Ballymaloe

I feel like one of the luckiest foodie people in the world right now having just begun the certificate cookery course at Ballymaloe near Cork in Ireland! I have wanted to attend for literally years and, one week in, am still pinching myself that I am here (and, indulged kid adult that I am, my long-suffering dad is the angel I have to thank!).

So many people have written brilliant week-by-week blogs of their time at Ballymaoe (see the page on the school website) so I thought in this blog I would just post twelve highlights each weekend as the twelve weeks slip by.

Week One

Monday 30^th April – Sunday 6^th May 2012

12. The Pink Cottage's Mexican bean dip

1. Driving my little yellow Fiat packed with luggage, Mum and bike from Hampshire to County Cork. Then collapsing into bed at the gorgeous Newtown House b&b on the banks of the Blackwater estuary opposite Youghal. 

Newtown House run by the lovely Georgie and Michael Penruddock

The view from our bedroom

2. Arriving at the school on Saturday and finding that my accommodation is like something out of a fairytale. Pink Cottage by name and Pink Cottage by nature as it is full of girls!

2. Pink Cottage with The Barn beyond

3. Meeting sixty other food-obsessed students.

4. The realisation that our headmistress, Darina Allen, is one very influential lady and a force to be reckoned with!

5. The fact that inspiring chefs and food producers keep popping in for lunch and then being pulled into the demo room by Darina to give us words of wisdom. This week alone we met cheesemaker Giana Ferguson, of the award-winning Gubbeen Cheese and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in California (gulp), who, coincidentally, came up with the idea for the Obama’s vegetable patch at the White House.

6. The hilariously 80s ‘How to handle wine’ video they showed us in our first wine lecture – Hugh Johnson is a legend!

7. Penne with Tomatoes, Chorizo and Cream – possibly the easiest dish I made all week but my favourite by far.

8. The beautiful garden with its ready supply of herbs and colourful herbaceous borders flanked by yew hedges.

9. Learning how to make cheese with Tim Allen in the dairy – who knew curd tastes so good?

10. The Saturday Midleton farmers market: small but perfectly formed.

11. Finding that there are not one but three resident doggies – one of which made herself very comfortable beside our fire on Sunday evening!

11. Enjoying Made in Chelsea

12. Saturday Mexican night! Every cottage concocted some dishes to create one big Mexican feast and party. The Pink Cottage contributed a bean salsa salad (see pic below), an amazing pulled chicken enchilada stack and heavenly churros rolled in cinnamon sugar. YUM.

Making Churros

Parmesan Roasted Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Wild Rice Pilaf

This is what I ate for supper tonight. It was one of those days when the fridge was bare. Well, apart from a forlorn fennel bulb and some cherry tomatoes, so I had to use a bit of imagination! I made a cardamom-spiced wild rice pilaf with sultanas and almonds and simply blanched then roasted the fennel (with the tomatoes and some garlic) until the edges curled up and caramelised - it always surprises me just how delicious roasted fennel is. I also sprinkled on some Parmesan just towards the end of cooking, which made it even stickier. Not bad for an empty fridge supper and, bonus, I unintentially took part in a Meat Free Monday – this is what it’s all about. 

Serves 1

• Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Trim the base and top off 1 Fennel Bulb, cut in half and then cut again into 4 thin slices. Parboil for 4 minutes, drain, and place in a baking tray. Add a handful of Cherry Tomatoes and a few unpeeled but smashed Garlic Cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt a knob of Butter in a small saucepan and add 60g Wild Rice, 3 Cardamom Pods and a Bay Leaf. Stir to coat and then pout in enough boiling water to just cover the rice. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until cooked.
• Sprinkle a handful of Parmesan Cheese over the cooking fennel and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
• Drain the rice and discard the cardamom and bay leaf. Into this stir1 tbsp of Flaked Almonds, 1 tbsp Sultanas and a knob of butter. Spoon onto a plate and top with the sizzling fennel and tomatoes. Sprinkle any spare fennel fronds over the top and serve. 

