Warm&Snug&Fat

hazelnut & buttermilk banana loaf...

2012-02-23T15:39:00.000Z

I have written of banana bread here before. This butter-less banana bread is the nutty type and easier again if such a thing is possible... and with minimum washing up, my favorite kind of loaf! It's what to make when you are being badgered into baking something but don't want to spend the rest of the evening cleaning up after it. If you have children over the age of three they can also do a lot of the work themselves, which is fair, as it is they who have done the badgering.

As with all banana bread, the very best bananas to use are the kind that are so old and blackened that they look like they have been in a house fire. The buttermilk keeps this very moist and can be replaced with natural or hazelnut yogurt in a pinch. The hazelnuts are best toasted before being added to the mix. It is not essential but it does release their inner nuttiness.

Ingredients
2 eggs
80 ml buttermilk
120 ml vegetable oil
225 g mashed bananas (about two large ones)
300 g golden caster sugar
220 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
55 g chopped hazelnuts (toasted)

Directions

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl mash the bananas. Add the buttermilk, vanilla and oil, beat in the eggs. Stir in the sugar. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt onto the mix and mix well. Finally stir in the hazelnuts and pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for one hour and twenty minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and serve with a spoon of cream, unsweetened as this is quite a sweet loaf. A drizzle of icing or syrup, a few banana chips and hazelnuts for extra crunch.

chorizo scrambled eggs taco

2012-02-22T23:04:00.000Z

It's so easy to go through the morning motions on auto-pilot, doing the routine until the second cup of tea or shot of coffee engages your brain. Have you ever had one of those mornings where you were not firing on all cylinders? Maybe you've sent your child to school with a lunchbox packed with meaty treats on an 'Ash Wednesday' when the rest of her 'God fearing' classmates were dutifully observing the religious teachings of the school? No? Nobody? Just me then I guess!

Here's a nice spicy start to the day to get all your senses firing - Chorizo and Scrambled Eggs Breakfast Tacos! This serves two (befuddled) adults very generously.

I've made it without the cheese and you wouldn't really miss it. But here I've put the original recipe as I first made it from Bon Appétit Magazine. They mention a vegetarian substitute for the chorizo called Soyrizo, I don't know what that is or if you can get it here in the meat-loving isle of Ireland, but I'm sure there must be something similar on the market… but that's no reason to get it, it just sounds wrong!

Ingredients

4 corn tortillas

1 cup grated extra-sharp white cheddar cheese

4 large eggs

4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro for d'mericans)

7 ounces cooking chorizo, casing removed if necessary

4 green onions, sliced

Sour cream, salsa and lime to serve (optional)

Preparation

Brush a large nonstick pan with olive or vegetable oil. Char the tortillas over gas flame or directly on electric burner until blackened in spots, turning with tongs. Arrange tortillas in single layer in a pan. Sprinkle each tortilla with 1/4 cup grated cheese and set aside.

Whisk eggs and 2 tablespoons coriander in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté chorizo sausage in heavy medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, breaking up with back of spoon, about 5 minutes. Add green onions and sauté 2 minutes. Add egg mixture and stir until very softly set, about 1 minute. Remove egg mixture from heat.

Cook tortillas in skillet over high heat until beginning to crisp on bottom, but still soft and pliable, about 1 minute. Divide egg mixture among tortillas and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro. Fold each tortilla in half. Serve with sour cream and your favorite salsa, mild or spicy.

scrummy sausage rolls...

2012-02-15T23:31:00.000Z

This is a post about sausage rolls and how to make them extra tasty. Before I go any further I feel I must say in my defence, that it is quite difficult to photograph a sausage without it looking a bit rude. That is all.

Has anyone ever found a decent commercially-made sausage roll? Not me anyway. A recipe that calls for only a few ingredients must have the best, and that just never happens with the commercial type. Cheap puff pastry and low grade pork filling just don't cut the mustard (I also like to add mustard).

The sausage itself must be excellent. If you are lucky enough to have a butcher who makes pork sausages, those will do nicely. There are a lot of high quality sausages available now. I recently met the happy pork folk over at Oldfarm, Margaret and Alfie. Margaret told me the story of how 'Pigs happened to her'. How careless to let pigs take over one's home like that, I thought. But how clever of her to convert them to porky delights and sell them to the sausage eaters that haunt Twitter Land. I shall be having some of those for myself soon I hope. But until then I buy the best quality sausages with the highest pork content that I can find.

I prefer to use a whole sausage as the texture is usually better than sausage meat, add some favourite herbs if you like, sage or thyme are always good with pork. The puff pastry you can make yourself if you have nothing for doing, but I usually buy it. A nice tomato based chutney is ideal for the filling, I use one from Rua in Castlebar which is the chutney you would make if you were making some yourself. Mustard, sharp and smooth. Cheese, piquant and melty. All rolled together and baked until puffed up and golden, great for a quick lunch with a little salad and some extra chutney on the side.

The cutting down the middle and filling comes from my mother who had picked up some very strange habits in boarding school, but that is a story for another day.

Ingredients
A packet of ready-made puff pastry (all-butter)
8 - 12 herbed sausages sliced length-way down the centre
Smooth mustard
1oz cheddar cheese
A couple of tablespoons of good quality chutney
1 free-range egg, beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Small handful of fresh thyme/sage leaves (optional)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Roll the pastry out (if not the pre-rolled sort) on a floured surface to a rectangle and cut in half lengthways. Paint one side of the pastry with the mustard.

Lay the sausages along both pieces of pastry and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sprinkle with herbs. Cut your pastry to best fit your sausages. Spread the chutney and cheese generously into the cut down the centers. Roll the sausage up in the pastry to enclose.

Brush with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, leave to cool slightly before snarfing.

we heart cinnamon rolls...

2012-02-10T22:35:00.000Z

...with a maple syrup glaze

It's that special time of year when chocolate and greetings card companies encourage you to demonstrate the extent of your love in exchange for cash on February 14th. Yes, I admit it, I hate this 'holiday'. I'm not very mushy and I don't care for hot pink. I don't like roses much either, being more of a wild-flower kind of gal. While some couples like to gaze into each other's eyes over their romantic meal, we are as likely to fall asleep into our fancy dinner.

So this year I am making a stand, I will not give into the pink and red sprinkles or take the heart-shaped cookie cutters out of the baking drawer. I will resist the urge to colour anything pink or carve cupid bows into root vegetables. Angel food and red velvet cupcakes are strictly off the menu. Instead I am making good old reliable, everyday, unromantic cinnamon rolls. So there!

I make these the night before and leave them for their second rise in the fridge overnight. Nothing compares to the lovely smell of these gorgeous yeast buns baking in the oven… big, rich, and full to bursting with cinnamon. These are heart shaped and each one will serve two people, perfect for Valentine's day... whoops!

...with an icing sugar glaze

Dough:
600 - 650g plain flour
1 package sachet (7 grams) dry yeast
240ml milk
75g butter
65g granulated white sugar
3 large eggs

Filling:
160g light brown sugar
35g plain flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
110g butter, cold and cubed

Glaze: (Optional, but great)
60g icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment (you can use an electric hand mixer), combine half of the flour with the yeast.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter, sugar, and salt till just warm and the butter is almost melted. Gradually pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, with the mixer on a low setting.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then beat this mixture on high speed for a couple of minutes. Replace the paddle with the dough hook (or knead by hand), and knead in as much of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that is smooth and elastic (up to 5 minutes), but not sticky. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Then gently punch the dough to release the air and let rest for a few minutes.

Make the filling. In a food processor whizz together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and the cold butter into crumbs.

Roll the dough into a 12 inch square. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the rolled out dough and top. Roll the dough evenly from each side to meet in the centre pinching the end into a heart shape. Slice the roll into six equal-sized pieces. Arrange rolls in a large, greased, round glass pie dish. Any sugar mix that escaped during cutting can be sprinked over the top, it makes a lovely crunchy crust. Cover rolls loosely with plastic wrap, leaving room for rolls to rise, at room temperature, until almost doubled (about one hour). They are now ready to bake, or, at this point you can refrigerate the Cinnamon Rolls overnight or up to 24 hours. Next morning, remove the rolls from the refrigerator, take off the plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Bake in a 180C oven for 30 minutes or till light brown, and a toothpick inserted into one of the buns, comes out clean. Remove rolls from oven. Cool for 5 minutes and then invert onto a baking rack and re-invert onto a serving plate or platter. You can drizzle with maple syrup and a bit of powdered sugar shaken over the top looks nice. An icing glaze is more traditional on these and most people seem to prefer it.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 6 large rolls and 12 servings.

Baked in a round tin they will keep a heart shape.

This recipe has been adapted from the joy of baking

This recipe has been submitted to English Mums Baked with Love Bake-off http://englishmum.com/english-mums-baked-with-love-bakeoff.html

nigella's quadruple chocolate cake

2012-02-06T23:52:00.000Z

This is a chocolate cake recipe that I found on Nigella Lawson's very pretty site. While I have most of her books, I hardly ever seem to cook from them anymore, though I don't really know why that is. I suppose I'm just using other books as my reference points at the moment. Tessa Kiros, Hugh Fearnly and more robust recipes that do not need as much exact temperature control for good results. I'm slowly coming to grips with my range cooker where the cooking is more intuitive than an exact science, but 'twas a chocolate cake I was after, so I gave this recipe a whirl.

As far as chocolate cakes are concerned this one is a bit misleading. The four kinds of chocolate don't really make for a very chocolatey cake. There is just 50g of cocoa powder in the sponge, the chocolate chips don't add a lot more at just 175g. One more tablespoon of cocoa in the syrup and some grated dark chocolate over the top brings us up to the four kinds of chocolate that give the cake it's name. What you actually get is a very dense everyday kind of chocolate cake, and because it is so nice and squidgy will keep nicely for a week if not longer.

I have included Nigella's instructions as they appear in their entirety here. When I made it, I served the syrup separately as the sponge was already so sticky that poring the syrup over the cake just seemed wrong. It would also have made it difficult to store it anywhere except the tin I had baked it in. The recipe also requires you to line the tin with foil without tearing it. This was quite frankly, impossible, so with a pile of torn tin foil on the floor I turned to baking parchment which did not tear and worked perfectly.

I also must offer a translation for Nigella's introduction to the cake as some of you may not be able to understand her accent.

Nigella says...
This cake is not named for the bypass you might feel you'd need after eating it, but in honour of the four choc-factors that comprise its glory: cocoa to make the cake; chocolate chips or morsels to fold into it; a chocolate syrup to drench it once out of the oven; flakily sliced dark chocolate to top it before slicing.

I love this for tea, even for weekend breakfast, or late at night when its melting squidginess tends to fall darkly on to my white sheets - and I don't care. It's always wonderful as a pudding: put it on the table, ready to slice, alongside a bowl of strawberries and another of creme fraiche.

Nigella means…
I called this cake quadruple chocolate cake because it's got four bits of chocolate in. I eat it anytime I want, even in bed because I have a cleaner. I like pudding.

For the Cake:
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g cocoa
275g caster sugar
175g soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
80ml sour cream
125ml boiling water
175g dark chocolate chips (unless you'd prefer milk chocolate ones)

For the Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
125ml water
100g caster sugar
25g dark chocolate (from a thick bar if possible)

Method
Makes 10 generous slices

Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all ingredients can come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170°C, putting in a baking sheet as you do so, and line a 900g loaf tin (mine measures 21x11cm and 7.5cm deep and the cooking times are based on that) with greased foil - making sure there are no tears - and leave an overhang all round. Or use a silicone tin.

Put the flour, bicarb, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into the processor and blitz until it's a smooth, satiny brown batter. Scrape down with a rubber spatula and process again while pouring the boiling water down the funnel. Switch it off then remove the lid and the well-scraped double-bladed knife and, still using your rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips or morsels.

Scrape and pour this beautiful batter into the prepared loaf tin and slide into the oven, cooking for about 1 hour. When it's ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a cake-tester, or a fine skewer, should come out clean. But this is a moist cake, so don't be alarmed at a bit of stickiness in evidence; rather, greet it like a friend.

Not long before the cake is due out of the oven (when it's had about 45-50 minutes) put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water and sugar into a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. You may find it needs a little longer - what you want is a reduced liquid, that's to say a syrup, though I often take it a little further, so that the sugar caramelizes and the syrup has a really dark, smokey chocolate intensity.

Take the cake out of the oven and sit it on a cooling rack and, still in its tin, pierce here and there with a cake tester. Then pour the syrup as evenly as possible over the surface of the cake. It will run to the sides of the tin, but some will have been absorbed in the middle.

Let the cake become completely cold and then slip out of its tin, removing the foil as you do so. Sit on an oblong or other plate. Now take your bar of chocolate and cut with a heavy sharp knife, so that it splinters and flakes and falls in slices of varying thick- and thinness. I've specified a weight, but judge it by eye - when you think you've got enough to scatter over the top of the loafcake, stop slicing. Sprinkle these chocolate splinters over the top of the sticky surface of the cake.

bloomin' lovely...

2012-02-04T22:31:00.000Z

Anyone roaming around the food sites lately must have seen that the big trend for the last week was party foods. The Super Bowl brings with it an absolute feast of wings, sliders, chili, chips and dips. I spend quite some time drooling over them all seeing that our own national sport, Hurling (yes, you read right) has an entirely different image associated with it. Supporters travelling in a hired bus, wearing their county jerseys (Up Tipp!), ham sandwiches wrapped in the local bakery's waxy packaging (Hickeys) and a flask of tea. Not so glamorous, but you can't beat a good ham sandwich.

When making food for a party or crowd, foods that are simple to eat with your hands and fingers are by far the best choices. I have filed away lots of lovely things to try for a larger gathering. One thing I've come across quite a lot is a cheese-filled loaf of bread to share called either a 'pull apart bread' or a 'blooming onion'. It looked great and I loved the idea of it, but the thought of serving it to a crowd was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. Well, just the thoughts of people pulling lumps from the loaf and the stringy cheese going everywhere, butter dripping all over the place - no thank you!

Instead I have transformed it into something else… an individual portioned blooming crouton to serve with a bowl of soup. Cutting right back on the butter and cheese of the original, this is like a big flavored crouton dried out in the oven to tear into your soup. So, this is not so much a recipe I suppose, more like a suggestion or a starting point. I would flavor the crouton according to the soup or salad you intend to serve it with. Garlic butter and parmesan with a minestrone might be nice; bacon and spring onion with a pea soup is another I thought of. Sprinkling some poppy or sesame seeds over would add another dimension. Or indeed make the original one and stuff it full to bursting with cheese if you think your nerves could stand it.

Here is how to make a blooming crouton!

One crusty bread roll per person
Some fillings of your choice - I used for two people
2 slices of cheese
2 slices of parma ham
4 cherry tomatoes quartered
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for drizzling
a little bit of butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the bread lengthwise and widthwise without cutting clean through the bottom. Place loaf on a baking sheet. Push your fillings down and between the cuts in the rolls slices Drizzle the olive oil over the bread, dot with the butter and season with salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until nicely colored and crisped up.

Serve one per person to accompany nice bowl of soup or a lunch time salad - blooming lovely!

bay roasted baby hasselbacks...

2012-01-28T22:52:00.001Z

Last year was my first time growing my own potatoes. I ordered a few heritage varieties from Seed Savers, varieties that would be difficult to find in the shops, some early and some main crop. I planted them late enough in the season so as to avoid any late frosts as we are prone to here in the West.

They grew readily with the (plentiful) rain and flowered in white, yellow and some in a glorious purple. The leaves faded and died back, so it was time to harvest.

It was lovely to see the childrens' delight at sifting through the soil and discovering hidden potatoes, like a messy easter egg hunt… potatoes with skins so thin that you could brush them off with your thumb. The taste of those freshly dug little earlies, with butter, ground pepper and fat flakes of sea salt was amazing. I was smitten.

To my Irish readers - there is something we should all do, and that is to be careful to read the country of origin on our potato choices because for most weeks of the year we should be buying Irish and eating our way out of recession one spud at a time.

To my American, Australian and European readers, and the lady in Africa - Irish spuds are great, pick them up if you see them!

Potatoes, as we know, are not from here, but somehow they have become more Irish than the Irish themselves. You can throw any number of herbs and spices at them and they just smile and take it as a compliment. A bowl of leftover mash in the back of the fridge or a few cold boiled potatoes in their skins is a treasure waiting to be explored. Whether it's a baked potato, stuffed to bursting, or mountains of creamy mash atop a shepherds pie or even fish & chips - the potato seems to make its way onto my plate more often than not. I sometimes think that it is the only way to get through an Irish winter. Steamed, boiled, sauteed, fried, deep-fried or baked… each method provides its own unique flavour and texture.

The humble potato has come a long way. Years ago it was seen as something that was fit only for animal fodder. Nowadays, in the form of fries, served with burgers and a coke, they are an icon of globalisation. But the poor old spud is on the decline here in Ireland. There are a lot of forces at work against them, the 'Low Carb' brigade, the charms of more exotic additions of rice, pasta and couscous dishes that we now eat as a nation. They have a undeservedly unhealthy reputation too - they only have as much fat as is added to them, yet are full of nutrition, a great source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fibre and niacin and all that good stuff that we should care about.

