Cooking Class

Last night Ross & I had our first cooking class.  It is a 4 week class through the loacal WEA called International Gourmet Vegetarian.  The instructor is a lady called Natalie Playford who has this amazing wealth of knowledge of all things vegetarian and all things cooking.  The first class was just a demonstration of various dishes and cooking techniques, with a bucket load of information thrown into the mix.  The food was absolutely devine.  Things I would never in a million years have thought of cooking on my own I was eating and can not wait to try the recipes.

The first thing she made was a Gnocchi Alla Romana.  Now I hate Gnocchi.  To me, potato and pasta should never be combined in any way shape or form.  However this Gnocchi -not a potato in sight.  It was so delicious.  Easy to cook, although a little time consuming, but if I am cooking for friends I am more than happy to spend a day in the kitchen.  I can't wait to make it myself.

Then she made Chai Marsala.  I was a little confused when I saw this on the list - how hard is it to make Chai?  But she made it from scratch, with real fresh spices straight out of their pods.  And Oh - My - God....  I don't think I'll ever be able to have chai from a tea bag again...

Next up, roasted vegetable frittata.  I actually thought this was going to be really heavy because the main veg were potato and sweet potato.  But it ended up really light, although I would imagine quite filling.  Megan, if you are reading this, I'll be trying this on Thursday night.  :o)

Last of all a Pea & Couscous salad.  I'll be honest, I had no intention of trying this.  But now I am planning on taking it for my salad for Saturday nights pot luck dinner with my work mates.  Sensational!

The best thing I think we are going to get from this course is trying different flavour combinations.  Natalie uses a lot of herbs and spices in her cooking, the same as us, so I can't wait to learn more.  Next week we make 3 recipes.  Ross & I are going to make them together since that is how we cook at home.  We are doing sushi, indian spiced beans then we get a choice of a tofu recipe or an antipasto recipe.  Since we cook with tofu all the time we are going to try a couple of the antipasto recipes, including home made hommus.  And next week I will have photos.  I can not wait!

The other thing that came out of this class is that Ross is seriously considering becoming vegetarian as well.  He only eats meat about twice a week as it is, and red meat now leaves him feeling quite lethargic.  I am not going to push, but if he joins me as a vego I think that will be awesome!

xox

PS - We have already signed up for Natalies next class in May which is Gournet Vegetarian.  4 more weeks of more of her amazing recipes.