underground cookery school, london.

last week i took a hop, skip and a jump onto the 16:56 leicester to london train, darted through the hustle and bustle of a busy rush hour and excitedly made my way to the underground cookery school. i was bound for a fun evening of cookery tips and tricks along with a group of other food and lifestyle bloggers. 

the three course seasonal menu began with moules marinieres, with a roulade of chicken, leek and cabbage on a bed of creamy mash for main and a dessert of apple tarte tatin. along with my fellow midlands blogger and foodie friend alex of gingey bites, we got to work on the tarte tartin. 

with a glass of fizz in one hand and a wooden spoon tentatively stirring the hot sugar, my (very important) job was to make the caramel whilst others lovingly made little pastry tart cases and sliced apples as finely as possible. i usually make old school caramel with brown sugar and condensed milk so will have to try it this way. shame it was wasted on apple tart - millionaire's shortbread is the best use for caramel in my eyes ;)

we then moved onto the mussel station, whilst the rest of the groups rotated in turn. here we prepared the onions and garlic for the mussels - sharing garlic peeling techniques whilst instagramming with our spare hand. only food bloggers! needless to say it didn't get too emotional, as we learnt the best way to peel onions without crying too. simply don't cut the pointy top and keep the onion together as you chop.

lastly was my favourite section of all - i really enjoyed learning about signs of quality meat as well as how to seperate a whole chicken into leg, thigh and breast. despite being vegetarian when i was in primary school and being the sort of girl who'll faint at a paper cut, i have no idea what changed to make me enjoy sushi as fresh as it comes, steak as rare as possible and have a real interest in skills such as fish filleting and butchery. here we took the breast and rolled it up in savoy cabbage with a creamy leek filling, which was then poached to create a moist, mouthwatering chicken combination.

hands washed and another drink in hand, it was time to start on the eating part. time was ticking and gingey and i had a 21:01 train to catch! not before a few quick snaps, obvs.

these were absolutely stunning; giant in-season mussels, fresh, earthy parsley and of course amazingly chopped onion and garlic. oh and bread, beautifully crusty bread. sadly we had to dash at this point so we took a very thoughtfully packed up parcel of our chicken dish, along with a gift of chefs whites and infused olive oil.

alex and i were saying how the cookery classes would be brilliant for a teambuilding day, hen do or gift for a novice cook, with perhaps with a smaller group of people who can really get their teeth into (no pun intended) each recipe. i learnt some great skills and some tips on everyday tasks - but was definitely left wanting to get stuck in more! 

it was lovely to meet some new bloggers as well as a few familiar faces! so thanks to anneliese for arranging and bringing us all together and matt for being such a great host!

find our about their cookery classes at the underground cookery school... ♥