the kale was assaulted, then drowned in butter and cream

thursday
after a break from the kitchen on wednesday, i was looking forward to cooking again and seeing marie. my work order for the day included cranberry sauce, swede turnip with caramelized onion and a butter sponge cake with raspberry jam and fresh creme.

i made my cake straight away so it would have time to cool before i put the jam and creme in the middle. while the batter was baking, i chopped my swede turnip, put it in a saucepan and brought it to a boil. it would need about 30-45 minutes of cooking before it was soft enough to mash. i checked on my cakes after 12 minutes and the skewer came out clean, so i removed them from the oven and popped them on a cooking rack out in the larder near an open window.

then i started on my onions. it was stressed in the demo on tuesday that the onions be cooked on a very low heat until they caramelized, which could take up to 45 minutes. i had the time to slice my onions thinly and evenly before putting them into the hot olive oil in the pan. i tidied my workstation and then located the cranberries for cranberry sauce. i was a bit unsure of the cranberry sauce because the recipe called for 4 tablespoons of water and 10oz of sugar for 6 oz of cranberries, which is quite different from the cup of sugar and cup of water to a 12 oz bag of cranberries i'm used to making. but, i'm learning things the ballymaloe way, so i sucked up my reservations and followed the recipe. i needed to boil the water and cranberries first, until the berries softened and popped. then, the sugar could be added until dissolved, removed from the heat and set aside to cool.

my turnip was nearly done but i didn't want to rush it (as i did before with the basmati rice), so i put the lid back on and gave it another 5 minutes. the onions were caramelizing quite nicely, still on a very low heat. i turned the heat off from under my turnip and checked with my instructor about how they should be mashed - magimix (which is the same as a food processor) or with the potato masher. she told me it was my preference, so i went with the potato masher as i didn't want pureed turnip. i put the mashed turnip into a bowl, covered it with a butter wrapper and then a saucepan lid and set it to the side while i finished my onions. i found myself being a perfectionist today because i had the time to truly take my time and do everything with a bit more care. i retrieved my cake so i could jam and creme it and then plate up my other food. when i turned my cakes out of their pans, i realized they were a bit underdone. my instructor agreed and instead of going ahead with the butter sponge cake, we decided i should make the winter berry pudding which uses the cakes as a shell for blackcurrants in a syrup sauce and then put in the fridge for a few days to set up. the more moist the cakes are, the better, so i was in good shape. :)

assembling the cake into the bowl.

blackberries boiling in syrup.

it didn't take any time to plate up my cranberry sauce and turnip.

so i had my instructor taste them and then i washed up my last few dishes before heading into the dinning room for lunch. my duties for the day were to make the tea and coffee for dessert and to supervise the other students who had to polish cutlery, lay tables and hoover. i find that effective supervisors are the ones who are hands on and help out as much as possible, so i polished the cutlery and laid out the silverware settings for the three tables. as usual, there wasn't much time to relax before afternoon demo, so i checked the menu sheet for friday and wrote down the dishes marie and i were assigned and then found my seat in the demo room.

i was excited to see kale on our list of new recipes but after a quick look at the ingredients i was disappointed to see butter and cream listed. ugh. pam ran demo again and informed us that 90% of the recipes were cakes and the other 10% were veg and mains. she baked a lemon curd sponge cake, an orange sponge cake, a coffee cake and a chocolate butter cream cake with chocolate shavings. (she has an amazing eye for plating food and i am looking forward to the week i'm in the demo kitchen so i can learn from her!) when she got to the kale, i cringed when she took it from the saucepan where it had been boiled and put it in the magimix. it was pureed to a sorry state and then drowned with butter and cream before it was turned out into a bowl and set on the counter in front of us. 'disgusting!', was my comment. 'incredible!', was grace's.

after a taste of all the food, i went back to the pink cottage and changed into running clothes. i convinced elisa to come with me to run sprints in the cul de sac and it was great to have the company. it was very windy and one of the coldest days we've had so far, so as soon as i had my sprints in, we headed back to our cottage.

charlotte, elisa and i had talked about going down to the pub after our workout, so after changing and having a quick bite to eat, we headed out. we stopped over at the white cottage to see if anyone else wanted to join us and euoghn was more than eager. the four of us walked into the goal post and quickly joined two other students who were there as well, christine and alex. we all crammed into one booth and chatted about the course and our backgrounds, etc. two guinnesses and some great laughs later, i was exhausted and ready for bed. we said goodnight to our classmates and made our way back to our respective cottages.

i'm looking forward to friday tomorrow, and then the weekend to unwind and relax a bit.

you're going to need a bigger bowl

wednesdays are theory days.

