Slow Food Grandmothers Day

S

On Sunday 30th September, we celebrate Slow Food Grandmothers Day at the Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Grandparents from all over will gather their grandchildren around to share their favourite memories and experiences and to pass on some of their valuable life skills, to have fun and show them how to bake a cake, sow a seed, knit a scarf…

Grandparents are the guardians of inherited wisdom – this is the perfect opportunity to pass these skills onto our grandchildren.

Slow Food International has celebrated Grandmothers Day since 2009.

Now that I’m a grandmother 11 times over I’m even more aware of the special bond between grandparents and grandchildren.

It’s even more important than ever nowadays. Years ago at a time when many families lived in multi-generational groups the skills were effortlessly passed from generation to generation this situation is more unusual nowadays. The myriad of pressures of modern living mean that both parents are working.

 

We hope Slow Food Grandmothers’ Day will encourage grandmothers to get together not only once a year but once a month with their grandchildren to have fun together in the kitchen.

From 12 noon to 5.30pm Sunday 30th September we’ll have all sorts of events…

Rebecca O’Sullivan of Granny Skills, Australia will demonstrate how to make flower petal tote bags and edible skin care. She will also talk about how to use edible flowers and herbs for health.

 

Maria Walsh, our Dairy Queen and Lydia Hugh-Jones will show us how to make butter and have a ‘disco butter making’ session with the children.  Maria also plans to pass on her knowledge of how to make tinctures, teas and natural cleaners. Penny Porteous will introduce us to ferments and demonstrate how to make kombucha and kefir.

There will also be a talk on bees to encourage young bee keepers.

 

Karen O Donoghue of GIY, co-star of Grow Cook Eat on RTE will show how to sow seeds in pots to take home.

Bill Frazer will talk about heritage apples and provide tempting tastings.

Rupert Hugh-Jones will set up an apple press so bring along some of your windfall apples (and bottles) to make your own apple juice.

 

Granny Rosalie Dunne will show us how to make glamorous and crazy hats.

 

Saturday Pizzas will be open on Sunday for this special Grandmothers Day and there will be lots of food stalls.

 

Guided walks around the organic farm and gardens, a foraging walk for children and grandparents with Pat Brown and Lydia Hugh-Jones to teach them to recognise wild and edible foods, a treasure hunt with your granny and much, much more.

Check out our Grandmothers Day competition on page ?????? today.

Here are some favourite recipes from our local grannies.

Macaroni with Cheddar Cheese

Macaroni cheese is one of my grandchildren’s favourite supper dishes. We occasionally add a few cubes of cooked bacon or ham to the sauce with the cooked macaroni. The little ones are deeply suspicious of green bits in the sauce so you may want to omit the parsley

Serves 6

225g (8oz) macaroni

3.4 litres (6 pints) water

2 teaspoons salt

50g (2oz) butter

50g (2oz) white flour, preferably unbleached

850ml (1½ pints) boiling milk

1/4 teaspoon Dijon or English mustard

1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley, (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

150g (5oz) grated mature Cheddar cheese

25g (1 oz) grated Cheddar cheese for sprinkling on top

 

1 x 1.1 litre (1 x 2 pint) capacity pie dish

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add the salt. Sprinkle in the macaroni and stir to make sure it doesn’t stick together. Cook until just soft, 10-15 minutes approx. drain well.

Meanwhile melt the butter, add in the flour and cook on a medium heat, stirring occasionally for 1-2 minutes.  Remove from the heat. Whisk in the milk gradually; bring back to the boil, stirring all the time. Add the mustard, parsley if using and cheese, season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Add the cooked macaroni, bring back to the boil, taste, correct seasoning and serve immediately.

 

Macaroni cheese reheats very successfully provided the pasta is not overcooked in the first place.  Turn into a pie dish, sprinkle grated cheese over the top.  Reheat in a preheated moderate oven – 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 for 15-20 minutes. It is very good served with cold meat particularly ham.

 

Top Tip: Macaroni soaks up an enormous amount of sauce.  Add more sauce if making ahead to reheat later.

