Archive2013

A month after the Literary Festival of Food and Wine at Ballymaloe we’re still getting excited feedback and thank you cards in response to the event, from both participants and those who came along over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Plans are already underway for 2014 – looks like 16-18 May so perhaps that’s a date to go into your next year’s diary. We have a long list of tweaks and suggestions for next time around and I’m sure that the list will just grow and grow.

 

The Big Shed at Ballymaloe House which housed the Fringe ‘part venue part food market’ as Michael Kelly of GIY put it, was the lively heart of the festival which throbbed with energy throughout the entire weekend.

 

The workshops and sessions in the Grain Store and the Carrigaun Room inspired and stimulated attendees on topics as diverse as the Grass Roots of the Revolution: Edible Education with Stephanie Alexander, David Prior and Bill Yosses, The Art of Fermentation with Sandor Katz, Digesting Unsavoury Truths with Ella McSweeney, Suzanne Campbell and Joanna Blythman. Nordic Food Revolution with Klaus Meyer, co-founder of Noma and Ben Reade,  Head of Culinary Research and Development at Nordic Food Lab. Food Writing for a Digital Generation with Aoife Carrigy, Caroline Hennessy, Lucy Pearce and Michael Kelly. The Taste of Words: Food in Literature and Performance with UCC who by the way will be part of the new MA in Creative Writing course which starts at UCC in September.

 

We also wanted to nurture the next generation’s creativity. The winner of the Young Food Writers Competition was Sean Clancy from Kilbehenny National School and Clodagh Finn from Ballycotton who wrote beautifully about farm produce and a neighbour John Kennefick’s ‘pops’. The prizes were presented in the Children’s Education area in the Big Shed organised by Camilla Houstoun which was the most creative and stimulating place for to be. Over at the Ballymaloe Cookery School the cookery classes continued, I promised I’d share some of our favourite recipes from Thomasina Miers, Stevie Parle and our own Rachel Allen and that will be the last taste of the Litfest for this year.

 

David Tanis’s Duck Liver Toasts

 

 

These tasty toasts – the Italians call them crostini – perfectly complement the roast duck, or they can become a first course on their own.

 

 

700g (1 1/2lbs) duck or chicken livers

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices pancetta, in small slivers

2 large shallots, finely diced

2 teaspoons chopped thyme

a splash of dry sherry or sherry vinegar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 baguette, sliced and toasted

 

Trim the livers, blot on paper towels, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over a medium flame.  When the oil is hot, add the pancetta and shallots and cook until the shallots are nicely browned.

 

Add the livers and turn up the flame.  Stir well and continue cooking, shaking the pan occasionally, until the livers are cooked through but still a little pink.  Slice one to check.  Add the thyme and sherry, and transfer the contents of the pan to a chopping board.  Let cool to room temperature.

 

With a large knife, chop the livers with the pancetta and shallots to a rough paste, then put the paste in a small mixing bowl.  Mash the butter into the paste with a wooden spoon.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Cover tightly with cling film and keep at cool room temperature until ready to serve (up to 2 hours), or refrigerate and bring to room temperature before serving.

 

Spread on toasted baguette slices.

 

Thomasina Mier’s Caramelised Scallop, Avocado and Orange Salad with Spices

 

Serves 6

 

18 scallops

4 small cloves garlic

2 teaspoons coriander seeds, toasted

2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted

1 chile de arbol

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 avocados

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 oranges

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 heads chicory, broken up into leaves

a bunch of coriander, washed and stalks removed

 

Bash the cloves, to slip them out of their skins and toast the spices and chilli for a minute or two in a dry pan to release their flavour.  Mash the peeled garlic and spices into a pulp with a pestle and mortar, with the salt and stir in 4 tablespoons (5 American tablespoons) of the olive oil.

 

Cut the muscles from the scallops and marinate them in half the spice mix for at least an hour.

 

Meanwhile cut the avocados into quarters, remove the stone and peel.  Cut each quarter into 2-3 slices.  Squeeze over the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.   Segment the orange by cutting away the tops and bottoms and cutting each orange segment out from between the membrane.  Squeeze the membranes to get as much of the juice as possible.   Whisk the remaining oil into all the orange juice you can collect and add the remaining spice mix and the sugar.  Check for seasoning.

 

Heat a frying pan over a high heat and when smoking hot sauté the scallops, 6 at a time, for 3-4 minutes the first side and a minute or two on the second side until they are looking caramelized and delicious.

 

Carefully toss the chicory leaves, orange segments and scallops in the dressing and arrange on a large plate.  Top with the avocado and torn coriander and dive in.

 

Rachel Allen’s Lemongrass Coconut Cake

 

Coconut and lemongrass, two quintessentially Southeast Asian ingredients, are combined here in this deliciously moist cake. The lemongrass is added to a syrup that infuses the sponge with its aromatic flavour. Found in supermarkets as well as in Asian food shops, the taste of lemongrass is certainly reminiscent of lemons but has a unique floral flavour all of its own.

Serves: 6–8

 

4 stalks of lemongrass, base and tops trimmed, outer leaves removed but reserved for the syrup (see below)

250g (9oz) caster sugar

4 eggs

200g (7oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

125g (4⁄1 2 oz) desiccated coconut

125g (4⁄1 2 oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

2 teaspoons baking powder

 

To Serve

Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche

 

For the Syrup

reserved trimmings and outer leaves of the lemongrass (see above)

75g (3oz) caster sugar

 

23cm (9 inch) diameter cake tin with 6cm (2⁄1 2 inch) sides

 

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.

 

Butter the sides of the cake tin and dust with flour, then line the base with a disc of baking parchment.

 

Slice the lemongrass stalks quite thinly into rounds about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick, then place in a food processor with the caster sugar and whiz for 1–2 minutes or until the lemongrass is finely puréed and very aromatic. Add the eggs, butter and coconut and whiz again until combined, then sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the machine, whizzing very briefly just until the ingredients come together.

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40–45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is cooking, make the syrup. Roughly chop the lemongrass trimmings, place in a saucepan with the sugar and 75ml (3fl oz) of water and set over a high heat. Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to the boil and boil for 2 minutes before removing from the heat and leaving to infuse.

When the cake has finished baking, take it out of the oven and let
it sit in the tin for 10 minutes. Loosen around the edges using a small, sharp knife and carefully remove the cake from the tin before transferring to a serving plate.

Reheat the syrup, then pierce holes all over the cake with a skewer and pour the hot syrup through a sieve onto the cake, moving the pan and sieve around as you pour so that the syrup covers the top of the cake. Allow the cake to cool down completely.

Serve with a dollop of natural Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche.

 

Stevie Parle’s Madeleines

 

They are totally delicious as they are but one could dip them in melted chocolate and desiccated coconut as in the photo taken from Cake – Rachel Allen’s cookery book.

 

Makes about 24

 

135g (4 3/4oz) butter, plus extra for greasing tray

2 tablespoons floral honey

1 tablespoon orange flower water

3 eggs

125g caster sugar

135g self-raising flour or 135g (4 3/4oz) plain flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted, plus extra for dusting

 

Melt the butter with the honey, then pour in the orange flower water and set aside to cool. Whisk the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer for 10 minutes or so, until they are really fluffy and double in size.  Fold in the flour, then the butter and honey mixture.

 

Pour into a container and leave the batter to rest for at least 3 hours in the fridge, or overnight is fine too.

 

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.

 

Butter a madeleine tray (you can also do this in a small muffin tray), then dust with flour and shake off the excess. Fill the molds two-thirds full, and then bake for 10 minutes or so until golden brown and firm to the touch.

 

Hottips

 

Seafood and Shanty in Ballycotton Saturday 1^st and Sunday 2^nd June – Darina Allen will open the weekend followed by a short fish cookery demonstration at 3pm today on the Pier in Ballycotton. There will also be fish tasting by the Ballycotton Fishermen’s Association, ice cream stalls, boat trips around the lighthouse… 3- 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Taste of Dublin is from 13^th to 16^th June 2013 – four days of summer eating, drinking and entertainment.

Darina Allen will be doing four, thirty minute cookery demonstrations on Saturday 15^th June at 1:30pm, 3:15pm, 6:00pm and 7:30pm. Don’t miss a twenty minute Q & A session with Darina too at 7:00pm – www.tasteofdublin.ie.

 

First Sunday Summer Barbeques at Wells House & Gardens Wexford. Get together with friends and the family for a summer barbeque – with Pat O’Neill’s award winning Dry Cured Bacon Co sausages, steak from Kinsellas Butcher in Gory, freshly made salads sourced from the Saturday Gorey Farmers Market – on the first Sunday of every Summer month. See a falconry display or take a woodland walk… – dates 2^nd June, 7^th July and 4^th August, 2013 – www.wellshouse.ie

 

Love Gourmet Week in Limerick and Shannon is now in its third year and continuing to gain momentum. 1st to 9th June 2013 – see www.rai.ie/lovegourmetweek  for a list of participating restaurants and events.

 

Be one of the first to eat in Yannick and Louise’s new restaurant. Nede opened this month in Meeting House Square – Temple Bar. I’ve eaten their food on several occasions and I’m very excited. They are being dubbed as Ireland newest superstar chefs – a title they don’t relish or court but nonetheless watch this space – 016705372 or www.nede.ie

Last week, I promised that I would share some more of the gems cooked by the guest chefs at the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine 2013. This weekend I have chosen recipes from David Tanis, Skye Gyngel and Claire Ptak who did a cookery demonstration together. What a line up.

David Tanis worked as head chef at Chez Panisse in Berkley CA for over twenty years. He cooked for six months of the year and then had six months off, living the remainder of the time in Paris. He in tandem with all of the others is passionate about the quality of ingredients.

This was his first visit in Ireland and he is totally besotted.  He stayed on for an extra week with another friend who travelled from New York to the festival. They explored south and south west of Ireland and to visited some artisan producers, including the Ferguson family at Gubbeen.

David cooked several duck dishes with Nora Ahern’s and Robbie Fitzsimmon’s ducks.

David is the author of two modern classics A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, chosen as one of the 50 best cookbooks ever by the Guardian/Observer (U.K.), and Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys, nominated for a James Beard Award.

Skye Gyngell has written three books; A Year in my Kitchen was named the Guild of Food Writers ‘Cookery Book of the Year’ in 2007 and ‘Best Food Book’ at Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards. The sequel, My Favourite Ingredients, was published in 2008, and the third, How I Cook, was published in Autumn 2010. Skye cooked the most beautiful food at a Literary Dinner in my house, fresh from the garden and local area. Try her asparagus with Romesco sauce and crème fraiche, I loved Skye’s food at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond and can’t wait to hear news of her new restaurant – not yet confirmed.

Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes in Hackney, London, is another of my favourite cooks. Her fans traipse all across London to get some of her delectable food and her wedding cakes are a ‘must have’ at the chicest weddings. Buckwheat butter cookies with a strawberry geranium fool were a huge hit over the LitFest weekend. Claire is also a food stylist and the author of three cookbooks: Leon: Baking & Puddings; The Whoopie Pie Book; and The Home-Made Sweet Shop. All of which I have in my library also. Each one of these cooks and chefs write such beautiful prose that it’s worth buying their books even if you never picked up a whisk or a wooden spoon.

Several past students of the Ballymaloe Cookery School shone at yet another cookery demonstration – Stevie Parle of the Dock Kitchen restaurant in London shared a platform with Thomasina Miers of Oaxaca restaurant fame and Rachel Allen.

Almost every chef mentioned how much they loved cooking with our Irish butter – wasn’t that nice to hear.

Next week I’ll include some recipes from Stevie Parle, Thomasina Miers and our own Rachel Allen.

 

David Tanis’s Duck Liver Toasts

 

 

These tasty toasts – the Italians call them crostini – perfectly complement the roast duck, or they can become a first course on their own.

 

 

700g (1 1/2lbs) duck or chicken livers

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices pancetta, in small slivers

2 large shallots, finely diced

2 teaspoons chopped thyme

a splash of dry sherry or sherry vinegar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 baguette, sliced and toasted

 

Trim the livers, blot on paper towels, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Heat the olive oil in a wide pan over a medium flame.  When the oil is hot, add the pancetta and shallots and cook until the shallots are nicely browned.

