Oysters and pearls.

Another weekend over and into the final week of the course.  I will be glad when I don't have to battle my way down the M4 and M5 in the early hours of a Monday morning.  Would you believe that the M4 was closed at 0500 this morning!  Why shut a entire arterial road on the busiest day of the week?  I have begun to think that the road closures and road works are personal - they know that I'm travelling and they all conspire to delay my journey - whoever they are!  And whilst I'm on the subject of complaining, I thought that the White Van Man was a myth - it appears not so - the number of white (and other coloured)  vans that I saw that had dodgy headlights and/ or were driving recklessly was amazing !
My weekend was a mixture of self indulgence and practice!  The practice came in the form of me making a savoury tart and more soup!   Leek and potato this time.   I think there's a future in soup!  The tart was smoked haddock, cheese and leek and although Sue loved it, Matt (the eldest son) declared that it tasted of ham - "It's fish" , I told him.   "Ugh, I don't like fish!" Another winner eh?

Saturday night was the self indulgence - Burns Night at Les's house in Bridgend.  A fine gatethering of people and everyone had risen to the occasion, dressing appropriately and bringing Les and Paula lots of gifts including several bottles of single malts!  The evening was a great success - the haggis cooked to perfection, Les' poety was outstanding  and the speeches witty and informative - well mine was!  I also managed to catch up with the boys at the football club on Saturday -  a 1-1 draw against Ynysddu was a fair result, given we'd had a player sent off early in the first half!  Wattsie's verdict - "*******, Fu*******, Ref!" - Ah well, there's always next week!

And so to the final week - the mood in the group is upbeat and at the same time reflective - I think everyone realises that there is so much to learn and so little time in which to learn it!  Today we made pasta.another gadget I need to buy - a pasta roller!

On the menu today - Duck confit tortelinni with sage butter for lunch and then for dinner, Rack of lamb with Madeira jus, Dauphine potatoes, ratatouille followed by white chocolate parfait, spiced orange segments with basil sugar.  So the day passed quickly with less being demonstrated and us being left to get on with it!  After all we should be able to follow a recipe by now!  Our day was interjected by James who had brought in some oystes that had been caught locally - he showed how to open them and talked about what constituted a good oyster.  Fem, the Dutch lady, had heard that " a pearl necklace" could be had from oysters - yeh right Fem! We made our pasta and we needed  to stuff it with the duck confit. Another fiddly job but one that was both therapeutic and time consuming!  It's a good job I'm not working in an Italian Restaurant and making this all day, every day! So - the meal was prepared.  Another day of experimentation and fine dining!  Tommorrow will see half of us spending the day appreciating wine whilst the other half of the group are preparing a three course dinner and so the roles will be reversed on Wednesday.  All good fun!