83 Days at Ballymaloe

8 Months Later...

2010-08-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been 8 months (hence the title) since my last day at Ballymaloe. I’ve had a few readers ask what I’ve been up to since, and because I can’t figure out how to respond to each one individually, here goes!

When the course ended in December, I returned to Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas with my family, and then moved to Baltimore, MD in January. Why Baltimore, you wonder? Great question. I could tell you that it’s a charming city with a low crime rate and no drug addicts to speak of, but I would be lying. In truth, I was lured here by some guy I’m supposed to call my “boyfriend”.

So, as luck would have it, Baltimore is home to a successful farm to table restaurant called Woodberry Kitchen (www.woodberrykitchen.com), where I promptly begged for and eventually got a job. I’ve been there ever since, learning boatloads every day and trying to keep up with the veteran chefs. We’re totally spoiled with in-season & local produce, deliveries of whole animals that we break down ourselves, artisanal cheeses, and top-quality kitchen equipment—so it’s just like Ballymaloe!

In my spare time, I’ve been continuing to blog (www.binnycooks.com), testing recipes and hoping to build up experience before I eventually throw myself at the Food Network. Wish me luck! And thanks for reading!

83 Days at Ballymaloe

2009-12-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

We made it! I'll have to go buy myself a few larger pairs of pants, but we made it. It breaks my heart to realize that it's over. Well, not over yet. I woke up to take the three dreaded written exams, from 9-3:30, with a couple breaks for lunch and tea. I hadn't sat through 5 hours of exams since college, and boy was I rusty! It was a long, drawn out exercise in creative guessing. In other words, a train wreck.

I wracked my brains to list brands of olive oil (basically making up Italian sounding names like "Il bueno" or "Ciao bella"), or what type of bread would need "Gram" flour (what the HECK is gram flour??), or what dishes contained obscure spices like "fenugreek" (when in doubt, curry). And don't even get me started on the fish identification. All flat fish look the same!

Truth be told, I could have studied a little more... a lot more. But my last days in Ireland were better spent. After thorough cleaning of our cottage, it was time to dress for dinner! When we returned to the school at 6:30, the tremendous teachers had transformed our mild mannered dinning room by day into a Christmas banquet hall by night! Live music, candles, and prosecco abounded. Hors d'oeuvres, celeriac and hazelnut soup, roast turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding and plenty, plenty of wine - it was a great party. We capped off the night at our old friend, the Black Bird Pub.

I couldn't help but think, as I fell asleep, how lucky I am to have had the privilege of spending 12 weeks at such a unique and unparalleled place. We didn't just learn how to cook, we learned a new way to think about food, ingredients, and the farmers and artisan producers who make it all possible. What Darina Allen has created at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, and what Rory, the teachers, and all the staff maintain day-in and day-out, is nothing short of spectacular. Forever grateful, I'll never forget it.

Eighty Two...

2009-12-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Today began hilariously. I awoke to put my risen boulle of sour dough in the oven, and came downstairs to see that this boulle suffered from Dopey-of-the-Seven-Dwarf's Hat Syndrome (DSDHS). There was a huge bulging air bubble, about the size of a grapefruit, coming out of the loaf. Apparently, sour dough gets exam day jitters as well. I quickly cursed myself for leaving the bread until an hour before my exam, rather than making it safely the night before. My desire for a fresh loaf outweighed my fear that something may go wrong last minute. So, what could I do but just pop the bubble, say a quick prayer, and throw the mangled, misbehaving mess in the oven? For a laugh, here's what came out:

I took my ridiculous excuse for a loaf over to the school, trying to hide it from the view of any examiners. I hoped that I'd be able to get at least one decent slice from it to serve up with the salmon. My time started at 9 AM, and I didn't finish until 12:30! I was an hour over time (because of my 30 minute Cook Ahead, I was supposed to finish at 11:30)! Slow and steady wins the race? Better late than never? It's the thought that counts? You pick one.

I forgot to tell you that each student is required to make a bread during his or her exam in addition to the 3 courses. We drew lots for which type of bread, and I got white yeast rolls. So, this morning, I made said rolls, plus rillettes of fresh and smoked salmon, Boeuf Bourguignone with Pomme Mousseline, a winter green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and 8 individual Grand Marnier Souffles. Wow, that list is rather small now that I write it. But it seemed like twice that many this morning!

The sour dough was as cavernous as St. Patrick's Cathedral, with huge air pockets trapped below the crust. I was, however, luckily able to get a decent slice for my presentation. The Boeuf Bourguignone was fine, as were the "pommes" and the rolls. My souffle (thank heavens!) rose!

And, last but not least, my young cheese became a man. After six weeks of watchful waiting, I cut him open and served him to the examiners for a little nibble. I don't know if it was all the tender, loving care that I gave him as an infant, or the reassuring support I lent him as a teen, but He. Was. Terrible. I practically needed a chainsaw to cut him open! Semi-hard? More like hard as a frozen rock. Am I a bad mother?! Maybe I was too hard on him. As icing on the cake, the ivy leaves on which I served him (which I picked en route to school this morning) are apparently poisonous.

All in a day's work! Now, off to study for our written exams tomorrow. If I fail, I'm blaming you all.

Eighty One

2009-12-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

Exam week at Ballymaloe is very much like exam week at college, only instead of sitting in a library you're doing obscure things like identifying herbs in the greenhouse or feeding your sour dough starter. The latter activity is exactly what got me out of bed early this morning. I'm serving sour dough toasts with rillettes of salmon for my first course tomorrow, and since it takes about 3 days to make the bread, the teachers are letting me bring it in pre-made (i.e. it won't come out of my 3 hour time limit).

With my starter fed and happy, I could concentrate on preparing for my "Cook Ahead". Some students have menu items (like puff pastry or ice cream or, in my case, Boeuf Bourguignone) that take longer than 3 hours to complete (because of resting, freezing, or, in my case, marinating). So, the school allows you to do a "Cook Ahead" the day before your exam to get started with any preparation items. The time used in your Cook Ahead is deducted from your 3 allotted hours the next day.

So, I got into the school (which was eerily quiet) to get cracking. The two back kitchens were already in full exam swing behind closed doors, filled with the lucky students who drew a coveted Wednesday morning cooking time. For those of us cooking Thursday (and therefore cooking ahead today), a third kitchen was available.

I basically had to fry off some bacon lardons, brown some beef chunks, and leave them in a Le Creuset covered with wine (and a splash of brandy) overnight. You use the brandy and the wine to deglaze the frying pan of any flavorful beef bits before pouring it on the meat in the cast iron casserole.

I had a mild panic attack when I added the splash of brandy to the frying pan. The recipe said to "allow it to flame" before adding the wine. So, I tipped the pan slightly to catch the gas flame, and a HUGE (and I mean huge) ball of fire erupted up from my pan. I believe this is what "allowing it to flame" meant, but I could have used a warning! I frantically puffed and puffed until it was extinguished, simultaneously explaining "I meant to do that!" to the startled onlookers. Apart from that adventure, the Cook Ahead went swimmingly, and I managed to get it done in 30 minutes! This means I have two hours and 30 minutes to complete my meal tomorrow.

Other than those two activities, I spent my day studying for our written exams on Friday. We headed down to the greenhouse to refresh our salad leaf memories, and then hit up the school for leftovers for lunch. Each student's 3 course meal is graded and then added to a makeshift buffet for anyone to graze on. You bring a plate over from the cottages, and help yourself! It's a great (and delicious) system!

80 Days

2009-12-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

We got in this morning for one last demonstration! Before Rory kicked off the morning's cooking, a women from Valrhona Chocolate came in to discuss the making of chocolate. Apparently, an entire cocoa tree yields only about 875 grams (around 2 pounds) of pure chocolate nibs ("grue") per harvest. We tasted a Venezuelan 72% cocoa bar, a Brazilian 62% cocoa bar, and a Madagascan 64% cocoa bar. It was a great breakfast!

Hopped up on sugar, we started the morning's class. On today's final menu were hot oysters with champagne sauce, poached whole salmon, beef carpaccio with shaved Parmesan and arugula, tuna carpaccio, fillet of beef with red wine sauce, warm salad of pigeon breast with spiced pears and mushrooms, Quail Veronique, Oeufs a la Neige (also known as ile flottante or floating island), and molten chocolate puddings.

Quail Veronique is quail served with green grapes (whenever you see Veronique, expect green grapes). Champagne sauce is a delicious, incredibly rich, bearnaise-esque sauce made with half a bottle of Champagne (or, realistically, sparkling wine!). Rory made beef carpaccio by slicing a raw beef fillet about 1/4 of an inch thick, putting the slice between two sheets of oiled parchment paper and rolling it with a rolling pin. You serve it cold and raw, drizzled with good olive oil and maybe some arugula. It's simple and delicious - just make sure it's good beef!

For the warm pigeon breast, Rory's assistant placed a whole pigeon ("in the feather"!) in front of him. He somehow neatly tore the "crown", or the breasts, off the bird without plucking it, and hardly using a knife! It was very Lord of the Flies. Finally, Oeufs a la Neige, or ile flottante, is a blob of poached meringue (whipped egg whites poached in simmering milk), which is then cooled and served in a sea of creme anglaise. You can drizzle it with caramel if you feel saucy.

Your final Ballymaloe Tips (these better be good!):

- Gut a salmon before you freeze it. Some people argue the opposite, but Rory finds that if you leave the guts inside, the blood taints the color and the flavor of the flesh.

- When making carpaccio, some argue that you should freeze the beef to make it easier to slice thinly. Unfortunately, when you defrost it, all the moisture runs out. To avoid this, don't freeze the beef and just cut it reasonably thinly. Then, use a rolling pin as described above.

- Egg whites for meringues are better a few days old. They tend to whip up more voluminously than a farm fresh egg.

- Before you serve them, keep oysters rounded shell down in your fridge. The precious briny juices won't squeak out!

- "Empires were built on manners" - Rory

- Try marinating quail or chicken in honey and rosemary. Honey and thyme go well together also.

- Carpaccio is also good with thin slivers of celery, or black olives, or a small amount of lemon zest with a few drops of lemon juice, or some grated horseradish.

- You can roll out carpaccio between parchment paper in the afternoon and place it in the fridge until your guests arrive. Just before dinner, place it on a plate and drizzle with olive oil and any accompaniment. It's easy entertaining!

Day 79!

2009-12-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

Our last morning cooking in the kitchen! I was assigned to make pan-grilled scallops with beurre blanc and a walnut tart with Armagnac icing. I also wanted to make rock salt and rosemary focaccia, so I got in early to get that started.

Soon, it was on to the scallops. Taking a live scallop out of its shell is a surprisingly scarring experience. As soon as you stick a knife in to scrape the scallop off the flat side of its shell, the poor guy clamps up in some last ditch effort to protect itself. I literally had to wrestle the knife between two tightly shut shells, trying to get it over with as soon as possible. You know you've won the duel when the shell stops resisting and pops open. Lobsters I can boil. But scallops, they are heart wrenching!

A beurre blanc sauce is basically a reduced mixture of wine, vinegar, diced shallots, and cream, into which you slowly whisk cold butter. The sauce will emulsify over a very low heat. If your sauce splits (i.e. looks like melted butter instead of a creamy sauce), don't panic! Let it get cold and solidify. Then, reduce a bit more cream in a saucepan, and whisk in the solidified sauce bit by bit. It should re-emulsify! You can use the same technique to bring leftover & refrigerated beurre blanc back from the dead.

For our afternoon demonstration, we watched Rory and our headmistress (a delightful brother/sister duo!) make various chicken dishes, carrot and parsnip puree, more cous cous, orange jelly, and Rory's molted chocolate tart. For the record, the molten chocolate tart wins the Ballymaloe Dessert Prize in my book.

It was fascinating watching Rory artfully debone a chicken thigh and leg all in one piece, stuff it with delicious flavors (onion, thyme, Dijon, and gruyere), and wrap it back up again to roast. It was even more fascinating (I think my jaw actually hit the floor) when our headmistress deboned an entire chicken in one piece, stuffed it, and rolled it back so that it was whole again. The wonderful thing about cooking school is that the teachers take the mystery out of seemingly complicated techniques. They make the impossible possible. I cannot wait to try that chicken maneuver myself!

A couple notes on deboning: it looks great, sounds impressive, and is easy to serve (no carving necessary). But, bones add great flavor when you're roasting meat, so you'll need to compensate for the absence of bone with flavorful stuffing and plenty of seasoning.

Finally, we ended the day with a lecture given by one of our fellow students from Korea. She showed us how to make some traditional Korean dishes, including bibimbab (a Korean "stir fry") and bulgogi (a marinated & fried beef dish). Her mom sent homemade soy sauce all the way from Korea for us to taste! The six go-to flavors in Korean cooking are crushed ginger, crushed garlic, chopped chives, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Apparently, they put those in everything!

Monday's tips:

- When something has Lyonnaise in its title, it will contain onions (Lyon, France is famous for its onions).

- Kent mangoes are the best type of mangoes to buy at this time of year.

- A skewer is a great friend in the kitchen. You use it to test whether roasts, tarts, cakes, etc are cooked. Have a couple of them hanging within arms reach of your stove top and oven. They also make great toys for toddlers.

- Bay leaves have a totally different flavor when they're dried. Dried ones tend to be sweeter, less abrasive, and "more French" (-Rory).

- Le Creuset casserole handles are designed to double as a pouring device. This comes in handy when pouring off juices from roasting meat into a saucepan to form the base of your sauce.

- Taste your stocks, and develop the sense to recognize the difference between a good one and a bad one ("because that is, to put it mildly, important" - Rory).

- Take your hand and put it palm facing up. Relax. Curl your fingers up like you were cradling a baby chicken, or a handful of M&M's, or something equally precious and delicate. Move your thumb so that your thumbprint touches your pinky. Feel the firmness of the heel of your thumb. You'll know a chicken breast is done when it feels as firm as that.

- Alternatively, take a skewer (away from the toddler) and insert it into the thickest part of the breast. Count to 5. Remove the skewer and touch it to the underside of your wrist. If it's hot, it's done.

- When roasting wedges of sweet potato, place them skin side down on the roasting tray so they don't stick.

- Carrot and Parsnip Puree (or mash) is a delicious winter side dish. Also, try inviting turnips or celeriac to the party. Blend in a food processor, or mash with a potato masher.

78 Days Down...

2009-12-06T09:12:00.001-08:00

Houston, we have a problem. Well, we have two problems. 1) The Patriots lost the second week in a row (what is going on!? clearly Tom misses me). 2) I'm going to need a Ballymaloe Miracle to finish my 3 course meal within the 3 hour time limit. It sounds like plenty of time, but it's just not going to happen. Unless I buy magic, quick-cooking ingredients from the same man who sold Jack his beanstalk beans. Wallowing in Julie & Julia nostalgia, I thought boeuf bourguignon was a symbolic and classic choice. Boy, was I wrong. It takes hours! Bring on the point deductions!

Other than that painful realization, I spent the second Sunday of Advent studying (or "revising" as they say over here), hiking the Ballycotton Cliff walk, and pathetically watching the semi-finals of "X-Factor", the UK version of American Idol. I have embarrassingly fallen in love with the program, and have already gone into premature mourning over missing the finale next Sunday. There's always Youtube, I suppose...

Seventy Seven Days

2009-12-05T16:50:00.001-08:00

One more week - the bittersweet countdown begins! Bitter because I'll have to leave this incredibly life-changing place. Sweet because you won't have to read my rantings anymore. After a jolly night at the Blackbird Pub in Ballycotton, I awoke to place two happily risen sour dough boules in the oven for breakfast. Some friends and I then headed off to the Midleton Farmer's Market (the first farmer's market in Ireland, founded by our headmistress) to see the faces of the men and women behind the meats and cheeses and fish we've been cooking with all fall. A children's choir sang Christmas carols as I waited in the line to get one last O'Connaill's hot chocolate (parting will be such sweet sorrow). On our way home, we stopped by the Ballymaloe shop for some retail therapy. I cannot come home empty handed!

Laden with trinkets (don't get too excited, family), it was time to hit the books. Our dreaded exams commence next week! I'll cook a three course meal on Thursday morning (it's very Top Chef Finale), and on Friday all the students will sit through three written exams. For my meal, I'm making Rillettes of Fresh and Smoked salmon (a coarse pate-esque spread) with sourdough toasts and arugula to start, followed by Boeuf Bourguignon with Pomme Mousseline (fancy words for whipped potatoes). For dessert, I'll serve a Grand Marnier Souffle. We'll see if I can get that done in the three hours given! My souffle better rise...

Also, I've been glaring at my cheese all week, willing him to mature enough to serve as an additional cheese course during my exam. We'll see if he comes around. Something tell me you cannot rush a cheese, though. Since I hardly believe customs will let me carry an unpasteurized cheese back into the country, I may have to leave my baby behind!

76 Trombones

2009-12-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday! This morning I made Pork en Croute with Duxelle Stuffing and Apple Sauce. While the loin was marinating, I rolled out my croissant dough and made half croissants and half pain au chocolat. I also was on "biscuit duty" which meant I had to make cookies for lunch (because we don't have enough dessert to eat as it is). So, I made chocolate and toffee squares, which have a layer of shortbread, a layer of toffee, and then a layer of dark chocolate. For a final flourish, I sprinkled some flaky sea salt on top (to give a "salted caramel" effect). With 16 ounces of butter in the recipe, they were heart-stopping-ly good.

My camera's battery died so I didn't get to take a picture of the Pork en Croute. It's just as well, though, because my pastry split open on top. To guard against this, make sure the seam of the split loin (you split the loin to fill it with stuffing) faces off to the side, not up, when you wrap the loin in pastry. Also, make sure the pastry is nice and "rested", and don't wrap it too tightly around the loin. Finally, some steam holes poked on top help. If the butter renders out of the pastry while you cook the pork, pooling in the roasting pan, then your oven is not hot enough initially. It should be quite hot to sear the butter into the pastry.

For the afternoon demonstration, we learned how to cook lobster, scallops, a "tagine" of lamb with medjool dates, braised chicory, and cous cous with apricots and pistachio nuts. For dessert, we made a chocolate mousse genoise, praline cake, and brandy snap baskets filled with a scoop of caramel ice cream.

A "tagine" of lamb is basically a lamb stew, made in a specific shallow cooking dish. Chicory is a vegetable that is sort of shaped like a plump, cartoon cigar (as seen in Pinocchio). Its pale, greenish-white leaves are wrapped so tightly into a cigar that you just cook it whole. Cous cous is a fantastic grain - I like it almost as much as quinoa! It is a great canvas on which to paint flavors. Finally, Genoise is a rich, Italian-turned-French cake, whose batter is mousse-like and voluminous.

The lobsters sat alive on the counter until it was time to cook them. Although slightly disheartening to kill such a creature, if you want lobster for dinner, someone has to do it! You can plunge your knife, matador-esque, through the cross at the back of the head, which kills the lobster instantly. Alternatively, place the lobsters in cold, salted water and slowly bring it to the boil. Our headmistress (along with the Humane Society) likes to think that with this method, the poor guys just drift off to sleep!

Lobster is undoubtedly a treat, so make it a good experience! The lobsters in the tanks at restaurants and grocery stores are never, ever fresh. Don't waste your money. You're best off buying them only when you're at the seashore from a local fisherman or fishmonger, and eating them that day. My family only eats lobster once a year on an island in Maine, where we buy the creatures right off the lobsterman's boat. They stay alive until dinner in a submerged crate on the beach (which we constantly have to move with the rising & retreating tide!). Simply cooked, with some melted butter and lemon, eaten outside on the rocks - it's a taste of heaven!

Tips, tips, tips:

- The older, darker, and heavier the cake tin, the better. The new ones are too light to protect the cake from the heat of the oven.

- Medjool dates go well with a glass of whisky before dinner!

- Scallops should not smell fishy at all. If they do, they're not fresh.

- For a creative Christmas present this year, try jarring flaky sea salt mixed with chopped thyme, rosemary, or sage. Herbed salt is delicious sprinkled on lamb, an omelette, pasta, etc.

- Do NOT throw out your lobster shells! Boil them in water to make a lobster stock for lobster bisque, lobster risotto, etc. Lobster stock is liquid gold.

- When buying lobsters, make sure they have both their claws! Also, like crabs, they should feel heavy.

- When cooking lobster, their shells go from blue to bright red.

- When taking a scallop out of its shell, you only want to keep the scallop nugget and the bright orange "coral". You can discard the membrane bits. In America, the fishmonger does not sell the coral with the scallops for some unknown reason. It is delicious, and beautiful in color! If you can, buy the coral!

- Sear scallops on a very hot pan. They are delicious raw, so you don't have to worry too much about cooking them through. With a nice seared top & bottom and a semi-raw inside, a scallop is at its best!

- You'll know a cake is done when the center feels the same as the outer edges. Also, the edges will shrink back from the sides of the tin.

75 Alive

2009-12-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

I got in early this morning to get started on my three-tiered walnut cake. In my humble opinion, three tiers are always better than two. Maybe its the math-lover-loser in me, analyzing the optimal ratio of frosting surface area to cake volume. Or maybe it's just my sweet tooth's love of frosting. Either way, three cheers for three tiers.

The cake was relatively straightforward, save the "American" frosting that went on top. I hadn't seen or heard of this frosting before, but it was basically a marshmallow fluff type of mixture spread atop the cake (typical- the French get a glamorous Tarte Tatin to their name, and we're pinned with Marshmallow Fluff). To make the frosting, whisk egg whites until they're stiff, pour boiling sugar-water on top, and then continue whisking with the bowl over a low heat source. You're essentially "cooking" the white peaks to a semi-marshmallow status. When it gets to the right gooey thickness, you have about 30 seconds to get it spread over the cake before it sets. It's like disassembling a bomb, only more urgent.

I also made a warm salad with seared beef medallions, horseradish cream, tarragon dressing, and French fried onions sprinkled on top. It was a man's salad, to be sure. Beef, onion rings, horseradish... and a few shreds of lettuce.

On another note, I'm no onion ring aficionado, but if/when you make them at home, slice the onions thinly! I hate when you bite into an onion ring, and your teeth cannot cut through the soggy, rubbery, thick onion, and you end up pulling the whole slimy thing out of its crispy case in one bite. I'm always the one awkwardly slurping limp onion rings in the corner. It's humiliating. They should be crisp and thin.

Finally, I got started on some more croissant dough, which I'll finish tomorrow. If I'm feeling a little wild (who knows?), maybe I'll try my hand at some pain au chocolat using the same dough. Buckle your seatbelts, and stay tuned.

Our afternoon demonstration began with a presentation and tasting of wines from Sicily. Two fellow students are invested in this region and had 5 wines flown in for us to try. Each wine was made solely with native Sicilian grapes. If you'd like to experiment with a new wine, check out the up-&-coming Etna region. Grown in lava on the active Etna volcano, the vines develop a crisp mineral taste not normally found in wines from such a warm climate. It's really unique.

After the glasses were cleared, the lovely Rachel Allen (Ireland's favorite cook!) took the stage to make spring rolls (both Chinese and Vietnamese), smoked salmon "timbales" (little rounds of salmon pate wrapped in smoked salmon), Pork en Croute (stuffed pork loin wrapped in puff pastry), Lentils du Puy (traditional French green lentils), stuffed portobello mushrooms, Gratin Dauphinoise (potato gratin with garlic and milk), and coffee and chocolate ice cream (with various ways to serve them).

Thursday's Tips:

- Try serving coffee ice cream leveled in little espresso cups and topped with whipped cream. You can call them "cappuccino ice creams".

- Lentils du Puy (green lentils) go really well with pork, duck, or goose.

- Whenever you see "duxelle" on a menu (like duxelle stuffing), expect onions, mushrooms, and ham.

- When something is "en croute", it is wrapped in a pastry crust.

- When chopping chives, they should be dry so you get perfect tiny cylindrical circles that don't stick together. Chopping chives well is a great way to turn heads on your first day at a job (if you're a cook, that is. Don't try showing finely chopped chives to your desk head or managing director).

- You can freeze smoked salmon. Wrap it well!

- When carving slices from a smoked salmon fillet, they should be really thin.

- Portobello Mushrooms are excellent receptacles to fill with any number of flavor combinations. Try goat's cheese, pesto, fresh herbs and grated Parmesan, etc.

Day 74!

2009-12-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

I almost slept through the wine exam. I had one of those O crap! moments when I rolled over and saw that it was 7:45 AM. Ten minutes later, sleepy students (luckily, myself being one of them) filed into our demonstration room, which had been converted into an LSAT-esque sterile testing environment. No jackets, no bags, just chef whites and an archipelago of desks. 100 multiple choice questions later, and I was swimming in a sea of Burgundy, Bordeaux and Bodegas. And by swimming I mean doing the doggy paddle - let's hope I stayed afloat.

Disaster exam or no disaster exam, it was hard not to perk up for the morning's demonstration. During the night, it was as if a Christmas elf had thrown up all over the school, leaving copious amounts of holly, berries, and miniature Santas hither thither. We watched our headmistress, clad in "Merry Christmas" tinsel earrings, prepare a traditional Irish Christmas dinner, complete with roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mince pies with whisky cream, plum pudding, a sherry trifle, a chocolate yule log, and mulled wine.

For those of you who share my cluelessness about Irish Christmas traditions, here are some definitions:

- Mince Pies are little pastries filled with "Mincemeat", a deceptively named sweet filling that contains no meat whatsoever, let alone meat that has been minced (I guess in the days of yore, it used to?). It is a gooey, sweet crumble made by mixing dried fruit, some form of fat (butter, suet, etc), sugar, and alcohol together. You can eat it plain or put it in tarts, short breads, etc.

- Plum Pudding is also deceptively named. There are no plums in it (again, I think there used to be), and it is not a smooth custard like "pudding" as Americans know it. Rather, like mincemeat, it is a mixture of dried fruits, fat, sugar, and alcohol that is steamed for several hours in a bowl and eventually turned out into a rounded dome. It apparently keeps for ages (one student said her relative makes Plum Pudding now to serve for next Christmas).

- Mulled wine is wine that has been warmed in a pot with spices and sugar. It is sort of like a marriage between Sangria and one of my fall favorites, Hot Cider & Bourbon.

After enjoying the spoils of the morning's demonstration for lunch, we headed into a quick filo pastry demonstration. We made fish wrapped in filo parcels, spanakopita (a spinach, feta, and filo dish), samosas (filo pockets stuffed with filling), and different filo desserts. The sky is the limit with filo pastry. Find a brand you like, defrost it overnight in the fridge, and keep the stack from drying out while you work with each layer (use a moist tea towel).

To finish our day, we took a school field trip down the road to the Ballymaloe House. We got a tour of the wine cellar, the kitchen, some of the rooms, and the dining area to give us an idea of how much goes into running a Country House Hotel. They served us tea, cucumber sandwiches, and coffee cake while we listened to the inspirational Myrtle Allen ("80-something going on 18"), the matron of the house, tell us how she did it.

Wednesday's Tips:

- This is probably too late to say, but order your turkeys ahead of time! The good ones get gobbled up quickly.

- Filo is a great way to dress up last night's leftovers. You can make pockets of meat, vegetables, sauces, etc.

- If you're so inclined to make mincemeat, you must serve it hot. Otherwise, the fat used to bind the dried fruits (butter, suet, etc) solidifies into an unpleasant mound. You want it melting.

- An apple corer is a surprisingly handy gadget in the kitchen. They're not too expensive, and when you need one, you need one.

- When trussing a turkey (information that could have been useful to you last week), don't tie it too tightly. The string is not a corset, and the turkey is not Scarlett O'Hara. You want the legs tucked close to the body, to ensure an even cook. But you don't want them so tight that no heat gets around them. The same goes for chicken, goose, pheasant, etc.

