Salmon Yakatori

Tweet

The Salmon of Knowledge

So this is my first proper cooking after finishing the course. I spent a good week eating mostly vegetables and drinking plenty of water. Then my wonderful friend Kate bought me a flight to Madrid for my birthday, so off I went to relax and soak up this beautiful city with it's wonderful art, architecture and tapas! The culinary highlight of the trip was a visit to The Mercado de San Miquel just off Calle Mayor. If you are ever in Madrid I urge you to check it out. It's housed in the old fish market. Under the ornate metal arches are housed vendors of every kind. You can stroll around collecting small dishes from an array of delectable treats. Everything from caviar, Spanish cheeses and ham, to churros and fantastical chocolates. There are great wines and prosecco for sale by the glass. I could have spent all day there, gently grazing. The best thing about Spain is the portions - allowing you to tailor your meals to just how hungry you're feeling - not a bad idea?


Back to the point in question. After completing my course I was hoping that all my new skills would transfer to my kitchen - with it's significantly more humble set up than the spacious Cooks Academy. This salmon yakitori was delicious when I prepared it during the course. Could I recreate at at home. The answer was a resounding yes - phew well that's money well spent so!

Ingredients
4 Salmon fillets - skin removed
Sunflower Oil
Marinade
100 ml Soy Sauce
200 ml of sherry (Sake if you have it)
2 tbsp of caster sugar
Salad
1 tbsp Mirin (or red wine vinegar)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 red chili finely sliced
1/2 cucumber - julienned
2 carrots - julienned
Coriander finely sliced

• Mix together the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Pop in your salmon fillets then refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight if you're highly organised.
• In a large bowl place your cucumber and carrots. Then combine the other ingredients for the salad dressing. Pour over and set aside for 20 minutes before serving.
• Heat the olive oil in a large non stick pan. Remove the fillets from the marinade and pat them dry on some kitchen towel. Keep the marinade liquid.
• Fry your fillets for around 4 minutes on each side - time is dependant on the thickness of your fish. Don't forget to cook the presentation side first as this always looks prettier!
• While the fish is cooking - add in the marinade liquid - this reduces down pretty quickly.
• Stir the chopped coriander through the salad before serving.
• On your plate - put a small mound of the pickled salad. Top this with the cooked salmon and then spoon some of the reduction of the salmon fillet. Garnish with a sprig of coriander or some fried ginger.

Enjoy! 

Cooks Academy Week 4

Tweet

It's the final countdown!

General School Shots - I'll miss this place

Monday

So this is the last post for this series. Can't believe it's the last week, though to tell you the truth I'm knackered and judging on today the rest of the class are pretty tired too. I won't start into my conclusions and summaries until the end of the week.

Today we made ice-cream in the manual method, even though there were a few ice cream machines on hand too. I'll see how it came out tomorrow. The rich chocolate ice-cream we made was just that - cream, sugar syrup, chocolate and some eggs! Licking the spoon was amazing, frozen it will be divine I'm sure. So any doubts about the fat content of ice-cream is long gone

We prepared a lemon tart, my pastry was a little dry and crumbly, must be brave and add more water. I'd even practised over the weekend, practice pastry! Didn't bake the case blind for long enough so it was a little soggy - all good constructive criticism.

This dish could prove to be 'very important'

Steak with Bearnaise sauce was up next, sauce Bearnaise requires plenty of whisking. The steaks meanwhile were cooked to perfection by my pattern and they were delicious - score! Though I forgot to add the chopped tarragon to the finished sauce. You can never read the recipe too many times it seems.

We got to sample the pork and chicken terrine that was made on Friday over lunch as well - now I can say I'm a fan of terrine, really nice recipe spiked with bright pistachios. 

I called the afternoon demo - Masterchef afternoon - as two of the contestants favourite desserts were up, Chocolate fondants and Tarte Tatin. Chocolate fondants should have a slightly gooey centre and be served straight away. Tarte Tatin comes with serious burns potential due to the high volume of liquid hot caramel you'll be throwing around. You have been warned! 

We were also shown how to bone, butterfly and stuff a leg of lamb, and prepare a salsa verde to serve with it.

