oven dried tomatoes

I was given a copy of Eden cookbook a few years ago and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. It is my go to reference book for quantities and measurements for larder staples and sauces, onion marmalade, pickled cucumber, those sorts of little things that make something ordinary into something special.

Oven-dried tomatoes is one of the things I make regularly from the book - this method makes bad tomatoes good and good tomatoes great. Now is the time of year that the bulk of tomatoes ripen in the green houses and poly tunnels with a little bit of September sunshine.

Eat these immediately adding them to salads and sandwiches. I prefer to keep them in the fridge for a week or two in an airtight jar covered in a good olive oil and put them on pizza or into a pasta sauce for a burst of deep tomato flavor. Use the oil you kept them in for salad dressings, it is too delicious to waste. Or, as soon as they are cool, freeze on a sheet and then transfer to a zipped freezer bag where they will last for months. A little taste of summer to lift your spirits in the depths of winter.

Oven dried tomatos
Adapted from Eden Cookbook

20g sea salt
8 plum/24 cherry tomatoes halved or quartered depending on size
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots peeled or finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
1 sprig rosemary roughly chopped
1 sprig thyme roughly chopped
10g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 100C/200F - the bottom oven of an Aga is also perfect.

Sprinkle salt on the baking tray (non-metallic) place the tomatoes on the salt skin side down. Mix all the other ingredients together and sprinkle over the tomatoes. Place in the oven and dry until juices have stopped running, edges are shriveled, and pieces have shrunken slightly. Timing will vary depending on the variety, ripeness. Up to 6 hours for a plum is usual, about 2 - 3 hours less for a cherry variety.

the ard bia cookbook

I had heard a while back there was an 'Ard Bia' cookbook in the pipeline. I had even debated it with a restauranteur friend of mine. "It's too expensive, I think it's mad. You can get cookbooks from big names for half that price", I said. "You can get a lot of rubbish cookbooks for half that price," he replied. "If it's a lovely book as well as a good cookbook, it's well worth the extra money". Now, here are the most painful words I may ever have to write… Aran McMahon, you were right and I was wrong. It's not too expensive, it's worth every penny and more.

The book takes you on a culinary journey through the day - from morning to lunchtime, afternoon and evening and then on to a set of useful pantry notes. If you eat in Ard Bia now and again, you will recognise some of these recipes - their full fry and the Berlin Platter, the lunchtime salads, soups and stews, the bakes from the table inside the little front door. A thick section which waltzes you through the starters and mezze, fish, meat and vegetarian and something for afterwards to keep you at the table a little longer than you really meant to stay - it's what they're really good at.

Our Aoibheann (Mac Namara) has teamed up with food writer Aoife Carrigy to capture the essence of Ard Bia of Nimmos. In my opinion Ard Bia really only got soul when it moved into Nimmos, but when it did it really found it's spiritual home. It's food with inspiration from around the world but is ultimately grounded in Irish produce and seasonal ingredients. It is never a chore to eat here either, no-one will ever smother your food in a mist or a foam or a nonsense - you will only ever be in danger of being smothered with love.

For the cookbook lovers out there this one is a keeper. I will be filing it in my collection alongside the Drimcong Food Affair under the "bit of Galway Food History" section. The paper is the yummy un-coated kind, the little drawings are quirky and the photos with the vintage props will cause terrible crockery envy. Even the typeface is one of my favorites. This is more than a collection of recipes, it's a memento and a keepsake, something precious and special. A snapshot of a time and a place in Galway that captures the energy and spirit of the place that is Ard Bia.

Granola & Chocolate Chip Cookies

My second daughter, Lily, could be referred to as challenging by some, although I obviously don't think she is a bit. I make these cookies to take to the hard working ladies in the creche, who put up with a lot and come to the door, always in good humor, with their stories to tell her fond Mama. "Lily was in 'time out'" they say. "She punched Chloe/Callum/Freya". "Ah, she's just spirited" I say. "Have a cookie." They love these cookies. Lily may grow out of her three year old's hot temper one day, but if she doesn't I will make these cookies for her parole officer. I'm sure she will love them too.

This recipe came originally from the Primrose Bakery cookbook, but I found that the ratio of granola and nuts to actual cookie dough was unworkable. These quantities below will give you about 24 large cookies and a much easier dough to work with. These cookies should be made with a very good quality granola. I always make them with our own granola without any added dried fruit but if I was to make them with a bought granola I would go to that extra bit of trouble and pick out most of the fruit, as it's best with the crunchy nuts, seeds and oats and the soft, melty bits of sweet chocolate. Anything extra to me would seem a bit much, like an over-gilding of the Lily!

Granola & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
460g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
230g butter
230g soft light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g granola
150g white chocolate roughly chopped
150g dark chocolate roughly chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 baking trays if cooking immediately. Sift the flour, bicarb and salt into a bowl. Cream together butter and sugar. Add vanilla and egg, beat well, and mix in the flour mixture gradually to form a dough. Stir in remaining ingredients with a spoon (granola and both chocolate chips). Scoop about two tablespoons of mixture out and roll into a ball with your hands. Place them, spaced out, onto the sheet lined with parchment. Flatten cookies slightly with hands or a fork and bake for about 10 mins or a little longer until they begin to firm up.

If not cooking all the dough immediately, roll them into their portions and freeze. They will keep as well in the fridge for up to a week, well wrapped, so as not to take on any fridge smells. Any cooked and uneaten biscuits are fine in an airtight container for three or four days.

banoffee cake...

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.

a very good granola

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.

lilly's rocky road brownies

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

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!)

flashes of inspiration

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.

more midweek meals

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.