Earlier this week, I was invited to attend a healthy cookery class with a group of bloggers and it was such an excellent evening. I was invited by LV= who promote healthy lifestyles, and healthy recipes are an obvious part of that! (Plus it was located in the gorgeous St Katherine’s Dock. What a location!)
I learned some great tips the other night at the Smart School of Cookery!
+ Don’t cook with olive oil and heat. High temperatures turn olive oil carcinogenic. Use rapeseed oil for cooking, and olive oil as a cold finisher. (Sam and I cook with a lot of olive oil so we are going to start making an immediate change!)
+When you buy fresh chilis at the grocery store, pop them straight into the freezer and then when you want to cook with them, just grate or chop them into dishes from frozen (don’t defrost) and it cooks them almost instantly! (Same with ginger.)
The chef was incredibly talented and he was truly a master! I wish I had his level of knife skills! And he was super gracious and patient with the absolute flurry of photographs that were being taken. A hazard of hosting an event for bloggers has to be the extra pressure put on by everything being documented!
Asian prawns
Lime and chili cured courgettes.
Here was my favourite recipe from the evening:
Chicken noodle broth – including making fresh stock, served with a coriander crostini
Make a stock with 4 x carrot, 2 x onion and 1 x celery, add a little oil to a hot pan and caramelize the vegetables. Fill pot with water and reduce, by half then sieve.
Then add:
1 x lemongrass-scored-or lemon zest on service
4 lime leaves-or zest and juice on service
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp galangal paste
1 tsp finely chopped chilli
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
Season and adjust ingredients to taste.
Add 1 pack dried egg noodles, pre soaked to remove wax. Then sear 4 boned chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces. Seasoned and finished in an oven
Serve with Crostini – 1 x part baked baguette, finely sliced lengthways, drizzled with rapeseed and seasoned. Cooked till golden. Sprinkle on chopped coriander
Thai chicken curry
What an incredible event! I just want to thank LV and JoesBloggers again for the invitation!
Have you ever taken any cooking lessons?