the first half of the day goes from 9am until about 1pm, we break for a quick lunch and then resume at 2pm for the second half.

today darina made caramelized pecan and almond squares, two easy bickies to enjoy with coffee and tea. then she introduced us to her brother, rory o'connell, who has been in india for the past two weeks. rory helped darina open the ballymaloe cookery school and will be someone we see regularly over the next nine weeks.

rory first went over cuts of beef and showed us how to prepare traditional roast rib of beef with horseradish sauce, gravy and yorkshire pudding. he then went on to cover braised short ribs, cassoulet (an incredible french dish that contains duck, lamb and sausage), braised lamb shanks with garlic and rosemary, curried oven parsnips, a basic frittata, crudites with garlic mayonnaise, tapenade, anchoide, dukkah, crab apple jelly and finally, a simnel cake. he worked seamlessly until quarter after one and then a few students helped carry all the dishes into the dinning room so they could be served for lunch. a handful of students were on duty to serve the soup starter with some homemade brown bread and they barely had it passed out before the queue formed for the main dishes.

a small serving of all the dishes rory prepared and a reminder from darina to 'try everything' created a mountain of food on everyone's plate. shocking, really. of course everything i tasted was amazing. the beef was a beautiful pink and the horseradish sauce was light in texture and fiercely pungent in flavor. i ended up sitting at a table with darina and she watched me like a hawk as i moved around my plate, tasting everything. she asked how i was enjoying my time at ballymaloe and then went on to talk about her upcoming trip to india. and then she was off to get things ready for the second lecture of the day - preserving and menu planning. i had no room for dessert, but i did opt for a coffee as i knew the caffeine would help me through the remainder of the day. i fixed a cup of tea for darina's aunt and visited with her until we were herded back into the demo room.

for preserving, we learned how to flavor oils and vinegars, preserve lemons and dry tomatoes. the menu planning was interesting yet straightforward and somewhat obvious. points to take into consideration when planning a menu include:

a. the occasion
b. the probable tastes of your guests
c. the season and weather
d. availability of fresh ingredients
e. budget or price of the menu
f. food value and nutrition
g. the number of dishes
h. balance

darina also discussed how menus look - their format, font, etc. - and how that impacts a restaurant. she has several binders full of menus from some of her favorite restaurants, which lead her to talk about jobs and what we should be looking for now and at the end of our twelve weeks. her biggest recommendation was getting experience. she covered a list of possible opportunities for our audience and i found 'food journalist', 'food stylist', cooking on boats, cooking on oil rigs, teaching cooking classes and working as a personal chef to all be of interest to me. now i just need to do some research, update my CV and start contacting businesses/chefs, etc.

darina could tell that we were fading fast, so she called it a day at half five. grace and i were set on getting a run in, so we changed and were en route by ten to six. we ran for time today, opting to head straight to the beach. the moon wasn't up just yet and the multi-colored sky and gentle lapping waves could have easily been the sounds and sights of dawn instead of dusk. we took in the amazing backdrop, stretched our legs and then headed back in the direction of school. the evening air was cold but invigorating; something grace and i both happily welcomed after sitting all day long. it makes such a difference to get out and move around for a bit every day, even if it's only for half an hour.

when i got back to the pink cottage, i found all my cottagemates in the kitchen trying to get a bird, who got himself trapped in our cottage, back outside. at one point, two guys from the barn cottage were on ladders with brooms, trying to direct the frightened little guy to the open door. after a good twenty minutes, we turned off all the lights and left the door open so the bird could calm down and fly out on his own. a trapped bird isn't an ordeal except one of my cottagemates has a huge bird phobia, so we were trying to be considerate for her sake. ironically, after trying idea after failed idea, it was charlotte who managed to coax the bird outside in the end. isn't that the way it always goes?

i've got an order of work to complete and then i'm heading to bed. is it really already thursday tomorrow?!

life is made up of little things

tuesday
my cooking partner, marie, was sick today so i got to cook with toby, one of darina's sons. since marie was going to make the watercress soup and the greek moussaka, toby made both recipes while i worked on the spicy apple chutney, the baked potato, the romanesco (a green cauliflower-like veg) and the bananas in lime syrup. we got on well as toby was very conversational, asking questions and sharing cooking tips. i did my best to help him out when i could as the moussaka required a lot of prep work.

