AuthorDarina Allen

By now the Christmas frenzy is building up. Hopefully the cake and plum pudding are made and you’ve decided whether its turkey or goose. Maybe you’ve plumped for a fine roast chicken, maybe a pheasant or a nice glazed ham. One way or the other you’ll probably have some little scraps left over that can be added to salads, a gratin or even a bubbly ‘mac and cheese.’ The latter is delicious cooked in tiny muffin tins lined with parchment till the edges get crispy – serve with drinks.

Fresh Brussels sprouts make delicious salads, peel off the outer leaves and mix with a good dressing and maybe some pumpkin seeds.  The classic Croque Monsieur is a posh cheese and ham sandwich – a real favourite with the French and a brilliant way to use up some thin slices of left over ham, everyone including kids will love it.

 

Offer to take your friends turkey carcasses, they may pity you but you’ll have the last laugh. The carcass makes a brilliant stock, good enough to sip as a soothing broth but also great as the basis of a light soup embellished with shreds of leftover turkey, pheasant, or chicken.

 

Left over pannetone or even barmbrack makes a terrific bread and butter pudding, you may want to add a few more sultanas and perhaps a scattering of diced ginger.

 

Mincemeat keeps well but it can used in so many yummy ways, with apple in tarts or tartlets, in a crumble or tray bake or even as a stuffing for a baked apple. Here’s a few suggestions to use up left overs in dishes I enjoy.

 

A Happy Christmas and hope 2013 brings much joy and the blessing of many delicious meals with family and friends around the kitchen table.

 

Turkey, Orzo, Pea and Spring Onion Broth

 

Super light and refreshing, a particularly delicious way of using up scraps of cooked turkey or other poultry.

 

Serves 6

 

1 litre (1 ¾ pints) turkey, chicken or pheasant stock

50g (2oz) orzo pasta

2 tender stalks celery, finely sliced at an angle

pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

150 – 175g (5 – 6 oz) shredded cooked turkey, chicken or pheasant

110g (4oz) frozen peas

salt and freshly ground pepper

4 – 6 spring onions, sliced at an angle (depending on size)

lots of fresh coriander and/or fresh mint leaves

 

Bring the stock to the boil; add the orzo, celery and chilli flakes. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until the pasta is just cooked, add the peas and shredded chicken. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Taste and correct the seasoning. Ladle into soup bowls, sprinkle with spring onions and lots of fresh coriander and/or mint.

 

 

Brussels Sprout Salad with Avocado and Toasted Pecans

 

Pumpkin seeds or hazelnuts would be good here also. If separating the leaves of the Brussels sprouts is too much of a mission, just shred them finely instead, however the individual leaves look and taste great.

 

 

(450g) 1lb fresh Brussels sprouts, leaves separated

2 ripe but slightly firm avocados

1 – 2 blood oranges (depending on size)

25 – 50g (1 – 2 oz) pecans, toasted

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

flat leaf parsley sprigs

 

Dressing

 

finely grated zest of 1 preferably organic lemon

2 tablespoons squeezed lemon juice

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Whisk all the ingredients for the salad dressing together.

 

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/Mark 4. Toast the pecans in a single layer for 8 – 10 minutes. Peel the outer leaves of the Brussels sprouts (keep the centres for another dish) Put into a bowl. Segment the blood oranges, add to the bowl. Whisk the dressing, add any spare orange juice and sprinkle some over the salad and toss gently. Turn out onto a wide platter, halve, stone and slice the avocado, arrange haphazardly op top. Sprinkle with warm toasted pecans, hazelnuts or pumpkin seeds and lots of flat parsley sprigs. Taste and correct seasoning.

 

Mac and Cheese

 

Serves 6

 

Macaroni cheese is all over menus in the US, once again, comforting and delicious. We often add some cubes of cooked bacon or ham or a dice of smoked salmon or mackerel to the sauce with the cooked macaroni.

 

8 ozs (225g) macaroni

6 pints (3.4 litres) water

2 teaspoons salt

 

2 ozs (50g) butter

2 ozs (50g) white flour, preferably unbleached

1 1/2 pints (850ml) boiling milk

1/4 teaspoon Dijon or English mustard

1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley, (optional)

salt and freshly ground pepper

5 ozs (150g) grated mature Cheddar cheese

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

¾ – 1lb (350 – 450g) diced cooked ham, turkey, chicken, pheasant or a mixture

 

1 x 2 pint (1.1 litre) capacity pie dish

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Roast Apples with Mincemeat

 

Serves 4

 

Use Irish Bramleys and make sure to cook them until they burst.

 

4 large cooking apples, preferably Crimson Bramleys

4 tablespoons of homemade mince meat

a little water

softly whipped cream or crème fráiche

 

Core the apples and score the skin of each around the ‘equator’. Put the apples onto an ovenproof dish large enough to take them in a single layer without touching. Fill the center of each apple with mincemeat.

 

Pour a little water around and roast in a preheated moderate oven 180ºC/350ºF/regulo 4 for about 1 hour depending on the size. They should be fluffy and burst slightly but still be fat and puffy not collapsed. Serve as soon as possible with softly whipped cream or crème fráiche.

 

Croque-Monsieur

 

 

A croque-monsieur is the quintessential Parisian sandwich.   It’s really no more than a grilled ham sandwich topped with grated cheese, but it appears in many different guises.   Sometimes a croque-monsieur is topped with a thick Mornay sauce, or transformed into a croque-madame with the addition of a fried egg on top.

 

Makes 1

 

a dab of butter

2 thin square slices best quality white bread (pain de mie in France)

1 slice cooked ham, cut to fit bread

1oz (25g) sliced Gruyère cheese

1 beaten egg and some cream or milk

 

Butter the slices of bread on one side.  Place the slices of ham and cheese on one buttered side and cover with the other slice of bread.

Whisk the egg with the cream or milk. Dip both sides of the sandwich into the mixture.

Melt a little butter on a pan over a medium heat, cook first on one side, then on the other until the surface is golden and the cheese is soft and bubbly. Eat immediately while hot. Serve alone or with a good salad – Bon appetit!

 

 

Pannetone Bread and Butter Pudding

 

 

Bread and Butter Pudding is a most irresistible way of using up leftover bread, croissants, brioche or barmbrack – this is a particularly delicious recipe made with pannetone.

 

Serves 6-8

 

12 slices Pannetone or good-quality white bread, crusts removed

2 ozs (50g) butter, preferably unsalted

1/2 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg or cinnamon

7 ozs (200g) Lexia raisins or plump sultanas

16 fl ozs (475ml) cream

8 fl ozs (225ml) milk

4 large eggs, beaten lightly

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or a dash of Eau de Vie or brandy

6 ozs (175g) sugar

1 tablespoon sugar for sprinkling on top of the pudding

 

Garnish

softly-whipped cream

1 x 8 inches (20.5cm) square pottery or china dish

 

Butter the pannetone or bread and arrange 4 slices, buttered side down, in one layer in a dish.  Sprinkle with half the nutmeg or cinnamon and half the raisins, arrange another layer of bread, buttered side down, over the raisins, and sprinkle the remaining spice and fruit on top.  Cover the raisins with the remaining pannetone or bread, buttered side down.

 

In a bowl whisk together the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla extract, eau de vie or brandy if using and sugar.  Pour the mixture through a sieve over the pudding.  Sprinkle the sugar over the top and let the mixture stand, covered loosely, at room temperature for at least 1 hour or chill overnight.

 

Bake in a bain-marie – the water should be half way up the sides of the baking dish.  Bake in the middle of a preheated oven, 180ºC/350ºF/regulo 4, for 1 hour approx. or until the top is crisp and golden.  Serve the pudding warm with some softly-whipped cream.

 

 

Hot Tips

 

Stocking Fillers

Find of the week: I loved the Atlantic Seaweed Salt from the Organic Herb Company that I found on the tables at the glitzy Good Food Ireland Awards at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin recently, a perfect stocking filler.  www.organicherbco.com

 

Rattling your brains for a last minute present? Why not give a gift that will last a lifetime, a Ballymaloe Cookery School gift token, you too will get the benefit!  phone 021 4646785 or purchase online www.cookingisfun.ie

 

The sublime new seasons Capezzana Extra Virgin Olive oil has just arrived at Ballymaloe Cookery School shop. There is no greater treat for your foodie friend, a drizzle makes everything into a feast! Also at the Ballymaloe stall in the Midleton Farmer’s Market on Saturday 22nd December from 8:30am to 2:00pm www.midletonfarmersmarket.com

 

Bridgestone Guides make a great little gift – 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland, 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland and The Irish Food Guide – evocative prose, every house shouldn’t be without them even if it’s only to dream…

 

Five Stocking Fillers for the Wine Buff

Hugh Johnson’s pocket Wine Guide – a little gem for the wine buff in your life.  Vacu-Vin Wine pump is a brilliant toy, you can extract the air from a wine bottle and keep the wine in perfect condition for another night! Drop Stop – non drippers, a brilliant invention – flexible silver discs that be inserted into the neck of the bottle to avoid drips. Screwpull Cork Screw – a very expensive bottle opener but once again it’s a gift for life – I still have one after 20 years, while at least 10 others have come and gone.  Available in all good wine and kitchen shops.

Just back from the 2012 edition of the international Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre, Slow Food’s biannual event which brings together small-scale farmers, artisan producers, fishermen, experts, academics, chefs and young people from over 160 countries. A mind blowing event and an increasing important forum of exchange between producers, consumers and experts on a variety of food issues from biodiversity, food waste, animal welfare, seed saving and patenting of seed. Edible Education and school gardens, land grabbing…indigenous people and local food sovereignty

The opening speech was given by the Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), José Graziano da Silva. He emphasised the close links between Slow Food and the FAO, with a focus on the problem of hunger in the world. “We can unite our forces in the fight for sufficient food for everyone,” he said. He identified food waste as a crucial problem. “If we managed to cut total food loss and waste by half we would have enough food to feed 1 billion more people”, he said. Da Silva’s message was clear: “with hunger, the only number acceptable is zero”.

A series of speakers then took their turn on stage, bringing stories from every corner of the globe and inspiring both outrage and hope with their experiences. Their stories were recounted through the “words of Terra Madre”, key themes that define the Slow Food movement’s primary concerns. Carlos Vanegas Valdebenito from Chiloé Island, Chile, spoke poetically of Earth. Indian activist and Slow Food vice-president Vandana Shiva talked about Seeds: the “genocide” of farmer suicides in her country and the scandal of biopiracy. Carmen Martinez, from the Slow Food Tehuacán Amaranth Presidium in Mexico, talked about Water, and Dario Fo, Nobel Laureate in Literature, about Hunger, with a bravura performance in the Commedia dell’Arte tradition telling the story of a starving peasant. After a musical interlude from Roy Paci and a multi-ethnic group of musicians, Nikki Henderson from the People’s Grocery in Oakland, California and Alice Waters, Slow Food vice-president and chef, talked about Education. Sergej Ivanov from Serbia spoke about biodiversity, Yoko Sudo from Fukushima, Japan about Energy and Edward Mukiibi, coordinator of the Thousand Gardens in Africa project in Uganda, about Network.

Salone del Gusto is the biggest food fair in the entire world, bigger than SIAL in Paris or the Fancy Food Fair in New York, except it’s all made up of artisan food producers, olive oil and wine makers. Over 200,000 people pour into it over a weekend and leave with bags bulging with foods not just from Europe but from all over the world.

Terra Madre – this is the 5th year. Delegates from 93 countries spoke succinctly for just 5 minutes at the two day Slow Food International Congress which ran concurrently with Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre this year. Slow Food is now emerging as a very strong political voice on a global scale and Terra Madre is showing the way towards a new sustainable form of agriculture which many governments are reluctantly been forced to consider.

The Slow Food Youth Movement has really gathered momentum since the last Terra Madre event in 2010. It’s particularly strong in the Netherlands, Germany, UK and US.

The fight against Food Waste has become a major focus for Slow Food. At present approximately 40% of the food harvest goes to waste. Several countries have brilliant initiatives to heighten awareness of this problem and redistribute ‘food waste’.

In Berlin the Slow Food Youth had a Schnippeldisco (chopping disco) where more than 200 people chopped 1.2 tonnes of discarded vegetables and made massive pots of soup as an ‘act of culinary resistance’ that filled the tummies of 8,000 people next day. Next one is on January 19th in Berlin – I’m hoping to go!

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JUWFaY0T4Q a brilliant You Tube on the event.

We all need as many thrifty tips for Christmas as possible in this economic climate. I’ve just been to the shops and seen breadcrumbs for sale for more than the price of a loaf of bread for a 250g (9oz) bag, so let me share the secret of how to make your own – it’s so easy and they freeze perfectly for stuffings, gratins, croquettes or buttered crumbs.

