A little local flavour

Today was my first Indian cooking class!

Long story short: I wanted to do a bit more with my free time before work - I usually have a few hours after I wake up - but I can't do much sightseeing as all the sights to see are pretty far out of town and, well, let's just say that if anything these days I need to be EARLY for work. So I asked around about taking a cooking class. Unfortunately the only one is a three month to 2 year course, and is eight hours a day, but somehow word got back to the kitchen here and the chef offered to spend a couple hours a day with me and teach me some of the dishes they serve! better than I could have hoped, really - Chef Biranjee is among the top chefs in the south. Also he's just very kind and generally happy.

So today I learned to make Zaffrani kofta, which is a paneer dish (indian cottage cheese, but has the texture and thickness of firm tofu) in a cashew sauce. It's my absolute favourite dish so far in India, which is shocking now that I know exactly how much green chili goes into it. The kitchen is huge, just huge, and the pots they use to cook in are about the size of my coffee table at home. They did tell me all the names, but I've forgotten . . . hopefully I can start to commit them to memory over the next two weeks before I leave!

More photos and then I'm off to work:

This is the kitchen - those clay pots are for Biryani, an Indian rice dish with different kinds of meat that's cooked in this wide, shallow metal pot, covered by another metal plate and sealed with bread dough. It's basically a little pressure cooker.

This is the 'kofta' portion - little balls of paneer, chilis, spices, and saffron rolled up and dusted with flour, then fried for about half a second. I didn't have a chance to take photos of the in between steps - so here is the finished product! -

- With a bit of cream, chili oil and coriander for presentation.

That's it from me - off to work!

Love,
Gwen

p.s. my training is finished and the new team is now 'live' at work, with us Canadians acting as support staff until they learn the ropes. It's been educational and frustrating and rewarding for me, and since this is the first week of real work for these guys, I'm a little nervous for them today. Wish us luck!