I am coming to you live from my hotel room in the sunny south of Ireland in Ballingcollig, Cork. I was doing a cookery demonstration for the Hope Foundation last night and it went extremely well! It was my first time doing a demo in front of a live adult audience, so I couldn't rely on my usual school demo tricks like asking them what they bring for their lunches, and of course every kid sticks up their hand. No this is a little different, but in a good way, I get to give more tips about the stuff I am cooking and I can choose dishes which are a little more interesting than stuff only kids will eat.
Last night I was demoing some of my favourite dishes from the book, I did 7 dishes altogether, which were my aromatic duck salad (with duck supplied by the lovely folks from Silverhill), hasselback potatoes, tomato chicken thigh supper, garlic mushroom and goats cheese pasta, mushy roast garlic and cherry tomato pasta, and my favourite dessert, Kerstin's bursting berries with white chocolate!
We did a bit of a signing after the demo, so a huge thank you to everyone who came up and bought a book, and big shout the folks at the Hope Foundation who pulled off the whole night with huge success! Mark was our cameraman for the night and popped me the tape of the whole thing, so when I get time I will stick it up here, so you can take a peak!
Today's recipe is going all Irish, as for the next few days, the country will be taken over by a rush of green and lots of celebrations. A few of the towns we drove through today already have their bunting up in the town square! This recipe is from my Cork News column which is out today, and for any foreign readers out there, this dish is quite a traditional Irish dish, so I hope you like it!
Traditional Irish Food: Colcannon Colcannon is as traditional, as traditional Irish food gets, and for the week that's in it, when the whole world will be going green in our honour, what better thing to do, than serve up some of the finest! I told my grandad I was making this the other day and no sooner was it out of my mouth than he had burst into song. The dish of course, is the inspiration behind the traditional Irish song by the same name, "Oh weren't them the happy days when troubles we knew not and our mother made colcannon in the little skillet pot". This recipe is the one I grew up with, but if you want to experiment, you could also stir in a little bit of wholegrain mustard to add an extra bite to it!
Serves 4 portions 1kg potatoes, peeled and diced 250g savoy cabbage, finely sliced 1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced 2 tablespoons of butter 75ml of milk A good pinch of sea salt and black pepper
Add the peeled and diced potato to a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potato is tender when pierced with a fork. Place a metal steamer into another pot, add a little water and bring to the boil. Place the cabbage into the steamer and steam cook until it is tender. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain into a colander, then add back into the pot with the butter and milk. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy. You may want to add a little bit more or less milk and butter, it is up to you! Add in the spring onion, steamed cabbage, sea salt and black pepper and stir through with a spoon until evenly combined. Serve the colcannon straight away with a little extra butter and sea salt if you want. Enjoy and a slightly premature, Happy St. Patricks Day!
Most of life's great decisions come from having absolutely no prior knowledge as to how something is going to turn out. That was most certainly the case over the weekend. You might remember earlier this year I got roped into cooking for 800 hungry Parisians for an event on a small island in the west of the city with Le Fooding magazine sponsored by our very own Bord Bia. Well after the huge success at Chalet Des Illes, the delightful Noreen Lanigan, decided she wanted more abuse from me and decided, being a blogger I would be the right person to demonstrate at the third annual Salon Du Blog Culinaire, an event organized by a cookery school north of Paris in the little town of Soissons, in November. The event is quite unique and very timely with the amount of food blogs continually on the increase. It invites lots of France's finest food bloggers to demonstrate their favorite dishes and kitchen techniques in a fairly manic two day period watched on by fellow bloggers eager for culinary inspiration. During the summer I had the opportunity to meet a group of France's top food bloggers who were on a visit to Ireland to discover the fantastic conditions our lovely animals enjoy before they head off the little farm in the sky and onto our supermarket shelves. To put things in perspective here, unlike our own Irish food blogging community which, while thriving and very rapidly increasing in numbers, this group of French food bloggers were 10 of over a thousand. These guys were the cream of crop and are well and truly established with tens of thousands of visitors a day, numerous cookbooks and iPhone and iPad Apps. Not surprising really from a nation who takes so much pride and passion in their cooking that they would be willing to fall out with each other over a bad Boeuf Bourginon! After our visit to the farm, I demonstrated some of our traditional Irish dishes, including Irish stew, brown bread and roast lamb, and was gently reminded again that Noreen had plans for me in November…
Clare Clinton who is interning at Bord Bia's Paris office got the ball rolling earlier this month with emails back and forth to decide the best recipes to show off our finest meat and fish products. Despite me dragging my feet, we eventually decided upon 6 dishes to cook and impress the French food bloggers, including mussels in Irish cider, crab claws with chilli, garlic and lemon, roast shoulder of lamb with rosemary and garlic, a good auld Irish stew and to mix things up a little an oriental steak salad and spicy Beef fahitas.
