AuthorDarina Allen

I’ve recently been given a copy of Counter Culture, the Sheridan’s Guide to Cheese. I simply can’t put it down. What a gorgeous book, for me a romp down memory lane.  A long overdue overview of the Irish farmhouse cheese industry, an appreciation of the charismatic, passionate and often deliciously eccentric people who has devoted their lives to producing beautiful cheeses from the milk of their dairy herds. Cow, goat and sheep’s milk cheese of many types that have helped in no small way to change the image of Irish food both at home and abroad. One after another they have won top prizes in cheese awards not just in these islands but also in the World Cheese Awards.

Is it any wonder that our cheeses are so good when we can grow grass here in Ireland like nowhere else in the world, consequently  many of our very best foods come from our rich lush pastures and summer milk. And who better to write this book but the Sheridan brothers, Kevin and Seamus Sheridan who established Sheridan’s Cheesemongers in 1995 with a cheese stall at the Galway Saturday Market. Their enthusiasm and deep knowledge charmed even the most reluctant passer-by to taste their latest find and gradually they converted the ardent Calvita eaters into farmhouse cheese lovers. Since then, the business has expanded to include four shops, a wine bar with a carefully choosen list to complement their wide range of Irish, British and European cheese. There’s a thriving wholesale and export business. The brothers’ food and business ethos is still firmly rooted in the simplicity of their first market stall. Their passion for food and respect for those who produce it has led them to be at the forefront of an exciting revival in Ireland’s culinary heritage. Seamus and Kevin are tireless advocates for sustainable food and farming. They are both devotees of the Slow Food Movement. I always remember my first meeting with Seamus at Slow Food Terra Madre in Turin in the 1980’s. He bounced up to me all tousled hair and big grin with a distinctively cheesey smell emanating from his rucksack. He proudly showed me the deliciously ripe Cashel Blue cheese he’d brought all the way from Tipperary to share proudly with Carlo Petrini and entice him and many other cheese makers to come to Ireland to taste the growing number of farmhouse cheeses and artisan products.

This book written in collaboration with Catherine Cleary of Irish Times tells the lovely story of the boy’s childhood, their inspirational parents and the experiences that shaped them, holidays spent milking cows, turning hay, digging turf, chewing dillisk, experiences which gave them a deep appreciation of real food.

And it’s not just about Irish farmhouse cheese. The chapters on the Origins of our Dairy Culture and the Science of Cheese are fascinating and you’ll soon be an expert on the differences between fresh cheeses, blooming rinds, washed rind, pressed uncooked cheeses and the pressed blues cooked cheeses.

There are some great photos and recipes for Kevin, Seamus and Catherine’s favourite ways to showcase the beautiful cheeses.

 

Hot Tips

Book of the Week – vegan was a word scarcely understood by the general public a decade or so ago but now regularly discussed in the media as more and more people stop eating animal products for ethical and health reasons.

A vegan diet is not just vegetarian but also excludes all dairy products, eggs and anything derived from animals or insects including honey. Many have espoused this way of eating in recent years including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, actress Natalie Portman say how much better and more energetic they feel.

The Vegan Bible by Marie Laforêt, published by Grub St,  has over 500 tempting recipes which illustrates the richness and diversity of vegan gastronomy.

 

Handmade imported ceramics – Jenny Rose of The Sandwich Stall in the English Market has started to sell pottery wholesale….beautiful handcrafted Puglian, Spanish and Tunisian pieces…..food looks great.

Jenny-Rose, The Old Creamery, Toons Bridge, Macroo, Co Cork

jenny@therealoliveco.com

 

Martry Mill is located on the River Blackwater near Kells, Co Meath and is a traditional watermill run by the Tallon family producing stoneground wholemeal flour of exceptional quality and flavour.

Contact James Tallon 086 817 3205 or www.martrymill.ie for list of stockists.

 

Past students Paul McVeigh and Jamie O’Toole are gathering rave reviews with their delicious food but in particular their signature dish the featherblade steak at Featherblade on Dawson Street, Dublin. Try the crispy confit chicken with hot Korean sauce, garlic and chilli prawns on toasted sourdough…. http://www.featherblade.ie/

 

Baked Camembert with Apple Crisps and Calvados Syrup

As the nights get chillier there’s nothing better than bringing a whole baked Camembert in its box to the table, oozing creamy warmth. This recipe also celebrates the sweetness of the apple season to set us up for winter.

Serves 4 as a meal or 6 as an after dinner alternative to a cheeseboard

 

For the apple crisps

3 medium-sized apples, peeled and cored

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

a pinch of salt flakes

 

For the cheese

1 whole Camembert in its box

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced into thin slivers

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

olive oil for drizzling

30ml maple syrup

2 tablespoons Calvados

 

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

Cut the apples into thin, round slices as finely as you can (a mandolin works brilliantly). Place some parchment paper on a baking sheet and lay the slices on top – be careful that they don’t overlap (you may need several baking sheets).

Mix the sunflower oil, maple syrup and salt together in a bowl and drizzle this over the apple slices.

Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes, until the edges are brown and crimped. Remove from the oven – they will crisp up as they cool.

While the crisps are baking, unwrap the Camembert and slice off the top rind. You can discard this or eat it on a cracker if you like, as a cook’s perk. Place the cheese back in its box and press the garlic slivers, fennel seeds and rosemary sprigs into it. Finally, drizzle a little olive oil over the top.

While the apple crisps cool, bake the cheese in its box on a baking tray in the oven for up to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the maple syrup and Calvados together in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring them to the boil. Boil gently for two minutes, stirring.

Arrange the apple crisps around the baked Camembert and drizzle the Calvados syrup over the hot cheese to serve.

 

Taleggio Tartiflette

It’s no coincidence that tartiflette is a classic après-ski dish. It’s a rib-sticking, cockle-warming lump of a meal, best used as a reward after strenuous activity. But it’s so delicious you can simply take a smaller helping if your step count doesn’t warrant a heftier one.

Serves 4

 

1kg (2¼ lb) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm dice

rapeseed oil

2 thick rashers smoked streaky bacon, cut into 4cm dice

1 large onion, peeled and diced

½ glass Eight Degrees Brewing Barefoot Bohemian Pilsner Lager

350g (12 oz) Taleggio,

diced 1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6

Boil the potatoes for 3–5 minutes until just tender and then drain them and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a good splash of rapeseed oil in a large, heavy pan over a gentle heat. Fry the potatoes for a minute or two and then add the diced bacon and onion. Cook until the bacon has begun to crisp.

Pour in the Pilsner, stir and then add the cubed cheese. (You could also add some spinach, chard or kale at this stage.)

Remove the pan from the heat. Prepare an ovenproof earthenware dish by rubbing it well with the halves of garlic and greasing with rapeseed oil. Empty the contents of the pan into the dish and bake for 20–30 minutes, until the cheese has melted and begun to crisp.

 

Durrus and Potato Pizza

This lets the rind sing! Potatoes on pizza might sound a bit much but they’re surprisingly good. The trick is to slice them very thinly and only use a single layer so they don’t make everything too claggy and thick.

 

Serves 6

 

375ml (13 fl oz) warm water

1 teaspoon dried yeast

110ml (3½ fl oz) olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

600g (1¼ lb) 00 flour

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

6 cloves garlic

2 medium Rooster potatoes, peeled

1 large sweet potato, peeled

250g (9 oz) crème fraîche

360g (12½ oz) Durrus, sliced

 

To make the dough, pour the water into a jug and mix in the yeast, smoothing it against the sides to ensure it’s dissolved. Add 50ml of the olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt to the liquid. Pour into a bowl with the flour and mix to form a dough. Leave for 10 minutes. Turn the dough on to an oiled surface and knead lightly until it comes together. Put it back in the bowl, cover and leave for 90 minutes to prove.

Meanwhile, remove the leaves from the rosemary sprigs and combine in a mortar and pestle with the garlic and a pinch of salt. Bash this into a paste and then add the remaining olive oil. Transfer the entire mixture to a saucepan and heat the oil gently for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the oil to infuse with the garlic and rosemary flavours.

Roll out the dough and dimple it with your fingers.

Fold it over like a sheet on itself and dimple again before rolling and repeating this a second and third time. Return the dough to the bowl to rest for a further 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into three and roll into rounds or rectangles, whichever you prefer. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425°F/gas mark 7 – or as high as it will go!

Finely slice the potatoes and sweet potato into paper thin rounds and arrange them on the pizza bases in a single layer. Dot the potatoes and sweet potato with blobs of crème fraîche and place the slices of Durrus in between the blobs.

Finally, drizzle the pizzas with the garlic and rosemary oil and give them a good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper.

You can strain out the rosemary shards or leave them in, whichever you prefer. Bake the pizzas for 10 minutes and serve immediately.

 

Salad of Mozzarella, Poached Pears, Air-dried Lamb and Hazelnut

A beautiful salad that bridges the gap between summer and winter. The secret to this recipe is a good balsamic vinegar and fresh mozzarella. We are lucky to have buffalo mozzarella from Toby Simmonds’s Toons Bridge Dairy in Co. Cork delivered fresh to our shops.

 

Serves 6

 

2 or 3 pears, peeled, halved and cored

750ml (25½ fl oz) water

½ vanilla pod

100g (3½ oz) sugar

½ cinnamon stick

1 large buffalo mozzarella, torn into shreds or chopped

150g (5 oz) Connemara air-dried lamb, thinly sliced and cut into small shreds (if you can’t find air-dried lamb you could use a good prosciutto)

100g (3½ oz)  mixed leaf salad

50g (2 oz) hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

 

For the vinaigrette

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon mustard

 

Place the pears in a large saucepan with the water, the seeds from the vanilla pod, the sugar and the cinnamon. Poach the pears over a medium heat until soft. Leave to cool in the syrup. Once cooled, slice the pears and combine on a large serving plate with the mozzarella, lamb and leaves.

Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in small bowl and, just before serving, drizzle over the salad and then sprinkle with the toasted hazelnuts.

 

 

 

 

Just back from a hectic few days in Capetown, whizzing from one speaking engagement to the next. The food scene has changed out of all knowing in the past decade. Luke Dale-Roberts Test Kitchen, beside the Old Biscuit Mill in shabby chic Woodstock, has a Michelin star and is racked 28^th in the world on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Guests book up to 6 months ahead to savour Luke’s super slick, multi element, small plates. Across the road The Pot Luck Club is headed up by Wesley Randles and his bright young team. This more casual eatery was jam packed too and turning the tables several times over even on a Monday night.

La Colombe out in the Silvermist Wine estate gets similar rave reviews and once again tables are full of guests from all over the world who have booked their tables months in advance for this ultra ‘fine-dining’ restaurant.

I was fortunate indeed that a dear friend Alicia Wilkinson of Silwood Cookery School whose brilliantly trained students work in all these kitchens managed to secure a table in each of the restaurants so I had the opportunity to sample some of the most talked about places first hand but I have to tell you I wouldn’t have a notion how to reproduce much of the highly acclaimed food we ate. More accessible for me was the food at the Chefs Warehouse Canteen on 92 Bree Street, the place to go in Capetown for tapas for two. You can’t book but punters are totally happy to queue for Irish/Aussie chef Liam Tomlin’s delicious Asian inspired tapas in this relaxed canteen style restaurant with a kitchenware and bookshop tucked onto side and a street food take away outlet on the other. The walls in the canteen are lined with narrow shelves, teaming with irresistible exotic deli ingredients, I had to buy some Khoisan organic sea salt, Rio Grande olive oil, Richard Von Geusau chocolates, Korean red pepper….

The menu changes every day and sometimes several times a day. Beautiful fresh ingredients with multi ethnic flavours served on wooden boards in a variety of mini copper bowls, clay pots, rustic pottery dishes, steaming baskets, clay plates Spanking fresh fish and shellfish, slow cooked meats, shoots and roots, seaweeds and ferments, salad leaves and foraged greens, all delectably balanced, irresistible to look at but not over worked. Menus are written on rice paper, clipped onto sushi mats.

The food was super delicious. I particularly loved a calamari, roast corn and curry mayo dish with tiny strips of dry chilli and fresh coriander leaves and a pea and mint risotto. Bree St was not an area on many people’s radar up to a year or so but jot it down on your Capetown list if you reckon you’ll be going that way, then seek out Jason’s bakery. It’s open from 7am-3pm. Don’t miss the bacon croissants. Up the street there are three little gems side by side, The Culture Club, a super little cheese shop and café painted buttercup yellow. Next door at Bacon on Bree, Richard Brosnan cures proper bacon from Duroc and large white pigs and again sells all things bacon in shop and little café including bacon ice cream.

One door more and it’s Mothers Ruin – brothers Mark and Rob Hêre offer over 40 gins, many artisan made gins from micro distillers, so much excitement on the drinks scene.  The Orphanage Cocktail Emporium is one of the originals in Bree Street, a hipster cocktail joint which also sells a couple of small plates like Truffle Chips with Wasabi Aioli and pizza. (not listed on the menu’s website).

The weather of course was beautiful. I also popped into the newly restored Company Garden and met manager Rory Phelan from Inistymon in Cork. These were the gardens of the Dutch East India Company who first started the garden in 1652 for the victualing of their ships that plied the spice trade route between Europe and the East Indies, via The Cape of Good Hope.

