Sewing for a Cause and Indian Cooking Classes

I'm sitting in my lounge and there is a delicious aroma wafting through from the kitchen. Not because I am cooking something but because I have chopped up some ingredients ready to cook this evening. On Tuesday this week I went over to my neighbours house and had my first 'cooking class.' I still don't know what the curry is called but it was delicious and I learnt a lot about Indian cooking.

My neighbours are from North India so their cooking is very different from curries found in Southern India. PJ showed me many of her spices kept in glass jars or Tupperware containers (no small cardboard boxes from the supermarket). She had star anise, black and green cardamon, bay leaf, turmeric, cumin seeds and the list goes on. I learned that black cardamon is used for a spicer flavour as are red onions whereas green cardamon and white onions are used for a sweeter flavour. I also learned that red chillies are not as good for you as green chillies as red chillies can burn your stomach. Garlic is not commonly used in recipes during summer as garlic makes you feel hot.

We made a dish containing black cardamon, whole pepper corns, cloves, cumin, ginger, green chillies, red onions, tomato, paneer (an Indian cheese) and many other spices. It was absolutely delicious although my neighbours did find it funny when my throat caught on a chilli going down! PJ had also made chapatti bread and fresh mango lassi. It was an absolute treat.

We talked about Indian and New Zealand culture and discussed the process of adoption from India. PJ was surprised that the process took so long and jokingly offered to produce a baby for me in 9 months. I learned where they go to buy Indian takeaways and where the best Indian supermarkets are in Christchurch.

So now tonight I hope to replicate the dish myself. To be honest I'm rather nervous. PJ told me not to ask for specific quantities because they never use a recipe but then stated that the slightest change in ingredients or adding something else could completely change the dish!! She then told me not to worry if it didn't work out as several weeks ago her husband had made a curry and they had to chuck it out as his mix of ingredients didn't work. I'm hoping mine all goes well.

Something else that I have been working on lately is sewing some dresses for an organisation called Dress A Girl Around the World. This organisations has branches in many different countries including New Zealand. Their aim is to provide a dress for girls in third world countries. A girl wearing a nice dress is less likely to be harmed than one who is not. If they are wearing underwear this increases their chances of safety. There are labels to sew on the dresses, and these are sewn somewhere on the front as then it looks like the girls belong to an organisation and are looked after by them therefore to harm them comes at a greater risk. You can follow the New Zealand organisation on the following facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dressagirlaroundtheworldnz/

I used the following pattern
https://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/howtomakeapeasantdress/ which is easy to sew and looks nice once complete. Each dress has one pocket sewn on to it and then a pair of underwear placed in the pocket. I managed to make 11 dresses from left over fabric that I had in my fabric stash which also helps to reduce the cost!

And after tasting my first attempt at the curry I can say it was delicious. There is still room for improvement with less onions and more chilli but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to work on those.