Tag: Chicken Tikka Masala

I had the best Saturday. A huge part of making it such an amazing day was the opportunity to take an Indian Cooking Class taught by Haneeda Riaz, of Haneeda’s Kitchen. Every Saturday, Haneeda hosts two hour hands-on classes to groups of 8 students or less. The classes, posted here, lay out what dishes will be taught, although Haneeda also (I believe) has private classes that can be customized.

My mom and I headed to Glen Mills, PA to learn how to cook 5 different Indian dishes: Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Tikki, Cucumber Raita,Vegetable Pulao, and Mango Lassi. Our class of 7 immediately got started. The Chicken Tikka Masala needs some time to marinate so we began there, making the marinade and letting it soak for 30 minutes. We then made the sauce, broiled the chicken, and added it to the sauce.

Cucumber Raita, a cucumber yogurt-based salad, also needs time for the flavors to meld, was made next and popped in the fridge.

Next came the fun part, we got to get a little messy 🙂 To make the Aloo Tikki, a potato croquette, we had to form the potato mixture into little discs. These get sauteed up until golden and are served with chutney.

Learning how to make the vegetable pulao, a rice dish, changed my life. Hehe. We made the whole thing, vegetables and all, in a rice cooker! Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of a rice cooker.

Last but certainly not least, we whipped up the Mango Lassi, an absolutely delicious mango yogurt drink.

We then got to sit and taste our fine handiwork. Yum!

Haneeda is a fantastic teacher. Not only does she guide you through the whole cooking process, but gives every person in the class a chance to do the actual cooking. Haneeda is also full of knowledge; she took the time to show and discuss each and every spice we’d be using. She can also direct you to where to find the ingredient you used in the area. (I went on Sunday, and I fell in love with the Indian grocery store, it smells SO good in there!)

Not only do you get to sit down and enjoy the wonderful meal you just made, Haneeda sends each person home with the recipes!

So I had to show off my newly developed Indian cooking skills for my boyfriend. I made everything but the Aloo Tikki, because I forgot to pick up potatoes (whoops). So how did it turn out?

Not. Too. Shabby. If I say so myself 🙂  It was delicious! I made a whole Indian meal on my own!

 

I would strongly suggest checking out Haneeda’s (or honestly, any other hands-on cooking classes) to learn a new cuisine, or even something like a knife cutting class, to further develop your skills. It’s a bunch of fun, and really informative!

Many thanks tor Haneeda for the opportunity to attend her class, I can’t even begin to describe how great it was!

For more information about Haneeda’s Kitchen, head over to her website: https://www.haneedaskitchen.com/ There was also a wonderful write up about Haneeda and her classes last year, which can be found here.