 

Hot Tips

The newly founded Slow Food North West Convivium are hosting their inaugural event on Sunday 22^nd November at the Irish Organic Centre, outside Rossinver, in County Leitrim, 12 to 5pm.  Talks on sea salt harvesting, a beer tasting and Glen Wheeler from McNean House will give cookery demo. Don’t miss the tour of the Organic Centre tunnels…..Contact Aisling Stone for further details slowfoodnorthwest@gmail.com or http://www.theorganiccentre.ie/

Have you discovered Wilton Farmers Market yet? Every Tuesday from 10.00am-2.30pm.  It’s just across the road from CUH. There’s a wide range of fresh produce from local farmers, cheese makers, spanking fresh fish and shellfish, fermented and raw foods and delicious food to enjoy right there -  don’t miss Lolo’s fresh steak sandwiches and French crêpes. Ballycotton Mackerel with hollandaise, chantrelle mushrooms with wild sorrel…..Exciting and nourishing local food for local people. http://www.wiltonmarketcork.com/main

Jerusalem Artichokes are back in season. They look like knobbly potatoes and are packed with natural inulin. One of the very best foods to enhance our gut flora and so delicious. Kids love them roasted and we find new ways to enjoy them all the time including sunchoke ice cream. Find them at Midleton, Mahon Point and Wilton Farmer’s Markets

Wild Food of the Week – Winter Cress or Bittercress (cardamine hirsute) is lush and beautiful right now, it grows in little bunches in soil and gravelly patches. As with all cress, the top leaf is always the largest and the leaves get smaller down along the stem. Delicious in salads or as a garnish for an appetizer

The Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland are very excited to welcome James Wong of BBC Gardeners World. He will give a talk ‘Grow for Flavour’ on Wednesday 25^th November, 8pm at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, Dublin  Tickets €25, www.rhsi.ie/events for more information

 

Correction

The Apple Brack recipe that appeared on Saturday 31^st October had an error. The recipe called for soaking the fruit in 1 pint of hot tea for 1½-2 hours. There is no tea required in the apple brack recipe

 

Potted Shrimp

 

Potted shrimp, crayfish and crab are always on our deli menu at Canteen and often appear on the tapas board.

It is a nice way to serve shellfish bound in flavoured butter that melts once spread over warm toast. The butter can be flavoured to suit your taste with chilli and cayenne pepper if you prefer the shrimps with a bit of heat or something more delicate such as tarragon and chervil.

Serves 4

 

400 g (14 oz) shrimp meat

grated zest and juice of ½ lemon

1 spring onion, finely sliced

1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely sliced

300 g (11 oz) unsalted butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 sprigs fresh thyme

 

Combine the shrimp meat, lemon zest and juice, spring onion and parsley together and season to taste with salt, freshly ground pepper and cayenne pepper.

Pack the shrimp between 8 small ramekins or glasses.

Place the butter, garlic and thyme in a heavy-based saucepan and melt over a low heat. Remove from the heat and allow the garlic and thyme to infuse the butter. Strain the butter through a fine sieve and discard the garlic and thyme.

Pour the melted butter over the shrimp to cover the entire surface of the shrimp. Refrigerate the shrimp until the butter solidifies.

When ready to serve remove the shrimp from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for 30 minutes. Serve with hot toast and a small green salad.

 

 

Prawn in Potato Waistcoasts with Curry Salt

Serves 4

 

vegetable oil for deep-frying

12 slices of large potatoes, sliced lengthways

12 prawns, peeled and deveined with tail on

salt and freshly ground pepper

corn flour, mixed to a thick paste with cold water

10 g (½ oz) curry powder

4 lemon wedges

 

Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy based saucepan over medium heat to 110 °C. Add the potato slices and cook without colour until they are almost cooked. Remove the potato slices from the oil with a slotted spoon taking care not to break them. Lay the slices out on a tray lined with greaseproof paper with a space between each one so that they do not touch each other. Set aside until ready to use.

Lightly season the prawns with salt and freshly ground pepper. Lay a potato slice on a clean work surface and brush the edges with the corn flour paste. Place a prawn tail at one end of the potato and roll the potato tightly around it.

Repeat with a second slice of potato so that the whole prawn is covered with potato, leaving the tail exposed. Secure the potato with a small cocktail stick. Prepare the remaining prawns in the same way. Refrigerate until ready to cook

 

 

Beetroot Cured Salmon

 

Serves 8

 

240 g (9 ozs) demerara sugar

15 g (3/4 oz) crushed black peppercorns

35 g (1½ oz) crushed juniper berries

80 ml dark rum

50 g (2 oz) dill with stalks, roughly chopped

zest of 3 lemons

1 kg (2¼ lb) raw beetroot, peeled and grated

1 kg (2¼ lb) piece of fresh salmon, pin boned and trimmed with skin on

 

Horseradish Cream

50 g (2 oz) freshly grated horseradish

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

pinch of sugar

100 ml (3½ fl oz) whipping cream

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Fennel and Lemon Salad

2 small heads of fennel with fronds removed and chopped

15 ml extra virgin olive oil

freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Place the sugar, peppercorns, juniper berries, rum, dill, lemon zest and beetroot in a stainless steel bowl and mix together. Spread a large piece of cling film out on a clean work surface and place the salmon flesh-side up in the centre of the cling film. Spread the marinade evenly over the surface of the salmon and enclose in the cling film. Wrap the salmon in a sheet of aluminium foil to prevent seepage and place in the refrigerator for 3 – 4 days, depending on the thickness of the salmon.

Drain-off any excess liquid from the salmon daily and rewrap tightly. When ready, using the back of a knife scrape the marinade off the salmon and gently wipe the surface with a clean, damp kitchen cloth.

To carve the cured salmon, using a sharp, thin-blade knife, make an incision through the flesh at the narrowest end of the salmon. Hold the skin tightly in your hand and work the knife from side to side between the flesh and skin, working the knife towards the opposite end, at the same time pulling the skin with the other hand. With the tip of a knife remove the dark blood line from each slice before serving. Cut the salmon into cubes to expose the salmon flesh.

If you cannot find fresh horseradish buy a good quality horseradish sauce. To two parts horseradish sauce add 1 part whipped cream for a mild flavoured sauce. To make the horseradish cream, place the ingredients into a chilled, stainless-steel bowl and whisk to ribbon stage. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make the fennel salad, slice the fennel as thinly as possible, preferably on a mandolin. Place in a bowl and dress with the olive oil and lemon juice. Add the chopped fennel frond and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Arrange the fennel between 8 chilled plates. Place the salmon on top of the fennel and spoon a little of the dressing over the salmon. Make a quenelle of horseradish cream

 

Pulled Pork and Pomelo Salad

 

Serves 4

 

2½ tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp sugar

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

1 small garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

pinch of sea salt

1 kg (2¼ lb ) roast pork belly (see below) shredded with your fingers into thin strips

1 head of frisée, picked and washed

1 small punnet bean sprouts

1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 spring onions, finely sliced

6 water chestnuts, sliced thinly

4 pomelos, peeled and segmented

50 g (2 oz) peanuts, roasted and roughly chopped

1 small bunch mint, picked

1 small bunch coriander, picked

1 small bunch basil, picked deep-fried shallots to garnish

 

To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, fish sauce, oil, sugar, chilli, garlic and salt.

In a large bowl, combine the pulled pork, frisée, bean sprouts, basil, red onion, spring onion, water chestnuts, pomelo segments, chopped roasted peanuts, mint and coriander. Pour the dressing over the ingredients and toss to coat evenly. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the deep fried shallots.

 

Pork belly is a great cut of meat for either roasting or to confit. We sell both confit pork belly and pork belly rillettes in our deli, which are both made from the same cut of meat. When we have cooked the confit belly we gently lift it out of the fat and place it between two greaseproof paper-lined trays and press it with an even weight and refrigerate it overnight so it can firm up before we cut it into even-sized blocks, making it easier to pan-fry and carve. The trimmings from the confit belly get shredded and turned into rillette and are packed into sterilised jars and then covered with a thin layer of the cooking fat to help preserve them and give them a longer shelf life. The roast, confit and rillette are always on the tapas menu in either a broth, salad or as a filling for a won ton or spring roll.

Slow roast belly pork improves by brining it first for anything from 24 hours to 3 days giving the meat a finer texture. To brine a pork belly, place the pork in a tight fitting container and cover with cold water. Pour off the water and measure it. For every litre of water add 180 g salt.

Place the salted water into a heavy-based saucepan and place over a medium heat until the salt has dissolved.

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Pour the brine over the pork belly and refrigerate for 24 hours to 3 days. 12 hours before cooking drain and dry the meat. Soak overnight in fresh water.

 

Serves 4

 

2 kg (4½ lb) pork belly

2 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp freshly ground pepper

2 tbsp peanut oil

200 ml (7 fl oz) soy sauce

4 tbsp brown sugar

2 star anise

2 cinnamon sticks, broken up

3 cm ginger piece, peeled, thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 spring onion, sliced

 

Preheat the oven to 240 °C/450°F/gas  mark 8. . Score the pork rind at 1 cm intervals. Place the pork in a deep, heavy-based roasting tray. Rub half of the salt and the ground pepper into the rind. Sprinkle the remaining salt over the pork. Roast for 20 – 30 minutes or until the skin has crackled. Remove the pork from the oven and add the soy sauce, 200 ml (7 fl oz) cold water, sugar, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, garlic and spring onion to the tray. Reduce the temperature to 180 °C/350°F/gas mark 4 and cook for a further 70 – 80 minutes until the meat is tender. Carve the meat and serve with garnish of your cho

 

 

Doughnuts with Lemon Syrup

 

Serves 6

 

Doughnuts

250 g (9 oz)  plain flour, sieved

1 tsp salt

25 g (1 oz) castor sugar

15 g fresh yeast

40 ml whole milk

1 large free-range egg, lightly beaten

40 g (1¾ oz) soft, unsalted butter, diced

extra flour for dusting

canola oil for deep frying

 

Lemon Syrup

300 g (11 oz) castor sugar

100 ml (3½ fl oz) water

40 ml lemon juice

20 g (¾ oz) glucose

1 vanilla pod, split and scraped

 

Combine all of the lemon syrup ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan and place over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and set aside until ready to use.

To make the doughnuts: place the flour, salt and sugar in an electric mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. Mix slowly until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Crumble the yeast into the milk and crush it with the back of a spoon to dissolve.

Pour the yeast into the bowl and continue to mix. Add the egg and increase the speed of the mixing bowl and continue to mix until the dough comes together in a ball and cleans the sides of the mixing bowl. Add the butter piece by piece until fully incorporated. Check the consistency of the dough; if it seems too wet, add a little more flour.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and place in the fridge to prove overnight or leave to stand at room temperature for 1 ½ – 2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-based pan to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Remove the dough from the bowl. Knock back and knead the dough for 4 – 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into quenelles using two teaspoons, or spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a wide, plain nozzle and hold it above the hot oil. Squeeze gently, snipping the dough with scissors into small, even, rounded pieces as it drops into the oil.

Deep-fry the doughnuts, turning them with a slotted spoon until they are evenly golden brown in colour (approximately

1 minute on each side). Remove the doughnuts from the oil using a slotted spoon and place them into the lemon syrup and leave for a few minutes to soak up the syrup.

A really posh new book celebrating Irish food and cooking has just arrived on my desk. HOME: Recipes from Ireland is Trish Deseine’s new book, and it feels like a love letter to her home country.

Trish was born and educated in Belfast and grew up on a beef farm in Co. Antrim. In the 1980’s she “escaped” to the University of Edinburgh to read modern languages, and from there to Paris in 1987 where she lived for almost three decades soaking up the ambience and the food culture. This absence from Ireland has given her a unique understanding and perspective of what has shaped our Irish food culture, erasing “the last traces of that knee-jerk bigotry that a hard-line, almost Presbyterian, upbringing tried to drum into me”.

Until the 1960s, the English conquest and the great famines of the 1840s were the two main factors that shaped Ireland’s food culture. In earlier times Ireland’s rich fertile soil and temperate climate afforded excellent tillage, flavourful livestock and dairy products, and an abundance of game, fish and shellfish.

By the 1840s the Irish population had grown to 8 million, but over-reliance on the potato meant that over a million died from starvation by the end of the century, and several million more fled the country contributing to the huge Irish diaspora around the world.

“The notion of food as a sociable or physical pleasure during the years of recovery after the famines was a difficult one for the Irish to assimilate, as was the idea of an indigenous fine cuisine. For the ordinary people living on the land, food meant survival, and growing sufficient amounts was a prerequisite to regaining control of their farms. In those days there were only two “twists” on native Irish dishes – enough or not enough…..Fast forward to 2015, and post Celtic Tiger, super tech-savvy Ireland has caught right up with the rest of the world as it goes crazy for food. Thanks to the internet and cheap airfares, the nation has become fluent in the language of food as aspirational lifestyle, status symbol or fashion statement. Our appetite for world trends in restaurants is as large as that of any other developed country…”

Trish has included many favourite recipes from her childhood in Co. Antrim but at the same time, in full-on “returning native” mode, several signature dishes of top Irish chefs using our beautiful Irish ingredients – all superbly and evocatively photographed by Deirdre Rooney. This stylish, beautiful coffee-table book is an important addition to the growing number of books celebrating both our traditional and emerging Irish food culture.

