Mexican Fiesta at Relish Mama

Images courtesy of http://relishmama.com.au

Last week RT and I headed down to Clayton to attended a cooking demonstration at Relish Mama. I encountered a small incident on the way, so we ended up running a little bit late... However despite our tardiness, upon arrival we were greeted warmly by Mel (the kitchen helper), given name tags and offered a refreshment. We settled down happily with a glass of wine each.

The night's theme was a fabulous Mexican Fiesta, hosted by chef and food writer Michelle Curtis. On the menu that night was;

Char-grilled corn with queso and lime

Crispy fish taco

Chipotle braised beef ribs

Pollo pibil

Tomato rice pilaf

Chorizo, pumpkin and cherry tomato salad

Dulce de leche and banana pavlova with salted praline

It's a very laid back and casual class. You're more than welcome to come up and help out with the cooking, or you can just sit back and watch. Whatever floats your boat. When I initially booked this class, I envisioned a hands on cooking class, where everyone has their own bench space etc... Relish Mama does offer more hands-on classes, however this particular one was more of a cooking class and dinner party all-in-one.

 

Michelle started with the braised beef, as this would take the longest to cook. She talked about the different spices/ingredients and passed them around so we could have a closer look. She then moved onto the grilled corn and fish tacos. To ensure no one fainted from starvation, we were served the grilled corn and fish tacos as appetizers while we continued to watch the remainder of the cooking demonstration.

 

TCO hard at work

At one stage, Michelle asked for a volunteer to help with the guacamole and RT just happened to already be standing... so *ta-da* he was The Chosen One. Hmm, maybe I can get a t-shirt printed with that title for RT *ponders* So RT donned an apron and got to work! And he must've really impressed with his cooking abilities, because a dude sitting out in front turn around to me and exclaimed;

"R must be great in the kitchen at home!"

To which I smiled and responded, "Yes he is". Such a proud moment, although I didn't do anything lol ;)

Once everything was cooked and ready, we all migrated over to the dining table and enjoyed the remainder of the dishes. We were actually very fortunate to be amongst a really lovely bunch of people, because I think your whole experience depends on the group dynamics. We didn't have any overly opinionated people, or know-it-alls. Everyone had interesting stories to share, and everyone was willing to listen.

I'm actually really glad we did this. Not only did we tick off another thing on our to-do list, but it was definitely a fun/great experience.