Exam Week

Blackcurrant Fool with Shortbread Biscuits

I have been so behind on my blogging. Its been a crazy week. I've been cooking, traveling and studying. This past Friday was our exam day. It was like Master Chef.... We were all so nervous. We were given a list of what we needed to know for our practical exam.....everything from jointing a chicken to making caramel. Not only did you have to perfectly execute the dish but you had to use all the right bowls, spoons and knives. I was shaking... I had to peel and segment an orange, make mayonnaise, chop and sweat an onion and make a paper piping bag.  I actually got off pretty easy compared to what my friends got...and I was happy with the end result.

We had a herb and salad leaf recognition exam as well. I never knew there were more than 10 lettuce leaves but i left for the green house early in the morning to cram. I think i did pretty well and i'll never look at a salad the same again.

This weekend we are all enjoying some relaxation. We are having a Halloween party tonight in the court yard. I baked cookies this morning, decorated them and dressed up my roommate as a fairy.... the kind of fairy you release from soda bread.. :) Its been a great relaxing weekend after a stressful week.

Sunflower Bread

Last week I made an amazing blackcurrant fool, shortbread biscuits, Salmon pate, amazing soups and a killer sunflower shaped bread.

We had a couple more wine and cheese lectures and a pizza demonstration. The pizza demonstration was absolute torture. I was so hungry and they were making one incredible pizza after another. The best pizza place in the world (apparently) is in Naples. They make only two pizzas and they have lines out the door all day. I'm planning on proving this theory and eating there myself... :) Some day... Pizzas are a wonderful thing... the most important things to remember are a thin crust and not a lot of toppings..

Off the enjoy the evening and the rest of the weekend here at wonderful Ballymaloe

The Adventures Continue...

Irish Fry

Tuesday was fry day..... we all had to make a tradition Irish breakfast. There was a competition for the best fry... which I think I JUST missed out on :) We had to make the perfect egg along with streaky bacon, rashers, sausages, mushrooms, toast, black pudding, white pudding and a tomato. Freddie, my partner in crime was a great assistant and we toasted our fries with a mimosa at the end of the morning. Besides the fry I made buttermilk pancakes and apple muesli, it was a great morning.

Wednesday was lecture day and we had Darina's sister come in and talk about restaurant management. She had a really great style of teaching. We started the day in an empty room and ended up in small groups doing case studies. We learned about what makes a food business successful and what doesn't.We ended the night in the Pink Cottage having a family dinner. Remember that sandwich chest I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Well we replicated that and it turned out great. It was a great night celebrating a new house mate. We had Nick move in our spare room so our male count goes up to three.... yikes!

Freddie and I toasting

Today was my last day cooking with Freddie and I will miss my morning cups of tea he made and the craic. Today was also the best day working with Freddie. We were making éclairs, chilli, fish goujons with mayo and rice. Whatever Freddie was on it was rubbing off on me. I forgot which oven I put my éclairs in and I ended up almost burning them. My chilli was smoking hot and I cut my finger on the magi mix.  To cap off the morning we were short a teaspoon and a tablespoon from our section. It doesn't sound major but we cannot leave our kitchen until everything is accounted for.  I sent Freddie on a mission to see if he could take one from another kitchen without anyone noticing. We were like spies sneaking from kitchen to kitchen. It was a great laugh.

Chilli with rice and salsa

My éclairs turned out fine once I covered them in chocolate and filled them with cream. We took the extra pastry and deep fried it and covered it in cinnamon sugar. I think I ate about a tonne of that which made me a little sick. It was so good though.

We had Rachel in lecture today which I always enjoy. We made a couple Indian dishes, breads and some amazing chocolate desserts. After a quick clean up we had a short 'wine' lecture and tasted a couple different sherries.

This weekend i'm heading back to Belfast for the long holiday weekend. I'm going to collect my car and head to Dublin then onto Wexford to enjoy some R&R with friends before heading back to school.

Hope you are all well... good night!

The Adventures of Freddie and Laura

Freddie excited about his presentation. 

Monday started and ended with two band-aids and one amazing soup. :) I managed to cut my fingers on the blade of the saran wrap box. It put a little damper on my day but working with Freddie made up for it. Freddie was making a wonderful whiskey sauce and ended up making sugar soup.. :) It starts as caramel which is just sugar and water and somehow it turned bad and next thing I knew he was stirring a pot of sugar water... I spend the next couple of minutes doubled over and came to in time for him to start again. To his credit he did redeem himself and got a 6/6 for his sauce. It was really good.