 

Add the livers and turn up the flame.  Stir well and continue cooking, shaking the pan occasionally, until the livers are cooked through but still a little pink.  Slice one to check.  Add the thyme and sherry, and transfer the contents of the pan to a chopping board.  Let cool to room temperature.

 

With a large knife, chop the livers with the pancetta and shallots to a rough paste, then put the paste in a small mixing bowl.  Mash the butter into the paste with a wooden spoon.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Cover tightly with cling film and keep at cool room temperature until ready to serve (up to 2 hours), or refrigerate and bring to room temperature before serving.

 

Spread on toasted baguette slices.

 

 

Skye Gyngel’s Asparagus with Romesco and Crème Fraîche

 

Serves 4

 

For the Romesco Sauce

 

12 blanched almonds

12 hazelnuts

2 tomatoes, peeled and ripe

100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

1 whole red chilli (the ancho variety if you can get hold of one)

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon good-quality sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon sweet-smoked paprika (I prefer Spanish to Hungarian)

1 thick slice of chewy, peasant-style bread (such as ciabatta)

Sea salt

 

For the Asparagus

20 asparagus spears

a good pinch of sea salt

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

a few drops of lemon juice

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

To Serve

2 tablespoons crème fraîche

 

Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

 

Place the nuts on a baking tray and roast on the middle shelf for 3 minutes to colour them slightly, then roughly pound to a paste.

 

Next, place the tomatoes on a baking tray and drizzle with a dash of olive oil. Place in the oven along with the whole chilli, and roast for 10 minutes. Remove and mix with the nuts. Add the garlic, sherry vinegar and paprika, and mix. Blitz the bread in a blender until you have crumbs, lay them on a baking tray and bake until golden. Add to the nut mixture, pour in the remaining olive oil and season. Stir well to combine.

 

Place a large pot of water on to boil and season liberally with salt. While the water is coming to the boil, prepare the asparagus by snapping off their woody ends. Plunge the vegetables into the water and cook until just tender when pierced with a knife. Cooking time will largely depend on the size and thickness of the spears, but as a general rule of thumb, it should take about 1 minute. Drain and dress with the olive oil and lemon and a little sea salt and pepper.

 

Divide among 4 plates or one large plate if you prefer.

 

Divide the crème fraîche between the plates and sprinkle the Romesco sauce over the top.

 

Serve immediately.

 

 

Claire Ptak’s Strawberry-Geranium Fool with Buckwheat Butter Cookies

 

 

Makes 6 fools

 

For the compote:

3 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar

2 tablespoons water

4 geranium leaves, washed and dried or a drop or two of geranium essential oil

250-300g (9-10oz) ripe strawberries

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

For the cream mixture:

2 large egg whites (save the yolks for the buckwheat biscuits)

100g (3 1/2oz) caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon golden syrup

pinch salt

400ml (14fl oz) double (heavy) cream, cold

100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) plus 1 heaped tbsp. plain yogurt

 

In a small but heavy pot over a medium low heat, dissolve the sugar and water without stirring. Stirring can cause the mixture to crystalize.

 

Roughly tear up the washed and dried geranium leaves and place them in the bottom of a small bowl. When the sugar syrup has completely dissolved but before it starts to get any colour, remove it from the heat and pour over the torn leaves. Set aside.

 

Hull the strawberries to remove the calyx. I use a small teaspoon rather than a knife to avoid wasting too much of the berry. Depending on the size of the berries cut into quarters or eighths for small bite-sized pieces. Cover the berries with the lemon juice.

 

Once the sugar syrup has cooled, remove the geranium leaves and discard them. Tip the berries and any juice into the syrup and stir to combine. Now make the cream mixture.

 

In a heatproof bowl, place the egg whites, 100g (3 1/2oz) caster sugar, golden syrup and salt. Place the bowl over a small pot of boiling water, whisking continuously until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to become frothy and opaque. If you have a candy thermometer, use it to bring the mixture up to 75°C/167°F. Remove from the heat and use an electric mixer with a whisk attachment to make stiff peaks of meringue.

 

In a large clean bowl, whip the cold double cream and yogurt to soft peaks.

 

Fold in the meringue just to combine. Fold in the 2/3 strawberries (reserving some of the juices that have formed, stirring in some). Do not over mix. The fool should be marbled and have lots of different textures.

 

Divide the fool between 6 small bowls or glasses and chill for at least one hour. Just before serving, top the fools with the remaining strawberries and drizzle with the sauce.

 

 

Claire Ptak’s Buckwheat Butter Cookies

 

These cookies are gluten-free naturally because they are made with buckwheat flour.

 

150g (5oz) whole almonds with skins on, toasted and roughly chopped

150g (5oz) buckwheat flour

200g (7oz) unsalted butter, softened

100g (3 1/2oz) palm or coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g (2oz) candied grapefruit or cedro peel, chopped

2 medium egg yolks

 

Makes 24 cookies

 

In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped almonds, flour, and butter. Mix into a coarse meal. Add the sugar, salt and grapefruit peel. Mix well.

 

Add the egg yolks and mix just until the dough starts to come together.

 

Divide the dough into two pieces. Lay out two long pieces of cling film and shaping each ball of dough into a roughly 2.5cm (1 inch) log, lay down the middle of each piece of cling film. Roll up and shape into nice and even logs, twisting the ends to seal. Place the logs on a small cookie trays and place in the fridge for about an hour.

 

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line two baking trays with parchment. Remove the cling film from the cookie logs and slice 5mm (1/4 inch) thick slices and place 3cm (1 1/2 inch) apart on the prepared tray.

 

Bake for 10-14 minutes until just starting to turn golden.

 

 

HotTips

 

 

Wine Tasting Event at Ballymaloe House

Wine talk and wine tasting with two passionate and experienced wine experts – Eric Narioo, of Les Caves des Pyrène and Pascal Rossignol, of Le Caveau on ‘Real Wine – Celebrating the Artisan Grower’. Sunday 26th May, 6.30pm €15 (includes wine tasting of eight different wines) at The Grain Store, Ballymaloe House. To reserve a place email colm@ballymaloe.ie or phone 021-4652531.

 

Foynes Irish Coffee Festival – 31 May to 02 June 2013 – three days of free family entertainment with floats, food & craft fair, fireworks, regatta, pet farm, bands, carnival, children’s forest party, ceili, historical walks and the Powers Irish Coffee Making Championship at Foynes, Co. Limerick – Telephone: +353 (0) 69 65416

 

If you have always wanted to grow your own fresh herbs here is your chance to learn from one of the best – Garden Workshop: Designing a Herb Garden with Susan Turner at Ballymaloe Cookery School. Half Day Course on Monday 17th June 2013 9:00am to 2:00pm – €95.00 with lunch included Phone 021 4646785 to book or online www.cookingisfun.ie

We’re all still buzzing here since the Literary Festival of Food and Wine at Ballymaloe over the bank holiday weekend. The thrill of having some of the top food and wine writers and chefs from all over the world with us for the weekend was immense both for us and for the people who poured in to hear them speak, watch them cook, taste and learn about their wine, whiskey and fascinating craft beers.

It was such a joy for people to be able to meet and mingle with many of their food heroes as they wandered around Ballymaloe, the Big Shed and the Cookery School. For this weekend’s column, I have picked out just a few of the highlights from the guest chefs cookery demonstrations to share with you, there are so many that is was difficult to choose but more later.

From Madhur Jaffrey, Whole Roasted Masala Chicken, a perfect choice for Sunday lunch. Claudia Roden tantalised us with a delicious selection of dishes – you’ll love her chocolate and almond cake which has become her family’s favourite. Camilla Plum from Denmark whose name is not so well known to many, thrilled her large audience with her chic and simple dishes using an abundance of fresh herbs from the garden. Elderflowers are just coming into season so you might like to try this inspired combination of carrots, mint, lemon and elderflower.

David Thompson one of Asia’s most admired chefs and food writers make food that had people jotting down the details of his Nahm restaurant in Bangkok and if they couldn’t manage a trip at least dashing to buy his book Thai Food. Try the delicious recipe for scallops stir fried with spring onions; monkfish would also be good here.

Next week some gems from Skye Gyngel, Claire Ptak, Thomasina Miers, Stevie Parle and our own Rachel Allen.

A special thank you to all who attended the first ever Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine. For those who missed this year’s LitFest, don’t worry, we’ve already started to plan next year’s event. www.litfest.ie

 

 

David Thompson’s Scallops Stir-Fried with Spring Onions

hoi shenn pat dtom horm

 

Paste

 

1 tablespoon peeled garlic

pinch Sea salt

 

4 large scallops

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

cleaned spring onion, cut into 2cm (3/4 inch) lengths on a slight bias

a little chicken stock

3 – 4 tablespoons light soy sauce

pinch white sugar

pinch ground white pepper

 

Make a coarse paste with the peeled garlic and salt. Place to the side of the cleaned scallops.

 

Prepare and heat a well-seasoned wok. Add the oil then almost immediately the scallops and stir-fry for several moments before adding the garlic paste. Be careful not to let the garlic burn.

 

Add the spring onions (and perhaps a drizzle of additional oil) and continue to stir fry for a moment or two before moistening with the stock. Season with the soy, sugar and white pepper.

 

Camilla Plum’s Carrots with Mint, Lemon and Elderflower

 

 

Serves 4-6

 

1kg (2 1/4lb) new carrots, scraped

3 cloves garlic, peeled

50ml (2fl oz) olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

juice and zest from 1 lemon

150ml (5fl oz) elderflower cordial

generous bunch Moroccan mint

generous bunch flat leaved parsley

fresh elderflowers if available

 

Combine the carrots, garlic, oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, zest and cordial in a skillet. Boil without a lid, until the carrots are cooked, but still a little crunchy. Remove, and reduce the sauce to a syrup. Pour over the carrots, and mix with coarsely chopped herbs, and elderflowers, when cooled a little. Adjust the seasoning, serve cooled, but not cold.

 

Madhur Jaffrey’s Whole Roasted Masala Chicken

 

Serves 4

 

For the Marinade

 

4 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger

2 tablespoon finely chopped or crushed garlic

3 fresh hot green chilies, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon garam masala

 

1 3/4kg (3 1/2lb) chicken, skinned whole

 

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6

 

Place all the marinade ingredients in a blender and grind to a paste.

 

Using a sharp knife make two deep, diagonal cuts into each breast, going all the way to the bone. Make two equally deep slashes in the thighs and two in the drumsticks as well. Place the chicken, breast side up, on a roasting tray lined with enough foil to completely cover the chicken. Pour the paste over the chicken, rubbing it well into all the cuts. Leave aside for 30 minutes.

 

Sprinkle the chili powder and black pepper over the chicken evenly. Wrap up the chicken so it is completely covered, with the tightly-closed seam at the top. Bake the chicken in the middle of the oven for 1 hour. Unwrap, without letting the juices run out, and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes, basting 2 or 3 times with the juices. Rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

 

 

Claudia Roden’s Chocolate and Almond Cake

Pastel de Chocolate y Almendras

 

This is a moist cake that is good to serve as a dessert with cream.  The recipe comes from a little book that Carolina Zendrera, my Spanish publisher, gave me, entitled Recetas tradicionales: La ermitańa de la cocina, cocina burguesa del siglo XX (‘Traditional Recipes: The hermit in the kitchen – bourgeois cooking in the twentieth century’), published by Zendrera Zariquiey in 1999.  The recipes are those of Águeda Bienzobas, who cooked for Carolina Zendrera’s grandparents and family in Catalonia for fifty years.

 

Águeda was born in a village in Navarre in 1907 and went to work in the Martí-Codolars’ kitchen in Barcelona as a young girl.  The Martí-Codolars, Zendrera’s grandparents, were an illustrious family involved in shipping.  On their farm they kept rare animals, including an elephant that was later donated to Barcelona Zoo.  What Águeda learnt from the family cook, and what became her repertoire gathered over the years, which her husband wrote down, is a distinctive mix of Spanish and French haute cuisine.  A family friend of the Martí-Codolars called her ‘the hermit’ because she spent her time alone in the kitchen.