 

Recipes for Article HOME Recipes from Ireland

Name of Book: HOME Recipes from Ireland

Author: Trish Deseine

Photographer Deirdre Rooney

Stylist: Trish Deseine

Publisher: Hachette

 

 

Derek Creagh’s Baby White Turnip Soup at Harry’s Bridgend

 

For 4

 

5 minutes preparation

20 minutes cooking

1 kg (2¼ lb) baby white turnip flesh

250 g (9 oz) butter

1 large potato, peeled and finely sliced

1 cooking apple, finely sliced

3 onions, finely sliced

1 bottle of Stonewell cider

400 ml (14 fl oz) milk

Rosemary and thyme

600 ml (1 pint) water or stock

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sweat the onion, white turnip, apple and potato for approximately 10 minutes.

Pour in cider, stir and reduce until the alcohol has reduced, but not too much as you want to retain the cider’s acidity.

In a separate pan, heat the milk with the rosemary and thyme and leave to infuse.

When the onions are translucent, add the herb infused milk.

Bring to the boil and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, liquidise and pass through a fine strainer.

Season with salt and pepper.

 

 

Sally Barnes Smoked Tuna Mash

 

“The people were nearly all men, dressed solemnly and hideously in their Sunday clothes; most of them had come straight from Mass without any dinner, true to that Irish instinct that places its fun before its food.”

From Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville and Ross.

Woodcock smokery is in the pretty Cork village of Castletownshend near Skibbereen in County Cork. The main street, flanked with colourful terraced houses and the odd pub or small shop, dips steeply to the edge of the harbour, overlooked by the handsome church and 17th century castle built by Richard Townsend. It’s a sleepy, romantic place, home to writer Edith Anna Somerville, co author of the Irish R.M. series of humorous novels on Irish life in the early 1900s. It’s here that Sally Barnes smokes her wild fish, using only a time-honoured and traditional methodology, without adding any colourings or artificial preserves.

Wild salmon is in short supply in Ireland, but instead of turning to farmed stocks, Sally has preferred to diversify the fish she uses, including line-caught Irish tuna. Here I have included it in the most simple of Irish dishes: buttered potato mash. Add a drop of lemon juice perhaps, but not much else is needed.

 

For 2

10 minutes preparation

20 minutes cooking

2 or 3 good sized floury potatoes

50 ml (2 fl oz) warm milk

75 g (3 oz)  butter

Salt and pepper

200 g (7 oz) Woodstock smoked tuna

Lemon juice

 

Peel and boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until they are soft.

Mash them with the warm milk and add half the butter. Season with a little salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

Flake the tuna through the hot potato mash, add the rest of the butter to melt on top and serve immediately.

 

Irish Little Gem, Gubbeen Wild Venison Salami, Cider Vinegar and Rapeseed Oil Vinaigrette

 

Irish Little Gems are larger, frillier and tastier than those I have become used to in France. A mini version of Cos salads, they are perfect for plating, as their long naturally cupped leaves stay fresh and firm.

In this recipe, they are also a good backdrop to Fingal Ferguson’s wonderful charcuterie from the celebrated Gubbeen farm, one of Ireland’s pioneering producers, set in a “gentle and fertile corner of West Cork”.

Here I have teamed sweet apples and grassy Donegal rapeseed oil with Gubbeen’s wild venison salami; it is both fruity and earthy, smoked over “sweet woods” and cooked in white wine. Add a few fried bacon chunks for a bit of crunch and you’ll have a great salad starter or light lunch.

 

For 2

 

5 minutes preparation

 

1 Irish little gem, leaves removed, washed and spun

About 50 or 60 g (2-2½ oz) of Gubbeen wild venison salami, sliced finely

50 g (2 oz) bacon chunks

1 eating apple, sliced finely

3 tablespoons Irish rapeseed oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Salt and pepper

 

Set the salad leaves on two large plates. Dot the salami over them.

Fry the bacon until crisp, then scatter it and the apple slices evenly over the leaves. Drizzle with a vinaigrette made from the oil and vinegar, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately with some good soda bread and salted butter.

Rocky Road

A relative newcomer to the rows of traybakes and fridge cake, the rebel Yank, Rocky Road, has broken the straight-sided mould of the usual suspects and is often presented in irregular chunks. Unlike the many other sugary squares, this is one recipe where you can make a huge difference to the taste, despite the, frankly, trashy ingredients, by using really good chocolate and good quality dried fruit.

This borders on a traditional fridge cake recipe, (which is fudgier and usually covered in chocolate butter glaze) like those I recently spotted, thinly sliced, served with chocolate sauce, on a pub’s dessert menu or fashioned into a Christmas Pudding shape for an “alternative” Christmas Day dessert. It might not be the most challenging or sophisticated of recipes, but it does seem as if everyone loves it.

 

For 10 to 12

10 minutes preparation

2 hours chilling

 

200 g (7 ozs)  salted butter

400 g (14 ozs) good dark chocolate

3 tablespoons golden syrup

250 g (9 ozs) digestive biscuits (or hobnobs or rich tea)

125 g (4½ oz) dried raspberries, cherries, cranberries, strawberries (optional)

100 g (3½ oz) pecans (optional)

100 g (3½ oz) mini marshmallows

Grease and line a 20 cm x 25 cm (8 inch x 10 inch) cake tin.

Put the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bowl and melt gently together over a bain-marie or in the microwave.

Crush the biscuits into irregular pieces, either with a quick blast in a mini blender, or in a tea towel with a rolling pin, then add them to the chocolate mixture.

Tip in the dried fruit, marshmallows if you are using it, and stir it all well until everything is coated in chocolate.

Spread the mixture into the tin, smooth out the top and let it cool and harden in the fridge for an hour or so. Cut or break the Rocky Road into pieces and serve.

 

Hot Tips

Scared to tackle sushi yourself? Sushi made Simple will help take the mystery out of making sushi. We will start by explaining the ingredients, basic equipment and techniques required.  Sushi gets the ‘thumbs up’ from cardiologists and nutritionists – not least because it is based mainly on fresh fish, seaweed, vegetables and rice, but it is also low in saturated fat, high in vital omega 3s and rich in vitamins and minerals. On Wednesday November 25^th starting at 9.30am,  we will show you how to make at least eight different types of sushi as well as sashimi.

Students will have the opportunity to taste all the dishes prepared during the demonstration. Light lunch is included.

 

East Cork Slow Food Event – Peter Mulryan from the Blackwater Distillery will share the exciting story behind Blackwater No. 5 Gin at the Ballymaloe Cookery School on Thursday 19^th November at 7pm. Slow Food Members €6.00, Non Slow Food Members €8.00. Proceeds will support the East Cork Slow Food Educational Project

Our Autumn 12 Week Certificate Course students are cooking a Pop-Up Dinner at the Ballymaloe Cookery School on Saturday November 21^st in aid of the  East Cork Slow Food Educational Project. Aperitifs, delicious nibbles and three course dinner. Tickets €45 – Slow Food members €45.00 – non Slow Food members €50.00 – Places are limited, booking essential 021 4646785 or slowfoodeastcork@gmail.com

Midleton Country Markets are now taking orders for Christmas puddings, cakes and mince pies. Check out their usual fare including honey, jams, pickles, seasonal fruit, vegetables & salads.  Every Friday at Market Green from 9.30am-3pm

Check out the winners of the Irish Farmhouse cheese awards on www.irishcheese.ie

 

I’ve just returned from a whistlestop tour of Chicago. The main purpose of my trip, was to collect a iBAM award which I was indeed very honoured to receive. I was warmly welcomed by the hospitable Irish Chicagon’s.  I also managed to check out the food, urban farm and gardening scene.

On the very first evening I had a delicious dinner at The Gage, a sister restaurant of Acanto both owned by the Lawless family (now Chicago restaurant ‘royalty’) originally from Rahoon in Co Galway.

Charismatic Irish restaurateur, Ferdia Doherty gave me a glowing introduction.  His Farmhouse Tavern is the quintessential ‘farm to table’ restaurant and he is justifiably proud of his sustainable sourcing, all produce comes from the four surrounding states Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Local sourcing has of course been gaining momentum for over a decade but it has reached a crescendo. Every chef I talked to waxed lyrical about creating ‘farmer friendships’.  The Lincoln Park Market on Saturday morning is not to be missed, packed with Autumn produce, freshly pressed apple  cider, wild mushrooms, hand made cheese and charcuterie, loved Underground Meats from Madison.  There in the midst of it all, was Jared Batson, a past 12 Week student turning out the most delicious sourdough pizza from this mobile wood-burning oven. He also makes woodfired omelettes and scrambled eggs.  Not surprisingly there was an interminable queue. His pizza toppings reflect what’s in season and on the surrounding market stalls. I tasted also a couple of his house-made sodas. I particularly loved a pizza with tomato n’duja and soppresatta  with Hungarian wax chilli, with drizzled Serrano honey. Another with watercress pesto, black walnut, bacon lardons, mozzarella and shaved fresh apple slices was equally delicious. People sat around in the park listening to drumming with the children.

I was also intrigued a brilliant initiative called Little Sprouts aimed at the children who come to the market with their parents. Each week they have a new vegetable for them to taste. Kale, romanesco, carrot, spinach…the kids love the fun and get credit for being ‘super tasters’. There are colouring books, little prizes and competitions, they learn about the seasons. Invariably the child meets the farmer and asks the parents to buy the vegetables so the stall holders also benefit – a neat idea that could become part of all our farmers market over here. People on ford stamps are also able to get double value when they spend them at the Farmers Market, another terrific idea.

Like so many restaurants nowadays, Girl and the Goat concentrates on small dishes to share, the cool waiters wore black t-shirts with punchy one liners.
Goat You!. What happens at the Goat stays at the Goat!…..

Dinner starts early in Chicago, by 4.35 the restaurant was  packed. Stephaniezard’s food Igard’s is multi ethnic but she loves goat and ‘pigs face’. There’s now a Little Goat Diner – a chef to watch.

I also loved Abraham Conlon’s Macan/Portuguese food at Fat Rice on West Diversey Avenue.  We  had a memorable brunch at Dove’s  Luncheonette on Damen Avenue – oyster omelette with tomato confit and chihuahua cheese with a Texas toast – big toast – ½-1 inch thick!

For those more obsessed by architecture than food,  Chicago is a fantastic town, don’t miss the river architecture tour with a running commentary on the awe inspiring ‘sky scrapers’ – some of the country’s most iconic buildings, Mies van der Rohe,  Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Frank Gehry……

Make time to wander through Millennium Park to see The Bean, the Cloud Gate and Lurie Garden.  And certainly don’t miss the Chicago Art Museum – voted the best in the US and deservedly so, then there’s the urban farms and gardens, the brilliant new Local Foods Store and Will Allen’s food revolution at Growing Power – the worst thing about  Chicago is having to tear yourself  away – to be continued…..

 

Hot Tips

Discovering Tapas, a half day course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School on Wednesday November 18^th. In one afternoon  we have choosen our favourite tapas – classic tortilla a la patata, pata negra, salt cod bunuelos with aioli, pimento de pardon, bunuelos con chrozio y queso, garbanzada……to name a few. Light lunch included.

www.cookingisfun.ie for further information.

 

Pop Up Dinner at the Ballymaloe Cookery  – Jared Batson, from Nomad in Chicago will host a Pop Up dinner on Wednesday November 11th to support the East Cork Slow Food Educational Project.

Aperitif, delicious nibbles, three course dinner..

Tickets €50 for Non Slow Food members and €45 for Slow

Food members

slowfoodeastcork@gmail.com for bookings

 

Join us in the Ballymaloe Grainstore on Thursday 12^th November at 7.30pm for a Riedel comparative wine tasting event with Maximilian Riedel, an 11th generation Riedel glass making family, for his first ever event to be held outside of Dublin. http://www.ballymaloegrainstore.com/portfolio/riedel-glass-comparative-wine-tasting-event

 

 

Mary Jo’s Tomato Upside Down Cake

adapted from Paul Bertolli

 

My friend Mary Jo cooked up a luncheon feast during my recent visit to Chicago including this delicious and unusual dessert made from ripe tomatoes.

 

Serves 8-10

 

300 ml (½ pint) Tomato Jam, see below

75 g (3 oz) butter

75 g (3 oz) brown or dark brown sugar

1-2 firm ripe tomatoes (heirloom if possible), peeled and sliced ¼ inch)

plus a few cherry tomatoes for the gaps

 

150 g (5 oz/1 cup) white flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

110 g (4 oz/ 1stick) butter, room temperature

110 g (3 ½ oz/½ cup) sugar

2 eggs, large

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk, if batter is too thick to spread

 

Line a lightly buttered round 23 cm/9-inch cake pan with parchment.

Preheat oven to 180°C/350F/gas mark 4

Melt the butter and brown sugar in saucepan. Pour into prepared cake pan spreading evenly.  Arrange the tomato slices snugly in a single layer over the firm sugar base, filling in gaps if necessary.  Spread a thin layer of tomato jam over slices.

Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each. Add the vanilla extract. Blend in the sieved dry ingredients; add a little milk if needed. Dollop the batter around prepared pan and spread evenly over tomatoes. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until firm in the centre. Remove the cake from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Loosen edges and reverse cake, unmolding onto a plate while still warm. Remove the parchment and carefully spread a glazing layer of remaining Tomato Jam over tomatoes. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

Tomato Jam

Makes 300 ml/½ pint jar.

