The last two days have been manic twelve hours each day in the kitchen on Monday and Tuesday with a full hotel both days along with a range of private functions and residential conferences, I get so focussed when cooking that the time flies by, I am an amateur cook, and am always looking at recipe books and the internet for new ideas. The latest book I read is the rather retro Gary Rhodes Classic British recipies. Gary’s books are not for the faint hearted as they are full on professional menus which take great care to execute and in most cases can only be achieved in a professional kitchen. I used a modified version to cook Venison Steak. I reduced a glass of red wine completely in a large frying pan and then pan fried the steaks in a little butter and ground pepper before putting in the oven for five mins. I made a wild mushroom, cream, red wine sauce with a demi-glace mixture and placed the Venison of savoy cabbage and bacon along with the sauce. The quality of the venison was excellent and fantastic value from our Abergavenny based supplier.
‘Jelly Jelly got new business’ I was greeted with on Sunday morning as our Thai housekeeper arrives late and hungover for work. She said she had cooked spring rolls for a party and asked me what FAB-U-LOUS means, I said it means something that taste’s very bad with a rank smell! She looked crestfallen but a half smile gave it away ... ‘awe you joke, what it mean?’ the remainder of the day, whenever she walks through the kitchen or spotted another member of staff she would tell them: ‘got new business selling Thai food!’
Sean, my nephew aged five has taken to erecting a nine foot pole with a Welsh Flag on it in the garden when he arrives home from school, this has happened each day for the last three days, I guess it means he has a strong sense of patriotism or a very vivid imagination.
When you look out from the kitchen backdoor you can see what weather we will get in the next hour as it fumes and swells in the lower valley ready to push and funnel the grey clouds through into Rhayader, there’s a picture called Rhayader Thunder which gives you some idea rhayader.jpeg. The freezing rain comes in machinegun like salvos bouncing off gravel and instantly soaking all in its path; but as quickly as it starts it stops. Talking of weather we have purchase an amateur weather centre and camera so that you can visit our website and take a look at the forecast and live pictures of the situation, sounds ‘cool’ but I sometimes think we could just put a grey picture with the forecast of ‘rain soon’ and get it right most of the times.