 

Serves 10

150g (5oz) dark bitter chocolate or baking chocolate such as the Menier Chocolat Patissier, broken into pieces

3 tablespoons water

150g (5oz) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 large eggs, separated

100g (3 1/2oz) caster sugar

100g (3 1/2oz) ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons rum

 

Topping

 

50g (2oz) dark bitter chocolate, broken into pieces

2 tablespoons water

50g (2oz) caster sugar

25g (1oz) unsalted butter

 

butter, to grease the cake tin

flour, to dust the cake tin

 

Heat the chocolate with the water in a Pyrex bowl or small pan that is sitting on top of a pan containing water over a low heat so that the top pan or bowl does not touch the boiling water (this is a double boiler), until almost melted.  Add the butter and let them both melt.

 

In a bowl mix the egg yolks, sugar, ground almonds, baking powder and rum very well.  Add the melted chocolate and butter and mix vigorously.  Beat the egg whites until stiff with an electric mixer and fold them into the mixture.

 

Grease a spring-form cake tin about 23cm (9 inch) (in diameter (preferably non-stick) with butter and dust it with flour.  Pour in the cake mixture and bake in an oven preheated to 160°C/310°F/Gas Mark 3 for about 35 minutes until firm.  Turn out when it is cool.

 

For the optional topping, melt the chocolate with the water in the small bowl or pan over boiling water, as above.  Add the sugar and the butter, let them melt and mix well.  Spread over the cake.

 

Hot Tips

 

 

Wexford Food Festival – Friday the 24th May to Sunday 26 May 2013 – is spread out over 3 locations across the town this year including Selskar/Trimmers Lane, The Bull Ring Market and South Main Street.

 

Rory O’Connell’s much anticipated cookery book ‘Master It – How to Cook Today’ is available at the Farm Shop at Ballymaloe Cookery School – if you call ahead you can get a personally signed copy – 021 4646785. Available in all good book shops by the end of May.

 

Hard Currency – unusual gift tokens from Brown Envelope Seeds, ‘Seed Bank Notes’ in denominations of €5.00 (valid for two packets of heritage seeds) and up to €50.00 (for 20 packets of seeds) Perfect gift for any keen gardener – order online at www.brownenvelopeseeds.com or phone 00353(0)2838184.

 

The Glebe Garden Club near Baltimore in West Cork meets on the last Thursday of every month. Get access to the best of the gardens and experts in the surrounding area and a variety of presentations, workshops, and garden tours, Meetings at The Glebe will be accompanied by refreshments (prepared from the Glebe garden produce) There is a €10 registration fee  and members are entitled to a 10% discount on all Club events and advanced notice of all meetings, workshops and Club events. A full summer program will be available at the next meeting on Thursday 30th May where Rosari Kingston will give a talk on growing and using herbs – booking is advisable for this event. www.glebegardens.com or phone 02820232.

 

A little update from San Francisco…

Every town has its ups and downs and San Francisco has had its fair share but boy, is it throbbing at present. I’m here for a few days to attend the IACP (International Association of Cooking Professionals) Conference and to catch up on food trends,

Every restaurant is turning over tables like you can’t imagine, Nopa , one of my favourites served over 7,000 meals last week and the food is still super delicious.

The hottest new place seems to be State Bird Provision on Fillmore, We managed to get two seats at the counter despite the message on the answering machine which says no chance of a table for six weeks, and here they do Mediterranean and Asian dim sum, a brilliant concept, why didn’t someone think of that before now. Lots of small plates with zany combinations most of which seem to work well. Among the many delicious things I ate was the State bird and Provisions , a deep fried quail with the crispest coating with fresh pea shoots on a bed of caramelized onion  and Peking duck …spiced confit leg, chive crepes, cloud ears and plum sauce. An oyster with a citrus dressing was also gorgeous as was ruby red grapefruit and lime granita, rhubarb and yoghurt.

Lots of new ice cream, granita, gelato and sorbet places around doing interesting combinations, Scream and ICI are two of the best in Berkley.

Out in Oakland, the Brooklyn of San Francisco, I popped into Market Hall Foods, a collective of food shops and met Julianna Uruburu whose particular passion is cheese, her fromage section was incredibly impressive. It’s rare to see so many American farmstead and international cheeses in great condition. She organised for me to have a mozzarella demonstration there and then, they made their own Mozzarella a couple of times a week from fresh Jersey curds they get from a cheese maker in Vermont.

House-made charcuterie and bacon is a definite trend and the good news is new butchers are opening again but this new generation are showcasing heritage breeds and are really concerned as are their customers about sustainability and animal welfare. I visited Fatted Calf on Fell St and Olivier in Dog Patch.

Piggy plates of mixed pates, terrines and salumi are a feature of many menus; I particularly loved this one at Nopa.

Bi rite, family owned, is the hippest supermarket in San Francisco,  According to my sources over here Wholefoods are on the wane, be that as it may I really admire their meat grading system which I really think all supermarket and butchers would do well to emulate. They clearly illustrate how the animals are reared and fed, whether they are raised in a feed lot or pasture raised, organic, free range or caged. The prices vary accordingly but the consumer can make a decision based on the unvarnished facts.

Still out in Oakland ( about an hour from San Francisco) we checked out Bakesale Betty’s , an iconic spot on the corner of Telegraph  Avenue. Betty who used to wear a blue wig was famous for her chicken sandwich and pot pies but now because it’s such a favourite she only does the sandwich. There’s pretty much always a line outside, at least 25 people and almost as many more sitting at tables on the sidewalk made of recycled ironing boards. Five or six people are going flat out inside the counter churning out crispy buttermilk fried chicken and coleslaw with jalapeños and herbs (no mayonnaise ) inside a roll. It looks so good but we decide to head for Charlie  Hallowell’s Pizzaiolo instead but guess what, they are closed for lunch so they send us off to their new cafe on Grand Ave called Boot and Shoe Service, it’s got the same industrial look that so many of the new hipster places have. We had a delicious lunch from the short menu, several bright little lettuce salads, one with thinly sliced fennel and shavings of Pecorino, another with this new watermelon radish that’s looks great but doesn’t have a lot of flavour,

We also had a meatball sandwich in a roll with a tomatoey sauce and a little bit of frizzy lettuce and finely grated cheese on top. Really good, meatballs are everywhere .they also do a couple of great wood fired Neopolitan pizzas every day, I had the home made sausage, cimi di rape and mozzarella.

They also did a fantastic chopped chicken sandwich with mayo, teency capers, tiny celery and red onion dice, a little parsley , tarragon and lemon juice on warm chargrilled bread with gorgeous extra virgin olive oil. It was served with a half semi-hardboiled egg and a little rocket salad on the side. The sweet girl who served us insisted we have the Jasmine pot de crème with rhubarb compote and pink peppercorn shortbread and it was indeed sublime.

Shortbread is everywhere, flavoured with all manner of flavourings from lavender to espresso coffee. Chad Robertson at Tartine and Bar Tartine is using many different flours including buckwheat and kamut to make his shortbread.

Here, I had another very interesting chicken sandwich, a Vietnamese chicken salad on a potato brioche bun with aioli and a little dish of pickles carrot and mushrooms on the side. At Bar Tartine everyone is crazy about fermentation and pickles. Courtney Burns showed me around and their fridges and larders were like an Aladdin’s cave with all manner of pickles, sodas, infusions, dried herbs piled to the ceiling.

They make their own yoghurt, cheese, kefir, buttermilk, cultured butter and cream, the whey is used for pickles and drinks, really interesting stuff.

The chocolate and coffee craze continues to become ever more purist and specialised.

Blue Bottle, Four Barrel and Ritual are three of my favourites. They all roast and grind their own beans and have cafes where the coffee is by far the most important element and the small selection of buns and cookies are secondary.

Food trucks are still very much in evidence but now a collection of trucks called Off the Grid move to different locations around the city every day, which keeps the bricks and mortar guys happier. Cocktails and craft beers are still huge.

That’s a taste of the food trends in California.

 

Olive Oil and Rosemary Shortbread

Taken from the Bluebottle Craft of Coffee Cookbook

 

Makes 35 shortbread cookies / hands on time 20 minutes / from start to finish 4 hours

 

8oz (227g) unsalted butter at room temperature

4oz (115g) powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon finely minced fresh rosemary or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

10oz (280g) all-purpose flour sifted

extra virgin olive oil for brushing

 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on low speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the sugar, rosemary and salt and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then add the flour. Mix on low speed just until uniform in texture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on low speed for 1 minute. Gather the dough into a ball, transfer to a piece of plastic wrap and flatten to form a rectangle measuring 7 by 10 inches (18 by 25cm) and about ½ an inch (1.3cm) thick. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 5 days. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Mark 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the dough into small rectangles measuring 1 by 2 inches (2.5cm by 5cm) and place the cookies on the lined baking sheet, spacing them at least 1 inch (2.5cm) apart. Bake for about 18 minutes, until golden around the edges, rotating the pan midway through the baking time.

Brush the tops with olive oil as soon as the cookies come out of the oven. Let cool on the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing, and then cool completely before serving for optimal texture. Cooled completely and stored in an airtight container, the cookies will keep for up to 3 days.

 

Chad Robertson’s Nettle Fritatine

 

Serves 1 or 2

 

3 tablespoons olive oil

8oz (225g) approx. nettle leaves

Croutons (see recipe) made from 3 slices sough dough bread, crushed to make coarse bread crumbs

1 large egg

12oz (350g) home-made tomato sauce

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 lemon wedge

 

Heat a heavy skillet over a medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. When the oil is hot but not yet smoking, add the nettle leaves. Remove the pan from the heat and stir and toss the nettles for about 2 minutes as they continue cooking. When the nettles are completely wilted, remove them from the pan and chop roughly.

In a bowl, combine the nettles, coarse crumbs and egg. Stir well to coat the crumbs and nettles with the egg.

Heat a 6 – inch skillet over medium heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the nettle mixture and distribute evenly in the pan. Cook until the edges appear crisp, about 2 minutes. Fold the omelette in half and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate.

Pour the tomato sauce into a skillet and heat over high heat. Carefully place the omelette in the sauce and simmer for about 30 seconds. Serve with a squeeze of lemon.

 

Croutons

 

3 slices day-old bread, each 1 inch thick torn into 1 ½ inch chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt

½ teaspoon herbs de Provence (optional)

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Mark 6. In a bowl, toss the torn bread with the olive oil and a pinch of salt. If you are using the herbs, add them too. Spread the bread evenly on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Midway through the baking time, redistribute the croutons if they are colouring unevenly.

 

Bread Crumbs – use your hands or a rolling pin to crush the croutons to the desired consistency. For a superfine texture, sift the crumbs through a sieve.

 

Tomato Sauce

 

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 x 3oz can tomato paste

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 x 16 oz can whole tomatoes

red wine vinegar

salt

 

To make the tomato sauce, heat a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and sauté until the vegetables are soft about 10 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and the tomato paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until the paste turns a deep rusty red, 6 – 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and the red pepper flakes and cook for two minutes. Add the whole tomatoes, raise the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, using a wooden spoon to mash the tomatoes into chunks. Season with vinegar and salt.

 

Chad Robertson’s Kale Caesar

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

Caesar Dressing

 

 

2 lemons

3 cloves garlic

6 olive-oil packed anchovy fillets

1 large egg yolk

salt

16fl oz (450ml) olive oil

2 lbs (900g) black kale, centre stems removed and torn

croutons made from 4 slices of sough dough bread (see recipe)

3 ½ oz (100g) grated or shaved aged Parmesan cheese

 

 

To make the dressing, grate the zest from 1 lemon. Cut both lemons in half. Place the garlic, anchovies and lemon zest in a mortar and pound with a pestle to make a thick paste. Add the egg yolk, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice and stir thoroughly to combine. Continuing to stir, pour in half of the oil drop by drop. The mixture should look smooth and creamy, a sign that you are building a stable emulsion. Continuing to stir, begin adding the oil in a slow stream. The dressing should thicken. Periodically stop pouring in the oil and add a squeeze of lemon. Taste the dressing and add more salt and lemon juice to taste. Add water, a small spoonful at a time, stirring to thin dressing to the constituency of heavy cream.

In a large bowl, combine the kale and croutons. Pour the dressing over the top and toss to coat. Add the Parmesan, toss again and serve.

