Rosa's Thai Cafe - at the School of Wok

Rosa's Thai Cafe featured as the latest guest chef to teach at the School of Wok.

Saiphin Moore founded Rosa's Thai Cafe as a humble street stall in Spitalfieds in 2008. Now she has a chain of seven restaurants all over London serving authentic Thai cuisine celebrating her rural background with a modern Bangkok twist. Born in the East, raised in the East End. At the School of Wok, Saiphin revealed some of the secrets to her unique and punchy dishes. Sourcing ingredients as locally as is possible, yet keeping it as traditional as is possible, by shopping in Asian supermarkets in Chinatown. Lesser galangal is one of the lesser known Thai ingredients, for which we in the West may substitute ginger, but never at Rosa's. Kaffir limes are another prerequisite of this exquisite cuisine, for which our regualar European limes are a poor substitute. Palm sugar is the healthiest version of sugar there is and you can eat it raw, like candy. Chillies feature heavily, of course, and many different dishes call for many different types of chilli. The School of Wok are continuing to showcase prominent London chefs at their Covent Garden cookery school, giving us all the opportunity to learn to cook restaurant-style dishes in our own kitchens. Knowledge of ingredients and preparation is key and over the next few months, the School will be hosting supper clubs and many more classes. Pop along and see if you can cook something Asian and amazing, like this Thai Aubergine Salad:

Thai Aubergine Salad (Yum-Makuer-Yao)

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

2 Thai Long Eggplants (green or purple)

1 red onion

1.5 teaspoons of chicken powder

1/2 tablespoon of lime juice

1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce

3-5 Thai red chilli (adjust based on your preferred spice level)

5 gram palm sugar

The Garnish

1 sprig coriander, to garnish

1 spring onion, to garnish

1 teaspoon of white sesame seeds, to garnish

1 hard-boiled egg, halved

2 jumbo prawns, cooked

Cooking

1. Char-grilled or oven-grill the aubergines until the skin is brown/black. Set aside to cool.

2. Once aubergine is cooled, peel off the charred skin. Cut them into chunks.

Sauce

1. For the sauce, mix palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. Stir well until palm sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Add chicken powder to the mixture. Finish off the sauce with chopped red chilli.

Serving

1. Pour the sauce over the aubergines before serving so it doesn't get soggy.

2. Garnish with red onion, coriander, spring onion, sesame seeds, jumbo prawns and boiled egg.

3. Serve at room temperature.