We Love Cooking! [Search results for white wine] 

Big congratulations to the Jelly Monster, you have won the super cleaning pack from the lovely people at Lilly's!

Not only that but for all you lovely people who entered with your worst stains, the folks at Lilly's have decided to suggest the best ways to get rid of them! Check out the answers below!

Ian Healy said...

Curry on white clothes is a fecker :( Oh, Jagermeister on a white shirt! That's messy. Spaghetti bolognese on white. Actually, I should stop wearing white...

The Secret Gardener said..
Red wine on a cream plush carpet in a rented house that I attempted to remove with washing up liquid so adding a nice green tinge. Added some salt and a bit of water and hey presto an almighty bloody mess and my deposit gone in an instant.

Dazzledust25 said...
My husband always gives out to me about being so clumsy. One afternoon there we were having a coffee and I rested mine on the arm of the sofa. He warned me to be careful and then in an instant knocked his own cup flying and destroyed out new cream fabric couch! Nothing got rid of the massive stain. Now when it gets warm our couch has a lovely coffee aroma haha so wrong!

Or shoe polish on himself's new fancy white shirt.... I got in sooooooooo much trouble ha ha ha

Oh I so hope I win I love cleaning products and have been wanting to try more eco friendly stuff!

My daughter was playing on the green with friends. She got grass stain on her pants. Then she was on her bike and fell from her bike and cut one knee. Blood and grass stain mix does not remove!!! I tried everything!!!

Thanks to all at Lilly's for answering the comments and I'm sure if you have any more stain related troubles they would be happy to help!

I was honoured this year to be included in the line up chefs demonstrating at two of the Irish summers top foodie events Taste of Dublin and Bord Bia's Bloom in the Park. Shamefully I had never been to either events, so it was fantastic to finally have my eyes opened to massive amount of work that goes in to creating such amazing displays and stands. I have had the experience of demonstrating in front of large crowds before and a brief stint in the musical world has meant that I no longer suffer too badly from nerves, but this was a little different. When you are included on the lineup with well established people who you have watched cooking growing up the pressure is really on! For my demonstration at Bloom I did a selection of dishes based around in season produce and one of them was this mouthwatering Summer Berry Pavlova.

Summer Berry Layered Pavlova
This mix makes a chewy, marshmallow meringue, which goes perfectly with the cream and berries. Layering the meringue discs gives this beautiful summer dish fantastic texture! If you haven't tried making meringues before, don't be scared as this mix is fairly fool proof, just pop the icing sugar and egg whites in a mixer and whisk till you have stiff glossy peaks, add in the cornflour and white wine vinegar, pop in the oven and you're sorted.

Serves 8
250g icing sugar
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
500ml of cream, whipped
250g of mixed berries

Preheat the oven to 150oC/Gas Mark 2
Line two baking trays with baking parchment. Draw a large circle 25cm/10inch on each piece of parchment paper.
Place the icing sugar and egg whites in a standing food mixer and whisk on high for 10 minutes until glossy white peaks form.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the cornflour and the white wine vinegar.
Divide the meringue mixture between the two baking trays and using a tablespoon, form two large meringue discs.
Bake for 45 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
Assemble the pavlova, by spooning half the cream onto the first layer of meringue, adding half the berries and topping with the other meringue layer, remaing berries and cream.

I did promise some great winter warmer meals, and here is one! Coq Au Vin sounds fancy and complicated buts it's basically chicken cooked in a creamy wine sauce. It's a delicious meal which goes great with steamed vegetables, brown rice, or salad. The other thing to mention is that this is another dish which can be easily frozen and reheated at your leisure. Wait until the dish has cooled, place in a freezer bag and place in the freezer. It should last you up to 3 months.

Coq Au Vin

Coq au vin was a regular winter dish in my house when we were growing up. It's a wonderfully warming meal which is perfect for cold November evenings! Chicken joints like thighs and legs are often far cheaper to buy than chicken breasts and there is something special about meat cooked on the bone that adds extra flavour.

