the food.ie

Two weeks in America

2010-02-22T10:00:00.004Z

So I can report that the chicken, quiche and bread made it through Dublin airport security and I was safe from plane food for one of the 6 flights taken over my two week trip to the US. I definitely recommend doing the same if you are taking a long haul flight any time soon!
Some of the highlights of the trip:

Coffee and Cake at Magnolia Bakery, this was a big thing when I saw all the lovely cakes but not such a fantastic idea when I was being sick in a New York flowerbed a few minutes later from the sweetness of it all. The had some very pretty cakes and cupcakes though (I think my poor jetlagged, hungover body just wasnt able for all the butter and sugar) after the flight over.

I was grand by the next day though and was up early to have a lovely bagel and coffee before heading off sightseeing.

Next stop Chelsea Market for brunch and oh what a fantastic brunch of chips and eggs with minty hollandaise. The Chelsea Market is well worth the subway fare from wherever you are in New York.

Did I mention that it was restaurant week when I was in New York? During restaurant week a whole load of New York restaurants put on a set lunch (24$) and dinner menu(35$), many of these places are the kind of places that you need to cut up your credit card after visiting normally. After a good 4 or 5 hours of deliberation I had chosen the wonderfully named One if by land, two if by sea where we had a very lovely dinner that was so great I didnt manage to take any photos before taking a bite first. The above was chocolate fondant with stout ice cream (not that you can really see it. Open table was right about it being the most romantic restaurant in New York, if romantic means dimly lit).

New York was also the first introduction to big American breakfasts and one of the first times that I have thought our Irish breakfast may be the healthy option! These were from Sarabeths near Central Park

From New York it was on to San Diego where there were far more breakfasts to be eaten and good friends who knew where to eat them. Above the amazing Mocha Chip Shake and Blueberry pancakes from the Mission in North Park. These were worth the cost of the flights alone!

We also had some very amazing pho in San Diego, and although the above doesnt look too appetizing I definitely recommend tracking down a pho place that closes early where the staff look at you strange if ever in Vietnam/San Diego.

The final place that I seem to have taken any pictures of food was on our way skiing somewhere near Los Angeles when we dropped into the very institution that is In-n-out. I was a little over excited at this stage, but how wouldnt you be when a lovely smiley fella takes your order, especially when you hear about a non-advertised sauce you can order by asking for your burger "animal style" (ok, so this was secret to me but maybe not to anyone who has ever been to In-n-out before.

Now allow this girl to be a little over-excited as its been a good half of my lifetime since I have eaten a hamburger in any fast food place. This was fantastic and while hardly anywhere near as intricately seasoned and perfected as some of the food I had in New York a definite highlight.

After all of this a few days in Vegas, no photos from Vegas other than buildings and booze (not surprisingly)

Plane food

2010-01-28T22:41:00.002Z

Last night I went to see the film Up in the Air and it reminded me of all the awful things about spending a lot of your time on planes for work. One of the worst things always is the food and when you are stuck on long flight bored senseless its really the only thing you look forward to (especially if you fly with Virgin, although unlike the writer of this complaint Ive always found their food the best of a bad lot)

Im off to New York at the weekend and it looks like the airline only serves food at a cost and there is no way on earth Im paying for plane food. As a result all week Ive been trying to think of a few things to bring onboard (that wont be stopped by security), that I could make on a busy work night. After scanning through my bookmarked recipes I came across Carolines Leek and Cashel Blue Crustless quiche. With a little bit of modification (for the leftovers in my fridge) I made the following:

Ham and mushroom crustless quiche

4 rashers
200g mushrooms
50 cheddar cheese
3 eggs
Milk - 300mls
Cream - 75mls
Self raising flour - 125g
Salt, pepper

A 9.5 inch/24 cm frying pan or quiche tin.

Heat the oven to 190C/180 Fan

Cut the rashers into small pieces and fry up on a highish heat until crispy. Chop the mushrooms up and fry in batches on a high heat.

Whisk the eggs, cheese, milk and cream together. Add the rashers, mushrooms, self raising flour and season well (if youre not sure then fry a little bit to taste). Pour straight into the hot quiche dish/frying pan and cook for 35-40 minutes until brown, well risen and firm to the touch.

Im also bringing some homemade Fougasse and going to pop over to the lovely chicken man from Poulet Bonne Femme tomorrow to get myself a chicken to bring on board. If you hear of a lady being arrested at Dublin airport for not surrendering her chicken at the weekend, that will be me.

3 very fantastic things

2010-01-24T22:32:00.003Z

Its all very busy around here these days but I had three fantastic things to say so before I forget:

The Clarence Tea Rooms have a great offer on at the moment of €29 for 3 courses. This is not a between 6:15 and 6:17pm kind of offer, its after 7pm and from what I can tell every day. I was there on Friday for dinner with a bunch of friends and they had jazz playing. Very civilized and very tasty. In case anyone is interested I chose the scallops (next time Id take the oysters), the cod with parmesan and herb crust and because Im a complete sucker for chocolate the chocolate fondant. I mention it here only because the taxi driver on the way in was so surprised that he wanted to come as my date and because it was fantastic value
Fresh yeast - you can buy it from the lovely bakers in Superquinn. It took me months to get around to asking for this but now that I have there is no shortage of great bread in my house (and yes I do think its much nicer than the dried stuff)
New York Restaurant Week starts tomorrow and Im going to be there for a few days. So very excited I dont even know where to start with looking at booking a table! Recommendations?

