Khun Nooror waits patiently to pass on her trade secrets in the theory lesson. Like a small Thai chili that packs a punch, she is petite yet powerful. She opened the first Blue Elephant restaurant 20 years ago in Brussels, with her husband and other partners. Since then, 11 more of the elegant Thai restaurants have opened around the world, including in London and Paris, and more are planned. The Bangkok venue opened in 2002.
Short, red-tinted hair framing her beaming face, Khun Nooror begins softly: “Thai cooking is very easy, “ she says. “The key to success is getting the right herbs.” During today’s class, we’ll prepare green chicken curry (gaeng keaw wan gai), green papaya salad (som tam), sour and spicy prawn soup (torn yarn kung) and stir-fried rice noodles (Pad Thai).
All the ingredients are set out on her worktable, while a slanted mirror above allows the students to watch her work. First we’ll make green curry. The base of this tasty dish is green- curry paste. Khun Nooror deftly combines the ingredients in a mortar, pounding the lemongrass, and then adding galangal slices, coriander root, fresh green chili peppers and kaffir lime skin. ‘Very important,“ she says.
“Chefs today don’t make their own curry paste, “says Khun Nooror. I make it because my mom taught me from when I was nine years old. It’s in my skin to make it.“ When she passes around the stone mortar of flavor-packed paste for us, all the culinary aromas of Thailand waft into our nostrils
Out comes the saucepan, into which the paste, coriander seeds and other ingredients are added. If you don’t like curry too spicy, you can cut out the seeds from the chilies before adding them,” says Khun Nooror. But my sister says: ‘You eat green curry not spicy, it’s not green curry.”
While she talks, she prepares the curry on a little stove, turning paste into thick sauce, adding fresh chicken, eggplant and other Thai delights. “The best judge of your cooking is not me, it’s you,“ she says. “If you like salty put more fish sauce,” she advises, adding several drops. “Thai people eat this with rice or noodles. I used to eat it with spaghetti in Brussels.”
The curry is ready, poured into a royal-blue bowl and garnished with red chili slivers and sweet basil eaves. After sampling the delicious dish, it’s our turn to prepare it. Donning Blue Elephant aprons, we enter the school kitchen.
Each student’s tray is set up with all the ingredients, including prepared curry paste, and assistants are there to help if needed. Before I know it, I’m cutting eggplants and adding them to lime juice. Then with a gentle nudge and an encouraging smile from chef Poui, I’m breaking up kaffir lime leaves and removing their stems, cutting red chili slivers and saving some for decor. The room is a buzz with students chopping, slicing, stirring and creating. If I get confused, Khun Poui is there to guide me: more coconut milk, stir, but not too much. Add the chicken, then the baby eggplants that look like little peas, put the lid on, cook for two minutes.
Ricky, despite his claims of not being able to cook, looks quite the master, chopping and stirring, following his recipe like an old curry hand. Suddenly, the dish is finished, and Khun Poui is guiding me with the garnish and supplying a label, so we can eat our creation for lunch later. Three more dishes are on the itinerary today and the morning passes in a pleasant blur of activity, from watching the masters at work to preparing the dishes later under their expert guidance.