Thai Cookery School, Paradise Resort - Khao Sok

As part of our whistle stop tour of Thailand we were also desperate to do an elephant safari and Thai cookery course before we left. I had heard incredible things about Khao Sok National Park (a night trains distance away from the city of Bangkok - towards the famous Thai Islands) so we thought this would be the most perfect place for a real getaway retreat and a chance to see Thailand as nature intended.

We decided to stay in the Khao Sok Paradise resort, in a luxury tree house, which was well worth the money and as part of our stay we booked ourselves onto an adventure package which included the accommodation for 3 nights, an elephant safari, canoe trip, an over night lake stay (the highlight - as it was completely beautiful) this particular cookery course, and all our meals throughout the stay.

Our Ingredients!

When you opt to do a cookery class at this resort their resident chef intructs you on the different spices, oils and vegetables most commonly used. You also select one of three menus, we opted for the menu which included stir fry vegetables, chicken with cashew nuts, masuman curry, and two different types of prawn soup (one coconut based, and the other spicy tom yum).

The lady who took the class (unfortunately I cannot remember her name) was absolutely excellent. She spoke very good English, was really great at explaining all of the chopping techniques - and even showed us some great things to do to show off vegetables on the plate and whats more you could really tell she was passionate about Thai cuisine.

All prepped and ready to cook!

Before we began to cook all of the different dishes it was explained that many of the curry pastes could be made from scratch and chilli can be added to taste (which we were quite relieved about!!)...The dishes only took a matter of minutes each, just enough to cook the chicken or prawns and little enough time to keep the other ingredients still crunchy - 'leaving in all the goodness' as it was explained.

The finished dishes!

The finished dishes were delicious. All had a unique flavour - despite using many of the exact same ingredients, and were so simple to do. We tucked in, and enjoyed everyone, especially the chicken and cashew nuts with vegetables - made takeaway versions seem awful and processed! Our only regret is we couldn't finish it as it was only lunchtime - I would suggest either doing this in the evening (if possible) or indeed having a very light breakfast that day!