Ballymaloe Week 9 / The Art of Wine

Skype session with Sparkling Wine maker at Wiston Estate in England.

Coming to Ballymaloe, which I have now dubbed 'Appreciation of Food 101', I never knew that I would appreciate wine so much. The way each bite of food can be transformed after a sip of deliciously paired wine can be incredible and change the experience of what you eat.

Gateau Pathivier with Whipped Cream

When you think of eating locally, in terms of how it just tastes so much better when the food is fresh, it's incredible how true that is for a good wine. Wine, like good produce or meat, really depends on the quality of grape vine,  the geology of the region (soil, weather, etc) and how it is matured.

The difference is that it also needs to be matured in carefully selected barrels for several months and is carefully blended by the head honcho of the winery. The best wines are the least amount adulterated after it is blended.

What fascinates me is that food pairing with wine is pretty easy when you know a little bit about the wine regions of the world.

For example, the Loire Valley in France makes excellent dry white wine that goes well with shellfish, especially oysters. Incredibly, the vines grow on limestone made up of millions of oyster fossils. WHAAA??

Tuna steak.

Tuna Tartare.

Port and Chocolate

Beyond wines, if you aren't a wine drinker, fermented drinks don't need to be alcoholic! Kamboucha and Kefir is really easy to make! Check out MASTER FERMENTER Sandor Katz for more information on how to incorporate these healing foods in your diet!

Ballymaloe Week 8 / Butchery

A sensitive subject to most is butchery. However, to truly understand where food comes from, this is one other step closer. When you see a whole animal pretty much in tact in front of you, it can be off-putting at first.

That's why I became a vegetarian for a year at the beginning of university (well, for that as well as the fact that industrial factory farmimg of animals is shocking and revolting beyond just the slaughter of an animal). Knowing and researching a lot about the dietary requirements of a vegetarian, I spent a lot of time making sure I got all the missing nutrients I needed from my lack of meat intake. Coincidentally, it also forced me to learn how to cook (since I grew up in a Serbian household and eating vegetarian wasn't a thing.. except on religious fast days, of course).

I love making sushi.

Unfortunately I didn't feel great. I became extremely weak for another 5 years afterward and have struggled to recover my strength. Such is life (although a lot of it was due to what I now know as being a gluten-intolerance). The next best thing one can do is to source locally and ethically raised and slaughtered animals. It's not enough to just look at a package and see whether it says organic or not. A lot of standards for rearing animals in the 'Western' world force small farmers to need extremely expensive and high tech slaughter houses and butchery buildings if they wanted to be farm-to-shop butchers. That being said, the organic meats you find in stores doesn't guarantee you a 'happy cow/pig'. Author, Michael Pollan, illuminated this for me when I read his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.

He's made waves by saying that many certified-organic farms and feedlots aren't improvements over industrial agriculture, just imitations; to get a piece of the financial premium that organic foods command, farmers simply substitute organic fertilizers and pesticides for synthetic ones. They use as much fossil fuel to produce and ship the food, and certified-organic animals on big farms and feedlots live and die under the same inhumane conditions conventionally raised animals do. The only difference is that their feed is organic. For more, check out an interview with him here.

Making sausages.

Head Cheese Terrine

All of the items we learned to make during our butchery course including salami, bacon, terrine and how to make and use lard, pigs ears, you name it!

Farmer's markets are the best places to acquaint yourself with a reliable meat producer, who are more often than not, certified organic! The next step then is to learn some basic butchery and cookery skills. Often, the cheaper cuts of meat are the best if you know how to cook them right! Ox Tail Stew, anyone?

Ballymaloe Week 7 / Food Fad Fit

One of the best things about being a chef is that it's such a multifaceted, multi-sensory job. It's like.. trades-work but with a visual arts edge. It also sustains life! Everyone has to eat but I'm not sure if anyone was prepared for how much indulgence was going to happen on the course.

Ballymaloe Cheese Fritters

Pakoras

Onion Bajis

My Gluten-Free Flaky Pastry Experiment. Dutch Pinwheels.

Steak & Frites Dinner. I tried to cook it to Rare. It was Blue. I ate it.

My Local Smoked Fish Platter.

The best dessert I've made so far.. Bakewell Tart.

some AMERICAN coleslaw

We're all kinda feeling this slump in energy.. we have visions of whipping cream in our minds and the smells of butter on our skin. Sounds sexy but, well, the question is - is all this food taking a toll? Mind you, the consensus seems to be that we are here and we are learning - so - we must EAT! be merry! EAT!

Sailor Moon - Episode 3 Season 1

Meanwhile, the dictates of an unhealthy body image our society poisoned us with whilst growing up is unconsciously seeping in. By no means is this a black and white issue, though. There's much to say about my 6 months of eating paleo - whole foods which are grain, dairy and refined sugar-free - and how incredible I felt. Yet, there's something humbling and grounding (and sleep inducing) as a mashed potato doused in butter. There's something exciting about giving my fellow gluten-intolerant students a fresh-baked brioche I've experimented on creating.

Rich, creamy Cannelloni I made with fresh gluten-free pasta I hand rolled out.

Gluten-Free Lady-Fingers aka Boudoir Biscuits

Tiramisu based on said biscuits.

Green Saffron's Chicken Curries

Mahan Point Market - Marshmallows

Food fads based on national health suggestions and the supplement industry are based on facts that aren't usually holistic.. Well-intentioned health practitioners have a tendency to push products on society as a whole as if they have the same body chemistry.. as if they have the same health needs.. as if they live in the same climate.

Fortunately, anti-rules to the health industry are starting to become mainstream. I can't speak for my classmates but these facts I've heard spouted by my fellow farm-to-tablers for years now have really run true for me here.

1. Eat Local and Organic - Produce and meat tastes better the freshest it is, you seem like a better cook when you've really only used quality products!

2. Eat seasonal - It's usually cheaper and treated with fewer chemicals and fertilizers so it's maintained all its nutrients by growing naturally and stored for a shorter amount of time.

3. Don't eat 'fat free' - Of all the essential vitamins, only two are water soluble! No wonder we feel nice when we've had a little bacon.

4. Live a balanced life - Ultimately, we're not only what we eat but how we treat our bodies holistically. It's one thing to say, eat this, eat that.. but what you do with the machine you are feeding impacts how you feel greatly.

Trust me, I'm a scientist.

Visit to Cashel Blue, cheese maker.

So, how do YOU escape the clutches of a society that shames food indulgence?