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Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! Yes today is the big day, Ireland's answer to Christmas, when the Guinness is flowing, the food is a plenty and it all generally ends messily! I was in Dublin city yesterday and the amount of tourists with cameras strapped around their necks, I presume to catch a glimpse of an elusive leprechaun or two, was nothing less than impressive. I think there is something about our fine land of green, which musters up a somewhat mystical notion in the hearts of foreigners, that we are simple folk who tend to the fields by day and drink ourselves to sleep at night. Sure if it makes for a good story, why argue with it, I say! Right I will leave you with this traditional Irish dish of Bacon and Cabbage which will be part of The Daily Spud's Paddy's Day food parade and I'm off out to pull some potatoes from the ground, have a pint of guinness and kiss the blarney stone... Slán abhaile agus go n-éirí on bóthar leat!

Good Auld Bacon and Cabbage
This dish would have been traditionally served quite regularly in homes all over Ireland, as the ingredients are quite readily available. It's real comfort food for me and I love the fresh flavours of the veg.

Serves 4
900g of Shoulder of bacon
1/2 head of savoy cabbage, sliced finely
2 Carrots, chopped
1 onion sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper

Creamy Leek and Parsley Sauce:
2 tablespoons of butter (a generous knob)
2 tablespoons of flour
2 large leeks, sliced finely
100-150ml bacon stock
1 teaspoon of English mustard
A good handful of parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh cream

Remove the bacon from any packaging and place in a pot of cold water over heat. Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 40 minutes or until cooked. Remove from the water, place on a plate and set aside. Save the bacon stock.

To make the creamy leek and parsley sauce, melt the butter in a sauce pot and sweat the leeks until soft but not coloured. Add the flour, mixing to combine, then add a little of the bacon stock stirring until the sauce thickens. Judge the consistency of the sauce by eye, and you may want to use a little more or less to your taste. Season with a little sea salt and black pepper and stir through the English mustard.
Keep warm until you have the consistency you require and then stir through the chopped parsley and tablespoon of cream.

To make the cabbage, melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the onion and carrots, cooking until soft. Add the cabbage to the pan and allow to wilt down slowly, turning every now and then until it has wilted down and become tender.

Serve the bacon in slices topped with the creamy leek and parsley sauce alongside the cabbage. Enjoy!

Most people find this time of year a little depressing, the nights becoming longer, the days becoming shorter, but for foodies this is harvest season, when all the hard work in the garden during the summer really pays off. Vegetables like, carrots, cabbages, and parsnips which have benefited from the long summer days are all now fully formed, heavy and begging to be plucked from the ground.

I received a fantastic seasonal vegetable hamper from Bord Bia to promote there brilliant new best in season website, which highlights the huge range of fresh veg which is on offer throughout the year. The hamper included a great selection of parsnips, carrots, leeks, celery, cabbage, and potatoes. I have been a bit busy so didn't get to cook as many dishes as I had hoped but managed to knock up a big batch of vegetable soup!

Wholesome Vegetable Soup

Soup season is definitely upon us, and as much as I love experimenting with new flavours, and different combinations, I always come back to a good old homemade vegetable soup. This is the one I normally stick to but add whatever vegetables you have at hand, they certainly won't go astray here.

Serves 6-8

1 tablespoon of butter
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, sliced
2 potatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
bunch of celery, chopped
2 litres of vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the butter in a large pot and place over a medium high heat.
When butter is melted and foamy, add the onion, potato, and leek.
Fry for 2 minutes, then cover and sweat for 8 minutes.
Add the stock, carrots, parsnip, celery, lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender when you insert a fork.
Season with a little salt and pepper to taste and then either serve as a chunky vegetable broth or blitz with a hand blender to form a silky smooth soup.

The beauty of a good hearty chicken stock is, that not only is it packed with health benefits, it can be the base for hundreds of different, quick and simple recipe's. The recipe I'm posting is fairly basic, but really you can add whatever herbs or root veg you have in your kitchen, and experiment with the flavors. The cooking process breaks down the ingredients and the finished product contains minerals like calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, in a form which the body can easily absorb.

