The Exam!

More than two weeks have past since the end of my Ballymaloe experience...the girls arrived on the Tuesday before the practical exam (practical took place on Thursday) and my brother Steve arrived with his family on Friday; the day of the 6 hour exam. We've been traveling since then. Everyone but Tom and I are back in Arizona. We are in Lyon, France visiting friends.

Well I made it, at least made it through. The practical exam was supposed to be completed in 3 hours…I took 5. But I’m really pleased with my results and Darina said “well done" when I saw her later in the day. I had practiced my meal a few days before with horrible results...burned the chicken and plating creativity ended up looking like blobs not beautiful scrolls and towers! Got help from my neighbors on how to plate the dessert and the patron saint (I think it's Pasqual) of the kitchen must have been guiding me in the rest of the meal because I must admit the final result looked like it had come out of a professional kitchen. My order of work was three pages! My menu was:
Chilled Pea Soup with Minted Cream
Chargrilled Chicken Breast with Aioli, Rocket(Arugula)and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce and Ballymaloe Vanilla Ice Cream
White Yeast Rolls (I was assigned this bread the day before the exam)

Everything went like clock work until the final 15 minutes... went to check on my bread and the oven was off; tried to get the oven back, no luck, went to get instructor for help she moved bread over to another oven. Called for my tasting which meant I had 15 minutes to plate my dishes. Started my plating and remembered I wanted to make croutons for the soup. Quickly heated some olive oil and sauteed the diced bread, this put me behind schedule and now the pressure was on. Started plating my main dish...the roasted tomatoes on the vine were no longer on the vine, they cooked a little too long and had fallen off the vine. What to do...magically the creativity juices started to flow and I placed them in a circle around the chicken which was placed on top of the rocket. Doesn't sound that pretty but it really did look good. The instructor overseeing the kitchen (Gillian) came by twice asking if I was ready for the tasters to come in...not yet, not yet, just a little more tweaking. Okay ready, I was required to leave the kitchen as the tasting was taking place. As I left I remembered about the rolls, looked in the oven and they needed to get out. Quickly grabbed the tray with my wet dish towel...hot, hOT, HOT, sat down quickly on stove top; hit naan bread of another student which caused it to fall to the floor and shatter. OH NO, I yelled and I could feel the tears start to well in my eyes. The darling student whose bread it was immediately came over and said not to worry she had already been graded. I left the kitchen and then Gillian said Karen did you make the Aioli...I had and had it ready to go in the refrigerator just had forgotten to put it on the plate. Got it for her and left the kitchen. Went outside and cried with exhaustion and relief. The next day was long but I feel I passed. Will get the results in about 6 weeks! Friday night all the teachers put on an end of term dinner for the students. It was fantastic and that night we all went to the Blackbird for the last time....It was a good night!
Cheers!
Karen

Last day in the kitchens

Well, the end is almost here. Today was the last day to cook in the kitchens except for exam day. There was an air of relief and sadness in all of us. Everyone was taking loads of pictures. The afternoon's demo was the last one for Darina to present.
Cheers,
Karen

P.S. Here is my exam menu:
Chilled Green Pea Soup with Fresh Mint Cream
Chicken Paillarde with Roasted Tomatoes and Rocket (Arugula)
Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce and Ballymaloe Vanilla Ice Cream

Happy Fourth!

Time is flying, tomorrow begins week 12...my last week and I can't believe it. Right now I feel like I should be a "culinary dropout" though. Went to a small Fourth of July party and I brought an apple crumble. Upon tasting it I realized I forgot to add the sugar; I went to an extra bread practice this morning and my breads all had massive caves on the inside. Tim (Darina's husband) thought it might be that the oven temperature was wrong. I practiced jointing a chicken last night (need to do it for my practical exam)and it took me 30 minutes to finish...given that I only have 3 hours to prepare this meal I'm in big trouble. Last week my teacher tried to show me how to pipe icing on the cake I made...her's was beautiful, mine looked like blobs. I think I'm turning into a blob after all the sugar and cream and no exercise these last 12 weeks! The pictures above are of the party and my darling Irish neighbor who made cupcakes in honor of the Fourth of July!
Cheers!
Karen

June 21 - Back Home!

