Eggs are a totally magical ingredient, the quintessential fast food, versatile, nourishing… Think about it, if you have two boiled eggs or in the case of hungry chaps three or four for supper with a few slices of brown soda bread you’ll feel deliciously sated. They need to be good eggs of course, really fresh and preferably free range and organic. The exciting thing is that a growing number of people have been smitten by the ‘fancy fowl’ bug. All over the country people are keeping a few hens in their back gardens and have discovered the joy of collecting and eating their own freshly laid eggs. Kids of all ages love hens and it’s a brilliant way to reconnect them with how food is produced. Several local schools have a chicken coop with a couple of hens and the children learn how to care for them – it’s a brilliant way to foster entrepreneurial spirit – several have started to keep hens at home and sell the eggs to their mammie’s friends and the neighbours.

It’s win win all the way, instead of paying the council to dispose of the scraps from your cooking they can be fed to hens and you’ll be rewarded with beautiful eggs a few days later. The hen ‘poo’ is a brilliant addition to your compost, which in turn can go into the garden to make the soil more fertile to grow healthy, beautiful fruit and vegetables.

So for those of us who do have hens, this time of the year can be challenging – hens don’t love cold weather any more than we do so their productivity is diminished during the winter – as soon as the weather improves they start to lay with gay abandon. Suddenly there’s a glut of eggs. There are several ways of preserving eggs, My favourite short term way of preserving eggs is Buttered Eggs – a simple technique which seals the shell and gives the eggs a delicious curdy texture. Pickled eggs are another brilliant solution; they are a great favourite in British pubs and deserve to be much better known over here as do Scotch Eggs which are having a terrific revival.

Pickled Eggs

Makes 12

　

850ml (11⁄2 pints) white wine vinegar

10g (1⁄2oz) fresh root ginger

7g (1⁄4oz) white peppercorns

7g (1⁄4oz) black peppercorns

1 chilli

12 organic eggs, hard-boiled

Put the vinegar and spices into a stainless-steel saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, sieve and leave to cool.

Peel the eggs, run under a cold tap to remove any traces of shell and put into a sterilised Kilner jar. Pour in the spiced vinegar. The eggs must be completely covered; otherwise they won’t keep. Seal the jar with the clip and keep for 3–4 weeks before using.

Scotch Eggs

Serves 6

450g (1lb) best-quality sausage meat (or homemade sausage meat)

6 hard-boiled eggs (preferably free-range)

1 tablespoon) freshly chopped herbs, eg. parsley, chives, thyme

1/2 teaspoon English mustard

1 beaten egg

seasoned flour

dry, white breadcrumbs

best-quality oil for deep frying

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and put in the eggs carefully, one by one. Bring back to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. (The eggs should be covered with water.) Pour off the water and cover with cold water.

Mix the fresh herbs and mustard thoroughly through the sausage meat. Divide the sausage meat into 6 even-sized pieces. Put a piece of sausage meat onto a floured board and flatten it with your hand into an oval shape, large enough to cover an egg. Shape the sausage meat around the peeled egg with your hands, making sure that the egg is evenly coated and there are no cracks. Cover the rest of the eggs in the same way.

Roll the Scotch eggs in seasoned flour, beaten egg and finally coat them with dry, white breadcrumbs. Coat all the eggs in the same way. Heat the oil for deep frying; making sure it is deep enough to cover the eggs. The fat should be a medium heat, 180C\350F, because if it is too hot, the outside will be brown before the inside is cooked. Put the Scotch Eggs into the basket (a few at a time) and lower them into the fat. Fry them for 5 or 6 minutes, and then lift them out of the pan and drain on kitchen paper.

Serve warm with a good Green Salad and perhaps a Tomato and Basil Salad.

Fried Eggs with Crispy Sage

Simple, but so delicious

Serves 1

2 freshly laid organic eggs

Clarified butter or extra virgin olive oil

4-6 sage leaves

Sea salt

Sourdough toast – from Arbutus Artisan Bakery in Cork

Heat 3-4 tablespoons of clarified butter or extra virgin olive oil in a heavy frying pan over a high heat. Crack the egg one at a time into the pan and allow to sizzle for a minute or two. Baste with the hot butter or olive oil or flip them over. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Transfer to a warm plate, add the sage leaves to the pan and allow to sizzle for a couple of seconds in the butter or oil. Pour the contents of the pan including the sage leaves over the eggs. Serve with lots of sourdough toast.

Fluffy Smoked Haddock and Parmesan Omelette

This delicious omelette was a favourite of the English author and playwright Arnold Bennett and is still served at the Savoy Hotel where he ate almost every night after the theater. It would also be good made with smoked salmon or smoked mackerel. Delicious for breakfast or served with a green salad for lunch or dinner.

Serves 1-2 as a main course 

2-3ozs (50-75g) smoked haddock

a little milk

1 oz (25g) butter

1/4 pint (150ml) cream

3 eggs

salt and freshly ground pepper

2-3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated

Garnish

parsley, freshly chopped 

10 inch (25.5cm) omelette pan, preferably non-stick

Put the smoked haddock into a small saucepan. Cover with milk and simmer gently until it is cooked enough to separate into flakes (about 10 minutes). Drain. Toss the haddock over a moderate heat with half the butter and 2 tablespoons of the cream and keep aside. Separate the eggs beat the yolks with a tablespoon of the cream and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Whip the egg whites stiffly. Fold into the yolks with the haddock and add half the grated Parmesan cheese.

Melt the remaining butter in the omelette pan. Pour the mixture in gently and cook over a medium heat until the base of the omelette is golden. Spoon the remaining cream over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the finely grated Parmesan. Pop under a hot grill for a minute or so until golden and bubbly on top. Slide on to a hot dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve immediately accompanied by a good green salad.

Ballymaloe Vanilla Ice Cream with Pedro Ximénez and Raisins

Really good eggs and really good cream makes really good ice cream. This recipe is made on an egg-mousse base. It produces a deliciously rich ice cream with a smooth texture that does not need further whisking during the freezing period. This ice cream should not be served frozen hard; remove it from the freezer at least 10 minutes before serving. You can add other flavourings to the basic recipe: liquid ingredients such as melted chocolate or coffee should be folded into the mousse before adding the cream. For chunkier ingredients such as chocolate chips, Turkish delight or crystallised ginger, finish the ice cream, semi-freeze it and then stir them through, otherwise they will sink to the bottom.

Serves 12–16

4 organic egg yolks

110g (4oz) sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and seeds from ½ vanilla pod

1.2 litres (2 pints) softly whipped cream (measured after it is whipped, for accuracy)

100g (3 1/2 oz) Muscatel raisins covered with 100ml (3 1/2 fl ozs) Pedro Ximénez sherry or Pedro Ximénez Malaga wine

Put the egg yolks into a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy (keep the whites for meringues). Combine the sugar with 200ml (7fl oz) of water in a small heavy-based saucepan. Stir over heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, then remove the spoon and boil the syrup until it reaches the ‘thread’ stage, about 106–113°C (223–235°F): it will look thick and syrupy, and when a metal spoon is dipped in the last drops of syrup will form thin threads. Pour this boiling syrup in a steady stream onto the egg yolks, whisking all the time by hand. (If you are whisking the mousse in a food mixer, remove the bowl and whisk the boiling syrup in by hand; otherwise it will solidify on the sides of the bowl.)

Add the vanilla extract and vanilla seeds and continue to whisk the mixture until it becomes a thick, creamy white mousse.

This is the stage at which, if you’re deviating from this recipe, you can add liquid flavourings such as coffee. Fold the softly whipped cream into the mousse, pour into a bowl, cover and freeze. Serve with Muscatel soaked raisins, with a chilled glass of Pedro Ximénez on the side or poured over the ice cream.

Hottips

New season’s Irish asparagus is at the Skibereen Farmers Market from Tim York of Lisheen Organics. Phone 028 38824 email lisheenorganics@gmail.com

Homage to Rose Gray from the River Café two and half day cookery course at Ballymaloe Cookery School – Gillian Hegarty, who worked with Rose at the legendary River Café will teach some of her favourite recipes – not to be missed Wednesday 27th – Friday 29th April 021 4646785 www.cookingisfun.ie

Sea kale, now in season for just a few short weeks is a deliciously delicate vegetable traditionally grown inside terra pots to exclude the light. It resembles celery in appearance but has a totally different, sublime flavour. It is never found in super markets and rarely even in Farmers Markets but you can occasionally find plants in good garden centres and it’s a perennial that’s definitely worth growing yourself. If you’d like to taste it first it will be on the menu at Ballymaloe House near Shanagarry for the next couple of weeks with the first of the new seasons asparagus from the walled garden. 021 4652531.

 

For many of us with busy lives Monday to Friday whizzes past in a buzz of activity – home from work in the evening. What will we have for supper?

It is so tempting to flop in a comfy chair, put up the feet and nibble a ready meal – Michelle Darmody has lots of exciting suggestions for easy week day meals but how about an extra special meal at the weekend when there is a bit more time for shopping, chopping and cooking with family and friends around the dining table.

Yummy food is all about good ingredients, they don’t have to be expensive but they do need to be fresh and in season. Local seasonal food can be difficult to find in large supermarkets and affiliated shops, so part of the fun can be grabbing a shopping bag and heading for your local farmers’ market. Why not set yourself a challenge – that the main ingredients should all come from within a twenty five mile radius of your home – obviously salt, pepper and spices will need to be imported but it should be possible to find a good free range or better still organic chicken locally. Choose a fine plump one with giblets so you can make a nice pot of chicken broth with the carcass and that can be the basis of a delicious soup, stew or chicken pie. The hens are all laying well at the moment so there are lots of lovely free range eggs at the market or you could go one better and bring home a few lively hens from Mahon, Midleton or Douglas Farmers Market and have the pleasure of collecting freshly laid eggs every day (almost!) There are gorgeous crinkly Savoy cabbages around at present – they only cost a couple of euros and make a delicious salad as well as Buttered Cabbage.

The pudding has to be new seasons rhubarb I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a rhubarb pie, tart or crumble or cake. I’ve got lots and lots of recipes but I’ve chosen a rhubarb crumble cake that everyone loved when they tasted it recently. Happy cooking.

Swede Turnip Soup with Pancetta and Parsley Oil

Serves 6-8

12 ozs (350g) Swede turnips, diced

1 tablespoon sunflower or arachide oil

5 ozs (150g) rindless streaky bacon cut in 1/2 inch (1cm) dice

4 ozs (110) onions, chopped

5 ozs (150g) potatoes, diced

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 pints (900ml) homemade chicken stock

cream or creamy milk to taste

Garnish

8 slices pancetta

Parsley Oil

50ml (2fl ozs) extra virgin olive oil

50g (2ozs) parsley, chopped

First make the parsley oil.

Whiz the parsley with the olive oil until smooth and green.

Next, make the soup.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the bacon and cook on a gentle heat until crisp and golden. Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon. Toss the onion, potato and turnip in the bacon fat, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover with a butter wrapper to keep in the steam, and sweat on a gentle heat until soft but not coloured, about 10 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are fully cooked. Liquidise, taste, add a little cream or creamy milk and some extra seasoning if necessary.

Spread the slices of pancetta on a wire rack over a baking tray. Cook under a grill for 1 – 2 minutes or until crisp.

Serve in bowls, drizzle each with parsley oil and lay a slice of crispy pancetta on top.

08/12/09 (SH) (12011)

 

Smoked Egg, Chorizo and Rocket Salad

Hard-boiled eggs with softish centres are also delicious in this recipe.

Serves 6

6 freshly smoked, hard-boiled organic eggs

6 tiny or 3 medium beetroots, cooked

sugar and salt

extra virgin olive oil

200g (7oz) chorizo, sliced

a mixture of salad leaves, such as cos, little gem, purslane and rocket

a piece of aged Coolea, Desmond or Gabriel cheese

For the Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

a little Dijon mustard

Maldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper

To Serve

homemade Mayonnaise

Prepare the eggs either by smoking them or hard-boiling them.

To prepare the beetroots, leave 5cm (2 inches) of leaf stalks on top and the whole root on the beets. Hold it under a running tap and wash off the mud with the palms of your hands, so that you don’t damage the skin; otherwise the beetroots will bleed during cooking. Put into a saucepan, cover with cold water and add a little salt and sugar. Cover the pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 1–2 hours, depending on size. Beetroots are usually cooked when the skin rubs off easily and if they dent when pressed with a finger. If in doubt, also test with a skewer or the tip of a knife.

