New cookery school timetable

The new timetable....it's here....covering May through to November with loads of classes. We've got a new guest tutor, Joan Mowat from Tanroagan Seafood Restaurant, who will be joining us on Saturday 2nd October. Plus I'm teaching got a new class 'Just Desserts' on Saturday 16th October.

The school is also available for private hire, perfect for special occasions or just a fun day out with friends.

Vegetarian Cooking – Part One
Saturday 8th May – 9.30am to 2.30pm
You will be introduced to a variety of vegetarian ingredients and flavourings for both sweet and savoury dishes and show how vegetarian meals can be interesting and delicious as well as nutritious. Dishes include Sweetcorn fritters, Massaman curry, Blue cheese biscuits and Wild garlic frittata.

Midweek Meal Masterclass – Part 2
Sunday 9th May – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Such a popular course we're running Part 2. Add new meals to your day-to-day repertoire such as Lemon and garlic chicken, Lamb tagine and Braised pork belly with fennel. You don't need to attend Part One before Part Two

Breadmaking with Liz from The Good Loaf
Sunday 23rd May – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Guest tutor Liz Devereau, expert baker, returns to show us the art of traditional breadmaking. Learn how to make and knead the dough, shape 6 different breads from 1 simple dough and take a huge bag of goodies home with you. Plus a simple foccacia and savoury scones, an action packed class with lots of hands-on work.

Midweek Meal Masterclass – Part 3
Saturday 11th September – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Due to demand we're running Part 3. Add new meals to your day-to-day repertoire such as Cumin scented chicken curry, Chorizo and red onion warmer, Chicken and squash one-pot and Choc chip cookies. You don't need to attend Part 1 or 2 before Part 3.

Gujurathi cooking with Meena - Part One
Saturday 18th September – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Meena returns showing us the essentials of cooking from the Indian state of Gujarat. Learn your base of Shak (curry), Dhal, Lassi plus how to roll Chappatis like a pro (Meena's Auntie!)

Cook with Joan from Tanroagan
Saturday 2nd October – 9.30am to 2.30pm
We’re delighted to welcome Joan Mowat, owner of Tanraogan Seafood Restaurant, as our newest guest tutor. Final details are just being confirmed however this class will feature a starter, main and dessert adapted from the restaurant menu.

Introduction to Thai Cooking
Sunday 3rd October – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Kathryn teaches Thai dishes inspired by her travels to the North of Thailand. Featuring Massaman curry, Red curry with duck and bamboo shoots, Tom yam, plus the delicious Mango sticky rice.

Just Desserts
Saturday 16th October – 9.30am to 2.30pm
A brand new class, in homage to Kathryn’s finely honed sweet tooth. You’ll learn the secrets of Crème brulee, Chocolate bread and butter pudding plus sweet pastry in the form of Mango and lime tart.

Gujarathi Cooking with Meena - Part Two 'Street Food'
Saturday 6th November – 9.30am to 2.30pm
Meena returns to show us the ‘junk food’ of India. Delicious street food including Samosas, Pakoras, Chutneys and Chai. You don't need to complete Part One before attending Part Two.

• All courses are £79 per person - includes recipe booklet and lunch
• Class sizes limited to 6 attendees
• Gift vouchers are available for all of our courses
• Please bring an apron and sharp knife with you, we provide everything else

Hopefully see you soon at the school,

Kathryn @ Relish

E: info@relish.co.im W: http://www.relish.co.im T: 07624 453324 B: relishiom.blogspot.com

Relish news - Dates for your diary

Hi Everyone,

As usual life is busy in the Relish corner of the world. Research trips to London and more recently Harrogate, oh and loads of actual real work too. For a peek at what I got up to in Harrogate as a pupil at Bettys Cookery School check out the post below

So you want to know what's coming up over the next few weeks?