The beginning of Week 10 and I'm back in the kitchen I started in and as another student said today...it feels like we're back home! Funny how that is, but it truly did feel like coming home, comfortable. I missed class on Friday. Tom and I took a quick flight over to Paris for the weekend. Did a little shopping (Tom was very patient) and had dinner on Saturday night with our dear friends who own the apartment we rented 11 years ago. The flight from Cork was just over an hour. What a city Paris is; shopping (of course), eating (of course), museums, architecture, and so much more. We ended our last hour there by going to the food market we use to shop at when we lived there. All the sights and smells were the same...it felt like being back home!
Cheers!
Karen

June 14 - One Ugly Dude!

Quite weekend...Tom hurt his back. He's been on a mission over here to get into shape. His days consist of working out i.e. gym, golf, and horseback riding as well as the occasional game of touch rugby with the 19 and 20 year olds at school with me. The rugby game was the beginning of the back ache and then the horse he rides decided she was through and did an abrupt stop which wrenched his back more; he's been walking bent over since last Wednesday. He did rally for a trip to our favorite restaurant in Kinsale though! Today was the beginning of Week 9 and my partner is a FANTSTIC woman from Norway! It was a great day and I just have a feeling the week is going to be great as well. Our demonstration today was by Rory O'Connell...an incredible chef and instructor! Can you guess what the fish is in the pictures? One ugly dude, I'd hate to be a little minnow when that thing opens his mouth, heck he could eat a few thousand minnows.
Cheers!
Karen

P.S. The dude in the pictures is a Monk Fish.

June 11 - Week 8 Fini!

Another week down, four to go and we all are starting to talk about what we want to prepare for our final exam. We are limited to the HUNDREDS of recipes we will have received by the end of the 12 weeks. Needless to say it's going to be hard to decide. We must prepare a three course dinner and the first course cannot be a green salad...DARN! It needs to be completed in three hours and we must make a bread which we will not know which one until the day before. We have no plans for this weekend which is really nice; rest, relaxation, and FILING! Our notebooks are checked as well for part of our final grade and I've gotten behind on filing some of those 100's of recipes! and oh by the way, my finger has healed beautifully; thank goodness for sharp knives that leave straight cuts!
Cheers!
Karen

P.S. I made raspberry sorbet today as part of my cooking duties and got 6 out of 6 for my grade....woo hoo!

June 10 - Another Tart!

Can't quite get this pastry thing down. Today I was responsible for Lemon Tart (different crust...how many crust can there be? I've said the same thing to myself; so far I've made four types and have yet to become proficient in any), and Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad-a classic combination which is delicious...and the beets, oh my goodness! They were picked fresh today and until you've had a beet picked and eaten on the same day you have no idea how sweet and delicious a beet can be. Major bummer about beets though...your hands will never be the same color again, or anything else for that matter. Since my day was fairly easy I added some techniques we need to learn before we can receive our certificate so today I peeled a tomato... core, cut shallow x on bottom, place in bowl, add boiling water to cover, count to ten, remove from water and the skin literally pulls right off. I also scrambled an egg...okay I know some of these techniques are BASIC but we have some students in class who have never cooked before doing this course; and by the way some students enroll in this course as a "finishing school" to learn about the art of cooking and wine! Didn't cook my crust long enough on the tart so it was soggy. The tart was garnished with candied julienned lemon peel. Burnt the first batch and almost burnt the second batch; my partner Sean got them off the heat just in time. Upon tasting my teacher said they needed to cook longer...too tough. How was I supposed to do that when the sugar mixture was starting to turn dark? Add some water she said... oh yea, the forgotten ingredient!
Cheers!
Karen

June 9 - Vegan Day!

Wednesdays are lecture day...today's morning lecture was all on vegetarian foods. Delicious, almost could become a vegetarian with food this good. Afternoon lecture was our fourth wine lecture given by the sommelier of Ballymaloe Country House. We tasted a few french wines as well as spanish wines. Fun way to learn about wine...don't you agree!
Cheers!
Karen

June 8- Injury!

