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