What a day! My day in the kitchen went pretty well, despite the fact that I'm tired from going to bed ridiculously late. I did a time-lapse again, which is always fun to look back on :). I'd suggest going to settings and watch it on the 0.5 speed setting rather than normal so it is a bit easier to follow. Here's what I made...
- Kale Soup: this was actually quite delicious! I sweated onion and potato in butter, added chicken stock, then cooked down some kale in all that and liquidized it. YUMMMM. It had such a brilliant green!! This is definitely something I want to make when I get home because it's such a great way to use up leafy greens- you can sub radish tops, watercress, cabbage, spinach, etc. and it'll still taste great! :D.
- Brown soda bread: this was such a fail. UGH. The two times I've made brown soda bread it hasn't gone very well. Last week it was too wet, and this week I didn't use a fine enough sieve for the baking soda, so there were greenish yellow spots in my bread from little clumps. Yuck!!
- BACON!!!! WOW I've never had bacon that tasted as good as this. I learned this yesterday: pig meat starts out as pork. It becomes bacon, ham, or rashers only after it's been cured! Bacon doesn't have to come in strips like the way we know in America, but can be roasted and cut into juicy and tender slices. Today I boiled streaky bacon (rather than loin, what other students cooked) with the rind on, which was kind of gross because the hairs were still on it.... Check us out in the video taking the rind off! Then I cut diamonds into the fat and put cloves in the center to serve as flavor. THEN we spread on a glaze of orange juice and demara sugar. WOW. The fat side had such a crisp edge with a smoky, salty caramel flavor. SOOO good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Gluten free double chocolate cookies: these things are dangerous. I roasted and de-skinned some hazelnuts, then chopped up dark and white chocolate and added them all to a gluten free cookie dough (that only used brown sugar, no other sugar). My partner, Anouk, and I wanted to practice making parchment paper into a piping bag so we melted chocolate and made designs and also drew on the cookies. I don't think I should make these again because they tasted so good!!!! :)
I can't wait for what's in store next week on the menu! It looks like we'll be delving more into intricate pastries :) Although, maybe that isn't ideal considering the amount of sugar I've been consuming lately... Still very fun to look at! The head pastry chef at the Ballymaloe House showed us how to make marshmallow (with raspberries in the center!) and fudge (which actually didn't have any chocolate, but tasted SOOOOOO good!). Also, we learned how to make Choux pastry (which you use to make éclairs or profiteroles), so we get to snack on éclairs on Monday too!! Yumm.
Well now it's time for the weekend! Sadly I didn't run today because I had after-demo duty, but that's okay! A day off won't kill me. I don't have too much going on, though I'm excited for the guest speaker tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure exactly what he'll be doing, but I do know he's a past student that has succeeded in publishing a gluten free and refined sugar free cookbook with his sister... Pretty cool! Also I'm hopefully going to dinner with Nan's family tomorrow night! :D I can't wait!
One thing I learned today: baking soda needs a REALLLLLLY fine sieve when you're adding it to bread. A normal one you'd use for typical sifting doesn't get the job done.
Favorite part of the day: doing my hen duty, where I got to take the demo hen bucket to feed the chickens!! They crack me up! There were a couple in the dumpster connecting the big pen and fence that gave me a good clucking. :).
Hope everyone's off to a great weekend!
Love,
Livvy
PS Just as I posted this, I saw a mouse scampering under my roommate's bed! YIKES!!! I don't really think there's anything we can do about it. Oh well!
One thing I learned today: baking soda needs a REALLLLLLY fine sieve when you're adding it to bread. A normal one you'd use for typical sifting doesn't get the job done.
Favorite part of the day: doing my hen duty, where I got to take the demo hen bucket to feed the chickens!! They crack me up! There were a couple in the dumpster connecting the big pen and fence that gave me a good clucking. :).
Hope everyone's off to a great weekend!
Love,
Livvy
PS Just as I posted this, I saw a mouse scampering under my roommate's bed! YIKES!!! I don't really think there's anything we can do about it. Oh well!