Thai cooking students eat the coursework
By MANTANA HEIM
Hot water for jasmine tea? Check.
Regular ice tea? Check.
Bathroom in tiptop shape and the fragrance oil lit? Check.
I am a Thai Cooking Teacher living in Moneta, Va., and rushing to get ready for my fresh spring roll and shrimp Pad Thai class.
Seven people signed up for the class, which starts at 10 a.m. I took a glance at the fresh ingredients washed and set up on the prepped table with seven chairs lined up in front. Fresh flowers from my garden were in the vase on the table. Yes, I am ready.
The doorbell rings, and I open the door to a young man in jeans and a plaid shirt. He is David, a graduate student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. . He apologized for showing up too early but he had never been to Moneta.
David wants to learn how to make Pad Thai because he and his girlfriend love Thai food but can’t afford to eat out much on a student budget. “ I tried to make Pad Thai with the ready made from supermarket but it was always soggy,” David said. “Pat, my girlfriend, loves fresh spring rolls so I thought I‘d surprise her with making both. She doesn’t know that I am here.” He grinned.
Other students drifted in and by 10.05 a.m. we started.
I handed each one the folder for today’s class. We went over the recipes and ingredients and look at the fresh ingredients for Pad Thai. They had questions.
“What do dry shrimp look and taste like,” asked Mary. I pointed out that my Pad Thai recipe recommends omitting the dry shrimp since they are too expensive and for those with an acquiring taste only, and handed her the bag of dry shrimp. “Whew!” Mary said, “I think that you are right. We should omit the shrimp.”
In Thailand, the dry shrimp are a price commodities and like good anchovies add a delightfully distinctive taste. The opposite is true in America.
“Where did you buy your fresh beans sprouts?” asked Judy. “They are so crisp and white.”
I explain that I buy all of my fresh ingredients from Taipei Oriental Market, 3120
B Peters Creek Road (540-265-7190) in Roanoke and also tell Mary to get the beans sprout white and crispy, you need to soak them in cold water with two tablespoons of white vinegar for about half an hour.
The students have put on their aprons since this is a hands-on class, and it is time to start cooking.
As we discuss what to start cooking first, we agreed that Pad Thai should go on first since it takes the longest time in prepping and cooking. The students divide into two groups, each group responsible for cooking the food from start to finish. The gas stove is already set up on the back porch for them to use.
First, I show them how I do it, favoring the oil and adding chopped fresh ginger to the hot wok. I like ginger, so I use ginger. You can use garlic if you like.
The students step back as the fire begins to roar, but I explain the fire must be quite hot or the vegetables get soggy. I prepared the Pad Thai and passed a bowl around so could taste it. We each had a fork and a communal bowl to taste and critique food.
“That wasn’t hard,” David said. “I think that I could make it, too.”
After a quick cleanup, it is time for the group to start cooking. David volunteered to lead his group and started with flavoring the oil with garlic. He poured the shrimp in hot oil and stir-fried quickly with two spatulas (as I did). He threw in a handful of fresh bean sprouts, chives, and some soy sauce.
Mary shrieked, “Turn down the heat, David, the shrimp are burning!” Judy handed him the platter, and David scooped out the shrimp. He scrambled the eggs and finished the rest of the cooking without any major mistakes.
Judith volunteered to be the cook for the second group and even though her Pad Thai looked good and tasted good, her group forgot the eggs altogether.
We put away both Pad Thai dishes in the warm oven and got ready for our second dish, fresh spring rolls.
“How hot should the water be?” Judith asked when I slipped the rice paper sheet into the water. “Luke warm,” I answered.
“Could I use hotter water when I want it to soften quickly?” Mary asked.
“No” I replied. “Too hot, and the sheet will be too soft and create a hole.”
Many students groan.
“Just have patience.” I tell them. “You will see it is worth the effort.”
Everyone gathered around the prep table quietly with concentration. “Oh Shucks! I got a hole in the bottom of my spring roll!” Jan (the quiet one of the group) exclaimed. “Don’t worry, Jan. Just wrap it with another sheet and we will eat it,” I said.
Finally, everyone was done. I took all the spring rolls and placed them on the platter, garnished with salad greens, mint and cucumbers and added paper thin slices of lemon rings around the platter.
“Bravo!” someone said, and a loud clap rang out as I carried the two platters of Pad Thai from the oven.
Everyone was quiet as they enjoyed the food.
PAD THAI-TRADITIONAL
7-oz.dried flat rice stick noodles
3 T. Tamarind pulp
3 T. Palm sugar or light brown sugar
2 T.. fish sauce
1 T.. rice vinegar*
1 tsp. Thai chili powder
7 T. vegetable oil
2 eggs. lightly beaten
3 small shallots, minced.
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced.
6 oz. medium shrimp, peeled, and cleaned
1 cake smoked or fresh firm tofu, diced
2 T. tiny dried shrimp (optional)
6-7 Chinese chives or 4 scallions cut into 2-inch pieces
¼ c. chopped pickled turnips
1 ½ c. bean sprouts
¼ c. roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
1 lime quartered
1. Soak noodles in a large bowl of hot water until pliable, about 15-20 min. Drain and set aside. Dissolve tamarind pulp in 1 cup water in a small bowl, and then strain through a sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on pulp with the back of spoon to push most of it through. Discard seeds.
Stir sugar, fish sauce, vinegar and chili powder into tamarind liquid and set sauce aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add eggs, and swirl around skillet to form an even layer. Cook until set on one side, about 1 minute, and then turn and cook on other side until set, about 20 seconds. Transfer omelet to a cutting board, thinly slice, and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining 6 tablespoons of oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add shallots and garlic and stir-fry until soft, about 10 seconds. Add the fresh shrimp and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add tofu, dried shrimp, chives, turnips, half of the bean sprouts, half the peanuts, the noodles, the sliced omelet, and the reserved sauce and stir-fry, tossing constantly, until the noodles absorb most of sauce and sauce thickens, two to three minutes. Garnish each serving with the remaining bean sprouts and peanuts and serve with limes.
Serve 4-6.
Mantana’s easy–fool proof Pad Thai
Omit the dry shrimp, the shallots, the hot chili powder and the rice vinegar. I found that the authentic recipe produces a bit sour Pad Thai. The dry shrimp and shallots are too expensive for what it is worth. I am also unable to find the tofu that is firm and good tasting as we have in Thailand, so I omit it also. (I used fresh tofu.) Tofu is what a regular restaurant uses to extend meals since meat and shrimp are expensive.
Step 2 is time consuming and produces the same result as scrambled eggs. I scramble my eggs and add them to the dish later.
Even though Pad Thai sounded easy, it is not. Too high heat and the noodles will bunch together into a ball; too low heat and the dish will get soggy.
I cook my Pad Thai in stages and put all of it together at the end. This way, the shrimp will not be overcooked, and this method produces a "Perfect" Pad Thai every time.
I make my sauce ahead of time, cook it and put it in the refrigerator for immediate use. This is my sauce formula:
One and a half cups. warm water, 3 tablespoons tamarind pulp, 3 tablespoons palm sugar and 2 tablespoons fish sauce.
Dissolve tamarind in warm water, and press through sieve, Add sugar, fish sauce, correct seasoning. Drain it through a sieve. Cook on medium high heat until rolling boiling. Remove from stove; let it cool. Store the container in the refrigerator. Use it within a month.
Using tamarind concentrate. One-half cup. water, 3 tablespoons. tamarind concentrate, 3-4 tablespoons palm sugar, 3 tablespoons fish sauce. Cook over medium high heat until boiling. Taste and correct the seasoning. Remove from heat and let it cool. Store in refrigerator.
-- By Mantana Haim, who operates Mantana’s Thai Cooking School from her home in Moneta. She can be reached at 540-297-5789 or SMLThaiChef@aol.com.
Thai cook goes to France and loves it!
By MANTANA HEIM
In my dream, I am Ina Garten, the celebrated chef-caterer, and goddess of the TV program “Barefoot Contessa.” I cook several perfect meals in no time flat; I set beautiful tables with perfect tableware and flowers, and I lived in a perfect home with wonderful garden.
In my dream, I conversed fluently in French (just like Ina) and chitchat happily with merchants in a Paris green market. After selecting mushrooms, fish, olives, red peppers, prosciutto and five kinds of cheese, I return to my chateau and prepare exquisite meals for my friends.
In real life, I live in the small town of Moneta, south of Roanoke. I am a Thai chef and a foodie. I have never cooked anything French but would love to, and my home is OK, but forget about the perfect Ina’s garden!
But, come with me to experience the life of an ordinary woman who followed her dream to learn to cook, to shop and to spy on the French. Tighten your safety belt, we are flying to France!
I landed in Nice, France, on Oct. 4. The weather was perfect, about 70 F., with no humidity. From the air, Nice was a wide spread of sand color buildings hugging the hillside. It reminded me of San Diego with less greenery.
I walked out of the arrival gate and five smiling faces with one big bouquet of pink roses met me. Sandra, her family, and her godparents were there to welcome me. Sandra was my exchange student, Patrick is her husband, and Chira is their 5-year-old daughter. We arrived at Sandra’s home in Grasse within 20 minutes. This was to be my home for the next 13 days.
Dinner that night consisted of cold boiled French green beans, pickled heart of palms, several kinds of olives, green salad (with only bibb lettuce), a small platter of proscuitto, several kinds of cheese, baguettes and of course, red wine. We had coffee, fresh yogurt and fresh fruits later. Water is served with every meal, and I did not see butter the whole time that I was there.
My wake-up call was a light kiss from Chira. “Bonjour, Mantana,” she chirped! Chira talked to me non-stop and asked her mother why did I speak funny.
We had a wonderful breakfast of warm croissants, (bought piping hot from the neighborhood bakery) yogurt, and cereals with fragrant and wonderfully strong coffee. Not the “sock washing water,” which they called our coffee!