Meanwhile, whisk the ingredients for the vinaigrette together in a bowl. Just before serving, heat a little olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the slices of chorizo for a minute or two until they warm through and the oil begins to run. Toss the salad leaves in a little vinaigrette and arrange on the base of a serving plate. Cut the eggs lengthways – the centres should still be slightly soft and will be best if still warm. Arrange haphazardly on top of the leaves. Tuck beetroot quarters in between the leaves and sprinkle the slices of chorizo over the salad. Grate some hard cheese over the top. Drizzle the salad with the chorizo oil from the pan and serve immediately with lots of crusty sourdough bread and some homemade mayonnaise.

Cabbage, Sultana and Fennel Salad

Serves 4 – 6

　

450g (1lb) cabbage, thinly sliced

1 small fennel bulb, diced

4 tablespoons (5 American tablespoons) fennel or dill leaves chopped

75g – 110g (3 – 4 oz) yellow sultanas

110ml (4oz/1/2 cup) yoghurt

110ml (4oz/1/2 cup) mayonnaise

1-2 teaspoons runny honey

freshly squeezed lime juice of 1-2 limes

salt and freshly ground salt and pepper

Put the thinly sliced cabbage into a bowl, add the chopped fennel and fennel herb and sultanas. Mix the yoghurt/mayonnaise with the honey and lime juice. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Drizzle over the cabbage, toss well. Taste and correct the seasoning.

Chicken and Bacon Pie

Serves 6 – 8850ml (1½ pints) homemade chicken stock or water
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
2 large unpeeled onions, quartered
2 celery sticks, cut into small chunks
6 black peppercorns
1 bouquet garni
1 large free-range, organic chicken or boiling fowl
1 sprig of tarragon (optional)
16 small flat mushrooms
25g (1oz) butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
16 button onions, peeled
450g (1lb) streaky bacon in a piece, cooked
110g (4oz) peas – frozen are fine (optional)
500g (1lb 2oz) puff pastry
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk)
green salad, to serve

For the sauce:
150ml (1/4 pint) dry white wine
110g (4oz) roux
250ml (9fl oz) single cream)

500g (18oz) puff pastry

Egg wash

1 large or 6-8 small ovenproof pie dishes

Put 5cm (2 inches) of water or chicken stock in a heavy casserole and add the vegetables and bouquet garni. Lay the chicken on top. Add a sprig of tarragon if available and cover with a tight fitting lid. Bring to the boil and then transfer to a moderate oven, 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Cook for 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the bird. Watch that it does not boil dry. The water should be deliciously rich and may be a little fatty.

Meanwhile fry the whole or sliced flat mushrooms depending on size in a little butter on a hot pan, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Sweat the onions in butter in a small, covered casserole until soft. Cut the cooked bacon into cubes. When the chicken is cooked remove from the casserole onto a large platter and carve the flesh. De-grease cooking liquid. Arrange the sliced chicken in layers in a deep pie dish, covering each layer with bacon, onions and mushrooms, add peas if using (no need to cook).Next make the sauce. Put 600ml (1pint) of the strained and de-greased cooking liquid and the dry white wine into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Whisk in the roux. Cook until thick and smooth. Add the cream. Bring to the boil again. Taste and correct the seasoning. Allow to cool, put in one large or eight small individual pie dishes cover with puff pastry. Decorate the top with the left over puff pastry – Have fun, we sometimes make funny faces, write messages – yummy, scrummy, yippee, or put a fine pastry cockerel on top if your guests are not to sensitive!

Refrigerate until required. Could be prepared ahead

Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8. Just before cooking, brush the top with egg wash and cook for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for a further 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with a good green salad.

Rhubarb Crumble Cake

Can be served as a pudding or a cake.

Makes a 20cm cake – Serves 10Crumble Topping

75g (3oz) self raising flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

75g (3oz) sugar – we used ½ light muscovado sugar and ½ castor sugar

50g (2oz) cold butter cut into cubes

70g (2 ½ oz) flaked almonds

Cake Mixture

1kg (2¼lb) red rhubarb, chopped

125g (4 ½ oz) light muscovado sugar – plus 2 tablespoons extra

125g (4 ½ oz) butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

100g (3 ½oz) self raising flour, sifted

½ teaspoon baking powder

100g (3 ½oz) ground almonds

2 tablespoons milkicing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Mark 4. 1 x 20cm loose-bottomed tin greased and lined with a circle of baking parchment. First make the crumble. Sieve the flour and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and rub in the chilled butter with your fingertips. It should look like very coarse bread crumbs. Stir in the flaked almonds and keep to a side while you make the cake.

Cut the rhubarb into 5cm lengths, put in a stainless steel saucepan with 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 5 – 6 minutes, until the rhubarb is just beginning soften.

Cream the butter and with 125g sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the eggs with the vanilla, then beat into a butter mixture a splash at a time, making sure each bit is well incorporated before adding the next. Add a tablespoon of the flour if it threatens to curdle. When all the egg has been added, stir in the sieved flour, baking powder and ground almonds until everything is well mixed, add the milk to give a smooth, uniform batter.

Spread the mixture over the base of the cake tin, then add the strained rhubarb, sprinkle the crumble evenly over the top. Bake for 1 hour, covering the top with foil after 45 minutes if there’s any risk it might burn. It should be set in the centre, although the rhubarb layer makes it a bit squidgy, so it may sink as it cools. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes before removing. Sprinkle with icing sugar and eat warm with lots of softly whipped cream.

It’s Mothers Day tomorrow, bunches of flowers, boxes of chocolates, mugs and pretty cards with cute little messages all have a feel good factor for us and show our lovely Mums we are thinking of them on Mother’s Day but how about giving a real surprise? Maybe show our appreciation with breakfast in bed or cooking even one fab dish for lunch or supper, you can’t imagine how thrilled us Mum’s are when we get a little extra surprise.

For breakfast in bed, always a delight, lay a little tray with a pretty cloth or even a gingham napkin, a tiny posy of flowers that would definitely give her an ‘oops’ in her tummy. You’ll need a nice pot of tea or coffee for a start and maybe some mini scones or muffins. They are really easy to make and look adorable. A glass of freshly squeezed orange or pink grapefruit is also a special treat, just cut the citrus fruit around the equator and squeeze – even one of those little plastic juicers will do the job perfectly.

It’s a bit of a mission cooking a full Irish but a delicious scrambled egg or a mini frittata made with good eggs can be delectable. If you really want to impress, make a loaf of bread as well, this is a nice easy recipe. There are gorgeous bunches of  new seasons rhubarb in the shops at the moment so I’ll also include rhubarb and ginger jam which can be made with little effort over two days.

If you prefer to rustle up something for lunch, how about a cheddar cheese fondue, the whole family can gather around the kitchen table, tuck in and have fun. Better still there will be virtually no washing up.

If you want to go the whole hog and treat your mum to an evening off, then how about a full dinner? Try to enlist other family members to help, lay the table, do place names, and maybe draw zany place mats… A posy of flowers will add to the special atmosphere and excitement. Better still run a nice bath for Mum to relax in, while you cook. Maybe scatter some rose petals into the water, light a few candles, play some soothing music, then treat her to Tomato Soup with Pesto Toasts followed by Roast Chicken Salad and as a finale a luscious Chocolate Meringue Roulade. How about that for a special treat for Mum?

Fresh Soda Bread for Mum

This is a more modern version of Soda Bread, couldn’t be simpler, just mix and pour into a well greased tin. This bread keeps very well for several days and is also great toasted.

Makes 1 large loaf or 3 small loaves

400g (14 oz) stone ground wholemeal flour

55g (3oz) white flour, preferably unbleached

1 level teaspoon bread soda, sieved (Bicarbonate of Soda/Baking Soda)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon honey

1 egg, preferably free range

1 tablespoon arachide or sunflower oil, unscented

425ml (15fl oz) buttermilk or sourmilk approx. (put all the milk in)

Sunflower or sesame seeds optional

Loaf tin – 9 inches (23cm) x 5 inches (12.5cm) x 2 inches (5cm)

Preheat oven to 2001C/4001F/regulo 6.

Put all the dry ingredients including the sieved bread soda into a large bowl, mix well. Whisk the egg, add the oil and honey most of the buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in all the liquid, mix well and add more buttermilk if necessary. The mixture should be soft and slightly sloppy, pour into an oiled tin or tins and bake for 60 minutes approx, or until the bread is nice and crusty and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

Tomato Soup with Pesto Crostini

Serves 5

We worked for a long time to try and make this soup reasonably foolproof. Good quality tinned tomatoes (another must for your store cupboard), give a really good result. Homemade tomato puree although delicious can give a more variable result depending on the quality of the tomatoes.

1¼ pints (750ml) homemade tomato puree (see recipe) or 2 x 14 oz (400g) tins of tomatoes, liquidised and sieved

1 small onion, finely chopped

¾oz (15g) butter

8 fl ozs (250ml) Bechamel sauce (white) (see recipe)

8 fl ozs (250ml) homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock

salt, freshly ground pepper and sugar

4 fl ozs (120ml) cream

pesto – see fool proof food

6 crostini made from inch (5mm) thick slices of thin French bread cooked in olive oil until crisp and pale golden

Sweat the onion in the butter on a gentle heat until soft but not coloured.  Add the tomato puree, (or chopped tinned tomatoes plus juice) white sauce and homemade chicken stock.  Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.

Liquidise, taste, dilute further if necessary. Bring back to the boil, correct seasoning add a little cream if necessary.

Spread a little blob of Pesto on 6 freshly cooked crostini and serve with each bowl of tomato soup.

Note:  This soup needs to be tasted carefully as the final result depends on the quality of the tomato puree, stock etc.

Bechamel sauce

½ pint (300ml) milk

a few slices carrot

a few slices onion

a small sprig of thyme

a small sprig of parsley

3 peppercorns

(2oz) 45 g roux

salt and freshly ground pepper

This is a wonderfully quick way of making Bechamel Sauce if you have roux already made. Put the cold milk into a saucepan with the carrot, onion, peppercorns, thyme and parsley. Bring to the boil, simmer for 4-5 minutes, and remove from the heat and leave to infuse for ten minutes. Strain out the vegetables, bring the milk back to the boil and thicken to a light coating consistency by whisking in roux. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, taste and correct the seasoning if necessary.

Roast Chicken Salad with Caesar Dressing

Crisp leaves of little Gem lettuce provide the perfect scoops for chunks of tender chicken drizzled with creamy Caesar dressing.  Everything can be prepared ahead, ready for the final assembly.

Serves 12

1 large organic chicken

2 lemons

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon clear honey

Caesar Dressing

2 egg yolks, preferably free-range

2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1 x 2 ozs (50g) tin anchovies

1 clove garlic, crushed

a generous pinch of English mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2-1 tablespoon Worcester sauce

1/2-1 tablespoon) Tabasco sauce

6 fl ozs (175ml) sunflower oil

2 fl ozs (50ml) extra virgin olive oil

2 fl ozs (50ml) cold water

I make the dressing in a food processor but it can also be made very quickly by hand. Drain the anchovies and crush lightly with a fork. Put into a bowl with the egg yolks; add the garlic, lemon juice, mustard powder, salt, Worcester and Tabasco sauce. Whisk all the ingredients together.  As you whisk, add the oils slowly at first, then a little faster as the emulsion forms. Finally whisk in the water to make a spreadable consistency. Taste and correct the seasoning: this dressing should be highly flavoured.

To Serve

Separate the leaves from the lettuces, arrange the leaves over 2 platters.  Remove each breast coarsely from the chicken in one piece.  Pull the meat from the legs and wings and shred it.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cut each breast in to 6pieces each with a little skin attached.  Put a little brown meat in each lettuce leaf, then top with a slice of breast. (Save the remainder of the dressing for another occasion. Refrigerate until needed).

Just before serving, drizzle a little dressing over each piece of chicken.  Garnish with watercress sprigs

Cheddar Cheese Fondue

A fondue party is so retro, terrific fun.  Choose your seat carefully because if you drop the bread into the fondue you must kiss the person on our right – this could be your big chance! Myrtle Allen devised this Cheese Fondue recipe made from Irish Cheddar cheese. A huge favourite at Ballymaloe.  Even though it’s a meal in itself it can be made in minutes and is loved by adults and children alike. A fondue set is obviously an advantage but not totally essential.

Serves 2 – perfect for a romantic supper.

2 tablespoons white wine

2 small cloves of garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons Ballymaloe Tomato Relish or any tomato chutney

2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley

170g (6 ozs) grated mature Cheddar cheese

Crusty white bread

Put the white wine and the rest of the ingredients into a fondue pot or small saucepan and stir. Just before serving put over a low heat until the cheese melts and begins to bubble. Put the pot over the fondue stove and serve immediately.  Provide each guest with fresh French bread or cubes of ordinary white bread crisped up in a hot oven.  They will also need a fondue fork and an ordinary fork.

Chocolate Meringue Roulade

A really luscious but completely irresistible dessert, perfect as a naughty treat for Mum on Mothers Day.

