Here is what you missed at our Kazakh cooking class

On July 10, guest chef Aliya Dosmanbetova led a cooking party with 10 students, and we made a delicious Kazakh feast! Aliya was a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois for the last 12 months, and as a parting gift for our community, she shared her favorite family recipes with us at this farewell dinner. We made a lamb pilaf from scratch with the help of a pressure cooker, then we whipped up a lovely fresh salad with tomatoes, onions, and peppers, and finally, we also fried up a big batch of Baursaks (Kazakh fried bread), which Aliya made from scratch with flour, milk, and sugar. If you missed this class and want to try out her recipes, they have been archived on my website. 

Aliya also shared stories about her life back home, her country's culture and history, as well as her experiences here in America. We drank tea, cooked up a storm, and ate up everything that was cooked up that night. Aliya is now on her way back home, but she will take back some wonderful memories from her experiences here in our community. Thank you, Aliya, for your time and wonderful energy. 

This class was part of our long-running PRINCIPLE OF ETHNIC COOKING class series at Urbana Park District's Phillips Recreation Center. This series is now in its third year, and we're always looking for community home cooks who want to share their culture and recipes. If you or someone you know wants to be a guest chef in our lovely demonstration kitchen, please let me know. I'm also open to future cuisine requests and suggestions! 

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More information about my cooking classes and pop-up events can always be found on my website, where you'll also find over 200 recipes from my classes (no ads!). You can also subscribe to my email newsletter or follow me on Instagram or Facebook and like my posts. Bon appétit!