Squid is one of the most sustainable seafood around and woefully neglected by domestic cooks. We seem to think we have to go to a fancy restaurant to eat it as it is too complicated for home. This class has been designed to prove you wrong. We will make: Squid donughts Calamars a . . . → Read More: Sustainable Squid Weds 7th March]]>

Squid is one of the most sustainable seafood around and woefully neglected by domestic cooks. We seem to think we have to go to a fancy restaurant to eat it as it is too complicated for home.
This class has been designed to prove you wrong. We will make:
Squid donughts
Calamars a la romana with Joan Roca’s recipe
Squid stuffed with haggis (my contribution to fusion cooking)
Squid stuffed with onions
Fiduea with squid sofregit
Black rice (cooked with squid ink)
If anyone has any dietry requirements – no meat, no wheat etc we can adjust what they do but if you don’t like squid, this may not be the class for you.

The cooking class is limited to a maximum of 8 students and is a real hands on class where you learn by doing (it has been called the stealth approach to learning ) enabling you to make the food you have learned with confidence and ease for family and friends.

The cost is £65 inclusive of wine, containers to take any leftovers home, all the recipes and aprons. Book here.

For any more info please contact info@catalancooking.co.uk

*Please note that this class is at Arch 76 Druid Street*

Until recently raw iberico pork hasn’t been widely available in the UK but DeRaza, now exports directly from . . . → Read More: DeRaza Iberico Pig Day Sunday 25th March]]> Join Catalan Cooking for a day of DeRaza Iberico Pig. The black iberico pig is the reason that Spain makes the best ham in the world and is quite simply the best pork possible to eat.

Until recently raw iberico pork hasn’t been widely available in the UK but DeRaza, now exports directly from Guijelo so we can all enjoy their products.

We will start the day with coffee, tea, pork belly rolls and a (brief) explanation from me about iberico pork and the day’s events.

Chef Franz Schinagl will then give us a butchery demo and a chance for you to cut your own pork up yourself.

Ben Mulock, sous chef at the Opera Tavern, will then show you how to make your own iberico hamburger as well as iberico pork tartare. He will also cook the same cuts of iberico and white pork so you can taste the difference between the two meats.

After lunch we will split into groups and make morcilla, sobrasada, chorizo and head cheese.

We’ll then make some other dishes together such as pig trotters paella, iberico pork cheeks in chocolate and eat them altogether accompanied by some matching Spanish wine.

You can take home any leftovers and the morcilla. We will send you the chorizo and the sobrasada once it has cured.

The cost for the entire day is £85 and you can get your ticket here.

It starts at 10.30 am and will be held at Arch 76, Druid Street, SE1

Please wear comfortable clothing and shoes and tie your hair back if it is long.

The hunting tradition is of smaller wild birds rather than British hunt on grand estates in a fake rural idyl.

Catalan recipes . . . → Read More: Small Game and Rabbit Cooking Class 9th Feb]]> Spain is full of hunters. They are generally not the betweeded upper middle class men but inhabitants of villages, following the tradition of the ordinary man hunting to supplement the family diet.

The hunting tradition is of smaller wild birds rather than British hunt on grand estates in a fake rural idyl.

Catalan recipes for game are rural recipes developed in the homes of  small villages surrounding the hunting areas and reflect the other produce that available in the area.

In this class we will make:

Catalan rice with partridge and cuttlefish
Rabbit with chocolate
Pigeon with peas
Partridge escabeche

The cooking class is limited to a maximum of 8 students and is a real hands on class where you learn by doing (it has been called the stealth approach to learning ) enabling you to make the food you have learned with confidence and ease for family and friends.

The cost is £65 inclusive of wine, containers to take any leftovers home, all the recipes and aprons. Book here.

For any more info please contact info@catalancooking.co.uk

*Please note that this class is at Arch 76 Druid Street*

We are now well into the season of  Gargantuan feasts, early evening vomiting commuters, amateur drinkers and amazon orders.

By the time Saturday comes along you may already be full and dreading the sheer amount of fat and heavy food you have yet to consume.

This palate cleansing drink . . . → Read More: Cava Palate Cleanser Christmas Cocktail]]>

Photo by Tyson Sadlo

We are now well into the season of  Gargantuan feasts, early evening vomiting commuters, amateur drinkers and amazon orders.

By the time Saturday comes along you may already be full and dreading the sheer amount of fat and heavy food you have yet to consume.

This palate cleansing drink could save you if you drink it between courses.

