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