Thursday, June 29, 2006
Sausages with Wild Mushrooms and Peas
I'm running again. No, not from the law, nor from
debtors or my parents. I'm simply running far, far behind on the cooking again. I was going to make lemon sole on Sunday, lamb stew on Monday and bangers and mash on Tuesday, but none of these happened as planned. The fish had to wait until Monday, the lamb was nearly forgotten altogether and the bangers were still sitting in the fridge today. That's OK though, because throughout the week I have slowly used up the lettuce that was meant for the salad at dinnertime for lunch at work. So, by a happy coincidence, I finally caught up with myself again tonight; the only thing left were the sausages and some wild mushrooms that really wanted to go. I know they are not exactly the most seasonal ingredient at the moment, but I just love mushrooms and wild ones are so much more flavoursome than the cultivated button mushrooms from Tesco. Besides, Fallon & Byrne had some Pieds Bleus (site behind the link is French, for an interesting overview of mushrooms in food, I recommend this article from the Financial Times), a mushroom from the Loire valley of France that I first discovered here in Ireland and have come to love for its outlandish colour and the intense flavour it gives to dishes. In fact, the combination of wild mushrooms, summery peas, grilled tomatoes and free range pork sausages is hard to beat when it comes to quick, but warm summer food.For the sausages:
4 meaty pork sausages
3 tbsp oil
For the mushroom and pea mixture:
2 tbsp butter
50g unsmoked bacon lardons
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large handfuls of wild mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
100g peas (briefly blanched in boiling water and refreshed in cold water if you are using fresh peas)
salt and pepper to taste
To serve:
2 firm ripe tomatoes
8 to 10 baby potatoes
a few drops of olive oil (you could use flavoured oil here if you like; chilli, garlic, basil or thyme for example all work well with grilled tomatoes)
a knob of butter
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthways and remove the stalk. Place the halves, cut side up in a baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place in the middle of the oven and bake until tender and beginning to brown, about 30 to 35 minutes. (If you're in a hurry, cut the tomatoes into quarters and turn the heat up to 200 degrees. You will have to monitor them quite closely though to prevent them burning to a crisp.)
Heat the oil for the sausages in a large shallow frying pan over medium low heat. Add the sausages and fry, turning 3 to 4 times (don't overdo the turning or they will not brown), until golden brown, about 20 to 30 minutes.
For the peas, heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the bacon lardons and fry for 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Reduce the heat to medium low, add the onions and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender but not browned, about 8 minutes.
Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain thoroughly and allow most of the steam to escape. Add the butter and toss to coat.
While the potatoes are cooking, add the mushrooms to the onions, turn the heat back up to medium and sauté over high heat until golden brown and any moisture coming out of the mushrooms has been cooked off. Add the peas and crispy bacon and cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes until the peas are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Christine at 9:14 am
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Lamb and Lentil Stew with Mash
After spending most of Sunday in the kitchen, I took a bit of a timeout last night and just made a big salad for dinner. Originally, I was going to do the same tonight, but then the weather turned and we really wanted something warm and soothing. Bangers and mash came to mind, but after I had peeled and cut the potatoes I remembered the chunks of lamb sitting in the bottom of my fridge waiting to be turned into a tasty Korma. But I was in no mood for a curry. A stew was more like it. So that's what I made. A stew. Something a bit like an Irish stew, but with some added lentils and with the potatoes on the side.For the stew:
3 tbsp lamb fat (alternatively use olive oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
150g puy lentils
2 bay leaves
500ml lamb stock (alternatively use beef, onion or chicken stock)
3 tomatoes, diced
the juice of ½ lemon
grated zest of ¼ lemon
a pinch of ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
For the mashed potatoes:
3 large floury potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
2 to 3 tbsp butter
a few drops of warm milk
salt to taste
For the stew, heat the fat/oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, carrot, bay leaves, cumin and grated lemon peel and continue frying for a few moments, then add the stock, tomatoes and lentils. Simmer until the liquid has gone and the lentils are tender, about 15 minutes. Finally, add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.
For the mashed potatoes, put the potato chunks in a large saucepan with just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and add a pinch of salt. Cover and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly and mash until smooth. Add the butter and continue mashing until well incorporated. Add a few drops of warm milk if the mixture appears dry. Season to taste with salt.
Christine at 9:57 pm
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Lemon Sole with Shellfish and Oxtail
Not long after finishing my last post, I was off to the kitchen to prepare a dinner (hopefully) fit for a queen. When he first cooked up his fish dish of pan-fried turbot with cockles and oxtail, Bryn Williams won us over right away. The combination sounds somewhat strange, but the mixture of flavours and seemed at the same time very intriguing. In the end, he managed to win the series with this dish and cooked it for the Queen's 80th birthday celebration. This only made me more determined to try to recreate it. Unfortunately, as per usual with me, I had not read the recipe well ahead of time and had not banked on a marinating time of 24 hours for the oxtail. Slightly disheartened, but still full of anticipation, I got all the ingredients for the oxtail in a pot, sealed it and stuck it in the fridge. And dinner? Well, we had to have salad instead.The new day brought new hope for me to actually manage to cook a dinner fit for a queen: Pan-fried lemon sole with mussels, clams and oxtail accompanied by buttered spinach and baby potatoes. This time I started well early and read the recipe properly right after getting up. I advise you to do the same, it's incredibly complex and far more difficult to recreate than I had anticipated. And while I was not entirely satisfied with the result, I am quite proud to say that I would gladly eat it again.
For the oxtail:
½ oxtail, cut into pieces (I bought a whole oxtail and used a mixture of the very small bits off the very end and the two biggest bits. This way I will have fairly uniform chunks remaining for next time when it will most likely be served on the bone.)
650ml red wine
½ large onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 small bay leaf
3 to 4 tbsp sunflower oil
2 to 3 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 litres chicken stock (or 1 litre of beef and 1 litre of chicken stock, if you like a stronger flavour)
For the shellfish:
150g mussels, cleaned
150g clams, cleaned
½ glass white wine
1 small bay leaf
1½ tbsp crème fraîche
For the lemon sole:
4 tbsp olive oil
5 fillets of lemon sole
For the spinach:
2 tbsp butter
400g spinach, washed
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg
a squeeze of lemon juice
To serve:
8 to 10 baby potatoes
The day before you want to serve this dish, put the oxtail in a bowl with the red wine, onions, carrots and bay leaf. Cover and leave to marinate in a cool place for 24 hours.
The next day, about 4 hours before serving, strain the red wine off from the oxtail and vegetables and place in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius. Heat the sunflower oil in a large ovenproof saucepan over a medium heat. Dust the oxtail in seasoned flour, shaking off the excess, then add to the pan. Fry until golden brown on all sides.
Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the marinated vegetables to the pan and cook until golden brown. Deglaze the pan with the hot red wine, then cook until the liquid is reduced by half. Return the oxtail to the pan. Cover with chicken stock and bring to the boil. Skim, cover the pan with a lid and place in the oven to cook for 2½ hours.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool. When cooled, remove the oxtail and pick the meat from the bones, retaining the meat in large pieces. Discard the bones. Strain the liquid into a saucepan and cook until reduced by half skimming off any foam, scum or fat that may accumulate at the top. Add the meat to the sauce and keep warm.
Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Cook until tender, about 12 to 15 minutes depending on size.
To cook the shellfish, bring the white wine and bay leaf to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the mussels and clams, cover with a lid and cook on a high heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until the shells have opened. Drain the in a colander lined with a thin cloth and set in a bowl. Set the liquid to one side. Pick the shellfish from their shells (you can leave a few in their shells for decoration). Keep warm.
At the same time as the shellfish, prepare the spinach. Melt the butter in a saucepan. When it is beginning to sizzle add the spinach. Cook until wilted, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, nutmeg and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cover and keep warm.
For the lemon sole, warm the olive oil in a non-stick pan until hot. Add the fish fillets and fry until the underside is brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully turn the pieces over and lower the heat. Cook for a further two minutes. In the meantime, bring the shellfish liquid to the boil and whisk in the crème fraîche.
To assemble, place the wilted spinach on a plate and arrange the cockles, oxtail and potatoes around it. Drizzle with the oxtail sauce. Position the sole on the spinach and pour a little of the creamy shellfish sauce over the top.
