Letters on Lunches

Paella Party

I know I mentioned in a previous post that we went to Spain for a holiday last year. We spent a few nights in Barcelona, a few nights in Valencia & a few nights in Madrid. I also mentioned that a colleague of mine who had previously lived in Barca had given me a list of places to eat and one of those places was the restaurant 7 Portes. We met my brother & his girlfriend beforehand and queued up at the ancient restaurant which is famous for it’s paella. It was one of those restaurants where the waiters are all oldish men and wear white jackets. While there were many of tourists, it was comforting to see the hoards locals enjoying their meals also. We all ordered the same thing - house paella - and instead of cooking four individual dishes, they brought out one massive dish & served us from that. It was fabulous; bursting with flavour and the ambiance of the restaurant made it all the better.

            Tommi Myers’ new show on Channel 4, A Cooks Tour of Spain, really whetted my appetite for Spanish food again so I decided to try out paella for myself yesterday. I perused a few different recipes and started from there. The recipes I had seen were all cooked on the hob in the pan but the 7 Portes paella had been cooked in the oven so there were lovely crispy bits of rice along the sides of the pan. I took some advice from Bill Granger’s paella about not stirring the rice, shaking it instead, and also from Anthony Worrall Thompson on the ingredients.

            The beauty about paella is that really, anything goes, well, within reason but you could go for vegetarian, seafood, meat or a mixture. I went for a mixture. Sadliers do smoked chicken breasts which I thought would work a treat and I also had some left-over chorizo in the fridge and picked up some squid, prawns, pancetta and veggies to go into the pot too. Now, the preparation was a tad tedious as there was an awful amount of chopping to be done, but I took plenty of time doing that earlier and didn’t start cooking until about half an hour before my guests were due to arrive. The cleaning of the squid was a bit grizzly but I thought I’d better get my hands dirty as everything presented in Ballymaloe will be in it’s raw state; fish will be gutted, pheasant plucked, rabbit skinned and not a chicken fillet in sight. I got a bit squeamish when the tentacles stuck to my fingers but dinner is a serious matter and one must soldier on whatever the cost.

            Everything was fried in stages and once the stock was poured on, the chicken, prawns, peas & calamari were added to the pan and everything transferred to the oven. As the prawns were in their shell, they turned a beautiful colour and the calamari was chewy with roasted bits but in a nice way. There was crispy rice on the sides which was also a treat to be scraped onto the plates when returning for seconds. The pan was plonked in the middle of the table with a salad and between the four of us, demolished the lot. I had made Portuguese custard tartlets for dessert which also went down well and I have to say, I was very proud of my paella and will definitely be making it again.

Paella

Serves 4

What You Need

About 150g pancetta diced

About 300g chorizo

2 smoked chicken breasts cut into thick slices (or 4 thighs)

1 spanish onion chopped

1 clove of garlic chopped

1 red chilli de-seeded & chopped

1 red & yellow pepper sliced

1 squid cleaned & cut into rings (fishmonger can do this)

4/8 fresh prawns with shell on

Half a bowl of peas

1 tsp smoked paprika (or regular)

A good pinch of saffron

½ pint paella rice (I used risotto rice which was perfect)

1 small glass of white wine

1 pint chicken stock (or veg or fish)

A handful of parsley if you have it

What You Do

·        Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

·        Heat the stock and add the saffron to allow it to infuse the stock for about 10/15 minutes.

·        Heat a good glug of olive oil in a large pan and add the chorizo & pancetta, fry until crisp.

·        Lower the heat and add the onion, peppers, garlic & chilli and gently fry for a few minutes until the onions are translucent.

·        Add the rice & paprika and stir. Once the oil is nearly all absorbed, add the wine and cook off the alcohol.

·        Then add the stock/ saffron mix and shake the pan gently (don’t stir). Place in the chicken pieces carefully (so you don’t burn your fingers), then scatter the peas and place in the prawns followed by the calamari.