Nearly every other nation on earth has a favourite potato dish. Exotic, elegant, plain or traditional. Here's one I love from Sweden.

Hasselbacks are the best known of the swedish potato recipes. The original uses butter and breadcrumbs, sometimes parmesan. Bay leaves are a favorite scandinavian herb. The potatoes are slices deeply, almost to the base so that the slices open out slightly like a fan when cooked and the edges get beautifully crispy and golden.

24 small new potatoes

fresh or dried bay leaves (fresh look prettier in the finished dish)

15g butter

3 tbsp olive oil

4 - 7 garlic cloves left whole in their skins

salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 200C

To prepare the potatoes, scrub and cut. The easiest way I have found is to place 2 chopsticks on a board and lay the potato lengthways. Using a sharp knife and holding the potato in place with the sticks, make crossways cuts 3mm apart cutting just down as far as the sticks. You could alternatively place them on a wooden spoon, or I have also seen them speared with a skewer about 5mm from the base, sliced across and the skewer removed. Anyway that stops the knife slicing clean through the potato will do.

Insert a whole small bay leaf in each sliced potato. Melt the butter and oil together in a roasting tin add the garlic and the potatoes in a single layer and season generously with freshly ground pepper and sea salt flakes. Move them around in the oil to coat all over and color a little then transfer to the oven and roast for about 30 mins depending on the size of your potatoes.

Serve as an accompaniment to roast or grilled meat or poultry, baked salmon or panfried white fish.

If you want a few more ideas on how to liven up your potatoes - 'The Daily Spud' is the spiritual leader of potato lovers everywhere. This spud blogs from the glorious capital on all things spud related with a huge amount of potato ideas for you to drool over. http://www.thedailyspud.com/category/recipes/potato-recipes/

Some of my first spuds and peas, with small cousins.

If you want to get information or involved in the discussion about the difficulties facing the Irish potato producers, this is the blog to go to. It's not run by a potato, but an actual lady, who is a champion of Irish food and all that that entails. She also has lovely hair that I would like for myself.

http://www.basketcasetheblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/can-we-save-our-spuds.html

banoffee cake...

2012-01-27T20:15:00.000Z

There is a very strict lunch policy in our local school, which I'm a big fan of. No sweets or crisps or fizzy drinks of any kind. Since all the children have the same kind of healthy lunches, it really cuts down on the nagging time in the supermarket, where the only major difference of opinion nowadays is the dreaded cereal isle. Things are quite sensible as well in the pre-school that little Lily goes to, although I do sometimes slip a slice of homemade banana loaf cake into her lunchbox as it is her very favorite. She loves her school and was very fond of her teacher. So much so that she liked to share her slice of cake with her. But recently her beloved Zoozan (aka Susan) left to start a job closer to home, Lily asked for a banana cake for her leaving party, which I duly supplied.

I used this recipe from Lily Higgins book 'Make Bake Love' instead of my usual recipe for more visual impact. The cake itself is lovely, but the frosting is the real star of this show. I will definitely be making it again to ice some buns or cupcakes I think. Ideal for using up bananas that you've kept for a bit too long. I used a milder corn oil instead of olive oil as the olive oils I had were quite strongly flavoured.

This cake turned out just like the picture in the book.

Banoffee Cake

Serves 10–12

This butterless banana cake is perfectly moist and beautifully balanced with the toffee icing. If you don’t want lashings of toffee gorgeousness atop your cake, then just butter the sides of the tin and coat with demerara sugar for a sweet crunch on the cake’s edges.

For the cake:
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
170g demerara sugar
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence
225ml olive oil

For the toffee icing:
220g demerara sugar
60g butter
60ml milk
240g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
banana chips, to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 28cm springform tin and dust with flour or demerara sugar (see note above).

2. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer on high until thickened and light in colour. Fold in the mashed banana and vanilla. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while still mixing.

4. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed, taking care not to over mix. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

5. Bake for 25–30 minutes, until golden. Cool fully on a rack before icing.

6. To make the icing, place the sugar, butter and milk into a pan over a high heat. Stir everything well and bring to the boil. Keep stirring and boil for 1 minute.

7. Remove from the heat and beat in half of the icing sugar. Allow to cool slightly, then add the vanilla and the rest of the sugar. Beat well until it thickens.

8. Spread the icing over the cake straightaway, as the icing will harden slightly. Top with banana chips.

cheese and broccoli soup

2012-01-23T12:02:00.000Z

For me, this soup is just a big hug in a bowl. It's deliciously warming, perfect for lunch or chilly evenings and ready in just 30 minutes. Using the stalks of the broccoli makes the soup quite thick, so you may want to add a little more milk to suit your tastes.

Pick a good melting cheese, a strong cheddar is always a good choice. Grating cheese can seem like a chore but it makes a small amount of cheese look like loads. Don't even think about buying pre-grated cheese, freshly grated cheese has a fuller flavor and won't be at all dry.

Cheese & Broccoli Soup

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter, divided into halves

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 head of broccoli broken into small florets and any stalks reserved

1/2 a medium heat green chilli (optional)

1 1/2 ltres of chicken or vegetable broth

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp mustard powder

200ml milk (any kind)

1 - 2 oz mature cheese grated

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

In a large saucepan and over medium heat, melt half the butter (2 tbsp), add to this the onion and chilli and sauté until tender, about 7 minutes. Stir in the stock, carrots and broccoli stalks. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. When the vegetables are totally softened, blitz with a handheld blender or in a liquidiser and return to the saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the remaining butter. Add the flour and mustard powder and cook for a minute stirring constantly. Stir in the milk and cook until the mixture thickens and bubbles, whisking all the while, about 3-5 minutes.

Once the mixture has thickened, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in most of the cheese until melted. Slowly pour the cheese sauce into the soup pot and stir to combine the two mixtures and add in the remaining broccoli florets. Bring back to the boil and allow to simmer until the broccoli is tender. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Scatter the remaining cheese on top with a little extra grind of black pepper and serve with some lovely crusty bread or some wholemeal scones if you are so inclined.

marvellous marmalade

2012-01-20T13:15:00.000Z

You can't flick through a cookery magazine or trawl your favorite food websites at this time of year without hitting upon a few recipes for the seasonal treat that is Seville Orange Marmalade. The Seville orange is incredibly bitter and not at all something that you want to eat in its natural state. But Seville Orange Marmalade is one of the best things that can be spread on toast and an incredibly useful ingredient for stirring into both sweet and savory dishes. This is the time of year for making it as the Seville oranges are only available for a few weeks in and around January.

If you have no time for making it now, do not panic, Seville oranges freeze very well. So buy them when you see them and pop them in the freezer for making marmalade whenever it suits you during the year. I use Mary Berry’s recipe from 'The Aga Book' where the marmalade is made from frozen oranges brought to the boil and then left over night in the simmering oven*. I love this method as there is less mess and the fruit is far easier to cut up after the peel has softened.

This recipe makes 10lb/5kg, about 10 jars. They make a lovely gift to give to friends, but If you are not as marmalade mad as I am you can, of course, halve the recipe. Use the largest pan you have as the hot liquid bubbles up far higher than you might think and a hot marmalade eruption takes a LOT of cleaning up.

1½kg (3lb) Seville oranges

Juice of 2 lemons

3 kg (6lb) sugar

2 litres (4 pints) water

Method

Put the whole oranges in a large preserving pan and add the lemon juice. Cover with the water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, place the pan carefully in the simmering oven and leave to simmer until the oranges are tender (2 hours or so for fresh fruit, overnight for frozen). Remove the oranges and leave to cool. Once cool enough to handle, cut them in half and scoop out all the pulp and pips and place these back into the water. Bring to the boil and boil for 6 minutes. Strain this liquid into a large bowl through a sieve and, using a spoon, force the pulp, which contains the pectin that will set the marmalade, through the sieve. Pour the liquid back into the preserving pan.

Cut the peel of the oranges as thinly or as thickly as you like your shreds (I like mine thin and seldom) and add these to the liquid, along with the sugar. Bring the whole lot up to a rolling boil and boil until setting point is reached. You can test for this with a sugar thermometer (105°c) or have a cold saucer from the freezer ready, allowed a little drop of the jam to cool on this saucer, the surface will wrinkle when pushed with your finger when it is ready.

Allow the marmalade to cool a little and then pour into sterilised jars. To sterilise your jars, wash in warm soapy water and rinse with hot water, then place on a baking tray in the simmering oven for twenty minutes. Alternatively run them through a cycle in the dishwasher and use directly from there.

There are loads of flavors to add to marmalade if you fancy experimenting. Here is a Whisky and Ginger version my fellow blogger Kristin, at Edible Ireland, made using a different method you might be interest be to read also...

*In a conventional oven heat to 120C and simmer unfrozen fruit for two hours, frozen for about an hour longer.

baked brunch baguette

2012-01-16T21:37:00.000Z

This is a fabulous breakfast or brunch recipe, easily increased for larger numbers or appetites. Featuring the ever useful egg - it's a kind of Jumbo Breakfast Roll if breakfast rolls were glamorous. Remember to whip up your egg mixture in a jug, as it makes it really easy to fill your hollowed out bread rolls. Be careful not to overcook these, you want crusty on the outside with a soft eggy, cheesy yumminess oozing from the inside, overcooking will give you a dry and too firmly set inside, sad times.

For those of you not familiar with this classic Irish meal solution, the breakfast roll is typically white bread slathered in 'spread' and filled with a traditional fry, designed to be eaten on the way to school or building site, single-handed. Rashers, sausages and eggs usually feature heavily, maybe some white and black pudding, often mushrooms and hash browns, sometimes even beans and all smothered in ketchup or brown sauce.

Since the breakfast roll is now in a catastrophic decline, in line with the fall of the construction industry, it's time for a radical make-over. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you… The Baked Brunch Baguette

Makes 2 filled baguettes

Ingredients:
2 demi baguettes, wholemeal or seeded
2 whole eggs + 1 egg yolk
25ml cream or creme fraiche
2 thin slices parma ham
1 ounce hard cheese, grated (I used gouda)
2 spring onions, finely sliced
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. You will need a hot oven - about 200C.

2. Cut out a long oval section from the tops of the baguettes and scoop out the soft bread from the inside being careful not to pierce the crust.

3. Crack the eggs into a jug and beat together with the cream, onion and seasoning. Mix in most of the grated cheese.

4. Pour half the mixture into each baguette and place each onto a slice of ham on a baking sheet. Fold the ham up over the middle of the bread roll and scatter the rest of the cheese on top.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown, the egg mixture is puffed up but sill runny in the centre and the parma ham is crispy.

6. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and serve.

Published as part of http://verygoodrecipes.com/breakfasts-of-the-world-challenge

http://verygoodrecipes.com/ireland

a very good granola

2012-01-05T23:17:00.001Z

Granola saved with homemade pouring yogurt and dried tropical fruits.

Homemade granola is delicious, fast, filling and much cheaper than shop-bought! It’s easy to make, too - it just needs a long, slow toasting and once you have mastered your own recipe it is well nigh impossible to go back to any commercial variety. The result is a wonderfully crisp textured cereal with just the right amount of sweetness. You can eat this as you would any other cereal, with cold milk or some natural yoghurt. The key is to cook the granola until it is a lovely crunchy golden brown. You can take your own nut preference into account, but remember that all nuts are not created equal and some are a lot more expensive than others.

300g Jumbo oats
50g Pinhead oats
1 Tbsp Wheatgerm
120g Sunflower seeds
120g Pumpkin seeds
150g Mixed nuts of your choice
Pinch of salt

125ml Apple juice
4 Tbsp Maple syrup
2 Tbsp Sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 300F (150C) or use the bottom oven of a range.

The basic granola is also a great ingredient for cookies and crumbles.

1. In a very large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients

2. In a small pyrex jug, whisk together the wet ingredients and mix into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets.

3. Bake the granola for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until the granola is a nice golden brown.

4. Remove from oven, then cool completely.

Store the granola in a large, airtight container. It will keep for up to one month. These quantities make about 11 very generous servings.

Add your own favorite toppings to the basic mix.

Now for the fun part… Mr. Snug is in training for a triathlon and eats this granola the same way with the same topping and milk every single morning. It keeps him full 'til lunch time and if he can't have any he will not be a happy bunny. If I had to eat the same thing every morning I honestly think I would lose my will to live. I do eat this granola about once a week but I have hardly ever eaten it the same way twice… natural yogurt, fresh and dried fruit - the possibilities are endless.

Some of my additions have been extra pecans and brazil nuts, sesame seeds, dried coconut, dark and golden raisins, currants, prunes, dates, sugared mango and papaya, dried cherries and apricots. A bit of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, almond or vanilla extract, finely grated orange zest and chocolate chips.

If you are adding any spices or extra seeds and nuts they should be added before the baking stage. Add any dried fruits or chocolate chips when the granola is completely cooled.

a winters tail...

2012-01-04T22:57:00.000Z

It's the start of a New Year and for my first recipe I am going to ask all my vegetarian friends to look away now, as I share with you my very favorite cut of meat.

Oxtail is the most unctuous and flavoursome cut of beef, my personal favorite and still inexpensive enough, despite the popularity of it on the menus of many prestigious restaurants. When you buy an oxtail it is generally cut into sections, across the tail, in rounds of oxtail on the bone. These are just perfect for casseroles or braising. Oxtail is a tough, gelatinous cut of meat that really has to be slow cooked to tenderise, but also to extract that lovely gelatin which adds body to the stewing liquid. The oxtails are fatty, so are really best cooked a day ahead, so they can chill overnight and have the fat removed from the top the next day.

You can of course serve the oxtails with the bone-in, but because the meat is so easily removed from the bone I always think it better to do just that before dishing up, as it really doesn't take long at all.

There are many ways of cooking oxtail, and while I don't think I can pick a favorite, this recipe makes for a robust and rich pasta dish. Warm crusty bread is all that is needed as an accompaniment to mop up the last of this most delicious ragu. As with all 'Slow Cooking' you will need a low to moderate heat in your oven - I cook this in the lower oven of the range which is about 120C for at least 3 hours, times and heats being approximate.

1.5lb oxtail – cut into sections
1 small onion – finely chopped
1 carrot – finely chopped
1 stalk of celery – finely chopped
2 - 3 glasses of red wine
2 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
Beef stock
Olive oil

Your choice of pasta (I like a wide papardelle with this) with parmesan and fresh basil to serve.

In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil. When hot, start browning the oxtail pieces. Don’t overload the pan – do it in two batches if you must. When the oxtail is nicely colored, remove from the pan to a plate.

Add a little more oil to the pan, if required, and gently cook the onion, carrot and celery until soft, then pour in the red wine. Deglaze the pan, scraping around to get the tasty bits off the bottom. When the wine has reduced a bit, stir in the tomato paste and transfer to your casserole dish. Add in the browned oxtail and tuck in the herbs.

Put the oxtail into a heavy casserole dish that has a well-fitting lid. Pour in the red wine, stock and vegetables. Add enough water to get the liquid level about half way up the side of the meat if necessary, keeping it topped up with water during the cooking to this level if needed. Cover the dish tightly either with a lid, or foil, and place in the oven for about 4 hours until the meat is falling off the bone.

Remove the meat from the sauce and when cool enough to handle, pull the meat off the bone, and chop. Skim any fat from the top of the braising liquid. In a medium pan, combine the meat and liquid from the braise, discarding the bay and thyme leaves. Cover the pan loosely, and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Cook the pasta until it still has a little bite.

Toss the pasta with oxtail ragu. Serve with some freshly grated parmesan, and a few sprigs of basil.

'tis the night before christmas...

2011-12-24T09:09:00.002Z

'While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads'

Merry Christmas from 'Warm & Snug & Fat' and thank you for visiting during the year.

Amee

home for christmas...

2011-12-22T15:29:00.000Z

More is expected of the Christmas gingerbread biscuit than any other cookie dough. It must taste good and have a nice spicy kick to stand up to the sweet icing that it is often decorated with. It must last a long time when hung as a decoration and it must withstand being fashioned into architectural marvels without risk of collapsing.

I have made this dough a few times already in the last couple of weeks as it ticks all the boxes. They have been shaped, iced and dispatched as presents to the childrens' teachers, all prettily packed in little boxes. The gingerbread house has been made and is still standing proud even after being decorated by two of the clumsiest four year olds on the planet, a veritable Christmas miracle!

I like to eat them on their own without the icing and can (humbly) say that they are one of my favorite little biscuits of all time!

This recipe can be used to make a whole range of decorations, buildings, gifts and, of course, gingerbread people. Children love to help roll and cut out the dough and to decorate the biscuits. I buy the squeezy tubes of colored icing and let them go nuts with it. There is no need to chill the dough before rolling it.

