emergency tomato soup

Very quick emergency tomato soup with garlic & cheese croutons.

You will never go hungry if you have a few tins of tomatoes in the larder. This quick meal can be made in ten minutes when you have little time to cook and seemingly nothing in the fridge. A little bit of toasted bread makes it more substantial and with a little roast garlic and talegio compound butter from the freezer melted on top it transforms into a feast.

Ingredients:
400 gr can of cherry tomatoes
100 ml beef stock or vegetable stock
A few drips of tabasco
Some Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon or so
1 tsp sugar
Chives, basil or a few rocket leaves to garnish
Salt & pepper
Creme fraiche (optional)

Method:
Empty the tin of tomatoes into a saucepan. Add a splash of worcestershire sauce, the sugar and seasoning and a few drops of tabasco to taste. Add the stock and bring to the boil for a minute or two. Then either puree with a stickblender till smooth or pass through a sieve. Ladel into bowls and garnish with some fresh herbs and creme fraiche (if using) and serve with toasted crusty bread.

Hummingbird Cake

Hummingbird Cake is such a lovely name for a cake. The roasting of the bananas gives it the most mellow of flavors, sugary, rich and delicious. Its origins are in the deep South of the USA, full of chopped pecans, crushed pineapple, and bananas frosted with a delicious cream cheese icing. This is a cake for a crowd or a celebration. A winter cake that reminds you of the summer months to come.

Cake Ingredients:
250g flour (3 cups) gluten free or regular
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
225g (1 cup) granulated sugar
225g (1 cup) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
200ml, 7floz (1 cup) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons  vanilla extract
160g (1 cup) pineapple, fresh or tinned, crushed
4 large or 6 medium-small bananas, roasted in their skins. (See below*)
100g (1 cup) chopped pecans

Frosting Ingredients:
175g (1½ sticks) butter, chilled
3 x 8 ounce packets of cream cheese, chilled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
175 g icing sugar, sifted (1½ cups powdered sugar)
150g (1½ cups) finely chopped pecans

Makes 12 -16 servings

*First roast the bananas in a moderate oven preheated to 180°C, 350°F, gas mark 4. Place them on a lined baking sheet with there skins left on. Bake in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes until the skins are black (the bananas will leak out some juice, this is perfectly OK). Remove from the oven and let them cool until they can be handled. Peel the bananas and mash the flesh in a small mixing bowl. Set aside. Leave the oven heated to 180°C.

Butter and flour 3 x 9" round baking pans. Line the bottoms of each pan with parchment paper. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together into a bowl and set aside.
In a second mixing bowl combine the granulated and brown sugar. Add the eggs and stir briskly by hand into a smooth mixture. Whisk the oil and vanilla into the sugar and egg mixture until smooth. Add the flour mixture all at once and fold to combine the mixture fully. Add the crushed pineapple, mashed banana and the pecans.  Stir just until combined, be careful not to over stir.

Divide the cake batter evenly between the three pans and place in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes until cake bounces back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the pans for 5 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks, peel off the parchment paper and allow to fully cool before frosting.

To Make the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Cube the butter and place in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on low speed, gradually increasing speed to medium until the butter is still cool but has softened together (about 3 minutes).
Cut the cream cheese into 1 inch strips and add to the butter.  Mix at medium speed until fully combined, and smooth.
Add the vanilla, lemon zest and slowly add the sifted powdered sugar.  Beat until well blended, increasing speed to beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.
Fold in pecans by hand.

Bring it all together:
Place the first layer of cake upside down (the bottom of the cake will be frosted) on the serving plate. Cover with a thin layer of frosting. Place the second layer of cake right side up (flat cake bottom onto the frosting) and frost the top of this layer. Place the last cake layer with cake right side up and use the remaining frosting to cover top of cake and the sides. Allow the cake to stand at room temperature for a while before serving and store any uneaten cake in the refrigerator.  This cake is a little bit nicer when made the day before you want to serve it.

my favourite sandwich...

