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BBQ's
I'm a great fan of BBQ's, this one was inspired by a cousin who seems
to be much better at conning his friends, namely me, than I!
Last
winter, Beri and I moved into a cute damp cottage in Cloyne - seems
to be the only way they come in Ireland! It has a lovely south facing
garden sheltered from the wind with good fertile soil. Apparently
the old lady who used to live here had the whole garden in vegetables.
When we arrived, most of it was brambles! I spent
afternoons, hacking down brambles in hope that Beri might plant
some lettuce and I also made desperately bad effort at making a
glasshouse for tomatoes. Well both of these dreams were fulfilled
and we also have some lovely peas, beetroot, rocket and a few other
bits and bobs. |
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In
the process, we gathered a large amount of burnable rubbish
which needed to be dealt with. I decided that it would be
a great idea to invite some friends over, get them to clean
my garden and have a bonfire/BBQ. It was to start at 7pm.
I got there at 6.30 with Willie Scannell's fabulous new potatoes
and a freezer load of Olivier's delicious sausages, available
selectively in the west Cork farmers markets according to
his mood - but any really good sausages will do.
We
ended up with a feast of dishes, the garden got cleaned up
and the party was wonderful. A few of my more alert friends
did however question my intentions as I handed them various
implements ranging from wooden spoons to rakes!
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Here
is a short list of what we ate and how to prepare them.
Really
good sausages.
Lamb chops
Elderflower Cordial
My own fresh green salad
Tomato salad
Simple new potato salad
Lots and lots of condiments,
chutneys, mustards, mayonnaise
(home made if you want to impress or your as finicky as me!)
Good bread and real butter.
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Really
good sausages - |
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are
probably the least respected and under utilised of all meats in
this country, especially considering the popularity of the breakfast
sausage - which are a different product. I can get good sausages
in my local market in Midleton from Fingal Ferguson (www.gubbeen.com)
through Clodagh Mckenna's stall. Olivier, a dramatic French man
who lives in west Cork also does fine sausages, although I can't
really advise on where to get them, besides west Cork! At a more
commercial level, Superquinn do a good range of sausages but being
a Cork man and there being no Superquinn's in Cork, I haven't had
found the time to check them out. To be quite honest I'd love to
hear of any local butchers doing good sausages.
For really good sausages, first and foremost it's about taste, and
only you can decide this. Other differences from the regular breakfast
sausages are they are not always made from pork, they are usually
flavoured with herbs, spices, garlic or even alcohol and they are
-for no good reason I might add - usually
bigger.
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Elderflower
Cordial - |
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THE
ELDERFLOWERS ARE HERE but you must be quick, they’ll be gone
soon and once again you’ll have no elderflower cordial. Make
up loads of batches and keep them in a cool store cupboard in glass
bottles and they’ll easily last until next year – as long
as you don’t drink it all!
Elderflower grows commonly through out the country side. It is a
large white flower and grows on trees.
It smells beautiful and sweet. Don’t mix it up with Cow Parsley
which is the common flower you see in the hedgerows growing on stalks
from a tall, green, slightly hairy main stem.
Elderflower
Cordial:
30
heads of Elderflower
4 lb
granulated sugar
2 pints
water
2 ½
oz citric acid
Zest
of 2 lemons, then sliced into 4.
Takes
24 hours and makes 2-3 litres
Note:
you will need glass bottles with screw top lids to put it into afterwards.
Put
your sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Try to
dissolve as much sugar as possible by stirring as it heats.
Add
Elderflower, citric acid, lemon zest and sliced lemons.
Allow
to sit for 24 hours.
Before
bottling, put bottles in oven at 80c to sterilise the bottles. Then
put elderflower through a very fine sieve or even muslin to take
out all the bits. Bottle over sink (to catch the sticky drips) into
heated bottles and put on lids immediately.
To
drink, dilute 1:8 with water. It is even more delicious diluted
with sparkling water or for those special occasions, Champagne!
