Cooking With Fire And Smoke

This weekend my brother and I went on a cooking course. It was at the same place I did a fermentation course a few years ag - Harts Barn cookery school. 

I'm never sure what to expect on these courses, but I'll start by saying I was blown away by the afternoon. 

I will also say a bit of bad stuff, the course was cancelled twice, once for bad weather, which was fair enough, and another time because they had another event, which wasn't ideal from our point of view as stuff had to be rearranged. 

 

When the course went ahead though it really did deliver. It was an afternoon of some of the best food I've eaten in a long time, and I'm fairly sure we ate more than what the course cost! 

We made pork koftas and cooked them on the BBQ, then charred some asparagus and aubergine as well as orange. this then went with some cold smoked feta to make an incredible salad. 

We also roasted some baby gem lettuce and made some more salads. 

We cooked flat bread in the bread oven, and made baba ghanoush, and when added with the kofta it was one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten.  

"Dirty" steak cooked on coals was another incredible eat. 

Roasted rhubarb and creme brulee (which had charcoal added to it as it cooked) was a great pudding. But we also had cold smoked salmon, a blade of beef that had been hot smoking for hours and hours, the food just kept coming. 

I swear I've never eaten so much food in one go before, it was a truly brilliant afternoon, I loved it. I came away with enough food for the five of us to have a full meal Sunday night and for our lunch boxes on Monday. the chef was good fun and the other people on the course were great as well.