Phew, woke up feeling worse than ever this morning, this flu just won't go so I've booked an appointment with the local doc in Ballycotton for this afternoon, time for the proper drugs I think and hopefully lots of anti-bs over the weekend will have me back to normal, or as close as, by Monday morning.
Was not much fun in the kitchen this morning to be honest, my head felt like it was going to explode - for some unfathomable reason, I decided to make white yeast bread, my worst thing, I've made it twice to date and really, although it looked OK, light it wasn't, needed to sign onto Weigh Less it was so damn heavy. But making it today when I felt like death warmed up in the microwave probably wasn't wise, I just didn't have the energy to knead properly and so in the end, since I could see it wasn't going to turn into a lovely, spongy loaf I stuffed it with goats cheese, pesto, sun dried tomatoes and roasted peppers instead, rolled it up and twisted it into a circle-type affair and made a sort of pizza-like concoction, much less dire like that.
Moved quickly onto the pate de campagne after that which went well, minced pork and chicken mixed with garlic, herbs, onions, a touch of ground cloves and all spice and lots of seasoning, and then put into a dish lined with streaky bacon and with layers of ham and chicken livers in between - I know, sounds a bit much but it's actually really good, very classic Provencal-style food - no piccies yet I'm afraid because it has to rest for the weekend and I'll see it again on Monday morning.
Made onion marmalade to go with it, isn't it just the best thing, I love it - this recipe is even better than the one I've made before, it's got a bit of cassis in it which just seems to make it even more delish.
Last stop before lunch was a cheddar cheese and chive soufflé which worked, YAY - took a pic just as it was coming out the oven before I raced to the table to present it for marking, full marks for that thank Heaven sincee today's bread mark simply isn't fit for public printing.
Made it through lunch and then it was time for demo which was with Rory, so exciting, we've not seen him much lately and he's my best by far! So sad that I have to leave halfway through to go to the doc but still managed 2 hours and he was on form today, lots of funny asides and glorious plate presentations and just fab, fab, fab.
He kicked off with salmon, a whole fish which was then gutted and portioned, ready for poaching - he also showed us a grey sea mullet and I know what you're all thinking, mullet, yuk and you're right, they're what Rory described as "indiscriminate eaters" which I thought was a gentle way of putting it and you wouldn't want one that lived under a bridge on the River Lee in the middle of Cork or to put it in home terms, a dark corner of Durban harbour but there are some here that live in the nice parts of the sea and it's all a case of having a good relationship with your local fishmonger - if you get a good one, they're actually really nice, similar to sea bass and a quarter of the price.
Did you know that you can apparently poach a whole salmon brilliantly in your dishwasher, obviously sans the detergent, I'm not joking, Rory told us about it although he's not actually tried it himself and I came home and googled it, "dishwasher salmon" and it's there, if the silly fish wasn't so damn expensive I'd be so tempted to try it!
Time for caesar salad, my favourite salad of all time and Rory made the real classic version - beautifully crisp cos lettuce leaves tossed in made-from-scratch caesar dressing and topped with perfect croutons and I do mean perfect, absolutely square, all the same size and fried slowly in a mix of olive oil and butter, you could of course chuck them into a deep pan of oil or even worse, the deep fat fryer and get them perfectly golden all over instead of standing over the pan for 10 minutes turning them gently but as Rory said, it's just not the right way and somehow or other, they do taste better his way.
Another type of ice cream was next, made from a custard base rather than an egg mousse base like we did earlier in the week - they're both incredible as far as I'm concerned, this new one does need an ice cream machine which, since I don't have one, at least stops me making it too often. Rory did a plain vanilla version and another with cinnamon, can you just imagine that with warm apple pie or that brilliant pear tart I made yesterday, too good.
With the flaky pastry that we made yesterday, Rory made some palmiers, you know those wicked little pastry biccies also known as pig's ears and no wonder, all that butter and then tossed in icing sugar before they go into the oven - ears are the last thing you have to worry about I tell you, it's pig's bum and pig's stomach that give me severe cause for concern! There was also an apple tart with a shortcrust base, tonnes of apples and a hint of clove and then the flaky pastry topping - you've to be careful with the cloves, they're so strong and when it says 3 or 4 you do actually need to count them out, far too easy to just toss in a small handful and end up, as Rory said, anaethetising everyone instead. Lastly there was some glazed fruit, little Cape gooseberries, still in their jackets which were rolled up to give you something to pick them up with, so clever, and dipped in caramel, too cute.
Snuck out at 4 to go to the doctor, 3 of us all feeling awful who went over together - very nice man, on time and gave us prescriptions for lovely drugs, YAY!! Speedy dash to Cloyne, the nearest little village to make the pharmacy before it closed and I'm now significantly poorer but armed with a 7 day course of anti-biotics which better do the trick and quickly.
I think everyone is heading to The Blackbird but I'm not up for that so I'll be spending the evening on the couch, with a fire going, watching re-runs on Channel 4 of Friends - we've only got a few channels on our telly but was so excited to discover this a few weeks ago, Channel 4 shows 3 episodes of oollllddd Friends each night, you can just watch them over and over again, I love it!
Oh, have been meaning to show you the view from Kitchen 3 where I am at the moment, isn't is great?
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