Serves 4
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
150g of bacon or pancetta pieces
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 chicken legs
200g of mushrooms sliced in quarters (about 10-15 mushrooms)
500ml of white wine
300ml of cream
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
A good handful of freshly chopped parsley

In a large heavy casserole pot, add the butter and olive oil.
When the butter has melted add the pancetta pieces and fry until crisp.
Add the garlic and onion and fry until soft.
Remove and set aside.
Brown the chicken thighs and legs on all sides in the same pot and then add the mushrooms, white wine, garlic, onions and pancetta.
Bring to the boil and simmer over a low heat for 20-25 minutes.
Turn the chicken legs halfway through the cooking time and remove any fat or scum that rises to the top.
When the chicken is cooked remove from the pot and set aside.
Stir the cream into the juices, add a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the sauce is has become a little thicker.
Place the chicken back in the pot, add the parsley, stir through and make sure it's hot when you serve it at the table!

Who doesn’t like Meringues? They always go down well in my books and are a really great dessert to make in advance because you can bake them ahead of time and they store extremely well. In our case for foodstock we baked off a mammoth amount of them, 700 to be exact on the Monday before the event on Wednesday and when it came to serving all we had to do was give them a scoop of Jameson whiskey cream, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and a sprinkle of chopped toasted hazelnuts!

I have to say that by the end of the night, there was a fantastic sense of team work when everyone who had been helping us all night, came down to the kitchen- the chefs, the girls from Bord Bia, the staff at the Chalet and the guys from Le Fooding, to work together to get the meringues out and ready! Every free space in the kitchen was taken up and there was meringues as far as the eye could see and in no time we were ready to serve up the last course. Let me just say that these chewy mocha meringues dripping with chocolate sauce didn’t last long in front of the eager crowd and within no time at all we had served them all up!

Mocha Meringues with Jameson Whiskey Cream, Chocolate Sauce and toasted Hazelnuts
This batter makes a really chewy, marshmallow meringue, which goes perfectly with the whiskey cream. If you aren't a coffee fan, drop the espresso powder from the recipe and replace it with more cocoa powder.

Makes 12 meringues
250g icing sugar
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
10g of good quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder
60g of chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 150oC/Gas Mark 2
Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Place the icing sugar and egg whites in a standing food mixer and whisk on high for 10 minutes until glossy white peaks form.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the cornflour and the white wine vinegar. When this is mixed through, sift the cocoa powder and espresso powder over the meringue mix and gently fold in.
Using a tablespoon, place 3inch/8cm spoonfuls of the meringue mix onto the baking tray and flatten each one gently in the centre with the back of a spoon.
Bake for 45 minutes.

For the dark chocolate sauce:
30g caster sugar
60ml of water
50g of good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of espresso powder

Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a medium heat and stir gently to dissolve the sugar.
Add the espresso powder, whisk through and bring the mix to a steady simmer for 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat, allow to sit for 1-2 minutes, then add the chocolate and whisk through until combined.
Sift in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.

For the Jameson Whiskey Cream
375ml of cream
3 tablespoons of Jameson whiskey
3 tablespoons of icing sugar

Whisk the cream into soft peaks.
Dissolve the icing sugar with the whiskey in a bowl and then add to the cream, folding to combine.

To assemble the meringues, place one on each plate, add a spoonful of Jameson whiskey cream on top, drizzle with the chocolate sauce and sprinkle with the toasted nuts.

I don't eat red meat that often but when I do, I always make sure to do it right, it's so worth putting in the extra effort for a really fresh piece of meat. I made these delicious steaks for dinner the other day and they went down an absolute treat. The rich mushroom sauce adds an extra moistness that could save even the driest steak! My dad picked up the steaks while he was passing through Mitchelstown in Cork last week and it was well worth going the distance for a fine auld hunk of country meat.