First up, Saturday 27th March. Milntown House will be hosting their 2nd restaurant evening. On the menu are dishes such as Carpaccio of beef, Confit duck with juniper reduction, Chocolate bread and butter pudding, hmmmm I promise that not all of their dishes begin with 'c'. For more information or to make a booking contact Jen on 818091.

On Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) and Saturday 3rd April, from 10am to 3pm, Paddy's in Port St Mary is holding a special two-day Easter Market, showcasing the best and most delicious produce the Isle of Man has to offer. There'll be stalls with mouth-watering treats, freshly-made food and drink to go, live music and Easter-themed activities for the family. Just a few of the treats to choose from: Cocoa Red chocolates, The Good Loaf, Staarvey Farm, Ellerslie Oil, Radcliffe's Butcher, Marianne's Flowers, continental cheese and charcuterie selection, plus all of Paddy's usual delicious fresh and smoked fish. Oh and I'll be there too, selling Indian street food under the watchful eye of Meena!

Heading into May the cookery classes rev up again:

Saturday 8th May - Vegetarian Cooking - including Massaman curry, Blue cheese and poppy seed biscuits and wild garlic frittata

Sunday 9th May - Midweek Meals II - including Lemon and garlic chicken, Braised pork belly with fennel and Linguine with prawn and avocado.

Sunday 23rd May - Breadmaking with Liz from The Good Loaf - learn how to knead and shape like a pro. Including 2 kneading techniques, 6 different shapes and a simple foccacia.

Have a great Easter,

Kathryn @ Relish

Bettys Cookery School - Patisserie Course

Wee Jan and I were treated to this class for Christmas.....thank you Roger!


Here you can see Mum's thank you present for him. I must confess that her Sachertorte icing came out waaay better than mine. Mum also averted disaster when someone's tea towel caught fire!


Within the day we learnt Sacher torte; lemon & strawberry torte and a fresh fruit tartlet made with pâte sucrée & crème pâtissière


I think creme patissiere would feature in my 'Condemned Man' meal.

I'd highly recommend a tip to Bettys. We fitted a huge amount of technique into the day, had lovely lunch and were sent home absolutely laden with goodies.

Sarah's Girls - Private cookery lessons - Sticky Asian Pork

Sarah and her gang of girls from 'Hysteria Lane', Glen Vine invited me to teach them a set of 6 night classes. We've just done Week 2, so I thought you'd like to see some of the recipes.

The girls are all busy with families so we're focusing on easy family meals to begin with. So we had to have 'Sticky Asian Pork', this recipe is soooo quick to prepare and really really delicious. Please make it :o)

The sauce sounds weird but it works, trust me!

Sticky Asian Pork
Serves 4
Prep: 5 mins (plus marinating time)
Cook: 30 minutes

Ingredients
• 500g pork fillet
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp vinegar (rice or white wine)
• large knob of ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 tbsp peanut butter

Marinate the pork in the honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and ginger for anything from 0mins to overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, put the pork into an oven proof dish, cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes.
Mix the peanut butter thoroughly with warm water until it forms a paste. Alternatively you could use a satay sauce mix.

Cookery School - Midweek Meals II

A new set of victims arrived at the school on Saturday - Helene with Sue and Jean, Naomi and Alex. Several of them had been given the day as a Christmas present (a VERY good present hahaha). As the name suggests this class is all about giving you ideas for when you're brain dead after a hard day at work/chasing kids and need some sustenance.
On the menu:

• Lamb tagine with herby couscous
• Prawn and avocado linguine
• Crispy pork belly with fennel, served with braised cabbage
• Lemon and garlic chicken
• Cardamon and banana raita for puds

It was went swimmingly, everyone's dishes turned out really well. The Lamb Tagine came out top in the opinion poll.

The dessert got a mixed review, memories of biting into whole cardamon pods and just a plain old dislike of raisins, put a couple off. But we agreed that a substitute for cinnamon and leaving out the evil raisins would be perfectly acceptable.

