Watching a ruby crab get hacked to pieces while it’s still trying to scramble off the workstation, you too might find that you’re not as brave as you thought you were in the kitchen. Luckily, said ruby crab will be supplied pre-hacked, and deep-fried at the Fishmarket’s Thai cooking class on January 21. For those of you who want to learn how one wields a weapon against such sea-creatures, look elsewhere. Particularly because there won’t be much need for weapon wielding of any kind here, because even your vegetables will come pre-sliced for you.
The folks at the InterContinental have been running a series of cooking classes since last year, and alternating between their restaurants to keep things interesting. After the success of chef Daragh Lawlour’s class at Belgian Café, Fishmarket is next on their list. This Thai style seafood restaurant has been around for thirty years, which explains why it’s a little on the shabby side. But looks matter not to their ever-returning clientele who get to choose what they want to eat as you would at a local market; by pointing. Now Fishmarket has got a crab promotion running every Saturday, so this month’s class is all about crab.
The dish you’ll be preparing is simple enough: sautéed ruby crab in black pepper sauce accompanied by crab salad. We know this, because we’ve gone and tried it out to let you know what you can expect. Now preparing the salad was mainly a lesson in sourcing Thai ingredients (particularly the snow crab sticks – which are actual crab sticks and not those fish offal sticks masquerading as crab sticks which we find at the supermarket) and mixing up a dressing which packs a real kick. We use the term ‘mixing up’ because all the sauces this requires are store-bought and your lemongrass and lemon leaf have been grated for you.
Things weren’t much different when it came to preparing the main course. This left us with the sole task of throwing everything together into a scorching wok and attempting to emulate chef Sawai Jampakaew’s expert stir-fry tossing. You know how chefs get the vegetables to jump and flip over with one swift jolt of the pan? That move. Suffice to say we failed at it miserably because the wok was too heavy. Resigning ourselves to some pathetic stirring, we nonetheless felt more encouraged by the ability to ladle in accurate quantities of all the right sauces. Now the recipe provided lists the necessary ingredients in grams and teaspoons, but measurements come naturally to Chef Sawai. He decides how much is required by a mere glance, and in his kitchen this is what you’re expected to do.
Chef Sawai has been with Fishmarket for 15 years (that’s half the time that this joint’s been in operation), he’s a tad scary and impatient as those of genius tend to be. He is also a perfectionist who has no qualms about whipping that ladle out of your hand if you’re doing it wrong. When the time came to serve up our masterpiece, we were instructed to arrange the mangle of vegetables and crab limbs in a presentable way.
We did so, to the best of our abilities only to be told to try again. So we nimbly rotated a claw at a seventy degree angle and grinned with pride. The chef lost his patience, ‘You think this looks good?’ ‘It doesn’t?’ we asked, genuinely miffed, as how much better can crab remains look on a plate? ‘Use your aesthetic vision,’ he ordered. We blank-stared at him a little idiotically, at which point he took over and rearranged the lot.
Over all, the class at Fishmarket is guaranteed to produce a fantastic meal which will have you clearing the black pepper’s sting from your throat long after you’ve wiped your plate clean. We only hope that it’ll be organised to allow learners a more hands-on experience.
The Thai cooking class with Chef Sawai Jampakaew, is Dhs250 per person, and will be held on January 21 from 11am at the Fishmarket, InterContinental Abu Dhabi, Al Bateen (02 666 6888).
