Indian Cooking Wednesday (& Saturday)

On Wednesday evening, we dropped in on a cooking class and learned how to make some Indian dishes which we tested out on Saturday! 

Butter Chicken and Tandoori Squash... Mmmm

On Wednesday after work, we headed to the Sobey's grocery store on Merrymeeting Road to attend their weekly cooking class. The recipes are created by Sobey's chefs and all of the Atlantic Canadian stores feature the same recipes every week; this week they focused on Indian food. 

As soon as we took the stairs up to the Community Room at Sobey's, we realized that we wouldn't actually be cooking the dishes ourselves. We were initially disappointed until we realized that a chef would be cooking the dishes and then we would be eating them, following along with the recipes. There were six other people in the class, with some of them attending the class for the past 9 years! Obviously there's something good going on here.

The dishes that the chef prepared were:
- Appetizer: Onion Bhaji with Garlic and Mint Raita
- Main Course: Butter Chicken (made with Masala Marinated Chicken Thigh)
- Side Dish: Tandoori Squash
- Dessert: Melon Citrus Ice Cream with Homemade Honeycomb
(check out the recipes in the slideshow below)

The chef started off with the Homemade Honeycomb, which was crazy to watch. Adding baking soda to honey, sugar, and golden corn syrup results in an overflowing pot of bubbly toffee. It was then poured out on a baking sheet and left to cool. In the end it resembled the inside of a Crunchie bar. Very tasty, but also very easy to overcook and burn.

Melon Citrus Ice Cream with Homemade Honeycomb

Then the chef prepared the Tandoori Squash with a mint Greek yogurt dip. He placed the squash in the oven before starting on the Onion Bhaji, one of Luke's favourite Indian foods. The chef then started in on the Butter Chicken and delicious aromas filled the air. As the chef cooked, he described some of the steps but we were mainly left to chat amongst ourselves and observe the goings-on in the overhead mirror.

Onion Bhaji in the pan

Once everything was ready to eat (2 hours later), we were served overflowing plates of tasty food prepared right in front of us, plus some extra naan to boot. For $15 each, it was a great deal. Not to mention that the Regulars brought their own Tupperware so they could take any extras home. Smart move considering there was enough Butter Chicken to feed an army!

The chef was constantly going between recipes so it was crazy at times, but it taught us the best order to prepare the various items if we were to make everything at home for one big feast... and Saturday afternoon we did just that! Basically.

On Saturday we tried our hand(s) at making a couple of the dishes from the class on Wednesday. We thoroughly enjoyed all of the recipes we tasted so we had a tough time choosing. In the end, we decided on Butter Chicken and Tandoori Squash.

We invited Elizabeth's parents over for supper and enjoyed a mini Indian Feast. The dishes were complimented by some white wine, and the food was enjoyed by all. We were really impressed by the quality of the recipes and how easy they were to make! The cooking class was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a weeknight and we're glad that we checked it out. 

Here are some more pictures of our two-part cooking adventure, plus recipes from Sobey's: