Saturday 26 January 2013

Tips of the Week

Oh happy weekend. How glad am I that it is only Saturday. After a short visit to the Black Bird Pub in Ballycotten last night to mingle with the locals, the alarm clock came as quite a shock! Off to do our kneading of our Sourdough Sponge with Tim and then a quick, and yummy visit to Middleton Farmers Market.

Quite ashamed that I'm almost in week 4 of the course at Ballymaloe and still haven't managed to visit Middleton Market, we toddled off down the country lanes ready to see all the great vendors. 

There was the mushroom lady of Ballyhoura Mountain Mushroom selling shitake, several oyster species and nameko all grown in sawdust and chemick free. These were amazing and I opted for the Golden Oysters for my turn at cooking 'family supper' tomorrow night.

There was the Ahern family there selling their chickens, the Hederman family selling their amazing hot and cold smoked mackerel, salmon and mussels. Several local farmers selling veggies and fruit, the pate guy who's pate is amazing by the way! I was so blown away by the caramelised onion pate in my mouth and excited by the pate package in my hand I utterly forgot to ask his name…next week.

Of course Ballymaloe was there with it's stall and several of our classmates helping to sell, there was the sausage lady who we purchased several rustic hotdogs from and last but not least there was the best hot chocolate seller ever. And as a person who never drinks coffee and always hot chocolate, I should know! The name is O'Connail and they are really known for roasting and grinding their own coffee. But these guys also make their own chocolate for their hot chocolate. Oh boy. Go. Go now!

And so after a busy jam packed week. Here are 'my' tips of the week…

1. When boiling/blanching greens, never put the lid back on the pan once the veg is in the water. The evaporation that hits the lid will drop back into the mix actually discolour your veg.

2.  Soups that have potato/flour in are harder to reheat.

3. The yellower the fat on a piece of meat, the more grass fed it has been.






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