{"id":1559,"date":"2011-07-25T17:43:26","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T07:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=1559"},"modified":"2011-07-27T12:45:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T02:45:24","slug":"tors-thai-cooking-lesson-in-bangkok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=1559","title":{"rendered":"Tor’s Thai cooking lesson in Bangkok"},"content":{"rendered":"

on air on Byron Bay’s bayfm 99.9 on July 25, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This is the charming smiling face of Tor Klinyu, the owner and teacher at Isan House Restaurant and Cooking School in Bankok.\u00a0 If you have ever wondered why there is a cliche’ about Thailand being the land of smiles, look no further!<\/p>\n

A cooking class in Thailand is a great way to see a bit of real Thai life, as well as to learn about one of the world’s great cuisines.\u00a0 You can do it even on a short stopover, as most of the classes just go for half a day, morning or afternoon.\u00a0 Many classes include a market visit, especially if you book in the morning.\u00a0 There seems to be a boom in cooking classes at the moment, and there is something for all tastes.\u00a0 The glamour option, which has been around for years, is the Oriental Hotel.\u00a0 You can also do classes while floating serenely on the Chao Praya river, or go to vegetarian classes at a Khao San road institution in the middle of backpacker land.\u00a0 I have tried three places, all very different and all very enjoyable in their own way.\u00a0 In all of them you do most of your own cooking, ingredients are explained thoroughly, and you finish by eating far too much delicious food.\u00a0 Do take the warnings to go to class hungry seriously!\u00a0 At current rates of exchange, most classes will cost you between $30 and $100 for half a day.<\/p>\n

I have tried :\u00a0 The Blue Elephant<\/a>, a more upmarket option attached to a large Thai restaurant in a lovely old house, which must have been gorgeous before the gardens were sold to build high rises.\u00a0 A charming, rotund chef teaches finely balanced proper recipes.\u00a0 A score of assistants helps you cook up your creations – if only you could take a dozen or so home to do all the chopping and grating.\u00a0 But you can buy the ready made Blue Elephant pastes instead.\u00a0 I am still cooking their jasmine cake regularly.<\/p>\n

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Silom<\/a> Thai Cooking school, where you cook in a medium rise, typical (I think) central Bangkok flat.\u00a0 You wash ingredients in little domestic sinks, you chop and grate ingredients sitting on the floor, and you cook in woks lined up along the building’s connecting outdoor corridor.\u00a0 The recipes are kept simple, the instructor is another very charming Thai man.\u00a0 Proof you don’t need a fancy kitchen to make a banquet.<\/p>\n

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And Tor’s place, Isan House<\/a>.\u00a0 You walk past a whole heap of girly bars, turn a few corners and find her family’s charming restaurant, with an outdoor deck for cooking and about a million ingredients lined up inside.<\/p>\n

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I was lucky enough to be in Bangkok when the streets were a bit too lively with political unrest, and tourists were staying away, so I was the only one at Tor’s lesson and she allowed me to record it.\u00a0 Today on belly I played a bit of her story.\u00a0 She starts classes with descriptions of Thai ingredients, and talks about the dishes in which they are used.\u00a0 In today’s belly she described sweet, holy and lemon basil, saw tooth (perennial) coriander and kaffir lime leaf and skin.\u00a0 More ingredients soon.\u00a0 As you can see there are quite a few.\u00a0 You can find a good list of Thai ingredients<\/a>, with pictures, on wikipedia.<\/p>\n

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* I have found lemon basil locally as seedlings, called “lime basil”.\u00a0 It has a really gorgeous intense lemon zest smell and taste.\u00a0 Thais also use the seeds in desserts.<\/p>\n

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* Tor recommends you use the zest\/skin of kaffir limes, not the leaf, in curry pastes if you can find it.\u00a0 My kaffir lime fruits about every 3 years, the grated zest keeps really well in the freezer.\u00a0 Use leaves whole in curries, soups and stir fries.\u00a0 Tor also deep fries the leaves as a snack.<\/p>\n

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TOR’S MUSHROOM BREAD<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A very easy recipe, which reminds me of that Australian country Chinese classic, sesame prawn toasts, but is taken straight to Thailand by the little sharp side salad.\u00a0 One of the 100 dishes on the Isan House menu.<\/p>\n

bread, sliced and cut into triangles
\nbeaten egg
\nsesame seeds
\nmushrooms, sliced and seasoned with a little pepper and salt or soy sauce
\nflour
\nfinely chopped garlic
\nfinely chopped coriander<\/p>\n

Toss mushrooms in flour.
\nMix sesame seeds, coriander, garlic and pepper
\nSquash mushrooms into toast.\u00a0 Top with sesame mix.
\nDip in egg.
\nDeep fry 2 or 3 at a time in a wok until golden brown.\u00a0 Use any mild oil.<\/p>\n

