Cooking class at The Spirit House, Yandina (Australia)

So I mentioned that we went back to Australia a couple of months ago. We had lots of delicious Australian food - barbecues, fish and chips by the water, more Red Rock Deli chips than anyone should eat in a three week period. But the foodie highlight would have to be the cooking class I did with my Mum.

We decided on the Asian Home Entertaining class at the Spirit House in Yandina. The Spirit House is a beautiful mostly-Thai restaurant and cooking school set in picturesque rainforest-like surroundings on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane.

If I'm going to do a cooking class, I like to do something that I don't know well and am not confident in. I don't really cook Thai food, so this class definitely appealed. The class was run by Annette Fear, the long-standing Head Chef at The Spirit House and co-author of three Spirit House cookbooks. Annette was fabulous - she is obviously well-travelled and hugely experienced and yet she was so friendly and approachable and not at all intimidating.

We started the class with a chat about the dishes we were going to make and Annette gave some background on them and told some lovely stories from her travels. We then all moved inside to start the preparation. My big take-away from the day would definitely have to be how much preparation is involved in Thai cooking. I think we spent most of the class preparing!

We were all given different jobs, from chopping piles of chillies to shredding green papaya and grinding fresh spices for a curry paste. Once all the ingredients were chopped and set aside in containers, the cooking began - although, to be fair, that part was quite quick!

Across the class, we made:

Steamed Prawn & Chicken Wontons with Avocado Salad

Spiced Crispy Rice Fish with Grapefruit, Fennel & Thai Basil

Massaman Curry of Duck with Caramelised Sweet Potato & Cashews

Young Coconut & Lime Sorbet with Red Papaya and Mint Salad

We started with the wontons, which were made with ready-made wonton wrappers (apparently, no Thai person would ever make their own - you would be specialised in this, so buying them is okay!). We had quite a production line set up to fill and fold the wrappers although I don't think Annette was too impressed with our technique!

The wontons were steamed in huge bamboo steamers and served with a light salad of avocado, tomato and cucumber and either soy or red rice wine vinegar for dipping. The wontons were excellent - really tasty, really impressive looking and deceptively easy to make. Great idea for a dinner party as you can largely make them in advance.

The finishing touches were then put to the main courses and we sat at the tables outside next to the pond to tuck into the whitebait salad and massaman curry.

I really enjoyed the whitebait - they were really tiny New Zealand whitebait and didn't taste super fishy. They were prepared simply, coated in rice flour and deep fried, so they were light and crunchy. They were served with a salad of grapefruit and fennel, two ingredients I am not all that enthusiastic about. They were nice enough in the salad, but even looking at the recipe now, I am struggling to get excited. It is a shame, as Annette was telling us that Thai salads are a really underrated side to Thai cuisine (except for the ubiquitous Thai Beef Salad!).

It was always up against stiff competition, but the salad did pale in comparison to the Duck Massaman Curry, which was - quite simply - wow! It is certainly not a low-fat meal, but the rich duck meat with the coconut curry sauce, roasted sweet potato and cashew nuts was a guaranteed winning combination. If you were making this yourself, it would be reasonably time-consuming, but again, is something you can make mostly in advance. You definitely need to serve this when there are more people to eat it with you - it was too good and too fattening to risk eating it all yourself!

Annette did explain to us that a Thai meal would normally be a number of dishes such as this curry and salad together. The different dishes balance each other out and means the Thai people don't eat enormous amounts of such a rich dish as the curry. It is quite a different approach to eating than we normally take in Western cuisines.


We finished up with a Young Coconut Milk and Lime granita served with Red Papaya. I've never liked papaya and still didn't like it now. The granita was very subtly flavoured, so this dessert was not all that exciting for me. Still, the granita is a flexible technique, which can be used to make lots of variations on a simple, light dessert that was appropriate after the curry.

All of this was washed down with a couple of glasses of wine, which combined with all that food, made the drive back to Brisbane then the Gold Coast rather long!

This was quite a different cooking class to what I've done previously. The food was stunning and really different, but because it was cooked by the whole class of 20 or so people, individually, we didn't get to do that much or even see everything. It was less involved on the cooking front than other classes. Still, Annette was great, the food was excellent and the surroundings are idyllic.

Massaman Curry of Duck

For the curry
4 duck Maryland, jointed and drumstick trimmed (could also use chicken or stewing beef)
3 cups coconut cream
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
6-8 pickling onions or golden shallots, peeled
500g golden sweet potato, peeled, cut into 5 cm pieces and seasoned
3-4 tablespoons Massaman paste (see separate recipe)
2-3 tablespoons light palm sugar
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons tamarind water (see separate recipe)
1 large red chilli, de-seeded and sliced
1/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews, roughly chopped

Heat a heavy based frying pan and cook the duck pieces until well coloured. Set aside.

Open the coconut cream without shaking and separate the cream from the milk. There should be about 1 cup of cream and 2 cups of milk. Place the milk in a saucepan with the duck pieces, adding just enough water to cover if necessary. Set the coconut cream aside to use later. Bring the duck to the boil without covering and then simmer on a low heat for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This duck can also be paced in a baking dish with the coconut milk and cooked uncovered in a moderately low oven (160 degrees). Once the duck is cooked, remove from coconut milk and reserve milk.