Alex and Helen put the finishing touches to the dessert. Lovely sprinkling action.

Sorry everyone but I failed to get a photo of Alex in his cute kitten apron, d*mn! Maybe next time. Note to other men attending, if you wear your girlfriend's apron to class you will get stick for it.

And the winners are.......

The cookery school and Butlers Choice ran a joint competition over the summer to win either a special edition Global knife or a day at Relish Cookery School. The comptition had over 2000 entries from the agricultural shows and Food and Drink Festival. And the lucky winners were.....Kirsty Barber and Paula Elliott

Kirsty Barber, from Ballaugh, won the limited edition Global knife. Paula Elliott, was over from Ireland visiting family in the South of the island, won a day at Relish Cookery School.

Well done Ladies! I hope you enjoy your prizes

2010 timetable and catering menus...wahoooooo!

Well here's the moment you've all been waiting for....okay maybe not quite on the edge of your seats.......hanky at the ready X Factor Final...but not far off! It's the......da da da da da daaaaaaa......2010 cookery class timetable. Here are the classes timetabled so far: Midweek Meal Masterclass II, Gujurathi Cooking II, Oriental Delight, Vegetarian Cooking, Bread Making. Full class details can be found here. All classes are £75 and gift vouchers are available. Hey what a great Christmas present :o)

Next 'momentous' bit of news is that the Autumn/Winter catering menus are now available. Like the sound of Garlic Butter Popcorn? Fennel Crusted Pork Belly? Apple and Champagne Icecream? Just a few of the delicious new dishes on the menu. Relish specialises is catering for Weddings - Private Parties - Corporate Events. So give us a call and we'll provide delicious food for your event, large or small.

I'll leave you alone now to recover from the excitement,
Kathryn @ Relish

Relish - Cookery School and Outside Catering

W: http://www.relish.co.im/ T: 07624 464271 B: relishiom.blogspot.com

Bread Day @ Relish

A new class at the cookery school......yippee! Sunday was Bread Making Day with Liz from artisan bakery The Good Loaf. Our participants were: Angela and sister Jan, Marie and son Robbie, plus Andrea and Michelle.

The day began with two different methods for making a basic white loaf 1. The traditional British knead and fold 2. The noisy French twist and slap!

Next up: a simple 'no knead' foccacia topped with tomatoes and basil. Perfect for a party buffet!

After coffee break we discussed the essential bits of kit while making scones. Robbie has a dairy allergy so substituted the butter/milk and still got a great result.

Then it was time for my favourite bit. Shaping the dough. Liz showed us a huge variety from 1 simple white bread mix, let's hope I can remember them all: Baguette, Epi (a baguette variation, shown below), Simple Loaf, Twisted Breadsticks, Breadshots, Fougasse and Rolls

If you fancy a go, Liz is booked for a return visit on May 23rd 2010.....give me a call (07624 453324) or email info@relish.co.im to book a place

France......wahoooooooo

So Mitler and I have spent the last week in South West France at the 'Cook in France' cookery school. We didn;t really have any expectations....but were worried that there may be 'weird' people on the course. In the end we needn;t have worried about that.....all very nice, fairly normal people.

Sunday night was our welcome dinner. Up top you can see our main of confit duck, creamy mash and peas with a balsamic reduction. Oh I forgot to take piccies of our drinky nibbles, which included the delicious garlic butter popcorn. Dessert was pannacotta with figs and hazelnut biccies. What a great start to the week. We sat down for dinner with enough wine to sink a ship.....thanks to the fantastic efforts of all involved we had to send for reinforcements in the form of the miniatures from our rooms.....tut tut

Vive le croissant!

I head off on holiday tomorrow to.................a cookery school in France.....wahoooo! So expect a plethora of posting. Not taking laptop because being a Scroogey McScrooge I refuse to pay £millions extra for cabin baggage, so the plethora will occur on our return.

