Chop, Chop!

My auntie and myself finally got round to booking our Christmas present to each other - a Jamie Oliver Recipease knife skills course for beginners. The principal is great - learn a new kitchen skill or recipe from Jamie Oliver trained professional chefs in one of their two shops (Clapham, London or Brighton) in two hours, then tuck into your creation with a glass of wine.

The shop also sells lots of lovely Jamie Oliver products, I pretty much wanted everything! They also provide freshly made ready meals or you can sit in for a coffee and cake.

When we arrived we were handed an apron and chose a cooking station which had all the ingredients and tools laid out ready. Our teacher, Jen was lovely, very friendly and ready to help. First we learnt about the three main knives you will need in the kitchen (basically small, medium an large!) and how to choose a knife. A good knife should have metal that runs from the tip to the end of the handle.

We then got on with making our dish - A Thai style mango salad with griddled prawns, this dish was perfect due to all the ingredients we needed to chop. So my top tips I picked up are:

1. Always pop a damp cloth or kitchen towel under your board

2. Never use glass chopping boards as it blunts your knife, choose plastic or wood. If you use wood make sure you always wash in hot soapy water and oil once a month for added protection.

3. Only one person should sharpen a knife when using steel so the angel is always the same and tell your other half when they have been sharpened.

4. Use your middle three fingers to hold the item and use your thumb and little finger to grip it to the board. The middle fingers tips should be tucked under the knuckle so if you go too close to your fingers you wont chop them off!

5. Rock the knife from the front tip to the back and let the weight of the knife do the work.

6. Roll the lime between your hands to break down the fibres and make it easier to squeeze.

But the best tip did not even involve a knife but a teaspoon! To peel ginger use a teaspoon to scrape away the skin this means less waste of the ginger as you can go around the knobbly bits. Check out the Microplane Graters, these were first recommended by Emily and are brilliant.

After all the chopping and cooking we got to sit down with a cold glass of (complimentary) wine and tuck in to our hard work. The flavours were amazing and fresh, if you want to try it yourself the recipe is below.

I feel like I learnt loads and would love to try another one such as the filled pasta making or mexican street food.

Thai-style Mango Salad with Griddled Prawns

Serves 4

Ingredients:

- 20 large raw prawns, de-viened with remove heads and tails.

For the marinade:

- A thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated

- 1/2 red onion finely diced

- small bunch of coriander, leaves picked and chopped

- 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and chopped

- 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice

- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

- 1 tablespoons seasame oil

- 1 tablespoons soy sauce

- pinch of brown sugar

- 1/2 clove of garlic

For the salad:

- 1 ripe mango

- 2 handfuls of bean sprouts

- 3 small cucumbers, chopped

- handful of coriander

- 1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into thin strips

- 1/2 savoy cabbage

- bunch of spring onions

- sea salt

- a small handful of sesame seeds, toasted

- extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Method:

- For the marinade, mix the ingredients together, drizzle half this mixture over the prawns.

- Destone the mango and cut into thin strips. Mix these with the other half of the marinade, bean sprouts, cucumber, coriander, pepper, spring onions and sea salt.

- Fry the prawns over a high heat for two minutes until cooked through.

- Place the salad in a dish, lay the cooked prawns on top of the salad.

- Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and drizzle with olive oil and serve.