Coriander Mushrooms & Coffee Granita

Not going to lie, I thought I knew a lot about cooking already before I started the Ballymaloe course.Oh, sure wine goes with food.. yadda yadda. An omelette is a omelette, right?

Ya, no. I learned very quickly that there are incredible intricacies to making these 'every day' dishes that much better. I hate to use the word 'better', though. It reminds me how we use words like 'organic' to imply that the food is 'alternative'. Organic, well made food with care and with good quality ingredients was and should be the norm. Store bought and highly processed should be the 'alternative'.

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (1984) by the late Elizabeth David is a collection of David's cookery articles she wrote for magazines all over the world. In the title article she talks about making a 'simple omelette' to perfection. She suggests the pan used is very important. Cast iron? Washed or unwashed? If you're wondering.. David uses an aluminum pan, washed up like all other utensils.

David's cookbooks are also part History of English Cookery. In her book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen (1970), David recounts the gradual progress and integration of spices and herbs in Northerly cooking. The thing that popped into my mind was sustainability. Spices were originally some of the highest priced commodities! Since the poor couldn't afford the luxury of importing such expensive spices and exotic ingredients, they substituted local fare for an attempt at a similar taste and flavour. Some who couldn't afford copious amounts of oil for pickling and canning presumably had to ferment instead. That's where Sandor Katz comes in, right?

Ok, now I'm just picturing a time travel device and am getting really excited.

All in all, Elizabeth's David's cookbooks are "beautifully written, they are full of information allied to inspirational recipes" - Terence Conran's 2006 forward in David's Third Printing of Italian Food (1954).

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Omelette Moliere
An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (1984) as transcribed by Leslie Blythe Miller
serves 1

3 eggs
1 Tbs Parmesan, finely grated
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs gruyère
1 Tbs heavy cream

Beat 1 tablespoon of finely grated Parmesan with 3 eggs. Heat the pan on the stove for about a minute. Put a tablespoon of butter in the pan. When the butter bubbles, and is about to change color, pour in the eggs.

Add one tablespoon of gruyère cut into small dice and one tablespoon of heavy cream. Tilt the pan towards you so that some of the mixture from the far edge runs into the middle. Then tilt the pan away from you. In the time it takes to do this twice, the gruyère will have started to melt, and your omelette is ready. Fold it over in three with a fork, and slide it on to the plate. Serve instantly.

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Coriander Mushrooms
Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen (1970) Serves 3

6oz/180g button or closed cap mushrooms
3 tbsp lemon juice, separated
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
2 bay leaves
salt and black pepper

Brush mushrooms with a soft, dry pastry brush and cut into quarters. Toss in a bowl with lemon juice. In a heavy frying pan, warm olive oil. Cook the coriander seeds for a few seconds over a low heat. Add the mushrooms and bay leaves. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. After a minute, cover the pan and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Pour the mushrooms with their cooking juices into a serving dish and sprinkle them with fresh olive oil and lemon juice to taste. Serve chilled, or hot with veal or chicken.

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Coffee Granita - Granita al Caffe
Italian Food (1977)

6 oz., 170g coffee
3 oz, 80g castor sugar
2 pt, 1 ¼ L water
¼ pt, 60mL cream (optional)

Put the finely ground coffee and the sugar into an earthenware jug, pour the boiling water over it, and put the jug in a saucepan of hot water. Leave it, with a very gentle flame underneath, and let the coffee infuse for 30min.

Leave it to get cold, strain it through a very fine muslin, and freeze in a non-reactive tray. Stir it every 30min as ice crystals form. It will take 21/2 to 3 hrs to freeze. Fresh cream may be served with it.

The addition to the granita of ¼ pt of cream, after it has been frozen, produces the best and simplest made iced coffee I know.

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And - YES I DID! Mmm. How wonderful to be transported back into time when recipes weren't a dime a dozen and to hear a real passion for where food comes from and why. A discussion on Elizabeth David's works is on May 18th at 11:30am. Do you have a favourite cookbook from the 1950s?

