Night Two With a Pheasant

Tucked in early for the night, seems to be a bit warmer in the house tonight. The passion fruit got snatched up quickly this morning, so my curd ended up being a combination of passion fruit and blood orange, which was lovely. My tart was a success, and after my slight disaster with lining the flan ring and short cut pastry last week, I am feeling much better about it. I also made a very simple tomato and rocket salad, poached an egg, and pan-fried some pollock after fileting the fish. Another technique I would be okay with getting next week on the exam.

I woke up this morning to an early alarm, and couldn’t figure out why I had set it earlier than normal… After hitting snooze a few times I realized I had set my alarm to get up to milk the cows. I quickly got dressed, brushed my teeth and ran down to the diary. I learned a few bits about the different cows… Milly is due on March 5^th, so she only comes into the milking parlor for her little snack – an extra boost for the day and the baby I suppose. They stop milking the cows about two months before they are due to ensure optimal health for the mum and baby. Peaches is Cleo’s mum, and she has to be milked third – apparently cows are very habitual animals, and quite clever too. Peaches produces about 10L of milk per day.

Today’s demo was full of yummy things… A few different very comforting casseroles (rabbit, pheasant, chicken…), two delicious lemon tarts, one plain and one with dates which was so, so delicious. It is crazy to think the demo was five hours ago, and I struggle to think what was actually cooked in front of me, this is what I mean about time here, it is so bizarre. I am making the pheasant casserole tomorrow, which meant I had to pluck and gut my bird tonight. Plucking isn’t so bad, it takes a bit of time, and gets messy at the end when the down starts to stick to the bird, it’s a bit tricky to twist the neck and wings off, cut the tail off, and then there is gutting.. Thank god for Jonathan, he did that for me! My bird was in much better condition than some of the others that arrived into the kitchen (won’t mention any names…), my fingers were freezing (we had to pluck them sitting on the gravel outside!), and I was happy to wrap the bird in cling film and put it away for the night. The feet are still attached… Tomorrow morning will be grand. It actually is fun to be able to pluck the birds, and you do learn a lot as you do it, that casserole will taste that much better tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big gala at Ballymaloe House for The Ballycotton Lifeboat, so I don’t think I will write a blog. It is going to be a bit of a crazy day, and such a fun night. We are all hoping that we get out of demo right on time to race home and wash the smell of food, deep fryer, and possible pheasant guts, before getting tarted up for the big evening. Can’t wait! Will write a blog post Saturday about it all, and post lots of photos. I know I say it (and I know I say that!) every other day, but where is time going, tomorrow is the end of week five… Sad, sad, but I shouldn’t look at it like that, I still have seven weeks here.

“If you’re all twisting your self into knots, you have to ask yourself, why are you twisting yourself into knots over a rabbit, do you twist yourself into knots over a chicken?” Darina as she had a skinned rabbit on a chopping board in front of her.