Making Pasta With Exeter Cookery School

In the space of six months, I've gone from never having been on a cookery course to doing two. That's one of the reasons being a blogger is - despite its sometimes icky connotations - a good thing: it presents you with opportunities that might not have otherwise come your way. I'd often thought that doing a cookery course would be nice but there'd always been some barrier to actually making it happen: time, money, or simply plain old inertia.

So when the opportunity came up to create a recipe and blog post in return for the chance of winning a cookery course, I decided to be a little more proactive than normal...and I only bloomin' won the competition. It was this serendipitous course of events that led me to Exeter Cookery School a couple weeks back, to take up my prize of an afternoon learning the craft of pasta making.

I've always been intrigued by the idea of making pasta. It conjures up romantic notions of black-clad Italian nonnas sitting in sun-soaked piazzas, trays resting on laps, fingers nonchalantly rolling up delicious-looking tortellini and ravioli. The idea of making pasta ties in with the whole concept of 'slow eating', a wonderfully life-affirming approach to preparing and enjoying food which offers an important counterpoint to our busy, 24/7 lifestyles where food is often seen as nothing more than fuel. 

I love anything that calls for a truly manual approach to making food - for kneading and rolling, pinching and crimping. Making pasta is all of these things, and, as I found out on my course, not as tricky as you might imagine.

The school is located on Exeter's quayside, a lovely corner of the city close to the centre where you can have an amble along the waterfront and enjoy a Devon cream tea before your course. It's run by chef Jim Fisher (a Masterchef semi-finalist) and his wife Lucy who ran a cookery school in the Dordogne for 16 years before returning to the UK and opening their new venture in Devon. With experience of working alongside Rick Stein and Alistair Little, I'll admit Jim's credentials did make me worry he might be in the scary chef mold and that if my pasta failed to make the grade I might find myself expelled. 

Thankfully, nothing could have been further from the truth. Our small group was assured that we'd all go home with a box of successful ravioli and no cross words were spoken during the two and a half hour course (even when I couldn't work the pasta machine in a logical fashion.) 

In between demonstrations on making dough and kneading, as well as using the aforementioned pasta machine, we were let into a few tricks of the trade and shown that the key to a good ravioli is making sure there are no air bubbles in your parcel. I was also interested to hear that it's definitely worth the effort to drain your spinach properly - you need around an hour, not the hasty few seconds I though sufficed - when making a spinach and ricotta filling.

After a quick cuppa and a chat, Jim added our pasta to the pan and offered us some delicious fresh basil dressing to drizzle over our cooked ravioli. They were, I'm pleased to report, exceptional. There's something very, very satisfying about eating pasta made from just a few ingredients by your own fair hands - you simply don't get the same feeling from ripping open a packet 0f pasta from Tesco.

But the thing that I enjoyed most about the course was finding myself completely absorbed in the simple process of mixing ingredients, kneading and feeding the dough through the machine. It's pleasingly tactile, repetitive work you can really lose yourself in, the kind of activity that really does help to ease away stresses and calm an over-active mind like mine.

The school runs all sorts of courses so if pasta doesn't appeal there are plenty of other options to choose from - how about trying your hand at spun sugar, butchery, or French boulangerie? There are course for all abilities, whether you fancy learning the art of Indian cookery or just want to learn some kitchen basics.

Great fun, sociable and a really different way to pass an afternoon, my course here was everything I wanted it to be: friendly, absorbing and informative. The fact I could justifiably stuff my face with pasta at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon was just an added bonus... 

Find out full details about Exeter Cookery School here.

Trialling the Thai Cookery School at Thaikhun

A couple of weeks' back I joined a small group of other bloggers and journalists for an evening of Thai cookery with the lovely team at Thaikhun, a restaurant I had the pleasure of sampling at the end of last year when it opened in Bath's Little Southgate Quarter. Having come away from that occasion feeling very impressed with the place, I was keen to make a return visit. However, this time it would be me doing the cooking. Hmmm...

Very competent at my small but perfectly formed repertoire of personal classics - I'm great at Bolognese, risotto and other Italian standards - I'm not so hot on more exotic cuisines. My curries are often disappointing and even Delia's fool-proof Thai curry recipe has turned out to be not to be so fool-proof in my less than capable hands. So it was with a slight sense of trepidation that I rose to the challenge of testing my skills at Thaikhun's newly established cooking school.

