Letters on Lunches

Back to the Beginning

Soooo, ask me what I've been doing with my life over the past few months...... Wellll, I quit my job as an engineer, I did the twelve week cookery course in Ballymaloe, I took some - much needed - time off to re-evaluate my life, I got a job in Cafe Paradiso in Cork, I got a gig as a private chef in Cork (once a month), I moved to Cork AND I'm turning 30 next week AND I'm single again.... It's all go go go and I'm looking forward to my next holiday already.

I just started work in Cafe Paradiso and will be doing mainly nights to begin with. Hopefully, the boss will take pity and allow me to have some form of social life and let me work the odd Friday / Saturday lunch so I might again, get to see what the inside of a glass looks like. To be fair, before I even started, I asked for the 30th off as that's the night i'll be celebrating(?) my 30th which was no problem so happy days. Anyway, work; it's very hectic and at the moment I'm in training so I'm trying to do more and more on my own each night. Don't get excited, I'm not dreaming up & cooking my own fabulous recipes or anything like that, it's just the sheer volume of work that has to get done every night is daunting. I'm also pretty nervous about next week as i'll be on my own in a section... Someone will come to my rescue... Won't they?

Now, back to more important matters; after many many months of blather & chat, finally, a recipe. This is a Ballymaloe recipe and it's so tasty it's ridiculous. I'd forgotten about it and when paging through one of my many lever arch folders packed with Ballymaloe recipes, spotted it and thought to myself, "i'll have that for lunch tomorrow", and I did. Enjoy!

Crispy Chicken Sandwich

with whatever you like, I had buttered baby courgettes & smashed new potatoes

Serves 4

What You Need

4 Chicken Breasts

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

4 Slices of ham

Some gruyere cheese (or cheddar)

About 3 Tbsp flour (seasoned)

2 eggs beaten

3 slices of bread made into breadcrumbs

 

What You Do

• Cut the chicken breasts across the middle & open them out (like a book)
• Season the inside and spread with some mustard, then add the ham and a slice of cheese
• Arrange the flour, egg & crumb in three separate bowls
• Fold over and dip in the seasoned flour
• Pat off any excess flour and dip in the egg
• Finally, dip in the breadcrumbs
• Heat some butter in a pan and add the chicken breasts. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side until browned. Transfer to an oven, preheated at 180C for about 15 to 20 minutes. Yum!

Don't Be A Stranger

Well the course is well and truely over and I've been flung bank into the depths of reality - with a bang. I'm taking some "personal time" at the moment to try and decide exactly what it is I plan on doing for the rest of my life and I'm having a mighty fine time doing it. I've been cooking for family and friends, preaching the importance of locally and organically produced food to anyone who'll stay awake long enough to hear my rant and I've been up & down to Kerry like the proverbial blue fly. I'm not going to write too much for now as all will become clear in time but just so you all know, I am still alive, I am still cooking and my love affair with all things foodie hasn't ended....

Ballymaloe Diary, Week 12

Oh lordy, it's already week twelve and not a child washed in the house as they say! My practical exam is tomorrow which I'm shaking at the knees about and the written exams will take place on Friday. We're all off to Ballymaloe House for a well deserved let-the-hair-down-but-don't-get-drunk-as-it's-frowned-upon dinner on Friday evening followed by a crazy night in the Ballycotton Blackbird on Friday night. Fun, fun, fun!

It's been so long since I've posed last that I'm not going to write an essay with a paragraph dedicated to each event so the engineer in me is going to break out and summarise some of the high points over the last few weeks... Just be thankful that it's not in spread-sheet format!!!

