Cooks Academy Week 3

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Monday

Have I got your attention yet - mmm I'm yummy!

Up bright and early an continuing on with the Italian theme again mostly. Pea Risotto, Chorizo and Chickpea and Apple Tarte Normande, ok so that makes it more European Day then I guess. My lack of partner today saw me tackle the whole menu alone.

Practising my mise en place. You know on TV cookery shows when the chef says 'I'll just add some finely diced onion' and promptly tips a small glass bowl full of perfectly diced onion into his pan. I always thought this was just for TV shows. Apparently not. This is what you do if you're a super organised chef - like myself of course. Yup, even two cloves are lovingly placed in their own little tiny receptacle - cute.

Now this is super helpful - if you have a little assistant/elf/kitchen hobbit. Lacking any of these and even a human cooking partner; I set about establishing a veritable colony of little bowls filled with all my ingredients.

The words 'must try harder' were invented for this photo

Now I can cook. The morning passed in a super efficient manner, until I got to making my risotto. Glancing over my shoulder I noticed that nobody else was even cooking anymore - whoops. Oh well and I wasn't even the only one cooking solo today. Ah well nothing to do but keep going. So one I went stirring and stirring risotto, stir stir stir all alone whhhhhhy - oww my arm.

The big mistake I made with the risotto was to add stock a little too early before all the liquid had been absorbed. The end result wasn't too pretty but what risotto is. It was delicious, and there is some fresh mint in there too - a nice subtle amount with the peas and Parmesan - nice.

Chorizo Soup

The tarte Normande was amazing, anything involving pastry and apples is a winner in my book. Alan was the first to reply to my free cake tweet. So the lucky guy had some cake delivered to his place of work in Temple Bar.

Chorizo soup was nice I might leave the lid off for a little longer next time to thicken up a bit more, I was otherwise preoccupied with the other dishes to pay it too much attention - many apologies pot of soup!

Tuesday

I'm typing up Tuesday antics on Wednesday morning with the last slice of Apple Normande for breakfast  - it's grand it has apples in it! I also awoke to find that all my nice white chef smocks have been turned pink by a rouge sock - I'll never get work in a Michelin star restaurant in these.

Lamb Madras

Yesterday was Indian Day, which saw us produce an array of delicious and authentic (with some deviation towards the Middle East) We prepared Lamb Masala and lamb koftas. Along with these we also made naan breads spiked with onion seeds.

Koftas

Yumbo dessert

For dessert we prepared cardamon cream pots.  A lovely subtle and light (ish) dessert ideal served with fruit. It was a chance to use some gelatin for the first time - very easy a good trick to have up your sleeve allowing you to turn many delicious liquids into impressive and tasty desserts.

The lamb koftas were spicy and full of flavour, and ideal starter, for the barbeque or smaller for canapes.

The afternoon demo was jam packed. Our pastry expert showed use some sugar boiling techniques and then produced an amazing and sparkling array of spun sugar cages, nests and spirals. To be tried at home with extreme caution due to very high temperatures of the sugar/caramel mix and the fact that you need to kind of throw it around the place. Utensils to be well oiled before starting!

A whole salmon was poached and prepared, with eyes and scales recreated from various other food items. It looked  bit creepy, but I can imagine on the centre of a  large buffet it would look pretty impressive.

We had a demo on how best to prepare and cook scallops - quickly and at a high heat. They were made into a tasty linguine with pancetta, spinach and rosemary butter mmmmmmm.

Finally an large bowl of hummus was prepared, illustrating my need for a food processor once again (hint hint Internet philanthropists!) One of the best recipes I've tasted, nice and spicy a good amount of lemon and lots of tahini. About to be late now for Wednesdays sushi workshop, so 'd better run off in my pink smocks.

byee

Wednesday

Looking at today on the timetable made me feel a bit quesy. Sushi workshop, then cheese tasting, followed by canape making and a wine tasting evening. That's a lot of food to be putting in one stomach - oh and wine.

Sushi to start. The rice seems to be a  key part in how your sushi will work or not. Japanese sushi chefs can train for up to 16 years. The wash must be washed many times, until the water runs clear (or near to clear) Then the rice must be put in cold water before being brought to the boil, then boiled for 15 mins, then sits for 15 minutes. Then covered in rice vinegar and sugar solution, spread on a tray and fanned! la de dah miss sushi rice!

Skills!

Now a careful and colourful assembly of fillings was prepared - after a quick demo on riling techniques we were a bit pushed for time. I still managed to make a few nori rolls, sashimi and sushi balls. It's a shame that the morning was a bit rushed, but that's the nature of the game. I will def be making sushi again, lots of fun and above all delicious.