 

Hot Tips

 

Celebrate World Sherry Day on Sunday 26^th May 2013 – Manning’s Emporium will be hosting a sherry tasting event in Ballylickey, West Cork from 1pm – 5pm. An opportunity to taste sherries from the finest bodegas in Jerez and Sanlucar de Barrameda, matched with best artisan food Cork has to offer – www.manningsemporium.ie

 

The 7th annual Burren Slow Food Festival on 17th, 18th, & 19th May 2013

Sample local artisan foods, meet local producers and growers, engage with fellow foodies, and enjoy cookery demonstrations. Events to look out for include Burren Food Forum with Sally & John McKenna, Michael Moran, world champion oyster shucker, Suzanne Campbell writer and broadcaster on food, farming and countryside, Seaweed Foraging, Beer Tasting & Organic Salmon tasting – www.slowfoodclare.com

I’ve just learned the secret of how to give a totally stress free dinner party! So here’s how it’s done. On a recent trip to San Francisco Mary Risley invited eleven mutual friends around in my honour. It was to be an early dinner. The guests were invited for 6:30, I arrived in around 5:30, Mary was having tea – totally relaxed and there was absolutely no sign of any activity, not to mention food.

As six approached, I tentatively enquired whether I could help in any way, maybe lay the table, how about food! Mary remembered the Ballymaloe Bread with some of Bill Casey’s Shanagarry Smoked Salmon that I’d brought over – “let’s have that for starters.” I took the loaf out of the freezer and hastily popped it into the oven and as per instructions I laid the table, then ran out into the garden to pick a Meyer lemon from the tree (yes, literally!.) The doorbell rang and the guests started to arrive. Mary was totally unfazed, lots of hugging “The glasses are in the cupboard, here’s the bottle opener, Jim you open the wine”

By now the ingredients for the main course, a San Francisco Fishermen’s Stew, were on the island counter, not sure who got those out of the fridge, I was busy slicing salmon and buttering warm semi frozen bread one slice at a time then popping it back into the oven to thaw another few centimetres just enough to cut another slice.

“Paula, can you chop the onions and that fennel bulb and Kiki can you open that can of tomatoes?”  We all followed instructions, everyone was having a hilarious time plus an impromptu cooking lesson on how to make this classic San Francisco Fishermen’s Stew.

The onion, chilli, garlic, fennel, and fresh marjoram was bubbling away in a big Le Crueset Casserole. Not sure who got the job of cracking the crabs claws.

Everyone loved the smoked salmon, “Open another couple bottles of wine”, add the fish to the tomato, next the crab and clams. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Taste, maybe a bit more salt, “Who’s chopping the parsley; scatter it over the top of the pot!”

“Frances and Darina, you are in charge of the pudding – there’s a couple of (defrosted) discs of Lady Baltimore’s cakes and some raspberries over there, sandwich them together with cream and lemon curd.”

We did as we were bidden and produced an impressive looking confection in a couple of minutes, decorated with lemon balm from the garden and sprinkle of confectioners’ sugar.

By then the Cioppino was being ladled from the big red skillet into wide shallow bowls and we all tucked in, some of us even had second helpings. A green salad emerged from somewhere, not sure who or where that came from and then Frances and I produced our masterpiece to lots of appreciative noises. There was coffee, more wine and lots more convivial chat.

The washing up somehow seemed to be effortlessly done and a fantastic evening was had by all – so now we all know how to give a stress free dinner party – thank you Mary.

 

Mary Risley’s Cioppino

 

Every country has its version of a fishermen’s stew–I understand the origin of this recipe is Genoa – it’s a San Francisco tradition!

 

Serves 8-10

 

24 well-scrubbed live clams or cockles

extra virgin olive oil

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 fennel bulb, chopped

1.1kg (2lbs 8ozs) fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

(or 3 x 400g (14oz) cans Italian plum tomatoes)

1 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)

450ml (16floz) dry white wine

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 3/4 tablespoons fresh marjoram, chopped

900g (2 lbs) fresh white fish (sea bass, rock cod, halibut or monkfish)

450g (1lb) sea scallops (optional)

450g (1lb) raw shrimp (or prawns), peeled

meat from 1 large cooked crab, (optional)

25g (1oz) fresh parsley, chopped

 

To Serve

 

Sourdough Bread
To steam the clams or cockles, place them in a heavy bottomed pot with 2.5cm (1 inch) of water.  Cover and cook over high heat, shaking occasionally, until the clams are open.  Keep covered until ready to use.

 

To make the soup base, put the onions with half a teaspoon of salt in a large casserole with a generous splash of olive oil and cook, stirring from time to time, until the onions are softened.  Stir in the garlic and continue to cook and stir another minute or two.  Stir in the fennel, then the tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, red pepper flakes, and marjoram.  Then add the broth from the steamed clams leaving the last tablespoon in the pot since it probably has sand.  Bring this mixture to the boil, stirring, and let simmer gently for 20 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, cut the white fish into large chunks, coat with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.

 

Remove the little tough part from each scallop.  Remove the shells from the shrimp.  Place these on another plate and coat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

 

To make the cioppino, fifteen minutes before you are ready to serve, bring the soup base to the boil, stirring, and stir in the fish.  Cover and let simmer 5 minutes.  Next, stir in the scallops and the shrimp and let simmer another 5 minutes.  At this point stir in the steamed clams and the crab meat, if desired.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Cover and let sit a minute or two. Sprinkle with lots of fresh parsley and serve in warmed bowls with sourdough bread.

 

 

Mary Risley’s Pear, Gorgonzola and Walnut Salad

 

Serves 6

 

This salad is a contrast in colour and texture: the pears are sweet and soft, the cheese is soft and salty, and the walnuts are hard strongly flavoured when toasted. To decide whether or not to peel the pears, taste the skin to see if it is acceptable. The best pears for this salad are French Butter pear, d’Anjou, or Comice.

2 heads butter or leaf lettuce, or a mixture of red and green lettuces, washed, dried and torn into 1 inch pieces

 

4 pears, such as French butter pear, d’Anjou, or Comice, peeled and cut into ¼ inch wide slices

225g (8oz) Gorgonzola, broken into ½ inch chunks

55g (2 ½ oz) walnut pieces, lightly toasted

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon-style prepared mustard

125ml (4fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil

coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

 

Put lettuces in a large salad bowl. Add the pears, cheese and walnuts. To make the vinaigrette, combine the vinegar, mustard and salt in a measuring cup. Stir to dissolve the salt. Mix in olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well with a small spoon. To serve, mix the vinaigrette again and pour over the salad, tossing gently with your hands. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mound the lettuces in the centres of salad plates. With your hands arrange the pears, Gorgonzola and walnuts on top. Serve with French bread.

 

Lady Baltimore Cake with Raspberries and Lemon Curd

 

This is Mary, Frances and my adapted recipe for Lady Baltimore’s cake.

 

Yields two 8 inch cakes

 

200g (7oz) white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch salt

110g (4oz) butter, softened

275g (10oz) caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

180ml (6fl oz) milk

3 egg whites

 

450g (1lb) raspberries

lemon curd (see recipe)

 

300ml (10fl oz) whipped cream

fresh mint or lemon balm leaves

 

2 x 8-inch round cake tins

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Mark 4.

 

Grease and flour two 8-inches round cake tins. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and sieve them together onto a piece of parchment paper.  Put the soft butter and sugar in a mixing bowl, and beat until smooth and well blended.

Stir the vanilla extract and the milk together and add to the butter-sugar mixture in two stages alternately with the flour mixture, beating until the batter is well blended and smooth after each addition.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are stiff but moist.

Gently stir one-third of the beaten whites into the batter, then scoop up the remaining beaten whites, drop them onto the batter, and fold them in.

Divide between the prepared cake tins.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick or straw inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let cool in their tins for 5 minutes, then turn them out of the tins onto a rack to cool completely.

Spread a layer of lemon curd on each cake base, sandwich together with softly whipped cream and raspberries. Spread a little cream and lemon curd on top and pile on some fresh raspberries. Decorate with a few fresh lemon balm or mint leaves and dust with a little icing sugar.

 

Lemon Curd

 

110g (4 oz) castor sugar

50g (2oz) butter

finely grated rind and juice of 2 good lemons, preferably unwaxed organic

2 eggs and 1 egg yolk (keep white aside for meringue)

 

On a very low heat melt the butter, add castor sugar, lemon juice and rind and then stir in well beaten eggs. Stir carefully over a gentle heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Draw off the heat and pour into a bowl (it will thicken as it cools.)

 

Hottips

 

Today, tomorrow and Monday many of my food heroes will converge on Ballymaloe for the first ever Literary Festival of Food and Wine and the free fringe events in the Big Shed beside the Grainstore. Madhur Jaffrey, Claudia Roden, David Thompson, David Tanis, Thomasina Miers, Camilla Plum, Stevie Parle, Rachel Allen, Sandor Katz … will all do cookery demonstrations at Ballymaloe Cookery School. It’s being described as the Glastonbury of Food and Wine Festivals, let’s hope the weather’s better but actually it doesn’t matter because virtually all the events are indoors – apart from the treasure hunts and GIY gardens – check out www.litfest.ie

 

Charity Vintage Tea Rooms at Saint Mary’s Church of Ireland, Dungarvan, Co Waterford. Afternoon tea as it used to be, sipped out of antique tea cups with homemade cakes and dainty sandwiches to the sounds of Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole – and all for a good cause. Every Saturday from 2 – 5pm.  Email Ria charitytearooms@gmail.com

 

Polytunnel Gardening Course at The Hollies, Enniskeane, Co Cork. Learn how to get the most from your poly tunnel year round, grow summer crops including sweet corn, tomatoes and peppers and extend the growing season to have fresh greens even during the winter period.  Sunday 12th May 9.30-4.30. €60.00 lunch included – 023 88 47001 or 0860883116 – info@thehollies.ie

 

Don’t miss Saturday Pizzas and Sunday Roasts at Ballymaloe Cookery School during the Literary Festival of Food and Wine 3^rd – 6^th May 2013

 

Sandor Katz described himself as a DIY food activist and fermentation revivalist. He has a global cult following – so what exactly is all that all about? Well I met and heard him speak recently at the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) conference in San Francisco and I have to say it was an inspirational experience.

I’ve been following his trail and becoming more and more intrigued and fascinated since I bought the Art of Fermentation in a book shop in Skibbereen a couple of years ago.

I have felt for some time that our Western diet is seriously deficient in fermented foods and the paranoia around food hygiene and food safety has led to a lowering of immune systems. A growing body of research seems to indicate that children who are totally protected from bacteria seem to have higher rates of allergies and asthma. Sanitising the world can be counterproductive. The overuse of antibiotics has produced resilient bacteria more lethal than those we’ve managed to kill.

How arrogant and naïve are we who imagine that we can win the war against bacteria – over and over they out-evolve us, the battle is futile and in many cases counterproductive. We need to learn to work with bacteria and nature to re-establish healthy gut flora and guess what, they really like fermented foods like sauerkraut.

For the majority of us making fermented foods is an unknown or forgotten skill, unfamiliar names like sauerkraut and kimchi sound scary – we have no idea where to start. Nowadays most people are convinced that bacteria are all bad not realising that the majority of bacteria are beneficial and benign. Bacteria are everywhere, we are all made up of different types of bacteria and of course there are some pathogenic bacteria but the healthier we are the most resistant we are to dangerous bacteria. Ironically the more sterile our environment and more processed out diet the lower our resistance, so challenge your system with lots of live food, organic produce, natural cheeses and fermented foods.

So where do we start, whatever about bacteria the population at large is totally terrified of moulds – again people are convinced they are all scary and bad. Apparently the growing ignorance and paranoia about moulds is adversely affecting the growth of the cheeses, so people are missing out on that brilliant penicillium roqueforti.

In the past decade or two as food has become more and more processed, we’ve lost faith in our own judgment and become increasingly deskilled and put our faith in food manufacturers and sell-by dates.

We need to take back power over our own diet and re-learn forgotten skills, shake off our fear and learn to trust our instincts once again. As soon as I read the Art of Fermenting I googled Sandor Katz for his contact and invited him to speak at the inaugural Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine – 3^rd to 6^th May 2013.

