To The End of Week Six

We celebrated the end of week six and finishing our herb and technique exams with a few bottles of cava, cheese, a pasta making party, and some wine! I managed to be in bed before the usual 4am, and had a lovely evening with good peeps!

The pizza demo yesterday morning seems like months ago, it was a great demonstration, and I can’t wait to have a pizza party when I get home. So many great ideas for toppings, as always, Rory was fabulous.

Now that the herb and leaf recognition exam is over, I feel as though there won’t be anything to talk about at the lunch table. Everyday for the last two weeks or so, everyone gets a big plate of salad, some to eat, and some to study… We wouldn’t dream of throwing out those lovely lettuce leaves, so they do all get eaten, however most of the time it was with our fingers, and after the leaf had been dangling in the air, “red mustard? red mizuna? red oak? red cos?” On a positive note, I am very confident that I did extremely well on the herb and lettuce recognition exam. There were ten herbs and ten leaves, for the herbs you had to write two Ballymaloe recipes. I also had to properly pour a glass of wine, assemble a Magimix (which, in my opinion, if you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be on the course!), and set a table for a specific menu. Then it was a waiting game in the hallway between Kitchen 1 and Kitchen 2, it was quite funny watching everyone come out of the kitchen either looking very confident or quite glum after the technique bit. Sorcha finally came out and called my name, into Kitchen 2 I went to find… A chicken, two eggs, a piece of parchment paper, knob of butter, and an onion… A chicken wasn’t number one on my list of techniques, but it also was above a few things I really didn’t want, so all was well. I jointed him, chopped and sweated my onion, made my paper piping bag (phew!), and my French omelette was last. I was out of the kitchen quite quickly, I know I over salted my onion a wee bit, but other than that I think I did quite well.

Off to Midelton shortly to buy a few things at the market, have a hot chocolate, and wander around for a bit. Chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight, and then will probably head to The Blackbird for a few pints. Going to head into Cork tomorrow morning for a few bits and pieces and then come back with Mary, and see where the day takes us. I can’t believe I only have two weekends left in Shanagarry. Wish I could hit pause, although I am looking forward to the coming weekends very much.

“It’s a sin to use imported potatoes in Ireland.” – Rory

 
Max having a moment with the fire.
Max having a moment with the fire.
With Max!
With Max!
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