Just do it 1 & 2

Made by the Tutors – Rack of Lamb with a Pine Nut & Herb Crust

Made by the Tutors – Asian Stuffed Trout Fillets with Jullienne of Vegetables

Made by the tutors – Par-boned Chicken Stuffed with Moroccan Couscous

The first of my ‘Just do it’s’ for 2013 were spent at Betty’s Cookery School at the weekend. 7 people arrived on Saturday morning eager to improve our knife skills. But first we had to eat breakfast of fresh fruit, croissants, tea and coffee. All Betty’s and Taylors finest.

On the menu for the days skills were

Rack of Lamb with a Pine Nut & Herb Crust

Par-boned Chicken Stuffed with Moroccan Coucous

Asian Stuffed Trout Fillets with Julienne of Vegetables.

We practiced our knife skills at filleting fish with a very flexible knife, deboned the rack of lamb with a smaller knife and with great care we par boned a chicken with a large cooks knife. All these were then ready to cook when we got home. So the pictures above were all made by Betty’s master Chefs on the day.

As you can imagine, each of use took extra care with these very sharp knives, but one by one the blue plasters began to appear on fingers. I had a couple of near misses.

Made by the Tutors

fresh red currants

Lemon and Strawberry Torte made by the tutors

Lwmon & strawberry Torte and Sacher Torte made by the tutors

French Fruit Tarts and tortes made by the tutors

Fresh fruit for the Tarts

My Sacher Torte

My French Fruit Tarts.

My Lemon & Strawberry Torte

The following day, Sunday, was the Passionate about Patisserie course. Once breakfast was over we set about spending the day making

Sacher Torte

French Fruit Tarts with Creme Patissiere

Lemon and Strawberry Torte.

At this class there were 11 passionate bakers, all eager to improve our patisserie skills.

Cookery books do give you good, all round, instructions on how to cook and bake, but to me there is nothing better than to attend a cookery school to improve on those skills and I wasn’t disappointed at all because you get to know lots of little hints and tips that may not get a mention in books.

These classes are great value for money, because not only do you have the expert skills of 2 of Betty’s master tutors on the day, but also the attentive care of  another who looks after our every need at break times. We also had mid morning biscuits and refreshments, a delicious cooked lunch with salads and wine, further tea and cakes in the afternoon. So by the time I went home with all my cooked offerings I was stuffed.

They have a lovely Cook shop at the school and the temptation proved too great as I bought a full set of new knives, something I’ve been meaning to buy for ages and by chance for a limited period only, they were at a reduced price.

I left the class looking forward to my advanced bread making classes in a few weeks time and the envy of their marbled worktops and huge amount of space with which to work.

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