One Pint of Jersey Cream

Well, my first real day in the kitchen is complete, and it was a success, which feels quite good. Everyone around the school seems to be less anxious now that all of the unknown bits are out of the way.

My shortcut pastry turned out well, but as Rory said today in demo, “lining a flan ring can be a bit of a bugger.” My tart turned out very well, as did my fork biscuits, which may be my new favourite biscuit - simple, and so delicious. My partner and I work really well together, which I am sure won’t be the case with everyone, but both of us managed to share our spaces, and keep them tidy throughout our morning’s cooking, and we both were able to do something on top of what we had to do.

Before I left I was trying to do things by hand in the kitchen that I wouldn’t normally do, but one thing I didn’t do was beat butter… I did it today, and it is actually quite simple if it is soft to begin with. Speaking of butter, I had some extra time in this morning so I asked Pat what I could do, and he said, “make butter.” I knew butter was simple to make, but I didn’t know that it was that simple, and how satisfying. Like my preserves this summer, I almost don’t want it to get used so I can just admire it! All you do is measure out one pint of cream (in this case Jersey cream!) and pop it into a stand mixer until it seperates completely, rinse it, let it drain and then shape it.

Demo this afternoon was with Rory, he made lots of tasty thing, scones, biscuit cake, a chocolate, orange and hazelnut tart, candied peel dipped in chocolate, there was also a chorizo and tomato pasta, and a couple of really nice salads.

Tip of the day – when you have too many tomatoes in the summer as they all ripen at once, pop them into the freezer just as they are. When you need to use some down the road for a sauce, put it in cold water, and within seconds the skin will start to peel off.

We had a simple dinner in the cottage tonight, roasted beets, parsnips that were boiled and then fried in a bit of butter, and a soft boiled egg with brown soda bread.

We are out of the kitchens tomorrow, gardening class at 7:50 (if we wish), and a long day of lecture, food safety, food hygiene, and fire safety are just a few of the fun things we will be learning about tomorrow. As Christopher said when I told him what was on the list of things in the lecture, “ gutted, was hoping we would be tasting some wine.” There’s always next week!

Can’t believe tomorrow is already Thursday, off to bed!

“Adding oil to water when boiling pasta is a waste, it just blinks back at you expensively.” – Rory

Herbs come into the kitchens from the gardens around 9am.	My headlamp!	View out the back of kitchen 3.
My Gruyere and Dill Tart	Evening stroll!	Michael Wolf was dropping off some honey to the school and popped into the demo kitchen to chat to us a bit about bee keeping.
Tonight's dinner!	Today's lunch!	Making butter!