Leftover Irish breakfast pasta al forno

2010-01-04T19:37:00.008Z

This is about as un-italian and non-gourmet as you get when it comes to pasta dishes but when the paths are very icy and your neighbour cant even manage to get his car out of the drive (nevermind down the road) its good to use up what you have rather than venture to the supermarket. I also find that theres something about a baked dinner that is so much more satisfying when its freezing outside. Its always worth having some pasta, a tin of tomatoes and a few rashers in the house for this!

Ingredients (should serve 2 hungry people after a long trek home through the snow):

180g dried pasta such as penne or shells but tortellini will work equally well
1 tin plum tomatoes (I always go with whole tomatoes and stick a knife in to chop them in the tin as the chopped ones often seem quite scrappy)
1 heaped teaspoon of sugar
salt, pepper
a pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 dessertspoons cream (optional)
parmesan
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 rashers
2 breakfast sausages
some chopped thyme and rosemary if you have it

Preheat your oven to 200C or 180 if you have a fan oven.

Boil up a big pot of water for your pasta and add some salt. Put the pasta on to boil.

Chop the bacon and push the sausagemeat out of the sausages into little balls. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the bacon and sausagemeat. Fry for a few minutes and then add the tin of tomatoes. Immediately add the sugar, some salt, pepper, chilli, cream and chopped herbs if you have them. Simmer away until the pasta is cooked

Drain the pasta and put in a gratin dish. Pour the sauce over and grate a thin (or heavy) covering of parmesan over before putting in the oven.

Wash your dishes and keep an eye on the oven, it shouldnt take any longer than 10-15 minutes for the cheese to be melty, crispy and the sauce to be bubbly. Take out and eat.

2009, the year that was

2010-01-03T14:57:00.005Z

A review of a year where I gave up posting in August? Why not? Maybe it will help explain the lack of white noise from these parts.

I resolve to come here more often in 2010, to remind myself to cook new things more often and to eat in some of the places Ive been dying to eat for years (el bulli is open for reservations if

anyone wants someone to come with them)

Some of my food related highlights of 2009:

Travel, lots of it - Barcelona (mmmm the hot chocolate), Paris (pastries!), India (amazing street food), New York (pizza), Munich and Berlin for the gluhwein at Christmas
Living in Granada and eating tapas on an almost daily basis in the lovely Bodega Casteneda
Travelling around Spain and eating fresh fish and the most amazing tapas and wishing I could learn enough Spanish to move to Cadiz
3 months in Ballymaloe cookery school which sometimes feels like it was a dream until I decide to make croissants for breakfast or whip up bearnaise to go with my steak
Steak! I didnt even eat steak this time last year. Lamb,Pork, Chicken livers - all new!
Rather than reviewing mince pies as I did last year making bucketloads of mincemeat and mince pies (best pastry recipe) and then spending a whole month feeding them to neighbours,friends and family
Putting up shelf after shelf in my tiny kitchen for all the cookbooks that have come my way and the files from Ballymaloe
Getting a shiny new Kenwood and a food processor (which I never thought I would need and now cant live without)
Eating at The Cliff House hotel which was fabulous even if the head chef wasnt too keen on my use of words for him
Fishing!
Meeting some amazing artisan producers from around Ireland
Getting to know my local butchers on a first name basis
Convincing people I know to grow veg on their balconies and apartment rooves
Growing beetroot although not very successfully
Deciding to keep hens and half building a hen house (more to come on that this year)
Being inspired over and over again
Almost completely removing processed foods from my diet (and introducing a lot of butter)
Catering and working in a restaurant kitchen

2009 was a year of making things happen. I left my job and spent 6 months following my foodie interests and had the time of my life. I then came back to reality with a thud and returned to office life, but somewhere out there that may all change again in future.

Wishing you all a fantastic 2010.

Vive España - vivo en españa

2009-08-07T22:32:00.006+01:00

There are times that I feel this blog should come with a bit of a health warning. In fact there are people recently who mentioned that I should come with a health warning. My love for cakes and posting recipes here aside, my last 4 months have not been what most intelligent adults would recommend during the current times of economic crisis.

Now as I sit having a beer outside after 11 at night in sweltering 33 degree heat I feel even more that I should put a bit of a warning out there. If your sole aim in life is being sucesful in your chosen career then you should stop reading now and not even consider giving up your job for 3 months of cookery school followed by some time learning Spanish in Granada and more time eating around Spain.

I feel its only fair to announce that it will be a while before these posts are at all sensible again. Im enjoying the heat, wine and food far too much. I will be back with photos sometime soon.

Ballymaloe 12 week cookery course review

2009-07-29T19:57:00.000+01:00

I decided that I would love to do this cookery course years ago, but one day last September after visiting a friend in hospital at lunchtime and coming back to a job which I wasnt enjoying I booked the course and put down the deposit. The only person I asked for advice on whether I was being crazy was a friend of mine who thought, he told me afterwards, that I wanted to do a week long course and not potentially give up my job to move to Cork full time for 3 months.

When I started telling people there was this constant echo in response - "your job, that well paid job, are you crazy?". There were very few people who straight up said to me that they were envious, or wished me well or even said that I should do what I want to do when I have the chance to.

Not far off one year later and I am so glad I took the plunge and asked for that sabbatical and then handed in my notice when a sabbatical wasnt possible. Im glad I did something I have wanted to do for years and years, something that was ultimately just for me and threw caution to the wind in these crazy recessionary times (one good thing about Ballymaloe is that the "r" word is never mentioned!).

So what did I get from my 3 months in Ballymaloe?

