Waves

Seems that sometimes things come in waves -- some of my own doing and some that are just the way things go.  After weeks of staying around the school, I broke out last weekend for the wine course at Ballymaloe House (see the previous blog).  I followed that with a wine-reception dinner at Ballymaloe House this past Thursday and a nice trip Saturday to the beautiful harbor towns of Kinsale and Contakilty.  The weather recently seems to have been in waves of days of rain; but now we're on a short streak, which hopefully becomes a long streak, of sunny but colder days.  My highs and lows seem to come in waves as well, but lately there are many more of the former.

There weren't too many waves at the beach today (Sunday) -- the tide was out.  That's the Ballycotton Lighthouse on the left and the village of Ballycotton on the right.  The beach is a 15-minute walk from the cottage.  If we get more days like this one, beach walking will become a regular habit.

My partner this week was Heather.  She's the youngest at 17 and I'm the oldest in this 12-week session.  She cooks faster than I do (it's more than just youth) and, with the workload we had, thank goodness.  Monday I made a red pepper chutney.  Chutneys aren't very popular in the states, but I have to admit that they are growing on me.  I did a simple caramelized apple tart and a fennel and red onion salad.  The tart was good, but frankly not as good as one that I had done over Christmas from a cookbook by the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten.  Fennel is a root vegetable that I had never seen before (the feather leaves are a herb)  The salad was very good, but maybe too oniony.  I haven't seen sweet or Vidalia onions over here yet.  Tuesday I started a flaky pastry that I didn't use this week but will probably use this coming Monday (it takes days to make and not worth it from what I've seen).  I also made polenta with cheese and Italian beef stew.  The polenta was no problem and the stew turned out fine, but every student I talk to is tired of stews and stew-like dishes (Dingle pie, Kerry pie, etc.).  Please, give me something light, like chicken!

Thursday I had an easy day, so I made a granary loaf (heavy bread that uses stone-ground granary flour), then some homemade custard, and spring rolls -- you know, the things you get at Chinese restaurants that are wrapped in a springy rice paper (and they're light!)  Well, seems I finally found something to excell on.  The spring rolls were not only tasty, but my artistic side came out in their presentation.  I got I few oohs and aahs from my fellow students.  Thursday's wine dinner was followed by waves of being tired and unmotivated on Friday, and it showed in my cooking.  No disasters, but I barely finished a simple Moraccan spiced lentil soup and goujons of sole with aioli (a spiced up mayonnaise).  The soup was all done but a little too thin, so I left it simmering to reduce some.  While working on something else, I reached over and turned off the burner.  About 15 minutes later I noticed it was still simmering -- I'd turned off the wrong burner! Guess what was the only criticism from  Debbie, my instructor, on the soup?  Of course, it was too thick!  (They usually do get the critiques about right.)  The sole involved filleting a couple whole sole, which are flat fish and quite easy and kind of fun to fillet.  Never even started a lemon souffle that I was scheduled to make, but Debbie didn't seemed to mind.  Thank goodness the weekend came when it did; I felt exhausted during Friday afternoon's demo.

The wine reception on Thursday night was for the European rep for Penfolds wines.  They are a very big and highly regarded wine producer in Australia and the selections we had in our tasting class Thursday afternoon and at the dinner Thursday night were very good.  Almost 20 students from the cookery school attended the dinner and, like many of them, I thought the food was just O.K., while the wines were really good.  We had a total of 7 different wines with the dinner, including Penfolds' top wine, Grange, which sells in Ireland for about 300 Euro (~ $400) a bottle.  No one I talked to thought it was their favorite wine of the evening, but it was so much fun trying something that gets rave reviews from the wine critics.

Bryony (on the right), Louise and I drove to Clontakilty and Kinsale.  Actually, Bryony did the driving, so Louise and I relaxed.  Clontakilty was O.K., but not worth a return visit.  We had a nice lunch in an old, well maintained, and well run pub -- great pub atmoshpere.  Kinsale was really delightful -- beautiful harbor, quaint little shops and cafes, picturesque hillside setting to the east, etc.  I have a reservation for the Chart House B&B for Charlene and me when she is over here (belated anniversary celebration), so I visited it.  It's a Georgian structure with period furnishings, and I think that Charlene will love it.  After walking around Kinsale and looking at the menus for the restaurants (what do you expect, we're cooking students), we drove back towards Shanagarry and had dinner at a Pub owned by and named after Pat Shortt (an Irish comedian and actor).  The person who runs the kitchen is a former Ballymaloe student who had previously come to the school and talked with us.  Although his #2 was doing the cooking, he was there and spent a good 20 minutes talking with us about, among other things, his experience at the school.  He described the final exam process, about which we have heard almost nothing from Darina, Rory, or the others.   In fact, the lack of discussion about expectations is quite surprising.  Seems that they want complete flexibility to decide what is needed for a certificate and their version of "honors."  None of this will make any real difference in my life back in NM, but that ego thing keeps getting popping up.

