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Curry’s in the Kitchen!

This time last week I attended my first ever event as a “blogger”. I use the term “blogger” loosely, as it still makes me chuckle to think I am a blogger. But anyway. I was invited to Underground Cookery School to attend a cooking class. I initially thought it was an event being run by the school it’s self, to get a bit of publicity, but it wasn’t! It was Curry’s PC World (click to read more about the event on their blog). Hence the name of the event Curry’s in the Kitchen. Well it was really #currysinthekitchen, but I must admit, hashtagging sentences is not something I enjoy!
As this was my first event I was both nervous and excited! Nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. I had in my mind that it would be some kind of masterclass and everyone else would be like super chefs, and I would be like the kid in the kitchen, just there to lick the spoon at the end. I was also nervous because I didn’t know what the other bloggers would be like! Again, I thought they would be scary, experienced cooks, who would laugh at my incompetence. I couldn’t have been more wrong, on both counts!

The other bloggers were lovely! It was really nice to meet other people with such a passion for food. It was pretty funny to see everyone armed their iPhones, SLR hanging round their neck, keenly seeking out the most artistic shots of the food! The cooking itself was more of a demonstration than a cooking class. We made Chicken/Vegetable Curry and Pear Soufflé. The cooking side of things wasn’t very challenging at all much to my relief, and and slightly to my disappointment.

As usual, I was the first to arrive and upon my arrival I was given a glass of prosecco! Slowly the rest of the bloggers began to arrive. We introduced ourselves by our real life names followed by our blog names haha. There was more prosecco and also juice! At this point I should mention an underlying, unsaid theme I had noticed to the night. Kenwood. There were various Kenwood machines about, which were used throughout the night for various tasks! The first was a juicer, which was used to make vibrant, bright orange and green juices. I somehow didn’t get one, but I did get another glass of prosecco…whoops. I imagine the green juice had some green stuff like spinach? I really have no idea. Orange is easy; carrots and orange?! There were also some little nibbles on offer. There were three different plates of deilicous looking treats, thankfully, one of which was vegetarian, and they were the risotto balls! They were sooooo good. I had to stop myself from just standing there eating them all! I will definitely endeavour to make them at some point.

My winning instagram!

Once everyone was satisfied with the photos they had taken, the food was eaten! We then had a little intro to the night from the lady from Curry’s PC World. I have forgotten her name, along with most the other organisers (sorry)! We were told the plan for the evening and about the competition! They were basically looking for the best tweets and instagram pictures/videos, which would be rewarded with some unknown prizes. We of course had to tag the tweets and pictures with #currysinthekitchen. As you can imagine, in a room full of food bloggers, everybody was clutching their phone eagerly hoping to get the perfect shot or trying to think of the wittiest tweet.

Jeez I have written so much and I haven’t even got to the cooking part yet! As I said early the two things we made were Pear Soufflé and Vegetable Curry. I can just hear my friends laughing at the fact I went to a curry cooking class. Yeah, alright. Laugh it up! As there were 21 of us, we split into two groups, both groups getting the chance to make each dish. I was on Pear Soufflé duty first. Soufflé s are scary. Well at least I thought so, having never made one before. Our main job was to separate eggs. The handy Kenwood then did the whisking of the egg whites. I have probably mentioned before my Mum has a Kenwood AND I LOVE IT. It’s the best thing ever. So the bit of Soufflé people get wrong is the bit where you fold the egg whites into the chocolate, or in this case, pear. People tend to mix. Thats when you lose the air, and the Soufflés do not rise then.

Work station for one. My vegetarian corner.

Following Soufflé making we went over to the curry station. I was a bit dubious as to what this curry would be like. Thankfully it did not involve any curry powder, but a spice mix that the chef had made earlier. I haven’t really said much about the Chefs. I only remember the name of the head chef, he was Carlos. And the other two. I am not so sure. I just remember the curry chef kept saying “hashtag” before things. I got the feeling that he hated hashtags and we was mocking the whole thing, much to my amusement! My vegetable curry had aubergine, courgette and peppers in. I had my own little work station and everything because the carnivores were everywhere!

Before we got to eat the food Carlos demonstrated the use of the Kenwood Blender and made some cocktails. He made a caipirinha and a piña colada. The caipirinha was really good, but unfortunately there was only one glass of it to go around! It would appear that at some point I just gave up taking pictures, partly because there were 20 other people trying to get the same shot, partly because I got lazy oops. After cocktails we finally got to eat!

The end result of the curry was pretty good! Way better than I expected. I was a little disappointed with the Soufflé to be honest. It just tasted like sugar. Couldn’t taste any pear! It was really nice to sit down and talk to the other bloggers. I was intriguing to find out how varied everyones blogs were. There were people who ran supper clubs, people who did restaurant reviews, people who wrote articles for magazines, and people like myself, who shared recipes. I really did have a lovely evening. And to top it off I won a prize for the “most creative instagram”! I did one of my classic photo montages with a some music. I chose Soufflé ft Daft Punk! I won a Kenwood Multi Pro which I am very excited to use! 

As I said all in all I had a great evening. The chefs and the venue were great. Underground Cookery School host parties and team building activities. I would seriously consider using them in the future. The kitchen was spacious and well equipped, perfect for a large class!
 I am not going to be sharing the recipes as I would probably do a bit of tweeking before using them myself and I don’t want to share with you something I wouldn’t make myself! If any of the lovely bloggers I met are reading this, it was great to meet you and I hope to see you soon at another event! For more pictures and other bloggers thoughts on the night search for #currysinthekitchen on twitter or instagram. Also check out http://instagram.com/curryspcworld

KB x

Bonus shot of me and Mumma B’s Kenwood!

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