Cookery Class 2

After the success of the first class the pupils felt more at home chopping and cooking independently. In fact as we go from one class to the next the class became more and more confident and needed less supervision.

The purpose of these lessons was to get people who enjoy indian food to be able to cook it authentically and introduce them to many dishes which they may not have had in the so called indian restaurants in the u.k.

one of the participants had presented me with a red chilli plant. it was a good opportunity to use the chilies from this plant in one of the preparations. as these were ready on this day so i chose bhindi as one of the dishes.

This session’s menu was:

Lahori Chicken which is a Pakistani dish shown to me by an indian lady whose family originated from Pakistan but immigrated during the partition of the british raj india. it is one of the dishes one doesn't see very often but is so simple and through these classes i would hope i may make it more popular as it should be!

Katri Bhindi made in a kayastha style.

Chole (Chick peas)  this is one of the most popular dishes for vegetarians in northern india. it started as a street food available for workers at work places or shoppers in the bazaars of Delhi. i was fortunate to have lived as a child near one of the many famous cholewala’s in Delhi. The original chap was an immigrant from Pakistan who arrived in Delhi at the time of Indian independence. He set up a small shop which was on the fringe of what was Delhi though now of course this place would be considered to be in the heart of the metro. i believe he serves the best chole in the world but i am biased. the real recipe is a trade secret and i have tried to create as near a version as i could. for simplicity i use shan’s chana masala which i believe gives a very close result. One can use chickpeas and soak them overnight but once again i cheat and use the tinned version which at least in the u.k. are partially cooked. Using this saves a lot of cooking time with probably a better results.

One would usually serve the chole with bhaturas but that becomes very rich and time consuming and hence become impractical for a one and a half hour class. so i will serve these with pre cooked paranthas.