Thai Cooking Class at The Pavilion, The Datai Langkawi

Cooking is something many people assume I’m not able to do — or at least that’s what I deduced from the very few invitations to participate in cooking classes. A friend who works in hotel PR admitted that she only invites me to food reviews and not the cooking classes because she didn’t see a fit between myself, and the kitchen. 😯

Chef Piya, prepping the prawn salad

Truth be told, I love to cook. And I was very excited to see that a culinary class was included in our itinerary at The Datai. That morning, we learnt how to prepare Plaa Goong Sod Sos Takrai (Prawn Salad with Thai Herbs) and Gai Pad Khing (Fried Chicken Ginger with Wood Ear Mushroom) from Chef Piya. At the end of the class, we all got to sit down at The Pavilion and tuck into the food we prepared ourselves.

I’d like to think that I did well. Partly because Chef Piya said I did. 😀 The prawn salad was fairly simple to assemble — it involved a lot of chopping of herbs and chillies, and the dressing was prepared in advanced for us. We were also given the recipe to replicate this at home. Will try make this from scratch when my kitchen is ready.

Plaa Goong Sod Sos Takrai

Ingredients:
King Prawns (100gm)
Shallot Slice (10gm)
Cherry Tomato (10gm)
Kafir Lime Leaf (3gm)
Lemongrass (5gm)
Mint Leaf (5gm)

Dressing (finely blend):
Red Chili (10gm)
Chili Bird (5gm)
Coriander Root (5gm)
Chopped Garlic (5gm)
Fish Sauce (10ml)
Lime Juice (10ml)
Palm Sugar (10ml)

Method:
Blanch prawns in boiling water till cooked. Remove and cool down in ice water. In mixing bowl, add in the king prawns with the dressing, together with the rest of the ingredients. Toss lightly and serve.

Gai Pad Khing

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast Slices (130gm)
Onion (20gm)
Ginger (15gm)
Wood-ear (15gm)
Spring Onion (10gm)
Oyster Sauce (30ml)
Black Soya Sauce (5ml)
Light Soya Sauce (15ml)
Red Chili (5gm)
Chopped Garlic (10gm)
Cooking Oil (30ml)
White Pepper Powder (to taste)

Method:
Heat oil in wok and add garlic. Saute until golden brown. Add chicken, onion and mushroom, and stir while adding pepper powder. When chicken is half cooked, add oyster sauce, light soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Add some chicken stock and spring onions. Serve hot with white rice.

Passed! 🙂

For more information about the culinary class at The Pavilion, The Datai Langkawi, visit the website here.

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