Braised pork belly

This was one of my favourite dishes of the course and will definitely be appearing on my menus in the future. The pork belly was meltingly soft, the crackling was salty and crunchy (mmmm salt), whilst the flavours of the mushroom/chorizo accompaniment mingled together with a little paprika kick. Oh and it looks wicked too. I love the way the colours all seem to have come from the same paint chart.

Mmmmille feuille

Technically this isn't a mille feuille, it is a trois feuille but I don't think we need to worry too much about that. I've been feeling very French the last couple of weeks, perhaps due to the high levels of salt, butter and cream coursing through my veins.

Anyway, where were we? I'd usually do this with plain shortbread and strawberries in the summer but this is a lovely variation to use when berries are out of season. Shame on you people buying soft fruit out of season (very close relatives of mine, mentioning no names W** J**, bad food karma for you).

Week 2 @ Ashburton - Red mullet nicoise

So it's back to the stove for my second week of training at Ashburton. What a great dish to start the week with. The colours are just fantastic! Oh and it tasted pretty good too.

We had a new chef today, Stuart. He is lovely. Here he is putting the finishing touches to our main for the evening tasting.

Final dishes - Surf n Turf and Lemon tart

Ponce about for long enough with your presentation and this is what you get (oh and slightly cold food in my case). Beany tomatoey stew into little piles, topped with crispy fried mackerel, slices of pork belly and all finished with a meaux mustard sauce.........oh and don't forget to crush the crackling and add that as sprinkles (ooh I like my sprinkles). Ta daaa! Perhaps Gordon Ramsey should change his catchphrase from 'Done!' to 'Ta daaaaa!'

Nestling in that group as we all looked on in amazement........Penny was putting the perfect brulee crunchy top onto our lemon tart.

The finished lemon tart

Ooh what a motley crew. Here you can see our group in their full.........errmm.......glory

Day 5 - Fish fish fish

We had a new boss today, David. He showed us how to fillet flat and round fish, prepare squid and scallops.

I loved preparing the squid.......hmmm I enjoyed eating it even more though. The tentacles are absolutely the best bit. Pan-fried very quickly with a splash of sweet chilli sauce added at the end.

Ready for a squid fact??? Course you are! Squid is the most widely eaten seafood on the entire planet, so there you go.

Creme success!

Now look very closely at this creme brulee.............notice anything strange or different about it?

For those of you that our chef Darrin didn't phone to tell the momentous news.............the vanilla seeds are evenly distributed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I bet you're kicking yourselves now. Usually the seeds all fall to the bottom of the dish as the brulee cooks and solidifies. Darrin had a little experiment with these ones and his theory was a success. Of course I would tell you how he did but then I'd have to kill you.

Vegetarians and Weight Watchers.......look away now!

What a classic dish. Fillet steak, proper chips, roasted mushroom, tomato and onions......plus a 'drizzle' of bearnaise sauce.

Apologies to anyone sat near us in the pub that night. We had a long discussion on chip cooking methods, thrilling stuff!

Ooh let's have another look at those little beauties