Honey baked figs and pears with orange and cardomom

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Figgy pudding

I made this for dessert after following the mushroom soup and squid pasta, it was nice and light after all that food! I really just made this up on the spot, the cardamom really worked well with the orange and made a kind of syrup which was delicious. Also I served it with 'Rachel's' organic vanilla yoghurt. The vanilla really complimented with the other flavours so I would recommend serving it with vanilla flavoured yoghurt or icecream.

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 fresh figs

4 small comice pears

3-4 tbsps honey

Juice of 1 large orange

1 small wine glass sweet white wine

6 cardamom pods

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 220c. Cut the fruit in half from stem to bottom and remove the cores from the pears. Arrange the fruit on a baking tray and drizzle with the honey. Ope the cardamom pods, remove the balck seeds and sprinkle them over the fruit. Sprinkle the cinnamon over too. Then add the juice and wine to the baking tray. Bake for about half an hour or until the fruit is soft. Check regularly through cooking to make sure that the liquid does not dry out. Top up with more juice or wine if neccessary.

Serve drizzled with the syrup and, as i mentioned above, I think it would be important to serve this with something vanilla. Rachel's organic yoghurt is AMAZING with this.

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!

Mushroom and rosemary soup

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So, it's time to come clean. Lola and Lu no longer share a kitchen. This sad fact has been swept under the carpet by us somewhat on this blog, but its time to face facts. Lu moved out 2 months ago and Colm and I are continuing on as the sole occupiers of said Kitchen. However, Lu is a regular visitor and thankfully I have a spare room with a bed made up especially for her.

On Monday night, the end of the bank holiday, I decided that since I hadn't been doing any proper cooking in the longest time, I would cook a 3 course meal especially for Lu. And Colm, of course.

We started with this amazingly mushroomy mushroom soup, which I made using some dried mushrooms my Mum brought me back from France last year. You could use a mixture of fresh ones as long as you can get your hands on something other that button mushrooms, it will turn out grand but perhaps not so intense!

Ingredients:

1 medium punnet ordinary mushrooms

1 litre hot beef stock

2 - 3 cups dried mushrooms

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 litre milk

3-4 big sprigs rosemary

1 oz butter

3 glugs olive oil

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsps sherry

First, soak the dried mushrooms in the beef stock for about half an hour. Meanwhile chop the onion and garlic and saute in a big pot with the lid on until translucent. Add the chopped ordinary mushrooms and 2/3rds of the chopped rosemary. Cook with the lid on until the mushrooms are cooked through and have released their juices, about 10 minutes. Drain the dried mushrooms and add them to the pot. Cook for another 5 mins. Reserve the stock. Add the sherry and stir well. Then sprinkle in the flour and mix in so that it soaks up all the mushroom and sherry juices. Gradually add the stock, stirring well. Simmer to thicken and simmer for a further 5 or 10 minutes. Blend the soup with a stick blender and add the milk, up to 1/2 a litre depending on how thick you like it. While the soup is cooking, you could fry some reserved mushrooms in butter with the rest of the rosemary until crispy to use as a garnish.

Serve with cream if you like, chopped parsley and the mushroom garnish.

Arrabiata

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Guest Chef No. 7 My Dad

Growing up my Dad used to travel a lot during the week. At weekends he really liked to do some cooking to relax and to help my mum out as well. He would get pretty fixated on perfecting a certain dish, and cook it repeatedly week after week until he felt it was perfect. He went through a  risotto phase, and a curry phase, a brief chip phase and the most long lasting on has been the Italian tomato sauce phase!

There would be joking cries from my mother in relation to most dishes he'd make of "oh my god have you put chillies in it?" Most of the time chillies made a perfectly legitimate addition to most dishes - except the risotto I'm guessing. One of my most favourite dishes to which chillies are added is the wonderful pasta arrabiata, a rich and sweet tomato sauce served with pasta to which chili is added to give it a wonderful kick and extra depth. One of my all time favourite dishes and one of the many dishes that my Dad has most definitely perfected over the years.