Christine at 9:08 pm
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Purple Peas and Other Surprises
After last week's disappointment at the market I was determined to get up early today and get to Jenny's before anyone else. The first task was relatively
easy to achieve, for what I call early is not exactly the middle of the night. I was up and awake by 9.45 and out the door just after 10. This, however, meant that I missed my second task by a long way. I did not miss the vegetables though, so all was perfect. I stocked up on just about everything: Carrots, potatoes, spinach, fresh tender garlic, salad greens, ruccola and peas. I also got to learn something new: Peas are not always green. I was raised thinking peas grew in tins and was
seriously surprised when, at the age of about 8 I was served what my mum claimed were frozen peas. I really didn't know what to make of these bright green things that had a lot more texture and were a lot sweeter than the mushy greyish-brown peas I knew. My surprise was even greater when, at the age of 28, Lofty first bought some fresh peas at a greengrocer in Prague and began eating them raw. But after I'd tasted this lovely sweet snack, peas had completely won me over. And, what's more, I was sure I now knew all there was to know about them. Until today. Besides the 'ordinary' green peas, Jenny had a big basket of purple hull peas. I've never seen anything like it! I'm amazed and happy and can't wait for the summer. Jenny taught me about green and yellow tomatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, red kale and now purple hull peas. And every time I was puzzled again and felt like a kid again. I have no clue what will be next. Pink cucumbers?The immediate future first brought a quick trip to Dennis' stall where I picked up a few more bits
and pieces that Jenny did not have - some wild mushrooms, carrots, fennel, and a carton of organic eggs. Dennis is technically a greengrocer, but a few weeks ago he started selling Connolly's Organic Eggs. At first I was in unsure if they were any good. But then I decided to just give them a try, they're organic, locally produced, and reasonably priced, so what could go wrong? As it turned out not a lot and he quickly won me over. I haven't bought eggs anywhere else since. The way home took me through George's and Wexford Street past Fallon & Byrne and the butcher's. The former had some nice-looking fish, which was just what I needed after I had skipped the fishmonger at the market. I bought some mussels, clams and a few fillets of Lemon sole, all of which were incredibly fresh and, at less than €5 for the lot, surprisingly reasonably priced. Served with a creamy sauce they'll make a lovely dinner - or so I thought. Until I reached the butcher and saw a big sign advertising oxtail. This completely changed the equation. Flat fish, shell fish and oxtail... I will have to try to recreate Bryn Williams' fish course from Great British Menu. First, though, I had to get the lot home, which was harder than I thought. When I finally made it, I was ready for a good lunch - good thing I had a good selection of Spanish cheeses in the fridge that went perfectly with the crusty bread I had bought.Christine at 4:05 pm
Friday, June 23, 2006
Chicken Sausage Burrito
It's Friday, I'm tired as usual, our fridge is empty as usual and I haven't eaten anything all day apart from a bowl of porridge, an apple and a portion of chips. For someone who preaches the value of good food, I sometimes eat surprisingly unhealthy combinations. However, I'm proud to
say that there is one thing I avoid completely: Bad quality food, especially of the overpriced kind found in many average pubs, restaurants and canteens. So if that is all I can get my hands on, I end up with a diet like today's: Good quality ingredients, but too little of them.Anyway, reflecting on all this I decided that I had not held back all day just to order cheap (in the Dublin sense of the word) nasty take-out now and got off by backside and on with dinner. I needed something filling, but easy to make. I was too tired for complicated dishes and too stressed to live with messing up dinner. So what better than burritos filled with sausage chunks and mixed vegetables and served with salsa, guacamole (both recipes can be found here), sour cream and grated cheese. Nothing special, but healthy, filling and definitely fun to make. I know this may sound strange, but if you've got kids, this is a perfect dinner for the family. Put all the ingredients on the table and let them build their own burritos. It's as much fun as having pancakes and a lot healthier - even if your kids might skip the salsa.
Christine at 9:39 pm
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Schnitzel with Potato Wedges
It seems to me that of late I'm not just behind with the blogging, but also with my cooking. Yesterday's dinner was supposed to be for Monday, the day before that was Sunday's
dinner and tonight's, well, that was meant for Tuesday. As anyone with an Internet connection will inevitably have noticed by now, the world cup is currently under way in Germany. Most of my colleagues are avid football fans and would like to watch the games, even when they are on during work hours. Our company reacted to this wish in the best possible way: They are screening the afternoon games on big screen TVs and all members of staff who's national team is playing get to watch them. And that's not all. They are dishing up finger food from the nations playing that day to all who are watching their teams and giving out Pringles and popcorn to all others who 
have moved their breaks to see parts of the games.The day before yesterday, it was Germany's turn, so we got to skip work and were served Rollmops (pickled herring) and Schnitzel (breaded veal fillet) in front of the telly. I don't like either, though, so I stuck with the popcorn and brought my Schnitzel home for Lofty (who loves it). I was going to serve it the same day, but I had to use up the fish. It had to wait until tonight, but that did it no harm. Reheated in an incredibly hot oven (mine does 220 degrees Celsius, so that's what I gave it for 7 minutes, turning them over half way through) and served with fried mushrooms and potato wedges (unlike in the recipe behind the link, I used no spices) they made a great quick dinner. And my salad with anchovies and butter stewed kohlrabi and carrots wasn't bad either.
Christine at 9:21 pm
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Salmon Fish Pie
The rain is back again and I was quite happy to have a warming dinner half ready for tonight. It's not cold here at the moment, just damp and uncomfortable. Really the sort of weather for staying at home reading a good book and drinking hot chocolate all day, but I don't think my boss would approve if I called in to say that the rain was keeping me from coming in to work. But Lofty didn't mind that it prevented me from making salad and opting for a rich, creamy fish pie instead.2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
500g fresh salmon, cut into chunks (I used salmon because I had it, but other fish works just as well; you could, for example try cod, haddock or a mixture of different kinds of fish)
a good handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
2 handfuls of spinach, washed
5 small or 2 medium potatoes
50ml white wine
100ml fish stock
100ml double cream
3 tbsp chives, chopped
2 tbsp grain mustard
300g ready-to-roll puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Put the potatoes in a medium saucepan, add enough water to just cover and bring to the boil. Cook until almost tender, 12 to 15 minutes depending on the size. Drain and set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking for a minute. Add the fish and fry until lightly browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Now add the carrots and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have released most of their liquid. Finally add the spinach and allow to collapse.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them into large chunks (you can peel them if you want to, but I prefer them with the skin on). Pour the white wine into the pan with the fish and vegetables and bring to the boil. After a minute or two add the fish stock and cream and bring to the boil. Cook until lightly thickened. Stir in the chives and mustard and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Pour the fish mixture into an ovenproof dish and top with the pastry. Firmly push down the edges to seal in the filling and then brush the top with the beaten egg. Cut a few small slots into the pastry to let the steam escape, then place the dish into the oven. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Christine at 8:32 pm
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Baked Cod with Creamy Sauce
Last night I saw the most beautiful home I have ever been in. A colleague invited me for dinner to her Georgian house on Fitzwilliam Square and I was absolutely charmed. Not only is the building entirely intact (including the most wonderful antique toilet), but they have also kept the old furniture in place, all the family heirlooms are still on the shelves and the paintings from the past generations still hang on the walls. There is a scent of old books in the air that reminded me of my grandfather's apartment in Prague and an atmosphere of cultured dignity prevails that made me wish I could stay forever and listen to the old stories (and new gossip, I admit). But unfortunately a Hausbesetzung (this is the German term for 'squatting', which is literally translated as house occupation, a term much more befitting of the act and much less condescending than its English equivalent) was out of the question even though the socialistically inclined landlady might have sympathised with a poor couple taking over a posh home.Instead, we just had a lovely dinner of baked potatoes with all the trimmings with her husband and kids before we parted to get ready for work the next day. I'm seriously getting sick of the old routine again. I need to take a few days off in the not too distant future to prevent myself from going crazy - and to finish that dissertation. I'm still not even half way through. But that was not my main concern today. My attention was occupied by the large amounts of fish in the fridge that really wanted to go. I trust the fishmonger at Temple Bar market when he tells me that it can be kept until today, but the fresher fish is the better. So I precooked the salmon chunks for a fish pie tomorrow and then got on with tonight's dinner of baked cod with tomatoes and a creamy sauce.
a large cod fillet (400 to 500g), picked over for bones and halved
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tomato, sliced
4 tbsp crème fraiche
1 ball of mozzarella, sliced (alternatively 100g grated cheese)
50ml white wine
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Add the cod and sear on both sides until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove the pan from the stove and allow to cool slightly.
