Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

These don’t look as brown as yesterday’s and they took a while longer to cook through. I doubt it was because I’d added the olives (finely chopped; the black specks you can see in two or three of them); perhaps it’s because the oven yesterday had been heating for a lot longer than it was today. I’m not sure I want to try making a third batch so I’ll just have to remember to put the oven on early on Wednesday.

The taste? Probably not as olive-y as the ice cream but KB appreciated the one she had so there’s some hope the examiners will be happy. We have to complete a “tasting sheet” so I can say something like “with a subtle taste of Tanch olives” or something like that… I’m not really sure why the tasting sheet is necessary if we’re supposed to be cooking Ballymaloe recipes but perhaps I shouldn’t complain.

Anyway, that was at lunch time. I had a quick wander to the greenhouse to check up on my sweetcorn in the morning and spotted the pigs again. As I’m not sure if I’ve posted a picture of these yet, here they are (but don’t ask me for the breed!).

Most of the afternoon was dedicated to going through my notes and the reams of information we’ve been given. There’ll be something on allergens in the written exams so I probably have to learn the EU list of 14 allergens as well as recipes for all of the herbs, spices, fish and cuts of meat…

I also had to prepare the order of work for my last regular cooking session. There’s again a big gap in the middle as I’m doing a gratin and another (non-custard-based…) ice cream, both of which need early prep then time in the oven/freezer before plating. I had planned to use up the puff pastry I have in the Kitchen 3 freezer for the anchovy straws but I found that the school was all locked up when I went to put this in the fridge. I’ve decided to leave my order of work as is, though and hope that the pastry thaws out enough between 6:30 when I head to the Bread Shed—to feed my starter ahead of the exam focaccia preparation on Tuesday—and when I need it around 10:30.