One of the best experiences I had in India, hands down, was attending a cooking class at Sita Cultural Center. Led by the warm and bubbly Shafeya, we spent the morning and afternoon shopping for ingredients at a local market, preparing our meal, and then sitting down to a feast.
To begin with, Shafeya went through all the menu options with us, allowing us to select the meal we wanted cook. After some deliberation, we agreed upon green stuffed paratha and chettinad potato peas fry for the side dishes, coconut milk fish curry for the main course, and masala chai for the dessert.
I was excited. Before the cooking had begun I was already salivating at the thought of eating the culmination of our labour!
Food market tour
After we made our selections, Shafeya led us to a local market, where we shopped for the necessary ingredients. It was an intoxicating visit for the senses and an opportunity for us to experience the fast rhythm of local life at the market where thousands pass through each day. You can read more about our trip to Goubert food market in this earlier post here.
What often strikes me about cooking in other countries is how the food still centres on locally available ingredients and seasonal produce. In England, where almost everything seems to be imported and where the farmer’s markets are the expensive alternative to supermarkets, the idea of cooking with only fresh, local ingredients seems almost like an extravagance. In India, and other parts of the world, it’s the norm.
Learning how to cook Indian dishes
Once we were stocked up, we headed back to Sita Cultural Center and got into the kitchen, where we were really put to work! We were in a group of only four people – Elsa, myself and a lovely mother and daughter duo who were travelling the world for a year and really immersing themselves into each place they visited by doing an abundance of cultural activities.
Each of us were responsible for all the chopping, rolling, and cooking. I couldn’t help but feel I was the most inadequate in the kitchen and Shafeya seemed somewhat amused by this as she came over and showed me a hack for peeling garlic. You simply bash the head of the garlic on a chopping board, pop them into a jar, shake them about, and hey pesto, the outer peel more-or-less just falls off.
The first lesson of the day was how to make coconut milk for the fish curry which was surprisingly laborious. You shred fresh coconut in the blender with water, transfer it into a cloth, then squeeze it into a sieve using your hand or a spoon. After you repeat the process a few times you have coconut milk!
I asked if I could just use canned milk because sometimes fresh coconuts can be difficult to find in London but the answer was no. Shafeya lamented the importance of cooking everything from scratch, even if the process is time consuming. (Although I do love this philosophy, I’m not going to lie… I’m pretty sure I’ll buy my coconut milk from M&S when it comes round to making this dish at home! I know, shame on me).
Shefeya taught us the preparation that needed to go into each dish and she tried to adapt certain aspects of the dishes to suit our palate. However, one question caused division between the group: hot or not?
I love hot and spicy food, and vouched for Shefeya’s desire to be liberal with the chillis but others in the group wanted the spice level to be mild – medium so we went with that instead. In the end I think it was the right choice.
Something I noticed about Indian food was that the preparation for each dish can be quite long when you do everything from scratch, but the actual cooking time is quite short. For example, the fish was only on the flame for a couple of minutes each side but we marinated it for 25 minutes first, and then after being fried we tossed it into the curry a few minutes prior to serving.
Another dish I really enjoyed making was the green stuffed paratha. For those of you who are not sure what it is, imagine a buttery, flaky, and crispy flatbread, a little bit similar to chapati but usually made with filling.
They are simple and fun to make, requiring you to be more tactile as you shape the dough. A rolling pin is also needed to ensure the dough is even before and after you place in the filling. Parathas are often made to accompany curry, or you can eat them for breakfast or as a snack all on their own.
Then after the work came the feast. Everything was perfectly delicious and doubly satisfying, given the work we put into it.
As we ate, we continued to ask Shafeya about Indian customs and traditions. She showed us the technique for eating curry with just the right hand so we wouldn’t drop a single grain of rice. By the end of it, we felt quite accomplished with our right hand!
I would highly recommend a class at Sita Cultural Center to anyone traveling to Pondicherry. Our instructor Shafeya was wonderful and the food was delicious. Most importantly, I came away with greater knowledge about Indian cooking and feeling like I would be about to replicate the dishes I learnt in my own kitchen in London. At least, I hope so…
