Attending an Indian Cooking Class

ARC Indian Cooking Class

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending an Indian Cooking Class taught by my friend Steve and my new friend Lori. It was at a local co-op and for free even!

Garam Masala

They started the class out by showing up how to make Garam Masala, a spice blend, from scratch. They roasted the cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and black peppercorns in a heavy cast iron pan for several minutes. It smelled fantastic while they were roasting. The amazing smell lasted the entire night as well! Then, after they had cooled, ground them in a spice grinder. The garam masala was used in several of the later recipes.

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The above is Besan Poora which is essentially chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour crepes. They were more like pancakes, and they went really well with the tomato chutney. They used my tomato chutney recipe for the class! Everyone seemed to really like it which was nice.


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Next, Steve whipped up some onion and spinach pakoras. He cut up the veggies and then mixed them with the batter and spices. After letting them sit for a while, he then fried them until they were a delicious golden brown. These also were great with the tomato chutney.

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Lori showed up how she makes chana masala which is one of my favorite dishes. It is essentially a chickpea curry with onions, garlic, ginger, and cilantro. She used the garam masala made earlier to spice it. It was nice with the rice. I kind of wished for some roti (indian flatbread) at this point though as I love chana masala with roti.

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Finally, Steve showed us how he made Malai Kofta. It was a pretty involved recipe since you make the fried kofta balls first and then pour the gravy over the top. This was a great recipe, but it seemed rather time consuming.

I really enjoyed the class. The two teachers were great, and the interaction with the other students was good as well. I enjoyed swapping ideas with the others. I also enjoyed seeing how others cook some of the foods that I love. The class was long at three hours, but it was worth it. The food was delicious, and everything smelled so amazing!

My favorite was the pakoras as that isn’t something I would make at home. I try to avoid frying if possible. I also enjoyed tasting someone else making my tomato chutney recipe. I would go again if they have another class.

Resources Discussed in Class:

6 comments:

  1. Yumm. I've never thought about taking a cooking class, but this looks great.

    Very cool they used your chutney recipe too.

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    1. They are a fun way to learn some new techniques and try some new food.

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  2. I've taken an "Asian cooking class" here at the university and we met every week for 4 hours for 12 weeks. Since the instructor was from India, guess where the majority of the recipes came from. It was great and I took it multiple times. The instructor retired but the new one, from Mexico, is using the same series of recipes.

    That looks like a good class. Was there a lot of hands on or was most of it done by the instructor?

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    1. the class you took sounds like a lot of fun!

      this one was the instructors doing most of the work, but they are talking about doing another one more hands on. The space they are using isn't the greatest for group hands on.

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  3. Indian food is my favorite, but I've never mastered the cooking. I need a class, but I love our local, "Taj Palace" Indian restaurant. Thanks for the links !

    Don

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    1. indian is my favorite too. Good luck with the links. I am no expert, but have managed to make several dishes successfully. Lemme know how it turns out or if you have questions.

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