Paul Merrett. Total Greek Yoghurt. 1000 Recipes, Food Bloggers. Cook and Eat!

What more could you need, midweek, attending a cookery masterclass with acclaimed Chef Paul Merrett?

Here’s my summary of the event in honour of 1000 ways to Love Your Total Campaign launching this month, covering a thousand of recipes using Total Greek yoghurt.

We were invited to a half day masterclass with the fabulous and down to earth Chef Paul Merrett, doing what he does best with a three course meal made using Total yoghurt.

Held at the quaint school of Cucina Caldesi (who we had the pleasure of meeting after) in Marylebone. A lovely cookery school, perched on a side road off the bustling high street.

Firstly breakfast of a Vanilla Panna Cotta with berries, an indulgent breakfast!

We were to make three recipes, first a Semolina Cake with almonds, hazelnuts adorned with greek yoghurt and honey. Which we started to make first because it needed to bake for a while, it had a nutty, grainy texture to it from the poppy seeds.

I do like this texture to a cake, other than being a tad on the dry side (our baking fault, possibly!) the greek yoghurt with honey spruces it up to make it an enjoyable dessert.

The starter was a Salmon Rillette with wholemeal toast , I enjoyed the salmon filling so much that I made it over the weekend at home with some of my freshly baked soda bread. Creamy, healthy, smoked salmon flakes, with the hint of fresh dill and paprika, it’s a great snack or even breakfast.

Finally the main course was a Vegetable Tagine, with butternut squash, peppers, chickpeas, served with cauliflower couscous.

I have never tried cauliflower in cous cous before but simply processed, ground down and added to couscous then steamed over water, added a brilliant texture, crunch and flavour to the couscous. The tagine was tasty, however not to be rushed, it could be slow cooked for longer to insure the flavours have depth.

It was a lovely day of meeting new food bloggers & Paul Merrett, plus working in teams to create a satifying 3 course lunch, an enjoyable morning. The recipe below is one of the 1000 Total recipes.

1. Place the fresh salmon in a small oven proof baking dish and wet the salmon with a dessert spoon of water. Cover the dish with foil and put it in an oven at 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 for about 6 minutes.
2. When the salmon is cool, flake it into a bowl.
3. Add the yoghurt, lemon juice, the softened butter (microwave), dill and horseradish – but don’t mix it all yet.
4. Shred up the smoked salmon into strips and add this to the bowl.
5. Finally add a twist of black pepper and then gently fold and mix everything together taking care not to break it all down to a mush.
6. When everything is thoroughly combined, put into a serving dish and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.
7. Serve with hot brown toast.