By Dan Archer
If you鈥檙e hoping to expand your cooking talents and delight your palate with inspirational foods, talk to Kathy Rasmussen. She鈥檚 the owner of R. Incredible Edibles, a program designed to teach an assortment of cooking classes in Assiniboia, featuring dishes from all over the globe.
Exhausted with baking frozen pizzas, cooking Kraft Dinner or heating-up Beefaroni in a saucepan? Enrol yourself into one of Kathy鈥檚 classes, where you鈥檒l learn how to prepare Cajun, Mexican, Chinese, Greek, Italian, Thai dishes and more.
Born and raised in the Assiniboia area, Rasmussen specializes in teaching people how to cook globetrotting foods at her home on Assiniboia鈥檚 south end on First Street. Rasmussen educates students inside her well-appointed kitchen with a massive counter, a modernized stove and a variety of specialized equipment including a digitized cooking thermometer. She learned her cooking skills along with her sisters when they were children. 鈥淲e were fortunate. My mum let us start cooking as soon as we wanted to.鈥�
Rasmussen teaches eight classes. She keeps herself busy throughout the week, instructing a span of age groups on the science and art of cooking. Aside from adults, Rasmussen also teaches children from ages 6-12, as well as teenagers 鈥� including boys and girls.
Rasmussen鈥檚 ethnic cookery sessions for adults cost $40 a night and usually start at 6:30 p.m. Rasmussen also instructs students on how to use an instant pot, where students learn to cook two to three different meals in a pressurized cooker. An instant pot is a programmable pressure cooker capable of speeding cooking times and is said to use 70 per cent less energy.
In this class, the students aren鈥檛 actually cooking, but receiving instructions from Kathy on the best ways of using an instant pot. At the end of this class, the students try each of the meals she鈥檚 concocted inside the cooker. 鈥淚鈥檒l cook two to three meals for them to sample.鈥�
Whether you attend an age specific class, an instant pot session, or an ethnic night, all students get to eat a brownie at the end.聽
Many of the ingredients Rasmussen uses for ethnic meals are sourced at the Village Store on 304, 1 Avenue East. Gillette Coghill at the Village Store retails certain products Rasmussen needs for her Asian cooking nights. Other times, Rasmussen searches for out-of-reach ingredients in Regina.
Rasmussen never follows recipes, although she鈥檚 written guidelines for her students to follow. But her measurements are based on intuitive principles like a pinch here, then a handful of this, followed by two or three cups of whatever else might be needed. Because of Rasmussen鈥檚 disdain for recipes, she prefers cooking to baking. Rasmussen says cooking is more imaginative in comparison to baking, because recipes aren鈥檛 as necessary. 鈥淚n cooking, you can be creative as you want to be.鈥�
Although Rasmussen doesn鈥檛 browse over recipes, she enjoys studying books featuring the different ways of preparing of food in other countries. Rasmussen is an anthropologist, who is applying her food culture studies to life in creative, tangible and delicious ways. Call Kathy at 306-640-8060 for more information on her classes.
