Exams, Dingle and Ice Cream

On Friday we had our midterm exams. Yes, that's right, I know I've been talking about them but they actually happened. People were worrying whether this leaf is an oak leaf or a butter leaf, a mibuna or mizuna. If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny. Ok, it was a little funny and let's face it, not really worth getting all in a tizz about but, Ballymaloe Cookery School and Darina take lettuce leaves very seriously so we were all revising like mad chefs.

Apart from our exams to look forward to this week, I had set up a nutritional talk with our Ballymaloe Cookery Schools very own nutritionist, Debbie Shaw. A small group of us got together after a long day of lectures and spoke about PCOS (Polyststic Ovarian Syndrome), cholesterol, whole-food diet, blood sugar balancing etc etc. Two hours flew by and we literally could have talked all night. 

As a young woman who has had severe complications with PCOS it was utterly fascinating and a real eye opener. Debbie is a naturopath, not a classic doctor, or a surgeon. She looks at the whole body, the problems AND the symptoms. She looks at what you eat, your lifestyle, the things you worry about. 

It made me take a long hard look at the way I eat. Here at Ballymaloe Cookery School, we are inundated with food. Every day, 3 course meals are put in front of us, then demo tastings then extra work. It's literally food overload and I have to really put my will power in full force to stop myself from tasting all the yummy things. In the coming weeks, I'm going to be looking at PCOS in depth, foods and recipes that help the symptoms. 1 in 15 women have it in the world. That is a big number!

So, because we had worked so hard for our exams, as a little treat to ourselves, some of the girls and I went off to Dingle, stopping off along the way. Have I mentioned how much I'm falling in love with Ireland?! The countryside, the people….We had a great time, walking along Inch Beach, eating Murphy's Ice Cream (twice), enjoying fresh mussles at Ashe's, eating at the Smoke House in Killarney, drinking Guinness in a hardware store (don't ask!) and much more! All in all, a Yummy weekend.

Bring on the next 6 weeks and the future!

Week 6, half way through

Well, well, well. Half way through this 12 month course here at Ballymaloe Cookery School. I know I've said it, and I'm sorry about that but, holy moly. Time is flying by. Work experience is being sorted out, we're having to think about our mid term exams and the future…I think the last time I took an exam was 2007….I am too old!

It was my turn at cheese making on Wednesday. Cleopatra for sure knew what she was talking about when she bathed in milk. After cutting the curds we all had to get our hands deep in the milky goodness. The change of the cut curds is incredible. First it's smooth and soft, like a thick blemange, then as you stir (avoiding hand version of footsie!) it's gets harder and gets clumpy. Finally, after 24hours of compacting becomes a solid block. Just amazing! Not only that but we had the creator, Jane Murphy, of Ardsallagh Goats Cheese come and talk to us in afternoon Demo. What an inspiration and I utterly want goats now. Same as when Noreen and Martin came from Woodside Farm, I wanted pigs.. oh poor future husband.

A good week so far, let's hope the exams go well!

Wassailing

Pronounced -Wah-say-ling- there are two types. One is the house-visiting type commonly known as carolling. The other is the orchard-visitng type, reciting incantations and singing to the apple trees to promote a good harvest. The second is what we did last night.

It's not known exactly when the practise came into tradition however we know that the word 'wassail' is Old English and more than likely predates the Norman conquest of 1066.

“Wassaile the trees, that they may beare / You many a Plum and many a Peare: / For more or lesse fruits they will bring, / As you do give them Wassailing" is the song that you sing as you dance and weave around the apple trees, banging and clanging anything on hand to ward off the evil spirits. It's really quite fun, especially with a warm cardamon cider in your hand, the stars twinkling down on you and the fire warming you from the outside.

Although you may feel ridiculous doing it, it's exactly the thing I would do if ever I am lucky enough to have apple trees. Imagine every year before the apple growing season starts, gathering your friends for a weekend adventure in the country. Laughing while putting bunting up, kids running between the trunks, a picnic on the ground. A sense of really living and loving the land. Night hits and the stars come out, the fires are lit, last years cider gets warmed up and the excitement for next years crop begins. Magical right?!?