i found a comfortable and steady pace (much like running) and enjoyed the morning. my chutney tasted delicious even though it will be much better in 6-8 weeks time. i plated up and had debbie taste my baked potato shortly after 11, making sure to put a generous tab of butter on top and a sprinkle of sea salt. the romanesco wasn't overly complicated, but florrie kept telling us to mind out boiling veg as she didn't want to taste any overcooked romanesco! no pressure. i neatly cut the bunches from the stalk and was slightly grossed out when a slug crawled out of the top bunch. i let him crawl down on to my cutting board and then i put him in the hens' bucket. a nice little snack for them later. instead of drowning my veg in butter when it was ready, i drizzled some olive oil on top and then sprinkled it with sea salt and a grind of black pepper.

the bananas in lime syrup were a bit of a disappointment. my syrup was a bit too sweet, so i squeezed in fresh lime juice to tone it down. i've found that it's hard to get something to taste right if it isn't something you particularly enjoy.

my afternoon duties included serving the dessert which meant whipping up two bowls of cream to accompany the fruit in syrup and the left over chocolate mousse. i whipped up the cream and set the two bowls in the fridge before heading into the dinning room to eat lunch. debbie let me know later that i whipped to cream too much and that darina likes it much soupier. good to know. i'll get it right next time. :)

afternoon demo was run by rachel allen, who has been off traveling with her cooking. she'll be at ballymaloe for the remaining nine weeks though and teaching quite a bit. she is very enthusiastic and has a great smile and attitude, but i found her a bit scattered and hard to follow. she jumped quickly from one dish to another without smooth transitions. a brain workout for sure!

she covered poultry and game and demonstrated how to hang, pluck the feathers, gut and then section a beautiful guinea fowl. all very fascinating. she made french peasant soup, a winter vegetable and bean soup with spicy sausage (rachel LOVES chorizo!), a traditional roast stuffed chicken, roast pheasant with game chips and cranberry sauce, bread sauce, parsnip chips, creamed celery (just an excuse to use butter and cream, really), swede turnips with caramelized onions, winter blackcurrant pudding, kumquat compote and a butter sponge cake with raspberry jam and creme. whew!

hazel and i had talked during lunch about running the 8K loop after demo, so we didn't stick around to taste anything. ray, who lives in the coach house cottage with hazel, also came with us. he isn't a 'runner', but has a natural stride and easy pace. lucky! we ran to our cottages and changed quickly. i was half changed when our cottage fire alarm went off...again. knowing i was the only one in the cottage, i wasn't worried that there was actually a fire. i did a quick check upstairs and in the kitchen. another student who was heading to his cottage stopped in and showed me how to reset the alarm and soon the shrieking was silent. i ran back over the office just to let someone know and was told that sometimes the alarms just go off on their own. good to know. i found hazel and ray near the gate and then the three of us were off, talking about the day and enjoying the last bit of daylight. ray took the lead early on, only to become a small spec in the distance. hazel and i had a similar pace which was a treat. our conversation ranged from discussing the course and what our plans were after the 12 weeks to talking about our families, where we fell in the line up of siblings and being in our thirties. :) she is easily one of my favorites here.

we finished our run in about 40 minutes and when i got back to the pink cottage, everyone was in the kitchen cleaning. i helped the twins carry the recycle bins to the recycle area which included dumping a pot that had been in the fridge holding a chicken carcass for far too long. the smell was just awful!

the rest of the evening was a blur. my mom sent a package to the pink cottage containing australian licorice, a favorite treat of all my cottagemates, so that was attacked and one of the five bags was gone in a matter of seconds. since we didn't have to prepare an order of work for wednesday morning, we hung out around our kitchen table, talking and listening to music. it was sometime after ten when i headed to bed.

baa baa delicious lamb

the roast of lamb i cooked this morning was a huge success.

i also made the hummus, but it disappeared before i could get a picture of it.

lunch today was a bit relaxed as most of us were finished cooking and tidying our workstations by half twelve. it was nice to be able to take our time and enjoy our lovely roasts, glazed carrots, roasted potatoes and chocolate mousse with macaroons.

i think there were sedatives in the lamb though because it was such a struggle for me to keep my eyes open in afternoon demo! i kept shifting my legs and writing in my notebook to stay alert. grace, who was sitting to my left, was struggling as well. she and i would check on each other periodically to make sure neither one of us nodded off.

today pam showed us two fresh salads (a green greek and a cabbage salad with raisins and mint), a spicy apple chutney, a watercress and a cabbage soup, greek moussaka, shepherd's pie with garlic butter, mushroom ketchup, calabrese, baked potatoes and two desserts (mangoes in lime syrup and bananas in lime syrup).

there was a CV lecture after demo today, so i hung back with a few others as i welcome any resume help/suggestions. susan was a bit scattered and unorganized in presenting her information but she made some good points and we are all going to draft up a CV and then review them next week.