Simple Steaks with Mixed Forest Mushroom Sauce
Depending on the dried mushrooms you buy, you can use the water you soak them in as part of the stock added in this recipe- Simply substitute half the beef stock with the mushroom water. If you don't have dried mushrooms, they are not essential but give a real depth to the sauce, so feel free to substitute with any fresh mushrooms available to you.

Serves 4 people
40g of dried mixed forest mushrooms.
4 steaks.
1 tablespoon of butter.
1 tablespoon of olive oil (plus a little extra for the steaks)
3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped.
1 onion, thinly sliced.
250g of button mushrooms, sliced thinly.
125ml of white wine.
250ml of beef stock.
4 tablespoons of cream.
A good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Rinse the dried mushrooms with water and then submerge in a bowl with warm water and leave for 20 minutes. Prepare the steaks by drizzling them with a little olive oil, sprinkle over a generous amount of ground black pepper, cover and set aside. When the dried mushrooms have finished soaking, heat a large pan over a medium high heat and add the butter and olive oil. Fry the garlic and onion for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and continue to cook for 5 minutes or until they become soft. Add the white wine, continue to cook and reduce the liquid by half. Then add the beef stock and simmer for a further 2 minutes or until the liquid begins to thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream until combined. Season with sea salt and black pepper and set aside.
Heat a large griddle pan over a high heat and cook the steaks for 2-3 minutes either side for medium rare steak, depending on thickness. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes. Serve them with the tasty mushroom sauce and some steamed veg.

Last month we stayed at Grouse Lodge, (the recording studios Michael Jackson used while he stayed in Ireland, don't you know!) to record Industry's new material which will be released in the UK. Now, when I'm "on the road" with the band I am usually fairly starved for foodie delights, however the lovely folks who own Grouse prepare the most amazing homecooked food! Not only that but they also have their own apple orchard, vegetable garden, and even a giant pumpkin patch. Not to mention the ducks and chickens which roam around keeping an eye on everything!

As you can imagine, I was fairly excited and spent every opportunity out taking pictures of the amazing garden! We had breakfast, lunch and dinner all freshly prepared, but one of my favourite meals was the delicious risotto which made a really tasty lunch. This is my version of it!

Pumpkin and Crispy Pancetta Risotto

I absolutely love this recipe, it is a real cosy dish, which leaves you full, satisfied and warm. Risotto may seem a little tricky, but it's just a case of giving it your full attention and slowly incorporating the liquid, so give it a go! If you can't get your hands on pancetta slices, use smoked streaky bacon.

Serves 4
850g pumpkin, cut into slices
A few fresh sage leaves
3 garlic cloves, roughly sliced
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 slices of pancetta
1 litre of chicken stock
150g butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
300g risotto rice
75ml white wine
150g parmesan freshly grated
A good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220oC/425oF/Gas Mark 7.
Peel and gut the pumpkin and cut into slices. Make sure to save the seeds they are super tasty roasted with a little butter and sea salt.
Place the pumpkin on a roasting tray with the garlic, sage, salt and pepper, toss together.
Cover with tin foil and bake until soft for about 50 minutes.
10 minutes before the pumpkin is ready remove from the oven, lay the pancetta over the pumpkin and place bake in the oven till crisp.
Melt 75g of the butter and the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan and gently fry the onion until soft for about 15 minutes.
Add the rice and off the heat stir through until it is totally coated with the onion mix.
Return to the heat, add enough stock to cover the rice and simmer stirring until the rice has absorbed nearly all the liquid.
Continue to add a little more stock at a time until it is all absorbed. This should take about 15 minutes, until the rice has a creamy coating.
Add the remaining butter, roast pumpkin, white wine, garlic and parmesan. Gently stir though.
Serve immediately.

