Get Some Mork's On Your Fork

I love Thai food.

If I could only have one cuisine to live on for the rest of my life, I think I would choose Thai. It just has it all; warming curries, cool salads, all the taste ticklers-sweet salty sour and hot, rice not nasty gluten based. Really, what's not to love.

I have numerous books on the subject of Thai food, I have done my due diligence in researching the local take on Thai cuisine (with varying degrees of yumminess), I have attended the Thai Embassy and Thai Temple open days and food fairs, etc etc etc

But... If you are interested in something you may as well learn from the master. With this in mind, I have recently been attending some Thai cookery classes at icook culiary college, Mawson, led by Mork, from Morks restaurant in Florey.

Despite my love of Thai cusine, I wouldn't have been tempted to spend this amount of money on 4 classes if the teacher hadn't been Mork. He is a lovely, engaging young guy who really knows his stuff. His family has run their own restaurant for many years before opening Morks, which has a bit more of a contemporary twist and is more up scale than the usual neighbourhood place.

BigJ and I love the food at Morks. I even wrote a post with a review of their fantastic food, but somehow there were no photos to put with it! So when I saw these classes advertised in the Canberra Institute of Technology short courses, I knew I wanted to go.

The classes covered a wide variety of tastes and recipes including many I'd never experienced before. We did pastes and salads, tofu and meat, veggies and desserts- yumm! All ingredients were covered in the price, and we all sat down together for a communal meal at the end of each class and even shared a glass of wine or two!

This is a very simple recipe that was one of my favourites from the classes. It's not complex like the curries, or zingy fresh like the salads, but the smooth silkiness of the eggplant coupled with the chilli was delicious and I thought I'd share it with you.

Grilled Eggplant with a Chilli Paste Dressing

1 Tbsp Chilli paste with soybean oil
- we used the Pantainorasingh brand

3 Tbsp lemon or lime juice

3 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Eggplant sliced lengthways

1 Tablespoon of fried asian shallots

1 Bunch of corriander

Grill the eggplant in a little oil until soft and caramelised.

Combine lemon juice, fish sauce, and chilli paste until well mixed

Arrange eggplant on plate and dress with sauce.

Chop corriander aand sprinkle over dish.

Garnish with the fried shallots and serve.

This has been a hetic week for us here, hence the lateness of this post. BigJ amputated his top finger joint on the weekend, and after several days in hospital, surgery and many medications later, we are back home and everything is looking hopeful, thank God, because it could have been much worse. Lets just say that the next time he uses a power tool, the dog will be tied up securely out of the way. I can say that I have never driven so fast in my life, but thankfully no policemen were inbetween me and the hospital, because I really don't think I would have stopped for anything. littlej also heard many interesting words for the first time, and we can but hope they aren't seared in her memory forever!

So Readers, what would you risk a speeding ticket for?