Thyme has a wide array of cookery classes to choose from but Indian cuisine is the one I’m least accustomed with so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to hone my skills! You never know when you participate in these things whether you will walk away any the wiser or just feeling happily full from deliciously cooked plates of food. Thankfully, it was both, and I now feel quietly confident in creating a delicious curry using a variety of spices to pack a punch and add flavour you couldn’t otherwise get.
Depending on the class, it will start by taking a walk through their enchanting kitchen garden. Everything from fresh honeycomb, to kale, to beetroot, chard and grapes – it’s a homegrown heaven. We picked what we needed for our dishes and admired the surroundings. We had Thyme’s chef Daryll Taylor & Marjorie Lang taking the class for the day. Marjorie was actually the winner of MasterChef in 2000, inspiring every at-home cook that you can take it to the next level!
After the garden, it was back to Thyme’s stunningly designed chef’s kitchen to start learning about the ingredients we were using and what we would be cooking.
Given the foodies we are, we were ready for snacks a little into making the curry pastes. To my delight, the simplest starter of deep fried spinach and onion bhajis were on the menu. I never thought two ingredients could make the perfect sharing style starter but with some lemon drizzled over, they hit the spot just right. I made a Masala chai which is a flavoured tea made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. The recipe is packed full of sugar so I secretly added a little less than I was supposed to (our chef Marjorie knew right away!) but delicious to say the least!
The balance of ‘DIY’ and teaching was flawless. Chefs Daryll & Marjorie were there for any help we needed but it was about doing it ourselves and learning the tricks of the trade.
Main courses were a chicken curry and spicy prawn curry, served with a vegetable accompaniment of spinach raita with the Spinach picked fresh from the garden. There was also a jasmine rice on the agenda which turned out to be my best lesson – who knew you could pack so much flavour into rice by using a quality chicken stock and spices?
As our class was a smaller group, we dined in their picturesque smaller kitchen. For bigger groups, food would be served in the main beamed room which is where is breakfast is too.
Here’s a little video of my day from start to finish!
I absolutely loved my stay with Thyme, right through from tasting their home-grown cocktails, to dinner at the award-winning Swan pub to a day filled with learning new skills and enjoying delicious Indian food. I would highly recommend to anyone who loves food and countryside stays as much as I do!
If you would like to book in for one of Thyme’s cookery classes, visit their website here and download the Cookery Class Programme. They run weekly across Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Rooms at Thyme start at £260 per night for a double on a B&B basis.
If you have any questions about my stay with Thyme and their cookery class then please feel free to comment below!
LLG X