- A wooden box of Vacherin Mont d'Or (made in the Vallee de Joux in Switzerland, a lusciously oozing cheese) makes a great Christmas present for a foodie friend!

73 Days!

2009-12-02T01:03:00.003-08:00

Tuesday morning's kitchen hummed with the sounds of whirring pasta rollers and simmering ragu's. We were basically in a sweatshop rolling sheets and sheets of pasta. I made vegetarian lasagna with pasta verde (spinach pasta). You basically wilt some spinach, throw it in a Cuisinart, add some flour and one egg, and press go! That is IT! When it becomes coarse meal, ball it up and get rolling. The hardest part for this pathetic weakling was squeezing out every ounce of water from the wilted spinach before it went into the food processor. I need to hit the weights.

In between rolling pasta, I also made puff pastry to use later this week. The important thing with puff pastry is to really align the edges each time you fold it. If they're rounded and uneven, you'll get uneven layering, and your pastry won't puff up uniformly. So, pretend it is a very important letter, and fold it into thirds perfectly. You might need to manipulate the edges to get them into perfect corners. For the record, puff pastry is not arduous to make, and tastes so much better than store bought (which is rarely made with real butter).

Then it was time to carbo-load! At lunch, I could have used a shovel.

During the afternoon demonstration, our headmistress made a warm salad with beef fillet medallions, a warm salad with lamb's kidneys, different dishes made with Ray or Skate, Tarte Tatin (the king of French tarts), walnut cake, creme brulee, "mille feuille", chocolate truffles and Irish Coffee!

Though Ray or Skate are rather large fish (they look like kites), you really only eat the "wings". And, unlike most fish, Skate is best eaten a few days after it is caught, or else it will be rather tough. Its best simply poached and drizzled with a little "black butter" (AKA butter browned in a saucepan and splashed with white wine vinegar - do this right before serving).

After class, our headmistress gave an evening talk on how to start a Farmer's Market. They are the perfect solution to consumer demand for fresh, local foods, and farmer (or artisan producer) supply of excess goods. Our headmistress started the first farmer's market in Ireland, after taking a page out of San Fransisco's book. Now, they are all over the country! Some small scale producers and free range farmers survive off farmer's market sales alone. It is a great way to bring business into a community.

Tuesday's Tips:

- To prepare kidneys, peel off any "suet" remaining (the thick, protective fat layer surrounding the organ). Then, cut them in half lengthwise so that you can open it up like a butterfly. Peel off the outer membrane, and remove any inner "plumbing". With a quick wash, they'll be ready to sear, bake, chop, etc!

- "Tarte Tatin", the quintessential French Tart, is a neatly arranged display of apple halves, sitting proud in a sea of caramel, upon a bed of pastry. You make it in a saucepan on the stove top, melting the caramel first, then adding the apples. When the mixture gets uncomfortably dark (it will look burnt... hold your nerve... no guts no glory), you add the pastry layer and pop it in the oven. If you don't let the sugar caramelize to a really dark color, it will taste too sweet.

- "Mille Feuille" is a three-tiered sandwich made of puff pastry layers and various filling. The puff pastry is cooked plain, then dredged in sugar and thrown under a hot grill to caramelize on both sides. You build the "club-sandwich" with the caramelized puff pastry sheets, jam, pastry cream, and whipped cream. It's delicious!

Seventy 2

2009-11-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

Twas a rather hectic Monday! Some prankster left the windows open all weekend, so the kitchen felt like an igloo on Pluto, only colder. "French Trimming" a rack of lamb is significantly more difficult when you cannot feel your fingers! I could see my breath until about 11 AM, when the ovens mercifully began to warm the place up.

When you're preparing a rack of lamb, get the bones crystal clean of any membrane. Also, be aware of the fat to meat ratio, and trim accordingly. Some fat is good, because it adds flavor, and renders juices over the meat to keep it nice and succulent. Too much fat, however, and only some of it will render out during the cooking time. You'll end up with mushy, non-rendered fat surrounding the eye of the loin. You can try to remedy this by searing the loin on a hot pan in the oven, fat side down. But then, of course, you risk overcooking your meat. Practice makes perfect! Let's just say, judging from my lamb, that I could use some more practice...

Heading into afternoon demonstration, I was delighted to realize that Monday was Pasta Day! We watched our headmistress make pappardelle, cannelloni, cappelletti, tortellini, ravioli, and lasagna, as well as a number of homemade sauces like ragu, alfredo, and sage butter. For dessert, she made tira misu, panna cotta, and three different tarts (lemon, date, and chocolate & pear). The pasta was incredible. I highly recommend trying it for yourself. All you need is all-purpose-flour, a little salt, some beaten egg, and some water. You want to mix this into a really firm, dry dough, because it will soften with kneading and rolling. It is perfectly possible to roll pasta with a rolling pin, so don't worry if you don't have a fancy machine!

After class, we had an evening "olive oil tasting" with samples from all over the globe. It was such a treat to taste and compare the flavors of so many delicious oils! Unfortunately, good olive oil comes with a price tag. That being said, if you can afford it, afford it- it makes a huge difference.

I finished my day with dinner at our headmistress's house! She served prosecco, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, cheese, and dessert to all the students (READ: overachievers) who had helped out "extra-curricularly" throughout the course. Since I had volunteered at the farmer's market in Week One, I scored a coveted invite. What a treat!

Monday's Tips:

- Store olive oil out of the direct sunlight.

- When adding milk or cream to a soup that you have flavored with alcohol (eg. wine), be careful it does not curdle. The wine-based sauce should be reduced, with any alcohol boiled off. Also, the milk should be boiling hot. Whisk it in and hope for the best!

- I have mentioned her before, but Marcella Hazan's cookbooks are fantastic for anyone interested in Italian food.

- There is no point in using "cooking Brandy" or other "cooking" liquors. You'll need to use three times as much, and you still won't get the proper flavor. Use a smaller amount of the real deal.

- Always whisk egg whites just before you need them. They deflate quickly, so you cannot whisk them ahead of time.

- Panna cotta is made with cream, sugar, vanilla, and gelatin. Make sure you use good ingredients, because there are not many of them! Your panna cotta is only as good as the cream you use.

- When cooking, use all five senses. Obviously, sight, smell, taste and touch come into play. But don't forget about your sense of hearing! When something (say, for example, ragu) reduces in a saucepan, it will start to sound different when it gets dry. Listen! You'll save a number of things from burning if you develop this sense in the kitchen.

- Try serving Medjool dates with Manchego cheese after dinner. It's a delicious combination!

- Our headmistress' adage "don't live on this" roughly translates to "this will make you a fat cow". In her words, "don't live on" fettuccine alfredo or panna cotta.

- Tasty pasta relies on starting with good quality eggs. Use free range if at all possible! The other ones don't produce the same result (and for Pete's sake, if you're going to go to all that trouble, you deserve a good result!).

- When making any type of stuffed pasta (ravioli, tortellini, or cappelletti), make sure there are no air bubbles in the pockets of filling. Air bubbles cause the pasta to burst when you cook it.

- It is really easy to overcook homemade pasta. Babysit the saucepan!

- Olives picked off the tree are very bitter to taste. They must be soaked and cured before they taste like olives as we know them.

Day 71

2009-11-29T14:22:00.000-08:00

Not much to report on this quiet Sunday. Happy Advent! The countdown to Christmas begins. You'll all be relieved to know that my cheese is doing well. He had a "salt water bath" the other day to wash off some of the mold he's taken on. A little mold is fine, even desirable, for the flavor, but too much is just showing off. No one likes a cocky cheese.

Coming back from a long walk this afternoon, I was lucky enough to catch the sunset. Tomorrow, week 11 begins!

Simply Seventy

2009-11-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Saturday! With plenty of time to kill, this loser organized ALL her recipes to a freakish degree (I'm beginning to feel more and more like Monica over here). I also spent time tucking into Andrew Jefford's Wine Course. For anyone even slightly interested in wine, I highly recommend this book. Although interesting, I wasn't reading it simply for pleasure. This Wednesday we have our wine exam. A bottle of Champagne and a case of wine will be divvied up among the top scorers. Let the games begin.

Again, if you don't give a hoot about wine, don't worry about finishing this post! But here are some interesting tips I picked up from my reading:

- Tannins come from tree bark and leaves, and are tasted most noticeably in tea and wine. High tannin levels give a structured, "clinging" texture on your tongue, teeth, and gums. Interestingly enough, this sensation becomes less abrupt and in-your-face when you add protein to the equation. So, that is the rationale behind pairing a full-bodied red wine with some steak, or pouring milk in your heavily steeped Earl Grey.

- In the mid nineteenth century, American vines brought to Europe carried with them a root-eating insect virus called Phylloxera. This pesky bug, to which American vine roots were immune, laid the smack-down on the roots of European vines. It was sort of like the Black Plague for vines. Luckily, desperate wine growers eventually figured out that they could graft their ancient European vine trunks onto new American (and immune) roots. Thus, American vine roots saved European wine as we know it. U.S.A! U.S.A!

- Many consider Chateau Petrus (a Merlot) the greatest red wine. It is certainly one of the world's most expensive!

- The roots of old vines can grow up to 50-65 feet underground!

- The French word "terroir" is a sort of umbrella term used to describe all the natural elements that affect the grape vines: the soil, the climate, the altitude, etc.

And, finally, some Grape Variety "Buzz Words":

- Chardonnay: vanilla (from the oaked barrels), oak, lemon/lime, melon, butter, cream

- Sauvignon Blanc: grass, leaves, nettles, gooseberry, minerals (in cooler climates), stone

- Riesling: minerals, slate, flowers, apples, grape, grapefruit, citrus peel, peach, acidity

- Cabernet Sauvignon: sturdy, tannic, blackcurrant, "big-boned"

- Merlot: plum, black cherry, blackberry, chocolate (when aged in oak barrels)

- Syrah/Shiraz: pepper, cherry, blackberry, smoke

- Pinot Noir: a light wine, raspberry, plum, floral, balanced acidity and tannins, "graceful"

Day 69

2009-11-27T14:27:00.000-08:00

brioche and white yeast bread, respectively

Black Friday. I awoke thankful that I wasn't in line at Toys R' Us, elbowing hundreds of other over-eager Christmas shoppers ('tis the season!). I got my onions for the French Onion soup in the saucepan straight away, so that they could gradually darken throughout the morning. The recipe called for 3 pounds of finely sliced onions, and half the kitchen made the soup. Let's just say everyone was really "emotional" during the preparation stage!

I also made white yeast bread, finished my brioche, and labored through the orange mousse (it's not exactly a whip-up-'n-go recipe). But, it was worth the effort. Light, creamy, and possible to prepare ahead of time- make it the morning of a dinner party and pop it into the fridge!

Then we were off to the afternoon demonstration, where Rory showed us how to make mussel soup, Moules Provencale, roast rack of lamb, onion sauce, a gratin of potato and mushroom, Cucumber Neapolitana, and Pommes Dauphine. For dessert, he made various types of flavored meringues, some sandwiched together with whipped cream to form a layered cake, and others rolled up with whipped cream to make a "Meringue Roulade" (see below!).

To translate some of those cryptic titles, Moules Provencale is a mussel dish. You cook the mussels, open them to the "half shell", and then stuff them with herbed garlic butter and breadcrumbs. You can brown them under a grill right before serving (there's a picture below). Cucumber Neapolitana is a stewed onion, cucumber, and tomato side dish (it's cream based). Pommes Dauphine is a heart-attack delight. Whoever Dauphine was, she really liked her potatoes rich! It's mashed potatoes mixed with choux pastry (basically, eggs and butter), rolled into balls, and deep fried (seriously).

Friday Tips:

- Before you cook mussels, check to make sure they are all tightly shut. If you notice one is open, tap in on the counter and it should close. If it doesn't close within a short period of time (say, 20 seconds), the mussel inside is dead, and you should not cook it. There is no grey area with shellfish, the general rule of thumb being "if in doubt, throw it out". Here in the land of no waste, that expression turns heads.

- When you buy mussels, they should have a faint and pleasant smell of the sea, not an overpowering fish bait smell.

- Some people recommend that you soak mussels overnight in a bucket with oatmeal sprinkled into it. This "feeds" the mussels before you cook them, plumping them up (like Hansel and Gretel). But, Rory finds that this artificial plumping ruins the flavor.

- Rory removes the mussel's "beard" (the string of hairs that connected a mussel to a rock, a buoy, or, God forbid, the hull of your boat) after cooking, rather than before ("I'd prefer to be scalped when I'm dead").

- Save your mussel cooking liquid (also known as "mussel juice"... no, Arod, not that type of mussel juice). Like duck fat and chicken carcasses, it is incredibly valuable! If you could turn flavor into gold, these things could make you a millionaire three times over. You can reduce the liquid until its flavor is where you want it (not too bland, not too salty), and then save it to add to fish soup, relevant sauces, etc.

- Rest rack of lamb after cooking for 10-40 minutes in a low oven (so it keeps warm). If juices are pouring out onto your cutting board while carving it, it could have rested longer (better luck next time!).

- As always, when making meringues, the egg white & sugar mixture should be whipped to the point where you could hold the bowl upside down over your boss' head and not be worried.

- The rack of lamb is the most expensive cut of the lamb.

- Whip egg whites in a squeaky clean and dry bowl. Any residue of oil or detergent or whatnot will deflate them.

- A "French Trimmed" rack of lamb is the cut that has the eye of the loin with the ribs still attached. The bones must be neatly cleaned of any fat or membrane. You can roast a French Trimmed rack whole, and then easily carve portions of chops for your guests at the table. The chops will look like lollipops, with the rib as the handle and the eye of the loin as the "sucker".

- When roasting a rack of lamb, you might want to wrap the protruding, bare bones with a layer of tin foil to keep them from burning. It's nice precaution, from a presentation angle.

- Rory takes croutons seriously. He heats the perfect tiny cubes in a pan, tossed in clarified butter, not in the oven and certainly not deep fried. You have to stir them with constant vigilance ("nothing else happens in life when you are cooking croutons!"), lest they overcook on one side.

- When melting chocolate or dissolving gelatin (or raising children), don't stir it impatiently. Let it do its own thing. It will come around.

- Be really careful when reheating any soup that you have thickened with flour (flour + butter = roux, used to thicken sauces, soups, etc). They are much more likely to burn. Also, once reheated, don't leave it boiling away or it will curdle. If it does curdle, a blender can sometimes bring it back.

SIXTY EIGHT!!!!!!!

2009-11-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Unfortunately, this island does not celebrate our time-honored tradition of eating oneself into a food coma. But, you can bet that yours truly was "giving thanks" all day long, albeit without turkey and stuffing. I got in to make white soda bread (to which I added sugar and chocolate chunks... you only live once!), and french fries, peperonata (stewed peppers) and tapenade (olive paste) to go with my seared tuna steaks. I also got started on brioche dough, which has to sit overnight in the fridge.

The morning was a breeze, with plenty of time for tea and chocolate soda bread breaks! We coasted into the afternoon demonstration, where our headmistress walked us through French onion soup, classic fish & chips ("with the volume turned up", as Barefoot says), scampi (traditionally made with lobster, although we used prawns), "mushy peas" (a British dish served with fish and chips- basically pureed peas), more squid dishes, tangerine mousse, white chocolate mousse, and chocolate mousse.

When making French onion soup, don't add the stock, in the words of William Prescott, until you see the whites of their eyes. To put it slightly less dorkily, hold your nerve with the onions. You want them to get really, Really, Really dark in the pan before adding the stock to make the soup. You'll get the best results if you simmer the onion slices on a very low heat for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. This is a nice alternative to the quicker higher heat option, where you have to babysit the pan lest the onions burn.

After our demonstration, we had our final wine lecture before our wine exam next week. We went over Champagne (while enjoying a glass!), and then looked at the up and coming Canadian wine regions. One of our fellow students is from British Columbia, and has a particular connection to that region's very own Mission Hill Winery. We tasted a Mission Hill Syrah, a Pinot Gris, and their famous Icewine.

Icewine is made by harvesting the grapes after the first frost. You are supposed to pick the grapes before 10 AM, because the temperature cannot go over -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the whole process. The grapes must be pressed when frozen, so that the alcohol, which thaws faster than water, comes out in a concentrated liquid, leaving the icy water shards behind. This entirely natural process (they don't use refrigeration) takes three times the amount of grapes used to make normal wine, so icewine is generally quite expensive. Mission Hill won the "Best Icewine in the World" award last fall (not too shabby!). As far as sweet wines go, it was absolutely delicious. If you feel like treating yourself (and paying for it!), try ordering an icewine!

After class, we went out to a delicious Thanksgiving (and birthday!) dinner at the FarmGate in Midleton. I had tagliatelli with poached salmon, paired with a delicious Sauvignon Blanc from the Rueda region in Spain (I think).

Thanksgiving Tips:

- Valrhona and Callebaut are excellent brands of chocolate.

- We get caviar from the roe of Sturgeons, a type of fish.

- Scale a fish near the sink, or on a piece of newspaper. It's a messy job. Use the blunt side of your knife to scrape them off.

- There are lots of different ways to "bread" a fillet, aside from the standard breadcrumbs. Try Japanese Panko crumbs or even couscous. With the latter, you'll need to get it slightly hydrated before using, so cook the couscous halfway (until it has absorbed 1/2 the water). Drain, and it's ready to coat your fillet!

- My sister Frances, currently living in Sydney, recently made mashed sweet potatoes with orange juice and ginger. It sounds delicious! Give it a whirl.

Day Sixty Seven

2009-11-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

This morning, we hit the ground running with a brief lesson on biscotti, the celebrated "biscuit of the week". These twice-baked slices of sweetened "bread" come in all sizes and can keep for months (no joke, just ask my sister Kate). They're best enjoyed with a glass of Vin Santo (a Tuscan dessert wine) or a hot cup of tea.

Then we moved onto our cheese category of the week, the motley French cheese crew. As you can probably imagine, this family of cheeses is as diverse as the Jolie-Pitt's, only much more interesting. They will either be fermier, i.e. made on a farm, or laitier, from a commercial factory. If it's made with our old friend, raw milk, you'll see fermier au lait cru on the label. Some common varieties include:

- Saint-Maure, a full-flavored chevre (goats cheese) of a cylindrical shape. The signature straw that runs through the middle lets you know its fermier.

- Valencay, a more subtle goat flavored chevre, shaped like a pyramid with its top chopped off. Its surface is almost always coated in "cendre", or ashes (this puts it in the chevre cendre subcategory).

- Crottin, small little rounds of chevre, so named, I am not making this up, because of their resemblance to animal dung (crottin means just that in French)! Crottin de Chavignol, a well known chevre, falls into this crappy category (pardon my french).

- Fleur du Maquis, a Corsican raw sheep's milk (or ewe's milk) cheese, so named because its rind is coated with pine needles and other debris from the "undergrowth" (maquis means undergrowth in French). Freshly made in the summer, it practically bursts from its rind. As it matures, it gets firmer.

- Morbier, a semi-firm cows milk cheese, with a signature line of ash down the center of the wheel. The ash separates where the cheesemaker layered first the morning's milk and then the evening's milk into the cheese molds.

The list goes on and on, but it was time to move on to the morning's Canape (or "finger food") demonstration! Canape have really blown up over the last five years as our obsession with bite-sized morsels has skyrocketed. Now, pretty much everything under the sun could be turned into tiny treats. It's a fun way to entertain guests, especially if you choose items that can be prepared ahead of time!

We made marinated feta, sun dried tomato, and olive skewers, anchovy and sesame seed straws (made with puff pastry), tiny smoked salmon and dill sandwiches, Thai curry served in Chinese porcelain spoons, tiny yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish sauce, spicy Indian meatballs, chicken satay with peanut sauce, various ways to serve quail eggs, and tartlets filled with different cheese & chutney combinations. It was quite a day to show off one's presentation skills! With canape, let your imagination run wild. For instance, this past summer, our neighbor hosted a dinner party and served mini croque monsieurs as an hors d'oeuvre! Memorably delicious!

After a delicious lunch (as usual), we headed into the afternoon demonstration, which focused on the art of making sushi! One thing is for sure, you do not have to train for five years under a sushi master in Japan to be able to make delicious sushi at home. Before the class, the exact words from my mouth to another student were "I would always just order my sushi in". After the demonstration, I am a homemade sushi convert, and am eager to throw a sushi making party! It is easy, fun, delicious, and healthy. A great Girls Night In activity.

Wednesday's tips:

- Wild salmon, when smoked, is not as greasy as smoked farm salmon.

- Check out Eric Treuille's cookbook, Canapes for some good ideas.

- Pomegranates are in season!

- Soak satay sticks (AKA shish kabob skewers) in water for half an hour before you use them to cook meat. They'll get saturated, and will be less likely to burn.

- We use Mani Olive Oil from the Mani Peninsula in Southern Greece. Whatever oil you choose to use, make it a good one!

- In general, Hass avocados (with the rough-textured dark brown skin) have the best flavor.

- Check out the Food Section in each Saturday's Financial Times.

- Cut flowers can be quite expensive. When entertaining this Christmas season, think outside the box for decorative arrangement ideas! Rory showed us how you can take long stalks of Ruby Chard, put them in a tall clear glass vase, and there you have a unique bouquet! Use them a couple days later in Ruby Chard soup.

- Sashimi is raw fish. Sushi refers to the specific type of rice, which is prepared in a specific way. Therefore, if you do not like raw fish, you can still make authentic sushi as long as you use the right rice and prepare it properly.

- Sushi, by definition, needs to be made with sushi rice. Buy "No. 1 Extra Fancy" brand. For some unexplained reason, technically it should only touch wooden surfaces (so lay it on a wooden tray, and stir with a wooden spoon).

- When buying Japanese products like miso or dashi powder, generally the ones without any English on the packet are the most authentic, and probably the best.

- When buying fish for sushi, let your fishmonger know that you are planning to eat it raw. Ask him if he has any type of fish fresh enough to use for sushi. If no, use smoked fish, cooked crab, cooked shrimp, and other non-raw fillings.

- The fridge kills sushi. Make it and eat it fresh.

Route 66

2009-11-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

This morning I got in early to roll out my croissant dough once more before shaping it into crescents. Like puff pastry, you want to fold it over and over to create lots of thin layers (within reason, don't go bananas- too many and it will puff up and topple over). I also prepared a loaf of granary bread, which is made with a grainy, hearty, malty tasting "Granary" flour. Finally, I made a "Moroccan Snake" dessert (an almond mixture rolled up with filo pastry, twisted into "snakes" and wrapped into a coil) and pan-seared squid with garlic and parsley butter.

The squid is a pretty incredible creature. When you disembowel it (for lack of a less gruesome verb), you pull out a clear, feather-shaped length of cartilage that could easily double as a quill (seriously- it looks like a clear, plastic feather quill that you would get with a cheap William Shakespeare Halloween costume). Together with the ink sacs from under the squid's eyes, you could put together a pretty creepy alternative to the age-old fountain pen Christmas present. Just a suggestion.

The "Morrocan Snake" was fine, though a little tedious. Filo pastry is incredibly delicate but definately worth the hassel. Try experimenting! You can wrap brie with it for a baked brie cheese plate, or make filo pastry parcels filled with goats cheese to put on a green salad, or whatever your little heart desires. Make sure you paint each layer with melted butter.

For our afternoon demonstration, we watched Rory make a couple different chicken liver salads, seared tuna with various sauces (including Moroccan chermoula), homemade pasta!, a Tarte Francaise, vol au vents, croissants, and pain au chocolat. It was as if he knew I had just returned from Paris, craving the recipes for all the treats in the bakery windows!

Pain au chocolat is made with the same dough as croissants, so feel free to make both variations the morning you bake them off. You make vol au vents by baking small shapes (usually rounds) of puff pastry. They puff up in the oven, so that when you remove them, you can cut off the "hats" and hollow them out into little containers. You fill them with a layer of creme patisserie and neatly arranged fruit. A Tarte Francaise is a puff pastry recepticle filled with rows of glazed fruit (no creme patisserie).

We made pasta today, impressively (READ: foolishly) without a machine! You just make the dough, rest it for half an hour, and roll it with a rolling pin as thin as you can muster. Alternatively, you can purchase an attachment to your Kitchenaid that rolls pasta into flats for you. There are other attachments to cut it into tagliatelli or pappardelle or whatnot. This past Labor Day weekend at a friend's house in Virginia, we had a pasta making party one night. Everyone stood around the kitchen island with glasses of wine and balls of dough. It was so much fun and so delicious! However, I definitely do not recommend this "party idea" if you don't have the machine!

Get your tips:

- When a recipe calls for pastry to be rolled out to a certain demension, draw out a border of this dimension in the flour on your rolling surface. This will give you a guideline.

- "00" Flour is the best flour for making pasta. If not, use Baker's flour.

- A clothes drying wrack works perfectly for drying your thinly rolled flats of pasta. You want them to get slightly leathery before cutting them into strips.

- Tuna is in trouble. Particularly the coveted bluefin and yellowfin tuna. The school has to show us how to cook it, but it is incredibly over fished.

- There is a reason Tuna is so popular: it is high in omega, has no pin bones when you're filleting it, and has a great meaty texture.

- When you're roasting red peppers, roast them whole, allow to cool and then remove the skin. Open them to remove the seeds, but do NOT run them under the tap to rinse out the seeds. This will wash away a lot of the flavor.

- When cooking chicken livers, cut them in half horizontally if they are too thick. This will ensure a nice, even cook. If you try to cook the thick ones whole, they'll get crusty on the outside before they're cooked on the inside (remember, though disguised, this is still chicken; it needs to be cooked through).

- Zucchinis continue to cook when you remove them from the heat. Bare this in mind.

- With a Tarte Francaise, you want a decent fruit to pastry ratio. The fruit slices should be tightly packed in, "not thrown in from a distance" (-Rory).

- Tuna should be cooked rare (basically still raw in the center). It is best juicy, not dry. Beware, it will continue to cook when you take it off the heat! Unlike steak, you do not need to rest it. Straight to the table!

- Fresh pasta cooks in a remarkably short period of time. Test it after 60 to 90 seconds- it may be done!

- Never cook more than a single layer of chicken livers in a pan at one time.

- Once you fill vol au vents with creme patisserie, they have a very short shelf life. You should really eat them within the half hour to get the textured effect of the crispy pastry coupled with smooth cream.

Sixty Five and counting...

2009-11-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

Maybe it was the hamburgers, maybe it was the rumored possibility of contraband Heinz Ketchup at lunch, and maybe it was just this week's group in Kitchen 3, but this Monday morning, everyone was in fine form. I set out to make onion and thyme beef burgers (which were topped with ginger mushrooms), thick wedge fries, and glazed carrots with cumin seeds. Inspired by this weekend, I also got started on dough for croissants (its similar to making puff pastry, only you add yeast and milk in addition to the truckload of butter).

Pretty much everything went just fine, with no major mishaps to report. Come lunchtime, someone did indeed manage to smuggle in some good ol' Heinz. Not organic, not homemade, totally delicious.

For our afternoon demonstration, Rory walked us through two grilled squid dishes, madras curry with different accompaniments (including mint and apple chutney, tamarind and banana chutney, raita, and hot chilli sauce), three different Indian breads (naan, poori, and chapatis), pears poached in saffron syrup, stuffed prunes with rosewater cream, and various filo pastry desserts.

You'll be shocked to hear that we DO NOT make our own filo pastry! After recipes for things like homemade vanilla extract, homemade yogurt, and homemade vinegar, I was half expecting Rory to start rolling out paper thin sheets of filo as well! But, no, he opened the store bought box, just like the rest of us!

Monday's Tips:

- When serving curry, include some type of fruit as an optional additive, such as chopped mango, sliced banana, diced apple, grapes, etc.

- Turmeric is said to combat arthritis

- You can buy filo pastry fresh or frozen. Try not to handle it much, and get it into your freezer as quickly as possible once home from the grocery store. Don't bash it around in your freezer, or else it will crack.

