Tom Kha Gai

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Tom Yum yum

Real Tom Yum or Tom Kha Gai soups are supposed to use galangal ( a type of ginger) and Kaffir lime leaves. I didn't have either of these things, however, I did use tamarind and lemongrass and various other delicious things, and I think I got a really good flavour from this makey-uppy version of the Thai classic. It was also really really quick and nice and filling. I'm not sure about the authenticity of using potatoes but I know they are used in some Thai cooking (like in Massaman curry) so its not that off the wall!

Ingredients

1 litre good chicken stock

1 dessert spoon tamarind paste

1 tin coconut milk

1 stalk lemon grass (bashed with a rolling pin to release the oils)

2 red chilies (de seeded and chopped)

about 4 c0riander roots (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 inch piece of ginger (finely grated)

2 dessert spoons of fish or oyster sauce

1 dessert spoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 large chicken fillet (thinly sliced)

about 6 small new potatoes (sliced)

about 8 cherry tomatoes

mangetout or broccoli or green beans or whatever green vegetable you have

1 lime

a handful coriander leaves

Start by adding the tamarind to the hot stock and stirring well. Drain through a sieve so any of the solid bits of tamarind don't go into the dish. Put the stock in a pot with the coconut milk and add the chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander roots, lemongrass, 2 0r 3 kaffir lime leaves if you have them (I didn't), the soy and oyster sauce, the sugar, potatoes and chicken. Bring all of this up to simmer and cook for about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute, then add the green veg and cook for two minutes. Test the chicken and potatoes but they should be well cooked by now if they were sliced thinly. Take the soup off the heat. Roll the lime firmly on a table top to release the juices and make it easier to squeeze. Then cut it in half and squeeze all of the juice into the pot. Remove the lemongrass stalk. Roughly tear up the coriander leaves and add to the pot. Serve immediately

You can vary the vegetables you use, spring onions and mushrooms could go in at the end, but I think it is important to use tomatoes. So satisfying and delicious!

Squid and fennel with squid ink pasta

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Rings of gold

In Venice there is an annual tradition which dates back a thousand years in which the Doge would every year throw a gold ring into the lagoon to symbolise the city's Unique relationship to the sea, in fact, its metaphorical marriage to the sea. Of course Venice is unique, its a city in the middle of a sea, built upon thousands and thousands of wooden poles driven into the lagoon mud. It shouldn't really exist but it does, and that is what gives the whole place its magical and otherworldly atmosphere.

This extra special relationship the Venetians have to the sea carries through to their food of course, and this dish is inspired by some squid ink pasta with black squid in sauce that I ate at a restaurant called Ai Beccofico in campo Santa Stefano in December. Apparently it is a signature dish of Venice, where Colm and I went for a few days holiday. Though it was my third visit, it felt like a different place without the hoards of summertime tourists. Despite it being FREEZING, It was my favorite visit as the city was amazingly quiet and at times swathed in freezing but very picturesque fog. It was great to see actual Venetians going about their daily business, including buying fish from the mind blowing selection at the Rialto Fish market, where I shopped for our dinner. Self catering is great sometimes!

I bought this squid from an asian fishmonger in Dublin town. It looked so pretty that in my excitement I forgot to ask the fishmonger to clean and skin the squid! I learned the hard way that squid have weird cartilage bones that look exactly like the clear plastic from a biro! I couldnt find squid ink anywhere, but I did manage to get the black squid ink pasta from Fallon and Byrne. Im sure Little Italy in Smithfield or any good Italian Deli would also be able to oblige

Ingredients, serves 3-4

2 squid, cleaned & skinned
1 large bulb of fennel
3 shallotts
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 glass white wine

1 handful flat leaf parsley

Black pasta made with squid ink

Parmesan cheese

Start by chopping the squid into rings and separating the tentacles ready to be cooked. Then chop shallots and garlic and cooking them in some olive oil in a frying pan. Add the chopped fennel and cover the whole thing with a lid to soften the vegetables. Cook for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put your pasta on to cook. When your pasta is almost done, add the squid to the fennel and onion in a medium hot pan and fry very quickly, about 2 minutes only. Then add the white wine and lemon juice and bring it up to a simmer for 1 minute, stiring continuously. Drain the pasta and throw it into the pan with the squid and fennel. Mix it around, throw in a handful of chopped parsley and serve with the parmesan cheese and some sprigs of the fennel leaf that sometimes escapes the chop!

Clam Linguine

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Warm and clammy

I can't believe how long I have left it to blog this recipe! This was the main course at the dinner party we had back in August and its now November, shame on me! Lucy has been holding the fort on the blog front recently as I seem to be going through a cooking drought, and have, embarrassingly, cooked a number of things recently that were NOT Delicious!