Myself and Maeve Desmond, who I'm sure many of your may have met at Bloom or the Irish Food blogger event in May, flew to Paris on Friday evening just in time for a late dinner in a beautiful restaurant very close to La Bon Marché. The restaurant proudly serves Irish beef alongside some French classics and the quite adventurous dishes I chose including Carpaccio of veal tongue served with a salsa and for mains Pieds et Pacque d'agneau which on the English menu I was reading from was translated as feet and packets of lamb. I'm big believer in always trying something different in another country rather than something familiar but unfortunately sometimes it doesn't always work out the way I had planned. The veal tongue had a very interesting texture and flavor and was complimented quite nicely by the salsa it was served and was definitely worth the chance of trying, however the Lamb feet and packets, left a little to be desired… The packets turned out to be a strange little dumplings of finely minced pork wrapped in what looked very much like tripe and actually tasted quite nice, but the feet had about as much meat on them as my little finger. Maeve and Noreen played it safe and benefited from doing so with Maeve going for an amazing long wooden platter of beautifully sliced ham and of the Irish beef and Noreen choosing a lentil salad to start followed by the most amazing French black pudding which was really rich and velvety, a stark contrast to what we are used to with a fry! Dessert was a financier de poivre, an individual little flat cake with pear and île flottante a big dollop of fluffy egg white and sugar which was served floating in a dish of vanilla cream and topped with a caramel sauce. After all that we rolled our way back to our hotel ahead of the six o'clock start on Saturday morning.
There is one thing I don't do and that is early mornings, sure I can be full of energy first thing but I fade fairly rapidly during the day! Noreen runs a tight ship let me tell you (This woman has a tractor license!), so at 7.06 with toothbrush still in mouth, I answered to phone to a bright and sparky Noreen who wanted to know were I was! Rushing out the door and out onto the streets of Paris, I stumbled on Noreen and Clare (and a sleepy Maeve!) negotiating the boot of the car with Irish posters, recipe booklets and of course the suitcases. We were all bundled into the car and then the real fun started- our departure from Paris was fairly comical not helped of course by the GPS which took us on the wrong road at least twice.
When we finally arrived in Soissons and at the culinary arts school the 3rd Salon Du Blog was well underway. One of the French food bloggers who had been on the visit to Ireland, was the charming Chef Damien who makes a mean Boef A La Guiness and runs the school and a highly successful website, 750g, which attracts a ridiculous amount of visitors on a daily basis! There was definitely a huge sense of excitement as we were ushered through the halls of the school and passed the many rooms where different food bloggers would be spending their weekend. We arrived at the Bord Bia room which was positioned perfectly smack bang in the middle of all the rooms which guaranteed us constant traffic and visitors and were introduced to our helpers Suella and Virginie. It's always fairly nerve-wracking arriving at a new kitchen so there was some fierce scurrying around to get all the equipment and ingredients before we were due to kick off with our first demonstration at 11am! We got kick started with a great turnout and the rest of the day was so busy that it became pretty much a blur except for the fantastic Bloggers Picnic that had been organized for lunch, where all the bloggers had brought along a little dish to be a part of the most massive buffet of food I have ever seen! One thing that should be noted and that is instantly clear in terms of the difference between Irish food bloggers and French food bloggers, they have no problem telling you they would done something differently, where we might be a little bit more shy to go up and taste test if someone is giving a demo. So it was all fairly nerve wracking to make sure things were cooked just the right way! Either way I love their passion!
Saturday finished off with a giant blogger banquet complete with hoards of Irish cheese, Irish salmon, Irish beef, Irish lamb and randomly enough a little bit of good old Irish dancing! We were sitting having a great time but the minute the music started Noreen told us she had to get up to take some photos and we thought no more of it, a few minutes later we looked down at the dance floor and there she was like Jeanne Butler on acid leading the Ceili putting the rest to shame- and THAT'S how you represent the country! I don't know whether it was the dancing or not but Noreen headed back to Paris on Sunday and we were joined by another lovely lady from Bord Bia, the lovely Bernadette, lovely! :)
On the last demo of the day on Sunday I was accompanied by Chef Damien to demonstrate a very simple dish of crab claws with chilli, garlic and lemon. The whole thing was a crazy combination of both of us trying to translate each other language but somehow I think it worked, and I suppose it did help that we were being filmed for the French tv station! All in all it was an absolutely fantastic event and I think we represented Ireland quite well if I do say so myself. My only wish was that I had got to see a lot more of the other demonstrations, there was a massive variety of food being demoed but I did manage to catch one or two! An absolutely massive thank you to Chef Damien, my two lovely kitchen assistants, the lovely ladies of Bord Bia, and of course all the French bloggers who made me feel so very welcome!
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!
The lovely Elisabeth Ryan from Sheridans has passed me on some interesting notes on each of the cheeses she suggested for the Christmas cheese board the other day. To be honest I have just discovered an appreciation for cheese myself and I am finding this latest food discovery absolutely fascinating, there is so many back stories to each one, so have a quick read!
