ArchiveOctober 2024

The spooky excitement continues to build and build. The hype around Halloween, love it or loathe it, is fast becoming as relentless as Christmas and just as commercial.
Children from our local schools have helped to harvest the pumpkins, a poor enough crop this year, but enough for my grandchildren and their friends to carve into lanterns and to make the scooped out innards into soup (don’t forget to add lots of finely chopped herbs or spices to bump up the flavour). Then we’ll toast the seeds for a crunchy snack or topping and save some to plant next year’s pumpkin crop.
All round the country, shop windows are packed with tempting scary masks, ghoulish costumes and witches hats for Halloween parties and trick-or-treat forays around the neighbourhood.
In the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, Halloween costume swap shops are popping up and booming everywhere and the call to Swap not Shop is gathering momentum while still ever more elaborate and exciting Púca and Samhain festivals celebrating the myth, music, food and folklore of Halloween are popping up around the country.
Halloween apparently has its origins in the ancient druid festival of Samhain, a pagan religious festival celebrated over 2,000 years ago by the Celts around the 1st of November. Halloween apparently took root in the US sometime around the 19th century when the Irish immigrated to America bringing their superstitions and traditions with them which were by all accounts enthusiastically embraced by Americans.
But for me, one of the most exciting places to celebrate Halloween is definitely in Mexico where families welcome back their loved ones from the other world on November 1st, the Day of the Dead. They cook their favourite foods and bring a picnic to the local graveyard.
Here in Ireland, we simply must have a barmbrack. Sadly, many of the famous barmbracks we looked forward to from our local bakeries have long since lost their quality in an effort to keep the price unrealistically low. Please, please let’s make the original barmbrack again and give us a choice to look forward to. The Halloween version was always richer with the symbolic ring, stick, a pea and a rag hidden inside. Remember the excitement, as the brack was sliced…if you got the ring, you would be married within the year even if you were only six. The stick meant that your husband would beat you, a pea indicated that you would be facing hungry times, whilst the rag indicated a life of poverty.
How many of you remember the original Bewley’s barmbrack? Crotty’s in Kilkenny made a delicious fruity brack too and of course Thompson’s, now long gone. Many of you will have had other favourites that you remember fondly.
The few places that kept up the quality like Nuala Hickey’s Bakery in Clonmel are inundated with orders.
Here’s the recipe for the Ballymaloe tea brack, delicious, but not at all the same as a yeasted Halloween brack from a good bakery. Contact us if you know of a really good traditional Halloween brack.
We also love to serve bacon ribs and colcannon on Halloween. It’s become a bit of a tradition in our house. Make a trip to the English Market in Cork city, you’ll find lots of juicy ribs at Noonan’s butcher stall and several others also.
Here’s a recipe for meringue púcas to make with the children, they love making spooky shapes and decorating them with their friends. Don’t fret about the mess, this is what memories are made of – perfect gifts for the trick or treaters also!
Happy Halloween.

Ballymaloe Irish Tea Barmbrack

This is a more modern version of barmbrack, now commonly called a tea brack because the dried fruit is soaked in tea overnight to plump it up. You could add a drop of whiskey to the tea if you liked!

This little gem of a recipe is much easier to make at home than the Halloween Barmbrack made with yeast.

Even though it is a very rich bread, in Ireland it is traditionally served sliced and buttered.

Makes 1 large loaf or 3 small loaves

110g sultanas

110g raisins

110g currants

50g natural glacé cherries, halved or quartered

300ml hot strong tea or 225ml tea and 50ml Irish whiskey

225g self-raising flour

175g soft brown sugar

50g homemade candied peel

1 level teaspoon mixedspice

1 egg, whisked

Bun Wash

150ml water

110g granulated sugar

1 x 450g loaf tin – 13 x 20cm 

OR 3 small loaf tins 14.6 x 7.6cm

Put the dried fruit and cherries in a bowl. Cover with hot strong tea (or the tea and whiskey) and leave to plump up overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Line the loaf tin or three small loaf tins with parchment paper.

