Dough!

The weekend has come and gone!  Who said "practice makes perfect"?  I was so enthused by what I'd done last week that I was in Tescos by 0700 Saturday morning.  Sue was still in the land of nod so was only vaguely aware of my early morning sojurn in search of duck fat, lemons, and a mixing bowl.  So I practised - a swiss roll, a lemon posset and a sweet potato, ginger and coconut soup were all knocked up before lunch time!  Sunday saw us venturing out with the dogs and then a couple of snifters in our local, the Plough and Harrow,  to catch up with friends.  Tim Watts and  Dave Jones were in, amongst others - Wattsie, who thinks "haute cuisine" is what gets served on aeroplanes at 36000 feet was in fine form; and Jonesy who thinks that "dining out" is a bag of Pork scratchings and a pint of real ale had mislaid his wife Jane and their dog Ossie.   Having updated me with the result from Saturdays football match between Llantwit Major AFC and Bargoed FC ( a 4-1 win for Llantwit), Wattsie wanted to know what I'd learned in the last two weeks.  Remember that it was Tim who had pointed me in the direction of the Welsh Assembly funding for this course!  "Well I did a rather nice soup for lunch", I informed him.  "Soup?  Is that all you've done in 2 weeks, soup?" , He interupted.   I tried to explain that actually there were other things that I'd done but he'd gone - muttering something about him having a word with the powers that be regarding future funding for such courses!  Sunday supper was the most beautifully slowly cooked leg of lamb with roast potatoes and lemon posset for pudding.  My youngest son, Jonny, joined us - his verdict on the lemon posset " It's very creamy!"  It's bloody well supposed to be!

SO, back down the motorways for the start of Week 3.   Dough and bread making with Carol was to be our lot today.  Another change of partner - Steve had been out of the kitchen whilst everyone else had swapped round so the only empty space when he came back in was next to me - unlucky!  I have now got to the stage where I think people are trying to avoid working with me!

On the menu today - chicken, goats cheese and celeriac pasty for lunch and dinner was to be a buffet with a selection of the breads we were making with cornded beef terrine, gravalax salmon, pickled onions, local cheeses and new potatoes.  I quickly realised that the art to good dough making is to get the mixture right and the temperatures correct!  We learned terms like kneading, rising, knocking back (normally done with a pint of lager), shaping and proving.  Through the course of the day, with a little help from my friends, I had produced, Chelsea Buns, Dinner rolls, Walnut and Date bread, Garlic and Oregano plant pot bread. pasty pastry, shortcrust pastry and gluten free chocolate brownies!  A comprehensive mix of tasty morsels.

"When she saw the size of his hot meat pies, it very near turned her head!"  Where does this quote come from?

The garlic and oregano pot plant bread introduced some interesting shapes - leaving the dough to prove (letting the dough rise before cooking) in the clay plant pots made sure that the some of the dough started to overflow - resulting in someones (not mine!) looking like an elephant's trunk and another resembling Pappa Smurf!  I wonder if it would work with plastic plant pots?  I can see that an early morning trip to B and Q is in order next weekend!

Tommorrow - cooking for vegetarians - walnut and pasta bake anyone?