Stilton
Alongside Cheddar, Stilton is the best known of all English cheeses. Unlike Cheddar, however, Stilton’s name protected status has prevented the proliferation of imitators which has blighted the image of cheddar as a quality, artisanal cheese. The Colston Bassett Dairy stands out amongst these producers for the consistently high quality of its Stilton, if Stilton is the King of Cheeses then Colston Bassett are the Kings of Stilton Production. Colston Bassett Dairy was established as a local farmers cooperative in 1913 with the specific intention of making Stilton. The dairy makes every effort to keep all aspects of production as close to traditional practices as possible. It takes 72 litres of milk to make a standard 6.5kg wheel of Stilton. The milk is pasteurized upon arrival at the dairy- all Stilton has been pasteurized since 1990- it is then cooled to 30 degrees and put into vats. Here starter and penicillum roqueforti, the blue mould culture are added. Vegetarian rennet is then used to set the curds, which are cut an hour later. The mixture is then left to settle, thus allowing the curds to separate from the whey. The whey is drained off and the curds are ladled into trays for the night. The next day the curd is milled, salted, mixed and placed into hoops. The curd drains in the hoops for a further five days, after which time the curd has drained and solidified sufficiently to allow the cheese moulds (hoops) to be removed. The surface of the cheese is then rubbed over with a knife, thus smoothing the exterior and facilitating the later development of a natural rind. The cheese is then aged for 20 days to allow the surface to dry out. By the end of this period it is ready for the maturing room. The young Stilton is kept in the maturing room for around six weeks. Towards the end of this period the cheese is pierced with long stainless steel needles at regular intervals around its circumference. This allows air to come in contact with the penicillum roqueforti and lets the cheese develop its latent blue potential. As the blue culture reacts to air it is concentrated along the lines left by the needles, thus giving Stilton its characteristic blue veining. The cheeses are given a second piercing about a week later, at which point they are ready for sale.
Mont D'ore
Mont d’Or is a seasonal soft cheese from Franche-Comté, made using raw cow’s milk. The AOC stipulates that production must take place between 15th August and 15th March. The cheese may be sold from 10th September to 10th May. The milk used must come from Montbeliard and Pie Rouge breeds feeding exclusively on grass and hay at altitudes above 700m. No fermented feed is permitted. The cheese must be encircled by a strip of spruce or pine and packaged in a wooden box. During the summer months milk from these herds goes into the production of the region’s other great cheese, Comté, but as the season changes from Summer into Autumn changes take place in the milk being produced. The cattle are producing less milk, making the production of the huge Comté cheeses less viable (an average Comté wheel weighs 36kg). Equally the protein/ butterfat ratio of the milk has changed making it less suited to the production of hard cheese. Other considerations also have a role to play in the gradual changeover from Comté to Mont d’Or production. In the days before motorized transport as the weather deteriorated it became more difficult, and less worthwhile, to make the daily delivery of increasingly small amounts of milk to the fruitières, or cooperatives, where the Comté is made. So the farmers began to make smaller cheeses with which they could feed their families throughout the winter. Mont d’Or has a washed rind, covered in a dusting of white mould and a soft, near liquid cream-coloured paste, it is a wonderfully rich cheese. The aromas are of hay, mushrooms, earth and balsam, as both the box and the spruce impart wonderful woody flavour (the black colour which often occurs around the wood is perfectly normal and is no cause for alarm). On the palate the texture is unctuous and creamy. The flavours are of cream, wood and dry undergrowth with a slightly saline finish. Baked Mont d’Or is probably one of the most hedonistic dishes there is, and is perfect for a winter’s night.
Montgomery
Montgomery’s Cheddar is generally regarded as the best of the unpasteurised, animal rennet cheddars still being made in England, in other words the best of the best. The cheese is made on the family farm near Cadbury in Somerset, with milk from the Montgomery’s own pedigree herd. Montgomery can be aged anywhere up to two years, although most people prefer it at somewhere between 12 and 18 months. Such is the demand for Montgomery Cheddar nowadays that a couple of years ago a shipment of the cheese was hijacked by thieves, who then made off with tens of thousands worth of Cheddar! Our own annual allocation of this sought after cheese is such that, in order to have ‘Monty’ in stock at Christmas we have to do without it for a couple of months beforehand. By the time the cheese finally arrives in December people are literally clamoring to get their hands on it.
Cashel Blue
Jane and Louis Grubb have been making Cashel Blue on their farm at Beechmount, near Fethard, in County Tipperary since 1984. Since then the cheese has gone on to become the best known of all the Irish farmhouse cheeses. Over half of all the milk used in the production of Cashel comes from the Grubb’s own select herd of Holstein-Fresians, with the remainder coming from carefully chosen local herds Cashel Blue is a natural-rind blue cow’s milk with a soft, yellow paste and a distinctive blue/green mould. In perfect condition, ie over about 14 weeks the cheese should show little, if any, chalkiness in the paste and should bulge ever so slightly near the rind. In terms of flavour Cashel provides a wonderful contrast between the slowly dissolving, creamy paste and a well rounded blue flavour. Cashel has none of the mouth-stinging harshness of certain blues, relying far more on finesse than sheer raw power. This classic Irish cheese is great with dessert wines, the Grubbs recommend Vin Santo. For a less upmarket treat, try it with a Braeburn apple. Cashel is also a wonderful cooking cheese.