Meanwhile, place the seasoned sweet potato and onions in a large baking dish (with low sides) with the vegetable oil, toss well to coat and bake in moderate 180 degree oven for about an hour or until browning on the edges and cooked. Remove and set aside.

heat 1/2 cup of the reserved coconut cream in a wok or saucepan and simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the oil starts to separate. Add the curry paste and cook gently until the paste smells rich and fragrant. Add the reserved coconut milk, light palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind water. Bring to the boil, then add the cooked duck pieces, sweet potato, onion and 1/4 cup of remaining coconut cream. Simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the red chilli, cashews and remaining coconut cream.

To make the curry paste
12 large dried red chillies, seeded and soaked in hot water until soft then chopped finely
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup peeled and chopped onion or shallots
2 tablespoons galangal, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of lemon grass, trimmed and chopped
3 tablespoons coriander root, cleaned and chopped
1 tablespoon salt

Spice mixture
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seed
4 cm piece cassia (hard cinnamon stick)
8 cloves
5 cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon mace

Dry roast the coriander, cumin, cassia, cloves and cardamom pods in a fry pan over a gentle heat until just starting to color and smell toasted. Place in a mortar and pestle or spice mill with the white pepper and grind to a powder. Stir in the mace.

Place the paste ingredients in a mortar and pound to a puree. Mix in the spices. Store in a screw top jar or freeze in cubes and just thaw the cubes as required. Keeps for 6 months frozen.

Tamarind water
1 tablespoon of tamarind pulp
1/2 cup boiling water

Put tamarind pulp in a bowl, pour in boiling water. When cool, mash pulp with a fork and strain the liquid through a sieve. Retain this liquid, discard the tamarind seeds and skins.

The Spirit House
20 Ninderry Road
Yandina, Qld, 4561
Australia

Afternoon tea at the Ritz

It seems like ages since I've sat down to write a blog post and well, it has been ages! It has been a long list of sorry reasons (we moved flats and decided to switch from BT to Sky, the process of which involved consecutive requests for cable tv, phone then internet - each involving 3-4 weeks between steps; we went back to Australia for a visit for three weeks; work has been crazy; excuses, excuses).

In that time, we've still been cooking and eating and doing lots of awesome food stuff, which means I now feel guilty and overwhelmed about what I haven't blogged! So, I am prioritising. Only the most interesting things that have occurred over the past few months will be recorded for posterity . . .

The first would have to be our afternoon tea at the Ritz. This was a Christmas present from my parents, which we finally got around to booking in about May this year, only to find that the first sensible time available on a weekend was in August! So, on a beautiful sunny August day, we headed into the London institution that is the Ritz.

The hotel is incredibly ornate and over the top, matched by the staff in their tails or white jackets and black bow ties. It all feels a bit like a stage set! Along with another 70 or so people, we were shown to our table for the 1.30 seating. The process runs like clockwork. They hold five seatings a day, seven days a week, turning people over every two hours, but somehow not making you feel like a cog in a system. Quite impressive.

Our voucher was for the champagne high tea and we were provided with our glass of Ritz champagne, while we perused the extensive menus of teas. I must profess to being not much of a tea drinker (and certainly knowing very little about different varieties). I decided to try something a little different in the Rose Congou, described as 'a black tea from Guangdong, China, enriched with rose petals giving a gentle, light rose aroma to the tea'. Kyle was less adventurous with his choice of Ritz Royal English, 'an exquisite Kenyan blend of malty Assam and the fine flavour of Ceylon'.

The white-jacketed waiters whisked the stands of food efficiently to each table while our tea was being poured and we got into the serious business of eating. Afternoon Tea at the Ritz is obviously hugely traditional, so you're not expecting anything unusual or uncommon here.

The sandwiches included cucumber (don't get it!), cheese, smoked salmon, ham, chicken and egg. They are all incredibly dainty, served as little fingers of crustless bread with simple fillings. Quite pleasant.

The scones weren't included with the first tray of food, but were brought around at the point in proceedings where one was supposed to have finished sandwiches and could move on to scones while they were still warm. Very efficient! The scones were exceptional. I often find scones a bit heavy, particularly with this much food, but these were warm, light and fluffy. We had lovely little pots of delicious strawberry jam and artery-clogging clotted cream, which were both traditional but very good! For me, the scones were the highlight.

We were now ready to move onto the top tier - the cakes. Unfortunately, by this time, I was already really quite full! This is a problem with afternoon tea - you start with sandwiches and run out of room for cake! But, I had to do my duty and persevered through a pistachio cake (average cake, decorated with amazing raspberries) and a truly exceptional chocolate gateau, made with rich, dark bitter chocolate. That was good. Kyle had the vanilla slice, which was okay - very hard to eat. Unfortunately, we had to pass on a fruit tart, blueberry mousse and a coconut macaroon. A tragedy. For some reason, the couple at the table next to us had ordered an extra cake to celebrate their anniversary. Needless to say, they ate hardly any and tried to palm some on to us!

Afternoon tea at the Ritz lived up to expectations as a truly English, rather posh experience. It is quite rare to go somewhere these days where people are all well dressed, but everyone really made an effort. I expected it to be more touristy, but the people there seemed to be couples or families celebrating occasions, so everyone was really positive. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the setting was most appropriate! It is expensive compared to other high teas in London, but let's face it, are you really going for the tea and sandwiches?

The Ritz
150 Piccadilly
London W1J 9BR