However,

this recipe definitely is not one of those. This was perhaps one of the most delicious things I have cooked with pasta and I think blogging it now might help me get my food-mojo back! Onwards and upwards!

Recent Clam related activity: I was in California in September and when in San Francisco sampled their famous clam chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl. The bowl was not really my thing, but the chowder was spectacular. Then in Monterey I ate 'steamers', a bowl of steamed clams, which made me want to cook with clams again and reminded me that I still had not blogged this recipe. I also like saying the word 'clams' in an American accent... 'Claaaaaaaayms'... oh the hilarity!

Clam linguine (Serves 10!)

Ingredients

1kg fresh clams ( i got ours at Kish fish near Smithfield)

10 shallots, finely chopped

white wine

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

500ml cream

100 grams butter

glug olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

enough linguine (i used a packet and a half!!)

Parmesan cheese

freshly chopped parsley

Melt the butter along with the olive oil in a large pot. Add the shallots and garlic to the butter, cover and saute for about 10 mins or until soft and translucent. Meanwhile, start cooking your linguine. add the (washed) clams to the shallots and pour in 2 wine glasses of white wine. Simmer for 5 -8 minutes or until all of the clams have opened. If there are any that have not opened, throw them away as they could make you and your guests sick (I was a bit paranoid about this happening!). Add the lemon juice at this point. When the linguine is cooked, drain it but reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the cooked linguine into the pot with the clams and mix it well. If it looks a bit to dry or starts to stick together add a little of the cooking water from the linguine. Garnish with chopped parsley and some lemon wedges but serve the Parmesan on the side as there is a school of thought that says Parmesan should not be served with seafood pasta dishes, weird huh?

This was absolutely delicious and went down a storm with our 10 guests. Its also nice for the 'stick a pot on the table and let everyone dig in' style of dinner parties.

Grilled Peach and Mozarella Salad

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This recipe is heavily inspired by (copied from??) a dish Lucy and I ate at Juniors a few weeks ago. It was so delicious we spent the whole time trying to figure out and take note of exactly what was in it. Being the season for stone fruit, we decided it wouldmake a perfect and unusual starter for our alternative to the electric picnic: the Accoustic dinner party (geddit?!)

The dish was a huge success, as was the whole evening, which as planned turned into a big rowdy singalong into the very early hours, which saw us making up alternative lyrics to the tune of 'dirty old town' for the benefit of our American friends. Fun times, huge hangovers the next day!

So try this soon, before peaches are out of season. You wont regret it. But I think its important to get really good quality, creamy mozzerella (we got ours from Little Italy near Smithfield) and very ripe, almost over ripe peaches (or nectarines).

Serves 4

4 large RIPE peaches

1 large ball good quality buffalo mozzerella

4 handfulls mixed leaves, whatever you fancy (we used rockett and baby spinch)

about 16 whole walnuts

1/2 small packet pine nuts

lemon juice

good quality balsamic vinegar

olive oil

salt and pepper

First make the dressing.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over a low flame until they have browned on all sides. Allow them to cool and then grind them up using a pestle and mortar until they look like bread crumbs. Place the ground nuts into a bowl and add enough olive oil to give the mixture a good runny consistency. Add the juice of half a lemon (more if you like) and mix together with a grind of pepper and some salt to taste.

Toast the walnuts in the oven and allow to cool

Using a sharp knife, cut the peaches along their seams, and twist to separate the two halves. If they are ripe this should be easy and the stone should come away easily too. Brush them on both sides with olive oil and add a sprinkle of salt and a grind of black pepper. Place them under a very hot grill for about 10 mins on each side or until they are golden. You could also use a griddle pan if you have one.

To assemble the salad, place the leaves on a plate, add the peach halves and the mozzarella, torn into chunks. Then sprinkle the walnuts over and drizzle over the pine nut dressing. Lastly, drizzle the thick balsamic Vinegar artistically over the whole thing.

Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

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Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

This is a traditional english breakfast dish but I just ate it for dinner and it hit the spot nicely! There is no need to be pedantic about what time of day things should be eaten, I always think!

