Spring Greens & Gammon soup

This rustic broth is deliciously meaty and worth cooking a gammon for, or using up leftover ham, serves 4.

Cooking time 2 hours (if cooking gammon)
Prep time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 450g piece gammon, soaked overnight
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 225g spring greens, roughly chopped
• 450g can cannellini beans, drained and washed

Method

1. Put the gammon in a large pan with the bay leaves, onions and about  1.5 litres of cold water or enough to cover. Bring to the boil, then  reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 1½ hrs.
2. Drain the gammon, reserving the cooking liquid. When the gammon is cool  enough to handle, trim away the skin, and shred the meat.
3. Return meat to the pan with the reserved cooking liquid, paprika  and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 20 mins or until the potatoes are cooked.
4. While the potatoes are cooking, trim away the stalky bit from the greens and finely shred the leaf. Stir the greens and beans into the stock  and continue to cook for about 10 mins until cooked. Season to taste and serve ladled straight from the pan.

Taking place next Saturday 8th February, we have a three hour chocolate making course.

During the session you will learn how to create a delicious box of hand made chocolates, decorating and icing techniques.

At the end of the class if they are a Valentines gift for your loved one you can package them up ready to be delivered. If not – maybe an indulgent treat and eat them yourself!

Course starts at 9.30am through to 12.30pm, cost is £65 per student, this includes all your ingredients. Book your place

Come along and join us this Sunday for a three hour Christmas Chocolates course

During the course you will learn how to temper chocolate, make a delicious chocolate ganache, and create your own box of handmade chocolates to take away and enjoy.

The course starts at 1.30pm through to 4.30pm, cost is £65, this includes all your ingredients

To book

We have places available on our Winter Entertaining course taking place this Friday 22nd. Your delicious menu for the day:

Your starter: Apple, Pancetta and Chestnut Soup with Thyme crusted croutons,
Your main: Steak with a stilton and walnut sauce. Fondant potatoes, balsamic glazed beetroot and creamed spinach.
Your dessert: Panna Cotta with spiced poached fruit.

Cost is £105 per student, this includes all  your ingredients, lunch and a recipe pack. To book

We have a few places left on a select number of our courses prior to Christmas.

We are happy to offer a discount of £15 per person.

Saturday 16th November – Mexican-Cuban – enter discount code LMP10
Sunday 17th November – Cooking with Game – enter discount code LMP11
Friday 22nd November – Winter Entertaining  – enter discount code LMP12
Saturday 30th November – Moorish Cooking – enter discount code LMP13
Saturday 7th November – An Italian Christmas – enter discount code LMP 14

All the courses commence at 9.30am through to 3pm, cost includes your ingredients, lunch and a recipe pack.

Last Thursday over 50 guests joined us for an evening of cookery demos, knife skills, wine tasting and delicious canapés.

The evening gave our guests and past students the opportunity to try some amazing wines from The Wine Connection in Northampton, sample some delicious canapés made by our friends at The Red Lion.

Jo from IOShen demonstrated his amazing knife skills and provided some top ‘chefy’ tips.

Ondine took centre stage and cooked up two great dishes, Thai Fishcakes and her own Salsa Verde with steak.

After the success of last years Christmas gift voucher sales, we decided to extended our online gift range and have sourced some beautiful and unusual items, all with a foody theme. We have also combined a number of our courses with books and aprons to provide unique Christmas Gift boxes, all beautifully packaged up, so you only have to add the gift tag! Guests on the evening got a sneak preview of the range with many taking advantage of a bit of early Christmas shopping.

Many thanks to everyone who attended and also for your kind words, we shall certainly be running another event late November.

We are delighted to announce the Waitrose Specialists from Kingsthorpe Northampton will be hosting a Fish Skills Day on Friday 4th October at the school.

Using produce from in-store, you will learn from the Specialists how to scale, gut, fillet and cook three different types of fish. In addition you will glean tips on how to select quality fish, preparation and storing.

The course commences at 9.30am, through to 2.30pm, lunch is included. This is hands on course, with only 8 places available, cost per student is £105. Waitrose Kingsthorpe will also kindly be providing a goody bag. Click through to book your place

The Taste is a brand new Channel 4 cookery competition that puts taste at the forefront of the show. Whether you’re a home cook, a food blogger or you work in the industry, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, only how amazing your food tastes!

Based on the hit USA format, Nigella Lawson and her fellow judges, American chef Anthony Bourdain and French chef Ludo Lefebvre will battle it out to find The Taste’s first British winner. Contestants will try to please the palates of the professionals with just one spoonful of food, and with the tastings performed blind the pressure is on to make one small, but perfect, serving.

We are looking for a variety of cooks and we want to find the best of what the UK has to offer in home cooks, supper club cooks, pop-up cooks, food market cooks, student cooks and professional cooks… the list is endless. If you just love to cook then we want to hear from you!

We are nearly at the end of our nationwide audition tour so time is of the essence. There is only ONE audition date left so if you are interested in auditioning for the Producers, apply NOW!

AUDITION DATES: Tuesday 17th September

Auditions are 20 minutes long, they are very informal and include a Q&A as well as tasting some of your pre-prepared food. The link to our application form is below. We recommend submitting your application form ASAP to avoid missing the chance to audition.

Please also send photos of yourself and of your food to thetaste@cplproductions.co.uk once you have submitted your application.https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1N5MVxJUTde5rjNjZWlvjLob6-VpN_3b9P29n5ShN-gs/viewform

We have three places available on our Sizzling Sausages  course taking place this Saturday.

Commencing at 9.30am through to 12.30pm – you will learn how to prep and create sausage meat,  season to your own taste, and then finally make a string of sausages, perfect for a sunny bank holiday weekend BBQ.

Cost is £55 per person, this includes your ingredients.

Click to book your place  

This Easter the National Space Centre is set to make tummies rumble and taste buds tingle in the ultimate celebration of all things foodie!

A brand new Space Kitchen has been installed in the heart of the galleries and the very best suppliers, producers and chefs from the East Midlands will be dropping in daily to host demonstrations and workshops for visitors to enjoy.

These range from afternoon tea in 30 minutes, including baking scones and making jam from Sandra at Whetstone Pastures, to a baked bean curry for the kids to make for Mum from the cook at home curry kings Previns.

When the real foodies are not showing off their skills, our very own Space Crew will be taking over to have fun with food science.

Bacon and egg instant ice-cream, making sweet things taste sour and sour things taste sweet, future foods, tasty creepy crawlies and even meat made in a lab for astronauts, will all take centre stage.

Easter also sees the return of the Great Egg Race, thanks to the Centre’s very own Technical Director who won the BBC2 TV show in 1981 with Professor Heinz Wolff. Graham and his team have created a challenge for visitors to design and build a spacecraft for an egg that will ensure it does not crack up upon re-entry!

Malika Andress, Head of Marketing at the National Space Centre said; “It has been great putting all the activities for this holiday period together, as everybody has been so enthusiastic. I am sure it has something to do with the fantastic food that will be filling the building for three weeks, but it has also been great talking with the real East Midlands foodies who are truly passionate about sharing their ideas, products and love of food with everybody, young and old.”

For full details of the daily events and how to get a free Annual Pass upgrade to come back every day over the Easter holiday, please see www.spacecentre.co.uk