Harriet's birthday treat... a Thai cooking course!!!

Yesterday, for H's birthday, Sylv 'treated' her to a cooking course (she's been moaning about missing cooking for months..) on an organic farm just outside Chang Mai.

A rare day out, it was really nice to learn about all the various types of rice and other ingredients at the market, we got the chance to ask what was what and find out that the big grey lumps aren't flavoured tofu as thought, but congealed chicken blood... mmmmmmmm, saved from a horrible mistake!

Then, on the farm, we went to pick the herbs, roots and spices we would need like Thai parsley (persil), coriander, ginger and Thai ginger, ginseng, lemongrass, chilli, kaffir lime... such smells :o)

Then is was 4 hours solid graft... 5 dishes in total including a curry, a soup and a stir-fry.... tasting... then noodles and spring rolls and a dessert (packed up in doggy bags as we were about to pop!).

Cute steamer for sticky rice.

Chopping? what chopping?! Ingredients for a Thai soup and for a Pad Thai.

Turning up the gas! And "c'est parti mon kiki"!

The wok mistress, making a nice stir-fry

... and spring rolls

... and some pudding - pumpink in coconut milk

Tasting...

Doggy bags for dinner.... looking like the professionals in the street, everything in perfectly packed plastic!

A final picture for Sylv's fashion competition: Harriet in her organic farm cooking class outfit with our dinner...