You can make this with any smoked fish but if its raw fish make sure to poach it in milk for 8-10 mins previous to adding it in to the rice.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 smoked mackerel fillets

2 eggs

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger

1 yellow or red pepper

1 red chili

1 teaspoon garam marsala

1 teaspoon curry powder

160gr basmati rice (I used wholemeal/brown basmati, but you could use white just as well)

1 bunch fresh coriander or dill

begin by washing the rice thoroughly

Then boil it according to the cooking instructions on the pack. Wash the eggs, then, using the tip of a very sharp knife, drill a small hole in the end of each egg. This will stop them cracking when you drop them into boiling water. When there is 10 minutes left to go on the rice, add the eggs in their shells to the rice and cook the rice and eggs together (just handier this way!).

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely, and grate the ginger. Saute everything in a frying pan until the onion is soft and transluscent. the add the spices and the chopped pepper.

When the rice is cooked, remove the eggs and set aside. Add the drained rice to the frying pan with the onion etc in. Stir well. Flake the mackerel fillets into chunks and remove the skin. Add this to the rice mixture and stir well.

To serve, peel the shells off the eggs, cut them in half and put them on the plate as a garnish to the kedgeree. Chop the coriander of dill and sprinkle this over just before serving.

Yet another breakfast/brunch treat! We must have a brunch party soon to try out all these recipes on real people!

Roast rack of Pork with Apple and Prune stuffing

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Free Bia!

After a whole year of food blogging we have finally gotten our first free thing! The lovely people at Bord Bia delivered this amazing french rack of pork straight to Lu's office. It was actually enough for 8 people so I cut it in half, knocked up this roast and Colm and I ate half of that for dinner. the other half was left over, so Lu and I made an amazing roast pork hash with it on Sunday morning (recipe up next!). The other uncooked half lived to fight another day and is in the freezer for the foreseeable future. This is a really delicious and unusual cut of meat that I would never think of buying so thanks Bord Bia!

Recipe:

stuffing

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

6 prunes

1 small apple

250g breadcrumbs

1 tbsp chopped thyme, or parsley or sage

Chop the onion and garlic and saute in a large knob of butter and a big glug of olive oil. Saute until translucent. Chop the prunes and apples and add to the onion and garlic with the herbs. when the apples have softened slightly, add in the breadcrumbs and stir them around so that they soak up all the oils. Season and leave to cool

Take the rack of pork and arrange on an oiled roasting tin so that the ribs interlock and the two sides hold themselves up. Using your hands, make a tennis ball sized ball from the stuffing and place it in the cavity between the two sides of the rack. Using paper towels, dry the skin on the outside of the pork, score the skin with a sharp knife and rub it with salt. Pour about a half a glass of apple juice in to the roasting tin, wdd some parboiled potatoes and place in a pre heated oven, roast at 190c for 1 and a half hours.

when done, remove the meat and potatoes from the tin and place on a plate to rest. Stir a tablespoon of flour into the pan juices, place on your hob and add some madera or some sherry (a couple of tbsps). Stir it all in andand add a cup of apple juice and a cup of water or stock. Simmer to thicken and serve!

Cut between the ribs to serve, one 'chop' will be more than enough per person.

Steak Bearnaise

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Lets French!

or 
Mastering the Art of Butter

A few months ago Lu and I dragged my long suffering fella Colm along to see the ultimate foodie/chick flick Julie and Julia. By the end of the film he had to grudgingly admit that, actually, it was a pretty enjoyable film. So for Christmas this year Colm bought me a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and inside was a ticket for two to Paris! Awww. So we are heading off on Thursday which had finally pushed me to blog this recipe, which I cooked from said book over a month ago for my friend Stuart.

Having read a good few of the recipes over the Christmas period, I came to the conclusion that Julia Child's main philosophy of cooking is as follows: 'First melt some butter. Then sauté some slices of butter in some more butter. Then add some chopped cubes of cold butter. Finish with some melted butter'

Anyway, Stuart is a good Naval man so I figured he would appreciate a steak. He arrived brandishing two bottles of Ruby port and proceeded to show Lu and I how to make the perfect Hot Port on the high seas. Then we drank them all. Oh dear.

Julia Child's sauce Bearnaise (straight and unedited from the horses mouth)

(NB- I recently invested in a set of American Cup measurements and teaspoon/tablespoons. They are invaluable and only cost 3 euro in Allrooms on Liffey st!)

(NB 2- I have used square and curley brackets to try to make a bit more sense of her extremely complicated recipes)

Ingredients

1/4 cup wine vinegar

1/4 cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth

1 Tb minced shallots or green onions

1 Tb minced fresh tarragon or 1/2 Tb dried tarragon

1/8tsp pepper

pinch of salt

a small saucepan

3 egg yolks

2 tb cold butter

1 Tb cold water

1 Tb lemon Juice

big pinch of salt

1 Tb cold Butter

1 [another] Tb cold butter

1/2 to 2/3 cup melted butter

2 tb fresh minced tarragon or parsley

For 1 1/2 cups

Boil the vinegar, wine, shallots or onions, herbs and seasonings over a moderate heat until the liquid has reduced to 2 tablespoons. Let it cool.

