Many in Thailand don't cook at home, or only on weekends - with street food readily and cheaply available, there's little reason to fill your evening with labour intensive cooking. However, for those that do cook at home it's often for a large family group. While staying in Bangkok in September I went to a cooking class with Angsana, who runs home cooking lessons from her kitchen with the aid of her mother's recipe book and tips passed down through her family - Angsana's mum is a street food vendor in her village, cooking different dishes every day for hungry crowds. We started at the local market, picking up ingredients for the dishes we would cook.

First the fresh ingredients. Whether it's a curry or just a sauce, the odds are that in Thailand it all starts with finely chopped fresh ingredients, pounded together in a pestle and mortar until it's a smoothish paste. The paste is then fried in oil to release the flavours before the other ingredients are added. Chilli is a key ingredient in Thai cuisine - the green chillies here are sweeter and milder, whereas the small red and green chillies are much hotter. Large red chillies are used more ornamentally - sliced on the diagonal and stirred through a dish at the end of cooking. For a red curry, we're picking up some large red chillies.

 

 

Then there's fresh ginger (left) and galangal (right) to be peeled and finely chopped.

 

 

 

 

As well as fresh turmeric, we buy a large bunch of fresh lemongrass, kaffir limes (the fruit, not the leaves, although both of these are used in Thai cooking), and a lot of fresh coriander. All of these ingredients will be pounded together into pastes.

Then some shallots, garlic, dried red chillies (rehydrated then pounded into the curry paste), and some dried shrimp from one of these sacks. Angsana tells us that the cheaper dried shrimp probably contains colouring, which is why it is brighter orange.

 

 

Freshly caught fish (some of it still alive) on display at the market - this large snapper is being descaled for us to cook.

 

 

Coconut is used in many Thai dishes, but it doesn't always come in the cans we know and love. This machine grinds up coconut flesh into tiny pieces, ready to be used for coconut milk. To make coconut milk: place the shredded coconut flesh in a muslin bag. Pour over a cup of very hot water, then a cup of cold or warm water. Squeeze the muslin bag around in this warm water, squeeze squeeze squeeze, until the water is thick and creamy. Da-dah!

Discard the flesh (or feed it to your chickens), and you've got delicious coconut milk.

 

 

Don't forget your rice! It's such a key part of Thai cuisine that the common greeting 'kin khao reu yang?' means 'have you eaten rice yet?' There are so many varieties, but jasmine rice is most common.

 

 

 

Back to the kitchen, and we're ready to get cooking. First, everything is finely chopped for the pastes for each dish. Note the bunch of coriander - in Thailand, they use the root of the coriander plants in curry pastes and soup dishes. The leaves? "Well you can use them as a garnish...but we just throw them away really," says Angsana.

 

 

And then we get pounding with the pestle and mortar. Apparently, a louder sound with the pestle and mortar is a sign of a better wife, as the food will be better! For the starter, we make a pork and prawn dip called khao tang naa tang - crispy fried rice crackers served with a creamy pork and prawn dip.

 

 

 

 

First, a paste of shallots, chilli, coriander root and white pepper is cooked in fresh coconut milk. Then we add ground pork, finely chopped prawns, onion, toasted peanuts, palm sugar and fish sauce, and simmer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To go with this are some home made rice crackers, pictured next to the pork dish - they're pretty amazing! To make these crackers, you need some cold leftover rice. Place the rice in between two sheets of cling film, then (once again using your pestle!) roll the rice into a thin layer.

 

 

 

Keep rolling and rolling, and the rice becomes a sticky mass in between the cling film rather than separate grains. Then just remove one side of cling film, place it in a sunny place, and leave to air dry for about...three days.

After that, break the dried rice into pieces and deep fry in hot oil until the crackers have puffed up.

 

 

Delicious! To follow this, it's pla ga-pong raat prik - fried snapper with a sweet, tomatoey chilli sauce. The fish is simply marinaded with salt and a bit of lime, soy sauce and white pepper, then patted in flour and deep fried.

 

 

While it cooks, the sauce is made. We fry a paste of chilli, garlic and coriander root, then add vinegar, water, palm sugar and tomatoes and simmer until the sauce is rich and thick. Coriander leaves for garnish. The sticky sauce goes perfectly with the crisp and tender fish, and it's a wonderful centerpiece!

 

 

But my favourite dish of the day - panaeng moo, red pork curry with aubergines. First we make a complex curry paste of toasted cumin, white pepper and coriander, lemongrass, galangal, coriander root, turmeric, shrimp paste and kaffir lime peel (only a little, it's very bitter!) and - of course - shallots, garlic and a lot of red chillies.

 

A bowl of curry paste ready for cooking, alongside the aubergines and Thai basil The curry paste is gently cooked with the pork to release the flavours (the air filled with chilli, evacuation ensued), then we just added coconut milk, sugar, chopped aubergine and fish sauce. Simmer for a while...

...then stir in Thai basil (a minty basily herb) and fresh sliced chillies, and you're ready to eat.

Absolutely the most delicious, fragrant, rich and spicy curry I've ever had the pleasure of eating. If you're ever in Bangkok and want to try cooking or eating something new, I'd highly recommend booking a class with Angsana at http://www.thaihomecooking.com/. It was a very delicious day, and I can't wait to get my pestle and mortar in action again!

 

 

 

With all of those fresh ingredients and intense flavours, Thai food is absolutely delicious. Those jars of paste in our supermarkets don't even come close!