Add the flour, soft brown sugar, candied peel, mixed spice and whisked egg to the fruit and tea mixture. Stir well, then put the mixture into the lined loaf tin(s).

Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 ½ hours, until a skewer comes out clean. Brush with bun wash and cool on a wire rack. This keeps very well in an airtight tin.

To make the bun wash.

Put the water and granulated sugar in a pan and boil for 5 minutes until it thickens somewhat. Brush this over the barmbrack as soon as it comes out of the oven to give it a sweet, sticky glaze.

Bide Bodice or Salted Ribs with Champ or Colcannon

Salted pork ribs, bought and often cooked in a sheet, are a great Cork speciality, known as ‘bodice’.  This follows the Cork tradition of naming various bits of offal after items of women’s clothing.  We also eat skirts!

1 bodice, about 11 bacon ribs

Cover in cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or more until soft and juicy.

Eat using your fingers with English mustard. Mashed potatoes, carrots or swede turnips are often served with bodice, but we love champ or colcannon, our most traditional potato dishes and the ones that are always associated with Halloween.

Scallion Champ

A bowl of mashed potatoes flecked with green scallions with a blob of butter melting in the centre, add the butter just before serving so it melts into the centre. ‘Comfort’ food at its best.

Serves 4-6

1.5kg unpeeled ‘old’ potatoes e.g. Golden Wonders or Kerr’s Pinks

110g chopped scallions or spring onions (use the bulb and green stem) or 45g chopped chives

350ml milk

50-110g butter

salt and freshly ground pepper

Scrub the potatoes and boil them in their jackets.

Chop finely the scallions or spring onions or chopped chives.  Cover with cold milk and bring slowly to the boil.  Simmer for about 3-4 minutes, turn off the heat and leave to infuse.  Peel and mash the freshly boiled potatoes and while hot, mix with the boiling milk and onions, beat in the butter.  Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Serve in 1 large or 6 individual bowls with a knob of butter melting in the centre. 

Scallion mash may be put aside and reheated later in a moderate oven, 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Note: Cover with parchment paper while it reheats so that it doesn’t get a skin and add the lump of butter just before serving.

Spooky Meringue Púcas

Serves 4-6

2 egg whites

110g caster sugar

éclair pipe – No. 9 and piping bag

Beat whites until stiff but not yet dry.  Fold in half the sugar.  Beat again until the mixture will stand in a firm dry peak.  Fold the remaining sugar in carefully.  Fill into a piping bag.  Cover a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.  Pipe a small blob of the meringue onto the paper pulling the piping bag upwards quickly to create a willowy point.     

Bake in a very low oven, 100°C/Gas Mark ¼ for 4 hours approx. 

Allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile, melt some chocolate and fill into a paper piping bag.  Decorate the meringues by piping little dots for eyes and a little oval for a scary mouth. Arrange on an appropriate plate.

Serve with a bowl of softly whipped cream. 

