Forever 27

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!