Wholemeal Gingerbread Biscuits
(adapted from a Waitrose recipe)

125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscavado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
175g wholemeal flour
150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a couple of trays with baking paper. Put the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan and heat gently until everything is melted and smooth. Put aside. Sift the flours, bicarb and spices together into a big bowl. Pour the melted mixture into it and stir well to combine. Dust a work surface with flour and roll the mixture out until about 5mm thick, or roll out between 2 sheets of cling film. Use a floured biscuit cutter to cut out shapes and place on the tray. Bake in batches for about 8-10 minutes - they should get slightly darker around the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Make holes in them before baking with a cocktail stick if you would like to hang them and check to make sure that the holes are still open while they are hot.

Hannah's first ginger bread house - some room for improvement.

short and sweet...

2011-12-21T21:46:00.000Z

This Christmas the lovely ladies at the Irish Food Bloggers Association are hosting a Christmas biscuit recipe swap and I was lucky enough to get the talented Yvonne at Hey Pesto as my recipe swap partner. She kindly shared one of her favorite standby's with me. Her Vanilla Shortbread Biscuits, originally taken from the BBC Good Food Magazine, was her trade and lovely biscuits they are too - worthy of any festive tea-time plate.

The classic shortbread is a very basic recipe consisting of just five ingredients: butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Shortbread is Scottish in origin, where it has long been a traditional holiday food, served on Christmas as well as the New Year's Eve festival of Hogmanay. Although these days we eat shortbread all year round, it's still closely associated with the Christmas season, with Danish Butter Cookies and Petticoat Tails featuring on many peoples' Christmas shopping 'must haves'.

Home baked shortbread is easy to make, cheaper and far tastier than the bought kind. It stores very well for up to a month in an airtight container, so it's definitely worth adding to your baking repertoire.

This is definitely a biscuit, dainty and delicate, not a robust cookie. It is understated and elegant, rather like the recipe donor herself and for a little biscuit, they certainly deliver a big flavour.

Vanilla Shortbread Biscuits

Ingredients

175g plain flour

50g caster sugar

100g salted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

You need a moderate oven, preheat to about 170C. Mix all the ingredients in a food processor until the mixture comes together as a dough. Roll out using icing sugar and cut into required shape(s). Bake for 7-10 mins depending on thickness – you want a light golden brown colour when cooked.

To add to Yvonne's instructions I would recommend starting with the butter at room temperature, the dough comes together much faster. If you roll the dough out between two sheets of cling film and skip the icing sugar (the thickness of a euro coin is about right for these), it cuts down on any clean up time and makes transferring your shapes to the baking sheets much easier. You will get about 24 medium sized biscuits from this quantity.

Enjoy, and remember - shortbread is for life, not just for Christmas.

last minute christmas mincemeat...

2011-12-16T13:43:00.000Z

Even though Christmas is nearly upon us, it's still not too late to make your own mincemeat. If you've never made this before it is one of the simplest things to make, but also very gratifying. There is very little work involved. After some weighing, a little chopping and grating, all you need to do is stir occasionally while your house fills with the smell of Christmas-ness.

My recipe is vegetarian, nut free and best of all, there are no horrible big lumps of candied peel - my own personal idea of Christmas hell! As you are making it yourself you can, of course, put the best of everything in… muscatel raisins, golden sultanas, etc. as they really make a big difference to the finished product.

I use butter in mine, as I prefer the flavor to the traditional suet and it also makes it suitable for vegetarians. It will, however, look a little cloudy in the jar, but that will melt away on heating. I also don't include any nuts, as there are a lot of nut allergies around these days. They can be incorporated in the topping instead for those who really love them, but feel free to add some to your own. About 50g of almonds for this quantity of mincemeat is about right, making sure to toast them first to bring out all of their delicious nutty flavor. You could also use brandy or rum in place of the sherry if that's what you have. I also use regular salted butter but if you are using unsalted remember to add a pinch of salt to the mixture.

Ingredients
175g/6oz currants
175g/6oz raisins
175g/6oz sultanas
175g/6oz glacé cherries
1 small Bramley or other cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
125g/4oz butter
225g/8oz light muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp mixed spice
Grated zest of one orange
Grated zest and juice of one lemon
200ml/7floz of good quality sherry.

Weigh out your fruits into a large pan and add in the chopped apple, zests and lemon juice, butter, sugar and spices. Allow to melt together over a low heat, then simmer very gently for about 10 minutes. When the mixture has cooled completely, stir in the sherry. Spoon the mix into sterilized jars, seal, label (with love) and store in a cool place.

This makes four jars of mince meat. Use it to make traditional mince pies to feed the hordes of hungry carol singers calling to your door.

"But what else can I do with it?" I hear you ask… Well, you can mix up your mince pie toppings with almond meringue piped on instead of a pastry lid. Or try a simple nutty crumble topping piled over. Or festive-up your regular ice-cream with a warm dollop of mix. Or even make a bread and butter pudding with slices of plain white bread or brioche sandwiched together with a generous spread of this as a filling before pouring over your custard and baking as usual. Mmmmm!

And of course, if you pack it into a pretty jar and tie a jaunty bow, they do make lovely homemade Christmas stocking fillers.

coconut macaroons...

2011-12-01T22:48:00.001Z

My last post was for the rich and creamy ice-cream slice that, some of the more observant of you may have noticed, called for six egg yolks. I have been known on occasion to let one stray egg white go down the sink uncooked. Very occasionally I may have let two go. But six egg whites… I could not in all conscience see them wasted. What did you do with the egg whites then, Amee? I hear you all cry in unison. Well, let me tell you what…

Two egg whites were whisked up with sugar into a roulade, baked in a swissroll tin and rolled with toffee cream and slices of caramel apple. Ta-daaah...Toffee Apple Roulade -quick, simple and dee-licious!

The other four were used in my own favorite sweet treat, Coconut Macaroons. This is more or less the home-made version of a 'Bounty Bar', (called 'Mounds' in America, as I am reliably informed by my friend Mona - my go-to-gal for all Americana wisdom).

With a crispy exterior and a soft, chewy interior, these can be eaten warm from the oven, or dipped in milk or dark chocolate at room temperature. You will need to chill the mixture before putting it in the oven, but you can leave them overnight in the fridge before cooking and they will not suffer in the slightest.

The Coconut Macaroons store very well. They will stay wonderfully moist and chewy even after a few days in the cookie jar.

Coconut Macaroons:

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

200 g granulated white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

50g plain flour, sifted

10g corn flour

50g desiccated coconut

100g chocolate of choice, melted.

Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt. When this mixture is warm to the touch and nice and creamy, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract, flours and coconut. Cover and refrigerate for about two hours until firm, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place small mounds (very heaped teaspoons) of the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them several inches apart. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool. When cold, dip the flat bottoms in the melted chocolate - replace on the parchment-lined baking sheets until set then drizzle the tops of the macaroons with the remaining chocolate.

Makes about 2 dozen macaroons

comfort and joy...

2011-11-27T23:21:00.001Z

I have always loved christmas and really start getting excited about it in September to be honest, I just wait for Holloween to be over with so I can start making plans.

It's a time for making new memories for the little people in your life. My own memories from Christmas growing up in a family of five were mostly of the fun of creeping out on Christmas morning with my brothers to see what had been delivered in the night. As in most Irish homes, the day itself revolved around the turkey which had been dangling upside-down in the cool basement with its head, wings and innards still intact. After my mother had dealt with it, the wings would be used to brush out the bottom oven of the range or fireplace for a while, while the innards would add a deep, rich flavor to the Christmas dinner gravy - but to this day I don't know what became of the head!

Dessert was always a choice of a trifle, fruit salad or yule log as standard, along with the traditional Christmas cake and pudding that had been made at the end of October. Not forgetting the mince pies in big (or so they seemed) glass jars in the corner cupboard. All very excellent Christmas Day fare.

Now I am the 'mammy' and though tastes have changed there's still a great sense of tradition-making that I've inherited. I still make a cake and a pudding and maybe some mincemeat as well - but the demand for these types of heavily spiced confections seems to be over, and having never really liked them myself I can't miss them too much, but there's always room for invention in cooking!

So, for the last few Christmases I have made this ice-creamy dessert for after the meal itself. It uses all the things that mean Christmas to me - ginger bread, nougat, and the red cherries (that I tell the children are reindeer noses). All of these ingredients are easily replaced by other Christmas flavors, use crumbled Christmas cake or pudding in place of the ginger cake, put handfuls of nuts and dried fruits in as well. This dessert is one that can grow with the changing tastes of your family, and the big bonus is that mine is already made and waiting in my freezer for its time to shine, leaving me plenty of time to fuss over my dinner and still look like a effortless hostess presenting my dessert with a charming flourish!

When I use cream I really like to use the double cream (which my American readers call heavy cream). It's nice to work with, more stable and far more easy to find than even a couple of years ago, when I had to go to 5 different shops to find enough of the small purple Avonmore cartons to make my dessert.

It's light, rich and tasty and even if you think you can't manage another morsel of food, you can easily eat a slice of this and maybe check your neighbors plate to see if there might be a little piece extra left over there…

Christmas Ice-cream slice

This ice-cream will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer

180g caster sugar
6 medium egg yolks
750ml Avonmore double cream
200g ginger cake crumbled, homemade or bought
75g glacé cherries
100g good quality nougat

Decoration can be edible silver balls, plastic Santas, small robins or whatever your heart desires!

Line a 1.5 litre loaf tin with cling film, leaving a large overlap to cover it later.

Put the sugar and 4 tablespoons of cold water in a saucepan over a low heat to dissolve your sugar.
Increase the heat, bring to the boil and cook for about 3 mins without stirring until syrupy. (If you have a sugar thermometer this is will read just below soft boil) Take the pan from the heat, beat the eggs with a electric whisk until pale and thickened. Add the hot sugar syrup very gradually, whisking all the while so that the eggs don't curdle, until you have a thick mixture. Keep whisking until it has cooled.

In another bowl whisk the cream into soft peaks. Fold half of the cream into the egg mixture and the into the other half add your crumbled cake of choice. Fold the two halves in together with your cherries and nougat. Spoon into your prepared tin, level the top and fold over the cling film. Freeze for 6 hours or over night. Turn out onto a pretty plate - discarding the cling film, decorate to your liking and cut into slices with a knife heated in a jug of hot water.

coffee & almond macaron cake

2011-11-26T23:46:00.001Z

While friends, family and many fellow bloggers overseas celebrate Thanksgiving, on that date we here at the WarmSnugFat household have a much more important anniversary in mind. For it is the day of The Beloved Husband's birth, and must be suitably celebrated. Normally I'm the sort of person who couldn't care less if there was a cake or not for my own birthday, but I really enjoy inventing cakes for everybody else's birthdays based on their own particular taste. The Husband has quite sophisticated taste in cake, his preference being coffee and walnut cake, usually found at Rua. It's a nice light cake with butter icing and I think a hint of orange in the sponge. I didn't want to bother Aran to ask him for the exact recipe when he was so busy winning a Good Food Ireland award for his most excellent shop and deli (shameless plug for my child's godfather!) so I came up with something else, and he liked it… a lot!

Instead of espresso feel free to use some strong instant coffee - you can split the sponges in two to make a four layer cake, in which case i would up the quantity of the frosting a little, and leave a little extra frosting for piling on top with some extra toasted nuts for your own birthday boy - it is a birthday, after all.

For the sponge

180g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

100g demerara sugar

3 eggs

200g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

2 tbsp espresso

For the meringue

2 egg whites

2oz caster sugar

2oz ground almonds

For the frosting

8oz of cream cheese

4oz butter, softened

4oz caster sugar

150g flaked toasted almonds to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C Butter and line 2 x 20cm sandwich cake tins.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture and fold in with the espresso until everything is just combined.

Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 25 minutes checking for doneness with a skewer after this time. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then onto a wire rack to cool completely

Turn the oven down to 120C

Trace the outline of one of the sandwich pans onto a square of baking parchment

Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until they form stiff peaks, whisk in the sugar a tablespoon at a time then carefully fold in the ground almonds with a metal spoon. Pile the mixture into your circle template and bake for about an hour

Make the frosting by beating the cheese, butter and sugar together until light and creamy, add the coffee and mix well.

Assemble the cake: Slice the sponges in half horizontally to make four circles, sandwich them together with the buttercream frosting, spreading a layer on the top and sides also. Press the toasted almonds around the sides and top with the meringue layer to finish. Serve with cream and a coffee syrup if liked.

a visit to france...

2011-11-24T11:55:00.001Z

So there was a competition for one Irish-based food blogger to go along with Kristin of the Irish Food Bloggers Association on a trip to France, courtesy of Bord Bia, to represent the Irish at the popular Salon du Blog Culinaire. Bord bia wanted to show French bloggers what Irish food is all about! I was the chosen one - and it was a load of fun.

The name of the game was for the French to discover the quality of Irish food. Myself, Kristin and a few of the french bloggers rolled up our sleeves and got busy cooking up some quality Irish ingredients. Beef, lamb, crab and mussels all got a turn centre stage.

Chaperoned from the airport by the gorgeous Maeve from the Dublin Office, we arrived in Paris and traveled to the French office where we met the team and were whisked of for lunch and shopping by the excellent Noreen, a Tipperary native (Tipperary North that is). Having picked up the last of our ingredients for our demos in the Bon Marché we traveled onwards to Soissons with Bernadette Byrne, the Queen of Meat (yes, that is her official title). Bernadette was our guide, mentor and Mammy in all thing Francais. Lovely Hannah was there bright and early on Saturday morning to translate and help us prep our dishes.

Now, I feel to be entirely fair to these ladies I need to mention that, while they were gawgeaus and lovely, nice and entertaining, all of those good things, rarely have I come across a group of people so passionate and dedicated to their jobs, routinely giving up many weekends in a row, often getting up at silly o'clock in the morning to travel, and going constantly above and beyond the call of duty to get the desired results. I was impressed! Irish food seems to be in safe hands.

Then there was a whiskey leprechaun, room mix-ups and scary intruder stories, sitting in the dark, exploding deep fat fryers, rabbit ears, stalker photographers, fun fairs, McDonalds macaroons, fire alarms, angry shouting directors, charming chefs, rude sat-nav, good cheese & bad tea… but all of these are a story for another day.

Here is one of the recipes I made there.

Baked Crab Cakes with a Dill Tartare sauce

A saunter down to the docks in Galway gives me the choice of preparing my own crab or buying the meat already cooked and ready to go. Both the sauce and the crab mixture can be made ahead and left chilling in the fridge making this a very easy recipe to put together. Larger cakes make a lovely starter, smaller cakes make great finger food to serve with drinks. Sometimes I sauté a few crab claws in garlic butter, also lovely with the dill tartare and another lovely, almost effortless way with crab.

Crab Cakes

Up to 75g of mayonnaise, or good quality ready prepared

2 tbsp soured cream

1/2 tbsp smooth mustard, I used Dijon.

1 small beaten egg

400g fresh white crab meat, drained and picked through carefully for cartilage or shell

Finely grated zest of a lemon and wedges to serve

Dill Tartare Sauce

I trimmed spring onion

6 cornichons

2 big sprigs of dill

2 anchovy fillet

2 tbsp homemade mayonnaise, or good quality ready prepared

2 tbsp creme fraiche

Lemon juice - a little or a lot

Lemon weges and chopped chives to serve

Make ahead the dill tartare by chopping finely together the spring onion, cornichons, dill and anchovy. Put in a bowl and add the mayonnaise and creme fraiche. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Cover and chill.

Preheat the oven to 220C/fan200C Press the crab meat in a sieve to make sure as much as possible of the packing liquid is drained. Stir together all of the ingredients adding the mayonnaise last, a little at a time until a thick mixture is achieved, you may not need to use all of it. Spoon the mixture in heaped teaspoons onto a silicon lined baking tray and bake for 20 - 25 mins until nicely browned. Serve on a pretty platter, each cake with a spoon of the tartare sauce on top, a little chopped chive sprinkled over and lemon wedges on the side.

a is for apple, b is for bramley...

2011-11-16T23:42:00.001Z

I love the aromas of autumn, and coming from Clonmel, the home of Irish cider, means that the smell of apple is one of the most evocative smells for me. When the apples were brought in from the orchards and piled in huge mountains in the apple yards that aroma that hung over the town on a dark cloudy evening was something so special that the merest whiff of apple takes me back to 'the Narrow Street' behind the Friary in an instant.

Crumbles, pies, tarts and cakes or curries, stews, roasts and sauces. An apple can be in a supporting role or the star of both sweet and savoury dishes. There is such a huge variety of these most lovely of fruits, although to look in the supermarkets you would be forgiven for believing otherwise. Commerce dictates that only a few apples stock the shelves and this is a great pity. In our house a 'Pink Lady' from the salad drawer of the fridge is a favourite afternoon snack, a crisp 'Granny Smith' will liven up a homemade coleslaw and a 'Coxs Pippin' from one of our own apple trees is a seasonal delicacy. However, it is the big 'Bramley' that's the most versatile when baking. Everyone seems to love a 'Bramley' apple tart and this is my portable version, tucked into a lunch box or squirreled over to the office with a steaming cup of tea - it needs neither plate nor cutlery, and leaves not a trace.

