Halfway House

Exams!! I thought I was finished with all of that stuff, cramming, panicking, writing notes its all happening again! Week 6 has started and all the talk is about the mid term herb and technique exam that takes place on Friday afternoon.
The last week has flown by and I have neglected this blog terribly. Week 5 finished off quite nicely, strawberry jam and granary bread were the highlights, some of the low points were trying to fillet Monkfish and bean stews (which i just cant seem to get enthused about!). It has to be said however, that I thoroughly enjoyed week 5 and suffered none of the expected doldrums that we had heard so much about. We also made some amazing fish dishes including a Monkfish curry and a fantastic spicy tomato fish dish that I recreated in Belfast on the weekend, who would have thought that great food could be so easy to make? The weekend was spent in Belfast as we had an extra day off due to the public holiday here in Ireland on Monday, so 3 days of eating drinking and taking the dog for walks was amazing fun and it also gave me a chance for a little extra practice! My friend Davey came round on Sunday night after his trip to Jakarta, with possibly the funniest story about being "felt up" by an Indonesian woman on the plane out. Almost as funny was the slap across the face he received when the woman was trying to wake him up as food was being served! For those of you who know him, a phone call to listen to the story is recommended.
I arrived back in Cork (not so sunny anymore) yesterday and headed straight for the herb garden to brush up on my knowledge and then early to bed to prepare for the days cooking. Today went really quite well, I made Ballymaloe Irish Stew, white yeast bread (which you have to plait), sea salt and pepper bread sticks, white rolls and shortbread biscuits. All in all it turned out quite well and I was pretty happy with my days toil. This afternoon I was introduced to pumpkin risotto, vegetable curries and 2 amazing tarts which you make upside down. So Thursday will be risotto followed by apple and fudge tart on my menu.
The end of the week is a little bittersweet, on a positive note Davey is coming down for the weekend, however firstly I must negotiate the dreaded test. Now I can hear all of you saying, "its only cooking" but let me tell you, trying to learn 14 different varieties of herbs and about 10 different salad leaves by sight and taste is no easy feat. Not to mention the 4 or 5 different skills that you have to demonstrate to the teacher whilst they stare blankly as you try to look for help! So this week I will be buying cheap chickens to joint, fish to fillet and onions to sweat, in the vain hope that some of what I have learnt has stuck and I won't look like a fool on Friday. Very much looking forward to the first pint on Friday night and the Halloween party on Saturday!
So, I am almost halfway and I think that I may have learnt some things, will let you know after Friday if it has been enough! Wine tasting tomorrow morning at 9.30am and then Tapas demonstration tomorrow afternoon, cant wait!
T

Fadge!!

Week 5 has started and according to the natives, this is the first week of the mid course doldrums, students question their abilities and it all gets too much for some! Well not in our cottage! We are all raring to go and still loving life in sunny (yes still) East Cork. After having a lovely time in Belfast (despite the rock like scones) I just about made it back to Ballymaloe in the early evening of Sunday, I would have been here about 30 minutes earlier if I had not missed the turn for Dublin and driven 15 minutes West! However I got my directions back on track and made the journey in good time. It did feel a bit weird being back as I had taken an extended break, so I arrived in the school on Monday not knowing what kitchen I was in, who my partner was or what I was to be cooking, thankfully Aine, my partner, had it all sorted. Caramelized Pecan Squares and bacon Chop with Whiskey Sauce was the order of the day. Thankfully my amazing culinary skills (or those of my teacher, Sue) saw me through and the morning was a great success, even my biscuits tasted amazing and even looked pretty good, a far cry from my first biscuit disaster a few weeks ago!! The afternoon was a really heavy one and we did not get out till after 6, as we learnt all kinds of breakfast goodies including homemade muesli and granola, pancakes, waffles and of course a full Irish! Which I have to say is not a patch on a good old Ulster fry, which I have now been reliably informed is served with Fadge! After much tittering in the room, we were told that Fadge is actually potato bread which we good Ulster folk like to have with our frys. To be honest, I like the Ormo variety better and it will not be added to my culinary repertoire.
As you can imagine I was really looking forward to Tuesday as we each had to make a fry to be judged and then we were allowed to go and eat them for lunch, extra incentive to get it right! I also made some kumquat marmalade which is quite possibly the worst job I have ever had (make that second worst job, door to door phone salesman in Australia was worse!), the reason being is you have to cut up a kilo of these tiny fruits into little rings and then manually take out the pips! Then soak them overnight before you can commence the second stage of marmalade making. The reason is that the pips contain most of the pectin (the stuff that helps it set) and you need to add it to the marmalade later. I also made spotted dog (sweetened soda bread with sultanas) fresh raspberry muesli and segmented an orange! I was a busy guy and I though my fry was fantastic (if i do say so myself).
That afternoon at demo we saw flat fish being filleted, chilli con carne, bean stew and chocolate eclairs!!
Also went for a few pints to the Blackbird as we had no cooking the next day and as usual it was great craic, Rachel and Issac Allen were in so we had some good chat and I really enjoyed myself.
Today was a ok day, we had business class with Darina's sister, it was a bit like going back in time to Uni but I guess you cant have some messages drummed into you enough (cost control, cost control, cost control).
I also go the call from the surgeon and I am booked in on the 16 December for the op, good to know it is going to be done before Christmas and I can recuperate and get out to China ASAP as they are cooking up a storm over there and could do with some assistance and I cant wait! Although 670 diners over 3 days sounds pretty mental (last weekend numbers at the Flying Fox, Shanghai). Dads wife Li did the course here last year and has completely revolutionised their business, so there may be hope for me yet!
Anyway, that's enough from me for now, chocolate eclairs tomorrow with choux pastry, sounds like just my thing!!
T

Full Irish

Bacon Chop, whiskey cream, banana and mash with scallions

A tray of pecan goodness!!

To operate or not?

That's me in Belfast now having a few days with Mum and seeing the surgeon for my back. Wednesdays cooking went well and I have some photos of my handiwork attached. Other than that things have been pretty quite since I arrived back, I cooked for Davey and Mum on Thursday night, we had penne with mushroom a la creme and creme caramels for dessert with lovely caramel sauce, they actually worked out quite well, much better than the scones I attempted to make on Thursday day time, must remember when halving a recipe, half ALL the ingredients!! They turned out more like rock cakes! I also managed to see the doctor on Thursday to get my referral letter for the surgeon. 
So Friday came and to be honest I was pretty worried about seeing the surgeon about my back, although I do talk it up on occasions and make like it has been getting better, it has pretty much deteriorated over the past 18 months and I cannot go on like this, so off to the surgeon I went! I was presented with two options neither very good, the crux of the matter is that I have both back and leg pain, they are relatively successful at fixing leg pain, they know very little about back pain. Option one was a spinal fusion, the likelihood being i would need another op in about 3 years, option 2 was a lower lumbar discectomy to remove the bit that is squashing and irritating my nerves and it might result in a lessening in my back pain. So option 2 it is, hopefully week commencing 13 December I will be getting the crab meat (how the surgeon described the consistency of the disc, luckily or unluckily, I did take a crab apart last week and know exactly what he is talking about, although lets hope he is more delicate than I was!) removed. So the good news is that unless my disc completely ruptures into the spinal canal, I should (with the help of Mr Codeine) be able to complete my studies at Ballymaloe!
So I am 24 hours on from receiving the news and feel a bit better about it, spoke to my friend Kerr last night, he is convinced that once I am fixed, he with his dodgy knee and metal ankle and me with my dodgy back should be able to make ourselves available for selection to the Scottish and Irish rugby squads for next years world cup!!
So that's is from sunny Belfast, back to Cork tomorrow, talk soon!
T

Summer Pudding

3 down, 8 to go!

Three weeks completed and it feels like I have been here forever! So another week has begun and a new kitchen and partner has entered my culinary life. Last Friday was a game of two halves, the morning was excellent and my dishes worked out really well, chicken liver pate, Melba toast and haddock with mushrooms, buttered crumbs and fluffy herbed potatoes. It all tasted good apart from the cheese we used for the mornay sauce was too strong and it overpowered the light fish. (In my humble opinion!) However soon after cooking my back started to spasm and I spent the next few hours on my back and missed the afternoon demo! As most of you reading this will know, my back saga is a constant theme, luckily the weekend seems to have helped and it has died down a little, plenty of pain killers and water and I am bandaged up enough to attempt week 4!!
The weekend was good, spent some time in Cork City, which is lovely, and some good food and wine.
Luckily enough the demo that I missed was not to intense and consisted of french omelette's, frittata and things like marzipan dates and apples (yuk) so picking things up this morning wasn't too bad, I did spend some time studying the recipes last night and that paid dividends today.
This morning started with the usual farm walk, the mornings are getting darker and some funny b@s$%#d decided to move where the cows are usually situated, scared the life out of me as I walked past, not sure the shock did my back any good and I don't think the cow appreciated the high pitch scream either! However it did get the juices flowing for the mornings cooking which went really well. I made mushroom soup, wild mushroom a la creme, scones and a french omelette (which actually does take only 45 seconds to make).
This afternoon was spent learning about game, how to roast a good chicken, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, redcurrant sauce, game chips, Victoria sponge and summer pudding, a busy afternoon alright!!
So week 4 has begun and I am still raring to go, bit of a funny one for me this week as I have to drive up north on Wednesday to see a back specialist, at least it will give me some time with Mum which I am really looking forward to, she will also be acting as a guinea pig as I attempt to create some of the dishes away from the comfort of having a teacher on my shoulder! Luckily I will not be missing any cooking as the course outing is on Thursday and the theory day has been moved to Friday, we also have Rachel Allen teaching us on Wednesday so that should be fun.
Well that's it for now, I will check in later in the week and let you know how things are going!
Peace
T

For all the tea in China!

