cookery school

HOW TO SHARPEN
YOUR ACT IN THE KITCHEN...

The Times - Body and Soul

Can’t cook? Won’t cook? Haven’t got time to cook? 
The Times sent volunteer guinea-pigs on cookery courses to polish up their culinary skills

VEGGIE MUM IN A RUT - Carol Midgley, 42, Liverpool

I’m a vegetarian mother who is nervous of, and hence rubbish at, cooking. My repertoire comprises veggie shepherd’s pie, butter bean stew and chilli (Uncle Ben’s sauce, naturally). My family is so bored it may cease eating.

The course

Run by LucyCooks in the Lake District, it’s aimed at everyone: foodies, wannabes and class dunces (like me) of all age groups. Its owner, Lucy Nicholson, a good-food apostle, wants people to increase their confidence in, and love of, cooking by “feeling” the food and taking them out of their comfort zone into areas in which they thought they were incapable. The emphasis is on informality and sociableness, not schoolroom education. Uses high-quality, locally sourced ingredients to, as the brochure says, “put the ‘oo’ back into cooking”. Our group included couples (not strictly vegetarian but wanting to eat more healthily) and another vegetarian mother who grows all her own veg.

The menu

Aubergine cannelloni with rocket and lemon dressing; tomato upside-down tart with basil; butternut squash tagine; port roasted shallots; parmesan baked parsnips; sun-blushed tomato and herb focaccia.

The experience

Lovely. Arrived at 9.15am to an introductory chat with Lucy, then went upstairs to a glorious, airy kitchen where the executive chef, Dale Blacow, was waiting. He demonstrated how to make each dish and then sent us off with the ingredients to get stuck in. Within 90 minutes I’d made very nice focaccia bread and butternut squash tagine with smoked paprika, which is a virtual miracle. We ate it for lunch with wine, then went back to make the cannelloni, shallots and tart. Very entertaining and the time flew by. Dale was kind, encouraging and a mine of information, most importantly, he didn’t laugh at me once.

The results

A total revelation. I’d never made bread before and considered it a mysterious art. Also, I didn’t know what tagine was, never mind how to cook it. But it was all quite delicious, especially the cannelloni, partly I think because of the quality of the ingredients. I will definitely use the recipes again and don’t consider myself quite as much as a cooking dunce.

The feedback

I have made the aubergine cannelloni three times since because the mixture of feta cheese, spring onions and pine nuts was so nice. I have also had a stab at making foccacia bread(not as successful as first attempt. But, despite my new insights, which were many, the old enemy of time shortage persists. Even though many of these dishes don’t take ages to prepare, many of the ingredients needed aren’t always available in Tesco. And I’m not the farmers’ market type.