He followed that with an amazing mash potato and somehow managed to get credit for a bacon chop he never made! Classic.

I made my first brown yeast bread and it turned out a little heavy but it wasn't a total disaster. I followed that with a beautiful green watercress soup. Its amazing how something so delicious just grows in the wild... and is completely free. I started with onions and potatoes then added water and tonnes and tonnes of watercress. I boiled it then liquidized it. It turned into a beautiful green color and it tasted wonderful :)

Our demo today was all about breakfast. Poached eggs, boiled eggs, easy overs, sunny side up, black and white puddings, rashers, solider toast etc etc.... It helps that I have an English mom so I had some idea what black pudding was. Tomorrow i'll be cooking and tasting it for the first time. 

Tonight was really cold. We all huddled around the barbecue where someone was making pizza.....yes pizza on a barbecue. It was really good. We turned on some music and practiced our waltz and spun till we were dizzy. 

I'm exhausted as usual and ready for bed. I'll be dreaming about black pudding and eggs tonight.  

Field Trips and Weekend Goodness

Salmon Smoking

I have a lot to catch up on. Thursday was field trip day. We piled into a coach and headed an hour and a half from school to our first stop.  We went to several different places and enjoyed learning about the thriving small businesses in Ireland. We went to a farmhouse cheese place where we saw the process of cheese making and was able to sample the delicious cheese. The place was tiny. They had a handful of full time staff and they made the most excellent award winning cheese. We went to a bakery where we learned all about bread, two farmers markets that reminded me of being in England and then a place where they smoked everything from salmon to duck. It was amazing.

English Market, Cork

I was talking to this guy at the farmers market in Cork. He runs an Indian spice stall where he sells just that and other combinations. Its such a simple concept and it does so well. He has family in India and ships in every beautiful smelling (and looking) spice and sells them locally in Ireland. He does so well for himself he quit his full time job and focuses solely on his thriving business. Not only was his product so good but he had the personality to match. One thing I have learned from people running their own businesses is how important it is to be personable and likable. (amongst other things of course) I was just really impressed and he seemed so happy to be doing something he loved.

After the farmers market and too much spicy indian food we went to another farmers market in Cork, the English market. It reminded me of the market in Bolton except the majority of it was food related. We snooped around there for an hour and left for pizza in Midleton. The place just opened a couple months ago by a former Ballymaloe student. It was soo good a couple of us went back this weekend for dinner. A pizza is not a pizza unless its cooked in a stone oven. I'm hungry just thinking about it.

Everything is going well. This week i am cooking with one of my house mates Freddie. He is a fan favorite here in Ballymaloe... something always entertaining happens with him in the kitchen so i'm looking forward to the laughs this week. I'm cooking an apple tart tomorrow morning along with a soup and vegetable. Freddie has got the pork steak and something else.

Cheese Making

Last night we all enjoyed a night out at the Black Bird. There was live music so we spend the night dancing and singing. Today my housemate Shane made delicious pork burgers with peppers, apricots and sweet and sour sauce. We (he) barbecued them outside in the nice weather and then I went for a pretty ambitious run. (maybe too ambitious)Tonight we are all watching X factor (like American Idol) and i'm trying to catch up on my blogging before going to bed.

We have a practical exam coming up. We have a list of things we need to have mastered for the exam. From jointing a chicken to filleting a fish and things like extracting meat from a crab, lining a flan ring, making pastry an omelet etc etc. Im assuming the tasks will be randomly selected for each student. I hope i get the pastry thing or the filleting a fish... i feel like i can do that okay. I haven't officially jointed a chicken... so maybe i should go out and buy one to practice...

Any how this week will be busy. I haven't even looked at what i'm supposed to be making. I know im on lemonade duty which means i'll be making candied peel (yippee) and I think I have to feed the hens.

Good night all

Cake and Icing

Me and my cake

Today I made an amazing coffee cake. I was getting nervous closer to the end of the morning when my cake wasn't iced and I had soup to finish. I stuck my cake halves together with an amazing coffee butter cream icing (butter, coffee essence and icing sugar) and topped with a coffee icing. YUM I decorated it with toasted hazelnuts and coffee beans. I thought it was fabulous :) It was a little lopsided but in my defense my mind was occupied with a pot of burning noodles... :)

Rosi in my kitchen made an amazing mango chicken salad. It was so delicious that I went up for seconds and thirds and I think fourths. My partner was frying up prawn crackers which I ate about 20 before they hit the table. Its hard to contain myself before lunch.

