Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

But, as usual, let’s go in (roughly) chronological order. So we start with a last trip to the Midleton Farmers market to pick up a €4 barquet of salad and a last sausage and bacon bap. That stall also sells organic eggs so I pick up a tray of 30 as I’ll need a few for the soufflé and ice cream tests I’ve planned for the weekend.

Then back to the cottage after a less photo-worthy (and almost certainly not last) trip to Tesco. I spend a couple of hours finishing my index of all the recipes we’ve been given (much better, IMHO, than the index we’ve actually been given) then a discussion starts on the cottage telegram group about kitchen slots for testing our exam recipes. I’m a little confused as NM suggests she wants to cook an Italian Beef Stew tomorrow so I offer my olive oil soufflés as a starter. It turns out, though, that she actually means today for the stew as an alternative to the 4th July beefburgers in the courtyard opposite. I’m happy enough with that and can still fit in an ice cream test in the early afternoon.

I’ve been a bit worried about testing the ice cream as borrowing equipment from the school is NOT ALLOWED this weekend, I figure, though, that I’m not borrowing anything from the school as I just plan to use one of the ice cream makers there. It seems, though, others have been borrowing equipment with perhaps varying degrees of approval. My legalistic approach isn’t entirely irrelevant as it’s best to leave the machines in place as the refrigerant needs to settle for a good while whenever you move them. The cleaning team in the school look a little bemused as I arrive to pour a small jug of mix into one of the machines in the dining room and sit around while it churns away but nothing is said. It takes around 25 minutes (not that this matters, time not doing when I prepare the ice cream on Tuesday doesn’t count against my exam time on Wednesday morning) and I leave a batch of ice cream in the freezer to set properly and head back to the cottage around 3:30.

The Pennywort exam kitchen schedule is then free for me from 4-5pm but there’s really no problem as CB, JB and I aren’t competing for hob or oven space so I make the bechamel base for my soufflés around 5:30 and leave them to sit, expecting to fold in the whipped whites and bake them in an hour or so. Meanwhile I collect my now well-frozen ice cream and am pleased when this is well received by my expert Pennywort tasters. NM, however, is running late on the Italian Stew so KB and I, the two oldies on the course, sit and chat as the 4th July party starts to assemble. I provide a plate of Bleu de Gex cubes which seems to be appreciated by KB and others—I wonder what more I have to do to earn my gown? I really should if Rory adds it as a cheese for a future 12 week course!

By 8pm the beef for the Italian Beef Stew is still sitting in its packets so I decide to bake my soufflés anyway. I find the mix of bechamel with whisked egg whites to be a little runny and so don’t bother too much about smoothing the tops but they rise well enough in the oven:

More importantly, they definitely have a distinctive olive oil flavour—and it’s not just my opinion: my tasters agree. I’ll try again tomorrow morning adding 5g of flour to the amount given in the Ballymaloe recipe and also adding in some chopped olives to see how they taste (and “float”) in the mix.

Good news on that front. But I’ve (barely) learnt just 16 of the 120 or so recipes I need to remember by Friday and not made any progress on reviewing the information we have on HACCP, allergens, fire safety, first aid, business, … that we’ll also need to know for our final exams. I suspect, though, that I’ll be trying to make a 3rd batch of soufflés in the afternoon tomorrow: actual cooking (and tasting the results) is much more interesting!