Day Five- There's A Fire!

So week one is down, sitting here with a glass of wine and some yummy chowder. Usually we have an all day theory day scheduled for Wednesday but because this is the first week, we had it today instead. The morning kicked off with Darina demonstrating a red currant jelly, followed by a cheese talk, and a wine talk.

Darina discussed one of Ireland's best known cheese makers- Veronica Steele, who formed Mileens Cheese in Beara Peninsula, West Cork (see a young Veronica above). Veronica started out in 1976 and has been credited as the pioneer behind the rise of modern Irish farmhouse cheese. Darina recalled how Myrtle Allen used to include a complimentary tasting of Irish farmhouse cheese with an evening meal in Ballymaloe House, to promote Irish artisan cheese producers. Customers would taste the cheese, then they would ask where they could buy the cheese and so the word would spread. To accompany the delicious cheeses, Mileens, Cashel Blue, Guabeen Cheese and then a fantastic winter cheese- Vacherin Mont-d’Or, Darina demonstrated how to make Ballymaloe Cheese Biscuits. Of course, no cheese and biscuits would be complete without some amazing wine, Darina then gave us an introduction to wine. Next week, the main sommelier from Ballymaloe House will be presenting a course on wines, we're all very much looking forward to it.

We then broke for lunch, my daily duty today was to clear the tables so I was back to my waiting days again- it was real fun. It's great fun when we are all responsible for serving and clearing the dining room, it adds to the experience.

We returned from lunch and were given a talk by the fantastic Mark Kingston of Golden Bean Roastery from the Ballymaloe Cafe. Mark will be changing the coffee beans every two weeks to educate us on the varieties of coffees. Mark began his brewing path in 2002 making coffee from Arabica beans from Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Colombia. If you want to catch a coffee from Mark, he has a stall at Midleton Farmer's Market and Mahon Point Farmers Market.

Following Marks' chat, we had a talk on fire prevention and haccp- I'll save you those ;)

Tomorrow- Saturday Pizza!

D x

Day Four- Wish I'd Cooking Apples...

Hello :)

Here's the amazing view from outside kitchen three in Ballymaloe, the green grass is just perfection.

Four days down, feels like four months, it really does, but I love it. Darina has us signing up for everything so the next few weeks are going to be jam packed. Today, I got to make an apple crumble and was in charge of getting the veggies ready for lunch. It was meant to take me up to 10am, then I was meant to work on other duties but because I had no cooking apples, the tart was still in the oven by lunchtime... then our teacher had a nasty accident and was carted off to A&E... an eventful morning! I've put it down to being one of those mornings and was looking forward to the afternoon.

For lunch, my partner was working on a Casserole Roast Pheasant with Apple and Calbados (Vallee D'Auge):

Pheasant has a tough texture to it, I don't think I'll be cooking it anytime soon- more so because of the amount of work involved in preparing the dish! Morning practical was over, thankfully. I've put this morning down to one of those days whereby everything went wrong and was looking forward to 'Food Hero' aspect of today's demo and our new teacher- Rory O' Connell.

Once a week, Darina has arranged for a local producer, a 'Food Hero', to come and give a short talk about their business to us. This week it was the turn of Jane Murphy of Ardsallagh Goat Farm, an artisan goat cheese producer from Co. Cork. From humble beginnings of one goat 15 years ago, the herd has now grown to several hundred and Jane and her husband supply goats cheese right across Ireland. More information about Janes' business can be found here:

Ardsallagh Goats Cheese

Following Janes' informative chat, Rory O' Connell, the final full time teacher on the course was introduced to us by his sister, Darina- it's very much a family business in Ballymaloe which adds to the warmth of the school. Rory co-founded the school with Darina and worked as head chef in Ballymaloe House for over ten years. Rorys' knowledge of food is just outstanding and every dish he does is a work of art, throughout the demonstration Rory would discuss possible business ventures waiting to be discovered using his recipes. Rory demonstrated a number of different recipes, some of which were:

• Salad of Ardsallagh Goat's Cheese with Rocket Leaves and Lisanley Honey
• Winter Salad of Pomegranates, Persimmons and Pecans
• Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart (seriously, incredible)
• Mummy's Sweet White Scones
• Homemade Jam

More information about Rory can be found here:

Rory O' Connell

My housemates and I went to Castlemartyr in search of somewhere nice to eat, everywhere was finished food for the day so we headed to Garryvoe and ate there. Yummy! Went to the Blackbird in Ballycotton for a nightcap, so I'm mega tired now. Tomorrow is all theory, so no cooking tomorrow but I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I've lots of cooking to do and what a week it's been.


D :)

Day Three- Rachel Bakes!...

What do you know, another day down... where to even begin! I arrived in the kitchen this morning and from the moment I put my knives down; the demo teacher had me to work. She's very helpful and encouraging and as with most in the school, there's a very high standard. So, this morning my team mate and I were reproducing what we were demonstrated by Darina yesterday evening. For me, that was:

Gruyere & Dill Tart:

Here's a pic before I had to dish it up quickly for the teacher, see the lovely fresh salad to the side- Yummy, yummy, yummy. So fresh.

I got marked down for not having enough dressing, and for too much salad. It only got knocked down half a mark so not the end of the world.

A summer fruit salad with sweet Geranium leaves

I've named this dessert after Carrie Bradshaw; it's the 'The Gals Night In Fruit Salad' :)

It was a very simple lunch to reproduce, so I got a great mark. I finished a bit early then I worked with the teacher to work on areas where I feel I needed to improve on- that's a great help. The team across from us baked the most amazing caramel squares- I took a piece, turned around to get my phone, and what you know? Gone. Shame. They looked perfect. The caramel was yummy.