My pantry larder is now full of bottles, crocks and jars full of experiments and ferments, I’ve been empowered by Sandor Katz who spoke so eloquently of his fascination with fermentation – and told us that there have been no recorded instances of food poisoning from fermented foods in the US so just scrape off that mould and enjoy the sauerkraut underneath.

Fermentation is the hottest new interest for many top chefs particularly in the US. I visited several during my visit to the West Coast. Apart from sauerkraut they are also and making pickles of all kinds. Kefir is now widely sold in supermarkets, so soon you’ll see fermented foods coming mainstream. At present Environmental Health Officers and food inspectors in the US are having difficulty coming to terms with this revolution. This new development, though time honoured, is unfamiliar and can be scary territory.

Sandor Katz is leading the way in our rediscovery of the ancient art of fermentation. His book the Art of Fermentation is the most definitive do-it-yourself guide to homemade fermentation ever published. There are two opportunities to meet Sandor at the Ballymaloe Lit Fest of Food and Wine – he and Ben Reade of the Nordic Food Lab will speak about The Art of Fermentation on Saturday 4^th May at 11:30am in the Grainstore and a Practical Fermentation Demonstration at 9:00am on Sunday 5^th May 2013 www.litfest.ie

 

Sandor Katz Sauerkraut

 

Timeframe: 1-4 weeks (or more)

Special Equipment:

Ceramic crock or food-grade plastic bucket, one-gallon capacity or greater

Plate that fits inside crock or bucket

One-gallon jug filled with water (or a scrubbed and boiled rock)

Cloth cover (like a pillowcase or towel)

Ingredients (for 3 3/4 litres)

2.2kg (5 lbs) cabbage

3 tablespoons sea salt

Process:

Chop or grate cabbage, finely or coarsely, with or without hearts, however you like it. I love to mix green and red cabbage to end up with bright pink kraut. Place cabbage in a large bowl as you chop it.

Sprinkle salt on the cabbage as you go. The salt pulls water out of the cabbage (through osmosis), and this creates the brine in which the cabbage can ferment and sour without rotting. The salt also has the effect of keeping the cabbage crunchy, by inhibiting organisms and enzymes that soften it. 3 tablespoons of salt is a rough guideline for 2.2kgs (5lbs) of cabbage. I never measure the salt; I just shake some on after I chop up each cabbage. I use more salt in summer, less in winter.

Add other vegetables. Grate carrots for a coleslaw-like kraut. Other vegetables I’ve added include onions, garlic, seaweed, greens, Brussels sprouts, small whole heads of cabbage, turnips, beets, and burdock roots. You can also add fruits (apples, whole or sliced, are classic), and herbs and spices (caraway seeds, dill seeds, celery seeds, and juniper berries are classic, but anything you like will work). Experiment.

Mix ingredients together and pack into crock. Pack just a bit into the crock at a time and tamp it down hard using your fists or any (other) sturdy kitchen implement. The tamping packs the kraut tight in the crock and helps force water out of the cabbage.

Cover kraut with a plate or some other lid that fits snugly inside the crock. Place a clean weight (a glass jug filled with water) on the cover. This weight is to force water out of the cabbage and then keep the cabbage submerged under the brine. Cover the whole thing with a cloth to keep dust and flies out.

Press down on the weight to add pressure to the cabbage and help force water out of it. Continue doing this periodically (as often as you think of it, every few hours), until the brine rises above the cover. This can take up to about 24 hours, as the salt draws water out of the cabbage slowly. Some cabbage, particularly if it is old, simply contains less water. If the brine does not rise above the plate level by the next day, add enough salt water to bring the brine level above the plate. Add about a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.

Leave the crock to ferment. I generally store the crock in an unobtrusive corner of the kitchen where I won’t forget about it, but where it won’t be in anybody’s way. You could also store it in a cool basement if you want a slower fermentation that will preserve for longer.

Check the kraut every day or two. The volume reduces as the fermentation proceeds. Sometimes mould appears on the surface. Many books refer to this mould as “scum,” but I prefer to think of it as a bloom. Skim what you can off of the surface; it will break up and you will probably not be able to remove all of it. Don’t worry about this. It’s just a surface phenomenon, a result of contact with the air. The kraut itself is under the anaerobic protection of the brine. Rinse off the plate and the weight. Taste the kraut. Generally it starts to be tangy after a few days, and the taste gets stronger as time passes. In the cool temperatures of a cellar in winter, kraut can keep improving for months and months. In the summer or in a heated room, its life cycle is more rapid. Eventually it becomes soft and the flavour turns less pleasant.

Enjoy. I generally scoop out a bowl- or jarful at a time and keep it in the fridge. I start when the kraut is young and enjoy its evolving flavour over the course of a few weeks. Try the sauerkraut juice that will be left in the bowl after the kraut is eaten. Sauerkraut juice is a rare delicacy and unparalleled digestive tonic. Each time you scoop some kraut out of the crock, you have to repack it carefully. Make sure the kraut is packed tight in the crock, the surface is level, and the cover and weight are clean. Sometimes brine evaporates, so if the kraut is not submerged below brine just add salted water as necessary. Some people preserve kraut by canning and heat-processing it. This can be done; but so much of the power of sauerkraut is its aliveness that I wonder: Why kill it?

Develop a rhythm. I try to start a new batch before the previous batch runs out. I remove the remaining kraut from the crock, repack it with fresh salted cabbage, then pour the old kraut and its juices over the new kraut. This gives the new batch a boost with an active culture starter.

 

Asian Prawn Salad

 

Poached monkfish, scallops or squid (see recipe) also work well with this recipe.

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

 

500g (18oz) – peeled, freshly cooked Dublin Bay or organic prawns (see recipe)

 

 

Asian Dressing

 

 

1 tablespoon nam pla fish sauce

1 teaspoon caster sugar

juice of one lime

2 – 5 Thai green chillies finely sliced

1 stalk lemon grass finely sliced

2 kaffir lime leaves finely shredded

2 red shallots or 1 small red onion finely sliced and refreshed

1 scallion or spring onion cut at an angle

lots of fresh mint leaves or fresh coriander

½ – 1 cucumber cut in half and then in diagonal chunks

 

Whisk the fish sauce, freshly squeezed lime juice and sugar (you may need more) together. Add the other ingredients, toss gently, taste and correct seasoning and serve immediately with lots of coriander sprigs and a wedge or two of cucumber.

 

Hot Tips

The Burren Slow Food Festival in Lisdoonvarna is on from 17^th to 19^th May and showcases the best elements of food culture in County Clare. Visit the largest indoor and outdoor market in County Clare. Attend a food symposium, gala dinner, cookery demonstrations from local and celebrity chefs, and food and nutrition talks. There is also a range of events and demonstrations for children to enjoy. www.slowfoodclare.com/festival/

 

Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine 3^rd – 6^th May – In addition to the main program, there will be a Fringe festival in “The Big Shed” with a host of other food and wine related activities for young and old alike. Gardeners will rub shoulders with cooks, foragers with food historians, critics with musicians, artisan producers with bloggers – a melting pot -of eating, drinking, speaking and thinking. A place to be quiet or to make noise. A place for new ideas, words old and new, inspiration, learning and fun.

This is a unique event being staged in a special place – a gathering for all who love food and wine – www.litfest.com

 

Check out the new Fish Bar at the Electric on the banks of the River Lee – 41 South Mall, Cork City, it takes its inspiration from the simple Portuguese fish shacks and San Sebastian’s taverns. They serve the freshest fish, simply cooked – half a dozen oysters, grilled sardines, crab and crayfish salad – how delicious does that sound! +353 21 4222 990

Down here in Ballymaloe we are all so excited about the first ever Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine.

It’s taking place in Ballymaloe House and at the Grain store and Ballymaloe Cookery School.

We have a fantastic line up of speakers – many of my food heroes from all over the world said yes to the invitation to come to Ireland for a gathering of cooks and chefs and food writers over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

This is your chance to meet and mingle and chat to the icons whom we never imagined we’d meet face to face.

And it’s not just food, every wine buff’s hero Jancis Robinson MW and her husband Nick Lander restaurant critic for the Financial Times will give a presentation on the wine book, “Wine Grapes – A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours”,   of which she is the co-author with a wine tasting to illustrate her presentation.

We’ll have a whiskey tasting and Ger Buckley from Midleton Distillery will give a cooperage demonstration and we have a number of iconic craft beer brewers (West Kerry, White Gypsy, Metal Man, 8 Degree…) They will all be part of the fringe events in the Big Shed at Ballymaloe. Madhur Jaffrey is coming from New York to teach a class at the cookery school on Saturday 4^th May and on Sunday 5^th May she will also do a talk in the Grainstore about our love affair with curry – based on her new book The Curry Nation. You can’t see her anywhere else in the world, she just doesn’t give classes.

Same with Claudia Roden, much loved author of over 18 cook books including A Book of Middle Eastern Food, considered to be the standard work on Eastern food. Claudia was awarded a Lifetime Achievement in 2012 by the Guild of Food Writers. She’ll demonstrate recipes from her new book ‘Food of Spain’ on Saturday 4th May.

For those of you who love Asian food, David Thompson chef owner of Nahm restaurant is coming from Bangkok to show us some of his favourite Thai street food. He’s a super guy and we’ll choose recipes you can reproduce at home.

The new voices in food – Stevie Parle from Dock Kitchen in London, Thomasina Miers from Wahaca and Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes and our own Donal Skehan will strut their stuff.

Alice Waters – author of ten books – of Chez Panisse in Berkley CA, started the Edible School Yard project in California. Bill Yosses, pastry chef at the White House will tell us about Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden. And Stephanie Alexander, bestselling author of 14 books and whose project the development of a primary school kitchen garden program the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation is supported by the Australian government and has resulted in 295 Australian schools having gardens and kitchens for the children to learn how to grow and cook. Those interested in the education of our children, both parents and teachers, will find this session totally inspirational.

Budding writers and food bloggers will find much food for thought in sessions like Lucy Pearce’s Workshop, Food Writing for the Digital Generation (with  Aoife Carrigy, Caroline Hennessy and Michael Kelly) on Saturday 4th May. John McKenna In Conversation, Evolution of Food Writing (with Matthew Fort) on Sunday 5^th May and In Conversation, How to Get the Best from a Restaurant (with Nick Lander, Tom Doorley and Hazel Allen) on Sunday 5^th May.

Michelle Darmody who self-published her Cake Café Cookbook is also happy to share her secrets of how it’s done.

The centre of the gastronomic world has moved from Spain to Copenhagen in the past couple of years. Co-founder of Noma the best restaurant in the world will tell us how this Nordic food revolution came about. Are there lessons for Ireland here?

This session will be particularly fascinating for chefs and cooks, food writers and those involved in the hospitality industry.

Alys Fowler – who was the editor of the Landscape Review and has also presented her own successful TV series, The Edible Garden in 2010. She has published four books including The Thrifty Gardener, The Edible Garden and the Thrifty Forager – will do a foraging master class with Micheal Kelly of GIY (Grow it Yourself). The growing number of people, me included, who are interested in food issues should not miss Joanna Blythman’s workshop Digesting Unsavoury Truths with Ella McSweeney and Suzanne Campbell on Sunday 4^th May. Joanna has won numerous awards and accolades including five Glen Fiddich Awards, a Caroline Walker Media Award for Improving the Nation’s Health by Means of Good Food, a Guild of Food Writers Award. Bring your questions… Food historians will be thrilled with the opportunity to hear Regina Sexton – Literary Conversation, The Early Food Writing of Myrtle Allen on Monday 5^th May.

And then there are the fringe events in the Big Shed and farmers market and honestly there’s much more but not enough room to tell you about it. We reckon to have many exciting events for all the family, so check out the website www.litfest.ie for details and deals.

Meanwhile here are some of my favourite recipes from the guests chefs to whet your appetite.

 

David Thompson’s Nahm Sweet Pork

 

This sweet pork is addictive.  The sugar balances the heat of the chillies.  It is eaten as an accompaniment to Nam Priks (Relishes).