 

350 g (12 oz) golden cherry tomatoes or other tomatoes

1 tablespoon finely chopped, thinly sliced lemon (seeds removed)

1 ½ teaspoons grated fresh ginger

150 g (5 oz) sugar (brown, white or mixture)

 

Put all ingredients into a stainless steel saucepan cook quickly to a thick jam. Sieve to remove seeds.

 

David’s Cookies

Another gem of a recipe from Mary Jo McMillan’s table – her son David’s favourite cookie recipe and may well be your soon. I even brought some home in my picnic on the plane.

Makes 18 large cookies or 5-6 dozen babies.

 

110 g (4 oz/1 stick) butter softened

75 g (3 oz/scant ½ cup) caster sugar

75   g (3 oz/½ cup) soft brown sugar

20 g (3/4 oz/1 tablespoon) honey

1 egg

3 tablespoons water

75 g (3 oz/½ cup plus 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ oz wheat germ (1 tablespoon)

160 g (5½ oz/2 cups) rolled oats, preferably old-fashioned

75 g (3 oz/½ cup) chocolate chips

110 g (4 oz/generous ¾ cup) raisins

50 g (2 oz/½ cup) chopped walnuts or pecans

 

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in egg and gradually beat in water.

Sieve the flour, salt and baking soda together. Stir into the creamed mixture with the wheatgerm, add the oats, chocolate chips, raisins and nuts.

For large cookies scoop dough with 2-oz. ice-cream dipper, and place 8 cookies on 8-by-14-inch lightly greased or greased parchment-lined baking sheet. For baby David’s, drop cookies by teaspoon. Using a fork dipped in water, flatten cookies to 1/2-inch thickness. Large cookies should be at least 3 inches across.

Bake in preheated 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 oven until golden. Large cookies will take 12-15 minutes and small cookies will bake in 10-12 minutes. Watch carefully, since honey causes cookies to darken quickly. Cool slightly before removing to wire racks. Layer with waxed paper for storage.

 

Ferdia Doherty’s Autumnal Salad from Farmhouse Restaurant in Chicago

 

– put this name on your Chicago list

 

Serves Four

 

150 g (6 ozs/2 cups) shaved raw brussels’s sprouts
150 g (6 ozs/2 cups chiffonod black kale
330 g (11 ozs/2 cups) roasted butternut squash

110 g (4oz/1 cup)  ocal lue cheese

2 shaved tart apples

50 g (2oz) toasted black quinoa

50 g (2oz) puffed wild rice

35 g (1½ oz) raw apple cider vinaigrette (see recipe)

18 sea salt crispy kale chips (to garnish)

 

Prepare all raw ingredients and combine together in a large mixing bowl. Toss with the apple cider vinaigrette and garnish with the fresh made kale chips. Enjoy!

 

Raw Apple Cider Vinaigrette

(Yield Approximately 1 Cup)

1/2 shallot, finely diced

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon roasted garlic

1 teaspoon fresh picked thyme

110 ml (4 fl ozs/½ cup extra virgin olive oil

110 ml (4 fl ozs/½ cup) raw apple cider vinegar

110 ml (4 fl ozs/½ cup) wildflower honey

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

salt to taste
Combine all ingredients except for the olive oil. Whisk in olive oil slowly to emulsify. Season to taste.  Enjoy!

 

Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris’ Pumpkin Salad with “Three Sisters Garden” Baby Kale and Goat Cheese

 

Makes 4 Salads

 

A small baking pumpkin – butternut or delicata squash.  The method below works on any variety of squash.

salt

2 tablespoons local honey

2 tablespoons butter – softened

baby kale ( 1 large handful,  stems trimmed or removed)

1 pepper, thinly sliced, no seeds

20 very thin slices of Soppressata – Italian salami – toss in a pan with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sauté till warm, about 1 minute

2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds

4 tablespoon fresh goat cheese

 

For the Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon local honey

1 teaspoon of olive oil

 

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Peel the pumpkin, cut in half and remove the seeds.  Cut into ¼ inch thick wedges and cut in half again, creating 16 wedges (you may have extra pumpkin left over.) Toss the wedges in olive oil, salt and pepper.   Spread the pumpkin out on a baking pan. Roast for 15- 20 minutes or until tender – when the wedges begin to caramelize and they are golden brown.  Remove from the oven.  Mix the 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of butter together.  Coat the hot wedges and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

Next make the vinaigrette. Whisk together in the order of the listed ingredients.

Assembly:

Divide the pumpkin up onto 4 plates.  Toss the baby kale and peppers in the vinaigrette. (depending on the variety and texture of the kale you can allow the kale to sit in the vinaigrette for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.  The vinaigrette “cooks” the kale and tenderizes it.)  Then spread it out over the pumpkin wedges, top each salad with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds, 5 slices of soppressata, and a tablespoon of fresh goat cheese.  Drizzle with any remaining juices from the pumpkin baking dish.

Halloween in the US is almost as big a deal as Christmas, I’ve just recently come back from Chicago and although it was several weeks before Halloween the celebrations had already begun. A whole series of spooky events were planned throughout the month of October. Tickets for the Haunted Halloween Ball were in hot demand, the Guide to Chicago Haunted Houses was flying off the shelves. There were drive-ins spooky movies with promises of the terrors and chills of Halloween. The Club Zone was offering a Freaky Deaky Halloween Express shuttle, the mind boggles!  Halloween costume stores were doing a roaring trade in scary gear for both adults and children alike. Pumpkins were piled high and kitchen shops were finding it difficult to keep up with the demand for cookie cutters. Everyone is in to it….a far cry from apple bobbing and barmbrack.

In honour of Halloween every year, Daley Plaza turns into  Franken Plaza. The Art Institute of Chicago, the most prestigious art museum in the country hosts a Halloween Gathering with lots of ghoulish things to do including kids costume parade, mask making, zombie dance. There’s Boo! at the Zoo with a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, a haunted hayride and even a creepy carousel. Well that’s all very exciting but this is a food column so what were they eating. It’s not just the restaurants and câfes that are in on the food. The excitement of Trick or Treat is in its second year. There is no end of ideas for fun and frightful Halloween recipes, scary spider web muffins, witches brew, devil’s food twinkies, dracula’s brains, dragon’s blood,  jelly, pumpkin pies, pancakes, soups……Here are some ideas to amuse and tempt you. Happy Halloween.

 

Hot Tips

Mahon Point Farmers Market was buzzing when we visited recently. A brilliant selection of fresh naturally produced local food in season and beautiful fresh fish from West Cork and Ballycotton. My new find was Wild Atlantic Way products. I loved the dried mint and bladderrack ‘tea’, seagrass, garlic butter and seaweed oils.  Zita also does a range of seaweed salts in cute little pots and tells me the nori and seasame  is particularly delicious over steamed rice. The dried nori seaweed is also being snapped up by vegetarians to top up their Vitamin B 12 and calcium. Zita has a passion for the sea so this is her inspired project to enable her to live close to the shore and harvest the sea vegetables sustainably.

https://www.facebook.com/…/Wild-atlantic-way-products

 

Have you come across the Little Milk Company’s, organic cheddar cheese – it’s very good.  The milk from  of 10 organic family farms in Munster and Leinster is used to make a range of cheeses, check it out – wwwthelittlemilkcompany.ie

Barranstook House, Cappagh, Co Waterford. Tel: 058 685 55

 

Fiery Pumpkin Soup

Serves 6

2 tablespoons (2 1/2 American tablespoons) sunflower oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon (1 American tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) Thai green curry paste

900g (2lb) prepared pumpkin ( peeled, seeded and cut into 2cm (3/4 inch) chunks) – a medium pumpkin weighing about 1.6kg (3 1/2lb) will yield approx. 900g (2lb) prepared pumpkin

600ml (1 pint/2 1/2 cups) homemade chicken stock

1 x 400ml (14fl oz/1 3/4 cup) can coconut milk (we like Chaokah brand)

salt and freshly ground pepper

palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce to taste

50-75ml (2-3fl oz) cream

2 tablespoons (2 1/2 American tablespoons) Thai basil, shredded or fresh coriander leaves

 

Garnish

crème fraîche

Thai basil or fresh coriander leaves

 

Sweat the onion slowly in the oil until soft but not coloured, about 10 minutes.  Add the Thai curry paste and continue to cook over a low heat for 2 minutes.  Add the chunks of pumpkin, chicken stock and coconut milk, bring to a simmer, season with salt and pepper and simmer until the pumpkin is tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat.  Taste and correct seasoning.  Balance the sweet, sour and salty flavours by the judicious additions of palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.

Reheat the soup and add the cream, Thai basil or fresh coriander just before serving.  Ladle into warm soup bowls and serve with a spoonful of crème fraîche and some Thai basil or fresh coriander leaves.

 

Apple Brack

(Irish Traditional Cooking revised edition)

This is brack recipe is from Phyl O’Kelly who was a much-loved cookery writer in the Irish Examiner newspaper for many years.

 

Makes 2 loaves

450g (1lb) cooking apples

225g (8oz) sugar

225g (8oz) butter

1 level teaspoon bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)

2 large eggs, beaten

350g (12oz) plain flour or half and half plain and wholemeal flour (which is even nicer)

2 teaspoons mixed spice

225g (8oz) raisins

225g (8oz) sultanas

110g (4oz) cherries

110g (4oz) chopped walnuts

 

2 loaf tins, 900g (2lb)

 

First soak fruit in hot tea for 1½-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 3. Grease and line the loaf tins. Peel, core and slice the apples and stew them carefully with the sugar and a tiny drop of water, stirring frequently to make sure they are not sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. When cooked, add the butter and stir until melted. Set aside to get cold, then stir in the bread soda (bicarbonate of soda), eggs and sieved flour and mixed spice. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tins and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 1¾–2 hours.

 

Dracula’s Brains

Flavour popping corn with grated cheddar, mustard and cayenne pepper then shape into ‘brains’ and serve at Halloween as part of a spooky spread!

Makes 12

 

1 1/2 tablespoons (2 American tablespoons) vegetable oil, plus extra for shaping

125g (4 1/2oz) popping corn

400g (14oz) grated Cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

few pinches cayenne pepper

1 egg white

 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Tip in the popcorn, cover and shake the pan to coat the kernels. Cook over a medium heat until the corn stops popping, about 5 minutes, shaking the pan every so often. Take off heat and sprinkle with a little salt.

Put the Cheddar cheese, mustard and pepper in a small pan and heat gently until melted and bubbling.  Whisk the egg white lightly and add to the cheese mixture.  Drizzle over the popcorn and mix well until completely coated.

Rub hands with a little oil and quickly grab handfuls of popcorn and squeeze into brain shapes. Place on a tray lined with parchment, then leave to cool. Cover with cling film until ready to eat or store in a jar – you can make a few hours before serving.

 

Halloween Spider Web Cupcakes

Makes 12

200g (7oz/1 3/4 cups) white flour

25g (1oz) cocoa powder

1 level tablespoon (1 American tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) baking powder

150g (5oz/generous 1/2 cup) caster sugar

75g (3oz/3/4 stick) butter

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

175ml (6floz/3/4 cup) milk

50g (2oz) chocolate chips

1 cupcake tray lined with paper cases

 

Preheat the oven at 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.

Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder in a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs. Combine the beaten egg, vanilla extract and milk and add to the dry mixture. Combine with a fork to give a wet consistency. Fold in the chocolate chips gently. Spoon into the cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until well-risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.

 

Chocolate or Orange Buttercream Icing

110g (4oz/ 1 stick) soft butter

225g (8oz /2cups) icing sugar

25g (1oz – 1/4 cup) Cocoa Powder (or 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind)

1 – 2 tablespoons (1 – 2 American tablespoon + 1 – 2 teaspoons) milk

Cream the butter until smooth, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder and add to the butter. Beat well. Add the milk and beat until smooth. Ice the cupcakes, decorate them and have fun – enjoy!

 

Variations

White Icing

350g (12oz) icing sugar, sifted

water

To make the icing, add enough water to the icing sugar to make a spreadable icing.

 

Black or Orange Icing

6 tablespoons (7 1/2 American tablespoons) icing sugar, sifted

a few drops of water

a few drops of black or orange food colouring

 

Mix the icing sugar with enough water and a few drops of chosen food colouring to make a spreadable consistency.

 

To decorate the cupcakes.

Ice the top of the cupcakes with the white icing.

Place the black or orange icing in a paper piping bag and draw circles on the white icing.  Using a cocktail stick, drag from the centre outwards and inwards to create a spider web effect.

 

 

Halloween Cookies

Makes 40 depending on the cookie cutter size

 

150g (5oz/1 1/4 sticks) butter

65g (2 1/2oz/generous 1/4 cup) caster sugar

65g (2 1/2oz/generous 1/4 cup) light brown sugar

110g (4oz) golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

370g (13oz/generous 3 cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)

 

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

In a large saucepan, melt the butter, caster and brown sugar, golden syrup and vanilla extract and gently together.

Sift the flour and bread soda into a large bowl.  Add the melted butter and sugar mixture to the flour.  Mix together and knead for a few minutes until it comes together.

Flatten the dough slightly into a thick round.  Wrap in cling film and chill in a fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge, dust the work surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 5mm (1/4 inch) thick.

Using Halloween cookie cutters (or cut into tombstones), cut out shapes and transfer to a baking trays and cook in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes depending on the cookie size.  Allow the shapes to firm up for a few minutes on the tray before removing to a wire rack to cool.

 

Cookie Tombstones

Halloween Cookies (see recipe)

 

Decoration

110g (4oz) dark chocolate, 52%

50g (2oz) white chocolate

 

Melt both chocolates in separate bowls over a saucepan of simmering water.

Dip the tombstones in the dark chocolate, place on bakewell paper and leave to harden.

When set, use a paper piping bag and place the melted white chocolate in it and pipe ‘boo’; ‘RIP’ on the dark chocolate (tombstone).

 

The game season is in full swing and at last, game is losing its reputation as a luxury food, eaten only in grand country houses. Snipe, wild duck, shovler, mallard, teal, widgeon, wood pigeon, partridge and woodcock are already in season. The pheasant season opens on 1^st November to 31^st January.

 

Even if you don’t know a hunter, Marks and Spencer, as well as other supermarkets and farmers markets are beginning to sell game birds, one can experiment, escaping the tyranny of eternal chicken breast, farmed salmon and steak, the seemingly compulsory trinity of offerings on virtually every restaurant menu.

 

Now that pheasant and venison, at least, are more readily available, let’s become more adventurous. There’s so many more ways to cook game other than roasting and many more exciting accompaniments than gravy and bread sauce, much as I love them both.

 

Virtually every country has game so it’s worth checking out recipes from around the globe. Introduce other techniques, other flavours, and a variety of wild berries, spices, dried fruit, pickles and herbs.

 

My favourite new book on game was written by Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy who wrote it with the express intention of introducing new ways to prepare cook and cure game. It’s like a total breath of fresh air and whereas they celebrate time-honoured traditions it’s choc full of new recipes you’ll really want to cook and lots of excellent general knowledge about different type of game – plucking, hanging seasons. The evocative photos are by Peter Cassidy.

 

Here are a few recipes from “Game, New Ways to Prepare, Cook and Cure” by Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy courtesy of the publishers Kyle Cathie.

 

Hot Tips

Bees are under threat around the globe from a variety of diseases – colony collapse, the varoa mite….beekeepers tell me that the pollen from ivy flowers help keep the bees healthy throughout the winter months so resist the temptation to pull down the ivy, remember its’ beneficial for the bees.

www.irishbeekeeping.ie

 

Using social and therapeutic horticulture to benefit people with learning disabilities….Thrive the UK’s leading charity are teaching a 2 day course on 2^nd and 3^rd November at the Cork Association for Autism. Phone Emma Hutchinson at the association 086 7888 241 or email horti@corkautism.ie for more information or http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/therapeutic-horticulture-course-tickets-18733647845 to book a place.

 

Popcorn Pheasant with Spicy Dipping Sauce

 

On the face of it I know it sounds a bit weird adding condensed milk, but trust me it works. I picked up the idea when I was in America, and even using such a small amount really helps the flavour of the finished dish. To me, it’s no different than marinating chicken in yogurt to tenderise it. Frying pheasant would never have been entertained when I was a young chef, but I think it does the job of sealing in the juices of this very low-fat bird very well.

 

Serves 4

Preparation: 40 mins

Cooking: about 20 mins

 

rapeseed oil, for frying

2 medium pheasant breasts, boned and skinned

3 tablespoons condensed milk

2 tablespoons cold water

2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a pinch of chilli powder

½  teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons cornflour

200g (7oz) fine-ground cornmeal or polenta

 

DIPPING SAUCE

350ml (12fl oz) shop-bought mayonnaise

2 teaspoons roughly chopped fresh red or green chilli

3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

finely grated zest and juice of 1 large unwaxed lime

2 large spring onions, roughly chopped

4 teaspoons chopped gherkins

3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

100g (3½ oz) roasted red pepper (jarred are fine), finely chopped

4 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley

4 teaspoons sugar

 

 

Pour 1cm rapeseed oil into a frying pan and heat to roughly 175°C.

Cut the pheasant breasts into 2cm cubes, removing any sinew from the fillet and inner breast.

 

Combine the condensed milk with the water and eggs in a bowl and season well with the pepper, chilli powder and cumin. Beat together well.

Dust the nuggets of pheasant with the cornflour, then drop into the egg mixture and coat well. Repeat the same process with the cornmeal or polenta ensuring the nuggets are coated well.

 

While the oil is heating, mix all the ingredients for the dipping sauce together in a serving bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper.

 

Fry the pheasant in small batches for about 3-4 minutes until golden brown.Drain well, then sprinkle with a little salt

Serve hot with the dipping sauce separately.

 

 

Rich Venison Sauce with Pappardelle

 

Pappardelle pasta is made for big, rich and delicious sauces like this. Once the meat is nicely browned, just simmer gently until you have a wonderfully coloured deep-flavoured sauce. Don’t rush it – just let it simmer away. It’s that simple!

 

Serves 4

 

Preparation: 20 mins

Cooking: about 1 hour

 

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

500g (18oz) minced venison

300ml (10fl oz) red wine or port

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons tomato purée

10g (½oz) good-quality beef stock cube, crumbled

300ml strong game stock or chicken stock

400g (14oz) can chopped tomatoes in juice

4 tablespoons cold water

2 teaspoons cornflour, mixed with the water

salt and freshly ground black pepper

500g (18oz) cooked pappardelle pasta

 

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the onions and garlic and cook for 10 minutes until slightly browned.

Add the mince and break up well with a wooden spoon. Then cook over a high heat for a few minutes, stirring well, until all the moisture has evaporated and the meat and veg are starting to brown well.

 

Add the red wine or port and reduce right the way down until you have only about one-third of the original volume.

 

Next, add the oregano, tomato purée, beef stock cube, stock, tomatoes and their juice and water, bring to a simmer and cook gently for 35–40 minutes.

 

Stir in the cornflour mixture and cook until slightly thickened, then season well

with salt and pepper.

 

Serve spooned over the warm pappardelle.

 

 

Warm Roast Duck with Broccoli, Radishes & Anchovy

 

I know you’re thinking this sounds a bit odd, but trust me – it works. The balance here is between the saltiness of the dressing and the richness of the pink-cooked wild duck. Oddly enough, the intense fish flavour works well in this dish and has become a favourite of mine. It also goes well with roasted saddle of hare.

 

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter

Preparation: 10 mins

Cooking: 20 mins, plus resting

 

2 wild duck crowns, twin breasts on the bone, wishbones removed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 salted anchovy fillets, finely chopped or mashed to a paste

3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh tarragon

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

a pinch of sugar

15g  (¾oz) rocket, finely chopped

2 tablespoons cold water

500g (18oz) broccoli, trimmed, leaving a few leaves – split any thick stalks so that all are about the same width

150g (5oz) radishes, finely sliced on the diagonal

 

Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7.

 

Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan.

 

Season the crowns inside and out with salt and pepper, then place skin side down in the hot oil and cook for 2–3 minutes until they start to colour. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 8 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, put the anchovies, herbs, extra virgin olive oil, sugar and salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk together.

 

Turn the duck skin side up and cook for a further 4–5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest in a warm place for at least 15 minutes.

 

Add the rocket to the anchovy dressing and mix well with the water.

 

Cook the broccoli in a saucepan of salted boiling water until just tender. Drain well and keep warm.

 

To serve

Arrange the warm broccoli evenly on four plates and sprinkle with the radishes.

Carefully slice down either side of the breastbone to remove the four breasts from the crowns and then slice each breast at an angle. Dab the cut duck meat on a piece of kitchen towel to remove any excess blood.

 

Lay the duck meat over and under the broccoli, then spoon over the dressing.

 

 

Roasted Teal with Pickled Autumn Raspberries

 

The raspberries must be very ripe and full of flavour for this dish to work successfully. The pickle is a very light one, and the berries are perfect to eat after just a few hours. Adding a touch of raspberry liqueur to the finished sauce gives it a sweet, fruity edge that goes perfectly with the teal.

 

Serves 4

Preparation: 35 mins, plus cooling

Cooking: about 45 mins, plus resting

 

2 tablespoons any oil

4 Teal ducks, dressed and wishbones removed

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 shallots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 celery stick, chopped

2 star anise (optional)

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

50ml (2 fl oz) dry white wine

300ml (10 fl oz) strong game stock  or chicken stock

a pinch of sugar

2 teaspoons ice-cold unsalted butter

50ml (2 fl oz) framboise liqueur

 

Pickled raspberries

200g (7 oz) fresh autumn raspberries

100ml (3½ fl oz) fresh apple juice

3 tablespoons runny honey

2 tablespoons sherry or

balsamic vinegar

2 pinches of salt

a pinch of freshly grated

nutmeg

 

Pickled raspberries

Put the raspberries into a small ceramic bowl or glass preserving jar.

 

Put all the other ingredients into a stainless steel saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes.

 

Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes, then pour over the

raspberries and leave to cool to room temperature. Serve after an hour or two or pop in the fridge where they will keep for a week or so but will lose a little colour.

 

Teal

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/Gas 8.

 

Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan. Season the teal well inside and out, then place breast side down in the hot oil and cook for 2–3 minutes until well sealed, ensuring that both breasts are nicely coloured. Turn the birds over so that they are sitting on their backs and transfer the pan to the oven for 10 minutes.

 

At the 10-minute point, check to see if the birds are well coloured but not

overcooked – the breast meat should still be slightly soft when lightly pressed.

 

Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the birds to a warm tray, turning them back onto their breasts. Loosely cover with foil and leave to rest in a warm place for at least 10 minutes.

 

Transfer the birds to a chopping board. Using a sharp knife, slice through the skin where the leg is attached to the breast, then pull the leg back on itself so that the ball and socket joint pops open and carefully pull the leg away. Carefully slice down one side of the breastbone, continuing to cut right along to the wing, then cut through the wing joint. Tease the flesh away from the crown and gently pull the breast meat away. Repeat on the other side. Cover the legs and breast meat with foil and keep warm while you repeat with the other three birds.

 

Place the frying pan back on the stove and add the shallots, garlic, celery and star anise, if using.

 

Chop up the carcasses into small pieces, add to the frying pan and cook over a fairly high heat for about 10 minutes until the bones and veg have taken on some colour.

 

Add the vinegar and boil rapidly over a high heat until almost all evaporated.

 

Add the wine and boil, scraping off all the lovely caught bits from the pan.

 

Pour the contents of the frying pan into a small saucepan, add the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, skim and simmer for 10 minutes.

 

When ready to serve, strain the stock, season well with salt and pepper and add the sugar. It should be well reduced by now. Add the butter with the framboise and swirl in to give the sauce a nice shine.

 

Place the roasted teal (you may have to flash it through the hot oven) in a hot serving bowl and pour over the well-reduced sauce. Serve with the pickled raspberries.

 

8/10/2015 (CS) (18591)

Taken from Game by Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy

 

 

Roast Snipe with Beet Curry & Crème Fraîche

 

These tiny birds are delicious; Clarissa Dickson Wright reckoned

they were tastier than woodcock! They are not often seen on menus these days, possibly because chefs think they aren’t worth the trouble. Well yes, I sort of agree with that, but once prepared and cooked they make a fine meal – it just depends on how many you can eat! The sweetness of the beets in this dish offsets the

curry spices and crème fraîche. Forget the knife and fork and pick the birds up to eat – all you need is a bib.

 

Serves 4

Preparation: 20 mins

Cooking: about 35 mins in total, plus resting

 

4 tablespoons any oil

4 snipe, drawn and cleaned,

heads removed

salt and freshly ground black

pepper

 

Curry

2 tablespoons any oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon black onion

(nigella or kalonji) seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek

1/4 teaspoon dried chilli with

seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoons tomato purée

200ml (7 fl oz) game stock or chicken stock

500g (18 oz) cooked beetroot, any colour, cut into 5  mm (¼ inch) cubes

 

TO SERVE

150g (5 oz) thick crème fraîche

a few sprigs of fresh coriander

 

Curry

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add all the spices and cook over a low heat for 1-2

minutes.

 

Add the onion and garlic and cook gently for about 4-5 minutes until they start to

take on a little colour on the edges.

 

Stir in the tomato purée and stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes

or until reduced to roughly half the original volume.

 

Add the beetroot and cook again gently until the stock is well reduced and coating

the beets nicely but not too thick. Check the seasoning and adjust if needed.

 

Snipe

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7.

 

Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan.

 

Season the snipe all over with salt and pepper, then place one side down in the hot

oil, transfer to the oven and cook for 5 minutes.

 

At the 5-minute point, remove the pan from oven, turn the birds over onto the

other side and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

 

Remove the pan from the oven; cover the birds loosely with foil and leave to rest in

a warm place for 10 minutes.

 

To Finish

Gently reheat the beetroot curry, trying not to break the beets up too much.

 

Remove the pan from the heat, add about 50g of the crème fraîche and swirl

through. Keep off  the heat.

 

To serve, place the snipe in warm bowls and spoon the curry alongside. Finish with

a few sprigs of coriander and a small spoonful of crème fraîche on top of the

beetroot.