The sandwich is undoubtedly one of life’s simplest culinary pleasures. Open-faced, hot, cold, sweet or savory and with an endless combination of fillings, everyone has their favorite. Sandwiches don't usually require a recipe, but my favorite, the Croque Madame is one of the exceptions. This sandwich was first invented by Beyonce. After eating a croque-monsieur  for the first time, she was inspired to pen her most famous lyrics  "If you liked it then you shoulda put an egg on it" and so the croque-madame was born. I jest of course.

It is, at its most basic a ham and cheese sandwich with added "je ne sais quoi". It makes a perfect brunch or supper. This sandwich is not for packed lunches, it requires to be eaten immediately without a moments hesitation. Beloved in French cafés and bistros, there are many methods of making it. I prefer to bake them in the oven (you save a few calories and it's particularly useful if you are feeding a crowd for brunch), but a frying pan or grill is more common (That's skillet or broiler to you lovely Americans).

You will need some good bread, traditionally plain store-bought white is used, but I prefer something with a bit more character. My favorite at the moment is a nice spelt bread with honey and sesame seeds. This is also an excellent way of using left over ham, otherwise buy some thinly sliced baked ham from the deli counter, slimy packet ham is not ideal. The cheese should be Gruyère, Emmenthal will do or a sharp cheddar if you are desperate. The sauce on top is béchamel, never hollandaise or mornay. Don't skimp on the Dijon, it adds a really nice flavor. The egg is usually fried but poached is fine also.

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp plain flour
175g cup milk
A pinch each of salt, freshly ground pepper, nutmeg, or more to taste
About 3 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated, more if you like
4 slices of your choice of bread
6 thin slices of ham
Dijon mustard
(makes two)

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Make the béchamel sauce. Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium/low heat until it just starts to bubble. Add the flour and cook, stirring with a whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Slowly add the milk, whisking continuously, cook until thick. Remove from heat. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir in a third of the the grated Gruyère. Cover and set aside.

Lightly brush 2 of the bread slices with mustard. Add the ham and divide the remaining Gruyère cheese between them evenly. Top with the other bread slices.

Spoon the béchamel sauce onto the tops of the sandwiches. Sprinkle with the remaining Gruyère cheese. Place on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, or until the cheese topping is bubbly and lightly browned.

(You can also assemble the sandwiches and fry them each side in a frying pan in a spoon of oil or butter, finishing them under the grill with the béchamel sauce on top.)

Cook two eggs sunny side up, until the white is set and the yolk still runny, and put on top of each sandwich. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and/or black pepper and serve immediately.

No sandwich is more delicious in my opinion.

I'm so hungry I could eat a horse...

What a hullabaloo - horse meat in the burgers no less. But why are people buying frozen burgers of questionable origin when it couldn't be simpler to make your own from lovely Irish beef. Buy your meat from a good butchers or even the supermarket, there are not many horses trotting through either. You can buy premium steak mince but the cheaper stuff is also nice and the extra fat keeps it lovely and juicy. But the real secret to a really, really great burger is a splash of fish sauce. You know the stuff, smells disgusting and fetid, it is made from elderly anchovies after all, but its pure umami brings out the savory depth in foods and will make the best burger you will ever taste. So here's what to do.

Burgers
2 lbs minced beef
1 1/2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 egg
1 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper

Burger sauce
4fl oz good quality tomato ketchup
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sweet paprika
A good few drops of hot sauce or tabasco

Other stuff
4 tbsp olive oil
2 large red onions
2 large handfuls of crispy lettuce leaves
2 juicy tomatos, sliced
4 gherkins sliced thinly
6 slices of cheese
6 plain wholemeal rolls or sesame buns

Directions:
In a bowl, combine all burger ingredients together, smushing the beef with your hands. Leave to sit for 20 minutes. Shape into a balls and then flatten into burger patties.

While the burger mix is resting, caramelize your onions by slicing them very finely and then cooking them in  3 tbsp of the olive oil over a low heat in a heavy based, non-stick pan. The onions take around 15-20 minutes to caramelize properly but it's worth it. Cook until golden, sticky and just starting to get a little crispy and then add a pinch of salt.

In between watching the onions, mix together the ingredients for the sauce, adding the hot sauce at the end cautiously and tasting after every drop or two until your preferred level of 'zing' is reached.