Tuesday

The day of roasts. Now you know how a roast Sunday lunch with your parents is the best lunch ever. Well the second best lunch ever is 6 different roasts with your Cooks Academy class mates! We all prepared different roasts and sides today. Racks of lamb, rack of pork, lamb shanks, roast beef on the bone and we made moussaka (not too sure how that fits in?) There was also tarte tatin and thin apple tarts.

This disappeared fairly speedily

Every meat was also served with appropriate sides and a few big bowls of roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. I was in heaven. The meat was great quality and all very well cooked - aren't we all getting very accomplished.

I did manage to burn my first ever bechamel sauce - very embarrassing! I've made it many is the time before.

Thin Apple Tart

The afternoon lecture was from a butcher with over 50 years experience. He brought in an entire half pig and showed us the various cuts and demonstrated some of the most effortless and impressive knife skills I've ever seen. I learned a lot about how animals are raised, slaughtered, bred and processed. I didn't know that every carcass leaving the slaughterhouse has to be inspected and approved by a veterinary surgeon.

WE learnt some very important fundamentals on how the animal is treated prior, during and after slaughter relates to the quality and tenderness of the meat. You'll be pleased to hear that a happy relaxed pig will make for more tender meat!

When the entire pig had been divided up - there was very little waste. Skin and some big bones. In all there were four and a half trays of meat to one and a half trays of 'waste'. When the cuts of meat are being made there are small bits of meat (maybe the size of a small fist) that don't get used up - these bits of meat would go into sausages along with a lot of meat from the fore shoulder, not scrapings from the floor!

He did tell us that all pork in Ireland is raised indoor (the vast majority of it) which I didn't realise, as well as most chicken too. Not sure where I thought they were hanging out..... hmmmm that's embarrassing too! 

I'd highly recommend attending a butchers demo like this as you'll really get an appreciation for the different cuts and techniques used, it's an incredible skill. I know I'm more determined to use some different cuts of meat in the future and to think about whereabouts they come from can determine how they are to be cooked. I'm loosing the power to articulate things now because I'm tired - will try to add more on the butchery section later!

Wednesday

All in a mornings work

Sole (flat fish) to be filleting. Now I found this easier than the round fish in week 1 - maybe because I'm more confident. The bones are found in a very definite area in the centre of the fish.

Crispy Sole was prepared by dipping in egg then breadcrumbs and lightly frying. These were beautiful served alongside some minty pea puree - a definite for the future. Though you get surprisingly little meat from a big flat fish.

Seared tuna and avocado salsa was a tasty dish, love avocados, love tuna - enough said.

Fresh and Healthy - will make this again

Also made in the class were tarte with pate sucre (very hard apparently) rhubarb meringue and more that I've forgotten but eaten!

First thing this morning we also had to make our pastry for Fridays exam - and I'm nervous! Haven't taken any exams in years - I'm likening it to stage fright, which I do get!

The afternoon saw us cover tempura batter, squid and rocket salad, calamari and finally an entire lobster - wow! It was a first for me - very tasty still not beating my Galway Crab Claws though! Now home to study for tomorrows theory test - I think if we fail this then we haven't been listening much - all common sense questions I hope.

Thursday

Was feeling pretty sick and rotten today - but came in because we had our theory exam. Cooked chowder, made bread, and practised our fish filleting. Had a bit of a feeling sorry for myself break down - handled very well by my partner and tutor - who sat me down and made me tea! Sorry guys  and thanks much appreciated.

Had a food costing lecture which was invaluable to anyone starting into a food business, including formulas to calculate what to charge for your product.

Afternoon was our theory exam - a little harder than I had expected. Included theory, health and safety, ingredient recognition and menu planning.

Home to bed

Friday

Practical Exam day. We had to prepare lemon tart and sea bass with beurre blanc, roasted potatoes, carrots and spinach. I bet any professional are laughing at this now. Proved a pretty busy morning for me - though thankfully avoided any major catastrophes. I did spill some of my tart as I put it in the oven - but I got a slice out for presentation ok. Made me think a lot about working as a professional and the pressures that kitchen staff must be under. PRESSURE!! I held up fine though - thank god I didn't have to do this yesterday.

Anyone for Sea Bass and Beurre Blanc?

By lunchtime I was glad to be finished. We all ate our sea bass and swore never to make lemon tart again!

Valentine Themed Presentation

There was a presentation with glasses of prosecco. We all received our certs - of varying levels - distinction, merit and pass! I won't tell you what I got - you'll just have to guess. With that we said our good byes to our tutors and went off for a few well deserved pints.