Serves 10-12

Meringue

4 egg whites

250g (9oz) castor sugar

4 rounded teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Chocolate Filling

225g (8oz) best quality dark chocolate

300ml (10fl oz) cream

1/2 – 1 tablespoon rum or orange liqueur

Chocolate Wafers

50g (2oz) best quality dark chocolate

Icing sugar

Swiss roll tin 38×25.5cm (15x10inch)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/regulo 4

First make the Meringue

Check that the bowl is dry, spotlessly clean and free of grease.  Add 225g (8oz/1 cup) of the castor sugar to the egg whites all at once and whisk until the mixture forms stiff dry peaks (this can take up to 10 minutes).  Sieve the cocoa and the remaining 25g (1oz/1/8 cup) castor sugar together and fold in very gently.

Line the Swiss roll tin with oiled tin foil.  Spread the meringue evenly over the tin foil with a palette knife.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for 18-20 minutes or until just firm to the touch.

Turn out onto a sheet of bakewell paper and remove the tin but leave the tin foil on, allow to get cold.

Meanwhile make the chocolate filling

Put the cream in a heavy-bottomed, preferably stainless steel saucepan and bring it almost to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. With a wooden spoon, stir the chocolate into the cream until it is completely melted. Transfer the chocolate cream to the bowl of a food mixer and allow it to cool to room temperature. Add the liqueur and whisk until it is just stiff enough to pipe.

To make the chocolate wafers

Melt 50g (2oz) of chocolate over a gentle heat or in a very low oven. Spread onto a piece of card, allow to set.

To assemble

Peel the tin foil off the meringue, spread most of the ganache over the surface. Holding the edge of the bakewell paper roll up the roulade from the short end. Transfer to a serving dish – easier said than done! Dredge with icing sugar. Pipe the remainder of the ganache onto the top. Cut the chocolate sheet into diamonds or stamp out in heart shapes. Use to decorate the roulade. Serve with softly whipped cream.

Raspberry Coulis

8 ozs (225g) raspberries

3-6 tablespoons sugar

8 tablespoons water

lemon juice – optional

Make a syrup with sugar and water, cool and add to the raspberries.  Liquidise and sieve, taste, sharpen with lemon juice if necessary.  Store in a fridge.

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

A change from raspberry and strawberry jam, make it now when rhubarb is in full season and not yet thick and tough. It is also gorgeous in a light fluffy sponge cake.

Makes 8 x 1 lb (450 g) jars

4 lb (1.8kg) trimmed rhubarb,

4 lb (1.8kg) granulated sugar

grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

2 ozs (50g) bruised ginger

2 ozs (50g) chopped crystallized ginger or stem ginger preserved in syrup (optional)

Wipe the rhubarb and cut into 1 inch (2.5cm) pieces.   Put it in a large bowl layered with the sugar, add the lemon rind and juice.  Leave to stand overnight.  Next day put into a preserving pan, add the bruised ginger tied in a muslin bag.  Steadily bring to the boil until it is a thick pulp.  Remove the bag of ginger and then pour the jam into hot clean jars, cover and store in a dry airy cupboard.

If you like 2ozs (50g) chopped crystallized ginger or preserved stem ginger can be added at the end.

Fool Proof Food

Pesto

Homemade Pesto takes minutes to make and tastes a million times better than most of what you buy.  The problem is getting enough basil.  If you have difficulty, use parsley, a mixture of parsley and mint or parsley and coriander – different but still delicious.

Serve with pasta, goat cheese, tomato and mozzerella.

4ozs (115g) fresh basil leaves

6 – 8 fl ozs (175 – 250ml) extra virgin olive oil

1 oz (25g) fresh pine kernels (taste when you buy to make sure they are not rancid)

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2 ozs (50g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Parmigiana Reggiano is best)

salt to taste

Whizz the basil with the olive oil, pine kernels and garlic in a food processor or pound in a pestle and mortar.  Remove to a bowl and fold in the finely grated Parmesan cheese. Taste and season.

Pesto keeps for weeks, covered with a layer of olive oil in a jar in the fridge. It also freezes well but for best results don’t add the grated Parmesan until it has defrosted. Freeze in small jars for convenience.

Hottips

Build a wood fired oven – if you have been bitten by the DIY bug how about picking up a copy of ‘Building a Wood Fired Oven to Cook Bread and Pizza’ by Tom Jaine published by Prospect Books – Having read it myself I feel like picking up a trowel myself. Meanwhile don’t miss Philip Dennhardt’s yummy Saturday Pizza’s at the Ballymaloe Cookery School every Saturday between 12pm and 4:30pm – 021 4646785 – talktophilip@gmail.com

Instead of or as well as giving a box of chocolates on Mother’s Day this year why not give your Mum a gift voucher for ‘ Hand Made Chocolates – Demonstration Course’ from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 10^th April 2011 at the Baking Academy Palmerstown Village, Dublin 20, close to the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre. There are also some wonderful bread and cake baking courses.  Phone 01 8451214 – Email: bakingacademyireland@gmail.com www.bakingacademyireland.com

Slow Food Ireland have organised a Seaweed Foraging event on Friday 8^th April at 2:15pm sharp Bruce MacDonald of Copper Coast Tours will show you how to identify and gather edible seaweed on Shanagarry Strand (Garryvoe Beach) in Shanagarry, Co Cork. Bring your boots, coats, buckets, knife or scissors and come foraging. To find out the cost where the meeting place is phone 021 4646785.

Out of the blue a few months ago, I got an email from a crazily enthusiastic girl who had just started a new business called The Cookbook Club based in Dublin, but also of course on-line.

She went on to give me some background in her inimitable breathless way.

“I’m from a small farm, in West Clare. I hated it. I hated weeding rows of potatoes, acres of cabbage, rhubarb and turnip, and hunting cattle, pulling sheep out of hedges, and digging/footing /stacking turf, and sitting up all night with a blinking torch waiting for cows to calve. But I loved the storytelling and gossip around the preparation of that – our home grown food. My smoking-like-a-trooper, 12 kids raised, 6 ft tall grandmother was a mid-wife who walked miles to everyone’s home in the village to bring children into the world and she used to lay out the dead too.  We scoured domestic science books and Woman’s Way magazine and cookbooks to find different ways of cooking turnip and mutton, or you’d die of boredom. So I love cookbook narratives as I associate food with storytelling. Granny and Mum would be chopping food and gossiping and I’d sit on the top of the stairs in the kitchen eavesdropping on their dissection of both the community and the recipe.”

Elaine had a steady job with RTE for over ten years as an editor and script writer on Fair City. In January 2010 she took a career break to follow her dream.

She tossed some ideas around, blogged about food and eventually decided to embark on a new adventure. She shot off some bubbly emails to a few of her favourite cookbook authors and invited them to join her and other fans at a restaurant of their choice in Dublin, all the cook book writer needs to do is to choose a three course menu with three choices on each course, send along the recipes and turn up on the night to chat to the guests and bloggers and sign cook books.

It all kicked off in September 2010 and by now she’s had terrific events with Paul Flynn, Clodagh McKenna, Kevin Dundon and Catherine Fulvio. Elaine is so sweet and effervescent that it’s impossible to say no. The events are held on the first Monday of every month and over fifty percent of the members have attended all the events, I sent along my menu, all dishes chosen from my Forgotten Skills Cookbook.

 Starters

Potato Soup with Wild Garlic Pesto and Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread

Jerusalem Artichoke Salad with Toasted Hazelnuts

Salt Cod Croquettes with Aioli   

Main Course

Pork Osso Bucco

Hake with Swiss Chard and Coconut Milk

Gruyere and Dill Tart  

Homemade Pasta

Brussels Sprouts Tops 

A Salad of Organic Leaves with Honey and Mustard Dressing

Desserts

Carrageen Moss Pudding with Poached Rhubarb and Sweet Cicely Compote

Lemon and Rose Geranium Posset

Srikhand with Saffron and Pistachio Nuts

One is always a little apprehensive just sending off recipes with ingredients that may be unfamiliar but the chefs at Ely Headquarters did a terrific job, even sourcing garlic chives at a Chinese shop in place of wild garlic which was a bit of a challenge to find around the financial centre in Dublin. The chefs did a terrific job and over 120 people turned up on the Monday 7th March and had terrific fun.

Elaine said “I did all this without any grants or start-up loans, any loans or savings. I wanted to have my own business. I’m neither a restaurateur, a chef or even a brilliant home cook nor am I trying to be, I’ve literally come out of nowhere because of my passion for cookbooks and the Irish chef authors who are the ambassadors of this Irish cuisine food revolution”

A terrific idea that could be replicated around the country to create a win-win situation for the cookbook author, restaurant and guests who need a fun night and it was brilliant value for €35.00. Here are some of the recipes from my menu.

www.thecookbookclub.ie

Salt Cod Croquetas with Garlic Aioli

Of all the ways of preparing salt cod, this one is always a favourite. They’re an irresistible nibble or a delicious starter. Now that cod is becoming scarce we also salt ling and hake and use them in this recipe.

Serves 8, makes about 40

225g (8oz) skinned and boned dried salt cod (see recipe)

450g (1lb) medium-sized potatoes, peeled

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

freshly ground pepper

2 organic egg yolks

Garlic Aioli (see recipe)

oil for deep-fat frying

Soak the salt cod in several changes of cold water for 12–24 hours, depending on how salty it is. Drain.

Put the potatoes into a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 15–20 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Meanwhile, cover the salt cod in cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5–7 minutes or until the flesh has changed from translucent to opaque.

Drain the potatoes and push through a ricer into a bowl. Remove the skin from the cod, flake the flesh and mix with the mashed potatoes. Add the garlic, parsley, freshly ground pepper and egg yolks. Mix well. Taste and add salt if necessary.

To cook the croquetas, drop teaspoons of the mixture into hot oil. They will puff up and crisp on all sides. Drain on kitchen paper. Keep warm while you fry the remainder. Serve with garlic and saffron aioli or just plain aioli.

Salt Cod

Nowadays we salt to preserve fish in the short-term or to enhance flavour so there’s no need to use so much salt or salt for so long as years ago. If you don’t want to salt your own cod you can buy salt cod or ‘battle board’ from K O’Connell’s fishmongers in the English Market in Cork city. 

dairy or sea salt

thick, unskinned cod fillet or ling fillet

Sprinkle a thin layer of dairy or sea salt over the base of a lasagne dish or plastic box.  Put the cod or ling fillet on top.  Cover it completely in another layer of salt.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  By the next day, most of the salt will have turned into brine.  Remove the cod from the brine and rinse under cold water.  Cover with fresh water and leave to soak for 1 hour.  Discard the water and dry the fish.  It is now ready to be cooked.  Salt cod can keep for up to a month if heavily salted, but we normally lightly salt it and use it within a couple of days or a week.

Garlic Aioli

1-4 clove of garlic, depending on size

2 egg yolks, preferably free range

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch of English mustard or 1/4 teaspoon French mustard

1 dessertspoon White wine vinegar

8 fl ozs (250ml) oil (sunflower, arachide or olive oil or a mixture) – We use 6 fl ozs (175ml) arachide oil and 2 fl ozs (50ml) olive oil, alternatively use 7/1

2 teaspoons chopped parsley

Crush the garlic and add to the egg yolks just as you start to make the aioli.

Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the mustard, salt and the white wine vinegar (keep the whites to make meringues). Put the oil into a measure. Take a whisk in one hand and the oil in the other and drip the oil onto the egg yolks, drop by drop whisking at the same time. Within a minute you will notice that the mixture is beginning to thicken. When this happens you can add the oil a little faster, but don’t get too cheeky or it will suddenly curdle because the egg yolks can only absorb the oil at a certain pace. Taste and add a little more seasoning and vinegar if necessary.

If the aioli curdles it will suddenly become quite thin, and if left sitting the oil will start to float to the top of the sauce. If this happens you can quite easily rectify the situation by putting another egg yolk or 1-2 tablespoons of boiling water into a clean bowl, then whisk in the curdled aioli, a half teaspoon at a time until it emulsifies again.

Finally add the chopped parsley and taste for seasoning.

Brussels Sprout Tops

You won’t find these in a supermarket, but they are a real bonus for home gardeners who grow Brussels sprouts. These come from the top of the plant and look like shot Brussels sprouts. You can cook them as you would kale, or slice them thinly and add to salads and soups. Chefs are also starting to discover them, so look out for them on restaurant menus.

Serves 4–6

450g (1lb) Brussels sprout tops

6 teaspoons salt

butter or extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Pick over the tops, trim any tough bits of stalk and chop the leaves roughly. Pop the surplus into the compost or hens’ bucket.

Bring a large, high-sided saucepan of 2.3 litres (4 pints) of cold water to the boil on a high heat. Add the salt and the sprout tops and stir. Cover the saucepan. When the water comes back to the boil, remove the lid and continue to cook for 3–4 minutes or until the sprout tops are tender. Drain well.

