Pukka Cooking Classes at Our Pukka Studio

We are really starting to rock on with our Homestay plans, it is very exciting because we are picking the parts we really like out of all we have been doing the last 2 years and rolling it into one package.

We both enjoy meeting new people, we love being in our home, we love sharing what we have learnt over the years, we love sharing an insight into India...we love hanging out together....

Homestay and a teaching Studio will be the best of all those worlds for us, really the same focus as our tours just located in our home.

 This is my favourite photo from all our cooking classes, it really embodies what makes it so enjoyable...James was so chuffed at his accomplishment and  eveyone was having a good convivial laugh just about life in general....makes for a great evening...

 Otherside of the pic- friends and family around....in OUR HOME...hmmm yes!

 My favourite vegie seller, in town

 I am a serious pickle making junky [have been making preserves since I was a small kid, actually; I remeber still needing to stand on a phone book the first time I followed Nan's recipe to make jam at home.]

 Yummy things like Hydrbadi Biryani....

Life in the kitchen is an enjoyable blur many days, a fabulous hobby to let me unwind at the end of busy, busy days....
I have the bones of a cooking week worked out, would really appreciate any comments people care to make...so we can tweek this up to perfection.
Our Pukka Place-Homestay accomodation will be open from next September 2011 [workshops anytime as already started], we can take bookings thereafter- we  would need a group of at least 4 people to offer the course.
I plan to float it on the new Pukka Studio Calendar for Feb 2012 but by prior arrangement we can run it any other time a group of people care to book.

Pukka Cooking Week Programme.


1. Sunday – arrivals-
need to be here in time for sunset drinks,
Then we can have dinner and settle in

2. Monday- checking it all out day
-traditional Indian breakfast
-check out home garden
-general introduction to ingredients, library, etc
- and then lesson in Indian bread making
-lunch
- visit local oil press guy
-introduction to Pushkar, walk around Holy Lake
-few free hours in town
-meet at 4.00pm to visit miller, shop for supplies
-Return home
- Indian BBQ evening –tandori mixes and marinades.
[we will be non-traditional in that my husband cooks; in India men don’t usually cook in the home…this is a little bit of Australianness about our life here…..I have told him Australian men always cook the BBQ- no one is to tell him different, please!!]

3. Tuesday- The heart of Indian Vegetarian Food Today
- looking at importance to vegetarianism to Hindu practices
-nutritional aspects and balance
-paneer making
-visit to Govindgarh and see brass plate making workshops, vsist jooti/ traditional shoes maker [perhaps you want a pair made whilst you are here this week?, explore old fort]
-return for lunch
-afternoon to relax
-making Indian sweets –Rasgoola, rasmali
-vegetarian dinner featuring use of Paneer

4. Wednesday- South Indian influences today
-breakfast, traditional iddli; small rice cakes with all the accompaniments
- explore spice blends this morning
-lunch marsala dosa [crisp rice pancake filled with spiced potatoes once tasted always craved!]
-South Style Fish fry tonight, sharing some recipes we collected in Kerala

5. Thursday – Homage to Hyderabad Day….heavily influenced by Murghal culture and cuisine the royal kitchens of Hyderabad were the envy of many kingdoms.
-eggs Indian styles for breakfast
-morning focus pickle and preserve making
-lunch
-visit to Ajmer and it’s famous Sufi shrine
-Ajmer’s other claim to fame is a fabulous pickle shop….guess where we are going?
- Biryani night

6. Friday- Traditional Rajasthani Day
-Parantha making at breakfast
- free morning
-lunch
- afternoon Camel Safari [or camel cart]
-perhaps gypsy dancers ?
-Traditional Rajasthani Dal-butti-chorma [as served at every special occasion in Rajasthan!] cooked over an open fire to round out the evening an evening of celebration after a great week of cooking, tasting and learning.

7. Saturday- departures…..
-accompanied by notes on all we have cooked this week....lots of tastes and memeories thrown for free....and hopefully a new enthusiam. Live, laugh, learn is our motto
What do you think?
 
Today is very special, it is Praveen and my's anniversary and today his 3 sons are coming to stay during the school break, first time....a really big thing and good to have his family's approval and support. [in India a second marriage is not typical and so those types of arrangements that seem normal in the west about kids etc are truely foreign and need to be worked up to carefully and sensitively]