 

How to Make Your Own Homemade Bread Crumbs

 

First save all left over white bread, for white bread crumbs, cut off the crusts (save for dried crumbs) (see below).

 

Tear each slice into 3 or 4 pieces, drop into a liquidiser or food processor, whizz for 30 seconds to a minute, hey presto – bread crumbs.  Use immediately or freeze in convenient size bags for use another time.  If you use crumbs include the crusts.  The breadcrumbs will be flecked with lots of crust but these are fine for stuffings and any other dish where the crumbs do not need to be white.

 

Before the days of liquidisers and food processors, we made bread crumbs by grating squares of stale bread or the coarsest part of a box grater.  The breadcrumbs were not as uniform as those made in a whizzer but will be absolutely fine.

 

Dried Bread Crumbs.

 

Put the crusts off the bread slices, spread out on a baking tray.  Bake in a low oven (100°C/220°F/Gas Mark 1/4) for 2 – 3 hours.  Cool, liquidise the dry crusts a few at a time into fine bread crumbs.  Sieve and store in a screw top jar or a plastic box as until needed.  No need to freeze, they keep for months.  Use for coating cheese or fish croquettes

Make Your Own Suet

 

Of-course one can buy suet ready-prepared in packets but it’s very easy to do it yourself at home. Your butcher will probably give you the suet for free because there is so little demand.  Coeliacs need to be aware that ready-prepared suet usually contains white flour.

 

Suet comes from the fat that protects the beef kidney. Suet and dripping (the rendered suet) seem to have fallen out of favour, but chips fried in beef fat and potatoes roasted in it are lovely. The flavour is much better and, incidentally, beef dripping has more vitamin B and despite its reputation is considerably better for you than cheap, trans-fat ridden cooking oils. People now make plum puddings with butter because they’re so paranoid of eating the wrong kinds of fat, but I’m still a great fan of the traditional plum puddings made in the classic way with suet, as they have a better flavour and texture. Serve these on hot plates, though, because if suet congeals it’s distinctly unappetising. Use for Plum Pudding or many other comforting suet puddings.

 

Strictly speaking, beef dripping is the fat and the meat juices that render out of a joint of roast beef while it’s cooking, whereas suet or tallow is fat just rendered from fat surrounding the beef kidney. However, nowadays the term ‘dripping’ is colloquially used to refer to all of these.

 

How to Prepare your own Suet and Save Money

 

Start by asking your butcher for the fat that surrounds beef kidneys.

 

Remove and discard the papery membrane and any red veins or fragments of meat. If you’re not meticulous about this, these bits will deteriorate and the suet won’t keep properly. The fat will separate into natural divisions. Chop it coarsely and either mince or whizz it in a food-processor for a minute or two until it’s evenly grainy (years ago, people used to grate suet on a simple box grater). Refrigerate and use within a couple of days, but if it has been properly trimmed it will keep for weeks in a fridge.

 

Homemade Croutons

 

A terrific standby at any time but particularly around Christmas. Croutons can be made even a day ahead with oil flavoured by sprigs of rosemary, thyme or onion. Cut into cubes or stamp out into various shapes – stars, clubs, diamonds or hearts or whatever else takes your fancy – and sprinkle over salads or serve with soups.

 

Serves 4

 

slightly stale white bread, 5mm (1⁄4in) thick

olive oil or sunflower

 

First cut the crusts off the bread, then cut into 5mm (1⁄4in) strips and finally exact cubes.

Heat the oil in a frying pan. It should be at least 2cm (3⁄4in) deep and almost smoking. Put a tin sieve over a Pyrex or stainless-steel bowl.

Add the croutons to the hot oil. Stir once or twice; they will colour almost immediately. When the croutons are golden brown in colour seconds later, pour the oil and croutons into the sieve and drain on kitchen paper. Reheat the oil to cook another batch or use for another purpose.

 

Cheat’s Tarts with Various Fillings

 

Usually I’m frightfully snooty about sliced bread but this a brilliant trick shown to us by one of my favourite cookery writers Eric Treuille when he came to teach at the school a few years ago. It makes crisp little tartlets perfect as a base for canapés.

 

Here are a number of fillings one could use. Look in your fridge, experiment and use fresh herbs and herb flowers. Unfilled Cheat’s Tarts will keep in an airtight tin for several days.

 

Wild Salmon Pâté with cucumber pickle and dill, Chicken Liver Pâté with sun blush tomatoes, Goat cheese and kumquat compote, Goat cheese with pesto and cherry tomato

Prawns or shrimp with guacamole and coriander, Crab Mayonnaise with grape tomatoes

Smoked mussels with mayo, Goat cheese, pequillo pepper and basil leaves

 

 

sliced white or brown bread (sliced pan)

 

rolling pin

tray of mini muffins buns

cutter 4.5cm (1 3/4 inches)

 

Preheat the oven 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6.

 

Cut the crusts off the bread. Roll the bread very thinly with a rolling pin, it should be completely flat. Stamp out rounds with a 4.5cm (1 3/4 inches) cutter. Fit into the mini muffin tins. Bake for 5 – 7 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and fill as desired.

 

Mulled Wine Spices

 

Serves 8 approx.

 

Just before the festive season we make up lots of little packages with the sugar, spices and thinly pared lemon rind so when the pals arrive it’s just a question of opening a bottle of wine and warming it in a stainless steel saucepan with the spices.  Leftover mulled wine keeps for a few days and reheats perfectly.

 

1 bottle of good red wine

 

100-g (3 1/2oz) sugar, depending on the wine

thinly pared rind of 1 lemon

1 small piece of cinnamon bark

1 blade of mace

1 clove

 

1 square of muslin

 

Put the sugar, lemon rind, cinnamon bark, mace and the clove into a little square of muslin, tie with cotton string. Just add to a bottle of good red wine – warm slowly.  Serve hot, but not scalding otherwise your guests will have difficulty holding their glasses.

 

Hot Tips

Shanagarry OOOOBY (Out of Our Own Back Yard) Group along with other local producers will hold their Christmas Market on Sunday 16th December from 12pm to 4pm at the 18th Century Kilmahon House Courtyard, beside Stephen Pearce Pottery in Shanagarry, East Cork. Make lighter work of Christmas with homemade stuffing, pates, puddings, chutneys and ‘just out of the ground’ fresh produce from OOOBY.

Mahon Point Special Christmas Market – Saturday 22nd December 10am – 2pm www.mahonpointfarmersmarket.com

Waterford Winterville Festival runs until Sunday 23^rd December www.winterval.ie.

 

Traditional Farm Poultry – Robbie Fitzsimmon from East Ferry Free Range is still taking orders for his plump free-range turkeys, geese and chicken for Christmas feasting.

086 8548574 info@eastferryfreerange.com

 

Festive Afternoon Tea – Get together with new friends, old friends or best friends for a special and indulgent Christmas treat – Festive Afternoon Tea in front of a roaring fire in the drawing room at Knockeven House in Cobh, Co Cork – how tempting does that sound? phone 021 4811778 or email info@knockevenhouse.com

 

 ‘Pop-Up Christmas Wine Shop’ in The Grain Store – Ballymaloe House every weekend until Christmas – Saturdays 11.00am – 4.00pm Sundays 12.30pm – 4.00pm. Wondering where to find something quirky but delicious to serve for the festive season? Ballymaloe House Sommelier Colm McCan who will offer some brilliant advice and tempting tastings.

021 4652531-0 www.ballymaloe.ie

 

 

The wild game season is well and truly under way again, I love game but lots of people have been telling me that they haven’t the foggiest idea how to go about preparing or cooking it. So who better than George Gossip to give us all a Master class in everything from how to identify the birds to plucking, gutting, stuffing, trussing …

George is unquestionably the best game cook I know and a brilliantly entertaining teacher with an irreverent sense of humour. He and his wife Susie own Ballinderry Park, a beautiful Hidden Ireland guest house near Ballinasloe in Co Galway which they restored from an advanced state of dereliction. He loves and is deeply knowledgeable about the countryside and the environment and has been cooking and enjoying game for a very long time hence his extensive repertoire of both traditional and contemporary recipes.

 

For many plucking is a forgotten skill but if you are fortunate enough to get a present of a brace of pheasants in the feather it’s a bit embarrassing to have to ask the person to pluck them as well! So George showed us just how quickly one can pluck a bird. Do it outdoors or in the garage, tune in to your inner hunter gatherer, listen to your favourite music and enjoy! After a bit of practice, it’ll take less than 10 minutes.

 

Pigeons can be dealt with even faster, just insert your thumb under the breast bone of the un-plucked bird and draw both skin and feathers back off the breast, then detach from the carcass and discard the rest. You can of course pluck the entire bird but there’s very little meat on the legs and it tends to be tough and chewy.

I know it’s tempting to skin pheasants as well but try to resist because you’ll lose so much flavour. Furred game is hung by the back legs and feathered game by the head.

 

Hanging times depend on the weather and your preference.

Some people, me included, like game to taste really gamey, others prefer a milder flavour, it’s a matter of personal preference.

If the weather is mild, a couple of days will be long enough but during a frosty spell, game can hang for longer. A cool dry airy place is best and both birds and furred game are best hung individually rather than in pairs.

Game carcasses make a fantastic stock, the bones can be augmented with trimmings of birds that may have been badly shot. If you have some really intensely flavoured stock you might like to make petit pots de gibier. Pheasant will be in season until 31^st January and certainly makes a welcome change from the eternal trinity of beef, chicken and farmed salmon.

Venison too is widely available; a haunch will feed 20 or more for a dinner party. The seared loin is easier but the minced shoulder and belly make fantastic venison sausages – and George’s recipe is the best I have come across. Rabbit is classified as vermin not game and certainly deserves a revival. I love rabbit and wish I could find it more often on a restaurant menu.

George introduced us to this recipe for Carpaccio of Rabbit which comes from Lindy Wildsmith’s excellent book Cured.

We served it on rocket leaves with some myrtle (myrthus ugni) berries.

Another delicious surprise was Heston Blumenthal’s Choucroute Recipe, it’s sort of a cheat recipe for sauerkraut but so good and a brilliant accompaniment to game.

 

 

Seared Carpaccio of Rabbit Loin

 

The loin is the crème de la crème of the rabbit meat.  A truly delicate and dainty dish.

 

Serves 4 as a starter

 

1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

4 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed

4 rabbit loins cut from 2 jointed rabbits

 

To Joint a Rabbit Loin

 

Run a sharp, short-bladed knife close to and along the length of the spine.  Pull the loin away from the spine.  Run the blade under the loin cutting it free from the bone.  The first loin is now detached from the bone.  Repeat on the other side.  The two loins should now be detached from the bone.

 

Mix the finely chopped parsley, salt and crushed coriander seeds together.  Level the seasoning out on a chopping board and roll the lamb in it until completely and evenly coated.  Wrap in Clingfilm and freeze for a couple of hours or overnight.

 

When ready to serve, heat a frying pan large enough to contain the rabbit loin over a high heat.  Add enough oil to cover the base of the pan and put the rabbit loin in the pan.   Cook the rabbit loins until golden, but this will only take a minute or two, as they are very tender.

 

Cut the loins into 2cm (3/4 inch) thick slices and garnish with purple radish sprouts and rocket.

 

Venison Sausages

 

We like a very coarse meaty sausage with no extraneous ingredients. We do not use oatmeal or rusk, and the addition of diced bananas or cranberries is definitely not for us. That said, we do like plenty of good Dijon mustard and venison sausages are the perfect foil for spicy or fruity sauces and chutneys.

 

Natural Sausage Casings

 

5.4kg (12lbs) chopped venison (we used shoulder)

900g (2lbs) pork fat

900g (2lbs) lean pork meat

100g (31/2oz) salt

7g (3/4oz) ground black pepper

7g (3/4oz) ground nutmeg

slightly more than 7g (1/4oz) ground ginger

slightly more than 7g (1/4oz) ground cloves

water

 

Soak the sausage cases the previous night.

 

Next day, chop meats, mix together and mince. Add the seasonings gradually and fry up a number of little burgers to check that the flavouring is to your liking. Take great care not to over-salt.

 

When you are happy with the taste, add sufficient water to make the mixture malleable, and fill the casings, twist and link the sausages, and hang them up in hanks to dry.

 

These sausages do not contain preservative and should be eaten within four or five days unless you possess a Vac-pack machine which will allow you to keep them a little longer. And, as they do not contain any garlic, they freeze very well and are an ideal lunch or supper dish.

 

Uses

 

Venison Bangers ’n Mash, or with Colcannon

 

Or fry 6 sausages in olive oil with 3/4lb sliced potatoes, four medium onions (cut lengthwise in quarters) and half a dozen small carrots until cooked. Then, season and serve with plenty of mustard and a good strong salad.

 

Venison Sausages make good sausage rolls and they are good cold for picnics too.

