Task 23: Go on a cookery course

[I wrote this post in late May but delayed publishing it until now, as I didn't want the guests at my fundraising dinner (task 31) to find out what I was planning to give them!]

Many people might consider going on a cookery course a treat. For me, it comes close to being in the Face the Fear section. I spend as little time as possible in the kitchen and left to my own devices, would probably exist on a diet of bread, cheese, nuts and fruit (and a smidge or three of red wine). It's not that I don't enjoy food. I do, very much, but I just can't be bothered to cook it. Not surprisingly the general view seems to be that I should get a grip, and that going on a cookery course had to be included in my list of challenges.

Luckily one of my neighbours, Margaret, trained classically as a chef and a patissiere in 3*** Michelin restaurants, and runs cookery courses from her home. Michel Roux is godfather to her daughter. She is also a restaurant critic, food and wine writer and has her own cooking school and catering company - Mashed and Smashed. Who better to teach me how to prepare a fundraising dinner for eight (my task 31), with some excellent advice along the way, such as how to cut an onion without crying and how to prepare garlic for someone who normally finds it difficult to digest:

Margaret removing the sprouty green inner section of garlic

We met first to discuss my skills and experience and then, moving swiftly on, the sort of dinner I had in mind. I ruled out fish as a main dish, as I dislike fiddling about with bones, and baba ganoush as I'm not keen on heavily smoked flavours. Margaret suggested focusing on chicken and vegetarian food with a Moroccan bias and lots of colour, with dishes that could all be made in advance, which sounded just what I was after. We agreed a date, allowing a month before the fundraising dinner so that I could fit in a dry run, and all was set.

Last Monday I went round to her house and received an exuberant welcome from her dog, Raggly. Margaret had already bought all the ingredients and we got cracking with five hours' solid cooking, not even stopping for lunch. I don't think I've ever spent more than 2 hours straight in a kitchen in my life, so this was definitely a first. In total, with Margaret's advice and guidance, I made tzatziki, hummus, beetroot dip (a Hassan M'Souli recipe), chicken and apricot tagine, root vegetable tagine (a Yotam Ottolenghi vegan recipe), couscous with black olives, flaked almonds and pomegranate seeds, chocolate brownies and individual lemon filo pastries. All the quantities were for 8 people except the chicken and apricot tagine, so I must remember to double the quantity of that when it comes to the dinner.

Tzatziki

Hummus

Root vegetable tagine

On the home straight - making the lemon cream

The end result!

To my surprise - amazement, really - I thoroughly enjoyed the course and the time flew by. One thing I'll have to bear in mind when it comes to the dinner is that unlike Margaret, I don't have anything like enough experience in preparing multiple dishes at the same time, so the whole process will take me a lot longer. I noticed that Margaret wasn't using a pinger at all but she said it wasn't necessary as she was always keeping an eye on how things were going in the oven. In my case I think I'll need to find several pingers with different alarm tones, to try to keep track of it all. Either that, or resign myself to having to cook each dish separately, which will take twice as long.

By the time this post appears, I will already have done the dinner.  Gulp....