In demo we had Rachel teach and I loved her. She was so bubbly and funny. I don't even remember what she was making because I was just being entertained by her.... but okay now that i think about it... she made a pork/bacon steak with a cabbage salad and a Culahill apple and blueberry pie. Special shout out to my Culahill family! I was secretly excited that i'd been there and knew that pub she was talking about!

Tomorrow is field trip day. We are meeting at 8am and traveling all over Cork. I'm really excited for some reason. We are going to a massive farmers market in Cork which is supposed to be fantastic. I'll take some photos and post them tomorrow.

Its late and i need to get to bed... so good night!

Tuesday Goodness

Fiona, Rosi and Nick in the kitchen

Today I ate my body weight in chicken, gravy and potatoes. I stuffed my first chicken roasted it and then carved it to perfection. The kitchen smelt wonderful today. Besides the chicken I made cranberry sauce and oatmeal biscuits. The cranberry sauce was so easy to make. A couple table spoons of water and a load of cranberries. Once that boils then simmers add the sugar and you have the best tasting cranberry sauce ever.

Carving the chicken was a feat. First the thigh and leg including the oyster piece :) then onto the wing and then the breast. Every plate needs a little white meat with a little brown meat. I also made stuffing...which was amazing. Bread crumbs, 4 kinds of herbs and butter....so easy and so delicious. I think once people learn how to do some of these things they will never go back to stove top! :)

Roast Chicken

Demo was great. Rory was back and is a favorite! We had some Mexican and Thai dishes today along with four kinds of cakes that were to die for. Orange, lemon curd, chocolate and coffee. I was on wash up duty afterwards and actually enjoy the banter in the kitchen afterwards. I fed the hens who were all waiting for me and then headed back to my cottage for the evening.

I went for a run and ran the fastest and longest in my life. Is that sad? It started off as a walk and then it progressed to a run. I was very pleased with myself and celebrated by cleaning the kitchen in the cottage. Sad but I like to relax in cleanliness.

Presentation

Tomorrow I'll be making coffee cake and a Thai noodle soup. Thursday we have this extravagant field trip. I'm really looking forward to it. We rented a bus and will be moving all around Cork. Farmers markets, cheese factories, restaurants... etc. Rory is our guide so it makes it even more exciting.

Off to do my order of work and a bit of filing. I'm going to try and fit in some white yeast bread tomorrow, i don't know how long or how much of a pain its going to be... so i have to work it out.

Night!

Monday Monday

Pumpkin Carving

It was a great weekend this week. We ended up carving pumpkins and baking the seeds. Sarah and I did this every October in Bermuda so it was nice to continue the tradition in Ireland thought it wasn't quite the same without her.

The girls of the Pink Cottage took to the road and had a wonderful lunch in a little neighboring village on Sunday afternoon. Sunday night was spent filing and preparing for the Monday madness.

Today was omelet day. I made the perfect 30 second omelet. Actually I've never been so nervous making something so simple. There is technique involved believe it or not..... so much so we will be graded on it for our final. I need to practice :) I made a tomato salad with homemade french dressing (easy and delicious) and I made marzipan apples. I used to think marzipan was awful then i made it and its great. Its just sugar water and almonds. The stuffed apples covered with toffee was to die for. I ate three and felt a little sick afterwards.

For Demo we learned all about game meat. We had a guy come in with a bunch of dead birds and taught us about plucking and gutting. I will never look at a duck the same again. Poor things.

Cobh

This week i'm in the 'demo kitchen' its the smallest of the three kitchens and much more relaxed. Its so much fun, maybe a little too much fun especially when all  6 of us are friends. :)

Tomorrow i'm making a stuffed chicken with roast potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. It should be wonderful. There will be some people plucking and gutting but i think i might pass on that... i just don't know if I can bring myself to cut off a ducks little head and wings. I almost... almost became vegetarian today.

Really looking forward to the field trip this week. We are piling in a bus and heading off for the day. The last time i was on a field trip i think was with Warwick Academy and the Jason Project :)

Anyways great start to the week. To bed and hope tomorrow will be delicious and successful.

Game 

Great things about today:
Tomatoes. I eat them every day here.
House mates. We are seriously a family
Roosters... Yes today... and just today i will call them nice. I like the way they walk around everywhere and right up to you.

Friday

Friday I filleted and baked a beautiful Haddock. I first made a cheese sauce and whipped up some mashed potatoes. Once filleted, I seasoned the fish and spread some of the cheese sauces on top sprinkled with breadcrumbs. I piped some mash around it and popped it in the oven for 20 minutes. It was so easy and it really tasted yummy. I feel like I say that a lot. Simple and delicious! :-)

We had alot of pate which I passed on. If you knew how much butter went into that you'd struggle to eat it too.

