Course (recommended) prerequisites:
In this inclusive masterclass, we cover everything you need to know about preparing Siamese salads creatively and authentically.
Modern-day Thai salads are often identified with a flamboyant appearance, and loud and often over-sweetened seasoning. In contrast, old-fashioned Siamese salads were gentle, soft and flavorful. In this immersive and uniquely designed masterclass, we decipher the intricacies of old-fashioned Siamese salads’ culinary codes, using Thaifoodmaster’s revolutionary visual approach to layering flavors.
While we all think we know how to toss a fantastic salad, in reality, the codes of Siamese salads remains enigmatic: This is due to the basic salad concept that dictates mixing short flavor phrases from distinctive elements in order that each element can be identified while remaining part of a harmonious new whole. Utilizing the Thaifoodmaster’s visual approach to salad design results in more positive, bright, vibrant, and coherent cooking skills, with a presentation that is not abstract but organic and containing references to nature.
This comprehensive masterclass will transform the way you perceive and prepare Thai salads – and you can anticipate a dramatic improvement in your skills after completing the class!
Class Content
Faux frog salad is a rich, elegant dish featuring tender chicken braised in coconut cream and young coconut flesh with a chili-jam based dressing. Utilizing an old-fashioned salad assembly technique – the ‘mix and layer’ – this is a visually striking salad with alternating layers of reds and whites.
The name of this vintage dish – Faux Frog Salad – could be a reflection of the swinging social norms in Siam during the roaring twenties, a period of significant social change; as the country sought to navigate the challenges of modernization, Siamese society was shifting its dietary preferences away from the frog, once a common, versatile and popular ingredient. Thus, through the desire for distinction, chicken, an ingredient often compared to the taste of everything, was preferable to frog.
If we could strip away the spices, the seasonings, the vegetables and the herbs from savory dishes we could uncover their naked flavor profile core. There, we would encounter a strong savory-umami, sometimes coupled with other basic elements of smoke and fat. This flavor core is, for us humans, the sought-after taste of protein; our first sip of mother’s milk, and the primal experience of burned game meat on the fire.
Today we would like to highlight a powerhouse for umami creation: the fermentation process. We will focus on fermented fish innards from southern Thailand (dtai bpla ไตปลา), one of about a dozen fermented products used in the country. We will show you how chefs for the capital’s elite, as early as or, before the reign of King Phra Phutthaloetla Naphalai (Rama II, 1767-1824), harnessed its wild nature and created a dish similar to what we present today – a salad with infused fermented fish innards dressing.
Multiple ingredients in a salad can produce structural noise and clutter that will disrupt the salad’s rhythm, resulting in a confusing disharmony. Therefore, it is […]
The name of this dish, yam naang faa yiiam haawng (ยำนางฟ้าเยี่ยมห้อง), translates to ‘Angel Visiting the Chamber Salad’ in English. This celestial salad, which originated in the 1920s, is a playful chili jam-based salad that combines the textural gradients of pomelo, with its citrusy bursts, chewy cooked pork skin, and the sweet and slightly resilient cooked shrimp meat. The pomelo’s citrusy notes are further amplified with thinly sliced lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves sliced into hair-thin juliennes. I like to adjust the sourness and sweetness of the chili jam-based dressing based on the acidity of the pomelo. As our aim is to achieve a final sour-salty and sweet flavor profile, a sour-salty dressing is suggested if the pomelo is sweet, while a salty-sweet dressing pairs better with a sour pomelo.
A pla (พล่า) style salad of smoked grilled duck with roasted caramelized shallots, bitter yellow eggplants, and aromatics. The duck is smoke-grilled to medium-well doneness. […]