·        Transfer to the oven for 20/25 minutes and serve with a green salad.

Note: Smoked chicken breasts are already cooked so if using chicken thighs, you will need to brown them for a short while in a separate pan before adding to the paella. Also, this is super if cooking for a group as everything looks neat & tidy when guests arrive as there will be no pots on the stove and cooking the dish in the oven means you don’t have to stand over it like a risotto. I can’t stress enough how easy it is to make this dish!

Casserole for Summer

Gordon Ramsay has made a huge name for himself in the world of food over the past few years but another Ramsay who has been quietly beavering away in the background is his lovely wife Tana. Unfortunately, Chorus doesn’t give me access to UKTV Food but I’m pretty sure she hosts a show on that Channel and she has also written a very useful cookbook. I can’t say I’ve gone & purchased it myself but I have paged through it diligently in my aunts bookshop and found a lovely recipe for a chicken & mango casserole which I’ve since cooked time & time again.

            I know some people don’t like the idea of fruit in their dinner but this is different. Even my guest last night noted that the mango was more like a sweet squash than the super sweet mango it was in its raw form. This dish is so comforting for a cold and windy day but it also has a fresh taste about it which urges you not to worry because Summer is right around the corner!!!

            On another note entirely, I’m going to head into Alchemist Earth later for the food tasting hosted by Ginger Girl. I’m a little nervous as I’ve not yet opened her jar of apple & sloe jelly but I’ve two very good friends calling for dinner on Thursday night and plan on cooking a special meal for them of which the jelly will play a big part. Tune in next week for the recipe, until then, make do with this delicious casserole!

Chicken & Mango Casserole

with saffron rice

Serves 4

What You Need

1 & ½ cups long white rice

About 20 strands of saffron

4 full chicken legs split at the joint to make 4 thighs & 4 drumsticks

1 litre chicken stock

2 onions sliced thinly

1 cup flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 handful of parsley

Sea Salt & Pepper

1 mango peeled & cut into chunks

1 Tbsp butter

What You Do

• Pre-heat the oven to 200C
• Gently fry the onion in a pan for about 5 minutes & transfer to a casserole.
• Season the flour & coat the chicken pieces. Gently brown the chicken pieces in the pan and transfer to the casserole when done.
• Add the butter to the pan with a tablespoon of flour, mix to a thick paste and slowly add some of the stock until a smooth sauce is achieved. Add this to the casserole, followed by the rest of the stock, parsley, cinnamon, seasoning and mango.
• Stir and transfer to the oven for 1 & ½ hours.
• Cook the rice per the instructions on the packet with the saffron and serve with the chicken when done.

Hey Presto, Pesto!

Delia Smith’s new program, which began last night, has got me thinking; I never really buy convenience foods but I’ve spent a long time building up a huge arsenal of foods in my store cupboard and freezer so a good – shortcut free - meal is never far away. Sometimes, I may have to pop to the shop for one or two items but most of the time, I just use up things from the weekend shop in the market.

            For all those out there with empty fridges & cupboards, take this piece of advice; build your store up gradually. Pick one or two items up each week and in no time, you’ll have the base of any recipe from most cookbooks. Here’s a list of some items that I use quite a lot and are extremely handy to have in the press / freezer along with a snapshot of their uses.

Product                        Use                                                                  

Olive oil                       Cooking, dressings, mayonnaise, dipping bread and more

Extra Virgin Olive Oil    Too strong for cooking, better for dressings & bread

Sesame Oil                   A drop is good in stir-frys, noodle dishes & oriental salads

Grapeseed Oil              Good for mayonnaise as not too strong

Balsamic Vinegar          Dressings, onion jam, strawberries & marinades

White Wine Vinegar     Mayonnaise, dressings, emulsion sauces

Rice Vinegar                Oriental dipping sauces & salads

Worchestershire Sauce Meat dishes, stews, welsh rarebit, Sunday fry ups

Soy sauce                    Stir-frys, dips, salads, marinades & use as seasoning