Put the bread into the oven to warm while you cook the meat patties in a non-stick pan with a little olive oil over high heat, for a couple of minutes each side. Don't fry them slowly or they will get tough and loose all their juicy-ness. Pile on the lettuce, gherkin and fresh tomato, add the hot beef patty and top with the cheese so that it melts deliciously on top. Use your favorite cheese but I like processed sliced cheese for a proper melty cheese burger experience. Feel free to mix it up with any other condiments of your choice, I like a few jalapenos sometimes or maybe some beetroot if you are a lovely Australian. Then the caramelized onions and pink burger sauce. Pure beefy perfection.

This makes quite a lot of big, meaty burgers, I often make them quite a bit smaller especially if I am serving them with chips and salad and shape the left over meat mixture into walnut sized balls which I freeze or put covered in the fridge and cook the next day in a tomato and basil sauce for a second dish of Italian style meatballs

And there you have it. Delicious, juicy, healthy burgers, without a trace of 'my Lidl pony' in sight.

custard creams...

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me". 

So said C.S.Lewis and while one small cup of tea a day is plenty for me, I do feel sad when a good book is finished. My real love will always be children's books, the feel of the paper, smell of the ink, the weight of a hardback in my hand, and the charm and colour of the illustrations.

There is nothing quite like a feast of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl or Edward Lear to keep me happy, except maybe my little people to read them to. A good book demands tea and the accompaniment of a proper biscuit. These are the most proper of all biscuits, the classic custard cream. They are great to make with children as they are so easy, quick and fun. They taste so much better than the packet ones and they are another way for me to use up the big canister of custard powder I have been left with after Aunty Angela's unexpected septuagenarian romance allowed me to purchase the wretched stuff. For those of you wondering, custard powder is basically just cornflour (cornstarch) and a touch of yellow food colouring and can be substituted for same.

Ingredients
Biscuit
100g butter
120g flour
50g caster sugar
2 tablespoons custard powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling
40g icing sugar
25g or two tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 teaspoons custard powder

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Cream together the butter and sugar, sift in the flour and custard powder and bring together with the vanilla essence until a roll-able dough is formed. Alternatively combine all ingredients in a food processor, and then form the dough by hand.

Flour a surface and roll out dough to roughly 6mm thickness. Press your choice of cutter in to the dough, ensuring there is a duplicate of each shape you cut. Place shapes on a baking tray, greased and floured). Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Beat the icing sugar and vanilla together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Sift the icing sugar and custard powder together and beat gradually into the butter, and then use to fill the custard creams once they are cool. Place a bit on the bottom of one biscuit, and sandwich with another on top. Once set the custard creams can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

roast garlic & talegio bread...

Garlic butter is a compound butter, basically a 'flavoured' butter. These butters are endlessly versatile. A flavored butter acts as a sauce, in essence and any flavoring can be added. Chopped herbs with lemon zest will go great with fish or red wine and shallots with steak for example.

Now, I have never met a cheese I did not like, but Talegio is one (from a very long list) of the cheeses that I love. A compound butter made with Talegio is a glorious thing. It is quite a strong smelling cheese, but its flavour is comparatively mild with a sweet tang to it. When heated, it loses most of its strong smell and is just sweet and salty and delicious. If you can't find any then Fontina is a reasonable substitution and a ripe Brie would do if you were stuck.

Roasting the garlic first gives you loads of garlic flavor without the harshness of raw garlic, and it is delicious on toast as well. You could just add some sliced parma ham, dressed rocket, a nice bottle of red wine and you'd have a one of my favorite easy suppers for two. 

I always make plenty of this butter as it freezes very well, and I do it in small batches. Then whenever you have limited time to make a meal, take some chicken breasts or a pork chop, add this on top and simply bake in the oven for a quick meal with some salad or steamed veg. Or cook some wide ribbon pasta like tagliatelli and toss through a spoon or two in the hot pan pan, finish with some basil and you have a mac and cheese for grown-ups. 

Ingredients

1 head of garlic

300g Talegio cheese – softened

200g butter – softened

1 bunch chives – chopped

Sea salt and cracked clack pepper

1 sourdough loaf - a day or two old.