Max Rocha is that rare phenomenon, a chef without an ego, despite the fact that he comes from a family of high achievers, his father John Rocha and his sister Simone are fashion designers on the world stage.
Max’s first career was in the music management industry. He was desperate to succeed, and this led to bouts of depression as he struggled to fulfil the expectations of the bands,
‘All I seemed to be able to do was compare myself to my successful family and friends’ – quite the pressure…
So at 24, with memories swirling in his head of many happy times making soda bread and scones in his mother Odette and his grandmother Margaret’s kitchen, he decided to follow his own dream.
He heard about a French baker Alex BETTLER of E5 Bakehouse in London, who was making bread in his basement and delivering it round to local cafés in the basket of his bike. Max loved baking and really enjoyed working with his hands in the kitchen environment. He longed to cook some savoury food too.
As luck would have it, he managed to get a week’s work experience at Spring, Skye Gyngell’s restaurant in the West End.
Never having been in a professional kitchen before, he remembers how he was filled with anxiety. ‘It took me 20 minutes just to pick up courage to walk through the door, buoyed up by a long call with Mum and two coffees”. Nonetheless, ‘despite how chaotically panicky and messy I was’ Skye saw something special in Max and offered him a commis chef position, he stayed for three years.
Next on to Mangia in Copenhagen, cooking exquisitely simple Italian food. A small menu, homemade pasta, risottos, one meat main…
Meanwhile, Max read and reread Fergus Henderson’s Nose to Tail Cookbook, loved the ethos so back to London for a stint at St. John’s Bread and Wine which led to head chef Farokh Talete offering him a job and becoming his mentor. Max also speaks fondly of his time at the legendary River Café and the inspiration and kindly support of Ruthie Rodgers.
In 2020, lockdown forced restaurants to close, eventually Max did supper clubs and takeaway picnics which became a roaring success.
Despite the hard physical work, Max was in his element and eventually the idea of a café grew. It took ages to find a location, but eventually they found a perfect spot facing a waterway and stream in Hackney, close to the city centre by train and also residential.
Café Cecilia, named for Granny Cecelia, opened its doors on the 1st of August 2021 just as Covid restrictions were lifted.
Family and friends were very supportive, but Max and his team were scarcely prepared and almost floored by the hype and enthusiastic response of the general public. It was a steep learning curve. 
Folks flocked to Café Cecilia for Max’s simple, seasonal food with Irish influences. His ethos is to keep things simple and delicious; I love his food… 
Max’s first book, Café Cecilia has just been published. It’s full of recipes I long to cook and recipes for many of the dishes that I’ve enjoyed at Café Cecilia.

Look out for Max’s cookbook in your local bookshop and add Café Cecilia to your London list – you’ll need to book ahead but definitely worth it, one of my absolute favourites!

Recipes from Café Cecilia Cookbook by Max Rocha is published by Phaidon

Guinness Bread

Makes 1 loaf

butter, for greasing

400g strong wholemeal flour

100g plain flour

16g fine salt

5g bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

100g pumpkin seeds

200ml buttermilk

300ml Guinness

1 egg

20g treacle

20g jumbo oats

Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3 and grease a 900g loaf tin, buttering well into all the corners, otherwise your bread will stick.

Put all the dry ingredients, except the oats, into a bowl and combine. Pour all the wet ingredients into a separate bowl and stir together with a whisk until totally combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then mix with one hand while keeping the bowl stable with the other, until all the ingredients are well combined and a wet dough forms.

Using your dough-covered hand, put the dough into the loaf tin, then wash your hands thoroughly. Sprinkle over the oats, then score a short, shallow line in the middle of the dough using a small, sharp knife.

Bake the bread in the oven for 1 hour, then remove and tip out of the tin. Return the bread to a shelf in the oven and bake for about another 10 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

This bread will keep for up to 3 days.

Pork Chop and Colcannon

Serves 2

1 x 300–400g large organic pork chop (fat on)

2 tbsp neutral-flavoured oil

small piece of butter

salt

1 quantity Colcannon (see recipe), to serve

For the sauce:

40g butter

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 sprig thyme, leaves picked

150ml dry cider (we use Strongbow)

150ml pork stock

100ml cream

salt and pepper

Take the pork chop out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature.

When ready to cook, score the skin and fat of the chop with a serrated knife and season liberally with salt. Heat the oil in a cast iron frying pan until hot, then add the chop fat side down and cook over high heat until all the fat has rendered but not burnt (you may need to hold it in place with tongs to do this).

Lay the chop down in the pan and sear for 4 minutes on each side, then add the butter and baste until cooked through (the internal temperature should reach 65°C/149°F on a meat thermometer). Remove the chop from the pan with its cooking juices and leave to rest.

Meanwhile, wipe out any excess fat from the pan, add the butter, garlic and thyme for the sauce and cook for 3 minutes until softened, then pour in the dry cider and cook for 5 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and reducing the liquid by two-thirds. Pour in the stock and simmer for 2 minutes, then stir in the cream. Bring to the boil, then reduce to the consistency of pouring cream, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the pork chop with the sauce and Colcannon.