We reconvened at 13:45 for the afternoon demo and we were introduced to Rachel Allen, Darinas' daughter-in-law, who took us through an incredible number of dishes in the afternoon. I sat there when she finished and I couldn't believe she made so much in one afternoon. It's no surprise that Rachels' such a success, her breadth of knowledge is incredible and she has a great teaching charisma- the afternoon flew. Rachel not only puts a great deal of effort into the food she cooks, but also how it is presented. Giving examples of how you can make traditional dishes look retro- as you might have gathered from my blog- this I loved!

To name but a few dishes Rachel demostrated:

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Grape, Pink Grapefruit and Mint Cocktail
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Roast Chicken with Tarragon
Roast Pheasant with Apple and Calvados
Californian Cabbage Salad- I love the name of this one!
***
It really was a great day. Rachel baking Belgian Chocolate Biscuit Cake with Raspberry Coulis- incredible. Yummy! I've seen so many of Rachels' shows and have lots of her books so today really was a highlight.

I ended the day by signing up for the cheese making classes. It featured on one of Rachels' Easy Meals shows recently so I'm really looking forward to it.

I've so much to do before the mornings session, so it's over and out.

Thanks for reading,

D x

Day Two...

Here's where it all happens; it's the demo kitchen used by Darina and will also be used by the other chefs. It's got a massive demonstration mirror over looking the worktop- with two TV monitors at either side.

Arrived in this morning to be given a demostration by Darina on how to make salad dressing and an overview of the different salad leaves. Then Tim Allen gave a talk on our knives, wrapping it up by showing us how to sharpen knives... it's lots of fun, every time I do it and hear the sound- I feel like a chef!

So, down to business. It kicked off this morning in the kitchen when myself and five co-students (one of which won Cully & Sully Chef Factor, so I had alot to live up to) were then introduced to our teacher for the next few weeks. She is so knowledgeable; helpful and so very enthusiastic about food- she taught me so much in such a small space of time.

Firstly, we made a loaf of soda bread. We were then taught how to chop, moving very quickly onto making a soup out of the ingredients we chopped. The organic onions were so fine that we all had tears running down our faces when we cut them. The best carrots and onions I've ever used and we made a light Carrot & Coriander soup- from fresh coriander from the glasshouse which would accompany the bread in the oven which was smelling wonderful.

Next up, Penne with Mushroom a la Creme with winter leaf salad. Yum Yum.

We then made a classic rice pudding and my favourite- baked apple with lots and lots of homemade ice-cream.

We had a very quick lunch, as it was straight into an afternoon demo with Darina where she demonstrated what we need to know for the following morning practical. My team-mate and I have to make a three course lunch by 11:30am- with the help of our teacher... thankfully! Usually we have daily duties such as going to the herb garden at ridiculous o' clock in the morning but thankfully I don't have that this week as I'm on dishing out duties for Friday lunch.

School early tomorrow, so I've lots of homework to do, uniform to iron & I really, really need sleep.

Chat tomorrow,

D x

Day One...

Well, I'm officially in the country; I was awoken this morning at 6:30am to the sound of the rooster crowing and there I was worried I might sleep in and miss the morning tour of the gardens- no fear of that.

Today was the last of the introductions as the fun in the kitchen starts tomorrow. We met for breakfast which was fresh porridge with milk from the farm; warm brown bread and delicious homemade butter. We were told to have a hearty breakfast as we had a two hour tour of the farm and gardens coming up. Where possible, all the schools produce is sourced from the organic farm and gardens otherwise from local producers- it's the schools ethos. I stuck my wellies on and we met outside to be given a talk from Darina.

From here, we went down and toured the Fruit Garden which had everything from peaches to strawberries. Then we took a tour down to The Herb Garden, which was amazing and then onto the Celtic Maze where we tried not to get lost! From here we went onto The Shell House, which is a small little hide away which is filled with shells, it's simply amazing. We then went for a stroll to the glasshouses where were planted our own geraniums and lettuces. This is where we will take turns going to every morning to pick the produce for the day's cooking.

Finally, the end of the tour we were shown how to make compost where Darina explained how to reuse all aspects of kitchen waste. We then took a visit to the pigs and the dairy cows, before wrapping up the tour visiting the vegetable garden. Next to the vegetable garden was the solar panels for the school, this is yet another unique aspect to the school. The school recently invested a great deal in a Photovoltaic Solar Array system and at any given time, the school is generating energy from the lights natural resources- if you're geeky you might find this to be your cup of tea:

Solar Power Ballymaloe

We then sat for lunch where Darina gave us another talk about the origins of our lunch before heading into an afternoon of demonstrations with Darina. In one afternoon, Darina taught us the very basics from cutting and chopping to beginners bread and biscuits.

I ended the long day by signing up for stints in the local Farmers Market, Ballymaloe House, Crawford Art Gallery Cafe, Saturday Pizzas, and oh yeah, milking a cow- now there's a pic in that! So folks, tomorrow I'm hoping to get the camera out and start showing you around the school.

Tomorrow, it's down to business, chefs whites on and away I go.

Chat to you then,

D

So it begins...

The group gathered in the reception area of the school were we had Sunday Supper, with a warm welcome from Darina and her family. Lots of different nationalities here- British, Dutch, Amercian, and Japanise. For the first time in years, there's an even split of guys to girls and there's a good mix of ages, anything from 18yrs-60yrs. On the menu were yummy pizzas from the wood fired oven:

Darina then invited us all to join her in The Blackbird in Ballycotton where we had drinks and listened to fantastic live music. Everyone in the pub gave us a warm welcome, Ballycotton's such a lovely place. It's been a long day with nothing much to report but hey it's a start.

Until tomorrow,

D ;)