Method

Roast the garlic first. Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Cut a garlic head in half around the middle and wrap in aluminum foil and put it into the preheated oven. Cook for an hour or so. When done, you'll find the garlic cloves have turned into a soft, fragrant and caramelized mass, that will practically jump out of its papery case. Just squeeze the garlic flesh out or remove with a fork. 

Remove the rind from the Talegio, cut into chunks and mix with the butter and chives. Season liberally with pepper and sparingly with salt. Empty all the garlic flesh into the cheese and butter mix, then mash it around with a fork a little. C'est tout. 

Cut slices vertically into the bread and stuff full to bursting with the butter mix. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil and bake in a hot oven (about 200ºC) for 20 minutes. Remove, unwrap and serve immediately.

christmas rocky road squares

These are plain old rocky road squares with the seasonal adjustment of red glace cherries. The ones pictured here are missing their nuts as they were destined for a school party. These can be made ahead and store in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week. Decorate with icing sugar up to 2 hours before serving. Make the Rocky Road as above and freeze for up to a month. Thaw overnight in a cool place and decorate.

Ingredients
250g dark chocolate
150g milk chocolate
175g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g Rich Tea biscuits
150g toasted hazelnuts
150g glace cherries (red)
125 g mini marshmallows
1 tbsp icing sugar
Edible things for decorating

Method
Chop both sorts of chocolate small and then put into a heavy-based pan to melt with the butter and syrup over a gentle heat. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get big- and little-sized crumbs; you want some pieces to crunch and some sandy rubble. Put the nuts into another freezer bag and also bash them so you get different-sized nut rubble. Take the pan off the heat, and add the crushed biscuits and nuts, whole glacé cherries and mini-marshmallows. Turn carefully to coat everything with syrupy chocolate. Tip into a foil tray (I use one 236mm x 296mm), smoothing the top as best you can, although it will look bumpy. Refrigerate until firm enough to cut, which will take about 1 1/2–2 hours. Then take the set block of rocky road out of the foil tray ready to cut. Sieve the icing sugar to dust the top of the Rocky Road. With the long side in front of you, cut into it 6 slices down and 4 across, so that you have 24 almost-squares. Top with festive things, edible or plastic, taking care not to eat the plastic ones.

Adapted from Nigella Christmas

apple cuscakes

...thats apple & custard cupcakes

I had to beat this recipe out of Jennie from the Cupcake bakery, It's my personal favorite of all of her flavors. First I held her down and gave her a bit of a kicking. She was not co-operating at all until I tried a bit of hair pulling - then she caved in and gave it to me. I am hoping to get a gluten free recipe from her in the near future and now that I know her weak points our success is almost guaranteed :)

I completely made all of that up - but these are in reality very nice cupcakes. The sponge part is pretty much perfection, but you can skip the custard making and buy a carton without too many ill effects. The frosting can just be dolloped on and still be pretty, a star nozzle is what is usually used, the one pictured here is often called a 'french nozzle' with about 12 points

Makes 12
Ingredients
• 200g all-purpose flour
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 130g plus 2 tsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 130g light muscovado sugar
• 3 peeled & diced or grated Bramley or granny smyth apples
• About 1 tblsp milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350F/gas 4
Sift the Flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl
Put the butter & sugar in a mixing bowl & beat with an electric hand mixer until pale & fluffy. Stop occasionally to scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly add the sifted dry ingredients & grated/diced apple & beat on low until combined. If the mixture seems to thick add the milk. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases. Bake in a preheated oven for approx. 20-25 mins or until well risen & skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven & let cool completely on a wire rack.

Custard Recipe
Ingredients
• 570ml/1 pint milk
• 55ml/2fl oz single cream
• 1 vanilla pod or ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs, yolks only
• 30g/1oz caster sugar
• 2 level tsp cornflour
Bring the milk, cream and vanilla pod to simmering point slowly over a low heat. Remove the vanilla pod (wash the vanilla pod, dry and store in jar with caster sugar to make vanilla sugar). Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl until well blended. Pour the hot milk and cream on to the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk. Return to the pan, (add vanilla extract if using) and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spatula until thickened.

