Chinese Chefs (Learn to Cook Something New)

When I was in high school, I really wanted to take the foods class as one of my electives. All the popular kids took foods so of course it was the class I wanted to be in. My Mom wouldn't let me take the class because she felt I already knew how to cook and I needed to learn to sew. Those of you who know me well, know that arts and crafts is not my thing. Anything crafty I try to make rarely turns out. I could write an entire post about the amazing clothing I made that semester including a drop waist floral print dress that was at least 4 sizes too big but this post is dedicated to cooking not sewing.

So not only did I not master sewing but I also didn't learn how to cook. I consider myself an average cook. Basically I can follow a recipe fairly well but if a recipe has ingredients that are not "normal" I usually avoid it. I have a few "go to" recipes that I make anytime I want to eat a real meal but I wouldn't call myself an expert. Overall, if I have people to help me eat the food, I enjoy cooking.

Recently I attended a cooking class at Sur La Table in Salt Lake with my friends Michelle and Clayton. The theme of the night was Asian food. Here is what we learned to make:

Gyoza (Japanese Steamed Dumplings)

Tom Kah Gai (Thai Lemongrass and Coconut Soup with Chicken)

Murgh Masala (North Indian Chicken Curry)

Sweet and Sour Pork

Pho (Vietnamese Beef and Noodle Soup)

Vietnamese Crepes

Fresh Spring Rolls

Peanut Sauce

It makes my mouth water just thinking about all the delicious food we made. There was definitely a lot of weird ingredients in these recipes but it was really fun to experiment with them. I think my favorite new ingredient was Lemongrass. It smells and tastes so good! The main thing I took away from the cooking class was the motivation and the confidence to experiment with new recipes and new ingredients. I'm excited to experiment with some more recipes soon. Who's hungry?