Food Writer Guild Food Awards - Cork's a winner

Photoshoot before the awards

The Food Writer Guild Ireland was established 30 years ago and is currently headed by Georgina Campbell. Members  include Mrs Myrtle Allen, Darina Allen, Ella McSweeney, Dianne Curtin, Dr Oliver Moore, Joe McNamee to name but a few. Each year, the guild honors the best of food producers and this year was a triumph for Cork Food Producers and I was proud as if I won the awards. 5 out of 6 awards were given to Cork producers which proves again that County Cork is an Artisan Food County. After the ceremony we were treated to an amazing 5 course lunch prepared by Derry Clark and his team using the winning produce. I was in heaven and was indeed very happy to have been given the recipes. The food in L'Ecrivain has always been outstanding and each visit (not as many as I would have liked) was as mesmerizing as the last one. At the Irish Food Writer's Guild Awards, Derry Clark proved again that he is worth a Michelin Star or 2 (surely, the second can't be far off).

Ballyhoura Mountain Mushroom consommé with Coolea cheese tortellini

Cured & smoked Irish mackerel, Irish Heritage potato salad, pickle, beetroot

Dry-aged beef, Ballyhoura Mountain Mushrooms, Coolea cheese, parsley purée, wild garlic

Irish Atlantic Sea Salt & caramel mousse with Stonewell apple cider sorbet

Choc & Almond Lollipop with mini macaron

Wonderful Display of Mushrooms

Ballyhoura Mushrooms - if you ever have been to Mahon Point Farmer's Market or Midleton Farmer's Market, then you will have come across Lucy and/or Mark who sell their fares each week. They grow the mushrooms as closest to nature's way as possible but also forage quite a large part of their produce. To widen the range, they have added products like cep oil, marinated mushrooms and mushroom ketchup. This award is well deserved and I can't wait to see what Lucy and Mark have up their sleeves with the new season of mushrooms


Stonewell Cider - Daniel and his team should be used to awards by now but the quality of his cider is simply amazing that each new award is well deserved. Last Christmas, Stonewell Cider, introduced a Mulled Cider which went down a treat and I begged him to continue producing this amazing cider and he promised he will (no need to thank me, I did it for the greater good) - Well Done to the whole crew of Stonewell Cider.

Coolea Farmhouse Cheese - he is the gentleman under the cheese makers of Ireland. A quite man with a big cheese. I am delighted that Dick Willems took the Food Writer's Guild Food Award home. His cheese has won several awards already, taking home gold last year at the National Cheese Awards at Bloom Dublin. His son Dicky stepped into his father's footsteps and they have gone from strength to strength. Congratulations to the Willems family.

Irish Atlantic Sea Salt - what a great idea. Using the natural sea salt of Ireland, the O'Neills produce sea salt flakes flavoured with lemon & pepper, garlic and many more flavour combination. Converted fans include Darina Allen and Donal Skehan and Stuart Bowes. The Food Writer's Guild agreed and chose Irish Atlantic Sea Salt as their 2014 winner.

Responsible Irish Fish - let's face it, Ireland took the short straw when the fishing rights were given away but here is a company that wants to make us more aware of what fish we are eating. I had a lovely chat with one of the members (and I am not aware of his name - I must be getting old) about what we can do to increase the knowledge of consumers and chefs. Buy local is the main message but be responsible about it. A company worth watching. The prize was awarded for all the hard work these guys are doing for Irish fish.

Heritage Irish Potato Collection - ince the 1970s, David Langford has been collecting and growing heritage potatoes. In 2006, he teamed up with Dermot Carey, an experienced organic vegetable grower who was then gardener at Lissadell House in Co. Sligo. The horticultural skills, passion and hard work of David and Dermot have resulted in an amazing collection, grown and managed by them on an entirely voluntary basis. The collection has well over two hundred varieties including the Irish Apple (dating from 1768) and the Lumper (forever associated with Irish Potato Famines), as well as more recently developed varieties.It was announced on the night that Richard Corrigan who owns Virginia Park Hotel will house the Irish Heritage Potato Collection for the unforeseeable future. 

