Fried haloumi & peach salad with a mint, lemon & caper dressing

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Super Success Summer Salad

I'm pretty proud of this salad, I must say. It's the perfect balance between salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth, hot and cool. It's similar to the Grilled Peach and Mozzarella Salad we made inspired by Junior's in Ringsend. This would be lovely served as a starter sitting outside in the sun - oh we can only dream of sun today! Also it could be wonderful on a buffet, sitting on a nice bed of leaves. Some crisp lambs lettuce or peppery rocket would work well. These Pan Tao peaches are just perfect and arrived in my veg box this morning, begging to be made into something special. They're flat and have a white flesh, supposedly you can push the stone out from outside, I haven't managed it! 

Ingredients
Serves 1
3 sliced of haloumi - a little less than 1cm thick
a little plain flour
sunflower oil fro frying
1 ripe peach or nectarine
For the Dressing
1 heaped teaspoon of capers drained
Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
Handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
Handful of fresh mint
Good quality olive oil for dressing - a good tablespoon

1. First chop the fresh herbs roughly along with the capers. Mix the in with the rest of the ingredients for the dressing, season and set aside. 
2. Next lightly toss your slices of haloumi in the flour. Heat the sunflower oil in a non stick pan. When the oil is relatively hot pop your slices into the pan. they should sizzle but not spit - cook for about 2 minutes on each side until golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
3. Next slice up your peaches, arrange alone with the haloumi on a plate and drizzle with the amount of dressing you like. Welcome to my new favorite salad

Holidays in Devon

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Knockin' on Devon's Door....


The holiday plans were, to spend some time in Devon and Cornwall. Some bad weather and some very painful wisdom teeth were to convince us to hop on a boat to France. We spent a nice week in the UK despite my gloomy summary. We camped on a farm and had delicious farm raised sausages for our breakfast. The site ran along the edge of a large stream and made for a tranquil few days in Exmoor National Park. Sadly the wisdom teeth meant little to no real eating. Cream teas, fish 'n chips and Cornish pasties will have to wait till next time.

Camping breakfast in England

River side farm camping in Exmoor

 France was as sunny and hot and oozing with good food. Here are but a few of my snaps - in case you were wondering what happened to June on the blog!

Breakfast in France

What lovely radishes you have

Evening beer in the forest camping

Non edible flowers

Lovely La Rochelle

Boudin Noir 

Cheese mobile - yes all of it!

River side camping in La Marais

Pilgrims walk across the sands to Mont St Michel

Innovative use of brie box
Must eat more brie

ehh final breakfast in France

Next years breakfast in France 

Farm camping in France

That way!

Salmon with Fennel and Sesame Bulgur Wheat

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A Store Cupboard Supper

So just back from my holidays it's time to get back to some good simple eating and balance out some of the boldness from my time away. This is a store cupboard meal as I had some salmon and peas in the freezer. It's super fast to prepare and delivers a good bunch of flavours from a limited amount of ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves 1)
1 small piece of salmon
1/2 cup of bulgur wheat
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of vegetable bouillon
Fresh coriander or flat leaf parsley

Place the salmon on a greased baking tray and pop under the grill. Grill for about 5 minutes each side until cooked through. Make the bulgur by boiling twice the quantity of water as bulgur in a pan. Add the bouillon and bulgur and cook for 10 minutes until tender. Add the peas for the last two minutes of cooking, I just popped them in straight from the freezer.

In another pan dry fry the fennel and mustard seeds. When they begin to release their fragrance pop them into a pestle and mortar and give them a quick grind. Return them to the hot pan along with the two oils, allow them to infuse a little over a medium heat being careful not to burn them.

When the bulgur is ready stir through the oil and spices. Serve the salmon over the bulgur with some freshly chopped coriander or parsley.

Vantastival Camper Van Cook Off

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Van-tastic Fun

Vantastival is a camper and family friendly festival now in it's second year. It takes place on the gorgeous Dunanny Estate in lush county Louth, a gust away from the Irish Sea. The cook off sees 6 campervans competing to win the 2011 prize. This year's sponsors were Cully & Sully. Cully himself was down to do the judging, bringing along with him their chef Ivan, and also the Cheffactor 2010 winner Christine. Read about here experiences at Ballymaloe here.

Some of the finished dishes

The ingredients for the 45 minute cook off included Minced beef, green pepper, chick peas, onion, chili, chopped tomatoes, wild garlic, rice, black pudding, brie, cream & a banana. All teams could use a few store cupboard ingredients from their van cupboards. The brief was to produce two dishes, but all vans turned out three in the allotted time. 

Ivan gets comfy

Disco Dinner

Christine finds one of the entries hilarious

Well done to all the great chefs who could well under the baking hot sun and in front of the huge crowd that grew around them hungrily licking their lips. 

Did someone say dinner?

