Ballymaloe Week 11 Highlights

Lobster killer...!

1. Ottolenghi makes the biggest meringues in London, and on Monday Darina whipped up some of their Pistachio and Rosewater Meringues (using the Italian meringue method i.e. a hot sugar syrup poured onto the egg whites whilst whipping), which produced these beautiful monsters. She also made some summery salads like Feta, Watermelon and Mint Salad & Pan-grilled Lamb, Zucchini and Broad Bean Salad.

2. On Tuesday morning, I made one large and two mini Almond Tarts with Strawberries. Based on a recipe from The River Café, it involves grating the chilled (very) short-crust pastry into a tart tin instead of rolling, a method invented by the pastry-scared Ruth and Rose (owners of said café). It took a while but produced meltingly good pastry and, with a frangipane filling made with freshly peeled almonds (a long process but worth it) and a topping of sweetened strawberries this tart was definitely my favourite of the dozens we made.

3. That morning I also practiced some White Yeast bread in preparation for the dreaded exams next week. We will be allocated either a white plait, individual rolls or focaccia…

4. That afternoon Rachel’s demonstration included three incredibly technical and rich cakes: Almond & Hazelnut Praline Cake (her wedding cake!...which she made herself the day before!), French Chocolate Cake and Chocolate & Raspberry Mousse Cake. This involved her juggling three sponges, ten layers, at least five icings and fillings along with praline and chocolate caraque – vaguely confusing but impressive!

5. On Wednesday we were very lucky to have Shermin Mustafa, a past student and teacher, come in to teach us sushi and some Turkish dishes. I was fascinated watching her make the sushi (rice) which was simple but involved precise timing and fanning (yes) to cool down the sushi as quickly as possible. She proceeded to assemble maki, Californian rolls, Temaki (hand-rolled), Oshi (pressed) and scattered sushi along with some delicious Turkish Lamajun: very thin flat-breads topped with minced lamb and herbs and cooked at a high temperature. 

6. Tomato Soup is usually so boring and seems to be the go-to soup at every café in the British Isles so, come Thursday morning I was not thrilled to be making it. But the Ballymaloe Tomato & Mint soup that I produced was, to quote Rory, ‘a revelation’. The secret I believe is to add in some white sauce, which sounds horrid but makes it very creamy and defiantly out-Heinzed Heinz.

7. That afternoon’s demo we were all shown how to kill and cook lobster. Look at them all lined up poor things – one tried to run away several times but of course, ended up either buttered or in a divine cream sauce inside a vol-au-vent! Rory also cooked some very sweet Scottish Scallops (i.e. the best I’d ever tasted) with Beurre Blanc sauce.

8. So Friday morning we got stuck into cooking and getting the meat out of bags full of lobsters. I was down to cook the incredibly rich Lobster with Fresh Cream and Herbs which, of course, I ate for lunch and then for supper with pasta.

9. That afternoon Darina cooked up some Mexican Ceviche, Pork en Croute with a delicious Duxelle Stuffing and some Chocolate Cases filled with Chocolate Mousse.

10. On Saturday some students had organised a ‘Long Table Dinner’ which involved every cottage providing a cocktail, starter/canapé and either main or desserts. Of course, when you ask around 38 cookery students (from around fifteen countries) to cook something they will actually cook everything and I have never seen or eaten so much amazing food. Tim Allen, on hearing our plan, kindly gave us carte blanche of the cookery school so the Pink Cottage moved out of our pint-sized kitchen and got down to producing a factory-sized amount of sushi and meringues (epic effort from Jenn and Chrisiana), Sangria (Dani) a huge trifle with fruit from the garden (me) and a Hungarian about-a-thousand-layered chocolate cake (Ali).

11. The evening itself was fab. After every canapé ever made was consumed (including devils on horseback of course) and speeches plus photo bombing accomplished we filled our plates from a table in The Barn laden with anything from Paella to Beef Wellington and then filled out plates again with pudding.

12. Our last Sunday at the school was filled with revision for the 6 hours of written exams coming to us on Friday. Covering everything from food hygiene and HACCP (that’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, don’t you know?!) to seasonality, sauces and fish/meat/herb recognition and recipes - we had a lot to cover...