Demo was entertaining. We learned all you could about omelets. Ones with layers ones with stuffing and simple 5 second creations. I'm not a big egg fan but it was alright... after all it was Rory cooking them.

Friday night was girls night out. A bunch of us dressed up and headed out for a charity fashion show. We had a ball. Then we headed to the Black Bird. The 'place to be' :) I ended up home early watching Glee :) Typical. This morning I made crepes for breakfast/lunch and spent some time with some out of towners.

Next week I have a new cooking partner and we are going to be learning about different types of game. We have a special field trip as well which should be fun.

I'm so glad its the weekend. Its so nice to sleep in, catch up on filing and relax. I'm going to soak it all up.

Jelly and Scones

Yesterday was a lecture day. We had a wine lecture and tasted six different wines. The problem I have is that most bottles don't label the kind of grape used. They only list the region where it was made and from there you should know what kind of grape they produce. I have a lot to learn....

After the wine lecture we had a 'tea lecture' We had a guy come in and teach us about tea leaves and the tea we buy in most grocery stores. Did you know a lot of the tea we drink from bags are mostly 'dust' .... well according to this guy they are. I learned why PG tips are called PG tips and why green tea is so good for us. After that we had a massive tea party. We baked buns and biscuits and everything sweet. It was delicious and beautiful.

Today was another great day. I made Jelly (different from Jam), quesadillas, raspberry sorbet and the most amazing orange scones. I think I mentioned those before. Sadly I lost all my photos on my phone so you will just have to imagine the goodness.

 I started with my Jelly... apple and elderberry. I chopped up the apples, threw in some elderberries and added some water. Once the apples were soft I emptied everything into a Jelly bag and let the juices drip out into a bowl. I boiled that and added sugar.... presto JELLY!! It was really delicious.

Orange Scones

Next was my sorbet which is still a work in progress. My orange scones were a last minute decision but I managed to pull it off. It was a regular scone dough with orange rind mixed in it. Next I made an orange butter which was just orange rind, butter and icing sugar. I rolled out the dough layered on the butter and rolled the dough like a jelly roll. I cut it and brushed it with egg wash and sugar. They turned out great. I just took a picture of what was left of them.

Darina showed us how to prepare livers this afternoon. We had chicken patte on toast and another fish recipe. Did you know foie gra (duck liver) comes from ducks and geese who have spent their lives being forced fed, literally their little beaks are opened and food is stuffed down them. Horrible.

To top off the day we had some baby chicks on show. They were lovely. :)

Tomorrow i'll be filleting another fish (I am going to be a pro!) and i'll be making an aubergines salad. Its starting to get darker here. I went for a walk with Rosie and crew and had to turn around. This weekend we are supposed to be going to a fashion show so we spent the evening trying on dresses and picking out what we should wear. Sunday we are all going deep sea fishing. I've got my sea sick pills on hand just in case. :)

Tuesday

Shrimp and Mayo Platter

Today was a great day. I made mayo, bean salad and amazing apple chutney. The chutney took forever. I peeled and chopped everything under the sun then put it in a huge pot and simmered it for hours. It was totally worth it though. I was supposed to cook shrimp but they came already cooked so I worked on my presentation skills and made a pretty nice plate. Presentation is almost as important as the food itself.

Bean Salad

My bean salad was so simple and yummy. French beans cooked and 'refreshed' aka dunked in ice cold water after boiling then paired with peas and pomegranate seeds for garnish. It looked amazing.

The Mayo was a process. Did you know mayo is not supposed to be white! Simple and delicious mayo is an egg yolk, mustard, white wine vinegar and oil. The trick is adding the oil VERY slowly to the rest of the mixture. We all stood in our kitchens crying in pain from all the whisking. It was worth it though. My mayo was great!

Darina was back teaching demo today. It was Mexican theme. Beans and tortillas, guacamole and a hot salsa. Tasting afterwards was a treat. I went up for thirds... no need for dinner tonight.  She made a jam and some sorbet as well which was also delicious. Oh and she made these orange scones that were amazing. She put orange rind in the scone mixture then rolled it out into this big rectangle. She combined some orange to butter and layered it on top of the scone mixture. Then she rolled everything like a jelly roll and cut it into pieces. The outcome was delicious and delicious looking. So simple and so yummy.