Once your cupcakes are cooled core the centre with an apple core & pour in your custard

Custard Buttercream
250g of butter, 500g icing sugar, drop of cold milk (if required), 2/3 tsp custard
Make sure your butter is soft, pop into a bowl. Add your icing sugar & start to mix on a low speed. Once your icing starts to come together increase the speed to medium. I generally leave it for about 10 mins on med-high speed or until it looks like whipped cream. I then fold in the custard as it can cause your buttercream to spilt if added to quickly.

Home-made fish fingers

Home-made fish fingers have more fish, more flavour and more crunch than shop bought ones and are well worth the extra effort. Most children love them so they're a safe bet when they have a few pals over after school. I always make up some extra and freeze them. They make a brilliant midweek emergency supper, frying them in batches from frozen.

Serve them with crispy homemade oven chips, or between two slices of bread with loads of tartare sauce for the ultimate fish finger sandwich. I have lemon sole here but any white fish like cod or haddock would do just as well. Sustainable white fish, such as pollock or coley would be even better. Panko breadcrumbs give the nicest coating, but I nearly always have breadcrumbs in the freezer so that's normally what I use - either is a vast improvement on the bright orange coating of the boxed fish finger - sorry Captain Birdseye, no offense intended.

Ingredients
2 lemon sole fillets (skinned)
70 g cornflour
100 g white breadcrumbs (or panko)
2 eggs
250 ml groundnut oil (or grapeseed - or as needed depending on size of pan)
Salt & pepper (to taste)

Method
Cut the fish into strips down the fillet, following the natural lines of the fish. The strips should be approximately 1in wide and 3-4in long. Sprinkle some salt onto the fish.
Put the cornflour into a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Put the breadcrumbs or panko into another shallow bowl, and beat the eggs in an additional bowl.
Dip each finger into the seasoned cornflour, coating it well, then the beaten egg, and finally the breadcrumbs.
Lay the coated fish on a cooling rack for a while, and heat the oil in a pan. (Or at this point you can freeze them in layers of baking parchment in an airtight container.)
Fry the fish fingers for about 2 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Remove to pieces of kitchen paper as you go, to get rid of excess oil.

Rocky Road Cupcakes

One of my new hero's in life is Jennie Brown - a woman who gets up at 5am in the morning to start the ovens and mixers in her cupcake workshop. Aside from her regular lovely cupcakes, it's good news for many people with special dietary requirements. Coming from a family of coeliacs, Jennie knows there is a demand for good quality gluten-free products and has purpose-built a gluten-free room, with separate oven and mixers, in her workshop in Galway. She bakes fresh every day, weighting, measuring, cracking, sifting and stirring every single thing she makes, with any unsold stock at the end of the day going to the Galway Soup Kitchen.

Jennie may also, well be the mad professor of cupcake flavors, it's a surprise what flavors are available every day as she is always working on new ones. Bubble gum, tutti fruti, champagne, candy floss, jaffa cake and cheesecake to add to her established repertoire of victoria sponge, red velvet, cookies and cream, mint aero, strawberry sundae, mars bar and chocolate nutella to name but a very small few.

Her rocky road cupcakes are a firm favorite with my family, so if I can't get to her shop or any of the outlets she supplies, this is the version I make at home.

I like eating these cupcakes warm, when the chocolate chips and marshmallows are still gooey in the sponge! If you want to ice and decorate you must leave them to cool completely on a cooling rack. I top my rocky road cupcakes with a smear of chocolate fudge icing, and then press all manner of traditional rocky road ingredients into it and leave to set. However you eat them, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Cupcake Ingredients
85g butter melted and cooled
225g plain flour
55g Green and Blacks or another good quality cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
115g caster sugar
100g chocolate chips
50g mini marshmallows
250ml milk
A pinch of salt
2 eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 200°and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
Stir in your chocolate chips, caster sugar and marshmallows.
Place the eggs into a large jug/bowl and beat lightly, then add your milk and butter and beat again.
Make a well in your dry ingredients and pour the liquid beaten ingredients in, stir this mixture in gently until combined, being careful not to over mix it.
Spoon the batter into your cupcake cases in the tray and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool for five minuets in the tin and then on a wire cooling rack.

