Sawatdee (Hello in Thai)

Wow, it’s been a busy week for Food Jules! We had our weekly classes at Stepney, a catering job for a business forum, a birthday cooking party and a girl scout brownie troop cooking class. It’s been awesome!

Last week, our Arts & Imagination students and I traveled to Asia and visited both India and Thailand. What an adventure in our kitchen with so many wonderful smells and tastes. I absolutely LOVE both Indian and Thai food. It is delish and really makes an impact on those taste buds.

To start, we baked some Indian Samosas (pastries filled with potatoes, peas and carrots) and Thai Spring Rolls (vegetarian style). Yes, we baked them. I have this obsession with taking a typical “fried” item and learning how to bake it so it comes out just as crispy and delicious without all that added fat from deep frying. Well, we got it right with these delicious Samosas and Spring Rolls. No need to fry these, at all!

Then, for our main course we made some Indian Malai Kofta (vegetarian style “meatballs” filled with potatoes, peas and carrots and cooked in a tomato and cream sauce with fresh ginger and lots of other Indian spices) along with the popular, Chicken Pad Thai (stir fried noodles with chicken, red onions, carrots, eggs and green onions). For a little crunch, we topped off the Pad Thai with sesame seeds instead of peanuts.

Oh and for the finale, we ate some creamy, Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding). Everything was amazing! So much so, that I am getting so hungry right now as I write this post.

The students are doing such an incredible job, creating all these delicious, cultural dishes. They are going to be cooking extravagant meals for their families really soon. It’s great and I am so very proud of their accomplishments this semester.

Well, this week is our final week for the Winter Session. I think you all can guess where we’ll be heading on Tuesday! Here’s a hint, “Pasteis de Nata, here I come!”

Namaste (Goodbye in Hindi)