Grow your own mushrooms

Myrtle Allen received the Lifetime Achievement Award - on her 90th Birthday. She is a lady I have the highest respect for and who has achieved so much in her lifetime that this award is long overdue.

Congratulations to all winners - and with 5 Cork winners (6 if you count Mrs Allen) I am proud as Oscar. 

Grapefruit Slices

This is a great standby recipe when you have some grapefruit (also lemons & oranges) laying around that need using up. It is also a wonderful treat for a Sunday afternoon (in my house they won't lat much longer anyway). The recipe is divided into 2 with the base bakes first and then a second time with the topping. Sounds more complicated than it actually is. You might need to add more sugar if using lemons but grapefruit and oranges should be sweet enough for the amounts given below. As always, please let me know if you tried it and what you thought. 

Grapefruit Slices

• 225g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar
• 175g butter
• 
  
• 4 eggs (medium)
• 400g caster sugar
• 25g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 large grapefruit (more if you like more citrus flavour)
• 50ml fresh grapefruit juice
• Icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 160c (fan)/180c/gas4

Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. This step is very important to ensure a good base for the slices. If you leave large knobs of butter in the mix, you will end up with a crumbly base. Stir in 1tsp water and mix well with a fork or knife. Form a ball. Press the mixture evenly into a 33x23cm baking tin (I used baking paper on the base of the tin). 

Bake for 15-20 mins until lightly browned (you want a pale golden colour). Remove from the oven and leave to cool. 

In the meantime, make the grapefruit mix by beating together eggs, caster sugar, flour, baking powder, juice and rind in a bowl until well combined. Make sure that the zest is evenly distributed through the mix. Pour the mix over the baked base. Return to the oven and bake for about 25 mins until set. 

Place the baking tin on a wired rack and leave to cool. Once cooled, remove from the tin and cut into square and dust with icing sugar. 

Bon Appetit

Lemon Balm - Delicious

Fresh Lemon Balm

My lemon balm plant has taken over my herb bed and needed to be strimmed down - it also happened that we had an impromptu BBQ arranged for Mr T's sister who celebrated her birthday...... it was one of these wonderful sunny days in Cork that makes you fall in love with Ireland all over again.

So there I was with lots and lots of lemon balm but what to do...... lucky for me, I had already frozen my ice cream maker so that a sorbet jumped to mind. But since it is a small machine, I knew I wouldn't be using all of the lemon balm.... so what else... it was a hot day and remembering times when coke was a luxury rather than a normal daily drink, I decided to make a wonderful old fashioned lemonade and crikey, was it good. Just imagine, a sunny afternoon, friends and family around, a BBQ on and a refreshing cold glass of lemonade.... I call that a perfect day.

Lemon Balm Sorbet

Lemon Balm Sorbet 

• 1 liter water
• a good bunch of lemon balm leaves, cleaned
• Juice of 2 oranges
• zest of 1 lemon
• 75g caster sugar

Combine all ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture infuse. When cooled, strain the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until the sorbet forms. Either serve straight away or freeze for later use.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, simply freeze the mix after cooling down for 2 hours, take it out and mix it up with a fork. Return to freezer for another 2 hours and fork up again. Continue until you have the sorbet as you like it. 


Lemon Balm Lemonade

Homemade Lemonade

• 3-4 lemons, zest and juice
• A good handful of lemon balm leaves
• 100g sugar
• 200ml boiling water
• Sparkling water
• Ice Cubes
• Small lemon balm leaves for decoration

Peel the zest of the lemons and place in a bowl/pan together with the lemon balm and sugar and pour over the boiling water. Stir with a wooden spoon and bruise the leaves to release their oils. Leave to cool for a few minutes before adding the juice of the lemons. Cool completely.

So serve, pour a good measure into a tall glass, top up with sparkling water and ice cubes. Decorate with a small lemon balm leaf.