Well it has been a little while since my last confession so I have quite a bit to tell you! Week three started much better than week 2 ended, my new partner Brigitte and I breezed into kitchen 1 ready to cook up a storm. I had been up walking as usual so the endorphins were flowing and I was eager to put the disappointment of Fridays cooking out of my mind and get straight back on the horse, so to speak! I was on the roast lamb and it turned out fantastically well, I also made some more bread and generally the day was a great success-Thank God for that!! That afternoon we learnt what could be done with left over lamb, we learnt about prawns and shrimps and finally we learnt how to make fluffy lemon pudding and chocolate fudge pudding.
We were in class very late on Monday so everyone was shattered by the time we made it back to the ranch, bed was early after a little masterchef on the bbc.
Tuesday was a great day again, I made Dublin bay prawns with a homemade mayo, we also made a lovely apple and tomato chutney, the only downside was that I was unable to tuck into the prawns at lunch as I am allergic, I also attempted my first real dessert and my teacher said it was fantastic!! My partner made a magnificent shepherds pie and I also tried a fantastic lamb neck moussaka.
Tuesday night was another quiet one, most of the girls went out to Ballycotten for a drink but I decided against it and stayed in. We had a visit from Auntie Flo (Darina's Aunt) who popped past for as chat, which was nice, not sure Margie (one of my flatmates) appreciated it as she talked her way through an episode of masterchef!
Wednesday began with a bang, wine tasting for 3 hours! We concentrated on France and it was very informative, I am now fairly confident on the main regions of France, however their classification system is a total mess and it is no wonder not many people have a clue about wine or have the confidence to order it!
That afternoon we had an hour long lecture from Sean Moran of Sip Tea who dazzled us with information about tea and how we should really invest as much time in choosing tea as we do with wine or coffee. Interesting, but not really for me! This complimented the afternoon lecture which focused on afternoon tea, so the tasting at the end consisted of about 10-12 different cakes and sponges.
Today was probably my best day so far in terms of getting it right, although to be fair it was fairly easy stuff. Today I made Strawberry sorbet with a strawberry sauce, crunchy orange and chocolate scones with an orange butter, homemade flour tortillas, Totopos (tortilla chips), nachos and quesadillas with chorizo, mozzarella and chilli! Phew, I was knackered by the end of it.
It has been another long week and I am very much looking forward to the weekend, still loving it and finally feeling like I might be OK in the kitchen by the end of the 12 weeks!
Below are some photos of the weeks cooking!
T

P.S I had a great time at Ballymaloe House on Sunday night, the food was excellent and Myrtle Allen is just about the most amazing woman I have ever met. 85 years old and still runs around the place making sure the guests are ok, checking food coming out of the kitchen at the same time telling me about the work she is doing trying to stop an incinerator being built near Ballymaloe which will be allowed to release a certain amount of chemicals everyday, just great for an organic farm!! I would love to have that energy at that age.

Dublin Bay Prawns with Homemade Mayo

Roast Lamb with Garlic and Corriander, mint sauce and vichy carrots

 

 

 

 

 

Hells Kitchen!

I guess everyone has them, but as bad days go, Friday was a true gem! You know what I'm talking about, a day when it seems that everything you try doesn't work! Here is a little tip for you, if it doesn't look right, it probably isn't! From picking a fish the size of a small shark to try and fillet, to making light, fluffy biscuits that had the consistency of cement, Friday was a day to forget!
The day started as usual, with a brisk walk around the gardens at 6.45am, 3 hours of really painful cooking and then a great demo in which we learnt how to butcher a whole side of lamb and then Rory cooked a leg of lamb with Rosemary and Garlic, roast potatoes, homemade mint sauce and a lovely salad with Shanagarry cream sauce. Really excellent stuff and and it means that I am cooking roast leg of lamb tomorrow!!
The weekend has been good, few beers on Friday night at the Blackbird pub in Ballycotten turned into a big one with most of the course out for drinks. Good to meet other people from the course in a slightly more relaxed setting. Saturday was very quiet as soon as I learnt that you could have Sky Sports on the laptop, so I watched the Ryder cup, which was amazing as I thought I would miss it!
Today started with a really early morning walk to the beach, bit of filing of all my recipes, of which there must be well over 100 by now!
I have also been invited to Ballymaloe House tonight by Myrtle Allen to have some dinner, I am very much looking forward to it!
It seems like the tempo will be lifted next week I think, more recipes to do each day and I would assume, a slightly more critical eye from the teachers. Other than that, all is well here in sunny Cork, I will update you all during the week, lets hope Fridays nightmare will be a distant memory!
T