Somehow I feel it's a bit too soon to write  conclusion to the course, I feel a little too close to it to stand back and anaylse my experiences. There is no doubt I learned a hell of a lot of skills, and picked up heaps of valuable advice on all subjects that we covered. Always rest your meat - wrap fresh herbs in kitchen towel and put in tupperware in the fridge - how to fold a meringue without breaking it - I could go on and on.

I have an extensive shopping list of things I need to buy for my kitchen (prob not a good thing) I will confidently tackle fish, shell fish and sauce unlike before. I have cooked far more desserts than I have in the last 3 years, I'll confidently take on any kind of sweets from now on.

I'm pretty happy with the photos that I've taken of the food we've produced, though I at no time wanted to get in any ones way and impare their enjoyment of the course, so for those reasons there's maybe a photo or two less than I would have wanted.

Over and out!!! 

Cooks Academy Week 3

Tweet

Monday

Have I got your attention yet - mmm I'm yummy!

Up bright and early an continuing on with the Italian theme again mostly. Pea Risotto, Chorizo and Chickpea and Apple Tarte Normande, ok so that makes it more European Day then I guess. My lack of partner today saw me tackle the whole menu alone.

Practising my mise en place. You know on TV cookery shows when the chef says 'I'll just add some finely diced onion' and promptly tips a small glass bowl full of perfectly diced onion into his pan. I always thought this was just for TV shows. Apparently not. This is what you do if you're a super organised chef - like myself of course. Yup, even two cloves are lovingly placed in their own little tiny receptacle - cute.

Now this is super helpful - if you have a little assistant/elf/kitchen hobbit. Lacking any of these and even a human cooking partner; I set about establishing a veritable colony of little bowls filled with all my ingredients.

The words 'must try harder' were invented for this photo

Now I can cook. The morning passed in a super efficient manner, until I got to making my risotto. Glancing over my shoulder I noticed that nobody else was even cooking anymore - whoops. Oh well and I wasn't even the only one cooking solo today. Ah well nothing to do but keep going. So one I went stirring and stirring risotto, stir stir stir all alone whhhhhhy - oww my arm.

The big mistake I made with the risotto was to add stock a little too early before all the liquid had been absorbed. The end result wasn't too pretty but what risotto is. It was delicious, and there is some fresh mint in there too - a nice subtle amount with the peas and Parmesan - nice.

Chorizo Soup

The tarte Normande was amazing, anything involving pastry and apples is a winner in my book. Alan was the first to reply to my free cake tweet. So the lucky guy had some cake delivered to his place of work in Temple Bar.

Chorizo soup was nice I might leave the lid off for a little longer next time to thicken up a bit more, I was otherwise preoccupied with the other dishes to pay it too much attention - many apologies pot of soup!

Tuesday

I'm typing up Tuesday antics on Wednesday morning with the last slice of Apple Normande for breakfast  - it's grand it has apples in it! I also awoke to find that all my nice white chef smocks have been turned pink by a rouge sock - I'll never get work in a Michelin star restaurant in these.

Lamb Madras

Yesterday was Indian Day, which saw us produce an array of delicious and authentic (with some deviation towards the Middle East) We prepared Lamb Masala and lamb koftas. Along with these we also made naan breads spiked with onion seeds.

Koftas

Yumbo dessert

For dessert we prepared cardamon cream pots.  A lovely subtle and light (ish) dessert ideal served with fruit. It was a chance to use some gelatin for the first time - very easy a good trick to have up your sleeve allowing you to turn many delicious liquids into impressive and tasty desserts.

The lamb koftas were spicy and full of flavour, and ideal starter, for the barbeque or smaller for canapes.

The afternoon demo was jam packed. Our pastry expert showed use some sugar boiling techniques and then produced an amazing and sparkling array of spun sugar cages, nests and spirals. To be tried at home with extreme caution due to very high temperatures of the sugar/caramel mix and the fact that you need to kind of throw it around the place. Utensils to be well oiled before starting!

A whole salmon was poached and prepared, with eyes and scales recreated from various other food items. It looked  bit creepy, but I can imagine on the centre of a  large buffet it would look pretty impressive.

