Yzeures-sur-Creuse, France

Let the cooking begin…….

To continue with the good/bad theme from our first entry….the day started with us waking up 5 minutes AFTER Alison arrived to pick us up. After a quick wash, we were off for our first day of cooking at Le Calabash (see previous entry). To prepare us for our day of cooking we started off with a hearty breakfast that included cumin scented cheese, scrambled eggs and home made croissants.

Today was fish day.

Our first lesson was cooking en papillote – steaming in a parchment paper pouch. We made mussels with Asian flavours (lemongrass, coconut milk, lime, chili). It was so quick, easy and absolutely delicious! We will definitely be doing that again!

We learned to fillet and remove pin bones from a salmon that arrived from Norway fresh this morning. We were taught the signs to assess the freshness of a whole fish…who knew fish shouldn’t smell?

We got to enjoy our own cheese soufflés before digging into oak wood smoked salmon on guacamole. Lunch was finished off sampling our very own banana tarte tatins with homemade ice cream. This was an absolutely stellar, complex flavoured meal and we got to help putting it together!!

Alison prepared the caramel creme anglaise ice cream base for tomorrow’s dinner and and Sidney helped us put together salmon gravlax for Thursday’s dinner.

After a little rest, we learned the secrets of making a perfect risotto that we enjoyed with brioche crusted cod.