Spread a tablespoon of crème fraiche on each of the cod fillets and lay the tomato slices over the top. Don't wait too long otherwise the cream will melt away. Cover the tomato with the cheese and bake the whole lot in the oven until the cheese has melted and is starting too brown and the fish is cooked, about 8 to 10 minutes (I gave it about 12 minutes, which, as you can see above, was a tad too long). Remove the pan from the oven, then the fish from the pan. Set aside in a warm place. Heat the pan on the stove over medium high heat to bring the juices to the boil. Reduce by half. Add the wine and reduce by half again. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of crème fraiche. Do not bring back to the boil. Arrange the fish on a plate with some boiled potatoes (or even mash) and vegetables (or salad or nothing else) and drizzle with the creamy sauce.
Christine at 9:28 pm
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Boiled Artichokes with Potato 'Gratin'
Once upon a time I used to shop sensibly and purposefully. Back then we were nigh on broke and I really had to make sure not to waste any money on
unnecessary food items - but, please, don't take this to mean that I bought only baked beans and soggy white bread; necessary is a very broad term in my kitchen. These days, however, necessary seems to have become an unknown. Now that I have more money than sense (yes, I have very little sense), I get myself into precarious situations more and more often.Tonight was a case in point. We had done barel
y anything other than shop for food yesterday, yet tonight I was left wondering what I could cook for dinner. The things in my fridge just somehow refused to combine to for any sensible dinner. In the end I did what I always do when I have lots of bits and still no dish: I made an Auflauf (German for 'bake' or 'gratin') and served it with the globe artichokes we had bought from Dennis yesterday. It may sound somewhat odd, but the combination of potatoes, mushrooms and artichoke was actually quite tasty.2 large globeartichokes
½ medium lemon, sliced
8 small (or 4 medium) potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
3 to 4 rashers of bacon
1 small onion, halved and then sliced
2 big handfuls of button mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 to 3 tsp fresh herbs (I used a mixture of thyme, basil and oregano)
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
enough grated or sliced cheese to cover your dish (I used 100g grated mozzarella and 150g sliced smoked scarmorza)
Bring a large pot of water (big enough to hold both artichokes) to the boil. Gently squeeze some of the juice from the lemon slices into the water, then add the slices. Trim the stalks off the artichokes and add to the boiling water. Cover and simmer until tender, about 1 hour (our artichokes actually took 90 minutes, hence the slightly dark gratin). Your artichokes are cooked when the leaves come out without any resistance.
In the meantime prepare your veggie gratin. Boil the potatoes until just tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and cool. Cut into 1cm thick slices. Heat the oil in a large shallow frying pan. Add the bacon and fry until crisp. Remove and drain on a paper towel. Slice into Add the onions to the same pan and fry until translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and fry until they have released most of their liquid. Remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a large gratin dish with the butter or olive oil. Arrange the potato slices a single layer on the bottom and top with the bacon slices and mushrooms. Scatter with garlic and herbs and cover with grated/sliced cheese. Bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese has melted and is starting to brown, about 20 minutes. Thoroughly drain the artichokes and serve accompanied by a slice of gratin.
Christine at 10:32 pm
Quick and Easy Pear Tart
Get ready to build an ark, after a day of pouring rain Dublin is looking like the next great flood is just a matter of time. I don't envy my friend and her mates, they went on an open double decker bus tour of the city today. I doubt that they saw very much other than museums and pubs. Lofty and I certainly got nowhere today. I did a bit of work on my dissertation, we got our place tidied up again and I watched a few cooking programmes on UKTV. I bet this afternoon Lofty was very happy that NTL Ireland does not have UKTV Food. He was sick of James Martin after only 3 hours today, I don't think he would put up with me watching cookery programs every night. Although, coming to think of it, maybe I'm also happy not to have that temptation. Could I possibly drive myself crazy by not being able to get away from the box anymore?I certainly wasn't today. On a bleak rainy day and enthusiastic chef with simple, yet tasty ideas is exactly what I need to lift me out of hibernation mode. In fact, I
found the whole concept of the show - James Martin 'Delicious' - so inspiring, I began raiding the fridge for things to put together Martin style (British, simple and bursting with flavour) after only two episodes. I found a Chojuro, a relatively hard Asian pear, some puff pastry, cream and not much else. The result was a simple, but tasty pear tart that is ideal for a lazy Sunday afternoon. I generally don't share recipes here that have not been entirely tho
ught up by myself, but in this case I feel that I have done enough to modify James' original apple tart to share it with you without being considered a thief of ideas. In fact, I encourage you to do the same. Take my basic recipe and experiment. Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, even bananas, all of these can be used here. Also, you can substitute the quince paste with any jam you like, just make sure it is not too runny. You could also add chopped nuts - in fact, I was going to chop up the three fresh almonds I bought from Dennis yesterday, but then decided against that at the last minute - or a flavoured jelly glaze. Just be creative, the worst that can happen is that you will have wasted a packet of puff pastry and learned a lesson about flavours.2 tbsp butter
75g sugar
1 large Asian pear, cored and cut into thin wedges
½ sheet of puff pastry (about 250g)
50g membrillo quince paste, sliced
cream to serve
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large shallow frying pan over medium heat. Add the sugar and melt slowly, stirring occasionally. Leave to caramelise slightly (the mixture should be golden), but do not allow to brown. Add the pear slices and cook until they begin to soften and go golden brown. Melt the remaining butter in a separate pan.
Unroll out the puff pastry sheet on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Make an incision, all along the edge of the pastry, about 1cm away from it. Only slice half way through the pastry though and take care not to cut through to the paper. Lightly brush the edges of the pastry with the remaining melted butter. Lay the membrillo slices across the whole inside of the tart. Arrange the pear slices on top. Drizzle with about half of the syrup from the pears and bake in the oven until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and glaze with the remaining syrup. Serve warm (but not hot) with a spoonful of cream.
Christine at 6:15 pm
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Salmon Carpaccio and Cream Cheese & Chives
It was a glorious day again today. The sun was shining brightly and
my friend, Lofty and I went for a long wander around town. Our first stop was a little market/fair of cultures in Temple Bar. It was
really nothing special - a few stalls selling very touristy handicrafts from all over the world, a few food stalls and lots and lots of information and petitions from Dublin cyclists, Amnesty international and several other small lobby groups and NGOs. We signed everything we agreed with (which happened to be everything), sampled some Falafels and stocked up on Fair Trade Chocolate from Amnesty. I even found a stall selling the same Zapatista coffee that I had brought home from Munich before. Organic, shade grown, fair trade and sold to fund schools and hospitals in the Mexican state of Chiapas where the government is doing little to provide the indigenous population with even the most basic services and have even fought an armed war against those who have dared to stand up for their rights. So this is quadruple goodness in every cup.With this warm fuzzy feeling of happiness in my stomach I led the way on to Temple Bar market.
Unfortunately, we were quite late and Jenny was nearly sold out. She told stories of young garden peas and freshly harvested garlic, but we found mainly empty baskets. So we settled for a bag of mixed salad leaves and some spinach and headed on to the fishmonger. And while Jenny's was an easy stall to shop at, here we were spoilt for choice. We bought a large fillet of cod and a slightly smaller piece of salmon along with a few handfuls of salmon off cuts. Then, after a brief stop at Dennis' stall, we made our way to Fallon & Byrne for a few more bits and pieces for tonight's dinner: Carpaccio of salmon with crusty bread and cream cheese and chives.For the cream cheese:... I admit, by the way, that this post used to be quite a bit longer. A little while ago, I made a small mistake on my keyboard and learned the hard way that the undo function on this blog does not work. I was going to re-write it all, but then decided to give in to fate and spare you my thoughts on shopping in Dublin. But before I call it a day, let me just quickly mention that, from a food point of view, I could not be happier here. Irish produce is great and the Irish often display the kind of pride in their food that I so sorely missed in Germany.