Melt a little butter or heat a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in the saucepan, toss in the well-drained sprout tops. Season generously with freshly ground pepper. Taste, correct the seasoning and serve as soon as possible.

Gruyére and Dill Tart

Serves 8-10

Shortcrust Pastry made with:

175g (6oz) plain white flour

75g (3oz) butter

1 egg yolk, preferably free-range

2 teaspoons cold water, approx.

Filling

75g (3oz) freshly grated Gruyére or Emmental cheese

1-2 generous tablespoons fresh dill

350ml (12fl ozs) cream

4 eggs, preferably free-range

25g (1oz) Parmesan cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano

1 teaspoon salt

lots of freshly ground pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

1 x 9 inch (23cm) tart tin

First make the pastry in the usual way and bake blind.

Flatten the pastry into a round, cover with greaseproof paper and leave to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes. This will make the pastry much less elastic and easier to roll. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured worktop and line the tin, the pastry should come up just above the top of the tin. Line with kitchen paper and fill to the top with dried beans. Rest for 15 minutes in the fridge.

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

Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper.

Brush the prebaked tart shell with a little beaten egg and pop back into the oven for 5-10 minutes or until almost cooked. Cool.

Meanwhile whisk the eggs and the cream together in a bowl, add the Gruyére and Parmesan Cheese and the freshly chopped dill. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and nutmeg.

Pour the filling into the tart shell, bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes approx. or until the filling is slightly puffy and golden brown.

Serve with a Tomato salad made from vine-ripened tomatoes and a good green salad.

Tip: Buy a chunk of cheese, wrap it well, store in the fridge and grate it freshly when you need it. Ready grated cheese does not taste as good.

Lemon Posset with Rose Scented Geranium

Serves 4

400ml (14fl oz) double cream

100g (3 1/2oz) caster sugar

5 leaves rose-scented geranium  

2 fl oz (50 ml) lemon juice

Garnish

tiny rose geranium leaves

Place the cream, sugar and rose geranium leaves in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Turn down the heat to low and cook, stirring often, for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, squeeze in the lemon juice, strain and allow to cool. Serve in small tall glasses each garnished with a tiny rose geranium leaf.

Fool Proof Food

 

Srikhand with Saffron and Pistachio Nuts

 

Serves 8-10

1kg (2 1/4lb) natural or Greek yoghurt

generous pinch of saffron strands

1 tablespoon warm water

1/4 teaspoon roughly crushed green cardamom seeds

225g (8oz) caster sugar

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped pistachio nuts

Put the yoghurt into a clean bowl.  Infuse the saffron in a tablespoon of warm water in a small bowl.  Stir into every last drop into the yoghurt.  Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods.  Crush lightly, add to the yoghurt with the caster sugar, mix well.  Turn into a serving dish.  Chill.  Sprinkle the top with roughly chopped pistachio nuts and serve.  Delicious on its own but also memorable with Summer or Autumn berries.

Hottips

Ross Lewis the Michelin-star chef and owner of Chapter One restaurant in Dublin has teamed up with Flahavan’s to create six delicious recipes combining Flahavan’s products with fresh local ingredients – www.flahavans.com/recipes

Dublin Tasting Trail – Eveleen and Pamela Coyle’s Fabulous Food Trails are a wonderful treat – a guided food walk around Dublin with lots of tastings on the way. Eveleen, Pamela and Roisin –  all experienced guides – will take you off the beaten track to discover hidden delights. For more information phone 01 4971245 or email info@fabfoodtrails.ie or www.fabulousfoodtrails.ie 

Pat Shortt’s pub in Castlemartyr, East Cork serves excellent pub food. Head Chef Mike Hanrahan (Ballymaloe graduate) has created a menu that is seasonal, fresh and very local; the vegetables come from across the road at the Village Greengrocers and the meat from Cliffords Butchers a few doors down. The fish is fresh off Trevor McNamara’s boat in Ballycotton and the cheese is from Carrigtohill – Ardsallagh Goats Cheese and Waterford – Knockanore Farm House Cheese. Bill Casey from Shanagarry supplies the smoked salmon. This is as local as it gets! The Seafood Chowder is excellent and so is the Irish Stew. Monday to Thursday 12pm – 5pm and Friday and Saturday 12pm – 8pm. 021 4623230.

Cork Free Choice Consumer Group  – The Story of Cork Butter. The history of butter processing in Cork – a major industry that was started in a recession – what are the lessons for now? With Dr Colin Rynne, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, UCC Crawford Art Gallery Café, Cork City – Thursday 31st March at 7.30pm. Entrance 6 euro including tea & coffee.

In 1995 my book on Traditional Irish Food was published.  This book recorded traditional foods, recipes and culture.   It is still in print and continues to sell well, however my publisher has asked me to work on a new extended edition.

I am searching for any descriptions of traditional food, methods of preparation or production.  Any information or memories of what you, your mother or grandmother cooked, (and indeed grandfathers!) would be greatly welcomed. Even memories of conversations about food and old family recipes would be valuable.  I am be particularly interested in old handwritten recipes and if people lend me books I will look after them carefully and guarantee to return them.

Many families had their own way of preparing and cooking dishes and sadly these were not always documented, often its only when somebody has passed on that we realise that we no longer have the old recipes.  Perhaps all we have are some sketchy memories.  There is a real urgency to record this information before its too late,  food has changed utterly in our generation and we need to remember and document the food that has delighted and nourished us over the years.

Please send any memories, recipes, notebooks, recipe books or details you are willing to share to me at the Ballymaloe Cookery School by one of the following means.

Email: traditionalfood@cookingisfun.ie

Post:

Darina Allen
Traditional Irish Cookbook
Ballymaloe Cookery School
Shanagarry
Co. Cork
Ireland.

Please include your name, address and phone number if possible.

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from anyone with recipes to share and keep.

 

We badly need a reason to celebrate, so let’s join the revellers and merrymakers all over the world and really enjoy Saint Patricks Day.

Once again, I’ll be in New York helping to spread the good news message about the Irish food scene. I’ll whet their appetite for sweet Irish lamb and grass fed beef. For farmhouse cheese and fat prawns from Dingle or Ballycotton Bay, for nettle soup and Irish stew and bacon and spring cabbage with lots of parsley sauce. I’ll tell them about the new seasons rhubarb and the tarts and pies you can make from it and last but not least I’ll tell them about the new generation of artisans and food producers, farmhouse cheese makers, fish smokers and charcuterie makers who have changed the image of fresh food and the growing number of chefs who serve our local food proudly.

Saint Patricks Day is Ireland’s annual opportunity to get the world to focus on Ireland. Let’s hope that now that we have a new government the mood will be more optimistic, the beginning of a bright new era in the history of Ireland.

And it’s spring; my spirits are definitely lifted by the drifts of snow drops and early daffodils. I’ve just found the first little violets and primroses, so I couldn’t resist crystallising some to put on the top of my St Patricks Day cake.

I love Irish bacon and cabbage with lots of parsley sauce and a few floury potatoes. Look out for the Golden Wonders or Kerrs Pinks they taste so much more wonderful than the ‘well known brand’ serve them with a pat of Irish butter melting into the centre and some sea salt– don’t worry it won’t do a bit of harm. Generations of Irish have thrived on it.

There are a growing number of artisan pig producers who are dry curing bacon in the traditional way, old fashioned breeds like Gloucester Old Spot, Saddleback, Red Duroc or Tamworth. The bacon will be fatter (don’t be put off by that) it will taste wonderful and remember one needs a little fat to absorb all the nutrients from the lean meat.

For a special occasion I like to use a piece of loin but collar or streaky are much less expensive and equally delicious. We all want to buy Irish particularly at present but check the labelling carefully both in the supermarkets and butcher shop. The origin is often in tiny lettering and now some of the bigger establishments can get their own plant number which is even more misleading, so is the brand Slí Eile – the Quality Way – which sounds Irish but in fact comes from Holland.

So gather family and friends around and have a celebratory Saint Patricks Day lunch and toast the future of Ireland.

A few suggestions for great bacon – there are many more…

Noreen and Martin Conroy – Ballincurrig, East Cork – free-range Saddleback and Gloucester Old Spot pigs – 087 2767206 – info@woodsidefarm.ie and www.woodsidefarm.ie

Caroline Rigney – Curragchase Kilcornan Co Limerick – free-range Tamworth and Saddleback pigs – 087 2834754 – info@rigneysfarm.com or www.rigneysfarm.com

Fingal Ferguson – Gubbeen Farmhouse Products – West Cork – Duroc boar, Saddleback, Tamworth, Large White – whey fed pork with GM free feed smokehouse@gubbeen.com – 028 27824 – www.gubbeen.com

Bref Galligan – Hellfire Pigs in Tallaght Dublin – free-range Gloucester Old Spot and Middle White pigs. bref@hellfirepigs.net – 085 7284692 – www.hellfirepigs.net

Kenny and Jennifer Gracey – Forthill Farm in Tandragee, Co Armagh – free-range Gloucester Old Spots and Saddleback pigs.
00 44 771 0804 819 info@forthillfarm.co.uk or www.forthillfarm.co.uk

 Whole Ballycotton Prawns in the Shell with Homemade Mayonnaise

I sometimes serve this as a starter at a dinner party. They are so easy to prepare and fun for people to eat. You’ll need to provide claw crackers and finger bowls so guests can enjoy every single scrap from the tail up to the claws. Serve with homemade mayonnaise made with finest extra virgin olive oil. If you want to ring the changes, flavour the mayonnaise with saffron, chervil, dill or fennel. Make sure to ask for prawns that haven’t been dipped in sodium metabisulphite Our fresh prawns taste better than anything I’ve tasted anywhere in the world, they are an expensive treat but so worth it for a special celebration.

Serves 4

24 large whole very fresh Dublin Bay prawns

4 tablespoons homemade mayonnaise

wild watercress leaves

4 lemon segments

Cook the whole prawns as in recipe.

Put 6 cooked, whole prawns on each plate. Spoon a tablespoon of homemade mayonnaise into a little bowl or oyster shell on the side of the plate and pop a segment of lemon on the plate, too.

Garnish with a few sprigs of fresh wild watercress. Serve with fresh crusty brown soda bread and Irish butter.

 

 Irish Nettle Soup

The new seasons nettles are fresh and young and perfect for soup. Use plastic gloves to gather them!

Serves 6

45g (1 1⁄2 oz) butter

110g (4oz) onions, chopped

150g (5oz) potatoes, peeled and chopped

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 litre (1 3⁄4 pints) chicken stock

150g (5oz) young nettles, washed and chopped

150ml (5fl oz) full-cream milk

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. When it foams, add the chopped onion and potato, toss them in the butter until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover with a paper lid (to trap the steam) and the saucepan lid, and

sweat over a gentle heat for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft but not coloured. Discard the paper lid, add the stock and boil until the vegetables are just cooked, add the nettle leaves and simmer uncovered for just a few minutes. Do

not overcook or the vegetables will lose their flavour. Add the milk and liquidise. Taste and correct seasoning if necessary. Serve hot.

Traditional Irish Bacon, Cabbage and Parsley Sauce

Ireland’s national dish of bacon and cabbage is often a sorry disappointment nowadays, partly because it is so difficult to get good-quality bacon with a decent bit of fat on it. Traditionally, the cabbage was always cooked in the bacon water. People could only hang one pot over the fire at a time, so when the bacon was almost cooked, they added the cabbage for the last half hour or 45 minutes of cooking. The bacon water gives a salty, unforgettable flavour, which many people, including me, still hanker for. You will need to order the loin well in advance, especially with rind on.

 

Serves 12–15

 

about 2.25kg (5lb) loin, collar or streaky bacon, either smoked or unsmoked with the rind on and a nice covering of fat

1 Savoy or 2 spring cabbages

50g (2oz) butter

freshly ground pepper

 

Cover the bacon in cold water in a large pot and bring slowly to the boil. If the bacon is very salty there will be a white froth on top of the water, in which case it is preferable to discard the water and start again. It may be necessary to change the water several times, depending on how salty the bacon is. Finally, cover with hot water and the lid of the pot and simmer until almost cooked, allowing 20 minutes for every 2.2kg (1lb). Meanwhile, trim the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut it into quarters, removing the core. Discard the core and outer leaves. Slice the cabbage across the grain into thin shreds. If necessary, wash it quickly in cold water. About 20 minutes before the end of cooking the bacon, add the shredded cabbage to the water in which the bacon is boiling. Stir, cover and continue to boil gently until both the cabbage and bacon are cooked – about 13⁄4 hours.  Take the bacon out and remove the rind if you like. Strain the cabbage and discard the water (or, if it’s not too salty, save it for soup). Add a lump of butter to the cabbage. Season with lots of ground pepper; it’s unlikely to need more salt, but add some if necessary. Serve the bacon with the cabbage, parsley sauce and floury potatoes 

Parsley Sauce

600ml (1 pint) full-cream milk

a few parsley stalks

sprig of thyme

a few slices of carrot (optional)

a few slices of onion (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

50g (2oz) roux

about 50g (2oz) curly parsley, freshly chopped

Put the cold milk into a saucepan and add the herbs and vegetables (if using). Bring the mixture to simmering point, season and simmer for 4–5 minutes. Strain the milk, bring it back to the boil and whisk in the roux until the sauce is a light coating consistency. Season again with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the chopped parsley and simmer on a very low heat for 4–5 minutes. Taste and correct the seasoning. 

