If you love Indian Food then The Cooking Academy is the place to be today, we’ve got a 1 day Indian cookery class going on. We’ll be teaching you all about herbs and spices used in Asian food, you’ll be amazed at the cross over of ingredients with European food which people don’y often expect. You’ll learn all about the medicinal properties of everyday ingredients and how they enhance your well being.

Most of all you’ll be learning to blend spices and make a range of marinades – its almost Alchemy! For more information contact The Cooking Academy on 01923 778880 and we’ll get you book on.

Cara Brummitt

Just created this new mustard dressing whilst tinkering with lemon zest and wholegrain mustard for a Birthday BBQ for hubby’s birthday on Saturday. 

I put it together with a halloumi and pea salad but this dressing works with any salad to be honest becasue the left overovers having been working with every meal since. 

As always let me know how you get on – its going to get in my ‘must include in my book material’ which is an ever increasing thick wedge.

Mustard & Lemon dressing

 Serves 4

 Ingredients:

100 ml olive oil

2 tbsp cider vinegar

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp of Agave syrup or Jaggery or brown sugar

 Instructions:

1. Place all the ingredients for the dressing into a sterilized glass jar.
2. shake well and set aside to rest for 15 minutes
3. Give it another good shake and serve.
4. Enjoy

Kumud Gandhi – Food Devotee and founder of The Cooking Academy – A cookery school that puts healthy ingredients at the heart of everything it teaches.

 For further information on diets and nutrition contact Kumud on kumud@thecookingacademy.co.uk   For more information about her Cookery Classes or food consultancy, please contact www.thecookingacademy.co.uk or call on 01923 778880

Its National Vegetarian Week and Spinach is in season so I can’t think think of a better way of cooking spinach to optimise it’s wonderful nutritional content than in this recipe.  Its soulmate here is beetroot and tomatoes (vitamin C) to ensure the iron from the spinach is absorbed into the body.  Its peppered with a delicate blend of spices, a light chilli and coriander seed mix.    This is one of the recipes we cover in our Advanced Indian cookery class here at The Cooking Academy. 

Spinach or Red Chard & Beetroot with Coriander 

 250g Red Chard or Baby/young spinach leaves

80g Beetroot cut into julienne strips if red chard is not available

1 tsp Coriander seeds – Roughly milled

1 dried chilli Red chilli

2 tsp Garlic  

½ tsp Turmeric

½ tsp Salt

30g Red skinned peanuts roasted and roughly chopped

1 tbsp Vegetable oil

1 medium finely chopped onion

2 small tomatoes

 Cooking Instructions

 Lightly roast the coriander seeds and the whole chilli for a few minutes either in a wok in an oven.  Crush them in a pestle and mortar and then set aside.  

Roast the red skinned peanuts separately and when cooled crush them a little and blow away the excess skin shells, set this aside.  

Heat the oil in a deep pan or wok and add the crushes chilli and coriander sizzle for 30 seconds or until you smell the gentle aroma.  Add the chopped garlic and onions and cook until lightly golden brown for approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Now add the turmeric, salt and tomatoes, stir in to blend the colours and then add 1^st the beetroot and then a minute later the spinach.  Now, gently fold the spinach into the onion and spice mixture, turn the spinach over to take heat from the base of the pan, but careful not to over cook it or allow the moisture to release from the spinach.  

Just as the spinach is beginning to wilt – remove from the heat and sprinkle the peanuts, toss gently and serve immediately.

Recipe created by Kumud Gandhi – Founder of The Cooking Academy.

If you want to learn to cook Thai food  we’ve got a Thai cookery class in action today.  Our Thai cookery classes are small with just 6 people in the group and entirely hands on!  Learn Authentic Thai cookery - making the classic red Thai curry paste, the most original Thai fish cakes and much more.  

The Cooking Academy is the home of Asian cookery classes where we teach highly authentic Asian  cusine to those who want to learn to cook from scratch and enjoy home cooking.

For more information contact contact at The Cooking Academy cara@thecookingacademy.co.uk

Corporate cookery classes & Team Building Events

Corporate cookery classes & team Building Events are one of my favourite cookery class events.  The delegates are a totally mixed bunched of people who have not necessarily elected to ‘learn to cook’ or have not really considered it necessary to attend a cookery class to enhance their culinary experience, even if dinner is usually out of a jar.  So you pretty much know you’re going to have some challenges.  

None the less – they are fun challenges, usually very entertaining, and full of hilarity as soon as the competition element is introduced.  Oh my!  the mayhem begins and responsible adults will do  anything to steal a march on their colleagues.   None more so than our team building event today with a banking client who are trying to rebuild a team and set targets for next year. 

These things are often seen as jollies, but i would say one thing, groups of people who dont normal work in a team do so for the sake of winning.  Their natural competitive streak wants to storm off ahead and run with the gauntlet but their lack of skills in certain areas hold them back and their reliance on co-operation is imperative.  

Within this cookery team building scenario the strategic players will even plan ahead to hone out the individual skills of teams members to play their best hand by using the skills within the team to maximum use .  Corporate team building at its best! 

