I love Thai food and would be so happy if I could take a class.
Peepa is so sweet! It's very scary when cats have seizures (or anything wrong with them). Nikko had a seizure a few months ago and I don't think I've quite recovered from it yet.

jd said...

Sounds like an awesome food class! And that Nam Takrai Saparod looks sooo tasty and refreshing...

BTW, I love the pic of that Peepa, he's soo cute :)

Jen Treehugger said...

Oooh that Satay Hed Horm does look super tasty - it all does.
Peepa is so beautiful. Half an hour after I put collars on my cats, they all come home without them!
Seriously, it's such a pain that I just stopped trying.

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

you're so lucky having these classes near you. that curry looks amazing, i love thai food!

For the Love of Guava said...

poor peepa baby! Tell peepa I feel like I've had some vertigo issues as of late so I can commiserate I just wish I could worship the sun in recovery! :)

All that Thai looks amazing! After all our feasting in Hawaii Mr. Guava & I definitely have to perfect our Thai Skills.

You and Kobie off to the park? That little sneaker didn't even peek in to say hi!

Amy said...

Mmm it all looks super tasty! And awww Peepa is too cute! I'm glad he's feeling better! (and I'm glad you're freaking out a little less, it's too scary when things happen to our furry babies!)

Andrea said...

When we move to Seattle in August I'm going to look for these classes at PCC. They sound so good.