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Green
Salad and Tomatoes - |
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If
there is one thing everybody in Ireland should grow, it's green
salad and tomatoes. You have no excuses not to grow a salad leaves,
there must be a bit of earth and sunshine somewhere about the house.
Tomatoes do require a glass house, but the flavour is worth the
effort. Grow a variety and remember cherry tomatoes generally last
longer into the year. There are a thousand and one other things
to learn about growing tomatoes so my advice is buy them as seedlings
and pester the person you bought them off for advice… you're
local farmers market is good for this.
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Potato
Salad - |
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Fabulous,
make it an hour or so in advance. The potatoes should be warm when
serving but as they don't need to be hot, relieve you "le chef"
of enormous stress.
This recipe works best for me with new potatoes as are main crop
variety, Golden Wonders, are far too floury… but experiment
yourself; it seems that in every nook and cranny in Ireland people
eat their potatoes differently. I basically chop up some fresh parsley
and chives. Chop up the potatoes while they are still piping hot
and put them in a warm serving dish, pour in a generous amount of
extra virgin olive oil, throw in my herbs and season to taste with
salt, pepper and little mustard if I'm in the mood. It is essential
that the potatoes are hot as then the oil really soaks into them.
This will only get better as it sits on a sideboard covered with
a tea towel waiting for your guests to arrive.
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Tomato
Salad - |
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I
have given the recipe for a really easy green salad dressing on
some of the packs. Pour this over some ripe tomatoes and tear in
a little fresh basil. Season with a little extra Maldron sea-salt…
Yummy!
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Steak
for the boys -
Last
week I had my brother in-law [I hate this in-law business] over
for steak as my sister is vegetarian and he had been sick and I
felt he needed some good rare steak, he agreed!
Eventually
this turned into dinner for 8 - one was vegetarian but I'll get
to that later.
With
the right frame of mind this is easy and not overly expensive. I
recommend getting the best fillet steak you can buy; from a local
butcher who fattens his own cows if possible and ask him to cut
them good and thick. They'll be about 8 euro each if your being
generous. My steaks varied between 7 and 9 oz. It's a good idea
to have variations in size, not only because guests vary in how
much steak they can eat but also for cooking times… i.e. bigger
steak will take longer to cook so you can control your rare and
medium steaks better. Any guests who ask for it well done send home!
Every
thing else.
Roast,
roast, roast. Potatoes, Small whole onions, Parsnips, Carrots, Sweet
Potato, Whole cloves of garlic. Put them all on a tray, cover them
in olive oil, try to only have it one layer thick (You may need
to trays) and roast them in the oven at a high heat. You may have
to put different things in at different times but that's fine. Potatoes
will take the longest, but you could boil them a little first. Give
your onions (or shallots) plenty of time too. Turn the vegetable
regularly during cooking.
Anther
essential is a really good green salad. Hard to get unless you have
a good source. I have to recommend Darina's lettuce here available
(if you're there early enough) at the Cookery School Stand at Midleton
Farmers Market… it is simply fabulous. A full plastic shopping
bag cost me the bones of 10 euros but it easily 10 euros but it
easily fed the 8 of us for dinner and left some for me to eat during
the week. Just make a simple dressing to go with this, available
on several of the Cully & Sully packs!
Finally
I made Béarnaise sauce… this is what makes it really
special. It may split… mine did! But you'll get over that.
It's risky… yes, It's tricky… a bit, ITS
WORTH IT… DEFINITELY.
I accidentally
left mine on a high heat but fortunately spotted it just as it began
to split. Quickly I got Meredith to start whisking it as I threw
in a few ice cubes… This was enough to save it and some welcome
advice for you.
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Bearnaise
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(I
made twice the recipe) |
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Pinch of ground black pepper
2 teasp. finely chopped shallots
4 tablesp. tarragon or white wine vinegar
4 tablesp. dry white wine
1 tablesp finely chopped fresh tarragon
2 egg yolks
4 - 6oz butter, diced into 1 cm squares.