 

8/10/2015 (CS) (18592)

Taken from GAME by Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy

 

Lingonberries grow in the Scandinavian countries, right? Well guess what they also grow very happily here in Ireland in the Bog of Allen in Co Offaly side by side with blueberries. I got some precious punnets of them recently and made a tart lingonberry sauce and some preserves and desserts. So this has been a terrifically exciting week experimenting with a new ingredient or at least new to me in its fresh form. I hadn’t’ realised quite how versatile they would be. A pot of lingonberry jam or sauce adds zing to lots of both sweet and savoury dishes. Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce and some sour cream was a big hit and of course their fruity bittersweet flavour complimented and cut deliciously through the rich gamey flavour of a haunch of venison. The Swedes also love lingonberries with meatballs and fried herring, austrians pair it with schnitzel. Lingonberries can be enjoyed with a variety of breads, muffins, scones, smoothies, salads and a myriad of desserts. They naturally compliment duck, goose, pork and game.

So what do Lingonberries look like? They are small bright red berries, grow on low semi evergreen bushes the same type of acid soil that blueberries love.

They are grown commercially in Sweden as well as in the wild in Swedish forests and throughout the Nordic region and are ripe from August to late October.

They also have the bonus of being super nutritious and have both antioxidant and antibiotic properties. In fact, surprise surprise they are being hailed as yet another ‘superfood’.

Recent research at the Lund University in Sweden concluded that mice fed on a high fat diet including 20% of the tart red lingonberries gained no more weight that those on a low fat diet and had blood sugar and insulin readings similar to the low fat mice.

Lingonberries naturally contain high level of pectin so jams and jellies set easily and are literally made in minutes.

Lingonberries have many names, cowberries, foxberries, whimberries, wolfberries, partridge berries, red whortle berries, dry mountain cranberries, cranberries….they are of course related to cranberries and blueberries.

Jars of lingonberry jam are available from IKEA and some other speciality stores but none are as fresh and vibrant as what you make yourself in small batches in a matter of minutes.

 

Hot Tips

Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food, 22^nd-26^th October. The programme has just landed on my desk, once again packed with an array of interesting and innovative food events – cookery demonstrations, tastings, debates, workshops, food and wine events. www.savourkilkenny.com

The first ever Garden Trails of Ireland national conference is at Inis Beg near Baltimore on 24^th October 2015 from 10am-4pm. Speakers include Gerry Daly and Jane Powers. See www.westcorkgardentrail.com for the details.

 

Deelish Garden Centre close to Skibbereen are expecting lingonberry plants in very soon, check out their range of rare edible plants – aronia (the chokeberry), quince and apricot trees, myrtus luma, edible berberis, elaegnus…… www.deelish.ie.

 

Save your own fennel pollen, the delicious anise flavoured fairy dust so beloved of Michelin starred chefs. The flowers are now ready. Tie them in bundles and hang upside down inside a brown paper bag. Then store the pollen in a dark glass jar. Sprinkle over pan grilled fish and enjoy.

Wild hazelnuts are now ripe, so head for the hills and collect the tiny sweet nuts, don’t bother with the nuts that stubbornly refuse to budge from their husks, you’ll find that they are ‘blind’ (empty). Hazelnuts are high in monosaturated fat, Vitamin E and minerals copper and magnesium….

 

Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Preserve and Sour Cream

V

Blueberries or Autumn Raspberries are also delicious here.

 

Serves 6 – makes 12 approximately

 

Batter

6oz (175g/generous 1 cup) white flour, preferably unbleached

a good pinch of salt

1 dessertspoon (2 American teaspoons) castor sugar

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

scant 15fl oz (450ml/2 cups) milk, or for very crisp, light delicate pancakes, milk and water mixed

3-4 dessertspoons (6-8 American teaspoons) melted butter

 

Lingonberry Preserve, see recipe

 

8 inch (20.5cm) non-stick crêpe pan

 

First make the batter.

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. (If they are to be served with sugar and lemon juice, stir in an extra tablespoon of castor sugar and the finely grated rind of half a lemon).

 

Let the batter stand in a cold place for an hour or so Рlonger will do no harm. Just before you cook the cr̻pes stir in 3-4 dessertspoons (6-8 American tablespoons) melted butter. This will make all the difference to the flavour and texture of the cr̻pes and will make it possible to cook them without greasing the pan each time.

 

Heat the pan to very hot; pour in enough batter to cover the base of the pan lightly. A small ladle can be useful for this, loosen the crepe 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 crepes can be stacked on top of each other and peeled apart later.

Fill with lingonberry preserve and sour cream. Enjoy.

 

Camilla Plum’s Shaken Berries

 

A Nordic way of preserving Summer fruits.

 

Redcurrants, blackcurrants, lingonberries, white currants, ripe gooseberries…are delicious preserved in this way. They keep forever!

Eat with cheese, venison, pork, melon…

 

Fresh ripe redcurrants (preferably organic)

60% fruit to 40% sugar or more to taste.

 

Put the fruit into a glass Kilner jar or jars, add sugar and stir well so the berries are bruised. Cover and keep in a cool place or refrigerator.

 

 

Lingonberry Preserve

 

Makes 5 small jars (200ml/7 fl oz)

 

1 kg (2¼ lbs) lingonberries

225 ml (8 fl oz/1 cup) water

500 g (1 lb) sugar

 

Pick over the lingonberries in a saucepan or strainer. Run them under the cold water tap to rinse.

Put into a stainless steel saucepan with the water and sugar. Stir over a medium heat, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the berries have burst and are soft. Pour into small sterilized jars, cover and refrigerate and enjoy throughout the Autumn and Winter with game, goat cheese, crêpes, potato pancakes….

 

 

Lingonberry Juice

 

Makes 2 pints approx. superfast, to make and a terrific base for drinks or cocktails

 

1 lb (450 g) fresh or frozen lingonberries

2 pints (1.2l) water

6-8 ozs (175-225 g/¾-1 cup)  sugar

 

Put the fresh or frozen berries into a small stainless steel saucepan with the water (you may need to pick them over, discard any bad or damaged berries)

Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes until they burst and soften. Crush with a potato masher. Pour into a jelly bag and allow to  drip into a nonreactive stainless steel or delph bowl. Return the juice to the saucepan, add sugar, stir to dissolve. Bring back to the boil for 2-3 minutes. Pour into sterilized bottles, cool and refrigerate until needed.

 

Note: Sweeten the pulp and enjoy with game

 

 

Swedish Lingonberry Cocktail

 

Makes 2

 

2 fl ozs (50 ml) Aqvavit or vodka

2 fl ozs (50 ml) lingonberry juice

1 fl oz 25 ml) Grand Marnier

1 fl oz  (25 ml) lime juice

 

Pour all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, strain and pour into martini glasses.

 

 

Lingonberry Lemonade

 

Serves 4

 

2 fl ozs (50 ml) lingonberry juice

2 lemons, freshly squeezed juice

850 ml (1½ pints/4 cups) sparkling water

Lots of ice

Fresh mint leaves

 

Mix all the liquid together. Taste and tweak if necessary. Serve over ice and add a few fresh mint leaves.

 

 

Lingonberry Sauce

VVC

 

Serves 4-6

 

A simple, delicious sauce which is unbelievably quick to make. It goes well with lamb, guinea fowl, ham and pâté de campagne. Fresh or frozen redcurrants may also be used.

 

100g (3 ½oz/1/2 cup) sugar

125ml (4 1/2fl oz/1/2 cup) water

150g (5oz) fresh lingonberries

 

Remove the strings from the lingonberries if necessary.

 

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil.  Toss in the lingonberries, bring back to the boil, cook uncovered for 4 or 5 minutes or until the berries burst and soften.  Serve hot or cold.

 

Tip: Keeps for several weeks in a covered jar in the fridge and may be reheated gently.

 

Lingonberries freeze brilliantly just pop them into the freezer in the punnet and then transfer to a plastic bag.

 

Note

When using frozen lingonberries the quantities are as follows:

175g (6oz) lingonberries

75 g (3oz/1/2 cup) granulated sugar.

 

Place the lingonberries in a saucepan with the sug

Abergavenny is a sleepy little town in South Wales with four or five charity shops, a few fried chicken joints,  several Indian and Chinese restaurants, the usual estate agents and fashion shops and of course a Tesco and Aldi….

I’d been looking forward to my visit but as I ambled up the Main Street on Friday evening, the market was just closing up for the day and somehow it all seemed pretty lack lustre. I was over in Wales for the Abergavenny Food Festival, it was scheduled  to kick off that evening with Xanthe Clay of the Telegraph interviewing Tom Kerridge of the Hand and Flowers in Marlow, a pub with food so yummy that Michelin has just awarded it a second Michelin star. It was a cracking good interview, Tom has a wonderfully self deprecating wit and perfectly pitched comic timing… He used to be a very chubby chef but has recently lost an undisclosed number of stone though a rigorous swimming regime and forfeiting the booze. Hundreds queued to nab early copies of his second book ‘Tom’s Table My Favourite Everyday Recipes’, which was released especially for the evening. There’s a year long waiting list to get a weekend table in the Hand and Flowers but you could also try Coast his most recent pub with more great grub just down the road. I haven’t managed to get there yet but it’s definitely on my list…

The Speakers Dinner was in the St Michael’s Centre, a rather lacklustre venue but Jane Baxter of wild Artichoke Catering Company cooked a magical multi course dinner. Look out for the column she shares with Henry Dimbleby in the Guardian every Friday.  A plate of Welsh charcuterie, arancini with truffles, crab with artichokes, tandoori lamb with, melt in the mouth meringues with a blob of cream and candied rhubarb, homemade fig rolls…….

Well, here’s the surprise, I was up early on Saturday morning, the sun shone and by 9.30 the whole of Abergavenny was totally transformed and throbbing with energy and excitement. Hundreds of food stalls lined the streets and lanes; the beautiful market building was adorned with coloured ribbons and huge fantastical goats, sheep and pigs made by local women dangled from the high ceiling. I did my cookery dem in the Priory and then dashed from one place to another signing books, doing a ‘rant’, trying to taste as many delicious things and attend as many events as possible. I managed to get to Claire Ptak’s cookery dem and learned the secret of the best selling Blondies at Violet cakes in Hackney. I also managed to catch Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully’s jam packed Masterclass where they shared secrets from their new book of recipes from Nopi restaurant in Warwick Street In London.

Over the years, Abergavenny has also been a place of pilgrimage for foodies for another reason, Franco Taurasi’s food at the Walnut Tree just outside the town drew people from far and wide, I’d never been there and even though Franco has now retired, Shaun Hill is at the helm and cooking refreshingly simple flavourful food. I was longing to go but it was of course booked out so I naughtily just turned up and they sweetly gave me a table, I had a truly delicious dinner with hare for the main course which Shaun tells me are very plentiful in his area of Wales.

On Sunday morning, I managed to meet the wasabi grower Tom Amery from Devon www.thewasabicompany.co.uk and taste some delicious Welsh cheeses, I also linked up with the Trealy Farm charcuterie family and Hodmedod’s  who grow a range of heirloom peas and beans in Norfolk and the guys from Halen Mon who make those beautiful pure salt crystals in Angelsea.  They’ve added excellent black pepper to their range now also.

Coed Canalas was another find, an exceptionally good range of sticky, dark, bitter Seville orange marmalades, pure honeys, maple syrup and Sicilian olive oil. I also bought a bottle of Ponzu now being imported from Japan by the Wasabi company and a bottle of superb argan oil.

I needed to leave at noon to catch a flight from Cardiff but I managed to get to see the Helmsley sisters doing their dem in the Masonic Hall, Well now, these girls are seriously impressive, apart from being gorgeous, they’ve taught themselves how to cook, have absolutely no time for that low fat nonsense, love butter, lard and liver, they’re crazy about vegetables and the cheaper more flavourful cuts of meat. They  did magic with a spiralizer, a gadget to make spaghetti and all manner of frills and ribbons of courgettes, squash, carrots, peppers cucumbers…… I am totally anti gadget but I was so impressed that I shot off to the Cooks Gallery kitchen shop to buy one and schlepped it all the way home.

Here are some of the good things I learned how to make over the weekend at the Abergavenny Food Festival.  Look out for it next year; it’s a fantastic gig in an otherwise sleepy Welsh town.  http://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/

 

Hot Tips

Join blogger Lucy Pearce and some of our 12 Week Certificate students on Saturday October 17^th for ‘Get Blogging’. Join her on a whistle-stop tour of the food blogging world and see what’s hot, and what’s not, right now. You’ll see just how diverse food blogging is, and how to find your niche! www.cookingisfun.ie

 

Spooky Kids in the Kitchen over Halloween will be an action packed day. Lots of fun and lots of Halloween favourites including yummy roast pumpkin to illustrate that pumpkin is not just for Jack O’Lanterns, a delicious soup and witches  bread, spider web cupcakes, ghost meringues and lots more……kids will spend a busy morning cooking in the kitchen  before enjoying their home cooked lunch. Then we’ll wrap up and head off outside to feed the hens, see the vegetables growing in the glasshouses and marvel at the magnificent pumpkins of every shape and size.  Minimum age 8 years. www.cookingisfun.ie

 

Don’t miss the Burren Food Fayre running from 24^th-25^th October. Lots of walks, talks, cookery demonstrations, food workshops, meet the growers, sample their produce… and lots lots more. http://www.burren.ie/events/burren-food-fayre/ details will go online soon.

