Dilli Day!

Saturday saw me being privileged enough to join a group of Bloggers for an Indian cookery course, courtesy of Living Social, and what a fabulous experience it was.  I was a little nervous at first, being surrounded by established bloggers whilst little old me has only just started out but they were a lovely bunch of people and I warmed to them immediately. 

We all met up at Jack Sprat's on John Dalton Street (amazing bacon butties!) and then made our way to Dilli in Altrincham.  I'd heard some good reports about the food here so was looking forward to both cooking and eating.

The owner and head chef gave us an introduction and the first demonstration was mango lassi.  I'm not a huge fan of yoghurt-based things but the lassi was soooo good.  This was made from yoghurt, mango puree and sugar, beaten with crushed ice.  I had a bit of a wine head from the family dinner the night before and it sorted me right out.

Next, it was onto onion bhaji's.  The chef chopped up the onion in spectacular chef-style (one day I hope I have some impressive knife skills) and mixed with a range of spices, ginger, garlic, chillies and a little water, and gram flour.  He then heated the oil and dropped the bhaji's in, frying them until golden brown.  We then got to taste them, hurrah, along with some tamarind sauce (takes a day to make apparently so probably not something I'll be doing for a while) and some mint chutney that was rather spicy for that time of the morning.  Delicious though!  A nice change from the watery mango chutney and red onions that you usually get in Indian restaurants. The bhaji's were amazing, fresh and crunchy and so much nicer than the soggy offerings we are often presented with.

Chef also showed us how to make a variation using potatoes and onions, and we got to taste those (another chance with the tamarind sauce, mmmm) before moving to our 'cooking stations' and learning how to cook three dishes - Murgh Kali Mirch, Dhal Tarka and Aloo Palak.

The first dish, a chicken curry, was a revelation.  We used fresh curry leaves which I've never seen before (have some dried in the cupboard that I've never even used) and the following ingredients:

Chicken fillets
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Crushed ginger
Crushed garlic
Crushed coriander seeds
Red chillies
Cumin
Fennel powder
Pureed tomatoes
Coconut milk
Diced onion
Black pepper
Salt

We learnt how to make the curry base and wait for the oil to start separating out (that's when your spices are cooked) and then added the chicken.  We always tend to fry the meat first to brown it but not so in this recipe which was interesting.  The chicken was also very tender once cooked, and only took around five minutes of cooking.  A good tip for testing whether the chicken is cooked...try to break it with your spatula.  If it breaks easily it's cooked :)  Chef also added water to our spice mixture before we added it to the pan, again something I've never done previously but so much easier than trying to scrape powder off a plate mid cooking. 

Some fresh coriander finished it off nicely.  We were then able to taste it and what a revelation!  I didn't eat too much though as wanted to bring it back for Mr W to try.

I got told off by the owner for stirring mine too much, oops.  Just make sure you push everything from the edges into the middle but try not to over-stir or you won't have an evenly distributed heat.  Learn something new every day!

The next dish was a Dhal Tarka, something which we regularly order from our local restaurant so was very excited to cook it myself. 

I won't list all the ingredients (send me a message if you want any of these recipes) but it started with chopped onion and garlic and, very interestingly, you cook the garlic until it's brown which is always something I've tried to avoid to ensure the dish is not bitter.  Ever wondered where Dhal Tarka gets it's smoky flavour from....  We added spices, ginger, tomato, chillies, and some pre-cooked pulped lentils and cooked until it thickened.  Again, some fresh coriander (my favourite herb) before serving and then time to dive in.  This was definitely my favourite dish of the day, it was incredibly tasty and so rewarding to cook it myself.  Of course the Chef had done the majority of the work previously, soaking and cooking the lentils, and we just came along and claimed all the glory.  Bit like men and BBQing...

Not quite sure why my new all-singing phone takes 1970's style photos but there you go.  Doesn't really do the food justice and may have to engage my proper camera in future.

The final dish was Aloo Patak, or Saag Aloo in my local Indian restaurant.  We fried onions, ginger, garlic and spices together before adding fresh tomato, pre-cooked potatoes (with skins on, we were advised to always cook them in their skins although the reason escapes me right now) and spinach (wilted and wrung out in a towel to get rid of the water).  This dish called for methi, or fenugreek, which I always find to be so inviting but sometimes overpowering if cooked by the wrong chef. It was a very quick dish to cook and the Chef urged us to taste it, before coming round with some lemon juice and the Kassori methi which completely changed the taste.  Delicious.  Mr W is a big fan so again, I didn't eat too much so I could take some home with me.

Dilli provided us with take-away cartons and was amazed to be taking home three full dishes, had no idea we would be cooking that much. 

All that cooking and tasting had given us an appetite so rather than tuck into our own fayre we moved down to the restaurant where we had lunch and, for me, a much needed hairy dog to alleviate the wine head.  I ordered a kind of butter chicken dish - creamy, rich, tomatoey chicken - with a roti which was thin, crisp and delicious.  I am often disappointed with the fat roti/chappati that you often get at Indian restaurants.  They should be thin and slightly crispy, not soggy and stodgy.  I like to finish my curry!  I pretty much finished all of this one and it was marvellous, and I would definitely recommend Dilli.  I will be going back for sure, it's well worth a trip to Altrincham for some authentic Southern Indian food.

The lovely chaps from Living Social even gave us a goody bag to take away, which included a chocolate cookery book and the cute monkey now taking pride of place on our fridge.

We had a very interesting trip back to Manchester in a cab with a driver who liked to talk and gave us football quiz questions on the way, and some history about some of the buildings we passed.  Bless :)  Lovely chap although if you'd had a bad day you might not find him quite so entertaining ;) Do you know which premiership club is nearest to the Mersey?  How about non-premiership?  I do! All in all it was a great day, a fab way to spend a Saturday, and met some lovely people who I hope to stay in touch with.  I will be adding details of their blogs in the coming days so watch this space. 

A big thank you to Sarah, Becky and Jeremy for giving me the opportunity and making it a day to remember, and lovely to meet some fellow bloggers.

Mr W and I polished everything off for dinner and I got my biggest critic's seal of approval :)