Today was pretty great! My day in the kitchen wasn't spectacular, but that didn't matter because Matthew was here!! Now that I think about it, it was close to a disaster... I felt so hopeless. It all tasted pretty good, but I didn't really have the heart to take a picture. Here's what I made:
Having Matthew come to lunch with me was so much fun!! I have loved getting a chance to catch up with him!
- Lemon Curd Profiteroles: I kept messing everything up with these! I had four different components to this dish, and something went wrong with every one of them.
- Choux pastry: this is such a bizarre creation! You add flour to boiling butter and water, stir like crazy, then add several eggs one at a time. I added too much egg, so my pastry was too wet and made it difficult to pipe into little rounds. I also cooked a batch of the cream puff shells too long after I'd piped them. Lesson here: be careful with the amount of egg I add, and don't overcook the shells!
- Patisserie cream: apparently this is commonly used as a filling for pastries. It has FLOUR in it, which makes it so thick! D: Crazy! After I let mine chill, it turns out it had lumps :(. Lesson learned: if there are lumps, strain it while it's still warm!
- Chantilly cream: this is essentially sweetened whipped cream. I needed to add lemon zest, but added vanilla instead. Lesson: read the recipe.
- Lemon curd: this actually didn't go too poorly! The egg scrambled a little bit so I had to strain it out, but it still had a lovely flavor! The error I made was to mix the pastry cream with the chantilly cream (which I WASN'T supposed to do!!) rather than the curd with the chantilly cream. Oops! I ended up not even being able to serve my profiteroles with the curd :(. Oh well! It was in a bowl to the side at least. Lesson: READ THE RECIPE!!
- Kale! Yum. This was such a simple dish - I boiled water and salt, added a mountain of kale, then let it cook for awhile until it was done, and BAM! There you had it - cooked kale. I loved the fresh taste of the kale! They had picked it in the garden within the hour of me cooking it!
Having Matthew come to lunch with me was so much fun!! I have loved getting a chance to catch up with him!
Matthew was also able to come to the afternoon demo (THANK YOU SARAH - Nan's mom!!!!!!!!). One of the highlights was a gourmet fish and chips (poached monkfish with frites- or matchstick fries) topped off with a red pepper sauce made with pure cream and butter. Does it get any better than that!? I am so happy that Matthew has had the chance to see what I do here every day :).
We made it to our B&B down the road called The White Lodge, then went for a stroll on the beach together. We didn't get to see them, but it looked like people had been riding horses on the beach! So cool! I like how you can see the Ballycotton lighthouse in the background of the shot :).
For dinner, we went to a restaurant not far from the lighthouse island called Pier 26. Boy what a treat! It was all so fresh and local! Matthew had his first fish n' chips, and I had roasted Plaice (a type of flat fish) with nasturtium flowers and mashed potatoes. For dessert, we spontaneously got something called "Eton Mess," which was crushed up meringue with cream, strawberries and more nasturtium flowers. We also tried our very first brandy!! It was a locally produced apple brandy. Why not? It actually wasn't that bad... But not really something I'd go for again.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant not far from the lighthouse island called Pier 26. Boy what a treat! It was all so fresh and local! Matthew had his first fish n' chips, and I had roasted Plaice (a type of flat fish) with nasturtium flowers and mashed potatoes. For dessert, we spontaneously got something called "Eton Mess," which was crushed up meringue with cream, strawberries and more nasturtium flowers. We also tried our very first brandy!! It was a locally produced apple brandy. Why not? It actually wasn't that bad... But not really something I'd go for again.
Overall, Friday was a great day!! :D I am so lucky that Matthew has been able to come to Ballymaloe and visit. It still feels surreal!!!
Love,
Livvy
Love,
Livvy