On Saturday 17^th October The Organic Centre in Leitrim is teaching a one day course Growing in Polytunnels – An Introduction.

Hans Wieland will talk about ground preparation, growing systems and crop rotation, soil fertility management, how to erect a tunnel…

www.theorganiccentre.ie

 

 

Lamb Cooked in Milk with Fennel

 

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp fennel seeds, ground

3 tbsp parsley, chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1 kg lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut in to large 5-6cm chunks (leg can also be used)

1tsp salt

700ml milk

200ml double cream

1 tbsp chopped fennel tops, wild fennel or dill

Ground black pepper

 

Mix together the fennel, parsley and garlic.

 

Heat the olive oil in a large pan until hot and brown half of the lamb.

 

Remove the lamb from the pan, turn down the heat and the add fennel, parsley and garlic. Cook gently without colouring.

 

Add the remaining lamb and brown in the fennel paste.

 

Return the rest of the lamb to the pan with juices and salt well.

Add a little of the milk using it to scrape any residue from around the pan.

 

Add the rest of the milk and cream and bring to a very gentle simmer.

 

Cover with a round of kitchen paper and leave just simmering for 1- 1½ hours until the meat is tender.

 

Remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and put to one side covered.

 

Reduce the pan juices on a high heat until slightly thickened and pass through a sieve

 

Return the lamb to the pan with the smooth sauce , season and sprinkle with chopped fennel/dill.

 

Jane Baxter

Taken from Riverford Book (Everyday and Sunday)

28/9/2015 (CS) (18564)

 

 

Courgette and Manouri Fritters

Makes 12 fritters, to serve 4, or 24 smaller fritters, to serve 8 as a snack

 

3 medium courgettes, trimmed and coarsely grated (580g)

2 small shallots, finely chopped (50g)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

finely grated zest of 2 limes

60g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2½ tsp ground coriander

1½ tsp ground cardamom

150g manouri (or halloumi or feta), roughly broken into 1–2cm chunks

about 150ml sunflower oil, for frying

coarse sea salt and black pepper

 

Lime and cardamom soured cream

200ml soured cream

5g coriander, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime

 

Mix together all the ingredients for the soured cream sauce in a small bowl, along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a grind of black pepper. Set aside in the fridge until ready to serve.

 

Place the grated courgettes in a colander and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon salt. Set aside for 10minutes, then squeeze them to remove most of the liquid: you want the courgettes to keep a little bit of moisture, so don’t squeeze them completely dry. Transfer to a large bowl and add the shallots, garlic, lime zest, flour, eggs, ground coriander, cardamom and a grind of black pepper. Mix well to form a uniform batter,

then fold in the manouri cheese gently so it doesn’t break up much.

 

Pour enough oil into a large frying pan so it rises 2–3mm up the sides and place on a medium heat. Once hot, add 4 separate heaped dessertspoons of mixture to the pan, spacing them well apart and flattening each fritter slightly with the flat side of a

slotted spoon as they cook. Cook for 6 minutes turning once halfway through,

until golden and crisp on both sides. Transfer to a kitchen paper-lined plate and keep somewhere warm while you continue with the remaining two batches.

 

Place 3 fritters on each plate and serve at once, with the sauce alongside or in a bowl on the side.

 

30/09/2015 (CS) (18566) NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully

 

 

 

Tomatoes with Wasabi Mascarpone and Pine Nuts

 

Serves 6

 

250g mascarpone

1 tbsp wasabi paste

10g chives, finely chopped

10g tarragon, finely chopped

1 spring onion, finely sliced (20g)

2 banana shallots, thinly sliced widthways (100g)

2 tbsp Pedro Ximénez sherry

vinegar (or another good-quality sweet sherry vinegar)

1 tbsp olive oil

1kg mixed tomatoes, cut into a mixture of slices and wedges, 1cm thick

20g pine nuts, toasted

5g mixed basil leaves (plain, purple and micro-basil) or just plain basil, to garnish

coarse sea salt and black pepper

 

This is all about the tomatoes, so get as many different varieties as you can: red, green and yellow; baby plum, cherry and vine. They also look great if they are not cut in uniform fashion: smaller tomatoes should be halved, while larger ones should be cut into wedges or sliced. You can prepare all the elements for this in advance – the wasabi and herb-filled mascarpone, the pickled shallots, the chopped tomatoes, the

toasted nuts. Just keep them separate and put the dish together just before serving. This developed from a dish which Sarit Packer developed with Scully for the breakfast menu when NOPI first opened, when the wasabi mascarpone was served with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Yotam brought in the tomatoes and the dish was reborn and shifted on to the summer lunch menu. It works well as part of a spread of salads or alongside some simply cooked fish or meat.

 

Place the mascarpone, wasabi, chives, tarragon and spring onion in a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Mix well and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

 

Place the shallots in a separate bowl with the sweet vinegar, oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix well and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

 

To serve, divide the mascarpone between the plates and spread it out to form a thin layer. Place the tomatoes on top, followed by the pickled shallots.

 

Sprinkle with the pine nuts, then scatter over the basil leaves, tearing the larger ones as you go. Season with 1/3 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and serve.

 

30/9/2015 (CS) (18567) NOPI by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully

 

Claire Ptak’s Butterscotch Blondies

 

Blondies have the texture and richness of brownies, but without the chocolate – hence the name. I have snuck in some chunks of milk chocolate here, but the body of the blondie tastes like treacle.

 

Makes about 16 blondies

 

350 g unsalted butter, softened

320 g plain flour

1½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ teaspoon sea salt

3 eggs

400 g dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

200 g butterscotch milk chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces

 

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas 3. Butter and line a 23 cm (9 inch) square cake tin with parchment paper so that it comes up the sides of the tin.

 

Gently melt the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Set aside and cool slightly.

 

In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder, then stir in the salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until frothy, then whisk in the melted butter. Fold in the dry ingredients until just mixed, then fold in the chocolate pieces. Pour into your prepared baking tin.

 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes. A skewer inserted should come out slightly gooey. Leave to cool completely in the baking tin, then cut into smallish squares. These are rich!

 

30/9/2015 (CS) (18568) The Whoopie Pie Book by Claire Ptak

 

 

 

All in the Cooking is back by popular demand….. I’ve just received a copy from O’ Brien Press who had the foresight to reprint Part 1 which was originally published in 1946.  It was written and compiled by Josephine Marnell, Nora Breathnach, Anne Martin and Mor Murnaghan for the students of Coláiste Mhuire Cookery School in Cathal Brugha Street in Dublin and it remained in use in schools and colleges throughout Ireland until the 1970’s.

In the press release to coincide with the launch, The O Brien Press, tell us that, All in the Cooking has attained, near legendary status in recent years as people search the internet for second hand copies but to little or no avail. It seems that owners of this beloved cookbook are loathe to part with it!

And, I can believe it, because almost 20 years ago I removed my copies of All in the Cooking Part 1 and 2 from the Ballymaloe Cookery School library of over 3,000 cookbooks to an inner sanctum of books that we regularly had to ‘trace’ when borrowed. Mine are soft backs but the new edition is hardback, a reprint of the third edition of Book 1 complete with margarine in virtually every recipes – I respectfully suggest that you substitute good Irish butter but it’s your call!

There are many gems and timeless classics in this book as well as some ‘interesting’ recipes from bygone days, so it’s like a blast from the past which will evoke nostalgic memories for literally millions of Irish school and college students of domestic science.

The foreword to the new edition is written by 97 year old Anne A Browne nee Martin, a co – author of All in the Cooking. It also includes the original preface by K M O’ Sullivan former principal of Cathal Brugha Street.  She tells us that “neither time nor labour was spared in the compilation of the work. The various recipes and explanations contained in it are the result of varied and scientific experience, and have been compiled with minute care and detail”. The public have the further assurance that every recipe has been carefully tested and tried before it was included in the book”

Before the publication of this book “the only Cookery Books available to students and to the public in Ireland were, with one or two exceptions, compiled abroad, and while these were quite suitable to the needs of the people for whom they were specially written, they could not be regarded as meeting full requirements and tastes of the Irish student or housewife”

There was much to make me smile. I remember how posh I thought potato roses were – a little mashed potato nest with peas in the centre.

Cool trendy young chefs, acolytes of Fergus Henderson will be delighted to find an authentic recipe for Sheep’s Head broth which starts by instructing us to “split the skull, lift the brains out – wash the head, pay particular attention to the tongue and parts around it, remove the eyes”……that should separate the men from the boys and send them shuffling back to their well-thumbed catering catalogue where everything is neatly portioned and vacpacked. Should they preserve, believe me the result will be delicious…..

Liver soup, on page 29, I’m not so sure about but I’m very partial to kidney soup. I’d forgotten about the section on invalid cooking which includes some unlikely temptations like steamed chop, gruel, invalid trifle and albumen water but several gems also, like chicken broth, blackcurrant tea (best cure ever if you feel a cold coming on) and recipes for barley water. For me the baking section was always a treasure trove. Here are a few tried and tested favourites

Hot Tips

Derryvilla Blueberry Farm (www.derryvillablueberries.com) in Co Offaly has a bumper crop again this year. The enterprise  is owned by John Seager and managed by Nuala O’Donoghue. No pesticides are used and most of their delicious, naturally grown berries and the products made from them – a tangy blueberry tonic and preserves – are supplied  to selected retailers or sold at Farmleigh Food Market (www.farmleigh.ie.) But there is also a farm shop on site, and the popular “pick your own” option makes a great family day out during the summer months.

Tel: 057 864 2882

 

Date for your diary:- Gluten Free Food -  for those who are coeliac, or cook for someone who has a gluten intolerance, find it challenging to produce really delicious, balanced meals. Not to worry help is at hand, there is an intensive half day Gluten Free Cooking course  on Saturday October 3^rd at the Ballymaloe Cookery  School.  You’ll learn a whole range of tasty and easy-to-prepare dishes including gluten-free sweet and savoury pastry, crackling salmon with coriander pesto and gluten free raspberry muffins. Suddenly, cooking for coeliacs will become a real pleasure rather than a chore.

www.cookingisfun.ie for more information.

 

Food on the Edge in Galway promises to be the most exciting food gig this year. It’s a two day symposium for chefs and food enthusiasts. There is a thrilling line up of guests who will talk, debate The theme is ‘Future of Food’, http://www.foodontheedge.ie/. Looks like an unmissable event for anyone who wants to keep on top of the Irish and international food scene.

 

Celebrate the Honey Bee with Slow Food Northern Ireland on Saturday 26^th September. Hendrik Dennemeyer, urban beekeeper will talk about keeping bees and how to get started at ‘The Narrows’, Portaferry, Northern Ireland. Contact Celia Spouncer on 0044 7725646333 or email celia@spouncer.com or www.slowfoodireland.com for further information.

 

Recipes taken from All in the Cooking. It is jointly published by the O’Brien Press and Edco, the Educational Company of Ireland.

 

 

BAKEWELL TART

To make 4 ozs short pastry

4 ozs. flour

Pinch of salt

2-3 ozs. butter  or margarine

Cold water

 

2 tablespoonfuls jam

 

Filling:

2 ozs. butter or margarine

2 ozs. castor sugar

1 egg

3 ozs. flour

A little grated  lemon  rind

A little water

1/4 teaspoonful baking  powder

 

 

 

Jam Sauce

½ pint  water

Strip  of lemon  rind

2 tablespoonfuls jam

1 teaspoonful  cornflour

1 dessertsp. lemon  juice

1 teaspoonful  sugar

 

To make the short pastry.

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Put in butter and cut it into small lumps with a knife, mixing lumps and flour in the process.
3. Rub the fat into the flour with the tips of the fingers until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Lift the hands high so as to introduce as much cold air as possible into the flour. Care must be taken not to let the fat melt or the pastry will be oily and heavy.
4. Add the water gradually and mix to a stiff paste with a knife. When paste is wet enough it should stick together, but not to the bowl or hands.
5. Turn out on a lightly-floured board and knead lightly with the tips of the fingers.
6. Press out a little with the rolling-pin, and then, with light, even strokes roll into the required shape.

NOTE.-If the pastry  sticks to the rolling-pin or board, scrape off the  part  that  has stuck  with the back of a knife, wipe with a cloth, flour  the  rolling-pin  and  board  and  continue  rolling.  Avoid the use of too much flour when rolling pastry.

 

To make the tart filling

1. Have the butter or margarine at room temperature. Put it with the sugar into a bowl and beat until white and creamy using a wooden spoon or electric mixer.
2. Beat the egg and add gradually to the creamed butter and sugar. Beat well.
3. Fold in the  flour  and grated lemon rind using  a  metal  spoon, adding a little water if necessary to make to a dropping consistency. Add  the  baking  powder  mixed  with  the  last  addition  of  flour. Baking powder is not required when using an electric mixer.

 

Next line the tart plate.

1. Grease a tart plate about 8 ins. in diameter.
2. Roll the pastry into a round shape a little larger than the plate.
3. Cut a strip ½ inch wide off the pastry and put round the edge of the plate with the cut edge outwards.
4. Damp this strip of pastry and line the plate with the remainder of the pastry. Trim the edges, flake and decorate them. Prick pastry with a fork.
5. Spread the centre  of  the  plate  with 2 tablespoons of  jam,  having  it  about ¼ inch thick.
6. Spread the cake mixture on top of the jam.
7. Roll out any trimmings of pastry, cut into strips about ½ inches wide. Put these trellis-wise across pudding.
8. Bake in a fairly moderate oven for about 30 minutes until brown and thoroughly cooked. Dredge with sugar and serve on a d’oyley on a plate.
9. Serve with Jam Sauce.

