Training Day It has rained all weekend, therefore the greens are under water today and we are closed, perfect for some training for Chefling Steve then. First lesson, jointing a chicken, making stock from the bones, coq-au-vin from the legs and chicken kiev from the breasts, ah, the kiev didn't survive long enough for a 'before' shot, so here's the after shot. Oh, the second lesson didn't make it to any kind of photograph at all. Moules Mariniere, Steve didn't think he liked any kind of seafood, but one large pan of mussels later he was converted, Mrs. YS, Steve and myself stood round and wolfed the lot. Some potato work, we did Duchesse potatoes, shown here, plus bases for concasse and some potato croquettes, and some rather excellent Gratin Dauphinois. The picture above is poached mackerel with Duchesse, courgettes and vine tomatoes roasted with olive oil, thyme, sea salt and black pepper. The mackerel gutted and cleaned, they are lovely looking fish. Devilled mackerel, if you want to learn more about cooking fish, I would heartily recommend a copy of Rick Stein's Seafood School Cookbook, it takes you through preparing every type of fish and shellfish with a superb, step by step, well photographed guide. It is easily the best fish cookbook I have ever purchased. Now, I know the mackerel above looks a bit charred, but the flesh inside was moist and succulent and a nice counterpoint to the cripsy, mustard and cayenne coating on the skin, try a nice lime, tomato and coriander salsa to go with this. Sardines, again they didn't quite survive long enough to be photographed in all their glory, we grilled one, just with a tiny amount of olive oil, and floured and deep fried the other, to serve we prepared a very simple tomato sauce with onions, celery and white wine. Gratin Dauphinois at the front, this was quite superb, and Coq-au-Vin at the rear, we really couldn't eat any more at this point so this has been put away for tomorrow night's dinner. We still had a bit of time left, so I got young Steve to knock out a large tray of lasagne, a large portion of which I have just devoured along with with some '99 Rioja Reserva. Looking at the amount of work we have managed today, I cannot understand why it took us all afternoon at catering college to produce one dish, Wossername suggests this may be to do with with the fact that we didn't spend half the afternoon throwing mashed spuds at each other and using dough hooks to pull the waitresses skirts up, he may be right you know.