Day 7

This morning I woke up and didn't know what day it was. We hurried to our kitchens and I started to prepare my Apple Tart. I've captured it on film for you all to enjoy... and because I was very proud of it! I call it the Evolution of Tart.

Stage 1 Make pastry and line flan ring

I had to do this twice, but it was worth it. I made the pastry keeping everything as cold as possible, then rolled out the pastry into a nice circle. Once rolled out it was delicately lifted and put into the flan ring. This was the part I had to redo but it was fine second time around. It blind bakes (which is a pain in the neck) for 20 minutes then brushed with egg and put in for another 5 minutes. In the mean time I chopped up the apples, almonds and made the crumble (sugar, flour and butter)

Stage 2 Fill and Bake

Next I filled my baked tart with a mountain of apples and crumble. It was like Kilimanjaro in my oven. The almonds make such a difference to the taste. Not only did it look so delicious and rustic but it tasted just like it looked.  I don't like to admit but I did botched the sides of my tart wall. They shrunk so I had to do a little surgery before it went back in for its final bake. It turned out rustic looking which was pretty great in the end.

Stage 3 Cut and Serve

My tart came out and it looked great. It took another 40 minutes in the oven and when my apples were soft it was ready to come out. The smell in the kitchen was amazing. some others were making rhubarb pie which was more of a Kilimanjaro than mines. Can you imagine a huge stalk of rhubarb stuffed in a pie?

Stage 4 EAT

Finally it was time to serve. I sliced a generous piece and put a dollop of fresh whipped cream on the top sprinkled with crushed almonds. I got a 5.5 out of 6 (due to the emergency pastry surgery half way through) My teacher had a bite and i finished the rest off. It was the best dessert i've ever made. Very delicious :)










Besides the tart I made sweet chilly chicken wings which were a hit and some grilled zucchini. The kitchen was a buzz of activity today. Tomorrow is a lecture day so we will take a rest from the cooking. Demo today was great though. Rory is hilarious and makes watching cooking so enjoyable.  It was an Indian themed demo and we'll be replicating the dished (which i can't wait for) on Thursday morning.

Rory cooking up a storm. Can you see me sneaking a picture in the front row? 

My favorite Rory sayings from today:
Roasting Saffron.."It has a wonderful musty, mysterious taste but if you are not careful it can end up tasting like an attic."
When its time to serve: "Arrange your plate in a way your eye will respond positively to."
Food taking a long time to cook: "highly undramatic"

Least Favorite Things:
Chasing down a teaspoon at the end of the day so you can get your 'supply chart' checked.
Being made an example of what not to do! (My green soda bread yesterday) :)
Roosters in the early hours (have I mentioned this before?)

Day 6 & the weekend

Cliff Walking

Week 2 day 6 has come and gone before I had the chance to blink. Let me first recap my weekend.

Friday night came and we all happily relaxed and enjoyed a family dinner in the cottage. Saturday morning my house mate and I ventured out to the local farmers market in Middleton. Ballymaloe has a stall as do about 15 other vendors. They sell everything from fresh vegetables to home made chocolates and cakes. I came home with freshly picked corn on the cob and a large chocolate cake. There were some Irish dancers performing and a folk band so we enjoyed that. We got lost on the way back but ended up seeing some beautiful beaches! 

Sunday my house mates and I went for a long cliff walk. The views couldn't get any better. I could almost see Bermuda. We had lunch in Ballycotton and then headed out for a walk. I spend the evening catching up on my filing and filling out my order of work. Early to bed as I had cows to milk in the morning.

My crab being shredded to pieces

This morning came too soon and before I knew it I was in my wellies staring at a pair of cow butts. Every morning Ballymaloe milks two cows for breakfast and cooking milk. They have all the modern machinery so it was a really quick process. While there I got the chance to see yogurt being made. Its amazing what you can make when you have the right ingredients. I had a spoon of fresh yogurt before I hit the kitchen. This morning I was making soup, biscuits and soda bread. It wasn't my best effort but I managed to pull it off in the end. My soup had too much roux but was saved by the blender. My Soda bread was a little green (too much baking soda) BUT my biscuits were my saving grace. I also had to cut up a crab and get all the meat out. It was staring at me before I snapped its little legs off and dug around for all the good meat. I was not a big fan but it had to be done.

Demo today was more ripping and tearing of animal skin. We learned to joint a chicken and then use everything possible to make something edible and delicious. Hot wings, seasoned chicken breasts, legs and thighs and we even kept the skin and baked it into a crisp cracker type thing. That poor chicken had nothing left. It was a really enjoyable demo though. I learned alot. 