Well, it was bound to happen, BAD, and I mean BAD slice through the finger with the chef's knife. Today is the beginning of week 8. We had a three day weekend (bank holiday, still can't figure out what these bank holidays are all about; this is the second one since I began the course and they don't seem to be in correlation with any type of celebration i.e. Memorial Day etc.) I'm in the same kitchen as last week...my fourth kitchen; but at a new station with a new partner. Huge window at this station which turned out to be not so great. Lots of sun, glaring off every shiny surface, couldn't see very well and oops, right through the finger. Thank goodness for nails because it truly saved the tip of my finger. The instructor wrapped it with the bright blue bandages we use. The color is such so that a bandage doesn't end up in the food...yuk when you think about it! I put on a plastic glove and proceeded with the days cooking...Italian Beef Stew (really good, flaky pastry (to die for literally, a full 1/2 pound of butter is in it), and Rumbledethumb which is mashed potatoes with cabbage. Didn't have time to think about the finger again until I got back to the house tonight. Took off the bandage and thought I was going to pass out...got light headed, pale, pulse racing! Had to go lay down...no sympathy from Tom, he had done the same thing early in our trip! In reality, it truly isn't that bad...and what would a "cooking boot camp" be without a war wound!
Cheers!
Karen

P.S. Erin arrived on Friday, it was so great having her here. She's up in Dublin for the month...the pictures above are from the weekend! The pictures were taken in Ballycotton a darling village about 15 minutes from here. The Blackbird is our favorite pub in the area.

June 2 - "Class Field Trip"

Today we toured four different food establishments, two being artisanal food producers (smoked food and cheese). The top picture is of a traditional bakery shop...the two men are cousins and their fathers started the business in 1937. They make traditional white bread and we all felt very priveledged to be able to tour the facility. It is a dying industry with automation in bread baking taking over. These gentlemen make the bread by hand 6 days a week starting at 3:00 a.m. Now that's dedication!
Cheers!
Karen

Forod

May 31 - The Great American Hamburger!

Week 7: Another new kitchen, new partner, new teacher! Great kitchen, great partner, great teacher...life is good! Today's cooking was "The Great American Hamburger" how appropriate given that today is Memorial Day. My burger was good however my presentation was somewhat lacking(sorry no picture). My teacher gave a thumbs up for taste and a very nice rearrangement of my plate...my presentation looked like a 1950s diet special platter...hamburger patty with slice of tomato, onion, lettuce. When my teacher got through with replating, it looked like a gourmet burger! It looked as good as it tasted! I've got 5 weeks to get this plating business down!
Cheers,
Karen

P.S. I did make the above loaf of bread, and thought you'd enjoy seeing some other pictures of the school

Lazy Weekend

We've spent a much needed lazy weekend. Went to the school for wood fired pizza yesterday. It was really delicious. Philip (Darina's future son-in-law) is in charge and it's run like a small cafe. The wood fire oven is a kit that Darina purchased from a company in Italy...I've got all the info for anyone interested in one. The only problem I see with ordering one is that they cost a small fortune!!!! But the pizza is really, really, delicious. I've come down with the "school cold". Thought I was going to escape catching it...started to feel it coming on right before the exam on Friday and it hit full force Friday night. I've got a rudolph nose from all the blowing. I think I just might have the perfect tonic though, an Irish Hot Toddy....hot water, lemon, honey, and Jameson whiskey! We had a small get together on Wednesday night over at our house with some of the other students. Tom and I made mexican food Arizona style and my dad's refried beans were a hit! It was an early night...midnight! Really, Tom and I stayed up until midnight and the last get together we didn't get home till almost 1:30 and I had class the next day. Let me just say, that next day was a rough one...ha! The Irish know how to party and being a smidgen Irish myself I'm keeping up with them; at least trying my best! Miss all of you but can't believe I've only got six more weeks of class.
Cheers!
Karen

