12 November 2012

GUEST BLOG: Rice is nice

By guest blogger SIOBHAN

On Monday 29 October, we held the last in a series of sessions at the Salvation Army premises in Ardwick and a group of 12 joined together to learn about Punjabi cooking. The session started with Cracking Cook Harjinder talking about spices, their smells and benefits in health and cooking, and everyone was able to sniff the aromas as they were passed around the table. This was followed by a demonstration of chapatti dough-making so the group could make their own later on that morning.

We entered the kitchen for vegetable chopping and preparation for the Punjabi lentil dhal and mixed vegetable curry.  The group got stuck in, turning dough into chapattis by kneading, flipping, rolling, heating on a hot tava, then finishing off on the flame. At the end of the session, we all sat down to devour the feast,and the room was silent – always a good sign.


Then a surprise Indian rice pudding was dished up to round off the session perfectly. The dessert was served cold and had been made with basmati rice rather than pudding rice, cooked on top of the stove in a pan instead of being baked in the oven, and flavoured with cardamom pods. It was a pure delight, but I am a big lover of erce pudding, it has to be said!

There are more pictures from this session on the Cracking Good Food Facebook page.

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