I’d been salivating over doing a virtual cookery course for so long! I’d received a voucher for my birthday in June the previous year, but wanted to finish my challenge of cooking a dish from every country in the world before I took the class. Six months later and second new thing of 2022, this had all the ingredients to be a feast of an experience!
I can highly recommend trying a virtual cookery course. You’ll feel more confident in your own kitchen with your own utensils, and you’ll make something incredibly delicious to be proud of!
Virtual Cookery Course For Beginners
I’m definitely not Master Chef standard, but I like to think I am ok in a kitchen. I’m fairly confident with cooking and can follow a recipe and usually produce something decent and edible. I was really looking forward to this course to learn tips and techniques to be able to add a full Indian meal to my repertoire.
With plenty of time before the live event, I received an email with the ingredients needed to make a mouthwatering meal of mixed vegetable raita, Rajasthani rice and jalfrezi chicken. It was a longer than usual shopping list that week!
Virtual Cookery Course - Homework
To save time on the live call there was lots of weighing and chopping and preparation to be done in advance. I also found it really helpful to read over the recipe so I had some idea of what we would be doing in order to follow along on the night.
For Starters
There were just 4 budding chefs on the call, although most of the time when I glanced at the screen nobody was actually in view as we were all too busy bustling over our hobs.
Our head chef had two cameras; one facing her in full view and another looking down on her hands so that we could see what was going on and what the dish should look like.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m cooking I like to have a picture of the finished dish as a visual guide to compare my attempt to! Seeing what our chef was actually doing along the way was incredibly helpful.
Ready, Steady, Cook! Taking Part In A Virtual Cookery Course
Turning up the heat, we got cooking.
Our chef was excellent at helping us to juggle what needed to happen at what moment so that all three dishes were ready at the same time.
There were moments when all four of us needed to ask our chef to go a bit slower so that we could catch up. She was very patient with us as we had different levels of experience and were all using different types of appliances.
It wasn’t just about giving us the instructions of what to do and when, but included explanations about why certain things happened, and there were so many top tips peppered throughout.
With bowls of prepped ingredients ready on my counter top, I felt like a TV chef as I sprinkled and stirred, and pans sizzled and simmered. Tantalising aromas swirled around the kitchen as I combined herbs and spices, and just about managed to keep up with the steps.
Surp-'Rice'-ing Side Dishes
The rice dish was so much more than ‘just’ a rice dish, or ‘just’ a side dish. It included twenty different ingredients including onions and tomatoes and all of the delicious spices and aromatics.
Once these twenty ingredients had initially cooked and the flavours entangled and brought out the best of each other, the washed rice was stirred in and allowed to cook on quite a high heat whilst the kettle finished boiling. This was slightly unnerving as I could hear the rice frying and visions of a burnt pan and lots of elbow grease for the washing up came to mind. Our chef reassured us it would be fine.
Sure enough, when I lifted the lid to add the boiling water I wasn’t met with a pan from washing up hell! Phew! We turned the heat right down to the lowest it would go to allow the rice dish to infuse and the water to simmer for 10-12 minutes. This is definitely something I have tweaked when repeating. Our chef was cooking on gas, and my electric induction hob was possibly too cool on the lowest setting as the finished article was a little al dente.
Once the rice had cooked, it needed to come off the hob, but the lid needed to stay on until just before serving. It was so tempting to take a sneak peek but I didn’t want to jeopardise the results and diligently followed the instructions.
The Delicious Results Of A Virtual Cookery Course
We were heading to the finish line as all of the dishes were about ready to serve.
I took the lid off the rice and I thought I’d stepped into a professional kitchen. The smell was divine!
Having put so much effort into the cooking, I tried really hard not to let it down with the presentation. Once we had plated up, we each showed our creations to the others on the call, thrilled that we had all ended up with fantastic looking plates. Thanking our chef, we signed off to enjoy our delicious Indian feasts.