Clonmore Goat farmers, Tom and Lena Beggane, learnt cheesemaking from a Dutch neighbour. They started making Clonmore at their farm in the heart of Cork Hurling country, Newtownshandrum, outside Charleville in the late 1990’s. Clonmore is handmade using milk from their tiny, free-range herd of goats. Cheesemakers like the Begganes are very much part of the new wave of lesser known, Irish cheesemakers who have broken away from the classic Irish wash-rind tradition to explore other cheesemaking styles. The Beggane’s goats are fortunate enough to enjoy some of the finest grazing in the heart of the Golden Vale. This pasture, more usually associated with dairy farming, lends wonderful richness to their cheese. Tom and Lena are also part of that dying breed of Irish cheesemakers who are still involved in the maintenance of their own herd, the majority of Irish farmhouse cheesemakers nowadays prefer to buy their milk from one or two well trusted local sources. The combination of farming and cheesemaking makes huge demands on both time and patience and anyone still willing to commit themselves wholeheartedly to both is to greatly be admired. The Begganes also run their herd in coincidence with the animal’s natural lactation cycle, allowing their herd to dry out at the end of November. They start making cheese again in March. Clonmore is a small, gouda-shaped cheese with a beige waxed exterior and a bone-white paste that is intermittently freckled with small holes. In good condition the cheese is milky on the palate with a mild tang that gently gives way to the unmistakable rounded, goaty finish that typifies Clonmore. This is a wonderful hard goat’s cheese. It is in no way sharp or soapy yet has a distinctive, smooth flavour. Clonmore is one of those cheeses that is better served below room temperature, left out in a warm room it has a tendency to become slightly oily. This is very much a lesser known Irish cheese and is not widely available, so sit back and enjoy this treasure.
Coolea Coolea is a pasteurized cow’s milk cheese made in the mountains of Coolea, near Macroom on the Cork/Kerry border. It has been made there since 1980 when a Dutch woman, Helen Willems, began to make Dutch style cheese from the milk of her husband, Dick’s, herd. Nowadays Coolea is made by their son Dick Jnr. This is a classic Gouda style cheese made in traditional four and eight kilo rounds and is characterized by a yellow wax rind and a hard golden amber paste. It is now made from the milk of two neighbouring herd of Holsteins and Freisians. During the summer the Willems use milk from a herd about two miles from their farm, whilst during the winter they use milk from a different herd, feeding on pasture which is drier than most at that time. Dickie insists that all milk used comes from grass-fed animals as he says that silage can taints the flavour of the cheese as it ages. Since Coolea’s flavour is wholly reliant on the quality of the milk used Dickie is insistent that only the very best milk goes into making his cheese. He also uses traditional rennet because it makes far more age-worthy cheeses than those made using vegetarian rennets. Young Coolea is mild and semi firm, whilst older cheeses have a harder paste and a fuller, more robust flavour that continue to develop for over two years. At this stage of maturity the cheese takes on a sweet, almost toffee like flavour and a slight crystalline consistency, not dissimilar to that of mature Parmesan. Dickie’s preference is for wheels between 14-18 months. In 2006, Sheridans began experimenting with increasing the age profile, and now most of the Coolea we sell is between 20 months and 2 years. Amazingly, we still find that it has enough moisture to keep it lively on the palate, but is backed by a wonderfully deep finish and is just starting to become tacky in the mouth.
Durrus Jeffa Gil has been making Durrus at her hillside farmhouse in West Cork since 1979. Since then Durrus has gone on to become one of the most highly regarded of all the Irish farmhouse cheeses, collecting many prizes and accolades along the way, including Best Irish Cheese at the British Cheese Awards in 2003. West Cork has long been associated with milk production in Ireland, thus making it an ideal location for cheesemakers; whilst the wet, saline sea air makes the area eminently suited to washed rind production. Durrus is one of those true artisanal products which reflect the environment in which they are produced. It is unique in being the only Irish wash rind cheese which is still made using raw milk and traditional rennet and is one of the cheeses chosen as ambassador for the Slow Food Presidium on Irish Raw Cow’s Milk Cheese. Durrus’ success continues, it was named Supreme Champion at the IFEX in 1996 - for the second year running- and Jeffa was named best cheesemaker. Durrus is a semi-soft washed rind cheese made using raw cow’s milk from the neighboring Buckley and Lynch family’s herds. Jeffa’s cheese has a mottled pinkorange rind and a semi-firm creamy paste that has a tendency to bulge slightly when cut. The aroma is one of hay and wet soil, punctuated with a small dose of the pungency so characteristic of washed rind cheeses. The flavour is long, round and earthy with - depending on condition - a slight washed rind whiff. It is a flavour which is uniquely and unmistakably Durrus. This is what Jeffa describes as ‘a deep, complex flavour which captures the elemental nature of this part of Ireland.’ Jeffa reckons the cheese is best at around 6 weeks old and is not overly affected by seasonality because the milk comes from staggered breeding. Durrus is one of the consistently great Irish farmhouse cheeses. Try it on toast, in place of raclette or with pears.
