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!

Week 2

It has been one of those crazy long weeks. You feel ill, then you're better, then you're ill again, tensions rise and pans boil over. Yep, it's been one of those….good but long.

Whilst everyone is snow fighting in Blightey, we have had a pretty mild week here in Cork. Rain a couple of the evenings yet today, bright blue skies. Almost warm (she says wearing 2 thermals).

Cooking wise, it was great! High scores all week, great compliments and some great feedback from teachers. I'm trying to build more and more things into my routine each morning to get myself super duper practised with organisation and so far so good. Yesterday I made 7 things in 3 hours, today slightly less but you win some, you lose some.
We had some great lectures from Artisan Food Specialist Eddie Oneil, who makes and tests cheeses around the world. He was a wealth of knowledge and it was great trying some of the stuff we made with milk in the space of 3 hours.

As a lot of you know there has been huge talks this week about the quality of our meat control (google Tescoe Horse Burger) and food waste (ITV's programe What a waste). It's something we are all guilty of, food wasting that is. It's really lovely to live in a place that uses up every bit of scrap food. If it doesn't go for the hens or the compost it goes into the stock pot.

Even better, is that we are taught five different things to do with one veg/piece of meat etc. For example take a piece of lamb. First day roast it, the juices we use for stock, the fat we skim off the stock we use to seal pate in its jar. Or let's say a lemon that you have squeezed to make lemonade. If you have roughly 10 whole lemon skins make candied peel with them and with the sugar syrup you cook them in make lemonade. The lemon skin then can either be used for jam or for chocolate dipped candied peel presents. Maybe you'd prefer to add them to a cake. If you don't have 10 at one time, pop them in the freezer till you do and then do it.

We are constantly made to reassess how and what we use every item we cook with. The possibilities are endless, so if you just think about one thing this week, please think about this. You'll save money and the rubbish!


Tips from Ballymaloe at the end of week 2:

1. After scoring soda bread, always prick each piece. Let's those pesky fairies out.

2. If you've forgotten to get your butter out for a recipe and it's toooo cold, grate it in!

3. Scones are the new bad boys of the cake world…believe me!

Lazy day

It's a lazy day. A day to meander and wander, to explore the ever green hills and ivy-supporting trees on the country lanes. Plus, the sun is shinning. They said snow but really, what does the met office know?

We left early and made our way to Ballymaloe House, the place it all started as far as Ballymaloe and the empire it has become is concerned. Where Myrtle Allan chose local ingredients to go on her menus and as some people say is really the founder of the whole Ballymaloe organic/local producer love.

It's as picturesque as you can imagine. A long drive way winding up to the big house. Deep, dark, brown earth tilled, splitting and ready for seed to be sown on each side. The sun shinning and making icicles out of cobwebs.

A walk on the beach follows with an icy salt tang in the air. All that is needed now is food, which is where the English Market comes back into play. The 15 or so cheeses we tried yesterday and whittled down to 3 are now part of mezzo starter plate. Hot smoked chilli salmon from Frank Hedermen, a traditional irish fish smoker, is on the plate too. Oh and those locally marinated greek olives could be thrown in the mix too (if we don't eat them first)

Sounds like a good preparation to me for tomorrow, no?

Knives at the ready!