THE SLOW POT-Poland, Persia, West Africa & the Philippines

A slow November kitchen gathering around four pots, four food cultures and four completely different ways of building flavour.
There is something very November about a pot quietly bubbling away.
Dark outside. Something warm in your hands. Music on. Food that cannot be rushed.
Welcome to The Slow Pot.
A three-hour hands-on workshop exploring four completely different approaches to slow cooking, inspired by the food traditions of Poland, Persia, West Africa and the Philippines.
This is not really a class about “how to make stew”.
You probably already know how to put things in a pot.
Instead, we are looking at why some pots taste extraordinary.
How sourness can create depth.
How fruit and nuts can transform something savoury.
How spice behaves when it is layered properly.
How sweetness, acidity, richness and heat balance each other.
How humble ingredients become something completely different when we stop interfering with them and give them a little time.
We will begin close to my own roots, with the deep, sour, earthy flavours of a Polish winter kitchen, before travelling somewhere completely different.
From there we move into the rich sweet-sour balance of Persian cooking, the warmth and depth of West African flavour, and finally the bright, sharp, savoury character found in Filipino food.
Four places.
Four pots.
Four completely different flavour languages.
And hopefully a few techniques you will carry into everything else you cook.
THIS ONE IS ABOUT THE PROCESS
We are deliberately not racing through a giant list of recipes.
The whole point of this November series is to do things a little more slowly.
We will chop. Toast. Stir. Taste. Adjust. Wait. Taste again.
We will talk about flavour as we go, rather than simply following a recipe from top to bottom.
There will be moments when something needs to sit and simmer.
For once, I am going to try very hard to let it.
Beautiful music will be playing.
Something warm will be in your mug.
And the kitchen will smell extremely good.
What to expect
* Famous Polish bigos- sauerkraut& wild foraged mushrooms stew
* Persian Fesenjan- walnuts, pomegranate divine combo
* West African Maafe- peanut and coconut creamy goodness
* Philippines coconut, tamarind& aubergines
Alongside making the dishes themselves, we will look at the building blocks behind them:
how to layer flavour rather than adding everything at once
how to use acidity properly
how to work with fermented, dried and preserved ingredients
how to toast and bloom spices
how to create richness without relying on heavily processed ingredients
how to balance sweetness, salt, heat and sourness
and, perhaps most importantly, how to taste your food and understand what it needs next
These are skills that go far beyond the four dishes we make together.
Once everything is ready, we will sit down together and taste the four dishes side by side, with simple accompaniments.
Because part of the joy of this class is noticing just how different they are
WHAT'S INCLUDED
The workshop lasts approximately three hours and is fully hands-on.
All ingredients and equipment are provided.
You will receive the recipes on PDF.
There will be drinks throughout the workshop and a full communal tasting meal at the end. All leftovers are yours to take home and freeze for a rainy day.
THE FOOD IS VEGAN. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE.
This is always important to me.
Everything we cook in my kitchen is plant-based.
You absolutely do not have to be vegan to come.
You might eat vegan every day.
You might simply want to eat more plants.
You might love cooking food from different cultures.
You might be curious about how to create more flavour from vegetables, pulses, nuts, herbs and spices.
Or you might simply want to spend a morning somewhere warm, cooking something beautiful with other people.
All are equally welcome.
The food is vegan. The invitation is for everyone.
***Most Dietary requirements can be catered for***