ArchiveSeptember 2025

Jess Murphy’s vibrant presence fills the room wherever she goes, her energy, vitality and sense of deliciously irreverent fun enliven everyone around her.

Jess is a powerhouse of ideas and empathy – a force of nature.

She grew up in a rural township in Wairoa in New Zealand, where she learned first-hand what it meant to live in a community that cherishes and looks after each other, making the most of what the land has to offer. Butchering, preserving, fishing, honouring and passing on Māori traditions were a way of life. These values shaped Jess’s culinary career, she travelled to the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia where she met her now husband Dave, before moving onto work in restaurants in Wales, Dublin and finally Galway.

The dream of opening her own restaurant was never far from her mind so five years later despite a downturn in the economy, a premises came on the market and with a massive overhaul and a lot of help from their friends. Jess and Dave’s dream became a reality.

The word indomitable comes to mind.

‘Kai’, proudly named after the Māori word for ‘food’ flung open its doors in 2011 with a wild and wonderful menu of locally sourced produce with influences from dishes Jess encountered all over the world.

Jess is a bold, hugely creative cook, not afraid to mix metaphors and the result has won her many awards, a super loyal following of locals, visitors and Instagram followers alike from all over the globe.

‘Kai’ is now and has been for ever so long, a much loved star on the Galway culinary scene with the only Michelin Green Star in Ireland. Jess is a recent recipient of the Parabere Care Award, an award that recognises best practice in business, including fair and ethical conditions, and ensuring wellness across teams. By working to build up the community around her, Jess’s impact is insurmountable and is highly valued by everyone she encounters.

An ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, her work with the UNHCR has been transformative for people directly affected by war and those forcibly displaced from their communities. By using food as a powerful force for good, Jess continuously and openly advocates for those who need it most.

Considering how much this dynamo has achieved, where did she get the time to write the new long-awaited ‘Kai’ Cookbook?

The Kai Cookbook/A Love Letter to the West of Ireland by Jess Murphy published by Nine Bean Rows is packed full of recipes that have made ‘Kai’ an iconic destination!

Don’t quite know how she managed it but I’m so glad she did. Here are some recipes from the cookbook to whet your appetite.

Venison with Pickled Blackberries and Horseradish Cream

I use venison haunch for this and soak it in Buckfast, sriracha, onions, ginger and brown sugar for three days. You might think I’ve lost my mind, but it’s amazing. Buckfast is a real West of Ireland thing. We even have a Buckfast negroni on the night-time menu – we are always looking for the next sophisticated way of drinking it. My pal Eoin Coyle makes a fantastic fresh pomegranate and Buckfast cocktail, shaken, served over ice and garnished with fresh mint in the summer.

As for the horseradish cream, one time David and I were sitting next to my cooking hero, Rory O’Connell, at a dinner at Ballymaloe and a lady at our table set her menu on fire trying to read it. Rory put it out quickly; this wasn’t his first rodeo. We had Ballycotton scallops in the shell, followed by venison and braised red cabbage, but what really stood out was the horseradish cream. I cheekily asked Rory what was in it, then made my own riff on it.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

500ml Buckfast

200ml sriracha sauce

50ml rice wine vinegar

40g dark brown sugar

4 garlic cloves, smashed

a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1kg venison haunch, sliced into steaks

2 tbsp olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pickled blackberries:

75g light brown sugar

150ml apple cider vinegar

400g fresh blackberries

For the horseradish cream:

200ml cream

20g fresh horseradish, grated on a Microplane

2 tbsp honey

1 tsp English mustard powder

a pinch of ground white pepper

Method

Whisk together the Buckfast, sriracha, vinegar and sugar, then stir in the garlic, ginger and seasoning. Add the venison steaks, cover with cling film and marinate in the fridge for 24 hours.

To make the pickled blackberries, put the sugar and vinegar in a bowl and whisk until the sugar has dissolved, then add the blackberries. Cover the bowl and let it sit out overnight – at this time of year it’s usually cool enough to leave them out on your countertop. The next day, transfer to a clean jar and keep them in the fridge for up to two weeks to use with roasted meat or melty cheese.

