Ballymaloe Day 38, March 1st - Meat is Murder (Part 1)

Day 3

In the morning of this week’s theory day we had a massive vegetarian demonstration by Darina and Rachel. Morrissey would have liked it! There were dishes from all over the world, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Spain, America and so on. It was one of the tastiest lunches yet (even better when you haven’t had to cook). There were honestly loads and loads of things on the menu and so much of it was fresh tasting and healthy. There were lots of pulses, quinoa, tofu, baked aubergine and tabbouleh, everything had lots of flavour and was really delicious.

Darina in action and a huge spread of food

Pitta Bread

Yummy vegetarian food

All fresh and tasty

Nom nom nom

The afternoon was another wine lecture, we went through a huge selection from all over the world this week. We had wines from Austria, California, Spain, South Africa and Italy. What a struggle! I liked all of them, in fact we haven’t tasted a wine I haven’t liked! I will miss this part when the course is over, swigging wine on a Wednesday afternoon!

Colm McCan, Sommelier

Glug!

Ballymaloe Day 31, 20th February - A Bout de Soufflé

Argh, we are now in to Week 7 and the course is flying past. I was still in Kitchen 1 for another week, this time I was in a section with a bit more room. I was making the Pâté de Campagne, a Finnochio and Red Onion Salad and the Parmesan and Gruére Cheese Soufflé. The pâté is a terrine made in a small Le Crueset. There was so much meat, minced chicken and pork and bacon and chicken livers, you make up the mixture and fry off a bit to check the seasoning. It took quite a few attempts to get it right, then rolled out rashers of streaky bacon to line the casserole. The minced mixture was then layered up with the livers. I had just folded over the top of the bacon only to remember I had forgotten the pistachios which were lying in a bowl in front of me... That went into the oven sealed with a flour and water paste.

The salad was simple enough but really tasty, then the soufflé. The base of it with the cheese could be made ahead, then you whisk the egg whites at the last minute and fold it in. It took a bit longer in the oven than the recipe suggested, could probably have had another minute or two, it could have done with a bit more colour but it did rise and was sooo tasty!

Finnochio & Onion Salad

Pasty looking Souffle

Vegetarian's Nightmare

 

In the afternoon we had a demonstration with Rachel, she made some delicate winter salads with bitter leaves, lots of stews, polenta and ahead of Shrove Tuesday crêpes with orange butter and toasted hazlenuts.

The day wasn’t over though as we had another wine evening, this time by Pat Smyth, who used to play rugby for Ireland before he got into wine. He is also an expert on French wine. He has a slightly different approach to some of the other wine people we’ve met, he wasn’t a fan of the spittoon anyway! His philosophy is wine is for drinking and sharing, glug!

Also yesterday I started my sourdough starter. Elements be captured!

Ballymaloe Day 28, February 15th - France vs Spain

Well the exams were nearing ever closer so some of us students went down to the greenhouses to have another look at the salad leaves and the herb garden. At least it's getting light earlier in the mornings now!

The herb garden

The peas we planted a couple of weeks ago!

The greenhouses

In the greenhouses we saw Rocket, Mizuna, Mibuna, Tatsoi, Pakchoi, Butterhead, Cos, Green Mustard, Red Mustard and many more. We have 20 to learn for Friday plus 20 herbs!

Back in for 9am we had a short demonstration of tasty Millionaire’s Shortbread and then Bay Lough Farmhouse Cheeses. Then it was time for the French wine lecture. We were joined by french wine expert Pascal Rossignol of Le Caveau wine merchants and shop in Kilkenny.. There was loads of great wine and we went through some of the main wine regions, Burgandy, the Rhone Valley, the Loire and so on. He also explained a bit about the appellation d’origine contrôlée in France.

All these before lunch!

For the afternoon we had a massive Tapas demonstration with Rory and Emer, one of the teachers here. It was brilliant and gave me loads of ideas for a feast when I get home. There was a whole leg of Spanish ham carved from a stand, Manchego cheese, octopus, chorizo, anchovies, small spanish peppers, salted cod and tortilla and so many tasty morsels! Then at the end to go with the tasting plate, Colm McCan came back to talk to us a bit more about Sherry and we tried a couple with the food. Amazing!

Octopus!

Membrillo & Manchego

It was a feast and a half

Back at the cottage we were revising hard memorising our herb recipes and practicing our techniques. We practiced chopping veg and making omlettes all evening, the novelty soon wears off I can tell you. Then we quizzed each other on salad leaves and herbs, fun times! There are 20 techniques to learn and if I ever see a paper piping back again it will be too soon!

Ballymaloe Day 18, 1st February - This is the Life - Wine in the morning, Cake in the afternoon

Wednesday the 1^st of  February and another Theory Day. Curiously in Ireland February is considered Spring?! I am finding the theory days to be just as hard if not harder than days in the kitchen, as there is so much to concentrate on. First of all it was an early start as some of us students went to the massive greenhouses to plant some seeds. We dug some little trenches and sowed in dried peas (Ambassador is the variety) which had been saved from the previous year. The next thing they’ll grow in the same patch are broad beans but it was a bit early to sow them. En route to the green houses we saw the piglets racing towards us in a nearby field, looking for food. We fed them, they were thrilled and stuffed their faces without a snort of thanks. They are Saddlebacks I think. It was good to see them running free more to the point!

Zero table manners

Oink!

Sowing the peas

My little lettuce, 3 weeks bigger

The greenhouses

Then back to the school and after some tasty Tunisian and Moroccan Orange Cake and Fermoy Cheese it was onto the wine! A Wednesday morning with a wine tasting ahead beats any Wednesday morning going to work in the office. For this wine 'lecture', yes it's a struggle here, we had Colm McCan from Ballymaloe House again and this time John McDonnell from Wine Australia. There were loads of great wines of course including an introduction to sparkling wine and the methods of making it, Riesling - very nice I have to say, and then some reds, a biodynamic Cabernet Merlot, a Tim Adams Shiraz and a Syrah from the Rhone valley, the Guigal (the winery) Côte-Rôtie (the appelalation) 'Côte Blonde et Brune' (the name). We were supposed to have another Australian Granache instead of the Syrah but it was corked! This was a good opportunity to smell some corked wine though, smells like mouldy carpet in a damp shed or something.

John in action

It was also an introdcution to biodynamic wine, planting to the phases of the moon etc and harvesting to a different calendar and treating the vines with almost homeopathic remedies. It's interesting stuff and the wine we tried is highly regarded - €60 a bottle!!

Phew, after all that excitement there was no let up. In the afternoon we had a talk from Nood Teas about tea and the teas that are sold in the supermarket, those you get in tea bags are dust grade - what does that tell you! Their company puts proper leaves in a new sort of teabag that biodegrades - it's pretty cool. Then that was a introduction into the afternoon's demonstration, Afternoon Tea!

As ever, it was a full-on production. Rory and Pam, one of the teachers made some amazing creations. There were perfect cupcakes, meringues, different sponges, cider cake, the icing of the mega-Simnel Cake, and sandwiches served in a 'treasure chest' of a loaf of bread. There was so much going on and so many ideas to take from it and so many recipes that if done well would be amazing if you had a cafe or catering business or something. Really it was another brilliant day and we are so lucky to be exposed to this stuff day in day out, even if it is a bit exhausting!

Rory & Pam

Perfect Cupcakes

Better than the Savoy!