St Patricks Day Cake

12 ozs (350g) butter

12 ozs (350g) castor sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

6 eggs, organic and preferably free range

12 ozs (350g self-raising flour 

Icing

24ozs (680g) icing sugar

4 – 5 fl ozs (100 – 126ml) water

Decoration

crystallised flowers (see recipe)

2 x 25.5cm (10 inch) cake tins

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/regulo 5. 

Grease the cake tins with a little melted butter, put a round of greaseproof paper on the bottom of the tins and dust with flour.

Cream the butter; add the castor sugar and the lemon zest. Beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, each time with a tablespoon of flour. Beat very well, then fold in the remaining flour.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins.  Bake for 35 -40 minutes or until the cakes are well risen, golden and feel spongy to the finger tips.

Allow the cakes to cool for a few minutes in the tins and then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Filling

Split the cakes in half with a sharp serrated knife. Spread lemon curd (see recipe) over the base of one cake, top with the other, sandwiching the bases together

Icing

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl; add enough boiling water to mix to a fairly stiff coating consistency. The icing should hold a trail when dropped from a spoon but gradually find its own level.

Decorate the iced cake with crystallised primroses and/or violets (see recipe) or even fondant shamrocks.

Crystallised Primroses and Violets

The art of crystallising flowers simply takes patience and a meticulous nature – the sort of job that drives some people around the bend, but which others adore. If it appeals to you, the work will be well rewarded, as they look and taste divine and are perfect to embellish a celebration cake.

Properly done, they will last for months. We store ours in a pottery jar or a tin box interleaved with silicone paper.

We also crystallize lots of leaves as well as flowers so one can make attractive arrangements.  Use fairly strong textured leaves – e.g. mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, sweet cicely, wild strawberry, rose geranium, salad burnet or marguerite daisy leaves. Smaller flowers are more attractive when crystallized eg. primroses, violets, apple blossom, violas, rose petals….and of course they  must be edible!

freshly picked, primroses and sweet-smelling violets

egg white

caster sugar

a child’s unused paint brush

Your caster sugar needs to be absolutely dry, so for extra protection, sieve it onto a Swiss roll tin and place in the oven at 110°C  /225°F /Mark ¼ for about 30 minutes. Break up the egg white slightly with a fork, but don’t beat it much; it doesn’t need to be fluffy. Using a clean paintbrush, brush the egg white very carefully and sparingly over each petal and into every crevice. Then gently pour some caster sugar over the violet so that every part is coated with a thin, sugary coating. Arrange the flower carefully on a greaseproof paper-lined tray, and continue with the remaining flowers. Allow to dry overnight in a warm dry place (say close to the Aga, over a radiator or in the airing cupboard).

 Fool Proof Food

Homemade Lemon Curd

Tangy delicious lemon curd can be made in a twinkling, smear it over a sponge or onto fresh bread, buttery scones or meringues.  It is best eaten within a fortnight.

Makes 2 x 200ml (7floz) jars

2 ozs (50g) butter

4 ozs (110g) caster sugar

grated zest and juice of 2 lemons

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

Melt the butter on a very low heat. Add the caster sugar, lemon zest and juice and then add the whisked eggs.  Stir carefully over a gentle heat with a straight ended wooden spatula until the mixture coats the back it.  Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl or sterilized jar (it will thicken further as it cools.)

Cover when cold and refrigerate. 

Hottips

Paul Street Pop Up Market – in the paved plaza with the backdrop of one of the oldest churches in Cork – is a sun trap, perfect for sitting on the wall or if you are lucky enough to grab one of the six tables to eat a really good pizza from Johnny O’Mahony’s Pompeii Pizza – piping hot out of the wood fired oven or Wok N Roll’s tiger prawns in a Thai dipping sauce from Pat O’Leary and Jim Ryan (Jim opened the first Thai Restaurant in Cork in 1994). Or if its something spicier you’re after, one of Arun Kappil’s delicious curries from his Green Saffron stall or a Mexican burrito from Brian Casey’s Ole Salsa and for dessert Mark Price – The Crepe Man – makes the best crepes in Cork  The market is open from 10.30am to 5.30pm every Friday & Saturday – phone 0872592129.

Saint Patricks Day Market – there will be a full food market with a dizzying array of mouth watering stalls to choose from on the Board Walk, Grand Parade in Cork city from 11am to 5.00pm. 

Grow your own potatoes – chit your seed potatoes now (stand them in egg tray in a cool, light, frost free position, so the side of the potato with most eyes ‘looks’ up towards the light and shoots develop) Try to get your seed potatoes in the ground by Saint Patricks day if the soil is not too wet, my favourite early variety is Home Guard. Use lots of manure or seaweed with the potatoes when planting, early varieties are good to grow organically because you tend to get a decent crop before the blight comes.

Q & A with Joy Larkcom – GIY (Grow it Yourself) patron, author and veteran vegetable grower who has spent over 40 years encouraging people to grow their own, to be adventurous about what they grow and not to be put off by having a tiny plot. 7pm Tuesday, 15th March – Crawford Art Gallery, Admission €5.00. This is one of a series of events as part of GIY Week, 12th to the 19th of March, more information at www.giyireland.com, or email sarah@giyireland.com

Food Blog of the Week – www.thelondonfoodie.co.uk 

 

  Country toast with lavender honey, how delicious does that sound and it was. It rounded off my breakfast at Brindisa, a generous plate of grilled chorizo with two crispy fried eggs and a mound of slightly soggy chips – that doesn’t sound appetising in the least but boy it

was good, the chips were cooked in extra virgin olive oil and the eggs were fresh and organic, crispy golden around the edges and soft in the centre – they too were cooked in olive oil. A glass of still foamy, freshly squeezed orange juice and some good coffee, the perfect start to provide a burst of energy for a whizz through the Borough Market around the corner.

This iconic market has now almost become a victim of its own success. Foodie visitors to London, make a beeline for Borough on a Saturday

morning and as a result the aisles quickly get cluttered with  ‘snapping’ tourists whose main, maybe only purchase will be food to nibble as they go. If you haven’t already been, don’t let this put you off it’s still a terrific market.

However I was bound for the new Bermondsey Market off Druid Street.

It’s not easy to find – my taxi driver was totally flummoxed but eventually the cool guys at Monmouth Coffee Shop on 34 Maltby Street where half of London seemed to be queuing for freshly roasted beans gave me directions. ‘Turn left and walk through a building site, you’ll find it in a series of arches under the railway’ – there is was like a furtive, secret, rendezvous but they weren’t selling dope they were selling beautiful beautiful produce. It was as though the best of Borough including biodynamic vegetable growers Jane Scotter of Fern Verrow Farm had decamped into the little commune close to where Randolph Hodgson of Neals Yard ages his cheeses in a cave under the railway arches. I bought some beautiful membrillo made by England Preserves from his shop and some gorgeous English cheese and just managed to resist a loaf of Poilâne sour dough bread.

On my way through the building site I came across Evin O’Riordan the man behind Kernel Brewery based on Druid Street  He started  his artisan brewery in December 2009 and already has a cult following. William Oglethorpe was beside him with his cheese and Elliot John from Ham and Cheese Company was on the other side.

I was searching for my friend Clare Ptak of Violet Cakes and there she was with a little table of her delicious sweet things, the whoopie pies had all been sold but there was still some scones, already sandwiched with homemade jam and cream, some little blood orange sponges and bags of homemade candied orange peel. Lilia McAlistair had lots of tempting Polish sausages, horseradish sauce and beetroot relish. Jane and Michael Dunne were selling very good looking Romney Marsh lamb and British Shorthorn beef from Hop Hurst biodynamic farm in Surrey near East Grinstead. This sought after meat comes from a cluster of farms enclosed by bridges, so no large machinery can get in; consequently there are still permanent pastures on the farm.

There is so much more tucked in under the arches, just a short hop away and the loaves of St John Bakery just a few yards away, don’t miss custard doughnuts, I don’t care how fattening they look, just have one; to use the much overused expression, they are to die for!

This market is obviously the coolest place to congregate on a Saturday morning, within a couple of minutes I’d met several chefs and friends who really go out of their way to find good things.  Stevie Parle whose restaurant Dock Kitchen on Portobello Dock on Ladbroke Grove is causing such a stir was there in his favourite orange duffel coat with baby Sam strapped onto his front. Joe Travelli the gifted chef at River Cafe was also there to pick up some goodies as was artisan ice cream queen Kitty Lindy Travers. Foreseeing affineur Randolf Hodginson who has always been such a fan and stalwart supporter of the Irish artisan cheese makers was there amongst it all like a benevolent grandfather, as ever encouraging the young food entrepreneurs.

It was almost lunchtime so on Clare Ptak’s advice we headed for the newest happening place for lunch, a restaurant called Brawn on the corner of Ravencroft St and Columbia Rd in Bethnal Green There’s no name over the door so we had another demented taxi driver grizzling about the new cool restaurants who like to make his life difficult ! Brawn is an offshoot of one of my favourite West End restaurants Terroirs in William 1V St . Named after a dish made from pigs head and crubeens, Brawn became an almost instant hit for its delicious well priced food when it opened not long before Christmas.
The atmosphere is chilled and quirky with whitewashed brick walls, a random collection of mismatched tables and chairs and some eye-catching local art. It is housed in a former furniture warehouse near the Flower Market and is divided into two rooms with a bar in one and a semi open kitchen in the other. The menu is enticingly divided into six sections, Taste Tickler, Pig, Plancha, Raw, Slow Cook, and Pudding & Cheese. The provenance of much of the produce is shown on the menu, so I discovered that the delicious Hackney Wild Sourdough was baked in London Fields by E5 Bakehouse. There were tons of dishes that I longed to taste but could only manage a few after my substantial breakfast. The Taste Ticklers are nice and small, I loved the Pays Basque Saussison sec from Pierre Oteiza and the Nduja, a sort of soft spreadable chorizo, with lots of the afore mentioned bread. There was also an inspired little plate of Anchoide, Fennel & Breakfast Radishes which I also ate with relish, all these dishes by the way cost just £3.00 each. For main course, I had a classic Tete de Veau with Sauce Ravigote £13.00 and tasted the Montbeliard Sausage & Horseradish £14.00. Both were substantial and excellent. For pudding I enjoyed the Crepes with Salted Butter Caramel, so much so that I just managed to resist the urge to lick the plate! Here are few recipes kindly provided by Head Chef Ed Wilson.

Pork Rillons

Ed Wilson kindly shared the recipe for these rillons – a signature dish on Brawns menu.

A specialty of Touraine in the Loire Valley, these are slow cooked cubes of pork belly that are caramelised on the outside and soft and unctuous in the middle. Perfect as a snack or with a salad, served either really hot, or cold. They will keep for at least a week in the fridge too and are easy to make.

Recipe

Ikg (2¼lb) of pork belly (with the skin left on, any bones removed and preferably from the thick end)

50g (2oz) sea salt

250g (9oz) lard

large sprig of thyme

3 Bay leaves

4 Garlic cloves (split in two)

250ml (9fl oz) of dry white wine

125ml (4fl oz) water

black pepper

The day before:

Dice the pork belly into 5cm/2inch cubes with the skin left on. Salt the cubes with the sea salt and leave for 12hrs covered in the fridge.

The next day, wash the salt from the cubed belly. Rinse and dry thoroughly. Then in a large hot pan with a little of the lard, add the pork belly cubes and brown on all sides until nicely caramelised all over. Transfer to a an oven proof dish making sure the belly pieces are snugly sitting together and not on top of each other. Add the wine, water, bay leaves, thyme and garlic and the rest of the lard and place in a preheated oven at around 140’c for about an hour and a half. The lard when melted should just be about half way up the pieces of pork. Check after this time and they should be tender. If not, cook for another ½ hour. If the lard is becoming too hot and burning the pork, carefully add a little more water as this will lower the cooking temperature of the lard.

