This little piggy had rosbif...

Woke up to a power failure. This was good and bad. Bad because I had no hair drier (and my mother told me that I'd get sick going out with wet air), and good because we got to cook outside. The cookery school have recently made a great decision to build a roof over one terrace, and put a long table under it - to seat about 20. It was made by David and Sam, and isn't entirely flat, but IS entirely rustic, sturdy and beautiful. Today it was the scene for sweet pastry. The pastry's a bitch to make, so the rolling sunflower fields and tumbling swallows took the edge off a bit. Then we hit the road.

We headed to Fleurance first. Vikki was on full mischievous form, and we were dispatched Apprentice-style with a bag of cents, French baskets, and a shopping list (in English). My mushrooms 'sauvage' worked well, and the French word for fennel isn't that different, despite "2 funnels" being on the list. Ubiquitous moutachiod (?) Pasty salesman, poodles, smokers, garlic salesman, plus the odd beret were out in full force.

Next, we headed to Lectoure for lunch. I had steak frites - asked for medium and got it English-v rare, which is what I wanted. Apparently all you need is a spot of reverse psychology, and meat is cooked perfectly here. The same rule didnlt apply last night at Bernards, when guests asked for 'well done'. There was definite huffiness. Anyhoo, I ate the pattern off the plate.

We came home, and went straight into the teaching kitchen for quite a sesh. First, we rolled and blind baked the sweet pastry (and made the apple and ground almond filling), and then we gutted and filleted plaice. A glass of rose took the edge off the sheer gutsiness of it all. We made a veloute sauce of the fish heads (divine - with cayenne pepper), plus rustled a thick, sticky red wine reduction, while watching the rain clouds gather.

Dinner was a salad of bacon lardons with poached eggs, with dressing we made yesterday, followed by plaice and veloute. Then we did a spot of comte/brie/roquefort, and puis: apple tart:

Y-u-m. Sitting out at the wooden table, with the lightening storm in the distance, test driving armagnac, and sharing stories was great fun. Kuniko was explaining her first experiences with cheese outside of the processed cheese of Japan, and she shared my total obsession with comte. Good girl!

It's hard to say much without slandering anyone - what goes and tour etc - but I've been really lucky with a top notch group of people. I thought people would be ..well..old and particular, but they've been young, and very up for giving things a go! David made his own distilled booze (from prunes) last year, and I'm not sure if I finished it off, or it finished me. Good stuff.

Big cooking day tomorrow. Loads of new recipes with Bernard in the pro kitchen. Then off to Condom. Srsly. I am rating Gascony Cooking School DESPITE rain, which is quite something...I'm almost starting to relax.