I nearly always use pecans for this topping they go so nicely with the cinnamon and apple, but walnuts or hazelnuts work well also…

'Apple Pie' Muffins

For the topping

2oz of nuts, chopped coarsely

2oz light brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

handful of the chopped apple, see below

two tablespoons of icing sugar

For the muffin batter

14oz of plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

4oz of butter softened

6 oz soft brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

9oz finished weight of brambly apples, peeled, cored and chopped

200ml sour cream

25 ml regular milk

1 egg beaten

Liberally butter a 12-hole muffin tin and preheat the oven to 180C.

Make the topping by putting your chopped 'Bramleys', about one quarter of the finished flesh, in a bowl with the cinnamon, nuts and sugar and set aside.

Make the dry mixture, putting the flour, and baking powder into a bowl, and rub in the softened butter. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon and lastly the remaining apple flesh.

Make the wet mixture, mixing the sour cream, milk and egg together.

Add the wet to the dry mix, stir well to combine - being careful not to over mix. Spoon the batter into the buttered muffin tin and sprinkle the topping generously over each one. Bake for 25 mins, leave to cool slightly in the tin before removing to a wire rack. Dissolve your icing sugar with a little drop of water and drizzle over the top when completely cool. If I am to be honest here, I must admit that I only ever drizzle eight muffins with icing as 4 are always devoured hot from the oven.

lilly's rocky road brownies

2011-11-07T22:29:00.000Z

I had put Lily Higgins' new book 'Make Bake Love' on my Christmas wish list, but alas, I am weak and having spied it in a book shop last weekend, I couldn't wait until Christmas and so it followed me home. My new reason is that I wanted to get it for a couple of friends as a present and it would be irresponsible of me to not have tried it out first. Well, that's my excuse anyway!

The first thing about the book is that because of the heavily printed, patterned pages, it has the most intense, inky, new book smell - one of my favorite smells in the world. The next thing is that it has a story and picture for every recipe which is right and proper (and those pictures are very adorable).

I brought my copy home and pored over it that evening, and left on the couch when I headed to bed. In the morning my littlest daughter, also Lily, had found it there and snatched it up. Pointing at the front cover she exclaimed, 'Look mummy, a princess!' (it is a very pretty cover photo) and then begged a story. I read her the story of Old Henry, an elderly dog in the Higgins household. Lily loved it. As she did the 'Rocky Road Brownies'.

Here is the recipe…for the brownies, not the dog story!

200g dark chocolate

250g icing sugar

200g softened butter

3 eggs

110g plain flour

On the top

200g chocolate, chopped

100g nuts, toasted

100 biscuits, broken

80g pink and while marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 170c. Line a 23x33cm baking tin with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate. Beat the sugar and eggs together in a bowl until light, add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Beat in the flour until just combined. Pour in the chocolate and mix in (taking care not to over mix). Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 30 mins.

Mix the topping ingredients together and scatter over the top of the brownie mixture, returning it to the oven for five mins until the chocolate has started to melt and the topping ingredients have melded together into a delicious squigy mess.

Once cool, cut into 12 - 15 squares and dust with a little icing sugar if you like.

If you have some very small people in your house it is best to keep the nuts separately for people to put on their individual portion. Lilly's recipe calls for Digestive biscuits, I have used animal biscuits here to add to the drama for my own audience - either way these don't last that long because the biscuits will get soft and unpleasant quite quickly. But I don't imagine that a bake this good will be hanging around for very long in any case.

walnut cookies, gluten free

2011-11-04T23:50:00.000Z

We're lucky to work from home, albeit in a converted barn across the yard from our house. It's a thirty second commute to our office and that means that we can nearly always make it home for lunch. It also means that a few clients get some home baked treats if they happen to be having tea or coffee as a reward for trekking all the way out!

This morning, my book editor was dropping by to discuss a new project. He's very deserving, but he is also that most awkward of things. No! Not a vegetarian! A coeliac…

I had a broad understanding of the condition, but had never had to bake for one, and I really didn't want to kill him!

So, I threw it out into the Twitterspere. I wanted baked goods, preferably a biscuit/cookie that I wouldn't have to buy any 'special' ingredient for. There's really nothing worse than having a big bag of some special potato flour or strange thickening agent that you use once and watch creeping to old age in your fridge or cupboard. It reminds me of the Ben & Jerrys quote when Jerry was asked what he did with all the egg whites left over from making his egg-yolk heavy ice-cream base, he replied 'I put them in the fridge and cover them. Then after a month I throw them out'.

Help arrived in droves from the helpful, enthusiastic souls out there. A recipe was tested and found to be good! I like these cookies a lot and a big thanks to The Little Loaf who sent it to me. It's adapted from a recipe by Dan Lepard. The dates have been replaced by prunes as it's a bit early for dates in these parts as they only make a brief appearance in the shops at Christmas. I don't think the results would have been very different in any case.

Gluten Free Walnut Cookies

100g chopped, stoned prunes

100g softened unsalted butter

125g brown sugar

125g caster sugar

25g cocoa

2 tsp vanilla

250g cornflour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

125g walnuts

Cover the prunes with 50ml boiling water and leave to stand for 10 mins until the prunes have softened.

Measure the unsalted butter, brown and caster sugars into a mixing bowl with the softened prunes and beat until smooth and light, and the prunes have broken down into the mixture.

Add the cocoa and vanilla extract and beat until smooth again.

Add the cornflour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder. When everything is totally incorporated, mix in the walnuts.

Heat the oven to 170 C/335 F/Gas 3. Line a tray with non-stick baking paper and roll walnut sized nuggets of dough into balls with your hands. Then press them lightly onto the tray, spaced 5cm apart. Bake for 15 mins then remove from the oven and leave on the tray to firm up slightly before carefully removing to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining mixture, or keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. The rolled balls can also be frozen raw.

(Below is a photo of a Lemon Bunt Cake as promised to my friend Magda who blogs at Magda's Cauldron - one of my favorite places to visit - enjoy and I will try harder at the apple challenge!)

picalilli for cheese and sandwiches

2011-10-28T00:02:00.003+01:00

Sisters sometimes know you better than you know yourself. They're a source of wisdom and amusement. They're also a source of coats and dresses when they're not guarding their closet. I have just one sister but that's enough for me because my sis is a quality one!

She asked me not so long ago "What's your favourite food?" I didn't even have to think…"It's cheese! Cheese is my favorite food…I love cheese, all cheese, I do not discriminate against any cheeses! Stinky cheese, blue cheese, crumbly mature sharp melty - goat sheep cow and buffalo - I love them all."

"Cheese? She blurted. You can't pick cheese! It's too wide a food category - it's like saying meat. That can't be your favorite food."

So I had to think long and hard - which cheese could I say was my favourite of all the cheeses? It was torture, but eventually I came up with a very mature brie as my cheese of choice - although I felt terrible guilt for the endless cheeses I had not picked. Then I asked her what her favorite food was & guess what she said?

"Sandwiches! Sandwiches are my favourite - love, love, love them."

"You can't pick sandwiches" I howled - that's every food in the world except yogurt! You can put almost anything in a sandwich! "I know she said - that's why I like them so much!"

Sisters...you gotta love 'em!

This is a magical sunshine yellow color and, if you start the salting the night before, takes no time at all to make. It's so much nicer than the jarred version in supermarkets that it may change your opinion on cauliflower forever. This is best left to mellow for a few days before eating and can be kept in the fridge for about 6 months.

1 small cauliflower

200g green beans

1 red pepper diced

1 onion diced

2 tsp salt

250ml white wine vinegar

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp mustard seed

150g caster sugar

80g plain flour

4 tsp mustard powder

Picalilli, on girdled bread with potted duck, like it here

Cut the cauliflower into small florets and the green beans into 1cm lengths. Combine all the veg in a bowl, sprinkle with the salt and leave for 12 hours. Put the veg in a pan with the vinegar, 250ml water the turmeric, ginger and mustard seed (pour off any salty water first and a stainless steel pan is best). Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins, no longer really, as you want the cauliflower to keep its crunch. Drain the liquid into a colander set over a bowl, reserving your vegetables. Put the liquid back in the pan with the sugar. Bring to the boil, while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Put the flour and mustard powder into a big bowl adding 75ml of water to make a paste. Pour in the boiling liquid whisking all the while. Return it to the pan stirring on a low heat until it boils. Remove and stir in the vegetables. Allow to cool and spoon into sterilized jars.

a confit of Irish lamb...

2011-10-24T17:06:00.000+01:00

Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?
With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream?
Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake
Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?

Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I.
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I’m to cry.
Oh, wasn’t it the happy days when troubles we had not,
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot?

'Colcannon' – traditional Irish folk song

There is no better way to remind yourself how much Ireland has to offer than when you have visitors from abroad. We Irish love to travel and are always curious to learn about people, their food & culture, their history & celebrations. This is true also when friends from far away places come to see us. It is a joy to recommend scenic villages for exploration, street markets to stroll and historical sites to visit.

What is difficult, however, is to put a menu together for friends visiting. Not because there is so little to choose from, but because there is so much. In the past few decades we have embraced many of the cuisines of our European neighbours and more exotic tastes from further afield, but all the while our own tradition of hospitality and the country's native ingredients are second to none.

You do not need to be an expert in food, history or culture to share the joy of Irish contemporary cuisine. As far as agriculture is concerned, farmers can exploit our temperate climate where grass grows year-round and grazing cows, sheep and goats produce world class dairy products. Soft rains reward us with fertile land where wheat, barley, oats, and rye are easily cultivated. Hearty sausages and blood puddings, farmhouse cheeses, crusty bread and sweet butter, fresh milk and ales jostle for position on the delicatessens' shelves. Hunted or farmed game and fowl abound, the rivers are full of salmon, trout, and eels and our costal waters filled with seafood and shellfish.

Even though I have swopped the wooden fenced landscape of Tipperary for the stonewalled ruggedness of Galway, my choice of local produce is not limited, just different. Recent visitors to my house were treated to wonderful Atlantic mussels to take the edge off their appetite while I finished prepping our confit of Irish lamb.

One of the most versatile of Irish meats is lamb - traditionally used in stews (as well as it's older muttony counterpart), it's also arguably the perfect roasting meat. We can also adapt the roasting process to the confit method, more common with duck… but one of the great results when you confit your lamb in olive oil is that it mellows the strident gaminess of the meat that some people dislike. As with duck, the slow oil poaching makes the meat tender and silky. Team with the zingy gremolta and serve with pureed parsnip and a seasonal green.

A rich, dense dessert of chocolate mousse spiked with coffee with a sweet Irish whiskey cream to finish rounds off a great snapshot of Irish food.

As one of the well-fed guests remarked before heading out into the night "The west of Ireland is a lovely place to visit but an even better place to eat!"

Pride in Irish food needs to be celebrated and many enthusiastic home cooks are starting to give greater value to their culinary heritage.

Bain sult as do bhéile!

Confit of Irish Lamb

Ingredients
Olive Oil
8 Lamb Chops
2 Shallots
4 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
16 Peppercorns
4 Cloves of Garlic (smashed)
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper

Method
Arrange lamb chops in an appropriately sized roasting tin with the shallots, rosemary, and garlic. Pour in enough olive oil to cover all of the chops. Cover tightly with tin foil and bake in the simmering oven of your range (120 degrees Farenheit in a conventional oven) for 2-3 hours (depending on desired doneness*). When done, remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper. Cover chops with another double layer of kitchen paper to mop up any excess oil. Season the chops with salt and some fresh ground black pepper. Heat a non-stick pan until hot and sear the lamb chops on both sides to color.

Lemon Hazelnut Gremolata

Ingredients

2 Cloves of Garlic (peeled and chopped)

Handful of basil

2 Tablespoons Fresh Lemon Juice

Grated peel from half a Lemon

3-4 Sprigs Flat Leaf Parsley

A large handful of Hazelnuts**

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Maldon Sea Salt

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Directions

Add first all ingredients except oil salt and pepper to a small food processor or blender.

Drizzle in olive oil slowly as you process the ingredients.

Be careful not to over process, leaving small chunks for a better texture, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

*Check your meat for level of doneness by inserting a sharp knife into the chop to check the color of the meat.

**To bring out the true taste of your hazelnuts, dry roast them for a few minutes in a dry pan and rub off their skins in a clean tea towel.

Irish Coffee Mousse - chocolate, whiskey and cream!

flashes of inspiration

2011-10-19T23:34:00.000+01:00

Grilled Lemon Halloumi

A book review. Flash Food – Laura Santtini

There's a sort of terrible tyranny to the daily chore of making meals for a family. Breakfast, dinner, tea over and over again, day in, day out. Even for those of us who love to cook, it's inevitable that now and again you fall into a rut of using the same ingredients and recreating the same dishes. That's why I held my hand up as a volunteer to 'taste drive' Laura Santtini’s new book 'Flash Cooking' from Quadrille Publishing. I was looking for a bit of inspiration - and I found lots of it here.

This would not be my usual type of book - I like laboring over a stove, things cooking away for hours in the slow oven of the Aga, and the soft bubble of a stock on the back burner. But even I took loads of inspiration from this award-winning writer and I have a list of recipes that I still want to try All of the flavours are categorised geographically and there's lots of room and indeed encouragement to mix things up a little.

The photography in the book is lovely. I was immediately taken with a 'Cauliflower Steak with Harrisa and Feta' which is stand out photograph in the book and it tasted as fantastic as it looked. My fellow IFBA blogger Yvonne, at HeyPesto! did this recipe full justice over at her blog you can read about it there. I will be digging out that recipe when the next vegetarian comes to call and probably way before that as my own 'vegetarian at heart' husband has fallen in love with it. I tried 3 other dishes - a nice variation on your usual chicken wrapped in bacon was the 'Chicken Pockets with Red Pesto and Ricotta'.

Five-Spice Minced Pork with Tenderstem Broccoli

Two great recipes from the book really stood out for me, 'Five-Spice Minced Pork with Tenderstem Broccoli' and another vegetarian recipe, 'Grilled Lemon Halloumi'.

Grilled Lemon Halloumi

2 unwaxed lemons, very thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, crushed

pinch of salt flakes

1 tsp pink peppercorns

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp runny honey

1 tbsp small sprigs of fresh dill

250g block of halloumi cheese cut into slices about 1.5cm thick

Preheat the grill to it's hottest. Slice one lemon thinly. Using a pestle and mortar pound the garlic, pinch of salt and the peppercorns - add olive oil, honey and lemon juice from the other lemon. Rub the cheese and lemon slices with the mixture. Place it under the grill and let it color and caramelize (I put mine in the top of the Aga hot oven) Remove and turn over to grill the other side. Serve sprinkled with the dill, remaining dressing and pan juices drizzled over.

This is a lifestyle book with great recipes - much more than a cookbook. It's a 'diet' book that is more about health than weight and manages to stay away from all that neurotic nonsense that many of that genre contains. There is not so much of a whisper of using the sort of ingredients that drive me into a rage - the low fat or sugar free substitutes for 'proper' food, and that has to be applauded.

This book ticks a lot of different boxes. As the name implies, there is nothing that is going to take ages to make, and no special skills are needed. Most recipes, except the entertaining section, feed two people, the majority of the herbs and spices are easily available and have tremendously long self lives. It is really a book of ideas and maybe a jumping off point for a more adventurous style of cooking, and a healthy way to eat as well.

Overall, with a couple of minor quibbles, I really loved this book, it is fully deserving a place on my crowded cookbook shelves. Of course, needless to mention, if you're looking for something nice and decadent for dessert, don't look here!

*Thank you to Mark McGinlay, Quadrille Publishing.

homemade celery-salt crusted baked potato

2011-10-15T23:59:00.000+01:00

I love a baked potato with a salt crust, of all the many ways to enjoy potato it would always be my first choice. And if you make them like this, you will probably love them too.

To get the perfect fluffy baked potato you need a 'floury' spud, the white fleshed sort. Varieties such as King Edward or Maris Piper are perfect for the job. The kind that look like 'Mr. Potato Head' are the ones you are after, and about that size as well. Your oven needs to be between 200 - 220 degrees and a decent sized potato will take at least an hour to cook. Do not wrap a potato in tin foil - they don't like that.

Celery Salt

It's fun to make your own flavored salts and celery salt especially always seems so expensive to buy and to lose its flavour quite quickly once opened! It is easy to make and versatile, use it in place of your usual salt - it is especially nice with fish or egg based dishes. It keeps forever and you can keep topping it up every time a new bunch of celery comes home with you.

Leaves from celery

Flaky sea salt, Maldon is best in this instance

Pick the leaves from each celery stalk, hunt out the little leaves from down the centre also. Leave the stems aside for your usual recipes calling for celery. Put in a single layer on a baking sheet, then toast them in a hot oven for about 5 minutes. Bake until they have dehydrated and gone nice and crispy, but take them out before they have browned. This won't take long so do keep an eye.

Remove from heat and cool completely. Scrunch up the leaves, using your fingers discard any that aren't crispy.

Measure out an equal amount of salt to celery, judging by eye. Put in a jar and stir to mix evenly.