Oyster sauce               Stir-frys, dipping sauces

Sweet chilli sauce        Dips, stir-frys, oriental eggs

English Mustard           Mustard mash, bacon, ham, mayonnaise

Dijon Mustard             Mustard mash, marinades, mayonnaise, pork burgers

Wholegrain Mustard    Mustard mash, colcannon

Piri Piri                       Fajitas, burgers, chicken dishes, bbq marinades, wedges

Ketchup                       Burgers, bbq

Honey                         Breakfast, Indian, Moroccan, Oriental, dessert & more

Tabasco                      Oysters, eggs, home fries

Cayenne Pepper           To give heat to a dish

Curry powder               Quick curry, dhal, curry mayo, soups

Smoked paprika           Paella, patatas bravas, choriza stew, wedges

Cinnamon                    Moroccan tagines & soups, desserts

Cumin                         Lamb, Indian dishes

Coriander seeds           Indian dishes

Maldon Sea Salt           Seasoning for everything

Black pepper                Seasoning

Freezer

Wine Red/White           Left-over wine for sauces & casseroles

Breadcrumbs                Coating meat & fish, making burgers & meatballs

Egg whites                    Pavlovas, meringues, omelette / frittata(use 1 egg & 2 whites)

Parmesan                     Italian dishes

Tortillas                        Fajitas, quesadillas, chips

Herbs                           If you don’t use up full pack, freeze left-overs for sauces

Pitta bread                    Defrosts quickly for a handy snack

Berries                         Sauces, fools, jams, puddings

This is just a start and you’ll need to look at building up pasta, rice, noodle, lentil, nut & pulse dry stores as well as tins of things like tuna, tomatoes & pulses. Hopefully, the additional ingredients will get you experimenting more with different flavours and get you cooking outside of your regular comfort zone.

            The recipe today was made to use up some basil left over from another dish on an earlier day. I didn’t pick out the small baby leaves, which is probably the right thing to do, but just bunged the whole lot into the pestle & mortar and mixed like mad. I keep pine nuts in a jar in the cupboard, parmesan in the freezer and always have spaghetti & olive oil so there was no need to visit the shops after work. Dinner was on the table in 20 minutes so I have to ask, why cut corners?

Spaghetti alla Pesto

Serves 2

What You Need

A good handful of basil leaves chopped

A small handful of pine nuts

2 Tbsp of fresh grated parmesan

Enough olive oil to loosen the mixture

Sea Salt & Pepper

Enough spaghetti for 2 people

What You Do

• Cook the spaghetti as per the instructions on the packet until al dente.
• Place all the other ingredients in the pestle & mortar and grind until made into a paste.
• Toast some pine nuts in a dry frying pan.
• Toss the pesto in the spaghetti and sprinkle with some of the toasted pine nuts & some parmesan.
• Pour yourself a cold glass of Pinot Grigo if available.

Limerick Foodie News: A new Italian restaurant has opened up on Mallow St – Tavola Calda which is both authentic (orders given to the chef in Italian) & reasonably priced. Pasta dishes range from €5 for lasagne to €8.50 for Bucatini all’ Amatricana (pasta with bacon, tomato & onion sauce). The bruschetta is around €3.50 and is made using foccaccia bread – not pizza base. They also have some nice wines which may be ordered by the glass, a good selection of Panini and, Paolo will be glad to hear, don’t use cream in the carbonara!! Drop in and give them some business, it’s important to support the newbies in town.

The Humble Chook - cont.

My brother called to visit at the weekend and was treated to the end of the organic chicken I’d picked up the previous week (don’t worry, I stored the breasts in the freezer). To be honest, the breasts were a bit too big for two people, I felt seriously stuffed afterwards, but they were just too good to stop eating. The recipe was adapted from Cook with Jamie which asked for the chicken to be wrapped in pancetta and baked on a bed of leeks. Now, I know my local supermarket does pancetta bits but I can’t find sliced pancetta anywhere; drop me a line if you know where I can get it in future (I have a feeling in my gut that Lorraine’s going to say Superquinn).