 

 

 

Scalloped Potato with Steak and Kidney

I’m sure all of you have a favourite recipe that you might ask your grandmother or mother to cook, have bubbling on the stove or in the tin when you came home for the weekend from college or after a hard week at work. Mine was scalloped potato, a layered casserole of beef, kidney and potatoes. We ate plates and plates of this comforting dish with lots and lots of butter.

Serves 4–6

1 beef kidney, about 450g (1lb)

salt and freshly ground pepper

450g (1lb) well-hung stewing beef (I use round, flank or even lean shin)

1.3kg (3lb) ‘old’ potatoes – Golden Wonders or Kerr’s Pinks, thickly sliced

350g (12oz) onions, chopped

50g (2oz) butter, or more

370ml (13fl oz) beef stock (see recipe) or hot water

Garnish

freshly chopped parsley

large, oval casserole, 2.3 litre (4 pint) capacity

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/ gas mark 2.

Remove the skin and white core from the kidney and discard. Cut the flesh of the kidneys into 1cm (1⁄2 in) cubes, put them into a bowl, cover with cold water and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt. Cut the beef into 5mm (1⁄4 in) cubes. Put a layer of potato slices at the base of the casserole. Drain the kidney cubes and mix them with the beef slices, then scatter some of the meat and chopped onions over the layer of potato.

Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper, dot with butter, add another layer of potato, more meat, onions and seasoning and continue right up to the top of the casserole. Finish with an overlapping layer of potato. Pour in the hot stock or water. Bring to the boil, cover and transfer to the oven, and cook for 2–21⁄2 hours or until the meat and potatoes are cooked. Remove the lid of the saucepan about 15 minutes from end of the cooking time to brown the top slightly.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve in deep plates with lots of butter.

 

 

 

Ballymaloe Sausage Rolls with Bramley Apple Sauce

Makes 8 – 16 depending on size

Homemade Sausages or best quality bought

Homemade Sausages:

Makes 16 Small or 8 large sausages

 

450g (1lb) good, fat streaky pork (rindless)

2 tablespoons mixed fresh herbs (e.g. parsley, thyme, chives, marjoram, rosemary and sage)

60g (2½oz) soft white breadcrumbs

1 large garlic clove

1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper

1 organic egg (optional – helps to bind – reduce breadcrumbs to 50g/2oz if omitting egg)

dash of oil for frying

50g (2oz) natural sheep or hog casings (optional)

 

450g (1lb) Puff Pastry

 

First make the homemade sausages. Mince the pork at the first or second setting, depending on the texture you like. Chop the herbs finely and mix through the breadcrumbs. Crush the garlic to a paste with a

little salt. Whisk the egg, and then mix into the other ingredients thoroughly. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Fry off a little knob of the mixture to check the seasoning. Correct if necessary. Fill the mixture into natural sausage casings and tie. Twist into sausages at regular intervals. Alternatively, divide into 16 pieces and roll into lengths to make skinless sausages. Cover and chill. Homemade sausages are best eaten fresh but will keep refrigerated for 2–3 days.

 

Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/Gas Mark 8.

 

Roll the pastry into a rectangle about 4mm (1/6 inch) thick.  Lay the sausage along the wider side 5cm (2 inch) from the edge.  Brush with egg wash or water.   Fold over the excess pastry, press to seal and cut along the edge.  Flake the edge with a knife or seal with a fork. Brush the top of pastry with egg wash and prick the surface with a fork at 1” (2cm) intervals.  Cover and chill.  Repeat with the remainder.  Before cooking cut into 8’s or 16’s .

 

Cook for 20-25 minutes depending on size.  Serve with Bramley Apple Sauce.

 

 

 

Great Grandmother’s Butter Sponge with Summer Berries

This is the best sponge cake you’ll ever taste. The recipe has been passed from my great grandmother through the generations in our family and now I delight on passing it on to my grandchildren and their friends.

175g (6oz) flour

175g (6oz) castor sugar

3 eggs, organic and free-range

125g (4½oz) butter check

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

 

Filling

110g (4oz) homemade raspberry jam or 110g (4ozs) strawberries, sliced or raspberries

300ml (10fl oz) whipped cream

 

castor sugar to sprinkle

 

2 x 7 inch (18cm) sponge cake tins

 

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/regulo 5.

