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October 26, 2007

Balllymaloe Cookery Course: Week 6: Friday

Phew! First exams over. This afternoon we had a comprehensive herb and salad leaf recognition test, followed by a technique exam. Eleven herbs, five salad leaves and four techniques. Last night was spent at the kitchen table, leaves from the greenhouse in front of us as we tried to memorise their different names, appearances and uses, while the Husband ate omelettes, prepared the Ballymaloe way, and the compost bin filled up with orange skins as we segmented enough fruit to keep the house topped up on vitamin C for the next fortnight. Now I'm finished – I was part of the first group – it's time for a long, well-deserved bank holiday weekend!

Posted by Caroline at 3:10 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2007

Balllymaloe Cookery Course: Week 6: Monday

Last Wednesday was school tour day. Instead of spending the day sitting through two demonstrations, we got on the road at 7.30am. Our first stop, on a fresh and sunny morning, was at Baylough Cheese, just outside Clogheen, near to my favourite Old Convent Gourmet Hideaway. When we arrived - I got a lift from the Ranelagh Housemate, thereby missing out on a bus trip with 50+ others! – Darina had already unpacked a morning tea of student-made muffins and banana breads as Dick and Anne Keating showed the class how their unpasteurised cows milk cheese is made by hand. The couple are a well-tuned double act; we were entertained as well as educated as they explained how to make cheese and how this particular venture – now on the go for over 20 years – brought them out of the red at a time when there weren’t a huge amount of farmhouse cheeses in Ireland.

A trip through the Vee Valley, looking at its best in the autumn sunshine, took us to Dungarven and Paul Flynn’s Tannery for a light lunch (Chicken Liver Paté, presented in a kilner jar with well-dressed salad and lots of warm, crusty bread, Gingerbread with carmelised bananas for pudding). Paul spoke briefly to the class about opening up his restaurant ten years ago in an area that didn’t have much of a tradition of restaurant dining and the difficulties that presented.

Next stop was Frank Hederman’s Belvelly Smokehouse, just outside Cobh. During our brief trip there, Frank - a favourite producer of Richard Corrigan's - waved a large frozen wild salmon at us, demonstrated his filleting skills, showed off the fish-stuffed smokehouse and offered generous tastings of his smoked salmon and mackerel.

We weren't finished yet - the final destination in our packed day was Cork's English Market. I'm no stranger there but it was fun to be whisked through by Darina on a whistle-stop tour of her favourite stalls. We were too late for the tripe and drisheen stall, however, and that was already closed but still managed a few quick purchases at On The Pig's Back, the Alternative Bread Company and Bubble Brothers. For once it was nice to have an evening when we weren't already satiated with food from demo so we could enjoy a picnic-style supper of cheese, charcuterie and smoked fish back at the house.

After the intensity of the first month, we're all tired and people have started coming down with colds and other ailments. It was good to have a day away from the coalface - we faced into Thursday morning's cooking with renewed vigour. Now, just started Week Six, it's study time. We have a technique and herb/salad identification exam on Friday. Time to spend a couple of mornings in the garden, perhaps!

Posted by Caroline at 8:47 AM | Comments (4)

October 16, 2007

Balllymaloe Cookery Course: Week 5: Tuesday

I've just got the first three weeks-worth of notes filed and already the first folder is bulging. That's not too much of a problem - the stationary list we were sent before the start of the course specified four lever-arch files - much more of an issue is the actual filing system. In our house, now comprising of three students plus one Husband, there have been several debates over the best way of doing it. Does Tapenade fit under starters or dressings? Or, as I was asked when I called round to our round-the-corner neighbours, three fellow students, should Poppadums be put with their appropriate dish in the Main section or be filed under Bread?

Our welcome notes from the school included a page on how to file the stacks of recipes that we get every day. After long evenings trying to juggle and justify my filing choices, I gave up and started again. All the recipes that we get for the course are drawn directly from The Grey Book aka Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course. I've now re-categorised everything according to the sections in that book. It certainly makes life easier; if I'm not sure where to put a recipe, I just refer to the book's index. It also means that I'll be able to find the recipes at some stage in the future.

Theoretically we should be keeping on top of the filing, getting the at-least 20 pages a day into their appropriate sections, while writing our time-plans for the next morning's cooking. Theoretically. In practice, myself and the North Cork Classmate do try to sit down a couple of times a week and go through things. She writes her time-plan at night time; I often get it done in the car in the mornings, while en route to school. The Ranelagh Classmate leaves the house early to write it while in a quiet school. He and the Husband have a great laugh at our attempts to try and make sense of the filing. That's all fine, until he starts struggling under sheaves of paper himself - although he is undoubtedly learning from our mistakes!

Filing aside, we have little interest in cooking in the evenings. A three-course lunch plus samples of the afternoon's cooking before we leave doesn't make for an enormous appetite after school. The Husband, the only person in this house not doing the course, caters for himself while we nibble on loaves of bread baked that day, critically assessing the texture and crust. Some nights, nourishment comes later, in the form of pints of Beamish at the Blackbird in Ballycotton. But, with a practical exam coming up on Friday week, there's already a new intensity to evening study. Dictionaries of ingredients and gardening books are making their way from the cottage to Ballycotton as we try to figure out the difference between fennel and dill or swot up on boning chickens!