she wrapped up shortly after 6 and then we were back in the pink cottage making dinner. conster accidentally set off the fire alarm while she cooked sausages and so there was a bit of chaos for ten minutes while we sorted out turning the alarm off.

charlotte and emily made chocolate mousse and almond macaroons for dessert and we are just finishing them up now. delicious!

maybe a little reading for me and then bed.

john whiteman, you'd be proud of me!

after a delicious lunch of grilled sausages with onions and peppers, mom, dad, finn and i were in the car on our way back to ballymaloe. we took the car ferry to cobh and then caught back up with the main motorway (25). a new route and a very pretty drive.

we got to the school shortly before 4pm, with was a nice bit of daylight left. unfortunately, none of my cottagemates were home, so mom took a few pics and then she, dad and finn were on their way back to crosshaven. i unpacked my bags and started to do my order of work for tomorrow morning when dougie popped in and asked if i wanted to play 'ultimate' with him a few others. my order of work could definitely wait! i put on my shoes and headed over to the garden next to the tennis courts.

dougie, owen and christian joined me. we threw the frisbee around a bit to practice and then we split up in to teams of two: me and dougie, owen and christian. what an absolute blast! dougie and i scored three goals rather easily and our fourth goal was scored in the wrong end-zone. :) christian and owen eventually got a rhythm down and were catching up to us, although i don't know if anyone was actually keeping score. we played for a good thirty minutes; sprinting down the garden and back, jumping up to deflect a pass when we could and laughing the entire time. we left a few very large divots in the grass and more than once i made a mad dive into the picker bushes to try and make a ridiculous catch.

exhausted, sweaty and with the sun going down, we called it a game. there are plans for another game this week if we get out of lecture before the sun has set for the day. :)

sunday morning scones

i decided to start my sunday out with some homemade scones.

mom and dad approved! now, i'm off for a run. :)

cove. queenstown. cobh.

saturday started out lazy...again. i got up around 9 and greeted mom and finn before they headed out for a walk. mom went down to the village market when she got back to pick up some fresh bread and pear and lemon tartlets for breakfast. the paper was read while we ate and then mom, charles and i made plans to head to cobh for the afternoon.

cobh is a seaport town on the south coast of county cork, ireland and is the second largest natural harbour in the world. the locality, which had had several different irish-language names, was first referred to as cove ('the cove of cork") in 1750. it was renamed 'queenstown' in 1849 to commemorate a visit by queen victoria and so remained until the name cobh was restored in 1922 with the foundation of the irish free state. it was spelled 'cobh' instead of the original 'cove' as a way of 'gaelicising' an english placename, as many irish placenames had been anglicised by english settlers.

one of the major transatlantic irish ports, cobh was the departure point for 2.5 million of the six million irish people who emigrated to north america between 1848 and 1950.

on 11 april 1912 queenstown was the final port of call for the rms titanic as she set out across the atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage. 123 passengers boarded in cobh; only 44 survived the sinking.

an engineer who helped build titanic.

titanic shortly before she was released into the harbor.

we drove to monkstown and took the car ferry over to cobh. after going through the heritage museum and learning all about the history of cobh (i was unaware that the lusitania was sunk by a torpedo from a german u-boat in 1915), mom, charles and i had a snack at the quay's bar right on the waterfront. we watched a row boat of novice rowers practicing in the harbor and i was reminded of my rowing days at ust. we walked around a bit after eating and enjoyed the crisp, fresh air. we hiked up to st. colman cathedral, took some photos and visited with two irish cats.

shortly before five, we were back in the car on our way home to crosshaven. we planned to stop at cronin's and have a pint, so we drove to the house and picked up dad so he could join us. there was a new art exhibit up in the small dinning room at cronin's, so dad and i checked it out. the server, whose cousin sean is at ballymaloe with me, was working so i chatted with her a bit. she wanted to know how school was going and how her cousin was doing. i filled her in as best i could and then she told me to let sean know she was looking forward to the meal he had promised to cook her. charles and i finished our pints while mom and dad ran over to lynch's to pick up some spinach for dinner. we ended up chatting with sean cronin, the owner and denis and joleen's father, about boxing, ballymaloe and irish music/instruments. dad only had to come back in twice to get us. :)

dinner this evening was grilled monkfish, yellowfin tuna, sweet potatoes and spinach salads. i whipped up some chocolate mousse with irish mist for dessert and it is waiting in the fridge for us to enjoy when our stomachs are slightly less full.

another excellent saturday in crosshaven! a few new pics here.

charles heads back to galway on the 7.25am bus tomorrow morning and mom, dad and i might have a sailing date with peter o'rourke.