Lunch

Cheese Montage

The morning demo was then from Kevin Sheridan from Sheridans cheese. He explained the broad cheese making processes and main types of cheese. How various factors influence the finished cheese, such as cultures, temperature, milk type, cutting, turning, storing, heat, size, the list goes on and on!

He brought in a nice range  of cheeses for us to taste,  some Irish traditional like Gubeen, Cashel Blue and a few more recent additions to the Irish cheese circuit (agh I've forgotten their names - will look at my notes) a lovely young, soft goats cheese, and a smaller more mature goats cheese as well as an amazing cheese very like Comte. Comte is the biggest selling cheese in France! There was also the most divine French Camembert.

He made the case for artisan farmers and producers clear in a succinct statement. Artisan suppliers foremost priority is taste, supermarkets foremost priority is profit. Nothing new there but I just thought it summed it up well. The manner in which supermarkets sell and display cheese is harmful to the taste, cheese is essentially very ugly really. Supermarkets attempt to make this product more attractive and in the process homogenise the taste appearance and personality of the cheese. This is a whole other argument - so this is only a small mention of a huge overall point!

After lunch it was full steam into canape preparation for the evening. I think I might have been tasted out as I was finding it very hard to get excited about our canapes - or make some taste decisions. Maybe my palette was a little overwhelmed.

Mini Lemon Tarts

With Our Sushi Combined

The evenings wine tasting was great, everyone in the class invited along a friend. We tasted a variety of red and white wines and had our canapes to accompany various wines. Ok I know I should write more about his but I'm tired - it was fun! There were lots of different canapes but my camera ran out of batteries - damn!

Thursday

Quick Chorizo Pasta

Ok so we're all a little tired after yesterdays hectic schedule and possibly also the many wines! Luckily the timetable for this morning was made up with this in mind. Nothing too taxing.

First we made up mayonnaise - add the oil slowly slowly - from the tip of a fork and you'll be alright - seems to be the major factor in success. I'm feel like I'm stuck in second gear so no chance I'll be rushing. One of the really interesting things about looking at every ones finished products is how different they are. We all followed the same recipe, used the same ingredients and equipment. The finished mayos were greatly varying in consistency. It was a point that our tutor made the day before that even the most highly trained chefs will make the same dish differently. We're like little chef snowflakes - perfectly unique (poetic!)

Also prepared was a delicious salad of Cashel blue cheese with honeyed pecans, watercress and pear - loved it. Linguine with chorizo, rocket and Parmesan - didn't sound the best on paper, but was light and fresh despite the heavy ingredients. Other dishes made included Spaghetti Carbonara (my all time favourite pasta dish) Chestnut and Carrot cannelloni (amazing) Monkfish putanesca, spicy aubergine parpadelle and a range of salads, including Ceasar, chicken  and roasted veg pesto and an spicy horseradish coleslaw. A good feed for all.

Very yummy salad

The afternoon saw our tutor making beef Wellington, moule marinere, potatoes with thyme and tallegio, creme brulle and chicken Ballentine. A delicious and impressive demonstration of multi-tasking and blowtorches, that'll stop you falling asleep!

Muelle Marinere

Afternoon Demo Foods

That's it I'm hiding away form the crazy weather in my apartment practising my wine tasting skills for the night.

Friday 

There was cooking alright - look at the pretty pictures!

Romantic Themed Raspberry Creme Brullee

Salmon Yakatori - very very nice dish

Cerviche

Paella

Chicken Balentine Tastes better than this photo

Pancake Dinner Extravaganza

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Course 1 - Potato Blinis with Smoked Salmon

So as pancake day approached we started to think of what we would make to mark this most singularly culinary celebration. If Christmas was changed to roast turkey day, and Halloween was barn brack day, when instead of going trick or treating/giving presents everyone would be at home making cakes/turkey. It will soon be national fish and chips day too - well in May! 

We thought we’d like to bring a random group of people together in our house, for a feast of pancakes. So we put an invite up on our own facebook, and within 15 minutes we’d reached our quota for the dinner.

We decided on a menu that encompassed a different type of pancake for each course
Starters were smoked salmon blinis
Main course was pancake cannelloni with bolognaise sauce
and ricotta and leek cannelloni with tomato sauce for the veggies
Dessert was Crepe Suzette - kaboom!

