Hot in the Kitchen

I've done my first two shifts in the kitchen as cook. We didn't have a thermometer in with us on Monday evening, but it was 42 or 45 degrees outside...and hotter inside! Carly and I survived, not without a lot of water!

In the end, the Monday Night Menu was:

Sheperdress Pie - Mashed potato with parsley on top, split pea gravy with courgettes, gigante beans, carrots, onion and cauliflower
Roast sweetcorn and Red Cabbage salad with a white wine vinaigrette
Chick peas al forno - a traditional greek recipe with onions, oregano and olive oil - set to become another Yoga Plus classic recipe for me.
Beetroot with Honey Mustard Dressing A recipe I got from Adam Keen and another Yoga Plus favourite for me!)
Lettuce

And Carly made a beautiful fruit platter of water melon, honeydew melon, dried figs, fresh pears, apple and oranges. In the heat, it was my favourite thing!

It was wonderful working with Carly - she is such a ray of sunshine and cheerfulness!

Tuesday Morning
Tuesday morning was easier. There is a little more time to prepare, it's cooler at 6,30am when we start and I had a shift behind me! I decided to stick to the classics, and things which didn't need the oven or the burners (keeps down the heat!) Rikke was wonderful support and worked really hard. I felt a little guilty for using so many dishes, when she cleaned them without my help!

The morning menu was:
Carly's Twice Baked Stuffed Aubergine The stuffing came from sauteed onion and carrot, the aubergine inners, ginger, garlic and breadcrumbs. Carly and I had roasted the halved eggplants the night before, and it was her idea to use ginger in the stuffing, hence the name!
YP Courgettes
Rikke's Brown rice, nectarine, and red pepper salad with pineapple juice as a dressing
Hummous made with chickpeas flavoured with onion, olive oil, oregano and lemon juice (previous night's chickpeas!) I felt something was missing from the taste, and couldn't work out what, and got some great feedback on this from Thanassis, one of our guests. As well as being an architect he has a discrening palate, and thought it needed tahini. He was right! I knew something was missing, but couldn't think what. It still tasted pretty good though!
Greek Salad (which we have almost every morning) Cucumber, Feta, Olives, Tomato and lettuce.

And, as we ran out of bread, and it wasn't certain the bread man would come, I whipped up a couple of loaves of Beer Bread. I used the local Mythos beer for one, and Rethymno dark ale for the other. Both were popular

And to finish Finn's Chocolate Cake decorated with a simple icing and a flower.

It's great to have two shifts behind me. I'm still loving the work, even in 45degree plus temperatures, and even though I felt exhausted last night after the back-to back shifts, the heat and an open water swim from our bay round the two headlands to the next beach, which took around 45 minutes.

Tonight and tomorrow morning I'll be assisting Udo. I think we're making Strudel. He is a genius in the kitchen, and I'm looking forward to learning from him.

Namaste and Bon Appetit

Rachel