Half way point - I'll drink to that!

Time to raise a glass of vino to Week 7. 

I am over halfway through the Ballymaloe 12 week certificate course.

I keep putting off writing this post as I literally do not know where to begin updating this and the time is flying by so quickly. I seriously admire the bloggers that I followed before coming to Ballymaloe who were able to juggle their workload here and blog daily. Spill the Beans and French Foodie I am in awe. Also where did you get the wifi connection to blog like this? Like seriously?

Now that I am over halfway I am increasingly aware of the ever so slight anxious feeling I have about facing into 'real life' after Ballymaloe.
Life where there isn't abundant fresh herbs, salad leaves and organic fresh vegetables a plenty.
Life without freshly baked loaves of bread, wholesome soup, generous mains and exquisite puddings on a daily basis.
Life without daily homemade lemonade.
Life without freshly laid eggs from the 600 hens here.
Life without daily fresh scones with cream and homemade raspberry jam.
Life without hanging out my balcony window for a ridiculous amount of time trying to get wifi/phone reception.
Life without daily duties.
Life without filing every night!
Life where I'm not looking forward to starting my Ballymaloe adventure.
Life without Wine Wednesday!!!!!!!!


Darina is actively seeking our immediate employment by continually questioning and nugging us about who has found jobs! No pressure eh?


Anyways back to the update...


We had our School Tour Day which was a lot of fun. We travelled throughout Cork to visit the Mahon Point Food Market, Gubbeen Cheese and Chorizo factory, Ummera Smokehouse and Jameson Distillery. It was a great day and good to get out of the school for a while and visit our producers and sample some delights.
I almost forgot to mention that we all got a free bottle of Jameson Whiskey after our tour and food and whiskey tasting! Jameson were incredible hosts and an example of how the big guys know how to do things right.


We also had our Midterm Herb, Salad and Technique exam on Friday.
I spent most of last week eating herbs left, right and centre and tasting and sketching salad leaves to help me remember them. Not my usual study but such a great way to get us all to know the herbs and salad leaves. I was delighted with myself when I was able to recognise the salad leaves mibuna, mizuna, tatsoi and lollo rosso in my salad at the weekend in Dublin which I was delighted with. I honestly would never really have cared about this before and would have assumed it was a good old bag of rocket leaves! This course continually forces you to really open your eyes to our food around us and I wonder if I will ever really look or think about food the same way again.

Other BIG updates include we have our Ballymaloe Charity Dinner on Week 10 for the public, family and friends and I was ecstatic to discover that I was made Head Chef for the event. I am honoured to take on this big role and so excited to get stuck in and gain some invaluable experience for the future. More updates on this to come!


We had 'Cake Day' where we got to see the competitive side in a lot of people (probably mainly myself). It was a great laugh and the cakes really were incredible!

My Chocolate Spooky Inspired Halloween Cake 

We also had a Big Breakfast Morning where I won the best breakfast from my kitchen only I didn't take a picture as I devoured it so quickly! Typical me.
Pretty delighted to win and hey if all else fails I can make a decent Full Irish Brekkie in the future!


I included a picture of my starter dish that I made last week which was my Ardsallagh Goat's cheese croquettes with rocket leaves, roast peppers and tapenade oil. I was delighted with how it looked and tasted!

I can't even begin to explain the level of detail that is covered in the afternoon lectures.
I really cannot stress enough how you really get your bang for your buck here.

My brain not to mind my folders are continually creating sub dividers and categories for all this new information I am learning on a daily basis. From filleting fish, making fresh pasta, baking bread, curing meat and creating classic timeless desserts every day brings a whole new assortment to the collection.

Furthermore we are learning about wine! I was so ignorant before this to the world of wine. I love that I know so much more now about pairing wine with food, what courses to accompany with and the regions and grape varieties. Wine Wednesday is my favourite day of the week!

An example of a night filing 2 days of notes. Organised chaos. 

Some days I laugh at myself as I come out from my mornings cooking as I look like someone leaving the battlefield both physically and mentally.

