A Thai Taste Sensation - Our Akha Cooking Experience

Sawa dee kaa (hello)!

Listen to 'Cooking up Something Good' by Mac DeMarco (Spotify link or YouTube Link)

Today Edward and I spent the morning at Akha Kitchen, learning how to prepare and cook amazing authentic vegan thai and akha cuisine. We had such a fantastic time, we thought we would share some of the recipes we learned with you all!

Amy pretending to be tall

But first - a note on thai food: although I will be talking about thai food in the 'Being vegan in... South East Asia' blog (coming soon to edandamytravel.com!), it is just worth saying now that Thai food is incredibly yummy. There are so many vegan options and it's all fresh, (mostly) healthy, and made with love. Ed and I both really love cooking and have been inspired by all the dishes we've been eating while out here. Taking a thai cooking class seemed like an opportunity not to miss! So the lesson lasted about about four hours, in that time we visited the local market to buy fresh ingredients and then cooked (and ate!) five classic Thai dishes.

It's worth mentioning that all these dishes exclude meat, eggs, dairy, and oil. Bonus! Sapi Tong

This is a traditional Akha chilli dip served with boiled or fresh vegetables like cabbage, green beans and cucumber. Delicious and refreshing!

2 cloves of garlic 2 shallots (boiled until soft) 2 chilis (boiled until soft) 2 small tomatoes (boiled until soft)

1/4 tsp salt 1 tbsp chopped coriander 1 tbsp chopped spring onion 1 tbsp chopped peanuts

Put garlic in the mortar and crush with pestle. Add shallots and chili, then add tomotoes. Add salt, coriander, spring onion and peanuts until well mixed. Pad Thai

A classic thai dish!

1 tbsp chopped garlic 1 tbsp chopped shallots 1 tbsp sweet radish 2 tbsp firm tofu 70 g rice noodles 100 ml water 3 tbsp pad Thai sauce (tamarind paste, soy sauce, sugar and pepper) 1 tsp mushroom sauce 1/2 tsp sugar 1/3 cup bean sprouts

1/3 cup garlic chives 2 tbsp crushed peanuts

Add 2 tbsp water to wok heat to medium. Add garlic and shallots, stir for just a few minutes. Add sweet radish, tofu and stir fry for one minute. Add rice noodles, water, and pad Thai sauce, sugar, and stir fry for about two minutes. Add bean sprouts, garlic chives and peanuts. Stir quickly until done.

Tom Kha Gai

A simple Thai soup full of flavour.

1 cup water 2 kaffir lime leaves 1 piece of lemongrass sliced diagonal

2 pieces galangal (or ginger) 1/2 onion cut into quarters 100 g firm tofu

2 large mushrooms halved 1 spring onion 1 stalk coriander 1 tsp mushroom sauce (soy sauce) 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 tsp seasoning powder 1/2 cup coconut milk

Pour water into pot and add keffir lime leaves, sliced lemongrass, and galangal slices. Turn on stove to medium, heat and stir together and let boil for three minutes. Add onion and tofu and boil for three minutes. Add mushrooms, boil two minutes. Add mushroom sauce and sugar and stir. Then add coconut milk and let it boil for one minute. Finally, add spring onion, coriander and lime juice and stir together and turn off heat.

Thai Green Curry Paste

Lovely fresh curry paste. Top tip: don't use a blender the consistency will be grainy.

Use a mortar and pestle to smash these ingredients together until fine:

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp roasted coriander seeds

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

Then add:

1 tsp finely chopped galangal (or ginger)

1tsp finely chopped lemongrass

1 tsp finely chopped coriander root

1 tbsp chopped sweet basil leaves

1/4 tsp finely chopped kaffir lime skin

Then add:

1 tsp finely chopped shallots

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp finely chopped green chilis

Thai Green Curry

Our absolute favourite dish!

1 tbsp green curry paste (see above)

1 1/2 cup coconut milk

100 g sliced firm tofu

2 small sweet eggplants

7 bitter egglants

1/2 cup water

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp mushroom sauce (or soy sauce)

2 kaffir lime leaves

1/2 cup sweet basil

Pour coconut cream into the pot and add green curry paste. Turn on heat to medium heat stir together for about five minutes. Add tofu and stir about two minutes, add some water. When it boils, add eggplants, bring to boil again, let it cook for about seven minutes and add sugar and soy sauce. Let it simmer for another three minutes, turn off heat, add fresh basil and keffir lime leaves. Serve with rice.

Ed happy with his creation

Mango Sticky Rice

Our favourite dessert!

100ml coconut milk 3 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 250 g sticky rice

Pour coconut milk into small pot and add sugar and salt. Then turn the heat on to low, stir until it’s warm about 4 minutes. Add sticky rice and stir together until coconut milk is absorbed. Allow rice to cool a bit and serve with sliced mango. Top with roasted sesame seeds.

Preparing our Mango Sticky Rice

I have honestly never felt so full in my life! We ate so much and it was all scrumptious! After having a much needed food nap(!), we spent the afternoon having a traditional thai massage (I really didn't know I could bend in such ways!!). It really was the perfect way to spend our last day in Thailand. Thank you for sharing it with me Edward . Cooking school - Akha Kitchen (a small start up company, run by three young Akha women). Price - 2,400 baht for the two of us Website - www.akhakitchen.com (best to book directly by emailing Akha cookery, email address below)