Cooking the best Khao Soi in Chiang Mai at half day cooking class with Tom Yum Thai Cooking School

31 December 2014

Khao Soi is a slightly spicy yellow curry noodle dish that is a speciality and must try dish in Chiang Mai. Before my visit, to Chiang Mai, I had planned to try this dish and did some research on where to find the best Khao Soi in town. It seems that Khao Soi Khun Yai has raving good reviews for the dish.

Due to my packed schedule in this trip to Chiang Mai and the fact that Khao Soi Khun Yai is not within walking distance from my hotel, we decided to give it a miss.  We have signed up for a morning half day cooking class with Tom Yum Thai Cooking School and I was delighted to find that Khao Soi was one of the dish I could learn to cook myself!

After picking us up from the hotel (The Empress Hotel), our instructor Oun and his wife drove us to a local market. Here we were introduced to the ingredients commonly found in Thai cooking. As we lived in South East Asia, most of the ingredients were not strange to us. But it would be a challenge to find some varieties of the local Thai egg plants.

My instructor, Oun, explaining the various chillis. “Smaller is more spicy”. “Red is more spicy than green”.

Different kinds of ginger – Galangal or Blue Ginger, Yellow Ginger or Tumeric and Normal ginger.

Various kinds of egg plants – some not commonly found outside Thailand.

Ingredients for our cooking course later.

After the introduction and briefing session, we were given time walk around the market on our own. I always enjoy exploring local markets and seeing the colours and culture of the locals.

Colourful South East Asia fruits.

Various kinds of Salted or Dried fish – saw some flies on them

We got the ingredients needed for the cooking course and than went back to Oun’s house to relax and chit chat with fellow students while Mrs Oun prepare the ingredients and kitchen for our lessons. Normally each class has a maximum of 8 students. There were 10 students today as it was New Year’s Eve and also a peak season for Chiang Mai. Besides our family of 3, there was another group of 5 from the UK and a couple from the US. Oun explained that he would be going to his home village after today’s class. He had volunteered to cook and serve a dish to his village community as part of the New Year’s Eve celebration.

We were to choose one dish from each categories above.

Amongst other dishes, I chose to cook the Khao Soi and have to make the curry paste for it. Beside the curry dish like Khao Soi, we each get to cook a Stir Fried dish (e.g. Pad Thai), Soup (e.g. Tom Yum Prawns), Salad (e.g. Papaya Salad) and Sticky Rice with Mango (a must try dessert in Thailand).

After cooking each dish, the class assembled at the large dining table in Oun’s house to eat our own cooked food, chit chat further, before cooking up the next dish. The atmosphere was casual, relaxing and a good opportunity to meet some fellow travellers.

Recipe for the Khao Soi curry paste

We add the following ingredients (for each bowl or serving) into a stone mortar and took turns to pound it to fine bits. Would be easier to use a blender or food processor but half the fun is pounding the spices the traditional way. 

• 1/2 tablespoon of Cumin seeds (roasted)
• 1/2 teaspoon of Coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of finely chopped galangal or blue ginger (local name)
• 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorn seeds (roasted)
• 3 to 5 large dry chilli that is pre-soaked in water for 10 minutes. More chilli means spicier curry.
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped garlic 
• 2 tablespoon of finely chopped shallots
• 1 teaspoon of tumeric powder or tumeric
• 1/2 teaspoon of lemon grass

Then add the following to the mortar and pound till very smooth (like a paste)

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of normal yellow curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of shrimp paste or belachan (local name)

Pounding the spices the traditional way in a stone mortar

To cook the noodles,

• Add water into pot to boil the yellow egg noodles (about 50g) till soft. Then remove and mix with oil. Set aside.
• Deep fry additional portion of egg noodle (about 50g) till crispy and set aside. This is added as a garnishing later.

To prepare the broth,

• Put 1 tablespoon of oil in wok and add the Khao Soi curry paste and 1 teaspoon of curry powder to fry. Gradually add coconut milk during frying to prevent the paste from drying out. Fry till fragance.
• Add about 50 to 100g of sliced chicken meat, stir well to fry with paste.
• Add 1 cup of coconut milk and simmer till the chicken is soft and tender.
• Season to taste by adding about 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce and 1/2 tablespoon of palm sugar. Not too sweet, add palm sugar. Not too salty, add fish sauce.
• Pour in the boiled egg noodle to the noodle and we are almost done.

Add in the crispy noodle and add the usual side dish vegetable (chopped coriander, pickled cabbage, sliced shallot, squeeze some lime juice, and roasted chilli in oil) and my Khao Soi noodle was ready to eat.

The Khao Soi noodle that I cooked.

Being able to adjust the taste of the broth in my noodles to my own liking, I could say that the Khao Soi I cooked was the “best” for me after all.

Besides the Khao Soi noodle, here are some of the other dishes we cooked.

Pad Thai.

Tom Yum Soup.

Sticky Rice with Mango (a must try dessert in Thailand).

Tom Yum Thai Cooking School gave each participant a small recipe book to take away with us so we could continue with cooking Thai dishes back home. All in all, taking a cooking class by Oun was a wonderful experience for me and family in Chiang Mai.