For further information regarding our Corpoorate Cookery teambuilding events please contact Cara Brummitt on 01923 720 697 or email her on cara@thecookingacademy.co.uk  or visit our website on www.thecookingacademy.co.uk/corporateevents

Kids learning to cook

Well the class has finished and the kitchen is restored, however we had some utterly gifted teenagers in today.  Five kids and five perfect roux sauces, made from scratch with not a whisk in sight.  I have seen should good roux sauces from accomplished chef, perfectly silken and smooth. 

They learn’t to make a roux sauce to add to a fish pie.  This is one of the first things they learn, they are then shown how to turn this into a bechamel sauce or a cheese sauce for macaroni or cauliflower cheese.  They were so pleased with their sauce mix and pie filling that they practically licked the pan clean.  

They had a fantastic day, all really motivated to continue their culinary endeavours.  They took loads of food home to share with their families over the next few days.  Most of all they all have a tremendous sense of achievement. 

I think the parents want to come and learn as now! 

For further information about our cookery classes please call The Cooking Academy on 01923 720 697.

The

Cookery classes for Teenagers

This week we have had a lot of teenagers through the academy where we have been focussing on cookeryclasses for teenagers, getting young people to start cooking from an early age and giving them the confidence in the kitchen to get started.  You’ll be surprised, that’s all it takes, and like their fearless attraction for computers young people take to cooking like a duck to water. 

You’ll wonder why they don’t learn at home, but it’s quite simple, mum and dad telling them sounds like a chore.  At fourteen its hard enough to hold a conversation let alone get in some bonding time, which is what cooking can be once you get over the intial hurdle.  Kids do feel like its another instructions when it comes from a parent. 

Of course the other key factor is that cooking is a chore for a lot of parents, its a question of getting it done as quickly, painlessly, and effortlessly as possible.  Extending the agony by having a child making mistakes and making the kitchen a mess is beyond the pale!!!!  Sorry if I sound cynical -I see it in a lot of homes when I’m asked to help the family to learn to cook, or when I talk to kids about their experience cooking at home.   It’s the reason why they don’t bother. 

Finally, we assume that parents can cook and don’t rely on ready meals, take outs and restaurants themselves. It is no longer a skill that is learned at home by passive observation.  It is this single facor that has led to cookery needing to be taught outside the home, especially if we are to break the cycle and get home cooking back on the menu and a way of life.  

I really admire the teenagers that come to our cookery classes to learn to cook.   It takes courage to ask, it takes positive attitude to take the time out and it takes self awareness to realise its necessary.  These kids are mature and its worth every penny of the money their parents spend to send them, Its an investment in their future health, better than private health insurance, and cheaper!   

For more information on our cookery classes for Teeenagers or for adults, Indian cookery classes, Thai cookeryclasses please contact cara@thecookingacademy.co.uk or telephone 01923 720 697

If you want to learn to cook real Indian food, or how to make curries look no further.

Today, chef Kumud Gandhi will be teaching the essence of authentic Indian cuisine.  In this class he will be teaching his student how to blend spices to create mouthwatering flavours and how to change one to two ingredients to get a completely different flavour.   This class is a one stop shop for Indian and Asian cookery classes, giving you the mechanics of cookery as well as the subtle art of discovering your palette and learning why to as well as how to.  

The classes are small, the tuition is direct and entirely hands on, you touch , your feel, you smell, you do and you learn. 

For an amazing day of cookery, book now for our cookery classes with a very big difference.  Tel 01923 720 697 or contact cara@thecookingacademy.co.uk

Indian cookery classes at the Cooking Academy.co.uk

Today we’re running the advanced Indian cookery class at our location in Hertfordshire.  This Indian cookery class is designed for the die hard Indian cook and curry lovers and is a follow up class from the one-day Indian class and so enables you to hit the ground running.  

Delegates will already be comfortable with their environment from their previous experience and ready to roll their sleeves up and COOK.  

Menu

Coconut Chicken grills in caramelised onions

Cinnamon lamb finished with Ginger juilienne

Peshwari Rice

Monkfish with Star anise and lemon zest

Pan fried Okra with a hint of mango

Butternut squash with french beans

Tadka Daal

Sorry did I say cookery class – I mean’t cookathon. 

To find out further information about this Advanced Indian cookery class or our other classes please contact cara@thecookingacademy.co.uk

We’re running an Indian cookery class today!

In this class we will cover the ‘Spice Trail’, a breakdown of all the key spices used in Authentic Indian cookery.  But here’s the key differences we also look at the emdicianl values of the herbs and psices used in Asian cookery.  Indian cookery is about much than just the flavour, its about harnessing all the goodness of each ingredient, and looking at its holistic value. 

In this class you will learn to make a variety of different spice blends as well as cook a chicken dish, a fish dish and a paneer dish; as well a the original recipe of Bombay potatoes and raitu. 

It’s a really jam packed three and a half hours, but you’ll really wonder where the time went and you’ll wish you had booked on the One day course.  But don’t worry you could always book the follow on course to continue your food journey.! 

To find out more information call us on 01923 720697