The cooking class started the first day. Kathy, the girlfriend of Sandra’s father, taught me the family favorite, “Osso Buco A La Milanaise.”
First, we had to shop for the fresh ingredients. We went to a grocery store named Auchan. Auchan is a big chain store, a combination of mall, grocery and clothing store. The foods I saw that day are better than those at Fresh Market! This is when I had an education of French utmost perfection of their foods!
We went to get the turkey legs. (Kathy said that we could use veal, but since we have to go to a special butcher, we opted for turkey legs.) Turkey is cheaper and less fat, she said.
The meat cases were piled high with rabbits, turkeys, yellow chickens, black chickens, game hens, quails, Cornish hen, ducks, beef, pork, ribs, cutlets, leg of lamb and lamb chops. The one thing that jumped out at me was how very fresh all the items were, with no visible fat!
We went to the next aisle for seafood and there was eye-popping fresh seafood for sale that day! There were mounds of fresh squid, large octopus, tuna, salmon, flounder, sea bass and other fish that I couldn’t name.
The people of Southern France love their seafood and the aisle of seafood proved it. The fish were super fresh with bright, clear eyes. I didn’t detect any “fishy” smell.
We shopped for red peppers, carrots (with bright green, fresh tops), onions, fresh strawberries and grapes (light green, the Italian kind; they tasted like honey). Kathy said that she was low on cheese, so we went to the cheese section and, my, there must have been 100 different types in the case, including fresh yogurt!
Sandra told me that this is a small selection of cheese, since normally in the cheese specialty shops, you could have more choices! (There are more than 400 different types of cheese in France, according to Cloude, Sandra’s godmother, who worked in a cheese shop for more than 25 years.) To cut down on the plastic waste, customers bagged their own groceries into their own canvas bags.
When the time came to cook, it was a hands-on class. “We must flour the legs this way, and we must taste it,” Kathy said.
At 8 p.m., we sat down for dinner. We started in the living room with champagne, a small bowl of potato chips, five kinds of olives and two choices of hard sausages.
We next moved to the dinner table and began with Osso Buco a la Milanaise, served with fresh pasta, baguettes and Epi bread. The dinner dishes were removed, and we followed with five different kinds of cheese and ,of course, more bread, red wine and water. Coffee and fresh fruits came after and, when I thought all was done, a tossed green salad was served. The dinner lasted more than two hours!
During the next 12 days, I had three more cooking classes with two other French families. There were several memorable meals and numerous shopping outings. I went to Antibes, Aix-en-Provence, and the American war memorial in Rhone. I visited several ancient hill towns perched on the mountaintops. I visited Froganard, the company which made world famous perfume in grasses. I visited Canne, where the film festivals take place and gawked at Cartier, Hermes, and Yves Saint- Laurent merchandise.
Even though I speak very little French, I was happily shopping, eating and gawking at several food markets, but the best, which topped Ina’s food market in Paris, is the world famous Cour Saleya market in Nice!
The most memorable events of my trip were the trip to Cour Saleya and dinner at Le Nid d’ Aigle (The Eagle Nest) restaurant, perched on the mountaintop at the ancient village of Gudon. The waitress told me that President Putin of Russia ate there last year during his visit to France.
The small hill towns of St. Paul De Vence and Mougins captured my heart with their ancient, cobbled stone roads and vibrant flowers spilling out everywhere. A black kitten peeked at me from a window covered with bright pink impatiens. And Ah, the foods!
But the best memory of all is my memory of the warm, unpretentious and helpful nature of the French family I was with. We laughed together at the butchered French I tried, and there was loud applause of approval when I hit it right. My American breakfast of homemade waffles and pancakes was a big hit, and my Thai dinner was a bigger hit.
I was very sad to leave. This dream trip will remain in my heart forever.
OSSO BUCO A LA MILANAISE
For 4 to 6 persons:
2 1/2 lb. veal hock or turkey legs
Flour (a little )
3 oz. butter
1 T. olive oil
1 yellow onion
1 tablespoon tomatoes juice(in can)
½ c. dry white wine
½ c. water
A bourquet garni.(bay leaf, rosemary, and thyme)
1 garlic pod
salt, pepper
3 fresh tomatoes
Parmesan or Gruyère cheese
Lightly flour the meat in seasoned flour (salt and pepper). Brown the meat in little olive oil and butter in the pressure cooker. Removed the meat and add the chopped onion in the same pot, brown well, scraping the pot constantly to include the brown bits.
Add meat, the tablespoon of tomato juice and the white wine. Simmer for about 5-6 minutes. Add the water, the fresh herbs, the garlic smashed, salt and pepper. Close the pressure cooker and let cook 25 minutes.
Ten minutes before the end of meat cooking, add peeled and chopped tomatoes.
For serving, put the rice in a deep dish with the osso buco on top. Eat with Parmesan or Gruyère. (Or serve with fresh cooked pasta.)
Mantana Heim lives at Smith Mountain Lake where she writes and runs Thai cooking classes.
Comments or questions? E-mail to comments@primeliving.net.