I remember first tasting duck confit on a family holiday in the south of France, which is where my love for this deliciously tender dish first sprang from. The dish is prepared in an age old traditional method by salting the duck meat and then poaching it in its own fat. By salting the meat the duck is preserved, before it is cooked extremely slowly at a low temperature for up to 10 hours. The duck is cooled and then transferred to jars or cans. It is then topped up with duck fat and some jars and cans can be stored for up to several years!

Duck Confit and A Tasty Bean Stew

I absolutely love duck confit and this little dish is a perfect compliment. If you don't order online you should be able to pick up some in most gourmet food stores, but beware they can be pricey so do shop around.

Serves 4
1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans
4 Confit Duck Legs at room temperature
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 large carrots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
1 litre of chicken stock
1 x 250g tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 glass of white wine
A handful of freshly chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat and add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and cloves, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are soft and tender, about 8 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, white wine and tomatoes and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the stew has reduced a little. Stir every few minutes and spoon off any froth that bubbles to the top. 5 minutes before you serve add the beans and stir through.

Place the duck confit legs on a baking tray and cook for 20 minutes at 200˚C/Gas Mark 6 or until the skin is sizzling.

Serve the duck confit on top of the bean stew and sprinkle with a little parsley! Serve straightaway!

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.

You may have noticed there has been a serious lack of recipes around here lately, but I want you too see that as a good thing! The good news is that behind the scenes I have started work on my new book, so right now that's the main focus and everything else is kind of on the back burner at minute! Hopefully very soon I'll be able to reveal a lot of really exciting news about the book and some other VERY exciting projects coming up. I will do my best to keep the recipes coming but for now here's a really great little summer dish! Enjoy!

Zingy Purple Potato Salad
When people think of potato salads in Ireland, heavy mayonaisse laden over boiled potatoes come to mind, but I'm here to change all that! This potato salad is light, bright breezy and packed full of zingy flavours! There is nothing better than great veggies being shown off at their best with a really simple recipe! While most good vegetable shops have them from time to time, t these purple potatoes can be tricky to come across and while not essential for this recipe, they really add great colour to the dish! If you can't get your hand on them, normal baby potatoes will do just fine. This dressing is a great compliment to any steamed or boiled vegetables like asparagus or garden peas!

Serves 4
750g of baby potatoes (mix of purple and white)
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
3 spring onions, finely chopped
A handful of dill and basil, roughly chopped
A generous pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a pot of cold water, cover, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain the potatoes and slice in half lengthways.
While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the dressing. Whisk together the vinegar, oil, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, spring onions, and herbs. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper.
Pour the dressing over the cooked potatoes and gently toss, until everything is combined.
Serve straightaway!

A few weeks ago, I received a lovely email from Monique McQuaid who runs The Cookery School at Donnybrook Fair, inviting me to a cookery demonstration with English chef, Fergus Henderson. To be perfectly honest I had never heard of Fergus before, but after a quick search on Wikipedia, I discovered he is the man behind the highly respected St. John's restaurant in London, which is famous for it's use of off cuts and using the whole body of an animal. Fergus was coming to Dublin to demonstrate cooking a pig from nose to tail, which was enough to grab my attention and I confirmed my attendance!

We arrived slightly late and had to clamber over people to find seats at the back of the room, which wasn't all bad, with the tiered seating, we could still see the whole thing. The cookery school is located above the shop, and is a fantastic set up with plasma screens showing everything going on in the beautiful, modern kitchen which is fully equipped with everything you could imagine! Monique, a graduate of the famous Ballymaloe Cookery school, was dressed in chefs whites and although Fergus was doing all the talking, it was quite clear she was the one keeping things ticking over, pulling things out of ovens and prepping things as she went!

To say Fergus is a slightly off-beat individual is an understatement, but I suppose I should have expected it, from a creative genius who is famous for cooking a pig from nose to tail. Throughout the course of his charming 2 hour long demonstration, amongst the amazing dishes he produced, he left us with with some fantastic uncommonly eccentric quotes, which had us chuckling in our seats, such as:
1. "I spent my wedding night talking to my trotter."
2. "Tripe is sexy, tripe is the way forward."
3. "There is a certain Jedi knight quality to cooking."

