I was thrilled to get an email from the Retired Teachers Association in January informing me that a cooking and nutrition course was available to us on Zoom. I love cooking and baking and have attended many courses over the years, none over Zoom mind you. As we faced into another lockdown, I was eager to learn tasty and nutritious new recipes. We had the option of cooking along with Aidan or we could sit back and enjoy a cooking demonstration. I opted for the latter.
Aidan Deering is a first-class chef and nutritionist with a lovely easy relaxed style. I learned more on the three courses with Aidan than I learned in all the other cookery courses combined. All the ingredients Aidan uses are so wholesome, tasty and readily available. Aidan is a very patient teacher as he answered all our questions as he cooked while at the same time encouraging those who were cooking along. Essential food techniques such as how to poach fish, how to create and store a spice mix were taught to us in a fun and engaging manner.
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| Ingredients ready for Cookery Demonstration on Zoom. Photo provided by Aidan Deering. |
The first recipes on the twenty seventh of January were for a roast red pepper soup: delicious and a lovely alternative to my butternut squash soup; a Mediterranean cheese and olive bake, so easy to cook and ready in fifteen minutes; and finally stuffed peppers with crispy chicken: a recipe that has now become one of my weekly recipes. I did not have long to wait for our second class which took place on the tenth of February. The recipes I now love to cook are nutritious, delicious wholemeal pancakes with raspberries, blackberries and crème fraîche, and a crunchy salmon and broccoli bake with poached fish and pasta. Our last zoom course was a cookery demonstration for us all which included a healthy seed salad dressing, a warm orange and lemon chicken with chorizo summer salad, coconut prawns with garlic crème fraîche and a Mexican bean burger with purple coleslaw and homemade red onion chutney. It was such a treat to sit back and enjoy a wonderful masterclass demonstration.
I now have become much more adventurous in my cooking, and I love the flavoursome tasty recipes that Aidan taught us. I look forward to having more zoom lessons or even better to attend classes in person in the not-too-distant future.
Edel Linnane, July 2021.