Chocolate fudge icing ingredients
100g plain dark chocolate
50g butter
200g icing sugar, sifted

Method
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. (or melt in the microwave for a minute) When melted, beat in the butter until smooth, then gradually beat in the icing sugar to give a soft fudgey texture. Spread onto the tops of the cooled cupcakes and press in your selection of toppings, mini-marshmallows, flaked almonds chocolate chips and a drizzle of melted white or dark chocolate to finish.

Some of the Cupcake Bakery cupcakes - pretty :)

 If you want more information on The Cupcake Bakery, call Jennie on 086 154 3843 or email lovethecupcakebakery@gmail.com.  It's a fun feed to have on Facebook and they hang out on Twitter @galwaycupcake 

pumpkin cauldron soup...

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling, 

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! 

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, 

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

We have a lot to thank the Americans for over here on the our little Island. You could say we owe them. They have taken our drunken St Patricks day ritual to heart, they send tourists over here in droves, and without them there would be nothing on the telly. Best of all they have given us the pumpkin, God bless America.

Ingredients
 1 pumpkin, about 20cm diameter
 25g butter
 1 onion, sliced
 1 garlic clove, crushed
 freshly grated nutmeg
 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
 1 litre hot chicken stock
 3 tablespoons cream
 about 100g emmenthal or other melting cheese
some chives to garnish

Method
Heat the oven to 190ºC (170ºC fan oven) gas mark 5. Slice off the top of the pumpkin to make a lid and set aside. Scrape out the fibrous strands and seeds. Put the pumpkin in a lightly oiled, deep roasting dish.
Cut away the flesh inside, leaving walls thick enough to hold soup. (an ice-cream scoop works well for this task) Chop the flesh.
Heat the butter in a pan and gently fry the onion for 10 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the nutmeg, sage and reserved pumpkin flesh.
Put the mixture in the shell and pour in the stock. Season and cover with the lid. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour till the pumpkin is tender but still holds its shape. Stir in the cream; garnish with chives and extra cheese.

Carefully remove from the oven and bring the pumpkin to the table. Ladle the soup into bowls to serve.

chicken noodle soup

It's that time of year again, ladies. The time of year when the rare strain of flu takes hold, so powerful and so deadly, it can only be compared to the Ebola virus. This virus is highly specialised and only attacks the "XY" gene found in men. A disease so potent it impacts their fragile immune system 100 percent harder than the average flu virus, causing excruciating pain for the poor lads. While women cannot contract the virus, we can alleviate the symptoms with sympathy and soup. This soup is the most powerful weapon in my armory at this difficult time. And the sympathy? Not so much…

Chicken noodle soup, good for what ails you.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 chicken jointed or 3 pounds chicken pieces of your choice

2 ltrs water

2 tbs soy sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large carrot, sliced diagonal

Handful of sweetcorn, tinned or cut from the cob

Spring onion sliced diagonally

3 ounces dried egg noodles or linguini

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley or some extra spring onions to garnish

Serves 4

Prepare broth: In a large heavy sauce pan, heat the vegetable oil on a medium heat. Add the onion and saute it for 3 to 4 minutes, until it starts to colour. Add the chicken pieces (if too crowded, you can do this in two batches), making sure the chicken parts touch the bottom of the pan directly. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add water, soy and some freshly ground black pepper and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for about 20 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate to cool enough to handle. Strain the liquid through a sieve return the broth to the pot and bring back to a simmer. If you want a fat-free soup cool and refrigerate the broth at this point and take the solidified fat from the top before continuing. 

To finish and serve: Add diced vegetables and simmer them until they’re tender, about 5 minutes. Add dried noodles and cook them according to package directions, usually 6 or 7 minutes. While these simmer, remove the skin and chop the flesh from a couple pieces of chicken. The remaining parts can be slipped into an airtight bag in the fridge and used for sandwiches, in salad or savory pie over the next few days.

Once noodles have cooked, add chicken pieces just until they have warmed through (30 seconds) and ladle into serving bowls. Garnish with parsley or spring onion and deliver to your brave, brave soldier.

Irish Hallowe'en Barmbrack

One of the loveliest traditions surrounding 'All Hallows Eve' in Ireland is the Halloween cake, the barmbrack. It is a sweet fruit loaf that acts as a sort of Celtic fortune cookie. Trinkets are hidden in the bread, well wrapped up, and each member of the family gets a slice. Your future is decided by which symbolic item you get.

