Week 10 has flown by and suddenly I have 2 weeks to go. I am really enjoying it here, but I’m also getting impatient to go home now. It can get a bit boring being somewhere so quiet for 3 months, especially without any transport!
The main focus of this week has been our 3 course menus for our final exam. We have 3 lots of exams in total: a practical exam (the biggest chunk of the marks), a wine exam and a written exam (3 papers). Now that I think about it, there are a lot of 3s! Our wine exam is on Wednesday morning and our written papers are on the Friday of week 12. Our practical exam is over 3 hours and mine is the Wednesday of week 12, at 9am. I’m absolutely terrified!
Anyway, we had to hand in our final menus and ingredient lists on Friday, so it’s completely set in stone now. Our menus are meant to be balanced, themed (not like a pirate theme or something, just ‘a farewell dinner’ and things like that), seasonal (or using ingredients we have in the glass houses at the moment) and we are also trying to showcase how much we’ve learned. They also have to be Ballymaloe recipes. With that in mind, my menu is……. (drum roll please)………….
Roasted beetroot, Ardsallagh goat’s cheese, rocket and balsamic vinegar
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Chargrilled chicken paillarde (butterflied chicken breast) with aioli, roasted cherry tomates and couscous with pinenuts
A green salad with Italian salad dressing (lemon juice and olive oil)
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Mini lemon sponge (told you I’d get it in!), vanilla bean ice cream and fresh raspberry sauce
So there you go. Now all I have to do is practice it, write a time plan and hopefully manage to cook and present it in 3 hours without completely breaking down and having to be carried off to some kind of institution. I chose things I really like to cook which I hope will help, but I’m nervous already so God knows what I’ll be like on the day. Best not to think about that I reckon.
Other than that, this week has been pretty good. I made puff pastry for the first time which worked out really well (I’ve got a load of it in the fridge so I’d better do something with that…), jointed a duck (very similar to a chicken), made a really nice sponge cake and iced it really badly and made a bunch of other things that I can’t bring to mind right now. Next week we get to do steak and lobster (not on the same day, that would be ridiculously decadent), pork loin and pork belly and on Wednesday afternoon our demo is made up of student suggestions. I suggested paella and we’re doing it, so I’m pleased about that.
Reports on the wine exam when it’s over. I’m sure it’ll be fine…
p.s. The picture above is one of the chickens sitting in the chicken food skip, see how many disgusting things you can spot. There is definitely a carcass of some description.
argh! stop posting just before dinner! now i’m so hungry i think my stomach’s going to eat itself. good luck exam-wise!
Thank you! I’m sure I’ll be fine. Sorry for making you hungry, perhaps you should always have a biscuit close by when you read my blog?
Good luck with the exams. You’re more than welcome to cook at our place if you and Dunc ever make it down to London. I’ve been hearing a lot about Ballymaloe from different people recently. Have you had any wine discussions there?
We have some wine lectures as part of the course and tutored wine tasting. Apparently we’ve tasted over 40 wines so far! Lots of guest speakers as well (Daniel Brunier was one from Domaine de Vieux Telegraphe – apparently he’s big in the wine world?) which was interesting but I still feel like I know bugger all about wine. Just need to start taking notes and things I think. I’ve been trying to pursuade Dunc to take me to London one weekend this year, so if we do make it we’ll be sure to let you know!
Hi Jenn
we have just read your menu for your exams and Shirl thinks it’s just the sort of food she would like to eat! Praise indeed. She reckons she’ll be borrowing recipes from you from now on. We loved the fairy cakes with sprinkles. I think you’ve been making those since you were in your pram. I’m sure the exams will be a piece of cake Sorry !!!!