Was It A Good Weekend?

Is what everyone keeps asking me.....and on reflection.....yes I think it was.

Saturday went really well and Sunday was really busy too, if a little hot and humid.....although we did have a slight problem with somebody altering the space time continuum!! Robin, Jorge, Marc H and I had been talking for Britain for what seemed like hours....the cookery was going O.K. but I was sure that we were getting to the stage when it wouldn't be worthwhile starting a new dish as we'd have to stop using the burners soon to give them a chance to cool down so that we could put them away......just had to check the time to confirm it then work out what to do for the hour or so that was left in the day............or so I thought! A check of the time found out that it was in fact only just coming up to 1.00 and there was still 5 working hours left....I can tell you that came as quite a shock to us all, but did mean plenty of time to carry on talking and cooking for the crowds of people to see.

What did we cook? Well Marc tried the second variant of the pynade that he'd done the day before.....without the chicken in it. I'd like to say it was a terrific success but I think he'd agree with me that it didn't turn out too well....a touch overcooked and somewhat sticky (it took 2 of them to pull it off of the pewter bowl it had cooled in) but you could certainly see the potential in it (it's certainly not a dish for those of us with dodgy dental work....crowns and fillings watch out!)
Strawberye, applade ryalle and cawdelle ferry also made it into bowls for the public to see, but not I'm afraid all you lovely people as I failed to take any pictures on Sunday at all.....and you've seen the only good ones from Saturday. Even though it was hot and humid the light for most of Sunday was appalling in the kitchens and I couldn't get any decent pictures....maybe next time eh? The strawberye and applade ryalle were really pretty good and as we hardly touched them they went into the freezer ready to make an appearance on the Saturday dinner of the Bank Holiday weekend towards the end of the month....the cawdelle wasn't bad either (but won't stand freezing) taking Harold McGee's advice in his book 'On Cooking' we tried to get an end result like a zabaglione.....not easy with no whisk and direct heat, but it was still much better than the curdled egg gloop we've had with past attempts at caudles.

That's all for the moment as there's a huge storm brewing and it's time to disconnect the PC from the mains....can't have it getting popped by a power surge. I'll be posting more pictures from July as the week goes on, so stay tuned for the next moderately interesting episode.

Two For The Price Of One.

Yes you lucky people....nothing for ages the 2 in one day!
Cooking today was nice and relaxed, lots of great people to talk to (as well as the camera crew) who were interested and kept popping back through the day to see how we got on.
Did we make a lot? No not really...Robin and Jorge made the chicken dish they tried last time, Marc H made the chicken and honey dish Pynade and I made...

¶Longe Fretoure.
¶Take Milke, an make fayre croddes þer-of, in þe maner of a chese al tendyr; þan take owt þe whey as clene as þou may, & putte it on a bolle; þan take olkys of Eyroun & Ale, & menge floure, & cast þer-to, a gode quantyte, & draw it þorw a straynoure in-to a fayre vesselle; þan take a panne with fayre grece, & hete it on þe fyre, but lat it nowt boyle, & þan ley þin creme a-brode; þan take a knyff, & kytte a quantyte þer-of fro þe borde in-to þe panne, & efte a-noþer, & let it frye; & whan it is brownne, take it vppe in-to a fayre dyssche, and caste Sugre y-now þer-on, & serue forth.

Just for a try I made 2 batches one with the curds and one with the whey, mostly because it looke slightly ambiguous as to wether you added the flour and egg to the curd or whey.....passing the recipe around for people to read it was almost 50:50 as to which people thought we should use so it seemed worth and experiment.
This is the final results with the whey variety on the left and the curd on the right

As it turned out the whey ones tasted much nicer....not that there was anything wrong with the curd ones, but the slighly acid/cheesy edge to them just seemed to jar with our tastebuds.
Marcs dish that he made..

¶Pynade.
¶Take Hony & gode pouder Gyngere, & Galyngale, & Canelle, Pouder pepir, & graynys of parys, & boyle y-fere; þan take kyrnelys of Pynotys & caste þer-to; & take chyconys y-soþe, & hew hem in grece, & caste þer-to, & lat seþe y-fere; & þen lat droppe þer-of on a knyf; & if it cleuyth & wexyth hard, it ys y-now; & þen putte it on a chargere tyl it be cold, & mace lechys, & serue with oþer metys; & if þou wolt make it in spycery, þen putte non chykonys þer-to.

turned out well and I'm off to go and try some now.......if they've left any in the bowl.

Episode 6: The Germans...

I wasn't looking forward to today....another film crew in with us....from Germany again (they seem to be like busses, nothing for ages then an article in Die Ziet and they're swarming like flies....to mix my metaphores!)
The signs weren't good.....messages on the phone that if they were written would probably look like....'hellothisisUlitheGermantelevisioniamlookingforwardtoseeingyouthisweekendandneedtotalk'
well you get the idea, so amidst much Fawlty Towers style humor we awaited the onslaught and tried to work out how we would get through the day. The last film crew were a little 'full on' and we were braced for the worst.

Imagine though the best crew in the world....ever! Keen to listen, learn and not get in the way.

It was a refreshing change to watch an interviewer talk to one of the guys, genuinely listen to the answer then use that information to pose questions to the public watching us in the kitchen.......my apologies for ever doubting them and come back soon guys, you were a pleasure to work with.