Indian & Middle Eastern Cookery Course
Miranda’s passion for curry has its’ roots in her first cookery book she wrote at the age of 18. Cheap as Chips Better than Toast was one of the first student cookbooks to adorn the shelves in Waterstones and the virtual shelves of Amazon and had a bunch of easy curry recipes to encourage her peers to cook some simple cheap curries for their flatmates.
She and her flat mate Alex at Bristol University used to grind all their own spices in a coffee grinder (which she still has,) they conjured up some dang fine spice mixes and hosted some serious curry nights. Every pot and pan was used, rice was flung far and wide and the smell of curry lingered for days, but that was the beauty of it. Hosting their first ever dinner parties and actually impressing the guests made them keen to cook more. These curry nights have long since continued to be the highlight of their yearly social calendar as life and work took them to Somerset and London, with each year the spice blends have become more adventurous. Alex has since travelled to India and Sri Lanka and has put up a serious fight in a bid to win the curry champion title. Miranda has fought back inch and nail and this course is testament to some serious curries that they have developed over the past 20 years.
Why are we telling you this tale? Because we believe that cooking is a journey of a lifetime and not just one course.
We hope to impart our passion and our second and third hand knowledge of the art of blending the spices and flavours of India and we hope that you take away some gems and cook. We also hope that you might come back to learn more. We can carry you on this wonderful journey teaching you ever more complex spice mixes and curries from around the world.
To start you off we will make a Lamb Rogan Josh, and a Chicken Mughlai. If you are pescatarian we can use Monk Fish which is wonderful in curry.
If you are vegetarian, we will make some incredible spiced potato patties and some Shallot curry (Ulli Theeyal) and a Bindi Masala.
We will make some onion pakora and a fresh mango and mint salsa. Our vegetable dishes will include a delicious green chilli and coriander dahl, spiced crispy Indian Okra, raita, fresh mango chutney, sag paneer and cooking Indian Paneer cheese, a scented rice and more. We will of course make Peshwari naan by hand. This will leave you with the most amazing dinner party repertoire that will knock anyone’s socks off if you are trying to impress. Left over curry is also something that never goes to waste.
Start time: 10am
Finish time: 3pm
Course time: 4 – 5 hours
Lunch included
Price: £150
Course limited to 4 people