Easy Chocolate Mousse

Mr T and I love having family over on a Sunday afternoon and we normally cook a nice dinner - nothing fancy just good old-fashioned home cooking. A few weeks back we got roast beef as a gift from a friend which we froze for future purposes - what better purpose than to feed a family. We had pan-fried cabbage and mashed potatoes with the meat (rubbed with mustard and roasted in the oven on top of some onions - the gravy was simply delicious). But what to serve as dessert??? I went through the cupboards and found a bar of chocolate that Mr T hadn't found yet (he can smell chocolate miles away), so chocolate mousse it was.

This is a very simple recipe for chocolate mousse but it is still very rich - don't be tempted to add more chocolate, it will not improve the dish but will be too rich to eat after a meal. I used milk chocolate with 35% solids but you can of course use darker chocolate - the flavour will be less sweet but more intense.

Delicious Chocolate Mousse

Just before serving, I whipped up some cream and topped the mousse with it. It looked like a mini pint of Guinness.

For 4 people you will need:

• 120g chocolate, broken up in small pieces
• 4 medium eggs, separated
• 2 tbsp caster sugar (or more if you prefer it sweeter)

Fill a saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and set a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the hot water. Add the chocolate pieces to the bowl and let the chocolate melt - stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Keep an eye on the chocolate to avoid burning (you will have to start over again when that happens).

While the chocolate is melting, beat the egg white until just stiff, add the sugar and whisk again. 

When the chocolate is melted, remove from the heat and stir until it cools slightly. Add the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Now add 3 tablespoons of the egg white and fold it into the chocolate mix. When well combined continue with the rest of the egg white. 

Spoon into glasses and place in the fridge until properly set. Serve either with whipped cream or cold custard.

Bon Appetit

Carrot Cake - Counts as 1 out of 5

I haven't had carrot cake in a long time and after Mr T finished the last of the fruit cake, I thought a more healthy option (if that is possible) was in order to satisfy his sweet tooth. I used to make this cake when I lived in Germany and I never told people what it was and it went down a treat. The carrots give the cake its juiciness while the walnuts add a great texture to it. You can leave the topping off, I think it is also nice with just a dusting of icing sugar..... If you want to take this cake a bit further, you could add the zest of an orange to cake and icing as orange and carrot are perfect partners.

Carrot cake

• 185g unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 large carrots, grated
• 50g chopped walnuts
• 200g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp cinnamon

• 100g cream cheese
• 50g softened unsalted butter
• 200g icing sugar

Pre-heat oven to 160c. Cream the butter & sugar together (make sure it is really creamy). Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well between each egg. This is best done with an electric mixer. Add the sieved flour, cinnamon & baking powder and using a wooden spoon, stir into the mixture. Now add the carrots & walnuts. Mix well with the wooden spoon.

Fill the mix into a well buttered or lined baking dish (traditionally a loaf tin is used but here I used a 18cm round tin) and bake for about an hour.

When baked, remove cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wired rack.

Mix together all ingredients for the topping and spread over the cooled cake.

For decoration colour marzipan orange and form little carrots and arrange on topping.

Bread & Butter Pudding - Indulgence in Bread

Having brought back so much bread from the Firehouse bread making course, I decided to use the brioche to make a wonderful indulgent bread & butter pudding for dessert - especially because Mr T loves his desserts.

Many cooks get the pudding wrong as they don't butter the slices of bread properly or use only milk. I love to use cream instead (or a mix of both) to make the dessert richer. Vanilla essence or cinnamon give a lovely dimension and succulent sultanas give a bit of a bite. To make it even more special, soak the sultanas in a bit of whiskey. Make sure that the milk/cream soaks nicely into the bread to avoid dry bits - you want the pudding to be rich and moist with a crusty top.

It takes a bit to bake as the egg and cream has to set but the good thing is that it does it all by itself in the oven and you can just sit down and read the latest blog post of Bia Sásta

Indulgence in Bread

Bread & Butter Pudding

• 1 small loaf of stale brioche
• Unsalted butter
• Sultanas
• 4 eggs
• 350ml cream (you might need more depending on the size of the bread loaf)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 150g Demerara sugar

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Slice the bread, removing the crust. Butter the slices with the butter and arrange in a baking dish. Sprinkle a layer of sultanas over the slices and top with another layer of buttered bread slices and sprinkle over more sultanas. Continue with the rest of the bread slices.

