Cooking Lesson on South Indian Cuisine!

The professor that we have on this trip lived in Bangalore for 3 years from 2004 to 2007, and he said that his maid, Esther, was the best cook ever. He always brags about how amazing her food was, and so he organized for her to give us a lesson on Tuesday, July 29th. The hotel we are staying at, The Lemon Tree, was gracious enough to let us use the breakfast omelet bar to cook and watch the cooking process. I think the hotel is being so nice because we order so much room service from them! For about two days we had a huge project to work on, and so most people just ordered multiple meals from room service, and so they love us here, haha. But it was great being able to watch and help her cook so up-close. 

We first started off by making some samosas, and then made several curries: capsicum paneer curry, egg curry and some chicken curry. The tastiest being the egg curry actually! I had never had it before, but it was so, so good. It was a curry made with onion, tomatoes and different spices, and then Esther added in hard-boiled eggs. I didn't think I would like it seeing as I'm not the biggest fan of eggs, but it was good. The capsicum paneer curry was also very good! It was a yellow curry with red, green and yellow peppers (capsicum) as well as paneer. Unfortunately I didn't jot down how she was making all of these curries. It was just difficult to with all of the students and all of the different dishes going on at once. 

It was very obvious to see which students cook regularly back home because many could not even cut the vegetables or meat correctly, haha. It was an awesome experience. The thing that I found most interesting though, was the fact that many curry dishes actually do use a lot of different colored vegetables such as green, yellow and red peppers, but because of all the curry powders, the food ends up as one solid color. This will be my new excuse to eat as many curries as I can...as if I haven't been already, haha. 

Emalisa xo

Esther gave us all opportunities of helping cut and season the meat and veggies. We were also meant to wear hair-nets, but some thought this was a recommendation and not a requirement...

We were cooking with a variety of vegetables. Some being red peppers, green peppers, okra, tomatoes, and onions. 

She started off by showing us how to fill and roll samosas. She had pre-made the pastry, and so we just helped her fill them, fold the samosas and fry them. I forgot to take pictures of us filling the samosas, but here's a picture of us frying them...

We were also stuffing okra with coconut powder, cinnamon and a few other spices that I don't remember. This was the best okra I have ever eaten in my entire life! Seriously!

We were all helping cut the peppers, chicken and paneer (cheese)!

The stuffed okra was pan-fried, so good! Can you notice all of those little bowls? Yeah, they're all different spices Esther was cooking with. It was interesting to learn that every curry contains the same spices, but the difference between the curries is the amount of a singular spice that is added...if that makes any sense.

Before adding the spices, the dishes are so, so colorful.

After cooking and eating Esther's food, we were permitted to go into the hotels' kitchen. We watched and made a few naan's and roti's with the chefs. 

We all had to wear hair-nets to go into kitchen though. We were all kind of hot and just tired, haha. 

The naan is rolled out just like a normal pastry (quiche pastry). It is then slapped between your hands in order to make it slightly larger. The oil that you see on the side is what they place on the dough in order to make it a "butter naan", and if it's a "garlic naan", bits of garlic are added as well. 

Using a large bag filled with flour, the dough is placed on the bag, and that bag is used to stick the naan on the inside of this oven. It is absolutely steaming hot! Just below the naan on top, there are coals burning. Coals are directly below the naan in order to add flavor I believe. 

When it is done, two long metal sticks are used to remove the naan, and then it is cut up! Interesting seeing what happens before a serving of naan gets on my plate. 

Mission accomplished.