The judges get down to some hard work

The winners

The festival was such a success that it's back on the calendar for 2012, so if you're looking for a great family festival that has great music come on down to Dunanny. Or better still beg/borrow/steal a campervan and see if you can be crowned champion for 2012!

Like I said family friendly!

That'll be me

And a big thanks to Delo for the amazing photos! 

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.

Hazelnut Meringue with Apricot Filling

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Ah lovely background with mini - accordian and pack of fags!

Ingredients
6 egg white
12oz caster sugar
4 oz ground hazelnuts
6oz dried apricots soaked overnight in water
1 inch of cinnamon
Juice of two oranges
2 inch piece of orange rind
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
500 ml single or double cream
Extra hazelnuts for decorating - I used 18 - that was 1 oz!
3 cake tins - lightly oiled and lined with parchment on the bottom.

I started out by toasting the hazelnuts until golden - toast a few extra as you’ll eat a few. Pop them out of their skins and roughly blend them in a  blender, not forgetting to keep a few extra whole over to decorate the top of the dessert when done.

Separate out your eggs - being super careful not to allow any yolk in - otherwise your meringue will fail miserably. Also worth washing your utensils just before starting the meringue - as any dirt or grease could affect the fluffiness of your egg whites- leaving you with one flat meringue.

Put the 6 egg whites in a bowl / food processor with whisk attachment - and whisk until  they form soft peaks. Then slowly add in the caster sugar spoon by spoon. The whites should stay smooth and get a little glossy. Then fold in the ground hazelnuts gently with a metal spoon. 

Spoon the mixture into the tins and bake at the middle of the oven for 30 mins at Gas Mark 5.

Now make the apricot filling. Drain the apricots over a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of the soaking liquid into the pan with the fruit cinnamon, brown sugar, orange peel and juice. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it bubble away for about 20 minutes until the apricots are breaking apart. Add more of the soaking liquid if it appears to be getting too dry..

Remove the meringues from the oven - they should have a light brown tinge. Leave to cool in the tins for 15 mins before turning them out onto a wrack to cool fully. Just before serving assemble the meringue - put one meringue with half of the apricot mixture and a third of the whipped cream. then another meringue followed by the rest of the apricot filling, more cream, meringue and then the rest of the cream and a few toasted hazelnuts. This dessert is pretty sweet - so if you prefer a less sugary dessert - I recommend you try something else - but for sugar junkies - this will be a tasty hit!

Oven Roasted Tomato & Caramelised Garlic Bruschetta

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Never Mind the Electric Picnic here's the Acoustic Dinner Party

So to distract ourselves from the fact that we weren’t at Electric Picnic - we had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night - the menu was loosely summer Italian, I really enjoyed all the courses - especially the starter  which was inspired by a meal we had at Junior’s in Ringsend recently. If you haven’t been you should try it - it’s a great restaurant. I’ve been there twice recently - for dinner and brunch!

Pre-dinner Nibbles

Ingredients
Makes 9
1 head of garlic
18 baby tomatoes
3 teaspoons of Maldon Sea Salt
3 teaspoons of Caster Sugar/Light Brown Sugar
Olive Oil
Good quality sourdough bread
1 clove of garlic

Cut the whole head of garlic across the middle - so that each clove is cut in half. Mix together the salt and sugar in a bowl.  Then dip the head of garlic cut side down into the mixture - so that it sticks. Then on a oven proof tray - put the remaining sugar and salt in two piles. Place the two pieces of garlic cut side down on the two piles. Cover the garlic with tin foil. Place in the oven at gas mark 6 for 30 mins until they are tender.

While these are cooking - coat the tomatoes in a little olive oil and bake these along with the garlic - so they should be ready at the same time. If you have them on the vine keep them that way - as they’re less likely to loose their delicious juices in the roasting process.

Remove the garlic and tomatoes from the oven and allow to cool. Then pop them out of the skins, mix together in a small bowl to form a paste with a small bit of olive oil.

Toast the sour dough - spread each piece of toast with a little purred garlic and top with a  few torn basil leaves and two tomatoes.

This is the smallest part of the dinner but thought I’d better start today or we’ll never get it all down. Stay posted for the next five installments - yup 5! Wow we’re mad as a pastry brush around here

Pecan & Banana Loaf

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Bananas!

I used to play in a band - where I met my boyfriend and the lovely Jane and Andy. There was a song that had a strange stop in it - and the only way we could all come back in at the right time was for Jane to sing the word - Bananas! Then it became everyone's favourite part of the song - good memories!

Ingredients

6 oz softened butter 

6oz golden caster sugar 

3 eggs 

5oz of self raising flour 

3oz ground almonds 

½ tsp baking powder 

100ml/3.5 fl oz milk 

2 small really ripe bananas

2oz pecan nuts – chopped

Pre-heat your oven to 160c/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin.

