We had the best weekend a few weeks ago at the Ballymaloe Festival of Food. There was so much going on that it’s taken until now to fully process the talks, demonstrations, dinners, wine tastings, artisan producer stalls…
We were so grateful to the many sponsors including Kerrygold who proudly sponsored the event.
I’ve always been a butter fan. As you may know, I was dubbed ‘The Butter Queen of Ireland’ long before the Simply Delicious series, when the low fat mania was in full swing (hope you know you were duped!).
I remember getting a letter from a ‘viewer’ during my Simply Delicious series accusing me of having no sense of responsibility – didn’t I know that butter and fat were detrimental to people’s health suggesting that I recommend marge and low fat instead, I don’t think so…Needless to say, I stuck to my guns, butter is a truly natural product, the fat of our land. Whereas olive oil is the fat of the Mediterranean, also a super healthy nourishing product.
But when I say butter, I mean real butter, that comes in a pound block, I don’t think much of the plethora of spreads.
If you want spreadable butter, leave it out of the fridge overnight in the time-honoured way!
One of the many fun events of the Ballymaloe Festival of Food was the Kerrygold Butter Fisco, we handed out little jars of cream to a bunch of eager butter makers. We shook the jars while we danced to the funky music played by the DJ. Within a few minutes the cream. had thickened, then a ball of butter separated from the buttermilk in the jars. Everyone was super excited and amazed – most folks know that butter comes from cream but have no idea how the transformation occurs – pure magic!
Chefs, food writers and activists came from all over these islands and from as far away as New Zealand. Many spoke on the ‘Change We Must’ stage. They came to cook and shared waxed lyrical about the lunches, dinners, chats, exchanging of ideas…
Richard Hart, legendary baker and Henrietta Lovell, the Rare Tea Lady did an afternoon tea with tea pairings in a marquee in the Walled Garden and the sun shone…
Other chefs shared their experience and recipes in the Grainstore Cookery Demonstrations.
Because of space constraints, I can only share three highlights with you but all the recipes are on www.grainstore.com
Try
Jay Rayner’s Crispy Duck Salad, Romy Gill’s Butter Chicken (Murg Makhani) and Amber
Guinness’s Pistachio Panna Cotta – enjoy!
Jay Rayner’s Crispy Duck Salad
From Nights Out At Home, recipes and stories from 25 years as a restaurant critic by Jay Rayner, published by Penguin Fig Tree.
A while after I’d come up with my version of this joyous salad, I found Hix’s original recipe online. It is what you’d expect of a diligent restaurant chef. Fresh duck legs have to be simmered with aromatics for 45 minutes, allowed to dry, cut up into pieces then deep fried. The sauce for the duck has five ingredients. My version, which has been given Hix’s amused approval, cuts out about two hours of work, including the cleaning of a deep fat fryer, by using duck confit, now readily available from many shops and online. It also uses a jar of shop-bought hoisin sauce. What makes it work is the pepperiness of the leaves, which need a sharp dressing, and the sweetness of the duck. It’s both adult and childlike at the same time.
Serves 4, as a starter
Ingredients
2 confit duck legs.
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
For the salad
100g watercress or rocket, stalks trimmed. (You can also add fresh coriander if you fancy).
6 large radishes, sliced
4 spring onions, trimmed and sliced into batons
1 tbsp sesame seeds
For the salad dressing
2 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tbsp sherry vinegar. White wine vinegar is a good alternative.
1 tsp sesame oil
sea salt
Method
Gently toast the sesame seeds in a dry cast iron frying pan, over a medium heat. Keep watch. They burn easily. When most of them are lightly golden brown, remove to a bowl, add a pinch of table salt, and set aside. Wipe down the pan to remove any stray sesame seeds that are hanging about. They don’t taste at all nice when burnt.
Separate out the duck legs and place them skin side down in the frying pan over the lowest heat. Do not add any oil. They’ll produce more than enough fat of their own. Turn every five minutes or so, as they start to colour. After about ten or 15 minutes, take the pan off the heat. Using a fork and a sharp knife you should be able to pull the meat away from the bone. Break it up into smaller pieces, with the skin down. Put back onto the heat. Use a spatula to continue breaking up the meat into smaller pieces. Attend to any pieces of skin that come away from the meat. They may look a bit fatty but gently increase the heat and it will crisp up but do keep an eye on it all, so it doesn’t burn.