To make the horseradish cream, whip your cream until it’s on the stiff side. (I love using raw cream for this – it adds a farmyard funk like a good butter would.) Stir in the grated horseradish, honey, mustard powder and a pinch of ground white pepper – you don’t want to over whip it at this point. Keep in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Ideally, you want to cook the venison on a super-hot barbecue (we use a Japanese charcoal grill for this in Kai). Otherwise, you can pan-fry the steaks by heating the olive oil in a large frying pan, then adding the steaks and cooking for 2-3 minutes on each side. You have to remember that venison has no fat, so I cook it until it’s medium-rare, then let it rest for 15 minutes and use the pan juices as a dressing.

Serve with pickled blackberries and horseradish cream. A side of sweet potato mash and fried onions is never a bad idea. You could also pop this in a bowl with sticky rice and serve it with a fried egg. Or try it in a sandwich – there is room for all God’s creatures between two slices of bread.

Salt Community Hall Fatteh

I was on a mission with the UNHCR (the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Oman, the capital of Jordan, and we’d arranged to meet some Syrian and Jordanian women who were running a school lunch programme for the local Syrian refugee community in a small town called Salt. We cooked up a feast in the Salt community hall to celebrate us coming together as women and feeding at least 800 kids a week on a very limited budget. One of the dishes we served that I’d never heard of was fatteh. I saw the ladies dry roasting pittas and got really excited. In a restaurant, your main waste most of the time is bread, so we are always coming up with economical ways of using it – as breadcrumbs, croutons, picada or crostini or in a treacle tart. Now I could add fatteh to our repertoire. In my opinion, it’s the most underrated salad in the world.

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 large pittas

extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle

500ml Greek yogurt

2 garlic cloves, minced

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp ground cumin

2 x 400g tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

100g pine nuts, toasted

1 bunch of fresh mint, chopped

1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped

1 bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

3 tbsp pomegranate seeds, plus extra to garnish

2 tbsp finely diced preserved lemon (skin only)

a pinch of sumac

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Cut the pittas into bite-sized pieces and spread them out on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toast in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until crisp.

Mix the yogurt with the garlic, lemon juice, dried mint, cumin and a pinch of salt.

Toss together your chickpeas, pine nuts, fresh herbs, pomegranate seeds and diced preserved lemon. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon a generous amount of yogurt into a serving bowl. Add your chickpea mix on top, then some crispy pittas, then repeat the layers. Garnish with more pomegranate seeds and a pinch of sumac, then drizzle more extra-virgin olive oil on top.

Chocolate and Olive Oil Mousse with Almond Praline

If you don’t like mousse, we can’t be friends anymore. Like, that’s it, I’m taking the houseplants and leaving.

This recipe comes from Niamh Fox, from when she worked at Café Paradiso in Cork in the early 2000s. We’ve adapted it slightly, so thank you, Denis Cotter (don’t sue me, you’re the best!). I adore this with blood orange segments in the winter, with fresh cherries in the summer or with the praline at any time of year.

Serves 6

Ingredients

10 eggs, separated

130g caster sugar

375g 70% dark chocolate, chopped

280ml olive oil

For the praline:

200g caster sugar

50ml water

100g flaked almonds

Method

Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean, dry bowl to stiff peaks.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale.

Put the chocolate and olive oil in a large heatproof bowl set on top of a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir constantly so the chocolate melts as quickly as possible and doesn’t get too hot. Remove the bowl from the pan and put it on the counter. Add a small amount of the egg yolk and sugar mixture to the melted chocolate and mix it in fully, then add the rest of the mixture and gently fold it in.

Add two large spoonfuls of the stiff egg whites and mix it in fully – this will make it easier to fold in the remaining whites one-third at a time, gently folding until you can no longer see any white.

Spoon the mousse into six serving bowls or glasses, then pop them in the fridge for at least 6 hours to set.

Meanwhile, to make the praline, line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and cook on a medium heat without stirring until the sugar dissolves and hits 116°C on a candy thermometer. Continue to cook until the sugar turns golden brown. As soon as it does, stir in the flaked almonds, then immediately pour them out onto the lined baking tray. Allow to cool completely, then break the praline into bite-sized shards.

Serve the mousse with a few pieces of praline scattered on top.