When cooked, allow the rillons to cool down in the fat. To serve, place the rillons in a really hot oven (200’c) for 5-6 minutes so they become sizzling and crispy on the outside. Serve with a simple green salad with a good punchy mustard vinaigrette, a lively glass of Sancerre and some bread.

Crepes with Salted Butter Caramel

Strangely addictive, salt and sugar…Ed Wilson, head chef of Brawn Restaurant in London shared this recipe – they are beyond yummy!

Serves 6 – makes 12 approx.

Pancake Batter

6 ozs (175g) white flour, preferably unbleached

a good pinch of salt

1 dessertspoon castor sugar

2 large eggs and 1 or 2 egg yolks, preferably free range

scant 3/4 pint (450ml) milk, or for very crisp, light delicate pancakes, milk and water mixed

3-4 dessertspoons melted butter

Salted Butter Caramel

500g (18oz) caster sugar

125g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted whole butter (diced)

250ml (9fl oz) double cream

10g (1/2 oz) fleur de sel from Brittany (literally flower of the salt, the very mineral and not too salty top layer)

Put the caster sugar into a large pan over a medium heat and stir continuously until it turns into a rich caramel. You need to do this by eye, but aim for a slightly dark mahogany colour. If it is too light, the butter and cream will dilute any caramel flavour and it will lack that slightly burnt sugar taste that makes this sauce so good.

When you are happy with your caramel, very carefully add your cream to stop the cooking. Be really careful to not to do it too quickly as the caramel has a tendency to spit. When you have whisked in the cream, add the butter bit by bit until it is all incorporated and you have a smooth rich caramel.

Allow to cool to blood temperature and then add the fleur de sel and mix so you get an even distribution. Ed says it is very important to allow the caramel to cool before doing this so that the salt crystals do not dissolve and you then get that lovely crunch.

Sieve the flour, salt, and sugar into a bowl, make a well in the centre and drop in the lightly beaten eggs. With a whisk or wooden spoon, starting in the centre, mix the egg and gradually bring in the flour. Add the liquid slowly and beat until the batter is covered with bubbles.

Let the batter stand in a cold place for an hour or so – longer will do no harm. Just before you cook the pancakes stir in 3-4 dessertspoons melted butter. This will make all the difference to the flavour and texture of the pancakes and will make it possible to cook them without greasing the pan each time.

To Serve

Make the pancakes in the usual way. Heat the pan to very hot; pour in just enough batter to cover the base of the pan thinly. A small ladle can also be very useful for this, loosen the pancake around the edge, flip over with a spatula or thin egg slice, cook for a second or two on the other side, and slide off the pan onto a plate. The pancakes may be stacked on top of each other and peeled apart later. Spread a little salted caramel evenly over the warm crepe. Roll up or fold into a fan shape. Serve two per person on warm plates.

Fool Proof Food

Ed Wilson’s Salad of Anchoïade, Fennel and Breakfast Radishes

A simple emulsion of anchovies, garlic, vinegar & oil. Perfect as a dip for raw vegetables such as fennel, carrots and radishes. This recipe makes quite a substantial amount but it will keep very well covered in the fridge.

fresh radishes with the leaves still attached

julienne of fennel

Anchoïade

180g (4 3/4oz) of tinned anchovies drained of any excess oil

3 good sized cloves of garlic

50ml (2 fl oz)of good quality red wine vinegar

750ml (1 pint 7floz) of vegetable oil

water for thinning

 

First make the anchoïade, in a food processor, add the anchovies, garlic, vinegar and puree to a smooth paste.

Very slowly start to add the vegetable oil in a slow stream like you are making a mayonnaise. (The anchovies act in the same way as egg yolk’s in mayonnaise and as a protein, will emulsify the oil). Be careful and keep a close eye as the oil starts to emulsify. If you feel it becomes too thick, add a little water. This will do two things; it will thin the anchoïade, and will also stabilise the emulsion too which will stop it from splitting.

When all the oil is incorporated and you have a lovely thick garlicky, anchovy emulsion, put in a pot and dip away…

Cut the fennel into julienne strips and the radishes in half lengthwise and chill in iced water.

To Serve

Arrange a few crisp chilled radishes, crisp fennel julienne on a plate, have a bowl of anchoïade on the side for dipping. Delicious.

 

Hottips

www.brindisa.com Brindisa Restaurant and Shop at Borough Market

www.dockkitchen.co.uk The Dock Kitchen

www.boroughmarket.org.uk Borough Market

www.monmouthcoffee.co.uk Monmouth Coffee Company

www.violetcakes.com Claire Ptak – Violet Cakes

www.nealsyardremedies.com Neals Yard

www.e5bakehouse.com E5 Bakehouse

0044 (0)20 7729 5692 Brawn Restaurant

  

The Burren Ecotourism Network was launched on Thursday 3rd March. The Network – a group of dedicated businesses that are certified as one of only two ecotourism destinations in Ireland – is offering visitors opportunities to engage with the protected landscape of the Burren in a manner which is sustainable both in terms of the environment as well as the community.  Tourism businesses involved in the network are committed to local producers, conservation and sustainability for the community. For enquiries relating to the Burren Ecotourism Network phone  Edel Hayes ehayes@burren.ie 065 7072295. Relating to Ecotourism Ireland – Mary Mulvey, Chief Executive – mary@greenbox.ie  + 353 (0) 87 6841531 www.burrenecotourism.com

To celebrate International Slow Food Grandmother’s day coming up on Saturday 16^th April this year – Slow Food would like to invite its members and their friends to send a favourite recipe from their grandmother and or a food memory or recollection from childhood and we will publish them on the Slow Food website. It would be extra special if we could include a photo of grandmother or grandmother and yourself beside the entry. This could build into a wonderful resource and Slow Food Grandmothers archive which can be added to on an ongoing basis. Please email submissions to pauldeegan@skilletpot.ie and see www.slowfoodireland.com

For many people getting out the kitchen for a couple of weeks is the sweetest part of a holiday – well away from the tyranny of having to cook every day. Of course I love eating out but I also love to cook particularly when I am in a place where the food and culture is different.

I’m intrigued by food markets and always seem to gravitate towards the nearest one wherever I wander. I particularly love to learn about strange looking ingredients and plague stall holders with questions desperately searching around for someone with a few words of English to translate and give me cooking instructions on how to prepare and cook unfamiliar produce. On a recent trip to Sri Lanka I found a soul-sister in Skye Gyngell who cooks such beautiful food at Petersham Nurseries Café in Richmond. She had been in Galle for the Literary Festival and stayed on for a few days. We were guests at the Beach House near Tangella. It’s right on a coconut palm edged beach with waves lapping gently while you sleep.

I woke early on the first morning and strolled out into the beach to find local fishermen hauling in their coconut string nets from the shore – the whole procedure takes about an hour and half.

First, the narrow Orru boat having returned after a nights fishing sails as close to the shore as possible, two of the locals swim out and catch the ropes at the two sides of the net  , They gradually pull the ropes inching the net  in a little further with each new wave.

When it is within a couple of yards of the shore, the fishermen on the narrow boat dive into the water and help to pull the ropes – I counted 13 or 14 men on each side. They read the waves with deadly accuracy and eventually haul the horseshoe shaped net in onto the beach.

It seemed to us that there was a very small catch but one of the fishermen told us in pigeon English that is was above average. There were lots of tiny little white bait like fish, less of a larger species called hurulla which looked like sprats and a few larger fish.

 This community are still fishing in the time honoured way – totally sustainable. One of these narrow  traditional boats with an out rigger on one side sustains 80 families.¡ A couple of the fishermen separated the catch into little piles of the different specie., I n the midst of it all was a disgruntled leather back turtle with three barnacles firmly attached to it’s shell. The fishermen gently coaxed it out of the net and let it waddle back down to the sea.

We bought a beautiful seer fish and a kilo of white bait and headed for the kitchen to chat to the local chefs.  We tossed ideas back and forth and then summoned a tuc-tuc to take us to the local market. The covered market just off the main street in Tangalle was a lively, colourful affair with lots of banter and haggling.

Markets are the very best place to really get a glimpse of local food culture. There were lots of familiar fruit and vegetables but tons of exciting produce that we vaguely recognised but I certainly didn’t know what to do with and then several greens that we’d never seen before. Our tuc -tuc driver turned ‘interpreter’ extracted recipes and advice from the stallholders and their extended family. We bought bitter gourd, a green knobbly vegetable, wing beans, pandanus leaves, slim purple and cream aubergines, a fine pumpkin and two greens we’d never come across before and of course lots of onions, garlic, ginger and chillies, and fresh curry leaves, the base of so many Sri Lankan dishes.

When we returned to the kitchen we had a ‘pow wow’ with Suresh and Sasira and decided on our menu. They salted and deep fried the white bait and fresh anchovies until crispy. We ate them whole, ‘skin and all’ with an Aoili and they were amazing.

We decided to cook the seer fish whole. When it was gutted, we slashed the skin, filled the slits with chopped garlic and ginger and the cavity with fresh curry leaves and baked it in the oven with coconut gravy. We served it with aubergine pahi a Sri Lankan favourite.

The greens were identified as kankun or morning glory and gatukola (good for the brain) The gatukola was chopped and added to some freshly grated, coconut to make a sambal. The morning glory was soaked in salted water to purify it and then tossed quickly in a wok with lots of ginger and garlic- delicious.

The strange looking bitter gourds were thinly sliced, soaked in brine for about 30 minutes, drained, dried and fried and then made into another delicious sambal. I also learned that sambal always has finely chopped onion and tomato added.

Here are some of the dishes Skye and I cooked with lots of guidance from Suresh and Sasira, the brilliant Beach House chefs.

Aubergine Pahi

Sasira was very knowledgeable about the medicinal value of each ingredient; aubergines are apparently good for our kidneys.

Serves 8 as a side dish

 450g (16ozs) small slim aubergines

2 – 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 small ‘thumb’ of ginger peeled and finely chopped

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 medium red onion cut into eighths

A shake of wine vinegar (I used coconut vinegar)

5 – 10 chillies whole

2 teaspoons mango chutney

1 tablespoon tomato ketchup

3 ripe tomatoes, quartered

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the aubergine into thin strips about 6cm (2 ½ inches) long by 5mm (¼ inch) wide. Season with salt, toss and leave for about 30 minutes.

Dry and deep fry in batches in hot oil until deep golden (Suresh let them get quite dark). Drain.

Heat 2 -3 tablespoons sunflower oil in a wok over a medium heat, add the chopped garlic and ginger, toss and cook for a minute or so. Add the mustard and the onion and a dash of vinegar and 10 chillies or less if you like. Toss, add the mango chutney and a generous tablespoon of tomato ketchup and the quartered tomatoes. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

The onion should be still slightly crunchy and the tomato still raw.

Finally add the aubergine, toss, taste and correct seasoning. Serve as an accompaniment.

A Whole Seer Fish with Coconut Gravy

Serves 8

1 whole fish (gutted) we used seer fish but a halibut would also be great

4 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 teaspoons ginger finely chopped

1-2 tabs vinegar

Coconut Gravy

300ml (½ pint) coconut milk

5 small or 3 large garlic cloves

5 chillies, roughly chopped,

3 tablespoons fish sauce, nampla

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons salt

juice of 1 lime

Lay the fish on a large baking tray with sides. Slash both sides of fish 3 or 4 times. Fill the cuts with chopped garlic, ginger and 2 tablespoons of vinegar.. Leave for 15 minutes or more while you prepare the coconut gravy. Whizz all the ingredients for the gravy in a blender, pour over the fish. Preheat the oven to180°C/350°F/Mark 4.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until just cooked. Serve at the table with coconut gravy and juices and several sambals – a good green salad would also be a welcome accompaniment.

Bitter Gourd Sambal

I was really excited to learn a way to use and cook bitter gourd – a small knobbly gourd with a sour, bitter taste. Again it has many medicinal qualities, reduces cholesterol and is good for blood pressure and diabetes sufferers.

500g (8oz) bitter gourd

1 small red onion chopped

2 ripe tomatoes chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

lime juice

1 – 2 teaspoons dried Maldives fish, finely shredded or chopped, not easy to find at this side of the world, use a good dash of fish sauce instead, available from Asian shops and some supermarkets.

Slice the bitter gourd thinly, almost paper thin. Cover in highly salted water and soak for ten minutes to extract some of the bitterness. Drain and dry. Deep fry for a couple of minutes until pale and golden and crisp. Add chopped onion and tomato. Just before eating, add about1-2 teaspoons chopped Maldives fish, taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and freshly squeezed lime juice to taste.

 

Suresh’s Pumpkin Curry

There are still lots of pumpkin about, fresh curry leaves are more readily available nowadays from Asian suppliers, Try Mr Bell’s stall in the English Market in Cork 021 4270531 otherwise use dried. They may also have pandanus leaves which make a terrific ice cream and custard also. If you can’t get pandanus leaves just omit them. It will still be delicious.