Just launched, the school runs at the Bath branch every fourth Sunday (other dates are available at Thaikhun's other locations), inviting Thai food aficionados to create their very own two-course feast. Led by an experienced chef - in our case a very lovely lady who had travelled down from the Manchester branch especially - the two-hour sessions are designed to give you a grounding in the basics of Thai cookery, impart some interesting know-how and give you the opportunity to socialise while you enjoy a starter and main course made by your own fair hands.

For our session, we started out by making vegetable spring rolls - so much easier than I'd expected, though there is a bit of a knack to rolling them like a pro. But with a Gin Cooler to hand, any worries I'd had about my cooking limitations started to fade away and I began to really enjoy the experience. 

It helped that our guide for the evening was very funny, keeping us engaged with her insider knowledge and personable teaching style. In fact, it felt nothing like a 'lesson' but more of an informal invitation into a friend's kitchen - I didn't feel intimidated or insecure about my abilities at any time during the evening.

After whipping up our spring rolls - a mix of vermicelli noodles, finely chopped carrot, mushroom and cabbage, as well as a spices, herbs, ginger and soy sauce - they were whisked off to be deep fried while we got on with the important task of choosing another cocktail from Thaikhun's menu (I highly recommend the coconut mojito.)

Then the moment of truth arrived as our first course was delivered and I'm happy to say mine and my guest's (it was a joint effort) were absolutely delicious and nothing like the greasy, anaemic looking spring rolls that often turn up in your takeaway.

Refreshed and ready to take on our main course, we returned to our cookery stations to be guided through the steps needed to create the perfect Thai Green Curry. Like the spring rolls, this task wasn't anywhere near as scary as I'd anticipated. Turns out some simple tricks of the trade and knowing how to create the perfect, proper curry paste is the key. 

We were introduced to some exotic ingredients such as Galangal and palm sugar, and instructed how to use the coconut milk to get a perfectly creamy consistency for our curries. Taking just a short time to master, we were directed back to our tables to enjoy our left over spring rolls, bowls of steaming rice and our curries - and I'm pleased to report that, for once, my curry was well above passable. 

I left Thaikhun feeling pretty confident about replicating these recipes in my own kitchen and inspired to venture beyond my cooking comfort zone every so often. And with a few exotic cocktails sloshing around in our tummies too, me and my guest went home glowing from an evening very well spent. 

For more information on Thaikhun's cooking school, visit the website here. You can also read my review of the restaurant here.

I enjoyed a complimentary visit to Thaikhun but all words and opinions are my own. 

Creating Recipes with Exeter Cookery School

I've started 2017 with a culinary first - I've devised my very own recipe. Thanks to an exciting opportunity with Exeter Cookery School, I've channelled my inner Nigella (I knew she was in there somewhere!) and turned my mind to coming up with a recipe for the sort of comfort food I crave at this time of the year. It's actually quite daunting devising a recipe - it's one thing to love food and have an appreciation for different flavour combinations but quite a different proposition to come up with something that's a) edible and b)actually enjoyable for your dining companions. 

After thinking about the flavours I love and the sort of food that I naturally gravitate towards, my recipe was always going to look towards the Med for inspiration. And having recently been inspired by Nigella Lawson's programme on the legendary food writer Anna del Conte, I've been craving a taste of Italy as an antidote to all that turkey and Christmas buffet food. 

So, my recipe blends classic Italian flavours with a nod to Spain - I just love chorizo and sherry so I wanted to find a way to include these in my idea. The result uses Orzo, a rice-shaped pasta that creates dishes that look more like risotto. It's perfect when you're craving carbs but want something a bit different to more ubiquitous pasta varieties. 

I've used a picante chorizo but standard chorizo will do - you need it in a ring rather than thin slices. Be generous with the sherry - white wine might also work but sherry gives the dish a particularly special flavour. And you need good quality tomatoes that are really juicy - I used delicious cherry tomatoes from Waitrose. 

I hope you enjoy my idea - if you get a chance to try it, I'd love to hear what you thought of it! 

