Flavors
of Asia
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"Thai food is the most healthful and flavorful in the world," according to Supenn Harrison, founder of Sawatdee Thai restaurants. It is based on fresh vegetables and fruits, small portions of meat, lots of fish and a wide variety of heart- and body-helpful spices and herbs. As she told a recent cooking class in her Washington Avenue restaurant, "When we are young we eat to grow. As adults we eat to stay healthy." And Thai cooking is her health food of choice. The class was filled with adults looking to learn her special secrets for recreating Sawatdee's Thai food at home. "We don't use recipes in our restaurant kitchens," admitted Harrison. "Instead we train our chefs on how to combine sweet, sour, salty, bitter and hot flavors the basic elements of Thai cooking. Then we give them guidelines for cooking each dish and the result is a recreation of typical Thai food." Most students seemed skeptical and welcomed the printed recipes she provided. This class included Pad Thai, Red Chicken Curry, Chinese Broccoli with Rice Noodles, and Lob Esan (Chicken with Fish Sauce). This last dish is similar in texture and presentation to Chinese Lettuce Packages but there the similarity ends. "Thai cooking is not merely a regional adaptation of Chinese food," explained Harrison. "It has evolved within our country over centuries, adding influences from neighboring Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia as well as India." Since Thailand was never occupied by a western power, its cuisine has remained a true reflection of its culture dating back eight centuries. To achieve its special flavors, Thai cooks use an abundance of garlic, lemongrass, galanga, ginger, chilies, kaffir limes, basil, shrimp paste, cilantro and fish sauce. "You won't like the smell of fish sauce in the bottle," warns Harrison, "it really stinks!" But, she assured her students that once it has been mellowed by the cooking process, they would like the special dimension it gives the dish. It's the fish sauce that gives the Lob Esan its distinctive flavor. In this case it is added at the end of the cooking process making the fish sauce the predominant flavor. Supenn first brought her native Thai cooking to the Twin Cities 28 years ago when she enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Minnesota. First it was cooking for friends. Then it was making egg rolls for fellow workers. In 1976 it was introducing Thai egg rolls for the first time at the State Fair and in 1980 she opened the area's first Thai restaurant on Lake Street in Minneapolis. Since then she and her husband Bruce have expanded the business to include eight restaurants in Minneapolis, Bloomington, St. Paul and St. Cloud. Along the way she has trained hundreds of people how to cook Thai food and helped thousands more learn to enjoy the "most healthful food in the world." Here is a typical Thai recipe for Red Chicken Curry from Supenn,
written in typical "guideline" style. It combines many
of the basic Thai herbs and spices, is easy to cook and may be
made ahead. As she says, "make it for dinner the first night,
save some for dinner two nights later and freeze some for future
dining." Or you may just like it well enough to eat it all
at once! Visit Sawatdee's website for more Thai cooking information
www.sawatdee.com. |
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