A Delicious Foodie Road Trip to India
By Krista Martinelli, Photos by Rima Feliciano
Above: Chef Deb Dickinson
Last week I enrolled in an in-depth Indian cooking class, which took place at the Space of Mind in Delray Beach. So before I tell you about the butter chicken and all that wonderful stuff, let’s look at their cooking class schedule, so you can see what’s coming up. So, whether you’d like to learn to cook lobster ravioli or perhaps beef bourguignon, there are really great classes that come to a grand finale, of course, with a lovely dinner at the end of the class.
Right in the heart of Delray, The Space of Mind building is a beautiful place to spend time, and many homeschool students take classes there during the day. The space opens up for adult classes and activities in the evenings. Whether it’s young home schoolers working on a recording of Bohemian Rhapsody or adults enjoying a night of comedy or families doing meditation, there are a lot of great offerings in this space. Check it out!
When my friend Tosca and I approached the building, we were promptly greeted by Rima, who was assisting Chef Deb Dickinson (pictured above) for the evening. In a very organized fashion, we were given aprons with our nametags and set up at our cooking table. Chef Deb was a great instructor, and I learned some valuable basic kitchen skills from this lesson, like how to properly grip a chef’s knife. And the best and most efficient way to cut an onion. We also learned how to handle garlic and control the level of garlic flavor that goes into a dish. Good stuff for any budding chef to know! Oh, by the way, it’s BYOB. Everything else is included.
We started by making Saag Paneer, a popular Indian dish that involves spinach and toasted paneer cheese. We chopped, mixed and cooked the ingredients right at our table on Bunsen Burners. Chef Deb came around to inspect our process. So far, so good. After a while, Chef Deb whisked away our pots from the stoves and set them aside. We turned to the next assignment Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani), which happens to be my go-to Indian dish when I eat at an Indian restaurant.
Toasting the cheese for the Saag Paneer
The Butter Chicken is a complex dish, where you first marinate the chicken and then make the Makhani sauce, a 17-ingredient concoction. Thanks to Chef Deb and Rima, we had everything pre-measured and portioned out for us at the table. The scent of the spices cooking was heavenly, which included cinnamon sticks, coriander, cloves, bay leaves, ginger and other tasty ingredients. The quartered tomatoes took about twenty minutes to cook, which gave Chef Deb the opportunity to share some more cooking secrets and stories with us.
Some ingredients for the Butter Chicken sauce
Meanwhile, Chef Deb had already prepared the Cardamom Scented Basmati Rice, so we didn’t have to worry about that part. There was definitely enough to do with the Saag Paneer and the Butter Chicken, so we were almost always busy at our stations.
The final recipe of the evening was an interesting and very delicious dessert, Indian Carrot Pudding (Gajar Ka Halwa). This has a wonderful custardy flavor and incorporates ghee, shredded carrots, whole milk, ground cardamom, sugar and cashews.
Throughout the evening, Chef Deb did a terrific job explaining how to do things and punctuating parts of our “Foodie Road Trip to India” with interesting stories. Everything at our cooking table was thoroughly planned out.
Finally, the much-awaited time of the night came…dinner was served! We sat down with our classmates and enjoyed the delicious fruits of our labor. The Saag Paneer was just perfect. The Butter Chicken was spicy and creamy at the same time. The highlight of the meal was that Indian Carrot Pudding, but it was all so good.
They had thought of everything and as soon as we took our last bite, they brought Tupperware to the table, so we could take home leftovers. Overall, it was an entertaining and educational evening! If you want to take on a cooking challenge with a very talented chef to lead the way, I highly recommend this experience.
Dinner is served!