Orzo with Spicy Chorizo, Tomato & Basil

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tsp regular olive oil
120g chorizo picante, cubed (regular will do but I used an extra spicy version from Waitrose)
75ml dry fino sherry 
250g orzo pasta
625ml boiling water
Knob of butter
1 heaped tablespoon grated parmesan (and a little more to serve)
Generous handful of ripe cherry tomatoes, quartered
Generous handful of fresh basil

Method:

Gently heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan - I used my regular pasta pan. Throw in your cubed chorizo and gently cook without burning. Add the sherry to the pan and let it bubble and absorb. 

Then add the orzo and toss it in the juicy oil from the chorizo, making sure each grain is coated. Add the water and and turn down the heat to a simmer. 

Let the pasta cook for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the pasta doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. You may need to add a little more water from the kettle; a bit like making risotto, you want the water to absorb but the pasta to be cooked properly.

Once the pasta is cooked and all the water is absorbed, beat in a knob of butter. Then beat in a good tablespoon of grated parmesan so your orzo becomes a little creamy. Then thrown in your tomatoes and basil.

Plate up your orzo and add a scattering of basil and perhaps a little more parmesan and black pepper to serve. 

Find out about Exeter Cookery School and the courses it runs here.

The Health Kick Kicks In

So, as is traditional this time of year (usually coinciding with that first, horrific trip to the shops to purchase swimwear) me and the other half are on a 'health kick'. While the stream of articles that litter women's magazines on making yourself "beach ready" infuriate me (who has time for a 2 week juicing detox, or a spare £200 to splash out on a figure enhancing, designer bikini?) the thought of exposing my pale, middle-aged body on a beach full of gorgeously lithe, olive-skinned beauties when we go on holiday in August doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, either. Don't most of us get that summer feeling of wanting to be just a bit lighter, a bit more energetic and a bit more glowing at around this point in the calendar? And there's nothing like turning 40 to remind you that your face and body need all the help they can get...

Our summer holiday destination

Several months on from trying to reduce my sugar intake (which I blogged about here)  I'm noticing small but significant changes, helping me stay away from the biscuit jar. I feel less sluggish and perhaps a bit less dimply of thigh. There isn't a weight loss motivation behind me doing this, but I was quite ill last year with a long-lasting virus and when a friend suggested giving up sugar as a remedy to the debilitating headaches I'd been getting, it seemed an obvious thing to try. I can't say with conviction what sorted me out in the end, but taking a long hard look at my diet and being more aware of hidden sugars certainly helped.

More recently I've been trying to address my issues with bread. I bloody love the stuff. But it's just not that good for you, is it? I can't say I like rye bread but it helps to satisfy my bread cravings (only just, though.) I can do without toast at breakfast but a sandwich, panini or baguette would be my lunch of choice. So, I'm limiting a bread-based lunch to the two days I work in an office (purely for convenience's sake) and am then avoiding bread on other days. 

I'm eating a lot of spelt crackers at the mo - nice with almond butter as a light lunch or in-between snack (Food Doctor wholegrain spelt crackers are available at most big supermarkets.) Talking of spelt, we tried spelt spaghetti the other day (white pasta is another of my weaknesses) and it was...okay. For me, nothing can replace proper pasta, but as we eat it a lot as a family I wanted to try an alternative. The kids didn't bat an eyelid about this strange new pasta - I was convinced they'd turn their noses up at it - so that was good; less good is the price point, as a 500g packet set me back £2.45. A packet of normal spaghetti is around the £1 mark so you can see the disparity.

Some low-sugar alternatives

Cost is something that is proving the biggest barrier to maintaining my good intentions. I simply can't afford to buy all organic, fill my basket with wholesome goodies from Holland & Barrett or indulge my romantic notions of starting every day with a home-made green juice, courtesy of a shiny Vitamix blender. Plus, life is really too short to be scouring the supermarket shelves searching for buckwheat noodles or raw cacao. But there are some healthy eating tips that I reckon are worth going the extra mile for, and luckily they don't cost the earth. Here are some other things that are working quite well for me at the moment...

Kale salad - not at all unpleasant

1. Shopping for basics at Lidl

Great for stocking up on the fruit and veg shop - so much cheaper than other supermarkets and the quality is pretty consistent. Items like blueberries, avocados, spinach and salad leaves are a significantly cheaper here. Buying basics at Lidl makes buying more expensive items like the aforementioned spelt pasta more viable. 