Boil
the first four ingredients until completely reduced and the
pan almost dry but not browmed. Add a tablespoon of cold water
immediately. Take off heat and allow to cool. You should be
able to touch the bottom of the sauce pan with you finger
and easily leave it there for at least 5 seconds. Add in your
2 egg yolks and beat thoroughly. Then start to add butter,
bit by bit stirring all the time.
Tips.
Some people like to but the pot into a bigger pot of hot water
when mixing in the butter… effectively a Bain-Marie.
When your adding the butter, if it is getting to thick, take
off heat, if it is slow to thicken, increase heat.
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Steak
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Salt and pepper steaks well before cooking. Also rub some
garlic into them. Heat a frying pan until smoking. Use some
beef fat or olive oil to grease the pan. Cook for 1 to 3 minutes
on either side and brown the edges if necessary. If they need
any more cooking, pop them in the oven for a few minutes.
Be careful not to over cook.
Allow to rest for a minute or so in a warm place before serving.
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Making
bread -
I
don't very often make yeast bread for one reason… the
beautiful and therapeutic experience of kneading dough seems
to me far to much like hard work and I don't own a food mixer.
However
I often make soda bread and I have had the good fortune that
my mother has made brown soda bread for the family all my
life.
I
usually make white soda bread or "Spot of Dog" (with
raisons) for the simple reason that I only ever seem to have
white flour in the house. Soda bread is the sort of thing
that the first few times, no matter how carefully you follow
the recipe, it doesn't work out as well as you want…
then with practice, you wonder what you ever did wrong as
you won't even have to open the book, you'll just bung the
ingredients in the bowl and it will come out pretty near perfect
every time.
Neither I nor my mother follows any recipe particularly carefully
- mainly because we don't have a weighing scale!
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| Mums
Brown Soda Bread - |
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Mum
uses a cup for her measurements… about the size
of a traditional teacup
4
cups brown flour
2 cups white
Good round teaspoon of bread soda
Good round teaspoon of salt
Approx. a pint butter milk
This makes quite a large loaf. Have your oven pre-heated
to approx 200 C. (Mum uses an Aga which could be anything
from 160 C to 240 C).
Put all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix with hand being sure to aerate the flour by lifting
it and allowing it to fall back into the bowl.
Make a well in the centre and pour the butter milk in.
This works best when you know the exact quantity and
put it all in at once. So the first few times take careful
note of the amount of milk being used. Mum then mixes
it (don't over mix as the flour starts to release gluten
which will make your bread heavy) using a wooden spoon.
The consistency should be quite wet but still holds
its shape. Then empty the mixture directly onto a floured
baking tray. Flatten out to about 4 cm thick. Cut a
cross in it the full length and width of the loaf and
spike each quarter with your knife to let the fairy's
out (very important!)
Pop it in the oven and cook for approximately 40 mins.
If it is burning on the outside you can either turn
down the heat a little or if it is nearly cooked, turn
it upside down… this helps to cook the bottom.
Tips. Don't open the oven while
it is rising… first half an hour and if it doesn't
come off the tray, either it wasn't well enough floured
or it isn't cooked yet… probably both!
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| Cully's
White Soda Bread - |
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I
generally just guess the measurements. I've been doing
it for a while now and it adds a bit of variety to my
bread eating experience! However it is the Ballymaloe
recipe that I first learnt so I will give you that recipe.
This is for "Spot of Dog". For regular white
bread you can leave out the Sultanas & Sugar. The
egg makes the loaf a little richer.
1
lb White flour
Dessert spoon sugar
Level teasp. salt
Scant level teasp. Bread Soda
4 oz Sultana
12 oz. Butter milk, approximately
1 egg (optional - If you leave it out, add a little
more butter milk)
This
makes a small loaf. Have your oven pre-heated to approx
200 C.
I
always mix using my hands. A great trick is to only
use one hand once you've added the liquid. This gives
you a clean hand to rectify any mistakes!
