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!