Lots of visitors - even those who thought I was crazy in my cookery quest came to visit

A love of meat again - fillet steak is my friend

A trip mackerel fishing where I scored on two counts - didnt vomit and actually caught some fish (not that I could gut or eat them due to seasickness)!

Lessons on how to cook lobsters - yum if not entirely scary

A weeks work experience in Ballymaloe House and Cafe - where I cooked for a Michelin starred chef and made more cheese biscuits than will be needed for the coming 3 months

Lessons on how to skim a stone - failed this one miserably

A jump from the cliffs into the sea and many beach swims, with jellyfish - I am your hero

Many, many cuts and burns on my hands. When I am 90 I will point at some of these scars and have some bloody fantastic tales to tell though

At least 7 pounds of lard deposited on my body - not bad given that we are meant to consume a pound of butter a week

A schedule of a good 5 weeks workouts to shift said weight from my body before I next see a beach

A love for butter, softly whipped cream and herb garnishes and an understanding that it will be difficult to survive in a city without those herb garnishes at hand at all times.

A desire to never eat sliced pan again - it will be homemade bread all the way

Chats with the empire building Darina Allen and her husband Tim who are truly inspiring

One on one bread making classes with the fabulous Tim

A sourdough starter called Peggy which will no doubt last a lifetime making amazing breads (of whose offspring I am currently eating while typing)

A new collection of jams, candied peel, stock and kitchen bits and pieces to bring home with me along with 4 over flowing folders of recipes

The promise of 2 hens to arrive in September for daily fresh eggs

To insult a famous chef and then eat in his fantastic restaurant and have him apologise however quietly

A visit to an amazing cheesemaker who makes the cheese that has given me at least one of these pounds on my hips.

Demonstrations and talks from some very inspiring food producers

Quite a few lovely photos

My first A in an exam in years - 89% in my wine exam (which I wasnt planning on taking at all as was feeling like I knew nothing)

Fear in most of my friends about choice of restaurant and wine!

To meet and befriend such a varied group of people including a 3 time World Champion and Olympic rower (and yes I got to touch thse medal and god knows youd need to have some neck to be able to carry it), a surfer who surfed for Tahiti, a possible squillionaire eating his way around the world and some very cool wasters like myself.

I dont regret my decision for one second despite the slight insanity it has caused in the food.ie household. I am now given to things like waking up in the middle of the night and making bread rather than toss and turn myself back to sleep and have planted enough pots of herb garnish for my neighbours to think it may be a new business idea. It was all worth every pound and every penny.

How not to go about cooking lobsters

2009-07-14T19:36:00.000+01:00

Lobster are apparently about €3 cheaper per pound at the moment due to this crazy warm summer that we have had so far according to local Ballycotton fishermen (or according to the Irish times it has something to do with the downturn in the restaurant trade). Lobster also happened to be one of the things I was most excited about cooking at the school.

Little did I know when these lovely fellas caught my eye how much trouble they were going to make or how they would leave me cowering behind my shield of saucepan lid screaming like a little girl (along with half the rest of the kitchen lobster novices). If you havent cooked lobster before you could no doubt learn a lot from my mistakes!

Firstly when putting them into your saucepan they might pretend to be dead or asleep but dont believe them. Keep your fingers well away from their claws - grab them down their back.

Next fill up the saucepan with cold water and for every 4 pints you use throw in 6oz of salt. This is definitely a time to keep an eye on them as the big fella in the picture below climbed out and into the sink at exactly this point. Lobsters are loud when they climb into sinks, loud and scary.

The loudness gives you no indication of how fantastic tasting they will be once they are cooked, but theres still some fighting to do before they get to that point. When you have the water and salt in the pot make sure you cover it with a tight fitting lid. Then stick the pot on the heat, a low heat so that the water slowly warms up. According to the RSPCA this is the most humane way of cooking lobsters because they chill out as the water warms and then die in their sleep. The teachers in Ballymaloe also claim that they are at their most tender when cooked this way.

My lobsters had a bit of a party as they fell asleep though, a bit of a loud thumping party where one of them tried to escape the pot despite the water not even being at the lukewarm stage yet. This is when I started shrieking like a girl and cowering behind the saucepan lid that had been pushed to the floor. Then when the lobster had been returned to the pot and the lid removed from my very firm grip I spent the remaining ten minutes holding the lid on the pot (you could also use a really heavy weight - like a 50kg barbell if you had one).

Once they have stopped kicking and you have had a peek to see that they are turning pink then you can remove them and put them into a pot of boiling court bouillon until they are a really lovely pink colour like above. There isnt any great way of checking that they are cooked other than the pinkness all the way along their tail. Dont worry too much though because you can always take out the flesh and cook it a bit more in some butter (lots of butter if you want to be true to Ballymaloe of course).

To get that meat out (something that does look like it could be a lot of hassle) you should stick your knife in right at the cross in the middle of his head and cut down towards the front of the head. Then turn the lobster around on the chopping board and chop down in the opposite direction towards the tail. It should look something like the above but dont worry if it looks really green, that just means its not fully cooked - fry it up in a some butter until all the green turns pink. There is quite a bit of meat in the big claws too (dont worry too much about those small ones.

You could also put this into a nice creamy winey mushroom sauce and return to the shells as we did or just eat it from the pot dipping it into melted butter as you go.

For a bloody scary looking (and sounding) creature these were fantastic, well worth a try.

Last day of cookery school

2009-07-10T06:37:00.005+01:00

Ive been planning so many updates, really I have. I just havent had time to write them. Today is the last day at Ballymaloe Cookery School for me and while half of me is completely heartbroken to be leaving this beautiful part of the world and all the lovely people I have met here, the other part is dying to be finished with these exams - 3 written ones today!

