This little Piggy went to market.......this little piggy got cooked!

After a disastrous night for Liverpool FC, getting beaten in extra time by lowly Reading,  it has been another great day of cooking, information and fantastic food!  I would have to say that all the staff and tutors are excellent - knowledgeable, experienced and able to impart their enthusiasm for the subject!  So as I sit here and sip my G and T, I raise my glass on behalf of my fellow students and wannabe chefs to Stuart, Phil, Rob and their assistants!  Cheers!

Stuart ready to attack!

So Day 4 of 20 - on today's menu - lunch was to be pork, leek and apple and parmesan sausage hot dogs with caramelised onions so the first job was to catch the pig - due to the inclement weather, this part had already been done, something to do with Health And Safety, I think!  The sausage meat had already been prepared and following an excellent demonsrattion of how to pipe the meat into a thin membrane, we were let loose in our pairs to have a go!  And did we have a go!  Kris and I tossed coins to see who got the job of rolling the thin outer skin of the sausage onto the end of the blue piping plastic bag!  I won the toss and became the "squeezer", forcing the meat into the membrane and Kris had the unenviable task of having to slide the membrane over the end of the bag I was holding!   You get the picture ?   No easy task when your hands are wet and slimy!  And those were my hands!   For those of you who do not make your own sausages and my guess is that there are lots of you out there,  you will not be able to comprehend how difficult this task can be.  We were magnificent and our sausages resembled those sold in any reputable butchers anywhere in the country!

Having made the caramelised onions, without managing to slice any of my fingers off - always a bonus I have found - we moved on to scone making.  I had always thought that scone making was for old ladies of the blue rinse brigade but again, I have to say that my opinion has changed and any prejudices that I had, dispelled.  I have never baked a cake in my life, so this was a big moment for me!  Kris took a back seat and let me "crack on",  offering helpul suggestions when it looked like getting out of hand and the flour and butter spilled out over the bowl.  Under her careful guidance we produced 12 scones that were, light. fluffy and delicious!

Mrs Beaton, eat your heart out!

And so to dinner!  I am now probably a stone heavier that I was on Monday - my cholesterol has gone through the roof with all the butter and cream and salt that I've been eating so I have had to drink large quantities of red wine to try and nullify these fattening effects.  Dinner today was, roast loin of pork with apple sauce and traditional gravy, roast potatoes cooked in duck fat, honey roasted parsnips and beetroot with a saute savoy cabbage follwed by Polenta, lemon and almond cake with vanilla mascarpone - is it any wonder I'm overweight?!

Now roast dinners have always been a favourite of mine - Sue is great on gravy, but getting everything ready and cooking the meat has always been my domain.  Easy I thought, get the joint, season it slam it in the oven with the spuds, set the timer,  off to the Plough and Harrow for a couple and then back to bring it all together!  My eyes have been opened!  We first made our apple sauce and then prepared our loin of pork on a vegetable trivet, boiled our potatoes and removed them from the pan having cooked!  Preparation of the parsnips and beetroot was simple and quick and as I detest beetroot with a passion (goes back to my school days where I was forced to eat it in salads), I only touched the parsnips.  We "chiffonaded" the savoy cabbage and amazingly after 3 hours of putting things in and out of the oven and simmering things on the hobs - our meal was ready, brought together with milatary precision.

  Bon appetit!

I have never been able to make good crackling when I cook pork.  Now I know how to!

My final word tonight relates to the state of the art cookers and hobs in the kitchen  - induction hobs, ovens that look more like a Bang and Olufsen Hi Fi system and that are so efficient that they heat up to temperatue in a fraction of the time it takes our electric oven with the wonky seal to do so! 

My Christmas and birthday list is growing - gone is the golf paraphanalia, kitchen gadgets for me please!

Tommorrow is fish, being Friday - early finish and then home for the weekend - maybe beans on toast for Friday tea?