End of Week Three

The end of week three… Wow! Had a good morning in the kitchen cooking up Ballycotton Shrimp with homemade mayonnaise, and a plum tart. I also made brown yeast bread, flapjacks and ricotta. Lunch was delicious, lots of shrimp and prawns with mayo, and a very traditional Irish meal of boiled bacon and cabbage with scallion champ and parsley sauce, I must say it is d-e-l-i-s-h.

This afternoon’s demo was taught by Rachel, burgers, burger, burgers. She wrapped some of the beef burgers in caul fat, a fat that lines the stomach of sheep, which melts into the burger – darn tasty. Ketchup, a few apple sausages, pork sausage, pear spice cake, sticky toffee pudding, upside down plum cake, a few different apple sauces were a few of the other things also on the list of that Rachel whizzed up this afternoon.

After demo I headed to the kitchen to meet Tim, we started my first loaf of sour dough. It will rest over night, we will shape it in the morning, and bake it Sunday afternoon! As we started to knead the dough one of Tim’s granddaughters Ziahi (who is three), came into the kitchen to make bread with “Timmy,” it was lots of fun to play with her, like Olivia she prefers “real dough” over play dough. I am very excited to see how my sour dough turns out, and can’t wait to bake it and eat it with some Irish butter.

Jared, from Chicago, who is a teacher this term, came over tonight to help me joint a chicken. I felt a bit lost this week jointing, so I was very pleased that he took the time to come and help me. He really is patient, and took the time to explain each step and move of the knife, so I am feeling much more confident. The teachers work such long days here, so the fact that he was willing to come outside of his work hours was really nice. We roasted the chicken with some rosemary after and had it for a nibble, hopefully I have a few more opportunities to joint before week six.

Mary (from Galway), Nicole (from Australia, lives in London), and Jared were all over for a bit tonight, we drank some wine, had a few nibbles and relaxed. Great way to spend a Friday night! Tomorrow morning, Mary, Nicole, Hannah and I are headed into Midelton to the market, and then Hannah and I are working Saturday Pizzas with Phillip – can’t wait!

On that note, I should head to bed, it’s been another great week, and I still go to bed every night, thinking about how lucky I am to be here. Hoping pizza making won’t go too late, and we get a bit of time to explore the farm a bit and study our herbs and lettuce leaves before heading to The Blackbird for Billy’s birthday.

“It looks a bit like something Lady Gaga would wear.” – Rachel Allen on caul fat.

Ricotta!	My tart.	I threw my wash in before school, came back to the laundry room and found this. The lady that works in the laundry room ironed and folded it all. So sweet.
My plum tart.	Ziahi with her dough.
Ballycotton Shrimp with Watercress and Mayonnaise	Rachel with caul fat!	Weighing up for sour dough!