Then proceed as though making a hollandaise, page 79 [cut the butter into pieces and melt it in a saucepan over a moderate heat. Then set aside Beat the egg yolks for about a minute in the {other medium enamel or stainless steel} saucepan until they become thick and sticky. add the water, lemon juice and salt and beat for half a minute more.

Add a tb of cold butter, but do not beat in. Place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whip until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water , beating the yolks to cool them. {I did this, it works!} Then continue beating over the heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whip.] Strain in the vinegar mixture and beat

[Immediately remove from the heat and beat in the cold butter [1tb, I presume] which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking. Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whip, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoon-fuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.]

Correct seasoning and beat in the tarragon or parsley

Phew!!!

I know, a bit of a palaver but actually it wasn't that bad when I actually did it. I got the vinegar mixture done ahead of time, and beat up the eggs well before I cooked the steak. then when the steak was cooking I made the sauce. At the end, I de-glazed the steak pan with one Tb white wine, which technically makes this a sauce Colbert, according to Julia.

I served with sauteed potatoes cooked in a stupid amount of butter, another Julia recipe, and some steamed asparagus. It was really super delish. It would want to be after all that butter.

Here's my translation of the potato recipe into modern day parlance, I cant take any more of those brackets!

Sauteed Potatoes
2 lb small new potatoes, peeled

3 - 4 tbs clarified butter (melted and milk solids skimmed off so it can't burn)

pinch salt

Peel the potatoes but don't wash them after or during peeling. Dry them in a clean tea towel. Pour the butter into a heavy skillet or frying pan which has a tight fitting lid. Heat until very hot but not coloring, or until it begins to foam. Then ad the potatoes. Leave for two minutes. Then give them a shake every now and then so that they sear on all sides. Cook for another 5-8 mins. Sprinkle them with salt. Lower the heat, cover the skillet with the lid and cook for about 15 mins, shaking every now and then to prevent sticking and ensure even coloring. They are done when they yield slightly to the pressure of your finger, or when a knife pierces them easily.

Ok, so now on to the
Hot Ports

Stuart reckons that the only way to make a good hot port is as follows

1) In a large wine glass heat the glass with some boiling water (make sure you have a metal spoon or similar in there so you wont break the glass)

2) Pour in a double measure of ruby port

3) Get a teaspoon of muscavado sugar (it has to be muscavado)

4) Hold it over the glass while you pour boiling hot water over it and into the glass, this way the sugar melts into the port.

No cloves or lemons need apply

Voila!

Here's a pic of the book itself with its best friend, a big load of butter. {I had a full 500g package of butter before I started cooking this meal so this gives you an idea of how much I used!}

Valentines Dinner for Two

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Guest Chef No 4. Lamb Stew and Gratin Dauphinoise

Guest Chef Number 4 is David Delahunty (it’s his first official guest chef title but he’s been involved in lots of the previous posts!)

So Valentines Day was started in a most romantic of ways - waking up in the back of the van, after Chinese New Year. Then it was off to the Stilorgan shopping centre for a fry. Nothing says I love you more than eating sausage and beans in the finest example of mid-80’s retail architecture!

After a nice walk on Bull Island - it was home to the couch and the fire, and successfully releasing Stephen (the canary) for his first flight around the sitting room, after 30 mins he was hungry and just hoped back into his cage.

Then we whipped up this, and it cooked and bubbled away in the oven, while we got our fill of rom-coms on the TV!

Lamb Stew - made by my valentie

Ingredients 
2 lamb chops - cubed - or stewing lamb
1 red pepper
a large sprig of fresh rosemary
2 sticks of celery - finely sliced
3 large tomatoes - chopped
A glass of red wine
I red onion - cubed
Seasoning

Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan, and brown cook the onion and celery until the onion is translucent.. Then add in the lamb to brown a little. Then stir in the red pepper and tomatoes and rosemary and cook for another 3/4 minutes. Add a dash of wine - bring up to a simmer and then remove.

Place the meat mixture into separate dishes - or one large on and place on the centre shelf of the oven at gas mark 6 for one and a half hours.


For Gratin

2 large potatoes
1 cup of cream
1/2 cup of milk
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Seasoning

Slice the potatoes as thinly as you can. I have a small handheld mandolin, which makes this easy. Rinse them under the tap and then pat dry. Mix the remaining ingredients together. Layer the potatoes into your dish and pour the cream mixture - 3/4 of the way up the edge of your dish. 