A Cake for Easter with Crystallised Pansies

With Easter Sunday just around the corner, I wanted to bake a chocolate cake for visiting friends but a different one to the usual chocolate fudge cake recipe I use. This time I wanted something more sophisticated and torte-like, that I could top with crystallised flowers for a pretty, springtime look.  Again I used a Mary Berry recipe, this time her ‘Queen of Sheba’ cake, so-called due to the crown-like chocolate shards that adorn it.  It is a fab recipe, swiped from a Julia Child recipe who in turn took hers from the first French cake she ever ate (and remained her favourite). I suppose recipes are all about passing on and reinvention - I even adapted Mary's icing by adding in some cream cheese to give it a thicker texture.

The cake sponge takes a bit more concentration than a simple victoria as it is more of a chocolate mousse batter with almonds which makes it deliciously light and nutty. You could make two and sandwich them together, but somehow a one layer cake seems more understated and leaves room for a thick layer of creamy icing.

At the moment the garden is awash with pansies in mauves, purples, yellows and creams. Their little heads carpet beds, poke from urns and circle daffodils - it really is so pretty, and all down to my very talented mum (I just don't have the patience). So I felt she wouldn't miss half a dozen as they are perfect edible flower decorations when crystallized. Other edible flowers you can use for crystallising include rose petals, chrysanthemums, marigolds, violets and primroses. 

Mary Berry makes dark chocolate shards which look fantastic in her photo. I opted to use white chocolate as it seems more Easter friendly and went well with the flowers. A dusting of cocoa powder also looks great on the white, creating a kind of reverse Mont Blanc effect. Needless to say, only crumbs survive! 

Queen of Sheba Cake by Mary Berry from ‘The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake’

Serves 8

• Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line a 20.5cm sandwich tin with baking paper. Gently melt 100g Dark Chocolate in a bain marie with 2 tbsp Strong Coffee, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool.
• Beat 100g softened Unsalted Butter until creamy. Gradually add 100g Caster Sugar, beating until pale and fluffy. Continue beating and add 3 large Egg Yolks, one at a time.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the left-over 3 Egg Whites until frothy. Add a good pinch of Cream of Tartar and Salt and continue whisking until soft peaks form. Add 2 tbsp Caster Sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.
• Using a large metal spoon or spatula, fold the melted chocolate into the butter mix, followed by 50g Ground Almonds and ¼ tsp Almond Extract. Fold in ¼ of the Egg Whites.
• The fold in 65g Plain Flour in two stages interspersed with the rest of the Egg Whites.
• Spoon into the tin and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer placed halfway between the edge and the centre comes out clean – the centre needs to be slightly undercooked for it to be perfect.
• Cool for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.

• To Ice: Melt 100g Dark Chocolate with 1 tbsp Strong Coffee as before. Take off the heat and gradually whisking in 80g Unsalted butter. Continue whisking until the mixture has cooled and thickened. Then add in 50g Cream Cheese, whisking until smooth. Spread over the entire cake.

• To make the shards: Melt 75g White Chocolate over a bain marie. Pour the molten chocolate onto a sheet of baking paper and, using a palette knife, spread the chocolate thinly. Leave to set in a cool place (not in the fridge) then break into shards.

• To make the crystallised flowers: gently brush with egg white and dip in caster sugar. Leave in a cool place for a couple of hours until stiff. 

Pissaladiére

This Provençal tart is one of my favourite things to eat for a light lunch with salad and always feels much more elegant than a quiche. While still a tart, the cream and egg filling of the latter is usurped here for a lighter mound of soft and sweet onions, topped with anchovies and black olives.

The filling is delicious cooked on top of some shop bought puff pastry or flat bread, but using a homemade short crust pastry shell is somehow more sumptuous and substantial.

For mine I used a recipe by Julia Childs, whose book I’ve been meaning to dip into for a while. When making the pastry, the amount of water she specifies makes incredibly wet dough which seemed a bit bizarre, but actually, once it had rested in the freezer for half an hour, it was easy to work with and made the most incredible, melt-in-the-mouth pastry. I also added in some diced, skinned tomatoes which added colour and richness.