Smoked  Salmon and Potato Blinis

Ingredients

6 boiled potatoes
2 eggs
1/2 pint of milk 
about 2 tbsps four
creme fraiche (or cream cheese)
smoked salmon
chives 

The potato blinis were made by mashing about 6 boiled potatoes and combining this with 2 eggs, about 1/2 pint of milk and about 2 tbsps four. I just added things until I got the right consistency- very instinctive of me but not so good for blogging recipes! The batter should be thick in consistency, like whipped cream. I cooked them by getting a heavy frying pan really hot, smearing on some butter with a wadded up paper towel, and putting a tablespoon on the mixture at a time in the pan. I could do about 8 at a time. Cook on one side for about 3 or 4 mins, until golden brown and then flip. 

We served with creme fraiche and smoked salmon but you could top with anything- I was thinking cream cheese would be nice with roasted tomatoes. 

Recipes for pancake cannelloni and crepe suzette to follow before Easter I promise!

Crumpets

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Tea Vicar?
After coming across a stall called 'The Strumpets Crumpets' at Electric Picnic, I ate my first crumpet in years and, oh my was it delicious! Eating it planted the seed of a craving in my belly and a few weeks later I found myself searching the web for crumpet recipes. I even went searching around town for crumpet rings!

Eventually I just used cookie/scone cutters, blunt side down to shape these perfect, buttery, gorgeously decadent treats. Pam rightly described the strumpets crumpets as a cross between toast and pancakes, which, sweet or savory, make them perfect for a Sunday breakfast. I really thought there would be too many but they were all scoffed pretty quickly. They don't take too long to make, its a bit like making pancakes but more fecky and with more opportunities for burning yourself (3 times!!!) Crumpet ingredients

• 300ml whole milk
• 300ml water
• 420g strong white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 sachet fast-action dried yeast

Combine the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Warm up the water and milk in a saucepan, not too hot, just until its the same temperature as your finger when you dip it in. Gradually pour the milk mixture into the flour, stirring to combine. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave for an hour in a warm place. The mixture will rise and become all bubbly and light.

Heat a non stick frying pan and melt some butter in it. If you are using cookie cutter rings to shape the crumpets, brush the inside of them with melted butter and place on the pan. Pour the mixture into the shapes.

Cook until the bubbles rise to the top of the crumpets and burst. Then poke the crumpet out of the ring (be careful not to burn yourself) and flip it over to cook on the other side until golden brown. If you prefer, you can dispense with the rings altogether and just make individual blobs on the pan, they will be thinner, but still thicker than pancakes and I'd say it would be a lot less hassle. I'm going to do them like that next time. Crumpets are good cut in half and toasted with loads of butter & jam, or with cream cheese and smoked salmon (try adding some dill to the batter!) or with melted cheese and ham, or with.... anything really. I think my favorite is just with plain old butter, and of course accompanied by a cup of tea. SO good.

Onion and Dill bread

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Swedish Bready-dilly-insecty goodness

We have a lovely Dill plant growing out back, so this was the perfect way to use some of it up and make delicious bread. There were a LOT of bugs on the dill, and I'm sure on or two of them must have gotten past me, even though I gave it a good wash. However, nobody cared because On our taste scale of 1-10 (1 being McDonalds, 10 being michelin star deliciousness) Lucy reckoned this got a 9, which is the highest yet, but secretly I would give it an 11. Yes it was bloody delicious and disappeared very quickly. Especially perfect with the left over cream cheese spread on it and some nice smoked salmon.

Thanks to Cafe Nilson for the recipe.

Ingredients: 1 sachet fast

acting dried yeast
500g strong white flour1 red onion, sauted
125 ml warm water
1 big bunch fresh dill, chopped
100g cream cheese
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg

Mix the flour, salt & yeast in a bowl and add the egg, creamcheese, cooked onions, chopped Dill and oil. Mix first using a paddle, then add the water in a slow stream, using a mixer with a dough hook to mix everything together. If there is still flour left at the bottom of the bowl add a very small amount more water, if its too sticky add more flour. Leave the dough hook on to knead the dough for 4-5 mins (or kneak it using elbow grease for 10-15mins) or until you have a smooth, elastic consistency. Oil the bowl and put the dough in, cover with oiled clingfilm.

Leave in a warm place to rise for

1 hour. Knock the

dough back and shape into 5 or 6 equal sized balls. Oil a big round cake tin with a heavy bottom, and put the dough balls inside in a circle. leave to rise again for 45 mins until the dough has

risen to the brim of the tin.

Bake at gas 7/250 C for 40 mns or so, or until its browned and the bottom sounds hollow when you tap it. Resist the urge to cut this until its cooled down as you will squish it! Most delicious thing ever

Lucy and the Bread