Colcannon

Serves 2

500g large floury (baking) potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks

150g butter

½ Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced

100ml milk

salt and pepper

Put the potatoes into a saucepan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes, or until tender when pricked with a sharp knife.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a saucepan, add the cabbage and cook over a low heat for 8–10 minutes, or until soft, then season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a separate saucepan, heat together the remaining butter and the milk. Drain the potatoes and return to their saucepan. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth, then stir in the warm milk and butter. Add the cabbage and combine, then adjust the seasoning and serve warm.

Deep-Fried Bread and Butter Pudding with Cold Custard

Serves 5

6 plain brioche buns, halved

4 eggs

370ml milk

180g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting

370ml cream

sunflower oil, for deep-frying

1 quantity Custard (see recipe), chilled, to serve

Line the bottom and sides of a 900g loaf tin with baking (parchment) paper, then lay the bun halves on top of each other in the pan.

In a bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, sugar and cream, then pour over the bread so everything is submerged. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Remove the cling film and bake the pudding for 45 minutes, then leave to cool. When cool, cover with another piece of baking paper and cut a piece of cardboard to put on top of the pudding in the tin. Add something heavy on top, like a food can, to press the pudding and chill in the fridge overnight.

The next day, turn the pudding out onto a clean work counter and cut into 5 thick slices. Put enough sugar into a shallow bowl for coating the slices after they have been deep-fried.

Heat the oil in a deep fryer or deep, heavy pan to 180°C/350°F, or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Carefully lower 2 slices of pudding at a time into the hot oil and deep-fry for 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown on the outside and warm on the inside. Remove with a fish slice (spatula) and drain on a plate lined with paper towels for a few seconds, then coat the slices in sugar on

all sides.

To serve, pour the cold custard into 5 serving bowls, then top with the warm bread and butter pudding.

Custard

330ml milk

330ml cream

1 vanilla bean, split lengthways and seeds scraped

160g egg yolks (9–10 eggs)

170g caster sugar

Makes 750ml

Method

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan, then add the vanilla bean and seeds and heat to just before boiling. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice and set another heatproof bowl or container on top.

Put the egg yolks and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk together until combined.

Slowly pour a large ladleful of the warm mixture over the egg yolks and sugar, whisking constantly so it does not curdle, then return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring

slowly with a rubber spatula, until it reaches 83°C/181°F on a sugar (candy) thermometer.

Remove from the heat, then immediately pass through a chinois sieve into the bowl set over the ice bath and leave to cool.

When cool, cover and place in the fridge until you need to use it. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

This week a celebration of the return of the native Irish Oyster, considered by chefs and aficionados to be the most exquisitely deliciously briny oyster.  Only the tiny Olympia (Ostrea lurida) from the Puget Sound on the West Coast of the US comes anywhere close. 

Gigas oysters are available year round, so you may not have noticed that the native Irish oyster (Ostrea edulis) was virtually unavailable for over a decade. 

The species had become virtually extinct due to overfishing and disease. 

Ireland has long been famous for the quality of its oysters.

Oyster middens have been discovered in virtually every bay around our coastline. Early Irish settlers, right back to the bronze age, feasted on the native Irish oyster. At one point they were so plentiful and cheap that they were used to bulk out other dishes like this delicious beef and oyster pie from Myrtle Allen’s The Ballymaloe Cookbook published in 1977.

Award winning Rossmore Oysters established in 1969 have farmed the bivalves in Cork Harbour near Carrigtwohill for over 50 years. Despite challenges, they continued to breed the ‘natives’. The tireless work David Hugh-Jones and his team did over the years paid off and now they have a plentiful supply of native Irish oysters, both for the home market and export to five European countries.

Special congratulations to David’s sons Rupert and Tristan Hugh-Jones of Rossmore Oysters who recently won the Water Award at the Euro-Toques Food Awards 2024 for their exceptional native Irish oysters and significant contribution to regenerative aquaculture in Ireland.

