Thai Style Pumpkin Hummus

Sasha:

(Pad Thai with Peanut sauce at Mai Kaydee's)

We have taken an apartment in Chiang Mai!  It felt like time to get off of the beach, to experience a more cosmopolitan life and culture, and we were ready to start cooking for ourselves.  The apartment is in a fantastic neighborhood- Nimmanheiman Soi 11- next to countless restaurants, cafes and art galleries.  It is a 400 sq ft studio, with an orange couch, and the best bed we've slept in since the 5star hotel in Pune.  The sheets are pretty great too.  The place has AC- fantastic since it is 35degrees Celsius (95F) and humid outside. We have enough room to do yoga side by side, and free wifi in the comfort of our living room.  Outside there are a host of temples, markets, classes and massage to take advantage of, but we have been tucked up in our 15th floor apartment with all of our clothes put away in the closet, and our kitchen full of produce.

I told a good friend that cooking a meal in our own kitchen was the most exciting thing I've done in weeks, and the person responded, "If cooking is the most exciting thing you've done, YOU SHOULD GET YOUR MONEY BACK!" (In exactly those capslocked letters.  I disagree with this sentiment in part because I knew that I was speaking in hyperbole, and what a better investment than to learn how to really appreciate the things we usually take for granted.  Also, when was the last time I got to make sesame-cashew butter by hand in mybrand new morter and pestle?

While in Bangkok, we had the pleasure of attending Mai Kaydee's Vegetarian Cooking School. http://www.maykaidee.com/  I had read about it in the Lonely Planet, and it was on the list of things we might like to do, but then we moved hotels and we spotted it while walking around looking for lunch- we stopped in for information, and maybe lunch, but ended up with aprons around our neck throwing around coconut milk and galanga.. It was the best food we've had in all of thailand.  We left with some technique, and a small recipe book.  We've been making her recipes and some variations of them for the past 3 days.  Who knows, we may even remember them without a recipe by the time we leave.

Here is my favorite dish of the day, taken from Mai Kaydee, but with a little extra heat:

Thai-style Pumpkin Hummus

This dish was prepared in a mortar and pestle, but you could use a food processer, I suppose!

Step 1
Add 1 Tbs roasted sesame seeds
2 Tbs roasted cashew nuts
1 sliced thai chili pepper
2 thin slices of ginger
Crush the seeds together until they are a fine dust or paste

Step 2
Add 4 Tbs steamed or boiled pumpkin
A small handful of either fresh basil or cilantro leaves
1 tsp soy sauce, or braggs
Continue mixing ingredients until you have a thick creamy spread

Step 3
Sprinkle with sesame seeds for presentation
Eat with fresh veggies (I used carrots and cabbage pieces) or sticky rice

Enjoy!