- When using filo pastry, take out one sheet to work with and keep the rest covered with a damp tea towel.

- The smaller the squid, generally the more tender the meat. Today, we worked with a rather large squid ("So, if this were a quarter of the size, I'd be four times happier" -Rory).

- With squid, you either want to cook it really quickly or really slowly. Anywhere in between and it will be quite tough.

- Squid ink (that's right!) can be used in pasta, sauces, risottos, etc.

- Again, when working with a braised meat dish (like curries, stews, etc), since it is cooked in liquid, any fat left on the meat going into the oven will still be there when you take it out. Keep this in mind when trimming your meat!

- Curry doesn't have to be piping hot when served. You can allow it to cool slightly, and the flavors get more interesting.

- Used in one of the chutneys we made today, tamarind is a fruit from a tree native of South America. The fruit's paste is astringent and refreshing.

various accompaniments to go with curry

64 Days...

2009-11-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

It's hard to complain when you wake up Sunday morning with the sun streaming through two French doors that open onto a patio above a quiet Parisian street. I could get used to this! We all enjoyed a top-notch brunch at home, complete with fresh croissants, pain au chocolat, other pastries I cannot pronounce, various baguettes, jams, orange marmalade, different types of thick, crystallized honey, slow cooked scrambled eggs, clementines, homemade apple puree, stewed rhubarb, coconut macaroons, apple juice, orange juice, and coffee.

I love how you can walk downstairs to a local baker and pick up bags of baked masterpieces in minutes! I took some mental notes on all the different pastry variations, and memorized the coconut macaroon recipe. I'll try to recreate that brunch someday!

Within the blink of an eye, I had to reluctantly head back to the airport. With any luck, I'll be back. You can be sure of that.

Sixty Three

2009-11-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning, one saintly housemate drove me to the Cork Airport for the morning showing of To Catch a Plane: Part II. The flight went swimmingly, and I arrived at Charles de Gaulle ready for an all too brief 24 hour Parisian extravaganza. One of my beautiful hostesses, Camille, picked me up and casually chatted as we drove around the Arc de Triumph en route to her apartment. I, on the other hand, practically had my nose pressed against the window! What a city! It had been a long time since my last visit as a distinctly brace-faced teenager, with a palette that glanced longingly at the Parisian McDonald's and shivered at my frog-leg-ordering Grandmother across the table! The joke's on me.

After dropping off the luggage and catching up on their beautiful terrace, we headed to meet up with Camille's sister Amalia. And, luckily enough, it was time for my second favorite thing (after breakfast) each day, lunch! My hostesses took me to Eric Kayser's boulangerie down the street. It was all I could do not to whip out my camera and start taking pictures of the food display! I was a kid in a candy store. A huge selection of breads covered one wall, and a display window ran along another, filled with quiche, sweet and savory tarts, tiny dessert tartlets, cakes, pastries and everything in between! After painful deliberation, I got a piece of an artichoke quiche, followed by a "mi-cuit au chocolat" (AKA a mini chocolate cake with warm molten chocolate inside), followed by a cappuccino. It was a taste of heaven.

Then we strolled towards the Seine, crossed over to the Tuileries Gardens, walked through the Place du Carrousel, circled around to the back side of the Louvre, and back across the river towards Notre Dame. The buildings only seemed to get more beautiful as twilight set in! Again, what a city! For dinner, Amalia and Camille organized a large group of us to eat at Chez Justine in the "Oberkampf" neighborhood. I had salmon tartar with gratin potatoes and a sharply dressed green salad. And, of course, plenty of baguette to go around! After a few glasses of wine, my high school French unfortunately introduced itself to the table. Other than that car wreck, it was a delightful evening!

Sixty Two...

2009-11-20T14:53:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday! I was up with the dawn for herb duty, and down to the greenhouse with another sleepy student! After divvying up a tray of freshly cut herbs to each kitchen (we are so spoiled here!), I was off to make Consomme Royale, ciabatta, and Grand Marnier Souffle.

Consomme Royale is consomme (the really clear broth soup) with a garnish-esque sprinkle of tiny diced bits of custard (it sort of has a miso soup w/ tofu effect). If you're interested, Consomme Brunoise is a consomme with tiny diced vegetables, while Consomme Julienne is a consomme with really thin julienne strips of vegetables. A minor, insignificant morsel of knowledge, from me to you.

The consomme was fun, albeit time consuming, to make. You basically simmer beef broth in a saucepan with tiny diced vegetables and bits of beef (that have been painstakingly stripped of any fat). The point is eventually to extract the clear, flavor-enhanced broth from the pan. To do this, there's a trick: invite egg whites to the party! They act as a sort of filter, floating any impurities in the stock and all the diced ingredients to the top, forming an egg-whity-vegetably-and-meaty-crust. Then, you just gently ladle out what is underneath! All your laboriously diced vegetables and meat bits are left behind.

My souffle turned out just fine, thank you very much. And I did NOT have a copper bowl for my egg whites. So, it is definitely a luxury, not a necessity (don't tell Santa that).

I did not make it to the afternoon demonstration because I had to catch a plane to Paris! I was sad to miss the lecture, though, because A) Rory was teaching and B) we were making hamburgers (!). As it turns out, "catching a plane to Paris" is easier said than done. A few budget-airline-fine-print-Non-EU-passport-issues later, and let's just say, if you happened to be in the Cork Airport around 4:30 PM on Friday, you might have noticed a hysterical American shamelessly blubbering in the corner, (symbolically) playing solitaire on her iPod (and symbolically losing) while waiting for a bus back to school.

But, never fear! Life, surprise surprise, goes on! I rescheduled a flight for the next morning, and got to bed early. A demain!

Day 61!

2009-11-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

Another day, another sourdough loaf (I swear this is the last time I'll talk about it). To keep me on my toes, this morning's batch of dough had over-risen throughout the night. One of the boules had an enormous bubble coming up out of it. A classmate astutely remarked that it looked like "one of the seven dwarfs" (specifically, Dopey; more specifically, Dopey's hat). His observation was spot on. But, have no fear! I was advised to knocked it back, reshaped it, and let it rise again. If you don't want to have the same problem, let it rise more slowly overnight in the fridge!

I also made sacristans (AKA pastry straws) with my chilled puff pastry dough (both sugar & almond and Parmesan & thyme ones), seared spice crusted salmon, leeks with yellow peppers and marjoram, and Indian Paneer bread. I got the chance to start a "biga" for ciabatta as well. A "biga" is basically a starter for ciabatta. Unlike sourdough starters, you add yeast to a biga. Because of this, it takes less time to get "bubbly" (only 12-24 hours), so I'll be able to make ciabatta tomorrow.

One note from this morning: when working with puff pastry, it often looks done before it is actually done. Hold your nerve and keep it in the oven longer than you think. You want it to be nice and crispy, not doughy!

We began our afternoon demonstration with a brief wine tasting session given by a woman from the Domaine des Graves d'Ardonneau vineyard in Bordeaux, France. We tasted a white Bordeaux made with sauvignon blanc grapes, and a red Bordeaux made with merlot and cabernet sauvignon grapes. Most people think red wine when they think Bordeaux, but don't forget about the white wines from this region! They are delicious, and often a great value for your money.

We also had a quick visit from our headmistress' nephew, "Cully", of Cully & Sully (http://www.cullyandsully.com/), a high-quality, pre-packaged foods business that has grown exponentially since its inception five years ago. Winner of the Global SIAL d'Or "Best New Food Product" (the first time in history an Irish product has won this award), these young, hardworking entrepreneurs already have universities around the country using their business model as a case study in the classroom! So, money can be made in food!

Then, it was on to the real business at hand: the afternoon's menu! We watched our headmistress joint a duck (and use every bit of it), make beef consomme (a crystal clear beef broth soup), and whip up two different hot, flourless, dessert souffles (one lemon and one Grand Marnier).

I-Cannot-Believe-It's-Already-Thursday's Tips:

- Buying a whole duck is expensive. So, make the most of it! Save the liver for pate, the gizzards for "Salade de Gesiers", the carcass for stock, and the meat for any dish you please! Any scraps of meat left on the carcass after you've removed the breast, the wings, and the legs can be saved for Duck Rillette (sort of like a coarse, shredded duck pate). Also, do not throw away the fat! It is incredibly valuable. Render it down and store it in jam jars. Use it for roasting vegetables, cooking meat, confit de canard, etc (it keeps for months). Our headmistress joked that you can use the feathers for a pillow and the down for a very pungent duvet!

- If you like, brown a carcass in the oven before using it to make stock. This will add a depth of flavor to your stock.

- Brown meat in a frying pan, and then transfer it to a casserole (AKA a Le Creuset). The heat required to brown meat can damage your precious Le Creuset!

- Jerusalem Artichokes and Dandelion Leaves are extremely high in inulin, which promotes the growth of good bacteria in your stomach.

- The EU (specifically the European Food Safety Authority) recently rejected all 180 of the health improving claims made by probiotic yogurt brands.

- You can live your life without ever owning a copper mixing bowl, but it really does make a difference when whisking egg whites. You get a finer, more stable foam (which really contributes to a successful souffle). Clean your copper bowl by sprinkling salt into it and rubbing it with a lemon rind. Don't use detergent on copper!

- To pan-grill a duck breast (AKA "Magret de Canard"), put the breast fat/skin side down on a cold pan, then turn on the heat to cook. If you put it on a hot pan, it will sear. You want to render out the fat, not seal it in.

Scrumtrulescent Sixty

2009-11-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

Today we sat down for session two of Blathnaid Bergin's "Cooking for Pleasure and Profit: The Business of Making Food Pay". I have to say, she really knows her stuff! She runs a kitchen like a Five-Star General organizes a military assault. Every tiny aspect of the business is put into a system, processed, and spat out with militaristic precision. My German blood really took a shine to this approach!

We went over writing a standard recipe (so that an Average Joe, on his first day on the job, could produce the same apple tart that the ye olde veteran in the corner has been making for years), costing food (everything from a pinch of salt or a drizzle of olive oil is factored into the cost of a dish), portion control, scrutinizing waste, and the importance of management, Management, Management! She suggested a weekly or daily "running of the numbers" to see how your business is faring (McDonald's gets statistics every hour!).

In the end, running a successful food business is about as easy as planning D-Day. This is not to say it cannot be done. You just have to be the right man (or freakishly organized robot) for the job. The perfect candidate has a hard-nosed business sense coupled with a strong creative gene. It helps if the person's a little crazy, too (like inexplicably quitting her secure employment in New York and moving to Ireland to go to cooking school).

Some interesting insights from today's seminar:

- The average restaurant makes 3-6% in returns. Fast food restaurants make around 7-8%. So, unless you are going to start the next McDonald's, maybe put your money in Treasury Bills!

- The kitchen is the engine room of any food business - spend your money there first! No one will see the lovely mosaic on the wall if you cannot open your doors because your oven won't turn on.

- McDonald's has a totally standardized way of producing food. Each Big Mac or McNugget is weighed to a T. They even have calibrated "guns" distributing exact portions of sauce (these guns get reset every morning to guarantee accuracy). This ensures a consistent product, and allows the McDonald's Lieutenants (AKA accountants) to know exactly how much the franchise spends on the ingredients in each item. If you want a successful food business (or any business, for that matter), take a page out of McDonald's book!

- The person who deals with the suppliers & deliveries at the back door of your kitchen should be trustworthy and extremely capable. So many restaurants stick the village simpleton back there to sign the order form and lug the supplies into storage. There is a lot of room for mistakes (and fraud) at this crucial step.

- Replace your black garbage bags with clear ones. Then you'll be able to see (and hopefully regulate) the waste going into them.

- On this same vein, have a clear plastic container at each prep chef's workstation for him to throw away his trash. You'll get a good idea of who is throwing away what!

- Never underestimate the negative effects of a staff member with "a face as long as a wedding weekend" (-Blathnaid) walking around your store and serving your customers.

- Interestingly enough, McDonald's has recently withdrawn from operating in Iceland. Icelanders, in the midst of financial crisis, have almost entirely switched to buying inexpensive, local ingredients from local suppliers. McDonald's, shipping in their ingredients, could not compete with these local prices.

- The dishwasher in any restaurant will have the best idea of which food items are consistently coming back into the kitchen uneaten or unfinished. They should be trained (and feel comfortable!) to approach the head chef and manager with this valuable information.

- Keep records of everything! (Excel follows you wherever you go...)

- Everything in your cold room or dry-store area should be covered, labeled, dated, and signed.

- In order to have a prayer at generating profit, your food should cost, on average, only 30% of what you are actually charging for it.

Before I go, finally a sourdough success! Born November 18th at 9:10 AM; 1 lb, 10 oz. Both the mother and the child are doing well.

Day 59

2009-11-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

This morning I got in early to make brown soda bread and to check in on my Lazy-with-a-capital-L sourdough. Much to my dismay, the boules STILL hadn't risen (the little brats)! And what's worse (I know what you're thinking, how can it possibly get worse?!), it. had. formed. a. SKIN. Quelle horreur! Contemplating a sourdough massacre, I sought the advice of our headmistress' husband, an expert bread maker, who was fortuitously in the kitchen. After some prodding, he noted that it was still "alive" (phew!), but I needed to paint it with olive oil to keep the skin from hardening. Then we found a black garbage bag and put the boules into it. No, no: not to throw them away (although I was ready to). Rather, the bag creates a nice warm atmosphere for the bread to "prove" (rise) in. We put the bag in a warm corner, and I went back to playing the waiting game...

Unlike the cheeky sourdough, the brown soda bread bended to my will and went into the oven pronto. After that was out of the way, I focused on the Italian Beef Stew. We had the most delicious beef to work with (from a cow born and reared on the farm). Trim any fat or grizzle off the chunks of meat. No one wants a mouthful of chewy fat in their succulent beef stew! I also made a celeriac and apple puree (a delicious and zingy dish- great with game!), puff "cardiac arrest" pastry, and steamed potatoes.

For the afternoon demonstration, Rachel Allen (our headmistress' daughter-in-law and Ireland's favorite cook) showed us how to make ciabatta, seafood chowder, pumpkin soup, various types of pan-grilled fish, lentil and chili "risotto" (named because of the method we cooked it, not because there was risotto in the dish), confit de canard, leeks with yellow peppers and marjoram, gateau pithivier, jalousie, and sacristains.

For anyone who shares my lack of French cuisine knowledge, here are some definitions:

- Confit de canard, or duck confit, is an old French way of preserving duck meat. You basically stew the meat and then store it covered in fat, which acts as a preservative. You can also have pork confit, chicken leg confit, pheasant confit - it works best with meat still on the bone. Originally used to preserve game throughout the winter, now we make and eat it for fun.

- Gateau Pithivier is a French traditional tart made with puff pastry (both as the base and the lid) and filled with an almond mixture. I am sure you could make it with other fillings as well, but hey, what do I know?

- Jalousie is another French way to use up puff pastry. It is basically a fancy word for a puff pastry sleeping bag filled with anything you wish (almond paste, apricot jam, apple puree, cheese, etc).

- Sacristains are twisted thin strips of puff pastry. They can be sweet (sprinkled with sugar, almond nibs, etc) or savory (parmesan and cayenne pepper, gruyere and thyme, etc).

Now, some tips from today!

- Allspice is the same thing as pimenta, which is the same thing as jamaica pepper

- When making anything with puff pastry, make sure it's really cold before you blast it with heat in the oven. You might want to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.

- Do not egg-wash the edges of puff pastry, or you will seal them and they won't puff properly.

- Parmesan goes really well with a pinch of cayenne pepper. Try it on bubbling cheese toast, cheese sticks, or in a cheese souffle.

- When puff pastry is cooked, its best to cut through it with a bread knife (AKA a serrated knife).

- John Dory (AKA St. Pierre, so named because it has the "thumbprint of St. Peter" on its cheek) is a deliciously favored flat fish. Try it with a ginger or orange sauce. Be careful when you're filleting it- it has some pretty serious spikes!

- Lentils are a good source of protein

- When pan-grilling fish, you should cook the "presentation side" of the fillet first. For example, if you want to serve it skin side up, cook the skin side first. If you want to serve it flesh side up, cook the flesh side first. This is because you always get a better pan grilled look on the first side you grill.

- The thicker the piece of fish, the lower you should turn down the heat under your grill pan to cook the second side of the fillet. In other words, when you flip the fillet (to cook the other side), turn down the burner significantly if it's a thick salmon fillet. Otherwise, it will burn before it cooks through. If you're pan-grilling something thin like lemon sole, you don't have to turn down the heat as much for the second side, because it will not take long to cook through.

Just for a parting laugh, check out the results of my first Ballymaloe sourdough loaf. After 72 hours of waiting, I burned it baking tonight. Wah wahn...

Fifty Eight...

2009-11-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

Monday morning, week nine! Wow, the days are flying by. I headed off to school with my cheese (he is growing a little blue mold on his rind- in the life of a cheese, it's like hair on his chest), my sourdough starter, my sourdough dough (shivering from the long night in our cold kitchen), and my recipes for the day. I set out to make lemon verbena ice cream, a plum tart, scones, and a warm salad with a poached egg on top. The scones went off without a hitch. The main trick is to not over-handle them. They should be barely mixed, so that the dough just comes together. If you're in doubt (a Doubting Thomas, if you will), experiment and exaggerate the barely-mixing-trick. They'll be as light as ever!

I lined the plum tart's base with shortcrust pastry, and then used flaky pastry for the lid. The school has found that flaky pastry can get quite soggy if you try to use it as a base, which explains the shortcrust pastry. We bake this type of tart on a Pyrex plate rather than a pie dish. If you have an enamel plate at home, that would work better. The Pyrex might block the heat from fully cooking the shortcrust pastry base.

As for the salad: again, with any warm salad, you should serve cold greens on a hot plate with warm toppings. Today, the warm toppings were crispy bacon lardons and a poached egg. Other days, you could do walnuts and goat cheese croquettes, or sliced roast chicken and croutons, etc. It's a great way to use up left-over meats or fish from the night before.

Also, I poached my first farm fresh egg, and was completely amazed at the difference. There was zero white left in the water! (If you don't exactly keep a couple of egg-laying hens in your city apartment, try the poaching trick mentioned on Day 55. Put the store bought egg, shell on, in the boiling water for 30 seconds. This barely sets the white. Then crack it in as usual!)

For lunch, I had the pleasure of seeing two old family friends (and one newborn!) who drove down for the day! We chatted over fresh green salad from the greenhouse, poached salmon with hollandaise, melted leeks, mashed potatoes, green peas with mint, and warm apple tart with cinnamon ice cream for dessert!

During our afternoon demonstration, our headmistress made "rillettes" of salmon (basically a coarse, shredded salmon pate), Boeuf Bourguignon, Italian Beef Stew, Beef and Oxtail Stew (that's right... oxtail!), polenta, celeriac and apple puree, parsnip and potato champ, brussel sprouts, and roasted root vegetables. For dessert, she made passion fruit mousse with sugared strawberries, yogurt and cardamom cream with pomegranate seeds, and various chocolate petit fours. Finally, she started on the infamous puff pastry! My arteries shuddered as she defied the laws of Newtonian physics and crammed an entire pound of butter into the dough (beating it senselessly with a rolling pin). It was truly, truly impressive. A little scary. But impressive.

Tipssss...

- It's the moment you've all been waiting for: Brussel sprouts are now in season! Love them or hate them, they are incredibly good for you (a good source of anti-cancerous glucosinolates, vitamin C, and folic acid).

- When you're browning meat, take your time and don't overcrowd the pan. Do it in batches, or else they'll sweat rather than brown.

- Dried orange rind is delicious in beef stew. It doesn't make it taste like orange, it just heightens the flavor. Peel some rind off an orange, string it up with a needle and thread (seriously), and jar it when dry! You'll look like an old French housewife (this is a good thing).

- If you want to put mushrooms into your stew, wait until the last half hour of cooking to add them. Otherwise, they get bitter over the hours of stewing in the oven.

- As Myrtle Allen says, in the days before penicillin, food was our medicine. Healthy, nutritious meals meant healthy, nutritious families. The whole point of food is for nourishment!

- When you're buying Passion fruit, look for the wrinkled ones. Smooth ones tend to be bitter. Also, they go really well with mangoes.

- If you do the math, after all the folding and rolling required with puff pastry, there will be over 700 layers built up! Exponential goodness.

- In the summer at the Ballymaloe House, they make their puff pastry in the walk in freezer. At home, try everything you can to keep it cold. Start with chilled flour, refrigerate your rolling pin (and marble slab if you have one), and work quickly.

- When making polenta, choose a high-sided saucepan, because it "spits like a volcano" (-Darina) when heated.

- Today, we made chocolate "cases", or cups, by spreading melted chocolate on the inside of petit four wrappers, chilling them, and then peeling off the paper. These are great little receptacles to fill with after dinner liquor (a drink and a chocolate all in one!), or whipped cream and dusted cocoa, or raspberries with chocolate sauce... the possibilities are endless. You can even serve them filled with a teaspoon of milk and a cup of coffee- the coffee drinker can plop the whole thing right into the mug!

- If you have high cholesterol, drink pomegranate juice (make sure its actually pomegranate juice and not flavored sugar-water).

- Make yeast breads the night before and allow them to rise overnight in the fridge. They'll develop a much more interesting flavor.

57!

2009-11-15T06:51:00.001-08:00

Day fifty seven was spent doing a whole lotta nothing! To take advantage of the beautiful day, I took myself for a nice long stroll. Other than that, it was about as lazy a Sunday as it gets! My sourdough is taking boatloads of time to rise, perhaps because our house is quite cold (where is global warming when you need it?). I'll have to check with the teachers tomorrow although I fear it isn't looking promising! Stay tuned...

56 Days Down

2009-11-15T04:26:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I caught up on my filing (we have 4 industrial strength binders gradually filling with recipes) and started my first Ballymaloe sourdough loaf (it will be ready to bake Monday morning). I have tried and failed before to make sourdough bread. The puny loaf emerged from the oven as compact as a diamond after its been through a coal compressor. So here's to hoping for a better result!

Saturday night we headed into Cork to watch Ireland face off against France in a World Cup qualifying match (on TV, not live!). Reardens Bar (http://www.reardens.com/) was packed with green and white jersey clad Irishmen, as well as a small population of loud-and-proud Frenchmen. It made for some great people watching! Waitresses handed out paper cones full of french fries at halftime, which seemed (from my perspective) to make up for the disappointment that Ireland lost by one goal.

Fifty Five

2009-11-13T05:09:00.000-08:00

Friday the 13th! I think everyone was a little wary of their fingers while chopping this morning. I made Brown Yeast Bread (this time with salt and not sugar), Pate de Campagne (AKA Country Pate), Beet and Ginger relish, and flaky pastry. The flaky pastry is not as bad as it sounds. You basically roll out the pastry, dot it with lumps of butter, and then fold it up like a letter and roll it again. You do this in intervals all morning, so that, by lunchtime, your pastry contains approximately 100,000 pounds of butter.

Pate de Campagne is basically a terrine of layered, seemingly random, meats. I honestly think the French started it as some sort of sick joke, and then it somehow caught on. The "farce", or forcemeat, that binds it all together is made of minced meat, beaten eggs, and spices. You intersperse the layers of farce with layers of various non-minced meats like chicken liver, ham, you name it.

During the afternoon demonstration, Pam, one of our teachers, showed us how to made poached salmon with hollandaise, poached bass with beurre blanc, various vegetables (melted leeks, pommes mousseline, etc), a warm salad with a poached egg on top, an apple tart with flaky pastry, and vanilla, or cinnamon, or lemon verbena ice cream. Lemon verbena is an herb that looks a little like long, skinny bay leaves and smells faintly of lemon ("its one of my dessert island herbs" - Pam). After making the apple tart, she rolled the leftover flaky pastry back out, sprinkled it with sugar, and shaped strips into palmiers, or "elephant ears". You could also make savory palmiers and substitute the sprinkled sugar with olive tapenade, or pesto, or sun-dried tomato paste - the sky is the limit! Flaky pastry takes too much work to make and then just throw out the scraps!

Tips from today!

- Once you take the seeds out of a vanilla pod (by splitting it with a sharp knife and scraping them out), the leftover pod is as good as dead. Don't try to use it again, it's just a husk.

- Wild salmon will have much less fat than farmed salmon.

- Peas should be frozen within hours of being harvested or else the sugars will turn into starch. The good "frozen pea" brands will advertise this. We use Bird's Eye peas here.

- The water must be boiling when you add the frozen peas, because you want them to cook as quickly as possible (to preserve color and flavor).

- When you poach a really fresh egg, it leaves hardly any white bits in the water when you take it out. If you don't have farm fresh eggs, try putting the whole egg in the boiling water (shell on) for 30 seconds. This will set the outer layer of the egg. Then, remove the egg and crack it into the simmering poaching water and poach as usual. You'll lose a lot less egg white!

54....

2009-11-12T15:54:00.000-08:00

It's already Thursday! I got up this morning and set out to make brown yeast bread, steak with bearnaise sauce, cauliflower gratin, and a starter plate of various smoked fish. The bread was happily cooking in the oven when I realized that I had added a teaspoon of sugar instead of a teaspoon of salt. I didn't think this was a big deal until I tasted the bland dog food loaf that came out of the oven. I won't make that mistake again (I hope)!

The bearnaise sauce was a little bit trickier than the hollandaise, because you start with a base of reduced white wine, tarragon vinegar, and chopped shallots. The bits of shallots totally threw me off, because they made the sauce look like it was curdling when it wasn't. These sauces will play with your head! It took me two tries to get an emulsified sauce, which sat happily in a warm Pyrex jug until 30 seconds before I was going to serve it. It was as if the sauce heard me call my teacher over for tasting, saw me assemble the steak on the serving plate, and then split for a good laugh. I could have killed it! But with a couple teaspoons of cold water and a good beating with a whisk, it was back in business. Another remedy: when your bearnaise or hollandaise really needs to be shocked back to life, apparently throwing it in a blender can have defibrillator effect.

We carried on to the afternoon demonstration, where Rory walked us through flaky pastry (T-t-t-tedious!), cheese souffles, Pate de Campagne (a terrine smorgasborg of minced pork, spices, chicken liver, ham, and pistachios), various chutneys, tomato and fennel bread, and dessert crepes. After tasting, we had another evening wine tasting lecture with good ol' Colm McCan (Ballymaloe House Somellier) and Jean Smullen (http://www.jeansmullen.com/). A wine consultant, she specializes in Chilean and New Zealand wines.

We tasted three wines from New Zealand (a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Noir, and a Syrah) and three wines from Chile (a Chardonnay, a Carmenere, and a Cabernet Sauvignon). New Zealand is famous for their Sauvignon Blanc, and "nothing says Chile quite like a Carmenere" (-Jean). As far as regions go, Hawkes Bay is the backbone of the New Zealand wine industry on the north island, and Marlborough on the south island puts out some great Sauvignon Blancs. In Chile, keep your eye out for whites from the Casablanca, the Limari, and the Bio Bio Valleys. Chilean reds from the Colchagua Valley won't disappoint.

Get your tips!

- "You will probably only make flaky pastry once in your life" -Rory. It is harder to make than puff pastry, and it does not have as good a result (it's the "poor man's puff pastry"). But we learned the technique anyway.

- A "terrine" is something made in a rectangular shaped container, often layered and then turned out for slicing and serving. It does not always have to contain pate, although it often does.

- Nutmeg should never be the main flavor. It is best as an afterthought.

- Another cookbook for your library: Michel Guerard's Cuisine Gourmande.

- Cover a pot with a Pyrex plate rather than its lid and you'll be less likely to forget about it. This is useful when you're making things that need some regular stirring.

- When making chutney's, "on the surface, all can appear calm, but underneath, they can be clinging to the pan with the determination of a whelk" (-Rory). Keep stirring, especially when they start to reduce!

