Weekend Cooking: A Spanish Cooking Experience

All through July, my Weekend Cooking posts all had a French theme, and that was a deliberate choice. Today is the first of my August posts that has a Spanish feel to it, but not the last! This time though, it isn't necessarily a deliberate choice but rather just the way it worked out!

One thing that I have always wanted to do is to go to a cooking class, and a couple of weeks ago, I almost did that. I say almost because what I did do was a Spanish cooking and eating experience but the host, Fiona, was very quick to assure us that it was not a cooking class as such because a lot of the preparation had already been done for us.

The evening was run through a company called Team Cuisine who do a lot of team building and team cooking exercises, but they also run cooking events through some of the big voucher companies (like Scoopon or Cudo). It was one of these events that we signed up to! 

After making our way to a non-descript looking building down a laneway on the edge of the CBD, we were shown into a commercial kitchen. Inside there was a cup or two of sangria waiting for each of the participants, and then five workstations where the ingredients were ready for us to cook and, most importantly, eat! I think there were about 13 participants in all, which as a group size worked out well as it meant that none of the work stations were crowded, and we all got enough to eat!

I was meant to be attending with four friends, but two pulled out because they were sick which was a shame. Of the friends who did attend, one is a big seafood fan like me, so we started with the Salt and Pepper prawns. The other doesn't normally like prawns, but even she liked these ones. This was probably my favourite of the night, and so easy to do! You could also throw a few chilli flakes in the mix for a bit of a variation.

About to start cooking

Salt and Pepper prawns - Yum, and so easy

Next up for me was potato cakes. Our host also shared a number of time saving tips along the way. After all if it is okay for Nigella (Lawson - domestic goddess) to cheat and take short cuts, then why shouldn't we!

Potato Cakes with Creme Cheese & Dill

Another easy option, this time Chorizo slices topped with a couple of different varieties of dip and sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan. The recipe is actually with pesto and smoked paprika, but the dips were definitely a tasty alternative. I think one was a spicy pumpkin dip, and I think the other one was something spinachy.

Chorizo Bites

One of the other favourites amongst the group as a whole were the Feta and Tomato Topped Mushrooms - again surprisingly easy to cook.

Whoops! Forgot to take a photo of the finished dish before I ate them! 

The last recipe that I tried was pork meatballs. Whilst it took the longest to do it was very tasty, and is one that I can definitely see this being one that my son would like to eat.

Spanish Meatballs with Garlic Mayonnaise

In addition to getting the recipes of the food that we ate on the night, we also got a couple of other recipes to try at home too. There were also some mini toasts with dip that were available to try. One of the dips was a cannellini bean dip/spread/thingy that was really delicious!

I guess the most important thing that I got out of this event was that with the preparation done, the cooking part of the process was actually very easy to do, I could do these at home, and in fact ended up cooking the salt and pepper prawns when I was away last weekend! I cooked them for a Saturday night event with a group of friends and then cooked the rest up for a posh snack on Sunday night (just to use all the prawns up or at least that was the main excuse).

Overall, we really enjoyed the experience, and I am pretty sure that we will be looking for a chance to have a similar experience with another type of cuisine in future!

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.  


**As always, please excuse my dodgy photography**