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Culinary Techniques - Ballymaloe Cookery School
  1. How to become a speed chopper, slicer, carver and peeler without chopping, slicing, carving or peeling any part of your anatomy. 
  2. Becoming a professional chef. Inside advice on getting started in the business.
  3. Learn about Water Kefir, Kombucha and other fermented foods
  4. How to cook game. Over twelve different ways to serve game plus some different side dishes and sauces to accompany it. 
  5. Why it is important to prepare an Order of Work; how to do it; and the benefits in terms of speed, efficiency and – most crucially – quality. 
  6. How to make a really good meat or vegetable stock. 
  7. Soup secrets. From the most simple to the incredibly complex you will be able to soup it up on a grand scale. 
  8. Everything you always wanted to know about menu planning but were afraid to ask.
  9. How to make a selection of mouth-wateringly delicious biscuits, cookies and cakes. 
  10. What to do when something goes wrong. Three simple ways to save the day.
  11. How to work with chocolate – like dark chocolate soufflé with marbled chocolate wafers and chocolate coffee beans. 
  12. How to make a perfect loaf of Irish soda bread
  13. Everything you always wanted to know about kitchen implements, kitchen equipment and kitchen knives (including sharpening the latter).
  14. A great deal about wine. How to develop your palate. How to recognise the good, the bad and the indifferent. How to buy wine. How to store wine. How to cook with wine. How to serve wine. How to impress the snootiest of sommeliers with your expertise. 
  15. Running a market stall in a farmers’ market. Practical advice and hands on experience. 
  16. How to make traditional jams, preserves and chutneys that will have everyone coming back for more…. 
  17. More than you thought you would ever know about kitchen hygiene and food safety including the legal requirements if you go professional. Oh, and how to avoid and put out kitchen fires... just in case!
  18. How to lay a table, serve, clear and balance plates like a suave, professional French waiter. 
  19. How to expertly peel tomatoes
  20. An enormous amount about cheese. How to buy it. How to store it. How to cook with it. How to serve it… and even how to make your own.
  21. About 50 different things to do with chicken – all of them extremely tasty – plus why professional chefs always roast chicken upside down (the bird, not the chef). 
  22. Why syrups are every chef’s best friend. How to make them. How to use them. 
  23. How to prepare over fifty scrumptious and nutritional vegetarian recipes including Provençal Bean Stew, Thai Vegetable Curry, plus cooking with tofu. 
  24. Cooking Indian food that tastes like Indian food is supposed to taste including Mild Madras Curry with all the trimmings, delicious Dahl, and Onion Bhajis.
  25. How to make perfect pecan and coffee squares, raspberry and coconut squares, glazed almond and…oh, you get the picture. Basically, how to make a range of perfect squares. 
  26. How to make a fluffy lemon pudding, chocolate fudge pudding, sticky toffee pudding – and an enormous number of other perfect hot puddings. 
  27. Cooking Mexican food that tastes like Mexican food is supposed to taste including hand-made tortillas, mole, quesadillas, fajitas, chilquilas, guacamole and tomatilla salsa. 
  28. How to fan an avocado, prepare a pineapple and prise the seeds from a pomegranate.
  29. How to make stunning sushi and display it beautifully. 
  30. How to pluck. How to gut. How to stuff. 
  31. What to braise. When to braise. How to braise like a professional. 
  32. To identify herbs and salad leaves… even the really unusual ones.
  33. How to cook traditional roast rib of beef with all the trimmings including Yorkshire pudding, horseradish sauce, roast parsnips, roast potatoes, gravy…
  34. Making a Cassoulet that the most pernickety of Cassoulet-lovers will love. 
  35. The best ways to pick, cook and serve prawns, shrimps and other shellfish.
  36. Cooking Greek food that tastes like Greek food is supposed to taste including Moussaka, Spanokopita, Tsatziki, and an authentic Greek Village Salad. 
  37. Pies, pies, pies. Shepherd’s Pie. Cottage Pie. Spiced Vegetable Pie, Venison and Field Mushroom Pie. Ballymaloe Chicken and Bacon Pie. In a nutshell: how to make the best pies in the world. 
  38. Over forty cracking egg recipes including Oeufs Mimosa, Egg Mayonnaise, the perfect frittata and – more difficult than it looks – the perfect omelette.
  39. How to make real mayonnaise... and how to save the day if it curdles.
  40. Creaming, mashing, roasting, steaming and caramelizing vegetables. 
  41. How to ice and decorate a cake. Piping and feathering. 
  42. The A-Z of making paté including smooth chicken liver paté, duck liver paté, Paté de Campagne, and others - plus how to make Melba Toast and Crostini to serve with them. 
  43. How to identify fresh fish. How to fillet any type of fish.
  44. Over sixteen different ways to cook fish including poaching, roasting on the bone, baking in a salt crust, pan grilling and cooking en papilotte. 
  45. Mile High Lemon Meringue Pie and why it is vital you know how to make it.
  46. How to make your own marzipan from scratch. 
  47. Twenty-three incredibly interesting and tasty things to do with leftovers.
  48. At least eleven different things to do with filo pastry - including salmon in filo with tomato and ginger, crab filos with a Thai dipping sauce, and filo water lilies with summer fruits. 
  49. How to open, prepare and freeze scallops. 
  50. How to make a wonderfully spicy Sauerkraut in our Fermentation Shed
  51. Fourteen different breakfast dishes including kedgeree, kipper, porridge, black pudding, white pudding, waffles, crunchy granola, muffins, homemade muesli, Greek yoghurt, pancakes, spotted dog and stripy cat. 
  52. Get into a stew. Vegetable stew. Lamb stew. Chicken Stew. Beef stew. Oxtail stew. Other stews too numerous to mention. 
  53. How to make and store fermented foods like sauerkraut, yoghurt, sour dough…
  54. Fascinating things to do with rice including how to make a risotto that will have everyone thinking you are Italian (and will confirm it, if you are Italian). 
  55. How to fool around. Blackcurrant fool. Gooseberry fool. Rhubarb Fool. 
  56. How to make a really, really, really good glazed belly of pork with Savoy cabbage, celeriac and potato puree plus about seven other really, really, really good things to do with pork. 
  57. Hey pesto. How to make pesto. 
  58. How to prepare goujons of sole, plaice or monkfish with a variety of sauces. 
  59. Raising the hamburger to an art form. How to make and garnish the ultimate hamburger. How to make a vegetarian burger. 
  60. Several truly wonderful ways to cook lamb plus all the trimmings from fresh mint sauce to pommes dauphine. 
  61. Look East. How to cook Chicken and Coconut Laksa, Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls of Shrimp And Herbs, Spring Rolls with Thai Dipping Sauce, Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce, Asian Chicken and Noodle Salad, Donna’s Chicken in Basil & Coconut Broth, Thai Prawn Salad with Chilli and Fresh Coriander.