- Cheddar cheese souffles do not rise as much as the traditional Gruyere and Parmesan souffle.

- Rumor has it that beating egg whites in a copper bowl gives you the maximum volume.

- When tasting wine, let it roll around all different parts of your tongue. The tip of your tongue will pick up the sweetness, the sides will pick up the acidity, and the back will tell you the "length" of the wine (i.e. how long the flavor sticks around after you swallow).

- The tannins in the wine are what give you that drying feeling on your teeth. A wine high in tannins will seem to coat your front teeth and gums (so if you are walking around with red teeth late night at a party, blame it on the tannins).

- "There are two types of women in this world: Chardonnay women and Sauvignon Blanc women" (- Jean). Chardonnay women don't like acidity, while Sauvignon Blanc women do. People (including me) often say that they like "dry white wine", when what we really mean is a white with more acidity (like Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling). You can feel it on the sides of your tongue.

- Miles, the main character in the movie Sideways, is a perfect personification of his favorite grape variety: Pinot Noir. He is difficult, neurotic, and hard to please. His famous "I am NOT drinking any effing merlot!" caused merlot sales to plummet in the States and abroad (they called it "the Sideways Effect"). Funnily enough, his coveted bottle of Cheval Blanc which he finally opens at the end of the movie (and drinks in a paper cup at a burger joint) is made from mostly Merlot grapes.

- A funny saying: If you want to make a small fortune in the wine trade, start with a very large one.

- Wines high in tannins are meant to be enjoyed with food. Try one without food and try one with a nice piece of meat - there is an incredible difference!

Day 53!

2009-11-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

Big news! The whole of Ireland is now a GM-free zone. One of the few countries to declare this nationwide, the Irish Government recently banned the cultivation of any genetically modified crops. I think this happened weeks ago, but I am only just finding out now. That will give you an idea of just how much I have been reading the news.

Back to class! On Wednesday, we attended a day long seminar entitled "Cooking for Pleasure and Profit: The Business of Making Food Pay". Phew! It was a long, albeit informative, day. Our headmistress' sister, Blathnaid Bergin (http://www.therestaurantadvisor.ie/), runs a consultancy that advises food establishments on how to "make it work". Her core advice is to start with a menu. From a menu, you know what you'll be serving, which skills your staff will need to have, who your customers will be, etc. We reviewed case studies, regulatory requirements, and all the innumerable back-breaking and head-racking things that go into running a business in the food industry. Basically, the final message: if you cannot handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

In the middle of swallowing this jagged little pill, we had an unrelated and brief visit from Tommy Hayes, head honcho and founder of the Irish Seed Savers Association (http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/). "Seed Savers" grow and harvest seeds, seeking to develop and store as many varieties of as many fruits and vegetables as possible. They do this to improve a plant's genetic diversity (so that if a virus wipes out one type of apple, all the other apple variations will survive) and to combat the 3 multinationals who control 90% of the worlds seed supply (this is a scary concept when you think that seeds equal food!).

On his 20 acre farm, which is sort of like a Noah's Ark for seeds, he stores over 1,000 different vegetable varieties. Anyone can become a "seed saver" member and receive 5 packets of seeds a year. It is sort of like the Fruit of the Month club, only you'll have to grow it yourself!

After class, we headed down to a local concert venue (http://www.thegrainstoreatballymaloe.com/) to hear former "Stockton's Wing" band members play (including our very own teacher, Mike Hanrahan!). Stockton's Wing was an Irish folk band that toured Europe for most of the 80's and 90's. Apparently, our mild-mannered teacher-by-day moonlights as a rogue Irish-singer-songwritter by night...

Fifty Two

2009-11-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Today was a notorious B.I.G. day. I finished my brioche (which rose last night in the fridge), and then made a loaf of wholemeal bread, vanilla ice cream, mayonnaise, "oeufs mimosa" (sort of like deviled eggs with shrimp), pea soup drizzled with mint cream, and "onion monegasque" (baby onions stewed in a delicious chicken stock base). I also fed my starter (which I started yesterday... I forgot to tell you!). A "starter" is basically a fermented floury paste that, when added to sour dough bread, makes it "sour". You get a large sealed container and stir together 2 ounces of strong baker's flour and 2 fluid ounces of lukewarm water. The next day, add 2 more ounces of flour and 2 more ounces of lukewarm water (this is called "feeding" your starter). Keep feeding daily for seven days (leaving it out overnight at room temperature). By the end of the week, you'll have a bubbling mixture that smells a little bit like beer. There is natural yeast in the baker's flour, in the water, and in the air - so no need to add your own! Sealed in the fridge, a starter will keep indefinitely (the school has one from 2004). This is similar to the technique used by my sister Kate, a master sour dough baker! She got her recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (what a title!).

With pea soup, since it is a green vegetable, remember not to cook it covered! The steam will ruin the color. Also, having it simmering for hours doesn't do much for the color either. If any of you are concerned or worried, rest assured: my cheese is doing fine. He is starting to form an outer rind (they grow up so fast!).

For our afternoon demonstration, Rory taught us how to assemble a top notch plate of smoked fish (the secret? quality smoked fish!), how to cure our own gravlax (salmon "cooked" in salt, sugar, and dill), how to grill the perfect steak (both fillet and sirloin, with various sauces to go with it), and how to make cauliflower gratin, ratatouille (if you haven't seen the movie, do yourself a favor and rent it), pommes allumettes (AKA matchstick potatoes), a Normandy pear tart, and an apricot tart. Let me just say, the tasting line was as long as I have ever seen it! Even our class' resident vegetarian could not resist trying Rory's steak au poivre (I am not making this up).

Tuesday's Tips:

- Buy almonds with the skin on. The skin keeps in the flavor. To take the skin off, boil the almonds for a minute in water. They will pop right out of their jackets after this bubbly bath.

- Again, if you can buy "dry aged" meat (as opposed to "wet aged" meat), do so. Ask your butcher! It is much more tender, and has so much more flavor.

- The fillet is the most expensive cut of beef, followed by the sirloin. The flank is the least expensive.

- Score the fat on a roast to encourage it to run out of the meat during cooking. You can do this with a sharp knife or a razor blade. Criss-crossed lines work well.

- Try rubbing steaks with a halved clove of garlic before grilling them. You will not taste the garlic, but it will make them taste more "beefy".

- Grind spices separately (some take longer than others) - this will save your spice grinder (AKA coffee grinder) unnecessary wear and tear.

- Take steaks out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking them so that they can get closer to room temperature (especially if you are going to cook your steak rare or medium rare).

- Make sure your butter chunks are cold when making Bearnaise or Hollandaise sauce. There is science behind this logic. The whisking and the heat are what emulsifies the sauce. If your butter is warm, the heat from the whisking will practically be enough to emulsify the sauce. This is not what you want. You need the heat from the stove to "cook" the sauce while you whisk. So, add cold butter, and the cold butter + warm whisking + warm stove will both emulsify and "cook" your sauce.

- Get to know what well done vs. rare beef feels like. Take your hand and turn it palm facing up. Relax your hand (a yoga hand, not a death grip). Lightly touch your thumb to your pinky and feel the heel of your thumb. That is what well done meat feels like. Touch your thumb to your pointer finger and feel the heel of your thumb. This is what rare meat feels like. For those of you who know me, the "heel" of your thumb is where my birthmark is (or have you blocked that eye-sore from your memory?)!

- Let steaks sit between 5 and 20 minutes to rest before serving. While you wait, keep them warm in a low oven.

- Smoked mussels are delicious as canape, served on a round of thinly sliced dark brown bread. (maybe lightly toasted with some dill butter!). Don't forget some lemon wedges!

- Bearnaise sauce can be delicious with a pinch of cayenne pepper.

- Tinned apricots work well in an apricot tart when fresh apricots are not in season.

Day 51!!

2009-11-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

And we're off to the races with week 8! I got in early to prepare some brioche dough, which I put in the fridge to rise overnight and bake in the morning. Remember to add the butter in small pieces slowly over the course of half an hour, or else the dough will be quite greasy. Feel free to use a standing mixer with a dough hook, or else have Sylvester Stallone mix it by hand for you. It went well, aside from the part where the Kenwood (Ireland's version of a Kitchenaid) worked its way off the counter and crashed onto the floor. So I wasn't "paying attention", I was "in the other room", I didn't think that was "possible". Thankfully, the dough was unscathed. My ego, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

I also roasted a loin of pork, mashed some parsnips, and made a spiced eggplant dish. You can roast a loin of pork with the bone in or out. If the bone is in, it tends to have more flavor. If the bone is out, it is much easier to carve when serving. For practice, I took the bone out before roasting. Try to cut around the ribs to waste as little meat as possible. You'll feel like a surgeon (sans McDreamy standing by).

During the afternoon demonstration, we went over the art of the Ballymaloe House buffet. Like breakfast, buffets can be absolutely terrible or incredibly delicious. The Ballymaloe House serves up one heck of a buffet every Sunday night. We watched our headmistress prepare various salads, meats, and desserts that would all be best served at room temperature. If you think about it, hot foods become less and less delicious the more they're baked under a tanning bed on a buffet table. So, rather than try to serve hot food at its less-than-best, the Ballymaloe House just cuts it out!

Another interesting Ballymaloe practice: offering their guests seconds (or thirds!). This way, the restaurant can serve small portions (to avoid waste), but also ensure that their guests leave satisfied (or, in my case, debilitatingly full). Too many restaurants shovel food onto the plate, and half of it goes uneaten into the waste basket. As a former waitress, it's criminal how much food American restaurants waste! And we cannot blame the American public, who (judging by our nationwide obesity problem) tries valiantly to finish what it's served. There is rarely an unfinished plate coming back into the kitchen at Ballymaloe.

homemade ice cream served in a homemade ice bowl!

Monday's Tips:

- Putting salads in the fridge most often ruins them. The chill zaps the flavor. Ditch the food-spoiling-paranoia and leave it covered on the counter! It will be fine for the number of hours before your guests arrive.

- Check out Books for Cooks (http://www.booksforcooks.com/) in Notting Hill, London. It is a cookbook store and cafe tied into one. They only serve food from recipes found in their cookbooks for sale. So you can buy the book if you like what you eat!

- Enjoy pea soup all year round with high-quality frozen peas. They give quite a good result. Peas are technically in season in the summer, but when they're fresh you end up just snacking on them raw!

- Have at least one heavy bottomed saucepan in your kitchen. It is almost impossible to burn something in them (don't quote me on that!), and they're invaluable when making certain things like caramel or praline.

- If you want to have chunks of yummy bits in your homemade ice cream or sorbet (chocolate chips, chocolate covered espresso beans, praline, pomegranate seeds), get the mixture semi frozen and then fold them in. Otherwise, all the chunks will sink to the bottom.

- When buying beets, make sure the little hair of root is still attached to the beet bulb. If it is not, someone has cut it off, breaking the seal of the skin. When a beet's skin is punctured, it will bleed when you boil it and lose some flavor.

- Beets at this time of year will take much longer to cook than "younger" beets from the late summer. Plan accordingly.

- When planning a buffet, think about having "single-item-salads" like beets, leeks, potatoes, or broccoli. This way, when your guests pile everything onto their plate, its not an overwhelming combination of flavors. Simple dishes combine to form one great plate!

- When making potato salad, toss the potatoes in balsamic vinaigrette when they are still hot. The potatoes will absorb all that delicious flavor. If you' re one to make a mayonnaise based potato salad, don't add the mayonnaise until they are cold.

- Try a salad of diced beets, plums, pistachio nuts, and arugula.

- With cauliflower or romanesco, often the stalks and the leaves have more flavor than the actual "flower". Don't throw them out! Chop them up and add them in!

- Try heating redcurrant jelly, cinnamon, and cloves into a sauce and serve it with venison. There is a specific name for this sauce, but I can't remember what it is!

- For a refreshing drink, mix lemon (or lime) juice, a simple syrup, and fresh mint together. I imagine this would be excellent mixed with vodka or gin as a cocktail.

Fantastic Fifty

2009-11-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

Fifty Days! I woke up to a glorious morning and wrote in our sitting room with the french doors wide open and the sunlight flooding in. Overall, it was a fantastically uneventful day. I managed to get down to the Ballycotton Cliff's for a powerwalk at dusk, and it was gorgeous as usual.

Here are some overflow tips that I couldn't fit in last week's posts:

- November's seasonal foods? Pears, apples, red cabbage, celery, pumpkin, butternut squash, broccoli, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, onions, celeriac, walnuts, partridge, guinea fowl, pheasant, rabbit, woodcock, venison, goose, grouse, mussels, oysters, plaice, pollock, scallops, hake, turbot...

- 80% of wine produced in Australia is controlled by 4-5 multinational corporations. The same is true for Chile.

- Pork loves sage, rosemary, thyme, cumin, coriander... it can take on a lot of strong flavors.

- If you are making sourdough bread, and you want it to taste really "sour" (in a good way), add less starter to the dough. It seems counterintuitive, but the more starter, the faster the bread will rise, and the shorter length of fermentation. If you add less starter, the fermentation period will be longer because it will take longer for the bread to rise (the active yeast in the starter is what makes the bread rise). So, less starter, less yeast, slower rising, more fermenting.

- Wheat germ is what producers take out of flour so that it doesn't go rancid (wheat germ spoils easily). Feel free to add some back into your flour when you're baking bread (for flavor).

- According to the Ballymaloe Sour Dough recipe, you should start on Thursday night in order to have bread for Saturday morning. Thursday night, take your starter out of the fridge and give it a "feed" (some flour and water). Friday morning, give the starter a second "feed" - this will ensure a happily active starter. Friday lunch, make the dough (and add a portion of your starter). Friday evening, knock back the risen dough and shape into loaf. Saturday morning, bake!

- "Sweet wedding cake and dry champagne is a match made in hell" - Colm McCan, Ballymaloe House sommelier. Instead, try something like ice cold Moscato d'Asti. It's light, sweet, and slightly sparkling, and goes much better with rich cake!

- Trying adding some frozen raspberries to a glass of Prosecco (or frozen cranberries on Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve!)

49 Bottles of Beer on the Wall...

2009-11-08T04:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I set out to see Dublin! The three hour drive seemed to fly by thanks to the interesting (READ: ridiculous) radio station songs, which varied from oddly repetitive 80's rock ballads (I heard "The Final Countdown" three times) to classical Irish acapella. I was at the doors of the Guinness Storehouse by 11 AM! Beer before noon? You bet.

Though unapologetically touristy, I would recommend this stop if only for the complimentary pint you receive at the end of the tour. I learned how to pour my own "perfect pint" and had the best beer of my 23-year-old life. The Storehouse is the only part of the St. James's Gate Brewery that is open to the public. The building surrounds an impressive 7 story atrium that is shaped like a giant pint glass (yuk yuk). Throughout the self guided tour, you gradually wind your way up 7 stories of beer history until you reach the "head" of the glass, the Gravity Bar, which boasts a 360 degree view of the city.

The company started in 1759, when Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the St. James's Gate Brewery (I hope he likes his landlord!). Made with barley (a combination of malted, unmalted, and roasted), hops, water, and yeast, the "black stuff" has turned into black gold. Not surprisingly, the tour emphasized the importance of the ingredients used. Since the beginning of the 19th century, Guinness Master Brewers have passed down a portion of yeast used to ensure consistency (they keep a reserve jar locked in a safe). The water used (8 million liters per day) flows from the Wicklow and Dublin Mountain Ranges that rise above the city. They buy their barley "local" (2/3rds of the barley grown in Ireland every year goes to the St. James's Gate Brewery - that's 100,000 tons!). Sorry readers, the quality ingredients theme is unavoidable! No matter what version you're drinking (draught, bottled, extra stout, or foreign extra stout), "there is poetry in a pint of Guinness"!

After that stop, I headed to Trinity College to see the Old Library, specifically the famous "Long Room", which stores Ireland's most treasured ancient books, including the Book of Kells. One look at the shameless commercialism (check out the photo above) and I passed on the 9 Euro entrance fee to actually see the book. One of the oldest books in the world, this 680 page manuscript (which contains the four Gospels and related texts, all in Latin) was written and meticulously illustrated by monks around 800 AD.

I then headed to the National gallery to see a marvelous collection of impressionist paintings by Jack B. Yeats (William Butler Yeats' younger brother). Another noteworthy masterpiece on display was Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ. Across the street from the gallery lay the beautiful Merrion Square, which provides a home for an unabashedly flamboyant Oscar Wilde statue. Various quotes from Wilde are written around the statue.

Some of my favorites:

- Who, being loved, is poor?
- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars
- It seems to me we all look at Nature too much and live with her too little
- Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught
- Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong
- The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

Then, I made my hardest decision of the day: where to go to lunch. The final contenders: Lemon for a savory crepe, Gruel for a hearty dose of comfort food, or The Larder for wholesome and organic gourmet. I went with The Larder, and had a pot of tea with some delicious smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, and multigrain bread.

Refueled, I pressed onward to hit the last tourist spots of the day: Christ Church Cathedral, the Dublin Castle and Gardens, Record Tower (the last standing medieval tower in Dublin), Fishamble Street (Dublin's oldest street, where Handel first performed his Messiah, my Dad's favorite early Christmas morning pump-up music), St. Stephen's Green, and the James Joyce Statue.

Around 5:30, I collected the car from an overpriced carpark, and headed back to Cork. So there you have it - Dublin in a day!

Forty Eight

2009-11-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

Friday came with the end of week seven! I got in early with two objectives: 1) finish my souffle and 2) pluck my pheasant. No problem. My souffles had set overnight in the fridge, so I sprinkled some almond praline bits along the side and decorated the tops with whipped cream and chocolate chards. To make almond praline, put 1 part whole almonds (skin on) and 1 part sugar in a saucepan to melt. When it turns a deep caramel color, turn the mixture onto parchment paper (or a silicon mat) to harden. You can then grind it in a food processor (it's great on ice cream, too!).

The pheasant was less pleasant (above, I'm grinning like an idiot because I haven't started yet). It wasn't so much the plucking as it was the post-plucking obstacles that got to me. After plucking out the feathers, you have to singe off the tiny hairs on the skin with an open flame. This obviously results in very foul smelling fowl. Then you cut off the head and pull off the "crop" (basically a sack on a bird's neck filled with everything it ate the day it was shot - in short: a recipe for a gag reflex). Then you gut the animal and clean it for cooking. It will become very obvious exactly where the bird was shot, if you know what I mean. Clean that out! You dejoint it just like a chicken.

Note: Paprika and Cayenne Pepper are NOT the same thing! Someone accidentally put cayenne pepper in the paprika jar, and I added two entire teaspoons to my pheasant sauce! I accept full responsibility for not tasting it before I chucked it all in. For the rest of the class, my teacher and I gave my sauce emergency CPR. If you're ever in a similar fix, and your sauce is back-of-the-throat spicy, take out half and thin the remainder with chicken stock or some equally neutral ingredient. Sugar and lemon juice could help as well. You might be able to rescue it!

During lunch, we had a small presentation from a wine producer in Tuscany who served us a "Super Tuscan" red to taste. Like France, Italy has strict classification rules for their wines (wines from certain regions must be made with certain grapes). Super Tuscans break the rules and don't use the required grapes. Rather, Super Tuscan producers experiment with blending grape varieties to get the ultimate flavor. It was delicious!

For our afternoon demonstration, we went over how to make sour dough bread, Jerusalem Artichoke soup, Roast Duck with potato stuffing and apple sauce, Roast Stuffed Loin of Pork, various vegetables (like mashed parsnips and spiced eggplant), chocolate mousse with almond macaroons, and different flavored meringues (pistachio & rosewater and cinnamon & hazelnut). We have definitely shifted gears, and are full fledge into late fall flavors. Gutsy game like goose and duck go great with robust winter herbs like sage and rosemary. Move over, Basil!

Friday's Tips:

- Tart sauces (like gooseberry, rhubarb or apple sauce) are good with fatty meats (like pork or duck).

- Of all meat, pork reacts the worst to being intensively reared (i.e. pigs crammed together and flooded with hormones and antibiotics). In other words, there is the greatest change in flavor between organically reared and intensively reared pigs.

- The fillet of a cow or pig rests comfortably protected by the animal's spine, and does little to no work. This is why it is so tender (and so expensive!).

- Ducks are much fattier birds than chicken, so expect a thicker layer of fat when you buy and eat them.

- When rendering down fat, add a pinch of salt to the Pyrex jug before it goes into the oven. The fat will turn into liquid faster.

- As I've mentioned before, there are two golden rules when stuffing a bird: The stuffing must be cold when it goes in (or else it creates a nice warm cavity for bacteria to flourish) AND the stuffing must not completely fill the bird's cavity (or else the heat cannot circulate and the bird will not cook through).

- Sage and Rosemary tend to compete for center stage. Pick one!

- Duck and orange are a classic combo - try adding orange zest to your gravy or stuffing!

- I had heard about adding a little coffee to your chocolate dishes to enhance the flavor, but I hadn't heard of adding some strong Earl Grey tea! Try it (I certainly will)! Other ideas: chili flakes, various booze, orange zest, etc.

- Red Cabbage and Apple is a great combination.

- Pistachio, cardemon, and apricot is also a great combination

47....

2009-11-05T11:42:00.000-08:00

Phew, what a day! I got in early to get a jump start on my cooking (and brought my cheese with me- he might as well be on a leash). I had to make chocolate souffle, Thai galangal and coriander soup, and white soda bread (I was on "white bread duty"). I got the bread out of the way early, and started on my souffle. That's when it all went down the drain.

With souffle, you want to have all your components ready to go before you start, because once you start you cannot stop. So I dutifully wrapped my souffle dishes in parchment paper, melted my chocolate, sponged and dissolved my gelatin, whipped my cream, and separated my eggs before I began step one: beat the egg yolks and sugar. I was supposed to get it to a mousse-like consistency before adding the chocolate, which took not 5, not 10, but 45 minutes of beating with a standing mixer! Clearly something went wrong. I stood glaring at the liquid, which absolutely refused to thicken, while simultaneously trying to keep my melted chocolate in good humor and my dissolved gelatin from having a temper tantrum. I also had a pot on making almond praline (to grind up later for dusting on the souffle) and some chocolate melting in the oven to make decorative chards. Needless to say, I was a little overextended.

In the end, my gelatin threw a hissy fit and I had to start it over. My chocolate miraculously survived the 45 minutes without curdling (though it certainly tried- the climax of my morning was when I frantically plunged the bowl of chocolate into an ice bath, splashing everywhere). The souffle finally went into the fridge at 11 AM. Moral of the story: souffles have a sick sense of humor. Frazzled and faklempt, I quickly tidied my section and threw together the contents of the soup. By lunch, my souffle hadn't set (you saw that coming), so I'll get in early to decorate and finish the lil' terror tomorrow.

We walked into the afternoon demonstration room to find about ten whole birds (feathers and all!) on the counter. Tom Duane, the local gamekeeper, presented a variety of pheasants, ducks and pigeons (all are in season) which he had shot over the weekend. I'm assigned to make pheasant tomorrow, so it looks like I'll be in early to pluck one!

We also learned how to cut up a rabbit for cooking, and how to make bruschetta & crostini, baked chicken (in a dutch oven - extra tender and juicy!), various pheasant and rabbit dishes, roast pumpkin, pate sucre (pastry with a high proportion of sugar), fruit tartletts, and bread & butter pudding. Unfortunately, we didn't have a rabbit "in the fur" to cut up, because Tom hasn't caught one yet (at this time of year, they only come out at night)! So we used a cultivated rabbit from France.

To finish off the day, we had an evening wine lecture with the sommelier from the Ballymaloe House on wines from Italy. Two of the students in our class are experts in Italian wines, and one helped give the lecture! Thanks to them, we tasted three wines from a small producer in Friuli (North-East Italy). One of the wines was made with 100% Schioppettino grapes, a grape variety that nearly became extinct until this particular wine producer saved it in the 1970's. It is now one of the most popular grapes from the region. We also tried a Chianti and a wine similar to an Amarone (whatever that means).

Thursday's Tips:

- Pheasants are originally from China, and were brought over to Europe by the Romans. There are over 40 varieties!

- Female pheasant sport a much blander plumage than males, because they have to blend into the landscape while nesting.

- All hunted birds should be hung by the neck for 3-5 days before plucking. Hang rabbits and deer by the legs.

- With birds, the smaller and shorter the "spur" on their foot, the younger the animal. Younger birds are more tender to eat.

- For obvious reasons, it is best to pluck birds outdoors.

- When making brioche, work quickly with the dough or the butter in it will melt. Also, do not leave the loaves or rolls to rise anywhere that is too warm, because the butter will run out of the dough.

- Dry whole chickens or turkeys with some paper towel or they won't brown properly in the oven.

- As much as possible (when it makes sense), cook meat on the bone (bones add more flavor).

- Butchering any animal (chicken, pheasant, rabbit, cow, pig) is all about the natural space between the ball and socket joints. You can either take the E-ZPass lane and glide through the ball and socket, or you can get in the cash-only lane and hack through bone. You decide.

- Never cook with wine that you wouldn't drink yourself. Taste it!

- Dark chocolate (like 70% cocoa) seems to behave better than milk chocolate (~50% cocoa) when you're melting it. It splits less because there is less cocoa butter in it.

- Allow pastry to chill and relax in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling it out. Once you take it out of the fridge, let it adjust to room temperature slightly before rolling it. It is very ill-humored right as it comes out of the fridge and is more likely to crack if you try to roll it then and there.

- Goodbye autumn raspberries, hello citrus fruit!

- Adding a pinch of sugar to frozen peas (either in their cooking water or after they've cooked) can greatly enhance their flavor

46

2009-11-04T11:22:00.000-08:00

I used to make fun of helicopter parents, hovering over their children, making them wear elbow pads when they went sledding. And now I know how they feel. My cheese made it through the night. He looked a little shaken in his new home, but I am hoping he'll get used to it. After flipping him over and dusting him with salt, I headed off to school.

This morning, I made poached monkfish with cucumber and tomato hollandaise sauce, kale, and a "stripy cat" loaf (AKA white soda bread with chocolate chunks). Monkfish are DIS-gusting. Seriously gross. I am surprised they haven't been featured in a D-grade horror movie yet (like "Bride of Chucky"). However, they are a good example of true beauty coming from the inside (whatever that means... kidding). Their flesh is beautifully white and delicious, behaves much like meat, and is deceptively easy to fillet (you only have to worry about the straightforward backbone). Because of these perks, Monkfish are quite expensive. Apparently, buying the fish whole is less expensive than buying a fillet. But then you have to carry one of those mucus oozing bad boys out to your minivan, so I'll let you make the choice.

Monkfish with Hollandaise, Tomato Concasse,

Diced Cucumber, and Fennel

The hollandaise sauce went surprisingly well (it only tried to curdle on me once). One trick when it's entertaining the idea of curdling: plunge the saucepan in a bowl of cold water to bring down the temperature (it's handy to keep a bowl nearby when you're making it). Another trick: don't let the sauce know you're nervous. Like dogs and David Hasselholf, hollandaise can smell fear. You're the boss. Beat it into submission.

During our afternoon demonstration, Rory showed us how to make a couple of Asian soups (chicken & coconut laksa and Thai galangal & coriander soup), different curries (both red and green), brioche, chocolate or lemon souffle, and, bizarrely, pickled ox tongue. I am still trying to piece together why anyone would ever eat, let alone make his or her own, pickled ox tongue (but then again I haven't tried it). The souffles were cold souffles, which are easier to make then hot souffles (I think we tackle hot souffles next week). The cold souffle is basically mousse, which looks like it is puffing up over the souffle dish because of a parchment paper trick. Rory wrapped the dish in greased paper to extend the sides of the dish about an inch and a half higher. He then over-poured the mixture into it, and the parchment paper wall kept the mousse from running over. When the mousse set, he took away the paper, and it looked just like a souffle. They have a great "wow" factor, and can keep in the fridge until you're ready to serve them.