100g plain cream cheese
50g mascarpone cheese
3 tbsp thick cream
3 tbsp chopped chives (more to taste)
fleur de sel to taste (I call for fleur de sel here rather than ordinary table salt not to be poncy, but because I feel that the more subtle flavour is better suited for the dish. Sometimes I use posh salt, like sea salt or even fleur de sel, but, as you may have noticed, most of my recipes simply use iodised table salt. This is done not only for financial, but also for health reasons.)
For the salmon:
400g salmon (Make sure that the fish you buy is suitable for eating raw! It is not enough for it to be fresh, so only buy from a reliable source and specifically ask your fishmonger for sushi quality salmon.)
1 avocado
To serve:
enough salad for 2 people (as you can see, I used a mix of salad greens and plum tomatoes and decorated it with Nasturtium flowers from Jenny's garden, but as per usual anything goes here. Just bear in mind that strong flavours may overpower the salmon.)
mild white wine or white balsamic vinegar or even lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste (alternatively use your favourite salad dressing)
lemon wedges
thick slices of crusty bread
For the cream cheese, whip together the cream cheese, mascarpone and cream until smooth and creamy. Stir in the chives and season to taste with the fleur de sel. Leave to infuse in a cool place for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the carpaccio. Thinly slice the salmon and arrange it on two plates. If you prefer your fish chunky, feel free to go for thicker slices. We have become so accustomed to eating smoked, cured or raw fish in thin slices that we have come to believe that this is the only possible way. But as the very yummy Japanese dish of Sashimi proves, this is not the case. Raw salmon is actually quite nice in bigger bits. Give it a try sometime!
Remove the pip from the avocado. This is best done by chopping the fruit in half, then ramming the blade of a big knife into the pip. Now all you have to do is give it a quick, sharp twist and you'll be able to pull it out without any problems (although removing it from the blade may be another matter). Peel and slice the avocado. Lay it on top of the salmon.
Assemble the salad beside the fish. And dress with oil, vinegar/lemon juice, salt and pepper (or your choice of salad dressing). Serve with lemon wedges and bread smothered with the cream cheese.
Christine at 10:01 pm
Friday, June 16, 2006
Bangers on Bloomsday
It was Bloomsday today. But I did not make a big fry up for breakfast, nor did I take part in any of the numerous events scheduled all over town. I got up as usual, at 7.15 and fought my way through Dublin traffic to the other side of town to have a dried out croissant and some mediocre coffee for breakfast. Lunch was equally forgettable as was the afternoon entertainment - well, maybe apart from the football that we watched on our break.Unfortunately, my friend and her mates missed the
whole Bloomsday thing as well and that was not because they did not try hard enough to take part in some form of event. Former Taoiseach Charles Haughey died this week and the funeral was held today, reason enough to cancel most of the official celebrations of this memorable day in the life of James Joyce's hero Leopold Bloom. I personally did not care about either - although I think I cared less about the real life politician than the fictional character - so I did not mourn the loss of either. Instead, I tried to survive the last working day of the week as best I could and then went home to cook a dinner of bangers and mash with onion gravy, which was exactly the kind of comfort food I needed on a tired Friday night.Christine at 10:49 pm
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Pasta with Goose and Caramelised Red Onion
Right, I think I give up. For weeks now I have been trying to juggle a full-time job, reworking
my dissertation for publication, this blog, my share of the household and a social life, and I finally have to admit that I just can't do it. Every time one is sorted, one of the others start sslipping. There just isn't enough time in a week. At first I thought of axing the blog, but then I decided that that would be the wrong thing to do because I really love to share my thoughts and food with you. But I can't really quit my job or refuse to do any tidying up anymore with the excuse that I have to keep the world up to date on my culinary adventures. So I will have to scale back the blogging a tad and I will definitely have to go back to cooking less complicated food. Spending an hour in the kitchen every day is just no longer feasible, even if I play online poker while I'm chopping onions.I made a good start on the new simplicity rule with tonight's dinner. Not that that was difficult. As per usual at the end of the week, we didn't have much food left in the house. So I cooked what the fridge yielded: Fresh spaghetti with shredded goose, caramelised red onions and chopped plum tomatoes. It's all incredibly simple:
enough pasta for 2 people (I used fresh spaghetti, but any long, thin-ish pasta (fresh or dry) will do)
2 tbsp goose fatIn all, this dish took 15 minutes and only 2 pans to prepare, so I had plenty of time to waste on all kinds of other things, such as meeting an old school friend of mine who arrived in Dublin tonight. This didn't help the blog much, nor did it sort out the dissertation or the household, but it did give our social life a bit of a lift. In fact, it was kind of fun to sit in the pub watching the football and not even worrying about work the next day. OK, I will have to pay the price tomorrow, but every once in a while it is well worth having to down a quadruple espresso before breakfast in order to wake up for work after a fun night. -- Or, just do what I did most of December, not really wake up at all all day. We'll see...
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 goose breast (or the equivalent amount of leftover goose meat of any kind), shredded
a dash of Marsala wine
1 chicken Oxo cube (or enough stock granules for 150 to 200ml liquid)
1 plum tomato, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp chopped chives to serve
Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside. Do not rinse, oil or do anything else to it to prevent it from sticking together. This will also cause the other ingredients to slip off the pasta and the dish will end up disintegrating. Just rely on the sauce to get the pasta knot unstuck.
While the pasta is cooking, heat the goose fat in a pan over medium heat. Fry the onion, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, mix and then stir in the sugar. Allow to caramelise lightly, about 1 minute, before adding the shredded goose. Add a generous dash of Marsala wine and continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated. Now add the pasta and toss to mix. Crumble in the Oxo cube and add a few drops of water if necessary to dissolve the granules. Finally, stir in the tomato cubes and continue cooking just long enough to heat through. You don't want to cook the tomato. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve garnished with the chopped chives.
Christine at 11:43 pm
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Back to Basics
After a few weeks of what I would call proper dinners Lofty started getting sick of what he called 'poncy food'. No, honestly, I can see his point. I have been going a bit over the top of late and some more down to earth food was definitely a good idea.Yesterday I went right back to basics: Garlic and
herb roast chicken legs with mixed vegetables, boiled baby potatoes and pan juice gravy. None of it was anything special, but I suppose it wasn't bad either. I guess dinner was once again a good reflection of the day it was made on: Not bad, no highlights, nothing to write home about. But we did try something new. As you may have noticed in the picture on the left, there is something purple in the vegetable mix. Those are Jenny's sugar snap peas.
I'd never seen purple peas before, so I had to get them on Saturday. Unfortunately, Jenny was right and they weren't as nice as they looked. The taste was good, but they were tough and stringy. So, the one thing out of the ordinary was once again both good and bad. Interesting, but inedible. I suppose this is the only way to find new things you like, by trying lots of things you don't know hoping that you won't dislike all of them. And by never forgetting that there is always tomorrow.And yesterday tomorrow was today. Huh? Well, you know what I mean. This misguided
attempt at being poetic was really meant to express that unlike yesterday, today I was entirely satisfied with the dinner I made. Not that much could have gone wrong. All I had to do was to combine some of the best vegetables I could get my hands on here in Dublin into a lovely, crisp salad and top that with thick slices of hot smoked tuna. This is the fish I bought at Fallon & Byrne and I must say it was well worth the money I paid. It was juicy and tasty and well more-ish. The perfect accompaniment for the plum tomatoes they are selling at the moment. I can't wait for the weekend. An old friend of mine is coming over from Germany and we are hoping that the weather is going to hold up so we can go for a picnic in the park. It would be the first al fresco meal of the season and I would love to share it with the people I love.Christine at 9:24 pm
Monday, June 12, 2006
Mascarpone Cream Cake with Toffee and Figs
Just now I said that the fish was a perfect finish to the day. That was not entirely true though. I actually made desert. Yesterday I found a tub of mascarpone cheese that was coming close to the use by date in the back of the fridge. I've packed way too much stuff in there of late, I had simply forgot that I had it. But mascarpone will rarely go to waste in this house. Normally, Lofty and I simply spread it on slices of crusty bread and smother it with jam - a sort of creamier replacement for butter or lighter version of clotted cream. It is, however, also perfect for all kinds of summer deserts, such as my quick and easy berry tiramisu (that I shall make as soon as Irish summer berries are in season), regular Italian tiramisu or fluffy no-bake cheesecake. Or something in between, which is exactly what I made tonight.After my earlier success with dinner I was on a bit of a high and felt all creative. So I got reckless and did something I rarely do; I tried to create my own desert. Normally I stick to savoury food and simple tarts. Sweets and deserts are quite difficult and prone to disaster if you don't know exactly what you are doing. You can always adjust the seasoning of a soup, but a messed up custard is a case for the bin. But tonight I was confident that my planned concoction of mascarpone cream cake with figs and toffee sauce would turn out all right. And I was almost right. It was quite tasty, but way too soft. This was a minor setback, though. It would have been perfect if we had had the patience to let it set properly.
