Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

My pre-assembly schedule was pretty loaded this morning: the usual mise-en-place before the big rush, feeding my sourdough starter and then I was on herb duty, so helping out with the daily collection of herbs appropriate to the days cooking. It turns out that it’s actually herb and vegetable duty so we also had to pick cucumbers; I was down to cook cucumbers for a couple of my recipes so I can say that I really lived the farm to table ethos of Ballymaloe today.

These, of course, were growing in the greenhouse so I took the opportunity to check up on my surviving sweetcorn plant and it has certainly grown—it’s as tall as me now; pretty amazing given the size it was when planted.

My sourdough starter is also doing well. Amazingly so for one that was just initiated on Monday. I found it oozing out of the kilner jar this morning and James, one of the main bakers, was amazed it was so lively but commented that it had been very warm in the Bread Shed yesterday. It turned out well for me, though, as it meant I could discard some of the starter, give it a large feed and put it in the fridge for the weekend.

And now to content relative to the title… The theme for today’s cooking was shellfish and salmon. Everyone had to open an oyster, for example, and people were cooking mussels, clams and periwinkles. Others, including me, were poaching salmon. Not too suprisingly, Darina won’t countenance farmed salmon so ours was wild caught from last year. This year, though, it seems no licences have been issued for catching wild salmon in any of Ireland’s rivers so we may well be the last students to cook salmon at the school. Fortunately, we didn’t overcook it! Laura’s criticism of my plate was that the portion was a little on the large side but, after all, it was going to be my lunch!

The hollandaise was a little thicker than it should have been but that was because I had to make it early on to juggle with my pans—as well as the hollandaise I needed to braise cucumbers and make a beurre blanc to go with oysters opened in the oven.

The hot oysters were pretty good but I still think oysters are best raw—and I was pleased to hear Rory yesterday dismiss mignonette and other such as unnecessary embellishments.

As my partner was away I also made and iced a gingerbread loaf:

Then, it’s an even week—week 8 even, so two thirds of the way through the course!—which means no chores but a trip to Kinsale. The Michelin Guide describes Kinsale as a “pretty … designated heritage town” but it appears to be a major party town with various raucous groups roaming around. (But also a quiet group of locals who would have been happy to leave me alone in a booth for eight or so…) My first hotel room looked out over some award winning gastropub that had turned itself into a disco for the night. Fortunately an apologetic employee found me somewhere a little quieter.