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!

Bread Making

Many years ago I attempted to make a loaf of bread from Delia’s ‘How to Cook’. I’ve always loved the idea of making my own bread and so thought I’d have a go! I tried a simple wholemeal loaf in a 1lb bread tin, as this didn’t seem to adventurous.

I followed the instructions carefully, proving the dough in my airing cupboard. I’m not entirely sure what I had done wrong, but the bread turned out heavy, doughy and not very nice. In hindsight probably one of two things went wrong here, I either didn’t kneed it for long enough or I didn’t allow it to double in size at the proving stage. I never tried again for years, in fact the next attempt was at Ashburton Cookery School last year on my Intermediate week long course. This time we made individual white bread rolls and they were a great success – as the photo on the right demonstrates.

I was keen to try these at home to make sure that they were achievable outside the cookery school kitchen, pictured below.

Again I had success, yippee I could make bread and you could enjoy eating it too!

Since this success many friends and family have asked me for a good bread recipe, so I thought I’d blog about it to share with others too.

So here is the recipe that I tend to follow:

450g Strong Bread Flour (I use Shipton Mills, which is local)

1 teaspoon salt (I use Cornish Sea Salt)

2 tablespoon Olive Oil (or I use local Rapeseed Oil instead)

300ml Warm Water (blood temp.)

15g fresh yeast or 7g dried yeast

½ teaspoon sugar

Sieve the flour and salt together into a bowl. Make a well into the centre and pour in the olive oil start to combine this.

Add the tepid water to the yeast and sugar and whisk to combine..

Gradually add the water and yeast mix to the flour, you may not need all of the liquid, so go careful towards the end.

You are looking for a nice sticky (but not wet) dough at this stage. Knead for 10 minutes, until dough feels soft and elastic (don’t skimp on this stage, I usually start my mine off in my Kenwood Chef, and finish by hand, as you can get a better feel for the finished dough that way).

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and place a damp tea towel over the top. Allow to prove for 1 hour – or until double the size. I don’t put mine in the airing cupboard though, I put it into the oven, that I previously preheated to about 80°C and then switched off, before commencing with the bread making. This provides a nice warm, place to prove the dough. The airing cupboard isn’t always warm enough, especially in the summer time.

When the dough is twice the size, sometimes this can take longer than 1 hour, remove from the bowl then knock back the dough for a few minutes.

You can now choose if you want a large loaf, 2 smaller loaves (divide dough into 2 pieces) or make individual rolls. You don’t need any special tins, bread works fine on a flat baking sheet or similar, in loaf tins or shaped into rolls.

If you are making a loaf make the shape you would like the finished loaf to be, or place into a tin if using one, slash the top with a serrated knife if you wish, flour and leave to prove for a further 30 minutes in a warm place.

Preheat your oven to 200°C now.

If you are making rolls, shaped as you wish and then brush with egg wash (1 whole egg beaten with a splash of milk) and again leave to prove for 30 minutes. At this stage you could add nuts, seeds or dried chilli flakes to the top of your rolls, I quite like sea salt, black pepper or both. There are no rules here, just whatever you fancy really.

Bake the rolls in the preheated oven for around 25 minutes, or until golden brown and they make a hollow sound when you tap the base. The loaf takes about 35 minutes.

To get a crispier finish to your bread, spray the oven occasionally during cooking with cold water. The steam helps to crisp the bread.

This afternoon I’ve made baguettes. Following the recipe above, but when shaping the dough, divide into 2 and stretch each half into a rectangle. Next roll the rectangle into a long sausage, twist and sprinkle with flour. Again, allow to prove for the 30 minutes as above, then into the preheated oven and using the water spray technique, back for around 30 minutes.

Store the bread in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in an airtight container in the freezer. Straight from the fridge reheat in the oven for 5 minutes, or straight from the freezer reheat in the oven for 10 minutes (longer for loaves). This is a great success and I always make up a batch or two and use the rolls over the following week, reheated.


Here are the finished baguettes; 

...and served here with Skate Wing, crispy ham, new potatoes, salad and a caper and chilli butter.


I hope you have success in trying this recipe. As always feel free to ask any questions using the comment section below.