I have often had cava and lemon sorbet at Gargantuan feasts in friends’ houses or in old fashioned restaurants in the Catalan countryside, before the main course after far too many starters. To make that you just take a tub of lemon sorbet and mix cava with it using a hand blender.

I actually prefer my version below as it is even lighter and after a glass you can imagine squeezing in a few more roast potatoes than you originally planned.

It  makes 4- 5 glasses

You will need:

1/2 a bottle of cava

3 lemons

1 soupspoon of sugar

crushed ice

Squeeze the lemons into a jug and then stir in the sugar, gently pour the cava into the jug.

Half fill cava glasses with crushed ice (if, like me, you don’t have an ice crusher then put ice cubes into a plastic bag and bang them with a rolling pin or a pestle), then pour the cocktail on top.

It is very common in Catalonia, and all over the rest of Spain to have fish and shell fish at Christmas so we will be making a dish of halibut with black pudding, serrano ham and vegetables which . . . → Read More: Catalan Christmas 13th Dec]]> For this class we will be celebrating all things Catalan and Christmas.

It is very common in Catalonia, and all over the rest of Spain to have fish and shell fish at Christmas so we will be making a dish of halibut with black pudding, serrano ham and vegetables which could brighten up your turkey laden table on 25th.

Capon is also a very common feature of a Catalan Christmas, but given the difficulties of getting capon in the UK we’ll be having chicken stuffed with prunes and apricots cooked in port.

We will also be making some side vegetable dishes and trying put some different types of not very Catalan roast potatoes – but they’re good and it’s Christmas.

Our dessert will be oranges and mandarins with cava sabayon and grated turron.

We will also make a cava palate cleanser and our own almond and peanut aperativo mix.

The class will also include and aperativos of olives and cured meat as well as a glass of wine.

The cooking class is limited to a maximum of 8 students and is a real hands on class where you learn by doing (it has been called the stealth approach to learning ) enabling you to make the food you have learned with confidence and ease for family and friends.

The cost is £60 inclusive of wine, containers to take any leftovers home, all the recipes and aprons. Book by e-mailing contact@beasofbloomsbury.com

For any more info please contact info@catalancooking.co.uk

Seabass Ceviche with Apricot

This is a dish specially designed for people with dry mouths as its high acidic content contributes to saliva production. It’s also suitable for loss of appetite, and lactose intolerance.

Serves 4

600g of . . . → Read More: Recipes for Cancer Patients by the Fundacio Alicia: Seabass ceviche with apricot]]> For details on this series on a diet for cancer patients please see here

Seabass Ceviche with Apricot

This is a dish specially designed for people with dry mouths as its high acidic content contributes to saliva production. It’s also suitable for loss of appetite, and lactose intolerance.

Serves 4

600g of seabass (one large seabass filleted)

400g of apricot (use tinned or 200g dried and soaked in water for a couple of hours)

1/2 avocado

1 red onion

2 ripe tomatoes

1/2 bunch of coriander

3 lemons

Salt and pepper

• Clean and fillet the seabass if the fishmonger hasn’t done it (or the supermarket fish counter)
• Slice the fillets into pieces about two fingers in length
• Cut the avocado and tomato into cubes
• Cut the onions into thin slices (the word in English is julienne due our obsession with using French words to sound sophisticated and complex)
• Cut the apricot into segments
• Finely grate the lemon zest and juice the lemons.
• Mix all the ingredients altogether and leave for 3 hours in the fridge
• Season and add the coriander. Serve

We shall make:

Lentils with bacon and wild mushrooms (no bacon if you are a vegetarian)

Mackerel with escalivada

Seasonal vegetable fideos (angel hair pasta)

Crema Catalana and Crema Catalana with orange flower . . . → Read More: Catalan Cooking Class Thurs Oct 25th: Autumn veg and fish]]> On Thursday 25th we shall get stuck into autumnal lentils, autumn fish, seasonal vegetable fideos and two types of crema catalana.

We shall make:

Lentils with bacon and wild mushrooms (no bacon if you are a vegetarian)

Mackerel with escalivada

Seasonal vegetable fideos (angel hair pasta)

Crema Catalana and Crema Catalana with orange flower water.

The class will also include and aperativos of olives and cured meat as well as a glass of wine.

The cooking class is limited to a maximum of 8 students and is a real hands on class where you learn by doing (it has been called the stealth approach to learning ) enabling you to make the food you have learned with confidence and ease for family and friends.

The cost is £60 inclusive of wine, containers to take any leftovers home, all the recipes and aprons. Book by e-mailing contact@beasofbloomsbury.com

For any more info please contact info@catalancooking.co.uk