cooking class with Nyep!

One of our favorite restaurants is the Elephant Walk, which serves French and Cambodian cuisine. Happily, they also offer cooking classes. Today, Mr. P and I took a vegetarian and vegan Cambodian class.

The classes at EW are some of the easiest of all the cooking classes I've taken. They often prep, and even measure, most of the ingredients before the students get there. They even wash the dishes for you. So you come in, have delicious coffee to get going, get a run-down of how to make each dish, learn about some of the special ingredients (and you get to see them, too, so you know what to look for in stores). Then you split into teams, do the rest of the prep and start cooking.

Of course, we were in one of the restaurants, so we got to work in a professional kitchen, which made it even more fun. The founder of the restaurant and an assistant watched over us, answering questions, demonstrating what size to chop each item, helping with cooking temperature, and adding final touches.

In these classes, Mr. P and I usually join different teams so we can have twice the experience. I worked on a delicious dish that started with a paste made of dried chili peppers, shallots, galangal, ginger, lemongrass, cilantro, and probably a few other ingredients. Then we heated oil, poured in the paste and unsweetened coconut milk, which made something like a red curry. To that, we added vegetables -- king mushroom, bamboo shoots, sugar, salt, lime juice. It was delicious and the taste stayed with me for hours (a good thing).

Mr. P worked on a tofu dish made with cubanelle peppers, tomatoes, minced garlic. There was a caramelized sauce with quail eggs and bamboo shoots. And there was a salad made of tomatoes, English cucumber, rice stick noodles, and a simple dressing.

When all the dishes were done, we plated them and served the food buffet style with wine -- basically having a big old dinner party for 16. I'm always astonished that I'm able to produce food that's so tasty and attractive.

After the class, we decided to stroll around the neighborhood before heading home. The day had started out slightly damp but turned beautiful while we were indoors. It was wonderful being in the sun, taking in the urban scene.

A very nice day indeed.