To make the loaf batter simply lob all the ingredients into your trusty vintage Kenwood Chef (Did I mention I was given a lovely old Kenwood Kitchen Chef from my parents friends?)

Whisk together until you get a lovely batter. Then lob this into your loaf tin.

Lob this into the oven for 45-50 minutes.

Then lob into your face – after a modest amount of cooling on a wrack. Yummy 

You could always add some icing or frosting if you like – but I thought this was perfectly sweet light and spongy – maybe next time another banana.

This picture is silly and I love it! It's Friday let's all be silly

Spicy Curly Veggie Fries with Mint & Chive Dip

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I discovered a nice new blog yesterday from fellow Dubliner, David - Kitchen 72, there are some nice recipes with a healthy bent. I read his recipe for carrot and feta salad with mint and harissa and decided that I would make this for my dinner. One hugely failed shopping trip later and I had half the ingredients - so I made this instead - it has carrots, harrisa and mint in too - same same but roasted!
 

Ingredients
Serves 2
2 Yams
1 Sweet potato
2 Large carrots (all cut into thin batons
1 Tablespoon of harissa
5 Cloves of garlic
Salt & pepper
A good dash of olive oil

For the dip (serves one)
2 Tablespoons of yogurt
A handful of chives (finely chopped)
A handful of mint (finely chopped)
A sprinkle of smoked paprika

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6. Toss all the fries ingredients well in a big baking tray - the thinner you can spread them apart from each other the crispier they’ll be. Bake on a high shelf for 45-50 minutes turning once or twice to ensure even crisping.
 
To make the sauce simply mix together the yogurt and herbs and sprinkle with a bit of paprika.  The spicy harissa is balanced out with the mint ad yogurt beautifully.
 
This dish would be great with baba-ganoush as a dip  - or roast breast of chicken on the bone  - or some grilled halloumi.

Rainbow trout with herby salad

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Wow, the weather today is fantastic AND I have a day off work! That never happens! So I went to the Phoenix Park and cycled around the park for 2 hours on my old lady raleigh bike, a massive sunny smile on my face listening to summery music on my ipod. Bliss!

After all that exertion I definitely needed something healthy but satisfying so I stopped in to Fresh and bought a nice fillet of rainbow trout.

The garden has gone into overdrive so I used a handful of mixed herbs to dress the accompanying salad. Fresh, zingy, healthy and delish!

For the fish:

2 sprigs dill

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon fennell seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 glug olive oil

Mash the seeds with a pestle and mortar. Place the fish on a large piece of tin foil. Chop the garlic VERY thinly and sprinkle half it over the fish. Add the sprigs of dill and the ground seeds. Drizzle over the olive oil. Bake at 170c for 10 - 15 mins.

Meanwhile make the salad.

Get a large handful of whatever herbs you have to hand (I used dill, rocket, rosemary and sage but you could include parsley, chives, basil, coriander, whatever you have, really)

Chop the herbs very finely and place them in a bowl. To this add about 4 tbsps good oil and a squeeze of lemon, to taste ( roughly half a lemon), salt and pepper. This is a delicious fresh dressing which can be used on loads of different salads.

Oven Baked Lamb Burgers in Mediterranean Sauce

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Maybe more of stew than a sauce

This recipe was started off by catching a wiff of barbecued burgers in town whilst having a drink. So it was decided - some juicy tasty burgers for dinner - oh yes! We picked up all we needed on Mary Street, from the Asian food company - one of my favourite shops in town.

IngredientsFor the burgers
3/4 pound of minced lamb
1 white onion - finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
 a good grate of fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 slice of bread - crumbed

For the sauce
3 mini aubergines (cause they're cute) finely sliced
1 white onion diced
3 cloves of garlic sliced finely
1 large green chili - seeds removed
1/2 red pepper - diced
1/2 yellow pepper - diced
1/2 courgette - diced
8 large tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Start by making the burgers. Basically mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl - you’ll have to use your hands for sure. Then form into 6 burger shapes, and place in an oven proof dish and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

For the sauce fry the aubergine in a  little olive oil until it starts to colour a little - add in the onion and some more oil if needed and cook for another few minutes before adding the garlic and chilli. After another few minutes add in the peppers and courgette. Cook these until the soften ever so slightly - then add in all your chopped tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover until the tomatoes begin to beak apart. Then add in about 1/2 little of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and pour over your burgers in an oven proof dish - the sauce should cover the burgers - remember it will cook down in the oven.

Bake at gas mark 6 for about an hour. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and some oven baked chips (ours turned out tasting of lemons, so Delo ran to the chipper - weekend boldness!) 

