foraging, writing and a good dollop of mischief.
The smell of freshly cooked fish wafted towards me and once again I was delighted that I had managed to nab myself a front row seat. Our morning’s cooking went well, and Daniel and I did our best to keep on time. Sally is our teacher this week, and like all the Ballymaloe teachers, she …
Today I joined the bandaid brigade. Florrie warned us this morning that the carving knives were incredibly sharp, and to look after them and ourselves while handling them. So at the end of our cooking session, who managed to cut her finger trying to put away knives? To be fair, I had managed to survive …
If you happened to be in the Cork city, Cloyne and Midleton area today you may have heard two rather enthusiastic ladies belting their hearts out to Avril Lavigne (and for that, we apologise). After yesterday’s blog, I got a rather lovely surprise from food writer and homecook hero Donal Skehan, who said he had …
My mind wandered back into its awake state and I gave a little stretch. Both eyes flew open and I was marvelling at the lie-in I thought I had just had. Looking at my watch, it turned out that I actually hadn’t slept-in at all. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, at 7.40am I hopped out of bed …
“Annette, I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think I’ve just incinerated my meringue” Everyone has one of those days where everything seems to just fall on its face and you’re left scraping up the pieces. Today was definitely one of those days. I wanted to challenge myself and chose to do the lemon …
Celebrating the best of what we grow, create and produce here in Ireland – this continuous series is looking at some of my favourite producers. I absolutely love things that are made in Ireland and when I see companies that embrace local my heart soars – that being said, I do also believe that if …
As Rachel Allen sauntered into Kitchen 3, I almost dropped my dough on the floor. My morning hadn’t started off particularly well, and with an impending sense of doom before I hit the kitchen floor, I wasn’t feeling the best. Last night I had really struggled with formulating my order of work and all my …
I shovelled the food into me like I hadn’t eaten in days, and as bizarre as it sounds – I hadn’t fed myself properly since I came here. We were out of the kitchens today and started off our theory day with a few quick demonstrations on how to make quick and sweet tray bake …
After a relatively good day in the kitchen yesterday, everything collapsed on its head. What started out as a pretty straightforward order of work, it quickly transpired that time was not on anyone’s side. I started out with four recipes under my belt with a chicken to joint – and ended with six dishes to …
As Darina dropped the seasoning into the avocado, she exclaimed an amusing “oh crikey!” Turns out she had added sugar instead of salt to her dish and quickly lashed on the Maldron sea salt. It’s funny that sometimes you forget that these things happen even to the most experienced of cooks. My order of work …