I took this picture at the beach and then asked the people about their dog, which is a 5-month Golden Retriever.  They stopped and spent several minutes talking with me -- so nice and friendly!  You just got to love these Irish!

Mid-Course Corrections

This is the mid-point of the course and we had the first real test (although we get "tested" in the kitchen four days a week).  The test had two parts: herb and salad-green identifications (written) and technique performance.  In advance I memorized 15 salad greens (as well my deteriorating memory would allow), studied the appearance and taste of 15 herbs, memorized recipes that used each of the herbs, and practiced a few of the techniques that I knew would give me trouble.  Not clear to me how all the memorization helps in the long run, but I decided to do the best I could.  I don't know the total results but, because I was in the last group, Flori, who graded me, gave me feedback on the spot.  I used too much butter to sweat my onions (but they were otherwise cooked just about right); I used the wrong approach to slicing of mushrooms (you're supposed to chop down on them I learned, not slice horizontally), but I fried them just right; etc.  Not great, but I'm sure I was by no means the worst of the day.  Funny, how I've chopped tons of mushrooms without an instructor seeing me use the wrong technique -- one of the disadvantages of getting a lot done before the instructors show up.  I don't know the results of the herb and greens identifications, but I'm pretty sure I got most of them.

Earlier in the week, my cooking went well.  I started with a lamb stew with bacon, onions and herbs and cooked kale.  Everything was delicious, but when I served the stew for my instructor, I forgot that it was a stew and served it on a flat plate, a minor flaw.  Next day, I made chocolate eclairs, which require a choux pastry that was new to us.  The eclairs turned out great, including the pastry cream filling and chocolate topping; so I put on some weight eating a couple during the cooking session.  Then, I filleted a Pollock (round fish) and baked it with a spicy tomato sauce that I made.  My filleting was definitely better than my previous attempt, but still room for improvement (glad I didn't get this on the exam).  The final oven-baked product was good, although my instructor thought the chilli pepper in the sauce bordered on over-powering the fish (just right to these New Mexico-trained taste buds).  During the last cooking session for the week on Thursday, I started by making scones, because this is one of the techniques for Friday's exam and I had never done it.  Flori told me they were great and said it would be good if I had them on my exam, which I didn't.  When I sauteed the meat for a chilli con carne, I put it all in the pan together and it got soupy, not really sauteed.  But I kept at it, and the whole thing, including an avocado sauce, turned out really good and Flori complemented me on the mix of fresh chillies I had chosen.  She also called me "chef" during the week, which sounded kind of neat.

I took this picture one day this week, when I was leaving the school for the day.  The cushioned bench that the dogs are sitting on is in the large entry-way for the main building for the school.  The dogs wait at the door until someone lets them in, then they get nice and comfy.

When we have demos, I often think about how I might use this or that for family or friends.  Because of the test Friday afternoon, we had demos Friday morning and Rory O'Connell made all kinds of pizzas and pizza derived dishes, like calzone.  I got to taste several of them and they were very good -- not your Pizza Hut pizza, but more of a gourmet pizza.  I don't know whether I'll get to make any while I'm here, but I'll practice them when I get home and then a pizza party!

