Zouk of the day - a #vegetarian masterclass @ZoukTeaBar

What better way to spend a rainy Saturday morning than in the kitchen creating some mouth-watering dishes? It’s even better if you are with half a dozen other friendly souls signed up for a vegetarian masterclass under the guidance of Zouk chef, Mangal Singh. Unlike TV’s Masterchef programme, cooking does get tougher than this as Mangal was gentle with us.

After an initial meet and greet and a flick through the tantalising recipe booklet, we donned our rather stylish black chef aprons emblazoned with the bright Zouk logo and went into the kitchens.  We were to make three starters and three main courses in the three and a half hours we had. First up we were chopping peppers, onions and paneer cheese before mixing it with a ginger and garlic paste and threading it onto skewers (this was Paneer tikka). While they were grilling over a flame we moved onto the Zouk falafel, an Indian interpretation of this Middle Eastern staple. I’ve mentioned before that they were the best I’d ever tasted, so I was delighted to be making some myself. Next was partially deep-fried Jalapena chilli peppers stuffed with herbs and spices.

The group of us were wide ranging in age and while some were curry cook veterans others, including me, certainly weren’t. All united in this city by a love of good food, it was nice to make new friends over drinks from the bar in the breaks. I think we were all in awe at the facilities, the range of spices being used for each dish and the ease at which these curries came together, when you are being guided. The tasters every step of the way went down a treat too.

The main courses involved chick peas, channa and mung beans, spinach, potatoes, rice and spice- look for Tarka Dahl, Channa Masala and Palak Aloo on the menu. Seeing the naan and roti bread chef in action (photo below) rounded the morning off nicely before we got to relax with the fruits, or rather the vegetables, pulses and spices, of our labour.

Seeing things from this side of the kitchen reminded me that often a lot of salt goes into restaurant food, which is one thing you can’t control in the way you would at home. I was still feeling thirsty from the previous night’s over-salted Persian Platter at HOME, where I saw the excellent new Bryan Cranston film, Trumbo.  Also the large tub of butter ghee that was used in some of the main courses reminded me to be sure to ask for the delicious vegan menu options when I next eat at Zouk- which is actually tomorrow night, so my stint in the kitchens has encouraged me to sample more of the menu. 

Yup, I can stand the heat, perhaps the heat of the kitchen more so than the heat of some of the hottest spices, but I will be happy to step into the lush restaurant surroundings as a paying punter once more! If you fancy a go yourself, Zouk offer a range of masterclasses in Manchester.