Yesterday was a day filled with potatoes and pancakes, a day that I am going to call ‘P’ day. The day started with my cooking course which is proving to be really enjoyable. My lecturer is great. He’s jolly and jovial with a cheesy sense of humour, and I like cheesy. He will probably always be guaranteed a laugh from me with his jokes, even if he doesn’t get one from any one else for I am obviously easily amused. At one point our discussions turned to a potato ricer. It’s what you mash potatoes with and it’s akin to a large garlic crusher. You operate it by putting a cooked potato inside its head and pressing down on one of its arms to produce the mash. You release the arm, and then continue on with the next potato and so on. Describing it as ‘arm pressing’ exercise, he livened up the proceedings with a reference to a phraseology that he and his colleagues use to use when he was a junior chef: “hickory dickory dock, I must increase the size of my arm muscle!” See, he’s funny.

Crispy, fluffy potato croquettes

The highlight ingredient of the day was the humble potato, hence the reason for our discussions on the potato ricer. In the hot, steamy kitchen, we baked, boiled, mashed and piped potatoes, to then turn out potato concoctions of all sorts: duchesse (piped mash potato spirals); marquise (piped mash potato with tomato concassé on top); macaire (mashed potato scones/patties) and potato croquettes with Japanese breadcrumbs. Piping takes patience and skill, and I do not profess to have much of the former.

Banana, ice-cream & maple syrup pancake

Still, my potatoes turned out to be really yummy. And in the evening, in honour of Shrove Tuesday, my friends and I capped the day off with pancakes topped with whatever our ‘hearts’ desired. My heart desired banana, vanilla ice-cream, and Canadian maple syrup, and lots and lots of it. Make no mistake, it was a lot. So potatoes and pancakes came to make ‘P’ day. ‘P’ for piggy.

Westminster Kingsway College:
Web: http://www.westking.ac.uk

Another Related Story

I recently enrolled in a professional cookery course, the NVQ Level 1 at Westminster Kingsway College. This particular course is a one day a week course over 30 weeks. I have no desire to be a professional chef for the hours are too gruelling. I know as I had first hand experience of this growing up in my family’s Chinese restaurant. But I love food, and I want to further pursue my passion for it which is why I have decided to do this course.

Day one was highly anticipated and hugely enjoyable. We had a short day and there was no cooking involved. That will come on day two. Day one was introductions (everyone is lovely) and vegetable theory (potatoes are tubers, courgettes are fruit, etc). Excitedly, I was the only one in my class that recognised salsify which I attribute to watching Jun Tanaka on Market Kitchen.

The library at Westminster Kingsway College contains an amazingly extensive collection of cookbooks and food reference materials. Some of these are antique cookbooks and date back to the turn of the century which is unsurprising given that the cooking school at the college is about 100 years old. I cannot wait to explore the library further when I have more time to slowly meander and lose myself in the wonders of the knowledge that lie within those books.

Tomorrow we will cover potatoes, but the best bit will be the tasting. Yum.

Westminster Kingsway College:
Web: http://www.westking.ac.uk