Baked Potatoes

4 (1/2-pound) baking potatoes

1 egg white

Homemade celery salt

Wash and dry potatoes, leave skin on. Prick potatoes all over with a fork. Lightly beat the egg white with a couple of spoons of water in a bowl. Pour your celery salt into another bowl. Roll potato in egg white, then in salt, coating the potato fully. Place on a baking sheet and transfer onto the centre rack in an oven. Bake for approximately 1-2 hrs depending on size. You should be able to pierce your potato all the way through with a knife when done. It should be soft with a crispy skin.

This is just how a baked potato should be.

more midweek meals

2011-10-14T00:03:00.001+01:00

Here is another installment in the midweek meal ideas - a couple of great British classics with a twist this time - real fireside suppers for when the weather is getting wild and windy.

'Toad in the Hole' with red onion & balsamic gravy (from Jamie Oliver)

• sunflower oil

• 8 large good-quality sausages

• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

• 2 large red onions, peeled and sliced

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

• 2 knobs of butter

• 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

• 1 level tablespoon

• 1 tbsp good-quality vegetable stock powder

The batter

• 285ml milk

• 115g plain flour

• a pinch of salt

• 3 eggs

Mix the batter ingredients together, and put to one side. I like the batter to go huge so the key thing is to have an appropriately-sized baking tin (the thinner the better – the oil needs to be very hot).

Cover the bottom of a baking tin with the oil, then place this on the middle shelf of your oven at its highest setting (240–250ºC/475ºF/gas 9). Place a larger tray underneath it to catch any oil that overflows from the tin while cooking. When the oil is very hot, add your sausages. Keep your eye on them and allow them to colour until lightly golden.

At this point, take the tin out of the oven, being very careful, and pour your batter over the sausages. Throw a couple of sprigs of rosemary into the batter. It will bubble and possibly even spit a little, so carefully put the tin back in the oven, and close the door. Don't open it for at least 20 minutes, as Yorkshire puddings can be a bit tempermental when rising. Remove from the oven when golden and crisp.

For the onion gravy, simply fry off your onions and garlic in the butter on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until they go sweet and translucent. Add the balsamic vinegar and allow it to cook down by half. Add the vegetable powder. Sprinkle this in and add a little water. Allow to simmer and you'll have a really tasty onion gravy. Serve with your Toad in the Hole and a mound of mashed potatoes.

Rice Pudding

100g pudding rice

50g sugar

700ml semi-skimmed milk

Can of Nestles Dulce de Leche

Heat oven to 150C. Butter a heatproof baking dish, then tip in the rice and sugar and stir through the milk. Cook for 2 hrs or until the pudding wobbles ever so slightly when shaken.

Layer the rice pudding in serving glasses with Dulce de Leche and top with hazelnut brittle

Hazelnut Brittle

2 oz sugar

75g hazelnuts

Directions

Roast your hazelnuts and leave them and a baking tray lined with a layer of grease proof paper ready to go close to where you are working with your sugar. Put the sugar in a small saucepan and add 1 tbsp of water. Put on the heat and let the sugar melt. Don't stir it or fuss around with it at this stage. As soon as the big bubbles of sugar disappear it will colour very quickly so be vigilant as can burn in seconds! As soon as the sugar has a nice golden brown tint (and smells candyfloss-ish) take it of the heat, add the hazelnuts and stir through. Spread onto the baking sheet in a thick layer, working quickly and leave to cool. When cool, chop roughly into chunky shards and use to decorate your puddings.

Rainbow Cake

2011-10-11T00:33:00.000+01:00

A recipe for Nora...

Rainbow cake for a fairy birthday party

A friend of mine has asked for this recipe which I will duly give. The photos for this are not amazing but will do for the purpose of explanation.

The easiest way to make a rainbow cake.

Any plain white sponge recipe will do. I used a nice simple victoria sponge. Sponges are best baked 2 at a time and then frozen. When decorating it is a lot easier to put the frosting on a frozen sponge especially because this cake will end up being a lot higher than your average sponge cake. You will need food coloring for your layers (red, yellow, blue) - keep in mind your little rhyme (Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain) and you can't go wrong. You want the red sponge at the top of the cake - it looks better to have the cooler colors at the bottom.

Sponges

225g/8oz butter at room temperature

225g/8oz caster sugar

4 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

8oz self raising flour

Milk, to loosen if needed

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper.

Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consistency.

Pour half the mixture in a separate bowl and color as appropriate. Transfer the colored batter to the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly. Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. When cooled completely, carefully wrap the colored sponge disk in grease proof paper and freeze until ready to decorate. Repeat for the other colors.

Frosting

Ingredients

448g cream cheese (Philly is ideal)

115g butter, softened

250g sifted icing sugar

5ml vanilla extract

(keep extra of all these things in case you run out and need to whip up some more - some people frost cakes with a heavier hand than others)

Directions

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer.

With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a bit at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract

You can pretty much guess the rest. Decorate it the night before you plan to serve it and it will be defrosted by the morning. Cut into it, reveal the surprise. Say 'Oh it was nothing' as your friends and family gasp. But on the inside be as smug as a smug thing.

starry, starry nice

2011-10-09T22:51:00.000+01:00

"Ah, Mrs. Corry. A story for you. 

Your daughters was shorter than you. 

But they grew."

My daughter has asked me if she could have some stars to eat - gosh! How fanciful of the child, I thought to myself. Alas, it became clear after a while that it was not a leap of imagination that had made her long for the stars - but those awful frosted 'Lucky Charms' adverts on TV that had done it.

I find this type of cereal offensive for two reasons - One, there are so many lovely things to have for breakfast… Porridge with your choice of topping, muesli, yoghurt, fruit, a myriad of breads and pastries, eggs a dozen ways, pancakes, beautiful bacon or a nice bit of artisan pudding - why would anyone want a box of cardbord coated in sugar?

The other reason is, of course, that the character on the box is offensive to all Irish people, because none of the leprachauns that live near me look anything like him!

It did remind me, though, of a story I read as a child 'Mary Poppins'. In the books, Mrs Corry and her two "great galumphing giraffes" of daughters Annie & Fannie, ran a bakery. Mrs Corry had exceptionally long fingers, made of sticks of barley-sugar which she would snap off and hand out as treats to the children who were visiting her shop. They sold pieces of " ... gingerbread so studded with gilt stars that the shop itself seemed to be faintly lit by them." At night and under the cover of darkness, all three Corry's would paste the gingerbread stars into the night sky." I loved that book and must have read it a dozen times.

So, here is my recipe for gingerbread - stars from the night sky are entirely optional.

Gingerbread Recipe

Ingredients:

100g plain flour

100g wholemeal flour

50g soft brown sugar

50g sultanas

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

A pinch of salt

100g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

2 tablespoons treacle

1 egg lightly beaten

150ml milk

Method:

Mix together the dry ingredients. Melt the butter with the syrup and treacle and stir into the dry ingredients with the egg and milk. Spoon into a greased and lined 18 cm/7 in cake tin and bake in a preheated oven at 160ºC/325ºF for 1 hour until just springy to touch. Allow to cool a little and turn out to cool completely on a wire rack. This is the old style of ginger cake that will be much improved after keeping wrapped in an airtight container for 3 days to 1 week! Serve warm with custard or with toffee sauce - or go mad and serve with both!

Toffee Sauce

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter

115g light muscovado sugar

140ml double cream

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened in colour.

To serve, cut the gingerbread into squares and pour or drizzle over the toffee sauce. Add stars to taste.

this is how we roll

2011-10-08T22:55:00.000+01:00

With all the dried fruit in the shops for those industrious souls making their Christmas cakes, puddings and mincemeat, I could not resist a few bags of dried figs for some of these old favorites. One of the enduring classics of the biscuit world. No mystery to these fig rolls… just great fun to make and delicious to eat.

For the filling:
7 oz dried figs quartered
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cocoa powder (optional, but gives the filling a lovely colour)
½ tsp allspice
pinch of salt

For the dough:
4 oz plain flour
4 oz wholemeal flour
3 oz butter
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
2 tbsp milk (probably a bit more)
1 large egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp baking powder

Directions:
Put the figs in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat with 300ml (1/2 pint) water. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the figs are tender and the liquid is well reduced. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 5 mins more until very little liquid remains. Set aside to cool, then puree in a food processor. Let cool completely and refrigerate until set.

Put all the ingredients for the pastry in a food processor and mix, adding more milk a tiny bit at a time until it pulls together as a dough. Wrap your dough tightly in cling film and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Lightly grease a baking sheet. Pre-heat oven to 175C/350F.

Press the pastry out between two sheets of cling film and roll out to roughly an oblong about (16 x 5 inches). Peel back the top layer of cling film. Spread the fig paste down the centre of the dough rectangle and using the bottom layer of cling film, roll in the sides so that they overlap over the filling.
Trim the ends of the roll, turn the rolls so that the pastry seam is on the bottom and cut into just over one inch wide slices (about 12 fig rolls) and place on the baking sheet.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a rack.

chocolate chip muffins

2011-10-06T00:12:00.001+01:00

Muffins have long been muscled out by their bigger, attention-seeking American cousin, the cupcake (or more recently, the whoopie pie). Having been mostly consigned to garage forecourts, the poor old muffin deserves better than that and still has a lot to offer.

With chocolate chunks studded throughout, these muffins are moist and great with coffee or as a snack. These are lovely just as they are or can be frosted with some extra chocolate. Half of these muffins were decorated with a spoon of brown sugar and a spoon of cocoa powder sprinkled on top before baking. Those ones were for Mama, I don't like my baked goods too sweet! The other half were decorated with a jar of Nutella and a Cadbury's Flake. The more chocolate the better for the junior cook. So easy to do that even a child could decorate them, and in fact - a child did!

If your helper is very young, pop the muffins back into their cooled tin for ease of handling before letting them lose with the chocolate.

Makes 10

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
100g white sugar
100g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
15g baking powder
Pinch of salt
150ml milk
50ml sour cream
80ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 200ºC. Grease and line your muffin tin with muffin cases.
In a medium bowl combine your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt, then mix it well. In a large bowl combine your wet ingredients: milk, sour cream, oil, egg and vanilla, then blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once to the wet mix. Stir until dry ingredients are just moistened (this batter will look lumpy.) Fill the cases to 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for a minute or two before removing from pan.

family favourites...

2011-09-28T23:22:00.000+01:00

A midweek menu of Sausage and Bean Cassoulet and a Orange Bread and Butter Pudding

Evening meals with the family are something I really enjoy - but only if i'm prepared for it. A few good, low maintenance menus are essential for the middle of the week. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and interesting, nutritious food for these people, I have to feed them for the next 18 years or so after all (that's a lot of dinners!) Here are a couple that work for us.

We're so lucky these days to have great sausages available in most local shops, supermarkets, farmers' markets and good local butchers. This recipe isn't really quite a cassoulet - but needs the bare minimum of preparation and it's easy to stick in the oven while you're doing other things. While all the homework and whatever else needs your attention gets taken care of, it's bubbling away in the oven.

Ingredients

8 good quality pork sausages

1 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes

1 x 400g tins of beans, haricot or cannellini, are good choices

1 generous glass of red wine (more like 2 really!)

300ml/10fl oz chicken stock

½ tsp smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp dark brown muscovado sugar

2 tbsp tomato purée

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients

Put the whole lot in a large casserole dish with a lid, lightly season then lay your sausages on top, so they can get a bit brown at the start as they cook and then stir them into the chunky sauce. Cook for 2 - 3 hours stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve with rice or slices of rustic bread and a spoon of natural yougurt on top if you like it.

And something sweet?

Why yes, I think so! One of the girls loves doughnuts above all other baked goods and I make them myself when I have time (for recipe see here) or I get the fantastic fresh ones from the Galway market as a treat now and then. I had foolishly bought some in the supermarket for them, but two small girls cannot possibly eat the amount of doughnuts that constitutes a supermarket special offer and loath as I was to throw them out I sliced them up and coverered them in a thin orange flavoured custard and made a bread and butter pudding with them. It was really quite nice.

Although brioche & pannetone are ideal for bread and butter pudding, there is usually some kind of bread needing using up about the place. As long as you leave it dry out sufficently so that it pulls in all the moisture from the custard then any kind of white bread usually works out pretty well.

Ingredients

400ml milk

400ml low fat milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg plus 3 egg yolks

3 tbsp caster sugar

finely grated rind of a small orange

Ingredients

Bring the 2 kinds of milk, and vanilla to simmering point slowly over a low heat. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl. Pour the hot milk onto the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk. Return to the pan, add the orange rind and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spatula until slightly thickened. About 12 slices of bread and the quantity of custard below makes enough bread pudding for six. Slice it up, butter on one side and arrange in a ovenproof dish. Pour the custard over the bread and leave it to soak in for at least half an hour, longer if possible. Cook for about 30 mins in a moderate oven until the custard is set and the top nice and coloured.

soda bread

2011-09-26T23:55:00.000+01:00

My kitchen has been heavy with the smell of boiling fruit and sugar this past week. Damsons, apples and plums from the garden have been processed into jams, jellies, chutneys and preserves in haste. Since the stormy weather has knocked all the ripe fruit from the trees in one fell swoop, the task of preserving for the long winter ahead has to be done in a hurry. These autumnal treasures deserve something special to spread them on and the best thing for this job is the beloved soda bread.

There are a lot of Irish soda bread recipes, but reassuringly, they are all quite similar. The ingredients in a traditional Irish soda bread are flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. The brown soda bread is an every day staple, served with soup and other meals or alone but always with lashings of butter. The white soda is the more refined version and often contains a handful of raisins.

Ingredients

400g plain flour

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

350ml buttermilk

2 handfuls of raisins (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230C/gas 8.

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in most of the buttermilk (leaving about 60ml in the measuring jug), at this stage add in the raisins if using. Using one hand with your fingers splayed (or two knives), bring the flour and liquid together, adding more buttermilk if necessary. Do not knead the mixture or it will become heavy. The dough should be soft but not too wet and sticky, but with the minimum amount of handling.

3. When the dough comes together, turn onto a floured work surface and bring together a little more. Pat the dough into a round about 4cm deep and cut a deep cross in the top.

4. Place the dough onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, then turn down the heat to 200C/gas 6 and bake for a further 30. When ready, the loaf will be browned and will sound slightly hollow when tapped on the base.

5. Cool on a wire rack.

The cuts in the top of the bread are as much a part of Irish culture as the bread itself, in olden times (Ireland being a Catholic country of long standing) the crossing of the breads was traditionally giving thanks and to 'let the devil out of the bread', but the cross on the top is not just ornamental, it is important as it allows the heat to penetrate into the thickest part of the bread, helping it cook evenly.

It's true that soda bread dries out quickly after slicing, but it makes fantastic toast the next day. An Irish soda bread base is hugely versatile also, great for making flavoured breads, with cheese, herbs, olives, roast cherry tomatoes, red onion or garlic. But I always think it is best eaten freshly-baked and warm or toasted, slathered liberally with butter and smothered in homemade jam, of which I now have plenty.

banana loaf

2011-09-19T22:43:00.000+01:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged - that a house in possession of a kiddie or two must be in want of a few banana recipes.

Even if you don't like bananas, as soon as you add children to the mix, they become a part of your regular shopping list. The nature of babies, toddlers and children is changeable. One day there is not enough food in the world to fill them and the next it seems that they can live on air, so there is sometimes a banana backlog of varying degrees of over-ripe blackness.

You can, of course, freeze them. But I seem to be able to use them up as they occur and it is a result of this one magically easy recipe. It takes no time to make, washing up is minimal and I have yet to encounter anyone who does not like it. It can be eaten plain or dressed up with more bananas, maple syrup, toffee or chocolate sauce and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Ingredients

2 overipe bananas

170g caster sugar

170g self raising flour

170g butter (soft)

3 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Pre heat oven to 160C. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Put everything into a food processor and blend until well mixed.

Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour.

Cool, slice and enjoy!

an irish hedgerow harvest...

2011-09-18T22:00:00.002+01:00

Blackberry Drop Scones

Very easy to make and even easier to eat... Made all the better with free hedgerow blackberries. These beautiful berries are available for a limited time only - so get out there and get picking.

Makes 30 - 40 scones

25g butter, melted

250g plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp Baking powder

25g caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Up to 250ml milk

A little sunflower oil for frying

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre, pour in the eggs and a little milk, and beat, gradually incorporating the flour. Beat in the melted butter. Slowly add more milk and incorporate the rest of the flour until you have a smooth but thick batter that drops off the spoon.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat until hot. Grease with a smear of oil or butter (or a little of both for a crispy edge). Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, leaving room for them to spread (you'll have to cook them in batches). After a couple of minutes, when they are set and have bubbles on the surface, flip them over and cook for a minute or so more, until the second side has browned. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding a little more butter to the pan as required.

Blackberry Syrup

Put two large handfuls of blackberries (picked over carefully and rinsed gently under a tap) into a small saucepan with two teaspoons of sugar. Bring up to the boil and simmer for a minute or two until all the juice has been released from the berries. Press through a fine sieve to remove the pips and serve poured over your warm drop scones with a couple of whole fruits for garnish and absolutely nothing else.

a cobbler topping on tipperary rabbit stew...

