Curry Night and all about Leeks

Nights are getting colder and darker. This is the time where you want hearty and warming dishes. Butternut Squash are dead cheap at the moment so I decided it was time for a lovely curry night last night. Came home and dug up some leeks (yes I was wearing my wellies :-). Peeled and chopped (not too small pieces) the Butternut Squash I bought during the day, tossed it in olive oil and roasted it in the oven for about 10 mins (you want it slightly done but still have some bite). Cleaned and sliced the leeks quite thickly and pan-fried it in a bit of butter and olive oil (use ghee if you happen to have it in your larder). Chopped some green chillies - depending how hot you want it - and added it to the leeks after about 5 mins. Cook it for a minute or so before adding some roasted cashew nuts, plain yogurt (make sure not to use set yogurt as it will split) and cream. Adding the roasted Butternut Squash, I put a lid on the pot and put the pot in the oven for about 30 mins. The sauce will thicken a bit. I served this curry with spiced rice and naan bread. This curry is loosely based on a recipe I saw in Denis Cotter's Season Cookbook.

The curry needs some 'green' so add some fresh coriander if you have it to hand - parsley will do as well. And if you want to push the boat out, serve some side dishes with it like a tomato salad etc.

The curry was tasty but needed some salt to bring it up - I didn't add the coriander as it is one of my pet hates. We had a Rioja with it but I think a Gewurztraminer would have been a better choice.

All about leeks

Late Summer and early Autumn - a time of abundance. I just have worked up my beetroot (chutneys, pickled and the most amazing beetroot risotto) - now I am facing hundreds of leeks standing tall. Good thing so that I love leeks. Last year I made already a few different dishes with it - but mostly I love slicing them and sauteing it in butter with a bit of garlic and toss it through steaming pasta. But of course there are so many different options.

Pies are a great way of using up vegetables and it is a great lunch-treat. I panfried the leeks in olive oil and butter with some garlic. I added mixed herbs towards the end of the cooking.In a separate pan, I fried chopped mushrooms until they were coloured and added them to the leeks. Blindbaked short-crust pastry and filled the case with the leeks mixture and topped it with young goats' cheese. No egg and no cream - the leeks were moist enough and the cheese was melting nicely into the leeks. The result was a lovely tart and it didn't make it to lunch the next day as Terence demolished it the same night.

Another lovely idea of course is risotto. I have tried all kind of mixtures for risotto and have to admit that leeks (next to beetroot) is one of my favourite. I cook the risotto as normal and only add the panfried leeks towards the end as I want it to keep the fresh green colour. Lemon zest towards the end brings the risotto to new heights. May I say - yummy is not the correct word to describe this very simple but very satisfying dish.

What this space for more recipes coming up. And let me know if you have some more ideas on what to do with leeks - always looking for new ideas :-)

Sourdough - finally

As many people who love making their own bread, I have shied away from making my own sourdough - until now. I gave myself a push and asked myself 'what is the worst that can happen?'. So, now, finally, I am the proud parent of my very own sourdough starter. There are many recipes and procedures for sourdough and when you search the internet, you get overwhelmed with the amount of articles. Since I am a big fan of River Cottage - I went and got their bread book (already have the preserve & mushroom one). Not that I followed the recipe to the dot but it got me started.

And wow, was it worth the effort. Anyhow, I started the first day with flower to same amount of water, stirred it, covered it with a cloth and left it. The next day, I added the same amount of flour and water and stirred again - repeating for about a week. Some recipes tell you to throw half the starter out before adding more flour and water but I was too 'stingy' to do that.

On day 8 my starter was ready to be used. I mixed breadflour with water, salt and my wonderful young and pungent starter. Knead well and leave to rise for about 12 hours. After that, knead the bread dough on a floured surface for a few minutes and return it to the bowl and leave to rise again for a few hours (I normally have the first rise overnight and the second until I come home from work). Knead again until the dough is not sticky anymore (just like any other bread) and form it into a loaf (any shape you like) and place in the oven on medium heat.

When I visited Declan Ryan's bakery once, I saw that he sprayed a bit water into the oven when he baked sourdough bread - so I decided to become extremely professional and do the same - I repeated it about twice while the bread was baking. The result was a crusty bread with a soft inside. The smell of the bread was just amazing and there is no more satisfaction than you take a bite out of your very own sourdough bread - the taste was too wonderful to describe.