The day was spent at Douglas Farmers Market making crepes. Such good fun and for anyone who is thinking about selling at farmers markets or going. Do. There is such a sense of community. Such as sense of family and living off the land. Go. Enjoy. And eat.

Tips of the week:

1. Juice of citric fruits decreases in intensity very quickly. Always juice last!

2. Roux (mixture of butter and flour) keeps in the fridge for weeks.

3. If you are making Yorkshire Puddings, make sure the tray with a little oil at bottom is hot. 

Our very own veggie whey fermentation experiment

As some of you may know, a couple of weeks ago it was Fermentation Week. Spear-headed by several lovely ladies such as Sarah B from My New Roots and the lovely Green Kitchen Stories family. I thought I'd give Whey Fermentation a go seeing as they have their very own Jersey Cows that they milk here at Ballymaloe Cookery School for yummy things such as milk, cream, butter and cheese making. There is very often whey left over and if you ask very (very) nicely to Tim Allen, you may be lucky enough to receive a golden or should that be white, jar of the stuff.

There has been much debate over using whey to not using whey when fermenting veggies. But I've never done it before and fuelled by my housemate (Carolannes Kitchen) enthusiasm I am taking the Whey Fermentation plunge…excited?!?!

People who are aware of Ballymaloe Cookery School know that they grow lots of yummy organic veggies. Today I am using freshly picked cabbages, leeks, ruby and golden chard as well as purple and green curly kale. Topped with crushed garlic and dried chilli flakes, Maldon salt and 5 soup spoons of whey.

It was a pretty easy process but I will be a good fermenting girlie and resist eating it for a couple of days!

Other news here at Ballymaloe Cookery School is that we have mid term exams next week. Yep, we are all getting a little rattled having to know more than 15 techniques off by heart as well as two recipes for each herb and the names of lots of lettuce leaves! 

This week, week 5, is also known as the 5 week slump. We are definitely feeling it. Afternoon demos seem longer and less organised, we find ourselves forgetting our own names and that one minute its 9am, the next it's 12pm. 

Bring on week 6!

Filleting a fish

I figured that although it's great you hearing about all the fun things we get to cook it might be a great idea to let you in on some of the basic techniques we get taught.

Filleting a fish is one of those things. Let's face it, it's easier for your fish monger to do but you should really know how.
On the 15th Feb we have a 'half term exam' here at Ballymaloe Cookery School and filleting a fish, amongst other things, could be one of our tests.

So, this is Fred the fish, he is a Sea Bass, so known by the silver shiny body and the 'look' of a fast fish. He will be ever so kind as to help me show you how to fillet. Please say 'Thank you Fred'.

I had to gut Fred myself but you can ask the lovely fishmonger to do that for you as well as de-scaling. If you didn't get that done have a look on the belly. Near to the tail there should be a fin and a small 'toilet' hole. Insert your knife in this hole and slice upwards towards the head. 

Once this has been done, there is the pleasant task of taking all the guts etc out. Moving quickly on...

Next, take the knife at a diagonal and cut from beneath the gill area up to the spine. Cut all the way until you meet the back bone.

Repeat on the other side and then break the head away from the body. 

The gills should come away with the head so that's all the stuff you can't eat out the way. If you want to use the head for stock, you will need to remove them as they will make the stock bitter.

Ok, so next step is slicing as close to the back bone as possible starting with the 'head' end and down to the tail. It doesn't have to be a big cut, just to open the flesh.

Next with the tip of your very sharp knife, slowly in little cuts and using your fingers to gently separate the flesh from the bones. Go slow as the less barbaric you can be will make a difference to how your fillet appears and also how much flesh you actually have.

Next thing, if you want to, is to remove the flesh from the skin. Hold the tail end of the fillet and cut down, not all the way through the skin, and then flatten to push it head wards. Gently rather than pushing with your knife, pull the skin towards you and wiggle your knife. The flesh should come away from the skin quite easily.

And then da-dah! Congrats. You did it.

It was great to see Rory O'Connell filleting several fish for us today and seeing how fast we should be able to do filleting with time.

