River Cottage One Day Cookery Course - Review
Posted on: 2017-04-26
Our rating:
A one-day experience of River Cottage, packed with information, inspiration and amazing food.
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I really love learning new things, so when I was offered the chance to go to River Cottage HQ and do one of their cookery courses, I could barely type ‘yes please!’ fast enough. I had my pick of the cookery courses and picking one was really tricky as there are so many amazing options. I decided to go for the One Day Cookery Course as it covers a range of skills, some of which I had never tried before, so I knew there would be lots to learn.
The drive to River Cottage HQ from Bristol takes you through some absolutely gorgeous countryside, and it’s definitely possible to travel there and back in a day. Alternatively, you could make a bit of a mini-break out of it and stay in Axminster, or nearby Lyme Regis.
The cottage itself is nestled in a valley at the bottom of a winding track, so cars park at the top and the River Cottage staff come and collect the attendees for a tractor trailer ride down the main site. I honestly felt quite giddy with glee seeing the beautiful setting, including lots of newborn lambs in the surrounding fields.
The main site consists of the cottage (which will be familiar to anyone who has seen any of the River Cottage TV programmes, or read any of the cook books) and then a series of new building and converted barns. The cookery school is housed in one of the new buildings, and has stunning views over the fields. In the barn there’s a little shop where you can buy River Cottage goodies, and it’s also where River Cottage hold weddings and events.
The course begins with a drink and a snack while the staff run through the timings of the day, and explain the dishes that we will be cooking. The dishes will vary depending on the catch of fish that day, and also the time of year.
Our first job was to make the bread. I love making bread, although I must admit I am very lazy and mostly use the bread maker these days. I have very fond memories of making it at home as a child, and leaving it by the fire to rise (despite how this sounds, I am actually a child of the 1980’s rather than the 1880’s). I was very surprised to hear that bread can actually be left to rise in the fridge! We made bread with very wet dough. It was fascinating feeling the texture of the dough change as I kneaded it. After the bread was suitable stretchy, we popped it into its proving basket and into the fridge.
Next, we moved onto making chocolate fondant. Chocolate fondant is one of my all time favourite puddings, and it’s one of those things where you vaguely hear that it’s hard to do... Spoiler; it isn’t! True, we had the luxury of having all the ingredients prepped for us, but the method is not hard at all. Once made, this too was popped into the fridge for later.
Now it was time for a little wander around the site to go and visit the animals and to pick some salad leaves for lunch. It honestly felt like some sort of pastoral dream; the weather was glorious, little chicks were cheeping away in their cosy hutch (they were very young and still needed the heat lamp to keep them warm) and the pigs were lazing around in the sun. The poly tunnels were packed full of plants in orderly rows, and despite being able to seemingly kill my own plants simply by looking at them, I suddenly found myself wanting to buy a farm and move to the countryside...
Next up was back to the teaching room and onto the bit I was scared of; filleting fish! The fish had already been gutted for us, but were otherwise untouched. While I love eating fish, I’m a bit squeamish about preparing it and I always buy it ready prepped, usually in the little bags that you can get at the supermarket where it’s all tidily sealed ready for the oven... I think this point in the day was probably my steepest learning curve. After initially being a bit of a wuss about touching the fish, I soon got to grips with it (both literally and figuratively) and managed to de-scale the lemon sole, and to cut four fillets of varying neatness. Two of the fillets we then made into our lunch, and two went off to be smoked, alongside the roe we removed from the fish.
Lunch was ‘Chinese fish parcels’ with the fillets of sole sitting on top of thinly sliced veg, with a spoonful of Asian broth ladled on top then baked. Luckily, no origami-esque folding skills were needed, just very simple crimping, like you’d do with a pasty.
After lunch, it was time to shape the bread. Our tutor, Matt, showed us how to shape round loaf and a bloomer. The techniques are similar but the bloomer has a few more steps. The main purpose of the shaping is to ensure a taut feeling to the dough. We then put the dough back in the fridge for its second prove.
Next we watched Matt demonstrate how to cure fish, and he explained the methods for different kinds of smoking (hot and cold). The results were whisked away by the River Cottage team, reappearing later as hot smoked fish fillets on crackers, and taramasalata.
After the bread was put in the oven, it was time to move onto the ‘meat’ dish of the day; Merguez spiced lamb with cauliflower. I really enjoyed cooking this dish; it was really simple to do, but the flavours were incredible. Matt explained how to cook the meat to our liking, and mine came out perfectly. I would never typically cook something like this at home, but would order it when eating out, so I was surprised how easy it was to make.
Our day drew to a close with cooking our chocolate fondant. I was very pleased to see the requisite gooey middle! The River Cottage team brought out some homemade honeycomb and ice-cream to enjoy with our fondants.
The One Day Cookery Course is jam-packed with information, but you learn one dish at a time, so the day never feels rushed or overwhelming. The fact you don’t have to worry about measuring ingredients or on doing the washing up, means you really get to focus on honing your new skills. While cooking, you’re at an island which has four stations making it really easy to chat with the other attendees and check in with each other that you’re doing things right. There’s a good balance between watching the demos, cooking, and down time to eat what you’ve made, or just have a cup of tea and a chat. I left feeling quite amazed at how much we had crammed into the day, how much we had made and how well everything had turned out. I really recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn some new cookery skills, or who’d benefit from a bit of inspiration, which you’ll get in abundance.
Article by:
Sarah is a writer and blogger, as well as running workshops and teaching. Her passions are food and travel, and you can follow her on Instagram at YesStarling and find her website at www.yesstarling.com .