Pissaladiére Recipe

Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

Serves 6-8

To make the Short Crust Pastry

(to line a 8-10 inch cake tin with a removable bottom which has been turned over for easy removal)

• Place 5 oz. Plain White Flour, ½ tsp Salt, Pinch of Sugar, 4 oz. Chilled Butter cut into ½ in pieces into a food processor and blitz until it starts to come together. Add 3 tbsp Water and blitz again. It should come together in a wet ball. Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer for half an hour.

To make the filling

• Heat 4 tbsp of Olive Oil in a large casserole dish. To this add 2lbs Chopped Onions (about 5 onions – I used a mixture red and white), a bouquet garni, a few Sprigs of Thyme, 2 unpeeled Cloves Garlic and a pinch of Salt. Sweat over a medium heat for 1 hour until tender. 
• In the last 15 minutes, add in 3 skinned, deseeded and diced Tomatoes. Discard the bouquet garni, thyme and garlic and taste for seasoning.

To partially bake the pastry shell

Preheat the oven to 200˚.

• Place the dough on a cold floured surface and dust with more flour. With a rolling pin, flatten the ball into a thick, even round, then continue to roll out the dough until it is about 2 inches larger all round than your cake tin. 
• Place in the cake tin, pressing the dough into the base and up the sides. Line with parchment paper and fill with baking beans, then place in the oven for 8-9 minutes. Remove the baking beans/parchment, prick the base with a fork all over, and return to the oven for 3-5 minutes until golden.

To assemble

• Fill the pastry case with the onion mixture. Over this arrange 8-10 Anchovy fillets in a pattern and then dot about 16 stoned Black Olives around these. Drizzle over some oil and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes until bubbling and the anchovies have started to dissolve. 

Spinach and Buffalo Ricotta Ravioli and Oxtail and Prune Casserole

 I almost didn’t post these recipes as the photos are frustratingly bad. I have come to the conclusion that this is due to three factors:

1. Flash is the devil

2. Taking pictures at night is virtually impossible with a. my limited Sony camera and b. my limited photography skills

3. Styling goes out the window when there are other hungry people raring to tuck in to food while it is still hot – I have now resorted to speedy styling i.e. clicking and crossing my fingers it turns out ok!

I know one should never blame their tools but I am dreaming of a large SLR camera. Apart from the cost the choice is immense and I have no clue of the best still-life camera for amateurs – any ideas?

But, back to the recipes. Possibly one of my favourite dishes is ravioli and I love making it at home as it is fun and tastes so much better. Recently I took a trip up to Laverstock Farm owned by ex-racing driver Jody Scheckter. The farm is biodynamic and organic and is particularly known for keeping herds of water buffalo which produce the most delicious dairy products. When we arrived at the small shop, there was one lone buffalo wandering up and down the next-door field. Apart from the spear like horns and its sheer size and weight it seemed like it wanted a chat so we sidled over and tentatively reached over the electric fence to pat it on the (ringed) nose. I can safely say (literally – I feared for my fingers for a moment) that the Laverstock website blurb which enthused about their ‘naturally curious and tactile nature’ was correct – I was a little bit smitten.

Water Buffalo at Laverstock Farm

Feeling like I’d connected with this gentle beast for a moment, I felt a little bad about going into the shop to buy one of his former mates, but as I hadn’t tried buffalo before, it seemed silly not to. While the shop was smaller than I had imagined (the veg outside looked a little sad, but this is forgivable towards the end of winter), there was a wonderful array of different meats including wild boar and mutton and of course buffalo and their famous buffalo dairy products. It's worth noting that as well as a new butchers in Twickenham the farm sells selected meat and dairy products through Waitrose. We bought some buffalo tail which the butcher said could be treated like that of ox. Taking his advice I made Rick Stein’s twice-cooked oxtail and prune casserole from Food Heroes: Another Helping cookbook which you can see above. It did taste very similar to oxtail, being equally delicious, and buffalo is low in cholesterol so perhaps it is slightly healthier?!

We also bought some buffalo mozzarella, ricotta and burrata. The latter is mozzarella stretched and filled with fresh cream and it needs to be eaten as fresh as possible. It is very delicious served simply with tomatoes and bread, but due to its richness, it would be lovely as a dessert with honey and maybe some grilled peaches.

