And now, the end is near...

...and so I face the final curtain...

The penultimate day of the cookery course brought Stuart back to teach us one last time. It was good to see him- we hadn't had him for 3 weeks as he'd been on holiday. He said that we all looked at bit fatter. I really hope not! But I fear that he may be right...September is definitely diet month for me!

So, day 19 was Mediterranean Day. It was quite a light day, not too strenuous. Maybe the chefs were giving us a break as it was almost the end of an intensive month and from the past two manic days. On the menu was tapas for lunch and a Morrocan lamb tagine with minted couscous for supper, followed by a honey and greek yogurt panna cotta with roasted figs for pudding. Stuart showed us how to make the panna cotta, then we prepared the marinade for the lamb and we got cracking with the tapas. We made four different things. A Spanish tortilla/omelette, orange and red onion salad, tiger prawns with a rosemary and anchovy butter and shrimp fritters. Yum yum.

The salad was very different from a typical salad you'd expect. It had red onions, orange segments, sunflower seeds, raspberry vinegar, sultanas and almonds. I really liked the raspberry flavour, but I don't particularly like raw onion. The shrimp fritters were really good and the prawns with the anchovy butter were fabulous. The tortilla was fantastic too. Lots of nice flavours. We had a little pudding too- Donna and James' left over puddings. Chocolate pots and chocolate cointreau mousse. They were divine. Especially when combined on the spoon.

After lunch, we were allowed to play with tuilles. Tuilles are basically thin biscuits that are used to garnish a dish, usually puddings, although you can get savoury ones. Stuart said that he once did veal tuilles to go with a main course. I played around and made some shapes- some ready made shapes and some freehand. I made a spoon and a knife by myself, but couldn't do the complete cutlery set as a fork was just too difficult. Maybe I'll create my own stencils to make some really good looking cutlery?!

We started the tagine and put it in the oven to slow cook and break down the meat and bring out all the different flavours whilst we were having a revision session in the afternoon. Stuart made the mistake of giving us some big pots of chocolate buttons to help us revise and give us a sugar rush to wake us up. They didn't last long. The purpose of the revision session was to review any bits of theory over the course and to prepare us for the FIFTY QUESTION EXAM tomorrow afternoon!!!! Poor Stuart, he kept trying to move on from each theory section and we kept throwing questions at him. He handled it well though. We also had a cheese quiz. I only got a few answers right, including one about yarg cheese. Going to university in Cornwall has paid off! (I'm only joking- I loved my time at uni) Anyhoo, then we went into the kitchen to finish our tagines and prepare the couscous.

Moroccan lamb tagine with minted couscous

I don't think I've ever had a tagine before, but i really liked it. Lovely flavours- it was delicious. I even liked the dried soaked apricots which were in there and I normally hate that kind of thing. I would definitely make it again.

Before pudding, I shall give you the answers to the wine quiz that I gave you yesterday.

1. There are over 10,000 wine grape varieties existing in the world today. Can you believe that?!

2. It takes about 600 grapes to make a standard bottle of wine.

3. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine. It overtook France in 2008 and produces just under 10 billion litres of vino a year. Wow!

Pudding was also delicious. Greek yogurt and honey panna cotta with orangey roasted figs and tuille biscuits. The panna cotta was very silky smooth and the figs were wonderful. I loved the orangey syrup that we made to go with it too. The tuilles were great and gave a different texture to break up the smoothness of the panna cotta and soft figs. Unfortunately, my biscuit spoon broke in the heat of the kitchen and made it go a bit soggy, so I had to sacrifice it (by this I mean eat it) and replace it with a biscuit twirl.

Overall, a relatively stress free day and very enjoyable. All completely yummy and satisfying. Plus I loved the extra chocolate treats we had. Tomorrow is the last day of the course. I can't believe how quickly it's gone! I really don't want it to end, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.