Wednesday's Tips:

- Crack eggs into a separate bowl before adding them to your dish. Today, Rory cracked a bad egg into the brioche and had to start over. It doesn't happen often, but it's a good precaution to take.

- You know gelatin has completely dissolved into water when it is completely clear. If the water is still cloudy, wait!

- Egg whites are really just a way to trap air in a dish ("they don't bring anything else to the party" -Rory). This makes the dish lighter.

- Curry paste is very hot when you first open the package. It loses a significant amount of heat within a week of being opened.

- If you have all the time in the world, you can make curry paste by hand. But, you can buy very good quality paste at the store and save yourself the hassle of tracking down all those obscure ingredients (such as "shrimp paste" and "fresh galangal").

- Try serving brandied cherries with a dangerously rich chocolate dessert (the hit of alcohol "shocks you back to the real world" - Rory). Buy cherries, de-stone them, and put them in a jar filled with 1/2 brandy and 1/2 sugar. Shake it up and they'll be good to go in 2 weeks time.

Day 45!

2009-11-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

grapefruit and pomegranate sorbet

This morning I got in early for "stock duty" - basically, we chop a bunch of carrots, onions, celery stalks, and carcases of some description to throw into a pot with water to boil. Chicken carcases for chicken stock, lamb bones for lamb stock... you get the picture. One thing we don't add to the stock is salt. This way, you can control the amount of salt in your cooking later. Stock freezes very well, so consider making some the next time you are about to throw away the remains of a roast chicken. Homemade stock makes such a difference in flavor, and it is a great way to avoid wasting bones!

apple cake

Then I was off to the kitchen to make grapefruit and pomegranate sorbet, an apple cake, and CHEESE! That's right, I made my own wheel of cheese today! I nearly fell asleep making it, it was so relaxing (seriously). You basically warm the milk (I used unpasteurized cow's milk from the morning's milking), add a starter (to get the bacteria going), then add some rennet (which coagulates the milk). After half an hour, the milk coagulates and you cut it into tiny pieces. Soon, you'll have pea sized curds swimming in a sea of whey. Plop the curds into a cheese mold and press the living daylights out of them to remove any moisture.

a cheese is born...

For my starter, I added yogurt, which will result in a "simple" semi-hard cheese. If you wanted a different type of cheese (blue or parmesan, for example), you would have to buy a different starter (ask your local cheese shop). At the end of class, I took my newborn cheese out of the mold, sprinkled him in sea salt, wrapped him in swaddling cheese cloth, and laid him on my windowsill. I'll flip him over and re-salt him tomorrow morning, and continue this flipping pattern for a few days. I'll have to wait 5-6 weeks before he is ready! I'll keep you all posted on the life and times of this new addition in my life, as I can sense you are all waiting with baited breath!

poached monkfish with matchstick potatoes

In the afternoon demonstration, we watched Rory make Focaccia, French Peasant Soup, Poached Monkfish with Hollandaise Sauce, Matchstick Fries, and a French Apple Tart. The trick with Hollandaise is to whisk continuously, and not let the mixture get too hot. Keep it on a very low flame, and if it starts to curdle, take it off the heat and whisk in a teaspoon of cold water. Many a hollandaise have been saved by this quick fix.

Here are the tips picked up from today!

- Another use for a Japanese Mandolin: making Julienne Vegetables (some Japanese Mandolins even come with a Julienne blade). A Julienne vegetable is basically any vegetable cut into long, thin, matchstick-like slices. You can add them to a crystal clear broth and call the soup "Consomme Julienne".

- Hollandaise Sauce does not reheat well, so if you make it ahead of time, keep it warm. Put the hollandaise in a Pyrex jug, and place the jug in a pot of warm, but not simmering, water. If the water keeps trying to simmer on you, use a heat diffuser mat. The sauce will sit happily for a number of hours.

- When reading recipes, pay attention to the difference between "mix gently" and "beat vigorously". If the recipe says to mix gently, do not over mix! This is the number one cause of tough pastry, tough pancakes, tough bread, etc.

- When you're pouring filling into a tart or pie shell, do not fill it to the absolute brim while the tart is still on the counter. You'll have to preform a one-man balancing act from the counter to the oven. When it's two-thirds full, transfer the tart pan to the oven and finish filling it there.

- To loosen cakes from their tins (when turning them out after baking), run a non-precious knife around the edge to break the seal.

- Spinach is the easiest vegetable to over-salt. Beware! It doesn't take much.

- Don't forget about water, the "forgotten ingredient" in the kitchen. Great for thinning soups, sauces, etc.

FortyFour

2009-11-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

Cucumber Mousse with Shrimp and Tomato Salsa

There is no such thing as a case of the Mondays when you are doing what you love! I hopped out of bed this morning anxious to get back to school. On the list of things to make this morning: a meat pie. Say what you will about Ireland and their meat pies, but it was delicious! Fresh leg of lamb carved and diced, carrots and onions from the farm, homemade lamb stock, and homemade pastry. Good ingredients, good pie! One important point: season your stew with each additional step, so the layered flavors come to life. I took a picture before it went into the oven...

I also made creamed kale and put together a Plateau de fruits de mer with my partner. This involved opening oysters, cooking some mussels, and stealing some homemade mayonnaise from another section so we didn't have to whisk up our own (my arms were sore enough from opening the oysters)! In this country, they often serve mayonnaise with their shellfish. Personally, I would ditch the mayo and serve it plain with lemon slices (and maybe with a bit of cocktail sauce). Oysters, of course, are best plain in all their briny glory.

After lunch, Rory took the helm for the afternoon demonstration. We made cold cucumber soup, cucumber mousse, a curried vegetable stew with banana and yogurt raita, PARMESAN RISOTTO!, Indian paratha bread, grapefruit and pomegranate sorbet, a Tuscan plum tart, and an apple cake. The cucumber mousse is a great way to use up cucumber soup - just add gelatin! I presume one could do this with a lot of soups. For the Risotto, the trick is to add the liquid slowly to the rice and try to maintain a constant, steady simmer. The constant temperature assures that your risotto will cook evenly. It requires some close attention, but the result is so delicious.

Grapefruit and Pomegranate Sorbet

Today's Tips:

- Be careful when grating anything with a box grater. Don't try to be a hero and grate down to the last molecule of cheese or whatever- the graters are deceptively sharp!

- Cold soup should be served in small portions

- Yogurt is one of the most difficult things to season. The acidity confuses the tongue, so be aware!

- When making caramel, the water/sugar mixture almost never turns color evenly because of the slightly uneven heat below. Since you're not supposed to stir caramel while it boils, just pick up the pan, tilt it to even the color, and rotate it on the burner.

- When making sorbet, the ratio of sugar to liquid is important. Follow the recipe religiously, or it might not set properly.

- Pomegranates will keep unopened in the fridge for 4-6 weeks.

- There is no easy way to peel and remove seeds from grapes ("You know that's just torture. That's just the way it is" - Rory).

- Rosewater and Pomegranate make an excellent combination

- When turning anything out from a pan (a tart, a fritata), don't dither, as they say over here. Get up your nerves and just do it.

- If you over-roast some spices, cut your loses and start again. No one wants the taste of burnt cumin in their curry!

- You can freeze meat/poultry bones if you don't want to drop everything and make a stock then and there.

- Plums go well with cinnamon or star anise

Day 43!!!

2009-11-01T14:19:00.000-08:00

Lazy Sunday. I woke up and used a couple of slices of toast as a vehicle to shove as much homemade raspberry jam into my mouth as possible (it doesn't get old). After that feat, we took a 40 minute country drive to historic Lismore, where everything was historically closed. We had planned to get some lunch in town and then tour the Lismore Castle (www.lismorecastle.com), but ended up throwing in the towel. It is quite a beautiful structure, from what we could tell from the road! Lucky for us, Ireland's stunning countryside made it worth the (albeit abbreviated) trip.

Happy November! Tomorrow begins another day at school...

Forty Two

2009-10-31T10:28:00.001-07:00

Is this the proverbial half-way point? I think it is...

Happy Halloween! Saturday morning arrived in all its wonder. I fantastically had NOTHING to do! After a run and some job research (does Ina Garten need a personal assistant?), I went over some of my notes to see if there were any tips I had left out!

Here they are:

- If you are in the market for a juicer, there are two types: the centrifuge juicer is best used for apples, carrots, beets, etc., while the green star (or masticating) juicer is better for greens (kale, spinach, etc) and wheat grass. If I had to pick one, I'd go with centrifuge.

- Syria is an almost entirely self-sufficient nation food wise (our headmistress just returned from a 5 day research trip).

- Apricots are delicious with cardemon seeds

- Tapas are traditionally bitefuls of food, while Raciones can be slightly larger portions

- Ferran Adria, head chef of El Bulli in Spain (and molecular gastronomy master), is said to be one of the most innovative chefs in the world. El Bulli has been named the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine the last 4 years in a row.

- October in Alba, Italy is truffle season. Its on my list of things to do in life!

- 5% of bottled wine is spoiled by a tainted cork

- Store walnut oil and hazelnut oil in the fridge, because they are more likely to go rancid. Also, buy them in small containers because they go bad quickly.

- A good general rule: Foods (and Wines) that are grown together should be eaten together.

- The brown vs. white rice debate: after boiling, they both have the same vitamin content and they both have the same GI (Glycemic Index- how quickly the carbohydrate digests and releases glucose into your blood stream). Equally nutritious, eat the one you think tastes better!

- Eating foods with a low GI is key for prolonged, "slow release" daily energy

- Another kitchen staple: sea salt. Perfect for sprinkling on salads, breads, meats, and so on for a great burst of flavor.

- Some stores sell "Jam sugar", which is regular sugar with added pectin (what makes jam set). We do not use that here, because it can often make the jams set too much. But, feel free to try it!

Day 41!

2009-10-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

For some reason, people (and by people, I mean me) seem to wake up every Friday morning craving pizza. Luckily for us students (and by students, I mean me), Friday was Pizza Day! Thanks to the creative juices of many chefs around the globe, Pizza has developed into a canvas on which to paint any innumerable amount of flavor combinations. No longer only the tomato sauce & cheese scenario, pizza can be sweet or savory, eaten for breakfast or lunch or dinner or even dessert, with pretty much anything on top. My favorite ideas of the day were a pizza with cream cheese, smoked salmon, dill and capers and a pizza with grated apple and Gorgonzola. Then again, fresh tomato sauce with buffalo mozzarella and basil will never disappoint this voracious pizza eater.

The Cookery School has its own wood burning oven, which gets lit at 7 AM to be hot enough in time for lunch. Our headmistress bought it from a company called Valoriani (http://www.valoriani.it/) in Italy, a producer of prefabricated wood burning ovens. Apparently, building a wood burning oven is a scientific art, so it might be best to buy one pre-made! Once hot, a 12 inch pizza cooks in 90 seconds. It is the ultimate fast food.

Some of my favorite pizza places in the States include Posto Pizza (http://www.postothincrust.com/) on 2nd Avenue and 18th Street in New York, The Upper Crust Pizzeria (http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/) on Charles Street in Boston, and Christian's Pizza in Charlottesville, Virginia. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

After the morning Pizza demonstration and a feast for lunch, I got the midterm exam over with! Admittedly, it was quite a lot of build up for a rather relaxed afternoon. I identified 10 herbs and 8 salad leaves, set a table, poured a glass of wine, chopped and sweated an onion, chopped and sauteed mushrooms, finely chopped herbs, and made a paper parchment bag. I managed to win the lottery and did not have to fillet a fish or joint a chicken! Overall, I think I got off easy...

Friday's Tips!

- From Italian Cooking Master, Marcella Hazan: If you're using grated mozzarella for pizza (as opposed to hand rolled fresh mozzarella), drizzle it with olive oil to greatly enhance the flavor.

- For any type of yeast dough (for bread or pizza), use strong flour. It has more gluten and will stretch more with the rising yeast.

- Bread is made with four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Think about that the next time you look at a supermarket loaf's lengthy list of ingredients!

- Try having a pizza party with friends! Before your guests arrive, make the pizza dough and roll it out into rounds (you can stack the rounds on sheets of parchment paper). Assemble various toppings in bowls out on the counter, and open a few bottles of wine. Everyone can make his own!

- Craving something sweet? Pizza with nutella, bananas, and strawberries is DE-licious.

- When chopping onions, breath through your mouth. It apparently helps with the tears! (as someone who ONLY breathes through her mouth, I cannot really comment).

Forty Days and Forty Nights

2009-10-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Forty. I guess I'm officially "middle aged" in the land of the Ballymaloe 12 Week Course. I started work this morning making a granary loaf, made with granary flour (a mix of malted wheat, rye, and whole wheat kernels). It is a straight forward yeast bread which took an eternity to rise (the thick granary flour really weighed down the dough). So, in the meantime, I worked on a Lamb Stew with onions, carrots and turnips (turnips are in season!). When I think stew, I think Le Creuset (http://www.lecreuset.com/). This company will hold a special place in my heart until the day that I die! Like Kleenex or Pampers, Le Creuset is synonymous for the product they produce: the cast iron "french oven". They are expensive, but last a lifetime!

While my stew stewed in the oven, and my dough rose ever so reluctantly, I made some mashed turnips with caramelized onions on top. We also went over some of the techniques for tomorrow's exam, including segmenting an orange, making an omelette, and fashioning a paper piping bag. I love the midterm buzz circulating the school grounds. Walk into any cottage after school, and you'll find students hovering over a discount, store bought chicken (3 for 10 quid!), slowly following the steps to dejoint it. The spectators congratulate the dejointer as he or she successfully pops the leg out of its socket and locates the dreaded oyster. Still others are chopping away at onions or filleting a fish. It beats any midterm studying I can remember!

For the afternoon demonstration, we watched our headmistress make a plateau de fruits de mer, comprised of prawns, shrimp, mussels, clams, periwinkles, and oysters. She garnished the platter with a few wedges of lemon, some freshly foraged watercress, and some seaweed gathered from Ballycotton Beach. We also learned how to make a meat pie with homemade pastry, poached plums, banana bread, gingerbread, carrot cake, and parsnip and maple syrup cake.

Your daily dose...

- When making stew, season each element well before adding it to the pot to cook.

- Generally, you should only eat oysters in months with a letter R in them (September through April). With oysters, do not bother if they are not fresh. When they're fresh, the simpler the better! Right down the hatch!

- With bivalves (mussels, clams, cockles, palourdes), do not buy or cook them unless they are alive! You can tell they're alive because the shells will be tightly shut. If one is slightly open, tap it a few times and the animal inside with snap it shut (if it does not shut, it's dead - do not cook it). Once cooked, they open on their own. Again, if some do not open, do not eat them.

- Irish Moss, or carrageen, is a wonderfully nutritious type of seaweed. It boosts your metabolism to break down fats, and is good for chest colds. You can find it in specialty shops!

- If you have a fruit that is inedibly under-ripe (plums, peaches, etc), try poaching them! They will soften and burst with flavor.

- My friends and I always joke about Ina Garten's obsession with "good vanilla extract". What she really means is Expensive vanilla extract! If you are tight on cash, but recognize the difference that quality vanilla extract makes, try making your own! Soak a few vanilla pods in a couple cups of vodka or brandy for a few weeks. It sounds crazy, but I'm curious (and broke) enough to try it.

Day 39!

2009-10-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

Tapas! (Manchego and Quince on crusty bread)

Another week, another theory day! We tackled wines from Australia and New Zealand in the morning, followed by Spanish Tapas in the afternoon (complete with a Sherry tasting!). Before we kicked off the day, we went over our cheese of the week (Cheddar) and the biscuit of the week (caramelized pecan squares and caramelized almond squares). Cheddar is the most labor-intensive all the farmhouse cheeses to make, because of a process called "Cheddaring" which involves stacking and periodically turning the curds (AKA the solids of the coagulated milk) by hand over a period of time. The cheesemaker does this until the curds reach a certain acidity, and then they're cut, salted, and pressed into cheese molds to form what we know as cheddar cheese. We had a cheese tray to taste at lunch, laden with various Irish (Wexford, Dublin, Charleville, and Mount Callan) and British (Quickes, Keen's, and Mongomery) Cheddars - delicious!

Soon, Colm McCan, the Sommelier at the Ballymaloe House (which just won Georgina Campbell's 2010 Wine Award!), emerged with John McDonald of Wine Australia (http://www.wineaustralia.com/) to present a few bottles from the land down under. Though many pin Australia as a rookie on the wine bench, its winemaking tradition actually dates back to the 1800's. Presently, there are around 2,200 Australian winemakers, who produce 4% of the world's wines (about the same production as Bordeaux). It will be difficult to increase production beyond those numbers because of the scarcity of water in the region. As it goes, Australia has a reputation for producing big, heavy, over-oaked Chardonnay. However, recently many winemakers are blending in Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc grapes to lighten the taste.

After a short tea break, we were joined by Peter McDonald of Hunter Wines in New Zealand (http://www.hunters.co.nz/). Hunter Wines in Marlborough has become world renowned for its Sauvignon Blanc, which benefits from the long ripening period in the cooler climate. Peter works with his sister-in-law Jane Hunter ("the star of New Zealand wine"), who started the family run business with her late husband, Ernie. We tasted a Hunter's Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, and then broke for lunch, which we ate with a glass of Hunter's Riesling.

Rory taught the afternoon Tapas demonstration, where he stressed the importance of authentic ingredients when making tapas (Spanish olive oil, Spanish ham, etc). Tapas originally were free, and came with an ordered glass of sherry or wine (like bar nuts, if you will). The word tapas is believed to have come from the Spanish verb "tapar", meaning "to cover", because wine or sherry was served with a piece of bread over the rim of the wine glass to keep the flies out!

We watched Rory concoct a wide range of tapas, from simple marinated Aragon or Manzanilla Olives to more complicated Pulpo En Vinagrea (Octopus in a vinaigrette). When you're making tapas, often the simpler the better (a bite of marinated goats cheese, or a nibble of pata negra or serrano). Especially when you're making simple food, take care to use quality ingredients!

Tips, Tips, Tips!

- As a general "cheese rule", the bigger the block of cheese is as it ages, the better the cheese will be.

- By the time the grapes come into the winery to be pressed, the wine is already 75% made. Making the wine is the easy part, but growing the grapes is a whole different (and more difficult) ballgame.

- Turmeric has been found to be good for esophageal cancer.

- Sparkling wine is made by taking normal wine, bottling it, and adding a little additional yeast and sugar. The yeast feeds on the sugar and creates carbon dioxide bubbles in the process, which dissolve into the wine. This process is called "second fermentation".

- The cork of a bottle of sparkling wine has the same amount of pressure as the tire of a double decker bus. Pop it cautiously!

- Apparently, Rose is making a comeback! Brace yourself.

- If you ever see the "Brix" level highlighted on a wine label, it refers to the level of sugar in the grapes at harvest.

- 96% of all wine that is bought is consumed within 24 hours

- Screw tops (as opposed to corks) are not the "cheaper option", and have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the wine. It is a personal choice for the winemaker, as corks and screw tops each have their benefits and cons.

- Pinot Noir is the "holy grail" for winemakers. It is the most difficult to make because the Pinot Noir grape is so finicky.

- A couple "environmental awareness" terms: "food miles" refers to the distance a product travels before it arrives on your plate; the "FoodPrint" is the carbon footprint of the food you consume. Fewer "food miles" does not necessarily mean a lower "foodprint" (think about an organic, free-range chicken from 500 miles away vs. an industrial chicken from 50 miles away).

- When making meatballs, after mixing the ingredients into the meat, fry up a teaspoon of the mixture on a pan to taste it for seasoning. There is no point laboring to roll 30 meatballs if the seasoning is off!

- If you're interested in Tapas cooking, check out New Tapas by Fiona Dunlop and Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain by Penelope Casas.

38

2009-10-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

My typical Tuesday began with a trip to the greenhouse to memorize some greens. After that thrilling adventure, it was off to the kitchens for a morning of cooking! On the list for today were chocolate profiteroles and mini gratins of goats cheese and sundried tomato. It doesn't sound like much, but those sneaky profiteroles hide about four elements in one title. First I made the Choux "easier said than done" Pastry. I nearly passed out with exhaustion. Every fiber in my being burned as I dutifully "beat each egg vigorously" into the dough. Ten minutes and four and a half eggs later, I was ready to keel over. Apparently, you are supposed to "let the wooden spoon do the work", whatever that means.

After piping some blobs of pastry for the "puffs" and carrying the baking tray (with quivering, weary, spaghetti arms) to the oven, I moved onto the Creme Patisserie, or Pastry Cream (basically vanilla flavored custard). Then there was the Chantilly cream (AKA whipped cream and sugar), which gets folded into the Pastry Cream. I piped the Pastry/Chantilly Cream dynamic duo into the cooked puffs, and then made some chocolate sauce to top it all off. Delirious, I promptly ate approximately 5 profiteroles out of sheer exhaustion.

Somewhere in the whirlwind morning, I filleted a spare cod lying around for practice (you can tell it's a cod because it has a small goatee protruding from its chin, and because your teacher tells you it's a cod). Then we were off to lunch.

Despite (or perhaps because of) a "post bank holiday silence" in the room, the afternoon demonstration went well. We watched our teacher make various fish pates, breadsticks and "sunflower bread" (pictured above), different lamb stews, shortbread cookies, and fruit "fool". Fool is a dessert made with pureed fruit mixed with whipped cream, served cold with shortbread cookies. You can make raspberry fool, or blackcurrant fool, or, if you're Mr. T, whatever type of fool your heart pities.

shortcake with strawberry

As far as pates go, I have to admit they were pretty tasty. If you're like me and you're intrinsically wary of pate, try making it yourself so you can be sure about what the heck is in it. It's definitely more comforting and often more delicious.

Tuesday's Tips:

- Contrary to popular belief, browning meat before you put it in a stew does not seal in the juices. It does, however, greatly enhance the flavor- so keep at it!

- When making gravy, remember the cardinal rule: "degrease and deglaze". First, degrease the juices in the baking pan by skimming off any fat. Then, deglaze the pan by pouring in some stock and whisking up any precious flavor that has "glazed" to the bottom. This forms the base of your gravy.

- Nothing thinly slices a vegetable better than a Japanese mandolin. For shaving fennel bulbs for a salad or potatoes for potato chips, there's no substitute! If you find yourself desperate for a Japanese Mandolin, get one with removable blades so that you can sharpen it as it wears.

- Turnips are in season - try them out! Mashed, roasted, thrown into stew - the possibilities are endless (sort of).

- Is it goat cheese, goats cheese, or goat's cheese? I have no idea.

Thirty Seven

2009-10-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

Today is a Bank Holiday in Ireland, which means sadly we did not have any class! Judging by the state of Cork this morning when my flight landed, the Irish take Bank Holidays very, very seriously. Everything from the English Market to the Crawford Gallery was closed! My taxi driver back to Ballymaloe around 2 PM wagered that everyone was still asleep (I guess Irishmen take the night before a Bank Holiday seriously too).

Tomorrow we head into our sixth week of class, which culminates with a midterm technique exam and an herb/salad green identification. I guess I'll get to studying. Oriental Serifon. One down, a couple dozen to go.

Three Dozen!

2009-10-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

It is not a trip to London unless you force your host out of bed to go sightseeing! My thoughtful friend put on a smile as I dragged her to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben.

En route, she thankfully showed me some spots off the well-beaten tourist path. We walked through East London where the Sunday UpMarket sets up shop every weekend (http://www.sundayupmarket.co.uk/index.html). Most of the stalls are in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, but other stalls have built up around it. My two favorite were the "Game Burgers" stand, selling everything from Crocodile to Kangaroo burgers, and Anima's Cupcakes (her carrot and orange are pictured above).

We headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral, and then crossed the Thames on the Millennium Bridge to stroll along the South Bank towards Westminster. We took a break at Doggett's Pub near Blackfriar's Bridge to watch the much anticipated Manchester United vs. Liverpool football match (the underdog, Liverpool, won!). By twilight, I had my fix of the Houses of Parlement and Big Ben and, minding the gap, we headed home.

Thirty Five

2009-10-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

After finishing class on Friday evening, I headed to the Cork Airport to catch a flight to London! I took the tube from Heathrow, and a three friend welcome wagon greeted me at the Paddington Train station. After catching up over a bottle of Chablis (I actually knew what I was drinking!), we went to bed ready for a full London day in the morning.

For breakfast, we stopped at the Fernandez & Wells Cafe in Soho (http://www.fernandezandwells.com/), a charming coffee shop which served strong lattes and flaky croissants. Their lemon drizzle cake wasn't too shabby, either! I took some serious notes for my imaginary and (hopefully) future specialty foods store and cafe!

We spent the afternoon wandering throughout Soho and the West End. That evening, we headed to Fulham for a few drinks and then traveled across town to the Commercial Tavern in Shoreditch. One takeaway: I thought New York was big until I came here! Or maybe Ballymaloe has just turned me into a country bumpkin?

34

2009-10-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Friday! It felt great to get back into the kitchens after a two day hiatus. I filleted a flat fish (a Plaice to be exact), whisked up a coriander aioli, segmented a grapefruit, practiced an omelette, constructed a piping bag with parchment paper (a technique we'll be tested on), and compiled a Provencale Bean Stew.

It was easier to fillet a flat fish compared to a round fish, because the former does not have "pin bones" protruding perpendicularly from its backbone. Pin bones are pesky little things that can be difficult to get out without damaging the fillet (if you've ever had a bone in your fish, it was probably a pin bone). With flat fish, the fillet comes right off the backbone, and you don't have to worry about picking out any pins. If you're doing this at home, make sure you have a flexible filleting knife- it makes all the difference! Trying to fillet a fish with a chopping knife is like trying to needlepoint with a chopstick.

Anyone can make his or her own aioli quite simply with the help of a food processor. Just mix egg yolks, some Dijon mustard (if you like), and any herbs (dill, coriander, basil, whatever...) in a Cuisinart while slowly drizzling in oil. It will soon emulsify, et voila! Homemade Aioli. You can play around with different flavors (sun-dried tomatoes, lemon, etc) to your heart's content.

Fish Curry with Rice Pilaf and Parsley

For afternoon demo, Rory showed us how to make various forms of a warm goats cheese salad, a granary bread (made with granary flour: a mix of malted wheat, rye, and whole wheat kernels), various fish dishes, profiteroles, and cheese puffs (made with choux pastry and Gruyere cheese). Before he began, we had a quick visit from Jane Murphy of Ardsallagh Goat's Cheese (http://www.ardsallaghgoats.com/). Like many of the Irish cheesemakers we've met, Jane's award winning cheese started by chance.

Goats Cheese Croquettes with Arugula

Three decades ago, her two young children had eczema. A traveling salesman noticed their skin and recommended introducing goats milk into their diet. After being dismissed, the salesman went so far as to return with a goat (I am not making this up), and the Murphy's herd began. Jane discovered a knack and love for cheesemaking, and decided to go commercial. Now, they sell goats milk, hard and soft cheeses, and yogurt to supermarkets and at farmers markets around the country. They milked the herd by hand up until it grew to 60 goats, and then started to use machinery. When the herd breeds to an unmanageable size, Jane donates goats to Bothar (http://www.bothar.ie/), a charity which sends livestock to villages in Africa. The two children, eczema-free, are now in the cheesemaking business themselves.

Friday's Tips:

- Unprocessed, fresh goat's milk does not contain cholesterol. Goat's cheese, when hand made, does not contain cholesterol either.

- Warm salad (salade tiede) should be served on a hot plate. You're playing with different temperatures (cold greens, hot plate, sizzling goats cheese on warm toasts) and different textures (crispy walnuts, smooth goats cheese, crunchy bread).