Cover and bake also in the oven for one and a half hours at gas mark 6. Remove the lid for the last 10-15 minutes if you want to get the top a little browner (I didn’t and it still looks good)

Serve with a nice glass of red wine, and some Barry White. A special thank you goes out to Pamela Quinn for buying me these awesome dishes for my birthday - thanks Pam - my first Le Crueset - very brilliant present

Porridge Chicken

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A step back in time Happy New Year - here's the first post of 2010 - and our 99th!

A while back somebody asked me what my favorite child hood food was. So up there with gammon steaks with pineapple, with mash and peas, was porridge chicken - maybe not the most attractive of names - but that is my mothers sense of humor.

I cooked a nice batch of this up and made it with bake potatoes and peas. Baked potatoes are good as they can cook along in the oven with the chicken. Also this was one of the recipes I took in my old Home Economics copy when I left home to go to college. The list makes for some interesting reading including great classics - like Sheppard’s pie, spaghetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese, barbecue sauce, chicken and mushroom pie (mash topping of course) and Chocolate biscuit cake.

Ingredients
1oz of plain flour
6 tablespoons of grated cheese – cheddar or similar
4oz of porridge oats
4oz butter or margarine melted
6 Chicken joints – like legs and thighs are perfect
Salt and Pepper

Melt your butter your butter in a large ovenproof dish or tin. Pat your chicken pieces dry on paper towels and then toss in the melted butter to coat. In a separate bowl combine all the other ingredients and season. Toss each piece of chicken in the mixture before returning to the ovenproof dish. Cook for 30 mins before turning and bake for a further 30 mins – till golden and crispy. Serve with baked potato and green salad or peas. I like to coat my baked potatoes in olive oil and some rock salt before baking to ensure a nice crispy skin – also don’t forget to prick your potatoes well before baking as they will explode – I can vouch for that!

Steamed Treacle Pudding

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Quicker than your normal Christmas pudding

Lola and Me and our housemate Sarah decided to have an Christmas dinner before we all go our separate ways for the break. We took a course each and I got pudding - I'd been wanting to make this for a while now - so any excuse and a pudding is a pudding at Christmas time

Serves 10

6oz unsalted butter - room temperature
4 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 orange - zest and juice
6 oz soft brown sugar
3 eggs - beaten together
1 tsp black black treacle
6 oz self raising flour

Butter your pudding basin - I got a 3 litre one - but it would fit into a two litre one. Combine the golden syrup and orange juice and zest - add it to the greased basin.

In a bowl beat together sugar and butter. Then slowly add the beaten eggs and combine well together. Next add in the black treacle - and combine well. Sieve in your flour , mixing all the time. Spoon the mixture gently into the basin.

Cover the basin with the fitted lid - or cover with greaseproof paper and then cover with tin foil - with a crease down the centre - secure with some string. Place in a large saucepan - with boiling water halfway up the sides of the basin. Cover and simmer for two hours. Check regularly to make sure it doesn't boil dry.

When ready - remove lid - place a clean plate on top and then gently turnover - as there will be a nice amount of treacly orange syrup flying around - Lola's phone loved it - sorry honey! Serve with custard - or pouring/whipped cream - which ever you like. I quite like cold custard to contrast with the hot sweat steamy pudding. It looks pretty impressive on the plate too! Serve with custard or cream - enjoy!

This dessert really went down a treat.

Goats Cheese & Red Pepper Tartlet

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Refined pie

When feeding 14, a big beef pie is all very well, but we were aware that there would be more sensitive ladies present. So for our two gorgeous blond vegetarians, I whipped together this little beauty. Hey presto - pies for all!

For the pastry:

4 oz flour

2 oz butter

tbsp cold water

For the filling;

1 red pepper

1 small packet soft goats cheese

3 eggs

2 fl oz cream

chives

Make the pastry: sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles soft bread crumbs. Then add the water and bring it all together using your hands to form a dough. Roll this out on a floured surface and press into a greased pie dish (this will only make enough pastry for a small dish so if you want to make a big tart double the quantities).

Cover the pastry with a piece of greaseproof paper and fill this with baking beans. bake at 180c for about 20 mins, or until the pastry has gone opaque and a bit crusty, but not brown. Then take away the paper and beans and bake for a further 5-10 mins. Don't let the edges brown too much. Remove from the oven.

While the crust is baking, half the red pepper and remove the seeds and the core. Place, skin side up, under a hot grill until the skin has charred all over. Allow to cool and peel the charred skin from the flesh. It should come away easily, but if you are having difficulty, put the hot peppers in a plastic bag and leave them to cool for 10 mins. This should help the skin to come away easier.