Half Way Point

Yesterday was mid-term exam day....we had to identify 10 herbs and write two recipes for each, identify 10 salad greens, set a table, pour a glass of wine, and complete a set of techniques we should be proficient in at this stage of the course. We had a list of over 30 techniques we should know....4 were given the day of the exam. The only thing I was nervous about was having the teacher from this week be my exam instructor. The table setting and pouring the glass of wine...no problem, I've had plenty of experience with both! Studied for the herbs and salad greens and said a little pray the techniques portion would be things I was proficient in. Walked into the technique room and was immediately shshed by the dreaded teacher who also ended up being my exam teacher...damn, not off to a good start. Felt the heart starting to race, oh well what could I do about it. Went to my assigned station to start the technique portion. The techniques I had to demonstrate were: make paper piping cone, filet and skin a round fish, dice and "sweat" an onion, and make caramel sauce. First thing to do...think of order of work, okay. Sweat onion, make caramel sauce, filet fish, make paper piping bag. Diced onion,easy...melted butter, onion in sauce pan, cover with buttered paper and then lid. Start caramel sauce: sugar in pan, measure water...still having trouble with the metric system "how much water do I need, got nervous, read wrong amount, put triple the amount of water into the pan, oh sh...! Do I let dreaded teacher know...no way, think how to solve this...okay it's just some extra water it will boil off, which it did. Start filleting the fish... easy, starting to feel confident. Watching the caramel sauce...fine line between perfect and burnt....went past that fine line, oh sh...! Made paper bag but couldn't figure out how to secure the top of the bag...looking for tape, teacher finally said, just fold it down...duh! Next, into the herb/salad/table setting/wine pouring kitchen; easy! Whew, it's over! and that's how the 6th week ended! Have a nice Memorial Day weekend everyone...
Cheers!
Karen

Day 26 - "Do You Have a Volume Control"

Monday, week 6, new partner, new kitchen, new teacher...and I'm not sure she likes me! The only time she really spoke to me today is when she said: "Do you have a volume control on that voice"? Oops, Tom got a chuckle out of that one, he's frequently saying the same thing to me. It's going to be hard to "turn down the volume", I've got a great group to work with this week. My cooking tasks today were buttered cabbage and Kerry pie. The pie is pot pie made with lamb, carrots, and onions in a delicious gravy base. It was good but I'd like it best not in the crust and served over creamy garlic and chive mashed potatoes. I can't wait to make it for my dad. It reminds me of the ground beef over mashed potatoes he made for dinner when I was a kid.
Cheers,
Karen

Weekend Travels

Yesterday we went to Kinsale...coastal town towards the southern tip. It's charming and has fantastic seafood. We ate at Fishy Fishy Restaurant; Tom had crab claws that were huge! I was here almost 12 years ago and The Old Head golf club had just been completed. The pictures above show the view surrounding the club. The picture of the house is a B & B I stayed in with Kim, Kelli, and Teddy (Kelli's cousin) 12 years ago. Today has been spent catching up with filing massive amount of recipes and grocery shopping. Tom usually does the shopping; we have complete role reversal over here...I kiss him goodby in the morning and he's off to exercise, horseback ride, and golf. He throws in grocery shopping and the occasional housework. I think he's liking this role reversal!
Cheers!
Karen

Day 25 - "Do I Really Like Cooking"?`

Today was the first day that I have to say I HATED cooking and wondered what I'm I doing here. Thank goodness by the end of our demonstration today I was back to wow I can't believe I am here! The morning started great. My assigned duty today was making the white bread for lunch. White yeast bread was learned last week so I decided to make it for my bread today. Got an early start and had my bread dough made by 9:30. That's when all hell broke lose. Next on my "order of work" was make the strawberry jam, this was started yesterday...easy. Put the jars in the oven to sterlize and began cooking the jam which by the way has an insanely amount of sugar in it. Next on the list make choux pastry, make pastry cream, make chocolate sauce, roll goat cheese into balls for salad, roast peppers, make olive tapenade, make salad dressing, punch down dough, form dough into 5 braided plait, pipe choux pastry onto baking sheet into profiterole shapes, bake choux pastry, make chantilly cream, etc., etc, etc....get the picture, well the one above shows it all! My week 5 partner has been Nikki and she helped clean up the mess! After all that cooking I also had blitz duty which is cleaning all the ovens! I collaped into the chair at 1:45 for our afternoon demonstration which was all about the amazing seafood of Ireland. I was lucky to bring home two of the crabs for dinner tonight and my 5 plait loaf of bread. Ya, cooking is pretty darn great!

