Cooking Club: Learning to be adventurous in the kitchen

My friend came to me with an idea — she wanted to start a cooking club between friends where, once a month, we each cook something that we’ve never cooked before with a specific ingredient and come together to see our creations, eat good food, and socialize.

She chose two other friends to include and Cooking Club was born!

Our first ingredient was vanilla. We agreed that we couldn’t do anything obvious or easy (like having vanilla ice cream as the main ingredient), the point was to be challenged and try something new.

I was allocated the main meal and I wanted to use something different to vanilla pods or essence. So I bought a bottle of vanilla vodka and used it to marinate chicken. On the first test, the vodka was way too strong. I used so much that it burned my tongue as I ate and tasted so boozy I was sure I’d get drunk off of it. When I cooked it for the night, I used just enough for it to distinctly flavor the chicken.

Laura cooked scallops with a side of vanilla purple sweet potato mash. Julianne cooked a traditional Filipino meat dish with vanilla essence added. Genevieve made the incredibly tricky mille-feuille for dessert.

I hosted the next month’s installment and chose rose as the main ingredient. I wanted to really challenge myself, so…