Crostini Fantastini

Back to the kitchen today after all the lectures of yesterday and I was in the mood to cook - only 5 weeks to go and I'm already feeling sad, other than missing your man like mad I'd love to just stay and learn more and more and more, loving it so much!

Anyway I tackled the granary bread for a second time, we have to make every bread at least 3 times and there just don't seem to be enough hours or days, I was really pleased with it, bit lighter than the first attempt (always a positive step forward, nothing like kneading your arms into numbness to still produce something that could double as a weapon of mass destruction), was fab with a bit of butter and looked really pretty too, it rose like a dream, my bread's version of taking little blue pills I suppose, YAY!

Moved onto the chocolate mousse after that, lots of fiddling about with gelatine and stiffly beaten egg whites and whipped cream (all done by hand, honestly I should have upper arms like Maria Sharapova by the time I'm done here, be a good thing to focus on as the less said about the southern sections the better).

My teacher suggested wrapping greaseproof paper around some of my little mousse dishes so as to fill them above the rim and then when you take the paper off, they look sort of like a fake soufflé, I made one in a little espresso cup and I thought they looked really sweet. Whipped up some almond praline to pat around the sides too, and managed that without burning the caramel for once, the relief! And then for the final touch, a few chocolate wafer things on the top, not too bad I thought.

And then lastly my main course for the day - pork fillet cooked with onions, coriander seeds, cardomom, cumin seeds and the obiquitous cream - so of course you must know that it was deadly, and did that with some orzo which as I mentioned the other day is a pasta masquerading as rice, doused in a bit of butter because everything tastes better with butter and a bit of parsley and it was lovely, definitely one to make again.

And that was that, another day done and time for demo which was with Rachel today, and as usual, there were too many fab things to learn.

First on the list was sourdough and I'm going to have to give this a go next week, it's a fairly long and involved process because it's a bread made without any yeast or raising agent but rather one made with wild yeast, so you make a "starter" of flour and water and leave it (and feed it, it's like having a pet) for a few days and it collects all the wild yeasts naturally occurring in the atmosphere, so on top of everything else it'll taste different wherever it's made. It all messes with my head a bit, rather like when faxes first came out when I was little and I used to think that the bits of paper flew through the air to their destination (I know, don't comment), but anyway there's no way I'm missing out and so I think I'll start it tomorrow, it's really good bread, sort of chewy but with a crunchy crust, would make amazing toast I imagine, or even better, toasted hot and buttered with chicken liver paté................!!

We also made a huge number of bruschetta and crostini using the world's largest sour dough loaf which actually came in from the artisan bakers in Cork, Arbutus Breads, because Ballymaloe don't have an oven big enough for a loaf this size, isn't it fab, so much space for wicked toppings like tomatoes, goats cheese, caramelised onions, roasted sweet peppers, rocket, blue cheese, tapenade and onion marmalade, which we also learnt to make but a better version than anything I've seen before, with a bit of cassis thrown in, too good. Thank God for tasting sizes, I think if I'd tried hard that I could have wolfed an entire platter.

We learnt a bunch of casseroles too and I love that type of food, especially now when I seem to be cold all bloody day - there was a brilliant one with chicken and tarragon and another with pheasant, chorizo and bacon and speaking of pheasant, I had my first encounter with one of them today, Fiona took a picture so I'll have to get it from her and post it but bottom line I, and a bunch of other students, spent a quality 15 minutes outside with a black bag plucking a pheasant (that had been hanging for about 5 days) and then even worse, gutting it, they're hung fully intact so my little feathered friend was a little Eau d'Yuck - anyway if I ever come across a brace (a pair of game birds, typically a cock and a hen, are you impressed, I feel like I'm living in a Jilly Cooper novel) of pheasant again I'll at least know what to do with the blasted things. I'm making a slightly different chicken casserole tomorrow, one with mushrooms and thyme, and it goes with really soft mashed potatoes, lashings of full cream milk and butter, masses of parsley and a few peas which your man will be pleased to hear, he loves peas!

And then last on the list was were some adorable little fruit tarts, absolutely classic French pastry, you can just imagine then filling a window in some gorgeous French patisserie, called barquettes, another pastry to learn and then once they're cooked, filled with créme patisserie and fruit, too sweet.