Every meal we ate was a joyous adventure into the delights of Laos. I truly cannot say we had a bad meal.
After hearing mediocre reviews on the cooking school of choice, and with so many wonderful things to see and do in Luang Prabang, I had pretty much given up on the idea of learning the art of Laotian cooking.
As we wandered along the waterfront in search of another massage for little Miss Phoebe (think I've created a rod for my own back here), we stumbled upon a very humble sign advertising cooking classes for maximum of 5 people.
We were greeted by two young sisters who didn't seem perturbed at all with running a class with 2 small children, so we decided on booking for the following day before flying out of Luang Prabang.
When we arrived at 8.30am the next morning they were eagerly waiting for us to take us on a tour of the morning food market.
Interesting!!
A beautiful array of fresh veggies and fruits and then a very interesting assortment of 'meats'.
Haeny informed us that most of the meat would have been slaughtered that morning hence the lack of need for refridgeration. Can't get any fresher than that.
The fish receives a much higher price if it is still alive, so they are placed in large buckets with water to keep them alive and then killed (whacked on the head with a stick) once you decide on your victim.
We stumbled upon a whole cooked and butterflied forest rat (photos here of most that I've mentioned) along with an assortment of cooked smaller rats. There were buffalo legs still with fur and hooves, buffalo skin, bags of blood and an array of intestinal matter.
A great find that proved a winner with the children was dried Mekong River weed. It's sprinkled with tomato, garlic and sesame seeds and best if quickly fried, although the children thought it pretty tasty straight from the bag.
The taste is reminiscent of spinach.
It was then back to the open kitchen along the river to cook up Papaya Salad, Chicken Laab, Sticky Rice, Fish Mok and Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice.
Haeny and her sister Tong were fabulous and patient teachers, ensuring all questions were answered and enough guidance offered to be able to replicate the recipes at home. As it was only the 3 of us, the tutoring was personalised and professional. I loved the fact that due to not remembering to get Coriander from the market, Tong ran down to the veggie patch below us, on the banks of the Mekong to pick some.
Sitting down to enjoy our lunch with these entertaining and extremely friendly girls was a wonderful experience and I'd certainly recommend attending Lao-licious.
So, I hope you enjoy the photos and here's a recipe for a very popular and very Laotian dish of Fish Mok, taken from the handouts from Haeny. More recipes will follow soon.
Fish Mok:
300gm Fish (a white fish like snapper would work well)
Banana Leaves
2 red chillies (crushed in mortar)
1 clove garlic (crushed in mortar)
1 stalk lemongrass (crushed in mortar)
2 shallots (crushed in mortar)
1 tablespoon uncooked sticky rice that has been soaking in water for 3 hours. Crush separately in mortar till rice becomes a powder.
200gm mince Pork
3 spring onions (chopped)
1/2 handfull of dill (chopped)
1/2 handfull of basil leaves
2 raw eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Fish sauce
1/4 cup water
1. Mix garlic, chillies, lemongrass, shallots and pound in mortar (slice thinly first)
2. Put above ingredients in a large glass/stainless steel bowl
3. Add the uncooked powdered sticky rice, minced pork and fish
4. Add the eggs and then the spring onion, dill, basil and water and then add the seasonings.
5. Stir well and pack the mixture tightly in banana leaves close with bamboo toothpick (this is the tricky bit - so good luck! Maybe some greaseproof paper with a couple of elastic bands to make a pouch might also work well and if all else fails, a souffle dish or dariole mould could also be substituted but certainly won't look as good)
6. Steam for 1 hour and serve with some steamed bamboo shoots/chinese cabbage or even choko.
Enjoy! and a big thank you to Haeny & Tong at Lao-licious
Hello Lisa,
ReplyDeleteit`s very interesting to see your photos and to read your blocks. Some photos are really ghastly to view. We hope that everything is okay with you, phoebe and declan and we with you the best for the rest of your journey. We also hope to see more interesting photos and to read more of your blocks from these different countries.
Big kisses to you, Phoebe and Declan from Harald and Doris