Day 24 - "The Spotted Dog"

I've got it! The Spotted Dog that is; which happens to be a type of soda bread. We're now at a stage in the course where we are expected to practice recipes we feel we have not mastered. So today I decided to make the "Spotted Dog" in addition to making Provencal Bean Stew, fileting a flat fish, and Strawberry Jam (will finish tomorrow)!. It's a time dilema when adding an additional item to make and thank goodness for one of my classmates Tara...she got the strawberry jam started for me. Having an oven available is also a dilema so as soon as I arrived this morning I started on the bread. We weigh our ingredients here instead of using measuring cups so I quickly start at the weigh up area for the flour. Back to my station, add the salt, baking soda, and raisins to the flour. Here's where my cooking fairies were watching over me, I really mixed these ingredients together well...as the recipe said: "mix well by lifting the flour and fruit up in to your hands and then letting them fall back into the bowl through your fingers. This adds more air and therefore more lightness to your finished bread". I quickly got the buttermilk whisked with the egg, made a well in the center of the flour mixture and added 3/4 of the buttermilk/egg mixture. Began using my hand to mix wet ingredients into dry; fast and I mean fast when mixing. Dough seemed dry so added a little more milk...still dry, added all the milk. Still seemed dry but plopped it out on the counter formed my loaf and placed on the baking sheet. Now comes the part that allowed this bread to be perfect (Tom's response)...making the cross and letting the fairies out. I took my knife and made two deep cuts to form a cross from one side of the bread to the other. Then I made a slash in each of the four quadrants made by the cross...legend has it this lets the fairies out of the bread and if you don't do this your bread won't turn out. I almost didn't let the fairies out but when I asked my classmate John what he thought his response was "it never hurts to believe in a little Irish superstition!" I completely agree because my teacher said it was a perfect loaf and Tom said he would definitely buy a loaf which ofcourse means perfection!
Cheers!
Karen

Day 23 - The Magic of Food

Lecture day...we get to wear normal clothes, eat food prepared by the teachers (or otherwise known as clean out the refrigerator day for lunch; always delicious though),and listen! The afternoon lectures were presented by two local food purveyors...Peter Ward of Country Choice and Arun Kapil of Green Saffron. Peter started Country Choice over 25 years ago. He imports food from around the world and today he talked about Parmigiano-Reggiano. That's him in the picture. It took 600 pints of milk to make that round and two years of aging. The producer of this cheese has to follow very strict guidelines before the stamp of Parmigiano-Reggiano is allowed on the cheese. It was yummy! Our second guest speaker is a past Ballymaloe student and he started a spice import company called Green Saffron. We had an olfactory overload with all the incredible spices Arun brought with him. "The magic of food" as was stated by Peter Ward today, I completely agree!
Cheers,
Karen

Day 22 - "The Fry Up"

Sorry for the lack of posts but the internet connection at the house I am living in has been down so I'm having to use the computer at the school. I've got just a few minutes before the afternoon demonstration begins...today was Irish Breakfast Day! Nothing like eating breakfast for lunch. It was delicious even the black pudding (it's made with pig's blood). The slang for it is "a fry up" and that says it all! We had a competition today for who presented the best Irish Breakfast. The prize was a bottle of champagne...I did not win! By the time the sausage, black & white puddings, rashers, streaky bacon, tomato, mushroom, and egg were fried (oh yea and the plate warmed) I just wanted to get the d... food plated up and graded. My plate looked like I felt... frazzled!
Cheers!
Karen

Day 17: Heat from Within!

