Mamta's Kitchen celebrates its 10th birthday in May 2011. During that time we've had over 6.9 million visits and we have over 1,400 recipes on the site, contributed by Mamta, family and friends and our readers.

To celebrate this anniversary, we're holding a fundraising all-day cookery class in Mamta's own kitchen, with proceeds going to the Khushboo Welfare Society (see below).

For those who can?t make this date, we hope to offer additional dates soon.

Date: Saturday 14th May

Time: 10 am to approximately 8 pm

Location: Mamta?s Kitchen, Luton, Bedfordshire

Price: ?95 per person

Included

? Lassi and cumin biscuits on arrival

? A light lunch that you will cook together

? A tasty dinner that you will cook together

? Wine and soft drinks with dinner

? Tea, coffee and biscuits during the day

? Printed recipes

Provisional Menu

These are the dishes we are planning to make during the day, however the exact menu will depend on availability of ingredients, so we may switch one or more dishes nearer the time.

Mixed pakoras

Paneer Cream Tikka

Mixed Indian salads

Chai

Meatball curry

Spiced Fried Fish

Stuffed Aubergines

Urad Daal Curry

Matar Pulao (Pilaf)

Rotis & Pooris

Vermicelli Kheer

Of course, we have never run this kind of event before, so we're making our best guess on how much we can cover in the time. We may not manage to make every dish but we'll cover as much as we possibly can and we have reserve plans to ensure that dinner shall be a feast, regardless!

Additional Information

The class will start at 10 am and includes a drink and snack on arrival, lunch and dinner, drinks and snacks during the day, and wine and soft drinks with dinner. We'll aim to sit down for dinner at around 6 pm so finish time will be approximately 8 pm.

We are limiting class size to 5 students. They will be joined for the meals by Mamta?s little helpers, Pete and Kavita and possibly one or two other family members for dinner.

As the class is being held in a domestic kitchen, with a single oven and stove top, students will be working together to create the dishes and will need to take turns to participate. But don't worry, there will be plenty of hands on experience throughout the day.

The (Luton) address will be provided on confirmation of booking. Plenty of (free) parking is available. Alternatively, you can train to Luton station which is a short bus/ taxi ride from our house. We may be able to collect you from the station if we can coordinate arrival times.

We will donate at least ?60 from each student?s fees to the Khushboo Welfare Society. If ingredients costs come in a little lower than budgeted, we?ll be able to better that.

Khushboo Welfare Society is a small, voluntary NGO in Gurgaon (near Delhi), which provides multidisciplinary education for the development and rehabilitation of children, adolescents and young adults with mental and multiple disabilities. This is something that is not widely available in India, even today.

Booking

Please email Kavita at Kavey@mamtaskitchen.com for further information and to book your place.

Sounds like a very interesting day to be had... unfortunately it clashes with my holiday, still hope it all goes well... and lots of pics and recipes appear from it :-)

Steve

I reckon that'll be the best 95.00 you'll spend in a while. What a great idea, guaranteed you'll have a great day.....and fantastic food at the end of the day to top it all off. Have fun!

Regards

Steve

Thanks, Steves! ;)

Hope we have some interested people booking in soon!

Hi Mamta

I would love to come and try my hand at some authentic Indian cooking - If you still have room for me on this day, then please let me know

I am sure there are places. She hadn't even put it on her blog when I looked this morning, so not many people know about it yet, except the people who visit this forum.

Mamta

Patsy, please drop me an email at the email address above.

At the moment, we have spaces, I've only had a couple of people email so far.

I only put this up last night.

It sounds lovely and it would be such fun - we could talk over lunch or dinner about whether it is good or bad (or indifferent) to change recipes for well-known dishes! But unfortunately I can't make it.

Heather

So sorry I can't come on this date. Hope everything goes really well.

Ruth

Looks like it's a tough date for a lot of people, but was one of few dates we could do in coming two months.

But if there is interest, we will certainly look at more dates in future, as that is our hope, so we can raise more funds for KWS.

Just to correct, the dish above with Urad Dal should be called Urad Daal Khada Masala

Great news, we have just 2 places left!

i hope it all goes well for you. unfortunately i do not live near luton or i may have come along. it sounds like you are all going to have an interesting afternoon.

Thanks Sid, I hope it will be a fun and successful day!

WHEN it is a success, make sure you have plenty of photos for the advertising of the next one... ! :-)

there could be a whole spin off from it -

personalised menu's with the persons own food photos on them.. laminated?

step by step (photo) guides for the people to use at home...

mugs with Mamtaskitchen and your own photos on ..

etc

Steve

Hold your horses Steve, we haven't finished our first one yet! LOL!!

I work on weekends as well !!! But will be donating some money to Kushboo Welfare Society.

Mamta I was thinking ahead but also behind.. these things might be nice for those people one the first one to takeaway with them... well recipes and step by step guides (personalised with their own photos if possible).. etc..