            Jamie Oliver has many critics but I have to say, his food is accessible to everyone and if I’m honest, it was the early days of the Naked Chef that got me really experimenting with salads, dressings and flavours. The Essex slang can be annoying but he’s toned that down a lot which makes watching Jamie at Home a pleasure these days. I enjoy the way he focuses on one ingredient for an entire episode although, I never think it’s long enough; it’s like a half hour has just disappeared without notice. I guess that’s why More 4 show back to back episodes every Sunday.

            A can of cannelini beans in the cupboard begged to be used and when cooked with a tin of tomatoes, some garlic and basil, made a delicious side dish to accompany the chicken. Talk about a protein feast; the late Dr Atkins would have been proud of me. The rest of the leeks were made into leek & potato soup for the week at work; I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I try and use up EVERYTHING. It’s a crime to let anything rot in your fridge as pretty much any kind of veggie may be used in a delicious soup, frittata, tartlet, stir-fry, the list goes on and on.

            On another note, I called into Alchemist Earth for the Ginger Girl tasting as kindly informed by Maz last week. Wow, it was an Aladin’s cave of delicious cheeses, crackers, chutneys, jams, juices, jellies and more on sale and available for tasting. I was in my element, chatting about the market, organic food, organic skincare products and scoffing at the same time. I left with a tub of Ren body scrub (the best skincare product I have ever used and up to recently only available in Selfridges of London and the web) and a jar of Ginger Girl’s sloe & apple jelly which I’m planning on using in a gravy to accompany either duck or pork in the near future. I’ll keep you posted (geddit?), now, back to the chicken.

Baked Chicken, Bacon & Leek Parcels

with stewed beans

Serves 2

What You Need

Two chicken breasts (best you can afford)

6 rashers of streaky bacon

2 large leeks, outer stalks removed, washed and thinly sliced

Sea salt & pepper

1 can of cannelini beans

1 tin of tomatoes

A handful of basil leaves

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Olive oil

What You Do

• Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
• Make two small bowls out of some tin-foil to fit the chicken snugly.
• Wrap each breast in 3 slices of bacon / pancetta.
• Spread a layer of leeks in the base of each bowl and lay a wrapped breast in each bowl. Season, transfer to a baking tray and place in the oven for 25 / 30 minutes (the breasts I used were huge so needed 30 mins).
• In a pan, heat the oil and add the garlic. After a minute or two, add the beans, tomatoes, basil, salt & pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer until the chicken is cooked.
• When the chicken comes out of the oven, allow it to stand for a few minutes before slicing it.
• Place a spoon of beans on the plate, then the leek on top, and the chicken on top of that.
• Dig in!

The Humble Chook

There has been much talk lately about the price of organic chicken and the debate on whether or not it’s worth it reigns on. I don’t cook chicken much anymore so when I do, I make sure it’s organic and make the absolute most of it. If you can’t afford to go the whole hog and buy an organic chicken, go half way and buy free-range / farm-fresh. It’s still better than the battery equivalent and the chicken will taste like chicken should.

            I picked up a beauty in O’Connell’s on Little Catherine St on Saturday and jointed it up for some dinners. The legs & thighs were going to be used for Coq au Vin, the breasts are sitting in the freezer at the moment and are going to be whipped out tomorrow for Jamie Oliver inspired chicken breasts baked in tin-foil with veggies & herbs, the wings are mahoosive and will be eaten on Saturday night as a treat while watching a DVD, the carcass was boiled in a litre of water for about an hour with an onion, a couple of celery stalks, a carrot & some thyme to make the base of my soup for the week (the sweetest carrot soup going). And finally, the stock soaked carcass was picked clean of meat which was eaten as a snack with some sea salt & brown sauce for my supper on Sunday night. Have I ever mentioned my love of cold cuts? One of the reasons I love Christmas so much isn’t Christmas dinner, it’s the cold cut platters assembled in the days that follow; baked ham, roast turkey, spiced beef, smoked salmon, some assorted cheeses, a slice of brown bread, a dollop of chutney and I’m in heaven.