With all this new information and learning it is important here that I recognise especially to anyone considering doing the course in the future that sometimes this course can be very overwhelming! I'm 26 (relatively young & energetic) I love food and filing and everything about this course and I can find it really challenging some days.
All that being said there are those special moments during demo in the afternoon that I almost want to pinch myself I'm so happy about being here and how much I love it.
These episodes also often occur when watching Rachel. I'm a big fan of Rachel. That's putting it lightly. She's effortless and no words can begin to explain how great and natural she is at teaching.

Rachel's beautiful profiteroles during demo one afternoon. 

Burger day with Rory - He is such a Pro! 

My homemade fresh noodle pasta. Tasted so good! 

Finally my Almond, coconut and cardamon cake. It's so pretty. I am so delighted with how it turned out.  I had a bit of help from Lughan even though it may look like a Pam inspired Cake! 

Today was one of those days where I am so happy to be here and I am loving every second of this once in a lifetime experience! 

That is as much information as my brain can process tonight. If anyone has any questions about the course or would like to ask me anything drop me a comment below. 

Thanks for reading 

Tracy 

X 

A little Taste of Ballymaloe so far...

The Shell House and gardens

My humble home - The Coach House 

Ballymaloe Greenhouse and gardens 

Some of the many vegetables growing in the gardens 

My own personal Dove who hangs by my window all day 

My filleting skills on Cod 

I made it.


I am also a startling quarter of the way through Ballymaloe Cookery School and in major disbelief!
I might mention here that I not ready to enter the real world yet no matter many times Darina mentions to us about writing your CV and contacting restaurants and chefs now!!!

The time is actually flying here however you don't always feel that way in the afternoon's demonstrations!

I am living in a Ballymaloe bubble completely sheltered away from the rest of the world surrounded by 600 hens, Jersey cows, constant supplies of fresh organic food, farming and lots of foodies.

I might start by saying....

You get your Bang for your Buck in Ballymaloe. 

It is important for anyone considering doing this course in the future to know this. You will not regret it nor will you be startled at the cost once you start the course.
It may have taken me a little while this year to save for the course but my god is it worth every penny saved.

I am learning so much and I have to say I was a little surprised (being a home ec teacher and all) of how much I have to learn and how there is one way and the 'Ballymaloe Way' to do things.
I'm converted now.


The day's can be long and they are tiring. You start in the kitchens just after 8am to set up for cookery and to collect ingredients and you begin cooking at 9am. You cook a number of dishes (3-4) and sometimes a duty dish like make butter, lemonade, bread during the mornings cooking from 9 - 12.30. I might stress here you are lucky if you finish at 12.30, most times you enter the dining room shattered at 1!
Lectures begin at 1.45 sharp and go on till after 5 most days where Darina, Rory or Pam demonstrate anything from 10-15 dishes which you then prepare the following day in the kitchen.
Wednesday's are the only day you do not cook in the kitchen and these days are completely focused around lectures. I like to call it Wine Wednesday. We have Colm McCan Ballymaloe Sommelier come in and teach us all about wine and I must admit this is turning out to be surprisingly one of my favourite parts of the course. It is so interesting and I am learning so much about wine! Cue change of career path may be happening...


There are so many extracurricular activities to take part in too in the evenings like cheesemaking, organic gardening classes, butchery classes, working in Ballymaloe House, milking cows and working with the Ballymaloe food market stall on Saturdays in Midleton to name but a few.

Your evenings can also be very easily dedicated to filing. (My God I am in heaven)
You need to get on top of this ASAP. The filing is insane. Prepare yourself!
You also prepare your order of work each evening for the next day in the kitchen to help you sequence your cooking and help you be as organised and prepared as possible.


Anyways this is just a quick update at the end of Week 3 here in Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Will update and post more next week,

Hope you enjoy,

Tracy

I Made it to the final 3!!!!!!