Mugs/Calendars/recipebooks etc can follow later :-) lol

Steve

Luton is too far away for me to have even thought about coming, but what a splendid idea. I hope it goes well and feel sure everyone will have a splendid time and learn lot of new cooking techniques.

We will be printing recipe sheets for our class attendees but the sheets won't be laminated. I've attended many, many cookery classes, most of them faaar more expensive than ours, and they all give simple paper printed recipes.

We're not intending to scimp on anything at all but at the same time there's no point throwing away cash on extraneous things like laminating that could go to KWS instead!

The key thing we're giving is the learning experience and the social experience of cooking with mum plus the two meals as well.

We will definitely take lots of photographs, of course, so we can share how the class went with those who couldn't be there (and those considering attending future ones).

:)

Hi Mamta and Kavey

I think this a fantastic initiative for a worthy cause plus the thrill of sharing a great experience with you all... The wonderful world of Indian cookery.

If I had greater notice would have loved to participate as we will be in the UK on the 13th, but alas our schedule is booked.

So I wish you well and will look into donating to the charity you mention .

Regards

June

Ps can you please ask the UK weather to be kind to us.

Thanks for your good wishes. Perhaps you can join us another time :-)

UK weather is kind at the moment JL. In fact I had to abandon gardening just now because it is just too hot in my walled garden!

Luckily I have a place reserved for the master class - I am really looking forward to it as the highlight of my spring!

I thought I had cooked a fair number of Mamta's recipes but looking at the planned dishes for the day I haven't actually cooked any of the recipes, so they will all be a new experience for me. Also having then seen the maestra in action in her own kitchen hopefully my contributions to the forums will be better informed!

Winton

We're looking forward to having you attend, John!

We have three places booked and two remaining so please help us put the word out, those of you who know keen cooks that might be interested!

Would love some more help putting the word out about the course, as the last two places remain unbooked.

We'd really like to have a full house of 5 students for the class, so we can raise a nice figure for the KWS.

Many thanks

Kavey

Would love to attend this course but am working that day. Please let me know if there are any other courses available.

Diana Ringer

Are there still places available on the May cookery course?3

Regarda,

Martin

Hi Martin,

Yes indeed, can you get in touch via the email address Kavey@mamtaskitchen.com and copy the email in to mamta@mamtaskitchen.com

We'll give you all the details.

However, we're trying to finalise numbers ASAP so we can work out quantities, so please get in touch soon.

Warmest regards

Kavey

x

The date of the course fast approaches, we're very excited!

Looking forward to welcoming our students!

I am off to shops now to get ingredients for tomorrow:-)!

I'm getting giddy about it and I'm not even there ! - hope everyone has a fabulous day, learns something and raise plenty of money :-)

Steve

Spending a whole day in Mamta's Kitchen! A dream come true.

I'm feeling very privileged to be going and have my note book at the ready to report back on all I learn.

Winton, Kavey has done a nice recipe folder of what you will cook and eat, so no need to take notes, well not many anyway!

we want photos though ! :-)

Steve

Pete's going to take a few short video clips too!

Excellent... will they become past of a video cookery help/tips section on here ?..

:-)

Steve

It is too difficult to do 'Tips', they vary from recipe to recipe. I try to add watch points etc. as I write though.

Pete and I have been busy doing last minute shopping of fresh ingredients and Kavey and I have worked out a step by step programme, well 'sort of'. Hope we cover all in the time we have given ourselves! I am quite looking forard to it now.

Sounds like you are all going to have a ball tomorrow. I will look forward to watching the video clips. You should set up a live webcam feed for all those poor souls that can't make it LOL. I made 'mum's chicken curry' tonight and very nice it was too.

hope (and I'm sure they will) everyone has a great day !

Steve

... well how did it go ? :-)

Steve

Well, we had a lovely day!

I had thought cooking fifteen dishes would be ambitious but under Mamta's calm direction everything fell into place and the students cooked two fantastic meals.

For me it was a real confidence booster for planning large meals, picking up numerous tips along the way and learning new skills such as poori and chapatti making. There were many bonuses throughout the day such as exploring Mamta's beautiful and functional garden and a big bag of food to bring home. There is already discussion of having a pickles and chutney workshop!

Many thanks to Mamta and Kavey,

Winton

P.S. Is my certificate in the post? !!

Sounds like a brilliant day !

Steve

Ha haaaa, certificate, that's cute!

THank you SO much for attending, Winton, was such a pleasure to hvae you with us and so glad you enjoyed it...

We've been talking about how to rejig it a little, as we had a little too much to do in morning and had extra time in afternoon, so we'll rethink what we do in what order, but broadly, felt it went pretty well.

Hope you enjoy the leftovers, I reckon that's another huge meal in itself!

:)

x

Just came back from a bird watching trip this morning and am feeling exhausted! I think yesterday is catching up with me!

I enjoyed the company of people who were eager to learn. It will be nice if they would feed back to me about good and the bad via the contact link above.

Mamta