A crash course in cashew nuts

Cashew shells post splitting

We left Chiang Mai for the Thai border, driving through stunning paddy fields with huge, almost vertical hills in the distance. After (enough) hours on the road we stopped for a pit stop and, grabbing our own supplies of loo paper, prepared ourselves for another great loo ‘experience.’ But – thankfully –  this was no ordinary service station..

All around, there were hundreds of cashew trees and there, lying on the forecourt, were thousands of lazy cashew nuts in their plump brown shells, drying in the sun. Our guide explained that these had been carefully removed from ther orange/ yellow fruit they dangle from as the fruit itself contains an irritant which burns skin.

They are then left to dry in their shells and later carefully removed with a small guillotine-type thing. There is a black substance around the actual nut which is – again – bad news to touch so the nuts are painstakingly removed by gloved hands and cleaned off. They are then roasted, twice, for 10 hours at a time. A hugely long and cumbersome process – I felt very sorry for the poor little ladies (still no men) sitting on kindegarten-height stools, with elbow length gloves and masks for days at a time.

Thank goodness the final product is counted as a delicacy, even out here – learnt the hard way when ordering chicken stir fry with cashew and only getting 1 cashew. Better to order cashew with chicken..

You could not imagine the number of different flavourings they put on cashews in that awesome little place. Coconut, lemon grass, coffee, butter etc etc. I walked away with a packet of black sesame covered ones – much more satifying on a long motorway than haribo.

Beginners class 1: Thai…

Veg in the Chiang Mai market

The phone rings “Good morning Daweeenaaaaaaaaah.” My first morning in a rather wet Bangkok. Stumbling into breakfat I am greeted with a  worrying array of badly cooked western breakfasts treats – the height of chic – and a deliciously steaming and inviting mound of Pad Thai. It didn’t take my jet lagged head more than a nano second to make the decision. Beating the esteemed Addie’s Thai Cafe (Earl’e Court) into a cocked hat, this deliciousness was the perfect start to the day and  – I was later told – was eaten by the Thai themselves all day – every day. So unlike Spaghetti Bolognese, pad thai does actually exist in its home land. Tick. 

Straight out of the floods and to Chiang Mai where we went head first into a cooking course. Having illustrated our collective ignorance, we were whisked down to the food market for a serious begginners crash course (photos to follow when I remember to bring them..) Unlike the embarrassingly number of food markets I have salivated over, this was calm and clean – a world away from India (and Italy for that matter..) Women (where are the men in this country?) go and buy their fresh food twice a day, from women, who are quietely, lovingly and gentily preparing it, so that you could practically eat the veg then and there.

Gallenghal (sp?) related to ginger, lemon grass and turmeric are the typical broth ‘bouquet garni’ and are bought in the truck load with other essentials such as grated coconut (to mix with warm water and squeeze to give coconut milk) egg, noodles (the glass ones are made from mung beans) tofu and enormous amounts of herbs.

Back at the ranch we were put to work. I tentativly created a pad thai under heavy survellance and  – though I might say so myself – was rather proud of it. It seems that all thai cooking is about varying the heat of the wok. The wok is used both for frying and steaming and each ingredient is given the appropriate treatment by it’s position in the pan. Deliciously simple. Added to that are the 5 golden ingredients: Soya / Veg oil, Fish sauce (salty,) Oyster suace (sweet / texture) chili (heat) and sugar (counteracts heat.) Not rocket science but totally delicious.

And so it was that I made 4 key dishes with embarrassingly small quantities of chilli in; “4 chilli normal, 6 chilli strong and 8 chilli sexy lady….” they said. I went for 1 chilli. Oh dear.

Off to a thai massage to digest, folowed by people watching as the world snacks on delicious street food and sweet treats from sticky rice and bean curd….