- At this time of year, walnuts are at their best.

- It takes over 4,000 crocuses to produce one ounce of saffron.

- With profiteroles, the pastry should be crisp, the filling, cold, and the chocolate sauce, hot.

Profiteroles!

ThirtyThree

2009-10-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

"Please be nice to me. I don't want to be like one of those poor, harassed looking tour guides who has a bottle of vodka hidden just to get him through the day" joked Rory yesterday in preparation for today's field trip. He was, indeed, our guide on a day long odyssey from a smokehouse to a farmer's market to a cheese maker to an apple orchard to a specialty foods store and back.

The buses rolled off school grounds at 8 AM heading west to visit Frank Hederman's famous Belvelly Smokehouse near Cobh (http://www.frankhederman.com/). With his traditional homemade smokehouse (the only one of its kind in Ireland), Frank smokes organic salmon (seen above), silver eel, mackerel, mussels, nuts, and oats. He smokes with beechwood rather than oak chips, which gives a more subtle flavor. Why organic salmon (if you even dare to ask!)? Because on a non-organic farm, swimming in every bathtub-sized volume of water, there are 30-35 salmon (compared with only 6-8 on an organic farm). He would use wild salmon rather than organically farmed, but this year's catch has an inferior taste because of all the rain. One bite, and you'll realize what smoked salmon is supposed to taste like!

After a good look in his smokeroom, we packed up the buses and headed for the Mahon Point Farmer's Market in Cork (http://www.mahonpointfarmersmarket.com/). Five years ago, Thursday was the painfully slowest day at the Mahon Point shopping center. Since our headmistress's son in law, Rupert Hugh Jones, organized the weekly market in the covered carpark, Thursday is now the highest traffic day by a large percentage. It is an interesting and recent phenomenon that large shopping centers and supermarkets are actually encouraging the growth of parking lot farmer's markets because of the traffic they attract.

If I had a million dollars, I could have spent it all at the market (don't tell the IRS). There was everything from farmhouse cheeses to crusty breads to local produce to fresh fish to free-range meat- complete with, best of all, free samples! To make it even more picturesque, there was a lone guitarist singing the best of Paul, John, Ringo, and George. I know what you are all wondering, and yes, my beloved O'Connaill's Hot Chocolate had a stand!

Though their cocoa is always delicious (I'll try to stop ranting about it), I think my favorite stand was "Supersprout" selling germinated chick peas, lima beans, black eyed peas, etc. One of nature's superfoods, sprouts are low fat, high fiber, nutrient-packed snacks said to contain Ch'i, the Chinese idea for the "energy of life". Try adding these puppies into your diet- they pack a powerful punch.

We moved onward towards the birthplace of Baylough Cheese, handmade by Dick and Anne Keating in Clogheen, County Tipperary. This couple started making cheese more than two decades ago, when they had six children to feed and hardly two pennies to rub together. As a last resort, Anne began making cheese on her kitchen stove with surplus milk. With a little research here and some encouragement there, her cheese started selling and hasn't stopped since! Anne, who has long since upgraded from her kitchen stove to a cheese studio on the property, told this story as she cut the coagulated raw (unpasteurized) cows milk in a giant vat, separating the curds (solids) from the whey (liquid). We all had a chance to taste the cheddar, and it was delicious.

After some tea and refreshments, we hit the bus again to head through the Comeragh Mountains (we passed some of William Drohan's lambs grazing!) to Cappoquin to see where Crinnaghtaun Apple Juice is manufactured (http://www.irishapplejuice.com/). A family business, David and Julia (and their daughter Jess) showed us their 90 acre orchard and the apple juice making process. Apparently, an apple a day can keep the doctor away. The nutrients in the deep red color are said to be anti-cancerous, and the pectin in the pulp is great for lowering cholesterol. For those concerned with sugar levels, apples are less sweet than other fruits such as grapes and melon.

After a taste of their freshly pressed juice, we pressed on. Our final destination was The Summer House (http://www.thesummerhouse.ie/cafe.html) in historic Lismore, owned by 1993 Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate Owen Madden. Both an upscale houseware store and a cafe, this place exudes ambiance. I certainly wouldn't mind waiting for a table in this cheerful shop, which sold everything from wine and homemade jam to cookbooks and teapots.

We entered the Cookery School gates as wearily as Odysseus entered Ithaca's harbor. Overall, it was an informative, interesting, and, as always, delicious day!

32!

2009-10-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

We always cross the mid week hump with a theory day. Today focused on the art of butchery, South African wines, tips for freezing your food, and the use of spices. But, as I have learned, we cannot begin a theory day without first making the "biscuit of the week". This week we made chocolate and toffee squares (or "millionaire squares", aptly named because they are so expensive to bake!). To do so, we layered shortcake pastry, homemade toffee, and melted dark chocolate in a baking tray. The toffee is basically sugar, butter and condensed milk that you constantly stir while it boils away in a saucepan. To test if it is ready (i.e. the right firmness: somewhere between gloopy and pull-your-teeth-out hard), plunge a teaspoon of the hot toffee into cold water and wait for it to cool. Like jams and jellies, you are going to eat toffee cold (or at room temperature) so you must test it when it is cold.

There was a surprise visit from sixth generation lamb farmer William Drohan of Comeragh Mountain Lamb (http://www.comeraghmountainlamb.ie/). William's flock enjoys the benefits of grazing on herbs, grasses, and wild flowers across pastures high in the Comeragh Mountains. Reared with care and happy until the end, these animals produce top quality meat. As our headmistress said, it is mavericks like William who are leading the way back to where food should come from. With so many large companies still focused on quantity rather than quality, think about where you spend your money and who you want to support!

Then arrived Philip Dennhardt, master butcher, with a pig carcass halved lengthwise from head to tail. Philip is a fourth generation German butcher, who has worked everywhere from Chez Panisse in Berkeley to Grand Central Market in New York. As the quality of pre-butchered retail meat has decreased, his trade has grown in popularity. More restaurants are buying entire carcasses to hang in cold rooms and butcher in-house. The difference in quality is undeniable.

Pigs are remarkably similar to humans biologically (and mentally, depending on which human we're talking about!). We watched as Philip gracefully glided along the natural seams of the animal, rather than hacking Texas-Chainsaw-esque through muscle fibers (which damages the meat because you lose succulent juices). Within no time, he had separated the leg, the shoulder, the loin (AKA back), and the belly. He then showed us how to cure bacon, coppa, gianciale, and pancetta and how to make sausages and salami. Nothing is wasted (they even boil the head to make "brawn", a terrine of jellied meat). A noble end for a happy pig!

Our culture is changing as quality food becomes more of a priority. As Philip says, "you're not a hero anymore if you work in a bank and drive a sports car". Rather, it is the artisans who make their own compost or cure their own meats or brew their own beer who are really turning heads!

We broke for lunch, and then returned for a quick wine tasting session with Jeanette Bruwer, the owner of Springfield Estate in Robertson, South Africa (http://www.springfieldestate.com/). Jeanette and her brother Abrie are fourth generation wine farmers. A family run vineyard, the Springfield Estate grows grapes organically, but does not put "organic" on the label ("we sell wine. We don't sell labels"). We tasted a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, and both were excellent. Interestingly enough, due to the opposing Indian Ocean and Antarctica currents, 90 % of all the grapes grown in South Africa are within a 2 hour drive from Cape Town.

Finally, we finished the afternoon with a quick talk from Rory on freezing foods and a final lecture on spices from 2004 Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate, Arun Kapil of Green Saffron (http://www.greensaffron.com/). Green Saffron is a small family business which seeks to provide the highest quality spices to its customers. Arun and his relatives travel to India and meet directly with spice growers to personally bring back small quantities to sell in Ireland, London, or to order. They also make their own spice mixes to sell in packets complete with recipes on how to use them. It is the ultimate "fast food" - just saute some onions, add the spice packet, add some meat, maybe some stock, and you're golden. We taste-tested a few, and they were out of this world.

Today's Tips:

- In Rory's freezer, you will always find stock, puff pastry, frozen fruit, and butter (he told me this, I did NOT go breaking into his house... yet)

- According to Philip, "California is the way forward, food wise"

- It is very important not to stress an animal before it is slaughtered, or you will toughen the meat. This goes for everything from pigs to crabs.

- Season meat the night before you cook it, when possible. The salt will break down the fibers and tenderize the meat. Ina Garten (AKA the Barefoot Contessa) recommends that you should sprinkle meat with salt as soon as you bring it home from the grocery store before storing it in the fridge.

- Salt takes 30 seconds to dissolve into a sauce or soup. Therefore, give the salt time to do so before tasting the soup to judge if it needs more seasoning!

- Try curing your own meat! Anyone can do it, so long as he or she has plenty of salt, a cool and dry area to hang the meat, and some patience.

- With fish, the fresher, the plainer, the better. Sometimes, a sprinkle of olive oil, salt and pepper and maybe some fresh herbs goes a long way.

- There is no right or wrong in wine, so don't be shy about stating what you think! Wines are very personal, and are meant to be enjoyed. If you like it, that's all that matters.

- Bone dry Sauvignon Blanc makes a great aperitif, because the acidity prepares the stomach for food.

Thirty One

2009-10-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Before I start with the day's plethora of tips, check out this New York Times article on garlic and its health effects (sent to me by my good friend and amateur foodie, Alex!). After my natural medicine rant a couple posts ago, I thought it too coincidental (and too interesting) not to mention.

Today was a great day in the kitchen, mainly because we were cooking breakfast for lunch (I live for breakfast). I had to make plum and apple jam, ginger and lemon zest muffins, breakfast scones, Ballymaloe muesli, and one serving of "the Fry". I rolled the scones a little too thick, which caused them to bulge and slightly topple like miniature Leaning Towers of Pisa. Its not the end of the world as you know it, but something to keep that in mind when baking at home.

The ginger and lemon zest muffins recipe comes from one of Marion Cunningham's cookbooks (she calls them "Bridge Creek Muffins"). I would not have thought to put grated ginger in a muffin, but the result was truly delicious. I'll definitely make those again. The jam went well, as did the muesli (you can be sure that I added plenty of fat-converting Lecithin!). Below you'll see my jam, muesli (in a yogurt parfait), ginger muffin, and scone all ready for tasting!

By 11:30 AM, the kitchen windows fogged as everyone started his or her individual "Fry". In case you're interested in the order, it works best to fry the sausages, then the bacon, then the black and white pudding, and then the egg, (cleaning the pan in between). You can keep the cooked meat warm in an oven while you tackle the rest. While you're frying, you can roast your tomatoes and mushroom in the oven. If you have 4 frying pans and 4 pairs of hands, you can do this all at once.

After a delicious breakfast for lunch (complete with Mimosas AKA Bucks Fizz made with freshly squeezed orange juice!), we headed off to a surprise wine lecture with visiting winemaker, Jean-Francois Bordet of Domaine Seguinot Bordet wines from Chablis, France. A couple things to reiterate about French wines after his visit. One: Chablis (a region in France and a type of wine) must be made with Chardonnay grapes (according to the French "Appellation Controllee). Two: You can order standard Chablis, or you can order Chablis from the very best grapes (i.e. the older vines, the better altitude, the better sun exposure, etc), which is called Chablis Premier Cru. If you can get your hands on it, there even exists a few Chablis Grand Cru, made from the best of the best grapes. The Appellation Controllee decides which specific areas, hillsides, and individual acres produce the Premier Cru and Grand Cru grapes, so if you are lucky enough to inherit a Grand Cru bit of land, you'll be a Grand Cru winemaker (regardless of your winemaking skills). You can see how this somehow taints the Appellation Controllee distinctions...

After a quick tasting of Jean-Francois's Chablis and Chablis Premiere Cru, we went on to our afternoon demonstration. We learned how to fillet various flat fishes, including Plaice, Sole, Turbot, Brill, and John Dory (or St. Pierre). I found this particularly challenging because each fish seemed to have a different technique for filleting. Hopefully we'll get a better handle on the various methods as the weeks progress. We also learned how to make Choux pastry (used for eclairs, profiteroles, beignets, etc), a Provencale Bean Stew, and Chilli Con Carne.

Some tips on today's lesson:

- Try to avoid serving and drinking white wine when it is ice cold. Chilled white wine is all well and good until you overdo it and dull the flavor. Ditch the ice bucket. (I guess this means I can't add ice cubes to my wine anymore!)

- If you're ever in Paris, get to Angelina's for a cup of their famous hot chocolate. If you're in New York, City Bakery's hot chocolate comes highly recommended (18th and 5th).

- To make coconut rice, simply substitute coconut milk for the water used to cook rice. For a less rich flavor, you can do half coconut milk and half water.

- If you're making eclaires, sprinkle some water on the baking tray before popping them into the oven. The water drops create steam which encourages the eclairs to puff up.

Day Thirty

2009-10-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Day Thirty (or "day tirty" as they say over here). I was assigned to make an omelette and a tomato salad with a honey vinaigrette. Since this is a rather light load, I opted to take on tomato puree, rum and raisin cake, and the formidable white yeast bread as well. I got in early for the bread, and luckily ran into our headmistress's husband. He is a particularly talented breadmaker, and I was fortunate enough to have him coach me through the early stages. Moral support is often the most important ingredient for a beginner breadmaker! The final result is below (one plait and some rolls). One tip: with white yeast bread, you can always add more water if it is too dry, but it is difficult to knead in flour if it is too wet, so add your water carefully!

I then made tomato puree (basically stewed tomatoes), a dish they make over here in the late summer and freeze for the winter months. It is a way to take advantage of tomatoes when they are in season (and cheapest!) in order to have delicious tomato flavor all year round. Imagine the flavor of a ripe August tomato on Christmas Eve! That's what tomato puree is meant to achieve.

The rum and raisin cake went off rather seamlessly. With any fruit cake, make sure to not open the oven while it is cooking, or the fruit will sink to the bottom. Finally, there was the French omelette. We used two eggs and cooked them in a very hot pan greased with clarified butter. To clarify butter, put a Pyrex jug filled with butter into the oven. The white 'solids' will sink to the bottom and the clear, clarified butter will rise to the top. I made three omelettes (picture below...) and all were "too light" - i.e. the pan, though smoking when I added the butter, was apparently not hot enough. This gives you an idea of just how hot and how quickly these are supposed to cook.

After lunch, we assembled for the afternoon demonstration which began with a presentation by Local Producers of the Week, pig farmers Noreen and Martin Conroy. On a 30 acre farm, these local heroes raise pigs that are moved from green to greener pastures every three months. This method of rotating the pens keeps the pigs well fed and happy (and not requiring antibiotics!). Noreen and Martin have virtually cut out the infamous "middle man" and do all the rearing, breeding and butchering themselves save the help of a local abattoir (AKA slaughterhouse). Luckily for the Conroy's, the abattoir is incredibly humane and keeps the pigs relaxed and rested until the end (happy pigs produce better meat). I hope I got all this information right because, as it turns out, Martin is a reader of this blog!

They were a great introduction to the subject of our class: the Irish breakfast. In the words of our headmistress, "breakfast can be absolutely divine or totally mundane and pedestrian". Its potential for greatness lies in the little details. And those details kept us scribbling notes until 6 o'clock. We learned how to make breakfast scones, various types of muesli, homemade granola, different types of porridge, baked, poached or fried eggs, jams, muffins, pancakes, waffles, and the legendary "Fry". An Irish tradition, when you order "The Fry" you can expect to receive one fried egg, 2 fried sausages, "rashers" (AKA bacon), fried black and white pudding (don't even ask what is in it!), a fried tomato, and a fried mushroom. An "Ulster Fry" includes fried potato bread (or "fadge"). A Irish Country House Breakfast is a Fry plus fried lambs kidney. So, if you want to make breakfast the most important meal of your life (i.e. the one that kills you), order a Fry.

The daily tips:

- "Freshly squeezed orange juice doesn't come out of a jug, it comes out of an orange" -Darina Allen

- Muffins made at home rarely look as beautiful as the ones you buy, but they always taste better. My mother always said you cannot eat atmosphere. Well, you cannot eat appearance either.

- Check out any books by Marion Cunningham (the Fanny Farmer Junior Cookbook was my first cookbook!)

- When buying citrus fruit, it should feel heavy. Light oranges, for example, tend to have more pith (the bitter white membrane) than heavy oranges.

- Try eating foods with a low GI for breakfast. The GI (glycemic index) measures the rate that carbohydrates digest and release sugar into your bloodstream. The higher the GI, the faster the carb digestion, the sharper and more sudden the rise in blood sugar levels. This means a burst of energy and then a crash. The lower the GI, the slower the sugar release, and the more prolonged, steady energy. Oatmeal has a very low GI. Corn flakes have a very high GI.

- Agave nectar has the lowest GI index of any sweetener. Try it instead of Splenda (my worst nightmare!), sugar, or my beloved honey.

- Organic is always free range, but free range is not always organic.

- Scramble eggs by pouring the whisked eggs into a cold saucepan, and then turning on the heat. Do not pour them into a sizzling saucepan. Cook them slowly, stirring constantly with a spatula. You'll hardly need to wash the pan when they're cooked!

- Don't over mix pancake batter or they will be tough. Lumps of flour are ok.

- Try adding Lecithin to your diet. Derived from the soya bean, Lecithin helps your body convert fat into energy rather than storing it in your thighs!

29

2009-10-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday, bloody Sunday. Not much to report here. After feeling like I was coming down with a cold, and much to the shock and horror of my traveling companions, I swallowed a clove of garlic to give my immune system a bit of a boost. I learned this trick from my favorite natural medicine lover back in the states. He's been known to eat anything from echinacea pellets to fish oil pills to ward off a cold. A green tea and gogi berry guzzler, he would rub homeopathic Traumeel (comprised of 12 botanical and 2 mineral substances) on bruised and battered limbs after lacrosse games rather than popping some Advil. Needless to say, his garlic trick worked. I might not have been kissable for the better part of Sunday afternoon, but I felt great Monday morning.

Natural medicines are a fascinating field. One of the Ballymaloe House chefs is married to a natural herbalist, and he hasn't had a pharmaceutical drug in nine years! I am currently trying to set up a night class with her at the school for any interested students. I will be sure to write about it if and when it happens!

Twenty Eight

2009-10-19T11:59:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning I found myself waking up in Roscommon Town in Northwest Ireland. Neither kidnapped nor teleported, I had driven up the night before with two other students to stay for the weekend. Our four hour trip involved a few wrong turns, a lot of countryside viewing, and a briefer than brief stop at the Rock of Cashel. It is big, beautiful, and packed with history. That's about all I can tell you about this landmark. But, I have the picture to prove I was there (I'm the minuscule tourist in the foreground)!

We decided on the roadtrip that we would climb Croagh Patrick Saturday morning, a mountain south of Westport on the northwest coast. Against all odds (and by odds I mean pints of Guinness), we actually got out of bed to do it! After a ninety minute ride, my heart stopped when I saw what we had signed up for. Rising 2,500 feet above sea level, this steep cliff is not for the faint of heart (the picture doesn't do it justice).

Pilgrims flock from around the world to ascend the summit in honor of Ireland's own St. Patrick, who fasted on the slope for 40 days and 40 nights in the fifth century AD. Some particularly penitent pilgrims climb barefoot or even on their knees! I saw one such character on my way down, and have to admit I felt a little wimpy for not trying this myself (maybe next time!). The guidebooks reckon it takes about 2 hours to reach the top, but we made it in an hour and ten (it's all that organic Ballymaloe energy!).

It was a great experience, and I will definitely try to work it in if I am lucky enough to make it back to Ireland later in life. Funnily enough, after a conversation with my Mom Sunday evening, I discovered that I had been there before! When my family came to stay at the Ballymaloe House in 1988, we were finishing a week long trip which began with a pilgrimage to Knock and Croagh Patrick. My parents, their five children (six if you include the baby in my mother's womb!), and one very devoted babysitter made it halfway up (the summit is too treacherous for kids). Come to think about it, I thought it looked familiar...

Shaky legged and parched, we made it back to the car park. A bowl of tomato and basil soup in Westport (winner of the 2001, 2006, and 2008 "Tidiest Town" award) hit the spot. We rounded out the afternoon at a Gaelic football match, a traditional Irish sport that lies somewhere between soccer and rugby. My host's two younger brothers were playing for the Roscommon team. As it goes, they won.

Forever 27

2009-10-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Friday arrived in full glory. It is hard to believe that I've completed four weeks! Tempus fugit. The strawberries and sugar which I let sit overnight were ready to boil into jam. Since strawberries are extremely low in pectin (the "stuff" which makes jams set), we let the fruit marinate in sugar overnight, which somehow seems to help the setting process. You also need to add something that is traditionally high in pectin to help the jam set, such as lemon juice or redcurrant juice (or maybe even apple juice? raspberry juice? its worth experimenting!). You will not taste the bit of juice, and it will really help raise the "pectin index" in the jam.

I also made watercress soup. Watercress is a green that grows all over Ireland in great batches at the edges of streams. It is easy to forage and delicious to eat. I prepared the base of the soup in the morning (sauteed onions, chicken stock, etc) but did not add the watercress until just before lunch to preserve the bright green color. The watercress only takes a minute to cook and then you wiz the soup in a blender until smooth. If you want to do these final steps ahead of time (say, for instance, before guests arrive), there are a couple of ways to keep the color. One: do not cover the soup. This traps the steam, which ruins the vibrant greens. Two: try to cool the soup down as much as possible after pureeing it. The hotter the soup is when it sits, the more the color will drain from it. Cool it down by pouring the soup back and forth in between two bowls a couple of times. Reheat it just before serving.

Finally, I made some pastry and an apple pie. The Irish version of our American classic calls for only apples and sugar in the filling. I restrained myself from adding cinnamon and lemon juice and all the other American additions, but I'll be hard pressed to hold off on these spices come Christmastime back in Massachusetts! One tip: apples tend to break down during cooking, so make sure to fill your shell with plenty of chopped apples. Otherwise you might end up with a sunken, concave, sad little pie.

Our afternoon demonstration focused on the art of the omelette. With a hot pan and some technique, you can churn one of those babies out in 30 seconds. Our teacher made it look easy, but I'll see how "easy" it is Monday morning. From what I could tell from my chair, you should start with a spotlessly clean pan to keep the omelette from sticking. Don't scrimp on the butter either...

We also learned how to make mushroom or wild mushroom soup, marzipan (an almond paste), and caramelized walnuts. When working with mushrooms, do not clean them with water lest they soak up the moisture (which will dilute the flavor). Instead, wipe them with a dry cloth. For the caramelized walnuts, if you're making your own caramel (basically by boiling sugar until it reaches a caramel color), remember that it will continue to cook significantly after you turn off the heat. You need to work quickly with the caramel or it will get too dark and develop a bitter, burned taste. And so ends week four.

26!

2009-10-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's tea and cake demonstration (the tasting pictured above) inspired everyone this morning to awaken his or her inner baker and whip up all varieties of sweets. Chocolate and coffee buttercream icings, lemon sponge cakes, crystallized flowers and homemade candied peel - you name it, I ate it. I actually did not make a cake, but was the self-proclaimed "taster" of everyone's frosting and/or batter. A couple of my classmate's cakes are pictured below (I won't take the credit)! For my part, I started a batch of strawberry jam (it sits overnight to help the setting process... I'll finish it tomorrow) and made tomatilla salsa (salsa verde) and chilaquiles verdes (I'd be lying if I said this was anything more complicated than a chips and salsa casserole). Because I had extra time, I made some pastry and lined a tart ring for practice (READ: over-achiever).

At lunch, we had our choice of a Thai-Spiced squash soup or a spiced chick pea soup to start. For our main course we ate various chicken salads like a Vietnamese version with shredded chicken, lime juice and mint and a traditional Curried Chicken with mango and cashews. As if we needed dessert after this feast, all the morning's cakes were set out and students went at it!

For our afternoon demonstration, we learned how to make various green soups (watercress soup, spinach soup, kale soup, etc), a "bacon chop" with Irish whiskey sauce (this dish is 100% guaranteed to stop your heart), and an apple and blackberry tart. The bacon chop is cut from a loin of bacon, which comes from the lower back of the pig (not to be confused with our breakfast "streaky bacon" from the lower stomach region). The bacon chop has a consistency more like pork than bacon.

Some bits of information:

- Meat from a freshly slaughtered pig is called pork. It only becomes Ham or Bacon when it is salted.

- Do not poach an egg with vinegar in the boiling water (which supposedly discourages the egg from separating). It completely ruins the flavor. If you are worried about losing a little egg white in the poaching process, get the freshest egg you can lay your hands on and it won't separate nearly as much.

- If you are making any type of green soup, add the green (spinach, kale, etc) as close to serving as possible so that the soup maintains a vibrant green color. The longer a green soup sits, the less vibrant it becomes. Do not cover it, or the steam will further dull the color.

- If you are making meringues and they get a little soft over time, you can always put them back in the oven to crisp up.

- When working with whisked egg whites (for meringues, cakes, mouses, etc), do not whisk your egg whites too far in advance of folding them in, or they will deflate.

- Unlike black tea, make green tea with hot but not boiling water.

- Green tea takes about 2 minutes to steep, while black tea can take up to 5.

- Myrtle Allen, the grande dame of the Ballymaloe House, had to be taught by her husband how to scramble an egg when she returned from her honeymoon. Every great cook has to start somewhere!

Twenty Five!

2009-10-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

Buckle your seat belts. Today's "Theory Day" cropped a plentiful harvest of tips. I started the day down at the greenhouse for our weekly organic gardening lesson, which mostly focused on herb and salad leaf identification in preparation for our midterm exams (we'll have to identify 15 herbs and 8 salad leaves). Sufficiently muddled in a jumble of pakchoi, mustard greens, and Chinese cabbage, I headed to the demonstration room for a full day of learning.

Our headmistress introduced the "cheese of the week": the ever-pungent blue. On a large platter lay various Irish farmhouse blues (including Cashel Blue, Crozier Blue, and Wicklow Blue Brie), a traditional English Stilton ("the king of cheeses"- there are only six dairies licensed to produce it), an Italian Gorgonzola, and a French Roquefort, which we enjoyed with lunch. Tip: When storing blue cheese, wrap it well in foil lest its strong scent permeate throughout the fridge!

For the remainder of the morning, Colm McCan, the sommelier at the Ballymaloe House, and guest lecturer Pascal Rossignol, French native and owner of Le Caveau Wine Merchant in Kilkenny (http://www.lecaveau.ie/), gave a cursory review of the wines of France. As I've
noted before, the French classify their wines by region, rather than by the grape used. The most famous wine regions are Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Alsace, Loire, and Champagne. The French often put very little information on their wine labels, assuming the buyer is familiar with the regions of France. I'm certainly not, so here is, to the best of my knowledge, a quick (and over-simplified, I'm sure!) review of the grapes for which the regions are known:

Bordeaux can either be red or white. The "left bank" of the Bordeaux region (or "Medoc") produces reds with mainly Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, while the "right bank" produces reds with mainly Merlot grapes. White Bordeaux is made mainly with Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes. Tip: If you like New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc (like Sancerre), try Bordeaux whites. They are less known but equally good, and tend to be a great value for your money! They also pair with food well.

Burgundy is by far the most confusing region. Simply put, there are red Burgundy wines made with Pinot Noir grapes, and there are white Burgundy wines made with Chardonnay grapes (Burgundy whites made Chardonnay famous).

The Rhone Valley produces red wines made with the Shiraz (or Syrah) grape and white wines made with a blend of grapes (specifically Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussane).

The Loire region produces white wines made with Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc grapes (like Sancerre or Pouilly Fume).

Alsace makes whites with the Riesling and Pinot Gris grape. Though many write off wines from Alsace as "sweet" and "German", the modern whites from this region are actually dry and go well with food.

Finally, Champagne makes Champagne with Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay grapes. Delicious!