 

Pheasant with Chorizo, Bacon and Tomatoes

 

The pheasant from a driven shoot rarely has quite as much flavour as a wild bird. This Spanish-style recipe is a particularly good one because the chorizo contributes lots of extra oomph!

 

Serves 6
2 pheasants, each cut into 4 serving portions
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
175g (6oz) good-quality streaky bacon cut into 1cm (1⁄2in) cubes
2 garlic cloves
2 large onions, sliced
450g (1lb) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or 1 x 400g (14oz) tin chopped tomatoes)
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons good-quality paprika – preferably sweet Hungarian
225g (8oz) chorizo sausage, sliced
thyme leaves and lots of parsley sprigs

Pilaff Rice, to serve

I cut the legs into two, the wings into two (assuming they are intact and not shot-off as sometimes happens) and take the breasts off the bone and cut them into two or three – along the seams rather than across the grain. The carcass can then be used to make a game stock. If this is done in advance the stock is used for cooking the pilaff rice.
Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and fry until the fat runs and the bacon begins to crisp around the outside. Transfer to a casserole. Add the pheasant pieces to the frying pan and brown lightly a few at a time. Remove and add to the casserole.
Add the garlic and onion to the frying pan, toss, cover and sweat gently for 4–5 minutes. Remove the lid, add the chopped tomatoes and the salt, pepper and paprika (if you’re using tinned tomatoes, you might need a little sugar to help the flavour). Increase the heat. Add the chorizo. Cook briskly until the sauce thickens slightly.
Return the bacon and the pheasant pieces to the tomato sauce. Add the wings and thigh pieces first, and the breast sections a little later, because they will require less cooking. The casserole will need about 25 minutes in total. Check the seasoning. If the sauce has become too thick, stir in a little stock or water. Scatter with the thyme and flat parsley.

Serve the pheasant, surrounded by pieces of chorizo and bacon, on
a bed of pilaff rice – accompanied by a good green salad.

 

 

Heston Blumenthal’s Choucroute Recipe

100g (3 1/2oz) unsalted butter (I use salted)
400g  (14oz) peeled and finely sliced onion (approx 6 medium onions)
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon juniper berries wrapped in a muslin bag (I use about 11/2 tablespoons and I don’t bother with the bag)
300ml (12fl oz) Gewurztramminer (I just use white wine)
50ml (2fl oz) white wine vinegar (I add more to taste)
salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 savoy cabbage
1 tablespoon groundnut or rapeseed oil
30g (1oz) smoked bacon lardons

Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Sweat the onion, garlic and juniper berries until the onions are soft and lightly coloured (approximately 20 minutes).

Add vinegar and reduce for five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Strain the onion and reserve both the onion and the liquor.

Cut the cabbage in half and remove the tough core. Separate the leaves and cut them into 5mm strips.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, then add the bacon and cook until lightly coloured. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Add cabbage to the pan and cook for approximately seven minutes. Mix in the onion, bacon and reserved cooking liquid and cook for another five minutes or until the cabbage is tender.

Check seasoning before serving. Heston Blumenthal says season with salt and pepper but I have been known to add more vinegar!

 

Jane Grigson’s Petits Pots De Gibier (Little Game Custards)

 

 

“For each person allow one (egg) yolk and 100 ml (3.5 oz) skimmed strained rich game stock. Beat together, add seasoning and pour into buttered custard cups. Put on the lids, stand in a pan of simmering water on top of the stove, and leave it for half an hour. Serve with toast or with the sandwiches of the following recipe.”

 

 

George Gossip finds it best as a starter for a rather smart dinner party, usually accompanied by Melba Toast. The choice of wine is difficult. Perhaps a very good sherry!

 

Hottips

 

By George! Game Courses with George Gossip at Ballinderry Park, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.

One day game course with game lunch and dinner on Tuesday 8th January 2013 with B&B available in the beautifully restored 18th century country home.

End of Season Game Weekend at Ballinderry Park – Friday 8th and Saturday 9th February 2013 which includes two nights B&B and two game dinners. George will do his excellent game cookery demonstrations on both dates - to enquire and to book phone 09096 86796 - www.ballinderrypark.com

A Call to Arms – Open meeting to discuss genetically modified organisms (GMOs). An Taisce will hold an open meeting on Saturday 8th December at 2pm at An Taisce, Tailors’ Hall, Back Lane, Dublin.

Join the discussion on GMOs, specifically the Teagasc trial on blight resistant GM potatoes, an opportunity for us to educate ourselves on the complex and important subject of GM issues for the future. John Sweeney – President of An Taisce will be the Chair. No admission charge but booking essential…  http://antaisce.eventbrite.ie/ to register.

Ballymaloe Cookery School 2013 Course Schedule Brochure arrived hot off the press last week – phone 021 4646785 to request one in the post.

There are still a few places left on Rachel Allen’s two and half day Festive Entertaining Cookery Course at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Tuesday 11^th to Thursday 13^th December, to book – www.cookingisfun.ie or phone 021 4646785

 

Teresa Barry at Barry’s Garden Centre in Inch, Killeagh has special Gift Fruit Plant Packs –an ideal Christmas present the whole family will benefit from for years. The pack includes strawberries, blackcurrants, blueberries and raspberries, all perfect for cultivating in a small garden. Teresa will you give you good advice on how to plant and how to get the best yields – http://barrysgardencentre.ie/ phone 086 2508437

Can you imagine that a book with recipes that don’t contain dairy, sugar or wheat, vaporised out of my ‘in tray’ in double quick time a few weeks ago and hasn’t been seen since.  Annoying as that may be, this is definitely a compliment to the authors of Guilt Free Gourmet and of course indicates a growing demand for ‘free from’ recipes – the biggest growth area in food.

I particularly wanted to browse through the book because it was written by a recent graduate of the Ballymaloe Cookery School. Jordan Bourke did a 12 Week Certificate Course with us here in April 2010. He was ‘properly’ interested in food and flavour and super fresh produce. After the course he was snapped up by Skye Gyngell at the Michelin starred Petersham Nurseries in London.

Jordan is originally from Dublin but has lived in London for almost 10 years now, his passion for healthy food runs in the family. His sister Jessica with whom he wrote this book is a much sought after nutritional therapist. Jordan cooks for private clients in London specialising in cooking food for optimum health, weight loss and nutrition.

Their first book was written in response to countless pleas from clients, friends and family for the recipes for the indulgent yet guilt free food they tasted. Where have we heard that before – all sounds a bit too good to be true? Well, I have to tell you that Jordan and Jessica are the real deal and the book delivers what it ‘says on the tin’

By the way, Jordan now also gives cooking classes in Clapham, London with Tara Wiggley another Ballymaloe Cookery School graduate who worked at Moro with Sam and Sam Clarke. She currently works at  Ottolenghi in London with Yotam and Sami developing and testing recipes.

 

Jordan and Tara’s next cookery class is on Friday 7^th December for details visit www.jordanbourke.com

 

The Guilt Free Gourmet by Jordan and Jessica Bourke is published by Ryland, Peters & Small Ltd.

 

Jordan Bourke’s Beetroot Burgers with Wholegrain Mustard Mayonnaise

 

There is no question that reducing the amount of meat in your diet is not only good for your health but also for the planet. So before you go running for the hills at the mention of a ‘veggie’ burger, at least taste this one before you make any judgments. It is not an attempt to replicate a beef burger but it is very similar in texture, just as satisfying, and has gone down really well with my carnivore friends.

 

handful of fresh dill

handful of fresh parsley

leaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme

350g (12oz) beetroot, grated

150g (5oz) carrot, finely grated

120g (4 ¾ oz) oatmeal

3 eggs

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

wheat-free bread rolls

rocket

cherry tomatoes, halved

 

Jordan’s Wholegrain Mustard Mayonnaise

 

300 ml good extra virgin olive oil

300ml (10fl oz) sunflower oil

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

squeeze of lemon juice

3 teaspoons wholegrain mustard

 

Slaw

1⁄2 small celeriac, cut into thin matchsticks

1⁄2 red cabbage, very thinly sliced

2 carrots, shredded

1 red onion, thinly sliced

small handful of hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

2 eating apples

grated zest of 1 lemon, plus juice of 1⁄2

 

Makes about 10

 

Finely chop the herbs. Thoroughly combine with the beetroot, carrot, oatmeal, eggs, onion and garlic in a bowl, making sure the eggs and herbs are evenly distributed. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and a few grindings of pepper. Set aside for 15 minutes.

To make the wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, you can use a food processor or an electric whisk. Either way, combine the oils in a jug. Put the egg yolks, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and a pinch of salt in the food processor bowl or a mixing bowl. As you start to process/whisk, very slowly feed in the oils a little at a time until the mixture begins to emulsify and come together. Once this happens you can add the oil a bit faster, but never be tempted to fire it all in otherwise the mayonnaise will split. I always have a little cup of boiling water ready, as a few drops added in when it is looking like it might split usually brings it back together. Once you have added all the oil, stir in the wholegrain mustard and refrigerate until needed.

To make the slaw, combine the celeriac, cabbage, carrots, onion, hazelnuts and most of the parsley in a bowl. When you are ready to serve the slaw, cut the apple into thin half-moon slices, getting rid of the core, and mix into the bowl.

Add 3 tablespoons of the wholegrain mustard mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon oil, the lemon zest and juice, ½ teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper and mix well with your hands. Taste and if necessary, add a little extra salt, olive oil or wholegrain mustard.

Preheat the oven to 180ËšC (350ËšF) Gas 4.

To make the burgers, form about 10 patties with your hands. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over low heat and fry the burgers until just browned – 2–3 minutes on each side. Transfer to an ovenproof dish and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Toast the bread rolls or pita bread, if you like. Cut them open and spread the wholegrain mustard mayonnaise on the inside. Add the rocket, some halved tomatoes, some slaw and a burger.

 

Jordan Bourke’s Polenta Pizza

 

Polenta can be served in soft and gloopy form, or it can be cooked a little further to dry it out and then grilled/broiled to achieve a firmer, ‘breadier’ base layer. Either way it can be dreadfully bland if it’s not seasoned generously. I love this grilled version, as it soaks up all the juices from the toppings served with it and it has a satisfying texture. Totally guilt free, as it is made from corn, this is a fantastic lunch or dinner dish to share with friends.

 

2 teaspoons bouillon stock powder

200g (7oz) polenta/yellow cornmeal

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

6 garlic cloves, crushed

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

1 head of rainbow or Swiss chard

extra virgin olive oil

200g (7oz) girolle/golden chanterelle mushrooms

1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley

1 egg

bunch of fresh marjoram

large baking sheet, oiled

 

Serves 6

 

Bring 1 litre water to the boil and add the bouillon powder. Reduce the heat and slowly pour in the polenta/cornmeal, whisking all the time until blended. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting, add half the lemon zest and juice, 4 of the crushed garlic cloves, the thyme and a good pinch of salt and pepper and gently cook, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes or until the polenta pulls away from the side of the pan and is very thick.

Meanwhile, bring another pan of water to the boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and boil the chard for about 3–4 minutes until the thick part is just tender, but not limp. If the root end of the chard is very thick, separate it from the leaves and boil each part separately until just tender. Remove, drain and season with some salt and oil.

In the meantime, don’t forget to stir the polenta!

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in another pan over medium–high heat. Fry the mushrooms for about 2 minutes or until just golden and tender. Add 1 of the crushed garlic cloves and stir for 30 seconds to release the garlic flavour, but don’t let it burn. Transfer to a bowl, toss with the parsley and season with salt, the remaining lemon zest and juice, and some olive oil.

When the polenta is ready, transfer to the prepared baking sheet and spread out to a thickness of about 2 cm. Allow to cool and firm up for 30 minutes.

Preheat the grill.

Scatter the mushrooms and chard over the top of the polenta. Crack an egg carefully into the middle and grill for about 4–5 minutes or until the egg is cooked.

Meanwhile, pull the leaves off the marjoram stalks and finely chop. Mix the chopped leaves with the last crushed garlic clove and mix with enough oil to form a loose marjoram oil.

Remove the polenta from the grill, slide onto a board and drizzle the marjoram oil over the top. Serve immediately.

 

Jordan Bourke’s Red Pepper & Smoked Paprika Soup with Basil Oil & Vegetable Crisps

 

I can’t tell you how comforting this soup is. The sweet smoked paprika and the gentle heat from the chilli warm up even the most wind-swept and bitterly cold winter days. The root vegetable crisps work very well with it, adding a lovely and satisfying crunch. Try and get the Spanish brands of sweet smoked paprika that come in little tins, as they have excellent flavour.

 

300g (10 ½ oz) baby plum tomatoes – as ripe and red as you can find

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 red onions, chopped

2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

4 red peppers, seeded and chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into cubes

700ml (1 ½ pints) vegetable stock

2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika

8–10 fresh basil leaves

vegetable crisps (you can get these in good supermarkets and any root vegetable will do, eg. parsnip, sweet potato or beetroot)

 

Serves 6–8

 

Preheat the oven to 180ËšC (350ËšF) Gas 4.