I promise to update next week when I will be hanging around the area with far less homework to do (but some work to do all the same - more on that later). For now I hope you can keep yourself amused with some of the pictures I have taken over these past amazing 12 weeks.

The Cliff House Hotel

2009-06-24T19:14:00.006+01:00

If you want a quiet dinner at the Cliff House Hotel just make sure you dont go posting a photo or blog entry using the words "molecular gastronomy" anywhere near Martijn Kajuiter's name beforehand. The Irish Times got away with it but I certainly didnt. This telling off didnt affect my meal too much and I would definitely without any hesitation say that this is the best meal I have ever eaten, of course eating in the company of 18 confirmed foodies is also a big bonus!

Rather than call him anything with the words molecular in it I will refer to him as a food magician going forwards as given the quality and taste of his food creations the word chef just seems far too plain of a word for him. He did say that I am allowed say that he smoked a lot in his youth which may partly have influenced his fantastic food creations and pointed out that he was right to defend his honour as "only the paranoid survive".

Our night for dinner last week happened to coincide with fabulous weather and Martijns birthday. The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore sits on a stunning part of the coastline which on that evening felt very like the Mediterranean and I would imagine even when the weather is awful is still a very fabulous place to spend a few days.

After a glass or two of prosecco on the terrace we went in for the full 8 course tasting menu which my words are far too inadequate to describe so hopefully the photos and some descriptions will give you an idea.

First off the following three dishes were brought as an Amuse Bouche:

This was a test tube of apple and tarragon gazpacho and a celeriac icecream with ham crumbs and coriander blossom. The bread it was served in wasnt for eating (although we did try).

Next a semi-dried cherry tomato with a pipette of tomato juice, gin and celery salt along with a crostini with broccoli puree and a black olive. Some amusement was to be had as to how exactly we were to ingest the pipette.

Then onto a Helvic Oyster and Guinness - an oyster meringue with gooseberry and hazelnut. Are you beginning to see why I call him a food magician yet? We are still only on the Amuse Bouche! This came with a lovely glass of Gruner Veltiner.

Next we had what was described as West Cork Scallops with Green Asparagus Textures and Mizuna. There were at least 4 textures of asparagus here between the deep fried with a scallop roe popcorn, jelly cubes, powder and raw shavings along with the most perfectly cooked scallops to have ever crossed my lips.

Then we had some "Local Suffolk Lamb with Apple Mint, Broad beans and Verjus 8 Brix". Fresh new peas and broad beans have been my absolute favourite veg over the last few months on an organic farm so this course had me beaming and wondering was everyone else drunk enough yet for me to be allowed lick the plate (the answer was no). From this stage on my photos get a bit blurrier due to it getting a bit darker outside and my hands getting a bit shakier.

The next course arrived like this to a very much stunned hush despite the fact that we had all seen the word smoke on the description in the menu (Organic Clare Island Salmon, Carrot, Marsh Samphire and Smoke)

Once the domes were removed there was a rush of smoke (unphotographable at this stage of the night) followed be a view of salmon presented in a number of different ways from a lollipop to an iced mouse and the most perfect eggs which werent eggs at all but salmon juice magically conjured into eggs using a calcium chloride bath. These little eggs had the whole table purring with delight.

As our final savoury course we had "Skeaghanore Duck with Beetroot, Sweet Potato and Amaranth Spinach". The meat once again was perfect along with the few different types of beetroot -gel, chip and boiled (and how lovely it is to see beetroot on menus when its in season). Surprisingly it was still too early in the night for me to be licking my plate despite the fact that at this stage we were onto Wine number 4 if not further along.

Next onto the Pre Dessert of a Lemon Verbena tea sorbet and a lovely white chocolate with lemon peel and pop rock which was so fantastic that there wasnt one left on the table by the time my camera was at the ready.

Should I ever get to chose a last meal then I will have at least a pre-dessert and 2 desserts to follow so these few remaining courses were very much my cup of tea. This "Strawberry Collection 2009" comprised of a sorbet, a strawberry dipped in caramel, a coulis, powder, a consomme infused with elderflower, an infusion with verjus and a honey custard made of soya milk (not pictured). To say that Martijn got every possible last bit out of the strawberries is a massive understatement.

Finally then we had what was described as "Dark Chocolate 70%, Coffee Ice, Olive Oil and Sea Salt" which comprised of a mousse in a chocolate curl, some white coffee ice cream, a white chocolate parfait with a popping mini malteaser and some olive oil dehydrated with tapioca flour.

The quality of the local produce (some even sourced from the hotel gardens) and the work that goes into putting this food together is well worth every penny you pay for this menu, even if the service, atmosphere and view were not all as impeccable as they are. Despite the fact that Martijn wont be giving me a job any time soon for my misuse of a certain term I really enjoyed my meal and am looking forward to his forthcoming book and hopefully another trip to visit!

PS. Thanks to the lovely Charlotte J who was wise enough to bring a pen and write down some of the descriptions of the foods!

Week 8 - the meat thing

2009-06-08T20:17:00.008+01:00

Hello, so its been a while and I cant quite believe its week 8 already. To be honest I dont even know where my time goes these days. I had all these amazing intentions of coming to Cork and reading a book a week and visiting my cousin and friends in Cork and my weeks seem to fly by without so much as an update.

Week 6 I have an excuse for as we had two exams which was quite daunting (especially to those of us who havent done an exam in almost ten years). The first was a technique exam where at random we were given 4 techniques from a list of 25 to complete within 20 minutes. The second was a herb and salad recognition exam. For about ten whole minutes I qualified as the queen of herbs and salads but am pretty sure they have all but disappeared from my head now.