The ‘native’ Irish oyster is only in season when there is an R in the month. I enjoy them best, ‘au nature’ with perhaps a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, nothing else to mask their exquisite delicate flavour. The curvy gigas, available year around are also delicious just as they are, but their deep shells lend themselves to many toppings too. They are also divine cooked lightly and served with beurre blanc or a champagne sauce. 

Altogether, I’ve had a brilliant week of oysters. I was delighted to receive an invitation from Richard Corrigan to judge the Best Dressed Oyster Competition at the London Oyster Championships at Bentley’s in Mayfair. Can you imagine – I tasted sixteen oysters with all manner of creative toppings, some more appealing than others but the winner was Tom Brown of The Pearly Queen Shoreditch with Irish chef Robin Gill from Darby’s Oyster Bar a close second.

Tom’s oysters topped with a green salsa and a slurp of tequila were inspired by his sojourn in Mexico while Robin Gill’s had hints of pickled dulse mignonette and nori powder.

Tom Brown’s Oysters with Seaweed Hot Sauce

Makes 20

20 oysters

Seaweed Hot Sauce

250g green tomatoes

250g green peppers

125g fresh jalapenos

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

25g caster sugar

150g cider vinegar

2 tbsp seaweed powder (available from the Connemara Organic Seaweed Company – www.connemaraseaweedcompany.ie)

tequila

Chargrill all the vegetables until blackened, place in a bowl and cover lightly with cling film. Leave to steam. When cool, remove all the skins and seeds from the green peppers, add garlic, sugar and vinegar then pulse until a semi smooth finish. Mix in the seaweed powder and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Spoon the mixture over the oyster in the shell.  Enjoy them, fill the empty shell with tequila and slurp!

Robin Gill’s Oysters with Oyster Cream, Pickled Dulse Mignonette and Nori Powder

Serves 12

Oyster Cream  

200g crème fraîche 

shallot reduction made from: 3 shallots, finely diced covered with white wine and reduce to a glaze in a pan 

½ bunch each dill, chervil, tarragon and parsley, coarsely chopped

5 fresh oysters shucked and chopped 

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and place in a piping bag. 

Nori/Dill Oil 

5 nori sheets

½ bunch dill (one can use chervil or tarragon or parsley if desired), coarsely chopped

200ml rapeseed oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Toast the nori sheet in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

Pop into a food processor and blend to a powder (reserve half for dusting the oyster before serving).

Add the chopped herbs to half the nori powder and rapeseed oil and blend until smooth

Pickled Dulse Mignonette 

3 shallots, diced

100g dried dulce, chopped

200ml red wine vinegar

Put the diced shallot and dulse into a small bowl.

Cover with red wine vinegar and allow to rehydrate for 10-15 minutes.

To Serve

Open the oysters, reserve the oysters and clean the shells.

Spoon a dollop of the oyster cream onto the bottom of each shell 

Place an oyster on top, then a spoonful of the mignonette. Drizzle with a little nori/dill oil, add a sprinkling of the nori powder and garnish with a sprig of dill. Enjoy.

Myrtle’s Beef and Oyster Pie

This delicious pie for autumn evenings may seem very contemporary but it dates back to a time when oysters were so plentiful and inexpensive that they were used to bulk out meat pies – really worth making, the flavour is rich and unctuous.  

Serves 4-6

675g best quality beef, e.g., round steak, best chuck or thick rib steak

salt and freshly ground pepper

25g butter

1 large onion, chopped (approx. 225g)

1 tbsp white flour

600ml homemade beef stock

225g sliced mushrooms

12 Gigas or Native Irish oysters

roux if necessary (equal quantities of flour and butter cooked on a low heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally)

250g puff pastry

egg wash

Cut the beef into 4cm cubes, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Melt a little butter in a frying pan and seal the meat over a high heat. Remove the meat to a plate, add the onions to the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes approx. Add the flour, stir and cook for 1 minute. Blend in the stock, add the meat and bring to the boil. Transfer to a casserole, cover and simmer on a low heat or cook in a low oven for 1 ½ – 2 hours.

Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a little butter, season with salt and pepper and keep aside. Open the oysters and put in a bowl with their juice. When the meat is tender thicken the juice slightly with roux if necessary. Add the mushrooms, oysters and their juice to the stew.  Bring back to the boil for 2-3 minutes, taste for seasoning. Allow to get cold, put into a pie dish, cover with the pastry. Brush with egg wash and cook in a hot oven 250°C/Gas Mark 9 for 10 minutes, reduce the heat to moderate 180°C/Gas Mark 4 and cook for a further 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.

Serve with a salad of seasonal leaves.

I spent a few lovely days in London recently. Ostensibly, I was over for the London Oyster Championships where Federico Fiorillo of Bentley’s in Mayfair shucked ten oysters in 1 minute and 5 seconds…can you imagine? 

As ever, it was an opportunity to check out the London restaurant scene.

I only had a couple of days, but I made the most of the short interlude.

Dalla on Morning Lane in Hackney was a new find, a deceptively simple neighbourhood Italian that feels just like a family restaurant in Naples. Sounds a bit random but check out the Luigi Caccia Dominioni door handle on the loo door, just one of the many little design details that surprises. We loved the food, small plates of deliciousness. The menu changes regularly but there are a few dishes that the local regulars protest if they disappear from the menu, the Frittatina drizzled with 12 year old aged balsamic, the meltingly tender stuffed tortellini, the tiramisu. I particularly relished the Cotoletta di Maiale alla Bolognese con Prosciutto Crudo and Fonduta Parmigiano.

Mitchell Damota heads up the kitchen with Gianmarco Leone.

Put Dalla on your London list and even though it is quite a schlepp from central London, we’ll definitely be back for more.

While you’re in the area, you might want to call into Violet Cakes on Wilton Way and pick up some of Claire Ptak’s sweet treats and celebration cakes that lure people from all over London. 

Talking about delicious bakes, we went all the way to Brixton to find Maya’s Bakehouse. Some of the most delicious and original bakes I’ve come across. Crusty sourdough and an intriguing range of sweet and savoury buns and slices. The onion soup bun was one of the best things I’ve tasted in a very long time, a layer of melting cheese in a round brioche bun with deliciously caramelised onions on top. 

How fortunate are folks in Brixton to have Maya’s Bakehouse around the corner?

Another new find was a Galician restaurant IBAI which Grace Dent, restaurant critic of the Guardian, accurately described as “A swanky restaurant that lacks pomposity”. 

IBAI is a Basque influenced restaurant that specialises in aged Galician Blond beef steaks edged with a layer of delicious yellow, flavour packed fat. There’s also beautiful Wagyu and Black Angus. It’s cooked over fire, charred on the outside, rare and succulent on the inside – a truly memorable piece of beef with a choice of sauces. At lunch, between four of us, we shared one ribeye from a 12 year old Galician Blond that had been aged for 65 days with a bowl of dripping chips. There were several slices, and the T-Bone left over for a guest to take home for supper for himself and his dog!

Superb as it is, I mustn’t give the impression that it is all about the steak, the little appetizer bites and starters are definitely worth a detour alone. 

The truffle panisse and the flavour of the tender sweetcorn with black truffle will live on in my taste memory for a very long time! The boudin noir with melted Galician Ossau-Iraty cheese and the Croque IBAI sandwich with a layer of carabineros, the red prawns of Galicia, are not to be missed and on and on…

By the time we came to dessert, we were almost defeated but somehow managed a refreshing cider granita, I’m still haunted by the thought of the IBAI pan perdu with hazelnuts and rum and of course, there was a wobbly Basque cheesecake and much, much more. Richard Foster originally from Chiltern Firehouse is the head chef.