After the exam on Friday, I started a Ballymaloe Wine Weekend at the Ballymaloe House.  This is not a part of the cooking program.  Most people who participate have a package that includes two nights at the hotel, plus a wine course, including meals with matched wines.  The hotel gives a special non-resident (no hotel stay) rate for students from the cooking school, so three of us chose to do it.  The instruction part of it is titled "Introduction to Wine Appreciation," and it is taught by a well-known wine authority, Mary Dowey, who is the wine editor for The Gloss magazine.  We tasted about 20 different wines and had wines with meals, including an incredible six-course meal with six matching wines for dinner last (Saturday) night.  Wonderful food, wonderful wine, great conversation -- what more could one ask for.  Well, there was Irish music in the parlor after dinner, which included Rory Allen (another relative in the Allen clan), who played guitar and sang old Irish songs, plus impromptu singing from members of the audience.  Stephen, one of the cooking students who did the wine weekend (Lisa from Portland, Oregon, was the 3rd) sang with a strong, powerful voice and a beautiful interpreted repertoire.  Absolutely delightful.  Another thing that made the weekend special was a wonderful couple, Aoife and Jonathan, from England, who joined the three of us during the course and meals to make a gang of five.  As I was thinking about what to write here, I started to describe their exceptional careers and realized that wouldn't touch on wonderful personalities, great conversational skills, and charm; so I'll leave it at that.  As I've said before, it is the people who really make a difference and it was so true this weekend.

I need to correct one perception from a previous blog.  I found out that the Wave in Ballycotton has food hours that end at 5:00 p.m.  So, when I was told they weren't serving, they had really stopped serving.  The menu on the sidewalk outside was probably an oversight on their part.

It's the People

The countryside, the weather, the ocean, the farms and towns -- they all contribute to my daily life at cooking school; but what most shapes my experience are the people.  I've mentioned that all the demo people are very good, but my favorite is Rory O'Connell, Darina Allen's brother and co-founder of the school.  Rory's been cooking at locations all over the world and it shows.  He brings this real-world experience to his suggestions and advice.  I try to sit in the front row for the demos and here is my view of Rory during a demo.  The angled mirror gives us a downward view and there are also television screens to the right and left that give closeups of dishes in the middle.

This is what it looks like from the back of the room.

This demo space is also used by a few students for the morning cooking and this week it was my turn.  Most of us think this is the best kitchen, mostly because there are only a few students but also because of the instructors.  I tried to put all of this to good use.  On Monday I made poached apricots with sweet geranium leaves (the use of these leaves was popularized in Ireland by Myrtle Allen in the 60's and 70's), carrot cake, and baked potatoes.   Scrubbing the potatoes was the only hard part of baking the potatoes (these local organic potatoes come with lots of dirt still on them).  I was told to put them on a baking tray and I did, but I will return to cooking them directly on the rack, when I return to NM (faster, more even, and crispier skin).  The apricots and cake went O.K. and I really liked the cream cheese icing on the cake.  My instructor, Serka (it's an Irish name and I don't know the spelling), was a real calming influence on the kitchen, so I really enjoyed the day.

Tuesday was breakfast cooking day and it was a real treat for me, since a big breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  My partner for the week, Caroline, and I started kumquat marmalade; I made raw apple muffins and a nut and grain muesli; and each of us made a Irish/country house full breakfast -- eggs, sausage, back bacon, streaked bacon, white and black puddings (actually types of sausage), baked tomatoes, and baked mushrooms.  We shared on most of this except the eggs, which had to be sunny side.  After the egg is put in the middle of the frying pan, a Pyrex plate is put over it, so the yoke gets a slight film over it.  Why this is preferable is beyond me.  The presentation of all of this was judged and then we sat down in the dining room and ate our own with muffins, muesli, granola and Buck's fizz, which is a mixture of orange juice and champagne.  What a special treat!

We got to meet a real French wine maker, Luc Lapeyre, on Tuesday evening and tasted some of his fabulous wines from the Languedoc region in southern France.  Luc is a very big man but he talks of his wine making in a soft and engaging manner. The term "gentle giant" really applies.  More wine tasting at 9:30 on Wednesday.  Is it ever too early for me for wine tasting?  Not that I can tell.  The next demo on Wednesday was a challenge for the squeamish.  The local provider of game described the different game birds, including the innards.  He was so proud of his work as he passed around different components, including the foot of a pheasant with the tendons hanging from it.  When he took out the heart from a dead pigeon I asked, "Are you going to pass that around?" and got kicked by the women behind me.  Fortunately, I think he knew I was joking and didn't. 

In an earlier blog, I showed you some pictures of Ballymaloe House, where I played golf on their quirky golf course.  This Wednesday afternoon, we all went to Ballymaloe House and got tours.  Beautiful place!  If you have the money, I would recommend staying and eating there.  After tea or coffee and some cakes we listened to Myrtle Allen describe her contribution to what became a revolution in Irish cooking.  Although in her middle 80's, she was articulate and dynamic (in a subtle way).  She is still active in directing the running of Ballymaloe House.  Great day!

