PCC Cooking classes

I went to my first PCC cooking class today.

PCC - for anyone who doesn't live in the Seattle area - stands for Puget Consumer Co-op. I've been a member of PCC for years and was really excited when they finally opened up a store in Redmond. I left them for awhile, enamored by the glamour of Whole Foods, but I'm back to my old flame now and am really happy with the way this market is run. Anyway, I digress, but anyone who is interested in organic and sustainable choices should check out their website for articles and resources.

Okay, so back to the class. It was Taste of Thailand and it was good. Not only was it tasty thai - it was easy thai. That might be because Pranee Halvorsen, the chef instructor, just has a great way of utilizing fairly straight forward ingredients and creating some fabulous dishes. It wasn't a hands on class - meaning that I sat in the back (got there just a bit late) - but I still learned alot about traditional thai cooking methods. Pranee is wonderful about bringing her heritage into the classroom.

Did you know that tumeric is a rhizome from the ginger family? It is also an important fresh ingredient for the Tom Yum soup she made. There was also pan seared halibut with three sauces; green curry fried rice and bananas in coconut milk that has to be comfort food in any culture that it is served in. Being a PCC class - the class was organic and low on the processed food meter.

The best part of the class is that I got a copy of the recipes - covered with notes by the end of the class on everything from how to store galangal to the finer points of making chili powder - and a coupon for shopping in the store. I bought the ingredients for the soup and made it tonight. It turned out perfectly spectacular. The complex flavors of sweet, sour, spicy and salty all rolled into a soup filled with mushrooms, shallots, chicken, lime, lemongrass and assorted other little goodies. I hid the leftovers in the back of the fridge. (They are MINE!)

ahem. sorry. My family liked the soup too.

Pranee will be doing another class in the fall that will have a whole new set of recipes. This was certainly a fun way to learn about an ethnic food that I love.