Sofie recently turned 22 and to celebrate her mom and brother came over to visit. Since we are always treated to some tasty traditional Swedish dishes when we visit them, I thought I would try and serve something traditionally Irish for our first meal! One of the few dishes that I know well as being traditionally Irish is this Irish Stew.
We always had it growing up and I’m sure most homes across the country were the same. I used to have a serious problem with the potatoes, insisting they were picked out before I was served- much to my mom’s disgust!
There are many different takes on this recipe with many using lamb instead of beef, but this is the one we grew up with. I actually rang my mom the other day for the recipe, and she got a little bit excited and started adding all sorts of mad vegetables to it to make it more exciting, but at the end of the day Irish stew is Irish stew, so I’ve tried to keep it simple! Just like mammy used to make- without parsnips thank you very much! ;)
Irish Stew This is a really tasty one pot dinner which is perfect for cold winter evenings. Ask your butcher for stew steak, which is normally available, but you can also use any other cheap cuts of meat. This recipe serves 6 people and you will need a large casserole.
3 tablespoons of wholemeal flour. 3 teaspoons of ground black pepper. 1 ½ pounds of stew steak. 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil. 4 large carrots, chopped roughly. 2 large onions, chopped into half moon pieces. 1 ½ litres of beef stock. A good pinch of sea salt. 2 bay leaves. 5 large potatoes peeled and sliced into 1cm discs. A good handful of freshly chopped parsley.
Preheat the oven to 200˚C/390˚F/Gas 6. Place the stew steak, wholemeal flour, and black pepper in a resealable plastic bag. Seal the bag and give it a good shake so that all the steak pieces have a nice coating of flour and pepper. Heat a large frying pan with a good glug of sunflower oil and brown half the steak pieces. Transfer the steak pieces to the casserole. Repeat with the rest of the meat. Fry the onions in the meat juices on the pan for 2 minutes, adding an extra drop of oil if necessary. Transfer the onions to the casserole. Add in the carrots, beef stock, sea salt, bay leaves, and stir through. Add the potato slices on top, season with a generous amount of black pepper and cover with the lid. Transfer the casserole to the oven and cook for 1 ½ hours. Serve straight from the casserole to some large bowls with some tasty wholemeal bread. Sprinkle the parsley on top and enjoy!
As I mentioned over on twitter the Swedes celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December and Santa Claus personally delivers all the presents in person which was a very strange experience altogether! When I was living in Sweden a few years ago I worked briefly as a chef at a Christmas buffet which is more commonly known over here as a Julbord, so I have my fair share of knowledge when it comes to traditional Swedish Christmas food. However having never actually experienced a Swedish Christmas I was totally unprepared for the non food traditions!
When we arrived at Sofie's grandparents house on the big day, we got straight to work on a red cabbage carrot salad we had promised to make, to add to the table. There was 14 people for dinner so the kitchen was already a hive of activity by the time we arrived. Halfway through preparing the salad, we were whisked into the sitting room to sit and watch "Kalle Anka" which is a collection of Disney cartoons, shown at the same time every year! I was informed that across the country every other family would be doing exactly the same thing! So we all sat and watched Donald Duck wish us a happy Christmas and waited anxiously for dinner to be served and for a visit from Santa!
After the cartoons ended, we all headed towards the kitchen where the whole table had been set out with a huge spread of delicious Christmas food. The Christmas ham which had been boiled and baked with a mustard topping, boiled eggs with caviar, good old Swedish meatballs, Brussel sprouts, beetroot salad, boiled potatoes, and a selection of Swedish cheeses with Knackebrod all made an appearance on the huge table of food! One of the dishes which is a little strange for foreign visitors is Jansson, which is like a shredded version of potato gratin with anchovies, it's really delicious! Unlike Christmas dinner at home, we all served ourselves buffet style, and then sat down to eat.
When everyone had helped themselves to seconds and were finally finished them, we all sat back on the sofa and waited for the big fella to arrive! Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE!) was excited, as Sofie's youngest cousins who were stuck to window, managed to peel themselves off the glass in time to shout to the rest of us, that Santa was here! He clumped into the room and sat down, Sofie's grandad served him a big glass of schnapps and he got straight down to business giving out the presents! Sofie told me that this was the first year he had ever spoken English so he must have known I was there! :) His English was so good that he even managed to sing a verse of "We wish you a merry Christmas" every time he gave out a present. The only problem was that when he gave out a present you had to go up to him and sit on his knee, where he bounced you up and down while singing the song! Even the grandparents weren't left out!
After Santa left, we all sat around the sitting room and everyone opened their presents one by one, another Swedish Christmas tradition! While this is a lovely thought, in theory, and everyone gets to see each others gifts, it took us two hours to get through everyone's presents! I suppose it's much more pleasant than the Irish tradition of everyone ripping into their presents as quick as possible!
When the presents were all opened and thoroughly appreciated we were served the final meal of the day, Ris A La Malta, which is like a rice pudding with cream and vanilla sugar served with orange segments. I have a particular fondness for this dessert as it was always my job to make it at the Julbord! Overall my first Christmas away from home was great fun and it was brilliant to experience something new but I have to say it was really strange to celebrate the big day before the big day!
