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Our Courses
We have a wide range of different course types to suit everyone's palate. Below is a selection of our most regularly held courses to give you and idea of what you will be doing during your stay with us.
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Quick and Easy Entertaining
Delicious ideas to allow you to enjoy your guests, but with the WOW factor too!
We always make bread and include at least 2 starters, 2 main courses and 2 desserts.
Expect 2 other things such as a simple terrine or a classic risotto. You will leave inspired and ready to entertain! |
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Seafood Extravaganza
We are very lucky to have Dan Eastwood of Crystal Waters on the open Hadleigh Market every Friday. His range of seafood is awesome; he has his own smoker, and a bottomless pot of enthusiasm. We then bring back a comprehensive selection to fillet and cook and then eat!
Examples include Seared Fresh Scallops on Wilted Spinach, Fresh Mackerel Fillets with lemon butter, Baked Cod with fresh Herb Crust, and more.You will be given lots of tips and techniques to help you understand more about this.
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Indian Cooking
The emphasis here is on spices from scratch, how to prepare and blend. We will always create gorgeous Onion Bajia, Proper Basmati Rice pilaff, Naan Bread and at least 1 curry.
Using really good fresh meat and fish we will experiment with the spices and produce an irresistible range of dishes to eat at the end of the session with snacks along the way.
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Mixed Mediterranean
We trawl France, Italy, Spain and sometimes beyond. The following are popular and easy to achieve; Moroccan Salmon Fillet with a Wicked Spiced Pesto and Filo Pastry, Tiger Prawns with Garlic Olive Oil, Catalan Fresh Spinach with Pine Nuts, Fresh Herb-Stuffed Chicken Legs and Thighs, Passion Fruit crème Brulee.
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Mixed Oriental Cooking
At least 3 woks going at once!!!
We spend the morning carefully preparing the ingredients through from vegetables to meat and fish. In the afternoon we cook each dish with all the ingredients ready and to hand.
Fried Rice is a must and what oriental course can be without Prawn Toasts! Fast and Furious with lots of subtle and delicious flavours.
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French Provincial Cooking
You can smell the garlic all the way up Hadleigh High Street! This is good rustic French cooking featuring Home-made Bread and for example; Red Onion and Goat’s Cheese Tartlets, Gratin Dauphinoises Potatoes, Quicky Cassoulet, Individual Tarte Tatin with Crème Anglaise (custard to you and me!).
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Brilliant Barbecues
Great tips and cooking hints on this course. Lots of marinating of meats and seafood. We have 2 big barbecues with different heat spots, plenty of room to sit outside and enjoy the results.
We have been known to cook a whole leg of English lamb marinated in black treacle and other goodies. Tiger prawns might feature and a different take on Sausages!!
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Baking Pastries and Delicious Desserts
Didier Piot is a whizzo pastry chef and dessert king. His name should give that away! He will get you making croissants, brioches, sweet and indulgent tarts and much more.
His individual Tarte Tatins melt in the mouth, Crème Brulees slide down too easily and you might find choux pastry features here. Didier makes this fun, but informative.
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Traditional English Cooking
Back to our childhood! We might do Beef and Ale Pie, Fresh Fish Pie, Lancashire Hotpot, Toad-in-the -hole, Coronation Chicken, Treacle Tart or a wicked Chocolate Mousse!
Bread always features and we will probably do some gorgeous roast potatoes! Traditional British Food is unbeatable and more restaurants and pubs are featuring these classics.
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Italian Cooking
Simple food from a culture that applauds really good ingredients and avoids Faff! We always make Foccaccia and fresh pasta from scratch, and a proper Risotto.
Other examples; Basil Pesto with fresh salmon, Piccata of Pork Fillet with Marsala Cream sauce, Gnocchi Romaine. We will probably do a flavoured pannacotta and a quick Icecream.
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Wine Tasting with Food
No rocket-science with this one. Mark chooses wines that he and Annie like.
The first session is devoted to cooking (about 4 different things). After a welcome break, we taste the wines and then taste them again with the food we have prepared. (A good mix of flavours, eg; Beef in Guiness, Coq Au Vin, Salmon in Filo). You might find the wines taste different when you are eating the food.
Lots of Fun and not too much wine-babble! Just plenty of wine to taste and enjoy.
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Christmas Without Tears
Yes, it can be done!! This particular course will put your mind at rest and give you some good tips for the Big Meal and what to do with the leftover turkey! The “Piece de Resistance” for these course will be the “Ballotine”.
We will bone out 3 birds including pheasant, duck and turkey (for the November course I will get a large capon instead). The pheasant will be in the middle, then the duck and on the outside the turkey/capon. Each bird will be spread with Mark’s own special chestnut and local sausage stuffing. We will then roast and eat it!!!
All the recipes and others too will be in your folders. Your Christmas will be organised and fun as a result.
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Vegetable Extravaganza
This one is for all comers, not just those who choose not to eat meat or fish.
Take the Roasted Vegetable Wellington, a colourful parcel of roasted vegetables wrapped in puff pastry. Even carnivores love it! We will probably do a vegetable terrine and certainly Gratin Dauphinoises Potatoes will feature, as well as Filo Pastry Parcels of Oriental Vegetables and much more.
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Middle Eastern and North African
From Tagines to Iranian Slow-Fried Crusted Rice, this is a race around a vast region. Saffron and Turmeric will feature as well as other subtle spices. Lamb and chicken are favourites here. We will make breads from the region.
All of the dishes are easy to achieve and hold well for entertaining.
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Game Cooking
Join us for a great day with some superb game.
Mark will feature local venison, locally shot pheasant and partridge, wild duck. He has also been given some wild venison joints which are in the freezer. These are mainly haunch (thigh) and shoulder. We will slow-cook these into casseroles.
Recipes will be simple and reflect the fact that the meat speaks for itself. The game will be supplied by James (friend of ours down the road), most of it shot by him, and he will spend 30 minutes with us explaining how they are shot, and how to pluck, draw etc.
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Residential Weekends at The Cooking Experience
Several times a year we have Residential Cooking Weekends. Dinner on arrival with wine followed by 2 days cooking with lunch both days and dinner on the second night, all cooked by you!
We arrange your accommodation locally and it is a maximum of 7 minutes walk away! Leave your car keys in the room and enjoy the wine!
We promise not to stress you or tire you out. The whole weekend is designed around taking time to cook and enjoy! The recipes are chosen to inspire and excite but are not complicated. Having 2 consecutive days allows us to marinade and make things like terrines which need time to chill.
Themes vary and will be published well in advance. The first day might be Seafood and Day 2 could revolve around “The Perfect Sunday Lunch” in winter months or a Brilliant Barbecues” in the summer.
The Price is £495 per person, no extras, all the food and wine is included as is the accommodation (all ensuite with breakfast). You just have to get yourselves here! If you come by train there is a choice between Colchester and Ipswich, frequent trains from London Liverpool Street Station with taxis always available.
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Simply Tapas
A wonderful grazing day, featuring food from the world, not just Spain!
We will produce twenty or more items (small eats) and enjoy eating them during several breaks, also with wine!
Amongst other things we will do Scotch Quail’s eggs, Chicken Sate, Fresh Spinach tartlets, Parmesan Crisps with Avocado Guacomole, Smoked Salmon and Smoked Mackerel Nests, Mixed seafood in Beer Batter, Mini Dark Chocolate Pots and much more. Forget Meat and Two Veg for a day and enjoy tasting!
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Credit Munch
There may be economic mayhem, so lets look at “Food on a Tight Budget”.
We will construct a 3-course meal for 2 with a total budget of £10. We will also cook other things with thrift in mind!!
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