HOT DELHI
Date : 5th November, 2013
Venue : Montreal, Canada
“Hot Delhi” was my first experience of conducting a culinary class. It was thrilling and awesome to be sharing my Indian cooking skills with montrealers.
Have a look at the event pictures below !
I had been looking for a break like this for a few months and I got lucky when i met Tania, a graphic designer and now a dear friend in a design workshop sometime in June. As we exchanged thoughts about a design problem we were working on, we gathered that both of us had the passion for Culinary arts. Tania is running a blog “Moitié-Moitié” which contains a series of culinary activities to gather Quebecers and Newcomers from different cultures to enable them to share their food experiences. We connected well and decided to conduct a Indian cooking workshop.
It was truly an enriching experience for me. People were enthusiastic and asked me all sorts of questions about the traditions of Indian cooking, special utensils and off course the mystery of exotic spices. I introduced the class to a traditional Indian “Masala/ Spice Box”. Infact i also told them that it was the “masala/spice box” which inspired me to name my blog as the “Divine Spice Box”. People found the class informative and helped them get a deeper and clearer understanding of the Indian cuisine and culture.
Indian cooking involves striking the right balances of spices with vegetables and there are certain combination of spices which work together to create amazing dishes. Since Indian cooking is generally perceived as ‘elaborate’, i decided to keep a simple yet flavourful menu to encourage people to cook Indian food at home and not get intimidated with the use of various herbs and spices.
The menu for the workshop was :
MENU
- Vegetarian Shahi Pulao (recipe here)
- Cucumber Raita
- Mint-Coriander Chutney (recipe here)
- Potato-Onion Bhaaji/ Pakoras (recipe here)
For the appetizers, we served Mango Lassi, Namak Paras (Indian savory snack) and Indian Masala Chai Latte. Sounds yum.. right??
The participants went gaga over the Masala Chai – Pakoras and Chutney combination and we had almost everyone coming back for seconds. The event was a hit ! The response was good and more workshops are lined up for 2014.
So if anyone of you is around, be a part of the upcoming events. I would love to share time and energy with you in creating some mouth watering delicacies from various parts of India !!
