Ballymaloe Day 36, 28th February - Back in the Dairy

Week 8 already and I was still in Kitchen 1. My third week here, hopefully the teachers weren’t sick of the sight of me. This week we are only in the kitchen for three days as Thursday is the School Outing! In the morning I was up for half seven to milk the cows again. The mornings are much lighter now, I remember stumbling around in a field full of mud in the dark at the start of the course! The cows were herded in and we got the milk and separated it into milk and cream in the dairy. Here are some pics which I didn’t get before!

Mooo!

Separating the milk and the cream

Then back into Kitchen 3 for the morning’s cooking. I was making a salad with thin slices of pan grilled steak, onion rings and tarragon dressing. I also made a rich chocolate tart with very short pastry which I rolled out between clingfilm and carefully laid into the tin. The tart comes out the oven still liquidy and then the chocolate sets overnight. I also made some extra scones for practice, I put a bit of cinnamon in them and brushed the tops with cinnamon sugar.

Steak Salad

Cinnamon Scones

Chocolate Tart

In the afternoon there was a huge pasta demonstration. One of the teachers here used to work at the River Café in London and she is an expert at making fresh pasta of all shapes and sizes. There were all sorts: lasagne, cannelloni, tortellini, cappeletti, fettucini and so on, plus a real ragu, Tiramasu and loads of rich sauces to go with them. They have these professional sized pasta rollers here, sort of like a giant’s version of the ones you have at home. It all looked a feast and tomorrow I am making the Cannelloni filled with chicken and pork and a rich creamy sauce.

Pasta Fest!

Tiramasu

Ballymaloe Day 10, 20th January - Lamb, sorbet, cheesemaking

Well got in early and just as well as there was a saw and half a lamb carcass to deal with. I sawed off the neck (sometimes called scrag or scrag end), toasted and ground some cumin seed, slashed the lamb with my really sharp knife and rubbed it with the spice, sea salt and olive oil. It was in the oven before 9am and smelled amazing!

Another day at the office for Sweeney Todd 

 Then I had the rest of the morning to make some roast potatoes, swiss chard, gravy and marmalade. Another weird combination. Well, the marmalade took forever to set, and the swiss chard never stood a chance. I was pleased with the marmalade and the gravy was delicious! I am slow at thinking how to present and serve the food though, still haven't really grasped the concept of that.

The afternoon was Rachel Allen showing us how to use use the leftovers from roast lamb in moussaka and shepherd's pie. We also covered green vegetables, green vegetable soup and an orange and passion fruit sorbet, made in the sorbetiere (posh name for an ice-cream maker). She also dealt with some other exotic fruits and made granita and fruits in syrup. We also went through an introduction to wet and dry curing and smoking.

Instead of heading back to the cottage for a well earned rest on Friday evening a few of us went to the dairy to make some cheese. Yes, although I should have been sick to death of dairy products after this week this was a great opportunity you wouldn't get many other places, to make cheese with milk from right there on the farm.

The milk was heated up in a small vat with rennet added, then cut with cheese knives (look a bit like big egg slicers), then the curds and whey separate and we kept stirring and heating them till they reach right stage. Then the whey is drained off (they feed it to the pigs here although we did try a glass to drink - kind of strange if I'm honest) and pull the curds into small bits and pack them into moulds and weigh them down with weights. We kept turning them every 15 minutes, then every 30 minutes, then every hour, then every 2 hours, then in the morning, lunchtime etc etc till we end up turning them once a day for 2 weeks. The cheese will go into the fridges out of the moulds tomorrow when we cover them with salt and rub that in.

sifting the curds and whey

My little cheese

That's all for another crazy milk-themed week here at Ballymaloe!