We had a demo on how best to prepare and cook scallops - quickly and at a high heat. They were made into a tasty linguine with pancetta, spinach and rosemary butter mmmmmmm.

Finally an large bowl of hummus was prepared, illustrating my need for a food processor once again (hint hint Internet philanthropists!) One of the best recipes I've tasted, nice and spicy a good amount of lemon and lots of tahini. About to be late now for Wednesdays sushi workshop, so 'd better run off in my pink smocks.

byee

Wednesday

Looking at today on the timetable made me feel a bit quesy. Sushi workshop, then cheese tasting, followed by canape making and a wine tasting evening. That's a lot of food to be putting in one stomach - oh and wine.

Sushi to start. The rice seems to be a  key part in how your sushi will work or not. Japanese sushi chefs can train for up to 16 years. The wash must be washed many times, until the water runs clear (or near to clear) Then the rice must be put in cold water before being brought to the boil, then boiled for 15 mins, then sits for 15 minutes. Then covered in rice vinegar and sugar solution, spread on a tray and fanned! la de dah miss sushi rice!

Skills!

Now a careful and colourful assembly of fillings was prepared - after a quick demo on riling techniques we were a bit pushed for time. I still managed to make a few nori rolls, sashimi and sushi balls. It's a shame that the morning was a bit rushed, but that's the nature of the game. I will def be making sushi again, lots of fun and above all delicious.

Lunch

Cheese Montage

The morning demo was then from Kevin Sheridan from Sheridans cheese. He explained the broad cheese making processes and main types of cheese. How various factors influence the finished cheese, such as cultures, temperature, milk type, cutting, turning, storing, heat, size, the list goes on and on!

He brought in a nice range  of cheeses for us to taste,  some Irish traditional like Gubeen, Cashel Blue and a few more recent additions to the Irish cheese circuit (agh I've forgotten their names - will look at my notes) a lovely young, soft goats cheese, and a smaller more mature goats cheese as well as an amazing cheese very like Comte. Comte is the biggest selling cheese in France! There was also the most divine French Camembert.

He made the case for artisan farmers and producers clear in a succinct statement. Artisan suppliers foremost priority is taste, supermarkets foremost priority is profit. Nothing new there but I just thought it summed it up well. The manner in which supermarkets sell and display cheese is harmful to the taste, cheese is essentially very ugly really. Supermarkets attempt to make this product more attractive and in the process homogenise the taste appearance and personality of the cheese. This is a whole other argument - so this is only a small mention of a huge overall point!

After lunch it was full steam into canape preparation for the evening. I think I might have been tasted out as I was finding it very hard to get excited about our canapes - or make some taste decisions. Maybe my palette was a little overwhelmed.

Mini Lemon Tarts

With Our Sushi Combined

The evenings wine tasting was great, everyone in the class invited along a friend. We tasted a variety of red and white wines and had our canapes to accompany various wines. Ok I know I should write more about his but I'm tired - it was fun! There were lots of different canapes but my camera ran out of batteries - damn!

Thursday

Quick Chorizo Pasta

Ok so we're all a little tired after yesterdays hectic schedule and possibly also the many wines! Luckily the timetable for this morning was made up with this in mind. Nothing too taxing.

First we made up mayonnaise - add the oil slowly slowly - from the tip of a fork and you'll be alright - seems to be the major factor in success. I'm feel like I'm stuck in second gear so no chance I'll be rushing. One of the really interesting things about looking at every ones finished products is how different they are. We all followed the same recipe, used the same ingredients and equipment. The finished mayos were greatly varying in consistency. It was a point that our tutor made the day before that even the most highly trained chefs will make the same dish differently. We're like little chef snowflakes - perfectly unique (poetic!)

Also prepared was a delicious salad of Cashel blue cheese with honeyed pecans, watercress and pear - loved it. Linguine with chorizo, rocket and Parmesan - didn't sound the best on paper, but was light and fresh despite the heavy ingredients. Other dishes made included Spaghetti Carbonara (my all time favourite pasta dish) Chestnut and Carrot cannelloni (amazing) Monkfish putanesca, spicy aubergine parpadelle and a range of salads, including Ceasar, chicken  and roasted veg pesto and an spicy horseradish coleslaw. A good feed for all.

Very yummy salad

The afternoon saw our tutor making beef Wellington, moule marinere, potatoes with thyme and tallegio, creme brulle and chicken Ballentine. A delicious and impressive demonstration of multi-tasking and blowtorches, that'll stop you falling asleep!