For the crumb base:
250g toffee, caramel or almond biscuits (try to go for soft, fluffy biscuits to keep the base nice and light; digestives will do, but obviously the result will be heavier and less tasty)
75g butter, melted
For the filling:
1 large egg
1 tbsp caster sugar (more to taste)
2 tbsp toffee sauce
175g mascarpone cheese
2 drops vanilla extract (optional)
1 fig, cut into wedges
3 to 4 tbsp toffee sauce to drizzle over the cake
For the crumb base, process the biscuits in a mini blender until you have coarse crumbs. Alternatively you can put the biscuits in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin, but be gentle to prevent the bag from splitting.
Thoroughly mix the crumbs with the melted butter to make a thick paste. Spoon the mixture into a 10 to 15cm cake tin with a removable bottom or a chef's ring on a flat plate. Press it in firmly, but not so hard that the base becomes thick and compacted. Refrigerate until set.
In the meantime make the filling. Separate the egg. Put the yolk in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of the sugar and beat until light yellow and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the mascarpone, making sure it is well incorporated. Now add the toffee sauce and vanilla extract. The result will be slightly runny, but don't worry, it will set in the fridge. (If you leave it long enough that is.) With a clean whisk, beat the egg white with the remaining sugar until it stands stiff, then gently fold it into the mascarpone cream, adding more sugar if needed. Again incorporate well, but this time make sure not to overmix. You would not want the mixture to collapse.
Spoon the mascarpone mixture on top of the biscuit base, spreading it smoothly right out to the edges. Cover and rest in the refrigerator for several hours, preferably overnight. Make sure you keep it airtight, mascarpone cream quickly takes on the flavour of its environment and stale fridge tart is not nice.
About 20 minutes before you are ready to dish up, take the cake out of the refrigerator and remove the springform or chef's ring. To do that, briefly heat the outside of the ring with a blow torch to loosen the bond with the mascarpone, then run a knife around the inside edge to free the cake completely. If everything goes to plan, you should end up with a neat looking cheesecake. If not, the result will resemble the picture above. Drizzle the top of the cake with toffee sauce and arrange the fig wedges on top. Keep cool until you are ready to serve.
Christine at 9:45 pm
Baked Hake in Banana Leaves
On my way home from work, I decided to throw all my good intentions about clearing the fridge and defrosting the freezer overboard and stop at Fallon & Byrne and have a quick look for some ingredients for the coming dinners. This was only m
y second visit to the shop, but I love it already. They truly fill a gap in Dublin's food store landscape, complementing perfectly the range of things I can buy at the market and at Liston's. The only thing that is missing is organic milk. Tesco and Dunnes both sell Glenisk, which will do if I can't get anything else, but I personally find it too watery. Marks & Spencer have good organic milk, but there isn't one near here or even on the way to and from work, so I have to make special trips to Grafton Street just to get milk. This gets a bit annoying as the place is always packed when I'm not working. But the missing milk was a minor inconvenience to day in the face of an abundance of other nice food. I got a few plum tomatoes on the vine, some purple potatoes, a fresh chilli, a piece of smoked tuna and a couple of figs and headed off home. I'm glad that I was quite worn out after a long day at the office, otherwise I might have run the risk of buying a lot more.But tonight I didn't really need anything. I had great plans for dinner: Spicy hake with lemon and garlic baked in a banana leaf.
1 banana leaf, cut in half and centre rib removed (in Europe and the US you can find banana leaves at Asian, Latin or fine food stores; you can use aluminium foil if you can't get any, but your dish will lose that distinct earthy/fruity taste)The technique of wrapping fish in banana leaves is common throughout the tropical regions of Latin America, Africa and, most notable, Asia. I had read countless times before that the leaves of banana plants give the food a certain flavour that cannot be substituted by anything else, but had long been unable to get my hands on any leaves to test the claim. I'd seen them frozen once in a fine food store in Munich, but I was living in Prague at the time so they were no good to me. So you can imagine how happy I was when my years of hunting this elusive ingredient finally came to an end when I found fresh banana leaves at the Asian Emporium on South George's Street. All I needed now was the fish to cook in them, and that came in the shape of a beautiful fillet of hake at Temple Bar Market. And let me tell you, the dish was well worth the wait. Simple, yet very tasty, it was the perfect finish to a glorious summer's day.
1 large fillet of white fish, such as hake, cod, snoek or even monkfish
a few spoonfuls of olive oil
1 young leek, sliced (or a few sliced spring onions or even ½ onion, finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped (I used a mild chilli because I did not want to kill the flavour of the fish, but if you like your food spicy, feel free to use a hot one)
¼ lemon (cut lengthways), sliced (alternatively, you can use lime)
a few mint leaves, finely chopped (alternatively, you can use coriander)
sea salt to taste
(depending on your taste, you could even add sliced ginger and freshly grated coconut to the mixture)
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. For the fish, youwill need to line a large roasting tray with the banana leaves. To make them more pliable, hold them over the hob or briefly dip them in hot water so the whole leaf is warmed and softened. Then place them in the tray, one overlapping the other and letting a large piece overhang on all sides. Make sure that you will be able to completely wrap the fish without leaving holes in the leaves. The fish is meant to steam in its own
juices, so the less steam you let escape the better. Place the fish, skin side down, in the centre of the tray and drizzle a little olive oil. Sprinkle over the leek, garlic, chilli, lemon and mint and season to taste with sea salt.
Fold the banana leaves over the fish to seal, and pin downthe edges with cocktail sticks or tooth picks. Place another tray or something relatively heavy (but not so heavy it quashes the fish) and ovenproof on top to keep everything in place.
Place in the middle of the oven and bake until the fish is completely cooked through and infused with flavours, about 25 minutes. Unwrap and remove the lemon slices. Serve with buttered potatoes or basmati rice cooked in coconut milk.
Christine at 9:11 pm
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Never Ending Summer
We've reached the end of another weekend, but the summer is showing no sign of ending. I spent most of the day working on my dissertation, so once again I did not make it to Dun Laoghaire market. I should have shopped properly yesterday after all. I had had every intention to finally explore the much-lauded market by the sea, so all I had got at Temple Bar market was a bit of spinach, a few salad greens and some mushrooms. Oh well, keeping the food shopping to a minimum might actually help me in my pursuit to empty the fridge. -- Could it be that this has become a bit of an obsession? I seem to talk about it almost every day now.Lunch was a good step in that direction. I
compiled a Brotzeit, a German meal of cold snacks somewhat like a ploughman's (literally translated as 'bread time'), from the leftovers in the fridge: Italian pepper salami, German garlic salami, Austrian mountain cheese, vintage cheddar, goat's milk camembert, goose rillettes and tomatoes alongside some crusty bread. I actually did a bit of a taste test with Lofty. I wanted to find out which of the two kinds of salami was better, for the two were a bit of an enigma. The Italian pepper salami had come from a fine food store where Munich's posh people shop for their social get togethers and which imports all their stuff directly from Italy. The German garlic salami was made by some huge sausage maker and had come from a lowly supermarket. So far, so good. But to make things complicated, the posh Italian salami had act
ually been cheaper than the common German one. So my question was which of the two Lofty, who did not know their origins or prices, would prefer. And in the end the expected thing happened: Italian craftsmanship won hands down over German mass production regardless of the price. And the lesson? If you want quality, stay away from huge brands and go with small producers who chose their ingredients carefully and care about what they are doing.Inspired by these findings, I kept dinner true to the Italian theme that had brought them about and made a risotto with spinach, mushrooms and pancetta. Unfortunately, the spinach was not too clever this time - tough and slightly bitter - a clear sign that it is time for me to find a new favourite veg more appropriate to the season. The young baby spinach is gone for the moment and there is no bringing it back until next year. But Jenny should soon have her own tomatoes and peppers. And peas are in season as are beans and asparagus and lettuce and and and.... Time to get adventurous!