2. Swapping my morning latte for green tea

Apparently dairy gives you spots. So the morning lattes have been replaced by green tea, a cheap way to get a good dose of antioxidants. I'm getting quite fond of the taste. 

3. Making vat loads of Jamie Oliver's Tomato Sauce

I get why my kids won't eat kale or broccoli but I still want them to eat well, too. Feeding them veg by stealth is my modus operandi, and this sauce (annoyingly the recipe not available online) is a good one for getting them to eat squash, courgette and carrots without even realising. This recipe is similar to the one I've been making.

I also tried Jamie's Veggie Chilli recently and my kids weren't fully convinced but they were also not completely horrified by it. I think I'll convert them in time...here's the recipe. 

If these fail, most kids like pesto but to give it some extra nutritional value I wilt down massive handfuls of spinach in a pan with a little bit of butter, whiz in a blender and then add to the sauce - a quick way to top up your little veggie-phobes with some vitamins.

4. Trying the easier recipes on the Deliciously Ella website

A lot of healthy recipes not only require you being able to track down hard-to-find items but you also need to have quite a bit of time at your disposal so anything that involves simply dumping ingredients in a food processor is just fine by me. This is why the recipes on the Deliciously Ella site are so convenient as many involve nothing so taxing as a bit of chopping and a bit of whizzing. I have so far enjoyed the marinated kale salad - majorly virtuous and a lot nicer than the recipe suggests - and the cinnamon pecan granola which I'm using as a topper for fat-free natural yogurt in the mornings. It's delicious and a whole lot better for you than the high-sugar manufactured stuff. There are lots of other quick, relatively cost-effective ideas to try on the site.

Granola - not faffy to make at all

5. Finding the right exercise

Turns out I don't mind team sports (despite being pretty dismal at them at school)and it's true what they say - this sort of exercise feels so much less of a punishment. While I still don't fully understand the rules, my footwork sucks and I don't have a competitive bone in by body I've somehow ended up on a netball team. Playing in a proper league and everything! This entails weekly training and a weekly match, providing a much-needed cardio-vascular workout which I'm actually enjoying. Training is free thanks to a great initiative from England Netball (read more here) and match subs are about £3 per match. A total bargain.

Easy Home-made Pizza

Saturday night is pizza night in our household. If we're feeling a bit flush we might head to a favourite local pizza joint (Acapella or Prego on North View, perhaps, though we usually reserve the latter for a Monday night when you can enjoy a wallet-friendly two for one on all pizzas.) But more often than not I use the relative calm of a Saturday evening chez nous to perfect my pizza dough and try out some new topping combinations. For anyone scared by the word 'dough' - and I admit I was till I started making it myself - don't be. It's actually pretty hard to get wrong. According to the kids, my home-made pizzas win out against shop-bought alternatives, which is high praise indeed, given how fussy the two of them are.

Easy and incredibly cheap, I guarantee once you start making your own pizzas you won't look back. Here's my fool-proof pizza dough recipe:

Ingredients:

• 250g plain white flour
• 250 strong white bread flour or OO Italian flour
• 7g sachet of fast-action yeast
• 2 tsp flaky salt
• 300ml warm water
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• Packet of natural bread crumbs
• Olive oil spray

The above quantity makes 4 regular sized pizzas. It's best to use proper pizza baking sheets, though regular rectangular sheets will do.

Method:

In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients, expect the breadcrumbs. Once flour, yeast and salt is combined, slowly add your olive oil, mixing in as you go. Do the same with the water. If the dough seems a little dry add a few extra drops of water, but go carefully or your mixture will get too wet. Combine the ingredients into a dough and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Now for the kneading, a great work-out for the old bingo wings! A good dough needs at least 10 minutes kneading to get the dough aerated and elastic. Once you're happy with it, spray a clean bowl with olive oil spray, add your ball of dough and cover with cling-film and a clean tea towel. Place the dough somewhere warm, like a sunny window sill or in front of a warm oven, and leave to proof, for at least at hour, or a bit longer if possible. You're looking for the dough to double in size. 

Ready to slam in the oven...

