The kitchen in Iwade Village Hall was privileged to see a culinary expert in its midst as Scott demonstrated and helped the Festive Cookery Workshop participants to make 2 gorgeous canapés, a stunning starter and a divine dessert complete with sugarwork. Mulled wine warmed up with the evening ready for work on the canapés.

The first canapé was cranberry and raisins soaked in brandy, wrapped in filo cigars. The fruit mixture was rolled in 2 layers of filo pastry and the ends tied like a bonbon with chives. These were then baked in the oven.

Then onto the tricky technique of roulade rolling for the Blinis topped with a Scottish smoked salmon and cream cheese roulade finished with fresh dill. more ...

Smoked salmon was laid over clingfilm and topped with the cream cheese mixture, then rolled tightly using the cling film, turned and wrapped up, first with the cling film and then with foil. Before the foil the clingfilm sausage was twisted tightly to ensure a uniform roulade for cutting later. Into the freezer, blinis in the oven, cut into rounds and topped off with a slice of roulade and fresh dill. Divine!

The starter was a Smoked mackerel and braised leek terrine with beetroot and radish salad, finished with a horseradish dressing which worked perfectly with the other flavours, in particular the mackerel and the beetroot. Again this used the clingfilm roulade technique to wrap the terrine tightly, then into the fridge.

The vanilla pannacotta demonstrated the use of gelatine and vanilla pods (get them into sugar for safe keeping!) and Scott demonstrated caramelising sugar and wrapping round his knife steel to make a fantastic sugar spring!

The ambience of the evening was fantastic and much enjoyed by all who attended. Feedback has only been excellent. Scott also demonstrated knife skills (fingertips tucked under - get practising on that lemon) and imparted his extensive culinary expertise and knowledge during the evening.

A big Thank You to Scott and Caroline for all the hard work that went into putting on the evening.