Toss the tomatoes in a little oil and salt on a baking sheet. Roast in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, or until they have shrivelled up a bit and the skins have popped open.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat, add the onions, chillies and garlic and sweat out until the onions are translucent. Add 2 pinches of salt. Add the peppers and potato and cook over low–medium heat for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables have softened.

Add the roasted tomatoes and all the juices and the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until all the vegetables are completely soft. Using a food processor or blender, liquidize the soup until smooth. Return to the pan and add the paprika. Season to taste – it will need more salt and some pepper.

Finely chop the basil and mix together with tablespoons olive oil. Ladle the soup into bowls, then with a teaspoon swirl some of the basil oil over the top and lightly place a few vegetable crisps in the middle of the soup. Serve immediately.

 

Guilt-free because…

Red peppers are high in a number of important antioxidants. It is the combination of vitamins C, E and the carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthin) that ensure they pack a strong nutritious punch. Zeaxanthin is found in high levels in the retina of the eye, which means red (bell) peppers should form part of any diet used to help those with macular degeneration. Lutein and zeaxanthin are also known to improve the elasticity of the skin as well as a reduction in skin lipid oxidation, a common cause of skin aging.

 

Jordan Bourke’s Chocolate Tart

 

Convincing people that food, especially desserts, made without sugar, wheat and dairy can actually taste good, let alone delicious, is an almost impossible task, which is why I adore this chocolate tart. It will convert even the greatest cynics who protest that no dessert free of sugar, wheat and dairy could possibly taste as good as their more sinful cousins. After tasting this, I guarantee your family and friends will admit defeat and beg you for the recipe, as well as another slice!

sea salt

100 g (3 ½ oz) best-quality dark/bittersweet chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids

 

Base

10 pitted dates

150 g (5oz) pecans, lightly roasted

125 g (4oz) Scottish oat cakes

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons agave syrup

2 tablespoons coconut oil

3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

 

Filling

3 avocados, not too firm

4 tablespoons coconut oil

6 tablespoons agave syrup

1 tablespoon carob powder

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons date syrup

 

20-cm/8-inch spring form pan, base lined with parchment paper

 

Serves 10–12

 

To make the base, blitz the dates in a food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and a pinch of salt and blitz until everything comes together into

a sticky ball.

Press into the baking pan so that you have an even and smooth base for the tart. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes until set.

To make the filling, cut the avocados in half, remove the stones and scoop the flesh into a food processor. Add 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, the remaining ingredients apart from the coconut oil, and blitz until smooth.

Melt the coconut oil in a pan over the lowest heat possible – this will only take a few moments. Turn on the food processor and pour the coconut oil into the mixture through the funnel. Once combined, pour the mixture onto the set tart base and smooth out the top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or if you want it to set quickly, freeze it.

When you are ready to serve, warm the chocolate to just above room temperature to make it easier to grate. I find leaving it beside the oven when you are cooking for about 10 minutes does the trick. You want the chocolate to be just beginning to soften – not in any way gooey or melting, just not rock solid, so it grates easily in long strips.

Pop the tart out of the baking pan and transfer to a plate. Liberally grate the chocolate over, so it piles up high. The tart should be served fridge-cold so that it stays reasonably firm. It keeps wonderfully well and can easily be made a day in advance.

 

Guilt-free because…

 

Avocados are high in essential omega fats, which are food for the brain, nervous system, skin and hair. Contrary to popular belief, avocados do not make you fat! In fact, studies have shown that those who have high amounts of healthy fats like avocados (and indeed coconut oil) in their diet are more likely to be a healthy weight.

 

Hot Tips

 

Gloucester OId Spot Pork -two young lads aged 14 and 18 from Co Carlow bought their first pigs in 2008, they now have 40 pigs – wouldn’t one of those make a super Christmas pressie? – 059 9155058 – patrickmcinerney@me.com

 

Rocket Fuel – I love the way so many people are dreaming up new food products to sell. Possibly the best place to find innovation is at Farmer’s Markets. The Rocket Man aka Jack Crotty is now also doing a great granola and a drink labelled ‘Rocket Fuel’, a scary looking pink blueberry and ginger cordial that warms the cockles of your heart either hot or cold – so good – www.mahonpointfarmersmarket.com Jack Crotty – 086 822 9624

 

Free Range Birds for Christmas – Still time to order your free range Goose or a beautiful  Bronze Turkeys now from Dan and Ann Aherne from Ballysimon, Midleton, Co Cork or find them at Midleton Farmers Market very Saturday – 021 463 1058 – 086 165 9258.

 

Festive Wine Course with Colm McCan and Peter Corr at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Thursday 13^th December at 2:00pm to 5:30pm – €95.00 – 021 4646785 to book – www.cookingisfun.ie

 

Darina’s Book of the Week – Ever wondered how some of the classic dishes got their name, Beef Wellington, Tarte Tatin even a Reuben sandwich, what has meringue with ice-cream got to do with Alaska? Does chicken Kiev come from Kiev? Who was Arnold Bennet who created that wonderful smoked haddock omelette. Who invented Oysters Rockefeller, was it the president himself or was it created in his honour? Well, ‘Who Put the Beef in ‘Wellington’’ by James Winter has all the answers – published by Kyle Books.

 

Yippee, another book from Stevie Parle, one of the New Young Voices in food who is now really going into orbit – a couple of years ago I wrote about Stevie’s first book, Real Food from Near and Far and restaurant Dock Kitchen in Ladbroke Grove in West London. Stevie has achieved huge critical acclaim for his creative yet unpretentious and exceptionally delicious food cooking. He was chosen as Observer Young chef of the year in 2010 and writes a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph.

In just over two years, Stevie has written three books. In his latest book – Spice Trip The Simple Way to Make Food Exciting – he has linked up with Emma Grazette to document their incredible journey to all corners of the world to discover the secrets of six essential everyday spices.  For nutmeg and mace they went all the way toGrenada, next it was cloves inZanzibar, cumin inTurkey, cinnamon inIndia, beautiful black pepper inCambodiaand for chillies where else butMexico. As well as exploring the culinary uses of each spice, Emma also reveals their therapeutic value through the secrets she discovered from the remarkable people she met on her journey. The photographs are just gorgeous, rich, and evocative and enough to truly whet your appetite and spike the curiosity of even the most determined meat and two veg fan.

This book accompanies Stevie and Emma’s first TV series Spice Trip on More 4 on November 25^th 2012.

 

Stevie Parle’s Swiss Chard with Cinnamon, Pine Nuts, Raisins and Vinegar

 

This is a great side dish, particularly with simply roasted chicken. Don’t worry if you can only find Swiss chard with fine stalks or no stalks at all, as it’s just as good. You can use spinach instead of chard.

1kg (2 ¼ lb) Swiss or rainbow chard, leaves stripped from stalk and stalk cut into1cm (1/4 in strips)

25g (1oz) butter

olive oil for frying

1 shallot, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

50g (2oz) pine nuts

6cm (2 ½ inch) cinnamon stick

a pinch of saffron threads soaked in boiling water

50g raisins, soaked in 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Blanch the chard leaves until soft, about 1 minute, then remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and lay them out on kitchen paper to drain and cool. In the same pan, boil the stalks until soft, about 10 minutes, then drain.

In a heavy based pan melt the butter with a splash of olive oil and gently fry the shallot with a pinch of salt over a low heat until soft and sweet, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, pine nuts and the cinnamon stick and continue to fry, stirring occasionally for five minutes, add the saffron water and raisins for the final minute.

Roughly chop the chard leaves and add to the pan, along with the stalks, Give it a good mix, season well and serve.

 

Musa’s Cumin Köfte with Melon and Tomato Salad

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

Köfte are Turkish meatballs, Musa Dugdeviren at the Ciya restaurant in Instanbul taught me how to make his köfte. He always cuts the meat by hand (I used the biggest knife I’ve ever seen, though he wasn’t too impressed with my knife skills) Of course you can use minced meat, as I’ve done here – you won’t quite get the crumbly texture of Musa’s köfte  but they will still taste great. It’s important to get enough fat in the mixture – as when making sausages or burgers – to keep the patties moist and tasty. I always use the beef fat as it’s not as greasy as lamb fat. I like to serve these with melon, tomato, chilli and feta salad.

 

For the Köfte

 

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

a handful of parsley leaves finely chopped

a pinch of ground cinnamon

a pinch of ground allspice

a pinch of chilli flakes

1 tablespoon of ground cumin

250g (9oz) lamb mince

olive oil for frying

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

For the Salad

1kg (2 ¼ lb) watermelon or other small melon, such as cantaloupe or galia cut into large chunks

2 tomatoes cut into large chunks

100g (3 ½ oz) feta

A handful of mint leaves

1 chilli finely chopped

olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place all the köfte ingredients, except for the oil in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Mix everything with your hands until the mixture is just combined but try not to over mix. With slightly wet hands, shape the meat into patties about 4cm (1 ½ inch) in diameter and press a finger in the middle of each patty to make an indentation.

To make the salad place the melon and tomatoes in a bowl and season. Break up the feta, tear in the mint, and sprinkle in the chilli. Drizzle generously with oil and squeeze the lemon juice over the salad. Toss very gently for a few seconds and then leave to sit while you cook the köfte.

Heat up a large pan with a good glug of oil. When the oil is hot, fry the köfte for 2 minutes on each side until golden and just cooked through. Serve with the salad.

 

Stevie Parle’s Cauliflower and Potato Curry

 

Serves 3

 

This is a brilliant dish to know as it’s incredibly cheap and immensely satisfying. It’s one I like to teach to people going off to ‘uni’ as it’s a great healthy staple. It also makes a terrific side dish for grilled meat or fish.

4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm (3/4 in) cubes

olive oil for frying

1 red onion, sliced

2 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 x 5cm (2 inch) piece ginger peeled and finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon chilli powder

1 cauliflower, broken into large florets and leaves roughly chopped

A small bunch of coriander, leaves picked

3 tablespoons Greek Style yoghurt

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring the potatoes to the boil in a pan of salted water and cook until tender. Drain and leave to cool.

Heat a little oil in a large, heavy based pan (with a lid) and gently fry the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Turn up the heat and add the cumin seeds. When they begin to crackle, add the ginger, ground coriander, turmeric and chilli, Stir for 1 minutes, adding a little extra oil if it begins to stick.

Add the cauliflower, followed by 100ml (3 ½ fl oz) water and good pinch of salt. Place the lid on the pan and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes, until the cauliflower is just done. Stir in the potatoes and coriander and finish by swirling in the yoghurt. Taste for seasoning and serve.

 

Stevie Parle’s Turkish Pizza

 

Makes 4

 

These are called lahmacun in Turkey and they’re one of my favourite snacks. This is a classic version, but there are loads of different ones so experiment as you like. The dough keeps in the fridge overnight but needs an hour to wake up before you roll it.

 

For the Dough

350ml (12fl oz) lukewarm water around 37ºC

1 tablespoon dried yeast

a pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

500g (1 ¼ lb) strong white bread flour (or 00 pasta flour) plus extra for dusting

½ teaspoon table salt

 

For the Topping

300g (11oz) lamb mince

1 red onion, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 green chilli, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

A pinch of Turkish chilli flakes or 1 red chilli, finely chopped optional

1 teaspoon sumac (optional)

a squeeze of lemon juice

sea salt

 

To Serve

A large handful of parsley leaves

A large handful of mint leaves

In a bowl mix the warm water with the yeast, sugar and oil. Leave for about 10 minutes to froth up. Leave for about 10 minutes to froth up. Meanwhile mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the liquid, then stir, gradually incorporating all of the liquid to make a sticky dough.

Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead until it is transformed into a glossy, stretchy dough. Return to the bowl, cover tightly with cligfilm and leave somewhere warm for about an hour. Once risen, turn out again and knead for a few more minutes.

Preheat the oven to its hottest setting 230 – 300ºC/450-450-474ºF/gas 8 – 9 and put a pizza stone or heavy roasting tray in to get really hot.

On a large board, chop together the lamb, onion, tomato, green chilli, garlic, cumin and coriander to make a smooth much. Season well.

On a well-floured surface, roll your dough into 4 large rounds, about ½ cm (1/4 inch) thick. Spread the lamb mix thinly on top of the dough. Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and very carefully transfer the lahmacuns onto it (you might find a tart tine base or something flat useful for this) Bake for about 5 minutes, until bubbly and slightly brown at the edges. Sprinkle with the chilli flakes and sumac if you want to. Add a squeeze of lemon and roll up with the parsley and mint leaves to eat.

