Indian Cooking Class

Sticking with the "cooking theme" I seem to be doing lately on my blog, today I went to an Indian cooking class. I never had Indian food until I moved here. I have found that I really like it. We have been to an Indian restaurant several times with some of our friends from the UK (did you know that Indian curry to most Brits is like Americans ordering pizza?) and I have cooked it a few times at home. However, what I have cooked at home comes from a jar and isn't anything like the real-deal. Today's class was the real deal.

When I first started eating Indian food I thought it was all curries and samosas. However I was wrong. There is so much more. Today's class was a variety of recipes –– Butter Chicken served with Nan bread, Palak Panir (creamed spinach with cheese), Aloo Tikki (a lightly fried potato pancake with green chilies and peas), samosas and mint chutney.

Taking an Indian cooking class really makes me appreciate the food so much more. Cooking Indian food from scratch is very labor intensive as there are so many spices and steps to some of the recipes. For example, the butter chicken dish was fantastic, but is very time consuming.  However, all the hard work pays off when you taste the food. Yum-my!

The Palak Panir required us to make the panir cheese from scratch. I was surprised at how simple it was to make. Just boil high fat milk, add vinegar and then strain off the liquid and form the cheese.

This cheese is then added to the spinach portion (spinach, tomatoes and spices) of the recipe.

We learned how to make samosas from scratch (although we did take a shortcut for the covering and used spring roll paper).  Filling the samosas was quite a chore, and let's just say I won't quit my day job to be a samosa filler. Mine were not all that attractive.

Mint chutney tastes awesome on the samosas. It is a simple mixture of blended onions, fresh mint, lemon juice, chili powder and salt.

I didn't think I would like the Aloo Tikki very much, but I was surprised at how good it tasted. And considering I married a man who would eat a potato for every meal if he could, this will be a great addition to my recipes.

I would have to say it wasn't the prettiest food I have ever eaten, but it was definitely tasty. 

Washi Covered Tea Box

Today I decided to try something different from tours and cooking classes and try a washi covered tea box class. Basically you are taking this special Japanese paper and covering a wooden tea box. Imagine a cross between wallpapering and gift wrapping, both of which I am not good at, and you have a washi covered tea box.

There are many different sizes of tea boxes. Our class did the smallest one, which will fit 10 CD cases. You work from the top down, which means you start with the lid, then the lip of the box, the body and then the bottom. More advanced box coverer's can use different papers, cords and other embellishments.

The lid was the hardest. I am horrible at geometry, so imagine my frustration trying to measure, wrap and cover. However, surprisingly, I managed to do a decent job. (sorry the pictures aren't the best quality. I used my iphone, as I had forgotten my camera)

The next part is measuring and cutting the paper for the "lip" of the box. First you have to get the paper just right around the whole lip.

Then you have to tuck under and cut and wrap the corners just right.


Throughout the whole project, you have to keep taking wet clothes and press out all the air bubbles and wipe off all the excess rice glue.


As you can see, there is alot of measuring involved in this project.

Finally, I have my main piece cut out and ready to wrap the box.

Now all that is left is to finish the bottom.
After 3 hours, the bottom is glued on and my box is finally complete. (It is sitting upside down in this picture)

Here is our class's finished products. The two ladies in the front were our teachers –– Debbie and Debbie.

My goal is to make each of the kids a large box to take back to the United States to use as a "keepsake" chest of sorts from our time here. I may need to practice a few more times before I graduate to that project though.

Japanese Introduction

Here was Chris's first assignment in Japanese class this year. Can you figure out what he is saying?

Enjoy!