Mix the cream and eggs with the sugar and vanilla sugar and whisk well. Pour the mix over the bread slices, making sure that the cram gets nicely soaked up by the bread. Sprinkle over some sugar and place in the oven and bake for 30-40 mins until golden browned.

Desserts - Cookery Course

Ahhhh desserts, the crowning end to a lovely dinner. Most people – and most chefs when it comes to that – are afraid or not comfortable to make desserts. You don’t have to be a pastry chef to make some lovely desserts but you need to keep some rules in mind:

• Stick to the recipe
• Don’t make a huge dessert – your guests have already eaten a few courses before the dessert
• Ask your guest if they prefer dessert over cheese (especially men might prefer a cheese plate instead)
• Don’t make it sickly sweet (unless it is sticky toffee pudding)

Most desserts are easy to prepare in advance. Since we are so close to Christmas, I am showing you a lovely Christmas Pudding which doesn’t need to mature but can be eaten straight away. It is light and can be made in small portions. You can still serve brandy butter with it or a simple custard.

The pear tarts are so easy to prepare, it is almost embarrassing to admit how easy. They poach in a lovely vanilla syrup which is also the base for the sauce. The pears can be poached in advance but the rest can be done quickly if the stuffing is made beforehand as well. It looks pretty and is light enough so that your guest can still move.

The last dessert I am showing you tonight is very simple and a great standby for un-expected guests. It is simply warmed mince meat with vanilla ice cream. The hot and cold combination works well just make sure the mincemeat is outstanding. I am serving here my own homemade mincemeat but there are lovely versions in shops these days.

Last minute Christmas puddings

Christmas Pudding - The Yummy One

·         600g dried fruit (mixture up to you)

·         1 apple

·         225g brown sugar

·         225g Unsalted butter

·         150ml orange liquor

·         55g plain flour

·         1/2 tsp bread soda

·         3 eggs

·         170g fresh breadcrumbs

·         1/2 bottle stout

·         1/2 orange, juice & zest

·         1/4 tsp each of mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg (if you have, add also ground cloves)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease individual small pudding forms and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add the breadcrumbs and flour, alternating with the eggs. Add the dry ingredients, spices and orange zest. Dissolve the soda in the stout and stir into the mixture.

Add the fruit, orange juice and liquor. The mixture will look very wet but that is ok. Fill the  prepared pudding forms with the mixture. Cover each one tightly with foil.

Place the puddings in a deep roasting tray and carefully fill it with boiling water until it comes half way up the sides of the puddings. Bake in the oven for about an hour.

You can also make one large pudding - baking time will be 2.5 hrs.

Vanilla pears tarts

Pear Tart with Walnut Filling

·         3 large firm pears

·         450 ml water

·         1 vanilla pod

·         1 bay leaf

·         50g sugar

·         350g puff pastry

·         75g double cream

·         15g butter

·         1 tbsp brown sugar

·         25g walnuts, chopped

·         1 egg, beaten

·         15g Caster sugar

Peel the pears, cut in half and scoop out the cores - being careful not to go through the pear.

Put the water in a saucepan, big enough to hold the pears. Add the vanilla pod, bay leaf and sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the pears, make sure that the pears are covered, adding more water if needed. Cover the saucepan and cook on a low heat until just tender. Remove the pears and set aside, keeping the cooking liquid.

Roll out the pastry and cut out six shapes similar to the pear, slightly bigger than the pears. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the pastry shapes on it. Place in the fridge to chill for about 20-30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar and walnuts. Spoon this mixture into each cavity of the pears. Egg wash the pastry shapes and set a pear half, upside down, onto each centre. Sprinkle the tarts with the caster sugar and bake for about 10-14 mins until the puff pastry has puffed up around the pear and is nicely browned.

While baking the tarts, remove the bay leaf and vanilla pod. Bring back to the boil and simmer until reduce by half. Remove from heat and add the cream, stir will to combine.

Remove the pastries from the oven when done, place on individual plates and pour over the vanilla sauce or serve the sauce in a jug along.