A day with Ruth

We just spent a great rainy day at Te Horo watching Ruth Pretty cook, listening to her stories and eating a multi-course meal. Mum and Dad got us a voucher to go to a cooking class for Christmas and what with the waiting list, popularity of classes featuring Ruth herself and abundance of get-more-from-your-barby courses it’s taken this long to get out there.

And it was so worth it! We felt somewhat out of our depth with the first people we met as we were not staying at our beach house while m’ma looked after the kids, nor was this our 3rd or 4th class but by the time it came to sit sociably at tables to eat rather than in rows to learn, we’d come across a great couple who were also ‘RP Virgins’ over which there was much giggling!

Ruth’s a great story teller and I suppose after years of being in the business had quite mastered the art of talking and browning or chopping or sharpening a knife and along the way were heard some great stories from her meeting Jennifer Aniston’s personal chef while on holiday in Malibu to where to find the website of the main lentil-importer in New Zealand to the petition she wanted us all to sign to get mandatory country of origin labelling on all supermarket foods!

The theme of the day was a good hearty winter meal you could cook much of in advance so that you could have 16 people over for dinner without being stuck in the kitchen all day. Yeah right! There’s definitely stuff on the menu we’ll try – we were given a full pack of recipes and advice on what could be prepared ahead.

Thanks Mum and Dad!

Ruth Pretty’s Big Night In

Chevre Crostini with Caramelised Shallots
Red Skinned Potatoes and Scallop Roe with Lemon Caper Mayonnaise
Scallop Tartare with Herbed Lentils

Braised Short Ribs (beef)
Honeyed Kumara Mash
Warm Haricot Beans with Pine Nuts
Lemon and Garlic Braised Leeks

Rum Baba
Roasted Pineapple

Coffee and plum strudel muffins to start the day

Ruth in action

The commercial kitchen benches set up as tables for our lunch

The Mister waiting for his lunch