Yes, it is a lot of work for one loaf of bread - but my-oh-my - what a bread. Give it a try. Very good recipes can be found on www.sourdough.com and You Tube is full of how-t0-videos. Let me know how you got on.

Beetroot - and the story goes on

Last night was soup night and since I am still covered in beetroot, yes you guessed it, beetroot soup was on the menu. It is easy to make - just like any other soup - but the colour again was amazing. The taste was quite sweet and I thought it needed a lot more seasoning but Terence was quite happy with the pure beetroot taste of the soup.

I boiled a big beetroot (and I mean big) until tender. Chopped it into cubes. Sauteed onions, garlic and celery until translucent and added a cubed potato and the beetroot along with vegetable stock. Brought it to a boil and simmered until the potato almost broke down. Pureed it in a food processor and returned it to a clean pot. Added salt and herbs and served with a dollop of cream. Denis Cotter served his soup with cabbage and vodka (don't like cabbage apart from red and used all my vodka for my blackcurrants). The result was a sweet and earthy soup that was perfect for the windy and wet evening we had last night - sat in front of fire and slurped happily.

We still have some beetroot left, so will have to find some more ideas and recipes. Any ideas?? Let me know.

Lemon Balm Pesto

A few days ago I posted about my herb garden and the lemon balm that started taking over the whole space. I search a bit around for ideas on what to do with it and came across this easy recipe for lemon balm pesto. I thought it sounded just too good and with my love for pasta the perfect solution. So yesterday, as Wendy came over for dinner (she is one of my favourite Guinea pigs) I made the pesto and mixed it with ricotta cheese, more garlic, onions and some seasoning. The recipe called for 3 cups of the pesto but since it was just Wendy and myself I thought I get away with just one cup. So I picked the leaves of the stalks (which took longer than to actually cook the dish), whizzed it in my super food processor together with olive oil and garlic. I tasted it and it was awful. Simply awful as if I took a spoon full of grass. So more garlic and whizzed it more finely. Drained the ricotta and started mixing the pesto in - a spoon at a time (there was no way I was using the whole lot of it). I added very finely chopped onions (the recipe called for minced onions but I wanted some texture in it), more garlic and my herbal salt. After a few spoons full the ricotta started to taste quite nicely, so I added some grated Parmesan and et voila we had a mixture that I could use. Cooked pasta shells (there is a lovely little Italian shop in Ballincollig called Pane E Vino ) and filled them with the cheese mixture. Arranged them in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top. Bake it until the Parmesan crisped up a bit. It was lovely, light and fresh - next time I will add a tomato sauce to it and bake it with the sauce. I am not sure if the pesto on its on would be nice (like tossing it with spaghetti or covering fish with it) but in the ricotta mixture, it was lovely. And thanks to Wendy for being so brave and always trying my experiments

Beetroot and more beetroot

I love this time of year - where you can reap the fruit of your hard labour in the garden. Only problem is that it all comes at once and you are left trying to figure out what to do with it all. Of course, you can freeze some of it but there are some vegetables that don't freeze that well (at least I don't like them when thawed again). Beetroot is one of them. I already made jars and jars of Beetroot Chutney. This is a yummy relish that goes so well with most types of cheese and it looks so pretty with its dark reddish colour. Prepare a cheeseboard and have the chutney in little dishes in the middle of it. It is easy to make, just chop raw beetroot and put it with a chopped red onion in a preserving pan (I also added chopped apples), add vinegar, sugar, salt and let it bubble away until it becomes syrupy and the beets are cooked and tender. Fill sterilised jars and let mature for about a month before you eat it. Stores for up to a year. Keep in fridge when opened. Another option is of course, pickled beetroot which is so much nice than the shop-brought stuff.