2011-09-12T22:50:00.000+01:00

It's cold here... too early in the year for it. And in weather like this there are few things better than a slow-simmered, savoury stew bubbling away in the depths of the oven. But with stew comes a dilemma - what shall we have with it? Potatoes mashed or cooked in the gravy of a rich beef stew? Crispy, flaky pastry perched on top of a chicken and mushroom pie? Or even a herby dumpling swimming in the juices of a pairing of pork and apple.

These are all good but my own preference for sheer ease and elegance is the savory cobbler. I made a my 'Tipperary Rabbit cooked in Bulmers Pear' recently (for the Irish Foodies Cookalong), it is rather wonderful - and on top soaking up the juices and going gooey and gloriously brown at the edges was a cheese and herb cobbler. Ring the changes and put this doughy crust on your own stew - it is very, very good.

go nuts for doughnuts...

2011-09-11T22:48:00.000+01:00

I recently met up with some other lovely food bloggers at Bord Bia where we were given tips on how to improve our food photography and styling skills. Light and aperture, backgrounds and props were discussed - but at no time did anyone offer me any advice on how to keep the hungry hordes away from fresh, hot, sugary doughnuts long enough for me to get that decent shot. Here is the recipe, accompanied by what pictures I did manage to get before being wrestled to the ground and my doughnuts devoured by the wee ravenous beasties.

Ingredients

220g strong white bread flour

7g active dry yeast (That's one sachet of McDougalls)

100ml milk

4 tbsp caster sugar

50g butter

1 medium egg, beaten

Oil for deep frying (Sunflower is good for this)

Sugar for coating

Directions

1. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour with yeast. In a small saucepan heat the milk, sugar and butter until the butter melts. Stir milk mixture into the flour along with the egg, beating with the mixer on low for 30 seconds, to combine. Increase speed to high and beat for three minutes. Add the remaining flour, a little at a time, to make a firm but pliable dough. Knead dough until smooth and supple. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let dough rise until it doubles in size, this should take about an hour.

2. Turn the dough out onto floured surface, Divide into twelve even sized pieces and roll these into smooth balls. Transfer, spaced well apart from each other, onto baking sheets, cover and let rise until doubled in size again, about 45 minutes.

3. Heat oil in a deep sided saucepan to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C). Fry the dough balls by lowering them into the oil with a large slotted spoon, in batches. Turn once, until golden all over. Using the same slotted spoon remove doughnuts to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain. Let doughnuts cool a little and roll in the sugar. Serve hot, with the chocolate sauce (see recipe below).

Note: You can test that the oil is hot enough by putting a cube of bread in, it should brown in about 30 seconds at this temperature. Frying the doughnuts until golden takes approximately 2 minutes, about one minute per side.

This amount will feed 3-4 ravenous beasties so double up if you have more. And always remember that with fresh homemade doughnuts, there are never, ever any leftovers no matter how many you make.

An Easy Chocolate sauce

170g of plain chocolate broken into small pieces

100ml of water

115g caster sugar

55g of butter in small cubes

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Method

Place all of the ingredients together in a saucepan and heat over a low heat, stirring continuously until the ingredients blended together.

(Nutella is a very acceptable substitute for the chocolate sauce.)

rocky road cookies...

2011-09-02T23:17:00.000+01:00

To celebrate our very first scholar placing her little patent leather shoes on the bottom rungs of the ladder of academia I give you the aptly named 'Rocky Road Cookie'- the perfect after school treat with a glass of milk. This is one of my all-time favourite cookie recipes because it not only makes fantastic cookies, the dough also makes a paste that is very easy to work with and with very little mess. The baked marshmallow pieces give a lovely candy floss flavour - chocolate and candy floss together can't be wrong. You could play around with it and throw in a few toasted hazelnuts, raisins or any other rocky road type additions if you want.

Ingredients.

125g dark chocolate.

150g flour

30g cocoa

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g soft butter

125g light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

150g chocolate chips

8 big pink and white marshmallows, snipped into chunky pieces

Method

This makes 12 nice, big cookies

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Melt the dark chocolate.

Cream the butter and sugar in together in a bowl, then mix in the melted chocolate.

Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.

Sieve together the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt and then mix into the wet ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate chips and mallow lumps.

Measure by eye 12 equal-sized mounds - an ice cream scoop or a couple of large spoons work well - and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Don't squish them down. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes, leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

I usually form all 12 cookies, bake 6 and open freeze the other six. As soon as they are frozen solid I put them in a freezer bag, seal it and stash it back in the freezer ready to go straight into the oven. Remember that they will need a couple of minutes extra in the oven when cooking from frozen.

bacon jam, the eight wonder of the world...

2011-08-18T23:29:00.001+01:00

This intriguing concoction first came to my attention earlier this year. I couldn't wait to find out what it was... a paté, a chutney, potted meat or jelly? But try as I might I could not get my little paws on a jar. I stalked @edhick (the maker) on Twitter, I badgered stockists, all to no avail. There was nothing left to do but make some. I donned my recipe sleuth hat and trawled the web and historical recipes for information. After extensive research I am pleased to announce that I am now the world's leading authority on 'bacon jam' and I shall be choosing it as my specialist subject on Mastermind. Here's what I did...

Ingredients

500g good quality smoked bacon, diced

A large onion (200g approx.) cut into a rough dice 

2 garlic cloves minced 

220g brewed coffee (the good stuff, strong) 

30g apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp. worcestershire sauce 

30g brown sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp. cocoa powder

Cook the bacon over a high heat in a large heavy bottomed pan, stirring occasionally until the fat is rendered and the bacon is lightly browned (approximately 20 minutes). With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon onto a paper towel lined plate and let it drain.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the onions, and cook until they are translucent. Add the minced garlic, fry until fragrant. Add the vinegar, sugar, maple syrup, worcestershire sauce, cocoa powder and coffee, bring to the boil, stirring and scraping up the bacon bits from the bottom of the pan. After 2 minutes, add the bacon, and stir to combine. Simmer until dark and syrupy (about two hours), adding a couple of tablespoons of water at a time if your mixture starts to look dry.

Let the 'jam' cool, then pulse it in a food processor for 2-3 seconds. It's better to leave some texture to it, preferably a bit rustic with chunks. Then refrigerate in an airtight container.

It will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks, but believe me there is no way it will last that long! In fact I wish I had doubled the recipe...

Like chutney, with equal notes of sweet and salty, it's perfect with cheese...

... and with eggs and all manner of cooked breakfast dishes. You can use it as a condiment on a burger or baked potato, stirred into stews and other slow cooked dishes to give a deeper flavour. It is truly multi-talented and no one can ever have too much 'bacon jam'.

a summer salad...

2011-08-16T10:42:00.000+01:00

It was 'Cookalong' time again last week and this time the August theme was Summer Salads. 'Try and get inventive, give us something different with them' they said. 'Parma and Melon Salad' I thought.

That's a bit old hat really, isnt it? The terrible cliché that haunted the Irish wedding reception menu for nigh on two decades, along with the inevitable cream of vegetable soup. Well I think it deserves another chance, it just needs a bit of a make-over. So this is what I did…

Parma, Feta & Melon Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 slices of Parma ham

1 galia or honeydew melon

Feta cheese

Handful of rocket

Squeeze of lemon to taste

Method:

Peel, halve and de-seed the melon, cut the flesh into cubes. Cube the feta to roughly the same size. Give the rocket a quick rinse. Put two slices of ham in a deep bowl, place alternative squares of melon and feta on top… in a sort of chequerboard pattern . Mix the oil & lemon juice and season with black pepper. Scatter a few leaves of the rocket on top and drizzle with the dressing.

There's no need to add any salt to the dressing as the feta and parma are quite salty enough.

Serve very well chilled with some good bread for a more substantial lunch, or without the bread for a pretty starter that's easy to make ahead.

The sweet and juicy melon, the deeply savory Parma ham and the dry, salty feta are three flavours that work really well together.

Now what shall we choose for the main, the beef or the salmon?

apricot coffee cake...

2011-08-03T11:57:00.001+01:00

Apricots cannot be trusted. They lie! The sooner I accept this fact of life the sooner I can move on and not spend my summers in a haze of disappointment and regrets. They look so ripe and inviting, but how often do they deliver on their promise?

I still buy them in expectation of this punnet having the perfect apricot. But because I have been fooled so many times I now buy an extra bag of sugar as well, so I can at least make some jam from the punnet of falsehood.

Here is a nice way of using some of the under-sweet apricots that cheat their way into your home. This is a 'Coffee Cake', a rather old fashioned notion of a cake served with a mid-morning cup of coffee, but usually with no actual coffee in it. How quaint! The bottom of the cake is nicely dense, its sweetness works nicely against the tart apricots, and the top of the cake is deliciously moist, from the fruit and the jammy topping. It can also be made with other kinds of tart, not overly juicy fruit, such as halved plums, pink rhubarb chunks or apple slices... It is wonderfully versatile.

Ingredients

190 g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
150 g white sugar
1 egg
30 g butter
160 ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
310 g pitted and diced fresh apricots
1/2 tsp mixed spice, or to taste
2 tbsp white sugar

Apricot glaze and a drizzle of icing to serve.

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar, egg, and butter until smooth. Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the batter. Pour the batter into the flour and beat until smooth.

Spread the batter into a greased 8 inch square pan, and sprinkle the diced apricots evenly over the top. Dust with spice and sugar. I made mine in a ring tin because it amuses the children and put the fruit at the bottom of the sponge mixture, it is a very forgiving mixture and will work either way.

Bake in the preheated oven approximately 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

I make a jam from any apricots left over (and the aforementioned extra bag of sugar). Stone the fruit and weigh, then boil with the same quantity of sugar. Sieve the resulting jam and glaze the top of your cake with it. You will most likely have extra apricot jam so pot it up in a sterilised jar and store in the fridge. You can use it to glaze fruit tarts and cupcakes, etc. or just spread on buttery toast or a scone. Drizzle your cake with a little icing sugar mixed with a drop of water or lemon juice and serve.

chicken-liver paté

2011-07-27T18:17:00.000+01:00

I'd like to report a crime. Someone has taken all the giblets from the chickens and I really don't understand why. They were the best part! It's like having the bang stolen from your Christmas cracker. Sure, you still have the hat and joke and gift. But something small and important is missing and I for one want my giblets back!

Up until a few years ago they lived in a little plastic bag inside the cavity, but now they have even gone from there. My questioning of butchers has been unsuccessful in tracking them down - but really - if you spend a lot of money on a free-range organic chicken - should you not at least have the option of finding that little bag inside and deciding - "Oh! great, I'll roast that and make a lovely deep, chickeny gravy" or "OMG! That is sooo gross, into the bin straight away, offensive article".

Now at least the chicken liver drought is finally over, I have found a reliable source of all things poultry, The Friendly Farmer. Through the magic of Twitter, my freezer runneth over with some lovely chickens for roasting, for stock, for hot wings and for casseroles. They all lived a happy life running around the fields of Athenry and their livers are not pumped full of all the nasty chemicals that the cheap supermarket birds are full of.

So, now for some seriously good paté - American bistro-style. This is adapted from a Laurent Tourondel recipe from his cookbook on American bistro cooking. Cooking the livers in duck fat is the secret to the rich luxuriant 'foie gras' quality of this pate.

Ingredients  

1 bay leaf 7/8 sprigs fresh thyme 

1 cup ruby port

1 shallot, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

1 shallot, thinly sliced, plus 2 tablespoons chopped shallots 

1 garlic clove, thinly sliced, plus 2 teaspoons chopped garlic 

1 pound chicken livers, trimmed 

1¼ teaspoons sea salt (& a little for sprinkling on top)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons duck fat 

3 tablespoons Maderia wine 

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

6 thick slices sourdough, toasted 

Cornichons or pickled vegetables for garnish  

Make the port reduction:  

In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the port, herbs, sliced shallot, and sliced garlic to a simmer. Cook until the port is reduced to the consistency of a thick syrup. Remove the herbs and vegetables.

Cook the chicken livers:  

Season the chicken livers with the salt and pepper. Heat a generous tablespoon of the duck fat in a large frying pan on a high heat. When the fat is nearly smoking, add half the livers and brown on one side, about two minutes. Turn and cook on the other side until golden brown but still pink in the center, about a minute more. Frying the livers in two batches is important as it will avoid the pan being overcrowded and the livers steaming instead of frying, which we really don't want to happen. Make sure not to overcook your offal, overcooked livers means the spread will be dry. Stir in half of the chopped shallots and chopped garlic. Pour in half the Madeira to deglaze. Scrape the mixture into a bowl. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Blend the mixture:  

In a food processor, whizz up the livers and port syrup. Process until smooth. Blend in the butter. Season with salt and pepper. Scrape the mixture into a bowl. (The paté can be made ahead and covered for up to 3 days in the fridge or put in the freezer as soon as cool enough, for a few months.)

To serve:  

Remove the leaves from the remaining thyme sprigs. Garnish the paté with the thyme leaves, a sprinkling of salt, and the extra virgin olive oil. Serve at room temperature with sourdough bread and cornichons.

peas and cookies...

2011-07-25T23:33:00.000+01:00

I had some extra children at the weekend. Some fabulous little cousins had landed and when you have extra little hands you may as well take advantage of them.

There are two culinary tasks that children excel at. One is to mash bananas and the other is to shell peas. With the first of the pea crop crying out to be picked - they were duly packed off down the garden to gather and prepare some peas and new potatoes for our evening meal, and excited they were to do it.

A lot of people have that childhood memory of popping freshly shelled peas into their mouths and I would have had more peas for my tea if I had done the podding. But that would have robbed them of a fun-filled afternoon and that memory for themselves. And I did pay them... with rather nice bikkies fresh from the oven, for which they all thanked me with lovely manners and a gratifyingly empty plate.

This is a simple raisin and oat biscuit, moist, chewy, not too thin and not too thick. The little touches to this bake make all the difference. Soaking the raisins for an hour while letting the butter soften naturally, will give you a nicer biscuit. The raisins will not be overly dried out from the heat of the oven, as can happen easily in this style of cookie. I also like them just a tiny bit on the 'underdone' side, perfect with a glass of milk. Makes about 30 - 36 biscuits.

Ingredients

3 eggs, beaten

200 g raisins

5 ml vanilla extract

225 g butter

220 g brown sugar

200 g white sugar

310 g all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

160 g rolled oats (porridge oats)

Directions

1. Combine eggs, vanilla and raisins in a small bowl; cover and let stand for 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda; stir into the creamed mixture. Then stir in the raisin mixture and rolled oats.

At this stage you can drop teaspoonfuls of the mix onto a greased cookie tray. Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let set on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Alternatively, If you like your biscuits picture perfect (and I do) roll the dough into logs, in plastic wrap and pop them in the freezer for a while, then slice and baked on greased or parchment covered cookie sheets. Bake as many as you require from cold for about 15 mins, or until lightly browned. Leave for a few minutes to set before removing to a wire rack. Return any unused, sliced dough to the freezer and use at a later date.

berry, berry nice...

2011-07-24T23:15:00.002+01:00

We have pancakes nearly every weekend without fail. They are something of a ritual in our house, ever since the girls were big enough to hold a whisk. I don't make them, they are in fact The Editor's speciality and he takes his responsibilities very seriously indeed. Once a year there is the crepe-style pancake on Shrove Tuesday - served with sugar and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Most weekends the silver dollar American style pancake make an appearance, served with lashings of maple syrup and whatever fruit looks nice in the market or some very crispy bacon. But today was the day that the ricotta pancake was taste driven, and it was good!

This recipe was from one of my favourite cookbooks, the lovely Rose Bakery's 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea.' We had breakfast at the Rose Bakery in Paris once before, I had the Oeuf a la coque avec 'toast marmite'(boiled eggs and marmite soilders, yum!). It's a lovely book for bakes and scones but be warned, the serving quantities can be misleading. This recipe was to serve eight - it fed two adults and two toddlers just about, maybe the French are not as hungry as us!

Ingredients

200g ricotta cheese

190ml milk

4 eggs, separated

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g melted butter

A little butter for cooking

Syrup and/or fruit

Method

1. Beat together the ricotta, milk & egg yolks until smooth. Then add the melted butter.

2. In another bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Add the ricotta mixture to the dry ingredients and stir very lightly.

3. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and fold them into the batter. (Careful now - don't over mix and knock out all the fluffiness)

4. Melt a little butter in a large frying pan, pour in 3-4 tablespoons of the batter and cook over a medium heat until the pancakes are golden underneath. Flip to the other side and cook for about another minute until the pancakes are cooked through. Continue until all the batter is used up, adding more butter to the pan as needed.

Serve hot with fresh seasonal fruit and maple syrup or a dollop of creme fraiche. The Rose Bakery recommends a red-fruit compote, but we had some lovely blueberries, raspberries and strawberries so we used those.

We also used ricotta cheese from a tub instead of fresh Italian ricotta, as they use at the Rose Bakery. The pancakes did not seem to suffer from this slight change as these were still so very light, mallowy in the centre without being undercooked, and crispy on the outside.

making strawberry whoopie...

