Cooking Club: Thai Food!

September Cooking Club. The Menu: Tom Yum Soup and Chicken Satay to start, then Red Curry, Drunken Noodles, Thai Green Beans, and Pad Thai for the main entree, and to cap of the night: Mango Sticky Rice!!

The Tom Yum Soup featured Kaffir Lime Leaves and jumbo shrimp in a delightfully spicy blend that had some of our cooking club attendees crying! For the more sensitive pallets, Amanda (the creator of this fiery soup) suggested adding coconut milk to the broth. This was delicious! The Chicken Satay was marinated with turmeric, cumin, and other savory spices before being broiled and served hot with Thai peanut dipping sauce. The dish was very reminiscent of Indian spices, which might be due to the fact that Sundhu (chef for the satay) is, in fact, Indian.

The red curry was fantastic, with fresh snow peas and red peppers, and despite Lindsey's (chef) personal wishes: fresh broccoli. The curry wasn't very spicy, which was actually a welcome relief since we were still recovering from the soup! The thai green beans (chef: Allison) were seasoned in a divine sweet/savory sauce including (I believe) cashew butter and sesame oil. The overall flavor strongly hinted at peanut sauce.

For a dish that was proclaimed to be "an utter disaster," the Pad Thai was actually pretty good. Chef Julia used buckwheat noodles as a measure of desperation after failing to find pad thai rice noodles at the grocery store. The end result was a more casserole-like pad thai, but all the flavor was there so we were just as happy! The drunken noodles (my contribution) were not spicy at all, and the tofu was a bit vinegar/lime juicy (I guess the word I am looking for is tangy)-- but the dish gets plus points from me for the complex flavor attributed to the fish, oyster, soy, sauces and the rice vinegar. The recipe came from a food blog: http://www.desertmodernism.com/blog/2006/01/thai_drunken_noodles_pad_kee_m.php

I of course, rarely follow recipes with 100% accuracy.. and in this dish I added snow peas, thai eggplant, and one of those long yellow-green banana-pepper (but bigger) peppers. I loved the veggies.. and recommend adding some if you want to try the recipe.

Alas I did not take a picture of the mango sticky rice (chef: Sundhu)- by that time in the evening my stomach was full and my camera tucked away from the food carnage that ensued immediately after the photos were taken. Oh well, Shes just going to have to make it again! bwahahahahaha!