Recipease: Knife Skills: Chop, slice & dice

   Mumma Loves Food and I popped to Recipease in Clapham Junction on Friday for a masterclass in chopping lead by Anjali Pathak of the Patak family. Recipease is Jamie Oliver's food and kitchen shop where regular masterclasses on all things foodie are held. I'd always wanted to take part in this kind of class because A, I'm rubbish at chopping and B, I want to chop like chefs do on TV!

In the 2 hour class we made an Asian prawn salad with the most amazingly versatile dressing that now I have mastered, want to put on absolutely everything I eat.

We started by prepping the biggest prawns I've ever seen, and with equally as big poopy pipes (sorry!).

The we chopped red onion, red chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander and added oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice and some brown sugar. This dressing is used for the salad and to marinade the prawns so we popped a few spoons on and left them in the fridge whilst making the salad.

Anjali told us that a perfect Jamie dressing must be SSSH...sweet, salty, sharp and hot!

The salad was made with white cabbage, mango, red pepper, cucumber and spring onions.

To serve, we tossed the salad with the dressing, fried the prawns in their marinade for a few minutes each side and ta dahhh!

After, we sat and enjoyed our salad with a glass of wine and chatted to the rest of the class (only 6 of us in total so was really hands on).

Since, I've made some of this dressing and drizzled it over noodles with mange tout and crushed peanuts for a quick and simple work lunch.

Cookie Girl Decorating Class

   On Saturday morning I ventured through the snow to a Cookie Girl decorating class in Kensal Green.  The 2 hour decorating class, lead by Ro, demonstrated to a table full of pinny-clad girls 4 different cupcake frosting techniques; the classic swirl, a rose, iced jems and two tone swirls.

   To decorate the iced cupcakes, the table was full of every type of glitter, flowers, stars, hearts and confetti imaginable. I came to the conclusion, less IS NOT more!

Classic swirl, rose, iced gem and two tone swirl.

   All equipment and ingredients are provided in the class including boxes to take 8 sugary little treats home. I had a voucher for this class from my brother and his ladyfriend, thanks Tom & April!!