Indian street food

If you would like to learn how to cook Indian street food, here’s another option in addition to the Indian street food cooking class we took at Miette Culinary Studio earlier this year.  We really enjoyed the class at Miette, but if you’re in Brooklyn, this class might be closer to home.

Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center in Brooklyn is offering a class that delves into the street food culture of India.

India native, Suvir Saran, is teaching all about the unique and creative food found on the streets of India with recipes that he grew up eating with his friends and family.

All countries have their own version of street food or fast, quick food, and India is no exception. A quintessential Indian street food is Chaat which can be found in dozens of varieties and is usually just a mess of fried something, whether it’s dough, potatoes, chickpeas or some other starch and then flavored all kinds of ways — sweet, spicy, salty, soft, crunchy, sour, and nutty.

Cookbook author, culinary instructor and working chef, Suvir Saran is a respected food authority, making great contributions to furthering appreciation of Indian food in America. He has been featured in publications such as Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, and Travel & Leisure, and has many television and radio appearances on The Food Network, “Next Iron Chef”, “The Martha Stewart Show,” and NBC “Today” show. He is the author of two cookbooks, Indian Home Cooking and American Masala and the owner of two restaurants in the Tri-state area, Devi in Manhattan and American Masala in Jersey City, NJ.

When he is not on the road teaching and learning, Saran enjoys working on his 68-acre American Masala Farm in upstate New York. http://www.suvir.com/

Class Recipes: Chaat Masala, Cheelas, Crispy Okra Salad; Manchurian Cauliflower; Puff Pastry Samosas with Green Peas; Drink: Mango Lassi

Class Type: Local Chef and Series, hands-on cooking class

Class Notes: Take home a mango!

Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2011 from 6-9pm

Place: Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center 540 President St, Suite 2E, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Cost: $50 per person.  Buy tickets here.

chicken tikka kati roll

We don’t usually associate street food with wine, although Dan Delaney of Vendr.TV had an episode last summer with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV that paired New York Street Food with different wines.

Earlier this year, we learned how to cook Indian street food at the Miette Culinary Studio and had a wonderful time.

Combining these two things, The Astor Center is holding two cooking classes where you learn how to prepare street food from the Caribbean and Mediterranean, then learn the best wines to pair with the food.  Click through to find out what food will be cooked and more details on the classes.

In the Mediterranean street food class, you will cook Pimiento Peppers Stuffed with Cod and Chorizo a la Sidra (hard cider) from Barcelona, Roman rice balls stuffed with cheese, an onion, olive and anchovy “pizza” from Nice, grilled mackerel sandwiches from Istanbul, fava bean patties from Egypt (similar to falafel), and a seafood-filled Brik, a delicate Tunisian turnover.

The Mediterranean street food class takes place on Sat, Sept 11th from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM and the cost is $125.

In the Caribbean street food cooking class, you will make cod-fish “patés” (patties filled with bacalao) from the Virgin Islands, curried goat roti (the local answer to the burrito), black-eyed pea fritters from Haiti, Jamaican jerk shrimp, empanadas filled with savory pork picadillo and tostones (double-fried plantains) with garlicky mojo sauce from Cuba.

The Caribbean street food class takes place on Sun, Aug 29th from 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM and the cost is $125.

After your culinary creations are complete, everyone will relax around a table as a resident wine expert leads you through a flight of perfect pairings.

A little pricey, but it looks very interesting if you have the dough (ouch!)

On Monday night, my wife and I took a class on how to cook Indian Street Food.  The cooking class was a present I gave her for the holidays.  She is an excellent (non-professional) cook who can make many different types of cuisines, but has never been able to get Indian down.  Now, after this class, we’re looking forward to trying it again.

The class was held at Miette Culinary Studio at 109 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village.  The studio is on the 2nd floor of an old townhouse in a fun part of the Village.   This particular class was taught by Chef Rati, a former instructor at ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) who had the Indian cooking knowledge, and Chef Paul, a Belgian chef who has worked at Tartine and Titou in the Village and now owns the school.  He ably assisted Chef Rati, and also had plenty of general cooking technique and knife knowledge to impart.

The class was limited to 12 people and cost $95 per person.  It was mostly young 20-something couples ranging from culinary beginners to somewhat more experienced cooks, but by no means was cooking experience needed for this class.  A few bottles of wine were on the table to loosen things up a little and to go with the food later.  The class was very casual, but well done, which perfect for us.

The menu consisted of chicken kathi rolls, bhel puri (kind of like Indian Chex mix with potatoes and chutney), vegetable samosas, gol gappas (puffed crispy pooris stuffed with potatoes and tamarind sauce), zeera pani (cumin water), cilantro chutney and tamarind chutney.  Most of the recipes were in Chef Rati’s family for generations.

All of the spices were explained, passed around and sampled, and the difference between the fresh chutneys and jarred chutney was driven home by tasting each side-by-side, both the tamarind chutney and the cilantro chutney.  As we saw first-hand, there was no comparison between jarred and fresh chutney.  We also found out that fresh chutney will last in the fridge for up to 6 months if it’s kept free of moisture.

We all got to make our own samosas, with Chef Rati providing some great instruction and tips.  The chefs did most of the cooking, but everything was fully explained and recipes were provided for us to use at home.  We all asked questions, which were happily answered, and we sat down for a wonderful meal at the end of the class.  To give you an idea of the feel of the class, it was scheduled for 2 hours, but lasted slightly over 3 hours.  Nobody rushed anything, and it was all very informative, interesting, and fun.  We definitely feel knowledgeable enough now to make these dishes at home.

If you’re interested in taking a cooking class, many other types of classes are offered: Italian, French, Dim Sum, Brunch, and many others.  We highly recommend the experience, and will likely be taking more classes at Miette Culinary Studio.