Sorry I didn't write yesterday - it was our theory day and we did a full day course on food costing and the like and whilst it was hugely informative, probably not that interesting to read about but we were back in the kitchen today and I had a really good morning, managed to get full marks for all my dishes.
I was on salad and cheese duty which entailed preparing two massive bowls of greens first thing - if there's one thing I'm really going to miss when I leave (and that's a blatant lie, there are so many things), it's the salad every day, it's too fab for words, huge assortment of greens picked first thing in the morning from the glasshouses so just super, super fresh, will have to take a pic. So salad duty means tearing up all the leaves into eatable bits, washing them and the water coming out the taps in the morning now would bring a smile to a polar bear's face, bloody arctic, I couldn't feel my fingers or to be honest, anything up to about elbow level! And then there's a massive salad spinner to dry them off, huge so got a bit of arm toning in too which is always good.
Back to the kitchen after that to make cheese biscuits which equals more arm toning, it's quite a firm dough and then you've to roll them out to see through thin-ness, bit of a battle but they came out well in the end. Plonked them on a board with some fig leaves and a whole bunch of different cheese for lunch and that was my duties for the day done, better than washing up!
Then it was onto pumpkin and rosemary soup, pretty straight forward and all worked fine, a vegetable dish with leeks and peppers, a mousse for pud and then my main course arrived, Mr John Dory, delivered by the fishermen from nearby Ballycotton - there were so many fish dishes on the menu today and the boxes were chock-a-block full, prawns, salmon, monkfish, mussels, clams and my little guy - took a few pics and somehow managed not to get one of John, not so bright.
Anyway John Dory is officially my new most favourite fish - firstly he's flat, always a positive factor and secondly, he's only got one fillet on each side compared to his other flat buddies like sole plaice who have 2 fillets on each side so he was ultra quick and easy, and to seal the deal, he taates brilliant. He does have some impressive body armour in the form of his dorsal fin bit thingys, my God they're sharp and trying to cut them off was a bit of a mission but after that, it was an easy swim in the sea. Pan grilled the fillets and served them with a dot (OK, a large blob) of watercress butter, yum. I had a blonde moment and forgot to take pics of my dishes but they did look pretty good.
Demo was really fantastic today, Rory was on proper form and had us in giggles the whole afternoon - there were quite a few classics on the list and a lot of dishes involving Donald Duck. We started with consommé which is about as classic as you get, on paper after a fair amount of fiddling you should end up with a sparklingly clear soup - it took quite a while to get to that stage but in the end there was a pot full of gorgeous consommé and I can hardly bear to tell you what happened next. There was another pot nearby, full of hot duck fat which looks quite similar I suppose and Pam, who was assisting Rory today had a roasting pan fresh from the oven which had more duck fat in it that needed to be ladled into the duck fat pan and by mistake, was ladled into the consommé - shame, her face, one of those slow motion moments where you know what you've done almost the moment you do it but it's too late, felt so sorry for her. Rory took it really well, bit of an opportunity for trouble shooting although in the end it couldn't be salvaged. Bless, Pam went to the back for a while and a few minutes later, the door opened again and a long wooden pole peeped out with a white napkin tied to the end, was so funny. I'm down to make this tomorrow and I might add a large white sticker to the lid of my pan advising all parties to step away from the soup, I simply couldn't bear it.
The duck was fantastic, Rory jointed one again to show us where we could be in a few weeks time (his words, a few years in most of our minds) - it took him 45 seconds, the Stig of the cuisine world, and he wasn't even happy with that........................I know, I still feel a bit sick.
Anyway there was a virtual flush of ducks ( had to Google that) on the menu and they were turned into all sorts of things - pan grilled duck breast with spiced lentils and caramelised apples, roasted duck with honey and rosemary, duck legs with onions and thyme, duck salad with walnuts and apple, another salad with orange segments, green beans, crispy bacon and croutons which Rory made from slices of baguette and begged us, when we make them tomorrow, to take them out the oven at the golden and crispy stage as opposed to the dark brown, dried out, bearing a close resemblance to a dog biscuit stage. We also finished off the duck confit which we started on Tuesday, couple of days in salt and herbs and then today it went into a lot of duck fat and you've to simmer it slowly for a few hours so that you end up with a gorgeously tender, melt-in-the-mouth crispy duck rather than something deep fried that could be sold by KFC or KFD in this case. I wasn't so sure about this whole malarkey but despite the oil spa bath, it's not greasy at all, just completely sublime.
Rustic rosemary potatoes and roasted Jerusalem artichokes (beyond good) made an appearance too and for pud, sweet soufflés - a flourless lemon soufflé and a true classic, Soufflé Grand Marnier - as soon as those came out the oven, they were sent around the room, we were all armed with spoons and didn't need a second invitation, I'm down to make that one tomorrow as well so I'll be having a proper Julia Child day, classic French cuisine the whole way.
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