 

Stevie Parle’s Cumin and Coriander Chicken Livers

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

This is quite a wet dish, so it’s best to serve it in a bowl, preferably with flatbread. The sauce is a green masala (hara masala) which you can add to lots of things from clams to fish to roast chicken.

 

2 bunches of coriander

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1 x 5cm (2in) piece ginger

1 green chilli

a handful of cumin seeds, toasted and ground

juice of 1 lime, plus a squeeze for serving

olive oil

400g (14oz) chicken livers trimmed

2 tablespoons natural yoghurt

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

To Serve

Flatbread

In a food processor, blend the coriander, ginger, chilli, spices and lime juice with a glug of oil until you have a wet green paste. Season to taste. Transfer to a bowl and toss with the chicken livers.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a large, heavy based pan. When hot add the livers and cook for 3 or 4 minutes, turning once. Take off the heat, stir in the yoghurt and serve in bowls. Add an extra squeeze of lime to taste. Serve with a pile of flatbread.

 

Hottips

 

Tracton Community and Arts Centre Christmas Fair will take place on Sunday, 25th November from 10.30am to 5.30pm and will launch the first community bread and pizza oven in Ireland. Delicious woodfired pizza will be served along with local artisan food producers – Gidi Gur’s election of organic pitas and vegetarian food Tel. 087-2255608 Chloe’s Chocolates – Homemade chocolate truffles and chocolate biscuit cakes, Tel. 086-660 7105 East of Boston Foods (Barbara O’Mahony) – dessert sauces, relishes and honey, Tel. 021 477 0740 Ovenbuilder Hendrik Lepel (bakehus.com) in conjunction with Pompeii Pizza (087-7572615)- Delicious pizza from the new wood-fired oven. Finders Inn Gourmet Foods  (Aaron Mc Donnell) – A range of bread, soups and pates Tel. 087 2787070. For more information about the Christmas Fair, please contact: 086-0711910.

 

Look out for Wilkie Chocolates– Shana Wilkie is the only Bean to Bar Chocolate Maker in Ireland, she produces small hand tempered batches of premium organic chocolate made from cocoa beans sourced from the Amazon region in Peru. Her 75% Amazonian Organic Dark Chocolate won Best Organic Confectionary at Bord Bia National Organic Awards in September – www.wilkieschocolate.ie

Midway through every 12 Week Certificate Course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, we all pile onto a bus and go on a foodie tour. It’s not just a gastronomic foodie skite, the object of the exercise is to introduce the students (11 nationalities) this time, to as many inspirational food producers, restaurateurs, artisan brewers, cheese makers and great ideas as possible in one fun and action packed day. We start early. This time we began at 8am sharp with a short foraging walk through the farm down to Bill Casey’s Shanagarry Smokehouse. Bill started to smoke fish almost 30 years ago when he was made redundant from Cork Marts.  Ever since he’s been concentrating on smoking salmon.  “Keep it simple, do one thing and do it right” was Bill’s council to the students. Originally he sourced wild salmon from Ballycotton but nowadays he uses Irish organic farmed salmon which he smokes with a mixture of beech and oak chippings. Over the years he has built up a loyal clientele of local and overseas customers. The students tucked enthusiastically into slivers of salmon, fresh from the smoker before they piled on to the bus en route to Mahon Point Farmer’s Market.

Plenty of ideas here, over 40 forty entrepreneurs selling a fantastically good selection of fresh locally produced foods – home grown vegetables, fresh herbs and plants, farmhouse cheese, a variety of breads and home baking to make your mouth water. Then there was Glan Gluten for Coeliacs and those who have wheat intolerance. Fresh fish from Ballycotton and Schull being filleted at the speed of light, organic and free range chickens both fresh and roasted, heritage pork, cured meats, sausages and salamis. Homely meat pies flying off the stall, smoked fish and fish cakes, local honey, hand-made butter, cheese and thick unctuous yoghurt, and beautiful fresh milk (un- homogenised). Cake pops, cupcakes, macaroons and on and on.

The smell of freshly ground coffee pervades the market. My multi ethnic batch of students were mighty impressed, there’s also lots of tasty ready to eat food so I gave them a meal ticket to present to the stall of their choice.

If they fancied a steak sandwich with rocket and mushroom on crusty Arbutus bread, they headed to Lolo’s stall “Boeuf A Lolo”. Alternatively, they could order a wood fired pizza from Volcano Pizzas or a selection of curries or a bowl of steaming porridge with a decadent spice infused fruit topping from Green Saffron.  How about that for a choice. Later I found two new arrivals since my last visit, Jack Crotty, the Rocket Man with a selection of gorgeous salad and raita and a tantalizing drink called Rocket Fuel and Ian Browne with irresistible tiramisu and gooey chocolate fudge or sticky toffee pudding.

And there’s much, much more of beautiful quality and local and fresh and exceptional value.

It was pretty hard to entice everyone back on the bus but we needed to be at Fermoy Farmhouse Cheese by 12 noon. Here Frank Shinnick and his Swiss wife Gudrun have been adding value to their milk and making exceptional raw milk cheeses for over 15 years.

 

Slow Food created a presidia around St. Gall in 1992 and it was one of the most sought after of the Irish farmhouse cheese at the Salone del Gusto in Turin recently. Frank and Gudrun and their team continue to innovate and now make six different cheeses and a small quantity of yoghurt. Their natural yoghurt with elderberry puree is one of the most delicious new products I’ve tasted this year.

Next stop, Eight Degree Brewery. As mass produced beers have got more and more dull in recent years, craft brewing has really taken off in response to the deep craving for beers with character. The boys from Eight Degree Brewery on the outskirts of Mitchelstown are producing some terrific bottles and I can tell you the students liked it a lot and so did I, difficult to decide which we liked best.

Sunburnt Irishman, Howling Gale or Knockmealdown Porter made by an Aussie and a Kiwi, Cameron Wallace and Scott Baigent who are having the best fun producing some really terrific beer and they can scarcely keep up with the demand – ask your local pub to stock it.

From there our jolly bunch went over the Knockmealdown mountains to visit the Old Convent in Clogheen, Dermot and Christine Gannon have created a romantic retreat with just seven bedrooms and a restaurant where they serve a seven course dinner menu made up almost entirely of locally produced foods. Christine had sweetly invited three of their suppliers, Kitty Colchester from Urlingford who makes my favourite organic rape seed oil. Julie Finke from Ballybrado Organic Farm who gave us a taste of her new organic spelt brown bread mix (with wonder food ceci included) and her “Little Bakers” Kid’s cake mix. Both these girls are second generation farmers again adding value to their raw materials. Alan of Baldwin’s ice cream had no difficulty encouraging people to taste; I particularly loved the caramel fudge ice cream and still feel guilty that I finished a whole tub.

Finally we whizzed over to the Apple Farm just outside Cahir owned by another young entrepreneur and second generation farmer Con Traas. In the 18 years since he took over from his Dad, Con has built up a brilliant apple juice business and farm shop. Visitors can also camp under the apple trees and local people can have their surplus apples juiced and bottled for the winter. We send ours up to be pressed by Con every year – that’s when we have a good harvest – this year was an exception. We barely had enough apples to make an apple tart. Look out for Apple Farm sparkling apple juice – light, bubbly and non- alcoholic.

Time to head for home with our heads swirling with ideas and full of hope for the future of artisan food and drink in Ireland.

 

St Gall Raclette

 

A Raclette evening is one of the easiest ways to entertain friends and have lots of fun. St Gall cheese works brilliantly. If you do a lot of impromptu entertaining a Raclette stove is really worth having.

 

St Gall cheese – allow about 175g (6oz) per person

freshly boiled potatoes – 3 – 4 per person

lettuce – 3 – 4 leaves per person

cornichons or slices of dill pickle 3 – 4 per person

fresh radishes

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

little gem lettuce, cut in half lengthwise or a good green salad

 

Raclette Stove

 

Put the Raclette stove in the center of the table and turn on the heat. Cut the cheese into scant 5mm (1/4 inch) thick slices and put a slice onto each little pan.

 

Meanwhile serve freshly boiled potatoes and crisp little gem lettuce or a green salad on hot plates to each person. Just as soon as the cheese melts, each guest spoons it over their potatoes and puts another piece on to melt. Serve with pickles and radishes and maybe a few tiny spring onions as an accompaniment.

 

A Raclette party is so easy and such fun; just provide cheese, boiled potatoes and pickles. Guests do their own cooking and there’s a minimum of washing up.

 

 

Cabbage Salad with Raisins and Mint

 

Serves 8 approx.

 

If you are tiring of the ubiquitous coleslaw, then you might like to try this fresh tasting cabbage salad with rape seed oil and honey.

 

1/2 white cabbage with a good heart

2-3 large dessert apples, grated – we like Cox’s orange pippin

2 tablespoons raisins

4 tablespoons freshly chopped mint

1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives

4 tablespoons pure Irish honey

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Second Nature Rape Seed Oil

 

Cut the cabbage into quarters.   Wash it well and discard the coarse outer leaves.  Cut away the stalks and shred the heart very finely with a very sharp knife.  Put it into a bowl with the grated apple, raisins, freshly chopped mint and chives.  Mix the honey, vinegar and rape seed oil together.  Toss the salad in the dressing until well coated.  Taste and correct seasoning and serve soon.

 

Jane’s Brown Bread with Knockmealdown Porter and Walnuts

 

Jane Hodson who loves to bake and loved Knockmealdown Porter devised this recipe which got an enthusiastic response from everyone who tasted it.

400g (14oz) strong whole meal flour

50g (2oz) strong white flour

60g (2½oz) walnuts (roughly chopped)

330ml    (11fl oz) Knockmealdown Porter brewed by 8 Degrees (at blood temp)

100ml    (3 ½ fl oz) water (at blood temperature)

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

20g (3/4 oz) fresh yeast

 

sesame seeds

sunflower oil

 

Loaf Tin 13cm x 20cm (5” x 8”)

 

Preheat oven to 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8

 

Sift the flours and salt into a large mixing bowl, adding in the wholemeal chaff left in the sieve.  Add in the walnuts and mix well.  In a bowl/Pyrex jug put the water and honey and crumble in the yeast. While the yeast is working, grease the tin with the oil and sprinkle lightly with sesame seeds.  The yeast is working when a creamy and slight froth rises to the surface.  If this is not happening after a few minutes, put your ear to the jug and you should be able to hear it fizzing. When ready, pour the yeast mixture and the warmed Porter into the flours and mix to form loose wet dough.  Pour the dough into the tin, sprinkle to top with sesame seeds and leave, covered with a tea towel (to prevent drying out), in a warmish place until the dough has risen to the top of the tin.

 

Place in the middle of the oven at 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8 for 20 minutes.  Then turn it down to 200c/300F/Gas Mark 6 for another 40 minutes.

 

Remove from tin and if the sides and base are still soft, return the loaf to the oven for another 10 minutes until it looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

 

Allow to cool on a wire rack

 

Double Chocolate Cupcakes and a Raspberry on Top

 

Makes 18 cupcakes

 

 

8oz (225g) soft butter

8oz (225g) caster sugar

3 large free-range, organic eggs

8oz (225g) self-raising flour

1 dessertspoon honey or golden syrup

1 tablespoon milk

 

18 pieces chopped chocolate or chocolate buttons

 

Chocolate Icing

 

5 ozs (140g) icing sugar

2 ozs (55g) soft butter

2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa

 

2 cupcake trays, lined with paper cupcake cases

 

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

 

Cream the butter well, add the caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, adding a teaspoon of flour with each addition. (Beat the mixture well before adding the next egg). Beat in the honey or golden syrup, and then gently stir in the remaining flour. Stir in the milk and mix thoroughly.

 

Divide ½ the mixture between the cupcake cases. Pop a piece of chocolate or a good quality chocolate button on top. Divide the remainder of the mixture between the cases. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-25 mins, or until cooked and lightly golden. Remove cupcakes from the tray and place on a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, make the icing. Cream the soft butter with the icing sugar and cocoa.  Add a little hot milk or water to achieve spreading consistency.

Spoon the icing onto the cupcakes and decorate with a juicy raspberry and a fresh mint leaf.

 

 

Hottips

 

Where do I find a well reared bird? They are scarce so never too early to get your order in; we’ve been hearing good things about Mary Walsh’s free range geese from Shellumsrath, Kilkenny – 056 – 7763426 – www.kilkennyfreerange.com

 

Find of the Week… Kilree Goats Cheese – another superb goat cheese from Helen Finnegan of Knockdrinna in Stoneyford Village, Co Kilkenny (0)56 7728446 www.knockdrinna.com

 

Arbutus Night in Isaacs Restaurant, MacCurtain Street, Cork on Friday 30th November. Tasting Menu €70.00

Booking Essential 021 4503 805. Proceeds to Penny Dinners – www.corkpennydinners.ie

 

Darina’s Book of the Week – Clarissa’s Comfort Food. I’ve always loved the ‘Two Fat Ladies’ now sadly just one – Jennifer Paterson passed to her eternal reward and is doubtless now rustling up good things for all the hungry angels in paradise. Clarissa however  is still very much with us and her latest book Clarissa’s Comfort Food  published by Kyle Books, does exactly what it ‘says on the tin’ People are becoming increasingly aware of the advantages of homemade simple food that will nourish friends and family instead of choosing a takeaway or buying ready meals that are often full of preservatives. There is a desire to go back to basics and cook food that is delicious and comforting as well as inexpensive and easy to make.