Okay so I do not know where to start!
I got such great news last week that I made it to the final 3 contestants in the Cono Sur Blogger Competition which I am so overwhelmed and delighted with! Life is a little bit of a roller coaster at the minute!
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me.

I am also in disbelief about the fact that I am in WEEK THREE here in Ballymaloe Cookery school!! The time is flying and I haven't posted one photo yet on the blog! My instagram has most of them and I will do up a blog post this week once I'm back in Dublin with good internet!

Again I just want to say - Thank you again so much to everyone who voted for me in this amazing competition!

Fingers crossed for Friday to see which lucky person gets to go to Paris!


Tracy X

Teriyaki Chicken with Sticky Jasmine Rice

This dish is absolutely stunning! It is so tasty and packed with beautiful aromatic fresh flavours.
It is also very easy to make.
The meat literally melts in your mouth after being baked in the oven for 3 hours.

Seriously if you want to try something different for your dinner that is inexpensive - you have to try this dish!

I cooked this in a deep Le Creuset Casserole dish which allowed the juices to stay sealed and keep the sauce especially since it is in the oven for 3 hours. If you don't have a casserole dish with a tight fitted lid make sure and cover well with tin foil and check the meat every 45 minutes to ensure the sauce does not dry up.

This dish serves 3 - 4 people comfortably.

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
3cm piece of ginger
1 red chilli
Juice of one lime
100ml sticky boyne valley honey
100ml soya sauce
60ml rice wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper

1 tablespoon of corn flour
additional cold water

2 spring onions thinly sliced
200g jasmine rice
400ml hot boiling water
2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds
Chopped coriander


Preheat the oven to 180℃. Place the chicken breasts into a deep casserole dish. Season with black pepper. Thinly slice the onions, garlic, red chilli and ginger and leave to one side in a bowl. Whisk in the liquid ingredients and mix together. Pour this mixture on top of the chicken breasts, cover tightly and bake in the oven for 3 - 3 1/2 hours.

After this time remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and shred the chicken using two forks.
Boil the rice in hot water for 10-12 minutes until all the water is completely absorbed.

Transfer the sauce into a pot and bring slowly to the boil. In a separate bowl whisk the tablespoon of cornflour with about 50 ml of cold water until dissolved. Pour this into the sauce mixture and stir until thickened. Remove from the heat and pour the sauce over the shredded chicken. Toss to combine together.

In a dry hot frying pan gently toast the sesame seeds for 2-3minutes.

Assemble the teriyaki chicken on top of some sticky jasmine rice. Sprinkle some finely sliced spring onions and the toasted sesame seeds on top.

Garnish with some chopped fresh coriander.

and Voila.

Absolutely Beautiful!

No Bake Energy Bites - Back to School Snacks!♥️

It's that time of year again - Back to School Time - except not for me this year... Ballymaloe is fast approaching! Only 3 weeks until the BIG move to Cork.  

As you see I had a lot of fun photographing these! Perhaps it has a lot to do with the fact that I am not back to school like everybody else and I have all this free time on my hands! 

My photography skills are slowly improving day by day! 

So this post is all about preparing a healthy tasty snack that you might enjoy in a back to school lunch box for kids or yourself or as a mid morning snack to help keep you going till lunch. 

These are so easy to make and can be made as healthy as you like or as cheeky as you like! 

I've made these now a few times and you can experiment as much as you want till you find the flavours you like and what works well together.

The batch photographed above include the following recipe:
This batch made me about 18 mini bites.

Ingredients: 
175g Flahavan's Oats
2 tablespoons of chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tablespoon of goji berries
1 tablespoon of dried cranberries
1 tablespoon of dark chocolate chips

-Stir all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Cover with some cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for half an hour.
-Once chilled, roll into bite size balls and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.


Additional ingredients to use in alternative bites: 
Any nut butter - cashew, almond
Nutella
Chia seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds
Pistachio nuts, Cashew nuts, walnuts, almonds,  pecans
Dates, dried sultanas, raisins,
Cacao nibs
White chocolate chips & Toasted Coconut (must try this one soon)

So I hope you like the recipe and give them a try - keep tweaking them till you find your favourite combination and let me know if you made them in the comment box below!