• We visited the makers of the delicious Bay Lough cheddar cheese at their farm in Co. Tipp and got to see the curds being cut and tasted lots of samples - when you try you buy, so we all left laden down with cheddar!
• I spent a day - in my element - working on the farmers market stall in Midleton. I've learned that it's very satisfying to be able to explain to a middle woman how to tell when beetroot is cooked when asked.
• I spent a night in Ballymaloe House gutting & filleting mackerel for a Taste of Cork - not half as manky as it sounds.
• I learned how to make brioche, puff pastry, flaky pastry, croissants, carraway seed bread, fougasse, chipatis, naans and a bunch of other breads.
• I got to meet the AMAZING and GIGANTIC (6"8) head chef at The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore. GO THERE, if only for the scallion egg yolks!!! That's all I'm going to say....
• Spent a few hours rolling sushi during one of the afternoon demonstrations - great fun.
• Took afternoon tea in Ballymaloe House and got to hear about the history of the house as well as some motivational words from the legendary Myrtle Allen.
• Sat my wine exam and did very well thank-you-very-much. Not well enough for the Bollinger Champagne but I think I can tell my Burgundy's from my Bordeaux at this juncture.
• Sat through two brilliant lectures given by Darina's sister, Blaithned Bergin about food costing and the highs & lows of setting up your own business.
• Saw more of smoker Frank Hederman than was decent at 8.50 in the am (poor Frank was caught unaware when a bus load of Ballymaloe students arrived before the scheduled time).
• Learned how to make a crystal clear consomee - very exciting, no really it is!
• Cooked, and ate, lots & lots of lobster!
• Learned how to make amazing cupcakes from Claire Ptak, ex (and reported best) pastry chef from Chez Panisse in California.

There's about 100 other things that I could add to this list but alas, the study desk calls. Hopefully, the next time I write, I'll have managed to sort out some sort of employment to keep me going. If you know of any nice cafe's / restaurants, that cook local, organic & seasonal food, with friendly staff, looking for an enthusiastic chef with little experience, please drop me a line.... High Expectations, moi? Why not reach for the stars? Life is short...

Ballymaloe Diary, Week 7

It's week 7 down here at Ballymaloe which is pretty strange. We're over half way through the course now and things are really stepping up. The breads are becoming more elaborate and we're being given more dishes than ever to cook in the kitchens in the mornings. Also, a bunch of people are after getting sick which meant that 11 people cried off cooking on Monday morning! That may just have been Monday blues for many students and most are back to normal again thank goodness.

We had our exam on Friday which was strange - it was a bit like waiting to go into the Leaving Cert exam but in a good way. I did well in the herb / salad recognition (full marks) but I made a complete pigs ear of my french omlette in the technique exam. The second the egg hit the pan, my heart sank as I knew it wasn't hot enough and things just went downhill from there. Not to worry though, onwards and upwards.

As an end of exam treat, one of my classmates hosted the most amazing barbeque at her home on the grounds of Ballymaloe house. There was a lamb on a spit which was the most suculent meat ever tasted, most students brought something homemade from breads to salads to pickles to dips and the wines were pretty special since we're all a bit more aware of what we're drinking from all the talks given by Colm McCann and his guest speakers. The cottage looks out on a field in front of a forrest and benches were laid out for us to sit on. Paper lanterns were hung around the cottage for those afraid of the dark and Harry brought along his karaoke machine to keep everyone entertained.

I've been invited to a friends house on Friday night for drinks & nibbles and will be bringing little crostini with Ardsallagh goats cheese(truely a revelation), rocket & confiture d'oignon (another revelation). I'll have to post the recipe for this when I "get out" as this is something every foodie should try (and get addicted to).

I'm off now to a wine tasting followed by breakfast demo followed by bongo drumming. Tough life!!!

Ballymaloe Diary, Week 6

Well, it's been a while but I'm back again. I've been up to loads since I've last written & now I have exam jitters as we've our first exam tomorrow. It's a herb / salad recognition followed by a technique exam which could mean we may have to fillet a fish, segment fruit or even assemble a Magimix. We'll also have to pour a glass of wine (the Ballymaloe way) and make a paper piping bag. I must say that I'm nervous as it's been so long since I've had to do an exam but I'm sure everything will be fine - they're not trying to catch us out, just figure out if we've picked up anything since we started. On the plus side, one of the girls is throwing a barbeque tomorrow night so we can forget our woes over lots of good food & drink.