Put
all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix
with hand being sure to aerate the flour by lifting
it and allowing it to fall back into the bowl. Make
a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk - all
at once if you're sure of the quantity. Mix using one
hand and hold the bowl with the other, try and achieve
this in 4 or 5 good sweeps so as not to over mix. The
mixture should come together easily without it being
too wet. Scrape directly onto a floured baking tray
- this where the clean hand is useful. Cut a cross in
it the full length and width of the loaf and spike each
quarter with your knife to let the fairy's out (just
as important as with mum's loaf!)
Pop
into the oven and reduce temp to 180 C after 10 minutes.
Cook for approx. half an hour.
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Spicy
Chicken with Almonds - |
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This
recipe has been around a bit… I first came across it when mum
started cooking it for parties, she got it from Darina Allen who
first came across this recipe in Joyce Molyneux's 'Carved Angel'
cookery book; she had adapted it from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's
'Indian Cookery' book. Joyce uses both brown and white chicken meat
but it's also very good just with chicken breast.
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6-8
2 lbs
(900g) boned chicken, cut into finger-sized pieces (use brown meat)
1 tablesp. (1 American tablesp. + 1 teasp.) coriander seeds
1 tablesp. (1 American tablesp. + 1 teasp.) cumin seeds
2 teasp. ground turmeric
Good pinch cayenne pepper
2 teasp. salt
1 teasp. sugar
4 ozs (110g/1 cup) onions, roughly chopped
1 inch (2.5cm) piece of fresh ginger root, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 oz (30g/3 cup) blanched almonds
12 ozs (340g/3 cups) red pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
5 tablesp. (7 American tablesp.) sunflower oil
5 fl ozs (140ml/2 cup) water
2 tablesp. (2 American tablesp. + 2 teasp.) freshly squeezed lemon
juice
First prepare the chicken. (Remove the skin).
Warm the coriander and cumin seed in a dry pan careful not to burn.
Grind in a pestle and mortar. Mix with turmeric, cayenne, salt,
sugar, onions, ginger, garlic, almonds and peppers. Whizz in a food
processor until smooth. Heat the oil in a saute pan and cook the
paste for about 10 minutes until reduced, add the chicken, water
and lemon juice. Cover and cook gently for 15 - 30 minutes or until
the chicken is tender*. Serve with pilaff rice.
Note: If you would like a hotter curry,
increase the amount of cayenne to 2 teaspoonful. Brown
meat takes longer to cook then white meat.
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Passion
Fruit and Coconut Crème Bruleé - |
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Serves
2
2
eggs.
40 grams sugar.
100 ml coconut milk.
1 teaspoon desiccated coconut.
3 Passion fruit.
2 tablespoons honey.
Tiny pinch salt.
1 tablespoon of Demerara Sugar.
Pre-heat conventional oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Whisk
all ingredients together in a bowl except Demerara sugar. Pour into
Cully & Sully dish. Cook in a Bain-Marie for approx. 40 mins.
Leave
to cool in fridge. Then just before serving, spread sugar evenly
over the top and grill until nicely browned. Eat immediately with
your loved one.
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Asian
Oyster Soufflé - |
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Serves
1
½ dozen oysters
1 table sp. sweet chilli sauce
40 grams butter
Small clove garlic, crushed
¼ inch fresh ginger, grated
2 teasp. chopped coriander
2 eggs
100 ml milk
1 tablesp. lemon juice
2 teasp capers.
Teaspoon each of pine nuts, grated parmesan and lemon zest,.
Generous pinch of Salt & Pepper.
Pre-heat conventional oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Leave
Oysters to drain in a sieve on draining board. Whisk the rest of
the ingredients together. Then add oyster with as little juice as
possible. Pour into Cully & Sully Dish.
Cook in a Bain-Marie for approx. 45 mins. Eat immediately with a
glass of Murphy's Irish Stout.
Ideally,
cook the Crème
Bruleé and Oyster
Soufflé together.
While you're eating the Oysters, leave the Crème Bruleé
to cool in the fridge. Then when your ready, heat up the grill and
caramelise the sugar on the Passion Fruit Crème Bruleé.
Then curl up in front of the Telly and enjoy it together.
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