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Learning How to Cook Traditional Thai Dishes at Grandma’s Cooking School

Heather
Grandma's Village Farm and Cooking School in Thailand

Have you ever wondered how to make the dishes you order in the restaurants? How can you make your favorite dish at home? One of my favorite thing to do while traveling is to take a cooking class, and learning Thai cooking at Grandma’s Cooking School was so much fun.

Grandma's Village Farm and Cooking School in Thailand

For my family and friends that know that I’m not a big fan of cooking, they would be surprised to see that this is something I enjoy when I’m traveling. Spending four months living in Thailand, I got used to eating Thai food. And before I left, I wanted to learn how to make some of my favorites at home. Here is everything you need to know about Grandma’s Cooking School in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Touring the Local Market

The first step to learning how to make traditional Thai dishes was to understand where the ingredients came from. I was dropped off at a Thai market to meet-up with the rest of the Grandma’s Cooking School class. As I was early, I got to spend some time wandering through the aisles, admiring the smells from all the spices, the agility of their chopping skills in the meat area, and their desire for successful entrepreneurship.

When the rest of the group showed up, we were taken through and given an in-depth review of the market. We learned the differences between the variety of rice and which sauces are the best tp purchase when making Thai dishes. Part of the tour had the vendors giving us samples. With me being American, they were extra nice to me, having me try all sorts of treats that I have never had before. Exploring the market was eye-opening on how you are supposed to shop for the ingredients to make Thai dishes. The best part was that the guide, Joy made a point of telling us what to get instead if we couldn’t find the Thai sauces at home.

Organic Farm Visit

Entering the gates of Grandma’s Village Farm, you are brought onto a rural farm that resembles a hotel resort. There are ponds, water fountains, tree swings, even bananas growing from trees. You get dropped off in front of an open pavilion with cooking stations, which is where the Grandma’s Cooking School class is taught. Joy, our chef takes you around the farm to see where they grow all some of the food that you will be using in their kitchen. You will see huge sunflowers, edible flowers, large vegetables growing from trellises, and plants covered in colorful red and green peppers. You might even see a couple of roosters moving around.

Grandma’s Cooking School Information

Grandma’s Cooking School is for non-Thai residents only. You can book the 5-hour class: Chiang Mai: Authentic Thai Cooking Class and Farm Visit with Get Your Guide. The class fee is $40. The fee covers the market visit, a welcome drink, organic farm visit, English-speaking instructor, small-group size, pick-up and drop-off at your hotel, and downloadable recipes.

At the beginning of the class, you get to choose your source of protein for your dishes. My class had options to make Hot and Sour Soup or Coconut Soup; Green Curry, Red Curry, Khao Soi, or Panaeang Curry; and Pad Thai. Then we were treated to Mango and Sticky Rice for dessert. Come Hungry and be prepared for a lot of food to eat when you are all finished cooking at Grandma’s Cooking School.

Hot and Sour Soup

The first thing we worked on was making the soup. I chose to make Hot and Sour Soup (a.k.a Tom Yum Soup) with chicken. The other choice was to add shrimp or make it Vegetarian. Some helpers set up all the ingredients for each dish and laid them out for us. Joy would then demonstrate it at her station, and then we would all cook.

Hot and Sour Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. In a medium-sized pot, bring water/broth to boil over high heat. Add lemongrass, galangal, chilies, kaffir lime leaves, and shallots. Let simmer to allow the herbs to infuse.
  2. Add tomato and mushrooms. Then season with sugar, fish sauce, and chili paste oil. Stir lightly until simmer.
  3. Add prawns (chicken) and coconut milk. Let simmer until prawns are just cooked.
  4. Remove from heat and squeeze in lime juice.
  5. Spoon into a serving bowl and garnish with coriander and spring onion.

Khao Soi

Khao Soi happens to be my favorite food to eat in Chiang Mai. If you like spicy food, you will love the fusion of savory flavors in this dish. I can always tell a dish is too spicy for me when my nose starts to sniffle. That is my cue that I’m hitting my limit for spice tolerance. But, this dish is so good that I don’t care, and I just make sure to have a kleenex handy when eating this dish. I chose to make this dish with chicken, but my absolute favorite is to have it with a Kai Jeow (Thai Omelet) in it.

