The Red Mist - like anyone actually cares…

I’ve been to two of the ten sessions of my Exotic Mediterranean Cuisine course so far, and - it’s actually going quite well. I expected to be a be a bit out of my depth, but not a bit of it.

The first week involved making a cannellini bean and pancetta soup, which was fairly straightforward, but it went a bit pear-shaped in the second bit. The dish being demonstrated was seafood salad, including kalimari rings. Sorry, but I just don’t do seafood… Eating rubbery stuff that tastes of sea-water isn’t my bag.

Nonetheless, it was informative watching the preparation techniques, and I learned a lot about kitchen-craft.

This week saw us making a veal and prosciutto ham scallopini, followed by baked trout stuffed with lemon, mushrooms, thyme and spinach. I’ve never prepared  fish from scratch before (well -almost scratch - it had been gutted, but we had to remove the fins and bones…)

The results of the veal dish were very edible, even though I say so myself. I can’t vouch for the trout, though. I wasn’t going to be able to use them before the weekend, as I’m going away between Friday night and Monday. I didn’t think it was a good idea to leave them that long, even in the fridge, so I dropped them off at some friends’ house on my way home. They’ve been pretty poorly this week, so I thought it may help them to have a prepared meal, and I know they like “interesting” food.

Anyway, they rang me the following night to say that they’d eaten the trout with no apparent ill effects, and even professed to having enjoyed it.

Most encouraging.

Less encouraging was the  speeding fine I’ve picked up last Saturday on my way home from Shrewsbury. Oh well, another sixty quid down the drain and three more points on my licence. Fortunately, my two previous misdmeanours have expired, so I’m not in imminent peril of a ban. On the up-side, I can add a new police force to my collection. I’ve not yet been done twice by the same force - Dyfed-Powis and Merseyside being my previous two, with Cheshire Constabulary now making an appearance on the list.

Maybe I should try and collect all of the different forces in the UK - that might be a first.

Then again - perhaps not…