Get this book for Christmas or give it to a friend, Clarissa’s other books The Game Cookbook recently revised, A Greener Life and Sunday Roast are also favourites in my cookbook library.

 

Andrew and Leonie Workman from Dunany in Co Louth are unique; they grow, mill, pack and distribute their organic spelt, rye and wheat from their farm. They’ve only been selling their produce for a year and a half and already it has developed quite a following and their fan club’s growing. Recently they came down to Ballymaloe Cookery School to tell their story at a Slow Food event. Andrew and Leonie met at agricultural college in the UK and then returned to Ireland to their family farm where they farmed conventionally for 23 years. Gradually it became more challenging as the cost of fertilisers increased and they became increasingly aware and concerned about the damage they were doing to the environment and the land.

In 2004 they embarked on a tour of organic farms in Ireland and the UK and after much soul searching, eventually picked up courage to convert to organic. They went into conversion in 2004. A couple of tough years ensued, their yields dropped by two thirds but they were still getting conventional prices and couldn’t charge the organic premium until 2006 when they were fully certified with the Organic Trust. Gradually the wildlife and birds returned to the farmlands and now there are kites, kestrels, buzzards, barn owls, sea otters and they have even spotted a pole cat once again and a natural harmony has returned to the landscape.

Initially they grew organic grain for animal feed but then prices fell in the UK so understandably their customers started to import the cheaper grain. A new direction was needed so they decided to grow rye, spelt and wheat for flour; traditionally rye was grown for thatching in Ireland, it grows 5ft tall and a field of willowy rye rippling in the breeze is a beautiful sight.  Initially it was milled in the local White River watermill in Dunleer.

However when the river was low, milling became problematic so they eventually sourced a stone mill through connections in Poland and Germany and now have a mill on the farm which grinds 50kgs an hour. Andrew and Leonie employ a couple of WOOFERS and now supply up to fifty outlets around the country. The demand is increasing as more people who have wheat intolerance find they can tolerate spelt without ill effects. Coeliacs however cannot eat spelt.  Try these easy bread recipes from Dunany.

Dunany’s Irish Soda Bread

 

275 g (10oz) Dunany wholemeal flour

80g (3oz) strong plain flour

1 teaspoon bread soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 egg

280ml (1/2 pint) buttermilk

50g (2oz) mixed seeds – linseed, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

 

You will need 1 well-greased 450g (1lb) loaf tin.

 

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5, 190ºC/375ºF.

 

Place the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then beat the egg and buttermilk together and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together well until you have a wet consistency. Transfer the dough into the tin, level the top, sprinkle with seeds and bake in the centre of the oven for 50 – 60 minutes.

 

Turn it straight out onto the wire rack to cool.

 

Dunany’s Spelt Bread

 

700g (1 ½ lb) Dunany’s organic spelt flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoon bread soda

1 egg

400ml (14fl oz)  buttermilk

200ml (7fl oz) water

 

You will need 2 well-greased 500g loaf tins.

 

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 200ºC, 329ºF

 

Combine all the dry ingredients together. Beat the egg into the buttermilk and water and mix into the dry ingredients to a dropping consistency.

 

Divide the mixture into the loaf tins and put into the pre-heated oven. After 15 minutes turn down the heat of the oven to gas mark 4, 150ºC, 302ºF and bake for a further 30 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

 

Dunany’s Rye Bread

500g (18oz) Dunany organic rye flour

200g (7oz) strong white flour

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons bread soda

1 egg

350ml (12 fl oz) buttermilk

300ml (12fl oz) water

 

You will need two well-greased 500g (1lb) loaf tins

 

Preheat oven to gas mark 7, 220ºC- 478ºF. Mix all dry ingredients together. Beat egg into the buttermilk and add to the dry ingredients. Mix together to make a dropping consistency.

Divide mixture into 2 x 500g (1lb) loaf tins and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Place in a pre-heated oven and bake for 35 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

 

Rye and Caraway Seed Bread

 

Make 1 loaf or 3 small loaves

 

12 ozs (350g/3 cups) strong white flour

5 ozs (150g/generous 1 cup) dark rye flour

3/4 oz (20g) caraway seeds

1 teaspoon salt

1 oz (25g) fresh yeast

1 1/2 ozs (45g) butter

warm water

 

1 loaf tin 5 x 8 inches (13 x 20cm) approx. (optional)

 

Crumble and mix the yeast with 1/2 pint (300ml/1 1/4 cups) lukewarm water. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add the liquid yeast with extra warm water if necessary to make a good soft but not sticky dough.  Add butter and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place. Punch down and shape into 2 or 3 loaves. Cover and rise again.  Alternatively bake in a well-oiled loaf tin.

 

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with poppy seeds and slash the top in a cross with a sharp knife.

 

Bake at 230°C/450°F/regulo 8 for 40-45 minutes approx. or until the bread sounds hollow when knocked underneath. For small loaves 25 mins for a loaf in a tin.

Cool on a wire rack.

 

Rye and Caraway Bread Sticks

 

1 batch of rye and caraway dough (see recipe)

 

Preheat the oven to 250°C/500°F.

 

Divide the dough in 12g (1/2 oz) or 7.5g (1/4 ozs) balls.  Roll each piece into a 25cm (10 inch) or 12cm (5 inch) long piece.  Scatter some extra caraway seeds and Maldon sea salt on the worktop and roll the bread stick lightly.  Transfer to a heavy baking tray and continue until the tray is full.  Spray lightly with a water mister and bake for 7 – 8 minutes or until crisp and golden.  Transfer the bread sticks to a wire rack and continue until all the bread sticks are baked.

 

Debbie Shaw’s Beetroot and Walnut Cake

Walnuts are a great source of omega 3 and omega 6 essential fats. Beetroot is a powerful liver and gall bladder detoxifier and can assist in the elimination of kidney stones. In addition it helps build healthy blood and keeps it clean. It has a high mineral content including calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium and manganese. The leaves are also very nutritious and can be put in salads.

Serves 8-10

125g  (4 ½ oz) fine wholewheat Dunany spelt flour
125g (4 ½ oz) white Dunany spelt flour
1 generous rounded teaspoon of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground allspice
125g (4 ½ oz) of Xylo Sweet (available in Ballymaloe Cookery School Farm Shop)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
260g (9 ½ oz) of beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated (wear plastic gloves)
50g (2oz) of walnuts, chopped
200ml (7floz) sunflower oil
4 free range organic eggs

 

Crème Fraiche icing (optional)

225g (8oz) Low fat crème fraiche (or low fat cream cheese if unavailable)
50g (2oz) sieved icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gasmark 4.  Oil and line an 20.5 cm (8”) round or square tin, on the base and the sides with parchment paper.

Sift the flours, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and stir in the ground cinnamon, allspice, Xylo Sweet and grated beetroot.  Next stir in the chopped walnuts. Beat the eggs, maple syrup and oil together and stir gently into the dry ingredients until they are combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 50 minutes or until a skewer when inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool and make the icing.  Whisk the crème fraiche and icing sugar together with an electric beater. Add the lemon juice and rind and spread on top of the cake with a palette knife.

 

Darina’s Book of the Week

The Food Children Eat by Joanna Blythman. Recent announcement that advertising junk food is banned during children’s programs on TV is to be welcomed but it’s only part of the solution to the drastic deterioration in the national diet and the overall cost to the exchequer and tax payer of the growing obesity problem. And it starts with our children so how can we produce children who prefer a mandarin to a gummy bear? The avalanche of clever marketing of supposedly healthy food causes a nightmare scenario for parents who want to escape the junk food treadmill. Despairing parents of new-borns and toddlers will find award winning journalist Joanna Blythman’s book The Food our Children Eat inspiring, informative and best of all empowering.  It’s published by Harper Perennial for Circa and in my opinion is a ‘must have’

Follow Joanne’s excellent food blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/joannablythman

 

Hot Tips

Savour Kilkenny Food Festival is on until Monday 29^th October. Lots of really exciting and interesting events to attend and participate in including Café Challenge today at 4.15pm in the Demonstration Marquee. Watch a café being built before your eyes and learn what it takes to make a really good café. Blathnaid Bergin is the Restaurant Advisor www.restaurantadvisor.ie and she will challenge teams led by Kilkenny’s own restaurant industry superstars to build a café in 60 minutes. Will it be more Fawlty Towers than the Ritz? To see all the cookery demonstrations and events www.savourkilkenny.com

 

Without question Farmers Markets are one of the very best places to trial a food product. Set up a pretty stall, then offer your customers a taste of your creation with a smile– watch the reaction, if they buy, great but more importantly wait and see if they come back for more next week. This is by far the best market research – it’s free and better still you get lots of direct feedback and suggestions for ways to tweak it and maybe even some new flavours.

Young food entrepreneurs Sophie Morris and Graham Clarke started this way with their Kooky Dough, they mixed, chopped and wrapped till the early hours, took a deep breath and set up a stall at the Stillorgan Farmers Market. The reaction was instantly positive, now two years later their cookie dough is made in large quantities and sold not only right across Ireland but also in Tesco and Waitrose in the UK, Monoprix in France and at Spinney’s Supermarkets in the United Arab Emirates – another brilliantly successful fresh food story.

Sophie, an energetic and beautiful 28 year old is another of ‘my babies’ she did a 12 Week Certificate Cookery Course here at Ballymaloe Cookery School in April 2008.

After she’d studied economics and social studies at Trinity, she met Graham Clarke her boyfriend and business partner, they famously turned down the investment offers on Dragon’s Den and decided to go it alone.

They both work like crazy to keep on top of their business which had gone into orbit. Despite the work pace Sophie is determined to make nourishing a home cooked meal everyday which she believes is the key to staying on top of her hectic lifestyle and guess what, in her precious ‘spare time’ she has written her first cookery book with people just like herself in mind busy people who love food and are determined to pull together a nutritious satisfying meal using basic ingredients which are in season and are readily available at the corner shop. Most of Sophie’s meals can be cooked in half an hour or so they are super fresh and fun. How about some of these ideas to whet your appetite.

Sophie Kooks – Quick and Easy Feelgood Food is published by Gill and Macmillan.

 

Sophie Morris’s Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

 

My mum taught me this variation on traditional shepherd’s pie years ago and it is absolutely delicious. I’ve cooked it for many people who were initially sceptical but later won over and in total agreement that you definitely don’t miss the meat when eating it. Lentils are filling, nutritious and economical – a must-have for your store cupboard.

 

This pie freezes really well so you can make a big batch and keep the leftovers.

 

Serves 4–6

olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 carrots, grated

1 celery stick, finely chopped

400g (14oz) puy lentils, rinsed and drained (green or red lentils also work well)

1 x 400g (140z) can chopped tomatoes

2 heaped tablespoons tomato purée

600ml (1 pint) chicken or vegetable stock, simmering

1 teaspoon chilli powder or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

a sprig of thyme

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

For the Mash

 

1.2kg (1 ¾ lb) floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper, peeled and halved

50g (2oz) butter

50ml (2fl oz) milk

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Heat a lug of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery and cook gently for about 10 minutes, until softened. Add the lentils, tomatoes, tomato purée, stock, chilli powder and thyme. Stir well and season. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 40–50 minutes, until the lentils are softened. You may need to add more stock (or boiling water) throughout cooking if all the liquid is absorbed before the lentils are cooked.

Meanwhile, make the mash. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with just enough cold water to cover them. Add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Boil for 15–20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and easily broken with a fork. Drain them in a colander and leave for 2–3 minutes, until the steam has evaporated. (Always drain potatoes really well or you’ll end up with watery mash.) Put the drained potatoes back into the dry saucepan and mash thoroughly with a potato masher. The harder you work the mash, the fluffier it will become! Once the lumps are gone, add the butter and mash again. Add the milk, stirring until combined. Season to taste.

Once the lentils are cooked, remove the sprig of thyme and pour the mixture into a deep ovenproof dish, leaving room for the mash topping. Arrange the mash evenly on top of the lentil mixture and bake the pie in the oven for 20 minutes or until nicely browned.

Serve on warmed plates, with a green salad on the side.

