Jubilee Cooking Masterclass

I just love the picture above.  Whilst I adore baking,  I am also a massive fan of fresh green vegetables and every time I look at this picture my mouth waters.   If I concentrate for long enough I can even taste those gorgeous peas and fresh mint.  Maybe the reason for this is because it was only last week when I was tasting these ingredients at a Jubilee cooking masterclass organised by Tesco Real Food.  I casually dropped that in there, but I can’t tell you how excited I was to be invited.  Not only did the evening sound like my perfect night out, but they picked me because they liked the look of my blog, and that is a massive compliment.  Think my smile says it all…

So last Wednesday I spent all day getting everything sorted for the babysitter to come at 5.30pm.  My day was meticulously planned and during the final hour when I had the most to do my youngest daughter managed to smash a glass with squash in it all over the kitchen and whilst I was clearing that up my 18 month old was scribbling black felt pen on my cream living room curtains.  It all got a bit stressful but I managed to catch my train with one minute to spare and thoroughly enjoyed the ride into the big smoke.  It did not take me too long to leave my day behind and I got off the train feeling a bit more like Fleur rather than stressed Mummy.

Tesco Real Food is a free foodie magazine that you can pick up at your local Tesco store, and to celebrate the Jubilee they have published a special edition with a selection of Jubilee street party recipes.  At the masterclass myself and 4 other bloggers got to cook 5 of the featured recipes.   Here’s who did what:

• Chicken tikka drummers (Kerry who writes Multiple Mummy)
• Coronation coleslaw (Tara who writes Hanwell Nest)
• Red, white and blue trifle (Claire who writes Crumbs)
• English breakfast quiche (Michelle who writes Utterly Scrumptious)
• Three pea and wensleydale salad (me )

All recipes can be found via this online edition of the Real Food magazine

After a introductory chat with Rosalind Rathouse the founder of The Cookery School where the event was being hosted, we set to work under her watchful eye. This was actually my second visit to The Cookery School having been there the first time to take part in the Katie Fforde Recipe for Love bake off, and I was not disappointed.  Rosalind was a fountain of knowledge and casually worked alongside everyone making sure that all 5 dishes were being made in the correct way at the right time.  She even showed us how to make fresh custard, a fatless sponge and shortcrust pastry.  All of which take literally take 5 mins to make.  Rosalind also impressed me by staying cool as a cucumber when I informed her that I was vegetarian.  She came up with ways in which a vegetarian version of all the recipes could be made without any hesitation at all.

One of the highlights for me was bringing all our dishes together on the table and tucking in with a glass of wine to wash it all down with.  It was a great selection of food.  My favorite being the salad,  (of course).  It was so easy to make and I would never have thought to use so many types of pea in one salad.  We actually ended up blanching the little peas just to give a slightly different flavour and texture to the salad which I think was an improvement on the recipe.  I liked it so much that I ended up going back to the bowl for another helping more than once!  The quiche was also delicious.  It had tomato sauce spread on the bottom of the pastry before the egg mixture went in and I though this was a super idea.  You could really taste the tomatoes which was a great flavour combination with the egg and mushrooms.  Then there was the trifle.  Our version had the homemade custard and with all the fresh fruit too, it was simply divine.

I have to say I was very impressed with whole evening and the food especially.  When the invite came entitled ‘Jubilee Street Party Cooking Masterclass’ I was expecting a sausage roll to feature somewhere, but not one in sight…thank goodness. I also loved meeting the other bloggers.  So refreshing to talk face to face and get to know each other that way.

One final thing to mention is that Tesco Real Food would love people to upload any of their Jubilee street party food to the community section of their website.  Anyone who does upload a recipe will go in a draw to win prizes including the weekend cookery course for two at the Ashburton Cookery School, so I thought it was definitely worth mentioning.  I shall be uploading my elderflower and white chocolate victoria sponge recipe as soon as I get this blog post published.

With thanks to the lovely Sarah from Cedar, Tesco Real Food and The Cookery School.

P.S. Behind the scenes I’ve been working really hard with my lovely brother Liam as we are creating a new look ‘Homemade by Fleur’ blog.  I’m taking the plunge and moving to self hosted and I’m getting myself a little redesign in the process.  Look out for the big reveal in a couple of weeks!

Tagged chicken tikka drummers, cooking masterclass, correnation coleslaw, english breakfast quiche, Jubilee Street party recipes, Rosalind Rathouse, Tesco Real Food, The Cookery School, three pea and wensleydale salad, trifle