The smell in the kitchen was amazing and the Other Half had been drooling in the front room as the mouth watering aromas drifted through to him. We were both really impressed and eagerly tucked in. The rice was full of flavour, although mine could perhaps have done with cooking on a slightly higher heat. The chicken was colourful and light with a nice warmth from the chilli without being too hot. The cooling, creamy riata perfectly balanced the dishes together.
All The Ingredients For A Great Virtual Cooking Course
I’m really pleased I picked this course. The dishes were bright, fragrant and utterly delicious. I felt proud when I served it up. It looked pretty impressive, and it tasted absolutely amazing. I’d created restaurant quality dishes in the comfort of my own kitchen. I’d also created a fair bit of washing up, but that was a small price to pay for a fantastic tasty experience.
Take Aways From A Virtual Cookery Course
No, not food in a silver carton, but some of the hints and tips I picked up throughout the session. I learnt so much on the course and here are just a few of the key take aways. You may already be familiar with these things, but I thought I’d share them in case they’re helpful for anyone, and in case it whets your appetite for how much you can learn if you sign up to a virtual cookery course!
- Use a low heat so things don’t burn. I know this sounds obvious but bear with me. Good things happen when the heat is not so intense. I’m guilty of turning the heat up high to get things cooked, usually because I am time poor or really hungry, but turning the heat down is something I’ve started to try and adopt a bit more. Whenever you add a new ingredient to the pan it’s cold compared to what is already in it, so it’s ok to turn up the heat briefly, just make sure to turn it back down once the new ingredient has caught up.
- Don’t over-stir things, no matter how tempting it can be. Stirring adds an element of cool to the pan so will add time to the cooking process. You also want to allow ingredients to get to know each other, let them sit together and get acquainted before adding more. It can be tempting to put everything in together, but you’ll get a much better flavour if you allow things to mingle slower.
- Put the lid on your onions! If you’re making a sauce, regardless of the cuisine, sweat your onions. Put them on a low heat, spread them out over the base of the pan, that’s where the heat is so if they’re in a pile, the ones on the top of the pile won’t get the same amount of heat. The more onions that actually touch the base of the pan, the more evenly they will cook. With the lid on, the water that evaporates from the onions will bounce off the lid and back into the onions making them lovely and moist and less bitter.
- Using cardamon pods? I did not know to give them a squeeze so they pop open to release more flavour. Amazing, and something I’ve been doing ever since I learnt it!
- To oppose the heat of chilli it’s not creamy things, but rather fat that can help to cool it down. The recipe we were following used full fat natural yoghurt for the raita, for exactly this reason.
- If doubling a dish, don’t necessarily always double up on the ingredients – especially chillies!
Want To Try It Yourself?
Whether you’re starting out in your cooking adventures or you feel competent in your kitchen, I can highly recommend a virtual cookery class as a way to learn new skills and increase your culinary confidence.
My virtual cookery course was with The Cooking Academy. They have been featured on the BBC, in The Times, and received a certificate of excellence from Trip Advisor.
It was professional and very well organised. I received all of the information I needed well in advance of the live event, meaning I could really maximise my time on the course.
There are many other providers of virtual cooking courses, so why not have a look around and find one that tickles your tastebuds? Let me know how you get on!
- If you’re interested in other new activities involving tastes and flavours, take a look at these food and drink experiences for further ideas.
Cost Of Experience
The Cooking Academy offer a huge range of cooking courses at different prices.
I received a gift voucher for a virtual cookery class with them for my birthday, a brilliant gift idea! If you want to book directly onto a course it costs £45.
Recommendations
- Don’t skip your homework. If you sign up for a cookery course that needs you to do some preparation in advance, make sure you do it. There’s no way I would have been able to keep up with the cooking on the call if I had needed to be weighing out and chopping ingredients at the same time. It’s not fair on the other callers if they have to wait for someone either.
- Don’t leave buying the ingredients until last minute, just in case there is anything you can’t pick up at your usual supermarket.
- If you do join a course, let the chef know if you’re stuck or struggling. They want to give you a great experience resulting in a delicious home made dish, so will be happy to help you or give you more time if needed.
- Take some pictures of your amazing culinary creations and let me know how you get on!