 

Sophie Morris’s Easy Kofta Curry

 

‘Kofta’ is the word for meatballs in the Middle East and South Asia. This beef kofta recipe with its warming curry sauce is a really simple one and so quick to prepare. Lamb kofta is also really nice, so you can swap the beef for minced lamb if you like.

 

Serves 4–6

 

700g (1 ½ lb) lean minced beef

a thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons chilli powder

salt and freshly ground pepper

olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

600ml (1 pint) passata (crushed, sieved tomatoes) or 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

2 heaped tablespoons medium curry powder (or mild, if you don’t want much spice)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

 

Place the minced beef in a bowl along with the ginger, garlic and chilli powder. Season and mix with your hands until well combined. Roll the mixture into rounds about the size of golf balls and set aside.

Heat a few lugs of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Fry the onion for 4–5 minutes, until softened. Add the passata, curry powder and sugar and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, season and leave the sauce to simmer over a low heat while you fry the koftas.

Heat a few lugs of olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the koftas for 2–3 minutes, turning them until lightly browned all over. (You might need to do this in batches.) Carefully place the cooked koftas into the passata sauce and simmer very gently for 15–20 minutes, turning the koftas occasionally during cooking, until they have set and the sauce has reduced nicely.

 

Serve on warmed plates with basmati rice and a dollop of natural yogurt.

 

Sophie Morris’s Sirloin Steak Salad with Asian Greens

 

Asian flavours work really well in salads, making them very refreshing. The dressing used in this salad is so tasty – it’s one that works really well in lots of other salads, too.

Serves 4

 

For the Dressing

 

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons soy sauce

juice of 1 lime

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons sugar

a handful of raw peanuts (optional)

4 x 150g (5oz) sirloin steaks, removed from the fridge 15 minutes before cooking

salt and freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

1 bunch of asparagus (about 12 spears)

1 head of broccoli, broken into small florets

100g (3 ½ oz) French beans, tails removed

4 handfuls of mixed baby salad leaves

a handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly torn

a handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly torn

 

First prepare the dressing. Mix the chillies and garlic in a small bowl. Add the soy sauce, lime juice, olive oil and sugar. Mix well, taste, tweak the flavours to your liking and set aside.

Now roast the peanuts, if using. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add the peanuts to the dry pan. Stir them for about 5 minutes, until they’re roasted. They will start to turn brown and the red skins will turn crisp and start to come away from the nuts. Empty the nuts into a clean tea towel, wrap it around them and rub the towel with your hands to remove the skins from the nuts. When most of the skins are gone, roughly chop the nuts and set aside.

Now cook the steaks. Heat a grill pan or frying pan over a high heat. Lay the steaks on a chopping board and trim off any excess fat. Sprinkle pepper on both sides of each steak, rub lightly with olive oil and, just before placing in the pan, sprinkle both sides with salt. Cook for 2–3 minutes each side for rare. Allow to rest on a plate for 5–10 minutes, then slice the steaks thinly.

 

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Bend each asparagus stalk until it snaps. Each stalk will break in a different place, giving you different lengths of spears. Keep the spears and discard the woody ends. Add the asparagus spears, broccoli and French beans to a large pan of boiling salted water, ensuring they are completely submerged. Boil rapidly for 4–5 minutes, until the vegetables are just cooked and retain a little bite. Drain in a colander.

Arrange the salad leaves and herbs in a large serving dish. Just before serving, add the cooked vegetables, drizzle over the dressing and toss well. Scatter the steak slices on top and sprinkle with the peanuts. Serve immediately.

 

Sophie Morris’s Asian Mango Salad

 

This is such a colourful salad and it looks really gorgeous on the plate. It’s a great starter to pair with an Asian main course, as it leaves you wanting more of those yummy Asian flavours. The crunchy, sweet, tangy, spicy combination in this salad is simply amazing.

Serves 4

For the dressing

juice of 2 limes

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

a handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

75g ((3oz) raw cashew nuts

2 ripe mangos, peeled and cut into thin strips
a handful of French beans, tailed and halved lengthways
1 red pepper, finely sliced
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
a handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Mix well and set aside.

Heat a small pan over a medium heat and add the cashews. Toast them for a few minutes, tossing regularly, until golden. Remove the cashews from the pan, leave them to cool, and then roughly chop them.

Place the mango, French beans, pepper and onion in a serving bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss well to coat evenly. Just before serving, sprinkle over the mint and cashews.

 

Sophie Morris’s Hazelnut Swirl Cookies

 

At Kooky Dough, we spend a lot of time experimenting with fun recipes using cookie dough. It’s such a versatile ingredient and you can use it to make some really extravagant baked treats and desserts.

This recipe is probably my favourite thing to do with cookie dough. The Nutella oozes out of the warm cookies and they’re just irresistible! The cookies are super-quick to make if you cheat and use ready-made cookie dough; but if you want to make them from scratch, this recipe shows you how.

 

Makes 10–12 big cookies
300g (10 ½ oz) plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)
225g (10oz) butter, at room temperature
225g (10oz) caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a jar of Nutella

Sift the flour, salt and bread soda into a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric beater, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture a little at a time, until it’s fully combined and the mixture becomes a soft dough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and shape it into a rough square. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a few baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge, discard the cling film and tip the dough onto a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper. Lay a fresh sheet of cling film on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rough rectangular shape of 1–2cm thickness. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you can shape the dough using your hands over the cling film. Once the dough is shaped, discard the cling film.

Dip a knife into a mug of hot water, then into the jar of Nutella (this will help loosen the Nutella). Spread Nutella generously on top of the dough, leaving a 1 cm edge untouched all around.

Using the parchment underneath the dough as a guide, roll the dough into a tight log (ensuring the parchment paper doesn’t catch). Cut the log into 1 cm slices (or thicker if you like).

Arrange the cookie dough slices on the lined baking sheets. Ensure they are well spaced, so that they have room to spread out in the oven.

Bake for 10–12 minutes, until lightly golden. The Nutella swirls will look amazing at this stage!

Leave the cookies to cool on the trays for a few minutes, before transferring them to a wire rack.

Enjoy with a cup of tea, or dig out the vanilla ice cream for a yummy dessert!

 

Hottips

 

Some of you may be familiar with Bob Flowerdew a presenter on BBC 2 Gardener’s World and a regular panel member of BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. A set of his excellent gardening books ‘Bob’s Basics’ published by Kyle Cathie have just arrived at the Garden Shop at Ballymaloe Cookery School. You can buy the entire attractive set of six hard back books – practically a complete organic gardening reference library – or just one. Also available in the shop are organic vegetables, picked fresh every day from the glass house, fresh free range organic eggs and delicious, unctuous Ballymaloe Cookery School yoghurt – Don’t forget Saturday Pizza’s…021 4646785.

 

The Field Kitchen run by Clancy Potts and Mick Hayes at the Blackbird Pub in Ballycotton, East Cork serve really delicious American style burgers – we asked Clancy what makes the burger ‘American’…“caramelised grilled onions and loads of cheddar or blue cheese with a slather of mayonnaise, oh and really good quality meat”. They get their meat from Clifford’s Butcher in Castlemartyr and their pan-fried fresh fish straight from Trevor Macnamara’s boat in Ballycotton served with fresh hand cut chips. Open from 6pm Friday and Saturday and 5pm on Sunday. Contact Clancy Potts – : 086 230 8193.

Ever since Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House in March, 2009 she has been a big hero of mine.  This action has sent a really strong message about the importance of fresh food and the joy of growing your own to families across America.  It has raised the profile and awareness of local and sustainable food both at the White House and nationally to an unprecedented level.

In a country where 2/3 of the population are either over-weight or obese and 1 in 3 children (1 in 2 if your skin colour happens to be black) have diabetes, this message is particularly badly needed. In the US a country of 210 million people, 40 million have no health care so it’s a timely reminder that ‘our food can be our medicine’ but not if it’s mass produced and denatured.

On a recent trip to Washington DC, I had the opportunity to visit the vegetable garden. We had an early start on Monday morning to be at the gates of the White House by 9.30am. First, I forgot my passport so we had to whizz back for that, then when we arrived our names didn’t appear to be on the list, and there was NO chatting up the security guys! Frantic texting and phone calls, eventually we discovered the time had been changed to 10.15am.

After several other dramas, we managed to contact Hannah, private assistant to the First lady. Chef Bill Yosses came and rescued us and we were admitted, phew! It would have been such an anti-climax to get that far and then be turned away politely but VERY firmly.

The vegetable garden is great, much smaller than I had imagined, for some reason I thought it was several acres but in fact it’s just 980 square ft.

Beautiful soil, a very impressive selection of really healthy produce, they even had a sea kale plant and several heirloom varieties of seed from past President Thomas Jefferson’s Garden at Monticello including a beautiful purple flowering hyacinth bean that I’d love to grow. No beets though – President Obama doesn’t care for them.

Bill Yosses who is pastry chef and Cris Comerford executive chef of the White House showed us around, I was tagging along with a group of food writers who were having a conference in Washington DC that weekend. No sign of the first family, everyone was at the Democratic conference in Charlotte where Michelle gave a cracker of a speech.

It’s definitely not just a PR exercise. According to Bill, the main raison d’être for the veggie patch was that Michelle really wanted to have fresh nourishing food for the family and it is also used as an educational tool for local school kids, but Michelle herself also gets her hands in the soil from time to time and insists on hands-on assistance from the family – how great is that?

They have an impressive composting system and a bee hive but not a hen in sight, so I was trying to encourage Bill Yosses to get hens, lots of great food scraps from the White House kitchens to feed them, the manure could go on to the compost heap to make the soil more fertile, a brilliant holistic system, kids would love them…plus the President could ‘go to work on an egg’ every day!

He’s totally on for it but it not that simple at the White House apparently…

Here are a few recipes inspired by the produce in Michelle Obama’s garden.

 

 

Broad Bean, Mint and Ricotta Bruschetta

 

For 2 bruschetta

110 – 175g (4 – 6 oz) podded broad beans

extra-virgin olive oil, about 4 tablespoons

zest of 1 lemon and a little juice, freshly squeezed

10 fresh mint leaves roughly chopped

flaky Maldon sea salt and black pepper

2 thick slices sour dough bread

a small garlic clove

3 tablespoons fresh ricotta

 

Put the broad beans into boiling salted water for 3 – 4 minutes, remove and plunge into cold water, then drain and skin them. Put the beans in a small bowl and dress them with extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, a little freshly squeezed lemon juice and most of the chopped mint. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Toast or grill the slices of bread on a hot pan grill. Rub each slice with the cut side of a garlic clove. Drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil. Season the fresh ricotta with salt and pepper to taste, then spread on to the hot, garlicky bread. Top the broad beans with the remaining chopped mint and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

 

 

José Pizzaro’s Crisp Deep Fried Aubergine Fritters with Honey

 

 

This is another really good, easy tapas dish. The delicious subtle flavour of the soft aubergines comes through the crispy coating and the sticky honey make this a heavenly dish.

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

300g (10 ½ oz) aubergines, cut into 7 – 8mm thick slices

110g (4oz) plain flour

5 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for deep-frying

150ml (5fl oz cold water

2 free-range eggs whites

clear honey, for drizzling

fine sea salt

 

Sprinkle the aubergine slices lightly on both sides with salt and set aside for 30 minutes. Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well in the centre and add the oil and the water. Gradually beat together to make a smooth batter. Set aside to rest, along with the aubergines.

 

Pat the aubergine slices dry with kitchen paper. Pour 1cm of olive oil into a large deep frying pan and heat it to 180°C/350°F/Mark 4.

 

Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks and fold them into the batter. Dip the aubergine slices, a few at a time, into the batter, add them to the hot oil and deep-fry for one minute on each side until crisp and golden. Leave to drain briefly on kitchen paper and serve immediately while they are still hot and crisp, drizzled generously with honey.

 

José Pizzaro’s Roasted Squash with Dried Chilli, Honey, Cinnamon and Pine Nuts

 

This can be a side dish for any grilled fish or meat. I serve it with Iberico pork cheeks or any game stew. It’s also delicious on its own.

 

Serves 4 – 6

 

1.5 kg (3lb 5oz) unprepared squash (butternut, onion or kabocha)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped

½ teaspoon crushed dried chillies

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

25g (1oz) pine nuts

50ml (2fl oz) clear honey

sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Mark 6. Halve the squash through the stem end, scoop out the seeds, peel and then cut into 2.5 – 3cm (1in to 1¼in) thick wedges.

Put the oil into a roasting tin with the garlic, crushed dried chillies, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Mix well together. Add the wedges of squash to the tin and turn them over a few times in the oil mixture until well coated. Sit them on their curved edges and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Spread the pine nuts onto a baking tray and roast them in the oven alongside the squash for 5 – 6 minutes, giving them a stir now and then until they are all golden. Remove and set aside.