Muelle Marinere

Afternoon Demo Foods

That's it I'm hiding away form the crazy weather in my apartment practising my wine tasting skills for the night.

Friday 

There was cooking alright - look at the pretty pictures!

Romantic Themed Raspberry Creme Brullee

Salmon Yakatori - very very nice dish

Cerviche

Paella

Chicken Balentine Tastes better than this photo

Raspberry Creme Brullee

Tweet

Irish Foodies Cookalong

Love, love, love

So long I have tried and failed to participate in an Irish Foodies cookalong. Today I have succeeded in participating, though it may be conceived as cheating, I'll submit it anyway. Our best previous attempt was me and Lola trying to enter us the Christmas cookalaong. Some mince pies were made - then stew went in the oven whilst we got pretty drunk, then turned the oven off and went to the pub - total cookalong fail.

So today I made these creme brullees - in Cooks Academy I'll admit so that's possibly where the cheating element comes in. I did however match them with nice romantic napkins and seasonally inappropriate raspberries. At least I'm not down the pub already!!

Cooks Academy Week 2

Tweet

Monday

Half eaten 'something' of crab

bold Lucy bold bold - I forgot my camera. Today I made a beef and carrot casserole with horseradish cream - that description doesn't really do the dish justice, it was divine, possibly due to the amount of wine that went in there. To go with this we made polenta mash - now don't get me wrong - but this was just gross. If anyone out there has a decent recipe for polenta - please share it with me - it's the one food stuff I am ready to give up on right now, like yesterday would be too soon to eat it again! And I like everything. There were other nice sides knocking around.

I also made a crab starter (it had a fancier name that now escapes me!) Served with avocado and melon balls - 80's tastic. Also made in the class was a smoked mackerel pate - which was delightfully moreish. Will most definitely make this for people sometime soon.

Better to camera phone picture or not

The afternoon was jam packed - choux pastry, chocolate sauce, choux swans, chicken liver pate (butter lordy!) melba toasts, gratin dauphinoise, duck breast, red win jus, and puy lentils. Most of these dishes I have to make tomorrow so prepare yourselves for some seriously yummy pictures - the camera is already in my bag! 

Tuesday 
In early to get together time plan and grab a coffee before hitting the kitchen. It was straight into the choux pastry. Quite a strange thing to make due to it resembling scrambled eggs at one point. But you've not gone wrong here - just keep going and you'll eventually get a very shiny and strong dough that really does not want to drop off them beaters - oh no.

Into a  piping bag and onto a tray in well spaced little lumps. Oven time of 25 minutes and don't open that door or they'll flop.

Next my partner and I prepared a aubergine and tomato tower with goats cheese and basil.  A teaspoon of sugar and balsamic to the usual tomato sauce seemed to make all the difference - as well as some wine!

This plate means business

Oh hello enormous profiteroles - I feel like a mini Alice in Wonderland

Then the main course to prepare was duck served on a bed of puy lentil with carmelised shallot and a reduction sauce. This was challenging as most of this was prepared in the last 45 minutes. As well as having to construct the aubergine tower and also pipe the cream into the profiteroles. Extreme multi tasking - I think I only finished 5 minutes late.

Then a massive clean up before getting to eat it - other sides prepared were potato grating and some kind of gratin sweet potato. Both pretty tasty. My duck was a little rare - mainly for fear of overcooking it. Still good to get constructive criticism on your dish. Everyone is finding their way around the kitchen a little better - feel like I'll be pretty damn handy by the end of this course - and if not undoubtedly a little heavier - eek! 

Wednesday
Short and sweet and to the point.

Lost in a sea of fallen souffles - couldn't get this shot fast enough!

Today I made the most delicious dessert of my life - chocolate orange souffles! Divine and light and melty and gooey all at once, heaven!

Amazing meringue with kitchen scene in the back ground

Followed on quickly by what can only be described as a close second in the most amazing dessert I've ever made. Hazelnut and almond roulade with raspberries. Beautiful crispy and gooey meringue hiding toasty little bits of nuts - with raspberries - out of this world.

This course was worth it - just to have made this!