 

Serves 4 as a nibble

 

10 ozs (300 g) pork shoulder or neck

4 ozs (125 g) sugar

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons water

10 shallots, sliced, dried and deep-fried until golden

 

Cook the pork in boiling water until cooked, then cut into ½ cm (¼ inch) cubes.  In a small pan combine the sugar and water and cook until it caramelises.  Add the pork, fish sauce, soy sauce and extra water.  Simmer for 5 minutes until sticky.  Mix in the deep-fried shallots and serve.

 

Thomasina Mier’s Green Chilli Vinaigrette

 

This is a delicious, bright salad dressing that is perfect for simple green salads.

 

2 green chillies
1 small clove of garlic
3 tablespoons water

100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

a teaspoon castor sugar

a handful of chopped coriander

Roast the chillies and garlic in a dry frying pan until they are blackened, blistered and soft (5-10 minutes approximately).  Remove the garlic skin and de-stem and de-seed the chillies.  Check the heat of the chillies with the tip of your tongue.  If they are hot you may only want to use one.  Roughly chop them and put in a blender with the garlic and the rest of the ingredients.  Blitz to a smooth-ish vinaigrette and serve at once (this dressing does not keep).

 

Madhur Jaffrey’s Rogan Josh

From  “Foolproof Indian Cookery”

 

Serves 4-6

 

5cm (2 inch) piece of fresh root ginger, chopped

7 garlic cloves, chopped

6 tbsp olive or groundnut oil

10 cardamom pods

2 bay leaves

2½cm (1 inch) piece of cinnamon stick

2lb (900g) boneless lamb from the shoulder, or beef cut into 2½-4cm (1-1½ inch) cubes

7oz (200g) onions, finely chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1½ tbsp sweet, bright-red paprika

2 tsp tomato purée

1¼ tsp salt

10fl oz (300ml) water

 

Drop the ginger and garlic into a food processor or blender, add 4 tablespoons of water and blend to a paste.  Put the oil into a wide pan, preferably non-stick, and set it over a medium-high heat.  When it is hot, put in the cardamom pods, bay leaves and cinnamon stick.  Quickly put in the lamb pieces – only as many as the pan will hold easily in a single layer and brown on all sides.  Remove with a slotted spoon and put in a bowl.  Brown the remaining meat in the same way.

 

Add the onions to the oil left in the pan.  Cook, stirring, until they turn brown at the edges.  Add the paste from the blender and stir for 30 seconds.  Add the cumin, coriander, cayenne and paprika, stir once and then add the tomato purée.  Stir for 10 seconds.

 

Add the meat and any whole spices that are still clinging to it, plus the salt and water.  Stir well and bring to the boil.  Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 1 hour or until the meat is tender.

 

* If using beef, cook for 1½ hours rather than 1 hour.

 

Claudia Roden’s Medjool Date and Coconut Chutney

 

Claudia Roden introduced me to this Jewish recipe when she taught a class at the school in 2007. It’s a gem, keep some in your fridge and you’ll find yourself eating it with everything.  Serve with everything or as part of a plate of mezze.

 

Makes 3 x 200ml (7fl oz) jars

 

150ml (5fl oz/1/4 pint) water

125g (4 1/2oz) desiccated coconut

50g (2oz) coriander leaves

juice of 2 limes or lemons

2 garlic cloves crushed

10 Medjool dates, stoned

1 tablespoon tamarind paste dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

2 tablespoons water

 

Pour the water over the desiccated coconut and allow to sit about 15-20 minutes until the water is absorbed. Chop the coriander in the food processor, then add the lime juice, crushed garlic, dates, coconut and the tamarind paste dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water.  Season with sea salt and a good pinch of cayenne, and blend to a paste.  Add 1-2 tablespoons of water if necessary to make a soft creamy paste.  Fill into small jars, cover with non-reactive lids and store in the refrigerator.

 

25g (1oz) block of tamarind soaked for 20 minutes in 50ml (2fl oz) boiling water makes 1 tablespoon of tamarind purée.

 

Claudia Roden’s Fruit Salad with Honey and Orange Blossom Water

From “The Book of Jewish Cooking”

 

For this delicately scented fruit salad, have a mix of fruit chosen from three or four of the following: peaches, nectarines, apricots, bananas, plums, grapes, apples, pears, strawberries, mangoes, melon, pineapple, dates, and pomegranate seeds.

 

Serves 4

 

Juice of 1 large orange

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

750g mixed fruit

To garnish: a few mint leaves

Mix the orange juice, honey and orange blossom water straight into a serving bowl. Wash or peel the fruits, core or remove stones and drop them in the bowl as you cut them up into pieces so that they do not have time to discolour.

Leave in a cool place for an hour or longer before serving, garnished with mint leaves.

 

Hottips

Slow Food International and Sandbrook House are hosting the second International Slow Food Grandmothers Day Celebration on Sunday 21st of April 11am-6pm.  There will be a celebration of Forgotten Skills and a series of workshops and demonstrations from some of Ireland’s most passionate Slow Food experts.

Darina Allen, Pamela Black, Florence Bowe and Niall Murphy and Sophie Morris of the Kookie Dough company…. will do cookery demonstrations. Sign up for a hands on sausage making sessions with Ed Hick and a series of workshops and demonstrations on topics including butter, cheese and chocolate making, preserving, foraging, cooking bastible bread over the open fire will be free to attend.  Grandmothers are invited to bring along a favourite recipe that they would like to pass onto their grandchildren to include in a Slow Food Grandmother’s scrapbook.

Admission is €10 with free entry to all children with one adult, free car parking and free entry to all workshops.  Cookery demonstrations are €10.00-15.00 and are on a first come, first served basis. See www.grandmothersday.ie  for more details.

Wine events at the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food & Wine 3rd – 6th May 2013.

The inaugural Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine, 3rd – 6th May 2013 will include well known wine & drinks writers Jancis Robinson MW, Mary Dowey, Tom Doorley, John Wilson, to name but some of the 40 national and international speakers attending. www.litfest.ie

Two Herbal Health Talks in May by Herbalist Kelli O’Halloran at Ballyseedy Garden Centre – Carrigtwohill.

The Sneezing Season! Saturday 4th May – 10:30am – 11:30am – How to prevent and alleviate the symptoms of hayfever with herbal medicines.

Happy Heart Weekend Saturday 11th May 10:30am – 11:30am To coincide with the Irish Heart Foundation’s ‘Happy Heart Weekend’, Kelli looks at the natural herbal and dietary approach to preventing and reducing high cholesterol. Both talks cost €10, Slow Food Members €8, a cup of herbal tea included. Phone 087 965 2822 to book.

 

Cooking is the very best way to show special love to your family and friends’ – Jacob Kenedy’s sentiments as he cooked one beautiful dish after another at the Ballymaloe Cookery School recently. Jacob, whose mother came from Rome, owns one of my favourite restaurants in London, Bocca di Lupo. He feels that there is something particularly alluring about Italian food; it nourishes not only the body, but also the soul, mind and heart.

Jacob has been cooking with his Italian mama since he was very little. When he graduated from Saint Johns in Cambridge, he was already a chef at Moro in London and he continued to flit between the kitchens there and Boulevard in San Francisco before taking a year out to travel around Italy.

He opened Bocca di Lupo in a hidden back street in Soho in 2008 and it has since been  named Best Restaurant of the Year twice. In 2010 he opened Gelupo just across the road selling possibly the very best homemade ice cream in London.

As soon as I ate there, I loved the food and wanted to entice Jacob over to the Ballymaloe Cookery School to teach a guest chef course – difficult enough because Jacob is on the stove at Bocca di Lupo almost every day.

The restaurant has received all sorts of accolades and awards for its stripped down, honest regional Italian cuisine. Everything is made from scratch with superb ingredients much of which comes directly from Italy. Jacob and his chefs make all their own pasta, breads, sausages, salami, pickles, mostardo and sublime gelato and granitas.

If you are planning a trip to London, book ahead. Bocca di Lupo is also brilliant for pre-theatre or after theatre bites.

Here are some of the dishes Jacob cooked for us but this is just a taste of what’s in the Bocca Cookbook published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

 

Bocca di Lupo’s Shaved Radish Salad

 

Serves 4 as a starter

 

1 bunch, or about 8 radishes breakfast radishes

1/2 a black radish (approximately 150g/5oz) (available from Turkish shops), or 5cm (2 inches) green mooli (Chinese greengrocers) or mooli

a chunk of celeriac (approximately 50-50g/2 – 2 1/4oz) – about 1/4 of a very small bulb – peeled

a little chunk of pecorino Romano – about 50g (2oz)

1/4 pomegranate, picked – or 6 tablespoons picked seeds

a few sprigs flat leaf parsley, leaves picked

 

Dressing

 

1 tablespoon white truffle oil

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

juice of 1/4 lemon (or 2 more teaspoons white balsamic)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Make a dressing with the oils, vinegar, lemon, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning.

 

Do the following just before you serve as radishes dry out, and celeriac blackens with time. Wash the radishes (both red and black, don’t peel either), and shave thinly – best on a mandolin. Use a potato peeler to shave the celeriac and pecorino. Toss the lot with the pomegranate seeds and parsley, and dress lightly.

 

Serve in haphazard but tall piles on individual plates, or in a bowl to share from.

 

Jacob Kenedy’s Fagioli all’uccelletto – Cannellini Beans cooked ‘like little birds’ with Tomato and Sage

Serves 4 as a side

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 sage leaves, roughly chopped
a tiny pinch of crushed dried chilli flakes

800g cooked cannellini beans, plus a little of their liquor

100ml (3 1/2fl oz) light tomato sauce or passata

Fry the garlic in the oil until it looks like it’s thinking of colouring, but hasn’t quite started to. Add the sage and chilli, then quickly follow with the beans, a small ladleful of their liquor, and the tomato sauce. Season to taste and boil for a few minutes, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the beans.

 

Jacob Kenedy’s Honey-Grilled Pork Chops

 

Serves 4

 

4 good pork chops (preferably from the shoulder, or neck end of the loin) – 200-250g (7-9oz) each and 1.5-2cm (1/3 – 3/4 inch) thick

4 tablespoons runny honey

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a couple of sprigs of rosemary

 

6 hours to 2 days before you cook, smear the pork chops with half the honey, and about half the salt and pepper you’d use to season them if you were cooking them now. Pick the leaves off one sprig rosemary and sprinkle over the chops. Wrap them up with cling film and refrigerate. This is a kind of quick brine, to partly cure the meat and keep it super-juicy when cooked.

 

An hour before you’re ready to eat, take the meat from the fridge to come to room temperature. Have ready, blazing hot, a griddle pan or barbecue. Season the chops with a touch more salt and pepper and grill them until gloriously charred on the outside, using the remaining rosemary branch as a brush to anoint them with extra honey as you go. They should be served still a little pink inside, and be given a minute or two to rest and release their honey-sweet juices before serving with braised greens and perhaps some cannellini beans.

 

Jacob Kenedy’s Escarole Salad

Serves 4–8 as a side, or after a main

1 head escarole

Dressing

 

1 1⁄2 tablespoons lemon juice
1⁄2 garlic clove (optional)

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

The escarole is best washed whole, by immersing it upside-down in a sink-full of water and moving it around a little, then shaking dry. Remove any damaged outer leaves, then separate all the rest from the stem and tear into generous pieces.

My grandmother rubs a wooden salad bowl with the garlic, then discards the clove. My mum makes the dressing in advance, and leaves the garlic to steep in it for half an hour or more before discarding it. I sometimes make the salad without any garlic at all. In any case, dress the escarole moments before you serve, seasoning with salt and pepper. The sodden bits of salad left at the bottom are best eaten with a crust of bread, also used to mop the bowl.

 

 

Jacob Kenedy’s Caramelised Blood Oranges

 

This used to be Jacob’s mum’s signature dessert, which he has adopted as his own now!

 

Serves 4

 

6 blood oranges

50g (2oz) caster sugar

 

Pare the skin and pith from the blood oranges, and slice across into 5mm (1/4 inch) thick pinwheel discs. Arrange these on a serving dish.

 

Cook the sugar to a dark caramel. There’s no need to add any water – just put the sugar in a small, heavy pan and cook over a high heat until it’s a dark brown, volcanically hot liquid. Drizzle this over the oranges and refrigerate for 6-24 hours. Most of the caramel will dissolve into a ridiculously tasty sauce, leaving just a few crunchy nuggets for variety.

