Thai Cuisine Simplified

 Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand. Blending elements of several Southeast Asian traditions, Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components. 

The spiciness of Thai cuisine is well known. As with other Asian

cuisines, balance, detail and variety are of great significance to Thai

chefs. Thai food is known for its balance of three to four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, and bitter

Some facts of Thai Cuisine that I learnt

Thai and Indian cuisine have so much in common
Thai Cuisine does not use any oil, they use coconut milk instead
Thai curries are not tomato based
Basil is the leaf that is used for tempering, like our curry leaves

and 

Sara Koshy, makes any dish sound simple and doable even to people who are new to cooking.

Dishes on the menu for Thai Cooking were

Tofu Satay
Chicken Satay
Tom Yum
Tom Yum Gai 
Red Curry (veg and non veg)
Thai Fried rice (veg and non veg)
Buoroy(Peanut and Jaggery stuffed Lychees in coconut 
milk)

A lovely basket with the basic ingredients required for making Thai Dishes in display.

Our expert chef Sara Koshy, explaining what Thai Cuisine is all about to the audience

Lychees ready to be filled with Peanut Jaggery stuffing

Participants trying their hand to make small balls of peanut and Jaggery 

Stuffed Lychees

It was more of a hands on session as participants were involved in every step of the workshop

Stuffed Lychees ready to bathed in Coconut milk.

Lychees setting in the refrigerator.

Now that the dessert is done with, let us start with Peanut sauce for the Satays

Marinated Chicken ready to be grilled

Sara cutting a block of Tofu to be marinated and grilled

Marinated Tofu

Sara teaching the participants to skewer the marinated tofu

Participants skewering tofu

Skewered Tofu

Skewered Chicken

Our Grill Master, Nikhil Moturi. Making the Satays

Twisting and turning them

This is a cute age old device that is used for pounding small quantities of garlic, ginger, onion, tomato or make rasam powder. Hand pound powders and curry base has a distinct flavor and aroma to it rather than the ones that are done in a blender. I plan to buy one for myself soon.

CFG's big boss at work

Stock getting ready for the soups

Vegetarian Soup ( Tom Yum )

Hand pound onion and  red chili paste

Chicken Soup ( Tom Yum Gai )

Vegetarian Thai Red Curry

Chicken Thai Red Curry

Thai Veg Fried Rice 

Vegatarian and Chicken Thai Red Curry served for the participants

Vegetarian Thai Red Curry

Thai Chicken Fried Rice

A full plate served to participants of the workshop

It was a wonderful experience learning to make an international cuisine, from the hands of an expert. Sara Koshy continues to inspire me to learn new cuisines and try different dishes.

A huge thanks to Chennai Food Guide for organizing such a superb workshop