To continue our February story .... Towards the end of of the month we headed up to Cheshire to stay with Dolly and her partner, Chris. There was a speciual reason for this - Chris and I were booked in to Cordon Vert for a day's cookery course. For Chris this was a birthday present from Dolly, for me it was a special treat from me!
After a very nice dinner at a local pub we had a good evening at Dolly's and then an early night followed by an early start. John and Dolly headed out for a day of bird watching while Chris and I drove over to Altrincham and the headquarters of the Vegetarian Society where we checked in for our Easy Vegetarian Entertaining class. There were four students and two instructors so the student teacher ration was very favorable. Our morning started with coffee and an orientation session. We were relieved to hear that there would be no preaching as three of the four of us are actually omniverous!
After a very nice dinner at a local pub we had a good evening at Dolly's and then an early night followed by an early start. John and Dolly headed out for a day of bird watching while Chris and I drove over to Altrincham and the headquarters of the Vegetarian Society where we checked in for our Easy Vegetarian Entertaining class. There were four students and two instructors so the student teacher ration was very favorable. Our morning started with coffee and an orientation session. We were relieved to hear that there would be no preaching as three of the four of us are actually omniverous!
We then had demonstrations of some of the dishes followed by a brief break while we planned our cooking sessions and tried a few samples of what had been demonstrated. They wouldn't let us eat a lot as we were planning to cook a feast to eat later. After the break we donned aprons, and started to cook. We cooked in two pairs and were assigned different foods. I got to make one of the savouries and one of the desserts and Chris made one of the roulades and a salad, and we both helped each other when necessary. Since there were only 4 of us the tutors and the in-house chef made a couple of dishes too. There was lots of hands-on help with our dishes as well, and after about four hours the four of us sat down to a huge buffet which included .......
Spinach and red pepper rouladeAubergine roulade
Sweet potato enchiladas
Black rice cakes
Santa Fe Stacks with polenta, guacamole, grilled goats cheese and salsa
Mediterranean roasted vegetable tart
Sweet and sour chicory salad
Moroccan salad
Lavendar scented roast nectarines
and the best bit of all ..... Honey, ginger and chocolate ice cream bombe!
I've included some pictures of the food and the people. Chris was the only guy and he's the one making the roulade!The food was absolutely delicious and we really enjoyed ourselves. Both Chris and I have used the knowledge we gained to make stuff since we went on the course - I've done the Santa Fe stacks and a rather sloppy but still very delicious aubergine roulade! I intend to go back again and take some more courses.
In the meantime, I've been doing a lot less cooking at home because John is doing a lot more. And he's becoming a very good cook. His timing is getting a lot better and his speed is really picking up. He has a good sense of what goes together and produces some very interesting and tasty surprises.