This week, a more personal column. I’m somewhat incapacitated at present, recovering from a knee replacement. As I write it’s been three weeks to the day since my operation. Fortunately, I sailed blissfully into it without realising that it is in fact a major operation – how naive can you be?
In many ways, that was a bonus because I didn’t fret too much ahead of time, just delighted to remedy my banjaxed constantly aching knee. After three days, I arrived home from hospital with a bag of painkillers and reams of physio instructions. I HATE Physio but know it must be done and certainly must be worth persevering, because everybody tells me cheerfully that I’ll be a ‘new woman’ with a new lease of life in three or four months’ time, I certainly hope they’re right…
So I’ll continue to work on my 90° bends (Ouch) and give fervent thanks that we can now get ‘spare parts’ when our old joints wear out. I believe that my ‘bionic knee’ was actually manufactured locally. How fortunate are we?
So lots of healing to be done. The urge to sleep all day long is irresistible but apparently, NO I must get out of bed and walk to get those joints working! My physio, who is lovely but determined, taught my daughters how to help me. And I’m deeply grateful to all who repeat ‘Mar-vell-ous’ over and over again to encourage my painful efforts and to those who make me laugh and suggest programs like the Durrells that are easy on the nerves and take my mind off the aches and pains.
It’s slow but I definitely think that I’m making progress – who knew that there is a whole crutch lingo, bad leg, good leg, crutch and different colour crutches!
Mine are Kingfisher blue which coincidentally match my blue corduroy dress which means that I get lots of compliments for my stylish but none-the-less, totally accidental coordination!
I now know that this major op takes time to heal so I’ve been practising what I preach using food as my medicine…
I’ve been drinking lots of bone broth with thick-slices of buttered bread immersed in the nourishing liquid, so comforting that it should be good for my bones.

Lots of natural yoghurt and honey too with a scattering of crunchy ashura over the top. This is a delicious Middle Eastern breakfast cereal made from puffed rice, dried fruit, and toasted nuts. Brilliant stuff to start the day as is tangy milk kefir made from our own Jersey milk.

Macroom oatmeal porridge is another wonderful way to add pep to your step, full of vitamins and minerals, they contain unique antioxidants called avenanthramides – there’s a mouthful!

I went out of my way to find organic, chemical-free, free-range, pasture fed, beef, lamb, pork and liver.

The shrimp season has just opened in Ballycotton. For just a few months in the year we can get these little grey shrimps which turn bright pink when cooked in boiling salted water (1 heaped tablespoon of salt to 1.2 litres of water). They too have lots of omega-3 and calcium, particularly if one eats the shells as I do. The heads are too prickly, so I don’t eat them but still suck out the delicious contents from the head.

Carrageen Moss is another favourite with soft brown sugar and Jersey cream, lots of iodine, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
One of my best treats was this blackberry and sweet geranium posset made from the wild blackberries (high in Vitamin E, K and C and lots of dietary fibre. They are dripping off the brambles in hedgerows all over the countryside at present.
Pick as many as you can. Use them in every way possible, from breakfast cereals to smoothies, crumbles, tarts, jams, jellies and best of all they freeze brilliantly. Just tray freeze first, then pour the frozen berries into bags or plastic boxes to enjoy during the winter.
The combination of sweet geranium, (Pelargonium Graveolens) and blackberries are a marriage made in heaven. If you don’t already have a plant, look out for them at your local garden centre or we have them here at the Ballymaloe Cookery School Farm Shop in Shanagarry (telephone in advance 021 4646785).

Ashura Cereal

Ashura is a traditional Turkish dessert known as Noah’s Ark pudding.  The legend goes that, running low on supplies in the Ark, Noah boiled together everything they had – dried wheat, beans, fruit, nuts, spices and honey. Can be served for breakfast (minus the beans) with yoghurt, jam and fresh fruit but is also great with just milk or even on its own as an addictive nibble.  This recipe was given to us by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich from Honey & Co Restaurant in London.

 
Ingredients

95ml sunflower or coconut oil
110g honey
110g dark soft brown sugar
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground mahleb seeds or replace with freshly ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom pods
1 x packet puffed rice (160g)
85g pecans, roughly chopped
40g sunflower seeds
50g pumpkin seeds
30g sesame seeds
85g almonds, very roughly chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to fan 170°C/Gas Mark 4.

Line a couple of large flat baking trays with baking parchment.

Combine the oil, honey and sugar in a medium saucepan and set on a high heat. Mix well and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to avoid it burning on the base.

Place the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.