It was a tough decision to choose between them - but I'd have to go with the souffles on wow factor! BAM WOW


Also on the menu were fish cakes - modest in comparison to the other two dishes - but packed with flavour in all the right places. I seriously can't wait to try out some of these recipes on friends and family - they're gonna be so impressed. Did I mention the very large folder we have for the course which is packed full of these amazing recipes.

Best Fish Cakes Ever

I wonder how many times I've used the word 'amazing' and 'delicious' in this post so far? Tomorrow is Thai day - so a break from the butter and cream, phew!

Thursday
This morning we made one Thai soup, a curry and a salad. Those of you familiar with Thai cooking will know that there is a lot of prep involved and the cooking itself is pretty fast.  
A more relaxed morning resulted, though to get maximum benefit from the class I think we could have prepared some other Thai starter to fill in the time more productively. Maybe because I've cooked quite a bit of Thai food before that I found this morning pretty laid back.

Tom Ka Kai

Red Chicken Curry

The afternoon was a demo from James - a cook in Cornucopia. The afternoon was  a 'Free from' afternoon. He demonstrated how to make some Divine desserts that are suitable for celiacs and vegans. Panna cotta pots with cashew or coconut milk - the coconut was great. A chocolate orange torte with dates and toasted hazelnuts for the base. He also prepared some very tasty tofu and tempeh. The meals were delicious I'd feel happy serving them to anyone. He also showed us how to make cashew milk, how to whip soyaceoliac class as well as a vegetarian class.

Friday
Italian Day - ci ci!  

Some Impressive Pasta Skills

We start off with tiramisu. A dessert that I always thought was merely an assembly of some ingredients coffee and cream is actually more complex than that. And involves sugar boiling. This process has some interesting stages with odd names - short line, long line, soft ball and hard ball. All of these to do with how the syrup falls from the spoon. Practice will make perfect. Add the syrup at 'soft ball' stage to whipped fluffy egg yolks. Mix lots. Then add in cream cheese, then mascarpone, then wiped double cream! Woo hoo dairy overload - oh and there was marsala in there somewhere.


Dip your biscuits in coffee mixed with rum and more marsala. Layer this with your magic dairy concoction with a little dusting of cocoa powder on between. This is the boyfriends favourite dessert - he'll be delighted with the leftovers this evening.

We were shown how to make pasta on Wednesday think I've forgotten how since then, but no my notes remind me. 00 flour and eggs dash of olive oil - that's it. Mix in well, then knead like mad for 10 minutes./ I've learnt there is a stance for kneading - spread your weight and get your whole body weight behind it. Tutor will notice if you're not giving it socks so get your back into it. After kneading it well - give it a wee rest in the fridge while you prepare your yummy filling, pesto, tomatoe sauce or whatever you need to put with it.

I made ravioli with ricotta, sun dried tomato and parma ham filling. Rolling out the pasta is fun - but most defiantly a two person  job. Free pasta also cooks in a flash. Another group in the class made wafer thin tagliatelle and it cooked in one minute - my raviolis took about 5/6 minutes. A nice subtle colour arrangement on my plate got me some good comments for presentation - and good feedback on taste so happy days.

Not my dish! Amazing melt in your mouth tagitelle

Mine - yup I made this! Hurray

My tiramisu was kinda ugly so no photos I'm afraid (bold Lucy bold)


The afternoon demo included risotto Milanese which is made with saffron giving it a great colour and taste. There was also a rich and dark French onion soup with chessey gruyere croutons. Our lovely dessert and pastry tutor showed us how to make an incredible Normandy Apple Tart. The swirls of apple making a rose in the centre of the tart - fab! Sampled warm with a creme anglais - amazing. That does mean that today I ate three dessert lucking I'm doing a 5k run tomorrow then, though I should prob do 3!

Cooks Academy Week 1

Tweet

Monday

Greeted at the door by the offer of fresh scones and coffee. I am handed an enormous folder - which contains all the recipes we'll be cooking over the next four weeks, as well as general information on techniques and flavours etc. This looks like it may well be the only cook book I'll ever need. I have a quick leaf through

The premises is large, spacious and flooded with light. We're provided with lockers for the duration of the course, which is a great thing as I don't fancy cycling more than I have to with a bag full of knives!

Once everyone has arrived we are introduced to our main tutor. She has a huge range of experience in different cheffing positions, private cheffing, catering and teaching. She studied in the Cordon Blue School in London.

