Page 86 of A Recipe for Love
The two young mums nodded approvingly.
The next stage of Bella’s introduction was a little more Lowbridge specific. ‘And the fish pie has black pepper in it, so when we get to that point you will see that…’ She opened a cupboard and pulled out a pepper grinder. ‘All the pepper grinders have these neon stickers on them so they’re easy to spot.’
Her students exchanged bemused glances.
In for a penny, Bella thought. ‘One of the joys of cooking at somewhere like Lowbridge Castle is that you’re in a kitchen that’s been in use for hundreds of years. That means that we are…’ She couldn’t quite believe she was saying this. ‘Apparently, haunted. And one of our ghosts, Poppy, does enjoy hiding the pepper. She’s harmless apart from that but do please keep an eye on your seasonings.’
Fortunately this warning was met with laughter rather than horror. Bella pressed on.
‘And then for dessert, a classic chocolate fudge cake. So this is a spin on a basic cake recipe, which is something every cook should have, but we’re going to posh it up a bit with ganache icing so you can heat it up for thirty seconds in the microwave when you get home and serve it as a warm fudge cake.’
‘Oooh!’ Jill sounded delighted. ‘I love chocolate.’
Everyone loved chocolate. That was very much why Bella had chosen it. And across the meal she’d got in a good range of skills for her students to have a go at, but nothing, she hoped, that wouldn’t be achievable in the time available. She wanted everyone to go home, not only with an edible meal, but also with a sense of achievement and enthusiasm for cooking more. She clapped her hands together to curtail the chocolate chit-chat. ‘Right. First up, puff pastry. We’re going to be making rough puff, which is a little bit more straightforward than doing it the fancy way, and honestly it comes out just as good.’
She started her demo round, reminding herself to work in order and talk through what she was doing as she did it. ‘The most important ingredient in any puff pastry is cold. As soon as things get too warm your pastry will start sticking and you won’t be able to roll it out. That’s why we’re starting the pastry first, even though the pinwheels won’t go in the oven until much later. We’re going to roll and turn and roll and turn and then pop it in the fridge and do something else, and then come back for another round of rolling and turning. Basically every time you finish a task during the day, I want you to go and check on your pastry, and if it’s cold enough, give it another roll and another turn.’
She set everyone to make their pastry dough and do their first roll and turn. Veronica and Darcy were sent to the second prep kitchen, or scullery as Flinty called it. Bella had a moment of pleasure at the thought of banishing Veronica to the scullery. Claire and Cath went to work in the bakery. Flinty went with them and, straight away, having another person who knew their way around a rolling pin proved invaluable as they both moved from station to station unsticking too warm pastry from worktops and stopping over enthusiastic hands from dropping in tablespoons of salt where only half-teaspoons were required.
By the time everyone’s pastry was in the fridge and the group had reassembled for their second lesson, Bella was still pretty much on schedule and starting to relax into her role. Potato preparation was dull. There was no way around that, but Bella did her best to frame it as a basic kitchen skill that everyone should have, and as a chance to develop and hone your knife skills. Good knife skills were an absolute foundation of confident – but also safe – cooking. And her kitchen knives – carefully wrapped and stowed in Adam’s hold luggage – had made the journey from Spain to Scotland with her. She talked the group quickly through the basic set.
‘What knives should we have at home?’ Pavel asked.
‘He’s happy now he can buy himself something shiny,’ Jill joked.
‘You don’t need all of these. A good chef’s knife, as big as you can comfortably work with, is the main thing. That’s the most versatile, and if you get a decent one and look after it, it’ll last you for years. Decades even.’ Bella smiled at the impressed ‘ooh’ sound that came from the group and she swiped her blade across her sharpening steel. She held up the steel. ‘With that in mind, worth buying one of these as well. You can start slowly with it.’ She demonstrated the movement at a quarter of her normal pace. ‘But a sharp knife is much, much safer in your hand than a blunt one.’
The group started peeling and chopping their potatoes and putting them to boil in salted water. Bella took a stroll around their different stations to see who remembered what to do next. Claire and Cath were definitely her star pupils. As soon as the potatoes were in the pan Claire was wiping the bench down and Cath was collecting their pastry squares from the fridge for another round of rolling out.
Katy and Molly were just as enthusiastic but noticeably less skilled. ‘Is this right miss?’
‘You can call me Bella,’ she laughed, peering at the pair’s pastry square. ‘It looks OK.’
‘It’s all lumpy though.’
Bella took the rolling pin and gently pressed the dough. ‘Oh, so it is.’ She prodded with her fingertip and scanned the ingredients left on the worktop. ‘You’ve still got your butter left.’
Molly gaped. ‘Then what did we put in the pastry? We cut it into little cubes like you said.’
The little cubes were, on closer inspection, poking through the dough. Bella stifled a giggle. ‘That’s cheese.’
Both girls’ faces fell.
‘It’s OK.’
‘It’s not,’ said Katy. ‘I said it felt too hard.’
‘We did bad!’ exclaimed her sister.
‘Nothing to worry about. Look. Why don’t you roll out my pastry? It’s mostly spare. I’ll just have to nick it back at the end when I show people how to roll the wheels.’
Molly looked crestfallen. ‘Are we the worst you’ve ever taught?’
Bella considered her answer. ‘Well it’s my very first lesson. I’m sure I’ll have much much worse next time,’ she lied. ‘Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how we learn.’
‘I bet most people know the difference between cheese and butter though,’ Katy pointed out.
Bella left them to it, and popped the kettle on for their mid-morning refreshments, to be served with the pinwheels she’d made the night before, so everyone could see what they were aiming for. Flinty came up next to her with a tray of cups and a plate for the pinwheels. ‘Are you warming the pastries?’