I have to admit I am a little disappointed in the food culture of Sweden, but then again coming from Ireland where we are awash with small artisan producers I guess I have been a little bit spoiled for choice. When I first arrived here a few years ago, I was so impressed to see kids at school eating proper lunches and cafe's serving full on salads on their menus. However I have scraped a little beyond the surface and despite having very balanced diets and having a good sense of "eating well" it seems to me, many Swedes food options begin and end at the supermarket. There is that ominous feeling of large food machine in operation behind the scenes spewing out what the consumer demands. While in Ireland I certainly don't shop at farmers markets everyday but I do like the option to. If you are from Sweden and can point me in the direction of some good honest food not produced for the supermarket I'd love to hear about it- prove me wrong!
New Season Spiced Lamb with Simple Griddled Asparagus Lamb is in season right now and if you are looking for something a little different try this spicy rub. Today's recipe is a bit of change up for the traditional lamb chop. While I love the simple and delicious flavours of lamb sometimes it's nice to mix things up and try something a little different, which is why I love this spicy rub. The spice rub also works well on other meats too so give it a go!
Serves 4 4 Irish spring lamb chops ½ tablespoon of cumin seeds ½ tablespoon of coriander seeds 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes ½ tablespoon of turmeric 1 teaspoon of paprika A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
For the asparagus 1 large bunch of Asparagus (3-4 spears per person) 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
In a pestle and mortar grind together the cumin, coriander, chilli, turmeric, paprika until you have a really pungent orange coloured powder. Place the lamb chops on a plate and sprinkle on the spice mixture, turn to coat. Cook the spiced chops under a hot grill for about 2-3 minutes either side until cooked through. While the lamb is cooking, snap off the woody end of the asparagus and toss the spears in a bowl with sea salt, black pepper and olive oil. Fry on a hot griddle pan until tender for about 3-4 minutes. Serve the lamb and asparagus with some salad leaves and enjoy.
Life is constantly full of surprises, there are some things I plan for and then there are some things that sneak up and just smack you around the chops! I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards last month for my book Good Mood Food, but to be perfectly honest never really expected to win, it was an extremely tight category with some amazing competition. Not being a regular at black tie events I borrowed a tuxedo from my pal Simon, which just about fit, bar some tightening with a belt and dragged myself into the mansion house in Dublin for the awards. It wasn't until the first award winner Donal Og Cusack stepped up to deliver his speech, that the panic set in that on the off chance of winning, I had absolutely NOTHING prepared! Not the way I usually roll! So Best Irish Published category came up and guess what I WON! Honest complete utter shock took over and I really can't remember what I mumbled on stage but I was just so thrilled. It's a fantastic tip of the hat towards young and upcoming writers and huge win for myself, Mercier Press and of course everyone who was involved in producing the book. While celebrations ran into the earlier hours, I managed a couple of hours sleep before getting up to prep my demonstration at the Food&Wine Show in the RDS. It was a fairly packed weekend with the Taste Of Christmas also taking place at the new convention centre in Dublin. For my Food&Wine demo I ran through a collection of traditional Swedish Christmas dishes, after working at a Julbord (the traditional Swedish Christmas buffet) in Gothenberg, I had a great selection of interesting dishes to show off. Along with the Julgrot and Gravadlax I demoed the big hit of the day was the Jansson's Temptation a delicious creamy potato dish which is served alongside the Christmas Ham. It makes an interesting addition to our Irish Christmas dinner and I definitely suggest you give it a go! :) I am getting around to a full thank you video for the book award but I'll keep you posted on that!
Janssons Temptation Not unlike a French Potato Dauphinoise this Swedish take features anchovies and is a regular at the Swedish Christmas table. If you don't fancy the anchovies you could of course add some finely chopped garlic instead.
Serves 8 14-16 Swedish anchovy fillets and the brine they're stored in 2 large onions, sliced in half moons 5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into matchsticks 200ml of cream 2 tablespoons of butter A small handful of fine breadcrumbs Sea salt and ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 225oC. Put half the potatoes into a large rectangular pyrex dish. Evenly distribute the anchovy fillets and onions over the top of the potatoes and top with the remaining potatoes. Pour half the cream and anchovy brine over the top and then add the butter in knobs over the top. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper. Place in the oven until the potatoes are golden and after 20 minutes remove from the oven and top with the breadcrumbs and remaining cream and brine. Place back in the oven and cook for a further 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Renowned Irish chef Martin Shanahan is mad about fish! Or so the program title tells us. Martin has just recorded a 6 part RTÉ series which starts this evening on RTÉ 1. As the owner of the award winning restaurant Fishy Fishy in Kinsale, Co. Cork. Martin has years of experience cooking with seafood, and he believes that many Irish people are still afraid of cooking and eating fish. Throughout the series Martin’s determined to “take the fear out of fish” and show that anyone can cook simple tasty seafood at home. I spoke to Martin yesterday to have a quick chat about fish! Check out the interview below and make sure to tune in tonight!
