No cooking today as per our normal Wednesday schedule, but it was a full day none the less! The morning started with a quick visit to the garden to pick some horseradish with Darina! After that and a hectic return to the demo room ... Darina led the mornings demo session with some help from Pat, the team and Rory ... It started with some tray bakes / biscuits, a review of two Irish farmhouse cheeses, some beef and lamb dishes then a mass of other food including some middle eastern staples ...

In a bit more detail ...

Biscuits -

Caramelised Pecan Squares,
Caramelised Almond Squares
Chocolate and Toffee Squares

Cheese of the Week:

Cratloe (a sheep's milk)
Coolea – Gouda type cheese (cow’s milk),

Roast Rib of Beef Demonstration (beef raised on the farm of the cookery school)

Traditional Roast Rib of Beef with Yorkshire Pudding
Horseradish Sauce
Spicy Roast Parsnips
Julia’s Roast Potatoes
Mary Jo’s Braised Short Ribs
Cassoulet
Anchor and Hope Stuffed Breast of Lamb
Anchor and Hope Slow Cooked Lamb Neck
Gratin of Potato with Rosemary and Bay Leaves
Braised Lamb Shanks with Garlic, Rosemary and Flagolet Beans
Hummus with Pitta Bread
Anchoiade
Egyptian Dukkah
Three Fruit Marmalade
Seville Orange Marmalade

It was a long impressive demo session (we broke at 11 a.m. to eat the biscuits ... modified eating my $%&) 😜

Lunch was a struggle ... but a very tasty struggle !!! I do have a photo of the food but ... when you're tasting a bit of everything ... I wouldn't want to make you all jealous! Oh and whoever made the chocolate rum and honeycomb ice-cream ... WOW !!! 😜

After lunch we were given a talk by Darina about finding a job when we finish ... It started with what's a CV ... I did have a little chuckle at that but then I remembered that there will be people on the course who have never prepared one ... maybe I should do a separate class on how to write them (and bin them) ... and how not to send me a CV in "times new roman" font !!!! (LVD !!!) 👎😝

Darina went through many option channels that people could consider ... from being a chef in a normal kitchen to a Michelin star kitchen (although she pointed out we are not being trained for that at the moment) From yachts to chalet chefs ... and from food stylists to food trucks ! it was an interesting chat! Darina is adament that everyone should trust her and we will all be able to work in a kitchen when we finish the course ! (I have faith)😇

For the second half of the afternoon we made our way to Ballymaloe house, where it all began (1964) ! I was lucky enough to have Hazel (Rory Allen's wife) who seems to run the show (or at least did, I could be wrong, and probably am ... apologies if I am) give us the tour ... we saw pretty much everything from the bedrooms, the kitchen, the dining rooms, the gardens, the grain store (exhibition space) and much more ... and received a good overall history of the place ... we finished with afternoon tea in the conservatory ... Yes ... afternoon tea !!! and it included ... cucumber sandwiches (with the crusts off), myself and Ernest felt very important)!!!🤫🤗😂

The evening was one of filing, work orders and then a great wine tasting at our house ... but hosted by one of our neighbours houses (if that makes sense) our cottage has the largest kitchen and table ... a great night had by all! 😎

Tomorrow I am cooking Ballycotton (or Dublin Bay) prawns with home made mayo ... and the Ballymaloe Sheperd's pie (that is so different to the one I would make at home) ... I will throw a few other techniques in too if I can ... including a brown yeast bread!

Oh I forgot to mention ... Richard brought us some special guests today ... is it wrong to say ... (future) TASTY !!! 👨‍🍳

Day Seventeen - Afternoon tea!