2011-07-16T22:36:00.001+01:00

Tired of the cupcake? Macaroons too much work? Try a Whoopie Pie, a cross between strawberry shortcake and a muffin. The cake bit of these whoopie pies is soft and chewy. Most of the sweetness comes from the filling. The iconic chocolate ones with the marshmallowy filling are great, but during strawberry season, these are even better.

Makes 9 large or 24 mini pies.

Cakes:

100g hulled strawberries

300 g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

200g light brown sugar

75ml corn or vegetable oil

65ml buttermilk

1 egg

Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl mash the strawberries into small pieces (not pureed) and set aside. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt, set aside. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and oil. Mix well, breaking up any lumps in the sugar. Mix in the chopped strawberries and buttermilk until combined, beat in the egg until combined. Fold in the flour mixture in two parts, being careful not to overwork the batter. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Drop 18 large or 48 small scoops of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2-inches apart (I made the big ones). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes for large, or 8 to 10 mins for mini-whoopies until the tops feel firm.

Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Strawberry buttercream filling:

50ml unstrained strawberry puree (about 80g unhulled berries)

90 g soft butter

500 g icing sugar

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the filling, press the strawberries through a sieve and put the resulting puree in a large bowl. Add the butter, powdered sugar, lemon and vanilla extract and beat until everything is well combined.

To assemble the whoopie pies, place a generous dollop of buttercream on the flat side of a cookie and gently press it together with the flat side of a second cookie. Repeat until they are all filled and dust the tops with a little sprinkling of icing sugar. Any leftover buttercream will keep for a week or so in a covered container in the fridge.

a picnic...

2011-07-16T22:25:00.002+01:00

I've always known that cooking by myself is fun. It is only this week that I learned that cooking with other likeminded souls in separate kitchens, miles apart is even more fun! And so, I found myself partaking in my first ever 'Irish Foodies Cookalong' last Friday - the theme was 'Picnics and Parties' and here, members of the jury, are the results.

I'm a big fan of beetroot. It goes so well in salad recipes, served both warm or cold, raw or cooked and with many different ingredients. Orange, apple, chickpea, new potatoes, feta or goat cheese, rocket and walnuts! They all cosy up nicely with beetroot and it also adds a vivid colour to an otherwise dull plate.

Sticky Beetroot Salad

Peel and cut three good sized beetroot into chunks and roast in the oven until tender. Toss with a tablespoon each of thyme leaves, balsamic, olive oil and honey, season well and put back into the oven until sticky and glazed.

Carrot and Coriander Salad

Ingredients

500g carrots, finely grated

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

Big handful of finely chopped fresh coriander

Outer leaves of one butterhead lettuce to serve

Whisk together the dressing ingredients, mix in the carrot and leave to sit in the fridge for an hour or so to infuse. Spoon a large helping onto a leaf of lettuce and serve.

Chicken Goujons

Take 2 large chicken breasts and cut into strips or chunks. Coat first in egg, then dip into seasoned flour, finally cover in an mixture of equal parts breadcrumbs and grated parmesan. Bake in the oven until golden. Serve with garlic mayo and tomato relish for dipping.

Quick Sausage Rolls

Sausage rolls are one of those things that's always much better made at home, but they don't have to be hard work to be lovely. For one thing, the meat quality in shop bought ones is somewhat of a gamble, and not a gamble that is likely to pay off.

Life is just too short to make your own puff pasty. I did once about a hundred years ago with my mother and the endless rolling, folding, chilling and floury mess means that I now mostly use frozen all-butter puff pastry if I can find it. It is so much better than the regular sort of puff and much less work than the labour of love that is homemade puff.

For the filling it is generally better to use sausages than the rolls of alarmingly pink sausage meat that you find in the shops around Christmas, The meat from sausages is coarser and less salty. James Whealan Butchers, Clonmel, does a lovely bacon and cheese sausage that is perfect for this, but any good butchers sausage will do. Add in some sage and thyme and a little grated lemon zest to enhance the flavour. Add a generous handful of breadcrumbs if you feel it is too dense, as some can be and add a scant spoon of water to the sausage mix if you like, it will make pastry puff up a lot more.

Roll out the ready-made pastry into a rectangle ½ cm thick, and spoon a little cylinder of sausage mix down the centre, egg wash the pastry, roll it up, press it together with a fork, and then cut the long sausage into individual rolls, long or short, it's up to you. I melt together a spoon of butter and a spoon of wholegrain mustard to glaze the top, to make it fancy, then into the oven at about 220C until golden and puffed up, about 20 minutes.

So there you have it! A picnic of homemade chicken goujons, sausage rolls and two colourful salads.

Amounts will serve a nuclear family (2 Adults + 2.4 children). Dessert was the wonderfully portable Whoopie pie - recipe to follow.

Lily's soup...

2011-07-05T11:07:00.004+01:00

Don't eat anything that your Grandmother wouldn't recognise - this is the advice from the diet and nutrition books these days. While I admire the sentiment and realise fully that it is to collectively drive us away from the excessively processed foods on the shelves of our supermarkets. I also know that if my Granny Lily saw half the ingredients in the favourite soup of (her namesake) my youngest daughter, she would arch one of her beautifully pencilled eyebrows skywards.

I don't think there was a lot of cumin, ginger or butternut squash in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary in the 40's and 50's. And even though she was a relatively well-travelled woman (having spent time as an noviciate in a nunnery in Versailles and travelled the length and breadth of Ireland with Duffy's Circus in her long and eventful life) I would still have to do without a lot of my everyday ingredients if I stuck to the foods available in Ireland a mere few decades ago.

This soup comes from the sort of vegetable purees that most children are weaned on - starting with plain boiled and mashed vegetables, it grew with the children into a lightly spiced soup the whole family enjoys. I keep it nice and thick to stick to the spoon so that most of it makes it's way into a clumsy toddlers mouth. Dunking of wholemeal bread into the soup is also encouraged. (Even though the very thought of such a breach of etiquette would have poor Granny Lily spinning in her grave)

Spiced Butternut Squash & Parsnip Soup (á la Elizabeth Pearl)

Good quality oil for sauteeing (I use Donegal Rapeseed)
Large brown onion, chopped
Half a butternut squash
2 sticks of celery
2 large parsnips peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
Small piece of fresh ginger, grated.
1/2 red chilli
1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds, lightly toasted
1.2 litres of veg/chicken stock (I usually have some homemade chicken stock hiding in the fridge)
Salt and pepper
A dollop of créme fraiche and chopped coriander to serve - if liked

Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, sautee the onion till softened slightly over a low heat. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and cumin and cook for a few minutes more. Add your chopped vegetables and stock. Bring to the boil, and reduce to simmer for 20 minutes. Liquidise until smooth, and check seasoning.

You can easily double the quantities of this soup as it keeps very well in the fridge as it has no dairy in it. It freezes brilliantly too and is both vegetarian and vegan friendly if you use the correct stock. The squash and the parsnips both love spices and you can increase the chilli and the cumin for older, more sophisticated palates.

the new best carrot cake...

2011-07-04T20:52:00.001+01:00

I had a significant birthday recently and my lovely family clubbed together to get me a much coveted greenhouse for my garden (Thanks guys...best present ever!). It has sat in its box since June as it's very much a two person job to assemble, but yesterday it could not be put off any longer as the tomato & chilli plants etc. were getting far too big for the new sitting room window (& the carpenter was due first thing Monday morning to lay the wooden floor). Since watering plants and wooden floors are not a great combination, Sunday was given over to the construction project so that the veg plants could go to their more permanent home.

Lunch: Lily's favorite, butternut squash and parsnip soup.

So I was up bright and early getting ahead of the curve. Children were eating their breakfasts while I made their lunch and prepped the dinner, so we could get a clear run at the job in hand. A Sunday, however is not complete without a sweet treat. So while the kids favourite vegetable soup was simmering and the chicken, bacon and mushroom roast was resting in the fridge, I cast my eye over twitter-town and blog-land to see what looked good for afters.

Dinner: Jointed chicken, a quicker way to a Sunday roast.

I came across a recipe on Paula's Sweet Treats, for a carrot cake that caught my imagination. I have been convinced for a number of years that I already have the best recipe for carrot cake in the world, but I now stand corrected. It turns out it was only the second best.

Cinnamon syrup is the magic ingredient in this lovely cake, The sponge is very moist anyway, but the syrup makes it gorgeously gooey. And it has carrots in it - so it's super healthy as well *cough*! The top notes of orange and the syrup combine to conjure up the smell of Christmas and The Editor has already booked it into the festive menu, although I'd be more than happy to eat it anytime.

This is changed a bit from the original, as you do, depending on personal/family tastes. Here's what I did.

Cake Ingredients

1 orange (rind only, save the juice for the icing)

250 ml corn oil

225 gr muscovado sugar

3 large eggs

250 gr carrots grated (around 3 medium sized carrots)

225 gr self raising flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Thin orange rind strips to decorate

Icing

150 gr Philadelpia cream cheese

Juice of half an orange

50 gr icing sugar

Cinnamon syrup

220 gr muscovado sugar

200 ml of water

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cinnamon stick

To make the sponge

Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line two 8" sandwich tins. With a whisk beat the oil and muscavado sugar and eggs together. Stir in the orange zest and carrots. Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of salt over the mixture and fold in. Divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake for about 25 minutes or until skewer comes out cleanly.

Put the tins aside to cool for a few minutes before removing the sponges onto a wire rack, peel the baking parchment from the backs and leave to cool completely.

To make the icing

Beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Sandwich the two sponges together using about a third of the mixture and spread remaining on top. Put a few orange peel ribbons on top for prettiness.

To make the cinnamon syrup

Place all ingredients in small, heavy bottomed saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar is melted. Simmer gently until mixture thickens, set aside to cool.

To serve, let each person drizzle over the syrup on their own individual slice according to taste.

So not a 'day of rest Sunday', but the greenhouse is ready for its new inhabitants and everyone still had a proper Sunday dinner. And I discovered a lovely cake that I will be revisiting in the future. Hurrah!

Relæ in Copenhagen...

2011-06-27T22:35:00.000+01:00

When I eat out I want things I would never make at home. I want new flavours, textures and combinations to try, inspiration and ideas. Mostly I want a meal to stick in my memory for a while so that I can some way justify travelling to a foreign country for a dinner.

Relæ in Copenhagen was our latest culinary jaunt and I must say it delivered on all fronts. Opened by ex Noma alumni (only the best restaurant in the world, darling), this place has been turning up regularly in the design, food and travel magazines that gather in our house, and having treated ourselves to a weekend away sans children, we were curious to find out for ourselves what all the hype was about.

Housed in an understated basement room in a seemingly down at heel (but really rather trendy) neighbourhood, your menu and cutlery can be found in a little pull-out drawer under the table. They serve only two set menus here; one for vegetarians, the other for ‘omnivores’. Homemade rye sourdough bread comes to the table tucked into a cloth in a ceramic bowl. It comes with a small spouted pot full of the fruitiest of olive oils.

Starters were white asparagus and anchovies for me and sheep's milk yogurt, pea shoots and pea & pinenut 'snow' for Ray who was 'taste driving' the vegetarian menu. The white asparagus which is forced and keep in the dark to stop it turning green was blanched for the briefest time and sliced finely. Multiple preparations of the same ingredient being a bit of a theme here, here was a white asparagus puree dotted in a pool of salty anchovy broth. It was beautiful on the plate and full of flavour.

Ray's sheep's milk yogurt & pea was simply stunning. A buzzy combination of flavors and textures and the vermillion pea and pine nut snow that drifted across the surface of the unexpectedly icy cold yogurt went a large way to making it the best dish of the meal for both of us (Ray previously hated both sheep milk and peas!).

Next up for us both a plate of the tiniest new potatoes, nutty and each no bigger than a thumb nail, generously dusted in powdered seaweed. There were warm forced strawberries, white and tart, smelling and tasting almost identical to early season rhubarb. These sat in a zingy rocket emulsion. Personally I found the strawberries a bit 'design over substance', they seemed to add nothing but novelty value, but that's a small gripe.

Ray's vegetarian main of grilled onions and puree duly arrived. Yes, onions. Seriously. A plate of very young onion shoots, gridled, and a deep dark caramelized onion puree on the side. It looked awful (thus not pictured), tasted divine and not a scrap was left. My havervadgård lamb, with turnip and samphire was outstanding. The charming waiter spoke eloquently of the wild lambs that feed on the samphire and forage the Danish seaside for their fodder, with no supplementary feeding, they are wild and organic. The supplier then scoops up both the lamb and the samphire for the good people of Denmark to feast on. This is some amazing meat! Our waiter continued to wax lyrical about the slow poaching of the lamb, (here I imagine that ‘poached’ translates into ‘sous vide’, as it was just perfectly rare and tender as could be) What they called a turnip was what we would call a swede. Paper thin and delicately flavored, it was soft enough that you knew it had been cooked but firm enough that it could not have been for long. The samphire was the only the tender tips, not the woody stems so often encountered elsewhere. The entire dish sat in the deepest lamb jus imaginable. It was ridiculously good.

We passed on the optional course of fresh goats cheese although it looked great on our neighbouring diners tables and moved on to dessert. This was indeed a dish served at the end of the meal, but no other dessert rules seemed to apply here. Described simply as herbs and warm sabayon on the menu, the bright green herb 'ice-cream' was not sweet but intensively flavoured with thyme, mint, rosemary and other garden herbs, the warm sabayon sweet, lemony and peppered with tiny herb flowers. The thinnest toasted rye bread slivers were added for crunch. It was a light and refreshing end to a truly lovely meal.

Dining at Relæ is a sensory experience and locality and seasonality are a religion. Simple, good ingredients are combined for innovation, mostly very successfully. The front of house staff are interested and enthusiastic and have the most amazing leather aprons for a uniform to boot! If you stay away from the biodynamic wines, the food is very affordable, alas we did not. But most importantly this is a meal which will most definitely stick in my memory for a while. A long while.

preserving summer again...

2011-06-21T21:46:00.000+01:00

I must confess to having a general dislike to food that is flower flavoured. Rose water has always repelled me a little, but homemade elderflower cordial is so much better than anything you can buy, and the huge tree at the back of the garden means I don't have to travel far to do my foraging at this time of year. And it makes the house smell lovely... bonus!

The flowers themselves are best picked in the sun when they are dry. Pick your elderflowers early in the morning when their scent is much stronger. Choose flowers with no trace of browning and be careful to pick your blossoms far back from any roadsides where the traffic fumes do them no favours.

The Recipe
20 heads of elderflower (about a plastic carrier bag full)
1.8 kg granulated or caster sugar
1.2 litres water
2 unwaxed lemons
75 g citric acid

Method
1. Shake the elderflowers to remove any dirt or small creatures, then place in a large bowl.

2. Put the sugar into a pan with the water and bring up to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.

3. While the sugar syrup is heating, pare the zest from the lemons in wide strips and put into the bowl with the flower heads. Slice the lemons and add to the bowl. Pour over the boiled syrup and stir in the citric acid. Cover with a cloth and then leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

4. Next day, strain the cordial through a sieve lined with (scalded) muslin (or a NEW j-cloth rinsed out in boiling water), and pour into thoroughly cleaned glass or plastic bottles.

5. To sterilise bottles, wash the bottles & stoppers really well and put on a baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool slightly before adding the cordial through a funnel. Screw on the lids and pop into the cupboard ready to use, or put some in the freezer.

To serve
Dilute the elderflower cordial to taste with fizzy water, and serve over ice with a slice or two of lemon, or a sprig of mint floating on top. For something a bit more fun, add it to white wine and sparkling water to make an elderflower spritzer.

Endlessly versatile in sweet and savoury dishes, try it in sorbets, or ice-creams. Elderflower cordial is also brilliant in a vinaigrette. It makes a light, summery salad all the more summery - just mix a couple of tablespoons with your choice of vinegar, a bit of mustard, olive oil and seasoning. Another great thing to do with this syrup is to use it in place of rose water in Turkish and Moroccan-style chicken and poussin recipes.

preserving summer...

2011-06-21T15:19:00.001+01:00

The abundance of the Wexford strawberry sellers on the sides of the roads mean it's the perfect time to make your own jam if you haven't done so before. These berries certainly don't last as long as the sprayed-to-death 'super-berries' from the supermarkets (in stock all year round, they look like strawberries, smell like strawberries but alas, taste of not very much at all).

People think there is some mystery to jams, jellies and preserves, but there isn't really. Traditionally jams are made 1:1 proportion fruit to sugar. This means for each kilo of fruit you use a kilo of sugar. My mother never used any preservative except sugar and neither do I. If you want preservatives in your jam, buy it in the supermarket. Just take care to properly sterilise your jars. After that, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Easy Strawberry Jam

1kg strawberries, hulled & halved
1kg white sugar (or jam sugar - but it's not really necessary)
1 Tablespoon of water
Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Place the fruit and water in a saucepan on a medium heat. Cook for 15 mins until the fruit starts to break down.

Add the sugar and lemon juice. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 mins.

Mash any remaining big bits of fruit with a potato masher and skim any foam from the surface.

Carefully pour the hot jam into the prepared jars (see below for perfect jar prep). Seal with the lids and 'Bob's your uncle'! Makes 1 litre or 4 big jars.

