Letters on Lunches

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...