It was Indian and Sri Lankan this week at Leiths but before I tantalise your tastebuds with descriptions of the yummy food, please permit me a short rant. If you don’t live in London, you might want to skip the next paragraph.

Leiths used to be fairly centrally located in Kensington. Unfortunately they needed bigger premises so they moved to the wilds of west London. It’s in the middle of nowhere, sort of wedged between Shepherd’s Bush Tube on the Central Line (which is closed right now anyway) and Turnham Green on the District Line. On Wednesday I was shopping in the West End and I left a little late, mainly because the glorious summer weather tricked me into thinking it was an hour earlier than it really was. I decided to get the Central Line to White City, the next station along from Shepherd’s Bush, and then get a taxi. I rang Leiths to say I would be about 10 minutes late and then went down for my Tube. I popped up in White City about a quarter hour later and found the roads in a state of traffic gridlock. I waited for a cab for over an hour and then the cab journey took nearly half an hour. I arrived at Leiths at 8pm - an hour and a half late. I was quite upset - it was a double whammy of the misery of getting there and the fact that I missed most of the class, which averages out at about £60 a night. So if you are thinking of taking a short course at Leiths, do be warned that it’s quite tricky to get to unless you work nearby.

Sri Lankan chicken curry, chana dhal, poori and raita
As a consequence of my late arrival, I expected I would be in time to pick up most of my ingredients to attempt the other dishes at home and maybe make one last dish. It turned out we were actually cooking in pairs so my poor partner had made everything without me (she kindly insisted that I still take half the food). I was in time to help make the cucumber raita (yogurt and cucumber condiment), and roll out and deep fry the poori (unleavened flat bread). I didn’t make the Kukul Mus Kari (Sri Lankan chicken curry), or the Chana Dhal (yellow lentil curry) myself, though I talked through the recipes with the instructors and feel confident I could attempt them on my own. The instructors also kindly showed me a few of the techniques that the class had covered earlier in the evening and explained how you would toast spices (although the spices came pre-prepared for the class).

I learned the following techniques: how to finely chop an onion (by cutting in half through the root and then criss-crossing with the root on) ; how to peel ginger (with the side of a teaspoon); how to cut chilli (lengthways and then scoop out pith and seeds with teaspoon); and how to toast spices (in a heavy frypan on low-medium heat with no butter or oil and then grind afterwards in mortar and pestle or in coffee grinder for large batches).

The chicken curry and the chana dhal were both quite mild and if I were making it, I would add more spice and chilli. This is a matter of personal preference. The chicken curry recipe used chicken thighs, which are more succulent than breasts (increase the cooking time if it’s on the bone), coconut milk and garam masala (a spice mix with coriander, cumin, fennel, black peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and fenugreek). The recipe also gave a few variations - the tomato and yogurt option sounds good to me. I’m not sure whether or not I would make the chicken curry again - I might attempt a different recipe instead. I do want to make the chana dhal though - the recipe used yellow lentils (the orange ones fall apart too quickly and brown lentils are for a different dish) and was cooked with spice and onion and tomato.

Poori is unleavened deep-fried bread. The dough was already made by the time I got there and had been sitting for 20 minutes under a tea towel. We took small lumps of dough and rolled it out thin with a rolling pin. We had a deep saucepan full of boiling oil and we used a slotted spoon to deep fry the bread. As soon as the dough started puffing, we turned it over and sloshed it about in the oil for a few seconds, then removed it from the oil, drain and sprinkled with salt. The poori was crisp around the edges and quite nice, though I like grilled or dry-fried flat bread just as much and it’s certainly healthier.

For the raita, we grated cucumber and then removed excess water, first by draining it through a sieve and then by wringing it out. We added salt and then mixed with yogurt, black pepper and mint. Raita is lovely and refreshing with spicy food, though it was a bit redundant with such mild curries.

Next week: Twice-baked salmon and dill souffles; and duck breasts with blackberry and apple sauce, and green beans. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!