Cono Sur Food Blogger Competition - Go on Throw me a Vote!

This has been a crazy week! Great news for Pound of Butter - I'm still in disbelief that I have been lucky enough to be shortlisted to the final 13 people in the ConoSur Food Blogger competition in Ireland!

The competition is very simple - you have to create a recipe (main course dish) that teams well with any Cono Sur Single Vineyard Wines.
My chosen recipe is 'Risotto with wild mushroom and Pancetta' and I teamed this dish with Cono Sur Sauvignon Blanc.
Risotto is one of my all time favourite dishes to prepare.

I have included the recipe below taken from the ConoSur Website.

Now onto the really important stuff - the prize for this competition is pretty UNBELIEVABLE and it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Starting from last week people are able to vote for their own country's favourite recipe one vote per person and email address. Then on September 15th (Day 2 of Ballymaloe Cookery School for me) the top three recipes from Ireland will be shortlisted and go on to Round Two!!

Renowned Chef Christopher Carpentier will then prepare each Semi-Finalist's dish and select one finalist from each participating country. From this 5 finalists will be sent to none other the beautiful Paris (did I mention my sister lives in Paris?) Here each finalist will prepare their dish to a panel of judges. The overall winner will be sent on a trip for two to Chile to visit the Cono Sur Vineyards and discover it's beautiful home country!


So if you think I'm worthy and you'd like to see me go a little further you can vote in the competion through the following link:  

http://bloggercompetition.conosur.com/index.php/vote

Thank you for your support in advance and thanks for stopping by!

Onwards & Upwards!

Will keep you all posted!

Tracy X

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

I'm a little late this year with World Nutella Day 5th February (I learnt this fact only today!) ... however I shall make up for it now!

This post brings you Gooey rich Nutella filled brownies that are incredibly moist and so INDULGENT! I have been dying to make these for so long now and I eventually got around to it this weekend when I knew they could be shared among friends and not lingering in the fridge! I cheated with the brownie layer and actually just crushed up some chocolate cream Oreo biscuits with melted butter which actually works really well in adding extra texture.
I made the whole thing using a food processor which is so handy and saves on the old wash up! You do not have to have a food processor to make these though it can all be done in a mixer or by hand too.

This recipe makes 12 large bars.

Ingredients:
Biscuit layer:
300g oreo biscuits
50g melted butter

Cheesecake layer
400g full fat cream cheese
100g caster sugar
2 large free range eggs
3 tablespoons of Nutella
60ml double cream
10-12 raspberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 180℃. Line a deep tin (8x10") with greaseproof paper.
Blitz the oreo biscuits including the filling in the food processor until like coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively you can also bash them in a freezer bag with a wooden spoon. Melt the butter and add into the crushed biscuits and blitz again until moist. Press this buttery biscuit mixture into the tin and flatten with a spatula. Bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes until set and leave to chill after.
*Leave the oven on as the cheesecake will be baked.

Wash the food processor and add in all the cream cheese, caster sugar, 2 eggs and 3/4 of the double cream mixture and blitz until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix together until smooth. Pour 3/4 of this mixture on top of the cooled biscuit base. Spread into an even layer.

Using the other 1/4 of the cheesecake mixture add in the 3 tablespoons of nutella and the other 1/4 of the double cream into the food processor and blitz again until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix till you have a smooth chocolate mixture. Using a large tablespoon dot this mixture on top of the cream cheese filling. Using a skewer or a knife swirl the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture to make a swirl design.
Finally add in the raspberries in sections.
Bake the mixture in the hot oven for 35-40 minutes until they still have a slight wobble.
The bars will puff up in the oven but will sink slightly as they cool down.
Make sure you allow them to cool fully at room temperature before slicing and tasting.
These brownies will last easily in the fridge in a container for up to 5 days.