Fergus worked his way through the different cuts of pig, cooking up goodies like deep fried crispy pig tails which he suggested were perfect for a child's dinner, braised pig head, crispy pig's ear, and thinly sliced pig heart served in a delicious salad with pickled walnuts. I will leave you with Fergus's recipe below and make sure to check out Monique's website which has details of all the upcoming cookery demonstrations.

Fergus Henderson's Pot-Roast Half Pig's Head
I say only half a head, as it is a perfect romantic supper for two. Imagine gazing into the eyes of your loved one over a golden pig's cheek, ear and snout.

Serves 2
A dollop of duck fat
8 Shallots, peeled and left whole
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
1/2 pigs head (your butcher should have no problems supplying this) - remove any hairs with a razor
A glass of brandy
1 bundle of joy- thyme, parsley and a little rosemary
1/2 bottle of white wine
Chicken stock
A healthy spoonful of Dijon mustard
1 bunch of watercress, trimmed, or other greens- a case of Liberty Hall
Sea salt and black pepper

Dollop the duck fat into an oven tray wide and deep enough to accommodate your half pig's head and put it on the heat. Add the shallots and garlic and leave them to do a little sweating to improve the flavour of the dish. Shuffle the tin occasionally to prevent any burning, but you do want some colour.
When happy with these, cover the ear of your demi-head with foil so that it doesn't frazzle, then rest the head in the tin. To welcome it to its new environment, pour the glass of brandy over it, nustle in your bundle of joy, add the wine and then the chicken stock in a not dissimilar fashion to an alligator in a swamp!
Season with salt and pepper, cover the tin with greaseproof paper, offering some protection but not denying the need for the rigours of the hours to come in the oven- which is where you should now put your tin, in a medium oven for 3 hours, until the head is totally giving. Check it after 2-2 1/2 hours; you could remove the greaseproof paper at this point and get a little colour on your cheek.
When ready, remove the head to a warm place. Whisk the Dijon mustard into the pan liquor, in which you should then wilt the bunch of watercress.
Finally, on the head presentation platter, make a pillow of shallots, garlic and wilted watercress, where you then rest your head.
There you have it- dinner for two; open something red and delicious: Moon, June, Spoon.

I made these drumsticks the other night and they were a huge success! The sticky and sweet chicken doesn't last too long so I would recommend making a little extra for a snack later on. Serve them with a fresh salad for a tasty supper or with this bulgarwheat salad for a really filling dinner.

Sticky Mustard Chicken Drumsticks
This marinade also works great with duck or even a full roasted chicken. Don't be afraid to experiment!

Serves 4
10 chicken drumsticks.
2 tablespoons of marmalade.
1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard.
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar.
1 tablespoon of olive oil.
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
Add the marmalade, vinegar, mustard, oil, sea salt and black pepper in a large roasting tray, and whisk to combine. Add the chicken drumsticks to the tray and toss until all the chicken is covered in the sauce. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Baste halfway through the cooking time. Remove the chicken from the oven and place on a plate. Place the roasting tray full of juices over a medium high heat and simmer and whisk until the sauce thickens. Serve the chicken with a tasty bulgarwheat salad and coat with the thick sticky sauce.

It's definitely a sign you had a fairly packed weekend when you only start to relax on a Monday morning! I was working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday but Saturday night was the big occasion, 25 family members, young and old packed into my parents front room to eat their way through a three course meal and celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

They are my grandparents on my moms side of the family, they married in 1950 and made a living as sculptors, all the while raising my mom and her 3 brothers and 3 sisters. My grandmother has a fantastic knowledge of food and I can talk with her for hours about her delicious rich recipes (if we can steal a moment away from my granddad's well trained 3rd degree questioning skills!) which always seem to transform some extremely unique off cut of meat into a melt in your mouth, one pot wonder. I love how she can tell me she had nothing in the house, yet then go into intricate detail of how she whipped up an old French recipe so delicious it would put the great Elizabeth David to shame. Needless to say that love of food has been passed down the line, so the food at gathering such as this are normally of a certain standard! Anything less of course and you can expect a full critique by the time the coffee and teas are served!