So now to sit down with my glass of red wine and fabulous smoked mackerel (Im a cookery student after all and need to make that palate of mine a bit more adventurous) to tell you how things have been going.

Up until now Ive pretty much been talking about all the positive side so let me tell you about what I find a little harder as it struck me earlier today when cooking. Until coming to this course I had almost completely avoided red meat where possible mainly due to a dislike for the taste but also a certain level of squeamishness (not that Id admit that to anyone on the course but there is something that turns my stomach of cutting into bloody meat that looked like the inside of my finger when I chopped it in week 3). I made a bargain with myself that if I was going to shell out €10k that I was going to try everything so I have eaten things I normally would completely turn my nose up at including sweetbreads, oxtail, kidneys, livers and an awful smelling mexican herb thats meant to stop you farting (Epazote).

I had expected these foods to have a bit more of an impact on my body, given that my body is not used to digesting red meat but so far its been fairly ok. This may have something to do with the quality of meats and how they have been cooked by my fabulous co-students. Indeed, Ive been quite surprised as previously when trying beef and lamb Ive ended up feeling fairly awful. I had also expected that my body might completely collapse under the weight of such a heavily buttered variety of foods but so far all is going well and while I cant advocate this diet to everyone (especially anyone with cholesterol problems) I certainly am not putting on the pounds that I had anticipated before doing the course.

Im enjoying the hours in the kitchen every morning a lot more than the demonstrations in the afternoon and have noticed a steady increase in the number and complexity of dishes that we are cooking (todays lime souffle was tasty but not worth the time spent building it or all the dishes that needed to be washed afterwards). The wine tasting is good although I almost feel at times that my palate is becoming less sophisticated as one day I can taste the chocolate, blackcurrant and smoked tractor tyre in the wine and the next it just tastes like alcoholic ribena.

Possibly the most fun day so far was our school tour of which I will post more later in the week. Now I have to get back to my wine and mackerel

Week 5 - Day in the life of a Ballymaloe 12 week cookery course student

2009-05-21T21:08:00.008+01:00

When I talk to my friends the first question most of them have is what I do all day long, I doubt from my words its all that easy to get a picture of how the days fly by here so heres an account of my day yesterday in photos.

Days in Ballymaloe are fairly long. I'm normally up at around 6 to get out for a run and then back at 7 to shower, grab breakfast and head off to school. I have never been able to go without breakfast, even if its only a coffee and banana while I cram for the day ahead.

Over the past week I have been feeding my sourdough starter and on Wednesday night I finally got to start and knead the bread so my most exciting bit of yesterday was seeing my risen dough when I got up. Sourdough takes a long time to make but is completely magical when you see your dough rise without the use of anything other than the natural yeast you have harnessed from your kitchen (and yep I laughed when this was said to me initially too)

The weather has been completely unpredictable for the last few weeks but most mornings I have walked to school which is such a massive change from sitting for half an hour on the M50 that I cant even complain too much when I get caught in a shower. Theres me in the mirror outside the farm between my house and the school

4 mornings a week we are in the kitchens cooking the food that was demonstrated to us the afternoon before. Most people make it in for around 8:30 when we start weighing ingredients for that mornings cooking. The students are divided out between 4 different kitchens and we move stations, sometimes kitchen and change cooking partner every week. There is one teacher to every six of us in the kitchen who keeps an eye on how we are getting on and marks us at the end of the morning.

Being in the kitchen is definitely my favourite bit of the course, that and trying to recreate the masterpieces demonstrated the afternoon before. However the kitchen can be completely chaotic at times between the arguments over ovens (and lack thereof) and the panic some people get into when they are having problems with whatever they are making. Typically between each team of 2 we make a starter, main, side vegetable dish and dessert. There is also a long list of techniques we have to master which we try to squeeze in aswell when we have time - techniques inlcude a list of 8 or so breads, filleting flat and round fish, knife skills and making cottage cheese, caramel, pastries, meringues among others.

Yesterday I made caramel eclairs, a provencale bean stew and filleted a flat fish. We present the foods to the teachers at 11:30 with the goal of then sitting down to eat by 12. Mostly we are doing well if we are eating by 12:30

The teachers taste and mark (out of 6) everything we make before it goes out for lunch. For the first few weeks I assumed this was part of an ongoing assesment but apparently its only in case you suffer from not being able to remember one thing in an exam situation. Typically between the kitchen we will have made a few different starters, mains and desserts so that everyone has a good choice of dishes. That said, most people here eat everything or are trying to eat everything while here. We have a few coeliacs although I know one of them at least has given up on making coeliac bread despite the fact that she cant eat yeast bread.

Almost every day all students have a duty to do either before, during or at the end of the day. These could be anything from sweeping the floor in the kitchen after cooking, serving desserts for the day and laying tables to feeding the hens. Yesterday I was on dessert duty so had to make sure everyone got an eclair or two including all the guests that come in for lunch.

Depending on how the mornings cooking went we have a nice leisurely lunch or barely get to sit down before going in to watch the demonstration for the afternoon at 2. Every day we have either Darina Allen, Rory O'Connel or Rachel Allen demonstrate the foods we will be cooking the following day. All 64 of us sit in rows watching the everything going on through a massive mirror above the workstation and tvs showing the centre of the counter top.