Wine Tasting

After the demo we had another wine lecture and wine tasting. We had a gentleman from Bordeaux talk about all the wines there, all the types of grapes and why we should listen to Mr. Parker. We tasted 5 different wines 1 white and 4 reds. My favorite was the white and the last red we tasted. It goes well with chocolate cakes :) We barely brushed the surface. It would take a lifetime to learn everything. We have a number of other classes to take about wine and then an exam at the end of the year. I might be a little snob by the end of it all! :)

Bed time! No duties tomorrow morning so I can sleep in. 

Things I'm trying to get use to:

Imperial measuring system. There are no cups here :( I'm getting used to lbs and oz

Fresh salad. In a good way! Its so good

Free Range Chickens. I kind of like the idea of having a couple around. 

Fresh Milk. Warm milk is a good thing... and cows are lovely creatures.

Cream! We eat it with everything!

Fresh Herbs. I don't think I can ever eat dried up herbs from a jar again.

Biodynamic... I can't even start to go here yet! :)

Day 4 & 5

Day 4 was a lecture day. We had a passionate speech on fire safety which was interesting. I had the chance to try a fire extinguisher but I chickened out. We learned about kitchen hygiene and all that important stuff.

Home Made Raspberry Jam (presentation for tasting)

But onto today. I made JAM and it was amazing and amazingly easy. Fresh raspberries with about a ton of sugar in a pot boiled for 5 minutes. It was so good. After that I made tomato pure for soup on Monday then Mushroom a la Creme which was really rich. I got good marks for it which made me happy.

I did burn myself.... my first war wound. A couple girls have been seen running from their kitchens to the sink covered in blood. Nothing major... I guess we are all getting use to our new knives. I feel like a real chef walking around with my knives and sharpening them.

Today's demo we watched crabs being boiled to death. Actually the most humane way to cook a crab is to start with cool water and gently boil it. It puts the crabs into a coma, like they are slowing falling asleep. Well we'll never know for sure lets just wish for the best.

Penne

Darina made fresh homemade ice cream which was amazing followed by frozen popsicles. So easy and so yummy. There are just so much things that are so easy to make. If we gave ourselves the time and the decent ingredients we'd never have to eat horrible fast food again.

Its the weekend and it feels really good to know i
can sleep in tomorrow. At the moment there are a couple people in the kitchen cooking something that smells good. Tomorrow morning some of us will venture out to a farmers market which should be pretty interesting.

WEEK 1 BALLYMALOE!

My kitchen

Favorite things today:
Raspberry Ice Cream
'Family' dinners in the cottage

Favorite sayings from Darina
The most over used abused terms these days:
'home made'
'quality'

Day 3

I survived my first full day in the kitchen. My soup was a 5.5 out of 6 and my French Onion Tart was a 5. My crust was too thick on the bottom and it was ever so slightly overcooked :( brutal!

I was in the kitchen at 8am weighing all my ingredients and gathering everything I needed for the morning. We are allowed to start cooking at 9am when the teachers arrive. I had a full morning and was pulling my tart out of the oven at 12pm on the dot. I'm getting used to using lbs and oz instead of cups.

Sadly i didn't have my camera to capture my first prepared dish. I will say it looked great and it tasted amazing! Tomorrow is a lecture day and Friday i'll be making raspberry jam and a mushroom penne.


3 year old Parmesan Cheese Wheel.

 Our lecture and demonstration today was done by Darinas brother. We had a special guest Peter Ward who talked to us about cheese, specifically Parmesan cheese. He bought in two massive wheels and cut them. We tasted them and he preached the importance of fresh ingredients and knowing exactly where what your eating comes from! This cheese wheel has 1200 pints of milk in it! The cheese is ready to eat when there are crystals inside of it.

After the cheese talk we were treated to an amazing presentation of jam making followed by an amazing hazelnut and chocolate tart. Yes they use fresh hazelnuts from the tree outside our class window. Incredible! Then he made the best thing i've ever eaten. This incredible hot sausage penne. It was so good when it came time to tasting i waited around and pinched seconds and then thirds. It was just amazing food. He made a Greek salad and a tomato and mozzarella cheese salad. Did you know mozzarella comes from bufallo milk? He topped off the demonstration with the easiest fluffiest most Divine scones. It literally took him 10 minutes to make. They were topped with fresh cream and the fresh raspberry jam. Just look at the picture how could you not want to eat everything?


Greek Salad, Scones, Fruit Tart, Chocolate Hazelnut Tart & Penne

After feasting my house mate and I took a 2 hour walk around the country and down to the beach. The weather is beautiful and we are taking advantage of the daylight while we can. I'm happy to report I can still fit into my jeans and I'm planning on keeping up with these walks so I can fit into them come week 12!

