Becca's blog of heavenly bites: Hook and Ladder cooking school cooking with Micheal Quinn part one

So finally after years of saying i would love to go to cooking classes I finally did it. the hook and ladder offer a variety of cooking classes at an affordable rate. And if you request it they can allow you to pay it weekly which is incredible.

I signed up to cooking with Micheal Quinn he of course is a chef of high repute so cooking with him is an honor. I did not know what to expect on the first night. A lot of the time if someone is very good at something they find it very difficult to explain it to people who do not quiet have their grasp. We all had that math teacher who thought" why cant these students just get it and was unable to break it down for us to understand better" So i did worry perhaps having a man who can cook up such amazing foods might not be able to explain or teach quiet as well. But much to my delight I was wrong. He is patient ,his love of food and fresh produce draws you in. The simplicity of the four recipes he taught us on the night was just unbelievable.

The first lesson in this 10 week program was FISH. Fish is probably one of the healthiest easiest foods you can prepare it also is of such high quality in this part of the world i fail to understand why so many people fear fish. you could prepare a fish dinner in less than 20 minutes it would so filling and healthy. but i do agree that a lot of people would not know how to prepare fish. it seems to be a bit of a lost skill almost. allot of people would also be scared of bones or would have only tasted good fish in restaurants and when they try cook fish themselves they might have super market fish which is not really of the highest quality. you really do need to shop local when it comes to fish. We had Liam from Billy Burkes fish and poultry shop on ballybricken come and talk to us about fish. He showed us a wide variety of fish that are in season and amazed us all with his super fast filleting skills. He and Micheal discussed the importance of fresh fish and what to look out for. the difference between fresh fish and frozen fish is just unbelievable. taste, texture , nutrition everything is better the fresher the fish.So please for the best fish go to a fishmonger or out to a fisherman and support local.

Four recipes where discussed in this class I would rather not run through all of them as i do believe this is a class that every foodies if given the opportunity should do for themselves. 38e would realistically not buy you very much in a top class restaurant and here you will leave with the skills to make any dinner party in your home top class. so realistically you will be saving money by going to this and learning to wow your friends and family. I will however give you one recipe my favorite of the night. One I have since replicated at home with my own twists and turns. Get creative with food try different combinations. I find some amazing others not so great but at the end of the day it is the only way you can discover new flavors.

cod in orange and mint papillote:

for this you will need:

an orange
fresh mint
garlic
butter
a carrot
a sheet of tin foil
and a piece of cod

You can make these papillotes in advance of your dinner. The idea here is to trap the flavors inside the aluminium foil so as to flavor the fish fully. You can use baking paper also but Micheal favored foil for this particular recipe .

For each serving of cod you really want to make individual papillotes. here is how you do it. smeer butter on the piece of foil. put your piece of cod skin side down on top of the butter. squeeze a good sup of your fresh orange over the cod flesh. crush a garlic and spread it over the foil. add a few leafs of fresh mint on top of your cod once more. and a dollop of butter.(don't be shy with the butter) and you want to top it all off with juliened carrots. These are carrots cut into very thing strips so as to help them cook at the same speed as the fish. you then wrap it all up in the thin foil like you are making a little parcel.

You want to preheat your oven at 200. Pop the cod in for 10 to 15 minutes. You will know it is done once all the steam in the papillote makes it puff up and there you have my new favorite way to eat cod.its so simple but tastes incredible. I have since done this with lime and coriander n chili and garlic giving it a bit of a beccatwist and it was also divine. Get creative,get fresh produce and most importantly enjoy yourselves. food is there to be enjoyed. i know that anyone who reads this blog does it for a love of food.

http://www.hookandladder.ie/ Here is the website to give you an idea of all the classes available. I will put up pictures of the class room below.I did not get too many pictures of food as to be honest i just got so taken in by learning about food . Will try harder next week.

the ovens in the class room