The demonstration is normally finished by 5 (depending on whether the subject of the benefits of free range organic chickens comes up) and we get to taste the foods to get some idea what our food is meant to taste like the following day. By this time the lists of what each team is cooking the following day is normally up so we divide out the dishes with our cooking partners for the following morning. Thats me in the pink crocs in the front row (theres a first for everything)

Yesterday afternoon my sourdough bread also had its final rise so I stuck it in for baking while we had a wine tasting of Spanish wines. Normally we have wine lectures and tasting as part of our one theory day a week but for some reason this week we had our tasting after class. Wine tasting would definitely be in my top favourite parts of the course if it wasnt for the thoughts of an exam on wine looming in a few weeks time. Unless this exam asks only one question (whether I like a certain wine or not) I suspect I may be screwed.

My sourdough loaves came out beautifully, who would have thought that the above loaves are made only of flour, salt and water?

Then off on my way home through the gardens for a bit of baking in preparation for my weekend and to do my homework.

Week 4 - Cake, cake, more cake - when will it ever end

2009-05-14T08:01:00.003+01:00

Cake, pudding, desserts. I would like you to take a few seconds out of your day to consider the torture that Im undergoing here in Ballymaloe at the moment.

For your viewing horror, here are some cakes:

Winter Pudding

Fruit Tart

Lemon Pudding (pure torture)

Chocolate and Roast Hazelnut Tart

Sponge without butter - the horrors

Ballymaloe Chocolate cake

Week 3 - Hurty finger and a trip to a real kitchen

2009-05-12T07:49:00.007+01:00

Week 3 was marked by my constant lying about my hurty finger because not being able to wash your knives without a trip to the local doctor is a bit of an embarrassing excuse week 3 of a cookery course. Its only the odd person who reads this, my hero who brought me in a very girly fainting state to the local clinic and my friends who stayed back to wash the rest of the dishes that know that I didnt get bitten by a shark, have my finger bitten off by a overzealous male model boyfriend or suffer a knitting accident.

Week 3 was also the week I got to go visit Ballymaloe house kitchens (queue more lying about finger), where my cooking partner had to wash all the dishes and where I spent quite some time bashing prawn brains before boiling them, forcing them through a sieve and serving them as lunch.

As my typing index finger is still a bit off, I will leave you with a few pictures of food cooked by real chefy people. No pictures of the shy chefs as they wanted me to contact their agents first off.

Duck Liver Pate with Walnut and Raisin toast (not in picture as I ate it)

Roast Ballycotton Turbot with Watercress, Redcurrant and Shallot butter

Hot buttered Castletownbere Oysters on Toast

Pan-fried Ballycotton John Dory with Scallops and Garden Asparagus (Did I mention that Im never coming home again?)

Caramel Ice cream, served with caramel from the Ballymaloe Dessert Trolley

PS - I didnt cook in Ballymaloe house - just sat around, watched, poked at things and took photos

Random ballymaloe learnings this far - week 2

2009-04-29T08:06:00.006+01:00

Two weeks in and my head is almost bursting with knowledge, most of which can probably not be posted on the internets for fear of copyright so Ill give you some of the very odd bits I have scribbled down for your foodie amusement

Rosemary will only thrive in a house where the woman wears the pants

That white bit of the rhubarb that you always cut off is meant to be the sweetest

Some of the foreign people on our course think that cats are milked in Ireland

Keep an eye on your oven or people will change the temperature and stick something else in

You can make a wish on new potatoes

Darina gets her nails done for the Late Late show

Rhubarb leaves are poisonous to us but not to hens

Alcohol levels in wine are rising which is apparently a factor of global warming!

If you are sick 20 minutes within eating something its an allergy rather than food poisoning

Them knives there they are sharp, do not be thinking about anything other than the knives when washing them or you will end up with stitches

The whey from making parmesan cheese is fed to the pigs who produce parma ham

Fat in meat holds the toxins - a good enough reason to not eat fat or non organic meats

Turmeric is an antiseptic

The smaller the potato chips the hotter your oil should be

The cross in soda bread is to let out the fairies

Tomorrow Im working for the night (as much as one can with only 9 functioning fingers) in Ballymaloe House. Some day soon I will be putting in a night in Arbutus. At the weekend I will be drinking a lot of wine at a wine tasting workshop and walking the beaches and cliffs. It feels like years, not weeks ago that I was sitting in an office!

The photos are adding up here if you want more of an idea what my day looks like.

Week 1 Ballymaloe

2009-04-23T08:55:00.001+01:00

3 days in and oh so glad that I handed in my notice to do this course in Ballymaloe. Theres another 11 and a half long weeks to go but so far its been absolutely brilliant. Intense and slightly crazy but brilliant. My internet access is a bit crap so far so easiest just to list some of the things I have done in the first 3 days and post a few photos. I will get around to more detail over the coming weeks I promise.

Tour of Ballymaloe including a trip to see the pigs, hens and greenhouse where I planted some of my own wee spring onions

Introduction to all 63 other students. A good mix of people including a bunch of gap year students, 10 or so blokes, quite a few over 50's and a large selection of people in between wondering whether they can do something in the food industry from all sorts of industry including solicitors, doctors, accountants and teachers.

Got my knives - all fingers still intact so far

Put on my chefs uniform for the first time

Got my new lovely house in Cork

Attended 3 demonstrations from Darina Allen and her brother Rory O'Connell

Had my first morning of cooking in the kitchens which was tested as part of the certificate

Signed up to work in the kitchens of Ballymaloe house for a night

Signed up to milk a cow early one morning (not sure why)

Got into school at 8am to make chicken stock for the classes

Had 3 good walks on Garryvoe beach

Tomorrow we have wine and food safety lectures and then one last morning in the kitchen and a demonstration on Mexican food before the weekend. Its all incredibly exhausting and fantastic so far.