On the menu was a delicious crab salad with lemon zest, for mains we had hefty portions of slow roasted lamb shanks in red wine with a tomato and white bean stew, and to wrap things up we had the delicious mocha meringues with whiskey cream, chocolate sauce and toasted hazelnuts which we cooked for the event in Paris during the spring. All this was followed by an amazing cheeseboard from Sheridans Cheesemongers which despite the big helpings for dinner was devoured!
So things are back to normality this week thankfully so here's today's recipe, enjoy!

Whoohaa Chorizo Bean Pasta!
Pasta is definitely a super-cheap store cupboard ingredient which can easily be transformed into hundreds of delicious dishes. This is one of my favourite ways of making the most of it. When making a tomato sauce, the key to getting the best flavour out of it is to cook it slowly. I love to add a good glug of red wine while it reduces to bring out a really great richness. The chorizo gives the dish a kick of heat and will leave you feeling full.

Serves four
150g chorizo, sliced in thick discs
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
Sea salt and ground black pepper to season
400g tin cannellini beans
250g penne pasta
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat a large frying pan over a high heat and throw in the sliced chorizo. Fry on both sides until roaring red and sizzling. Remove from the pan and set aside. You should be left with a rich red oil in the pan.
Place the pan back over the heat, add the garlic and onions and fry for two to three minutes until the onions are soft.
Add the chopped tomatoes and dried oregano, then half fill the empty chopped tomatoes tin with warm water and stir into the pan (if you have red wine it would be great here instead of the water). Bring the sauce to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until it has reduced a little.
While the sauce is reducing, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, drain and set aside.
Stir the chorizo and cannellini beans into the tomato sauce until everything is warmed through.
Add the sauce to the cooked pasta and stir through.
Serve with a good grating of Parmesan cheese.

I first tried this salad as a kid, and back then I was never really convinced on the addition of pears. Even going as far as insisting on the pears having to be picked out, but then again I was a pretty, particular, little brat! I guess you could say, my palate has slightly expanded since then, and I can truly say that I now appreciate this punchy flavour combination. We had this with barbequed mackerel for dinner on Sunday and I'm not sure about the combination, but this salad really stands strong alongside whatever dish you choose to serve it with.

Rocket, Pear, Parmesan and Pine Nut Salad
Toast the pine nuts in frying pan for a minute or so until they turn a nice golden brown. Make sure to keep your eye on them as nuts cook really quickly, I can't tell you how many times I've burnt a pan of nuts and I still haven't learned my lesson!

Serves 4
120g of rocket
2 pears, peeled, cored and sliced wafer thin.
A good handful of parmesan shavings
50g of pine nuts, toasted

Dressing:
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1 clove of garlic, minced
A good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper

In a large salad bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
Add the rocket and toss in the dressing until evenly coated.
Scatter the toasted pine nuts, parmesan shavings and pear slices on top of the rocket.
Serve straight away and enjoy!

Is it me or has it been a little quiet around here recently? I think I've only just gotten back into the swing of cooking again after my little break. Sofie and I finally made the journey up to IKEA in Belfast over the weekend to get all those essential apartment items after nearly a year. We have been threatening to make the trip, since it opened in December, but it just kept getting put off- but we did it in style and spent a whopping eight hours in the store as if to make up for it!

I know that's a bit mad but we did like 4 sweeps of the place and missed out on very little. I love the kitchen stuff in IKEA, and my favourite thing we got on our shopping trip was this cool little kitchen trolley thing which doubles up as both a storage unit and a work top! I particularly like this because now I can perform a mini cookery show when we have guests over! :) (Pictures coming soon!)

