Celebrating the Taste of Christmas with AEG

It’s always exciting when the festive season begins. It seems to get earlier and earlier…. our tree and decorations went up towards the end of November and I’m not in the slightest bit sorry! Time goes by so fast these days and the kids absolutely love the lead up to Christmas so my thoughts are.. let’s make the most of it and enjoy it for as long as we can! (It was also our only free weekend for a while so had to really!)

I love all the Christmas foods. Those delightfully packaged party foods and the fun festive cakes… it all looks so inviting! I start buying it as soon as I see it all in the shops!

I don’t consider myself to be a very good cook but when I have the time, it’s lovely and satisfying to make something really good, fresh from scratch! Wish I made the effort to make new things more…. I tend to make the same meals over and over, in rotation, because I always feel I’m too busy to spend hours in the kitchen trying out new recipes. The kids usually don’t like whatever I’ve created anyway when I have made the effort… so it’s often pointless!

That’s why when I received an invite to the AEG Taste of Xmas event with Currys PC World, I was very excited! It was taking place at The Cookery in Hoddesdon and we were going to make some Christmas treats and eat lots more! I was hoping to pick up plenty of hints and tips about Christmas cooking to put into practice at home this year!

The Cookery is a fantastic, purpose built cookery school in Hertfordshire which you can book for individual or group cookery lessons, parties or work do’s.. they even do kids cookery lessons! It’s also open as a coffee shop during the day and days when there are no events planned. It’s a gorgeous space, not too big or clinical as industrial kitchen areas can sometimes be, but very welcoming and cosy.

The most striking feature of the space was the wall of AEG ovens! There were LOADS…. all looking very sleek and modern. Each one seemed different to the next, with different features within to provide the best environment for cooking up the most delicious feasts! When I walked in, seeing all the Christmas decorations and smelling all those delicious aromas from the food that was already in the ovens… I knew I was going to have a fab day!

After a glass of prosecco (don’t mind if I do!) and some chit chat with Sabina here from Mummy Matters, the owner of The Cookery and our host for the day, Simon Atkins came over to mingle with everyone before announcing what we were going to doing! Simon has always loved food and started baking at the age of 14. Over the years he has worked with some great people and he has always had a burning desire to open a cookery school to allow the ordinary person to come in, learn and enjoy, and also to take away skills that will help them, their families and could very well be passed down through their children.

First up, we would be making a Vegetable Wellington! Simon gave us a demonstration and was very technically informative, explaining exactly how to put it together step by step. The vegetables were already pre soaked so the main thing to worry about was the filo pastry… eek!

So off we went to our designated work stations, put on our aprons and, in my case, attempted to put together our starters!

I have to admit to finding the filo pastry tricky to work with as it dries very quickly and flakes off all over the place! Luckily Simon was on hand to give me some reassurance that this was fine, then it was oven time! The AEG ovens are really quite something, there’s the Steamboost.. did you know that steaming your roast meat improves flavour and texture while preserving crispiness – turning every meal into a masterpiece? There’s the Sensecook Ovens that understand how to cook your meal to perfection… how YOU like it! A bit clever me thinks! Or how about the Surroundcook? No need to turn around your dishes anymore! Or maybe you’d like a combination of all three? It’s a whole new world of supersonic cooking.

Here’s my finished vegetable wellington which I have to say was absolutely delicious…. I barely had enough time to photograph it.. I couldn’t wait to eat it! Served with a flavourful jus made from red wine, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and butter. Mmmm!

While the wellington was cooking, we were treated to another demonstration by Angela Vescuso, who has a wealth of experience which she brings to The Cookery School. She talked us through making the perfect pastry! For mince pies!

Some tips included adding salt.. this balances out the flavours; using strong flour for dusting your work surfaces when rolling as it doesn’t clump as much; not adding too much flour to the surface as this causes the pastry to become too dry and split! Once the pastry has been chilling in the fridge for a while, leave it rise to room temperature before rolling. About 3mm is a good thickness and don’t over fill your mince pies!

Here are mine pre cooking…… I was rather pleased with them!

So we made the starter and dessert, all that was left was the mains. This was already prepared for us by the team at The Cookery so our job here was to EAT it! It’s a tough job I know 😉 Simon shared with us some more of his wealth of knowledge about cooking meat to perfection before retrieving the meats, beef and turkey, from the ovens which were cooked to perfection I might add. He then carved them up for us as we went round with our plates, like being at a Carvery!

It was all absolutely delicious! I love Christmas dinner, I really look forward to it! This year we will be going to my mother in laws as we have done for the past few years. My plate is usually overflowing and it’s the one day a year I think we can all just pig out…. and eat all day! I drive up to my Dad’s for the week after Christmas to see in the new year with him and we have a second Christmas dinner there! Love it!

Sitting down to a full on Christmas dinner in November, some of which I made myself, in this lovely setting with a lovely bunch of people, really did kick the festive season off in the best possible way! I had a fantastic time and would recommend The Cookery to anyone! I’d love to try out one of their one day courses at some point in the future… maybe take along the kids as they would really enjoy it too!

Thank you to everyone at AEG And Curry’s PC World for a wonderful day!