Cucumber salad<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Make the dressing by bringing to the boil a little white vinegar, water, salt and sugar, combined to your own taste.\u00a0 Allow to cool.
\nSlice cucumber and shallots (or substitute mild red onions).\u00a0\u00a0 Top with dressing and “1 or 10 chillies” as Tor says.<\/p>\n

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THE SEARCH FOR LEMON MYRTLE SLICE – a.k.a. my homework for Joy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The very charming Joy and David Johnson were on belly recently talking about working, cooking, and falling in love on the trains in the 50s.\u00a0 They are also neighbours.\u00a0 The last time we ran into each other (this always happens on the way to the beach, what a tough life we live),\u00a0 she asked me ever so nicely to put out a call for lemon myrtle slice recipes.\u00a0 Well I did and you lot did not get in touch with any, but I found a gorgeous recipe that I will have to try soon, a variation on a no cook cheesecake.\u00a0 This type of cheesecake is a great beginner’s dish by the way, you just need to be a little careful with the gelatin.<\/p>\n

You will find the full recipe and pictures here<\/a>.\u00a0 It is an Australian blog called “Not Quite Nigella” – great name.<\/p>\n

Lemon myrtle is a lovely local native, a eucalypt with lemon scented leaves used in cooking and toiletries, but there is a lot more than lemon going on in the scent.\u00a0 You can easily grow it, but watch out for a new fungal disease, myrtle rust, unfortunately taking hold in Australia.<\/p>\n

* For a stronger lemon myrtle taste (or instead of the dry leaf), try making a strong lemon myrtle tea with fresh or dry leaves and the 1\/4 cup of water in the recipe.<\/p>\n

* To make your own powdered leaf, first hang branches to dry in a dark place.<\/p>\n

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BELLY BULLETIN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s something we’ve all suspected – there is a hunger gene<\/strong>.\u00a0 There are about 60 gene variations that can influence our weight, but one gene can have a big effect all on its own. It is a defect of gene MC4R and it stops the brain from getting the message that we have had enough to eat.\u00a0 Fortunately it only affects a minority of people because it is a serious problem.\u00a0 It has probably always been around, but it is much easier in our world to get access to very high calorie food and do no exercise.\u00a0 You only need one parent with the faulty gene to inherit it. About 3 to 6 per cent of people who become very obese have this gene.\u00a0 Scientists are trying to raise its profile\u00a0 so that suitable lifestyle changes can begin early.\u00a0 At the moment there is no medical fix, even weight loss surgery may fail if you have this gene.\u00a0 But it can lead to severe overweight from early childhood, and it can easily be found with a blood test.\u00a0 Doctor Daniel Chen, from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, would like a blood sample from you if your Body mass Index is over 30, especially if you have very healthy blood pressure for your weight.
\nd.chen@garvan.org.au or 92958557.<\/p>\n

And if you have the hunger gene maybe you should stay away from Southend on Sea, east of London, where they have just broken the world potato chip<\/strong> record, to celebrate one of England’s national dishes, fish and chips.
\nFive staff\u00a0 of the Adventure Island fish and chip shop took four hours and 20 minutes to cut the potatoes, deep fry the chips and box them up, beating the previous record of 368.5kg set in 2004.\u00a0 The box had to be an extra large version of the regular chip boxes to meet food hygiene standards.\u00a0 Spokeswoman Tracy Jones said :
\n“It was hot work. We did it all from scratch. The previous record was done with frozen chips.\u00a0 There was a really good atmosphere. Loads of people turned up. The biggest problem was stopping children putting their hands in and taking the chips before we were finished.”
\nThe money went to charity and the leftovers to the pigs.\u00a0 The Adventure Island amusement park is on a roll with records – it has also just set the world records for the most naked people on a rollercoaster (102 people) and the longest dodgem car marathon (26 hours).<\/p>\n

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MUSIC<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

lots of traditional Thai instrumental tracks, courtesy of wonderful local Thai cook Thome – sorry all the info is in Thai script!<\/p>\n

The Oyster Murders, Lovers who drink the sea<\/p>\n

Bianca Meier, Walk the earth<\/p>\n

Oka, Pandanus<\/p>\n

Nadia Piave, Musetta, from Caffe’ d’Amore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

on air on Byron Bay’s bayfm 99.9 on July 25, 2011     This is the charming smiling face of Tor Klinyu, the owner and teacher at Isan House Restaurant and Cooking School in Bankok.\u00a0 If you have ever wondered why there is a cliche’ about Thailand being the land of smiles, look no further! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[208,207,93,170],"class_list":["post-1559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio-show-posts","tag-cheesecake","tag-lemon-myrtle","tag-mushrooms","tag-thai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1559"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}