Last weekend before Arvon

...I`m totally deconcentrated. Everybody was on holiday on Friday, so I was the responsible for the whole cooking school, quite a big challange but drives me crazy. All the daily suppliers arrived the same time, all the phones were ringing in the same time, and guests arrived continously.... running up and down... the advantages and disadvantages of a beatiful, but huuuge 2 floor cooking school. Never mind.

Then the fishman arrived. Saturday is Sushi day, Sunday is for Fish Steak. Almost 20 kilos from the freshest fish, oh, I love so much the smell of the sea. We packed out the boxes and just realized with H. that the whole salmons are just so big, that not even our biggest fridge shelves can give a night accomodation for him. If Mr. Salmon can't come in, the shelf will come out - we`ve decided... and it worked.

Sushi day was fantastic, the course was fully booked, but even a lady with her last-minute morning call could fit in. Loads of sushi, sashimi and miso were done. I was busy taking photos - one of my new projects to illustrate all our courses with. I was even more happier since this was the first time Mum visited the cooking school, already hands-on, participating in a sushi course. Very brave I thought.

Cleaning, closing, setting the alarm. Arrive to the exchange houses till they close, to get my few worthwile paper pieces with some decent smile of Elisabeth. Realising that I have no travel reading, last-time searching for eat, pray, love... unsuccesfully. Oh, God, almost forget about my travel insurance. Obviously no agency is open on a Saturday evening. Thanks to M. little Vespa - Luigi, our quickest family member in city transport, took us to a 7/7 0-24 office.

Sunday began with a terrible dawn dream. Such a technocrat world, I hate so much, but forget my mobile charger in the office, can't live without, no matter how many others are carried in my impossibly heavy bag, amongst others, notebook charger, camera charger, mobile no.2 charger, cabels... Guess who helped out? Kind Luigi...

So stressfull, still planned to do some nice blackcurrant cups, some redcurrant ice-cream, all waiting for me, and I'm wasting the time with such profane things...

Sometimes I do feel that my carefully collected ingredients are just so innocently waiting for something to happen with them, I can almost hear them whispering me shy : Are you gonna play with me? Can I join the others? Can we have a better life out their in your oven? ...just so much pressure.

Still haven't packed anything, I do not even know where my suitcase is, haven't checked the departure time of my transfer bus. My brain is just so busy, but I feel in my inwards, that some cooking will calm me down.

Da-da-da-daaaam. Time for my lonely currants and berries.

I've just saved a nice tray of blackberries from my Thursday market trip. Still wondering what would be the most appropriate way to lift them into heaven. My first idea was to prepare a shortbread type of cake base with vanilla-sourcream filling and blackcurrants on the top. Than just got to realize the most shameful thing that can happen with someone who is actually running a foodblog , my wholegrain flour just went bad. Not even ask how it could happen, how does it looks like, it's simply terrifying. Result: no flour, no pastry.

Here comes some instant help, from the cupboard. Some nice amaretti biscuits. I've just simply crushed them with a wooden rooling-pin, and divide them between 4 wine cups. I've mixed sourcream, with vanilla sugar and some extra powdered sugar, and a bit of lemon zest. Let it cool, till I finished with the rest. Cleaning blackcurrants it's not actually what a girl can dream about. First of all they are black, you're not sure whether they are clean or not, felling well or, not, then comes the tiny little, annoying, brownish end thing, that I do not wanna eat. However I'm just the type of girl who loves niggling with such thing. But I tell you the truth at this point I've give it up and decided not to clean them, only wash them. I've boiled them with some muscovado sugar and Creme de cassis. When the berries are soft, I've removed them from the heat. I've pass it through a filter to collect the beautifully purpleish-pinkish-blackish juice. I've added some gelatine to it till warm.
Taken out the vanilla sourcream from the fridge, divided it between the cups as the second layer, and pouring as a third the blackcurrant juice. I've left it in the fridge for about 2 hours, till the match started, we've celebrated the World Finals with these cups. Absolutely flavourful, a real touch of summer.

Blackcurrant cup-cream

Ingredients (for 4 persons):
120 gr amaretti biscuits
250 g blackcurrants
3 tbs muscovado sugar
4 cl Creme de Cassis
400 ml sourcream
1 tbs vanilla sugar
2 tbs powdered sugar
zest of half a lemon

By 0.30 am I've finally packed, memorized the only goal of the final, celebrated with fabolouos blackberries, and set my mind for a week of food and writing...
Oh, no just realized I've forgotten about by redcurrant ice-creams. Never mind They are waiting for me in the freezer in the Hungarian summer. I'll tell you about them later on, once I got back from the British summer, less warm, less shiny, but even more exciting.