Mastering Middle Eastern cuisine at Cookery School at Little Portland Street

With London's Golborne Road (also known as ‘Little Morocco') on my doorstep, I am well acquainted with the delights of Middle Eastern cuisine, which - influenced by Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Senegal, Turkey, Greece and the Berbers - is food fit for the gods, as far as I'm concerned. But what is the secret to a really tender lamb tagine? How do you make humous? And is Baklava as easy to make as it is to eat?

HUMOUS, TAGINE AND BAKLAVA

I'm hoping that the Middle Eastern cookery class at Cookery School at Little Portland Street will reveal all. Starting at 10am and running for four and a half hours, it is just one of a number of classes and courses, appealing to all ages and abilities, you can do here and is being taught today by Lucy French, who runs classes at Cookery School and works as part of a team of chefs when the school runs corporate events.

There are six of us in the class (the maximum capacity is 16) and, on arrival at the spacious, basement kitchen, situated just off Oxford Circus, we are issued sparkly white aprons and a set of take-away recipes for each of the dishes we are to prepare today. On the menu is a starter of homemade pitta bread, tzaziki, humous, spanakopita and aubergine and tomato salad; two main courses consisting of lamb tagine with Persian rice and chicken chermoula with lemon cous cous; a pudding of orange almond cake with rosewater and cardamom ice cream; and finally some hand-made baklava.

INFORMAL AND RELAXED

The class is very informal and relaxed with a mixture of demonstrations by Lucy and lots of hands on cooking as we are divided into groups and tasked with making some of the recipes. The easy-going atmosphere and joint approach to cooking is a great way to learn and the class slips into easy banter as we shape pitta breads, chop onions, stir sugar syrup and fold cake mix while the air becomes infused with the heady scent of cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, fresh tomatoes and spices.

I learn a lot of basic, transferrable skills over the course of the class: how to use a knife properly when chopping (keep it grounded and use the fatter part of the knife); how to cook onions (slowly and not too much stirring); when to add garlic (after the onions have cooked); what to look out for when ‘sealing' meat (when it starts to glisten, it's ready to turn); the basics of cake baking (eggs before flour!) and much more besides. Meanwhile, I attempt recipes (pitta bread, ice cream, baklava) that I wouldn't have been confident to try on my own at home.

AND THE BEST BIT...

The class is informative as well as fun, but the real highlight comes at the end of the session when a white tablecloth is spread out, glasses of wine are poured and we all settle down to eat what we have spent the morning preparing. The aubergine and tomato salad is sublime. The tzaziki is fresh and zesty. The lamb is tender as can be, falling apart easily with just a fork. The chicken is fragrant and spicy. The rosewater and cardamom ice cream is quite frankly the best thing I have ever tasted. Really, it is all delicious and we eat and eat and eat until it is all gone and we stagger out, blinking and clutching our tummies, onto Oxford Street. If all the classes at Cookery School at Little Portland Street are like this then, someone, please sign me up for another one soon.

INFORMATION & CONTACT DETAILS

Cookery School at Little Portland Street runs three courses (£500 each) - Absolute Beginners, Beginners and Intermediate. These run over three intensive days or six weeks in the evening. A variety of single classes (starting from £150) range from short day and evening ones through to whole day sessions on Saturdays based on different topics. To find out more visit www.cookeryschool.co.uk

Cookery School at Little Portland Street, 15B Little Portland Street, London, W1W 8BW. Tel: 020 7631 4590

Emily Jenkinson

13th September 2011