            This was my first attempt at Coq au Vin and I’ll definitely cook it again. One thing that I should say that I’ve found when cooking chicken, the legs & thighs work better in a casserole as the brown meat is more moist. Chicken breast has a tendency to dry out if cooked in a casserole which is a terrible waste if you’ve splashed out on an organic chicken. Thighs & drumsticks aren’t big sellers so you’re local butcher will sell the full leg for about €0.60 for farm fresh chicken which will make for a very delicious & economical meal if you’re feeding a family or just a gang of friends. Tana Ramsay (Gordon’s missus) has a fab recipe for a chicken & mango casserole made with chicken thighs so if it’s good enough for the Ramsays, then it’s good enough for us plebs!

Coq au Vin

with celeriac mash

Serves 2/3

What You Need

2 full chicken legs split at the knee

6 shallots

8 mushrooms

4 rashers of smoked bacon cut into bite size pieces

2 Tbsp flour

½ litre red wine

2 cloves of garlic

Butter

A sprig of thyme

Sea salt & pepper

1 head of celeriac

2 medium ‘old’ potatoes

What You Do

• Pre-heat oven to 160C
• Saute bacon & onion in a pan with the butter for a few minutes and transfer to a casserole dish (a pyrex dish is fine – you can buy them cheap in Tesco / Heatons, no need to splash out on a Le Creuset dish).
• Add more butter to the pan if needed and dredge the chicken in the flour and brown in the pan. When browned, add to the casserole.
• Add the remaining flour to the pan and mix to form a paste, stir in the wine bit by bit until all flour mix is absorbed and pour the liquid to the casserole.
• Add the thyme & garlic to the casserole, season, put the lid on and place in the oven for an hour.
• After an hour, take the lid off, add the mushrooms and cook for another 30 minutes
• To make the celeriac mash, peel the celeriac & potatoes, chop the celeriac into chunks and boil in separate pans for half an hour. When cooked, drain the water, transfer to the one pan, add some butter, salt & pepper and mash together.

A Story about a Risotto

Risotto is something I shied away from for a long time; I’m not sure what was wrong with me, was it the horror stories about how easily it can go wrong? Was it the thoughts of eating a plate of rice on its own? Was it the texture? I don’t really know.  While out in the – now reduced to ashes – Avoca shop in Bunratty a few months ago, I spotted a box of  DeCecco Arborio rice and decided it was about time I grew up and tried cooking risotto. My first offering was a roasted pumpkin & sage version but that didn’t quite cut the mustard so, the other night, I had another go with much better results. I decided on a mushroom risotto as I’d some dried porcinis sitting in the press unused for the past few months, along with some other goodies that required using up.

I stopped using stock cubes a while back as I’m not crazy about the flavour and real stock is so easy to make. For this recipe, I chopped up two carrots, two sticks of celery, an onion, a sprig of thyme and added them to a pint & a half of water and got it boiling. It needs about ½ an hour or more depending on how strong you want it so get it on the hob before you begin chopping the vegetables for the risotto. I got a good tip before on stock; if you’re making a big batch and plan on freezing it, reduce the stock right down to about 1/6 of what it should be and freeze in the ice cube tray, once frozen, transfer to a freezer bag so you always have a ‘stock cube’ at hand. Just add water and voila, fresh stock in an instant. This method saves on valuable real estate in the freezer, especially if, like me, you own a fridge freezer and are often stuck for space.