Apple and Tomato Chutney (great with Shepherds Pie)

Tomorrow is all day lecture/demo. I need to get in early for a comfy seat. We have wine tasting tomorrow morning. Wine at 9am doesn't sound appetizing to me but I guess i have to get used to it.

Its been so enjoyable getting to know everyone on the course. There are people from all walks of life here. My little cottage is 'blessed' to have two of the 'four guys' on the course living in it so as you can image our house is very popular. There is always a hive of activity here which is alot of fun. Tonight though everyone is at the Black Bird pup so my other
house mates Rosie, Rosie and I have the house to ourselves so we are drinking tea and enjoying the peace! Its so nice.
To bed to dream about orange buttered scones!
Night

I'm loosing track of days...

Shane chopped his finger while chopping parsley

Monday mornings are hard no matter where you are or what you are doing. This morning we were all in slow mo.... so much so we had one girl in the hospital getting stitches and my roommate banned from cooking for the next couple days with his finger all bandaged up.

Today we had a massive lamb roast. I made the turnips and starter salad with beet root. My kitchen looked like a beet root massacre. I've never cooked or eaten beetroot before. It tastes like soil and i promise its not just my cooking :) My partner roasted the lamb glazed carrots and made grape jelly. Lunch was massive and so delicious. We actually finished on time today and we all had a chance to go back home and relax for a little bit before our demo.



Demo was amazing. We were taught to make chutney, moussaka, prawns, proper shepard's pie and something with lamb neck in it. Did you know a shepard's pie is made from lamb and a cottage pie is made from beef? The chutney was amazing and the moussaka was interesting.

Tomorrow i'll be making the chutney, prawns and french beans.

Tonight we are all relaxing. We had home made pizzas for dinner and now we are settling into some television. I think I will be in bed early tonight.

I'll try to update some more pictures later...

Day 8 9 AND 10

Home-made Butter

I'm so behind, a lot has been happening. Its been such a busy week. Okay lets catch up. Day 8 was a lecture day. We learned how to make butter and cheese. It was amazing. The butter seemed pretty straight forward and the cheese was a serious process but at the same time easy enough to follow. With butter you can jazz it up so easily....chop up some herbs and add them to the butter... simple, delicious and it looks great.

Indian Dish

Thursday we made those Indian dishes I mentioned before. I had Almond Chicken with Rice, Yogurt and Cucumber. It was amazing. We are supposed to have everything prepared and presented for
grading at 12 then lunch at 12:30ish but that has'nt been happening these last two weeks. I wonder if we will ever get it right? Anyhow lunch is always amazing. We eat everything we made and laugh about our morning disasters. My right hand is collecting burn scars. My house-mate dropped his lemon tart on the floor yesterday, burnt his pepper so badly it became 'one with the pan' and somehow managed to melt his pen on the stove top.

So yesterday was fish day. You'd think living on an island i'd be familiar with cooking and filleting fish. Guess again. It was disgusting. We received a huge marcral each and had to fillet and skin it. It sat on my chopping board staring at me as i cut into it. It was horrible. I did better than i thought though. I got all the bones out and skinned it okay. It was really butchered in the end but it all worked out once i got the rest of the ingredients together. We poped the fish in a bowl and added cheese and dijon mustard, popped it in the oven until brown and presto. It actually wasn't that bad. I sanitized all my kitchen equipment that was in two feet of the fish, got a shower and cut all my finger nails off that evening. I am just not a big fan of fish scales and eyeballs.

My poor fish moment before being hacked.  

The demo that afternoon was all about lamb. It was one of the best demos. Here you either need to expect a lamb walking in the kitchen on a leash or at least half the carcass on your chopping board. There is no such things as 'pre-cut meat' we pretty much learn how to butcher before we cook meat. So two assistances lugged this half lamb to the demo room and there it lay. It wasn't looking at us because it had no head (thankfully) but everything else was there. Rory chopped it up and we finally got the leg which was in the recipe to cook. If you could smell the room you would never forget it. Rosemary and garlic lamb roasting with potatoes, glazed carrots and gravy it was wonderful. Even better i get to experience it all over again on Monday when we make it for ourselves.

Everyone is getting sick around here. I'm just getting over my cold and my roomate is just starting up. oops. Friday night was really nice. I had dinner with some friends I met in Middleton then came home watched Glee and went to bed. This morning Rosie, Rosie and I went to town for lunch at a fantastic little cafe. We were talking about food, wine and whats good and what we don't like anymore and we realized we are on the verge of becoming 'foodies' (food snobs)! Its great to have a legit opinion about something.

So onto week 3!!