The demos have been pretty great lately, tapas yesterday, gorgeous fish curries last week, roast duck on Monday and, a goodie, burgers & chips today. I'm learning so much it's scary; I'm figuring out where I've been going wrong in so many dishes and am understanding flavours a lot better. I'm also sorting out things like presentation, timings and I no longer need to disect a piece of meat or fish to check that it's cooked.

I also spent last Saturday working in the Crawford Cafe in Cork's Crawford Gallery. It was great; I got to meet a good bunch of people and will definitely go back and do another shift before the course finishes up. That's the great thing about being here, we've the opportunity to work in professional kitchens with some amazing chefs - it's so hard to work out what I'm going to do next!

On an entirely different note, a gang of us spent time playing bongo drums at lunchtime today as stress relief - can you believe it? The tutor is coming back on wednesday night to give 35 of us a lesson.... Surreal!!!

Ballymaloe Diary, Week 4

I've been slow to blog since I've moved down here but it's not easy; with everyone scrapping for computers, I have to come in early to get my 'cupla focail' down on paper. Also, the weather has been amazing so many people sit in the fruit garden sipping tea before morning classes which is a shame to miss out on.

Something I haven't explained up to now is the set up. In the afternoon demo, one of the master teachers (Darina, Rachel & Rory O'Connell) demonstrate a bunch of different dishes. At the end of the demo, we herd up like animals with the reward being a plate of tasty morsels - both sweet & savoury - on our plates; this will be lunch the following day. We then check the matrix on the notice board for the following day to see what we are required to cook with our partner (partners change weekly) and go home that night and write out a fairly detailed order of work. The premise is a balanced meal so there's always a starter, main course & dessert but we can add in breads, biscuits, cakes, basically anything that will have ingredients in abundance if we think we have extra time or just want to get the practice. We are supposed to have our food plated up by 12pm for teachers to mark us and lunch should be at 12.30 where we kick back & enjoy the fruits of our labour. Lunch has been out in the sun trap that is the fruit garden this past week & it feels like things couldn't get better but I know they will!!!

On to a completely different subject now about something new I learned yesterday. Sour dough bread.... Did you know it takes 8 days to get the "starter" started??? The starter is basically flour & water which is fed with more flour & water for 8 days, and at the end of this time, you have a living thing. It sounds like having a baby to be honest. You need to look after your starter (for years), feed it, use it, and feed it more before making a loaf - I can't wait to get started (excuse the pun) - magical.

I've to go here - it's theory day & we're learning about coffee.

Ballymaloe Diary, Weeks 2 & 3

So, I've another two weeks down and soooooo much done. We've made cakes, marmalades, chutneys, breads, gutted fish, jointed chickens, butchered lambs, plucked fowl and skinned rabbits. Ooh rabbit skinning; it's not for the faint hearted at all at all. Imagine how I felt when I saw a dead bunny urinate on one of my fellow classmates; animal rights activists may assume I was moved by the beauty of nature in life and death, everyone else may assume I almost urinated myself from laughing at said event!

We were also introduced to the seriously enthusiastic German butcher, Philip Denhart who basically slid through half a lamb carcass with the smallest boning knife and very little effort. We were taught that you don't actually need a power saw to butcher an animal. He's also a dairy enthusiast and demonstrated butter and cheese making and I heard through the grapevine that he bakes cupcakes (modelled on the Magnolia Bakery recipe) for a local farmer's market. Mental note: must try cupcakes.

Celebrity coeliac chef, Rosemary Kearney was in to demonstrate some of her amazing, coeliac friendly recipes and I also spent an evening working in the kitchen at Ballymaloe House. When I say worked, I mean I loitered around the kitchens for a few hours, plagued the chefs with questions and tasted as many of the dishes on the menu as I could. I left fed & happy.

Onto food tasting and you'll be glad to hear I'm not balooning in size - we're treated to the best of food but most people are mindful of portion control. I also go walking in the evenings which isn't such a chore due to the breath-taking scenery.