The burgers came out wonderfully moist and the vegetable mixture cooked down to produce a rich, sweet and dense sauce. I don’t want my burgers any other way! They would be equally as tasty with beef mince, I’d have added some harissa to the mixture if I’d had some to hand for sure. Endless variations possible here - with different vegetables and meats.  Tonight I’ll eat the leftovers in a fresh floury bap - looking forward to it already.

Balsamic roasted beetroot, orange and feta salad

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A recipe and some waffle - not a waffle recipe!

I’m celebrating by heading off to a festival for the bank holiday. It’s called Vantastival  - so we’re taking down our lovely van Mister to hang out with all the other old VWs. There is lots going on for the weekend - lots of music, Kila, Sleep Thieves, Fred, Ambience Affair - and little xs for eyes (my band)

Most importantly - I will be entering the second cooking competition of my life! The first was Aoife Mac’s Pie Off. This is  a camper van cook-off. All contestants must cook up the best meal they can with limited ingredients and the cooking facilities of their vans - for me that’s a two ring hob. We toyed with the idea of connecting a rotisserie arm to the engine - but sadly that ‘s not allowed - any suggestions for how to cook a nice desert on a hob would be appreciated I’m drawing a blank right  now. See picture  of the Facilities!! Wish me luck

I’ll update you all when I return - have a great bank holiday you guys!

Also a fail to report - I tried and failed to make yoghurt yesterday - but I have not been put off I will persevere - blog post to follow when successful

What a load of Waffle, here’s a recipe

Balsamic roasted beetroot, orange and feta salad
2 fresh beetroots - diced (1cm cubes)
1 orange segmented
big handful of parsley - chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
1/3 block of feta

Toss your beetroot in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and season. Pop into a preheated oven for 35 mins at a high heat (gas mark 7)

When it’s roasted and turning nicely deep red, remove from the oven. Prepare the rest of your ingredients in a bowl. Mix together the olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Combine the beetroot with the other ingredients and toss well with the dressing.

This is a great salad - with a huge range of flavour. I had sprouted some watercress especially for this salad (it took a week to sprout) then I forgot to add it in. The sharp peppery taste would definitely add to the overall flavour, but it was still delicious without.

Here's a photo of this salad from Jenny Hammerton from Silver Screen Suppers Blog. Thanks for sending it onto me - always good to get feedback. Check out her blog - it's great themed around food the glamourous stars of yesteryear cooked! 

Japanese Green Bean Salad

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> The pit-falls of food photography

Sometimes it’s just very hard to take a photo food, to convey how delicious it was, to keep on re-arranging your composition while your dinner is getting cold, it’s a stressful business at time. In an ideal world I guess I would make an extra dish, but most of the time you’re feeding yourself and your housemates, or friends, so it’s all going to get eaten straight away. So here’s my first attempt at a recipe with no photo at all, none - zip!

Lola cooked some baked potatoes which we had with some butter and sea salt and a big grind of black pepper. Perfect. Along side this we served a nice salad of blanched green beans with a Japanese dressing. A wonderfully simple supper, but sometimes, this is as good as a super complicated dinner using 35 ingredients. The dressing was so good I thought it was well worth sharing.

Ingredients

1/3 Teaspoon of wasabi powder (you can use pre-mixed also though it may not be as hot)

1/5 Teaspoons of dark soy sauce

2 Tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds

1/3 large clove of garlic

Milled pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Blanch your bean sin boiling water for two minutes, until they take on a bright green colour. Drain and rinse under a cold tap to halt the cooking. You could also steam the beans.

Toast the seeds until fragrant under a hot grill - keep an eye on them, they can burn in a few short seconds.

Mix the other ingredients together in a small cup. Combine all three and serve.

A few sliced and toasted almons would also be great in here, as would be a finely sliced red chilli, and some cubes of marinated and fried tofu. The hotness of the wasabi makes this a nice salad to serve in the winter, but would also work equally well during the summer months - on a picnic, with some nice salmon! Summer dreaming in the February rain!

Asparagus and Parma Ham

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The last spear of summer

There has been a lot of talk recently about summer being over and there having been nothing but Rain for 3 months and nothing to look forward to now but winter... blah blah blah...

I wont tolerate this kind of talk, for me, summer is never officially over until After Electric Picnic, so that means there is still almost a whole week to go!!

Whatever about summer, I'm pretty sure that Asparagus season is over, so i felt a bit naughty buying these asparagus (aspsragi?) in Aldi last week... I know, Aldi, terrible terrible person, food miles, child labour, pesticides, etc etc... Anyway, they looked great so I got them out of season. Feck it.

These spears are trimmed, steamed for about 4 mins and then wrapped around with a couple of slices of good parma ham. Then I drizzles them with olive oil, sprinkled with Parmesan shavings, and Voila, a sophisticated, unbelievably delicious starter in 5 minutes. And it looks impressive too!

Try it out, only one week until the end of summer, then it could be TOO LATE!!!!!