Serves 8

3 – 4 tablespoons sunflower oil

500g (8oz) prepared pumpkin – cut into 4cm (1 ½ inch) squares

1 red onion chopped

4 garlic cloves chopped

1tablspoon black mustard seeds

2 ½ cm (1 inch) chopped ginger

10 fresh curry leaves

I pandanus leaf coarsely chopped

1 dessertspoon of coriander seeds – roasted on a dry pan for 2-3 minutes then ground

1 teaspoon cumin seed

½ teaspoon turmeric

450ml (16fl oz) coconut milk

1 small cinnamon stick

5 cardamom pods, lightly crushed,

salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan over a medium heat, add garlic, ginger and mustard seeds, stir and cook for 2 – 3 minutes or until the mustard almost stops popping. Add the chopped onion, crushed coriander pods, chopped pandanus and curry leaves, toss, add pumpkin cubes, cook for 2 – 3 minutes. Add freshly roasted and ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon and turmeric. Stir and add thick coconut milk, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir and cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is just soft. Taste and correct seasoning. It may need a squeeze of lime. Serve with lots of rice.

Anoma’s Coconut Sambal

Delicious served with egg hoppers for a Sri Lankan breakfast. (Egg hoppers are basically egg-filled crepes made from rice flour and coconut milk batter. A ladleful of batter is swirled in a small, lidded wok. The wok gives hoppers their distinctive shape. Then a whole raw egg is placed in the centre of the cooking crepe. Another ladle of batter is poured over the egg to cover it, and the whole hopper is then cooked until the egg is set.)

Serves 6 as a accompaniment,

150grams (5oz) freshly grated coconut,

2 small green chillies,

1 small red shallot,

2 small cloves garlic, chopped finely,

1 med ripe tomato, finely chopped,

2 teaspoons Maldives dried fish, finely sliced,

1/2 teaspoon salt,

1 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes,

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper,

Put salt, chilli flakes and freshly ground pepper into a mortar, Pound with a pestle for 2 minutes or so, Add dried fish, continue to pound for about a minute. Add green chilli, onion and garlic, Anoma used the pestle in a circular movement for another 2-3 minutes. Add the coconut, we would need to add a little water if the coconut is not fresh. By now the mixture looks slightly pale orange, (she added an extra 1/2 teaspoon chilli) Pound for one .minute, add tomato, pound gently just for a second. Add a few drops of lime juice to taste.

Fool Proof Food

 

Homemade Limeade

5 limes

750ml (1 1/4 pint) water

300ml (10fl oz) stock syrup

ice cubes

Juice the fruit and mix with the stock syrup, add water to taste.  Add ice, garnish with sprigs of fresh mint or lemon balm and serve.

 

Garnish

sprigs of fresh mint or lemon balm

 

Stock Syrup

Makes 825ml (28fl ozs)

450g (1 lb) sugar

600ml (1 pint) water

To make the stock syrup: Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes then allow it to cool. Store in the fridge until needed.  This quantity is enough for several batches of limeade. Measure the correct amount of syrup carefully for the lemonade. It is not necessary to use the all the stock syrup made.

 

 

Hottips

Time to get moving on your gardening this year, here are some half day and day courses to inspire you…

Growing Vegetables at Barry’s Garden Centre in Killeagh, Co Cork on Wednesday 2^nd and Saturday 5^th March – sowing and planting potatoes, parsnips, peas, lettuce, onions, carrots. Learn about plant rotation to ensure there is always something fresh to eat from the garden. €25.00 for both days 10am to 12:30pm – to book 086 814 1133 www.barrysgardencentre.ie

I couldn’t think of a nicer way to spend a Sunday than at Glebe Gardens in Baltimore West Cork on Sunday 13th March 2011 learning how to get the best from your polytunnel/greenhouse on their one day Growing Under Cover gardening course – 10am-4pm for €60 including lunch. To book phone 02820232 www.glebegardens.com

Organic Gardening for Beginners – Grow your Own Food with Denis Hawke at the Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim 10am – 5pm. The day includes planning your garden, rotation, soil fertility and composting. There will be practical sessions on ground preparation, sowing and propagation. €79.00 includes lunch and seed trays 071 9854338 or www.theorganiccentre.ie 

Winter Pruning of Soft Fruit at Ballymaloe Cookery School Tuesday 8th March 9:00am to 2:00pm Designing the garden layout, looking at the aspect, spacing, and plant training structures and protection from birds. Choosing fruit varieties. Creating fans, cordons and bushes with gooseberries, red currants, white currants and jostaberries. Understanding the general principles behind pruning. Pruning blackcurrant bushes, loganberries tayberries. 021 4646785 or www.cookingisfun.ie

Bet lots of you have a book token or two or tucked away somewhere since Christmas so before they get lost here are a few suggestions for cookery books that have caught my fancy in the past few months.

One of my best new finds is Five Fat Hens the Chicken and Egg cookbook. It’s engagingly written by an author I have never even heard of before – Tim Halket.

“A love of eating and good ingredients led Tim to build a hen house in the corner of his garden for a daily harvest of fresh eggs. His take on the role of keeping chickens is amusing and insightful but this book is more than just a DIY guide to keeping a few free range birds, or a new slant on a chicken themed cookbook. It takes the reader through an entire year, month by month, skilfully combining the author’s passion for cooking in diary form interwoven with his recipes, his thoughts and observations and with the premise that even the smallest garden can be home to a supply of the freshest eggs imaginable. Tim is neither a trained chef nor a small-holding farmer, his recipes draw on his real experience in the kitchen and he reproduces food that he enjoys cooking on a daily basis for his family and friends. He ranges from the highly original such as Duelos y Quebrantos and Persian Chicken Supper through variations on everyday Italian or French classics to simple comforting nursery food.”

Another really exciting book for me, The Best of Elizabeth David – South Wind Through the Kitchen, is a collection compiled by one of the editors I most admire, Jill Norman. I have all of Elizabeth David’s books, some both in hard and paper back but I love this collection and bought several copies to give to friends. Before Elizabeth David died in 1992 she and her editor Jill Norman began work on a volume of ‘The Best of’ but then her health deteriorated and the project was shelved. The idea was revived in 1996 when chefs and writers and Elizabeth’s many friends, were invited to select their favourite articles and recipes. Some sent notes explaining their choice, others provided an anecdote or a recollection about her and others sent lists of recipes they had been using for years.

South Wind Through the Kitchen is the fruit of that harvest of recommendations, and the names of the contributors – who number among them some of our finest food writers such as Simon Hopkinson, Alice Waters, Sally Clarke, Richard Olney, Paul Levy and Anne Willan – appear after their pieces they had chosen along with their notes.

The extracts and recipes which make up South Wind Through the Kitchen are drawn from all Elizabeth David’s books, including A Book of Mediterranean Food, Summer Cooking, French Provincial Cooking, An Omelette and Glass of Wine, and Harvest of the Cold Months.

Another of my favourite books Rosemary Barron’s Flavours of Greece has been republished by Grub Street Press, beautifully researched and well tested recipes – a must for those of you who love Greece. I’m also enjoying The Perfectly Roasted Chicken by Minty Fox published by Kyle Cathie, another little gem which includes 20 mouth-watering ways to roast a chicken.

Two others that are worth trading in your book tokens for are Green and Blacks Ultimate Chocolate Recipes and Italian Comfort Food by Julia Della Croce both published by Kyle Cathie.

Finally two Irish publications slipped onto the shelves before Christmas and have become firm favourites.  Ireland for Food Lovers by Georgina Campbell and A Passion for Food – Superquin Cookbook. These are some of the recipes for February.

 

 

Easy Chicken with Lemon – Taken from Five Fat Hens by Tim Halket

This is brilliant. An easy option, a concept really (not that I’m suggesting it’s concept food), for making a quick dinner in about thirty or forty minutes. No fuss, very little trouble.

A whole chicken jointed into eight pieces, or sufficient pieces to feed four

One lemon

Olive oil

A handful of herbs of your choice, see note below

Take the chicken pieces and place them in a roasting tray. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice all over the chicken. Add the exhausted lemon halves to the pan. Dribble a little olive oil over the whole lot – just enough to coat everything. Add some seasoning. Rub everything together to make sure all the flavourings are evenly distributed. Place in the preheated oven, at 200C/400F/gas 6, and roast for twenty-five minutes. Remove and add the herbs. Return to the oven for a further ten minutes.

The chicken is ready when it is well browned, and the sauce (such as it is) is a sticky, unctuous mess underneath the chicken – add a splash of water if it’s too dry. Use a skewer to check the legs are done if you are at all nervous or unsure.

Herbs: the above recipe is perfect for summer’s delicately leaved herbs, such as basil or tarragon. The more wintry herbs such sage, thyme and rosemary can all be added at the beginning. Use basil, tarragon or thyme separately. Use sage and rosemary either alone, or combine the two together. Fresh bay is a good lonesome choice too. If you don’t have any fresh herbs, don’t use dried. Sparingly add a few fennel seeds and flaked dried chillies. For a south side of the Med feel, try a little ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey at the end.

 

Port And Spinach Terrine – Taken from The Best of Elizabeth David – South Wind Through the Kitchen

 

Pates and terrines have become, during the past decade, so very much a part of the English restaurant menu as well as of home entertaining that a variation of formula would sometimes be welcome.

At Orange, that splendid town they call the gateway to Provence, I once tasted a pate which was more fresh green herbs than meat. I was told that this was made according to a venerable country recipe of Upper Provence.

The pate was interesting but rather heavy. I have tried to make it a little less filling. Her is the result of my experiments:

1lb (450g) uncooked spinach, spinach beet or chard,

1lb (450g) freshly-minced fat pork,

seasonings of salt, freshly milled pepper, mixed spices.

Wash, cook and drain the spinach. When cool, squeeze it as dry as you can. There is only one way to do this – with your hands. Chop it roughly.

Season the meat with about 3 teaspoons of salt, a generous amount of freshly-milled black pepper, and about ¼ teaspoon of mixed ground spices (mace, allspice, cloves).

Mix meat and spinach together. Turn into a pint-sized (550ml) earthenware terrine or loaf tin. On top put a piece of buttered paper. Stand the terrine or tin in a baking dish half filled with water.

Cook in a very moderate over (170°C/ 330°F/ Gas Mark 3) for 45 minutes to an hour. Do not let it get overcooked or it will be dry.

This pate can be eaten hot as a main course, but I prefer it cold, as a first dish, and with bread or toast just as a pate is always served in France.

The interesting points about this dish are its appearance, its fresh, uncloying flavour and its comparative lightness, which should appeal to those who find the better-known type of pork pate rather heavy. You could, for example, serve a quite rich or creamy dish after this without overloading anybody’s stomach.

 

Winter Roast Chicken Salad With Fennel, Blood Orange And Pistachio

Taken from The Perfectly Roasted Chicken by Mindy Fox

 

This salad is evidence that beauty and simplicity can come together on a plate in a matter of minutes. This dish is best with a tart-sweet citrus; if blood oranges aren’t available, try red naval oranges or pink grapefruit instead.

Serves 4

3 blood oranges

2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed and fronds reserved

225g medium shreds roast chicken

31/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

flaky coarse sea salt

3 tablespoons shelled unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped

Using a sharp paring knife, trim off the tops and bottoms of the oranges. Stand one orange on end and carefully cut the peel and pith from the flesh, following the curve of the fruit from the top to the bottom. Cut each section away from the membranes and place in a large bowl. Squeeze any juice from the membranes into the bowl. Repeat with the remaining orange.

Cut the fennel bulbs in half lengthways and very thinly slice. Add the fennel, chicken, vinegar and oil to the bowl with the orange sections, then gently toss the mixture together.

Coarsely chop some of the fennel fronds. Arrange the salad on a platter.

 

Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

Taken from Green & Black’s Ultimate edited by Micah Carr-Hill

Makes 24

300g unsalted butter

300g dark (70% cocoa solids) chocolate, broken into pieces

5 large free-range eggs

450g granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

200g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

An Ultimate Chocolate Recipes book would not be complete without an Ultimate Chocolate Brownie recipe.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4. Line the baking tin 30 x 24 x 6cm with greaseproof paper or baking parchment.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl until the mixture is thick and creamy and coats the back of a spoon. Once the butter and the chocolate have melted, remove from the heat and beat in the egg mixture. Sift the flour and salt together, then add them to the mixture, and continue to beat until smooth.

Pour into the baking tin, ensuring the mixture is evenly distributed in the tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the whole of the top has formed a light brown crust that has started to crack. This giant brownie should not wobble, but should remain gooey on the inside.

Leave it to cool for about 20 minutes before cutting into large squares while still in the tin. The greaseproof paper or baking parchment should peel off easily.

