Since I last wrote, I’ve had a good few days. We have covered some interesting areas in the kitchen, including seafood (check out this amazing scallop that I prepared on monday), choux pastry, tapas, wine and sherry.
After a few miserable days being ill last week, I escaped to Kenmare at the weekend, which was just glorious. It really blew me away. Here’s a photo from the drive back.
Our classes have finished a littler earlier than usual this week, so we have had a bit more of an evening, and with the nights drawing out, we’ve even seen a little daylight at the end of the day. On monday, I really needed some air, so headed down to the beach after class for an amble. I had to really pinch myself, and remind myself that I’m actually at Ballymaloe.
We have exams on friday – both a practical and theoretical exam, testing our knowledge on techniques and herb and salad knowledge. I have been practicing a few techniques in class, such as french omelettes, but hope to do a few more tomorrow, as I missed cooking the eggs when I was ill last week.
The weather has been really bad this week and East Cork was on red alert today. I managed to get out to Ballycotton Seafood at lunchtime to pick up a couple of pollack to practice my filleting techniques in time for friday. I was lucky, as apparently there is very little fish around due to the bad weather. Perhaps after all that, we won’t have fish in the exam after all. We’ll see!
Darina and Tim are in India on holiday now, so we have had Rory for demo today. I love his demonstrations – they are just so interesting, and I come away with so many useful notes. Here’s a photo from demo last week to give you a flavour of what goes on in the room. I’m sure this will be the last post this side of the exams. Wish me luck!!