Once the honey syrup is bubbling, carefully pour it over the dry ingredients in the bowl.  Use a large spoon to stir, turning the contents of the bowl over a few times until everything is well coated with the syrup.  Transfer the mixture to the baking trays and flatten it out a little so that there is an extra there is an even layer of cereal.

Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove one tray at a time and mix the cereal around to make sure everything is getting roasted and crispy.  Return the trays to the oven for an additional 5-6 minutes, then remove and leave the ashura to cool entirely on the trays before breaking into large clusters.

Once the cereal is cold, transfer it to an airtight container.  This keeps for well over 2 weeks, if you don’t get addicted and eat it all before then!

Macroom Oatmeal Porridge

Virtually every morning in Winter I start my day with a bowl of porridge.  Search out Macroom stoneground oatmeal which has the most delicious toasted nutty flavour.  It comes in a lovely old-fashioned red and yellow pack which I hope they never change.

Serves 4

Ingredients

155g Macroom oatmeal

1.4 litres water

1 level teaspoon salt

obligatory accompaniment!

soft brown sugar

Method

Bring 6 cups of water to the boil, sprinkle in the oatmeal, gradually stirring all the time.  Put on a low heat and stir until the water comes to the boil.

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the salt and stir again.  Serve with Jersey cream or whole (preferably raw) milk and soft brown sugar melting over the top or any other favourite toppings of your choice.

Leftover porridge can be stored in a covered container in the fridge – it will reheat perfectly the next day but will need some extra water added.

Note

If the porridge is waiting, keep covered otherwise it will form a skin which is difficult to dissolve.

Rory O’Connell’s Blackberry and Sweet Geranium Posset

Make these delightful little possets with the freshly picked wild blackberries now in season.

Rory likes to serve them in little cups or glasses. The portions should be quite small as this is quite a rich little dish, but as Rory says, it’s better to be longing for one more spoonful rather than being faced with too much food. Frozen blackberries work remarkably well during the Winter months.

Serves 8

Ingredients

400ml cream

90g caster sugar

5 leaves of rose or lemon scented geranium

100g blackberries

50ml lemon juice

Method

Place the cream, sugar, geranium leaves and blackberries in a small saucepan and bring to a bare simmer. Stir the saucepan occasionally to encourage the sugar to dissolve. Maintain that bare simmer for 5 minutes. If the cream boils hard the texture and consistency of the posset will be spoiled.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. You will notice the colour of the cream improving dramatically as soon as the lemon juice goes in. Now strain the cream through a sieve to remove the geranium leaves and at the same time push as much of the blackberries through as possible.

Pour the strained cream into 8 little cups or glasses and allow to cool before placing in the fridge for 3 hours to set. The posset will keep perfectly in your fridge for several days. I like to cover them to protect the delicate flavour.

Serve with a little softly whipped cream and if you have them, a fresh or crystallised rose petal and a nougatine biscuit from Rory O’Connell’s The Joy of Food published by Gill Books.

I’m a bit like a broken record but here I go again – I’m super proud of so many of our Ballymaloe Cookery School alumni who are making a difference in food and farming in a myriad of different ways all round the world. They find all sorts of ways to use their food knowledge for the betterment of mankind, not just in the restaurant, café and hospitality business.