Ballymaloe Week 6 / Thai Moules et Frites

Graveyard

I love using up leftovers. We get loads to take home from cooking at school so I invented a Thai Red Curry Moules et Frites with Blood Orange Slaw. Check out the recipe below!

Charles Fort, Kinsale. Or is it Game of Thrones..??

Kinsale Harbour

Barbershop in Kinsale

Fish and Chips at Fishy Fishy

Scallops with Spinach Risotto & Cheese Crisp

But first.. my time here is over the hump.. as in I have a little over one month left of the course. We had our midterm exams and I'm feeling more and more confident in my cooking abilities.

Sourdough! Fini!

Trying to make a Gluten Free Sourdough starter.. wish me luck! It needs a few days to ferment.

I'm also fully into playing music again. I had my first gig in 3 years - not singing originals (unlike before when I was adamant about it). There is so much to say about the parallels between cooking and music when creating the two.

All of your apprehensions need to be suspended just for the moment in order to gain your own trust in intuition to create something beautiful. Like taste in food and music.. it is also all relative, but there is a certain foundation that one could use to make the process more enjoyable and less frustrating.

goats!

Wood-fired pizza made every Saturday at the school.

Philip doing the pizzas.

DSC01376

Pizza ingredients.

Every week we have a new teacher and each of them have taught me some essential tips:

1. Have a 'garbage can' for vegetable peelings, meat scraps, etc while you're cooking. It clears space on your cutting board. 2. Sharpen your knife every time before using. A sharp knife is actually safer to use and makes prepping way easier. 3. As you cook, clean up around you - the clean area helps you focus and a zen environment makes cooking less stressful. etc.

Moules et Frites with
Thai Red Curry Mayo & Blood Orange Slaw (serves 2)

Make Moules et Frites with home made mayo as below:

Mussels

1 lb mussels (making sure they're still alive - refer to the video above)

Add them to an empty pan and turn on the heat. Cover and steam for 3-4 min until they open up. Allow to cool. You can reserve the juices from the pan for a fish stock or sauce.

Frites

2 medium waxy potatoes, sliced in 5mm x 5mm strips
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 475. Toss fries in about 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Bake in an oven for 20min, flipping them once after 10min.

Thai Red Curry Mayo

250mL mayo
1-2 tbsp Thai Red Curry paste (to taste)
dash of lemon

Mix ingredients in a bowl and add more or less curry paste to taste.

Blood Orange Slaw

2 cups shredded purple cabbage
1/4 finely chopped red onion
1 clove garlic, crushed
zest of 1/2 blood orange and 1 tbsp of its juice
1/3 cup mayo
salt and pepper to taste

Shred cabbage. Mix the rest of the ingredients together to make a dressing. And combine with shredded cabbage adding more or less mayo to taste.

Been missing home lately. Was kind enough to be surprised with this little gem at a convenience store. 4 weeks left!!

Potatoes & Mushrooms with Fried Egg | First Day at Ballymaloe Cookery School

Ottawa - Toronto - Amsterdam - Cork

I landed. I was tired. I was the first to arrive at cooking school and was welcomed by...

So I was hungry and made the following.

Golden Potato Coins with
Fried Onions, Mushrooms and A Sunny Side Egg

gluten free, primal | serves 1

2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 cm width-wise
1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms
1 small onion sliced thin
2 tbsp butter
1 farm fresh egg
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tbsp butter in a heavy bottomed frying pan on medium high heat. Add in your potatoes (they should look like coins) and fry until golden brown on one side (5min) then flip and fry until cooked through (5-7min). Toss in salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Remove potatoes to a plate with paper towel (warmed, ideally) and melt in the rest of the butter (1 tbsp) until melted. Add in mushrooms and onions and sautee until cooked through (about 3min).

When cooked, move the onions and mushrooms to the side of the pan and add the egg. Cook until the white part of the egg is opaque (about 3min). Add salt to taste.

Add Potatoes in a large bowl, add mushrooms and onions, then top with the egg. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The next day we had our orientation dinner.

We had pizza but I had the gluten free version:

A week's of classes ahead!