Kerala cooking class

Hey everyone. It is Simon again.  I don't know what to put here. Margaret arranged a cooking class for us at 6:30 pm on Tuesday night. As always we arrived somewhat on time. Upon our arrival the power went out, leaving us in the dark for the first half hour of the course which made things a little interesting. To my disappointment we did not get any fancy hats, although the chef had one. )''. The class consisted of 6 dishes, a palak (spinich) pakora starter, a plain parota for the bread, a dahl for vegetable dish, a fish marinated in something called pollichanthu (i still have no idea what it is), and finally coconut pancakes for desert (which were the highlight of the evening for me). Margaret took notes, while I slaved in the kitchen with an insane chef who must not have been able to feel pain. He stuck his hand into the propane jet of fire to light a single candle, had hot oil splash on him.

Here you can see the cook in action

cleaning up the mess I made of chopping

up onions, while crying.

Here is a bowl of hot oil with a handle

that clasps on, and is not very sturdy.

It also extremely hot next to the open

jet of flame which seems to get hotter and hotter.

This is my friend Freddy.

He had a very bad day and it's about to get worse.

Here I am grinding up coconut

for the rice and Freddy

Here we can see Fred all bundled

up in banana leaf moments

before he is thrown onto an

open fire.

Here are 6 of the 7 dishes,

(we had already eaten our appetizers)

Tomato onion masala rice, along with a 

tomato rose, nice touch by the chef.

Freddy in banana leaf with a tomato rose and

tomato flower with a candle inside, that almost cost

the chef his life when he used a jet of fire to light it.

North Indian dahl with, surprise surprise

a tomato rose.

Masala rice again.

Pancake desert minus the coconut.

Parota

Freddy still bundled up, only now hes been scorched in flame.

The class was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to choosing the next 7 dishes we will learn next time. None of this would be possible without our new friend David from Toronto, he watched the shop while were gone giving us a little freedom to enjoy a night out.