Christine at 10:02 pm
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Cream of Asparagus Soup
The salad ingredients are almost gone and the summer
seems never ending. It is absolutely wonderful, but does put me on the spot for dinners. I'm still trying to empty out the fridge and freezer for a summertime defrosting and had kind of earmarked bangers and mash for dinner today. But the mere thought of steaming mash and hot gravy made us sweat, so I had to find a quick alternative.I found a bottle of asparagus water in the freezer that I had saved when my mum was here. I know this may sound strange, but there are a few cooking juices well worth freezing. Asparagus, mussels and clams for example are highly seasonal and freezing the liquid left over after cooking or steaming them is a good way of preserving their flavours for later. Just strain them through a sieve and freeze them in small plastic bottles and you have a good ready-made base for sauces and soups.
Today, I made use of such a stash along with a few other bits and pieces from the fridge to make a light summery, yet filling, cream of asparagus soup with leeks and salami.
2 tbsp olive oil
1 young leek, cleaned and sliced
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
2cm plain salami (not flavoured with such spices as paprika), cut into small cubes
2 tbsp butter
1½ tbsp flour
about 700ml asparagus water (you can use water if you don't have asparagus water, but the flavour of the soup will be less intense)
4 to 5 cooked white asparagus spears (you can use canned, but again, you will lose out on flavour), roughly chopped
enough vegetable stock granules for 700ml of liquid
2 tbsp thick cream
salt and pepper to taste
chopped chives to serve
For the leek and salami mixture heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium low heat. Add the leeks and fry until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and continue cooking for a minute. Increase the heat to medium and add the salami. Fry until the salami has released most of the fat and is starting to go crispy. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To make the soup, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle over the flower and fry, stirring constantly, until the mixture forms a paste. Slowly pour in the water, whipping the mixture with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming. Bring to the boil and add the stock granules and asparagus. Purée the soup until smooth. Return to the pan and bring back to the boil. Simmer until thickened (if it is not quite thick already). Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. Do not allow the soup to boil anymore.
Divide the leek and salami mixture between two bowls and pour over the soup. Scatter with chopped chives and serve with crusty white bread.
Christine at 9:53 pm
Friday, June 09, 2006
Salad Weather
The past few days the weather has been glorious again. Lofty and I are ecstatic about this sudden burst of summer, we soooo missed the sun. And what's
more, we really miss South Africa. In many ways Dublin reminds me of it. I can't really explain how and why, because the two places are quite different. It's not really any one thing, it's occasional impressions, brief instances that bring back memories. The look of a building, the smell of a restaurant or take-out, the atmosphere of a street... The Ilac Centre looks very much like some of the shopping centres in Cape Town and Jo'burg, a small fast food joint I frequently cycle past on the way to work smells very much like a place I stopped into when we were staying with our friends in Fish Hoek, and now, finally, the sun is shining on Dublin like it is on the Cape.So Lofty and I are finally back to eating summer foods like we did in Cape Town:
A lot of salad, cold fish dishes, sandwiches or some other form of bread with cold accompaniments. Yesterday afternoon I finally got my computer fixed - after a total of 10 hours of scanning, uninstalling, reinstalling, resetting, undoing and recreating, so that evening I took the lazy option and made salad with smoked mackerel. Lots of Jenny's vegetables, some fresh sweetcorn (the first of the season) and huge chunks of smoked fish. It was great to have something fresh and crunchy again for a change.I kept the general theme up today, but we still had a packet of Marks & Spencer crumpets laying about that really needed to go. So I dug up the goose rillettes that had been sitting in the back of the fridge for weeks waiting for a good occasion to be eaten, sliced some cheese and served the crumpets alongside a warm salad of spinach, potatoes, baby tomatoes and mushrooms.
8 to 10 baby potatoes
2 tsp butter
½ onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 handful of mushrooms, sliced (I used only button mushrooms for a change, but if you have wild ones, all the better)
8 to 10 cherry tomatoes
100g young spinach, washed
olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste
Boil the potatoes in a small saucepan with just enough water to cover, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool slightly.
In the meantime melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium low heat. Gently fry the onions until translucent, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another minute. Do not brown. Now increase the heat and add the mushrooms. Fry until they have released most of their liquid. Remove the pan from the heat.
Cut the bigger potatoes in half, and add them to the mushrooms. Toss the mixture with the tomatoes and spinach, until it is starting to wilt. Dress with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper - in that order; the oil wants to go on after the vinegar in order to prevent it from sticking to the salad and causing the vinegar to roll off and puddle at the bottom of the plate. Alternatively, premix the dressing and pour it all on at once.
Christine at 10:29 pm
Monday, June 05, 2006
A New Twist on Steak with Grilled Tomatoes
What a nightmare! Last night I decided that it would be a good idea to get my computer all backed up again and sort out all those files on my hard drive that I haven't used in ages. In the
process, I downloaded a little program that was supposed to help me backup my Outlook Express. That was a mistake. Hidden inside the .exe-file was a Trojan that my virus scanner had not picked up, so the moment I clicked on the icon my computer went wild. The firewall threw up warnings all over the place, new desktop shortcuts appeared and Internet Explorer opened with a new homepage. I pulled the internet cable after about 10 seconds, but that was more than enough for this thing to get itself well and truly set up in my machine.So I did what I do best: I cursed, I screamed, I despaired and then got on with dinner. No, really, I first tried a few scanners, but most of them were either disabled or unable to remove the problems they found. So it was back to basics. Lofty gave me a whole bunch of really good scanners that I left to battle the intruder while I was in the kitchen battling Lofty's steak.
One problem was that he likes his beef as rare as possible, which in the case of steak means blue. But I have no idea how to heat the inside of a piece of meat to the required temperature (46 to 52 degrees according to Wikipedia) without cooking the outer layers. My first attempt - high heat to sear the outside for 1 minute on each side and nothing else - went horribly wrong and Lofty had a cold dinner. Slinging the meat back into a slightly cooler pan for another minute on each side helped, but it was still far from perfect. I think I may just have to try the grill next time.
The second problem, which I solved much to my satisfaction, was that I was having the remaining halibut steak and did not want the same side dishes of grilled tomatoes and mushrooms as Lofty. So rather than simply making the dishes the traditional English way, I decided to give the accompaniments a modern twist by turning it all into a warm salad of red onions, cherry tomatoes and baby button mushrooms.
3 to 4 tbsp olive oilThis dish does not only go well with meat, you could also mix it with some uncooked baby spinach leaves to make a warm salad or sling it on a part-baked pizza for the last few minutes of cooking and then top it with ruccola. These are just some ideas. Be creative, try your own ideas. The combination of tomatoes, mushrooms and onions is a classic and lends itself to many things.
1 red onion, halved and then sliced
1 good handful of cherry tomatoes
1 good handful of small button mushrooms (if you only have larger mushrooms, simply halve or quarter them), cleaned and left whole
1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1½ tsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to taste
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan over medium low heat. Add the onions and fry until tender and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and add the mushrooms. Fry, stirring occasionally until browned, about 5 minutes. Increase the temperature to medium high and add the tomatoes. The pan should really sizzle. Make sure that the tomato skins are seared, but not burned. When the tomatoes have attained the consistency you like, remove the pan from the stove and stir in the herbs and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Stir well and season to taste with salt, pepper and more balsamic vinegar.