Barcelona - a foodie paradise

2009-04-22T09:52:00.001+01:00

Two of my top favourite things in life are food and travel and one of my favourite places to visit is Barcelona. A few weeks ago I got the chance to visit again and would really recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good gastronomic break, especially if a bit of warm weather is what youre looking for (and if youre coming from Ireland thats pretty much always a given).

As Im currently in Cork and have left my guidebook and half of everything else in Dublin I wont be able to name all the places I visited but here are a few photos anyway. I recommend wandering around town at about a quarter to nine and if you see somewhere with a queue of Spanish outside its probably a good bet. I also recommend eating the local food, fish is an excellent option, Steak and Chips is what they feed tourists and wont be great.

Tapas 24 is definitely worth a visit, apparently the guy who is head chef here used to work in El Bulli (I may have this story very very wrong but thats what I was told). There was a queue out the door, the tapas were good, the staff were utterly ignorant and as long as you know the Catalan for tripe you cant go too wrong. Really though, yummy tapas (none of which I was able to take a photo off without a good forkful of first) and good wines.

You can however get tapas pretty much everywhere in Barcelona although they arent native to here and I did prefer the ones I got last year in San Sebastian.

One other thing you really have to try is the hot chocolate although its rare enough that the weather is cold enough for you to want to drink semi-solid chocolate. If the weather isnt warm then this will definitely put a smile on your face. (NB. Its not true what they say about the rain in Spain and planes). A cup of this between 2 will do the job unless you havent eaten in 3 weeks.

If you are planning a trip one thing I can definitely recommend for saving your weary feet is to rent a GoCar. This is probably the closest to a noddy car that you will ever drive but is a good way of seeing the city as long as you can handle the constant wolf whistles and bursts of music it emits as you drive down busy streets. You would not want to be easily embarrassed as almost everyone you pass by waves at you. Unlike bus/bike/walking tours where you have to listen to someone tell you and a bunch of others all about a city you get to chose what you want to do and see with this little car even if you decide to go a bit off your original track. It has GPS and a little talking voice that tells you where to go, what you are seeing and places to eat in the area which really allows you to see so much more of a city than you normally might.

Birthday chocolate cupcakes - Easy peasy parties

2009-04-02T12:15:00.002+01:00

I came across these cupcakes in Easy Food a while back and have made them a few times since. Providing you have all the ingredients to hand they couldnt be simpler. The first time I made them was for a 21st where they had to be hidden in a press so the birthday girl could get one as they were eaten so fast. Since then I decided that making them as mini-muffins would be better and made them for my birthday. All 45 or so were iced with 30's and hearts (by a kind icing friend who realised it would be wrong for me to make and ice my own birthday cakes).

The good thing about mini muffins is that people dont feel near as guilty about eating them - at my birthday party they were gone before I had a chance to grab one.

I had cause again to make them this week for my dancing class friends as it was my last class before finishing up to go to Ballymaloe and theres a fairly good chance I will bring them out again for my last day at work in a few weeks time.

Chocolate mini muffins (makes 45ish)

100g chocolate chips (I went for 40% cocoa content)
200g self-raising flour
200g light muscavado sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa
150ml sunflower oil
100ml sour cream
100ml water
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing

120g chocolate
100ml sour cream
1 tablespoon light muscavado sugar

This couldnt be easier - put all the muffin ingredients apart from the chocolate chips in a big bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips and divide between the mini muffin cases (best to oil these with some oil spray or sunflower oil first).

Place in an oven pre-heated to 180c for 15 minutes. Take out and cool before icing

To make the icing heat the chocolate, sour cream and sugar slowly in a saucepan until melted. Chill until firm enough to put on the mini muffins.

Hummus - Easy peasy parties

2009-04-01T09:13:00.004+01:00

Some of my friends avoid garlicy things like the plague whereas others go straight for it. This hummus is definitely a recipe for garlic lovers but goes equally well on a bit of baguette at a party as on a pita bread with some cucumber and tomato like I have been having for my supper recently.

Again this could not be simpler if you have a food processor and only takes a few minutes (most of which will be looking for your tin opener)

Hummus

400g can of chickpeas (this works out at about 270g drained) - you could of course steep and boil chickpeas but I was going for fast and tinned chickpeas were 2 for €2 in the supermarket

3 garlic cloves chopped finely

3 tablespoons tahini paste (finding this in the supermarket can be the most difficult bit)

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

juice of one lemon

chill flakes (optional)

Bung the chickpeas, garlic and tahini and blend until smoothish, not too smooth or you will lose all the texture. Add the lemon juice and oil and whizz some more. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Eat with pita bread, baguette or along with some foccacia (only if youre not planning on kissing someone)

Guacamole - Easy peasy parties

2009-03-31T08:55:00.004+01:00

When I bought my wee little house I was determined to have a summer house warming and a massive barbeque, unfortunately after agreeing to purchase in May it was almost Christmas by the time I got the keys and far too cold for al fresco dining. My house is also far too small for more than a handful to dine inside.

It took me over 6 months to get my act together and organise the house warming perfectly in time for summer. Ive since had a repeat bbq and when it came to celebrating my 30th I decided that despite the fact it was mid March I would do the same.

Over the next few posts Im going too let you in on a few quick recipes that can help you look like a fab host/genius starting with one of my favourite recipes handed to me by one of my old work colleagues who attended that first housewarming - Neal.

