I started in the Demo Kitchen this morning - we only have one week in this kitchen, it's the one that's used for afternoon demo each day and it's so fab, so much equipment, lots of space and peace and quiet in comparison to the other kitchens where there are 18 students ripping their hair out instead of just the 6 of us in Demo, it's bliss, I'd like to stay here forever!
So I was down to make Dingle Pie, poached plums and the seafood platter and I didn't venture into anything else, always takes a day or so to find your feet in a new kitchen so rather than finish late and get thumped on, I thought I'd stick to the bare requirements and the Dingle Pie took a fair bit of time anyway - make the pastry, roll it out, top and bottom, make the filling, etc, etc, all with lots of cooling and resting in between. This was a slightly new pastry for me, still shortcrust but made in a different way using hot water and melted butter and it went really well, seems to be one of the more robust pastries as such, can take a few dodgy student mess ups and still turn out looking vaguely like it should.
For the filling, I had to make a lamb, cumin, carrot and onion filling which was so nice, separating the lamb meat from the leg took a while but in the process I leant to butterfly or completely debone a leg of lamb (which you could then stuff and roast, delish) so not a bad technique to add to my list, back to Grey's Anatomy and feeling a bit like a surgeon...............forget your chef kit and just imagine yourself in a set of scrubs and Bob's your uncle.
I put stars all over my pie, going for the seven star look you know, five star is so yesterday!
The poached pears were a dream, you just throw them in the pot with a spot of sugar and water, wait for them to burst and then haul them back out, lovely and easy and they taste like a dream.
Last up was the seafood platter, relatively simple - avert your eyes from the live creatures soon to die in your pot, slosh them into the boiling water, wait for a minute or so, plan your next confession and then whip them out - I also had to open my first oyster and although I didn't manage to stab myself, it did take me ages, the oyster and I spent some truly quality time together before he finally gave up the ghost and opened, if I'd been in a restaurant with guests waiting on them, well they'd have gone home I reckon, or even on a mini break before reporting back for their starter, I was sadly very slow, crippled tortoises would have beaten me to the finish line on this one...........! As you can see, it was served with good old homemade mayonnaise but thankully someone else had the task of whisking themselves into a coma and made enough for all of us, YAY!
Afternoon demo was with Darina and we did all sorts of things - lots of focaccia breads demonstrated by Scott, one of the chefs at Ballymaloe House who is a specialised baker, so good, a couple of Provencal winter soups (perfectly timed since the weather has officially gone to the dogs), more monkfish with all sorts of sauces including the long awaited Hollandaise sauce (no doubt a few of us will manage to make scrambled egg tomorrow instead of Hollandaise), a couple of salads and vegetable dishes and two fantastic apple tarts, both French, one caramelised and one made with a custard, gorgeous.
And then lastly Gillian, one of the teachers here who worked at the River Café in London for years and who specialises in Italian food, did a pasta demonstration for us, tagliatelle made from scratch and finally cooked and finished off with a touch of parmesan, the obiquitous butter, parsley and pepper and oh my word, it was a complete revelation - I'm not a huge pasat fan but now I know why, the dried stuff out of a bag doesn't hold so much as a tealight candle to the real stuff, it was utterly sublime - going to have to master this, my dad adores pasta and he has no idea what's he's been missing all these years, have started the "Save for a Pasta Rolling Machine Fund" as of this very instant!
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