It's getting close to cooking time here so I'd better sign off for know....

Ballymaloe Diary, Week 1

I've been completely plagued about providing an update to the course in Ballymaloe by loads of people... I'm going to do this quickly as I could ramble on for pages about how great the course is, but in summary, it's lived up to all my expectations & more.

On Monday, we were given a tour of the gardens, glasshouses and grounds. We saw the wonderful shell house as well as the piglets, milking parlour, cottages, orchards, compost heap (v important) and of course, Palais de Poulets. Lunch was soup followed by a plate of local tasty treats and the afternoon was a masterclass in chopping. We were told early on in the morning that Darina could not be with us as her mum was extremely ill; unfortunately, Mrs. O'Connell passed away on Thursday morning but I guess it may have come as a relief to the family as I know how difficult it is to watch a loved one suffer.

On Tuesday, we were given a tour of the kitchens and got to grips with our new knives which was cool (and a little bloody). There are 4 kitchens and each student must share a work area in one of those kitchens with a partner. The groups are given a list of dishes to cook and between partners, must decide who cooks what. An order of work must be written up before cooking commences and partners, areas & kitchens are shuffled every week.

The opportunity is there to do so much; I've signed up for a night in the kitchen at Ballymaloe House, a Saturday working on the Farmers Market stall, a Saturday in the Crawford Gallery kitchen and a weekly gardening class which is proving most informative.

Wednesday was our first proper day cooking and I loved it. I made a gruyere & dill tart, mediterranean salad and a jar of wild rocket pesto which I brought home with me - delicious! Thursday was a theory day which began with a cheese lecture followed by wine tasting (happy days) and the aftenoon hosted lectures on fire safety and food hygene which taught me an awful lot that I didn't already know.

There was a real buzz about the school on Friday afternoon as Rachel Allen was in to give the afternoon demonstration on Mexican food. Wow, sometimes she seems a bit scatty on the tv but in reality I can completely understand why she got snapped up, she was so lovely and flew through about 15 dishes aswell as making time to learn peoples names. I left for the weekend happy as a pig in you-know-what and looking forward to getting started again on Monday morning.

I've an 8 mile drive to the school each morning and to say the setting is idyllic would be a gross understatement. Rolling hillsides, stone walls, sea views, heaven! It's worth a trip down just for the views but when you get down, there's so much to do. The cliff walk in Ballycotton, beach walk (or kite-surfing) in Garryvoe, Stephen Pearce Gallery in Shanagarry not to mention a tour of the fabulous school & gardens at Ballymaloe.

Better go... I'll check back next week...

Bad Blogger

I've been a very bad blogger of late but it's not entirely my fault you see. I'm getting ready to head down to Ballymaloe on Sunday evening and beginning the course on Monday morning. I can't believe it has come around so quickly, just lightening fast. As a result, I've been trying to get things wrapped up at home - clothes washed, house cleaned, errands ran, etc etc, the list goes on. Also, some very kind friends have had me over for dinner as a farewell which meant I haven't had to cook much myself lately. I'm taking their invitations at face value but I've a sneaky suspicion they know i'll be looking for guinea pigs in the coming weeks...

I also received some sad news on Monday, my lovely Gran, Frankie Woulfe, passed away after almost 84 years on our earth . She had a very good life and was very good to the people around her - the past couple of days have been a testement to that and we've heard some amazing stories about her. One friend of the family lined the inside of her grave with daffodils which was a beautiful gesture and made the grave seem much more than just a hole for a coffin. She passed away at home surrounded by her sister, daughter, son, the priest & the doctor and it was all over before 5.30pm - she wouldn't like to  put people out by passing away outside of business hours.