Slice the peppers into strips and arrange on the baked pastry shell. Fleck the shell with dollops of the cheese (be generous), and sprinkle over the chopped chives. Beat the eggs and cream, add a little salt and pepper to this and pour it in to the pastry shell. Bake this in your preheated oven at 200c for about 20 mins, or until it is puffy and golden.

Beef and Guinness Pie

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Ohm nom nom As Alan has been in Singapore for the last year eating only foreign muck (joking, he has told me many a tale about the wonderfulness of food in Singapore) we decided that he needed a good auld Irish dish as a welcome home.

I was going to cheat and buy the puff pastry, but they didn't have any in tesco's (bloody tesco parnell street is sooooo bad) so i had to make it from scratch. This was my first attempt at puff pastry, and while it was not actually that puffy, it did taste very good and was nice and light and crunchy.

We made the filling the night before the party for two reasons: 1- less stress on party day (considerable factor when you are cooking for 14) 2- leaving it overnight makes it more delicious. You could do it all in one day if you wanted to though Again, bear in mind that this recipe serves 14 so you can reduce all the amounts accordingly Ingredients: 11/2kg good quality stewing beef, cut into cubes by your butcher.
20 shallots
8-10 parsnips
8-10 carrots
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
1 can Guinness extra stout
ltr good beef stock flour
salt & Pepper

Heat some oil in the biggest pot you own. Chop the onion and garlic finely and sweat them in the pot, covering them with the lid so they don't burn or colour. Toss the meat in a generous amount of flour into which you have added salt and ground black pepper until all the cubes are well covered. Toss these in the pan with the onions and brown all over. Stir constantly to stop the flour from burning on the bottom of the pan.

When all the meat has browned, add the peeled and chopped veggies (leave the carrots and parsnips in big-ish chunks) and stir until everything is combined. Then pour in the hot beef stock and stir to dissolve all the flour that has stuck to the bottom of the pan. Pour in the can of Guinness, cover and simmer for 15 mins.

Preheat your oven to about 175c and shove the whole pot in there. Leave it for about 3 hours. When you take it out the stew will be melty and gorgeous. Adjust the seasoning at this point, adding more slat and pepper if necessary. If you have time, leave it overnight and let all those gorgeous flavours intensify.

For the puff pastry: (this recipe is from Delia, her complete cookery course is my bible for basics like this)
1 lb strong white flour
8 oz lard
8oz margarine
10fl oz ice cold water


Sift the flour into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Chop up all the fat into inch sized squares and add to the flour. Now add the water and, using a palette knife make a series of straight cuts (like you are cutting a big cake) to incorporate everything. The aim is to leave the fat as intact as possible and still bring everything together into a dough-like ball.

When you have a reasonable ball of dough-like substance, take it out of the bowl (don't worry if it doesn't use up all of the flour) and place on a floured board. Shape it into a rough brick shape, and using a long, floured rolling pin, make 3 depressions across the brick. Make sure the dough and the pin are well dusted with flour at all times.

Then roll the whole thing out into an oblong that is roughly the length of your forearm (not including your hand!) and about 1/2 as wide. Now fold the top third down and the bottom third up so its a bit like an envelope. Seal the edges with a sharp press from the rolling pin. this locks in air, apparently. The dough will now be roughly the same size and shape as your original brick, so make the 3 depressions again and repeat the process again 4 or 5 times. What this does is spread out the large chunks of fat into layers with flour that you have used to dust the board, dough and pin. Clever, eh!

Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour before you roll it out. When you cut the dough in half you will be able to see all the layers of flour and fat, like the strata of a cliff. Because we had so much stew we had to use 2 pie dishes (big rectangular lasagne ones) but if you are making a smaller amount you could use a pretty round dish. Fill your dish up to almost full with the stew filling. Then cover with the rolled out pastry and make nice decorations on top (not a big penis, like Alan did) and a few cuts to allow steam to escape. I was going to put an egg wash over the pastry to make it nice and shiny (just a beaten egg brushed all over the pastry) but I forgot. We served this with boiled new potatoes and steamed broccoli. YUUUUMMMM

Lemon, Parmesan & Rocket Pasta

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Parmesan & Rocket up a tree....

I’ve seen several recipes over the last month of so for lemon pasta, it sounded like a combination that I normally wouldn’t try out. But creamy spaghetti with a fresh bite of lemon sounds beautifully summery, don’t ya think? Especially summery when you can take such a nice light filled photo on your kitchen table. I was very happy with how it turned out – so much so that I’d make it again today…..

