Six cook up a storm

With bouts of heavy rain and more blustery conditions on the way, a day of sailing the beautiful waters surrounding Koh Yao Noi seemed pretty well out of the question. 

Disappointed, we were wondering what to do when one of our group had the bright idea of attending cookery school.  

We all love to eat and cook Thai food and we had heard that there was a well reviewed place on Koh Yao Noi – Mina’s Cookery School.

The view of paddy fields and the sea in the distance at Mina’s

So early afternoon we piled in a tuk tuk and were driven to Mina’s house perched on an incline with a view of paddy fields leading down to the sea and surrounded by gardens full of vegetables and fruit trees and inhabited by a flock of plump and fine feathered hens. 

Part of Mina’s garden

We were warmly welcomed by Mina and there on the table was the most beautiful collection of herbs, spices and vegetables that I have ever seen. 

Looked even better in real life

They looked so amazing that it seemed a shame to use them as anything but a centrepiece to the table. But we were there to cook and cook we did! And chop, crush, grate, squeeze, shred and slice. 

Such vibrant colours!

We learned how to cook five main dishes – beef mussaman, a yellow curry, a chicken stir fry, a soup, a beef larb (salad) and then a strangely delicious dessert made from sweet potato and fresh coconut milk.

The beginnings of a curry – the smell was sensational

Some of the chopping and grinding had been done for us but we all had the opportunity to have a go at each stage of the cooking process – even shredding and squeezing fresh coconut to make coconut milk. 

Preprepared spices – lemon grass, ginger, galangal, garlic, onion and chillies

Scraping the coconut flesh from the shell for coconut milk

Taste test

Squeezing the coconut flesh to make coconut milk

Eventually everything was cooked and we sat down to a delicious meal in Mina’s kitchen. 

Capt’n Birdseye puts the finishing touches to the salad

Delicious yellow curry

It was definitely a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon and I think all of us would recommend others to go to Mina’s Cookery School if they get the chance.

Enjoying the meal we had cooked – thanks Mina!