Larry the Lamb meets Mr Clumsy!

Day three dawned with the heavy overnight snowfall melting to leave a slushy mess to be negotiated for the short journey to "school"  Some of our group had had a couple of G and T's last night so were grateful for the gentle start today's Chef, Rob, gave us - a revision of vegetable cuts and an introduction on how to cook vegetables.  I think I may have a word with my mum about this as the vegetables she cooks always seem to resemble an amorphous mass of colourless goo! 

So today we have spent preparing vanilla creme brulle ready to eat on Friday, fresh mint sauce, honey custard ice cream, poached pears in red wine, boulangere potatoes, cauliflower cheese, green beans and a very slowly braised breast of lamb stuffed with the olive and mozarella farce that we had made on Monday! 

Farce is probably the word Rob would use for my efforts with the lamb breast!  The idea was to trim the fat off it, remove the bones and  and roll it up with the stuffing inside it, tie it all up and then braise it in the oven for about 4 hours.  Sounds easy eh?  Now my knife skills are improving, but not quite up to some of my fellow chefs' standards, so whilst theirs were going into the pre heated ovens, I was still struggling to get the bones out!  In my exuberance I managed to nick my finger with the said knife and had the pleasure of the blue sticking plaster marking me as "Mr Clumsy".   My other problem was that the stuffing kept coming out of each end of my rolled lamb!  Undeterred, I evetually managed to get the rather large sausage shape into the oven - hurrah!  I can forget about it for 4 hours now.

We had all swapped round work stations today so I was working with a New Zealand lady called Kris, who, like Laura, has the patience of a saint and offers suitable words of encouragement when neccessary and doesn't laugh too much at my efforts.

  Our dessert for the evening meal was Honey Ice cream with the Poached pears - the pears were poached in red wine and spices and then left to cool. The ice cream was made from our honey custard and then placed in the very expensive ice cream maker - think I'll get one for Christmas!  Rob demonstrated how to prepare veg. to a point where they can be made early and then finished off just before serving and still looking as if they have just been cooked.  Clever eh!  This included the Boulangere potatoes which I have to say, were stunning.  Each pair made a cheese sauce to go with the cauliflower - Kris was very kind and let me do most of this as my previous attempt in Grange Gardens to make a roux ended with Sue having to rescue it and removing the lumps!  Todays effort was much better with the sauce being as smooth as a babies bottom!

Bringing all the food together at the right time seemed effortless when Rob did it - when left to mere amateurs it can become a major event.  However, Kris and I did manage to produce the food as printed on the day's menu.  My favourite part? Using the blow torch on the cheese on top of the cauliflower to achieve that well cooked look!

Braised breast of lamb in a reduced jus, boulangere potatoes and green beans!

Probably 3/10 for presentation!

Rob's dessert effort!

Todays smooth running was greatly assisted by Luke, himself an accomplished chef, whose humour and good nature and valuable tips has helped enormously.

My dessert effort - spot the difference!

Tomorrow is pork day - making our own sausages - I wonder if it involves killing the pig first?