Indian Cookery Class

Just had my first Indian cooking class with a wonderful lady called Shaila who has been teaching yogi's to cook for the last 12 years. Not only a lesson in cookery, but a lesson in feminism, and how Shaila has used cooking to gain financial independence from her husband. Almost had me in tears or yelling out 'go girl' at one point.

So, I won't bore you with the details, in fact I will keep them to myself so that I may stun my friends and family with my new found culinary skills. I always cook dhals and vegetable 'curries' at home, but I have learnt my methods from a mixture of the Maddha Jaffery Curry Bible and the Internet.
This was authentic, South Indian home cooking at it's best.

Enough text, pictorial evidence is what you need here! Bare in mind most Indian families work on a two ring gas stove and don't have an oven so there is no excuse for not cooking these dishes even on a camping stove!

Dhal Curry - 

The 'masala' tray for the dhal: 

****Extra tip from Shaila when talking about the many benefits of my favourite spice, Turmeric - make a face pack from yogurt (curd ideally) turmeric and gram flour for dewy skin! ****

Pumpkin Palya (Palya is a vegetable side dish) 

Brinjal (Aubergine) Potato Masala 

Masala for the 'curry' 

Beetroot Salad (can't get enough of this) 

BREADS

Possibly the most interesting part of the class, we learnt how to make the dough, roll and what the difference is between ROTI, CHAPATI and PARATHA (basically the rolling, folding and oil additions) 

Paratha

Vegetable Biryani (a dish for special occasions) 

And finally, the holy grail....Masala Chai (I've given up coffee and alcohol, but become dependant on chai!!) 

THE WHOLE LOT! 

For anyone coming to Mysore, I can't recommend this class enough, she has all kinds of classes so next week I will be going back to learn how to make everyone's favourite breakfast - DOSAS!!!!

Look up Shaila on facebook (Shaila Amarnath) - her house is on the corner of 1st and 9th Main, just past Doctors Corner.

namaste!