On to the food! I cooked this dish over the weekend as a bit of an experiment and thankfully no plates were left empty so I'm taking thath to be a good sign.

Cajun Salmon and Asian Greens (Serves 2)
For Salmon:
2 Organic Salmon Fillets
1 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. black pepper

For Asian Greens:
Selection of veg diced (Broccoli, Carrot, Asparagus, Red Pepper)
2 Tablespoons of Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Nam Pla (Fish Sauce)
1 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil
A pinch of salt

In a large bowl combine the Rice Wine Vinegar, Nam Pla, Sesame Oil and salt, then add the diced veg and mix through. Cover and set aside in the fridge.

Mix the spices for the salmon together. Place the salmon fillets skin side down on a grill plate and sprinkle with the seasoning. Place under a hot grill for approx 7-8 mins.

While the Salmon is under the grill, in a hot frying pan stir fry the diced veg mix until soft.

The Salmon should be cooked by this time, if your worried it isn't cooked through, poke a knife into the centre of the flesh and check if it is still pink- if its is you may want to give it another minute or so under the grill.

When everything is cooked serve on a plate and enjoy!

My mom called me last week to tell me she'd eaten the first of the berries from her newly planted patch. "It was amazing," she sighed, "like they used to be when you were young." While I can't say for sure how good store-bought strawberries were when I was a kid, I do know that 20-some years of agribusiness hasn't done the strawberry any favors. Typically, they are as big as they are bland, streaked with white inside and dry as a sun-baked bone. They contain only the barest hint of what they could be were they ripened to a bright red by the sun, picked in season and eaten immediately.

Craigie on Main, a local restaurant, makes an admirable proclamation on their menu, "sorry, no tomatoes til August." It's an acknowledgment of the fact that local tomatoes eaten in season are pretty much the only tomatoes worth serving and eating. While it might seem sad to not have a tomato at any other time of the year, it turns that moment in which local tomatoes are available into a celebration of the perfection to be found in eating locally and seasonally. It's in that spirit that I also advocate a "sorry, no strawberries 'til June" position, but you know what? It's June!

This is the strawberry moment for New England. The fields are full of juicy red fruit, ready to tumble from the stem into an outstretched hand. And that's just what they did on a recent trip out to Western Massachusetts where we spent the morning picking.

Even the plants in my newly inherited community garden plot are bearing fruit, despite being uncared for over the winter. Next year I expect they will be even more plentiful, but this year they are good only for a quick garden snack, which is probably fine since I had so many other berries to deal with from the picking trip.

There's little that can improve upon the experience of a perfectly ripe strawberry, heavy with sun-warmed juice, but a freshly plucked mint leaf is a nice touch, the cool sharpness contrasting with subtle sweet-tart warmth.

If you do insist on messing about with these perfect berries though, I can't think of many better ways than to go with the classic strawberry shortcake. Of course, I really can't help but mess about, which is how this one-off shortcake was born. Thinking of the natural affinity between strawberries and oranges and a less obvious connection between berries and astringent herbs, I employed my orange-rosemary sugar to make spelt biscuits with lots of flavor and a little more substance than usual, but with all the flaky tender-crumbed charm of a standard shortcake. Instead of macerating the strawberries with sugar, a process usually employed to soften the berries slightly and make them give up some of their juices, I tossed the already juicy and soft berries with a strawberry syrup, made with instruction from the new and wonderful book, The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves.

The syrup is a simple matter of macerating the berries with sugar and letting them sit overnight before cooking them down, pureeing and straining the mixture. It yields a gorgeous thick syrup that is purely, deliciously full of strawberry flavor. It's wonderful over waffles and refreshing mixed into sparkling water or sparkling wine (I recommend Moscato d'Asti) for a fun brunch drink that mixes things up from the traditional mimosa.