Posted by Caroline at 12:50 PM

October 10, 2007

Ballymaloe Cookery Course: Week 4: Wednesday

Up at the crack of dawn on Saturday - well, at 6am it's still pretty dark this time of year - to work on the Ballymaloe stall at the Middleton Farmers' Market. As well as the compulsory practicals and demos at the Cookery School, we can also volunteer for other experiences. Last Tuesday evening I was working and observing in the kitchens of Ballymaloe House, in a few weeks I'll spend Friday night baking at Declan Ryan's Arbutus Bakery - I'm looking forward to the breadmaking, not so much to the 12pm to 7am shift. I've also signed up for a Saturday at the Crawford Gallery Café in Cork city, run by Darina's son, Isaac Allen, and each Wednesday we have a voluntary organic gardening class at 8am. The only thing I've not volunteered for - so far - is the cow-milking!

Being on the other side of a market stall has been on of the highlights for me. The Middleton Farmers' Market - unlike the now defunct one in Fermoy - is a healthy, thriving little market. Held in the town centre, it has more than a dozen stalls, including Arbutus Bakery, O'Connaill's Chocolate (they also have a shop/café on French Church Street in Cork), Frank Hederman's smoked fish, plants, flowers, olives, organic meat, chicken and vegetables. The Ballymaloe Cookery School stall sells tubs of prepared meals, sauces, jams, jellies, chutneys, organic veg, eggs and pork, many of which are prepared by us students. It is currently run by Philip, an ebullient butcher from Germany, who is experimenting with various cures on the pigs at Ballymaloe, lectures on cheesemaking and also makes a colourful range of cupcakes for sale each week at the market.

I met him and the Czech assistant at the school at 7am to load up. We had our market spot well before 8am and quickly started setting up. Before we were even half-way ready, we had customers looking for eggs - unfortunately, as we're doing omelettes at school at the moment, we only had 1½ dozen. They didn't last long and I spent the rest of the day explaining to people that it was "the students" fault that there was a severe egg shortage!

The morning flew by. A more-or-less constant stream of customers kept three of us busy behind the stall. Philip was like the circus ringmaster out in front, chatting to people, urging them to sample and purchase the Beetroot Pickle, Chicken Liver Pate (the secret behind the flavour? As much butter as chicken livers, if not considerably more!) and Garlic Mayo on offer. Maths never being one of my strong points, I had lots of fun trying to add up what people owed me. Fortunately most people were patient as I wrestled with the figures - there certainly were times that they needed to be.

Mental arithmetic aside, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a gorgeous morning, everyone smiling in the sunshine. Sustained by some Pain Au Chocolat and strong coffees, we flew around until 2pm and then gladly started packing up and putting everything back into the van. I got off lightly, though, as I was going home to the cottage straight from Middleton - the Husband had spent the morning exploring the town and lying in the sunshine until I was allowed to leave. Totally hyper when I finished work, half-way through a lovely lunch at the Farmgate, I started to fade rapidly and slept the whole way home. Just as well there was another driver on hand!

Posted by Caroline at 5:29 PM | Comments (4)

October 3, 2007

Ballymaloe Cookery Course: Week 3, Wednesday

Week three – a new partner and, this time round, a new kitchen. I’m cooking in the demo area this week. Lots of space and, with only eight people working there, a calmer atmosphere. Apart from when I discover, at the last minute on Monday, that I’m on cheeseboard duty and have to throw a batch of Cheese Biscuits together at the last minute!

It’s been a savoury week so far for me. Monday I made a composed salad of Roast Red and Yellow Peppers, Zucchini, Parmesan and Rocket, a Fish Gratin with Imokilly Cheddar and Mustard, served with beetroot in a piquant cream sauce and Salmon Papilotte. Plus a Brown Yeast Bread, just for fun. Basically, we are taught a couple of breads a week and we have to practice them as much as possible, on top of everything else that we are cooking. Tuesday was much more straightforward. A dish of spicy Black Eyed Beans with Mushrooms and Basmati rice was my main event as the Apple Chilli Jelly didn’t drip fast enough to be finished in that class. I’m in early on Thursday to get that sorted out. I also made a loaf of Brown Soda Bread but, due to oven issues, I had a nicely shaped brick to serve up at lunchtime. That was one loaf that didn’t make it back to my Ballycotton house!

One of the many advantages to living in Ballycotton is being able to participate in all the extra-curricular activities. Last night I spent in the kitchens of Ballymaloe House, making up salads and trying to be useful as the chefs whizzed around. This Saturday I’m off to work at the the market in Middleton on the Ballymaloe stall. As with meeting cheesemakers like Bill Hogan and Ari Weinzweig of Zingermans Deli, it’s great to get these opportunities to see behind the scenes – it certainly makes you appreciate a plate of food in a restaurant or a sliver of Gabriel cheese that much more.

Posted by Caroline at 8:57 AM | Comments (8)