i am ~all about good, clean, fast and healthy food. ok, so maybe not all the time, but definitely at home, when i'm cooking for one. eating out is another story all together, but when i'm home i'm very much of the school of "the quicker the better", and so because of that i cook a lotttttt of stir frys. like, a lot. there's never a time when there aren't noodles sitting in my crisper begging to be quickly fried and devoured. for real.. i buy four packets a week.
i'm also pretty intolerant of a lot of ingredients, so i kind of ~do have to make all the food and sauces myself. i've taken a number of cooking classes in london (vietnamese most recently), in some of london's best cooking schools, to expand my recipe repertoire as well as learn new tricks. i love cooking, i really do, but cooking for one is dull (and it's more cost effective to make big, fresh dishes so i can live on leftovers for days) so when given the opportunity to cook with a group of others, i will always accept.
especially if that group is headed up by award-winning chef jeremy pang at his infamous school of wok in covent garden, and the recipes are fresh from his debut cook book "chinese unchopped". yes, ~especially then
among the group were some friendly foodie faces in mike and rosie, as well as a couple more i recognised from the internets. and then if course, there was jeremy. i'd seen him a number of times in a number of capacities over the last few weeks, but none as worthwhile and educational as this. from basic knife and dumpling making skills, to his motto of "90% prep, 10% cooking" and the infamous 'wok clock' i've come to know and love (where you prep your ingredients on a plate in order going clockwise around the plate so you know when to cook each - genius!), the quality three hours spent with him were well-spent and come totally recommended by me.
the highlight of the night was sitting down with a glass of wine and the rest of the class to devour (truly) our creations. in that time we'd prepared, created and cooked vegetarian gyoza, chargrilled aubergine, sticky rice and the piece de resistance; black bean an beer rib eye steak. oh yes. it was as delicious as it looks and sounds.
my favourite part of cooking classes is the eating part. it usually comes at the end (duh), and it's like the reward for all the hard work and labour. you feel deserving of it, and if you've had a great teacher as we did in jeremy), then chances are your reward is going to be exceptionally tasty to boot.
i'm not going to share the recipes with you here, but if you want them, you can buy the book here. it's jez's first ever cook book, and it is ~packed full of traditional-cum-modern chinese cooking techniques, handy tips, and incredibly tasty recipes, and would make the perfect companion for your bookshelf. i was lucky enough to get mine signed, so you can't have mine.
well done jeremy - the book is aces!