On Thursday I made a chicken casserole that included carrots and shallots, but I also made and added mushroom a la creme to the sauce in the casserole.  Not a lot for the morning, but the creme took quite a while.  Here is where my instructor Jill really made a difference.  She helped me improve on frying the mushrooms, so they wouldn't be soggy, and explained the whys as she went along.  She has worked in restaurants all over the world and it really showed.  And when she helps someone, she really concentrates on them.  Outstanding.  And so was my casserole -- a 6 out of 6!

It was the end of another week and I almost couldn't believe it.  Unfortunately, I didn't end the week on a high note.  I made Indian paratha bread, which required that I roll out, fold, roll out again, and fry sixteen individual pieces.  I got pretty good at it by the end, but I it wasn't fun.  Unfortunately, things turned worse on my warm salad with fillet of Irish beef and horseradish mayonnaise.  When I grabbed the horseradish, I grabbed ginger instead and didn't catch it until much too late.  Got some really good advice from Pam, who told me I was hurrying unnecessarily.  Funny how some of the other instructors try push you along, but she was insightful enough to try to slow me down.

Here are more pictures from the demo on Friday afternoon.  First, some of the fine presentations that Rory did.

And we end the session with tasting, so everyone rushes to get in line (sitting in front helps).  But even the people at the end get their share and sometimes a lot more.

The weekend had an interesting twist.  On Saturday after I did wash and studied my greens and herbs for an exam, I decided to drive to Ballycotton, which is just a few kilometers down the road and right by the ocean, for an early dinner (before 6).  After one failed attempt in a pub because the restaurant part was closed, I stopped at the Wave.  As I walked in, I noted it was quite busy, so I wasn't sure where to sit.  I smiled at the middle-aged woman behind the bar and asked her if they were serving food, almost as a way of getting a suggestion on where to sit.  "No, we're not serving food."  I was surprised and as I walked out, I noted people with food in front of them.  As I left the front door, I noted the big menu that was still in the middle of the sidewalk.  What the heck?  Was it because I was an American?  By myself?  Ugly?  I'll never know for sure, but I can't remember a worse experience in Ireland.

Let me end this edition with more pictures.  By popular demand, which means that Charlene has asked several times, I took some pictures of two of the dogs at the school.  They are Russell Terriers, but as you can see from the pictures below, they are very overweight.  They are also very spoiled.  They want their bellies rubbed forever.  As I would bend down to take a picture, they would rush over to me to get more petting.  One of my cottage mates, Nikki from Scotland, came to the rescue and held the dogs.

You think they want attention?

Makes me homesick for my own dogs, but I can't go there.  Keeping busy is the best antidote for home sickness.  So, back to cooking!

Sunshine, Rain and Wind

My week has been like the weather, a combination of sunshine, wind and rain.  But even the wind and rain can be enjoyable for short periods. 

Here are the pigs enjoying the light rain…

…and the chickens in their huge enclosed area.  In the distance is the large metal chute into which we dump all the food remains from our cooking.  Boy, do these chickens eat well, and it shows in the eggs we get.

One of my cottage mates complains a lot about the types of foods being demonstrated and cooked by us, but I think that the variety covers most tastes.  Listen to my dishes for the week and see what you think.  On Monday I baked a loaf of brown yeast bread, which is very wet going into the pan and isn’t kneaded; made an apple tart (we’d call it a pie); and made fresh mayonnaise to accompany the local shrimp I boiled.  Before I move on:  the pie was the best I’ve had since my mother stopped baking them several years ago; fresh mayonnaise is nothing like the fluffed jar stuff, which I usually avoid; the shrimp were as fresh as you can get, like in still alive; and brown yeast bread is very heavy, but tasty.  Interesting that there was talk in one of demos about killing lobster “humanely,” but we just dumped the live shrimp into boiling water.  I guess shrimp are too silent when boiled.

