A Big Week

Two major events at the school this week. On Monday we had an assessment, which had a slightly different format to previous ones, which have either been of the "here's a bunch of ingredients now make it into something" or "you've got an hour to ruin a poached egg and mess up a hollandaise sauce" variety.

Photo above: nice eggs from the Farmer's Market

This time the scenario was: "The head chef's called in sick, he's already had the menu printed, so you've got to make the dishes to fit the menu, using your own interpretations and ideas" which was much more my cup of tea. Not that that's what I cooked you understand. We had 3 hours to do mini salmon quiche starters, stuffed loin of pork, and a lemon layer pudding (which I'd never heard of, but came out very tasty). I decided not to resort to panicking from the word go, and this paid off, as I stuck to my timing plan all the way through, and finished with very acceptable results with 5 minutes to spare. Hervé scored me 4, 4 and 3.5 (out of 5) for each of the 3 courses. Result! (apparently he never gives a 5)

The rest of the week we have been preparing for Ian's birthday dinner. I've lost count of the number of times I've cooked barley bleedin risotto, but it all paid off last night, when we served what was nominally a 4 course (actually 7 course) meal for 44 guests. It all went perfectly to plan, no cock ups, and we even managed to cater for the obligatory lastminute.veggie - why do these people think chefs are psychic?? At the end of the evening we were bundled in to receive our standing ovation, then sang happy birthday to Ian as the cake was brought in, before disappearing again to clean down the kitchen. Finally left at 1145! A great night though.

The night's story in pictures:

Click and Livvie helping me prep the main course (see below)















The Bell Tower Room all set out
















Plating up the starter - salmon and prawn open ravioli















Plating up the main course: quote from two punters "the best venison I've ever tasted"














The fabulous desserts: a trio of rhubarb and ginger thingies with sugary twirly wotsits














The obligatory, and equally fabulous, birthday cake. The bows are made of chocolate!














VENISON MEDALLIONS WITH PEARL BARLEY RISOTTO AND A MUSHROOM AND WHISKY SAUCE

My own recipe ahem (with a little help).

For the risotto:

Cook the barley as per normal risotto, using white wine, then chicken or vegetable stock (takes around 1 hour).
Saute the leeks until browning and startking to caramelise.
Mix the leeks, parmesan, butter and chopped parsley into the risotto.

For the sauce:

Separately fry chopped mushrooms (on high), and chopped onions (on low) in oil and butter. Mix together and stir in chopped tarragon. Mix in a little cream and flambéed whisky (that's the fun bit!).

Curly kale:

Chop kale into bite size pieces, cook in hot wok for 2-3 minutes until bright green. Mix a little reduced balsamic vinegar in to finish.

For the venison:

Cut venison fillet into 100-120 gram steaks. Season with a little salt and pepper. Fry for 1 minutes each side, then finish in a low oven for 15 minutes. Leave to rest for 10-20 minutes before carving into medallions.

Serve with risotto on base, topped with sauce, place kale either end, top with venison and a bunch of glazed redcurrants. Done!

By the way, my full recipe and time plan runs to 4 pages of A4!