Here's where Mitler and I are off to www.cookinfrance.com leaving Stokesy and Jake to do whatever it is men do when they are alone *shudder*

Au revoir mes amies! I will try to use all 10 words of French that I know while I'm there :o)

IOM Today come to school

Rachel (shorthand expert), Annabelle (fishatarian), Mike (missed dessert!) and Gary (queenie virgin) from IOM Newspapers came to the school today to photo and film me teaching them a couple of recipes. They requested local + seasonal....so that's what they got. Who says I can't do as I'm told?!

I'll post links to the video and photos as soon as they're online.

On the menu:

1. Queenie stir-fry with spring onion, ginger and tiny carrots
2. Raspberry shortbread stack with blackcurrant puree

And for once I am actually going to provide you with proper recipes......here ya go...

Queenie stir-fry with spring onion and baby carrots - Serves 4

1 tbsp Ellerslie Farm rapeseed oil - from Pentti on 472717
1" root ginger finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
1 bunch baby Manx carrots - From Ken on 880370
2 bunches Manx spring onions finely sliced - from Bry Radcliffe
24 Manx Queenies - from Desmonds in Ramsey
50ml soy sauce
50ml water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, add the garlic, ginger, carrots and spring onion and fry for a minute or two until softened. Then add the queenies and cook for a further 2 minutes until they have browned slightly, add the soy and water, taste and more water or soy if required then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Eat immediately.

Delicate shortbread biscuits - Makes 25

170g white plain flour - Laxey Glen Mills
110g butter - IOM Creameries
55g sugar

Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the butter. Gather the mixture together and knead lightly. Roll out to 7mm thick. Cut into rounds with a 6cm cutter. Bake in the oven at 180˚C for 8-15 minutes depending on thickness. These biscuits burn very easily so keep a close eye on them.

Serve layered with whipped double cream, soft fruit and fruit coulis. Thank you for Ken Maynard for the lovely fruit too, blackcurrants and raspberries. Thank you to the sparrows for leaving me some!

Queenie Festival....including celeb chefs woohoooo!

Pictures courtesy of Isle of Man Queenie Festival

Queenie Festival 09 was a great success. I was taking care of the Food Theatre where we had a load of queenie/seafood demos. A big thank you to Butlers Choice (ask for Sue on 614805) for sponsoring the demo kitchen, they provided Global knives (yes, you should be jealous), Le Creuset pans, Induction hobs and loads more.

On stage we had Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, top seafood chefs from the UK. There are loads of photos here on flickr. We also had Joan from Tanroagan showing us Queenie Pie with samphire, Anne from The Wine Cellar matching wine and seafood, Paul from Moore's smokehouse with his kippers and crab, plus the Laxey School recipe book crew including their star chef Richard.

DTL Girls - NIght out at Relish

The girls from DTL (Dept of Tourism and Leisure) came over to Relish on Friday night for some R&R. This came in the form of Massaman curry and Chocolate Truffles......plus they got to check out Stokesy in his pinny. Down girls!

We started with a chocolate tasting, well they had been at work all day, I didn't want any of them fainting on me. Next we made the curry paste and did veg prep. Then they learnt the secrets of seasoning Thai-style. A sprinkling of coriander, roasted peanuts and perfectly sliced limes completed the dish.

After dinner the girls shaped then dipped the truffles in more chocolate, making sure they did plenty of tasting along the way. Now that's what I call a Friday night!

Summer events on IOM

Summer is approaching and with it a whirlwind of food events. Yippee!

I Love ManxChef - Get involved with this fantastic cookery competition and show us what you can do with local produce. I know that lots of you have been to the cookery school and would be perfect for this. So just go to http://www.ilovemanx.org/ download an application form and I'll see you at the heats.

