Sunday 8 January 2012

And the Journey begins!!

Hi all,

My very first blog ever on my journey to Ballymaloe and beyond. I was out with my friends tonight, sort of a going away wish me luck meal. Tomorrows the big day!!! I will head down to the cookery school and meet all the other students. I am very excited and naturally a slight bit nervous too. I am yet to pack and organise myself but that can wait til the last minute.

The chef whites are all ready to go, name tags and all thanks to the old dear, thanks mum!! My set of knives to be collected at the school but yet to get the wellies and wet gear together.

I will keep you all posted with the journey and hope to feed your minds with some great recipes. I will start off with a recipe I use for simple potatoe wedges, great for a night in with a few beers or as a side to a nice rib eye steak.

Delicious Wedges:

Ingredients:
6-7 medium to large potatoes
5 tables spoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic crushed (or 2 if you like garlic as much as me)
1 tea spoon of coriander seeds
1 tea spoons of cumin seeds
1-2 tea spoons of chilli flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. First off  pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

2. Half the potatoes and cut in to wedges. In a large bowl add olive oil, crushed coriander seeds, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, crushed clove of garlic salt and pepper. Toss the wedges in the bowl so all wedges are well coated with the delicious mixture.

3. Put the wedges in a roasting tray and in to the oven for approx 40-45 mins. You'll know when they are done depending on how crispy they are.

TOP TIP: Put roasting tray in to the hot oven with a few table spoons of olive oil about 10 minutes before you add the wedges. The heat of the oil will help crisp up your wedges and will make them even more delicious.

I like to eat the wedges with some salsa, even some sour cream or just plain old ketchup!

Ideally a pestel and mortor is the best way to crush your spices but you could also use the ground spices. They are very easily gotten in any supermarket but I find there is some satisfaction in beating the spices down....especially if you have had a bad day!!

Enjoy guys and please let me know what you think or if you have any different variations I would love to know them and hear your feedback.

Talk soon!!

Mick

1 comment:

  1. I was hoping to talk to you. I just graduated high school last year and am taking a year off before going to college. And I have so many questions I was hoping you could answer. Like: Do I need to bring my own Chef's coat. Or could you describe and average day? like what time do you wake up to exercise to studying. anything and everything you could share would be great. Thanks so much.
    Sara

    ReplyDelete