First Newlyn's course yields fabulous squid recipe, shared below

I don't remember the online dating profile asking about food, but it must have. Because our shared delight in cooking, restaurants, great ingredients and MasterChef (and just about any other cooking show on TV) has to rank near the top of that 98% of things we shared. Certainly, from our own kitchen to humble pubs to those Michelin-starred forays to describing the best in this blog, it's a major part of the life we now share.

Thus it was no surprise to our friends when Newlyn's Farm Shop showed up on our wedding gift registry. This fabulous place, just 15 minutes up the motorway from our house, has the best butcher in the area. Not just great meat and game, but helpful butchers who will cut whatever you need, advise you on its cooking, and throw in free bones for the dog. There are local cheeses, home made terrines and pâtés, specialist flours (a boon for our bread machine), a tempting array of gourmet goodies and produce worthy of a photo shoot. See www.newlyns-farmshop.co.uk

To add to the joy, there's a cooking school. A school which earned a big chunk of our wedding vouchers as Piers and I signed up for two classes together: "Fabulous Fish" yesterday, and "Butcher it, Cook it, Carve it" on the 24th.

Cooking schools are big business in the UK, and they're not cheap. Full day courses on the high end are often in the £250 range, so £130 for Newlyn's 5-hour Saturday classes is reasonable ...

as these things go. Still, it's a big expenditure, and you want some pow for your pound.

I'm delighted to say we got it. Head chef Hannah runs all the courses. She has a great personality and a broad base of expertise, answering any question you come up with and diving in to demonstrate anything needed. Two assistants whisk away dishes as you dirty them and all of your ingredients are set out in advance, leaving you to concentrate on the prep and the cooking. We got detailed instruction on filleting both round and flat fish, and got to practice on the latter. (I massacred my sole, but at least now I have the knowledge to practice.)

Like most cooking classes, this one featured sitting down with your classmates to eat what you'd prepared. Unlike others, you also prepped two more meals to take home with you, making this particularly good value for money. Hannah demonstrated two dishes and we prepared four. In addition to that valuable filleting instruction, we learned how to clean and score a squid (top tip: hold knife almost flat against the fish and cut at the slightest of angles), made our own aioli and tartar sauce, discovered the perfect shape to cut paper for en papillote cooking (a heart), learned how to got tips on crisping skin and spent a lot of time talking about how not to over cook fish.

The best recipe of the day, by far, was the chermoula (a north African spice mix) squid with tomato salsa. This was one of the take-away dishes. We took it to a dinner party after class, to much acclaim. Here's the recipe. It serves two as a main course, four as a starter.

For the chermoula:

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 juiced lemon

1 bunch flat leaved parsley

1 bunch coriander

sea salt, to season

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp tumeric powder

2 tbs olive oil

Ingredients for the salsa:

2 tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped into a small dice

1 clove crushed garlic

3 tbs lemon olive oil

1 tbs white wine vinegar

1 tsp sugar

salt & pepper

1 large, 2 medium or 4 small squid

To prepare:

1. Make the chermoula by whizzing all the ingredients together in a food processor, leave to one side.

2. Make the tomato salsa by mixing all the ingredients and seasoning well, adding sugar if needed.

3. Leave at room temperature

4. Prepare the squid by laying the body flat, scoring and cutting into strips. Use or discard the tentacles as you wish. Then rub the marinade into the flesh. Leave to marinade for at least half an hour, but no longer than two.

5. Heat oil in pan until very hot, then add squid and fry for just ONE minute.

6. Serve with salsa