Thanks for sharing this recipe Dad!

 Pasta Arrabiata

1 medium size onion cooked slowly in a big blob of good olive oil until soft and turning golden alongside 2-3 rashers of bacon.

While cooking this add:

i) plenty of fresh ground black pepper and

ii) 3 garlic segments finely chopped and

iii) a red chili finely sliced / or a pinch of chili powder or cayenne pepper.

When cooked add 2 tins of tomato (or even better 4-6 skinned fresh tomato with hard bit in middle cut out). Leave to bubble away for min of 30 minutes. Take off heat and add 2 teaspoon of sugar to take the bitterness off the tomato.

If you want to be really authentic then add a small beef bone when you put in the tomato and cook for 2-3 hours very, very slowly.

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Cumberland Casserole

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From the Snowy Peak District

 I was lucky enough to be taken away with my parents this Christmas. We spent a week in the snowy and icy Peak District in Derbyshire in England. My mother was born in the area and we still have some relations. It was wonderful to catch up with my aunt, uncle and cousin. I was filled in on some fascinating family history which has been lovingly traced by my uncle, right back to the mid 1700's! Amazing. We enjoyed many slow leisurely meals and long walks in the beautiful snow covered moors. All very idyllic and relaxing.

I made dinner for the family one evening. It being a holiday house I stuck to a simple supper. The inspiration came from a recipe by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I bought some Cumberland sausages from the local butcher. This butchers shop contained a staggering amount of pork pies. The back wall was lined 4 deep and 15 high. When we returned on Stephen's Day (Boxing Day in the UK) they were gone, all of them! I was amazed by the Christmas Pork Pie consumption of these Derbyshire Folk. I guess it must be a Christmas tradition. I was lucky enough to snap one up before they were all gone - and it must have been the best pork pie I've ever had. Perfect pastry, a little jelly on the meat and moist filling - perfect with some English mustard.

Ingredients

Serves 3

5 Cumberland Sausages - skins removed

3 rashers

1/4 of a head of green cabbage - finely sliced

4 potatoes - peeled and finely sliced

1/2 large onion (or 1 small) finely sliced

1 heaped tablespoon of grainy mustard

1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 pint of stock

A few small knobs of butter (it's Christmas)
Seasoning

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grill the rashers and cut into small pieces. In an oven proof dish make a layer of half of the cabbage, half the rashers and half the onion. Then top with the sausage meat - go on squish it out of the casing, it feels lovely! Make it into a rough layer. Top this with the grainy mustard and thyme. Then add the remaining cabbage, rashers and onion. Pour over your stock and a good grind of black pepper. Then top with the potato layer. Cover your dish with it's lid (or tin foil if you don't have a lid. The stock should be coming up past the first layer of cabbage and the sausage. As longs as the potatoes aren't covered it should be fine. Bake in the over for 1 hour and fifteen minutes. Top with freshly chopped parsley before serving with some steamed veg.

This is a lovely non-nonsense supper, that is really delicious despite it's modest ingredients. Greater than the sum of it's elements let's say. Quick and simple to put together and forget about while it bubbles away - yumbo!

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Chocolate Pots

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Or 'I'm moving house and only have use of a microwave' pots!

These are the most wonderful little desserts that are deceptively made in your microwave in 25-30 seconds. Sadly the only photo Ihave was when I attempted to make a kind of baked Alaska version, This didn't work and the ice-cream just melted and escaped over the top.

I've been moving recently and Delo shared this recipe which he invented in a previous career as a bar-tender! They can be knocked up with a few store cupboard ingredients and some milk and cream. Maybe one to keep in store for this festive season.

Ingredients - for one

2 oreos

1 heaped teaspoon of horlicks

1 shot glass of half and half (1/2 milk 1/2 cream)

Blend together the oreos and the horlicks. You can use a blender - or the end of a rolling pin in a cup (which I did). Then combine with the half and half. Put into a small microwaveable dish  - like a ramekin or I used espresso cups. 