We have a chat amongst ourselves and then are introduced to the group by the person we are sitting beside. It appears a very evenly diverse group in terms of ages, genders and levels of experience. An amount of people looking to get a start on a career, others already working in the food industry and others looking to improve their home cooking skills. 17 people in total are attending the course

We have a quick safety and hygiene lecture. All common sense but well worth repeating.

Then it's off to the kitchen for some cooking. We are paired off and take to our fantastically equipped stations. Each station has four gas rings and two induction hobs. There is plenty of worktop space. Sinks are located all together behind you. Supplies are all along one side of the room.

Each group made one soup and two types of bread. But between the whole class we made 4 different breads and 5 different soups. We brought our dishes when finished for marking by our tutor - I think she liked ours.

For the duration of this course - I hope to share some photos with you of what I have prepared. I however won't be sharing the exact recipes as those really belong to the Cooks Academy. My mushroom soup was amazing - there was a huge variety of mushrooms to choose from a  great indication of the quality ingredients that we will get to work with over the next few weeks.

After our dishes were marked we all sat down to have lunch and were then able to try out our classmates soups and breads - which was good to have a taste of every ones work.

After lunch and a good strong coffee - we sat down for the afternoon demo. This demo included shortcrust pastry, quiche Lorraine, raspberry jam and pears in red wine and ginger. There was great banter between the class and teachers. Some experienced cooks in the class so it's good to also learn from them too.

Sadly bold me took very few photos today - maybe tomorrow I'll be feeling braver and get a few decent snaps of the finished product - now to bed I 'm very tired!

Tuesday

Ok I was lying about being tired after day 1  - I went for a run after and all. This evening I'm proper knackered, no extra exercise that's for sure.

This morning we made some of the food that had been demo'ed to us the previous afternoon. So quickly we got into knocking up some short crust pastry. I tried to will my hands to be good cold pastry hands. I think this might have worked as my pastry didn't get  greasy before I put it in the fridge to chill.

Then it was onto making a batch of raspberry jam. Careful watching to ensure that it didn't stick to the bottom of the pan - but not over stirring to induce super fast crystalising of the sugar. Pushing on the chilled plate didn't work for me - but my jam still set.

Then time to roll out the pastry into it's tart case. Learned a handy trick of rolling the pastry over the rolling pin to transport it over the case. Much easier than trying to pick it up with your hands - it always tears.

Then back into the fridge with it.

Jarring up in jam in sterilised jars.

Then onto making the filling for my tart. Courgette, potato, tomato, basil and spring onions - not forgetting the eggs and cream of course.

Blind bake the case.

Then weigh out ingredients for scones.

Then assemble the tart and pop in the oven.

Mix up scones and roll out.

Pop in other oven.

Look at tart - not cooking

Check it again 10 mins later

Scones cooked

Check tarts- still nothing doing - hmmmm oh oven not working. Transfer to other oven - slight panic running way overtime

eek wash up - everyone else is finished and eating - ahhhh starving, wash more - ahhh egg won't come off.

Get tart marked - needs more salt - ok that's grand

Can I eat it now? Yes

HURRAY

Phew!

Afternoon demo involved the gutting and filleting of a sea bass, general fish talk. Sauces for fish. Making a Victoria sponge. Making a lemon beurre blanc. And a white loaf made with live yeast.

A great tip for the perfect Victoria Sponge  - is to weigh the eggs first and then use the same amount of butter, self raising flour and sugar to make the mixture. We all got to sample this after - with some cream and the jam we made earlier - it was amazing. Forgotten how good cakes could be as I don't really eat them that much. That's sure to change over the next couple of weeks - mmmmmmmm

Now I really must sleep!

Wednesday

Hurray finally got to take some photos. Must mean I'm getting into the swing of things. Arrived a little late to write out my time plan - so I cheated and used our tutors one. First up was a white loaf made using live yeast. I'd never seen live yeast before - it comes in a big block a  little resembling clay - it is flaky however and a little springy.

When using live yeast you need to mix it in with some warm water before adding into your flour. I was taught the proper stance and technique for kneading. You really have to attack that bread. After 15 or more minutes of kneading was dough was ready - and off it went to have it's first proving.

