The
5 1/2 Day Kitchen Miracle Programme
The ‘registration’ will take place over a dinner in the Café on the Sunday evening so that we can get a proper start on the Monday morning. We may swap some of the days and activities around subject to weather, availability of ingredients, how we all feel and so forth. If there is something that you specifically want to learn to cook please let me know beforehand so that I can find time to get the ingredients and teach you.
Sunday
We will be in the Café from four o’clock ( times will vary depending on the time of year) waiting to give you a cup of tea or coffee and a bit of homemade cake. At five o’clock I’ll show you where everything is, hand over your personalised chef’s whites (to give you that professional look), whip you through the basics of kitchen hygiene, impart some secret chef stuff that only real chefs know. Around six we will sit down to a light supper and a glass wine.
Monday
We get straight into it Monday morning at 10 sharp! This is ‘basics’ day: stocks, dressings, basic sauces, soups( I think it is very important for everybody to know how to make a good soup, – if you can make a good soup you too could impress the Michelin man?? ) and a few flash things like homemade mayonnaise and so forth.
During the morning we’re going to make bread and pizza, roast a couple of free range, organic chickens for our lunch (using a technique that guarantees a moist, more succulent, more flavoursome chicken) along with some roast vegetables, roast potatoes and of course proper gravy.
In the afternoon we will visit Gubbeen farm in Schull. We will firstly meet Clovisse and visit her garden , where most of my salads and vegetables are grown. Next we will pop into Fingal in the smokehouse and he will talk us through the curing and smoking process and you will see how proper bacon is made.
Then it is up to Tom’s farm to visit the very well fed pigs, along the way we will meet Giana’s chickens and geese.
And, finally if they are not too busy making cheese Giana or Eileen will give us a tour of the dairy. You will be amazed by the work and time it takes to make this great cheese.
Tuesday
Meat today.The whole day we will cook, eat and talk meat. I will cover most types of meat cookery. Daubes, stews, pan frying, searing, braising, pot roasting and grilling.
We will cover some potato dishes, salads and vegetables to go with the various dishes and finally we will cover some very simple but impressive puddings to finish off the day. If you are not too tried I will get you to start making some pastry for the next day!
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Wednesday
Wednesday is baking. This is the day that most seem to fear, something I never seem to understand as everybody can bake and If not before this day you will by five o clock.
You do not need to be in a good mood or be light handed you just need a little confidence and encouragement, which I am full of for anybody who wants to learn to cook. We will cover a selection of tarts, crab,sorrel, tomato, onion etc – Breads and cakes.
Thursday
Fish day – First thing this morning we will visit my brilliant fishmonger, Colman , at his fish market in Bantry and he will teach you everything you need to know about buying, filleting, and otherwise preparing fish but if he is out (fishing) one of his assistant Aigars will. A bit of a chat about over fishing and which fish you can eat without feeling guilty. Before popping back to the café we will make a quick visit to Organico food shop - to check out their amazing ingredients, latest potions and meet the friendly and helpful owners and staff. Then it is a day of one glorious fish recipe after another including Monkfish with gubbeen chorizo, hake with roasted vegetables and Aiolli, a Provencal fish soup, chowder, and tons of other things all using the day’s catch.
Fish is the best fast food and so after today you will be able to cook that piece of fish perfectly. As fish, fish, fish can be a bit – well – fishy all by itself we’ll also tackle maybe a salad and some veg. We’ll want something for pudding, too. Well, we can decide on the day. Maybe a nice chocoate tart or mousse if we have the time . Tonight we will have dinner in the Café. Please do invite a guest, as we will have lots of dishes to try.
Friday
Just because it is the last day doesn’t mean there’s any slowing down – although we will end at around 3 o’clock in order that those travelling can get away home.
Friday is market day in Bantry so we will meet in the Stuffed Olive - a gem of a shop - stocked to the brim with goodies - for a morning coffee before heading to visit the food stalls. You will have a chance to purchase some lovely West Cork produce and view a wide variety of other objects for sale! We will then call into see Rory Conor ( who makes the most amazing hand crafted knives in Ballylickey). He will give us a talk on the making, purchasing, care and the need for knives in the kitchen, he will also sharpen your knives for you, so do remember to bring them with you.
Back to the café for much needed coffee and our first dish of the day which might be Scallops depending on the season. Then before you leave we will cover dishes that you have requested which usually seem to be Risottos, grilling lobster and something amazing with fillet of beef. Also there will be a couple of dessert to add the finishing touches to and to sample before heading off.
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