How about Sophie Morris?
Perhaps, you are already one of her 500,000 plus followers on Instagram, if not, she’s definitely one to watch…particularly now, as we all become increasingly confused and desperate to find real food to feed to ourselves and our children. How do we avoid calorie dense, nutrient poor, ultra-processed food that leaves us over fed and under nourished.
Sophie who comes from a family who love to cook, did a 12 Week Cookery Course here in 2008.
She loved the super delicious food and really understood the value of sourcing really good quality chemical-free produce to cook with.
Seeing is believing, she saw with her own eyes the increase in her friends energy, vitality level and ability to concentrate and was convinced of the of the life enhancing quality of real food.
Sophie is an entrepreneur through and through. After she graduated, she set up a cookie dough business which was wildly successful not just here in Ireland but was also exported to the UK, France and the United Arab Emirates. Having turned down an offer of a €70,000 investment on Dragons’ Den. She was approached by one of the major multinationals to produce an ‘own brand’ Kooky Dough. Soon there was pressure to dumb down her original delicious cookie dough.
The subsequent, behind the scenes experience gave her a deep understanding of what goes on in the food industry to produce ever cheaper, hyper palatable, addictive food often at the expense of our health. She saw firsthand the pressure on producers to reduce costs by using ever cheaper ingredients and the huge power that the multinational food brands have. She gained an industry level insight into the skill of food labelling language, misleading health claims and strategic marketing.
The time she spent immersed in the food industry made her determined to help others to make sense of our current food system.
Eventually, the constant pressure to make the Kooky Dough cheaper was too much, as it is for many who are really passionate about the flavour and quality of the product they create. She was fortunate to sell the business to a large bakery, unfortunately, not the outcome for every small producer, many of whom give up in frustration and disillusionment as their product becomes more and more dumbed down to produce ever cheaper food.
She went on to help launch Cool Beans with friends, completed two diplomas in nutrition and fulfilled her dream to write her first cookbook, the bestseller, Sophie Kooks. Sophie was named Image magazines Young Businesswoman of the Year in 2012.
Fast forward to now…
In the meantime, Sophie has earned extraordinary trust among Irish consumers which in turn has drawn significant interest from the retailers who approached Sophie to work exclusively with them. However, Sophie made the decision to stay independent. She turned down all the opportunities in order to create change within the food industry. She is best known for scanning and highlighting ingredients in products on the shelves of our supermarkets, translating the labelling into plain English and highlighting the ingredients not found in a normal home kitchen- colourings, emulsifiers, preservatives….
Best of all she identifies less processed alternatives, often cheaper and better quality.
In her newly published cookbook, aptly named Sophie’s Swaps, she shares her top product tips from the five biggest supermarket chains in Ireland and 50 of her favourite recipes for fuss free family cooking at home, how about that?
What a contribution? This book may well change the way you shop, inspire you to cook and hopefully start a food revolution, one trolley at a time.
Sophie’s Swaps published by Gill Books is widely available in all good local bookshops.
Here are a few recipes to whet your appetite.

Miso Creamy Mushroom on Toast

Miso in another great fermented food that will keep your gut bacteria happy! I love to mix miso paste with butter and keep it in the fridge as a quick topping for things like potatoes or steamed veggies: it tastes amazing and you’re getting your fermented food in – win-win!

Miso and mushrooms complement each other so well with their umami flavour, and this makes a delicious, speedy lunch you can whip up in less than 15 minutes! You can leave out the cream cheese if you prefer.

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

large handful of mushrooms of your choice, finely sliced

½ tbsp white miso paste (Fused)

1 large slice of good-quality sourdough

1 tbsp cream cheese

1 tbsp finely chopped chives

freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Method

Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the mushrooms to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.

Next add the miso paste with a splash of water. Turn the heat down and cook for a few more minutes until you’re left with a thick glaze around the mushrooms.

Meanwhile, toast the sourdough and spread the toast with cream cheese. Top the toast with the miso mushrooms and the chopped chives. Season with pepper, if you wish (there will already be enough saltiness from the miso).

Sophie’s Tip

I like to use a combo of chestnut mushrooms and shiitake for this recipe.

Salted Chocolate Berry and Peanut Butter Bark

Bark recipes like this are my favourite way to prepare delicious treats. Not only do they taste INCREDIBLE, but they’re also so quick and easy to make. With no baking or any need to roll the mixture into individual balls. The measurements don’t need to be too exact, either – you can messily throw it together, place it on a baking tray in one single layer, and it will always turn out perfectly! You can also easily swap out ingredients – if you don’t like peanut butter, try almond or cashew butter, or swap the raspberries with blueberries.

This bark is also a really nutritious treat as it’s high in fibre and other important nutrients like magnesium. I guarantee it will become one of your staples once you try it, and it’s also a showstopper to offer to guests who come round for tea.

Makes about 16 Squares

Ingredients

230g dark chocolate, broken into squares

1 tsp coconut oil

80g raspberries

1 tbsp 100% nut peanut butter (Nutshed or Lidl’s 100% nuts peanut butter)

sprinkle of ground cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

Method

Put the chocolate and coconut oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan filled with a few centimetres of water (making sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water). Turn on the heat and let the water come to the boil and then turn off the heat. Leave the chocolate to melt, stirring gently now and again to help it along.

Grease a 20cm square baking dish using butter or coconut oil and line it with baking parchment.