Jar Prep (also useful for chutneys & preserves etc.)

This is the easiest way to sterilise jars. Fill your dishwasher with clean cold jars and run a rinse wash. Use the jars one at a time from the dishwasher when needed.

I prefer to do them in the cool oven of the Aga - another bonus of my kitchen buddy! But, this is how to do it in a regular oven... Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4 - no higher or you risk the glass breaking. Lay a clean tea towel in a large roasting tin. Put the jars and lids in making sure the jars are not touching each other. Close the oven door and sterilise the jars for about 15 minutes. Using thick oven mitts, remove each jar from the oven and fill. Make sure you fill the jar while the jam or preserve is about as hot as the jar. Don't add cold food to hot jars, or hot food to cold jars.

There are all sorts of uses for this fantastic seasonal jam - on a warm buttery scone, oozing out of a classic Victoria sponge or best of all, a hidden away jar kept for a rainy January day when summer seems an eternity away. Hunt out your treasure and spoon a big dollop of it into a bowl of rice pudding, hot from the oven, for a little reminder of summer.

love handles...

2011-06-16T13:03:00.005+01:00

My back kitchen comes from Ikea (Yes! I know - two kitchens! I did say at the outset that I loved to cook!). There's nothing wrong with it. It has presses that open, work surfaces that you can work on and storage for all the gimcracks and gee-gaws that I have collected in my years of domesticity. It also complements the creamy tones of the Aga, which it was built around, and is perfectly in keeping with the 150 year old farmhouse it lives in.

But it's from Ikea and for it to be acceptable in the sight of it's two (designer) inhabitants, some customization was required. So here are the handles that I scoured Galway and it's surrounds for. They're from a variety of different shops (including a couple from Anthropologie in London) and I love them very much! They're the kind of thing that makes this kitchen 'my kitchen'...

So that's one more little decision made. Work continues on the rest of the house and that second kitchen needs tackling, but one day soon everything will be done and we can all sit down in it and have a nice cup of tea. I can't wait for that day to come.

lovely lemonade...

2011-06-14T18:42:00.000+01:00

Everybody likes lemonade! This recipe is the simplest one I know. It makes quite a sweet lemonade so up the juice content or reduce the amount of sugar if you'd prefer it with a bit more bite!

Really easy - 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of lemon juice. Perfect Lemonade every time!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar

1 cup water (for the sugar syrup)

1 cup lemon juice

3 to 4 cups cold water to dilute. (Or sparkling mineral water if you are posh like me.)

1 Make the sugar syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely. Dissolving the sugar in hot water disperses the sugar in the lemonade, instead of having the sugar sink to the bottom.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to squeeze the juice from some lemons (about 4 lemons usually yeilds a cup.)

3 Either keep the concentrated mixture in the fridge, pouring over ice and topping up with water as required or add the juice and the sugar water to a nice big jug. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Serve with ice and a slice!

pizza...

2011-06-13T23:26:00.000+01:00

I can make really good pizza at home – it's a really easy thing to do – especially on the hot oven floor of the Aga, which is very like a pizza oven in temperature. But sometimes I don't...

When in Galway town there two good places for pizza, but for two different stages of your life! Monroe's, Dominick Street for a slice was our preference before children, a great pre– or post–pub spot! When you have kids though, you go to Milano's. For one simple reason - no matter how badly your children behave there's always someone else with a child being even more disgraceful than yours. The staff are so good and have seen it all before – some of them know Hannah & Lily almost as long as we have! They've as many high chairs as they have tables and the food is freshly made & consistently good. I have never been to Domino's or Papa John's and probably never will.

We rambled in on Saturday and received the usual friendly greeting - the girls had the kids deal starting with dough balls with garlic butter (I love it when the kids smell of garlic!). Then Lily has pasta, which she demands in all restaurants, and Hannah has pizza. They both finish with some very good quality ice cream. Vanilla for one and the deepest, darkest chocolate for Hannah who was never fed much Dairymilk as a kiddie and as a result always goes for the good stuff.

As you can probably gather, Milano's is a bit of a haven for us on a Saturday and when it comes time to feed the adults myself and The Editor split an 'Etna Romana' after a starter of 'Mushroom Bruchetta'. The Etna pizza is very hot, the Romana base very thin, but the peppers are so sweet and flavoursome that the 'face hurting' heat of them is not the memory that you are left with. It's the combination of good food & good (albeit young) company that makes this simple Italian meal so great... Buon appetito!

the big freeze...

2011-06-11T21:36:00.002+01:00

Good News! There is a new arrival in the Snug&Fat household and we are all very happy to have it as part of the family. After almost a year of having to make do with a tiny 'beer' fridge and no freezer at all during our building works, we were finally able to have our super-duper, all-singing, all-dancing fridge freezer delivered and plumbed in. To celebrate this auspicious occasion I made ice-cream and lemonade for the children and The Editors sweet tooth.

There are as many recipes for ice cream as there are flavours, I went 'old skool' for a cooked custard vanilla, gelato style, some shortbread biscuits and a strawberry sauce. The biscuits are a very basic type that take other flavours well... lemon, chocolate and almond are all good.

The Cookies

250g butter, softened
140g caster sugar (I tend to use golden for a more 'butterscotch' flavour)
1 egg yolk (you can freeze the whites until you have enough for a nice meringue)
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour

Cook 15 mins approx - but don't forget to peek in at them.

1. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or mixer, then add the egg yolk and vanilla and briefly beat to combine. Sift over the flour and mix until the mixture is well combined - you might need to get your hands in at the end to give everything a really good mix and press the dough together. Make two round, rolling pin shaped 'sausages' of dough and refrigerate till you near the ice cream serving stage.

Since these quantities make about 30 cookies, and we are only four, I nearly always put one in the freezer for cookie emergencies. It makes one look like a very sorted lady indeed if you can put some biscuits warm from the oven on the table when company comes to call.

The Vanilla Ice Cream

200g white sugar
235ml milk
2 eggs
475ml double cream
A vanilla pod

Stir together the sugar, milk, vanilla pod and eggs. Cook over a low heat, stirring continuously, a whisk is great for this, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool and the vanilla pod to infuse.

Some recipes say whip the cream - don't whip the cream. Stir into the cooled custard. Chill in refrigerator for a few hours. Then either freeze in the freezer breaking up any crystals with a fork periodically or in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

The Strawberry Sauce

Don't mess with the strawberries, stick them in a blender and check for tartness, adding sugar to taste and keeping in mind that this ice cream is plenty sweet already. If you have someone to impress - sieve out the pips, if tis only yerselves leave them in. It's a bit of texture and too much 'smooth food' makes children fussy about food, which we don't really buy into around here.

So thats it! Plain ice cream (vanilla) and a mineral (lemonade) which I will deal with later, and the start of an Irish summer with a fridge and freezer. I could not be happier.

eggcellent result...

2011-06-10T22:46:00.000+01:00

Hey! Remember my post with the chorizo and chickpea stew? Well, guess what... emboldened by my two short weeks of food blogging I entered a competition and WON! I was very chuffed with myself because, as a person who rarely puts themselves forward, I was thrilled when the lovely Olive from the The Home Barn site said I won a 50 euro voucher for her on-line household emporium - Yay!

I didn't realise I needed all the things from this shop until I saw them...and the most important thing I apparently needed was a set of 4 matching egg cups.

Egg cups I hear you cry! Yes indeed! I needed a set of four as baby daughter Lily P has mastered the art of bringing more egg to her mouth than shell, a grown-up skill indeed. Mismatched egg cups cannot be tolerated anymore as they will cause 'egg cup envy' - a terrible condition that young children are prone to. The egg-cellent Olive sent my purchases (of which there were a good many more - more about those later!) out promptly in the post and I received them the very next day. As you can see - my old eggcup is making eyes at my new ones!

They're very pretty and I love them very much - it can't wrong to love egg cups - especially when they're free!

The Best Bread & Butter Pudding...

2011-06-08T00:01:00.001+01:00

I had lunch with an old school friend recently (I had not seen Lucy since our debs). She has been living in the big apple, NYC for a lot of years, so I was really excited to see her. She was staying in Co. Clare, and as I was traveling from Galway, my first challenge was to find somewhere between the two places that was pretty enough to bring this honorary American for a spot of lunch. Kinvarra was recommended by himself and a quick trawl of the interwebs led me to pick a seafood restauraunt that had few Bridgestone awards. But this Bridgestone had past its 'sell by' date. It was pretty grim. The only saving grace for me was a bread and butter pudding that was overly sweet, but it was pleasant enough. This is a long winded way of introducing the best bread and butter pudding recipe ever - and easiest. It's particularly good to keep in mind at Christmas when the main ingredient is plentiful and easily found.

Panetonne Bread & Butter Pudding and Mascarpone Custard - serves 6*

Panetonne is a traditional Italian Christmas cake, buttery and full of flavour. Simple to make and totally delicious panetonne bread & butter pudding has become our new Christmas dessert. This pudding has all the vanilla and fruit from the luxurious panetonne instead of plain bread, but do leave it to dry out sufficiently as this is essential to soak up the custard (if you have a very fresh panetonne, and need this in a hurry, cut it into slices the day before and it will be sufficiently dried out the day after).

*I say here that it serves 6, and it should, but it won't, 4 greedy people can finish this off without a bother.

The custard is less forgiving - use cornflour to make it more stable or do what I do and make sure you have enough ingredients to make it twice when you inevitably curdle it the first time! When adding the mascarpone it’s important to add some warm custard to the mascarpone first and mix until smooth. Then mix it back into the custard (If you try to mix it straight in you’ll have lumps of mascarpone floating in the custard).

The custard for the pudding
Pre-heat the oven to 150ºc
Bring 200ml of milk & 300ml of double cream to the boil.
Whisk 3 eggs with 100g of caster sugar, the juice and zest from 1 orange, and the seeds from 1 vanilla pod. Add the hot milk and whisk together.
Slice the Panetonne (500g) into thick slices and butter generously.
Butter a ceramic dish and lay down 1 layer of buttered Panetonne.
Cover with the liquid and repeat until you have 3 layers.
Sprinkle the top with soft brown sugar and gently press.
Place the dish in a deep oven tray, pouring in enough boiling water to come half way up the sides of the dish.
Bake for 30 minutes – until a golden brown crust forms.

For the Mascarpone custard bring 500ml of milk to the boil
Whisk 6 egg yolks with 75g of caster sugar, 40g of corn flour, 50ml of cold milk and the seeds from a vanilla pod.
Pour in hot milk and whisk.
Cook over a low heat stirring constantly until it thickens.
Remove from heat and whisk a ladleful into 100g of mascarpone. Once smooth whisk that back into the custard.
Pass through a fine sieve into a serving jug.

Scone Sweet Scone

2011-06-01T22:33:00.000+01:00

My eldest daughter likes buns, all kinds of buns. She associates different buns with different people and places. She asks for them from people who have supplied them in the past. Her grandfather (Hammy) gives her fairy cakes with dolly mixture faces. Her Aunty Ger supplies an abundance of cupcakes from farmers markets. Uncle Aran's 70% chocolate brownie was her first love. She is on first name terms with Emer in our favourite bakery, Goyas. Most Saturdays sees her with her face pressed up against the glass display case, eyeing up the lemon meringue and millionaire shortbread. She got her first cookbook at Christmas and it was the bedtime story book for weeks after. (though I must confess it is very dull to read recipes aloud) She says she would like to be a 'makery' when she grows up. All in all, this is one apple that did not fall far from the tree.

Ingredients

350g self-raising flour, some more for dusting

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

85g cold butter , cut into cubes

4 tbsp golden caster sugar

150g pot natural full-fat yogurt

4 tbsp full-fat milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze

Put a baking sheet in the oven at 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Put the flour, salt and baking powder into a food processor, then whizz in the butter until it disappears. Pulse in the sugar, tip into a large bowl, then make a well in the middle.

Warm the yogurt, milk and vanilla together in a pan or microwave; it should be hot and may well go a bit lumpy-looking. Tip into the bowl and quickly work into the flour mix using a pallete knife. Stop as soon as it's all in.

Tip the dough onto a floured surface, then, with floured hands, fold the dough over a few times - just enough to create a smoothish dough. Press out to about 4cm/1½in thick, dip a 7cm cutter into more flour, then stamp out 4 rounds, flouring the cutter each time. Squash the remainder lightly together, then repeat until the dough is used up. Brush tops with egg wash, scatter flour over the hot sheet, then lift the scones on. Bake for 12 mins until risen and golden. Best eaten just-warm, or on the day.

high steaks...

2011-05-31T22:12:00.002+01:00

The second best steak in Galway without a doubt comes from the Malt House. If you want the perfect steak and chips - that's where you go. It's rib-eye and enormously tasty. Bar 8 on the docks comes a close third. But the very best steak in Galway comes from my house. Now, I'm not really one to blow my own trumpet (I come from a family of trumpet blowers – some of them play the trumpet, you see), but I firmly believe that this is the best steak I've had.

Tonight was 'Steak Night' - and there are two rules to follow, which, if you have those down, you will never order steak out again. Firstly - make friends with the local butcher, supermarket steak is not a good idea. Secondly - a cast iron griddle pan that is left to get dangerously hot and then a bit hotter than that (mine was donated by my mother-in-law who felt that the weight of it and her little wrists were not meant to be together). Ideally, 1 or 2 mins on each side for the steak - or a tiny bit longer if you don't like it rare, serve with sauteed potatoes and a little salad and an easy hollandaise from the blender (instructions follow).

Hollandaise is one of those frightening things like custard that can go very wrong. This method takes the fear out of it and it will sit nicely in a warm spot for a little while - people that tell you to make it in advance and put it in a flask are mental! Have you ever tried to wash a flask that has had hollandaise in?

The easiest way to get perfect Hollandaise is to use a blender. This recipe has most of the same ingredients as the classic, but with no double boiler and no chance of the sauce separating.

2 egg yolks

A dash of Llewellyns balsamic vinegar

Juice of half a lemon

5 drops of tabasco

2 ounces butter

Directions

In a blender, combine the egg yolks, vinegar, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce. Cover and blend for about 5 seconds.

Place the butter in a glass measuring cup. Heat butter in the microwave (or Aga) for about 1 minute, or until completely melted and hot. Set the blender on high speed, and pour the butter into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. It should thicken almost immediately. Keep the sauce in a warm spot until serving.

Enjoy!

cupboard love...

2011-05-30T10:39:00.003+01:00

I could live on chorizo, and luckily for me I live near enough to Sheridan's Cheesemongers (a serious cheese and charcuterie emporium) to do so. The wonderful paprika spiciness of the chorizo gives this hearty stew its depth of flavour.
The rest of the ingredients are store-cupboard stand-bys. This is a regular offering at our table as it doesn't mind being left bubbling away in the backgroundif evening negotiations with the kids drags on. Small tip: Make enough - as this makes a perfect next-day lunch.

Chorizo, potato and chickpea stew

Serves 2 hungry hippos

1 medium onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 stick celery chopped
Teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves
1 quality chorizo sausage
1/2 litre chicken stock

Tin of tomatoes (500g)
Tin of chickpeas (220g)
3 medium potatoes peeled

Method.
Slowly sweat the onions, celery, garlic and thyme. When onions are translucent, but not brown (10 mins or so), slice up the chorizo sausage and add to onion mix, and sauté for 5 minutes or so. Add your stock, tomatoes and potatoes. Simmer gently until the potatoes are tender - 25 to 35 minutes. Add the tinned chickpeas to warm through near serving time. Season and serve with a big dollop of plain yougurt on top and some crusty bread.

This dish takes its inspiration from the very excellent Rua in Castlebar (Thanks Aran)

table manners...

2011-05-28T21:35:00.004+01:00

It's difficult to teach table manners when one has no table (it's in storage during our long renovations). Saturdays sometimes finds us trying to instruct the girls in the art of getting various foods into their mouths as elegantly as possible, and with varying degrees of success. Today's attempt took place in Da Tang Noodle House in Middle Street, Galway.

A favourite haunt of ours it is, and a little gem, cosy and with the reassuring Bridgestones at the door. In fact, himself was their very first customer when they first opened many moons ago. Da Tang is a million miles away from the usual neighbourhood 'Chinese' - no chicken balls in radioactive orangey-sugar sauce to be found here.

If there was one thing I could wish for my girls, it wouldn't be wealth or intelligence or long legs and small feet, but the ability to eat with chopsticks with complete grace and nonchalance, or failing that, to use them without being a danger to themselves and others. The staff at Da Tang (discretely) understand these cultural limitations and a fork mysteriously appeared at my elbow not long into our meal.

I slurped my way through 'soup noodles with pork and pickled mustard', The girls always seem to be able to inhale any amount of 'dumplings' made with pork or lamb and 'crispy prawns' which youngest daughter has now reluctantly at the wise old age of two and a half come to terms with not eating the crunchy tail shell, the gorgeously simple but highly addictive spicy salad and his roast duck was crispy perfection, all washed down with jasmine tea.

No real point in looking for dessert here, and no real reason with all the ice-cream and bun shopping still to be done... But that's another story!