Once crisped, remove the leg bones and keep them as a chef’s perk. Stand by the stove, chewing off the last bits of meat while no one else is watching. You’ve earned it. When the duck is broken up and crisped, take the pan off the heat.
Put the ingredients for the salad dressing in the bottom of a bowl, including a good pinch of sea salt. Pile the leaves and sliced radishes on the top and then toss and turn to coat in the dressing using your hands or, if you’re a little uptight, salad servers. Portion out onto four plates or flat bowls.
Put the hoisin sauce in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the duck and mix to coast every piece completely.
Top each portion of the salad with a quarter of the duck. Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds and decorate with the batons of spring onion.
Romy Gill’s Butter Chicken (Murg Makhani)
There are so many different recipes for butter chicken. This is my take. With its silky smooth, gently spiced tomato, cashew and cream gravy, it’s a comforting, warming dish that feels decadent. Emer Fitzgerald who superbly orchestrated the Grainstore Main stage said that this was the best version of Butter Chicken she ever tasted – high praise indeed.
Serves 4-5
750g skinless, boneless chicken (thighs and breasts), cut into bite-size pieces
For the marinade
10g ginger root, peeled and grated (shredded)
3 large garlic cloves, peeled and grated (shredded)
2 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp yoghurt
juice of ½ lemon
30ml sunflower oil
For the sauce
500g tomatoes
50g butter
20g ginger root, peeled and grated (shredded)
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and grated (shredded)
1 tsp tomato purée (paste)
1 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
30g ground cashew nuts
30ml cream
6-8 green cardamom seeds, crushed
2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
To serve
your choice of Indian flatbreads or rice
To make the marinade, mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Prick the chicken pieces with a fork to allow the marinade to penetrate the meat. Add the chicken to the bowl and stir well to coat thoroughly. Cover the bowl and set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least a couple of hours.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Spread the marinated chicken out on a baking tray and cook in the hot oven for 15 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce. If the chicken finishes cooking before you have finished making the sauce, switch the oven off after the 15 minutes and leave the meat to rest in the oven. Blanch the tomatoes in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes, then remove their skins. Cut into quarters and remove the seeds, then roughly chop and place in a food processor. Blitz to a smooth purée.
Heat the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the puréed fresh tomatoes as well as the tomato purée and cook for 8-10 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked through, stirring regularly to avoid them sticking and burning. Add all the spices, chilli powder, salt and sugar, mix well and cook for a further 2 minutes until emulsified.
Lower the heat, then add the ground cashew nuts and cream, and stir well. Add 500-600ml water – the quantity you choose to add depends on how runny you want the sauce to be. Bring the mixture to a boil, and when it starts bubbling, add the chicken, lower the heat and cook for a further 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle over the cardamom seeds and dried fenugreek leaves. Stir and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving with rice or any Indian flatbread.
Amber Guinness’s Pistachio Panna Cotta
Pistachio cream is a staple of the Sicilian kitchen and is used in many breakfast pastries. It is similar to chocolate spread but is (unsurprisingly) green and tastes gloriously of pistachios. You can find jars of crema di pistachio in most supermarkets in Italy, or it’s widely available online. Mixing pistachio cream with panna cotta is an indulgent twist on a classic, bringing a nutty sweetness to the cream as well as acting as a second setting agent, meaning you need less gelatine. I serve these in cocktail glasses and never turn them out, mainly because they look as attractive domed on a plate as it does sitting in a glass topped with chopped pistachios or a few fresh raspberries.
Serves 4
handful of unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped
handful of raspberries (optional)
Panna Cotta
2 x 2g gelatine leaves
400ml double cream
30g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
80g pistachio cream
To make the panna cotta, using scissors, cut the gelatine sheets into a small bowl and cover with cold water. Leave to soak for 15 minutes or as instructed on the packet.
Meanwhile, pour the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar, vanilla seeds and pod. Place over a medium heat and gently warm until it almost comes to the boil, then switch off immediately.
Squeeze any excess liquid out of the soaked gelatine and stir into the hot cream until it has completely dissolved. Remove the vanilla pod, then transfer to a large bowl and mix in the pistachio cream until smooth.
Divide the panna cotta evenly among four cocktail glasses, then chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours or, better still, overnight.
When you’re ready to serve, top each panna cotta with a teaspoon of roughly chopped pistachios and, if you like, a few raspberries. Serve directly from the glass.