When the chocolate has melted, pour half of it into the base of the baking dish and spread it out evenly. Sprinkle an even layer of raspberries over the chocolate. Drizzle the peanut butter on top of the raspberries. Add a sprinkling of cinnamon and then top with the remaining half of the melted chocolate, coating everything in an even layer. Finish by sprinkling a pinch of sea salt flakes on top.

Put the baking dish in the freezer for about 45 minutes to set.

Remove from the freezer and cut into whatever sized squares you wish! Store them in the fridge and they will keep well for 5-6 days.

Three-Ingredient Mango Ice Cream

When deciding on what recipes to include in this book, I asked my oldest son, Wrio, what his favourite recipe was and he said straight away, ‘mango ice cream!’ So that will tell you just how popular this recipe is with both my boys! So much so that I really wanted them to be in the photo for this recipe, which I know will be such a treasured memory.

This recipe is technically frozen yogurt, so it’s a really nutritious swap from ice cream, and it’s really simple to make! You can buy frozen mango in most supermarkets, and I prefer using mango to other fruits in this recipe before frozen mango makes the most perfect texture for ice cream. You can of course try it with other frozen fruits too, and it would also be gorgeous.

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients

320g frozen mango

220g full fat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp honey

Method

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz together. Leave the food processor on for a few minutes, as it takes time to break down the mango and get rid of all lumps. Be patient at the start – it might look like it needs more liquid to blend, but don’t be tempted to add any as it will start to break down and come together.

Taste and add more honey if you prefer it sweeter.

Enjoy this as a soft-serve style ice cream or smoothie bowl, or transfer to a container and allow to harden in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Once frozen, it scoops perfectly, just like ice cream!

It wasn’t until Lou Robbie had her first child that she really realised how fortunate she was being able to cook. Having learned basic cooking skills, she was more than capable of feeding the family real, affordable, wholesome homemade food.

She attended catering college and cooked as a professional chef for many years.
Many of her friends with very successful careers were struggling while she could easily whip up purées, finger foods and ‘weaning dinners’ from scratch. Lou had an irresistible urge to help others to find the confidence to do the same. She grew up in rural Ireland in the 80’s, one of six children in a typical household. The weekly menu was predictable, there was always fish on Friday’s and a roast dinner on Sunday.
Her mum made brown bread, apple tarts, sponge cakes…Treats like chocolate were rare enough and school lunch was always a cheese or ham and cheese sandwich on white bread.
In her 20’s she donned her backpack and headed off to see the world. During her travels in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, she was exposed to a whole new world of exciting flavours.
When the pandemic hit, she, like so many others, found herself trapped at home, cooking just for her family. She started to share tips and recipes online, the response was phenomenal. In 2021, Little Lou Cooks was born to give online cooking classes to both adults and children.
It gathered momentum fast, thousands of parents wanted to swap shop-bought meals for healthier, homemade food that they could make in advance and perhaps freeze.
A video of batch baking homemade snacks suitable for freezing for her kids’ school lunches went viral and now Lou has over 1 million followers across her social media platforms. The feedback she gets from grateful parents is touching and inspired her to write MAKE AND FREEZE.
Here’s just one from Jennifer…
‘Hi there! I just wanted to say thanks for your school lunchbox recipes and the stew one too! We’re all well fed here today. The kids help bake over midterm, so we have lovely family time too. I was buying flapjacks and pancakes, but now we’re stocked for a few weeks of delicious homemade snacks and I know exactly what’s in them!’
There are lots more which shows how this book has helped to change so many people’s lives.
Chapters include hearty energy packed breakfasts, savoury and sweet lunchboxes, slow cooked dinners, air fryer (as you know I’m not a fan, but many are). Family pies, stews, weekday and weekend favourites, bread and sneaky sweet stuff…
All homely and delicious with lots of clever tips and riffs on favourite dishes. This may well be the book you wished you had years ago.

All recipes are from Make & Freeze Cookbook by Lou Robbie published by Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House UK)

Nut Free Energy Balls

There are some recipes in this book that were stepping-stones to get to where I am today! In November 2023 I shared a montage reel of me making snacks for the lunchbox. That reel was a viral hit and brought me a huge number of new followers. These energy balls played a starring role, and they have been made for thousands of kids’ lunchboxes across the world! So cool to see.

