Cooking Lessons with L’atelier des Chefs and Tefal

I feel at home in the kitchen probably more than anywhere else so being invited to cook with Tefal at L’atelier des Chefs in London was something I couldn’t pass up.   Visiting London to cook and bake up a storm in the past has given me some lovely memories so I was looking forward to meeting some new bloggers and trying out the fabulous new Tefal Ingenio range of pans!

The Tefal Ingenio range are an ‘ingenious’ set of cookware on which the handle is clipped and unclipped.  This means they can be transferred from hob to oven and vice versa, thus eliminating the need for additional oven ware and extra washing up!  Always a bonus!

We all met at 11.30 at L’atelier des Chefs which is proud to be the UK’s most popular cookery school!  Located in London’s Oxford Circus and St Paul’s, last year they taught over 30,000 people how to master a wide range of cuisines and skills earning them a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence.

After a latte and introductions to the other bloggers and the Team at Tefal we set about making some fabulous Indian dishes (if you read my previous posts you will know I have a hatred for coriander but the lovely team decided to omit it and concentrate the flavour in the chutney which I skipped – phew!)

The dishes for the day were

o Tandoori marinated chicken skewers
o Karahi Okra and potato curry
o Coriander chutney
o Roti

Our chef and teacher for the day was Dahlia and she talked us through how to prepare the ingredients and a few shortcuts, for example how to strip a pepper of its seeds in seconds and how to skin ginger with a spoon!  She was a delightful teacher with the patience of a saint and fabulous foodie know how, I would love to pop back to take one of the full length classes.

We split into two ‘teams’ and had a chance to try the Ingenio cookware and utensils whilst making lunch.  I was teamed up with the fabulous Lovely Appetite, Twice the Health, Our Seaside Baby and Eat, Cook, Explore, we rolled our own roti, coated chicken in spices and yogurt mix and blended coriander into chutney (gah!)

 Taking turns, we each got to try out the cookware whether it was toasting the spices, browning the chicken or cooking the roti (Why have I never made these before!!) I am always really dubious of new cookware but these pans lived up to the hype, one thing that I love is that they are totally non stick so I can see these being invaluable when making omlette or fritatta!

Roti – Serves 6

Mix together the flours and salt, add the water and mix to a dough. Knead on a clean work surface for about five minutes (don’t use extra flour for kneading – it won’t help and it will make your dough too dry). Shape into a ball and leave to rest in a covered, clean bowl for at least 30 minutes, preferably about an hour – this allows the gluten to swell with water and makes the dough more elastic.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 pieces. Shape these into balls, then roll out with a rolling pin into circles about 2mm thick, lightly flouring the work surface and pin as you go to stop the dough sticking.
Melt the butter.
Heat a heavy based frying pan to medium hot, then cook the breads one at a time, turning every 30 seconds or so. When large bubbles start to appear, press then gently with a spatula – this will spread them and help the inside to puff up even more. The bread is ready when you can see no raw patches of dough. There should be some lightly scorched patches and plenty of big air pockets – sometimes they balloon up completely. Remove from the pan, brush with melted butter and either serve immediately or stack wrapped in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and soft.

Having a mismatch of pots and pans that tumble out of the cupboard after being stacked precariously in the first place, my own kitchen nightmare situation was highlighted by the fact that the Ingenio range is all so compact and stackable.   The abundance of ovenware that is cluttering up the cupboards too is totally unnecessary cconsideringthe Ingenio cookware can transfer from hob to oven, to table and fridge!

• Tefal have kindly offered my readers a 10% Off promo code valid on our 60min, 90min and 2hr classes –  TEFAL10

Happy Cooking!

XOXO

Debbie

This is a collaborative/sponsored post