Katharine: Cook&Eat's Tour of Asia

 Photo credits:  Maggie

Orla kept us busy all morning in preparing a varied selection of Asian food.  

We divided into teams, 

in order to get the work done.  For the sushi team (Jan, Kim and Katharine), practice didn't make us perfect, but there was improvement after the first fumbling attempts at rolling the sushi rolls, which were subsequently cut into 8 pieces (sharp knife required). 

Orla had already prepped a pot of sticky rice, which was a smart thing to do, since it was cool and ready to be shaped (by Kim) into the base of the salmon, tuna and shrimp sushi.  

Orla had instructed us to be creative, so our sushi rolls comprised a variety of combinations of tuna, salmon, cucumber, mango, red pepper, leaving some as vegetarian.    We learned (some of us are quicker learners than others) how to fiddle about with California rolls - I think I'll stick with the rolls made with nori (seaweed) on the outside in the future (Practice! Practice!). 

Tuna, salmon and shrimp sushi, decorated with nori and coriandre (the latter courtesy of Jan's nimble fingers)

Katharine - not about to apply as a sushi chef. 

Likewise, there was a lot of fancy finger-work in preparing the spring rolls.

Sue Rich, Anne and Leslie prep Vietnamese spring rolls

The Vietnamese spring rolls were fragrant and delicate in taste with an accompanying dipping sauce

    

Spiced indonesian potato cakes (perkedel kenteng)     Indian dahl with garlic and coriander pita chips

I thought we had already eaten lunch, but No!  those were merely the starters.  Next up were
three distinct curries - 

l to r:  Malaysian Chicken korma;  Prawn Rogan Josh;  Green Thai vegetable curry, served with accompanying rice

Maggie commented on how much she liked the aroma and flavour of the kaffir lime leaves in the Thai curry. 

For dessert:


     Exotic fruit salad, cardamon and ginger spiced rice pudding, sesame seed brittle.

l to r:  Jan, Kim, Hostess Orla;  Sue, Katharine, Leslie, Caroline (not pictured:  Leslie L, Maggie, Anne)

Everyone liked everything - and it was a full morning's work to prepare each dish.  Our thanks go to Orla for the opportunity to learn new skills while having fun.