Wednesday kicked off with a bit more cheese info, honestly my filing section on cheese alone brings tears to my eyes, there are too many!! Today was blue cheese day and phew, you knew that before you even walked through the door to demo - blue cheese has been growing on me (I know, bit of a pun there, sorry), from pretty much hating it before I arrived here there are now a few I quite like, one local one called Wicklow Blue which is especially fab and another called Cashel Blue which I quite fancy as well but there was one this morning that was a kicker of note, it was rather ripe, almost got off the cheeseboard to come and greet us all at the door.......................at least anyone with dodgy feet didn't have to worry, safety in numbers and all that!
So after a quick half hour of mostly breathing through my mouth, we moved onto the main event of the day which was a vegetarian demo presented by both Darina and Rory, now I know that vegetarian food conjures up all sorts of manky greeny/brownish stews for most along with valid flatulence concerns but I have to tell you, today's demo was a revelation - there was nothing I didn't want to eat (even tofu, more on that later) and I reckon even the most ardent Seth Efrican meat-eater would have coped admirably well, it was delish.
Favourites for me - a chickpea stew based on a recipe by Skye Gyngell of Petersham Nursery Café in Richmond, a sweet potato, brown rice and pumpkin seed salad and a daal recipe from Moro Cafe in London - all just fantastic. The daal was made with lentils as per the norm and then mixed with caramelised onions which just made it so good, it doesn't look the best in a bowl I'll be honest and the effects later on mightn't be conducive to a whole lot of romance but WOW, it was delish!
Rory also made tabouleh which I adore, it's a salad made with bulgar wheat, masses of parsley and mint, cucumber and tomatoes, olive oil and lemon juice, really good - it originated traditionally in the Middle East and being mid-November in Ireland, it was a dire wintry day and it turns out that tabouleh isn't much of a turn on when it's close to zero outside and lashing rain but I've high hopes for making this when I get home close to Christmas, straight out the Irish winter and into the South African summer, ditching the Irish stews and full steam ahead with the tabouleh, YAY!
Even the tofu was pretty good although that might have been something to do with the sauce - sticky sesame oil, honey and ginger and all sorts of other delish Thai-style ingredients, fab - I know most people who've been unfortunate enough to encounter tofu have likely found it less than interesting but this was really good, must admit though that I kept thinking how wicked the sauce would be with salmon or kuku....................I know, not good, I'm supposed to be thinking only of green things and being nice to everything furry, feathered or scaled, I've no shame.
There was also an all purpose chilli, so not the standard Chilli Con Carne but one made instead with soya mince, otherwise known as textured vegetable protein, less Chilli Con Carne and more Chilli Con Save Me - someone remarked that "you couldn't tell the difference" and don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad but I'd have to spike your man's drink quite liberally (and possibly serve it close to naked and in the middle of a rugby test match) to pass it off as regular mince sauce.
Indian onion bhajis, vegetable pakoras and potato samoosas also made an appearance, with a fab mango relish for dipping, all fantastic. Most of the onion bhajis that I've encountered to date - largely in London and delivered courtesy of the local somewhat dodgy take out - were not great, a LOT of batter and an involved search to find much onion, these were more like onion rings in a spiced batter, yum!
The list was super long and as the clock crept ever forward it was evident that we were never going to be on time for lunch, scheduled for 12h30, and we eventually finished at 13h45 - my very numb rear end and grumbling stomach made their way over to the café to try everything out and from there it was back to my (much hated on Wednesday) chair and the afternoon wine lecture which focused primarily on Italian wines.
They were great, really good wines and I know this is a bit pathetic but the best, best part for me were the names, don't you just love Italian, if I could learn to speak any language this would be it - Valpolicella, Montalcino, Barolo, Barbaresco, Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Amarone - don't tell me you don't sound like an extra from the set of one of The Godfather movies when you say those out loud, I love them, and by the way, the wines were fantastic too, their whole control system is even worse than the French and so learning it could well leave me with a more advanced drinking problem but other than that, fab!
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