 

To make the Jam Sauce

1. Put water, lemon rind and jam into a saucepan.
2. Infuse for 15 minutes and then bring slowly to the boil, and boil for 5 minutes.
3. Strain and pour on to cornflour, which has been blended with a little water, stirring to prevent lumping.
4. Put back on  the  heat  and  bring to  the  boil, still  stirring, and  boil gently  for 5 minutes.  Add lemon juice and sugar.

NOTE.-If red jam is used, a  few drops  of carmine  may  be required to improve the colour.

 

TEA   BRACK

1 lb. mixed dried fruit                                 1 lb. flour

1/2 pt. cold tea                                            1 egg

6 ozs. brown sugar                                    1/4 teasp. mixed spice

2 teasps. baking powder

1. Clean the fruit and put to steep in the cold tea with the brown sugar. Leave overnight.
2. Add the flour, beaten egg, mixed spice and baking powder. Mix well together.
3. Put into a greased lined 8-inch tin. Place a piece of tinfoil on top. Bake in a moderate oven for about 2 hours.

 

 

BLACKCURRANT TEA

1/z pint freshly-boiled water             1 tablespoonful blackcurrant jam

Sugar, if liked

1. Put jam into a warm bowl, pour the boiling water over. Leave at the side of the stove to infuse, or stand bowl with tea in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes.
2. Strain through fine muslin, and serve in a warm glass. Stand glass on a small plate. Add sugar, if liked.
3. Add barley, cook for ½ hour. Add vegetables and cook for further hour. Season and add parsley.

 

 

QUEEN OF  PUDDINGS

1 ½ ozs. Breadcrumbs                       ½ pint milk

½ oz. butter or margarine                  1 level tablespoonful sugar

1 yolk of egg                                     Grated rind of 1/2 lemon, or a few drops  lemon  essence

Meringue:

1 tablespoonful raspberry jam                   1 white of egg

2 ozs. castor sugar

1. Put butter, milk and lemon rind into a saucepan and heat until the butter is melted. Add and stir until dissolved. Cool slightly.
2. Beat the yolk of egg and pour the heated milk on to it, taking care not to let it curdle.
3. Put the breadcrumbs into a bowl, and pour the egg and milk over them. Pour into a well-greased pie-dish.
4. Place on a fiat tin. Bake in a very moderate oven for about 40 minutes or until set.
5. Heat the jam slightly and spread   on top of the pudding.
6. Beat the white of egg stiffly and fold in the castor sugar. Pile roughly on top of the jam.
7. Return to  a  very  cool  oven  until  the  meringue  is set  and well dried  out,  about  ½ hour.    Allow to become lightly browned.

NOTE.-Instead of making   breadcrumbs, cut the bread into pieces, soak in the egg and milk mixture until soft. Beat well or put in the liquidiser at slow speed for a few seconds.

 

 

CHICKEN BROTH

1 ½  pts. of chicken stock                           1/2 oz. pearl  barley

Salt  and  pepper                              2 ozs. chopped onion

2 ozs. chopped celery                                 1 teasp. finely-chopped parsley

1. Make stock by simmering carcase and bones of chicken for 1 ½ hours in 1 quart of water. Strain, cool and remove fat.

 

 

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen didn’t used to be associated with wonderful food,  but for the past decade, thanks to René Redzepi and his team at Noma, food tourists from all over the world are beating a path to the Nordic countries to check out the food revolution that this iconic restaurant has sparked. Nowadays many of the chefs and cooks who originally worked at Noma has opened their own restaurants to well-deserved critical acclaim.

This weekend I went over to join the fifth anniversary celebrations of one of the best loved ‘spark-offs’ Relae.  Christian Puglisi worked with René at Noma for many years.  Like his friend, he is self-taught and an immensely creative free spirit  – no chefs toques or pompous ego here. He opened Relae in Jaegersborggade , a scary drug crazed street in 2010, where the property was affordable for a reason!  It took real guts and courage. Soon punters, lured by stories of Christian’s food were making their way to a part of town they would not normally frequent. It was the beginning of another revolution, now the street has a tempting selection of small shops, an artisan bakery, a fudge and toffee shop, a cookery school, jewellers and Gröd, a café that just sells porridge in all its forms and always has a queue outside. http://groed.com/. Relae now has a Michelin star for its simple, organic, sustainable, no fuss food. They serve only natural wines and a superb fresh juice menu to compliment each course.

Manfred’s, http://manfreds.dk/en/restaurant/menu/ the sister restaurant just across the road followed in the Autumn of 2011.  More recently Christian has moved into the Nørrebro area,  another area where few people ventured to open Baest  http://baest.dk/en, serving a selection of house made charcuterie and sourdough pizza bases cooked to order in the wood burning oven. The bakery next door is called Mirabelle, selling Christian’s sourdough breads, the best homemade croissants and pain au chocolate in town.

Summer had come to Copenhagen that weekend after a disappointing summer so the beautiful lean,  young (and old) Danes were out in force on their bicycles. On Saturday I attended a spectacular tasting of natural wines of which more another week.

On Sunday evening the celebration party in the Nørrebro Park got underway. Christian had invited an amazing line up of his friends from the “world of gastronomy” to cook his favourite street food from a circle of food trucks in the park.  Rosio Sanchez and Renè Redzepi  dished out fantastically good tacos, Magnus Nilsson of Faviken fame cooked up hotdogs with a choice of three delectable homemade sausages, Matt Orlando of AMASS cooked fried chicken to die for, Mehmet Guhrs from Mikla in Istanbul where I had a superb meal earlier in the year served braised lamb lavash from a little barbecue, Kobe Desmeraults of Inde Wulf made us shrimp croquettes and bakers extraordinaire Chad Robertson and Richard Harte from San Francisco  spread butter and ciccioli on delicious Tartine bread  while the band played wild and wonderful music.

Can you imagine having a little card to wander from one food truck to another to be served street food by many of my food heroes and one was more delicious than the next, Christian’s beef tartare…. Rosa tacos.  I had already sought out her little food stand, Hija de Sanchez  down by the Torvehallerne on Saturday afternoon. Her tacos are insanely good and her avocado ice cream with condensed milk drizzle and dried raspberries are work jumping on a plane to  Copenhagen for.

 

While you are there, go along to Atelier September on Gothersgade and order their avocado on rye, thinly sliced, sprinkled with finely chopped chives, espelette pepper, a whisper of lemon zest and a few flakes of sea salt. I also had iced matcha tea and pink grapefruit Tokyo style with a little shredded mint, a perfect refreshing little plate on a summer Sunday. But most refreshing of all was an hour long  canal and harbour boat trip, a touristy pursuit that is so worth making time for and a perfect way to see this beautiful maritime city.

 

Hot Tips

See you at the Waterford Harvest Festival today and tomorrow. Talks, walks, cookery demonstrations, food and wine tastings, GIY Growfest, Rory O’ Connell and I will be doing a dem at 12 today in the Grow HQ Kitchen in the Blackfriars  http://www.waterfordharvestfestival.ie/events

 

The East Cork Business Alliance, based in Midleton, is in the final stages of publishing the East Cork Food Producers Guide. There are a few spaces available so if you are a small producer in the area and would like to be part of the initiative, contact Redmond on 087 779 9874. The guide will cost €2 and proceeds will be donated to East Cork Meals on Wheels.

 

Rory O’ Connell will host a pop up dinner, ‘Fish on Friday’, 18^th September in the B8 Bonded Warehouse, Cork. Follow the link for bookings http://soundsfromasafeharbour.com/rocketman/

 

The native Irish oyster season has just opened, these delicious briny oysters are only in season when there is an R in the month. The flavour can be distinctly different from one bay to another, so it’s a particular treat to find a restaurant that offers a parallel tasting of say Dungarvan, Galway Bay and Sherkin Island oysters.

 

Grab an Autumn break before Winter sets in – my recommendation this week comes from my sister who loved Pax House in Dingle, a bed and breakfast with 15 rooms. John O’ Farrell is a brilliant host, delicious breakfast, spectacular views and lots to do.

Check it out. http://www.pax-house.com/

 

Midleton Food and Drink Festival is on today. The main street will be choc a bloc with local food and drink producers, food tastings and demonstrations. Check out www.midletonfoodfestival.ie for the details.

 

Avocado on Rye

Inspired by the dish I ate at Atelier September in Copenhagen

 

Serves 1

 

2 slices of rye bread

1 Haas avocado

Chives, finely chopped

Espelette pepper

Organic lemon

Sea salt flakes

 

Spread the slices of rye bread with a little butter. Half and stone the avocado. Remove the skin, scoop out the avocado. ?? very thinly and place one on each slice of bread, sprinkle generously with finely chopped chives and a little espellette pepper. Grate a little lemon zest over each one and sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on top. Serve immediately on a small white plate.

 

 

Salt Baked Celeriac with Olive Butter

 

Serves 4

 

1 celeriac

Extra virgin olive oil

Coarse Salt

 

100 g (4 oz) Kalamata olives, stoned

25 g (1 oz) butter

Small basil leaves

 

Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3.

 

Scrub the celeriac well, dry carefully. Brush with a little olive oil.  Put in a deep ovenproof casserole or small roasting tin, sprinkle with coarse salt and bake in the preheated oven until tender, 3 – 3 1/2 hours.  Cool, remove the celeriac and brush off the salt.

 

Meanwhile stone and whizz the olives with extra virgin olive oil to a very smooth paste.

To serve heat the olive paste and whisk in some butter. Peel and slice the celeriac thickly, cut into uneven chunks. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of  olive paste onto  a small plate. Arrange 3 or 4 pieces of celeriac on top .

Drizzle with a couple of blobs of olive paste. Top with a few small basil leaves and a few flakes of sea salt. Serve.

 

 

Avocado Ice Pop with Condensed Milk Toffee and Dried Raspberries

 

Makes 8-10 ice pops

 

Avocado Ice-cream

Serves 6-8 depending on accompaniment, makes 1 litre (1 ¾ pints)

What a surprise – this delicious ice-cream can be served in a sweet or savoury combination.

 

350g (12 oz) ripe avocado flesh (3-4 avocados depending on size)
3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (from a lemon not a squeezy bottle)
350ml (12fl oz) whole milk
110g  (4oz) castor sugar
225ml (8fl oz) cream

 

Condensed milk

Lollipop sticks

Dried raspberries

Chilled plates

 

First make the avocado ice cream. Scoop the flesh from the ripe avocado into a blender; add the lemon juice, milk and sugar, whiz until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and stir in the cream – mix well to combine. Taste and add a little lemon juice if needed.

Freeze in a sorbetiere or ice-cream maker, it won’t take as long as other ice-creams – maybe 15 minutes.

Pour into popsicles moulds. Cover and insert the lollipop sticks. Freeze. Put the condensed milk in a saucepan, cook to a golden caramel colour. Cool.

To serve, take a chilled plate, lay a square of waxed paper on top. Slide the ice pops out of the mould, lay on the plate. Drizzle with condensed milk toffee and sprinkle with dried raspberries. Serve.

 

 

Grapefruit Tokyo Style with Mint

 

A rediscovery so simple but a deliciously refreshing plate

 

Serves 2

 

1 juicy pink grapefruit

Fresh mint

A little sugar, optional

 

Cut the top and bottom of the ripe pink grapefruit. Cut off the skin and pith, then remove the segments with a sharp knife. Cut each segment into uneven angular shapes. Arrange on a white plate. Sprinkle with a little shredded mint and a tiny bit of sugar if a little tart.

Serve immediately.

 

 

Brioche Doughnuts

 

Brioche Dough

Granulated Sugar

 

 

Brioche   

Brioche is the richest of all yeast dough’s.   It can often seem intimidating but this very easy version works well and we have written it so that the dough can rise overnight in the fridge and be shaped and baked the following morning.

We always serve them warm from the oven with butter and homemade strawberry jam.

 

Makes 15-20 individual brioches or 2 large ones

 

25g (1oz) yeast

50g (2oz/1/4 cup) castor sugar

65 ml (2 1/2 fl ozs/1/4 cup) tepid water

4 eggs

450g (1 lb/4 cups) strong white flour

large pinch of salt

225g (8oz/2 sticks) soft butter

 

Sponge the yeast and sugar in the tepid water in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Allow to stand for five minutes.   Add the eggs, flour and salt and mix to a stiff dough with the dough hook.

 

When the mixture is smooth, beat in the soft butter in small pieces.  Don’t add the next piece of butter until the previous piece has been completely absorbed.  This kneading stage should take about half an hour.

 

The finished dough should have a silky appearance, it should come away from the sides of the bowl and when you touch the dough it should be damp but not sticky.

Place it in an oiled bowl, cover and rest it overnight in the fridge.

 

Next day pinch off ½ oz pieces, roll into a long strip and twist two pieces to make a garland. Pinch the ends together. Allow to rise on floured cloths.

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep fry. Cook one at a time until puffed and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and toss in coarse sugar – don’t eat too many, difficult because they are irresistible.