Tapas & Sherry and Risotto & Wine

Missed yesterday’s blog… It was a late night, as is tonight. With the days coming to an end, I feel like I need to pack everything in and enjoy the time with all of the wonderful people I’ve met. After a good morning in the kitchen, a great demo by Pam yesterday afternoon, I planned to come home, get some work done, have dinner with Hannah… And then there was mention of the pub. A bunch of us walked down to The Goal Post for a few pints, most of us weren’t in bed much before 2, but it was such a fun night. We woke to horrendous weather, and started our lecture day with biscotti, more cheese, and our last wine lecture which included a sparkling rose which launched The Britannia yesterday – made by an Irish fellow living in Sussex. After lunch it was onto tapas and sherry – cannot wait to have a tapas party!

Our menus are due tomorrow morning for our final practical exam between 8am and 9am, so we were all busy writing those out this evening. We are required to have a theme, a reason behind our choice, and have wines selected to go with each course.

This is what I will be cooking…

Wild Garlic Soup

Traditional Roast Chicken With Stuffing and Gravy

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Glazed Carrots

Roast Potatoes

Green Salad

Carrageen Moss Pudding with Poached Rhubarb

It has been strongly encouraged that we include a green salad on our menu, I think this is probably to see that everyone has grasped the concept of dressing a salad – which seems insanely simple, but apparently some have not mastered this. Darina is also a strong believer that having a green salad at the end of a meal helps with digestion. We have three hours to cook our final meal, and a bread is drawn the day before to be included in our cooking. Tomorrow we find out what day we will be cooking, either the last Wednesday or Thursday.

After all of our menu prep, we had our Wednesday family dinner. Tonight we cooked a wild garlic and prawn risotto. Alexis brought chocolate chip cookies, and of course we had plenty of wine. We laughed and laughed till my cheeks and eyes hurt from laughing - is there a better feeling? At one point I said to the table, if any “normal” person walked through the door, they would think we were all on drugs… It’s a Ballymaloe sense of humour I suppose.

It is now 1am, and tomorrow is a busy day… In the kitchen with lobster and puff pastry, demo, packing for The Netherlands and wine revision before tucking in early to bed. Photos from the weekend are still to come…

“One of those things I find myself unable to stop eating…” - Rachel on most of the tapas she cooked today!