Day 46: Thank Crunchie It's Friday...

No, that's not me. Don't be silly. That's a monkfish.

Well folks, 8am this morning, I decided to bake some brown soda bread which was good but now great. You see, when I went to mix in the flour and buttermilk- it was too dry. Therefore, I mixed it around inside the bowl which was a big mistake. When you are making bread and you notice that the flour is still very dry, that is when you add in more buttermilk- otherwise the buttermilk absorbs around the outside. This makes it very difficult to work into the mixture. I am delighted I made this mistake with the bread because it has taught me so, so much.

Moving on, I am so delighted to see that the items I was struggling with a number of weeks ago, I can do perfectly well now. I really have come on so much in the past number of weeks, but of course the road ahead is full of learnings but I really cannot wait to learn more and more.

My work for the day was starting with Vietnamese Spring Rolls for starters- which are so easy to make. I will come up with my own fillings soon and post: 

Everyone who passed my section today gasped with complete astonishment. Oh why so? I hear you ask. Well, I have to admit I baked the most incredible fresh, new season Coco-Chanel pink rhubarb in a pie. The finish on the pie was just out of this world, as you can see below. I am challenged to name one place in Cork that bakes a Rhubarb pie as delicious.

Come closer, I am going to let you into a little secret- I wanted to do something a bit more with my Rhubarb Pie. Therefore, I was measuring out the sugar for the pie and I thought hold on, wouldn't ginger be fabulous with this pie. I grated some fresh ginger and added four whole cloves. The aroma around the kitchen had everyone longing for lunch and I served the pie warm with lashings of softly whipped cream.

The afternoon demostration was Thai Green Curry:

Followed by Alison's Chocolate Tart which was without doubt the best chocolate tart to make simply because it is made the evening before you serve it up. It looks and tastes so amazing, when rasberries are in season there is no better chocolate tart.

The tart I am doing Monday is equally as brilliant, it's Walnut Tart with Armagnac. The Armagnac filling just makes the tart and is the most perfect after dinner treat with some delicious Java coffee or even hazelnut coffee. Friday finally ended, so much planned for the weekend so I had a quick disco nap.

Friday evening, I drove seven of us down to the delightful Farmgate Resturant Farmgate Midleton:

Clonakilty Black Pudding Tart with Roast Pepper Sauce which was the most amazing starter followed by delicious Pan-Seared Fillet of Beef. What a relaxing environment Farmgate is, with the most fabulous decor and some delightful classical music with a great pine bookcase. The company and food was the perfect end to another tough week.