These regions are strictly regulated by the Appellation Controllee system. Under French law, you cannot, for instance, put "Burgundy" on your wine label unless your wine was produced in Burgundy. So when you see "Appellation Bourgogne Controllee" printed on a wine label (always on the front), this means that the French law guarantees that your wine came from "Bourgogne" AKA Burgundy. Higher classes of wines might guarantee that your wine came from a particular village (eg. "Appellation [insert village name here] Controllee") and higher still guarantee a particular vineyard ("Appellation [vineyard] Controllee"). This is a way to guarantee the origins of the wine. You'll notice that a bottle of Andre does not have "Appellation Champagne Controllee" printed on the label!

- Store wine in a dark room with a relatively stable year round temperature (cellar, under the stairs, etc).

- Saint Vincent is the patron saint of winemakers.

- If you would like to "decant" a bottle of red (let it "breath" to release the full flavor), and do not have a decanter (I certainly don't!), pour the entire bottle into a jug, and then pour it back into the bottle. This is called "double decanting", and will have the same effects as a fancy decanter.

After a morning of wine, we jumped into an afternoon of tea and cakes. Tea, after water, is the most consumed beverage in the world. Some blame the Boston Tea Party (where thousands of boxes of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor) for the reason America is a coffee drinking nation. As a Boston-born, I resent that statement! Surprisingly enough, White, Green, and Black tea all come from the same tea plant. It is the way producers harvest and dry the leaves that gives the teas their particular color. Since "tea is the new black", (and I am a tea addict!), here are some tea tips from today!

- If you are ever in Paris, try getting to Mariage Freres (http://www.mariagefreres.com/).

- On a Caffeine Scale, if coffee has 100 units, black tea scores a 70, green tea scores a 30, and white tea scores a 10.

- Use fresh water and "never boil a kettle twice" - oxygen levels lower each time you boil and your tea won't taste as fresh.

- Coffee stimulates the heart and gives a real jolt (but then you crash!). Tea gives you a longer, more steady "nudge". It also increases concentration so have a pot when you have a lot of work to get through!

Two Dozen

2009-10-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

I had a fowl-filled morning: up with the roosters for an early AM lesson on plucking a duck. As it turns out, I'm a natural. I guess I can now put "proficient at fowl plucking" in the skills section of my resume (below "blogging aficionado" and above "amateur glutton"). Though definitely an outdoor job, it is relatively simple and surprisingly not disgusting (you can tell by the look on my face).

After a hearty scrub of my hands, I set off to make brown soda bread, summer pudding, and a crab, tomato, and avocado starter. To make "summer pudding" (a dish with which I was unfamiliar until now), you line a small bowl with cake (like an igloo) and then fill it with juicy, stewed berries. The berries seep into the outer cake layer, and once it chills overnight, you can turn it out onto a plate and have a dome of "summer pudding".

The crab, tomato, and avocado starter involved picking two crabs (one lightweight male and one roe-filled female) and making my own mayonnaise. If you have three spare minutes, making your own mayonnaise is simple and, in terms of flavor, definitely worth it. Just whisk egg yolks while slowly drizzling in oil until it thickens. Your arm muscles will tone up in no time!

Diced Tomato, Crab, and Avocado

We began the afternoon demonstration with a quick tutorial on squash and pumpkin varieties (which are coming into season). As far as cooking goes, butternut squash generally has the best flavor, but feel free to experiment with all different varieties (acorn, delicata, hubbard, white large, etc). We made Thai-spiced squash soup, but squash simply roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper is delicious as well.

Another in-season must-have is kale (curly, red russian, redbor, or tuscan). It is delicious, currently inexpensive, and incredibly good for you. Just cook uncovered in boiling salted water until it is tender (until it is "dark and slothery and Wuthering Heights-esque" -Rory). The most common mistake made with kale is that it is not cooked enough, so be careful! Make sure it really reminds you of Wuthering Heights before you take it off the boil (a fool proof method).

Tuesday's Tips:

- Do not leave a cake to cool by a draft, such as a windowsill (unless you are in a terrible rush). The draft will cause the outer edges to harden.

- If you are looking for high quality chocolate (as we know, chocolate desserts are only as good as the chocolate used), try any of the following brands: Lindt, Meunierx, Suchard, Callebaut, or Valrhona.

- If you ever have leftover gravy, save it! The layer of fat on the top creates a perfect seal and it will keep refrigerated for months. Gravy is an excellent punch of flavor - great for stews, sauces, etc.

- If you are working with chick peas in soups, stews, or dips, they tend to get a bit "floury" and thick when left to sit. You can work the mixture back to your desired consistency with a bit of chicken stock (for soups) or some of the leftover cooking water (from when you cooked the chick peas). If you don't have either, water works just fine.

- Which reminds me: leftover cooking water can often be the magic ingredient in sauces, pasta dishes, etc. Save some of your cooking water just in case you need to thin out a sauce or loosen up some sticky pasta.

- When making a cake that begins with creaming butter, then adding sugar, then adding eggs (the beginning steps to most cakes), try to get your eggs to room temperature before you add them. Your mixture is a lot less likely to curdle if there isn't a big temperature change with the addition of the eggs.

Three and Twenty

2009-10-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Monday morning: back to the kitchens and back to work! I started my day "sponging" fresh yeast in tepid water, which basically means crumbling yeast into a Pyrex jug (you can NEVER have enough of them!) half-filled with lukewarm water to activate it. It sounded simple enough, but I managed to get it wrong. Well, a shade of wrong. The water into which I crumbled the yeast was a little too cold, which meant my bread took twice as long as everyone else's to rise.

Given the choice between too hot and too cold water, too cold is definitely the lesser of the two evils. Too hot water kills the yeast, and your bread is as good as dead. Give it a quick funeral and start over. Too cold water just means that your yeast will react lazily, like a teenager, and you'll have a mother-daughter standoff until the stubborn yeast eventually comes around. The sooner you start thinking of yeast as a living thing, the better (albeit crazier!) you'll be. In other words, it was a good lesson in breadmaking. Don't panic if it doesn't rise as quickly as the recipe says it will. Put it somewhere warm and wait it out.

I also filleted my first fish (a tiny whiting fish) and made a Middle-Eastern spice dip called "Dukkah" (or "Duqqa"- it sounds about as interesting as it is). I broke for lunch to say goodbye to my weekend guests, and then headed to the afternoon demonstration. On the menu were roast chicken, roast guinea fowl, cranberry sauce, red currant sauce, butter sponge cake, and "summer pudding". Before we got to cooking anything, local gamekeeper Tom Duane (and his trusty dog Benny) gave a brief lecture on various breeds of game birds and how to pluck, gut, and cook them. On display were pheasant, grouse, mallard and teal duck, partridge, snipe, and woodcock - some stuffed and some freshly hunted. Game is, technically speaking, anything that has a hunting season (deer, pheasant, etc). Those species that can be hunted all year long are called vermin (rabbit, pigeon, etc). After a live display of plucking and gutting the fowl (which was, surprisingly, not as gruesome as I imagined), Tom and Benny left us to finish the cooking process.

Here is a random assortment of tips from the demonstration:

- When eating game, do not be alarmed if you find a small amount of pellet in your meat (haha- no seriously). After shooting game, it is nearly impossible to get all of the lead out of the bird. Just brush it aside on your plate (and be grateful that your restaurant is serving you wild rather than farmed game!)

- If you are ever in the position where you have to gut your own bird (deserted island? husband not at home?), be careful not to break the gall bladder when removing the innards (the gall bladder is the really slimy sack next to the other really slimy sacks- you cannot miss it!) The gall bladder contains bitter juices that will sour the taste of the meat.

- Try to buy crabs whole, or buy the pre-picked meat of the entire crab. Buying only crab claw meat encourages fishermen to remove the claws and throw de-clawed crabs back into the ocean- a waste of food and a less-than-desirable fate for Mr. Crabs!

- Parchment Paper is another kitchen staple

- The bottom of the leg of a roast chicken is the last part to cook. To tell if a roast chicken is cooked, cut where the bottom of the leg attaches to the breast. If the juices run clear, you're golden.

- For pete's sake, rest your meat once it is cooked! 15 minutes makes all the difference. Find something to distract yourself so you're not even tempted to touch a carving knife with a ten-foot pole. You can keep your roast warm in a low oven while you wait.

- When stuffing a turkey (or chicken for that matter), wait until the stuffing is quite cold before placing it in the bird. This avoids the creation of a nice warm cavity for bacteria to flourish. If you are going to cook the bird immediately after you stuff it, bacteria won't have a chance to form, so warm stuffing won't do any harm.

- Don't over stuff a bird or it will not cook properly. If your family is full of stuffing lovers like mine, make some extra and cook it in a casserole dish (it won't be as flavorful, but at least there'll be enough stuffing to go around!)

22!

2009-10-12T15:27:00.000-07:00

The Ballymaloe House (and two famous friends!)

After sleeping the sleep of the gluttonous, we awoke refreshed for a full day of tourism. We quickly hit the Ballymaloe breakfast buffet, whose highlight was the unique Apple Muesli (grainy granola mixed with grated apple), and then got on the road to historic Kinsale in West Cork. A small fishing village 15 minutes south of Cork City, guidebooks tout Kinsale as picture-postcard-esque. Now having been, I can attest to its charm. In addition to its scenic qualities, the town is also a hub for foodies of any description, particularly those interested in the freshest of fish. This past weekend was Kinsale's Gourmet Festival (http://www.kinsalerestaurants.com/autumn.php), an event in which we did not partake (tickets were required), but which we were certainly interested.

A particular highlight was Jo's Cafe, a small bakery and coffee shop which boasts homemade scones with raspberry jam and, you guessed it, hot chocolate made with O'Connaill's Chocolate! I am getting the knack of finding this stuff wherever I go in Ireland.

The Ballycotton Cliff Walk

Upon returning to Ballymaloe in the afternoon, we had a quick lunch of wild mushroom soup and caramalized onion and thyme quiche at the Cafe in the Ballymaloe Shop. Run by a former Ballymaloe Cookery School student, this small cafe makes all its baked goods and simple lunch fare from scratch. We waited half an hour for a table, and it was worth the wait! To finish our afternoon, we went for a 6 mile hike on the Ballycotton Cliff Walk.

TwentyOne

2009-10-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Day 21 arrived, along with some stowaways from across the pond! I jumped out of bed, put on my hostess hat, and jetted off to the Cork Airport to meet two all-star friends who came all the way from New York for Columbus Day weekend. After some "typical American" hijinks at the arrivals gate, and a particularly embarrassing display of ditziness with the Avis Rent-a-Car personnel ("automatic is the one where there isn't a clutch, right?"), we embarked timidly on the left side of the road towards the English Market in Cork Center. Other stops in Cork ("must sees" from my limited experience) included the Farm Gate Cafe for lunch and O'Connaill's Chocolatier to satisfy my pathetic weekly hot chocolate fix.

Then off we were to the Ballymaloe House, our home for the next two days (it doesn't get any better than that). After checking in, we headed to the cooking school where I gave a quick tour of our "classrooms", the gardens, and the beach before returning to the House to prepare for our epic feast that evening. To clear up any confusion, the Ballymaloe House (www.ballymaloe.ie) is an award winning hotel and restaurant 2 miles away from the Ballymaloe Cookery School. The House has been run for over 40 years by Myrtle Allen, mother-in-law to our school's headmistress Darina Allen. If you are looking for a place to take your wife of 40 years, or to take your new bride, or to just take yourself, The Ballymaloe House will never disappoint. You feel as if you have just walked onto the set of Pride and Prejudice, only Mr. Darcy has been substituted for equally delicious food.

After a glass of Sancerre in the fireplace room, we were seated to enjoy a five course masterpiece. I ordered celeriac soup with hazelnut pesto to start, followed by a quail salad with fresh greens, chorizo, and sultanas, then a main course of roast beef with glazed carrots, mashed potatoes, and sauteed leeks. As if we needed more, they wheeled out a cheese course with various Irish farmhouse cheeses, a dessert course (a pick-whatever-you-like rolling cart carrying chocolate meringue, lemon souffle, poached pears, praline ice cream, and an apple tart) and finally coffee or tea with petit fours of caramel fudge and chocolate truffles. It goes without saying that all the ingredients were the freshest quality, locally produced, and at their peak of season. Everything from the first bite of bread to the last mouthful of truffle was homemade. I can confidently say it was the best restaurant meal I have ever had. If you are ever in Ireland, don't miss it!

The Big 2.0.

2009-10-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Week three came to a close with another theory day. These days are both great and exhausting because of the amount of information thrown at us. We sit in the demonstration room from 9 until 11, then we break for tea (tea is the new coffee), then back to our chairs until lunch around 1, and finally a marathon of learning from 2 till 5:30. By the time 5:30 rolls around, people are (as Rory says) swimming in a sea of lamb shanks and cassoulet and not coming up for air. However, as far as a day of lecturing goes, this was a great one.

In the morning we learned some great butchering skills with a couple different cuts of beef. We prepared a roast rib of beef as well as some braised short ribs. Whenever something is "braised", it means that it is cooked with a lot of liquid or sauce (usually slow cooked). When something is "roasted", it is generally cooked dry in the oven. We also learned how to make a classic frittata (which can be served as a canape like the photo below), horseradish sauce (grated from a fresh horseradish root), orange marmalade, and "yorkshire pudding". Despite it's deceptive name, Yorkshire pudding is actually popover-esque savory bread traditionally cooked in a baking pan greased with rendered beef fat (seriously flavorful). One serves it with roast beef and horseradish sauce. With this as our morning food lesson, you can imagine how tasty lunch was!

I rolled back into the demonstration room after a gross display of gluttony at lunch. To my great delight, Rosemary Kearney, co-author of Healthy Gluten-Free Eating, was giving our afternoon demonstration on baking for the gluten-free diet. Since the last thing I cooked before leaving for Ireland was a gluten-free peach tart, which my coeliac sister Grace (who doesn't usually pass up dessert!) left untouched and my coeliac Dad described as "cardboard-like", I was particularly vigilant during this lecture! For those unfamiliar with coeliac disease, a gluten-free diet avoids wheat, rye, barley, spelt, and usually oats. This cuts out breads, pizza, cookies, beer, and a number of other gluten-filled goodies. Fortunately, there has been a great push for better labeling and more bakery options for coeliacs. Thanks to Rosemary's lecture, I can now confidently attempt gluten-free cookies, biscuits, white soda bread, scones, banana bread, muffins, and, God help me, gluten-free TARTS! Grace and Dad won't know what hit them.

Tips, tips, tips:

- When buying meat, ask the butcher if he has any dry-aged meat. Most meats these days are "wet-aged", or sealed in packaging straight after they've been butchered. The wet-aged method takes less time (a few days) and does not have the same tenderizing and flavor concentrating effects of the two week dry-aging method (i.e. hanging meat in cold rooms).

- When preparing a roast, keep the majority of the fat layer on. Score the fat (run your knife in criss-crossed lines across it, about an inch apart) to allow the liquid fat to run off during roasting, letting the remaining fat get crispy and delicious. Conversely, when braising meat, remove most of the fat. You do not want the excess fat liquids in your braising sauce.

- In the classic French boeuf bourguignon, orange zest is used. You will not taste the orange, but the freshness will round out the beef flavor. Try this technique with beef stews and other slow-cooked beef as well!

- When removing excess fat from cuts of beef or duck, save it! Put it in a Pyrex jug, place the jug in a moderate oven, render it down to liquid, and jar it. Rendered fat has excellent flavor, and is perfect for roasting root vegetables or adding to gravy.

- On that note, a kitchen can never have enough Pyrex jugs

- Freshly (and finely) grated horseradish root is an excellent topping on a fillet of beef, a beef carpaccio, smoked fish, or venison. Good for the sinuses, good for the soul.

- For all you gluten free dieters, beware of spice mixes, English mustard powder, ground white pepper, and pre-grated packaged cheddar cheese. All can sometimes have a wheat based powder included- check the label.

- Monosodium Glutamate, a flavor enhancer in many foods, is gluten free despite its deceptive name.

Nineteen!

2009-10-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

Day Nineteen at the Ballymaloe Cookery School was all that it was cracked up to be. I got in early to weigh my ingredients in peace with a hot cup of tea. I was on "biscuit duty", which meant that, in addition to my other assigned dishes, I had to make a batch of my choice of biscuits for the student lunch (I chose chocolate chip cookies, obviously). I got started quickly on my apple jelly, moved onto strawberry sorbet, hand-rolled my hand-made flour tortillas, and then finished with some Parmesan and cayenne pepper chips. The jelly was fantastic (or "grand" as they say over here), the sorbet was easy (thanks to the ice cream machine), and the flour tortillas were neither fantastic, nor grand, nor easy. It's not that the technique is all that difficult. It is that, after 2 or 3 hand rolled bits of dough, you are ready to throw in your sombrero and buy some tortillas at the grocery store (after all, life is short). I would happily pour my heart into them for a romantic dinner for two (just to show off), but I wouldn't suggest sweating over hundreds for a large crowd.

Lunch was delicious. Along with the things I prepared, we ate quesadillas, homemade salsa and guacamole, a delicious black eyed bean side dish, fresh green salad, and various sorbet flavors for desert (including coconut!). It was fun to have a true Mexican feast, making me feel slightly closer to home. After a quick break (where I managed to reserve a rental car to host my American visitors this weekend!), the afternoon demonstration started. Rory showed us how to make almond tarts or tartlets with various fresh fruit (see below), chicken liver pate with melba toast (I am trying my hardest to acquire a taste for pate), and white yeast bread (which he braided and knotted into all sorts of fun shapes and loaves!). We also poached some cod in milk and then used the milk to make a mornay sauce to go with the fish. A mornay sauce is basically a bechamel sauce (your basic white sauce), but with cheese added.

After class and some yoga, I (along with some others) took advantage of a Thursday night and hit the local pub! Cork has a couple of local stout brewers, most notably Beamish and Murphy's. I've been "buying local" recently, and they give Guinness a run for its money!

Since it's late (and I'm tired!), I'll cut to the chase!

- Serve pate slightly chilled (not at room temp, and definitely not heated!)

- "If you cut down on the butter when making pate, it will not be as good" - Rory. That being said, he proceeded to add enough butter to make the Jolly Green Giant's heart stop.

- When you freeze something (for example, ice cream), the chill dulls the flavor. Keep this in mind when seasoning a dish before it is frozen. Ice creams and sorbets will always taste sweeter (too sweet!) in their liquid state.

- When working with roux to thicken a sauce, always whisk the roux into sauce that is boiling. This will ensure that the roux gets evenly incorporated into the whole sauce.

- When buying ground almonds, check the label to make sure that the only ingredient is almonds (sometimes producers add breadcrumbs to the mix because they are cheaper). Unlike a lot of the spices I've been ranting about, ground almonds are actually better to buy pre-ground. If you try to grind them yourself, you won't be able to grind them finely enough.

- When glazing a fruit tart (which, by the way, is not an essential step), use apricot glaze (basically watered down apricot jam) for tarts containing yellow, white or green fruit. Use redcurrant glaze (thinned redcurrant jelly) for tarts with red, blue or purple fruit.

Eighteen...

2009-10-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: the mid-week hump. The cookery school tackles this milestone with a theory day each week. Today's topics included the "cheese of the week" (washed rind cheese), the "biscuit of the week" (the chocolate chip cookie - they call cookies "biscuits" over here), the "local producer of the week" (Mary Burns from Ardrahan Farmhouse Cheese), and lessons in Vegetarian cooking. We also went over how to make flavored oils and vinegars, how to plan a menu (for a dinner party or a restaurant), and how to get a job! Our headmistress is determined that we all graduate in December gainfully employed. We rounded out the day with an evening foraging class. Many of the big restaurants in the States (Chez Panisse, French Laundry, etc.) employ full time foragers to bring in fresh and eccentric ingredients. A hobby can turn into a lucrative trade!

The cheese of the week, the Ardrahan washed rind cheese, is made with pasteurized milk because it is illegal to sell cheese made with raw milk in Ireland. One of my readers (Mrs. Rubeor!) sent this interesting article (http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bal-md.gr.raw02oct02,0,1514356.story) from the Baltimore Sun about a pilot program in Maryland experimenting with raw cheese production. It is exciting that people (and regulators!) are starting to get over the raw milk paranoia. The French refuse to buy cheese produced with anything but raw milk (pasteurization ruins the bacteria that give the cheese its personality). The French are getting along just fine consuming raw milk cheeses- I think we would too! Check out your local area for rogue raw milk cheese producers.

After a full day of theory, the tips are flooding in!

- Store your baking soda and baking powder in airtight containers, lest they lose their potency.

- Keep your spice rack out of direct sunlight.

- When buying ginger, the skin should be smooth ("not old and wrinkly like myself!" - Darina Allen)

- Buying spices whole and grinding them yourself results in a much more intense flavor than buying pre-ground spices. The whole room smells of cumin when you grind it yourself!

- When cooking with beans, if you forget to soak them overnight and you are in a time crunch, there is a "cheat's method". Cover them in cold water in a saucepan and bring them to a boil. Let them simmer for 3-4 minutes, drain them, and cover with fresh cold water. This method does not result in as great a product as overnight soaking, but it can get you out of a bind!

- When you steam spinach, there is inevitably "spinach water" that collects in the bottom of the pan. Drink it if you want a juice that is packed with iron (pregnant women especially!).

- Buy your olives with the stone in them. The pre-stoned olives are always a lower quality.

- If you are at a restaurant and you try something really great, put on a big smile, tell the waiter how wonderful it is, and ask for the recipe. 50% of the time they'll say no, but it is worth a shot!

- Most truffle oil is synthetic (made with "truffle essence")

- It takes ten times more energy to produce one unit of animal protein than one unit of vegetable protein. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), chick peas, and tofu are all excellent sources of vegetable protein.

- Straight from today's lesson plan: "Most of the so called diseases of civilization eg. heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and obesity seem to be linked with and perhaps to the conventional western diet which is high in animal fats, sugar and salt and usually low in fibre."

- Tofu isn't as scary as it sounds. It is the pressed curds of coagulated soy milk, a product of the protein-rich soyabean. It has very little flavor, so use it as a blank canvas on which to paint any flavors under the sun!

- When making an Asian stir fry, start with the "trinity of garlic, ginger, and spring onions"

- If you want to buy a wok, do not wok (wow that's terrible) into a fancy cookware store and spend a fortune. Buy the type the Chinese use themselves (they are likely to be much less expensive)! If you are in New York or Boston, check out a supermarket in Chinatown. Also, don't use detergent when washing them.

- Coriander, or cilantro, is the most widely used herb in the world. Though some cannot stand it, it is a taste one could acquire (with perseverance!). Those who refuse to eat this flavor close the doors on so many international cuisines in which cilantro is an essential ingredient. Keep trying to like it! (easy for me to say, I know...)

- Check out any cookbook by the head chef of Petersham Nurseries in London, Skye Gyngell. Better yet, check out Petersham Nurseries!

- Try making crepe-like pancakes with soda water (or beer for that matter!) instead of tap water. Also, add a little melted butter to the batter so you do not have to keep greasing the pan.

- One pound of uncooked spinach will shrink down to one serving when cooked.

Day 17

2009-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

Phew! After an actioned packed day (by Ballymaloe standards), I can finally sit back, relax, ...and relive my action packed day. So here goes. It began with an early AM arousal for herb duty with my new best friend, the head gardener. He handed me a rather large knife and we hacked away at fennel, dill, marjoram, parsley, chervil, thyme, and sweet geranium for the better part of an hour. Once we had cut enough herbs for all of Christendom, I headed to my kitchen to prepare for the days work. I blinked, and it was 12:30. In a whirl-wind of sweating onions and picking crabs and waiting for dough to rise, I somehow wound up with a loaf of brown yeast bread, a shepherd's pie, crab mayonnaise, and green beans. I undercooked the beans (apparently "there is a fine line between al dente and undercooked"). The shepherd's pie was delicious, if I do say so myself. And my brown yeast bread could have been lighter. I'll try that one again tomorrow.

Rory, our favorite lecturer, was at the helm again for the afternoon demonstration. We had a "Mexican" themed day, learning how to cook our own tortillas (both wheat and the traditional maize), various quesadillas, guacamole, and homemade salsa, followed by some traditional sorbets, crunchy orange butter scones ("hot out of the oven, they will cause a sensation"), and apple jelly. If your library is thirsting for some Mexican cookbooks, anything by Rick Bayless or Diana Kennedy will serve you well.

After the demo, I had time for a quick shower before rushing off to the Ballymaloe House to observe the kitchen during dinner service. All I can say is that I have a long way to go before I can churn out food that is as delicious as theirs. We glaze carrots, but they really glaze the hell out of carrots. We mash potatoes, but they Mash Potatoes. It's like night and day, really. I don't get it. Part of their secret is the quality of their ingredients (you should try their olive oil), but a lot of it is just impeccable seasoning. Tasting (and re-tasting) food before you serve it is a hugely important step.

Your daily dose of tips:

- When making quesadillas, do not overdo the ingredients so that it becomes a "fat American sandwich". (His exact words. I am still trying to figure out if he meant for the adjective "fat" to describe "American" or "sandwich"? Maybe both?) Quesadillas should be light - there is an art to the proportion of the ingredients.

- Think ahead with avocados. Some take time to ripen. Press your thumb against the skin - if it holds your thumbprint, it's ripe (similar to testing a mango).

- When making guacamole in advance, there are two tricks to keep the mixture from going brown. Trick number one: save the stone as you prepare the avocado. The stone mysteriously delays the oxidization process as long as it is in contact with the avocado. Put it into the bowl with the prepared guac, which leads me to... Trick number two: place cling wrap directly onto the surface of the guac, making an airtight seal around the bowl. Now you're set to refrigerate the dip.

- Rethink the bean. They are an "almost perfect food" - lots of protein and fibre and zero fat or cholesterol. As an added bonus, they are inexpensive. If you think they are dull, you're not adding enough spice to their life. Be creative! Your waistline will thank you.

- Turmeric can be used as a natural antiseptic (chefs sometimes rub it on burns in the kitchen).

- Looking to improve your kitchen library? Check out anything by Roger Verge, master french chef.

- If you are an ice cream or sorbet eater (admit it!), think about investing in an ice cream machine. The ingredients for homemade ice creams and sorbets are inexpensive, the machine does all the work, and it will pay for itself in no time. Homemade ice cream is so delicious. Then again, it might be detrimental to your figure...

- Every kitchen should have at least one rubber spatula (this type)

- When making stock, the pot should simmer but never boil. Boiling will cause the fat to emulsify in the liquid, making it cloudy. You want the flavor of the fat, not the actual fat, in your stock. You should skim the actual fat off the top of the pot and discard.

- Try adding carrageen (a type of seaweed) into your diet - it is good for digestion and the lining your stomach

- Fennel seeds are also good for digestion - try pouring some boiling water into a mug with some fennel seeds after a painfully large meal!

Sweet Sixteen

2009-10-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

fresh blueberry scones!

My morning began prematurely at 7:15 AM. I popped out of bed in a panic remembering that I had 7:30 AM "herb duty" early this week. I threw on a fleece and some boots and ran down to the schoolhouse only to find that I was on duty tomorrow, not today. Trying not to speak to anyone at close range (I hadn't brushed my teeth), I hurried back to bed for another hour.

Old-Fashioned Irish Salad

Wake-up number 2 was more successful (I brushed my teeth) and off to the school house I skipped to make red currant jelly, an old-fashioned Irish salad, and, because I had time, blueberry scones. Red currant jelly rivals raspberry jam in easiness. The same tricks apply: cook it quickly (on a high heat), do not fiddle with it while it boils, and jar it immediately. Because of the high pectin levels in red currants, the jelly sets naturally. It is delicious and so rewarding! My partner roasted a shoulder of lamb and made glazed carrots, mint sauce, and gravy. We had a feast for lunch!

