Ashburton Cookery School - More Intermediate Cookery: Day Three

So, Day Three commenced, as usual in the briefing room. We had a change of Chef on this day, Rob Dawe was off doing other things at the School and we had Alan Stannard, who was to be with us for the rest of the week. Today the menu was as follows:

I was really excited by this menu, as for many years I have been quite intrigued by Seafood Bisque, as they look so luxury and complex too.
It was beautiful dish, served with the delicate Spring Rolls and a Crab Mayonnaise dip, served in an Oyster Shell. I placed an Oyster in the bowl first and then poured the hot bisque on top, which gently poaches the Oyster. This made the dish so luxurious, it was divine!

The main was of particular interest too, similar to a Beef Wellington really, though this time done with lamb. Quite a complex dish to prepare. You begin with a rack of lamb, but are only interested in the Cannon, so after some intricate butchery in removing the bones, fat and sinew - this leaves you with only with the lamb flesh.

You may think, like I did, that the lamb may have been greasy in this dish, but as you remove every trace of fat, this eliminates this potential problem. A delicious dish!





Finally, finishing the menu with a Lemon Dessert, which was really lovely and fresh.










I had never made sorbet before, so really enjoyed experimenting with this. A real palate cleanser! I have since made a Strawberry version at home, which was lovely and had a real intense depth of flavour. I will be doing an Ice Cream and Sorbets blog post sometime in the future, so look out for that one...

Ashburton Cookery School - More Intermediate Cookery: Day Two

After a very tiring first day at Ashburton Cookery School, I felt that by the second day we had all settled into the routine a bit more and were beginning to get to know each other better as a kitchen team.

On the first day we were asked to work with the person sitting opposite us at the table in the briefing room, for me this was Daniel on day one, Daniel and I worked well together. On the second day we were asked to team up with someone new in the group, I worked with James who lived in America and was over on holiday, we quickly got into a working rhythm and I enjoy working with James too.

The menu of the day consisted of the following:

Crabbed Stuffed Lemon Sole with a Red Pepper and Hollandaise Sauces

One of the things I was keen to do during my week at Ashburton this year, was to improve my presentation skills, so each day I carefully listened to the Chef - which was still Rob Dawe on day two. In order to help me, I also photographed their finished dishes too, so that I could compare mine with theirs at home.

Here is Rob's version of the above:

As you can see Rob chose to add more vegetables on his finished plate, whereas I served them seperately. Geoff preferred Rob's presentation - let me know which you prefer, by commenting below?

For the main course it was;

Slow Cooked Belly Pork with Fricassee of vegetables

This was a delicious dish, perfect for those who don't usually like the fatty texture of Pork, as the slow cooking makes it much more palatable. This has been slow poached in stock and cider - it took around 3 hours (we'd prepared this on day one). This was then weighted down overnight in the fridge, then cut into squares and popped in the oven with the cracklng to crisp up, for 10 minutes or so, today.

Here is Rob's presentation of the same dish;

Very similar this time around.

Finally to complete this menu for day two we made;

Chocolate Fondants with Amaretto Ice Cream and Praline Crunch

The top tip here was using the praline crunch as a bed to sit the ice cream on, to stop it moving around the plate, as it melts.
Of course a good Chocolate Fondant, should have a gooey centre and so just prove that mine did, I took a photo of the inside too;

At the end of day two, Rob created a little belated birthday plate for me, as he'd missed my birthday the day before:

For some reason I hadn't photographed Chef Rob's Chocolate Fondant, probably because I just wanted to get on and eat mine!

So that completes day two and we were all eager to come back for day three tomorrow - watch out for next blog post covering the menu for day three soon!