Day 16: Double Yolked

Mondays are hard...I really need weekends to be longer, who decided a weekend is two days anyway...not someone who works and today felt like work, it was an 11 hour day because we had an evening wine lecture. Our guest speaker for that was a hoot and as the evening progressed and we became more relaxed so did he...he had some funny stories to tell about trips to South Africa. This is a man with the gift of gab! My cooking responsiblities today involved poaching an egg and making sponge cake. Doesn't sound like much but started at 8:45 and didn't present to my teacher until 12:45, I know your saying to yourselves 4 hours to make an egg and bake a cake good lord how could she make any money at this when she gets out of that school! I said the same thing to myself as the morning progressed...remember, today felt like WORK! Anyway got it done and two more items checked off the technique sheet! Results of the morning are shown above and by the way the first egg I poached had a double yolk, I think it's a good sign!
Cheers,
Karen

Weekend Travels!

Went to Kilkenny yesterday...fasinating place; it's known as Ireland's Medieval Capital as you can see from the picture of Tom in one of the narrow alley ways. It was the stronghold in the 1600s for Cromwell's troops and the British Crown made it illegal for the Anglo Norman invaders to assimilate into the Irish culture in anyway...dress, speech, or marriage. The Irish were not allowed to live within the city walls or be educated so the Catholic monks taught school in the hedges hence the name Hedge School. The picture of the stained glass is in the Black Abbey and depicts the stations of the cross. Kilkenny is also known for it's music and crafts...which brings me to the highlight of the trip for me...shopping! Nicholas Mosse pottery is headquartered here and when I walked through the doors I entered pottery nirvana...infact the sales lady told Tom that I was like a child in a candy store! I first learned about Nicholas Mosse when I went to Ireland to celebrate turning 40...here I am well past that age and his pottery still makes me swoon. But back to the age thing. We drove on a new toll motorway on the way up to Kilkenny from where we are living. As we entered the bridge we needed to stop at the toll booth to pay. Since we have a french car the driving wheel is on the left not the right. Tom handed me the money to give to the attendant which I did but I couldn't figure out why she looked at me so funny. A few minutes later I pulled down the visor to look in the mirror and starring me in the face was a woman wearing sunglasses with reading glasses on top....no wonder the young people in class call us "The Ancients"!
Cheers!
Karen

Day 15 - Success, well almost!

Being Friday today is the last day I get to have Eoin (pronounced Owen) as my partner and let me tell you he has been a fantastic partner! Kind, funny, and always there to bail me out; like the day I didn't turn off the gas stove and the chopping block was set on top of it and it started to smolder...yea I failed kitchen safety on that day. I made one of our needed skills recipes today...Mummy's White Cream Scones. I was very, very proud of them and brought a few home for Tom to taste. He's tasting it and I say, "well what do you think aren't they delicious"! His response, yes they're very good. I ask, "would you buy one at a store and he said no! NO, what do you mean no! His response, "when I buy something at a store I want it to be really delicious"...my response, what could be more delicious than a freshly baked scone covered in Irish butter, homemade raspberry jam, and softly whipped Irish cream....nothing!
Cheers!
Karen

What Day Is It?

Oh boy, everything is starting to run together...my mind has frozen like the computer I brought over! It's been a busy six days since I last blogged. Tom and I took off for the northwest of Ireland this past Saturday. We went to Donegal, completely fell in love with this part of Ireland. It's Yeats country and given the rugged beauty of the landscape I understand his yearning for his homeland when he was away. It is lambing season so the baby lambs were in abundance. We stayed in a castle called Solis Lough Eske. It's situated on the lake Lough Eske and I felt like I was in a fairy tale! It was magical. The drive took 7 1/2 hours to get back on Monday (we had a three day weekend) and it was hard to get back into the swing of things on Tuesday. I completely burned the glazed carrots and today I let my brown yeast bread rise too much. But I did learn how to butcher one of those sweet little lambs that I had spent the weekend ooing and ahhing over...disgusting I know but I am in a cooking course!
Cheers,
Karen