 

Hot Tips

 

Hake is one the most delicious white fish in our waters and is far superior to cod in my opinion – the Spanish love them yet many Irish people have never tasted Hake. Bord Bia have recently published some great recipes to try – www.bordbia.ie/aboutfood/recipes/fish/

 

The Good Things Café Cookery School brochure makes me want to jump into the car and head for Durrus in West Cork right away – check it out! www.thegoodthingscafe.com

 

In one simple afternoon practical cookery session at Ballymaloe Cookery School get stuck in and Just Cook It!  In this short class you will get some practical experience on preparing and cooking a delicious three course meal. Just Cook It -  Friday 17th May 2013 – 2:00pm to 5:30pm Price: €165.00 – www.cookingisfun.ie

Dublin Bay Prawn Festival – Howth, County Dublin from 25th – 28th April 2013. Savour the taste of the sea with local fresh seafood on offer and enjoy an interesting mix of local food, music and entertainment with plenty of walks, talks and Dublin Bay seaside fun. http://www.fingaldublin.ie/interior-pages/about-fingal/culture/cultural-events/dublin-bay-prawn-festival

The IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) EU Group is organising “Sustainable Rural Development Training Days” between the 23th and 25th April in Dublin. The event is targeted at organic farming organisation other interested civil society groups and will focus on new rural development and innovation policy. They are also interested in getting ARC members involved in our event particularly those who have an interest and expertise in the implementation of EU rural development programmes. IFOAM EU brings together more than 160 organisations, associations and enterprises from all EU-27 and EFTA countries. IFOAM´s goal is the worldwide adoption of ecologically, socially and economically sound systems that are based on the principles of Organic Agriculture.

For more information and a link to registration can be found at Sustainable Rural Development Training Days http://www.ifoam-eu.org/events/CAP/RD-Training-Days.php.

 

Sri Lanka (originally Ceylon) is the largest producer of real cinnamon in the world. A beautiful gentle spice which has been used both for cooking and medicine since ancient times – lots of references in the bible and in Egypt cinnamon was used for embalming.

When buying cinnamon much of what is sold as cinnamon is an inferior product called cassia which is less expensive but has a much stronger and more acrid flavour.

There are four commercial spices all sold as cinnamon, only one is true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) produced from the inner bark of a small evergreen tree of the laurel family.

Cassia which is frequently sold as cinnamon comes from three related species, Cassia Burmannii (Indonesian) Cassia Aromaticum (Chinese) and Cassia Loureiroi (Vietnamese).

True cinnamon is native to the lush tropical forests of lovely Sri Lanka, a country formerly known as Ceylon, hence the name  Ceylon cinnamon. The gentle coastal hills in the south of Sri Lanka are especially suited to the growth of cinnamon. Wars have been fought over this spice. In 1505 the Portuguese came to this part of the world in search of cinnamon so they could cut out the Arab middlemen. In those days it was gathered from wild trees but when the Dutch succeeded the Portuguese the first plantations were sown and cinnamon has been flourishing ever since.

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka I wanted to see the process of cinnamon production for myself so I visited Mirissa Hills a working Cinnamon Estate with 360 degree views over Weligama Bay. Thilak the general manager, showed us around the estate which grows both cinnamon (35 acres) and galangal (15 acres) We passed the little temple to Pathini, The Buddhist God of cinnamon on our way to the plantation, the air was filled with the scent of cinnamon. Thilak explained the whole process from the saving of the seed, the production of the seedlings to the cultivation and harvesting and finally peeling and drying. The trees are planted at a spacing of 3 x 4 feet; the two year old plants are pruned drastically which prompts the tree to produce lots of new shoots. Harvesting begins in the third year and every eight months thereafter, as opposed to tea which has to be harvested every seven days.

The cinnamon is still harvested and peeled in the same time honoured way by the skilled Salagama caste. It cannot be mechanised and the process has survived virtually unchanged since the era of the ancient kingdoms, through colonial domination right down to present times.

The cinnamon peelers go early to the fields in the morning to harvest the cinnamon. They choose twigs about 5 feet long and about 1 ½ inches thick.  The straighter they are the easier they will be to peel.  Next, any shoots or leaves are trimmed with a sharp curved machete. The peelers sit cross legged on hessian sacks on the floor in the peeling shed with their bundle of sticks by their sides. They need just three tools, a curved peeler, a brass rod and a small sharp knife called a kokaththa.

First the outer dark leathery layer is shaved off; this is returned to the cinnamon fields for compost. Next the cinnamon peeler picked up the brass rod, about 12 inches in length and begins to massage the surface of the peeled stick. After a couple of minutes when the inner bark loosens and becomes more flexible, he takes the kokaththa and with a surgeons precision cuts two parallel slits in the bark, then in one deft movement he eases the thin layer of cinnamon free from the stick. Nothing is wasted; the latter is used for firewood.

When he (the peelers are all male) has several layers of precious inner bark he carefully layers them inside each other, over lapping them to create a four foot quill.

These were carefully laid on strings of coconut coir hanging beneath the tin roof – it will take eight days, away from sunlight to curl and dry. Then they will be rolled tightly, and allowed to dry for a further ten days. The cinnamon quills are then tied into large bundles to sell in the market where they will be precisely cut into the cinnamon sticks we know.

I wanted to buy some but Thilak advised me to wait until after the monsoon in May when they have Ellba, the best quality, which sells for between 1,800 and 2000 rupees a kilogram, whereas Hamburg sells for 1,500 rupees.

So how can you judge? True Ceylon cinnamon is pale tan in colour, softer in texture, with a sweet citrus flavour. Cassia has a harder bark that is much more difficult to grind. Ground cinnamon is invariably ‘cut’ with cassia so is darker in colour and stronger and more acrid in taste.

In the US cassia is very often sold as cinnamon although better spice companies are now differentiating between the different types of cinnamon – so read the label carefully – there will be a considerable difference in price. So be sure to buy cinnamon sticks and grind them yourself in a spice or coffee grinder. True cinnamon grinds easily into a powder and fine splinters. Cinnamon is used in a myriad of ways in SriLankan cooking, in tea, curries, cakes, biscuits, drinks and medicinally.

One of the most impressive health benefits of cinnamon is its ability to improve blood sugar control, just ½ teaspoon a day has been shown to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, triglycerides, LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes, but make sure it’s real cinnamon.

 

Beef Stew with Cinnamon, Thyme and Shallots

 

Try this rich good gutsy beef stew, made with shin of beef, from one of my favourite London gastro pubs, the Eagle in Farringdon Road.

 

Serves 6-8

 

 

100g (4oz) streaky bacon, chopped

100g (4oz) salt pork fat, washed and chopped (this would be sold as lardo salato in Italian grocers. Alternatively use all streaky bacon.

1.5kg (3¼ lb) shin of beef cut into 3cm (1¼ inch) cubes

½ glass of red wine vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

10 shallots or baby onions peeled but left whole with the root intact (you may find it easier to peel them if they are soaked in cold water first)

5 fat garlic cloves, peeled but left whole

1 tablespoon tomato puree

a handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus extra to garnish

2 fresh bay leaves

a large sprig of thyme

2 strips of orange peel

2 cinnamon sticks

2 glasses of strong red wine

water or beef stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Slowly melt the streaky bacon and pork fat in a wide, heavy casserole.  Take the bacon out and put it in a warm bowl.  Brown the beef in the pan – in batches if necessary – then add it to the bacon in the bowl. Pour the red wine vinegar into the hot pan and stir to deglaze, letting it bubble until slightly reduced. Pour it over the meat.  Heat some olive oil in the pan, add the shallots and garlic cloves with some salt and a generous amount of black pepper and fry for a few minutes over a moderate heat.  Stir in the tomato puree and chopped parsley and cook for a minute longer, then return the meat to the pan with any resulting juices.

Make a bouquet of the bay, thyme and orange peel and bury it in the pot with the cinnamon sticks.  Heat the red wine, then pour it over the meat and add enough water or stock to bring the level of the liquid to no more than an inch below the surface of the meat.  Cover the meat with an inner lid made of foil and then a close-fitting pan lid.  Turn the heat to very low or place in a slow oven (150C/Gas Mark 2).  It will take around 3 hours to cook, but I would cook it for 2 hours one day, refrigerate it and then finish it the next. Remove any congealed fat, re-heat gently on the top of the stove. Garnish with lots of roughly chopped parsley and serve with a big bowl of mash.

 

Slow Cooked Pork Belly with Cinnamon, Cloves, Ginger and Star Anise

 

 

This is a deliciously rich and unctuous dish from A Year in my Kitchen by Skye Gyngell. She likes to serve it with braised lentils, but it is also very good with lightly cooked Asian greens, such as pak choi.

 

Serves 6

 

2kg piece belly of pork (organic, free-range)

2 cinnamon sticks

3 star anise

1 tsp cloves

1 red chilli

3cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled

6 garlic cloves, peeled

2 tbsp chopped coriander, roots and stems

100ml tamari (or soy sauce)

75ml maple syrup

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp sunflower oil

 

To serve:

Braised lentils

 

 

Put the pork belly into a large cooking pot (or pan) in which it fits quite snugly and add cold water to cover.  Bring to the boil, then immediately turn off the heat and remove the pork from the pan.  Drain off the water and rinse out the pan.

One-third fill the pan with cold water and place over a medium heat.  Add the pork, this time along with the spices, chili, ginger, garlic and chopped coriander roots and stems.  If there isn’t enough liquid to cover the meat, add some more water.   Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer very gently for 1½ hours until the meat is cooked and very tender.   If you have the rib end, the meat will have shrunk back to expose the tips of the bones.   With a pair of tongs, carefully remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Turn the heat up under the pan to high and add the tamari and maple syrup.  (If you don’t want the sauce to taste ‘hot’, remove the ginger and chili at this point.)   Let the liquid bubble until reduced by half, this will take about 20 minutes.   As the sauce reduces, the flavours will become very intense, forming, a rich, dark sauce.

In the meantime, slice the pork belly into individual servings – one rib should be enough per person.   Season the ribs with a little salt and pepper.  Place a heavy-based frying pan over a high heat and add the oil.  Heat until the pan is starting to smoke, then add the pork ribs and brown well on both sides until crunchy and golden brown on the surface.  Strain the reduced liquour.

To serve, lay a rib on each warm plate (or soup plate) and spoon over the reduced sauce and warm braised lentils.  Serve at once.

 

Sri Lankan Toast with Cinnamon

 

 

Serves 4

 

4 free range eggs

175ml (4flozs) whole milk

1 teaspoon of freshly ground cinnamon

 

4 slices white bread

4 tablespoons clarified butter

 

sesame seeds

honey

 

Whisk the eggs, milk and cinnamon together until well blended.  Strain the mixture into a shallow bowl in which you can easily soak the bread.  Dip both sides of each slice of bread in the egg mixture. Melt 2 tablespoons of the clarified butter in a frying pan.  Fry the bread over a medium heat until very lightly browned, turning once.  Serve warm sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Drizzle with honey and serve.

 

Cinnamon Ice Cream

 

Serves 6

 

Serve this delicious ice-cream with an Apple Tart or with a compote of pears.

 

1/2 cinnamon stick (1- 1 1/2 inches (2 1/2 – 4cms) in length)

8 fl ozs (225ml) milk

8 fl ozs (225ml) cream

5 egg yolks

4ozs (110g) sugar

 

Grind the cinnamon stick coarsely in a coffee grinder.  Put the milk in a saucepan, add the ground cinnamon, bring slowly to scalding point, add the cream then allow to cool.  Leave to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

 

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until white and fluffy, then whisk in the warm infusion.  Pour back into the saucepan and cook over a gentle heat stirring all the time until the mixture just coats the back of a spoon.

 

Sieve it, then cool quickly and freeze in an ice-cream maker or sorbetiere, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

 

Alternatively pour in a plastic box, cover and put into the freezer, whisk once or twice during freezing.

 

 

Cinnamon Biscuits

 

Use any cutter you fancy but these are completely delicious.