Hi Martin, congratulations on the new series, the promo on youtube looks really fantastic! So how did you find the crossover from cooking in the kitchen to the filming process and cooking on camera? A bit nerve wracking initially, I suppose number one I'd be a chef and obviously the biggest part of it was when I got in to the fish business first I had a fish shop for 7 years, and I wouldn't have cooked so much during that time, but I listened to the customers all the time. The biggest thing was that they all obviously loved fish, but they weren't able to cook it or they were afraid of the bones. That was the feedback all the time! I think a lot of people come into fishmongers and they are afraid to ask for the fish without the bones. So basically in the program I'm trying to educate people and to encourage them to go out and go in to your fishmonger and ask them to do those little jobs for you. Most fishmongers would be more than happy! Can you tell me a little bit about how you got into cooking and how cooking fish became your passion? I would have trained as a chef in Rockwell back 25 years ago and I would have worked by the sea quite a lot and I worked in San Francisco and anywhere I worked it would have been beside the sea, so I always loved cooking fish. It was always so simple and tasty. My experience in the restaurant is that you never get a complaint that the fish is tough. Fish is truly nature's fast food and it really is, it can be cooked so fast and so easy. That's why in the program I say that if you can fry a rasher or cook a sausage, you can cook a piece of fish! Again the techniques are really simple and that will definitely encourage people to get cooking.
People may know you as the owner of Fishy Fishy in Kinsale, but for people who haven't been to Kinsale could you tell us a little bit about the area and the food scene down there? Well look, Kinsale is a great tourist town, and when I say tourist town, I consider someone coming down from Cork to be a tourist! People come down for an afternoon from Cork to get away from the stresses of their everyday life and it's only 20 minutes down the road but it's like walking into a different atmosphere. And the obvious connection I suppose is with the sea, you don't think of a cow, you want to eat prawns or you want to eat a bit of fish and chips!
What are some of the most successful dishes from the restaurant? We'd have a couple of great ones but one of the most popular is probably the traditional fish and chips! We use fresh haddock and we take the skin and bone out of it and cut it into pieces, fry it in batter and you pick it up in your hand, put it in, close your eyes and you can be guaranteed no bone.
In the promo you mention you are on a mission to get people eating fish, and from my experience people seem to be quite nervous when it comes to cooking fish, have you any sure fire winning dishes that always win over even the pickiest eaters? The very simple one we do is a pan fried piece of cod and people would be nervous about a piece of fish like cod, or haddock, or hake, because they have a line of bones around the top of them, but in the program, I cut a piece of cod, I show them exactly the piece they should look for in the fishmongers and we just roll that in a little seasoned flour and pan fry it. I add a little knob of butter near the end and a little drop of water and by the time the water has evaporated, the butter has melted into it and you finish it off with a squeeze of lemon and on to the plate, I tell you can get nothing better! The one thing I would always say to people is to season fish, although it comes from the sea people think it might be salty but it's not, it's quite mild in itself, so you have to season it! The other thing is to make sure is that you have a good solid pan, you can't cook a fish in one of these omelet pans because they just don't hold the heat and the minute you put on the piece of fish the pan goes cold and starts to stick.
There are some great shots of you doing some cooking at a local kids school, how would you recommend getting kids to eat more fish? At that demo we actually made fish fingers in the school and we shot some back in the studio to show people at home how to make them. Fish fingers are great because they involve the kids and I would encourage parents to go to the fishmonger, ask for a pound of nice white large fish, it can pollock, it can be hake, it can be cod, it can be haddock, but again no skin and no bone, and I would encourage them to ask the fishmongers to cut them into fish fingers for them. Then you bring them home and do your flour, a dip in egg and breadcrumbs and pan fry them. That way the kids can do it with you, and it gives them a great connection with the food. You'll see in the program the reaction of the kids when they eat the fresh fish as against the processed fish and what we find is kids never lie. You know they say it as it is, you can't tell them "don't say that", they just spit it out. You will hear some of the comments from the kids and they know there stuff even at that young age.
What was the reaction to you filming locally? We got a great reaction! When the lads from RTE approached me, I wouldn't be one for the camera, but they said they would love to make a program and I said no lads the only way we could make it, was if we were to make it in Kinsale and they asked me why and I said well I know everyone in the streets, so I'd feel comfortable around them and I can have a chat with them! But the reaction overall with people has been super and everybody local just can't wait to see it. We're involving people on a day to day basis and get great feedback from people and so we understand their fish fears!
What are some of your favourite dishes from the series? I couldn't pick just one, but what I am hoping will come out of this more than anything, is that we'll keep the fishing industry that we have here in Ireland. My business wouldn't be successful without the product the local fishermen are catching. If we lose the local fishermen, and they are under pressure between quotas and costs, and people aren't obviously eating enough fish in Ireland, and we end up exporting a lot of it. So hopefully this program will highlight it and we'll make people realise it is a great product, it's a local product and you couldn't get anything more natural, it's not grown, it's not fed fertilizer, it's not mass produced at the push of a button, so hopefully people will see that and taste it and think that was lovely!