As all of my friends know, my favourite restaurant is Cafe Paradiso and I think Denis Cotter is one of the most talented self-taught chefs I have ever come across. Last year I went with a friend of mine and I ordered the beetroot risotto - amazing is a too small word to describe it. Anyhow - I remembered the risotto when I looked at the 'mountain' of beets I had and decided to give it a try. I cooked 2 medium beetroots until tender, peeled and chopped it into cubes. Tossed the cubes in olive oil and roasted it for about 15 mins. Took half the cubes out and pureed it in the food processor. The rest went back in the oven for a further 10-15 mins. The pureed beets went into hot stock and stirred together (keep it warm). Chop an onion, heat olive oil in a pot and fry until soft but not coloured. Add the risotto rice and toss until all grains are covered in the oil. Stir for a few minutes and add some red wine. Stir until the wine has vanished. Now continue as with 'normal' risotto using the beet-stock (that gives the risotto the amazing dark-pink colour). When the rice is cooked, add the left cubes of beetroot and mix it up. I topped it with young goats cheese. Denis Cotter had a recipe with broadbeans and lemon-fennel-oil. Next time I try the beetroot risotto I will make some lemon oil beforehand and will drizzle it over the risotto - think the lemon will lift the dish to a different level - but I have to say, it looked amazing, tasted fantastic and I was proud as Larry of it....

Tonight I will try a beetroot soup - watch this space

Herbal Connection

My herbal garden is taking over at the moment and I was in urgent need to either cut it back and feed the compost or come up with some ideas on how to use a glut of herbs. Lemon balm and lemon verbena were the most dominant herbs and needed to be dealt with first.

Lemon balm is a lovely herb but - I think - limited to a few uses; tea comes to mind. But there is only so much tea you can drink. I tried to dry it but it loses a lot of its fragrance. As I was cooking dinner the other day, I thought of a dessert that includes lemon balm. The most quickest was lemon balm sorbet (Darina Allen has a lovely recipe). I left the raw egg white out as I didn't like the idea of it. Made a sugar syrup and infused it with the leaves of the lemon balm. Juice of 3 lemons went in as well and then off to the ice cream machine (no worry if you don't have one, you just needs to freeze it and take it out every hour or so and fork the sorbet up). The result was a very refreshing and soothing sorbet. Not bad at all. While searching for some ideas, I came across a recipe for lemon balm pesto which I will try next. So watch this space.

Lemon Verbena is one of my favourite herbs as the fragrance of it is so soothing, fresh, calming and is simply the essence of Summer. While my first verbena bush died a frosty death last year, this one is strong and growing as much as the lemon balm. You can eat the leaves uncooked as the taste is very bitter but infuse it in cream and you have the most aromatic smell going through your kitchen. It was my neighbours anniversary at the weekend and I wanted to give them some homemade chocolates. I had already finished a batch of cinnamon truffles but wanted to use the lemon verbena. So, brought some cream to the boil and added a handful of lemon verbena leaves. Left it to infuse for 15-20 mins, returned the cream to a boil and strained the cream into a bowl with white chocolate. Stirred until everything was combined and poured the cooled mixture in my prepared chocolate moulds. The result was a creamy fragrant truffle that - at least I thought so - was the essence of elegance. For more ideas and recipes - click here

My next herbal project is a variety of herbal oils and of course the lemon balm pesto.

100 ways with Courgettes

In case you are growing courgettes in your garden, you might be overwhelmed with the glut of fruit one plant can produce. I am currently very overwhelmed as the courgettes grow faster than I can eat them and obviously, I don't want to give them all away. As I don't like freezing courgettes (my dad used to do that- I find they get all gluey afterwards). Anyhow, what else to do with them..... here are some ideas.

Chutney: I have come across a really nice recipe for spiced courgette chutney the other day and had to try it. Onions, courgettes, apples, cider vinegar and a spice bag of ginger, gloves gave the kitchen a wonderful smell. Cook for 2 hours or until darkened and thick and pour in sterilised jars. Leave for at least 3-4 weeks before eating it so that the aromas can develop nicely.

But since there is only so much chutney you can make and eat, I made stuffed courgettes last night. Cook mince with onions, carrots, mushroom, tomatoes (I also added some peas), add some tomato passata (seasoning and herbs to your liking), cook until done and the liquid of the meat has evaporated. Cut the courgette lengthwise and scoop out the seedy part (bigger courgettes are better suitable). Chop the scooped flesh and pan-fry until the liquid has evaporated. Add to the meat mixture and stuff the courgette halves. Place courgettes in an ovenproof dish and add some water (or stock - I always mix a bit of water with tomato passata). Cover with tin-foil and place in medium-hot oven for 30-40 mins (depends on the size of the courgettes). In the last 5 mins, take off the tin-foil and sprinkle some grated cheese over the courgettes and return to the oven until the cheese has melted. Et Voila - stuffed courgettes.