The barmbracks of my childhood were either homemade or came from Hickey’s Bakery set snugly in the shadow of the West Gate. These are really lovely, but as with all the commercial bracks now they only have the toy ring. If you are making a homemade version you can add as many of the items as you like. In our house this year I put in two rings after the last door slamming episode when the younger child got the ring and her sister did not. Although if I was to be realistic I could cram the whole things full of rags in light of the upcoming budget, then that should be fairly accurate.

The trinkets include a ring predicting marriage within the year, a pea for a person who would not marry that year. A coin - wealth, piece of rag - poverty, a matchstick stood for an unhappy marriage or conflict. The thimble - spinster and a button for a batchelor.

The bracks can be a yeast bread but I prefer this Darina Allen recipe. Use a nice strong tea and soak the fruit for as long as is recommended as it makes the finished cake nice and light with moist fruit. There are some recipes that call for a bit of whisky or other spirits in the mix, but to my mind that makes it a bit too similar to a Christmas cake. There are enough spirits wandered the earth around that time without adding to their numbers.

Barmbrack
From 'Forgotten Skills of Cooking' by Darina Allen

100 g (3/4 cup) raisins
100 g (3/4 cup) sultanas
100 g (3/4 cup) currants
50 g (1/4 cup) glacé cherries, quartered
50 g (1/4 cup) candied peel or the zest of 1 lemon
300 ml (1 cup) hot, black tea
1 egg, lightly beaten
225 g (1 3/4 cups) self-raising flour
200 g (1 1/4 cup) light brown sugar
1 level teaspoon mixed spice

Put the raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries and candied peel in a large bowl. Pour over the tea and allow the fruit to soak for at least an hour or even better, overnight.

When the fruit is ready, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a 450 g (1 lb) loaf tin with parchment paper or a loaf tin liner.

Add in the beaten egg, flour, sugar and mixed spice to the fruit and tea. Stir well until everything is just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing. This keeps for a week or two in an airtight tin.
Serve sliced with plenty of butter.

street food, galway

As with everything else in life, food has its fashions and trends, ups and downs, ins and outs. Have you been wondering what's replacing cupcakes? Is your sushi lunch passé?

2012 continued to see a return to frugal foods and cheaper cuts. Molecular cooking is on the wane while Scandinavian-style foraging and the 'Nordic pantry' is still going strong. Argentinian alfajores were all set to replace macarons. Pie-pops, miniature pies on sticks are the successor of the cake-pop. Fin-to-Tail eating is the new nose to tail and blessed are the cheesemakers, the new mixologists.

Scotch eggs got a revival and revamp. Complicated pizza toppings were cast aside, chicken thighs are the new breast and lamb is the new pork. There was talk of 24-hour baguette dispensers, ceviche, edible dirt and pork scratchings. Homemade dairy is hot on the food blogs right now - everyone is making their own ricottas and goats cheese, and what do you mean you don't make your own butter and yogurt? Shame on you, madam.

Food trucks are replacing gourmet delis and specialty stores, tweeting their locations as they go. Street food is one of the big trends for a few years now and shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. It's nothing new in Galway of course. The street has been our dining room for as long as we have had an open air market.

There's a great variety of food available, madras curry, delicious sweet and savory crepes, Japanese sushi and more. The best are specialists – they do a few dishes, and they do them very well. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Boychik Donuts, made to order right in front of you. These are the freshest donuts you'll ever taste - fluffy, hot and tossed in sugar and cinnamon, eaten straight from your hand, these donuts may well be the new cupcake.

pea & ham soup

Beautiful soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

When a chicken is roasted, as it is often on a Sunday in this house, the bones always go to make a beautiful, deeply savory stock and not a scrap of meat is wasted. Home made chicken stock is a great thing to have stashed away in the freezer for soups and stews. My friend and Twitter buddy Catriona over at Wholesome.ie recently gave a lovely recipe for noodle soup made from the remains of her sunday roast. Similarly when I cook a ham or gammon I wouldn't dream of throwing away the cooking liquid. The ham itself is usually for a pie with chicken and mushrooms, or for good old bacon and cabbage. If you buy one bigger than you need it's the best way of having quality meat for sandwiches. The children are not keen on wet, slimy packet ham and neither am I.