Martin's Mad About Fish airs tonight on RTÉ 1 at 8.30, make sure to tune in!
Unfortunately the last of the Swedish summer hasn't been as kind as I had hoped, with most of my time being spent dodging the rain, it all feels very much like home. However, the bad weather hasn't dampened our spirits and we soldiered on, enjoying one of the more traditional events of any true Swede's summer calendar, the highly regarded Kraftfest! For a foreigner, this can be a fairly strange event to come across, so put simply it's a party where large groups of Swedes don bibs and funny hats to guzzle and suck their way through mountains of Swedish crayfish, interrupted only by traditional kraftfest songs while downing copious amounts of schnapps (which, by the way, tastes like paint stripper!). In fairness to the Swedes they most definitely know how to make the best of the summer.
One of the other very exciting things I've had the chance to try my hand at is wild blueberry picking! Over 60% of Sweden is covered by rich forests which are literally teaming with low lying bushes covered in little blue dots throughout late summer. Like any good Irish fella, I never pass on the chance of free food, so as soon as I heard about these little babies, we were in the car and deep in the woods in record time.
One of the things I learned early on about Sweden is that everything has a system, and blueberry picking is no different, they have these fantastic rectangular boxes with a handle and little prongs to pick the berries, which makes it as simple as running it through the bushes, to pick up generous handfuls bursting with goodness! We are still working our way through the huge amount we picked, making American style blueberry muffins and a delicious blueberry créme brulee, but this was one of the desserts which perfectly complimented the little berries.
Swedish Gooey Chocolate Cake If you're looking for a gooey chocolate fix, you've come to the right place. This cake is perfect for a quick dessert using ingredients you probably already have in your store cupboard. To be perfectly honest, it tastes so good on its own it can just as easily be served without the cream and the berries! I have witnessed the picking apart of a cake just like this straight out of the oven by a hungry group of young ladies. It was similar to a scene from a David Attenborough documentary - believe me, they didn't need the frills!
For the topping: 500ml of double cream 150g of blueberries and raspberries
Preheat the oven to 175oC. Grease and flour a cake tin 24cm in diameter with a removable base and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the sugar and the egg and mix well. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined. Pour into the greased cake tin and place in the oven for 20 minutes. The cake won't rise dramatically but you should be left with a set top and gooey middle! Allow to cool while you whip the cream until it become stiff. When you're ready to serve, spoon generous dollops of whipped cream on top and then decorate with blueberries and raspberries.
Today is the day I am going to share one of my ultimate favourite recipes from the book! I started writing my first food column in the Irish Independent Weekend magazine last weekend and got the opportunity to share some of my personal favs from the book, including Kerstin's bursting berries with white chocolate, Chicken Thigh Supper, Lime and Mint Mohito Chicken and Hasselback potatoes. However as I know there are a lot of readers beyond Ireland that might be interested in these recipes I thought it would be worth posting here too! Let me know if you want any of the other recipes included in the article posted here!
Crispy Hasselback Potatoes
I came across the recipe for Hasselback potatoes when I was younger and they are so visually appealing that I had to make them. The traditional recipe, originally from Stockholm, calls for breadcrumbs and cheese, but I have tried to make it as simple as possible for this recipe. The potatoes go nicely alongside most dishes. If your potato slices don’t separate while cooking, increase your heat and you should get better results.
Serves 4 Approximately 20 baby potatoes 2 tablespoons of melted butter A generous pinch of sea salt
These potatoes are a little bit daunting at first, but once you get the knack of it you’ll have no trouble! The idea is to cut slices about 3mm in thickness right across the potato, but to keep them attached at the bottom. If that all sounds a bit too much, there is a quick trick you can use: place the potatoes on a wooden spoon and slice down: the dip in the spoon will prevent you from slicing all the way through. When you’re finished, place all the potatoes sliced side up in a roasting tray and brush each one with the melted butter and give a good sprinkling of coarse sea salt. Roast at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 for approximately 45 minutes or until the slices of the potatoes fan out and turn golden brown. Serve straightaway and dig in!
Christmas has well and truly started for me and I am already addicted to Christmas FM which plays non stop Christmas tunes 24 hours a day! Last year I was Peter Pan in a panto in Dublin, which meant I was working right the way up until the big day, so I kinda missed out on the Christmas cooking. This year I have some time off so I'm going to be cooking up a storm, I have mince pies, christmas pudding, traditional glazed ham, and cheats Christmas dinner recipes to put up on the blog which got me thinking- Is there any Christmas recipes you would like to see up on the blog? If so leave me a comment below or say hello on twitter or facebook!
While all this festive food is fine, I have been taking a break and finally got a chance to try the amazing Lor from my favourite Irish blog Italian Foodies' recipe for Carbonara. It's such a simple recipe which is so easy to throw together and you just have to try it! She nearly killed me when I told her I used cream, but sure it was in the fridge, it would have gone to waste! I also added a little garlic but don't tell her! :) Check out the recipe on Lor's blog: Italian Foodies.
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