Makes 12

Storage:

Keep these in the fridge for up to 7 days.

To Freeze:

Freeze in a labelled ziplock bag for up to 3 months.

To Defrost:

Defrost in an airtight container on the worktop overnight.

TIP: To change up the flavour, add ½ teaspoon of orange zest to the blended mix.

Ingredients

115g pitted dates

40g rolled oats

60g mixed seeds

20g desiccated coconut, plus 20g extra to finish

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

Put the dates into a bowl, cover with boiling water, leave to soften for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, blend the oats, seeds, coconut and cocoa powder in a processor – the texture should be coarse and not too fine.

Drain the dates and add them to the blender, then blend until it looks like a thick paste. If it looks dry and won’t clump, add a dash of boiled water and blend again.

Roll the mixture into balls, big or small – whichever you prefer.

To finish, pour the extra desiccated coconut into a wide bowl. Lightly wet your hands to help the coconut stick, then roll the balls again and toss them in the coconut. Put the balls into a container and pop them into the fridge to firm up.

‘Cowboy Supper’ Sausage & Bean Casserole

This a hearty, tasty and comforting dish, ideal for the cowboys and cowgirls in your life! Beans and sausages are the perfect pair for a tasty midweek supper, and it’s also a budget-friendly meal if you’re trying to keep food costs low. Imagine a cold wintry Wednesday when it’s damp and dreary and everyone’s coming home to a warm house with a cosy fire. The first smell they get as they open the door is this comforting slow-cooker casserole . . . perfect.

Serves 4

Storage:

Once cooked and cooled, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

To Freeze:

To save space in your freezer, portion the cooked and cooled bean casserole and freeze in labelled ziplock bags for up to 3 months.

To Defrost:

Defrost overnight in the fridge. Reheat in a pot or in the microwave until piping hot.

Ingredients

1-2 tbsp cooking oil

6 sausages, cut into quarters (450g)

2 onions, finely chopped

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato purée

600ml hot beef stock

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained

chopped fresh parsley, to serve

Method

Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the sausages all over, then put them into the slow cooker. This step is important because the sausages won’t brown in the slow cooker. If you have time, brown the onions in the frying pan too, as this will give a better flavour to the finished dish.

Add all the rest of the ingredients except the cannellini beans and parsley to the slow cooker and cook either on high for 3 hours or on low for 6 hours.

Add the drained beans 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Serve with crusty bread and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

Creamy Garlic & Lemon Chicken with Buttery Mash and Veg

To me this is pure comfort food, and it makes a great Sunday family dinner without any of the fuss. Lemon chicken reminds me of a weekend we once had in Paris, before we had kids. I ordered it in a little restaurant in St Michel, and it was served with boiled potatoes and green beans, cooked with few ingredients but full of flavour. I love to cook dishes for my family that I’ve had on my travels. It always evokes lovely memories and interesting conversations with the kids.

Serves 4

Storage:

Once cooked and cooled, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

To Freeze:

To save space in your freezer, portion the cooked and cooled chicken and sauce and freeze in labelled ziplock bags for up to 3 months.

To Defrost:

Defrost overnight in the fridge. Reheat in a pan or in the microwave until piping hot.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp oregano oil, for cooking

zest and juice of 1 lemon

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

100ml hot chicken stock (use ½ a stock cube)

2 tbsp cornflour

½ tsp Dijon mustard

250ml double cream

To Serve

mashed potato

green beans

carrots

lemon wedges

chopped fresh parsley

Method

Warm a large frying pan on a medium heat. Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper and oregano, add some oil to the pan, and sear for about 5 minutes, until brown all over. Put the chicken breasts into the slow cooker, add the lemon juice, lemon zest and garlic, and pour in the chicken stock. Cook on low for 4 hours, or on high for 2 hours.

After the cooking time, remove the chicken breasts to a plate and cover to keep warm.

Make a paste by mixing the cornflour, mustard and a tablespoon of water in a small bowl and pour this into a small pot. Put 2 ladles of the juices from the slow cooker into the pot of paste and whisk on a medium heat for a few minutes to cook out the cornflour, then add the cream and the rest of the juices and let it bubble and cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed, then pour back into the slow cooker and put the chicken back too for a final 10 mins.

Serve with creamy mashed potato, green beans and carrots. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a sprinkle of chopped parsley.