With the ricotta, I made a traditional spinach and ricotta ravioli but also added some tomato sauce and pesto which compliments the mellow filling. I used Theo Randall’s pasta recipe and then improvised the rest. 

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli Recipe

Serves 3 as a main, 5 as a starter

For the pasta:

• In a food processor blend 150g Tipo 00 Flour, 50g Fine Semolina, 1 Large Organic Egg and 3 Large Organic Egg Yolks until they form a ball. Wrap in cling film to prevent drying out (this can be kept in the fridge for up to 10 days).
• Wilt 300g Spinach in a saucepan with a little water. Drain and squeeze out excess water, reserving for the sauce. Finely chop and place in a bowl.
• To this add 200g Buffalo Ricotta, 50g grated Parmesan, half tsp Grated Nutmeg, 1 tsp Salt and Pepper. Mix and then form into roughly 25 small balls (about the size of a tsp).
• Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Take one piece and roll through a pasta machine until it is as thin as possible. Space 6 balls of the filling evenly along the bottom of the strip, brush around each with some water and fold the pasta over, sealing with your knuckles. Cut each into squares or rounds with a knife or pastry cutter. Lay on a tray sprinkled with flour and cover with a teatowel, then repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

For the Sauce:

• Heat 2 tbsp Olive Oil in a medium frying pan  over a medium heat and add 4 finely chopped Shallots. Fry until soft, then add 2 finely chopped Garlic Cloves. Fry for one minute then add 1 400g can Chopped Tomatoes, seasoning and the reserved Spinich water. Simmer gently for half an hour until thick.

To assemble:

• Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and tip in all the pasta. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until al dente. Drain and return to the pan with 75g Butter and 2 Tbsp Chopped Basil.
• Serve on top of the tomato sauce with a few teaspoons of Pesto, grated Parmesan and extra Basil.

Iced Biscuits

Following on neatly from my previous post, the magazine clip below, of decorated biscuits (by Joanna Farrow), is a scrap I’ve had since I was little. I remember at the time being inspired by the subtle pastel colours and sophisticated patterns which were a million miles away from the supermarket jammy dodgers and party ring-ilk biscuits I was used to.

So, the image made me come over all creative and I decided to treat my little brother, who is studying for his A-levels, and send him some homemade decorated biscuits (perhaps not suitable for a Boy but then again, I did use to dress him up as a girl when he was 5 so he’s used to it!).

Firstly I made the actual biscuit which was the easy bit as I have been using Nigella Lawson’s Birthday Biscuit recipe (from ‘Feast’) for years and it is totally foolproof for achieving simple buttery biscuits perfect for decoration. Then the icing: my piping ‘skills’ are virtually non-existent so, for a neat start I thinly rolled out marzipan and royal icing to fit the shapes of the biscuits, sticking them down with a brush of water on the underside. This looked fairly professional. I then made a royal icing by mixing one egg white with enough icing sugar to make a stiff paste which I divided and coloured accordingly. What came next was a fight with a piping bag I’d never used before, and a lot of experimenting with different patterns and techniques (hence the varying results you can see!). I then added some silver dragees which never fail to make things look a lot better. After they had dried, I boxed them up to send, layering them between sheets of parchment wrapped in tissue and a velvet ribbon. 

Apple Cheesecake and Galette aux Cerises

With lots of people to feed for Sunday lunch comes the perfect excuse to make a pudding (or two). As it was a grown-up affair, I side-stepped anything made with chocolate and settled on two fruit-based desserts: a totally indulgent apple cheesecake with butterscotch sauce and a Galette de Rois. The latter is traditionally puff pastry filled with frangipane sans fruit (rather like a big almond croissant)  and is served in France to celebrate Epiphany. I first tried some when my friend, an amazing cook, gave me a piece filled with apples which was delicious. To avoid an apple theme however I filled mine with (canned) cherries which was equally good and veered towards the flavours of a Bakewell tart. After a lunch of slow cooked lamb with anchovies, spiced rice and braised shallots, baby carrots, peas and lettuce everyone found some room to try a little of each and it seemed like thumbs up all round.