Review Indian Cooking Class and free curry recipe

Last week I organized an Indian Cooking workshop at my house. I invited 4 foodbloggers and we had a lot of fun cooking and eating the Indian dishes that we made. On this page I’m sharing my review of Indian Cooking Classes and I’m giving you a free recipe of the curry that we made. It was a vegetarian curry with paneer that I couldn’t get enough off.

Indian Cooking Classes is the Indian cooking workshops company ran by Indian born chef Meenu Gupta. Meenu is born and raised in India and arrived in the Netherlands in 1999. She worked at a big company in the Netherlands for years when her daughter convinced her she should follow her passion and give Indian cooking classes. You can now book a cooking workshop with Indian Cooking Classes at your own home or you can take one of the courses or workshops that they offer. It’s also a great activity to do with colleagues or friends.

Meenu speaks a lovely mixture of English and Dutch and her enthusiasm and energy is contagious. We were with a group of 5 and we created 4 dishes together: basmati rice, stuffed tomatoes, vegetarian curry and a mango dessert.
I invited 4 food blogging friends; Jadis from The Lemon Kitchen, Luuk from Luuks Kitchen, Ilona from Worstenbrood en Wijn and Ellen from Fab and Fit on a Budget. Ellen also went on my Foodblogger tour in Tilburg last year and to the End Celebration of Brabant Celebrates Food which I also helped organizing.
Today they were all in my kitchen and we all worked together to create the four dishes and afterwards we all ate them of course!

Meenu and her daughter/colleague Samridhi helped us throughout the workshop so that none of the dishes would fail. They also told us a bit about the background of the dishes and taught us some tips and tricks.
She told us that in India they always use Basmati rice, no other kind. She actually preferred the Tilda Basmati rice that is for sale in the regular supermarkets in the Netherlands. Tilda is also my favorite rice recipe. Click here to read about the food tour in Amsterdam-East that was organized by Tilda rice.

I made the stuffed tomatoes. As you might see there’s mozzarella on top, which at first gave me the idea that it’s not a typical Indian dish. But when you see all the herbs and spices that I used to create the stuffing, you’ll know that it sure has Indian influences! Just like in the Netherlands, mozzarella has become a popular ingredient in many households in India. I stuffed the tomatoes with seasoned mashed potatoes, green peas and corn. After I topped them with mozzarella we put them in the oven.

We also made a vegetarian curry with paneer. Paneer is an Indian cheese and even tough you can make it yourself, since a few months you can buy paneer in most of the supermarkets in the Netherlands. Below you find the recipe of this vegetarian curry with paneer. It might look like many ingredients but most of them are herbs and spices.

For dessert we made a Mango yogurt dish. Mango is a very popular fruit in India as it grows in the entire country. This dish will surely satisfy your sweet-tooth as you don’t want to know how much sugar we put into it.

Recipe Vegetarian Indian Curry with Paneer
Ingredients (for 4 servings):
400 grams Paneer (Indian cheese), washed and dried, cubed
1 tbs cumin seeds
2 tbs cilantro (coriander)
1 ts garam masala
1 ts black pepper
2 ts salt
2 tbs grated ginger
2 tbs tomato ketchup
8 tbs mashed tomato
1 tbs sugar
10 cashews, finely chopped
10-15 raisins, finely chopped
125 ml cooking cream

Warm olive oil in a pan on high fire, ad the cumin seeds, fry them for 3 minutes until they start to pop. Add the chopped cashews, raisins and ginger and fry for 1 more minute.
Set fire to medium and at the mashed tomatoes, ketchup, cilantro, pepper, salt, garam masala and 125ml of water. Cover with the lid and leave for 5 minutes.
Add the cubed paneer and bak for 8 minutes. Sir occasionally and cover with the lid if you aren’t stirring.
Add the cooking cream and sugar. Close with the lid again and leave on low fire for 7 minutes.

Became enthusiastic? You can always book a workshop with Indian Cooking Classes at your own location by sending an email to info@indiasekookcursus.nl. They also have courses and workshops coming up. Next week on Friday night (April 5) they’re organizing a workshop Thali cooking in Alkmaar. It’s from 6:30pm to 10pm and you’ll get a recipe book as well.
And if you want to take it a step further you can also go for a cooking course of 4 evenings. They have a beginners course on Monday evenings in Hoorn starting on May 6 and an intermediate course on Thursday evenings in Amsterdam starting on May 9.

Gotten in the mood for curry? Click here for my vegan peanut butter curry recipe.