When the dough is nearly ready heat your oven quite high and throw you pizza sheets in to warm up. In the meantime prepare your toppings. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to pizza - no pineapple or sweetcorn for me - and I tend to stick with traditional combinations. You can't mess up a simple Margherita of ready-made passata topped with slices of mozzarella, a sprinkling of oregano, a few basil leaves and a swirl of olive oil. I might add in a few slices of Parma ham, Italian pepperoni or a few anchovies and a handful of capers. I sometimes mix things up by eschewing mozzarella for goats cheese, which I combine with some sweet red onion, slowly softened and lightly caramelised in a pan.

When you're read to start assembling your pizzas, take a sheet out of the oven and sprinkle with your dried breadcrumbs - this gives that essential crunch to your base which makes your pizzas extra authentic. Roll out your dough and position it on your sheet before adding your toppings. They take just 10 minutes or so to cook in the oven. 

Ready to wolf down with a glass of chilled white

Simple, quick and devoid of all those nasty additives hiding in manufactured pizzas - what's not to love?

Curry made easy

I love curries but when it comes to making them I seem destined to fail. Most of my attempts to recreate the vibrant, spice-filled creations displayed in my cookbooks seem to result in bland concoctions that take ages to prepare but are truly disappointing to eat. The only exception to this scenario is a curry recipe I discovered in Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's excellent River Cottage Family Cookbook.

Amongst the other easy, well-explained recipes is the answer to your curry conundrums - a simple but delicious Chicken Curry that uses store cupboard spices, tomatoes and chicken to create a cheap, flavour-filled treat that banishes the bland from your curry-making experience. I highly recommend this cookbook for family food inspiration - every recipe I have tried has worked a treat. 

The chicken curry recipe takes minutes to prepare and about an hour to cook. Served with rice and a naan, this dish has just the right amount of heat for younger palettes, but you can adjust the chili accordingly.

And the finished item looks like this...

Two Quick & Cheap Kitchen Cheats

As the new school term becomes established I've remembered just how time-pressured the usual week in our household can be. In between work, extra-curricular activities and other daily obligations there are some times when cooking a balanced, nutritious meal for the family just doesn't quite happen. I've accepted there will be the odd times when my kids will subsist on foods which can either be bunged in the oven (ie fishfingers and oven chips) or gleaned from a jar (ie pasta and pesto). Add in the eccentricities of my children's culinary tastes (my eldest would happily eat sushi for breakfast, lunch and dinner, while my five year-old only ever really eats with gusto when we are abroad and seafood is on offer, calamari being his absolute favourite) and it can be a frustrating experience trying to provide balanced, varied meal options when time is limited.

But recently I have hit on two real kitchen 'cheats', which are relatively healthy, add some variation to mealtimes and couldn't be easier to prepare. 

I have Nigella to thank for these two discoveries, which can be found in her book 'Kitchen'. Firstly, Spaghetti with Marmite - an improbable combo, I know, but it really does work. Plus the recipe was conceived by legendary Italian cookery writer Anna Del Conte - if the Italians eat it, it must be good! You don't even have to really like Marmite. Bung some spaghetti in to cook then heat about 50g of butter in a pan. When it's nearly melted add in a teaspoon of Marmite, plus one tablespoon of the pasta cooking water till it all emulsifies and goes loose. Add the sauce to the drained spaghetti and mix well. Plate up and serve with plenty of Parmesan. I'm biased because I love Marmite but even if you're not so sure, give it a try just once!

Secondly, an easy accompaninment to meat or fish. Even though I sometimes make my own chips and even the oven variety aren't really that bad for them, I do sometimes feel a bit gulity about chips being the standard potato-based dish in our home. So, for something a bit different try roasted or fried gnoochi. Again, these babies take literally minutes to prepare - you simply throw them into a frying pan with some olive oil and gently fry on both sides for about four minutes. Alternatively bake them in a roasting pan with some oil for about twenty minutes. 

I'm not sure Annabel Karmel would approve but sometimes life really is too short to spend slaving over a hot stove...

Quick tip - I have been trying to find creative ways to get the green stuff into my kids' diets for years now. If this is a familiar scenario for you, here's something that works in our house: I add a good handful of fresh or frozen spinach to pasta and pesto, a really easy way to up the veg content of their supper. I wilt it down in a pan with a knob of butter, then whizz up in a hand-blender and mix in with the pesto. Simple, quick and super cheap.