Christine at 9:33 pm
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Poached Smoked Cod
This morning, my mum and I wanted to celebrate the end of
a great weekend with a big, lazy brunch. I defrosted the last of the German bread I had in the freezer, fried up some Caherbeg free range bacon and eggs, made some tea and loaded the table with anything that looked remotely breakfasty: jam, Nutella, cheese, salami, ham, yoghurt and fruit. I also wanted to serve some of the directly squeezed orange juice we had bought at Dunnes on Friday, but Irish love for quality made it quite difficult. The first carton I pulled out of the fridge had no pouring nozzle at all. I know it was my fault for not paying attention when I bought it, but how can a faulty item like this not just leave the factory, but actually make the shelves of a large supermarket? Have they never heard of quality control? This was a rhetorical question. After a year in this country I am finally coming to terms with its weaknesses and have learned to focus solely on its many strengths. But even rhetorical questions are sometimes answered, in this case by the second carton of juice that we luckily had bought. And the answer was a big fat NO. That one may have had a nozzle while it was still untouched in the fridge, but when I tried to unscrew the cap, the whole thing jus came off and I had what I had tried to avoid earlier: a juice carton with a hole in it. But at least we had something to laugh about.The afternoon was a quiet affair. I spent it reworking my doctoral dissertation and Lofty was playing with the computer. Dinner was equally unspectacular. Lofty had a bit of an upset stomach - too much food in too little time we reckon - so it had to be something soothing and easy to digest. Steak was out of the question, which left the remainder of the smoked cod. I opted for the traditional way of preparing it - gently poached in milk - and served it on a bed of spinach with some boiled baby potatoes and a creamy sauce made of the poaching milk and the spinach juices. It wasn't much to look at, but certainly very tasty.
For the fish:This is not the tastiest recipe for poached smoked fish, but, as it doesn't contain any garlic, or onions and you can chose the amount of pepper, it is definitely very stomach-friendly. For a more flavoursome version - the one I would have served had Lofty been OK - check out my recipe for poached cod with creamy potatoes here.
300ml milk
¼ onion, sliced
1 small bay leaf
350g to 400g undyed smoked cod
For the spinach:
400g spinach, cleaned
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
To serve:
boiled baby potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
Bring the milk, onion and bay leaf to the boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it is boiling, remove from the stove, cover with a lid and leave to infuse for about 15 minutes. Return the pan to the heat and bring the milk to a simmer. Add the fish, turn off the heat and cover again. Leave it sitting on the stove until the fish is cooked, about 10 to 12 minutes.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a saucepan large enough to hold the spinach over medium low heat. When it is sizzling, add the spinach, cover and steam, stirring occasionally, until it is collapsed and tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
When you are ready to dish up, remove the spinach from the saucepan, squeeze out the juices and arrange at the centre of a plate. Bring the spinach juices to a boil and reduce to 1 tablespoon. Arrange the potatoes around the spinach. Lift the fish out of the milk and put it on top of the spinach. Strain the milk through a sieve and add it to the spinach juice. Continue to simmer until the sauce has thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle over the fish and spuds.
Christine at 9:00 pm
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Steak Two Ways: Halibut and Beef Loin
After today's rather hefty lunch, Lofty and I decided to take it easy at dinnertime. Lofty opted for a grilled halibut steak and his share of the scallops with garlic butter.For the halibut:I had a carpaccio of smoked cod with a side salad,
2 tbsp olive oil
1 halibut steak, about 2cm thick
To serve:
4 to 6 (depending on size) baby potatoes
scallops in garlic butter (as many as you can eat and afford)
a small green salad
oil and vinegar for the salad
salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges
Put the potatoes in a saucepan that is just big enough to hold them in a single layer. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Cook until tender, about 12 to 15 minutes.
In the meantime heat the oil in a shallow frying man over medium heat. Add the halibut and fry until the underside is golden, about 4 minutes. Do not disturb for at least 1 minute to allow the brown caramelised crust to form. Turn and fry the other side until golden and the fish is cooked, about another 3 to 4 minutes. Keep in a warm place while you prepare the scallops.
While the fish is cooking, arrange some greed leaves on a side plate and dress with a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Arrange the fish on a plate with the scallops and potatoes, drizzle with the garlic butter and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with the salad and some lemon wedges on the side.
a definite favourite on a sunny (almost) summer's evening.My mum on the other hand had had a reasonably light dinner and real cravings for some good Irish beef.
Strangely enough, the whole idea of buying local has not yet reached southern Germany and even the most expensive fine food stores mostly import their beef from South America. I think this is ludicrous all round; rainforest is chopped down to create pasture for cows that are then shipped half way across the globe. The poor locals gain nothing and lose their beautiful environment, for the soil, not appropriate for cattle farming, is soon depleted and turns into wasteland. And in Europe, farmers, faced with cheap competition from abroad, turn to unsustainable mass production using everything you never needed in your food from growth hormones to antibiotics just to make a quick buck and are often rewarded by the EU for keeping their cattle in appalling conditions. For, did you know?, small farmers are often exempt from those lovely subsidies we all pay dearly to sustain even though they are the ones who do what the EU claims to want to encourage: Keep our countryside beautiful, enhance diversity of species and preserve old traditions for future generations. So I am delighted to see that the Irish are not only aware, but proud of the quality of local meat and I am more than happy to pay a little extra to keep it available to all of us.
But let's get back to dinner. My mum is leaving tomorrow, so her last chance to have her steak was tonight. I served it quite plain - pan-fried medium with scallops, potatoes and a side salad - in order to let the flavour of the meat speak for itself. All you need to recreate this simple dinner is a nice cut of meat, a bit of oil and a relatively large, good quality pan.
Remove the steak from the fridge at least 30 minutes befIf all this seems dauntingly complicated to you now, you are not alone. Remember, I was a complete vegetarian until about a year ago and still do not eat steak. The first few times I tried to make steak, it was all a case of hit and miss. But the most important thing is not to be intimidated and trust you sense of touch. Keep testing the meat and when it feels right, pull it out. You're lucky if you like you steak medium. This is probably the easiest way to get right - enough cooking time to heat it through and to let you test it a few times, but not long enough to get it tough. So start with that and, if need be, work your way up towards rare.ore cooking. It wants to be at room temperature when it goes into the pan in order to guarantee that it will cook evenly right through rather than burning on the outside and remaining cold on the inside.
Heat the oil (depending on the size of your pan 1 to 2 tablespoons) in a large frying pan over medium high heat. (Make sure your pan is big and shallow enough that the moisture from the steak can evaporate. You want to fry, not steam it.) When the oil is quite hot - almost smoking - add your meat. Cook without disturbing until a brown sticky crust forms, about 1 to 2 minutes. (I have talked about this process that is so often claimed to "seal in the juices" before. There is no such thing as sealing meat juices; the purpose of searing the surface is to caramelise the sugars in the meat, which produces that lovely 'grilled' flavour.) Turn the steak over and sear the other side. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, depending on the thickness, the cut of meat (steaks with bones will take longer) and your heat source, until you reach the desired doneness. (You can find a comprehensive, albeit slightly confusing, cooking chart for beef here) I had a boneless piece of meat, about 2 to 2½cm thick on an electric stove, so my cooking times were as follows:If you want to make sure the steaks are really done to your liking and have no thermometer available to check the chefy way, use the pressure test. When you are getting close to having a done steak press it with your index finger or a fork to get a feel for it. A rare steak will be soft, a medium steak firm but yielding and a well-done steak will be firm.
- 2 minutes on each side for rare
- 4 minutes on each side for medium (this is what I chose, so after searing the steak for 2 minutes on each side, I gave it another 2 minutes cooking time on each side before removing it from the pan.)
- 6 minutes on each side for well done
Allow the steak to rest 2 to 3 minutes in a warm place before serving it. This will ensure the juices are distributed evenly throughout the meat.
