After going to the local fish and produce markets with the chef in the morning (check out this post for that experience), at noon I came to the "classroom" to learn how to actually make Sri Lankan dishes.
Clearly you could actually throw parties here!
The ceramic ware corner.
The freshly prepared produce.
And spices!
To start, I tried a piece of this fruit (sorry don't remember the name) that was sweet and sour at the same time in a good way. Really cool!
We made six dishes, generally most started out the same way with shallots, garlic, cinnamon and chilis.
The first completed dish was the fish curry which simmered for a while.
Then we prepared the salad with the vegetable I don't remember the name of that was lightly fried to make it less bitter. It was awesome and I hope to figure out what this was and try to get it in the states.
Mixing it all up.
Back to the fish curry, some coconut milk being added.
Nice and creamy!
Now that I'd seen how it was done, it was my turn to do the next dish with chef guiding me.
Then the next one, but this time instead of sauteing in layers, it was add everything, then start.
It allowed the vegetables to get a nice char and not get mushy.
Then the next vegetable dish.
Same thing, everything in, then start to cook.
Chef showing how to properly mix everything for this style.
Then my turn to attempt.
Looking like success!
We finished cooking everything and I had to get a picture of chef with amazing spread.
I was so excited and hungry to eat the food, it was all fantastic and definitely a slightly different flavor profile than Indian food.
Everything dished out.
After not getting anywhere close to finishing all the food, but being stuffed, it was time for dessert and the pastry chef came in to teach me.
We'd be making a crepe like dish.
First to make the filling was based off of coconut palm sugar as I understood it. He basically made a caramel with it.
Then tossed in grated coconut.
Our filling was done.
Then make the crepe, this seemed pretty standard.
Then some filling.
Fold.
And we're done!
Super, super good! The flavor profile was amazing, slight date-sweetness with an egg yolk style crepe, fantastic.
Spice Spoons cooking class was amazing, I always feel food is the bonding experience for humanity and to learn how to cook a new to me culture's food was very special. I'd highly, highly recommend the class if you're even remotely into food and cooking!
Trip links:
- Colombo
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