Guacamole

4 soft avocadoes
1 lime
100ml sour cream
salt
pepper
1 deseeded red chilli (optional)

This is so easy its almost a joke to put it up as a recipe but so many people dont have a notion what to do with avocadoes (much like myself a few years ago) and the stuff you get in jars is so awful (unlike some of the really tasty salsa you can get - Id definitely cheat on this one).

Halve and pit your avocadoes, scoop out the flesh and put in a big bowl or food processor. Squeeze in the lime juice, add the salt, pepper, sour cream and chilli. Whizz in the food processor or mash with a masher. Easy peasy. Just dont do it too far ahead of time as if its sat out for too long it loses its lovely green colour

always a fan of cake

2009-03-26T12:58:00.003Z

always a fan of cake, originally uploaded by deirdren.

I have so much to write about, including all about my birthday cakes for my 30th birthday (all 30+ of them) - sorry that Im being a waster at the moment.

all in a foodie week

2009-02-26T13:30:00.004Z

So many many things have been happening over the last while and I have been absolutely crap at updating as a result. I wouldnt mind but just this weekend I made banoffee, the most amazingly easy and tasty chocolate cupcakes ever and a lemon meringue pie. I'm also back cooking Indian food as if I never had to go on antibiotics after my adventures over there. Time to update has been scarce though.

In the last very foodie week I have:

asked for a sabbatical from work (got a no)
handed in my notice after 6 years at work
baked for a birthday party
had brunch in Brasserie Sixty Six (poor - the cream on my waffles was sour!)
seen my reviews on cheapeats
filled in my form for Ballymaloe Cookery Schools twelve week course (starting in April) - eek!!
did a class in the Dublin Cookery School which was lovely and so much fun
had dinner in Cardiff and lunch in London with werk
had pancake Tuesday - my absolute favourite food day of the year
started planning my own birthday party
started packing for a weekend in paris to eat cake

Its all been very exciting and crazy recently. I promise normal programming will resume shortly.

My recommendations on cheapeats.ie

2009-02-23T09:55:00.004Z

The lovely people at cheapeats.ie asked me for my recommendations for good value places to eat a few weeks ago but even still I was surprised to see them here this morning.

This is a great site with loads of ideas on how to eat decently without breaking the bank!

Flashback recipe - Baked Alaska

2009-02-18T09:45:00.006Z

I think my Mom made Baked Alaska once when I was a kid and I was completely in awe of its apparent scientific miraculousness. Hot and cold, spongy and chewy at the same time - it seemed like it couldnt actually be physically possible.

My mom never made it again, probably because its a bit of a pain in the ass keeping 4 kids away from meringue and ice-cream for long enough for it to work. Its not really that much of a pain to make though and makes you feel like you are right back in the 80s (which is so terribly apt currently).

Theres quite a few bits to this but you can cheat a bit and it doesnt take too long to make at all. You have to eat it straight away once you have it made though, which if you have any sweet tooth should be no problem for you whatsoever.

Ingredients - Baked Alaska (taken from Odlums)

Sponge Base:

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2oz Caster Sugar
2oz self raising flour
pinch of salt

Filling:

Ice Cream (I used about half a Haagen Daazs tub)
Fruit (optional - I used 2 good handfulls of rasberries)

Meringue Topping

2 egg whites
3oz caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease a sandwich tin or a bread tin as I did.

Beat the eggs, sugar, salt and leftover egg yolks until thick and creamy. Sieve and fold in the flour using a metal spoon.

Bake for about 10 minutes until well risen and brown. Cool on a wire tray.

At this stage I recommend letting your ice cream soften a bit and then spoon it into the shape that you want for your Baked Alaska (or baby alaskas like mine). Put the ice-cream back into the freezer on a plate in the shape that you want.

Make the meringue by beating your egg whites and caster sugar until thick enough that you could turn the bowl upside down without them falling out.

Once the sponge is cooled place it on an ovenproof dish and put your fruit and then ice-cream on top. Plaster your meringue all over the ice-cream making sure to cover it completely down as far as the sponge. You can be as messy as you want at this stage and still get away with calling it a masterpiece when you finish.

Place in the oven for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Eat very quickly preferably with some Abba playing in the background.

Much better than roses for Valentines day - Baileys Chocolate Fondants

2009-02-13T08:54:00.006Z

Im not a crazy Valentines day person, Im all about being nice to your loved one all the time. Id much rather sit in and make dinner together than go somewhere overly fancy for an overpriced Valentines Day special and Id much rather get this after my dinner than a bunch of roses (snowdrops are my flowers of choice)

There are a million versions of this recipe everywhere, probably because its dead easy to make and will get you loving from any chocolate lover out there. This version is a version I bastardised with Baileys from Gordon Ramsay.

Baileys Chocolate Fondants
Ingredients:
50g unsalted butter
Cocoa powder
50g dark chocolate (minimum 70%)
1 egg
1 eggg yolk
60g caster sugar
50g plain flour
2 good tablespoons of Baileys (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160C. Butter 2 large ramekins or 4 small ones if youre not so greedy and dust with cocoa powder.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of water and leave to cool as you get the rest of the ingredients ready

Whisk the egg, egg yolk and sugar together until pale and thick. Mix in the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and the Baileys.

Sift the flour over the mixture and gently fold in using a large metal spoon. Divide and bake for 12-14 minutes until the top is firm but you can tell that the middle is still soft.

Turn out into two bowls, eat (along with some baileys ice-cream if you have it) and fall into a lovely sugar coma.

The photos of this when cooked may be considered food porn so Ill just let you imagine!