Christine at 10:56 pm
L'Gueleton for Lunch
Now that I have made good for yesterday's forgetfulness, I can move on to today. My mum and I had another food-filled day - not surprising considering that it was Saturday, a day that, in my life is always dominated by food, and that our love for food is one of the few things that my mum and I really have in common, although it still takes completely different shapes. In fact, we are exact opposites and as such complement each other perfectly. I love to shop and cook, whereas she likes to buy and eat. I chose my words quite consciously here when contrasting shopping with buying. I love the browsing, the exploring and the adventure of shopping. My mum on the other hand feels lost in a situation like that. She is a typical supermarket shopper who makes her list at home and then expects everything on it to be acquired in one spot. Seasonal or spontaneous shopping is largely out of the question. Also, she considers cooking to be a chore which she dislikes as much as, if not more than, doing the dishes. But she does not mind paying good money for good food. So, whenever we get together, I do the planning and shopping while she does the paying and eating. And we both profit as I get to buy things that I would normally consider too pricey and she gets to experience the shopping without the insecurity of not knowing that she'll get and chaos of such places as Temple Bar Market.Not that there was any insecurity there today. We avoided that problem by simply buying everything that either of us liked the look of: Two different mixes of salad leaves, radishes, leeks, mint, spinach, rhubarb, mushrooms, beetroot, smoked cod, halibut, scallops and two steaks. We could have easily bought much more, but luckily the fridge was full. My mum really likes the look of the quiches, tarts and cakes on sale at the market, but I find that they promise more than they deliver. When we first discovered the market Lofty and I tried a number of these yummy-looking bites and every time decided that I could do better at home. If you're peckish, I personally recommend one of the many ethnic food stalls. The kofta were brilliant and the Mexican food looks quite good too. Or go for a burger - they're slightly plain, but well tasty - or my personal favourite, some fresh oysters. We, unfortunately, did neither.
The day before I had made the mistake of pointing out L'Gueuleton. This small French bistro first came to my attention when a colleague suggested it as a venue for our team dinner. Unfortunately, with only 40 seats the manager felt that it was too small to accommodate a group of 15 and we never got to go. But on my short visit I had seen and smelled enough to be interested. I am normally very suspicious of any restaurant in Dublin 2 and even more so of anything that calls itself French bistro. My pretentiousness alarms go wild when they pick up such signals. But this time they were entirely wrong. The trendiness was limited to the interior and the customers, the waitresses were very down to earth and friendly and the food was quite simple and very tasty.
My mum and I had duck-egg mayonnaise with celery salt on watercress salad for starters. It sounds thoroughly poncy, but was actually a very tasty twist on an old country favourite. Lofty skipped the starter and went straight for Breton sausages on a huge bed of vegetables and potatoes. They smelled and looked lovely and, according to him, tasted equally good. My mum was a bit more adventurous with her main course: Tarte tatin of black pudding and Bramley apples. It looked great and my mum claimed that it was wonderful. I can't really comment on the issue because I personally do not like the combination of meat and apples and I hate black pudding. But I can see the culinary value of the dish and cannot fault the presentation in any way. I thought that after a big starter I should opt for something small and chose a salad of with grilled vegetables and chicken. That was to prove to have been a mistake - the German metaphorical 'Griff ins Klo' (the English translation of 'reaching into the loo' doesn't really cover the emotion behind it - just imagine reaching into a jar expecting biscuits and finding, well, you get the picture). It wasn't bad, but ... The grilled vegetables were too crunchy for my taste, the chicken was rare in parts, there was no dressing on the salad and a few minutes after I had begun eating the leaves had collapsed under the chicken - steamed in the juices. Oh well, you learn new things every day and today's lesson was to ask what to expect when you are in a new environment. As Lofty likes to say: "Never assume, it makes an ass of u and me."
Christine at 10:54 pm
Fallon & Byrne
I just realised that yesterday I managed to omit our most important feed discovery form my blog: Fallon & Byrne food hall on Exchequer Street. So, before I do anything else, let me rectify this mistake.My mum and I had been walking around for quite a while when a large, and yet totally inconspicuous, storefront caught her
eye. I personally thought that she was merely admiring another one of these posh, overpriced restaurants that, for some reason, she likes so much, so I did not even look at the menu that was taped to the window. She really wanted to go in right away, but I was just not in the mood. I did not want to face Dublin's rich and trendy folks packed down with everything from North African sweets to camping chairs and certainly had no intention of eating anything else after stuffing my face with excessive amounts of vegetable tagine and Baileys cheesecake. It was only when she asked me "What is a 'food hall'?" that I got interested. We stood on tiptoes trying to peak through the window, but, short as we are, we could not make out what the goings-on behind the glass were all about. There was a hustle of bustle that would have been unusual in a restaurant, so we decided to be adventurous and just go in. We could always turn around if all we found was a restaurant. What we really found behind the plain facade was, what the Irish Times two months ago, advertised as follows:It won't just be a food hall, it will be a fabulous, Manhattan-style, meet-your-friends-there, taste-the-wine, organic-and-free-range and the chicken-died-happy food hall. It won't just be shopping: it will be unique and exclusive, put-your-feet-up, we've-sourced-the-products-so-you-don't-have-to shopping.
And while that sounds thoroughly pretentious, it is a surprisingly good description of a surprisingly unpretentious place. What you get there is simply great food, and lots of it. They have a relative large and definitely exclusive selection of fruit and vegetables, lovely home-made breads, a deli counter that almost rivals the stall at Temple Bar Market, a fish counter with a great selection of fresh fish (something that was sorely needed in the city centre), a meat counter, a fridge full of artisan, organic and just plain interesting dairy products and ready meals made on site, a sweets counter, an espresso bar, a juice bar and a selection of fine foods to die for: teas, oils, condiments cereals, chocolates, cooking ingredients, ethnic foods, if you can think of it, you will find it here. And, considering the selection, quality and location, the prices are far from outrageous. If you love food and are ever in Dublin's city centre, do pop into this old telephone exchange, I promise, you will not be disappointed.Christine at 10:32 pm
Friday, June 02, 2006
A Day of Food
What a beautiful day I had today. The sun was shining and my mum and I spent hours walking around South Dublin's little side streets looking for interesting food spots. And while that might sound boring to most people, I thought it was great. Having a day off is in itself pure luxury to me. Even after nearly a year of full-time employment I can't say as I'm used to, let alone happy about, the routine it imposes on my life. I hate to get up early, I'm no fan of mediocre coffee and I dislike the fact that my office is so far away from anything that I can't go for a wander
during my lunch break. I'd like to do my shopping day by day, but when I finally get out of the office most of the small shops I go to are shut. So a day of lounging and shopping is a much-welcomed change. Not to mention that I was quite happy to welcome my mum to Dublin. Especially when the sun is shining like today and we can stroll through the streets as if we were in Florence.After a light breakfast we headed out towards the area around
Whelan's, but in our attempt to avoid the route we take every time we managed to get ourselves lost. That was a lucky twist because we not only came across some beautiful houses with lovely blooming front gardens (I just wish my mum would stop staring into people's windows pointing out the features she liked
) and accidentally found George Bernhard Shaw's birthplace, but also discovered La Boulangerie. This little French style café and adjacent pâtisserie
made my heart jump with joy. It is the first time I found a bakery in Dublin that satisfies my longing for continental cream cakes and coffee house culture. And, even more excitingly, as it is owned by an Algerian, they sell little North African pastries of the sort that Lofty and I ate almost daily on our trip through Morocco a few years ago. In my excitement I bought one of each - And was not disappointed. They are excellent. Those little delights of sweet pastry, nuts and sugar syrup alone are worth a trip from anywhere in town. I'll definitely be back.Especially as the place is conveniently located between Liston's and the kosher bakery. I'm going to have to do a combined run to all three some time soon. Today we only did Liston's, which was enough to fill my bag with all kinds of goodies. So, after only about 2 hours, I was
weighed down enough to want to go back home. But we didn't. Instead we did a mad circle from Dunnes on South George's Street to Arnott's kitchen department, then on to the Silk Road Café at the Chester Beatty library for lunch and the Queen of Tarts for desert. And then, stuffed with cake and loaded down with food as we were, we headed straight back to Grafton Street and hit Marks & Spencer's food hall. My mum ha
d brought some asparagus from Germany and we were going to have it for dinner as they do over there: Boiled with baby potatoes, hollandaise sauce and smoked meat/fish. I had some sliced Serrano ham left in the fridge, but we felt that we should at least pay a token tribute to Ireland and get some smoked salmon. Dunnes had had lovely spuds, but their salmon was Norwegian. But Marks & Spencer helped out and in the end we had a lovely springtime dinner.Christine at 9:03 pm