I love going to Avoca in Dublin. The display of food in their cellar cafe is amazing and always inspires me to try new things and to forget about pretty and neat. Rustic is the way to go for homely food. I tried that last night with a courgette tart. Blind-bake shortcrust pastry. Chop courgettes, onions, red pepper, garlic and pan-fry in olive oil. Layer in the baked pastry shell. Mix cream with a bit of pesto and whisk in an egg. Season to you liking and pour over the vegetables. Crumble goats cheese on top and bake until egg mixture is set. Looks lovely and rusty and is comfort-food at its best.

Another wonderful idea is courgette soup. Smaller courgettes go better here as the flavour is so much more intense yet delicate. Sweat some chopped onions in a pot, and the chopped courgette and stir around for a few mins. Add vegetable stock and cook until tender. Blend in a food processor until smooth (or chunky if you like that). Return to a clean pot and reheat. You can add crumbled goats cheese when serving. I like to add orange zest and juice before processing. Orange and courgette go so well together.

For more ideas for courgette recipes - click here

P.S. Courgettes, tomatoes, peas and onions all came from my kitchen garden

Some Foodie News

Nothing much happening here at my house at the moment. This year we are planning to spend Christmas Dinner at the In-Laws so I have nothing much to do. All my foodie gifts are prepared and ready get into the little hampers I am giving away this year.

You will remember that I had my two nieces over the other day and they made the wonderful gingerbread house......I am in the mood of making another one so I made the dough today and it is resting until tomorrow when I bake the pieces.....so watch this space at the weekend when you can see the pride and glory of all gingerbread houses...

Read today that Rachel Allen is fronting a campaign for O'Briens Sandwich chain. Was never really a fan of O'Briens but then....they never asked me to consult on their sandwiches...Rachel will create 'Signature Sandwiches' which will go on sale on January....let me know if one of you are trying them.....like to know what is so special on them (I am a sandwich snob - only eating sandwiches I made myself).

The Cork Evening Echo is featuring a series of Good Food Guide to Christmas. One part of todays feature is to give an 'edible gift'. I love the idea as it is my game plan this year...suggestions by the Echo is homemade fudge, bread, preserves and cookies......and guess what, they do not offer the recipes....so here are some links where you can find recipes: Fudge, Bread, Preserves and Cookies. Have fun....Let me know what you are giving away this year - edible stuff of course.....not really interested in your novelty socks :-)

When you are in princess Street these days, pay Nash a visit. Claire Nash always takes great care when creating her much sought after hampers.....a great gift for any foodie (including me by the way).

And since one can not be prepared too much....from 8th to 12th February 2010 Cork will be hosting the Good Food Ireland Week. This event is a celebration of restaurants (Good Food Ireland Members), cafes, puns and cookery schools who are committed to using local produce and to support the artisan heros of food. Watch this space for more info.

So, that's it for now. Have to admit that I am not prepared at all (apart from the foodie goodies, I have nothing done....I can see some stress clouds building up over my house in the next few days)...

Jamie Oliver got his own magazine

...and guess what...it is a food magazine. Is it better than the ones I normally have?? Nope it isn't. This magazine celebrates itself and good old Jamie. He has also his own mail order service installed so that you can re-create all the dishes. You can buy infused sea salt (£3.50 for 250g) to cook the Fish baked in sea salt (and you only need 1kg of the salt).

I believe it is meant to be a very personal magazine but for my taste it is a bit OTT. Saying that, there are some serious good recipes in there and he includes close friends in his story. If you are a Jamie Oliver fan than this magazine is for you. Otherwise is it still a nice read.

So far I haven't seen it in Cork (I got it in Terminal 1 in Heathrow for £3.95) but I am sure that can only be a matter of time before it jumps up on Irish shelves.