Miss you Gran. X

Paella Party

I know I mentioned in a previous post that we went to Spain for a holiday last year. We spent a few nights in Barcelona, a few nights in Valencia & a few nights in Madrid. I also mentioned that a colleague of mine who had previously lived in Barca had given me a list of places to eat and one of those places was the restaurant 7 Portes. We met my brother & his girlfriend beforehand and queued up at the ancient restaurant which is famous for it’s paella. It was one of those restaurants where the waiters are all oldish men and wear white jackets. While there were many of tourists, it was comforting to see the hoards locals enjoying their meals also. We all ordered the same thing - house paella - and instead of cooking four individual dishes, they brought out one massive dish & served us from that. It was fabulous; bursting with flavour and the ambiance of the restaurant made it all the better.

            Tommi Myers’ new show on Channel 4, A Cooks Tour of Spain, really whetted my appetite for Spanish food again so I decided to try out paella for myself yesterday. I perused a few different recipes and started from there. The recipes I had seen were all cooked on the hob in the pan but the 7 Portes paella had been cooked in the oven so there were lovely crispy bits of rice along the sides of the pan. I took some advice from Bill Granger’s paella about not stirring the rice, shaking it instead, and also from Anthony Worrall Thompson on the ingredients.

            The beauty about paella is that really, anything goes, well, within reason but you could go for vegetarian, seafood, meat or a mixture. I went for a mixture. Sadliers do smoked chicken breasts which I thought would work a treat and I also had some left-over chorizo in the fridge and picked up some squid, prawns, pancetta and veggies to go into the pot too. Now, the preparation was a tad tedious as there was an awful amount of chopping to be done, but I took plenty of time doing that earlier and didn’t start cooking until about half an hour before my guests were due to arrive. The cleaning of the squid was a bit grizzly but I thought I’d better get my hands dirty as everything presented in Ballymaloe will be in it’s raw state; fish will be gutted, pheasant plucked, rabbit skinned and not a chicken fillet in sight. I got a bit squeamish when the tentacles stuck to my fingers but dinner is a serious matter and one must soldier on whatever the cost.

            Everything was fried in stages and once the stock was poured on, the chicken, prawns, peas & calamari were added to the pan and everything transferred to the oven. As the prawns were in their shell, they turned a beautiful colour and the calamari was chewy with roasted bits but in a nice way. There was crispy rice on the sides which was also a treat to be scraped onto the plates when returning for seconds. The pan was plonked in the middle of the table with a salad and between the four of us, demolished the lot. I had made Portuguese custard tartlets for dessert which also went down well and I have to say, I was very proud of my paella and will definitely be making it again.

Paella

Serves 4

What You Need

About 150g pancetta diced

About 300g chorizo

2 smoked chicken breasts cut into thick slices (or 4 thighs)

1 spanish onion chopped

1 clove of garlic chopped

1 red chilli de-seeded & chopped

1 red & yellow pepper sliced

1 squid cleaned & cut into rings (fishmonger can do this)

4/8 fresh prawns with shell on

Half a bowl of peas

1 tsp smoked paprika (or regular)

A good pinch of saffron

½ pint paella rice (I used risotto rice which was perfect)

1 small glass of white wine

1 pint chicken stock (or veg or fish)

A handful of parsley if you have it

What You Do

·        Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

·        Heat the stock and add the saffron to allow it to infuse the stock for about 10/15 minutes.

·        Heat a good glug of olive oil in a large pan and add the chorizo & pancetta, fry until crisp.

·        Lower the heat and add the onion, peppers, garlic & chilli and gently fry for a few minutes until the onions are translucent.

·        Add the rice & paprika and stir. Once the oil is nearly all absorbed, add the wine and cook off the alcohol.

·        Then add the stock/ saffron mix and shake the pan gently (don’t stir). Place in the chicken pieces carefully (so you don’t burn your fingers), then scatter the peas and place in the prawns followed by the calamari.

·        Transfer to the oven for 20/25 minutes and serve with a green salad.

Note: Smoked chicken breasts are already cooked so if using chicken thighs, you will need to brown them for a short while in a separate pan before adding to the paella. Also, this is super if cooking for a group as everything looks neat & tidy when guests arrive as there will be no pots on the stove and cooking the dish in the oven means you don’t have to stand over it like a risotto. I can’t stress enough how easy it is to make this dish!