New timetable - Yes it's that time of year, the new cookery school timetable is here. With loads of dates, brand new classes and a new teacher for our bread-making class (hi Liz). Check it out at www.relish.co.im/cook_school.html

Queenie Festival - We're doing the final date of the Queenie Roadshow @ Tin Bath Championships this Saturday. Then it's all down to Port St Mary for a whole week of queenie activity including Seafood Theatre on Saturday 4th July 11-5pm, I'll be hosting and celebrity chefs Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, specialists in all things marine will be hands-on and giving us queenie-inspiration. For details of the week-long event go to http://www.queeniefestival.com/

Manx Food Fair @ Tynwald Day - 6th July 2-5pm - Get yourself down to the DAFF Forestry Headquarters in St. Johns for food stalls, demonstrations and tastings from local suppliers. I advise coming with an empty stomach.

My dedication to work knows no bounds, so I have been tirelessly testing and consuming kilos of local produce to prepare for the food shows over the summer. Last night's success was Mushroom and Pak Choi Stir-fry. Mushrooms from Greeba Farm via Shoprite, Pak Choi from Dot (Purely Plants Produce) via the Ramsey Farmers Market.

Ingredients - Serves 2
2 large handfuls of mushrooms - thinly sliced
1 head of pak choi - roughly chopped
Splash of sunflower oil, soy sauce, worcester sauce, sweet chilli sauce
Sesame seeds

Method
Heat your oil in a big frying pan. Add the veggies and all of your splashes, keep stirring. Add a splash of water a put a lid on your pan for 3 minutes. Remove lid, sprinkle with sesame seeds and devour.

Apologies for the misty looking photo, steam was causing me issues!

Daily Mail visit to Relish

A journalist from the Daily Mail was over on the Island last weekend. As part of her tour of the island she got to spend an evening with me and an assortment of people from the food industry. Lucky her! Here's what we had:

Beer Tasting – The Manx Pure Beer Act of 1874 prohibits the use of anything other than malt, sugar, hops, yeast and water. Local breweries Bushy’s and Okells work within these guidelines to produce a vast array of beers

Hot smoked salmon – Award winning hot smoked salmon from Island Seafare
Horseradish cream – dug out of the ground this morning by Robin of Purely Plants Produce
Green salad – grown in the Relish kitchen garden
Salad dressing – utilising cold pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil grown and processed at Ellerslie Farm in Crosby. A brand new product.

Arabian rack of lamb – A pure and natural habitat combined with excellent animal husbandry, all found on our Island, produces the best quality meat. Provided by Isle of Meats and butchered by Mark at Teare’s Butchers
Carrot, cumin and coriander salad – organic herbs from Staarvey Farm
Spiced potatoes – the first week of new potatoes on the Island

Gooey meringues – local free range eggs from Dot @ Purely Plants Produce
Rhubarb compote – from a green fingered friend
Softly whipped cream – Isle of Man Creameries is a co-operative, operating since 1934. It produces outstanding milk, cream and most recently, an award winning range of cheeses.

Chocolates – newly developed chocolate creations from Cocoa Red
Unfortunately I was too tied up to take loads of photos, but above is a recreation of the rack of lamb (with different side dishes, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted). Hopefully her visit to the school will sneak its way into an article somewhere

Relish newsletter - June events

Summer events, news and recipes

Well it's all go here at Relish. Apologies for news drought, I know that people have been waiting impatiently beside their inboxes for the latest goings-on.

Queenie Roadshow - TT Week - On behalf of Tim Croft at Island Seafare (your man for queenies and gorgeous hot smoked salmon on the island) I will be undertaking a cooking tour of the island. Armed only with a frying pan, several sharp knives and, of course, some queenies I'll be showing people ways to enjoy this wonderful, local, sustainable product. Dates include: Peel Day on Mad Sunday, the Grandstand (Monday 8th June) and Ramsey Sprint (Tuesday 9th).

