mustard greens

friday was here and is gone, slightly quicker than the way the bread and butter pudding disappeared at lunch yesterday. :)

i had another successful and enjoyable morning in the kitchen. i was responsible for making the lemonade for lunch, so i started on that right away so it could sit in the fridge and chill for a few hours. i'm not a big lemonade drinker, so i had my friend nikky try it to let me know if i needed to add more sugar. with her approval, i put the two pitchers in the fridge and started on my duchesse potatoes. basically, that's just a fancy name for incredibly creamy mashed potatoes. first, the potatoes are boiled and then steamed in their jackets. when they are ready, the skins are removed (and put in the hens' buckets) and they are put in a mixing bowl with some boiling milk and a generous portion of butter. they are mixed until they are quite creamy and barely hang on to spoon. they were to be used on the fish dishes we were creating, so we covered them with damp wax paper and put them in a low oven to stay warm.

around quarter to ten, a trolley was brought into the kitchen with some pretty large fresh cod on it. sorca, my instructor, demonstrated filleting a fish for us again before we could do it ourselves. for those of you who don't know how to fillet a fish, you start by removing the head. since we reuse everything at ballymaloe, the fish head (gills removed and the head washed very thoroughly) went into the stock pot and will be used for fish stock at some point. feeling a bit silly, i cleaned my fish head and went around the kitchen making the fish lips move to talk to some of my classmates.

once the head is removed, you cut down along the backbone, just above the fin. we were shown how to make small swipes down and against the backbone so we didn't miss any of the flesh. this goes on until there is a clean separation at the top of the fish from where the head was removed all the way down to the tail. from there, you follow your thumb and carefully use the knife to pop up all the small bones. the knife needs to be kept very close to the left side so the bones pop up and over to the right (next to the backbone). when all the tiny bones are out, the meat can be completely separated from the rest of the fish and skinned. i really enjoyed learning this technique and sorca told me that since i did such an excellent job, she was going to have me help her fillet fish the next time we cooked with them.

with the fish filleted and the potatoes made, i put my fish dish together. again, because of the demo, i was slightly behind in my order of work. i still had to make the mornay sauce for my fish dish, so i put the milk in a saucepan with a few carrots, onions and thyme and brought it to a boil. i removed the veggies and added in a bit of roux to thicken it before adding the dijon mustard, cheddar cheese and salt and pepper. while it sat to thicken a bit more, i filled a piping bag with my duchesse potatoes and practiced making fun designs. unfortunately, i put the wrong piping tip in my bag and i had to remove all the potatoes and replace the tip. no bother as it took all of 5 minutes to make the transfer. i cut my cod into 5 healthy portions, spooned some mornay sauce into the bottom of a dish, topped it with the fillets and then covered them with the rest of the sauce. i scattered some bread crumbs and cheese on top of the sauce and then piped the potatoes around the edge of the dish before putting it in the oven.

after tidying my workstation and washing a few bowls and utensils, i was planning to make my 'melted' leeks. sorca told me that i could hold off on that as there was already a large bowl full of them made by other students. i was looking forward to cooking them, but it was also a relief not to have to rush to get them done.

the fish dish was ready at about half twelve, so i plated up a small portion for sorca to try before it could be taken out to the dining room and served for lunch. it turned out quite well. the fish wasn't overcooked and the potatoes didn't dry out, which is what happens quite often with this dish (or so i'm told).

lunch was a blur and then it was time for afternoon demo. i think most of us were hoping that, since it was friday, darina would let us out by half four. however, there were more recipes than usual, a butchery demo and a few announcements, so we figured out fairly quickly that an early release was not happening.

the butchery demo was on a ten-month-old lamb. phillip, darina's son-in-law, showed us how to separate the leg, shoulder and shank without losing any meat. phillip is very soft spoken and talks with such care and enthusiasm that we were all hanging on to his every word. he left the leg of lamb on the counter so darina could show us how to prepare it for roasting. on monday, when we prepare it, we're going to use fresh rosemary and shards of garlic to flavor it.

aside from the lamb, we learned how to make hummus, a french onion tart, crispy fish cakes with garlic butter, rustic roast potatoes, crispy potatoes with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream, glazed carrots, haricot beans with tomato and rosemary, mint sauce, redcurrant sauce, chocolate mousse with almond macaroons, chocolate st. emillon and mulled wine. whew! we knew darina was making a run for it at half four when there was no mention of a break. demo wrapped up at quarter after five and by the time we tasted everything, picked up next week's recipes and talked through monday's menu with our new partners (bernita, i get to make the roast leg of lamb!!!), it was quarter to six.

i quickly ran to find sharon (one of the administrators at the school) so i could sign up for the celiac course on the 29th and then i sprinted to the pink cottage so i could throw my weekend stuff into a bag, wish my cottagemates a good weekend and meet up with my parents who were patiently waiting in the car park. my dad's cousin's son, who is studying in galway this semester, was with them. he had taken the bus from galway to cork friday morning so he could spend the weekend with my parents as well. so between the two of us, the drive home from ballymaloe was non-stop questions and answers. i was eager to share how my my week had gotten better after monday and tuesday and how much i enjoyed learning to fillet a fish.

second week favorites: early mornings in the pink cottage, manuka honey on my oatmeal, running with grace, mick from cobh, being in kitchen three again and hugging conster.

finnbarre was very excited to see us when we got back to the house as the poor little guy had been in his cage for the better part of the day. while mom took him outside, dad prepared the scallops for dinner and i set out some cheese, crackers and olives i found in the fridge. we enjoyed some vino with the appetizers and watched the moon rise up over the harbor. magnificent!

i prepared some spinach salads with buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and red onion and threw together a quick balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic dressing to accompany our scallops and sweet potatoes. dinner was completely satisfying, yet not too filling.

charles and i had some bailey's coffee with our spice cookies and chocolate for dessert, while mom and dad opted for more vino. sometime after 11 i snuck off to bed, exhausted.