Back to the risotto; like a needy boyfriend, this dish requires a lot of attention. You need to sweat the onions, garlic & mushrooms in batches, then add the rice and tease it around the pan until it’s begging for liquid. When the pan is completely bone dry and the rice has taken about all the torture it can, add the wine which will be guzzled back in seconds. Now inebriated, the risotto will begin begging again so you’ll need to sober it up with some stock from the pot as well as the liquor used to re-hydrate the mushrooms, ladle by ladle, only adding more when the previous ladle has been absorbed. This gentle foreplay goes on for about half an hour until the rice is cooked through and then a handful of fresh parmesan is added to complete the dish. Thankfully I was on my own for this event – did I mention that risotto is a perfect meal for one? Now go on, treat yourself!

Mushroom Risotto

Serves 1

What You Need

About ½ a cup of risotto rice

About a pint of stock (see above)

A glass of white wine

1 clove of garlic

1 onion chopped

About 10 mushrooms sliced (You can use wild, I just got button mushrooms from my local shop)

Some re-hydrated porcini mushrooms with the liquid reserved

2 Tbsp fresh grated parmesan

Sea salt & pepper

What You Do

• Sweat the onion in a medium sized pan until translucent and transfer back into a bowl.
• Cook the fresh mushrooms until the water comes out, and is evaporated again. Return the onions to the pan with the garlic & cook for another minute.
• Add the rice and stir for a few minutes – see description above.
• Add the wine, stir, cook for a few minutes and add the porcini liquor, stir, cook and add a ladle of stock, stir & cook. Repeat until rice is fully cooked.
• Stir in the porcinis, salt, pepper & parmesan.
• Enjoy!

Market Musings

I’d a busy weekend just gone. I’d to get my windscreen repaired on Saturday morning which meant spending three hours in town which wasn’t all bad as the weather was cold and dry; perfect for an amble around the Milk Market followed by breakfast and coffee with friends.

            There was a real bustle about the market square with many of the stalls that had taken much deserved time off in January back on the scene along with some new-comers. Arun from Green Saffron was back laden down with Indian goodies so we bought some cardamom seeds as well as a pack of chai tea off him. The seaweed guys were around so I got a big lump of the most delicious trout pate ever tasted as well as some salmon tartare. The Real Olive Oil Company have new purple garlic in stock and let me tell you, it really packs a punch; if the recipe calls for one clove, use half!!!

A newcomer to the market is Piog Pies, all the way from Dingle or An Daingean, I’m not quite sure what the official name is these days. What is undisputed though is that these pies are great. I decided to try out the Kerry pie which was packed with organic carrots, potatoes, onions & roast lamb pieces and encased in a thin pastry which was light, crumbly and rolled out paper thin, well, not as thin as paper but thin as a thin thing! I was advised to heat the pie in the oven for about 25 minutes – just enough time to cook a side of creamy mash and perfect for a hungry person just home from work on a cold day. From the picture, you can see half the pie on the plate along with some mash; I polished off the other half once the first was eaten! I just couldn’t resist, it was so moist and delicious and of course, I went for a long jog after to burn off all the extra calories (snigger). Piog also do a veggie lentil pie, a beef & Guinness pie, a fish pie and a shepherds pie and attend markets in the Limerick, Cork & Kerry areas so check them out.

I have a bit of a thing for pies to be honest and love making them myself but I like trying out good, high end versions. Cully & Sully are doing a fantastic job marketing their range of pies, ready meals & soups. The prices are a bit higher than regular shop bought offerings but no apology is made due to the quality of ingredients used not to mention technique and delivery. The pies & meals are cooked sous vide which basically means they are vacuum packed and gently poached which serves in locking in more flavour than conventional cooking. The pies are served in a little ceramic bowl and Cully & Sully have set up the FBA (free bowls association) for any pie addicts looking for other uses of the spent bowls. Check out their brilliant website for lots of fantastic recipes and anecdotes.

