We Love Cooking!:
orange

Christmas has well and truly hit the Skehan household! We've only been in our brand new little cottage two months, but it's safe to say we've finally made our house a home. The Christmas decorations are up, the house is filled with Christmas spirit and the scent of warm baking is wafting from the kitchen. Just this week we carried our first Christmas tree up to the house from a little shop in the village; Christmas is here and I'm loving it! The festive season is a fantastic time for cooking, ingredients are celebrated and people are busy stocking up on all those essential Christmas storecupboard ingredients. I'm huge fan of Christmas baking and we're planning a big baking session with my little cousins who are coming over next week; a giant gingerbread house, homemade toffee, christmas tree biscuits and gingerbread muffins are all on the menu. If all this talk of Christmas baking has got you in the mood, then you have to try these absolutely delicious cranberry and white chocolate muffins. They make the best of leftover cranberries, but you could also use any other berry you wish. The sweetness of the white chocolate really balances out the sourness of the cranberries... utterly delicious!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Muffins
If you really want to get ahead of yourself you could make a big batch of these and freeze them to serve for a Christmas morning treat! If you're making them for kids, I'd suggest quickly whizzing the cranberries in a food processor to break up them up a little.

Makes 8-12 Muffins
100g of butter, melted
200ml of buttermilk
Zest of 1 orange
2 large free range eggs
150g of caster sugar
250g of self raising flour
250g of fresh cranberries
200g of white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175oC. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.
In a bowl, whisk together the butter, buttermilk, orange zest and set aside.
In a standalone mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the butter mixture and whisk until combined.
Gently fold in the flour until just combined. Stir through the cranberries and white chocolate until combined. Be sure not to over mix the batter.
Spoon the mixture into the papercases and place in the oven to cook for 15-20 minutes until brown on top.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire wrack to cool.

Strawberries a true sign of summer and the ones in my garden are just about to burst with their mouthwatering red colour! A few weeks ago I was invited to the launch of National Irish Strawberry Week in Bord Bia which is runnung all this week and a fantastic strawberry recipe demonstration by the equally fantastic Catherine Fulvio. Catherine will be known to many Irish food fans for her series "Catherine's Italian Kitchen" which is shown on RTE One. Catherine also owns the Ballyknocken Cookery School in Wicklow and guided us through some really fantastic strawberry recipes which I will be posting this week. Here is the first!

Quick Millefeuille with Toasted Hazelnuts, Cointreau and Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Filling
To toast the hazelnuts, purchase the hazelnuts without skins if possible, then lightly chop and toast in a preheated oven 180C / gas 4 until lightly browned, about 15 minutes

Serves 4 (makes 2 millefeuille, each serves 2 persons)
1 sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry (approx. 200g)
Flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten
300g strawberries, hulled and sliced
20g hazelnuts, roughly chopped and toasted
Mint leaves for decorating
For the filling
250g mascarpone
60ml cream
50g icing sugar
Zest of 1 orange
For the jam
5 tablespoons of strawberry jam
2 tablespoons of cointreau (or orange juice)

Open out the sheet of pastry on a floured surface, roll it out a little thinner, to a 30 x 32cm rectangle. Divide into 3 equal rectangles.
Then place the pastry on a floured baking sheet. Prick all over with a fork and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 180ºC.
Remove the pastry from the fridge, brush with egg wash. Place in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
Combine the mascarpone, cream, icing sugar and orange zest.
Mix the jam with the cointreau (or orange juice).
To assemble the mille-feuille, place one pastry strip on a board or serving plate, brush with half the strawberry jam, spread over a third of the cream mixture, a sprinkle of hazelnuts and cover with a layer of strawberries. Place the second piece of pastry on top. Brush with the remaining strawberry jam, spread over half of the remaining cream, a sprinkle of hazelnuts and a layer of strawberries. Place the last piece of pastry on top and spread over the cream and then a layer of strawberries and sprinkle on the remaining hazelnuts. Chill for 30 minutes.
Decorate with mint leaves and dust with icing sugar just before serving.

If you don't know who Ken Hom is, where have you been hiding! When I was growing up he was the king pin when it came to Chinese cooking, he was the guy you turned to when you needed advice on which wok to buy and how to create that very first stir fry. I was introduced to him via his first cookbook "Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery" which one of my aunts had bought back in 1984, being an avid fan of Chinese cookery I tried so many recipes from this book and have been a fan ever since.

Now although, there have been many Chinese chefs since Ken introduced the cuisine to our TV screens, I still think he is the best and he is regularly regarded as the world's leading authority in Chinese cookery. He was in Dublin launching a new range of Chinese ready meals he has developed with Tesco which includes Crispy Aromatic Duck, Spare Ribs, Duck Spring Rolls, Crispy Chilli Beef, and Chicken Chow Mein all quite reasonably priced. Although people can be cynical about chefs selling out and doing these sort of things, Ken had loads to say on the whole process of recipe development and taking what he described as really bad ready meals to ones which had far more authentic flavours and interesting back notes. I was convinced!

During the demonstration, he spoke about the idea of Chinese cooking and how the aim is too build layers of flavours and textures. He really emphasised the importance of cooking with a really hot wok to seal the in the flavours and how it was so important to marinate any meat you cook with, but generally no more than 20 minutes. I loved the fact that throughout the demonstration, Ken tasted absolutely everything he put in to the wok before it went in, and was really particular in the amounts he used. He also introduced us to a brand new ingredient he had started using called Chee Hou sauce which is made from fermented soy beans with garlic and has a sweet and salt taste, I will be keeping an eye out for it. If you've tried it let me know!

Beef and Black Bean Stir Fry
This is the recipe we were given along with the press release and Ken actually demonstrated the dish for us. I can tell you it is absolutely delicious and you should definitely give it a go. It follows through from what he mentioned about using different ingredients to build layers of flavours and many different notes.

Serves 2
200g of beef, sliced in strips
25ml of rapeseed oil
2 teaspoons of ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Zest of one orange
1 teaspoon of birds eye chillies, chopped
25g of black beans
75g of spring onions, chopped in 1 inch shanks
50g diced onion
75g diced red peppers
75g diced green peppers
45ml oyster sauce
40g of Chee Hou sauce
2 teaspoons of sugar
200ml water
20ml sesame oil
1 teaspoon of cornflour

Heat the wok over a high heat and add oil to coat. Quickly stir fry the meat and when it is cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat the oil in the wok and add the ginger and garlic. Stir fry over a high heat until it becomes golden and toasted.
Add the orange zest and fry until it releases fragrant citrus notes.
Then fry the chilli, black beans and chopped onions for 20 seconds.
Add the spring onions and peppers and fry lightly until tender.
Add the the Chee Hou sauce, oyster sauce, water and sugar and stir through. Then add the meat and toss until it is coated with all the sauce and vegetables.
Finish with the sesame oil and thicken with the cornflour.
Serve with noodles or rice.