St. Paul’s Cathedral where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were wed is just a street away and the beautiful but less visited 1901 Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great is also close by. Little Britain mentioned in Great Expectations is just around the corner. Man does not live by Bread Alone!

Dalla’s Frittatina with 12 year aged Balsamic

 A special thank you to Dalla Restaurant for sharing this recipe with me.

Serves 1

2 eggs

1 tbsp grated Parmesan 

1 tbsp finely sliced spring onion 

pinch of salt 

To Cook

olive oil

butter

To Serve

12 year aged balsamic vinegar 

Whisk all the ingredients for the frittatina well in a bowl.

Meanwhile, get a nonstick pan nice and hot and add a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of butter. Add the egg to the pan and move it around a bit with a rubber spatula as you would an omelette. Continue to fry on one side until it has some colour on the bottom but still runny on the top. 

Slide onto a plate and with another plate on top to invert the frittata so the crispy side is on top.

Drizzle with a bit of 12 year aged balsamic vinegar and serve hot.

French Onion Soup with Gruyère Toasts

French onion soup is probably the best known and loved of all French soups. It was a favourite for breakfast in the cafes beside the old markets at Les Halles in Paris and is still a favourite on bistro menus at Rungis Market.  In France this soup is served in special white porcelain tureens. 

Serves 6

Serve with a glass of gutsy French vin de table.

1.35kg onions

50g butter

1.7 litres good homemade beef or chicken stock (or vegetable stock for a vegetarian version)

salt and freshly ground pepper

To Finish

6 slices of baguette (French bread), 1cm thick, toasted

75g grated Gruyère cheese

Peel the onions and slice thinly. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion, toss well and cook on a low heat for about 40-60 minutes with the lid off, stirring frequently – the onions should be dark and well caramelised but not burnt.

Add the stock, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, bring to the boil and cook for a further 10 minutes.  Taste and correct seasoning.

Ladle into deep soup bowls, put a piece of toasted baguette covered with grated cheese on top of each one. Pop under the grill until the cheese melts and turns golden. Serve immediately but beware – it will be very hot.  Bon appetit!

Useful Tip

Hold your nerve: The onions must be very well caramelized otherwise the soup will be too weak and too sweet.  

Dripping Chips

Serves 4-6

4-6 large potatoes (Golden Wonders or Kerr’s Pinks)

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until almost fully cooked.  Peel, cut the chips to desired size.

Heat dripping to 160°C, make sure the deep-fry has plenty of dripping.  

Cook the chips in batches until golden, drain well.

Note: (do not overload the basket, otherwise the temperature of the oil will be lowered, consequently the chips will be greasy rather than crisp. Shake the pan once or twice, to separate the chips while cooking).

To Serve

Heat the oil to 190°C and fry once more until crisp and a deep golden colour.  Shake the basket, drain well, toss onto kitchen paper, sprinkle with a little salt, turn onto a hot serving dish and serve immediately.

How to make beef dripping

The best beef dripping is made from the fat that encases the beef kidney. Try to buy organic if available. Remove any traces of blood or plumbing. Chop the fat into small pieces. Put into a roasting tin and cook in a very low oven at 150°C/Gas Mark 2 for about an hour or until the fat has rendered out of the suet. Pour off the liquid fat into a stainless-steel or enamel bowl at regular intervals. Beef dripping solidifies and will keep for months in a fridge. It can be diced and used to make a delicious old-fashioned cake.

To melt beef fat, simply warm it gently. The fat will liquefy and can be used for roast potatoes or for deep-frying. Myrtle Allen always believed that the best chips were those cooked in beef dripping, and I agree.  It is rich in Vitamin D and, in my opinion, is far preferable both in flavour and health terms to the cheap and low-grade oil that is frequently used to deep-fry.

It’s important to strain the beef fat through a fine tin sieve after each use, otherwise the little particles of food will burn when the oil is reheated. Beef dripping can be heated to 230°C/Gas Mark 8 provided the oil is strained and does not burn. One can use it up to five times.