Tuesday, I made mushroom soup, a mushroom frittata, and a classic French omelette (this is the spelling used here, which is probably closer to the French).  I spent the better part of an hour chopping the 2 pounds of mushrooms for the soup very, very finely, made the soup O.K., but then served it lukewarm to the instructor, instead of reheating it -- not good.  The frittata was going O.K. until I realized I was looking at the recipe for a plain frittata, not a mushroom frittata.  When I flipped to the right one, I jumped right to the step where the mushrooms are added to the egg mixture – wrong, the mushrooms needed to be cooked separately first.  Another case of compounding one mistake with another – will I ever learn?  After much help on the recovery, I did finish something like a mushroom frittata, but….  Finally, I learned the technique for the omelette, but now I need to practice so I get good at it.

Thursday, I baked a loaf of white yeast bread, which required lots of kneading steps and lots of rising steps.  In between I made a “Mile High” lemon meringue tart/pie.  Since I’ve never been fond of meringue, I didn’t appreciate a big pile of it on my 7-inch tart, especially when the weight of it pushed most of the lemon curd out of the middle of the tart.  To add insult to injury, my instructor told me to bake it in a hot oven for a short time, which doesn’t work with this much meringue.  Another instructor re-baked it longer while I was in demo and gave it to me, along with the bread, to take back to the cottage.  Surprisingly, I’ve eaten most of the tart, but only a little of the meringue, and it was quite tasty.  The bread was really good and has been gobbled up.

When I planned Friday’s cooking, I thought “this should be easy,” and it started that way.  I had “brown bread duty,” so I got the bread in the oven quickly.  I then made a fresh orange jelly with mint.  Jelly in this case is a dessert with fruit in something like Jello, but not the term we use here because we use gelatin and make it from scratch.  Separating the segments of oranges requires a particular technique we must learn, but it was pretty easy.  The dessert went into the fridge and I moved onto a beurre blanc (white butter) sauce to go with scallops.  The steps for the beurre blanc must be followed very closely or it curdles, i.e., separates.  No problem!  I got it done, seasoned it, and kept in warm in a bowl in warm water.  I then learned how to open scallops, which were also still alive.  My instructor gave me some questionable directions and, as I learned later, the advice from several of the instructors was conflicting.  So, I figured most of it out myself from things I’d heard at the demo the day before and got the last ones just right.  While focusing on the scallops and getting my bread out of the oven, I evidently didn’t stir the beurre blanc enough and it curdled!  After playing the victim for a very short time, I got help from my instructor and made a failed attempt to bring it back.  I then concentrated on everything I had heard from her and from the demo person, Rory O’Connell, who made it all look so easy (yea, right!), and slowly brought it back.  I then fried the scallops on a hot non-stick pan (no grease) and presented them with the beurre blanc to my instructor.  Absolutely delicious!  Hooray!  Good way to end the week.

Drove into Cork yesterday (Saturday) and returned my rental car from Europcar/National and rented another from Avis.  Wow, what an improvement!  My new rental is a Ford Fiesta, which is more spacious and appointed more like the cars I’m used to.  The little Kia I had would bob and weave on the bumpy roads.  But you don’t want a large car over here.  The country roads are so narrow that larger cars create a problem when confronting a small car, but two large cars would mean slowing and pulling way over into the brush and hoping your car didn’t get scratched. 

On the way back to Shanagarry, I stopped for a haircut and shopping in Midleton.  It was strange getting a haircut in a foreign country.  The female barber I had was O.K., but I’m learning that not all the Irish are outgoing and talkative.  Stopped at a pub and had a Guinness.  Like the pub in Shanagarry, they served no food, so I watched some of a 6-nation rugby tournament on TV and did some people watching.  One middle-aged man spent his time eyeing everyone who came in.  Didn’t seem to talk to anyone, just look them over.

At mid-week, I went to a local doctor and found out that the virus I’ve been fighting is, as I had started to suspect, actually a sinus infection.  I got a prescription for a week of a strong antibiotics, but so far I haven’t seen any real change.  Earlier this week, my cottage mates convinced me to stop my power walking and “rest up.”  Well, after a week, I feel a little worse, not better, so I’ve decided to go back to the exercise.  I’ve read that the exercise activates your immune system; so, I’m going that route.   However, today when the rain stopped at the cottage, I went to run along the beach and got caught in a windy rainstorm – not the best return to exercise.

I know that this blog is quite long, but quoting Ben Franklin (at least the way I remember the quote), “I would have sent you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.”

This image along one of the roads here on the Ballymaloe Farm, reminds me of my present journey – I’m not quite sure where all this is heading, but I’m having a pleasant time.