Then it was onto filleting a whole sea bass, now I have to admit this took me ages. Partly I think because of my super sharp filleting knife and my fear of slicing my hand off. Also I really wanted to get it right. And I did - when I ate the fish there was not one single bone - not one - woo hoo victory is mine. The beautifully filleted fish went into the fridge while we prepared accompaniments.

I made this - honest! Isn't it awesome

The bread was knocked back and shaped - it had risen loads I was very happy. I chose to make a party brot - a German bread covering each section in different seeds.

Sea Bass with lemon beurre blanc and zero bones - success

After it was time to start on the lemon beurre blanc. Now I won't lie to you this sauce appears to be made of 98% butter. 1% lemon juice and 1% infused vinegar. Despite this it's time consuming to make - making sure the pan doesn't get hotter than your hand can touch, adding the butter little bit by little bit. The finished sauce is very tasty - but I'm not sure it's worth it!

Country Loaf

My wonderfully sea bass was then over cooked by me - boo and served with slightly too salty spinach - that's the critique. I ate it though and it was wonderful - I would be delighted to get that in a restaurant. And well I'll let the photo of my bread speak for itself.

Some of the other loaves baked by the class

Then there was afternoon demos and I'm not writing about it cause I'm too tired. It did involve various way of jointing a chicken - which is going to  be really useful. BAM night night

Thursday

Very challenging to extract myself from bed this morning

First things first - a whole chicken to joint. This is going to be so useful in the future oh yeah. You can prob buy a whole chicken cheaper than you can a few breasts. We put the carcasses and  wing tips into the oven to roast so that they could be made into brown stock.

Now the menu for today made me a bit unsure if I would actually learn anything apart from the chicken jointing. The other items were banana bread, cauliflower cheese, gravy and roast potatoes and chicken. All of these I have many many times before and using pretty similar techniques to the ones we were to use.

Now I'm not sure if it's one or a  combination of all the below factors

1) Using more butter and cream

2) Seasoning a bit more

3) Paying a lot more attention

4) Having an amazing kitchen and equipment to work with

5) Getting good advice as you go along

6) Not substituting any parts of recipe and following it exactly

7) Cooking and not thinking of anything else but the food

8) More careful planning and preparation

or lastly

9) Having constructive criticism of each dish. You'll never hear friends or family telling you that your skin wasn't crispy enough or that it all needed better plating up (or maybe my friends and family know how badly I take criticism and decide it's not worth it - haha either way I don't care!)

Now  the end result of today was the best roast chicken and gravy and cauliflower cheese I've ever made - you can't say better than that

Not an amazing shot of a very yummy chicken

Oh my banana bread was good too - just not a huge banana bread fan is all. The cupcakes looked fab - two words piping bag!

Banana Bread - plain and simple

Friday

I sustained some deep and lasting physcological damage when as a little girl in first class in school was cruelly denied by my parents the opportunity at playing mini little bride and receiving my first communion! 'What do you mean we're not Catholic and I'm not baptised?' I said. Look at all of those glitter and sequins and tulle and veils and shiny shiny shoes, ppllleeaasseeeee! This have resolved me to get married 'Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Style' I may console myself by making these piping bag meringues and basing styles of wedding dress upon them, until my big day!

Insert my face on top and that's me on my wedding day!

Perfect meringues from the piping bag were first up on the menu for today - I'd never used one of these bags before - once you use your lower hand to direct the movement and the upper hand to apply even pressure then you'll get a decent result. I'd like a bit more practice but this could prove a little wasteful of egg whites. May I could practice with some icing. The whole process was a lot easier and less messy than I expected.

Yum in an understatement for this!

Next up was loin of pork wrapped in proscuttio and stuffed with pears and spinach. Good skills in cutting and hammering of meat and how to roll and wrap things. Yup that's it pretty much. Fry it then in the oven for 15 mins. To go with it a white wine and reduction stock made with brown stock made the previous day. This was amazing - I was very happy with myself.  

Also made a nice apricot and orange coulis to go with the meringues and toasted hazelnuts.

The afternoon was spent learning industry standard health and safety. HACCP. Now I am in complete awe of how anyone runs a food business and complies with this strict and stringent codes of practice, invented by NASA to keep astronauts from getting food poisoning in space. I understand that they're completely necessary, puts paid to a few business plans I had - sure I'll find a way to make it work

Week one over and out - congratulations if you read this far - I'll post you a meringue!