Kallayanee's Kitchen

As a bit of a break from our packing and organizing, Harry and I spent the afternoon at Kallayanee's Kitchen learning to make a Thai dinner.  Kallayanee is the wife of an old school friend Ry, who was an elementary school chum of mine and came back into my life this summer.  Kallayanee offers cooking classes out of their home in rural Saanich.  We decided to take Lesson number 3, which demonstrates how to create a five-course dinner serving 4 to 6 people.

This dinner included Spicy Seafood Soup (Tom Yum Talay), Green Curry Chicken, Garlic Prawns,  Spicy Vermicelli Salad (Yam Moon Sen), and Stir Fried Vegetables with Chili Sauce.  It was so much fun to sit around the kitchen island and watch Kallayanee transform authentic ingredients into an incredibly tasty Thai dinner!

She gave us detailed printed recipes for each dish and demonstrated her techniques--making it look very easy.  There was a lot of preparation that went into this, but  I think with the tips on purchasing and preparing we got during the afternoon, that I might very well be able to make one or more of these dishes.  Kallayanee even suggested which brands of rice noodles and coconut milk to buy and told us where we could get the best prices.  She's a wealth of information about sources and techniques.

Lesson 3 features Thai green curry--perhaps my most most favourite Thai dish.  And it turns out that this is fairly simple to make.  Its ingredient list is less than ten items, which is right up my alley.  We left with a little bag of the Thai Green Curry, enough to make a pot of it.  I only need to buy a bottle of Fish Sauce (available in most grocery stores with an Asian aisle) and some coconut milk, basil, chicken , beans and cilantro...so that's my plan for one night this week. 

Just take a look at these woks full of delicious food. When the preparation was finished we all sat down at the table overlooking the valley to enjoy a feast.

I was a bit worried that it would be too hot for my taste but the flavours were fantastic and I enjoyed every bite.


So if you live in Victoria, check out Kallayanee's Kitchen for information on her fabulous cooking classes.  I highly recommend the Saturday afternoon classes at their lovely farmhouse.