Woodee Experience Day
We love cooking on wood because the flavour that the wood gives to food is really like nothing else. So, you can understand that we jumped at the opportunity when Louise from the Woodee invited us to one of the Woodee experience days. Who else to inspire us to cook over wood fire than the creator of hand made Herefordshire firepits? We didn't leave disappointed...
The day started with arriving at the Woodee field in Snodhill, a beautiful corner of the county with rolling hills with the Snodhill castle ruins in the background. The course was kicked off by meeting the other participants as well as Sue Goring, the Cordon Bleu-trained Woodee Chef as well as 2 new chefs Rich & Andy, who will be running more of the courses this year. We knew we were in the right place to hone our cooking skills.
After the briefing, we got to work with Louise showing us the most effective way to light your fire pit using our Grill & Chill kiln dried logs and our new KindleFlamers. With this combination, our firepits were alight in no time at all, and we were ready to get down to business.
We were provided with all the tools that we would need throughout the day as well as all the ingredients too! Armed with our spatulas and heatproof gloves, we were ready to turn up the heat and get started with our first dish of the day: an incredibly indulgent self-saucing chocolate pudding. Once we had the mixture nailed, we took all of our puddings over to the big Woodee to start cooking ready for later on. Whilst these were baking in the mini-Dutch ovens.
Both of us that went on the course had very different dietary requirements, with Sandra being pescatarian and Abbie being unable to eat Fish, Katie made sure we were catered for & still had the chance to cook a variety of delicious meals sure to wow any dinner guests you may have! We went on a delicious culinary journey and utilized every aspect of firepit cooking from the grill & cooking tray with mouth-watering marinated halloumi & creamy mushroom Stroganoff, to cooking aubergines directly on the embers for Baba Ganoush! Needless to say, by the end of the day we were stuffed, but came home with plenty of leftovers to share with the office!
Throughout the day, the whole team were on hand to make sure that we all had the best day possible. With Louise, Andy, Rich & Sue covering all the firepit management and cooking skills, Fae & Nancy keeping us well supplied with teas, coffees as well as some delicious cider from local producers Newton Court Farm, we can confirm this cider is perfect for relaxing by the firepit! And to Katie, for making sure the whole day ran as smoothly as possible.
We felt the day was so worthwhile and have come away with a whole host of new skills we plan on putting to the test in the future! Louise & the team do still have spaces on the April courses and we would highly recommend the course to anybody who might be interested in cooking up delicious food outdoors.