Isle of Man Queenie Festival - 29th June - 4th July - I'll be doing another lap of the island with the Queenie Roadshow to build up for Marine Week. Then it's down to Port St Mary for the Manx Queenie Recipe Challenge (3rd July). I'll be hosting the competition as 2 finalists battle it out to be crowned King of the Queenies. For full details and to enter your recipe go to http://www.queeniefestival.com/

Food Theatre @ Queenie Festival - 4th July - To be found down on the quay in Port St Mary. Yours truly will be hosting the day and cooking too. Also showing us how it's done will be Joan from Tanroagan Restaurant, whilst The Wine Cellar will be there to do some seafood-friendly wine matching. Other chefs to be confirmed..........maybe even some off the telly.....oooh I say celebrities!

Manx Food Fair @ Tynwald Day - 6th July - What a great weekend for foodies on the Island! To rounding off the weekend head to Tynwald for more Food Theatre featuring Ellerslie Oil, Greeba Mushrooms, Tanroagan, Island Seafare, Friends of Laxey School with their recipe book, oh plus that girl from Relish will be cooking and hosting. She gets around that girl!

So I hope to see some of you at the events, no heckling please!

Kathryn
Cookery School and Outside Catering
T: 07624 453324
E: info@relish.co.im
W: www.relish.co.im

Cookery School - Victoria's birthday

Victoria's friends (from left - Tracy, Trudi, Rosemary + Glenna) arranged a surprise birthday present for her.......for all of them to attend the cookery school for the afternoon. They had a busy session ahead of them covering......Poppy seed + blue cheese biscuits, Pea + ham tart, Massaman curry, Mini pavlovas and Chocolate truffles to finish.

The girls took on various roles. I think it's fair to say that some were more of the supervisory nature (!) whilst others were in the 'flour up to the elbows' department. Victoria got special dispensary though as she had had her nails done......oh and of course it was her birthday.

Mmmm Massaman curry. Everyone loved learning how to taste/season the curry with fish sauce/lemon/chilli/sugar at the end. Making the difference between a good curry and a great one.Here's the birthday girl...............showing off the mini pavlovas, perfectly decorated by her and Trudi.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and went home well fed and watered. When I asked Glenna what she had gained from the course, she said 'Five pounds!' hahahahaha

Cookery School - Jenny + friends

Jenny and her intrepid followers (Trudi, Simon and Clint) had a day at my cookery school on Sunday. Lucky them! They'd thought long and hard about what they wanted to learn and decided to go for broke with some technical dishes. The day started with slow braising the pork for the main course, making pasta dough for the starter, filleting the fish (with the aid of my special examination gloves) and then a quick break with some Thai noodle soup (it's important to keep your strength up).

Here Jenny and Simon team up to roll out some perfect sheets of ravioli......there was very little marital squabbling which is very different from my house!

The first dish we worked towards was 'Open ravioli with poached trout, creamed peas + lettuce, topped with a dill foam'.......so nice and simple ;o) Everyone worked together to get the dish out. Trudi + Clint on pasta, trout and foam duties. Jenny + Simon doing the honours with the creamed peas and lettuce. As you can see from the picture it was a success. Layers of light pasta with delicate trout and vegetables in between. A lovely summer dish. Nice work team!

Next up.......Slow braised pork with pan-fried gurnard, plus a nice beany tomato-ey stew with a grain mustard sauce and lovely crispy crackling. Did the team keep it together and get another perfect dish out??? Course they did! This time Jenny + Simon were on fish duty whilst Trudi + Clint put the sauce together.

I think Clint was just checking that he had the biggest portion..........very sensible.

A good day for all involved :o)

Beautiful Buns

Saturday daytime was 'Beautiful Buns' day. Learning the art of baking was: Anna, Angela, Viv and Callum. On the menu......Rhubarb and Ginger Upside-down cake, savoury scones, shortbread cookies, pastry turned into Pea and Ham tart and Torta di Ciocolatta (Italian style tiffin). Needless to say it all turned out perfectly and a good time was had by all.

Pea and Ham tart with lovely crispy/crumbly pastry