"Even were a cook to cook a fly, he would keep the breast for himself." ~ Polish Proverb

Cooking is a passion of my foodie daughter...

so squeezing a cookery class, or cooking school as we call them back home...

into our schedule while she was visiting in Scotland...

was a no-brainer.

We were fortunate to find the 

Cow Shed Restaurant, 

a magical, serene setting in the 

Banchory countryside... 

under the culinary expertise of Graham Buchan...

which offers cookery classes.

Those were our awesome classmates from Glasgow...

three generations!

Ours would be a Scottish menu...

and our first task under the expert instruction of Rikki Pirie... 

would be the secret ingredient of...

dessert. 

(just click on the whiffs tab above for the recipe!)

We turned two ingredients into a beautiful, pearly white meringue...

which would bake for a few hours...

and later be added to these fresh Scottish berries...

which I have already raved about in an earlier post...

and this strawberry coulis...

along with a luscious vanilla cream to make this...

DIY Berry Parfait.

You can tell we were quite competitive with our designs.

I made that recipe name up because there was no title on the print out we received.  

Graham, you can use that name at the Cow Shed if you would like. Of course, you would need to take all of the ingredients to the table and let everyone make their own... 
for it to truly be DIY.  
What fun!

Our main course was the most gratifying for me...

because I...

for the first time...

learned to cut up a whole chicken.

There is the Foodie with our lucky bird.

Wasting is not allowed, so we saved everything 

except a few fatty pieces.  

Some was saved for later use...

other parts were used for the stock...

and of course... 

the breast was the main ingredient for our 

Poached Chicken Supreme...

with summer vegetables and herb cream sauce.

(I know... my mouth is watering too!)

Aren't those the cutest carrots you have ever seen. 

Those huge green beans are called broad beans...

and look like this... 

shelled and blanched.

Now, for full nutritional value... 

you can eat them like this... 

however, most of the time... 

you pinch the end opposite the black line... 

and squeeze out the actual bean.

They remind me of edamame.

One other first for me... 

was poaching chicken.  

Of course, I have boiled chicken before... 

which seems very similar... 

and I could not help myself from giggling... 

as I recalled the scene in Funny Girl... 

when fancy Mr. Arnstein, Mr. Arnstein, Mr. Arnstein...

asked Fannie if she wanted some pate'...

she tentatively took a bite... 

smiled and exclaimed...

chopped liver... 

and ate the whole thing!!!

Meanwhile...

as the chicken was poaching...

we prepared the herb sauce, 

blanched the summer vegetables...

and then refreshed them in iced water.

We each took home our very own Poached Chicken Supreme...

but got to eat dessert first...

around a table with our fellow chefs...
at the Cow Shed Restaurant!

Thanks Graham and Rikki... 

for another memorable mother/daughter culinary adventure.


If you are in the Banchory area, I would strongly suggest you enjoy a meal at the Cow Shed or even partake in a cookery class!

Remember, the recipes from our Cow Shed cookery class can be seen on the Whiffs page.  

Just click and cook!