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Thankfully it wasn’t as hard as you might think
Olivier Vergnault – Senior Reporter
Ever wondered how easy it would be to recreate your favourite dish or have a go at cooking dishes from an unfamiliar cuisine? Of course, there is nothing stopping you from grabbing a recipe book or watching a tutorial on YouTube, but you could sign up for a cookery course night out instead and make an event out of it – and that’s exactly what we did.
In our household, we love food from all over the world and enjoy cooking – everything from home pizzas to ramen bowls, curries or burritos made with whatever leftovers we could rustle up from the fridge. However, we’re less familiar with Thai food.
When Truro School Cookery invited us to one of their cooking nights, we jumped at the opportunity to try cooking a four-course Thai feast from scratch. The school holds regular courses open to the general public, adults, and children. You can choose from various world cuisines, from Italian to Korean, Japanese to Middle Eastern cuisine, French bistro food, and seafood.
Being as we said less familiar with Thai food, we tagged along to a Thai Night for Two. The setting is not too dissimilar from any cooking demonstrations you might enjoy at food festivals around Cornwall, with a chef – or in this case, Alan Rosenthal, the head of cookery at Truro School – being filmed from above going through a dish step by step so you can replicate it easily.
The school’s cookery department is up to professional standards with stainless steel workstations complete with electric hobs and ovens, alongside all the pots, pans and utensils you’ll ever need.
Three other couples joined us on the night and we all sat at the bar watching Alan prepare the amuse-bouche of the day – sweetcorn cakes with a cucumber relish – while enjoying a glass of bubbly. This is the only dish we did not actually make ourselves on the night, but it served as an introduction to the evening and acted as a social icebreaker – albeit with a fragrant and spicy tang to it.
Thai night is one of Alan’s favourites as new head of cookery at Truro School, as he has a personal affinity with Thailand and its food scene. While detailing the ingredients necessary for the dish, he explained how sweetcorn cakes are everywhere in the South East Asian country, sold as they are as on-the-go street food snacks.
Watching him prepare the sweetcorn cakes was also a way to get into the ingredients that make Thai cuisine so unique, fragrant and flavoursome, from glutinous rice flour to makrut lime leaves or coriander, lemongrass to chillies. Once the sweetcorn fritters were sampled, it was time to don our chef’s aprons and get cooking on the starter – a chicken larb.
I have to admit this was a lovely surprise. Tiny bits of chicken cooked in a beautiful mint and coriander and chilli and lime dressing topped with a sprinkling of toasted rice for crunch, served in baby gem lettuce leaves. You eat the lot using the lettuce leaves like scoops. A really simple dish that’s packed with flavours, it can be done almost as a light lunch snack on its own or as a side dish for a larger Thai meal.
I’m not going to put out here any of the recipes we followed on the night; you’ll have to go along and try the whole cooking, eating and wine-drinking experience at Truro School Cookery for yourself, but suffice it to say it was delicious and filling whilst being light too.
In all honesty, I was stuffed after the appetisers and starter complete with a glass of bubbly and another of white wine. The main courses of a classic green prawn curry (it was changed for salmon for me as I’m allergic to shellfish) with baby purple aubergines and mange-tout, and the pad Thai was really tasty – definitely fiery but flavoursome and fragrant. The two dishes complemented each other with their different heat and textures and made for a truly lovely meal.
Oddly, whilst an old hand at cooking Indian curries and Japanese ramen dishes, I have always felt overwhelmed by Thai food. I always saw it as complicated with unusual ingredients that are difficult to source. It could not be further from the truth.
Not only can you find most of the herbs and spices in supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s but Truro also has a well stocked Asian food shop, which is another reason to support a local trader. If the cooking course taught me one thing, it is that Thai food really does not have to be complicated.
The beauty of attending one of Alan’s foodie classes, is also that all the ingredients are there ready for you in the right quantity. An easy-to-follow recipe is provided, while Alan’s demos are clear and fun in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. And yes you get to take the recipes and any leftovers you’ve cooked home – and finally, the washing up is done for you!
To round off the evening, a pear sorbet and lemony sablé biscuit worked just the trick to kill off some of the intense heat from the green curry and help with digestion.
Whether you’re a foodie, a cooking aficionado looking to tick more boxes on your world recipes list or simply are looking to enjoy a different experience and learn something new, a Truro School Cookery night might be just what you need.