I think it would work great with some chicken added in, or some fish, maybe not salmon, but a nice white fish, or maybe a little smoked mackerel. Would also be great with some fresh peas - or sugar snaps, warm or cold

Ingredients
I lemon – zest and juice
4 oz spaghetti
Some olive oil
Some freshly grated parmesan
A big handful of rocket
Salt & Pepper
I also added in cheddar – cause hey – it’s cheese

Cook your spaghetti, in lightly salted water – al dente if you’ve got company – or squishy when I’m by myself, mmm squashy. While cooking the past I often use my bowl as a lid so it’s nicely warm when you pop the cooked pasta in it later.

Drain pasta, and return to pan – add a glug of olive oil and the lemon zest, stir over a low heat for 30 secs or so – then add in the lemon juice and cheese, stir to combine – taste and season. Remove from the heat – gently fold in the rocket.

Transfer to your bowl top with parmesan and freshly grated black pepper – yum! Why oh why did I not make enough for lunch today.

I've been growing rocket in the garden - it's going to seed at the moment, any tips on how to stop this would be greatly appreciated? - I love having rocket outside the back door, pure handy. You'd be amazed at how many bugs can live on one leaf though - the mind boggles.

Tomato Dahl

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Tomato on your Roll Dahl?

Dahl is wonderfully satisfying served on top of rice as an accompaniment to curries. I've always had trouble reproducing a good one at home, they seem to vary widely in consistency. From a liquid to something thick and curry like. Because I love lentils I always tend to put too many of them in. This recipe I used only half a cup and this seemed to give a nice consistency, you could add more water if you wanted to serve it poured over the rice.

1 onion chopped
1 carrot small cubed
1-2 green chillies
4 tomatoes cubed (some recipes ask for peeled, but my life is too short to peel tomatoes)
½ cup of red lentils
2-3 garlic cloves crushed 1
inch ginger grated
¼ cup grated coconut (see previous post)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 bay leaves
some coriander to serve
1-2 tablespoons of toasted almonds (mmmm)
Ghee /Veg Oil

In a pan heat up the oil, when hot throw in the mustard seeds, cumin & chillies. Cook until the mustard seeds start to go ‘pop’ and then you can add in the onions, tomatoes and carrots, as well as some salt and turmeric. Saute them until the onions and tomatoes are soft.

Add in the lentils and cook gently while stirring for 3 mins. Then add in two cups of water and some bay leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 15 mins till the lentils are soft and falling apart. You may need to add in some more water if the lentils start to stick to the bottom – so just keep an eye on it.

After 15mins or so - add the coconut simmer for another 4-5 mins. Sprinkle with coriander and toasted almonds. Serve with spiced rice for warm and satisfying meal, and mango chutney of course. Or as a side dish to accompany butter paneer masala and toasty hot naan breads.

Apologies for the terrible title - I just had to

Roast Butternut Squash with Harrisa

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Roast Butternut Squash with Harrisa

So I knew there was harissa in the fridge and that was enough to go with. I found a nice recipe for squash roasted with harissa – it looked great – so I thought I would serve it with some bulghur wheat and feta, but I had left over mash – so potato cakes it was again – the three worked wonderfully together – a nice contrast to the sharp feta is the sweet and spicy roasted squash – I just love the colour of squash to, very appetising.

Ingredients

I butternut squash – peeled and cubed 1 inch
2 tablespoon veg oil
1 tablespoon of harissa
Salt & Pepper


Toss the squash in the oil and harissa to coat evenly – bung it in the oven – gas mark 7-8 for about 35 mins. Serve with potato cakes and chunks of feta and some rocket.

Yum

Bangers and Mash – with roast onion gravy

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Bangers and Mash – with roast onion gravy

It’s been a long hung-over Friday in work, so what better way to treat it than with bangers and mash and a movie – I won’t bore you with details on how to grill a sausage or mash potatoes – except that Rayne added in some strong mustard which gave it a bit more body. So here’s the recipe for the gravy.

Ingredients
4 med onions, thinly sliced in moons
2 tablespoons of veg. oil
1 heaped teaspoon grainy mustard
1 table spoon of honey
Salt & Pepper
1 servingspoon of flour
1 servingspoon of butter

Coat onions in oil and then mix in salt, pepper, mustard and honey – pop into a hot oven for1/2 hour till they are getting black around the edges – only some of the onions now, not all of them.

