It all started with a seemingly innocent pie which should have easily been completed within the three hours we have to cook each day. The reality was, the filling of the pie had to be slow cooked for hours and then cooled completely, the pastry topping had to be chilled every time you so much as glanced at it (when you are 90% butter you don't hold up well in a hot kitchen) and my oven was not co-operating. So I never actually got to eat lunch, but I did get to bring it all home for dinner.
The pie which was my undoing was a steak and oyster pie. Apparently this pie originated during a time when oysters were cheap and plentiful and beef was not - the oysters were used to 'fill out' the meat. Considering the tables have turned, I think this pie should now be forcibly retired. For someone who cannot stand oysters, I resented the half hour I spent wrestling them open just so they could ruin a perfectly good steak pie. Humph. It was like making a beautiful chocolate cake, and then spreading it with Marmite instead of icing. On the bright side, I finally got to use the flaky pastry I made on Wednesday which was delicious, although I would probably enjoy it more if I was blissfully unaware of the amount of butter in it (how my pants have not split is a miracle).
Next on the menu was the delightfully named rumbledethumps. I do not know the origins of this dish, but I imagine a disgruntled parent got sick of their child's reluctance to eat cabbage, stirred it into some mashed potato with cream and butter and christened the new dish with a name that any youngster would find amusing (try to say it without smiling, I dare you). My rumbledethumps tasted great, but looked rather like potato soup - I got a little carried away with the cream. Oops. I am not including a photo of this dish because it would be a bad advertisement.
Next was bread made from butter and milk dough - the best bread I have ever made (says the girl who has been baking bread for a mere seven weeks). It is a white yeast bread that has a brioche-like texture which means it's like biting into a delicious cloud. So heavenly! I could not wait to get home to cut a thick pillowy slice and smother it with butter - I am chomping as I type (I am chomping as I watch football and listen to her type - Ed). Please enjoy this possibly excessive photo album of my beloved bread ... I call it 'loaf love'.
Today in demonstration we learned how to cook: Crab and asparagus with Thai mayonnaise on sourdough, Crab toasts with lemon aioli, Ballycotton crab crumble, Bruschetta, bruschetta with parma ham goats cheese and onion jam, Sardine and roasted tomato bruschetta, Canellini bean and tomato bruschetta, Grilled sourdough bread with broad beans and garlic, How to prepare a duck or goose, Roast stuffed duck with Brambly apple sauce, Roast duck with traditional potato stuffing, traditional roast goose, Rhubarb sauce, Zucchini Trifolati (zucchini cooked to within an inch of its existence), Red cabbage, Spiced aubergine sandwich with goat's cheese and rocket leaves, Broadway coleslaw (it has its name in lights), Green salad with verjuice dressing, Besancon apple tart, Caramelized apple tart, Rhubarb and custard tart, French apple tart (apple pastry topped with a beret, riding a bicycle).
Tomorrow The Editor and I are going on a 'tasting trail' of Cork city. I am literally eating my way around the country ...
The pie which was my undoing was a steak and oyster pie. Apparently this pie originated during a time when oysters were cheap and plentiful and beef was not - the oysters were used to 'fill out' the meat. Considering the tables have turned, I think this pie should now be forcibly retired. For someone who cannot stand oysters, I resented the half hour I spent wrestling them open just so they could ruin a perfectly good steak pie. Humph. It was like making a beautiful chocolate cake, and then spreading it with Marmite instead of icing. On the bright side, I finally got to use the flaky pastry I made on Wednesday which was delicious, although I would probably enjoy it more if I was blissfully unaware of the amount of butter in it (how my pants have not split is a miracle).
Next was bread made from butter and milk dough - the best bread I have ever made (says the girl who has been baking bread for a mere seven weeks). It is a white yeast bread that has a brioche-like texture which means it's like biting into a delicious cloud. So heavenly! I could not wait to get home to cut a thick pillowy slice and smother it with butter - I am chomping as I type (I am chomping as I watch football and listen to her type - Ed). Please enjoy this possibly excessive photo album of my beloved bread ... I call it 'loaf love'.
Today in demonstration we learned how to cook: Crab and asparagus with Thai mayonnaise on sourdough, Crab toasts with lemon aioli, Ballycotton crab crumble, Bruschetta, bruschetta with parma ham goats cheese and onion jam, Sardine and roasted tomato bruschetta, Canellini bean and tomato bruschetta, Grilled sourdough bread with broad beans and garlic, How to prepare a duck or goose, Roast stuffed duck with Brambly apple sauce, Roast duck with traditional potato stuffing, traditional roast goose, Rhubarb sauce, Zucchini Trifolati (zucchini cooked to within an inch of its existence), Red cabbage, Spiced aubergine sandwich with goat's cheese and rocket leaves, Broadway coleslaw (it has its name in lights), Green salad with verjuice dressing, Besancon apple tart, Caramelized apple tart, Rhubarb and custard tart, French apple tart (apple pastry topped with a beret, riding a bicycle).
Tomorrow The Editor and I are going on a 'tasting trail' of Cork city. I am literally eating my way around the country ...
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