Ham hocks are the cheapest way of all to make a nice ham stock and when I get one of those I nearly always use it to make my favorite pea and ham soup. The recipe gives the instructions for the stock from scratch using a ham hock - if you are cooking a ham it is probably worth bringing it to the boil first in a pot of water and then changing the water to take out some of the salt and proceeding with adding the rest of the ingredients from there.  This recipe started life as Heston Blumenthal's from the menu at The Hinds Head. He insists on frozen peas for this as they are frozen within minutes of being picked, preserving the intensity of the flavour.

For the stock
1 ham hock
1 small onion, halved
1 celery stalk, very roughly chopped
1 large carrot, very roughly chopped
1 large leek, white part only, halved
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 bay leaf
4 or 5 sprigs of thyme
4 or five black peppercorns
2L water

For the soup
50g butter
200g shallots, sliced
75g pancetta
500g frozen peas
a clove of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the ham hock in a very large pan with 2 litres water and bring to the boil with the rest of the stock ingredients. Reduce the heat the heat and simmer gently, uncovered for two and a half hours until the ham hock is cooked. Remove from the heat and leave to cool then strain the stock through a sieve keeping the hock to one side.

For the soup heat the butter in a large pan add the sliced shallots pancetta and garlic and sweat for 10-15 mins until the shallots are tender add the peas and stock bring to the boil and puree in a liquidiser. pass through a sieve into a clean pot. Bring back to the boil and correct the seasoning. If the soup is too thick add a little water until it is at the desired consistency. Flake the meat from the ham hock and stir into the smooth soup. you can garnish with a few extra whole peas or some fried and crumbled bacon or a leaf or two of aromatic mint.

banana cream pie

The big, generous, family pie is something the Americans do best. Deep dish fruit pies stuffed full of apples or cherries. Smooth pumpkin or crunchy pecan pie, rich and decadent peanut butter or Mississippi mud pie. This one is my current favorite and possibly the easiest of the lot - the banana cream pie.

It is not an sophisticated dessert by any means, ripe bananas hiding in a smooth thick custard, but it is very good - I most often make mine on a sweet shortcrust pastry, but a packet of plain shortbread or another plain biscuit or cookie makes it even easier as you won't even have to turn the oven on. This is a favorite with children and people with ill-fitting dentures.

American banana cream pie

For the base
250g plain flour
125g butter, chilled, chopped
75 g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon chilled water

For the filling
500ml milk
250ml cream
1 tin (approx 250ml) condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp cornflour
4 egg yolks
3 large bananas, roughly chopped

For the topping
2 large bananas, thinly sliced
approximately 500ml whipped cream
a little grated chocolate if liked

Make the base:  For the sweet pastry base combine flour, butter and sugar in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add yolk and chilled water. Process until dough just comes together. Turn pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until just smooth. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about a 3mm-thick disc. Line a round 23cm tart tin, with removable base or pie dish  with pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for a further 15 minutes to rest.

Cover the pastry base with baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beans, rice or dried beans. Place on a baking tray and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and pastry weights, rice or beans, and bake for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven.

(For a biscuit base place a medium packet of biscuits in a food processor. Process until they are completely broken up and there are no big lumps visible. Place in the bottom of a deep pie dish between  10" - 12". mix in 2 tablespoons of melted butter, press down with the back of a spoon to line the base and refridgerate for 30 mins.)

Make the filling: Bring the milk, cream, condensed milk and vanilla to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk together the cornflour and egg yolks. When the milk mixture is hot, spoon some of it onto the egg yolk mixture and whisk well. Pour the egg yolks back in the pot and allow to heat slowly while stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick - just a couple of minuets should do it.

Mix in the chopped bananas and pour onto the biscuits or pastry shell. Push down any bananas near the top as they will discolour if they are too close to the surface. Place a piece of cling wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and put it in the fridge for 2-3 hours until set.

To serve: Remove the cling wrap, dollop the whipped cream on top, arrange the sliced bananas on the pie. grate some chocolate over (if desired) and serve maybe with a little drizzle of maple syrup.