Had another brilliant evening at Claverham college yesterday. We did Empanadas, a similar recipe to this one from Good Food. Some people there hadn’t made pastry before, so that was bit of a challenge for them. I’ve made tons of the stuff in my time!

Empanadas are crispy little pastry or bread filled pasty type savouries, baked in the oven. We filled them with beef mince, fried with onion and flavoured with smoked paprika and cumin. Inside each empanada was also a little bit of boiled egg and a few slivers of green olive. They were completely gorgeous. We also made a lovely chilli and coriander dipping sauce, which of course I had to dip an empanada into didn’t I

Next week we are doing something Indonesian, A beef Rendang with Gado Gado, a peanut sauce. Yum, can’t wait! I’m loving this learning and have booked myself into a one day course by the same chap on Greek cooking.

This afternoon, we had the first meeting, here at the house, of the U3A Cooking On A Budget group. We had a blast. The people who came cooked up Breakfast Raisin Pancakes, Breakfast Bhaji Pancakes, and Beef and Sun Dried Tomato Paste which we had on toast. So a few things for breakfast. Next month, we’ll be doing three curries and some nan bread… Ooh, so many to choose from!