I don’t have a recipe for you today as I completely forgot to take a picture of Sunday’s Beef Bourguignon with diced potatoes. It was just unctuous and the plates were licked clean all around so if you’re wondering about the recipe, drop me a line and I’ll pass on some tips. It’s a recipe I always go back to so it’ll be up again at some stage.   

I’m off to the Slow Food Event in Aubars on Thursday with himself which we’re both very excited about it so hopefully I’ll have something to write about on Friday. If I don’t, you’ll know that I drank too much wine the night before and my head is still hurting!!!!

My Favourite Things - Part 2

If you remember my first post, you’ll know that one of my favourite dinners is bangers & mash and here’s another favourite, moules frites served with aioli. That translated is mussels, chips and garlic mayonnaise, homemade garlic mayonnaise.

            I absolutely love mussels, can’t get enough of them, and they’re so good for you & low in fat. I cook mine in a tomato based sauce as opposed to the traditional cream based moules mariniere and have recently started accompanying them with a bowl of wedges & aioli (I went for the baguette & butter option in the past).

            They’re so easy but a couple of tips, the first is to make sure the mussels are spick and span before they go near a pan. Every single mussel must be individually cleaned; any barnacles on the shell should be scraped off with a knife, the hairy bit at the ‘hinge’ should be ripped off (this is called de-bearding) and any mussels that don’t close tightly when tapped should be discarded. I find it good to let the mussels sit in a bowl of clean water for about an hour before cooking and change the water at least once which helps to get rid of most of the grit from the closed mussels.

            The second tip is for the aioli or any cold emulsion sauce; add the oil a little at a time and ensure it is completely incorporated into the egg yolks before adding anymore which will prevent the sauce from splitting. It’s a lot easier than people make out and is definitely worth a try. So here’s the recipe.

Moules Frites – Sarah Style

Serves Two

What You Need

2 Tbsp olive oil

Enough mussels for two people (ask your fishmonger)

1 onion diced

2 cloves of garlic sliced

1 glass of white wine

1 handful of parsley finely sliced

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (I use half a jar of Bunalun crushed tomatoes)

1 chilli if you’d like the dish to have a kick (this is optional)

2 egg yolks

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 Tsp Dijon mustard

½ Tsp salt

1 clove garlic grated

5 fl oz oil (I mix grape seed oil with olive oil)

2 baking potatoes cut into wedges

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 handful of rosemary

Sea salt & pepper

What You Do

·        Par boil the potatoes for 10 minutes, strain out the water, add olive oil, rosemary, sea salt & pepper and transfer to the oven on a baking tray.

·        Cook for 30 minutes at 200C.

·        For the aioli, put the egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, garlic and salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the oil a drop at a time, fully incorporating all the time until all the oil is used up.

·        Gently fry the onion & garlic in a pan until soft and remove to a bowl when translucent.

·        For the mussels, heat some olive oil in a large pan to a very high temperature and add the mussels. Straight away, add the cooked onions & garlic, tomatoes, wine, parsley, chilli and put the lid on.

·        Stir the mussels every now and again and remove the mussels from the pan when all are opened (this won’t take long – only a few minutes).

·        Cook the sauce on high with the lid off for a few minutes and reduce by about half then pour over the mussels when ready to serve.

Sunny Days Are Back

I think my rant last week may have paid off as whoever was reading by blog ‘upstairs’ switched the lights back on and we had the loveliest weekend so far this year. To make the most of it, we headed out to Curragh Chase with the dog on Sunday with a stop made to Caroline Rigney’s on the way home. I picked up some home cured bacon & 6 eggs from some of her rare breed pigs & hens. I was trying to think of what to do to celebrate such good produce on the way home when the proverbial light-bulb went off and I knew what to make… I’ll give you a hint, it’s a ‘creamy’ dish but certain critics freak out when it’s served to them with cream added; any guesses??? Check back later in the week for the recipe.