Leek Week

All good things have to come to an end at some stage and the end is here for my leek week. The last few have been converted into yummy food. And since my camera gave up on me (at least the battery doesn't charge anymore), I can't even give you a picture of the fantastic Leek-Butternut-Quash-Bake I made....and it was yummy. I cooked some sliced leeks in a bit of butter, finished it off with some cream, mustard and white wine. In the meantime I had roasted the butternut squash, which I had cubed, tossed in a bit of oil. Mixed it all together and poured it into a shallow ovenproof dish. Melted some butter, mixed breadcrumbs with chopped nuts and parmesan cheese and poured the melted butter into it. Stirred until the breadcrumbs were coated with the butter and sprinkled it over the leek mixture....and off it went into the oven for about 20 minutes.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wish you could have seen my face....;-)

I have now lots of butternut squash.....so be prepared to get some ideas from me...happy cooking

Cookie Time

Baked some cookies….had some limes left over and thought it might be a nice idea….I normally don't give complete recipes (simply because I mostly cook by feeling) but I think these biscuits are so easy to make and so yummy that I wanted to share this recipe:




60g butter (soft)
2 tsp grated lime zest
_ cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 _ cups self-raising flour
1 tbsp lime juice (approx.)

Icing
3 tsp soft butter, 1 cup icing sugar, 1 tbsp lime juice

Beat butter, zest, sugar and egg yolk with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted flour and enough juice to make the ingredients cling together. Knead until smooth.

Roll 2 level tsp of mixture into a ball, place onto a lined oven tray and flatten slightly. Allow about 4cm between the cookies. Bake in moderate oven for about 15 minutes or until slightly browned. Cool on trays.

For the icing, combine butter and sifted icing sugar in a bowl and stir in enough juice to make it smooth and spreadable.

Spread the icing over the cooled cookies and decorate (optional).

Enjoy….

...and the leek week continues

And we continue the leeky week. Today I made some lovely supper for me….creamed leeks with a baked egg. For that I cooked some sliced leeks in butter until soft but not browned and added a bit of cream and cooked it for a few minutes until the cream thickened a bit. Seasoned it with my herbed salt and some nutmeg. Greased two ramekins with butter and poured the cooked leeks into them. Broke an egg in each dish and drizzled a bit of cream around the egg yolk. Baked it in a bain marie for about 10 minutes (I like my yolk runny) and may I say….the dish was a nice supper dish on a dark and coldish August night (by the way, I even had the fire lightening). It may also be a nice starter….have to serve that next time.

Leek Weeks Starts here

My dad and myself had to pull all the leeks as the wet weather made the leeks go to seeds…I personally prefer them young and thin as they are much tender and sweeter than the biggen ones. My mum is freezing most of her share of the leeks but I love them fresh so in the next couple of days, I will be trying a lot of dishes with leeks and you can read all about my week of leeks…

Today for example I made a lovely risotto. Simply heat olive oil in a pan, add the sliced leeks and fry until soft but not brown. Add the risotto rice and coat with the oil and keep frying for a couple of minutes. Add some white wine and - while stirring - cook until the wine has disappeared. Then add hot stock (fresh stock makes for a better risotto) a ladle at a time. Just before the rice is ready, add defrosted peas and some chopped sage…..and et voila…..a perfect risotto which I have to say put a big smile on my face

The Prawns loved the Curry

I had some lovely king prawns and they screamed to me that they wanted to be turned into a yummy curry. And just by chance did I have the Atul Kochhar cookbook laying around. So I flipped through it again and came across the ‘Royyalu Pulusu’ (simply Prawn Curry I assume ;-). I had to adjust the recipe a bit as I didn’t have fresh coconut (not even dried one), I run out of sesame oil a couple of weeks ago and never stocked up. Haven’t found any Mango Powder (although I came across a few recipes now with it but couldn’t find it anywhere) and I didn’t have curry leaves (only Kaffir lime leaves)…but the result was yummy nevertheless.

The prawns needed to be marinated in a dry rub consisting of turmeric, chilli powder and salt (the mango powder should have found its way into the rub as well). Rubbed the spices into the prawns and left them to marinate for 20 minutes.

I heated groundnut oil instead of the sesame oil and sautéed chopped onions. Added ginger and garlic paste and after a few minutes threw in ground coriander, green chilli, crushed peppercorns and mint (just bought a lovely plant on Friday)….missing out on the coconut and curry leaves. After a few more minutes I added the prawns, poured in coconut milk and let it simmer for 5 minutes. A few chopped fresh tomatoes for good measure followed but I didn’t add any water as advised in the recipe as I like my sauces creamy. Let the whole lot simmer for a few more minutes until the prawns were cooked and served the whole lot with vegetable pilau and red lentil dhal which I had left over from Sunday. A quick yummy meal that was full of flavour and left a big smile on my face.