A MATHS teacher has revealed the ancient arts of traditional Indian cookery to his fellow staff at at St Ambrose.

As part of an after school enrichment for the staff, Manjeet Singh showed 20 colleagues from across the teaching staff, administration and maintenance teams how to make quick and easy samosas and pakoras, balancing the spices to produce some tasty nutritious exciting Indian dishes.

Mr Singh is a fourth generation British Indian now living in Withington. He and his family have retained the traditions of their home city, Amritsar in the Punjab.

He said they "treat food as a daily celebration rather than a necessary inconvenience."

“We all eat together children, parents, grandparents and share our food whether at home or at the Temple and the art of spicing is learned than early age.

“My favourite dish is a shish kebab with Tandoori chicken cooked in a clay oven, but that's not really for beginners.”

His boss, Andy Chapman, St. Ambrose's head of maths said until the class his signature dish was beans on toast.

He added: “I can't wait to show my wife some of my new tricks. I'm normally not allowed in the kitchen.”

Biology teacher Amy Drogan said: “I love slow cooking putting on a chilli con carne in the morning and coming back from work to a lovely slow cooked meal, but Manjeet's recipes were surprisingly easy and surprisingly quick to prepare and opened my eyes to a whole new cuisine.”

Mr Singh came up with the Indian cookery lesson in partnership with St. Ambrose cookery teacher, Samantha Alford, who then put the idea with staff enrichment organisers Mair Bull and Amy Drogan.

The class was part of a series of staff events which have also included: a staff session on mindfulness, a cycle ride to a pub and a staff book club.

Samantha Alford said: “It brings the team together, it's a lot of fun and it's only fair that we do for ourselves what we do for the pupils.”