A few months back, one of my friends Christina Helms along with Sarah Bodnar opened this lovely chic yoga studio in Florham Park by the name of Three Birds Yoga Studio. Its an amazing space with a bunch of very good yoga instructors who teach classes for all age groups.

Christina wanted to host this awesome Indian themed cooking class to bring a few friends and employees together to express her appreciation. I came up with this Indian menu after exchanging ideas over a few emails.

Here goes:

For starters, we decided to make Dal which is a very healthy and nutritious stew made of yellow lentils slow cooked and simmered in onions and tomatoes along with “dal masala”. It serves as an excellent meal in itself by consuming a bowl of lentil soup or dal.

For the main course, Christina and her friends wanted to learn how to make Paneer Tikka Masala with Indian bread or naan. Paneer Tikka Masala is a dish which has Paneer cubes along with diced onions and bell peppers in an onion tomato gravy with fresh cumin, cilantro seeds and fenugreek leaves. If one masters the recipe to the sauce or gravy, then you can substitute Paneer with chicken or any meat and it is as delicious.

For the dessert, we made some caramelized bananas roasted golden brown in clarified butter and brown sugar and paired it with a scoop of ice cream.It was simple yet heavenly.

We had a tasting round after everyone helped and made every dish and it just got better with every round:)

Thanks much to a wonderful cheerful group that helped make some amazing dishes and it was so much fun. I always derive immense satisfaction from the overwhelming feedback that i received after the class- a lot of Christina s friends mentioned they want to host a similar class so looking forward to many more.

Stay tuned for more events coming up soon:)