Girly trip

So, week 5 at Ballymaloe Cookery School begins tomorrow. To distract us from this uncomfortable fact and also that our waistlines have been on the (rather fast) increase we decided to take a trip to Dungarvon home of The Tannery for some food. Head cheffed (I'm sure that's a term!) by Paul Flynn it was a fantastic meal. Of course, before you question it, this did not help with our waistlines but it's the start of a new week tomorrow so it's all good.

I have no pictures for you as I heard he's not a fan (of having pics taken) BUT I can tell you that it is well worth the visit and definitely at a good price range too. I had potted rabbit to start, served in a kilner jar, it was tender morsels of rabbit with the zing of mustard seeds and some wonderfully crisp but soft bread. That was followed by a flaky tart topped with sweet sweet deep purple beetroots, slightly soured goats cheese and almost caramelised apples sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. Goats cheese + hazelnuts are a winner by the way. And of course it would have been rude of me to refuse the third course of the meal which was a lighter than light dark bitter truffle cake topped with stick-in-your-teeth-in-a-good-way golden honey comb. Yum.

It's been beautifully mild here. Yesterday was utter sunshine and blue skies making the greener than green Irish grass sparkle and dazzle. And today, drum role please…was the first time I have not worn thermals. We're all pretty excited about what next week will bring here at Ballymaloe Cookery School, but in the mean time, here are some tips.

1. Never use aluminium with fruit (leave fruit in an aluminium bowl etc) as the acidity in the fruit affects the metal and react together

2. If you want to make garlic flavoured oil, never use raw garlic. It becomes very toxic raw. Instead, chop head of garlic in half and gently heat it in oil. When bubbling, remove garlic head and put it into a container. Easy

3. If making burgers you generally want 10-15% fat in the meat to give it a great flavour. Ask your butcher for the shoulder in pork or lamb and the brisket/flank in beef.

Cake competitions and foraging.

This week at Ballymaloe Cookery School two hugely significant things happened. First, we had ourselves a cake competition. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that serious and second, we only had the choice of three cakes but still. A little Ballymaloe/Rachel Allen inspiration did not go astray! We had crisp rolled dark chocolate mounds, sparkling iced primroses covering bases, mugs of steaming coffee decorating others etc, etc. (I'm hoping you get the picture)

Wednesday was Rachel Allen's, along with Pam who is definitely a fountain of cake wisdom, turn to show us all how to make/ice/decorate a cake. The choices (not made by us!) where coffee cake, chocolate cake and lemon cake. I got coffee cake. For someone who doesn't drink coffee or has never liked coffee cake this was definitely one to help me not lick the bowl! Obviously not forgetting how unhygienic that would be….

Second myself and Pam, who as Darina Allen says 'once seen never forgotten', had been doing some recipe testing with left over marzipan and sour cherries.  It's a delightful mix of fluffy rich cloud with hint of almond with random red sour cherry bursts topped off with crunchy marzipan. Today was the day I got it right. 1 hour of cooking (and worrying) and 1 plate of pieces sent to the office later I received two fantastic compliments. 1 from Rory Allen (I'm still happy as Larry over this one) and 1 from Darina who then said, 'yes we'll put it in the book as Jette's marzipan and sour cherry bake'. Yep. That'll do me thank you very much.

After our cakelunch but before demo foraging was next on our schedule.  Off we tootled down the country lanes off to Garryvoe Beach with Darina. Perrywinkles, horse winkles, sea spinach, urchins and the list goes on and on of our salty treasures. Not long enough on my opinion as I am utterly into foraging. I've found a new obsession reading any foraging blogs (a fave is this one).

And so now it's Friday night, as a little treat for all of you who read this (thank you by the way) here is the fantastic Marzipan and Sour Cherry Bake. Enjoy this over the weekend.

6oz salted butter
6oz self raising flour
60z caster sugar
3 eggs
roughly 2oz of homemade marzipan (a little kept behind to sprinkle on top)
100g of dry sour cherries.

Mix butter, flour, eggs and sugar in a food processor. Fold in the most of the  marzipan and the cherries. Put in a low tray/tins and sprinkle with remaining marzipan. 180degrees in the oven for about 15 minutes. Nom nom nom.