I had a successful day in the kitchen! :D Woohoo! Even though I felt pretty slow in completing all of the things I needed to do, I still managed to pull through and make delicious food! Here's what I made...
Overall, a great but tiring day in the kitchen. It surprised me when Pam told me how much I have improved since she last worked with me as an instructor (just a couple of weeks ago!). It still feels like I have so much to learn, but I guess I have come a long way since I first got here! It's funny to think that the first day I cooked, I made something like raspberry jam and biscuit cookies, which took me the entire time!
By the way, my pictures aren't showing up right now, so I'll load them in tomorrow night! Hopefully the function will be working by then!
- Colcannon: this is a famous Irish potato dish around this time of year that incorporates a green veggie into mashed potatoes. I think traditionally it's made with cabbage and bacon, two staples here in Ireland. I cooked kale and added milk and scallions to my Colcannon! I never would have thought to do something like that! It's such a pain to peel the potatoes as quick as possible right when you drain them because they are HOT. I guess if you add the right ingredients (or really just enough butter ^_^), it's worth it! It's a great way to incorporate extra veg into a dish! Also I love how it turns everything bright green :).
- Autumn Raspberry Fool: this is such a simple and uplifting dessert. You make a puree of a fruit/berry, sieve it, then fold in whipped cream. The end product is a light and fluffy balance of sweet and tart. My partner Patrick really helped me with this because I was running behind this morning. He made my whipped cream and folded it in for me, and also made shortbread biscuits. I really appreciated his help! I think working together brought the fool alive because I got a 10!!! :D:D:D
- Salmon Paté with Fennel: delicious and simple! It doesn't have the funky taste that a liver paté has, which was nice! All I did was put smoked salmon, butter, garlic, lemon juice, and fennel into a food processor, then voila! It's a great starter! I'd imagine you could also use clarified butter too if you didn't want to eat the dairy :).
- Focaccia: this is one of the breads we'll need to know how to make for our final exam (which is already looming, crazy enough!). It's a much wetter yeast bread, so I didn't have to handle it too much and instead used a dough hook. I sprinkled sea salt and thyme on top, which made it taste really good! Pam gave me a 10 on this as well!!!!!!! I haven't gotten two 10s on the same day before!!!
Overall, a great but tiring day in the kitchen. It surprised me when Pam told me how much I have improved since she last worked with me as an instructor (just a couple of weeks ago!). It still feels like I have so much to learn, but I guess I have come a long way since I first got here! It's funny to think that the first day I cooked, I made something like raspberry jam and biscuit cookies, which took me the entire time!
By the way, my pictures aren't showing up right now, so I'll load them in tomorrow night! Hopefully the function will be working by then!
I didn't get any pictures of the delicacies that Rory and the Ballymaloe house head chef, Julie I think, made this afternoon. We traveled to La Bella Italia to make some of the traditional pasta dishes and desserts. YUMMM. Seeing all of the different dishes reminded me so much of the two trips I've been on to Italy. It's amazing how much food plays a role in my favorite memories from the trip. We learned how to make tiramisu, ravioli, tortellini and cappelletti (very similar!), pappardelle (thick noodles), lasagna, and cannelloni. So much pasta!!
After demo, Nan and I continued our sourdough adventures. I decided to try a new version of my spelt bread and replaced some of the white spelt flour with brown/wholemeal spelt flour (which is less processed and has more fiber). We'll see how it goes! I'll be finishing the loaf hopefully on Wednesday night!
After I got back to the cottage, I helped Madeleine pick through leftover roasted duck legs and separate bone, skin and meat. It's amazing what you can do with all of that! We ate some of the meat we got first off, then we put the skin on a sheet tray to render the precious fat! We probably got a couple tablespoons, but that's okay! I think since it had already been roasted, some of the fat had been lost. Tomorrow night we're going to make a stock from the bones too! Ballymaloe has been ingraining the concept of no waste into our heads!
Now another day has come and gone in a flash. It feels like it goes by even quicker too because the sun goes down so early now :(. I had some pent up energy from today, so I decided to run around the school on the various driveways even though it was dark. I might do that from now on! Darkness shall not conquer my love of running!
Happy Monday everyone!
Love,
Livvy
After demo, Nan and I continued our sourdough adventures. I decided to try a new version of my spelt bread and replaced some of the white spelt flour with brown/wholemeal spelt flour (which is less processed and has more fiber). We'll see how it goes! I'll be finishing the loaf hopefully on Wednesday night!
After I got back to the cottage, I helped Madeleine pick through leftover roasted duck legs and separate bone, skin and meat. It's amazing what you can do with all of that! We ate some of the meat we got first off, then we put the skin on a sheet tray to render the precious fat! We probably got a couple tablespoons, but that's okay! I think since it had already been roasted, some of the fat had been lost. Tomorrow night we're going to make a stock from the bones too! Ballymaloe has been ingraining the concept of no waste into our heads!
Now another day has come and gone in a flash. It feels like it goes by even quicker too because the sun goes down so early now :(. I had some pent up energy from today, so I decided to run around the school on the various driveways even though it was dark. I might do that from now on! Darkness shall not conquer my love of running!
Happy Monday everyone!
Love,
Livvy