 

Grease the tine with melted butter, dust with flour and line the base of each with a round of greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and gradually add the castor sugar, beat until soft and light and quite pale in colour. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well between each addition. (If the butter and sugar are not creamed properly and if you add the eggs too fast, the mixture will curdle, resulting in a cake with a heavier texture). Sieve the flour and baking powder and stir in gradually. Mix all together lightly and add 1 tablespoon of milk to moisten.

 

Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 tins, hollowing it slightly in the centre. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked – the cake will shrink-in slightly from the edge of the tin when it is cooked, the centre should feel exactly the same texture as the edge.  Alternatively a skewer should come out clean when put into the centre of the cake. Turn out onto a wire tray and allow to cool.

 

Sandwich together with homemade raspberry jam and whipped cream. Sprinkle with sieved castor sugar. Serve on an old fashioned plate with a doyley.

 

 

Blackberry, Apple and Sweet Geranium Jam

We’ve had lots of fun for the last few weeks picking blackberries and making jam with the children – what a fantastic crop this year. The grandchildren love chopping some of the sweet geranium leaves into the jam to give it a haunting lemony flavour.

 

 

Makes 9-10 x 450 g jars approx.

 

All over the countryside every year, blackberries rot on the hedgerows.  Think of all the wonderful jam that could be made – so full of Vitamin C!  This year organise a blackberry picking expedition and take a picnic.  You’ll find it’s the greatest fun, and when you come home one person could make a few scones while someone else is making the jam.  The children could be kept out of mischief and gainfully employed drawing and painting home-made jam labels, with personal messages like “Lydia’s Jam – keep off”!, or “Grandma’s Raspberry Jam”. Then you can enjoy the results of your labours with a well-earned cup of tea.

 

Blackberries are a bit low in pectin, so the apples help it to set as well as adding extra flavour.

 

2.3 kg blackberries

900 g cooking apples (Bramley, or Grenadier in season)

1.8kg sugar (use 225g) less if blackberries are sweet) – since Ireland has gone over to cane sugar which appears to be more intensely sweet we reduced the sugar to 1kg.  The intensity of sugar varies in different countries.

8-10 sweet geranium leaves

 

Wash, peel and core and slice the apples.  Stew them until soft with 300ml of water in a stainless steel saucepan; beat to a pulp.

 

Pick over the blackberries, cook until soft, adding about 150ml of water if the berries are dry.  If you like, push them through a coarse sieve to remove seeds.  Put the blackberries into a wide stainless steel saucepan or preserving pan with the apple pulp and the heated sugar. Destalk and chop sweet geranium leaves and add to the fruit.  Stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved.

 

Boil steadily for about 15 minutes.  Skim the jam, test it for a set and pot into warm spotlessly clean jars.

 

 

 

 

Jam Tarts and Starlets

 

One of course can make jam tarts from start to finish, but I usually make these with the trimmings when I’m making other pies and tarts, I can’t bear to waste any scraps. When the grandchildren are around, get them involved, they love making jam tarts so it teaching the children about the important of not wasting s scrap of any precious scraps of food.

Makes about 36

 

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry OR ‘Break all the Rules’ Shortcrust Pastry OR Shortbread Biscuit mixture

 

homemade jam of your choice or Lemon Curd

 

1–2 shallow non-stick bun trays

 

6cm (21⁄2in) round or 8.5cm (31⁄2in) star-shaped cutter

 

Make the pastry as directed in the recipe. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour; or better still make the pastry the day before.

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

Roll the pastry out thinly to about 2.5mm (1⁄8 in) and stamp into rounds or star shapes. Use to line the bun trays.

Put a small teaspoon of jam or lemon curd into the tartlets and bake for 14–18 minutes, until the pastry is a pale golden colour.

Alternatively, bake the empty tartlets (no need to use beans). Leave them to cool. Fill the centres with a teaspoonful of jam or lemon curd.

About the author

Darina Allen
By Darina Allen

Letters

Past Letters