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.
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Clearly you could actually throw parties here!
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The ceramic ware corner.
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The freshly prepared produce.
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And spices!
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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!
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We made six dishes, generally most started out the same way with shallots, garlic, cinnamon and chilis.
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The first completed dish was the fish curry which simmered for a while.
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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.
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Mixing it all up.
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Back to the fish curry, some coconut milk being added.
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Nice and creamy!
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Now that I'd seen how it was done, it was my turn to do the next dish with chef guiding me.
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Then the next one, but this time instead of sauteing in layers, it was add everything, then start.
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It allowed the vegetables to get a nice char and not get mushy.
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Then the next vegetable dish.
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Same thing, everything in, then start to cook.
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Chef showing how to properly mix everything for this style.
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Then my turn to attempt.
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Looking like success!
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We finished cooking everything and I had to get a picture of chef with amazing spread.
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I was so excited and hungry to eat the food, it was all fantastic and definitely a slightly different flavor profile than Indian food.
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Everything dished out.
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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.
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We'd be making a crepe like dish.
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First to make the filling was based off of coconut palm sugar as I understood it. He basically made a caramel with it.
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Then tossed in grated coconut.
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Our filling was done.
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Then make the crepe, this seemed pretty standard.
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Then some filling.
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Fold.
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And we're done!
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Super, super good! The flavor profile was amazing, slight date-sweetness with an egg yolk style crepe, fantastic.
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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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