Seaside Foraging

Just in from a Slow Food talk by a lady called Dorothy Cashman, who is doing her PhD in culinary manuscripts. Very interesting, but a lot of Irish history that means nothing to me (sadly!), she is working to preserve and understand more of what happened in some of the great houses around Ireland.

Woke up this morning to the birds and the chickens, got ready, ate some yoghurt (I only tell you this, because it was MY yoghurt!), and headed into the school, there was a beautiful sunrise over the fruit garden. I really am so lucky to be here. My chicken dish, and smoked salmon starter were both great, I personally would leave the rose water out of the chicken, just not a flavour I really like. I made white soda bread and Ballymaloe brown yeast bread, and segmented an orange as well. Darina was in our kitchen this morning and was there when I was making my brown bread, she dumped probably two times the amount of water into my flour than I needed, but she knew exactly how much flour to then add to make it right. In the end I had a baby loaf and a normal loaf.

After lunch we went down to Shanagarry Strand and Emer introduced us to seaside foraging, we were only down there for about half an hour, but it was so nice to see the sun, and get some sea air. Every seaweed in the coastal waters of Ireland is edible. The beach runs for miles, it honestly was the perfect day to be able to go out and do this. Later in the course we will have another day foraging, it is so interesting, but sadly I will never be able to go seaside foraging in Edmonton.

Demo was a mix of things, shrimp, prawns, scallion champ, bacon and cabbage (very tasty!), parsley sauce, mayonnaise, mendiants… A the beginning of the demo a lady called Noreen stopped in, she and her husband are producing heritage pedigree pigs, the producers that both Ballymaloe House and the school use and support have such strong beliefs in what they are doing, and are so passionate about what they are doing, it is truly incredible. In a supermarket farmers get ¼ of the profit off of their product, farmers that sell direct at a farmers market know what they are selling, and get 100% of the profit. Noreen was talking about the feed that they use, and how cautious you have to be, different feeds have a lot of metal in them, which increase growth in the pigs, but also stay in their systems. As Darina said, “you are what your animal eats.” It sure makes you think. I’m thankful to live in a city where it is getting easier to access food in this way.

Tomorrow is Friday, and guess what…? I can’t believe it!

“We’ve all curdled mayonnaise, and I hope you will too, because that’s what cooking is about, knowing how to get yourself out of a pickle.” – Darina Allen

 
On my way into the school this morning.
On my way into the school this morning.
Rosette of Smoked Salmon with Sweet Cucumber Salad
Rosette of Smoked Salmon with Sweet Cucumber Salad
Ottolenghi's Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey
Ottolenghi's Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey
My bebe bread and my big bread!
My bebe bread and my big bread!
Seaside foraging selfie.
Seaside foraging selfie.
Shanagarry Strand
Shanagarry Strand
Emer showing us a few things.
Emer showing us a few things.
Dorthy Cashman in tonight's Slow Food talk.
Dorthy Cashman in tonight's Slow Food talk.
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