Khao Soi Recipe

Khao Soi Yellow Curry Paste (Nam Pik Khao Soi)

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. In a mortar bowl, pound roasted dried herbs, coriander seeds, cumin, and peppercorn until finely grounded
  2. Add the remaining ingredients except for the shrimp paste. Pound until well combined.
  3. Add shrimp paste, continue pounding until the mixture forms a smooth and fine paste.

Khao Soi

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. In a skillet or a pan, over medium heat, combine cooking oil and curry paste. Stirring frequently.
  2. Add chicken, let simmer until no longer pink.
  3. Add coconut milk.
  4. Add palm sugar and fish sauce. Stir to combine and let simmer 5-10 minutes.
  5. Serve over the egg noodle and garnish with deep-fried egg noodles, coriander, spring onion, shallots, pickled cabbage, and a fresh slice of lime.

Pad Thai

Another tremendous Thai dish is the classic Pad Thai. When you are in Thailand, you can encounter all types of versions of this dish. The reassuring thing is that they are all delicious. This is a meal you can get from street food vendors, and it is quite entertaining to watch them make this super fast. I choose to make my pad Thai with Shrimp. But, you can also choose chicken or keep it vegetarian.

Fun Facts – Pad Thai is known to boost your digestive system. Palm sugar is a healthy alternative to refined sugar.

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Pad Thai Recipe

Ingredients:

Pad Thai Sauce:

Preparation:

  1. Prepare Pad Thai sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir well until dissolved. Set aside.
  2. In a wok, heat the cooking oil over medium heat. Add sliced shallot/garlic and dried shrimp. Sautee until fragrant.
  3. Stir in meat and Tofu. Sautee until cooked through.
  4. Crack an egg and stir until almost cooked through.
  5. Make room on one side of the pan, add rice noodles, Pad Thai sauce, and water. Stir well to combine, and noodles are tender.
  6. Shortly before removing from heat, stir in fresh bean sprout, garlic, chives, and carrots.
  7. Serve your Pad Thai garnished with ground roasted peanut and a fresh slice of lime.

Thai Tea

Your welcome drink is a choice of Thai Tea. Your options are Thai Lemon Tea, Thai Milk Tea, and Butterfly Pea Flower Tea. I chose the Thai Lemon Tea, which is nice and refreshing in the Thai hot and humid climate or after slaving over a hot stove for a few hours (evident by my photo below).

Thai Lemon Tea Recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Brew the tea by pouring boiling water in a mug with the tea leaves in and let steep for 2-3 minutes.
  2. Strain the tea leaves with a strainer. Add fresh lime juice mixture and sugar. Stir until dissolved and well combined.
  3. Pour the brew into a glass with ice.

Mango with Sticky Rice

Mango with Sticky Rice is one of the most popular Thai desserts. You can often find street food vendors selling it in the night markets. We didn’t make this dessert, which was OK with us as we were tired of cooking all the other dishes. The Mango with Sticky Rice dessert is a sweet treat after all the spicy Thai food.

Fun Facts – Mango is the queen of the tropical fruit. Mango is known for its antioxidant properties for maintaining youthful skin. There are over 174 mango varieties in Thailand.

Mango with Sticky Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. In a medium-sized pot, bring coconut milk and pandan leaves to a simmer. Add salt and set 2 tbsp. of the mixture aside and allow it to cool.
  2. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
  3. Add sticky rice to the mixture pot over low heat, stir well and let stand until the milk is absorbed.
  4. Remove from heat. Transfer the sticky rice to a bowl and cover with lid to keep warm.
  5. Arrange sticky rice on a serving plate, topped with nicely peeled and sliced mango.
  6. Sprinkle with mung beans/sesame seeds and top with 2 tbsp. of coconut cream.

Summary

Learning how to cook traditional dishes while traveling is a fabulous experience. And the Thai dishes I made at Grandma’s Cooking School were delicious! Even if you can’t travel to Thailand to experience this adventure yourself, go ahead and try to make these dishes at home. I wrote out the recipes as they were given to me in Thailand which uses the Metric system. You might have to convert some of them if you aren’t use to that system. Let me know how it goes and how the dishes taste when you make them. I would love to see the photos of your completed meals in the comments. Happy Eating!

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Further Reading

If you are coming to Thailand for a visit, check out these posts for further travel inspiration:

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