Koh Lanta with its long stretches of beautiful beaches and verdant landscapes
The gorgeous view from our cooking class
As the waves gently lapped the rocky shores and the sun set on another gorgeous day in Koh Lanta, I sipped on my lemongrass margaritas and watched nature’s brush paint gorgeous colours against the skyline. It was a surreal setting for a cooking class. Koh Lanta in itself was a lovely island in Thailand with relatively untouched beautiful beaches, empty stretches of driving roads and lush greenery all around, my thriving heliconia back home serving as a reminder of the lovely landscaped vacation home we stayed in. But Time for Lime, with its beachfront setting, was magical.
Prep stations…
The cooking class was the kind of pace I enjoyed. Not the usual come, learn, eat and go kind of pace. But a class broken into sub segments where you are taken through the motions in an easy, relaxed manner. One that starts with a description and explanation of ingredients in every little detail by its founder Junie Kovacs. For the first time I learnt about different ways of slicing and dicing lemongrass based on what you need to use them for – the ‘eat me’ parts and the ‘not to eat me’ parts . We ground our own curry paste in a pestle, the aroma bursting with flavor and freshness. We closed our eyes and popped Mieng Kham into our mouths to taste the four flavours intrinsic to Thai cooking – sweet, salt, sour and spice. From our writing stations we moved to the prep stations and then gradually to our cooking stations, tossing, stir frying and mixing before we sat down for dinner. We even garnished our own dishes. But not before, we had our margarita breaks – chilli or their signature lemongrass – or learnt about the most authentic brands of sauces and pastes that we could take home with us. My recipes from the class have interesting nuggets of information like for the curry pastes “So…to get in the right mode, put your favourite music on, get a cold beer or two and wear minimum clothes…” or “Cooking Tom Kha is a bit like doing the laundry. You want to avoid putting a red sock in among the white T’s” or “It’s really a good idea to turn off the fire alarm and open your windows while making this dish” for the Gai Padt Medt Mamuang.
Plating was as much a part of our class
The best part of doing a class with Time for Lime was knowing that our proceeds were going to the Lanta Animal Welfare Center run by Junie. For one who runs a Thai cooking class, Junie has an interesting multi-cultural background that is part Norwegian, part Hungarian with American influence. She has been cooking and teaching Thai food for over 20 years across continents and has cook books to her credit as well. Yet in the midst of all this, she has devoted herself to animal welfare and found a way to combine her passion for cooking (and ours for learning) with a compassionate cause.
Amal’s chefs in training who cook up some delicious meals
The loveliness of that approach stayed with me in a very different country as I attended another cooking class. I was in Marrakech on a solo trip and had tried tagines of different kinds at almost every meal – with chicken and preserved lemon, beef and vegetables, kofta and egg and so on – but this lunch would be different. I was at the Amal Centre, a not for profit association that seeks to empower disadvantaged women through culinary and hospitality skills. It was founded in 2012 by Nora Fitzgerald Belahcen, an American-Moroccan, as a response to the difficulties faced by many women from disadvantaged backgrounds who had had little or no education. Our cooking session began with a short orientation of the Centre and the work they do. We got to meet and speak to some of the women the Centre supports. Amal means ‘hope’ in Arabic and it was inspiring to learn about the opportunities being provided to these women to live lives of dignity and meaning.
Lamb tagine…my class in progress
The stories of the women and Amal’s mission infused our cooking with new relish. We walked past the kitchen where some of the women were engaged in cooking up the menu for the day (Amal also serves as a restaurant) into a canopied passage by the garden where our cooking class was held. The women trainees guided us as we worked on our tagines and set them on charcoal to slow cook. Back into the kitchen to finish our dessert and it was then time to bask in the Centre’s lovely little garden with a cup of delicious mint-infused tea before we settled to eat the most delicious and flavourful tagines.
Slow cooking our tagines on coal which imparts its own delicious flavour
As I partook of both meals – in Koh Lanta and Marrakech – the knowledge that I was doing something I loved and enjoyed that also served to give back to causes I cared deeply about, added a new sense of calm and peace…and undoubtedly a new flavour to the meals.