Tips

~ Add a handful of your favourite nuts or dried fruits to the mixture before you transfer it to the baking tin. You can cut them up or leave them whole, as you prefer.

~ Always taste the mixture raw to check for your preferred vanilla and salt levels, ensuring you leave some of the mixture to bake, of course.

Fool Proof Food

Elizabeth David’s Maionese Tonnata

(Tunny Fish Mayonnaise) –

 

Make a stiff mayonnaise with 2 yolks of eggs, a little salt, 4 fl oz (120ml) olive oil, and a very little lemon juice.

Pound or put through a sieve about 2 oz (60g) tinned tunny fish in oil. Incorporate the puree gradually into the mayonnaise. Excellent for al kinds of cold dishes, particularly chicken or hard boiled eggs, for sandwiches, or for filling raw tomatoes for an hor-d’oeuvre.

Hottips

 

Two 4^th Year Mini Company projects that caught our attention – The Chuck Chucks of Schull Community College – Ciara Sheehan, Sean O’Donovan, Sean O’Driscoll, Jamie O’Driscoll produced – The Essential Guide to Growing Green 2011 Calendar with month by month advice and tips on gardening with lovely photos to match each season – available in Centra in Schull or telephone 028 35509.

Seaweed Sensations from The Sacred Heart Secondary School in Clonakilty have produced a little booklet called ‘Sea the Benefits a Nutritional Information-Beauty-Cookbook.’ Lots of healthy recipes including Seaweed Pizza a section on the six most common types of seaweed and their benefits and some homemade beauty treatments. Booklets can be ordered by emailing seaweedsensations@gmail.com

The future is unquestionably rosy for Irish farmers and food producers. As we hear more about the challenges of sustainable food production and the need for food security, we begin to realise the fantastic opportunities we have in this country.

As the recent Harvard Report ‘Pathways for Growth’ for Bord Bia reminded us. “Ireland has an enviable agricultural situation that almost every other country would kill for. It has abundant fertile land, lots of water, and miles of coastline all situated in close proximity to a collection of 400 million affluent people. It is one of Europe’s largest dairy and beef exporters, and home to several world-class firms and hundreds of food artisans. All this comes at a time when the global demand for food is projected to increase by 70% over the next 40 years. The affluent world is demanding locally grown, non-polluting, traceable, transparent food. It rebels against “multinationals” who they think are adulterating the food we eat. Yet, of course, it wants that food at an affordable price.”

Thus recognising the opportunities for Ireland Inc., we need to encourage the brightest and best to pursue a career in all aspects of food production, distribution and marketing to drive the Irish food industry into the future.

Many would argue that there is a serious skills deficit in the food business at present. A mind set still prevails in education that a career in food production or the restaurant business is somehow of lesser value than an academic career. This attitude dates right back to the late fifties and early sixties when I was at school. The valiant nuns who educated me did their best to encourage ‘us girls’ to have a proper career – study law, medicine, architecture, the sciences… I sensed that my preference for cooking or horticulture was definitely a secondary career. The subliminal message was ‘why would you want to learn how to cook, sure you’re never really need that.” Furthermore, in the mid 60s, long before the era of celebrity chefs, cooks and chefs had little status. How things have changed and now many people who concentrated solely on a set of academic skills find themselves in changed circumstance and realise that they can’t even scramble a couple of eggs.

Shame on the Mammies of Ireland for letting so many of our little dotes out of our houses, helpless, without basic life skills. It was all grand and dandy during the decadent decade but now it’s all about austerity and thrift. However it’s difficult to be thrifty if one has no DIY skills.

In this weeks column I’ll concentrate on a few very basic skills but first you’ll need to buy a few bits of ‘kitchen kit.’

A couple of sharp knives and a sharpening steel. A box grater, a Microplane or a Cuisine Pro, a vegetable peeler, a nice big timber chopping board, a couple of heavy bottomed saucepans (good ones are definitely not cheap but will last a lifetime) a cast iron frying pan, a blender mixer or if your budget can reach on it a food mixer with a blender and spice grinding attachment. If you’d like to make the Lemon Drizzle Squares you will also need a Swiss roll tin but it can also double up as a small roasting tin or oven tray.

You can access the full list of Essential Kitchen Kit on the Ballymaloe Cookery School Website www.cookingisfun.ie/vpages/pages/kitchen/basic_kitchen_kit.html

Mornay Sauce or Cheddar Cheese Sauce

 

This cheese sauce is a brilliant basic, add some cooked pasta or macaroni and you have a macaroni cheese. It’s also good to spoon over cooked cauliflower, broccoli, leeks or chicory. It’s also an essential part of a good lasagne and if you omit the cheese and add lots of chopped parsley – hey presto you have delicious parsley sauce to serve with ham or bacon.

Makes 600ml (1 pint)

600ml (1 pint) milk

a few slices of carrot and onion

3 or 4 peppercorns

a sprig of thyme and parsley

50g (2oz) approx. Roux, (see recipe)

50g (2oz) grated Gruyere and 15g (½oz) grated Parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon mustard preferably Dijon mustard but English mustard is also terrific

salt and freshly ground pepper

Put the cold milk into a saucepan with a few slices of carrot and onion, 3 or 4 peppercorns and a sprig of thyme and parsley. Bring to the boil, simmer for 4-5 minutes, remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes if you have enough time.

Strain out the vegetables, bring the milk back to the boil and thicken by whisking in the roux to a light coating consistency. Add the grated cheese and mustard. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, taste and correct the seasoning if necessary.

Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Substitute 110g (4oz) mature Cheddar cheese for Gruyere and Parmesan in the recipe above.

 

Roux

 

A brilliant stand by to have in your fridge – use it to thicken a sauce or gravy, can be fish meat or vegetable. It will keep in a covered box in the fridge for a month or more. The liquid must be boiling when the roux is added otherwise the roux will not thicken the liquid.

110 g (4 ozs) butter

110 g (4 ozs) flour

Melt the butter and cook the flour in it for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally.  Use as required.  Roux can be stored in a cool place and used as required or it can be made up on the spot if preferred.  It will keep at least a fortnight in a refrigerator

 

A Basic French Dressing

All you need for a good salad dressing is really good extra virgin oil and really good wine vinegar. Just whisk them together with a little seasoning and use it to drizzle over a salad or a mixture of leaves. If you want to add extra flavourings, a little mustard, some honey, maybe a few fresh herbs and a judicious amount of crushed garlic will add extra oomph – see below.

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Whisk all ingredients together just before the salad is to be eaten.

Ballymaloe French Dressing

 

2 fl ozs (55ml) Wine vinegar

6 fl ozs (150ml) olive oil or a mixture of olive and other oils. eg. sunflower and arachide

1 level teaspoon mustard (Dijon or English)

1 large clove of garlic

1 scallion or small spring onion

Sprig of parsley

Sprig of watercress

1 level teaspoon

Few grinds of pepper

Put all the ingredients into a blender and run at medium speed for 1 minutes approx. or mix oil and vinegar in a bowl, add mustard, salt, freshly ground pepper and mashed garlic. Chop the parsley, spring onion and watercress finely and add in. Whisk before serving.

Basic Vegetable Soup Technique

 

Well over half the soups we make at Ballymaloe are made on this simple formula. 1.1.3.5. Doesn’t matter what you use to measure as long as you use the same for each ingredient – a cup or mug would be fine.

Serves 6

1 part onion

1 part potato

3 parts any vegetable of your choice, or a mixture

5 parts stock or stock and milk mixed

seasoning

Water, chicken or vegetable stock may be used. Season simply with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Complementary fresh herbs or spices may also be added.

So one can make a myriad of different soups depending on what’s fresh, in season and available.

If potatoes and onions are the only option, it’s still possible to make two delicious soups by increasing one or the other and then adding one or several herbs.  We have even used broad bean tops, radish leaves and nettles in season.

Example:

50g (2ozs) butter

1 cup or 150g (5oz) chopped potatoes, one-third inch dice

1 cup or 110g (4oz) peeled diced onions, one-third inch dice

3 cups or 340g (12oz) chopped vegetables of your choice, one-third inch dice

5 cups or 1.2L (2 pints) homemade chicken stock or 1L stock and 150ml (1/4 pint) creamy milk

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan. When it foams, add potatoes and onions and turn them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover with a butter wrapper or paper lid and the lid of the saucepan. Sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Add the vegetables and stock, bring back to the boil and continue to cook until soft, liquidise, sieve or put through a mouli. Do not overcook or the vegetables will lose their flavour. Adjust seasoning. Couldn’t be simpler.

Ballymaloe Beef Stew

 

A good gutsy stew which can be made in large quantities – it reheats and freezes brilliantly.

Serves 6-8

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1.35kg (3 lb) well hung stewing beef or lean flank

2 large carrots cut into 1/2 inch (1cm) slices

285g (10 ozs) sliced onions

1 heaped tablespoon flour

150ml (5fl oz) red wine

150ml (5fl oz) brown beef stock

250ml (8fl oz) homemade Tomato Purée, otherwise use best quality tinned tomato -pureed and sieved

175g (6 oz) sliced mushrooms

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

salt and freshly ground pepper

Trim the meat of any excess fat, then prepare the vegetables. Cut the meat into 4cm

(1 1/2 inch) cubes. Heat the olive oil in a casserole; sweat the sliced onions and carrots on a gentle heat with a lid on for 10 minutes. Heat a little more olive oil in a frying pan until almost smoking.  Sear the pieces of meat on all sides, reduce the heat, stir in flour, cook for 1 minutes, mix the wine, stock and tomato puree together and add gradually to the casserole. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and cook gently. Cook gently for 2 1/2-3 hours in a low oven, depending on the cut of meat, 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Meanwhile sauté the mushrooms and add with the parsley to the casserole, 30 minutes approx. before the end of cooking.  Serve with Polenta, mashed potatoes or noodles and a good green salad.

Lemon Drizzle Squares

 

Everybody loves these, they are great with a cup of coffee or as a dessert with berries or bananas in lime syrup, see recipe.

Makes 24

 

6 ozs (175g) soft butter

6 ozs (175g) castor sugar

2 eggs, preferably free range

6 ozs (175g) self-raising flour

Icing

freshly grated rind of 1 lemon

freshly squeezed juice of 1-2 lemons

4 ozs (110g) castor sugar

10 x 7 inch (25.5 x 18 cm) Swiss roll tin, well greased

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

Put the butter, castor sugar, eggs and self-raising flour into a food processor. Whizz for a few seconds to amalgamate. Or cream them altogether by hand with a wooden spoon in a bowl. Spread evenly in the well buttered tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes approx. or until golden brown and well risen. Meanwhile mix the ingredients for the glaze. As soon as the cake mixture is cooked, pour the glaze over the top, leave to cool. Cut into squares.

Remove the biscuits from the tin if keeping for a few days unless the tin is coated with Teflon.

 

Fool Proof Food

 

Bananas in Lime Syrup

 

Serves 4

3 bananas

2 ozs (50g) sugar

4 fl ozs (110ml) water

1 lime

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, stir over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes, allow to cool.

Peel the mango and slice quite thinly down to the stone. Peel the banana into cut rounds.  Put the slices into a bowl and cover with cold syrup.

Meanwhile remove the zest from the lime either with a zester or a fine stainless steel grater and add to the syrup with the juice of the lime.  Leave to macerate for at least an hour. Serve chilled.

Hottips

Join Debbie Shaw and Linn Thorstennson, qualified nutritionists and a Ballymaloe Chef for their 5 week Wellness Programme at the Fermoy Youth Centre, Tuesday nights, 7.30pm starting February 22^nd, 2011. The course includes: healthy eating for permanent weight loss, spring detox, self motivation and relaxation and simple healthy recipes with yummy tastings. €80 handouts, recipes and tastings included. Booking essential

086-785 58 68 or email: linntwellness@gmail.com.

Penfold’s Winemaker visits Dublin & Cork

Tom Portet the Winemaker with Australian winery Penfolds will visit Ireland to host two wine dinners in Dublin and Cork. The venues are The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair on Wednesday 23rd February at 7.45pm – €60 per person / €100 per couple. To book…01 6144849 restaurant@donnybrookfair.ie and Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co Cork on Thursday 24th February at 8pm – €75 per person. To book 021 4652531 res@ballymaloe.ie   

Spring Planting and Cooking Class Saturday March 5th – 10am to 3pm

Karen Austin and Joy Larkom – author of Creative Vegetable Gardening and Grow Your own Vegetables are teaching this one day course that begins in the garden with information to inspire you to plant your own seeds and how to nurture the seedlings. The class will continue in the kitchen, cooking the spring vegetables that are beginning to appear. Lunch is included in the course price of €95.00. Phone 023 8836938 or 0238846251 to book www.lettercollum.ie.