Makes 24 biscuits (3 inch x 2 inch)

Or

Makes 48 (3 inch x 1 inch)

 

115g (4 ¼ oz)  butter

115g (4 ¼ oz)  pale golden brown sugar

50g (2 oz) caster sugar

1 free range egg

150g (5oz)  flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon powder (we grind the cinnamon sticks in a spice grinder)

 

 

Cream the butter, add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the egg. Beat well again and then fold in the flour and cinnamon.   Cover with parchment paper and chill for at least an hour.

 

Roll out and cut into chosen shapes. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Mark 4.

 

Bake for 10 minutes approximately until golden but still softish.  They will crisp as they cool.

Store in an airtight box.

 

 

Hot Tips

 

The 6th West Waterford Festival of Food takes place from Thursday 11^th to Friday 14^th April. There’s a packed programme of free and ticketed events, some held indoors while many unfold in the great outdoors. Marie Power ‘The Sea Gardener’ will host seaweed seminars on  Clonea Beach while botanist Paul Green will lead ‘crude food’ trails in Colligan Woods. There’s a ‘Raw Food Revolution’ going on too with nutritionists, chefs and food entrepreneurs demonstrating the huge value and great taste of raw foods.  Children get to do cookery classes alongside their parents and mini- buses take festival goers on tour to visit local producers, bakers, brewers, juice and cheese makers. The legendary nose to tail UK chef Fergus Henderson will be at The Tannery on Friday April 12th while on stage in Dungarvan’s town hall theatre to cook their favourite dishes will be Ross Lewis, Rachel Allen and Garrett Byrne. www.westwaterfordfestivaloffood.com

 

The Intensive 12 Week Certificate course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School is looked on as an investment. Students learn the skills to earn their living from their cooking. Summer course begins on 22^nd April 2013 – seewww.cookingisfun.ie

Here I am in Sri Lanka wading out through the warm sea to the tiny island of Taprobane off Weligama on the South Coast. There’s no other way to get there, it’s just a 100 yards off the coast, palm fringed of course. I’d been invited to cook dinner for a Saint Patrick’s Day Ball. Irish stew and Champ in 35 degrees!  Cooking at the other side of the world is a challenge in all kinds of unexpected ways. The most mundane ingredients at home can be the most exotic here, it’s difficult to predict.

Lamb is not a common SriLankan meat; it has to be imported from New Zealand so the Irish Stew had to be made from mutton which is actually goat. It’s got tons of flavour, makes a great stew but does take hours to cook to melting tenderness. I found lovely little young leeks in the local market so we tossed those in butter and served them on top. The meal started with Spiced cabbage soup, a fusion of Irish and SriLankan cultures, then some fat sweet local prawns cooked in their shells then tossed in salt, freshly crushed black pepper and chilli powder and served with cucumber pickle and mustard and dill mayonnaise. If you want cucumber that resembles ours ask for a Japanese cucumber

We used a mixture of pale SriLankan kekiri and Japanese cucumber and used the angular cut so familiar to Asian chefs, rather than rounds. There were beautifully fresh red scallions in the market so they perked up our Champ to serve with Irish Stew.

Apart from ingredients, basic kitchen equipment is quite different and some seemingly similar ingredients behave in a different way in a tropical climate. Fresh cream simply isn’t available. UHT cream which I hate with a passion is the only option.

Meringues are not that easy to pull off either in an area of high humidity yet people love them, so I decided to have a go at Coffee Meringue with Irish Whiskey Sauce, what a mission! Fortunately I’d brought a food mixer from Ireland, how ridiculous does that sound but I was certainly glad of it when I discovered there was no operational whisk in the kitchen. Icing sugar is not a problem; I also brought instant coffee and parchment paper. The meringues whipped up ok, I dolloped them out in blobs on the baking tray and slid them into the oven hoping for the best in temperature terms. Virtually all cooking is done on the stove top so ovens can be a bit unpredictable – anyway they peeled beautifully off the parchment paper within 30 minutes or so.

Meanwhile I made a dark caramel sauce and laced it liberally with Paddy whiskey – it was dark and bitter and very good. Next I whipped the cream but it simply wouldn’t stiffen, in fact the more we whipped the looser it got – guests are waiting up stairs, deep breath, let go of our pre-conceived notions and compromise fast, so I sweetened the cream a little and added some more Paddy. We now have Irish Whiskey Soup, where are the soup bowls? A dollop of that in the base of each wide soup bowl, a coffee meringue blob on top, a drizzle of Paddy caramel et voila! Send it upstairs to the unsuspecting guests and now it’s a hit!  Lots of compliments, So amazing, so delicious, great combination of sweet and bitter – love the whiskey…

We survive to fight another day, try it for Easter.

However, the biggest hit was the piece of home-made cheddar cheese from our herd of three Jersey cows and some home-made crackers and a loaf of Ballymaloe bread that we brought as a present from Ireland. Cheese is virtually unavailable here, so it was a major treat for the SriLankan guests.

Happy Easter to all our readers.

 

Spiced Cabbage Soup 

 

Serves 6

 

55g (2oz) butter

140g (5oz) chopped potatoes

115g (4oz) onions, chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

900ml (1½ pints) homemade chicken stock

250g (9oz) chopped cabbage leaves (stalks removed) chopped

50-125ml (1½-4 fl oz) cream or creamy milk

 

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoons whole black mustard seeds

4 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely chopped

½-1 hot, dried red chilli, coarsely crushed in a mortar

½ teaspoon sugar

freshly ground pepper

 

Garnish

crème fraiche and fresh coriander leaves

 

Melt the butter in a heavy pan. When it foams, add the potatoes and onions and turn them in the butter until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Add the stock (heat it if you want to speed things up) and boil until the potatoes are soft. Add the cabbage and cook, uncovered, until the cabbage is just cooked Рa matter of 4 or 5 minutes. Keeping the lid off retains the green colour. Pure̩ immediately and add creamy milk.

 

Now heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium flame.  When hot, put in the mustard seeds.  As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, put in the garlic.  Stir the garlic pieces around until they turn light brown, (be careful not to burn or it will spoil the flavour). Put in the crushed red chilli and sugar and stir for a few seconds.  Add this spice to pureéd soup to correct seasoning.   Serve piping hot with perhaps a blob of crème fraiche and a few coriander leaves.

 

Sri Lankan Goat Stew with Baby Leeks

 

Serves 4–6

 

1.3kg (3lb) goat shoulder chops not less than 2.5cm (1 inch) thick

6 medium or 12 baby onions

6 medium or 12 baby carrots

freshly ground pepper and salt

850ml (1 1⁄2 pints) lamb stock or chicken stock (see recipe) or water

12 potatoes or more if you like (Golden Wonder or Kerr’s Pink are excellent)

sprig of thyme

about 1 tablespoon roux, optional

 

Garnish

2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives

 

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4.

 

Cut the goats meat in 50g (2oz) pieces and trim off some of the excess fat.

Set the pieces aside and render down the fat on a gentle heat in a heavy frying pan (discard the rendered down pieces). Peel the onions and scrape or thinly peel the carrots (if they are young, leave some of the green stalks on the onions and carrots).

Cut the carrots into large chunks, or if they are young leave them whole.

If the onions are large, cut them small, if they are small they are best left whole.

Toss the meat in the hot fat until it is slightly brown. Transfer the meat into a casserole, and then quickly toss the onions and carrots in the fat. Build the meat, carrots and onions up in layers in the casserole. Season each layer generously with freshly ground pepper and salt. Deglaze the frying pan with lamb or chicken stock and pour into the casserole.

 

Peel the potatoes and lay them on top of the casserole, so they steam while the stew cooks. Season the potatoes. Add a sprig of thyme and bring to the boil on top of the stove.

Then cover and transfer to a moderate oven or allow to simmer on top of the stove until the stew is cooked, about 1 ½ to 2  hours.

 

When the stew is cooked, pour off the cooking liquid, degrease and reheat the liquid in a saucepan. If you like slightly thicken the juices with a little roux. Check the

seasoning, then add chopped parsley and chives and pour it back over the stew. Bring it back up to boiling point and serve from the pot or in a large pottery dish.

 

Melted Leeks

 

Serves 8-10

 

2lbs (900g) leeks (once prepared)

2 ozs (50g) butter

2 tablespoons water if necessary

salt and freshly ground pepper

chopped parsley or chervil

 

Cut off the dark green leaves from the top of the leeks.   Slit the leeks about half way down the center and wash well under cold running water.   Slice into 1/3 inch (5mm) rounds.   Melt the butter in a heavy casserole; when it foams, add the sliced leeks and toss gently to coat with butter.   Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.    Cover with a paper lid and a close-fitting lid.   Reduce the heat and cook very gently for 8-10 minutes approx., or until semi soft and moist.   Check and stir every now and then. Turn off the heat and allow to continue to cook in the heat.   Serve on a warm dish sprinkled with chopped parsley or chervil.

 

Note: The pot of leeks may be cooked in the oven at 160ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3 if that is more convenient.

 

Taprobane Coffee Meringue with Paddy Caramel

 

Serves 6 – 8

 

2 egg whites

4 1/2 ozs (125g) icing sugar

2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (not granules)

 

1/2 pint (300ml) very softly whipped cream

2 tablespoons approx. Paddy whiskey

 

Parchment paper

 

Paddy Caramel

8 ozs (225g) castor sugar

3 fl ozs (80ml) cold water

4 tablesp. Irish Paddy whiskey

22 fl ozs (60ml) hot water

First make the meringue. Put the egg whites into a spotlessly clean and dry bowl. Add all the icing sugar except 2 tablespoons. Whisk until the mixture stands in firm dry peaks. It may take 10-15 minutes. Sieve the coffee and the remaining icing sugar together and fold in carefully.

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C\300°F\Gas Mark 2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop 8 blobs of meringue onto the parchment. Cook for 30 – 40 minutes or until the meringues will lift easily off the paper.

Meanwhile make the sauce. Put the castor sugar into a saucepan with water, stir over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves and syrup comes to the boil. Remove the spoon and do not stir. Continue to boil until it turns a dark chestnut-brown colour.  Remove from the heat and immediately add the hot water. Allow to dissolve again and then add the Irish Paddy whiskey.

Allow to get cold. To serve, choose shallow wide soup bowls, put a scoop of softly whipped whiskey cream in the base, top it with a meringue blob and drizzle with a little Paddy Caramel, so good…

Hot Tips

 

Darina Allen and Rachel Allen will do a cookery demonstration to raise funds for the ICA (Irish Countrywomen’s Association) in the Grainstore at Ballymaloe House on Wednesday 17th April 2013 at 7:30pm. Tickets €25.00, available at the Ballymaloe Cookery School shop or book online www.thegrainstoreatballymaloe.com Everyone is welcome. Great raffle and door prizes.

 

Good Food Ireland recently launched a new Food and Travel page on their website, the first of its type in Ireland to target food lovers from around the world. It includes a tempting online artisan food shop where people can buy gourmet Irish artisan foods, gift hampers or vouchers and a facility called My Food Trip that allows users to book accommodation, restaurants and cookery classes with Good Food Ireland members – www.goodfoodireland.ie/topfoodtrips or www.goodfoodireland.ie/foodshop

 

Glenilen Farm artisan dairy products have wooed many people since Alan and Valerie Kingston began to experiment in their dairy and farmhouse kitchen in 1997. They started by selling homemade cheesecakes, yoghurt, beautiful traditional cream, creme fraiche, clotted cream, handmade butter and eventually lemon posset and lemonade. Originally just at the local Farmers’ Market and a couple of local shops, using milk from the their dairy farm in Drimoleague. Now widely available in supermarkets also. Look out for the new Glenilen Farm range of blue Glenilen aprons, tea towels, wooden spoons and recipe book stands – a new development for artisan producers – www.glenilenfarm.com/product/tea-towel/

 

Book of the Week: Buy a few copies of the new Recipes from the English Market – published by University Press; it’s the best pressie for visitors who come for The Gathering and for all the rest of us as well. It’s also a potted history of the market established in 1788 through the eyes of its charismatic stall holders. Author Michelle Horgan who describes herself as a ‘market anorak’ manages to tease favourite recipes from everyone from Donogh O’Reilly, third generation tripe seller to Pat O’Connell who will be eternally remembered for making the Queen of England laugh heartily during her visit to the Market in May 2011.