You have read about the cooking course in an earlier blog. Well, we started an advanced cooking course.
After the normal cooking course was done, most of the ladies came to me and asked if there wasn’t any other cooking courses for them to attend so they can learn more. After a long planning session, we decided to offer an advanced course.
The advanced cooking course is where the ladies can make their own food. Instead of sitting behind a desk and taking notes, we give them a chance to make and experiment with new food ideas. We do this for two reasons: you learn by doing so I teach them how to work with food as well as how to work with knives. It was scary to see how these ladies worked with knives; they use one knife to do every thing.
Ladies before they started cooking
After the four week cooking course, the ladies get invited to do a 1-day advanced course.
In this 1-day session, the ladies make their own food. I am only there to help and give advice. At the start, they all ran to the table with the ingredients. No one stayed behind to heat up the stove or to sort things out on the table. After I spoke with them, they began to send two people at a time to get the things needed. This method and organized approach helped them to be more effective and get the meals done in time.
Hendri explaining what the ladies are to do
With the first advanced cooking course completed, there are a few things that I would change and add — not just to make it easier but also more fun for every one there.
The ladies needed to bring the following with them (a pot, a pan and their own knives); all these things were needed to make the day easier. They began with a starter Veg. fries (looks like French fries but made out of carrots and pumpkin). Next they made an energy bomb for dessert; it needed to go into the fridge. Then they started making their chicken curry pot.
Chopping food for main meal
Ladies getting to know one another as they cook in teams
I told the ladies to halve the dessert recipe because it is very sweet (125ml sugar, 4 42g bar-ones, half a cup of syrup, 100ml margarine and four cups of rice Crispies). However, they only halved the rice Crispies and left all the rest of the ingredients the same. This made extra energy bombs, EXTREMELY sweet.
Busy making the Bar one dessert
After the teams were done cooking, we dished up for every member (plus a nibble for the judges). Each team could taste their own cooking as well as what the other team had prepared. A panel of judges were there to help to choose a winning team. Since both the pots tasted so nice, the judges gave first place to both teams.
They all were winners just by attending the course.