Now I know that making stock is not the most exciting of recipe's to talk about, but once you do have the rich golden finished product, it can be transformed so easily. Boil a portion of the stock, add some minced garlic, ginger and chili, some fish sauce and rice wine vinegar and drop in some cooked noodles. Top with some spring onion sliced thinly and within minutes you have a healthy, hearty, Asian inspired soup.

The easiest time to make this stock is probably right after you have devoured a roast chicken, as the bones are more than likely ready for use! Just throw the ingredients in the pot and let it boil away for a few hours- effort level zero! Alternatively you can throw the bones into a zip lock bag and store in the freezer until you find a perfect stock making day.

Basic Chicken Stock

1. Leftover bones and carcass of chicken
2. 8 Litres of Water
   
3. 12fl oz White Wine
4. 1 white onion Chopped
   
5. 1 large carrot Sliced
6. 1 Large Leek Sliced
7. 1 Stick of Celery chopped
   
8. 3 Stalks of Parsley
9. 8 Black peppercorns

Then add the rest of the ingredients and allow to simmer consistently for 3 hours or until the flavour is right for you.

Make sure to check on the pot ever now and then to skim any fat that rises to the surface- this while make sure you have a nice clear stock.

The stock can be kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen in handy bags in the freezer. You can also store some of the liquid in ice cube trays, which comes in handy to add an extra bit of flavour to sauces, and gravy.

And if thats not enough about stock for one day check out this interesting article.

First of all I have no decent excuse for the lack of posts, well that's a lie, maybe just one, the fact that by the time I cook the recipe I want to post about, it's dark, and when it's dark the pictures look pretty terrible, and when there's no pictures the posts don't look as nice. So with that in mind, I decided that I'm just going to have to blog ahead regardless of pictures!

If the darkness wasn't the biggest clue of all, I think you may have noticed the seasons have well and truly changed. It seems to me almost impossible to avoid some sort of illness during these cold months, and generally doctors tend to treat illnesses that have gotten out of hand with strong medicines. For me, this is all to silly, because with a little care and attention most colds can be easily caught before they turn into something much more serious. One year I realised I had been prescribed almost 6 antibiotics, which probably could have been avoided. Unfortunately it seems a lot of doctors tend to treat the symptoms instead of the cause.

From the very first signs of cough or runny nose, I'm already treating myself with a bang of Vitamin C and the natural disinfecting solution of Lemon Juice and Honey in hot water every hour. Always seems to do the trick! For congestion, however old fashioned it might sound, I give it the steam treatment with a few drops of Olbas Oil. I can generally stop myself getting worse by applying these simple steps and eating something healthy regularly throughout the day.

My restorative Chicken soup is one of those amazing foods that, just by eating, makes me feel like I'm already getting better! I read somewhere recently about scientists who had found something sciencey about chicken soups and their health benefits, I can't remember what exactly it was but it was enough for me to go make some soup so it must have been good!

RESTORATIVE CHICKEN SOUP

1. 2-3 Chicken breasts sliced into chunks
2. 3 Garlic Cloves chopped finely
3. 1 Large Onion chopped finely
4. 1 Large Carrot chopped
5. 1 Leek sliced in chunky pieces
6. 1 Thumb Sized piece of Fresh Ginger, grated
7. 700ml of Stock (Can be chicken or vegetable, it's up to you!)
8. A good handful of fresh herbs roughly chopped
9. Good Sprinkle of Salt and Pepper

The best thing about this soup is that once the preparation is done you just bung it into a pot and leave it to it's own devices.

In a large pot, fry the chicken in a drop of olive oil for about 4 minutes till the meat is sealed and remove from the pot. In the same pot add the garlic and fry for one minute, then add the onion and fry till they turn translucent, I love that word, translucent. Anyway add the rest of the veg and cook on a low heat until the mix has reduced to about half it's size, then add the stock.

Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the cooked chicken, ginger, herbs and seasoning. Leave this to cook at a gentle simmer for about an hour, the flavour intensifies the longer you leave it so keep checking it, and season to your own taste.

And there you go, should help any cold or cough you come across! :)