Melt butter into a pan – and then stir in the flour – then add in the onions and coat thoroughly. Gradually add water until you get a nice sauce – sirring all the time to avoid lumps. All to simmer gently for a few minutes – taste and season accordingly. It’s incredible how dark the gravy will get with just the natural colour from the browned/blacked onions.

Spoon over of a bed of mustard mash with nice big thick butchers sausages – mmmm mmmm good, as the little Bisto guy would say.


I would say ‘Up yours, Bisto kid’ but they’re too cute

Clonakilty Black Pudding with Apple & Sherry sauce served on a potatoe & chive cake

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Black Pudding - not just for breakfast

My long lost brother was returning to Ireland from France to celebrate his 30th birthday and I wanted to welcome him home with an Irish feast – so what better way to welcome him home than with some delicious Clonakilty black pudding starter and bacon and cabbage (which was a disaster)

Black pudding – Boudin Noir en Francais – was the source of our first swear word – ‘ca-ca boudin noir’ – which means ‘poo poo black pudding’. This gave us a laugh when me and Marty were little children living in Toulouse. I’ve been wanting to combine some black pudding with a nice apple sauce for a while as I’ve seen it on lots of menus out and about – you could also serve it as a nice brunch, lunch or light supper – Black pudding – not just for breakfast!

One last thing – a small word on black pudding – Clonakilty black pudding is made with the same ingredients – but with that addition of some whole grains, giving it a nutty texture unlike the other more pate types – Shaws of Limerick are also producing a nice version of it - if you
can’t get either of these I just wouldn’t bother – others may beg to differ – but that’s just me!

Serves 4

3 large potatoes – boiled (or left over mashed potato)
1 egg
A nob of butter
Another nob of butter
I teaspoon grainy mustard
A splosh of milk
8 rings of black pudding sliced 1.5cm thick
2 cooking apples – chopped into 1cm cubes
I small onion very finely chopped
2 servingspoons of sherry
1 teaspoon demerara sugar
bunch of chives – 20 stems or so – chopped with scissors is handy

While you are boiling your potatoes (you could also used some left over mashed potato) Fry up the onion in some oil or butter till translucent – turn up the heat and throw in the brown sugar – allowing the onion to brown at the edges, don’t burn. Then when a nice colour is achieved add in the sherry, stir. Then add in the apple and stir to coat – then turn down and allow to simmer gently – it will be a pretty thick mixture so use a non-stick pan.

Make your mash potato with a bit of butter, milk and salt and pepper. Mix in your snipped chives and mustard. Then crack your egg into the centre and mix well –season.

Then pop your black pudding under the grill – turning carefully as it gets pretty crumbly. Allow to brown gently on each side.

Heat a large frying pan and add a nob of butter, drop a servingspoon of potato mixture into the pan – then spread out a little so that it’s about 1-2cms thick – however you’d like them – when brown and crispy turn over. You may need to do this in two batches- pop on plate and put under the cooking pudding to keep warm.

Place your black pudding on top of your cakes and top with a dollop of the apple sauce – add a good grind of thick black pepper and a glass of Guinness and you’re done - welcome home Marty - we missed you Yum

Big up the Mackerel Massive

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Big up the Mackerel Massive

Lu and I went for a cycle this morning all the way to Dollymount
strand. We saw people digging for what we thought were clams but
turned out to be lugworms... anyway, somewhat bizarrely this gave us a
terrible craving for some nice fresh seafood. Wrights of Marino
provided us with 4 lovely big Mackerel fillets, and here is what we
did with them:


Fried mackerel in a coriander cream sauce with crushed dill new potatoes
serves 3
3 fresh mackerel fillets
10-15 new potatoes
1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed in pestle and mortar
100 ml cream
2 oz butter
juice of 1 lemon
a few sprigs of dill
boil the new potatoes until tender. When they are done , crush (not
Mash!) them with a fork, and stir in the roughly chopped dill, a big
nob of butter and a little glug of cream, salt and pepper. Se aside
with the lid on, they will keep warm while you cook the mackerel.

melt a nob of butter and some olive oil in a frying pan. Turn up the
heat so that when you put the mackerel in, skin side down, it really
sizzles. Cook on both sides for about 4 mins each (if the mackerel is
fat- you will need to check if its cooked all the way through)

Put the potatoes in the middle of a plate, balance the cooked mackerel
on top, and set aside while you cook the sauce (don't worry, its very
quick)


In the same pan that you cooked the mackerel, melt the rest of the
butter. Get it really hot but be careful not to burn. throw in the
crushed coriander seeds, the lemon juice and cream. swirl the pan
around to mix, then leave on head for 20 seconds or so, until it
bubbles. Quickly pour over the mackerel and serve.