Tamarind - exploring Lao cuisine
We enjoyed a wonderful day at the lakeside Tamarind Gardens. We cooked truly authentic Lao cuisine using traditional methods with a Lao Chef. After spending most of the day on our feet cooking - we got to enjoy our feast.
The fires in traditional Lao pottery. We cooked everything on and in these pots.
The final outcome!
At the table ready to eat our 4 course meal!
This is chicken and coriander stuffed into lemon grass. Well, let me tell you this is not easy. I had to get some assistance in trying to get the lemon grass open!
All our pots cooking away on the fires.
The chicken was fried in oil - it was very tasty.
The main table with all the ingredients.
Our steamed fish in banana leaves steaming away in the pots!
The herbs and ingredients for our water buffalo stew!
Spicy aubergine dip - usually this is served with fried Mekong river weed. Its really delish. Yes Mum and Dad i'm sending some home for you to try! I'm also sending the recipe book they gave us with a whole bunch of traditional Lao stuff in it so you can try everything! It even has the variations you can use if you don't have the same stuff they have here.
Close up of the fire - you just chuck everything onto the coals - there is no grill or anything.
The beautiful surroundings in which we cooked.
The Dam we looked over while cooking our glorious feast.
Some of the ingredients - lots of garlic and shallots.
Sticky rice is so delicious - quite a mission to make though!
Some of the people in our group today. What a nice bunch...and from so many different parts of the world.
This is John, he is a Lao Chef and he showed us how to do everything. He is so cute and extremely funny!
Limes, lemongrass, chillies (red and green)and bell peppers...marvellous!
Close up of John! You should see him chop things - incredible!
Rice baskets
We had to crush everything ourselves. It all goes in roughly chopped or whole and must be made into a paste. We had to do this for all 4 dishes!
Fish for the steamed fish in bamboo. It was absolutely delicious.
This was my final little fish parcel ready for the fire. Filled with fish, coriander, spring onions, basil, shallots, dill etc and mushed into a paste and smeared over the fish and wrapped in a banana leaf.
Starting out with the crushing.
This is how the lemongrass and chicken is done. The lemongrass is shredded from about a cm from the bottom to the middle of the grass. You then stuff the chicken into the lemongrass and the lemongrass acts as a sort of net to keep it in. It's then dunked into eggs and fried. Sounds easy enough, but cutting the grass is a serious art.
The finished product before cooking! These were mine...not a bad effort!
Kyle with his...he was pretty good at this cooking thing!
Water buffalo steaks, pork steaks and fish.
Here is John giving us a demonstration.
Water buffalo stew. Looks pretty good!
Aaaaaaagh...same same...but different!
Lunch time! "Born up a tree"!
No breakfast...lunch was really enjoyed!
No grill - just chuck - right on the open flame.
Yummy! Look at all that good stuff.
Mmmmmmmmmm...and then there was still dessert!
Dessert: purple sticky rice in reduced coconut milk with fresh fruit, sesame seeds and honey over the top, sprinkled with coconut.
Too too tooooo, way toooooooo much goodness right there!
And then the day was over and we had to leave...next cooking class - Hanoi, Vietnam....watch this space!
No comments:
Post a Comment