Microwave at full power for 34 seconds - if you're using a 750watt microwave. There will be a little experimenting here to see what suits your machine best. Then serve right away with a dollop of cold vanilla ice-cream.

The colour is so dark - it makes me wonder what the hell is in oreos. Don't let this picture fool you - they can look very pretty if you're more careful than me and don;t throw ice-cream in the microwave. I'm not one to use ready made ingredients like this often, but when needs must. This really is a super little 'cheats' desert.

In other exciting news I'm heading to the Cooks Academy in the new year to get some proper tuition in how to be a massive food mastermind. I can't wait, if anyone has some spare chef tunics lying around all donations will be gladly accepted.

Happy Christmas

Lu x

Salon Des Saveurs

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Perks of the job....

Salon Des Saveurs is Conrad Gallagher's latest venture, a gorgeous restaurant on Aungier st. offering tasting menus with matching wine accompaniments. I have wanted to try a tasting menu for a very long time, the combination of loads of different little dishes sounded perfect for someone like me whos has perpetual food envy when eating out. I never seem to pick the right thing, so a tasting menu takes away the dilemma of choosing. So, when out of the blue and into our inbox came a very generous invitation to sample the delights of Salon Des Saveurs, I made sure that I didn't have any lunch in preparation for an epic feed. Sometimes being a food blogger has rewards other than an ever expanding waist line! Unfortunately Lu couldn't make it so I brought along Pam, Lu and I's mutual best friend, who took the snaps below on her iphone. The dining room was warm and stylish, but unfortunately the moody lighting and lack of camera flash made for some not very good pics. You will just have to use your imaginations for the details, and trust me when I say the presentation was gorgeous. Made me feel like Greg Wallace on masterchef!

The starter was Parsnip and Vanilla Soup with Langoustine, or Dublin Bay Prawn, as the chef Matthew also described it. The soup was amazingly silky and perfumed with a hint of vanilla. This is a trick I will definitely be trying in future. My experiments with parsnip and pear soup are documented elsewhere on this blog but this version was much more stylish, I could have eaten a massive bowl but it came beautifully presented in a tiny eggcup-like pice of crockery. Just as well really as it meant we saved room for the delights that followed.

Second course was Oxtail & Foie Gras with Apricot, Grape, Fried Baby Spinach, Hazelnut Aioli. The foie gras looked like a cross section of bone with the oxtail as the marrow and it was utterly delicious. It was served with a very sweet wine, Gewurztraminer Grand Cru from Alsace, which was almost like a desert wine. I am not usually a big fan of foie gras but this one was an exception, and went really nicely with all the little nutty accompaniments

Third up was a Risotto of Asparagus served with Confit of Duck and Arbafura Broth. This dish was heaven! My two all time favourites, asparagus risotto and confit duck together at last! The duck was salty, juicy, and a perfect contrast to the creamy risotto. I will definitely be trying this one out for myself at home.

As if we weren't full enough after that, the next course was Daube of Beef with Celeriac Mousseline, Salsfy Chips, Pearl Onions, Butternut, Parsley Hollandaise. This beef was so slowly cooked it just melted and fell apart to the touch of a fork. Beautiful. I love braised meat but you would really need patience to cook something like this, I am thinking about investing in a slow cooker to have warming winter dishes like this ready and waiting for me when I get home from work. This dish was perfectly paired with a gutsy red Vin de Pays de la Loire.

Finally, we had a Tasting of Desserts - Chocolate Brulee, Lemon Ice-Cream, Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble, Ice Lemon Soufflé, Spiced Lemon Cake. The lemon ice-cream was amazingly sharp and not to everyones taste but I loved it. It was really refreshing with the richness of the other desserts but I couldn't figure out how they made it without the ice-cream curdling with all that lemon juice. Again, many tiny dishes and a real treat, like eating dessert at a doll's tea party!

We left full and very happy, so thanks to Rebecca and all at Salon Des Saveurs for an amazing experience!