            Back to today’s recipe; I picked this thai curry out of the Channel 4 website during the week for something nice to use up some of the squash from the market. It was delicious but if I was to do it again (and I will) I’d probably add another chilli, a red pepper and some sugar snap peas for some variety of texture. I also added a small bag of salted peanuts for extra crunch. It was nice and light and I’d enough to freeze an extra portion for another day so can’t complain about that. And here it is…

Pumpkin & Peanut Curry

Serves 2

What You Need

400g of pumpkin, peeled & deseeded

1 red onion sliced

1 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter

100ml hot water

1 Tbsp soy or fish sauce

1 tsp tomato puree

Zest & juice of a lime

1 tsp sugar

A handful of coriander with the stalks (could also add a pepper & sugar snap peas at the end also)

2 cloves of garlic

1cm piece of fresh ginger

1 chilli (I’ll add an extra one next time)

1 can of coconut milk

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Rice to serve

What You Do

• Dissolve the peanut butter in the hot water and add the tomato puree, lime juice & zest, soy sauce and sugar.
• Finely chop the chilli, garlic, ginger and coriander stalks and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a wok and add the red onion, cook briskly for a few minutes before adding the pumpkin. After a minute or two, add the garlic, coriander, chilli, ginger mix and cook for another minute before adding the peanut butter liquid & coconut milk.
• Cook for 20 / 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the pumpkin is tender.
• Add the coriander and other veggies if you wish and plate up with the rice.

Hairy Bikers Update – My boyfriend made the Dulce de Leche cheesecake from the Hairy Bikers cookbook at the weekend. It was ridiculous it was so good. We donated some to my parents, some to his and kept two slices each for ourselves. There are two more slices in the fridge which I’ve been warned to donate to one of my friends & her boyfriend. I guess I’d better do as I’m told…. Hadn’t I???

The Hairy Bikers Kick off the New Year

I’ve been very lazy getting back into the blogging swing of things this New Year but I was inspired on Thursday last while sat in front of the telly so you’re in for a treat! My two favourite tv cooks, Si & Dave aka The Hairy Bikers were back on the box & this time they were back in their home town of Newcastle. They made gravadlax, visited Si’s mum in the hopes of pinching her secret cookbook (they didn’t get near it) and cooked – what nearly made me fall off the sofa – the most amazing fish pie which I had to try.

            Saturday was to be the day my family would be treated to this so I set about rounding up the ingredients. The recipe is here. I had plenty of fish stock in the freezer which I used up completely – it’s easy to make, just ask your fishmonger for some fish bones (I got sea bass) and boil it up with some parsley, a carrot, a stick of celery and an onion for about 20 minutes; strain the stock into a bowl, skim off any scum from the top and freeze whatever you’re not immediately using. I called to Sadliers and Rene Cusacks for fish but the stocks were very low in both; I did manage to get some salmon, cod, smoked haddock & raw prawns. The recipe calls for vermouth which I replaced with white wine and I forgot completely about the boiled eggs but the pie was a triumph. I also cooked the smoked haddock separately in milk first so the flavour didn't completely take over and used some of the cooking milk in the finished sauce - I love smoked haddock but hate when it takes over a fish pie. The pie was accompanied with peas & petits pois sautéed with shallots & pancetta which were delicious. Just gently fry the shallots & pancetta before adding in the frozen peas and heat through – takes about 5 minutes. Si & Dave used broad beans which would be perfect too. The pic didn’t come out great but I had zero interest in faffing around with photos with my dinner going cold – just had to tuck in…

Si & Dave made such an impact on us at the weekend that my boyfriend bought their cookbook (The Hairy Bikers Ride Again) which is packed full of delicious, hearty, honest recipes. The book follows their travels with hilarious anecdotes and fantastic easy to follow recipes (pretty much everything they cooked was by the side of the road). There’s a salad featured in it that’s “as flash as a tart’s handbag”… Brilliant! I’m looking forward to pinching it for myself so watch this space for many more biker recipes to follow.