I’m in Bath for 11 days of Christmas Street Market. I’ve been allocated my tiny hut on Abbeygate Street and it’s in danger of collapse under the weight of products I’ve got stuffed into it. The first supply of Brownies already ran out but luckily more have arrived overnight so the brownie adoring public will not be disappointed for another day or two. Come and say hello if you’re in town.
Eleanor: I woke up this morning feeling like I had swallowed a whole elephant the night before and it wasn’t very pleasant but I knew I had a huge brunch coming up. First, we learnt how to poach, fry and scramble eggs and how to make omlette. Then we tried some smoothie and made compot and pancakes. I was feeling a bit more peckish by this point, especially with the smell of bacon looming in the air and soon we sat down for bacon sandwiches, compote and pancakes. It was delicious! Afterwards we cleared up and made some chocolate cake. I will be sad not to come back tomorrow but over the last couple of days I have learnt a lot of skills that I can use forever. (more…)
Eleanor: This morning, as soon as the sun was up so were we, and at 9.00 we met up to go shopping. We visited the fishmongers, grocery shop, delicatesson and butchers and we learnt a lot outside the kitchen. Then we collected our ingredients, had a few ice creams (a delicious lemon sorbet for me) and headed back to the house. Then we made some dips (dahl, hummus, smolked mackeral pate and tzatziki), a big salad and some coronation chicken and then ate it all up for lunch. Afterwards we started to prepare that nights dinner of dips with toast and carrots, porcetta, casarol, curry, bread and butter pudding, and rubarb fool. Then we had a very active break, playing a lot of ‘Bop-it’ and cheating a lot at table football. The meal was excellent and at the end wew all shared the feeling of satisfied fullness. (more…)
This morning started in Dartmouth with a wander round the shops discussing how to shop, what to look for, seasonal produce and other things as we went. We visited Moby Nick’s Fish Shop, Cutmores Butchers, Jilly Farm Shop, The Smith Street Deli, Somerfield, Julian Graves and the good Intent (for ice cream). Returning to Kingswear with our goods we planned the day over squash and brownies before starting work. (more…)
We spent the afternoon making pasta sauces, lasagne, salads, chocolate chip cookies and rhubarb fool. Just waiting for the lasagne to cook so time to get everyones thoughts on the day:
Harry: I walked through the door not knowing what to expect and when Charles and i made the carrott and corriander soup and chibatta bread i never believed it would taste good until i tried it. The first day was more useful than i believed the whole course would be before the start. It was a great start to the weekend and i’m looking forward to day 2 and picking up more useful tips. (more…)
Our first morning was spent making bread and soup. Soup is an essential; it can be made from just about anything and is capable of infinite variety. Not only that but it is satisfying, warming, homely and delicious (if made right of course).
The bread dough was made and put aside to prove first. Then knives were sharpened, warnings given and evryone got to do plenty of chopping practice. David was surprised, nay astonished because no one cut themselves, and he usually does. (more…)
“Survival Cooking” is our three day workshop for teenagers keen to get a head start with the cooking thing as seen on lots of telly. This morning we’re joined by Harry, Tom, Lucy, Eleanor, Charles and Hattie and we’ll aim to keep a regularly updated blog (2 or 3 times a day) with pics of what we’ve cooked and perhaps a little cooking action.
To start here’s the whole group ready to begin. From left to right: Eleanor, Lucy, hattie, Charles, Tom and Harry
Way back in February we took advantage of our membership of Taste of the West and took a stand in the regional food corner of Borough Market. For those who don’t know it, Borough Market is a foodie’s paradise in South London where you’ll find the finest produce every weekend. Sellers come in from far and wide, including Devon, and the range of stuff to see, taste and buy is amazing. The market is frequented by discerning shoppers and lots of tourists and is always very, very busy. Admittedly, to afford some of the stuff there you need your own hedge fund, but lots of people are very happy to pay for good quality so it all works; and the atmosphere is fabulous. Anyone interested in food should go. (more…)
Once again I am guilty of gross neglect of our blog and have been getting regular nags and nudges from several quarters re. the complete lack of updates since March. It’s been busy Ok!? There’s been a lot going on. So I’m going to add a few posts now in quick succession and not necessarily in any chronological order.
I know that in my last post I was writing about Indian Food, and I know that we run Mediterranean Classes, Tapas Classes and Pasta Making at the cooking school, and I know I make Stollen and foccaccia bread to sell; BUT …. having said all that, I am a great fan of all things British.
I love hot cross buns, sticky toffee pudding, faggots, black pudding, fry ups, sausages and my desert island dish would have to be roast rib of beef with yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and gravy. So when I read last week that many of our native dishes are threatened with extinction because of neglect and being overun by invasive species from abroad I was immediately spurred into action to create a national treasure.
I suppose many people are put off making steak and kidney pudding, or any other steamed pudding, because the idea of something steaming for 4 or 5 hours immediately seems fussy and complicated, but it really is a very simple dish. Suet crust pastry really is the easiest pastry ever to make, there’s no need to cook the meats before they go into the pudding, and apart from checking that your pan isn’t boiling dry the steaming is pretty much a case of putting the pudding in a saucepan and forgetting about it for 4 hours. And the result is so worth waiting for:
Click here for the recipe
Because this pudding had no added liquid I served ot with Boulanger Potatoes - which sounds all foreign again but I’m not sure if we have a name for sliced potatoes baked with stock - any way the juiciness works well with the pud.
The assembled throng loved it and it really was simple, so give it a go and keep the flag flying.
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