Ballymaloe: Week two“THEY DON’T CALL US BUTTER-MALOE FOR NOTHING”
It’s a Sunday evening and I am sitting at the kitchen table writing. It’s an overcast day with a spattering of rain ( the first of it we’ve had our whole time in Ireland) I have a Chicken roasting in the oven, and have just completed some of my filing for the last week and written the ‘order of work’ for the following morning.
Week two was definitely about getting in the grove, the rhythm and the flow of the system here at Ballymaloe. The days seem to stretch out and fly by all at once ! Monday was a bank holiday here, so it was all about catching up on sleep and exploring the farm… and meeting the cows & pigs. It was a beautifully lazy day.
Then we got back in the swing of the kitchen on Tuesday, new kitchens, new partners. There are 4 kitchens at Ballymaloe, which we rotate between each week, so we get to work with new instructors and partners each week, I was in Kitchen 2 , with my partner Anna from South Africa.
I started the week making my first loaf of soda bread. A sacred thing on these grounds, we are surrounded by soda bread and rich yellowy butter from all sides. It took a matter of minutes to mix together and within an hour you have deliciously warm loaves of dark soda bread on the cooling rack. Why would anybody need to buy bread from the shops again?
Next on the list was lamb sweetbreads… not my favourite, but interesting… poached and pan-fried intestines, oh my.
Wednesday is lecture day, as you know, and we had a morning full of CHEESE! yogurt, butter, cheese, curds & whey… It was all about milk, the raw, unpasteurised & unhomoganised stuff we get warm from the dairy here. We learnt to make so many different types of cheese, but most of them followed the same principle - heat the milk, add the rennet or culture or acid. Cut and strain and shape. And we saw it in so many variations. Cottage cheese, labneh, Gouda, paneer, ricotta, etc etc etc. And with all the whey? Whey lemonade of course.
In the afternoon lecture we had the incredible force of nature that is Maria Walsh, the self proclaimed ''bacterial queen’’ She led us through the world of fermentation, from SCOBYS, to kombucha , sauerkraut to kefir. What a fascinating discussion ! And what a great woman, she had a no-nonsense approach, and spoke fluently about the benefits of adding these ancestral foods to our diets. She acknowledged the direct link between the health of the soil and the health of our bodies.
We are more bacteria than we are human… and if you listen to the symptoms of your body, your intuition, listen to how well you sleep, digest, listen to your stress & energy levels you realise what is being communicated and what you really truly need. It all begins in the gut.
Maria is a forager, naturopath and herbalist too, and to all the questioners asking about any specifics: “but how long do you ferment?” “what is the ratio of herbs to cabbage?” “do I keep it out or in the fridge?” Her final words “Don’t question the ancestral knowledge”
The next couple days are the same rhythm of wake up, cook, lunch, demo, and the break for fresh air and a gathering in the courtyard with the gang. We play cards outside, head to the seaside or to the pub, go for long walks, and just chat chat chat.
On Thursday after class I also get the opportunity to join the butchery class. This is fascinating and hard work! We work in teams of 2 to break down 1/2 a whole lamb… Quite heavy duty, requiring a bone saw and some guidance from Leo our tutor. It hasn’t moved me in the direction of butchering up my own meat in the future, but it has given me a confidence in handling my meat!
The weekend has come and gone, which included some nice walks and an evening in Cork city, bar & pub hopping with a group of 16. That was a late night, and thus a late morning, just mooching about on a Sunday.
THIS WEEK I COOKED:
Traditional Irish Soda Bread
A Warm Salad with Sweetbreads and Toasted Walnuts
Crème Caramel with Caramel Shards
Traditional Roast Stuffed Organic Chicken with Gravy
Redcurrant Sauce
Rosemary & raisin scones
French Onion Soup with Gruyère Toasts
Coffee Cake with Glace icing
RORY’S QUOTES:
“ There we go… the F word again..” ( freezers are fabulous)
“We had a cow when I was young. A Kerry cow. Extremely wicked. As they are.”
“ UHT- that filthy stuff you get… I mean utterly revolting”
“Little miss muffet and all that… She gets a bad wrap doesn’t she?”
“Really good ricotta tastes of benign”
The 2 hardest things to say in your life: worcestershire sauce… and I’m sorry I was wrong”
“You get used to it. It was the same with Guinness, the same with coffee, the same with milk kefir”
Speak soon x
Recipe of the week:
We had this on the first day with our breakfast, and it is absolutely delicious! fantastic as a dessert as well ! Saffron, Cardamom & pistachio what a combo.
Srikhand
An Indian dessert also delicious served for breakfast.
Serves 8-10
2kg (4 1/2lb) thick homemade yoghurt (see recipe) or Greek yoghurt
generous pinch of saffron strands
1 tablespoon (1 American tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) warm water
1/4 teaspoon roughly crushed green cardamom seeds
175g (6oz/3/4 cup) caster sugar
2 tablespoons (2 1/2 American tablespoons) coarsely chopped pistachio nuts
muslin cheesecloth
Put a square of muslin into a bowl. Pour in the yoghurt, tie the ends and allow to drip overnight (save the whey to make soda bread). Transfer the dripped yoghurt into a clean bowl. Infuse the saffron in a tablespoon of warm water in a small bowl. Stir into every last drop into the yoghurt. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods. Crush lightly, add to the yoghurt with the caster sugar, mix well. Add back in a little if necessary, srikhand should be the texture of softly whipped cream.
Turn into a serving dish. Chill. Sprinkle the top with roughly chopped pistachio nuts and serve. Delicious on its own but also memorable with Summer berries.
Note
Drip commercial, natural yoghurt overnight but thick homemade yoghurt will only take a couple of hours.