Tomorrow is lecture all day no cooking so it will be interesting. I'm on no duties tomorrow which is nice. I can sleep in for a change and relax until 9am.

Favorite things:
- Amazing Penne
- The Lemon aid. (Its seriously that good)
- Brown bread made fresh every morning

Not so favorite things:
- Roosters

Day Two

Its 11pm and I'm finally able to sit and write about today. It was an early start for me in the herb garden. I was collecting the herbs for the morning. After that we all met in the lecture hall for a quick demonstration followed by some 'house keeping' We have a broken light in our cottage. :)

We were schooled on all the rotas which was alot to take in. Thankfully tomorrow I have no duties but Friday I have hosting and serving duties.

Today we cooked for the first time. It was exciting to use my new knives and i'm happy to report all fingers are still intact! Today we chopped onions and carrots for Carrot and Cumin soup which turned out delicious. After that we made Mushroom a la Creme which was also delicious. For dessert we made a Summer Fruit Salad with a very sugary syrup.... aka Sweet Geranium Leaves. We were closely watched by our teacher which was reassuring and lunch turned out to be edible for us all. I ate alot of salad and kept the rich a la creme to a small portion! We had a quick break and then onto our lecture and demonstration.

Salads, tarts and more soups were created. Tomorrow is my first day solo cooking. I will be cooking Onion and Thyme Leap Soup and a French Onion Tart. We had to make out an 'Order of Work' which reminded me of my GCSE in Food and Nutrition. We have from 9am - 12 and my tart is due out of the oven at 12 on the dot. So fingers crossed I can get it all done.

A nice walk this evening with friends followed by a Tescos run to cap off the evening. Bed time comes fast but the morning comes even sooner. On a happy note I heard no roosters this morning, lets hope I don't jinx myself.

Tips of the day!

Apples:
Brown seeds - ripe apples
White seeds- unripe apples

Salads:
Wash salads and DRY. If the salad is wet the dressing will be diluted.
Bagged salads found in most grocery stores look nice and say they are washed but are full of chlorine. More chlorine than in 10 swimming pools! They are also not grown in soil but water so lack alot of nutrients.
Dressing is so easy to make.... there is no need for Wish Bone!

Favorite Things:
The Lemonaid. We have home made lemonaid every day and its the best thing you've ever tasted.
Chopping onions. I think I am getting faster and faster.

More pictures to follow.

First Day

The Pink Cottage

I made it safely to Ballymaloe yesterday afternoon. The weather is wonderful. I settled into my beautiful little 'Pink Cottage' with 5 roommates. Two from the UK Two from Ireland and one from America.  We have a little kitchen, living area and my room even has a balcony.

Monday Morning

I woke up to the sound of 20 angry roosters outside my window. We met at 8:30 for breakfast. Yogurt and honey made here on the farm. The best apple and raspberry muesli you've ever tasted, of course all locally grown and organic. This was just the beginning of my food makeover.

Apple Orchards

Following breakfast we headed with Darina to tour the farm. First the fruit orchid: Apples, figs, peaches, pears, raspberries, blueberries etc etc. Vegetable gardens with every vegetable imaginable. Gardens with hazelnut and walnut trees. There were massive green houses with garlic and onions dangling from the ceilings along with more vegetable and lettuce leaves. We got a lesson in soil and potting and planted our first seedling.

After our tour we had a quick 'get to know you' session where we learned each other names and stories. All 62 of us. There are 10 nationalities represented here.  We were starved and were excited for lunch. We had delicious tomato soup and home made bread to start and what followed was our first lesson in cooking. We must learn to develop our pallet. Darina's kitchen served us a variety of interesting 'fishy' treats. Smoked eel and macral, chicken pate, mussels, home made mayo (which is yellow), shrimps and olive. There were some things I had to close my eyes and eat quickly but I did manage to taste and appreciate (as much as I good) everything on the plate. Dessert was homemade ice cream, meringue and raspberries and a blueberry sauce. Simple delicious!

Lunch!

Enough about lunch!

Our first lecture was how to make simple biscuits, syrups, mushroom a le creme, candied peel, home made lemon-aid, carrot and cumin soup and brown bread. It was a whirl wind but tomorrow we will get the chance to make them and practice our cutting techniques. Did I mentioned we received an impressive knife set. I know how to use maybe one of two of the things inside... so I have a long way to go.

Tomorrow morning I am on herb duty. I have to go and collect all the herbs for the day. Next Monday morning i'll be on milking duty! Can't wait for that.

Bed time and full chef gear tomorrow.