Remove the squash from the oven and brush the wedges with some of the honey. Return to the oven and toast for a further 15 minutes, brushing with more of the honey and then the caramelised juices every five minutes until the squash is tender and slightly caramelised. Brush one last time with the juices from the pan, pile onto a serving plate and scatter over the pine nuts.

 

Honey Mousse with Lemon Verbena Peaches

 

Serves 6 – 8

 

2 eggs

3 teaspoons of gelatin

3 tablespoons of water

1 pint of whipping cream

175g (6oz) of best quality honey

1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier

 

For the Lemon Verbena Peaches

 

4 large ripe and juicy peaches

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon verbena or lemon thyme leaves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Beat the eggs in a small bowl until it froths slightly. Sponge the gelatin in the cold water and then dissolve gently over a low heat.

Whip the cream to the soft peak stage. Add the honey to the dissolved gelatin and stir until smooth, if necessary keeping the gelatin over a low heat. Cool this mixture until it starts to thicken slightly. Add the beaten egg to the cream and then mix with the honey mixture. Finally add the Grand Marnier to taste. Chill for a couple of hours to set.

Shortly before serving, peel the peaches.

Put the peaches into a Pyrex bowl. Cover the peaches with boiling water and leave for 30 seconds, then remove and drop into iced water. The skins should now peel away easily, halve them, remove the stones and cut the flesh into thin slices. Put them into a bowl with sugar, lemon verbena or lemon thyme leaves and lemon juice and mix together gently. Allow to macerate for at least 15 – 20 minutes.

Serve with honey mousse.

 

Hot Tips

 

Broken Crow Theatre Company bring Madame Chavelle back to Ballyvolane House Friday 26^th and Saturday  27^th  October 2012 at 7.30pm. Susan who works in the office, went to this performance in 2010 and pronounced it one of the most entertaining and enjoyable evenings she’d experienced. Guests enjoy a delicious three-course meal and watch the play that takes place right in front of you in the dining room.  The play is set in 1919 when three lost souls arrive at Ballyvolane House. They seek an audience with the mysterious Madame Chavelle – played by Paula McGlinchey. Each one has a tale to tell and an answer to find, but can she really do all she claims? Can she really speak with the dead? Stay the night after the play if you dare… to book phone 025 36349 email info@ballyvolanehouse.ie.

 

Glamorous Secret Pop Up Suppers with Gillian Hegarty and Sarah Gornall at Kilcolman Rectory. Gillian will cook a delicious four course meal for a maximum of 24 people so it will be very special, she uses fresh vegetables and fruit from the garden and can cater for coeliac and vegetarians.  Kilcolman Rectory is situated between Bandon and Clonakilty, just off the main road. Booking is essential, phone 0238822913 – www.kilcolmanrectory.com

 

Learn to make soda bread in Caroline Rigney’s kitchen. Don’t miss the Curraghchase Slow Food Celebration tomorrow Sunday 14th October 2012, 12.00 noon till 5pm. Events include – pig and poultry keeping walk and talk, bee keeping demo and talk, reaping, binding, threshing and bailing – saving the harvest – the old way. Corn and wheat grinding, organic vegetable growing advice from Manna Organics, cookery demonstration by Andrew Carey and a butter making demonstration, (with Jo Flynn of Free Range Kids) Two Tamworth pigs will be roasted over aged beech wood on the front lawn. 087 2834754  Email:  info@rigneysfarm.com

 

www.darinasblog.cookingisfun.ie

 

I’m in Florida, it’s hot on Longboat Quay – over 27 degrees centigrade – even though it’s late afternoon. The long white sandy beach is almost deserted, there’s a pleasant breeze which the locals tell me is the tail end of hurricane Isaac. It’s whipping up little waves on the warm sea, a few people are bathing but I’m lying back enjoying the cormorants and pelicans diving for supper. Every now and then there’s a terrific racket obviously a shoal of tiny fish under the water. Along the shore are sandpipers, terns, allies, oystercatchers and avocets all lined up in the same direction like gentlemen in tuxedos. Two white egrets are hopping along the water’s edge snaffling up sand hoppers. The birds are so tame one can walk up close to them and they scarcely move.

I’m here in Florida to keep a long overdue promise I made almost a decade ago to Marcella Hazan the doyenne of Italian food  and her husband Victor before they left Italy to spend their retirement in Florida. Years can pass quickly full of good resolutions, life intervenes but real promises can haunt you until they are fulfilled, so here I am and what a joy to find Marcella and Victor a little older of course but just as beautiful as ever. Marcella has been a huge influence on my life. I went to her cooking classes in Bologna in the late seventies before I opened Ballymaloe Cookery School and later brought back a TV crew to film Simply Delicious in Italy at her apartment in Venice. Her books Classic Italian Cookbook and The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking are the yardstick by which others are measured.

Last night we met for supper in a local restaurant overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, we chatted and reminisced and today Marcella cooks me lunch in her apartment overlooking the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Marcella is in the kitchen when I arrive –frying tiny quartered artichoke hearts slowly in extra virgin olive oil, there’s a bowl of shelled and deveined white Gulf shrimps close to the cooker. When the artichokes are tender they are spread on the base of a gratin dish, next a layer of white shrimps, then slices of mozzarella and little dabs of butter. The little crispy bits of artichokes scraped from the pan are sprinkled over the top, “all flavour” – Marcella speaks despairingly of those who fail to see the flavour in sediment juices and crispy bits. I see glimpses of the grumpy teacher with the twinkle in her eye that we all so loved.  Of course it’s super delicious and followed by strawberries dressed at the table with a little 25 year old Aceito Balsamico and I remember, it was Marcella who over 30 years ago introduced me to balsamic vinegar and its magical powers to transform something mundane into something altogether exquisite.

Florida was not high on my list of must see places but I’m so glad I eventually made it to Longboat Quay to see the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico and to keep my promise to two of the most inspirational people with whom my path has crossed in life.

 

Marcella Hazan’s Chicken Roast with Two Lemons

This is the simplest most delicious roast chicken recipe I know – no fat, no basting, no stuffing.

Serves 4

1 x 3-4 lb (1.35-1.8kg) free range chicken

salt salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 small lemons

 

Trussing needle and string

 

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

Wash the chicken thoroughly with cold water. Remove any bits of fat from around the vent end. Drain the chicken well and dry thoroughly with a tea towel or kitchen paper.

Rub the salt and freshly ground black pepper with your fingers over all the body and into the cavity. Wash the lemons well and dry them with a tea towel, roll on the counter and prick each of the lemons in at least 20 places with a cocktail stick or skewer.

Put both lemons in the cavity. Close up the opening with cocktail sticks or with a trussing needle and string. Don’t make it absolutely airtight or the chicken may burst!

Put the chicken into a roasting pan, breast side down. Do not add cooking fat of any kind. This bird is self-basting, so don’t worry it won’t stick to the pan. Place it in the upper third of the preheated oven. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken breast side up. Be careful not to puncture the skin.

Cook for another 30-35 minutes then increase the heat to 200C/400F/regulo 6, and cook for a further additional 20 minutes. Calculate between 20-25 minutes total cooking time for each 1 lb (500g). There is no need to turn the chicken again.

Bring the chicken to the table whole, garnished with sprigs flat parsley and leave the lemons inside until it is carved. The juices that run out are perfectly delicious, so be sure to spoon them over the chicken slices. The lemons will have shrivelled up but they still contain some juice; do not squeeze, they may squirt.

Serve immediately.

 

Marcella Hazan’s Penne with Cauliflower, Garlic and Oil

 

One of the basic mother sauces for pasta is aglio e oilio, garlic and oil. From it has been spawned a multitudinous brood of sauce where we find most varieties of vegetables. An example is this one, featuring cauliflower.

In this family of sauces additional flavourings such as parsley, hot pepper, and anchovies may be used, although not all need to be present. They are almost invariably sughi in bianco, ‘white’ sauces – that is, without tomato. They are supposed to be served without grated cheese, and that is how I prefer them. But one may do as one pleases, and choose to have either pecorino or Parmesan cheese, depending upon whether one wants the sauce more or less sharp.

 

For four to six

 

1 head cauliflower (about 680g (1 ½ lb)

8 tablespoons olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine

6 flat anchovy fillets, chopped

¼ teaspoon chopped red pepper

salt

450g (1lb) penne or other macaroni

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

 

Strip the cauliflower of all its leaves except for a few of the very tender inner ones. Rinse it in cold water, and cut it in two.

Bring 4 – 5 litres (7 to 8 ¾ pints) water to the boil, and then put in the cauliflower. Cook until tender, but compact – about 25 to 30 minutes. Test it with a fork to know when it’s done. Drain and set aside.

Put the oil, garlic and chopped anchovies into a medium-sized sauté pan. Turn on the heat to medium, and sauté until the garlic becomes a golden brown colour. Stir from time to with a wooden spoon, mashing the anchovies.

Put in the boiled cauliflower, and break it up quickly with a fork, crumbling it into pieces no bigger than a peanut. Turn it thoroughly in the oil, mashing part of it to a pulp.

Add the hot pepper and a liberal amount of salt. Turn up the heat, and cook for a few minutes more, stirring frequently. Then turn off the heat.

Bring 4 – 5 litres (7 – 8 ¾ pints) water to the boil, add a liberal amount of salt, and as soon as the water returns to the boil, put in the pasta. When cooked al dente, tender but firm to the bite, drain it well and transfer it to a warm serving bowl.

Very briefly re-heat the cauliflower and pour all the contents of the pan over the pasta. Toss thoroughly. Add the chopped parsley. Toss again, and serve at once.

 

Italian Apple Fritters

 

3 apples of any firm but not sour, cooking variety

50g (2oz) caster sugar

2 tablespoons rum

the peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath

250ml (8fl oz)

75g (2 ½ oz) plain flour

vegetable oil

 

 

Peel and core the apples, and cut them into slices about 1cm/ (3/8 in) in thick.

Put the caster sugar, rum and grated lemon peel into a bowl together with the apple slices. Turn the slices once or twice and let steep for at least 1 hour.

 

Use the flour and water to make a pastella batter. Put 250ml (8fl oz) water into a soup plate and gradually add the flour, shaking it through a strainer and with a fork constantly beating the mixture that forms. When all the flour has been mixed with water the batter should have the consistency of sour cream. If it is thinner add a little more flour, if it thicker, a little more water.

 

Pour enough oil into a skillet to come 1cm (1/3 in) up the sides and turn the heat to high.

Take the apple slices out of the bowl and pat them dry with kitchen paper. When the oil is very hot, dip them in the batter and slip as many of them into the skillet as will fit loosely. Fry them to a golden brown on one side, then turn them and do the other side. Transfer them to a cooling  rack to drain or to a platter lined with kitchen paper. Repeat the procedure until all the remaining slices are done. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve while hot.

 

 

Marcella Hazan’s Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar

 

Serves 6

 

Marcella Hazan first introduced me to this unlikely sounding combination, it takes a certain amount of courage to try it but believe me it makes strawberries taste exquisitely intense. Aceito Balsamico the aristocrat of Italian vinegars varies enormously, it is precious and expensive, buy the best one you can find and use it sparingly.

 

2 lbs (900g) strawberries

3-5 tablespoon castor sugar

1-2 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar (Aceito Balsamico)

 

Shortly before serving, remove the hulls from the berries and cut in half lengthways. Sprinkle with sugar and toss gently. Just before serving add the balsamic vinegar and toss again. Serve immediately.

N.B. this recipe is not successful with wine or malt vinegars.

 

 

 

Hot Tips

 

Great salads – everyone seems to be talking about the delicious Middle Eastern style salads at Jack Crotty aka Rocket Man’s stall Mahon Point Farmers Market. Also yummy takeaway breakfasts – granola and fruit salad with sumac, honey and thyme yoghurt, all homemade – how about that.

www.facebook.com/therocketmancork

www.mahonpointfarmersmarket.com

 

Slow Food Event – Artisan Millers Leonie and Andrew Workman from Dunany Farm, County Louth will tell the story of their organic flour milling and heritage wheat varieties. There is also a short cookery demonstration using spelt flour. At Ballymaloe Cookery School on Tuesday 9th October 7pm. Slow Food Members €6.00 Non Slow Food Members €8.00.  Booking Essential 021 4646785 or E: slowfoodeastcork@gmail.com- All Proceeds to support the East Cork Slow Food Educational Project. www.slowfoodireland.com

 

Dates for your Diary

 

Wild & Slow 2012, a unique Slow Food festival that celebrates everything that is good about Irish food: fresh, local, traditional and wild. It’s a yearlong event – follow this on their website – culminating in November at Brooklodge, Macreddin Village, Co Wicklow 11- 12th November 2012. http://wildandslow.com/

 

Savour Kilkenny Festival of Food – Save the days – 25^th – 29^th October 2012 – lots of interesting and exciting events planned http://savourkilkenny.com/