Day Nine and we are nearly half way through the course - as an English graduate friend of mine once said, "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana". Which brings us nicely to the subject of food! Another change of partner today and it's back to the dulcet tones of the Welsh voice. I have teamed up with Shaun who is originally from Port Talbot but lives in Nottingham - he is currently in the RAF but is about to be let out - he speaks about 22 different languages and interestingly enough, Welsh isn't one of them! He also knows his onions! Working with us today Phil and Luke and Shona - a merry band .
There were a number of jobs that needed doing in the morning - cooking the beef ready for our corned beef - this had been marinating a bucket for the last three days - cooking the rabbit legs ready for the rabbit rillettes - preparing Colin the crab in time for our lunch of Poached salmon and crab risotto with petits pois, saffron and herbs.
COLIN THE CRAB BEFORE....
COLIN THE CRAB AFTER....
There was something very therapeutic about taking the meat off the crab. It did take a while to extract all the delicious white and brown meat but it was worth the effort. Nothing is wasted - the meat went into our risottos and the shells were mashed up and bagged and will be used to make a seafood stock later.
The beef was shredded by hand and pressed into two terrines ready for next week - looked and tasted great and Luke's whisking technique was obvioulsy well practised!
Richards the rabbit had been butchered yesterday and his loins will be used for some dish later next week - his legs however had been cooked very slowly in duck fat and so we had to get the meat off them to turn into our rabbit rillettes (shredded and pushed into a terrine).
With the salmon poaching it just need us to put the finishing touches to our risotto - Shaun's skillful eye ensured that ours was cooked to perfection and lunch was enjoyed with much gusto!
LUNCH
The afternoon was fairly gentle with Phil assigning us various jobs to do - cut this, or slice that or stir the other! Motty the mackerel made his appearance and he looked gorgeous! He was about to get a right slicing and after several well aimed slashes with my filletting knife, Motty lay on the granite work surface, a shadow of his former self - whilst his fillets lay in a plastic box waiting to be lightly seasoned and floured. Nice to see the rest of him being used for stock!
MOTTY THE MACKEREL
Our pan fried mackerel fillets were to be served with a warm chickpea, spring onion and bacon salad with a grainy mustard vinaigrette and so the afternoon increased in pace as dinner time approached. The apple, pear and date chutney had been made( to be used next week), the table was laid, wine glasses at the ready and so dinner was served.
On Thursdays our evening meals are always accompanied by specially chosen wines so tonight the main course was served with Albarino Fulget, Rias Baixas DO 2008 - a classic albarino from Gallicia in Spain that finishes smooth and creamy as it changes after coming into contact with air and our sweet of treacle tart was served with a dessert wine, Cambells Rutherglen Muscat, a lucious fortified wine displaying rich yet fresh raisin fruit flavours - or as someone sitting at my table described it, like cough medicine! Philistine!
So there's my dinner - can't see much of my salad but by jove, those mackerel fillets look good!And so to tonights quiz - if you've been following this - well done and here are a few questions for you to answer - only phone answers will be accepted!
WHAT IS A COURT BOUILLION?
NAME 3 DIFFERENT CUTS YOU CAN OBTAIN FROM A WHOLE BEEF FILLET?
WHAT TYPE OF FLOUR IS BEST FOR MAKING PASTA?
Until later!
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