All in a days work...

The afternoon demonstration focused on how to use up leftover lamb (judging by how much we all ate, it is a biblical miracle there was any leftover). We watched our headmistress make shepherds pie and Greek moussaka (a ground lamb, eggplant, and zucchini dish). We also learned how to serve boiled shrimp in various ways, and how to make mayonnaise, lemon mousse, different chutneys, and chocolate fudge pudding. I am especially excited to know how to make my own chutney! And I am sure the chocolate pudding might come in handy on a lonely Saturday night... (kidding).

shepherd's pie with herbed butter (that's butter, everyone!)

Some tips from today!

- If you are making any type of yeast bread, use bread flour or "strong" (stone-ground) flour. It has more gluten than regular flour and will hold together better as the bread expands.

- Cook shrimp or prawns (or any crustacean, for that matter) in seawater. If this isn't feasible (it rarely is!), make the water as salty as seawater (1 heaping tablespoon to every 2 pints).

- When buying prawns, ask the fishmonger for prawns that haven't been "dipped". Some fisherman dip the prawns in chemicals to preserve them before they make it to the shops. Non-dipped prawns are fresher and better for you.

- Prawns yield about 1/5 of their volume in edible meat. If you are buying 2 lbs of whole prawns, you'll yield around 6 oz of meat. Keep this in mind when purchasing for a crowd.

- Cook shrimp until there is no trace of black behind the head. If your shrimp are already shelled, cook them until they are just pink.

-Mash potatoes while they are still hot, and add milk that has been heated. This will keep the potatoes from getting "gluey".

- Bake potatoes with their skin directly on the oven rack. Wrapping them in tin foil wastes foil and makes the skin soggy.

- Your chocolate desserts are only as good as the quality of the chocolate you use. This is one time to splurge at the grocery store!

- When melting chocolate, chop it and place it in a heat-proof Pyrex bowl. Sit the bowl over a saucepan filled with hot but not simmering water. Do not let the Pyrex bowl touch the water. Stir frequently.

15!

2009-10-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

After a long run (have to work off those tarts somehow!) and a good pot of tea, I felt energized to embark on the Ballycotton Cliff Walk this afternoon. The narrow winding path begins in Ballycotton near the fishing pier and runs west along the cliffs for 5 miles to Ballytrasna. To your left falls a steep cliff with craggy rocks below, and to your right rises a hilltop pasture, littered with cows. I couldn't help but think that if I were a cow, living in that Ballycotton pasture would not be a bad gig.

After the hike and a quick dinner, we headed back to the Black Bird for their live music Sunday nights. Anyone is welcome to join in with a motley group of local musicians seated around a table in the corner. Guitars, Irish flutes, a base, and even a trumpet were on the menu this evening. The musicians take turns playing everything from traditional Irish folk songs to Bob Dylan. If you ask me, these fishermen by day, musicians by night should quit their day jobs- they were fantastic. It is worth a trip to Ireland just to hear them sing.

Day Fourteen

2009-10-03T12:31:00.001-07:00

After a jolly night out at Ballycotton's best pub, the Black Bird (wood burning stove included), I awoke this morning ready for a full day of tourism. Some friends and I drove into Cork City to check out the famous English Market (http://www.corkenglishmarket.ie/). It is a must-see for any Cork goer. Unfortunately, my camera's battery died so I could not take the plethora of pictures I had planned to post. Entering under the arched atrium makes any food-lover feel as if they have just walked through St. Peter's pearly gates. Free samples from O'Flynn's Gourmet Sausage Company were a big hit, and the cheese from On The Pigs Back made me want to spend my life savings (or what's left of it). Established in 1788, this market is apparently one of the oldest of its kind (similar to Borough Market in London).

After that walk through paradise, we toured various stalls opened on the street for the Beamish Cork Folk Festival. I was happy to discover that O'Connaill's Chocolatier had an open stand, and ordered another hot chocolate (this might have to become a Saturday morning tradition)! Loyal to Ballymaloe, we tried to eat lunch at The Crawfish Art Gallery's Cafe, run by Allen Family relatives Ivan Whelan and Jean Manning. Unfortunately it was too crowded so we ate at Amicus instead. However, on the advice of the New York Times Magazine's "36 Hours in Cork" article, I fully intend on returning to dine at the Cafe. One final stop at Scozzis for their famous Bailey's cheesecake rounded out the afternoon!

Lucky Thirteen

2009-10-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

step one: find a cow

I guess it was just another typical start to any day, save the fact that I was milking a cow with a stranger. Friday morning milk duty with the mysterious Friday morning milk duty man. Our introduction consisted of him walking into the school, me smiling, him walking by me, and me following him to the milk parlor about ten paces back. Any attempt at a cheery ice breaking question like "do the cows like being milked?" or "how much milk can you get from one of 'em?" was returned with a rough grunt (which I can only guess meant either "yes", "no", or "please stop talking"). Morning person or no morning person, he certainly knew his way around a milk parlor.

step two: attach some things to it

Overall, the machines (and the milk man) did most of the work so I stood there, in silence, taking it all in (and coming up with possible tee-shirt slogans for the milk man: "moooove outta my way" or "udderly not into mornings"). After we (he) had successfully separated the milk from the cream, using the electric separator pictured below, I headed back to my cottage to don my chef whites for the day.

step three: milk!

Today I made a loaf of brown soda bread (we eat a lot of bread), a lemon meringue pie, and a roasted red pepper and zucchini salad. Zucchinis tend to get watery if you cook them too far in advance, so try to roast or grill them just before you serve. Also, the skin of a roasted red pepper comes off far more easily when the pepper has cooled. As far as lemon meringue pie goes, whip your egg whites for the meringue until you would feel comfortable holding the bowl upside down over your head. If they fall out onto your head and trickle down your neck, this is the telltale sign that they are not ready.

lemon meringue pie!

Afternoon demo was better than average because our headmistress' humorous brother, Rory O'Connell, was the lecturer. He is an excellent chef and an even better teacher. Former head chef at the Ballymaloe House, and former teammate of Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, the man knows everything about running a successful restaurant. He showed us how to prepare a leg of lamb for roasting, including removing the aitchbone so that the roast is easier to carve later. We also made lamb stock ("the least useful of all the stocks"), mint sauce, gravy, glazed carrots, braised white turnips, and various fruit salad desserts.

Roasted red pepper and zucchini salad

Here are some tips from Rory:

- When washing beets, be gentle! If you damage the skin, they will bleed when you boil them and you will lose some flavor.

- The fresher the egg, the harder it is to peel

- When testing a roast to see if it is cooked, insert a skewer into the thickest part of the meat. Count to five. If, upon removing the skewer and touching it to a soft part of skin (your wrist or cheek), the tip of it is cold, your meat is still raw inside. If it is warm, you are golden. If it burns, you have overdone it.

- Carrots are good for the liver

- Mint, basil, tarragon, and marjoram "bruise" (oxidize) easily. Wait to chop them until just before serving.

- When roasting vegetables, toss with olive oil in a bowl, then lift them onto a roasting pan. If you drizzle oil directly onto the pan with the vegetables, you will use twice as much oil as you need, and the excess will smoke in the pan.

- Ripe mangoes smell like mango, and will hold a soft thumbprint if you gently press them with your thumb.

- The greener the lime, the better the flavor.

- Do not peel a mango all at once and then try to cut it- It will be too slimy to hold. Peel a section, then slice that section. Then peel another section and slice that section and so on.

Twelve!

2009-10-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a pleasant morning save a few glass breakings here and finger slicings there. It is entertaining to observe the slow rise in bandaid and gauze wrapped fingers. I am currently sporting a bandaid clad pointer finger. The look is "in". I began with a loaf of the infamous white soda bread (I am starting to get the knack of it! Repetition is key). They really love their soda bread over here, and swear that if you can make it you will never grow hungry again. I then roasted an eggplant for the baba ganoush (pictured below!). Finally, I started the spice-packed sauce for a chicken entree. Inspired by Middle Eastern flavors, the sauce called for coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric, garlic, red pepper, onion, etc. I finally got to use a mortar and pestle to grind up my toasted coriander and cumin seeds. As far as grinding herbs go, it is much more enjoyable and rewarding than an electric grinder. Speaking of mortars and pestles (how do you pluralize that?), I mentioned the Mexican molcajete earlier, implying that these lava rock artifacts are hard to find. Well, right after publishing my post, I googled "molcajete" and found one at Williams Sonoma AND Sur la Table. It just goes to show, don't believe a word I say.

MY Baba Ganoush!

I slow cooked the chicken right in the sauce, resulting in really moist strips of meat. When it couldn't help but boil under the lowest heat, I placed a heat diffuser under the saute pan to keep it from continuing to do so. For the baba ganoush, sometimes the smokey flavor of the eggplant overpowers the dish. Adding a little lemon juice diffuses the smokey taste, and freshens up the flavor (as do pomegranate seeds!).

During the afternoon demonstration, we focused on the art of filleting a fish. Rule number one: use a filleting knife! They are flexible and maneuverable. Rule number two: cut slowly- there are bones in there that you will have to pull out by hand if you slice through them! Rule number three: buy the fish already filleted. Just kidding! But seriously, I can hardly begin to do it myself, let alone talk through the steps - ask me later.

our teacher's perfect fish fillet

Some tips on buying fish:

- The eyes should look glassy and bright rather than sagging

- The fish should feel firm

- It should not smell too "fishy"

Other tips:

- Try cooking your fish fillet "en papillote", or in parchment paper. Place the fish in the center of a sheet of parchment paper, sprinkle with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon, and a few herbs, and fold the paper to wrap the fish. Do not wrap it too tightly to allow it to steam in the oven. When you open the parcel after cooking, your fish will be nice and moist.

- A yummy side dish to fish? Sauteed cucumber with a sprinkle of dill! Try it!

Another dish we learned this afternoon was the age-old lemon meringue pie. The teacher had extra pastry after she had rolled it out, so she fitted petit four tins with the scraps and made bite size ones as well! The fancy designs in the meringue are the result of a few twirls with a pastry bag. They are easy to make and look really professional.

Turn it up to Eleven

2009-09-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I had to show up at 8 AM for "stock making duty". There are about 30 daily jobs (bread making, gathering herbs, gathering greens, milking cow, etc) that get divided up among the students. Some require the student to come in early, so early I came. After we put two enormous pots on to boil filled with chicken carcasses, carrots, onions, celery, thyme, water, and so on (the basic ingredients for chicken stock), I headed to kitchen 2 to prepare for the day.

Kitchen Two

Throughout the morning, I made a loaf of wholegrain bread, a rhubarb crumble, and a melon and grape salad. Surprisingly, there were no major casualties to report! Below is a picture of my bread and salad, ready for tasting and grading (the crumble was still in the oven). Any vodka enthusiasts out there could turn the melon and grape salad, which has citrus juices and mint, into a nice cocktail.

Another task we had to complete this morning was the famous dejointing of a chicken. It was slimy, often cumbersome, and highly satisfying. The trick is to use your hands (particularly your thumb) to feel where the joints are to guide your knife. The knife should slide right through where the bones meet (the joint), rather than labor through bone. And, as always here at Ballymaloe, try to cut as close to the carcass as possible to avoid wasting any meat.

The view from my workstation...

Our afternoon demonstration taught us how to make some Middle Eastern dishes, such as baba ganoush (AKA smoky eggplant dip) and various versions of raita (yogurt based sauce to go with spicy meats), followed by a quick lesson on creme caramel (first cousin of creme brulee). Here are some tips picked up:

- Food processors (like a Cuisinart) are definitely worth the money (an essential kitchen staple)

- Order a glass of the house wine to start when dining out. This will give you a clue to how seriously the restaurant takes its wine list. If it is a good wine, you can trust that your money will be well spent on any bottle. If it is a bad one, don't waste your money on an expensive bottle.

- Don't be afraid to ask for a wine recommendation from the waiter. If you are hosting, you can subtly let your server know your price range ("I was wondering about this one...") without letting your guests know how much (or how little!) you want to spend.

- Check the wine's label when the waiter brings it to your table (both the name and the year). You would not want to accidentally drink a bottle 3 times as expensive as what you thought you were paying!

- Only send a wine back if it is bad ("corked"). If the wine is fine but it is not what you hoped for, drink it and do not order it again!

- If you are interested in learning more about wines, look for books by Andrew Jefford.

- Pine nuts are OK to keep in the freezer. Like walnuts, they go bad easily so a freezer is a great way to make them last.

- When splurging on saffron ("the world's most expensive herb"), make sure it is actually saffron! Clue #1 that it's real: there are actual long and thin strands (not jumbled flakes). Clue #2: some of the strands are orange amongst the majority of deep red ones (if they are all a uniform color, they have probably been dyed, and are probably not the real deal).

- When cooking meat in a sauce (like beef stew), the sauce should not boil. Turn down the heat and slow cook! Incidentally, the opposite is true when cooking meat without sauce (like a steak). Turn up the heat and seer the juices in

Day Ten

2009-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

You know you are at an eccentric cooking school when "she's milking" is an acceptable explanation for a student's absence during morning roll call. Our headmistress didn't bat an eye although the room got a chuckle. As our morning focused on this magical ingredient, it was a fitting start to the day. The "milking" student soon entered with a large pail of steaming fresh milk, straight from the udder. She poured it into an electric milk separator, which slowly began leaking from two spouts - one with milk and one with cream. Apparently the school used to separate the milk with a hand cranking machine, but recently caved and splurged on an electric one (bought for 700 euro, or around $1,000!).

As I have mentioned before, our headmistress and her family only drink unpasteurized (raw) milk. They do so quite confidently because they know their dairy operates under the highest standards of hygiene, and they strongly believe in the health benefits of raw milk consumption. Apparently, others are beginning to realize this as well. In the US, the demand is growing rapidly for raw milk from farms such as Straus Family Creamery north of San Francisco (http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/) or the Hudson Milk Company in New York (http://www.hudsonmilk.com/). To find a farm in your area, check out this trusty website I found: www.realmilk.com/where2.html. In Italy, consumers can purchase raw milk through vending machines which have been popping up all over the country. The demand has grown so rapidly in the last three years that raw milk now holds 10% market share of total milk consumed.

Many attribute the growth in food allergies and asthma to the decline of raw milk consumption. Also, the widespread homogenization of milk (where a machine breaks the fat globules down into the milk, so that they do not rise to the top naturally) has been attributed to the rise in cholesterol problems. The fat globules, normally skimmed off the top of the milk and discarded, are consumed and stick to the arteries (this is a very non-scientific explanation). For all the skeptics out there, it is worth a second look.

So, with this raw, fresh milk, we set out to make butter, yogurt, buttermilk, cottage cheese, soft yogurt cheese (or "labne"), paneer (an Indian cheese), a simple semi-hard cheese, ricotta and coeur a la creme. Before beginning, she sterilized all her equipment with boiling water (a crucial step). For butter, she simply whipped the cream slowly for a duration of time until butter formed and buttermilk sloshed around in the bowl. For yogurt, she mixed milk and cream with yogurt over heat. The yogurt acted as a "starter" for the bacteria to multiply and make more yogurt. For the cheeses, the basic formula is milk, a "starter" (to introduce a bacteria) and rennet (to coagulate the milk). Each cheese type (blue, brie, etc.) has a different starter. Once the starter and the rennet have time to work, the milk will turn to "curds" (the solid) and "whey" (the liquid). Placing the curdled milk into muslin or cheesecloth is a great way to drain off the excess whey. This is obviously over-simplified for the sake of brevity. If you are interested, look up some recipes for the exact steps and try it one afternoon with friends!

One final cheese tip- whey is great for the skin (Cleopatra used to bathe in it).

After our lunch break, we sat down to another lecture from the sommelier Colm McCan at the Ballymaloe House (the world class restaurant up the road). He gave this beginner a great way to start classifying wines (as it can get confusing). Basically, there are four styles of white wines and five styles of reds (this excludes roses, sparkling wine, and sweet wines). Before I list them, here are some helpful definitions.

- The "body" of the wine is the texture in your mouth. Light bodied is like water, full bodied is like Guinness.
- Generally, the more "body", the more it can pair up against food flavors. Light bodied whites are good with a gentle filet of sole, full bodied reds are great with hearty venison or steak.
- "Old World" wines come from Europe, "New World" wines come from outside Europe (the Americas, Australia, etc.)
- There are many types of grape varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah or Shiraz, and Sangiovese
- Most "new world" wines are named after the grape variety, while "old world" French wines are named after the region in which they are produced (Burgundy, Chablis, Bordeaux, etc.)

Now, onto the wine guide classification, listed in order from "light bodied" to "full bodied" wines:

Whites:
1) Bone-dry and neutral whites / light body -- such as Chablis and Pinot Grigio (made with chardonnay grape)
2) Green, 'grassy' tangy whites / light to medium body -- such as new world Sauvignon Blanc and Sancerre (both made with sauvignon blanc grape) and Riesling (made with riesling grape)
3) Intense and nutty whites / medium to full bodied -- such as high quality white Burgundy (made with chardonnay grape)
4) Ripe and toasty whites / full bodied -- such as most new world Chardonnay (made with, obviously, the chardonnay grape)

Reds:
1) Juicy, fruity, soft reds / light to medium body -- such as Beaujolais or new world Merlot (made with, again obviously, the merlot grape)
2) Silky, mellow reds / medium body -- such as Red Burgundy or new world Pinot Noir (made with pinot noir grape)
3) Intense, blackcurrant reds / medium to full bodied -- such as Bordeaux or new world Cabernet Sauvignon (made with cabernet sauvignon grape)
4) Spicy, warm-hearted reds / big, powerful, and full bodied -- such as wines from the Rhone Valley, France, new world Shiraz, and Zinfandel (made with syrah or shiraz grape)
5) Mouth-watering sweet-sour reds -- such as Chainti or Barolo (made with sangiovese grape)

That is quite a lot of information, I know! But I found it incredibly useful as a beginner's guide to start thinking about wine. I hope you do as well. We then tasted five different types (a Chablis, a Chardonnay, a Sancerre, a Merlot, and a Syrah). It was a jolly afternoon, followed by a rather sloppy game of doubles with some other tipsy classmates on the school's court! I think I will stop there as I do not want to lose my audience with too much information. Until tomorrow...

Nine

2009-09-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Today began week number two at the cooking school. With each week they shake up the students into new groups in new kitchens. I am now working in kitchen 2, a larger, more hectic environment filled with twice as many students bustling under the always ticking clock. I began my day making tomato puree, and the whole room fought over the one darn mouli-legume (basically a strainer on steroids) when it came time to strain it. While I waited in the mouli-legume queue, I began trial one of not two, not three, but FOUR attempts at the aforementioned "easy breezy" white soda bread. I have officially eaten my words. It is neither easy nor breezy. To my instructor's credit, she made me do it until I got it right. Baking is an exact science, and 11.8 ounces of buttermilk produces quite a different product than 12.3. Though the recipe appears simple as it requires only flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk, it is actually quite difficult to get the right combination. The only way to get it right is to practice, so soldier on! It is worth it in the end.

In between white soda bread #2 and #3, I managed to make tomato and coconut soup. Though I think it turned out well, I tripped up when it came time for lunch. Traditionally, after the teacher tastes and grades your dishes, we all combine our individual pots to serve collectively for lunch. I accidentally poured my entire pot of tomato and coconut soup into the compiled pot of tomato and basil soup. Thanks to me, the whole school had two soup options today: tomato and coconut or tomato and basil... and coconut.

During the afternoon demonstration, our headmistress gave a brief introduction to the world of Irish cheeses. There were no Irish farmhouse cheeses to speak of until Veronica Steele, "the matron of Irish cheese makers", began experimenting with surplus farm milk in 1976. Her "Milleens cheese" encouraged others, and the Irish cheese scene was born!

Here are some cheesy tips:

- Wrap cheeses in parchment paper or tin foil rather than cling wrap (actual quote from our headmistress: "cling film is death to cheese" - a little dramatic but there you have it)

- Farmhouse cheeses can grow mold on the outer skin but this is no problem- just wash it off with some water and salt

- Always serve cheese at room temperature

She was quite picky about eating cheese no more than 2 days after you buy it, and never putting cheese (other than soft cheeses) in the refrigerator. One can use this advice at certain times (a dinner party?) and opt for the more pragmatic fridge method at others.

Other pointers from today's lesson:

- Cassia is less expensive and more acrid than its sister spice, cinnamon. To save money (at the cost of flavor), some spice producers add cassia into the (deceivingly labeled) ground cinnamon jars. To get pure cinnamon flavor, buy the cinnamon sticks whole and grind them yourself.

- Cinnamon has been proven to reduce cholesterol.

- "Butterfly" your chicken breasts before grilling them to ensure an even cook. To do so, cut the breast in half lengthwise, stopping just before you slice all the way across. You should be able to then open the breast apart (it looks like a heart shaped valentine) and have a piece of meat of even thickness.

- When buying a whole chicken, don't be afraid to use all the parts. Today, our teacher showed us how you can eat the breast, thighs, legs, wings, and tenders, use the carcass for stock, bake the skin to serve with chutney (seriously good!), and render the fat to use in cooking.

- If you ever come across a molcajete (a Mexican mortar and pestle made of lava rock), buy it! They're hard to find but far superior texturally to the smooth marble ones.

- Cook mushrooms on a high heat- the pan should sizzle when you add them.

- When taste-testing the filling of a quiche before it goes in the oven, cook a teaspoon of the mixture in a saucepan. This way, you can see if it needs more seasoning without eating raw egg!

- When whipping cream, the more air you whip in, the less flavor in the cream. Therefore, only softly whip the cream. If you're allowing yourself this treat, it should at least taste good!

- "watercress is the new arugula" (and you thought there wasn't a hierarchy in greens!)

The Great Eight

2009-09-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday has arrived and I have officially been here for a week. I spent the day walking throughout the countryside and even made time for a dip in Ballycotton Bay! The water temperature reminds me of Maine in August- refreshing, crisp, and likely to encourage the swimmer to resurface and exit as quickly as possible. I might just have to work a heart-stopping swim into my weekly (daily?!) routine. Since we did not have class today, I have no new cooking tips to share (I'm nothing but a meager messenger!). If anyone is interested in this course, here are some photos of our "campus" to give you an idea of the lodging.

I took the above photo from one corner of the courtyard, and the below photo from another. Five cottages encircle this central quad. Pictured above are the "Playroom" to the left and the "Barn" on the right. The roof of our headmistress' house looms in the background. Pictured below are the Barn, this time on the left, and a bit of the "Pink Cottage" peaking through on the right. There is also the "White Cottage" and the "Carriage House" adjacent to the courtyard from another angle.

All used to serve as farm huts and were converted into charming living quarters one by one as the school grew in popularity. Each house has a working wood burning stove (for charm, not as a substitute for modern heating!), a fully stocked kitchen, and plenty of showers to go around.

Finally, a stunning view from the top of the hill just up the road. You can see the rocky island on which Ballycotton Light sits in the sound. We can see the ocean from the school, but you get a better look at it from up the road.

Tomorrow, another day of cooking bliss. I am making tomato and coconut soup and white soda bread- stay tuned!

seven

2009-09-27T05:15:00.001-07:00

Our first opportunity to sleep in, and this brown-noser signs up to accompany our headmistress to the school's stand at the Midleton Farmer's Market (http://www.midletonfarmersmarket.com/)! Given the limited number of spots (only 2 students each Saturday) and the minor celebrity status of our headmistress, this was a highly sought after sign-up sheet! Bright eyed and bushy tailed, I joined a second eager-beaver student, the head gardener, and another teacher at 7 AM to load the van and drive in. To my mild dismay, there was no sign of the celeb headmistress. She was tied up teaching a foraging course that morning (typical!) and couldn't attend. Mission to gain brownie points: failed!

Despite her absence, we had an incredible time. Cheese makers, fishmongers, bakers, fish smokers, organic butchers, pasta makers, and farmers all packed the square. My favorite stand was O'Conaill's Chocolate, which served their famous hot chocolate (dubbed "the best hot chocolate in Ireland"). When you order a cup, he scoops chocolate chips (white, milk, or dark) into a mug of fresh milk and froths or steams the mixture until it turns into liquid heaven. You can even add a shot of espresso if your 6:30 AM wake-up is starting to sink in. To top it all off, he hands over your drink with a petit four wrapper filled with chocolate chips placed on your lid! A party favor, if you will. I was sold!

It was a great experience to observe how a farmer's market runs behind the scenes. Really anyone can start one in his or her area. It just takes some organization, commitment from local producers, and, admittedly, a lot of hard work! Our headmistress says that farmer's markets provide a great platform to "market test" a product. Rather than spending lots of money to hire a market testing analyst, make a few batches of your product, hand out free samples, and see if people buy. If customers come back for more the next week, you're onto something. If no one returns, back to the drawing board!

Day Six!

2009-09-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

A quick note about yesterday's post! Instead of searching the tea isle at your local grocer for "rosemary tea" or "pomfrey tea", buy the herbs fresh and pour hot water over a sprig in a mug. This goes for any herbal tea. It is a great way to use up fresh herbs before they go bad (mint, in particular!).

Now onto day six, Friday, the culmination of our first week. I woke up early with the roosters and over-achievers to have an optional lesson on organic gardening. Most of the gardener's tips went over my non-green-thumbed head, but he did manage to convey a few maxims. For one, if you are growing a vine-like plant such as tomatoes or cucumbers, and you wish to train them to grow up a string, always wrap it around in a clockwise direction. This way, as the plant follows the sun, it will continue to wrap around the string rather than unwind.

After, we gathered in the demonstration room for a "theory day" with surprise guest lecturer Carl Ehrhard, owner of a vineyard in Rudesheim, a small village in Germany (http://www.carl-ehrhard.de/). He was in town selling his wine (Riesling and Pinot Noir) to The Ballymaloe House, the hotel up the road. Despite the fact that it was before noon and we all had empty stomachs, Carl (and the Ballymaloe House sommelier) launched into a full on wine tasting session! I think those who had over-indulged at The Goal Post pub the night before (celebrating Guinness's 250th anniversary) were grateful for the hangover cure. He explained that there is an old tradition of wine making in Germany, particularly in the Rheingau region, dating back to the Roman Empire. He had a rather thick accent, but I believe he said that in the twentieth century, German wine making had to overcome numerous hurdles to get where it is today. Beside the pesky World Wars and depressions, Carl explained that they have had to battle the unfortunate connotations connecting Rieslings, Germany's signature wine, to cheap, sweet wine. The tides have turned, however. No longer produced as overpoweringly sweet, the Rieslings we tasted were delicious to serve with food. Our headmistress insists that "Riesling is the new chardonnay". So, if you want to be in vogue on a night out at dinner, order a Riesling!

Carl's basic message was drink what you think tastes good, and not what others tell you should taste good. He ended joking, in a thick German accent, that "Riesling and Pinot Noir are the women of the varieties... they do what I want". I'll let the feminists gasp, but I think he meant that they are the most delicate and "emotional" of the white and red categories. He likened Pinot Noir to a "ballerina" (whatever that means).

Flush-faced and tipsy, we enjoyed a quick lunch before launching into a lecture on food safety and kitchen hygiene. Take it with a grain of organic sea salt, but our headmistress does not allow anti-bacterial soap in the school. She prefers the old fashioned hot water, regular soap, and elbow grease approach. She blames the rise of "jibbly tummies" and incessant colds on the sterilizing Lysol sprays and antibacterial gels, which wipe out any chance our immune systems have to build up antibodies. Reared on unpasteurized milk and always one to "challenge the system with good bacteria", she boasts she is always the "last one standing" on group trips to India or Asia. This is not to say that her kitchen runs wild with germs- quite the opposite! I just thought it was an interesting perspective. Another way-of-life tip from the Ballymaloe Cookery School!