Ballymaloe Day 12, 24th January - A Fowl Fiasco

Awoken by our feathered friends I was back in the Demo Kitchen with my filleting knife nice and sharp. We had one organic chicken between two from Aherne's, who supply Ballymaloe with their poultry. Firstly we took off the leg and split each one into thigh and drumstick, again searching for the elusive ball and socket joint. Then the breast and the wing, which is also split in two. Any excess skin was saved for roasting and serving as a snack (?) and then we chopped the carcasses up with a cleaver. I cannot believe I am wielding a cleaver and scraping down bones with a razor sharp knife! By the end of it I was sick of grappling with a warm, greasy chicken, but I did an okay job considering I hadn't done it before.

Onto the cooking, I chopped the breast into goujons (after a kind of small fish) the size of your little finger and fried then in a spice and almond paste made in the Magimix food processor. This was the first time I have ever used one of those, I struggled with the seemingly simple task of putting it together and getting all the freshly toasted spices in - half of them fell out the hole in the middle where the blade goes... I would definitely get one after I leave Ballymaloe though, along with the Kenwood chef and liquidiser they are one of the pieces of equipment they use a lot here.

I also continued the candied peel (a three day job), and made the kale salad. They love kale here but I am not a fan if I'm honest. The salad here is the nicest kale I've had though. I also found a slug crawling across my chopping board when I was preparing it - very organic! I found him a new home in the hen's bucket!

The afternoon's demonstration was a very glamorous menu, smoked salmon (smoked in Shanagarry), Ottelenghi Chicken and wonderful meringues. Rory did today's demonstration and everything looks amazing, the presentation was so good and I have a lot to learn. It was my dream menu though, exactly what I make for a country wedding or a feast on midsummer's eve. Gorgeous, sadly, photos don't do it justice.

Looking forward to Thursday morning in the kitchen!!

Ballymaloe Day 11, 23rd January - Demo Debut

Into Week 3 and this week I was in the Demo Kitchen. This meant there was only six of us and loads of bowls and utensils and serving plates to use. It also meant there was a new kitchen to get used to and I had to ask where everything was all over again. This took up a bit of time, which I should have allowed for in my morning's schedule. It's much easier when you have been in the same kitchen a while (she says, having been here two weeks), as you can save time when you know where the parchment paper or ground almonds are kept. And, int the Demo Kitchen you can pretend to be Rachel presenting to an (empty) room of students... err maybe that's just me.

Anyway, there was no time for that as I had to get on with my sorbet. I juiced loads of oranges and kept the empty halves for making candied peel which we have to do on the course. Then I sieved the seeds from the passion fruits, added the fruit juice to a cooled syrup and put in the sorbetiere. Then my partner and I made the spiced chutney and I began the cabbage soup. The trick with the green soups is keeping the colour in them, but I have to be honest, it was hard to be inspired by cabbage soup even though it tasted good. Out of everything today I was most pleased with the sorbet; after churning in the sorbetiere I put it in the blast freezer which cools anything way faster than a domestic one.

Cabbage Soup - looks less anaemic in real life!

Passion Fruit & Orange Sorbet, Spiced Chutney

In the afternoon's demonstration Rachel showed us how to joint a raw chicken for use in several different dishes. That will be tomorrow's big challenge! She also made some white root vegetable soups, raita and a kale salad. For dessert there were lemon and chocolate sponge puddings - very tasty!

Tomorrow I am cooking a lovely indian dish, spiced chicken breast with almonds, the kale salad and continuing my candied peel. In the evening after turning our cheese a few of us in the house went to see a film 'Our Daily Bread' at the school, it shows a montage of scenes of modern food production with no voiceover. Frightening stuff!

Cock o'the walk

This bad boy keep waking everyone up in the morning! I'll be getting my revenge tomorrow when I'm chopping up his cousin!