Loving Your Loaf!...or do you love to loaf?

Irish National bread week begins shortly!

Practically every culture around the world has a number of characteristic breads and Ireland is no exception! 

There are probably few who do not equate the word 'Irish' with 'soda bread' or 'potato bread', but there is much so more going on in the Irish bread scene than what we see on our supermarket shelves!

Artisan bakers are popping up all over the place and craft breads can be seen and purchased at local farmers markets, may be served with your meal in a local restaurant and you may even find them on sale in shops, coffee shops and deli's.....keep your eye out for roadside signs too!

I am lucky to be only 10 minutes away from the wonderful Scarpello & Co bakery who specialise in making breads from natural yeasts and organic stone ground flours and baking them using traditional wood-fired methods in their brick oven. you can read more about them HERE!

So if you prefer to loaf about instead of baking your own, then get out to your local market and see what's on offer...it could be the greatest thing since sliced bread!

You can find more information on Irish National Bread Week and some interesting titbits on our countries favourite traditional breads by clicking HERE!

I don't mince my words, but when is a pie not a 'pie' ? When it's a Shepherdess Pie!

The English language is a funny thing with its varying meanings to words that are spelled and sound exactly the same...... I pity anyone who has to learn it!

When most people talk about pie you might assume they are talking about the 'pie' that involves 2 layers of pastry with a savory or sweet filling in between... and that type of pie I love! As I've said before anything cooked in pastry is good...especially my Aunties apple pie....no one on the planet makes apple pie like hers...not even me!...Mary Berry eat your heart out is all I'm saying!

Pies are defined by their pastry crusts.....a bottom crust.....a top crust....or a double crust as in top and bottom.... but then we get on to pies that are not 'pies' like 'Cottage Pie', more commonly known as 'Shepherd's Pie' around here, as in here in Ireland. This is a prime example of a pie with not an ounce of pastry in sight!

Little pots.....little pots of chocolate!

Sometimes you just need chocolate! and after the crazy post holiday week I've had....I definitely need CHOCOLATE!

And what better way to kill two birds......as in my needs and a dessert for tomorrows Sunday lunch, than to indulge in some 'scelerisque' that's latin for chocolate by the way....note the word 'risque' is in there....as in too much is 'risqué' on the hips!....eater beware!

So a quick and easy dessert to whip up is my little pots of chocolate, which aren't exactly served up in little pots, but that's how the French used to serve this kind of thing, so there's the history behind that!

This is a delectable, rich, dark, bitter, intense, 'sinful' dessert with lots of flavor....indulge at leisure!

Even 'economy' stores have a 'Silver' lining!

I am a total convert to, and a fan of, the european 'economy' supermarket.....I'm sure you have an idea of who I'm talking about without my naming names! still for better or worse we are part of europe ourselves but don't worry there will be no political debates taking place here.

In this period of economic austerity there is little room for supermarket snobbery anymore, and more often than not, no matter what the expectations of our taste buds, sometimes it is our pocketbooks that determine where we will shop. Yes we may skip around the 'farmers' markets and the local small growers and producers but there comes a time when you just have to go to the supermarket.

As a single parent with 2 growing  teenage children I am effectively supporting 3 adults on a single income, so how to eat well on limited funds yet support Irish producers is a weekly challenge you yourself may be familiar with.
I suggest you just get out there and investigate  these 'outsiders' who have so successfully got a foothold in the Irish market, you might be surprised ! and if you are into supporting Irish sourced produce then you'll be delighted at what you'll find in these establishments along those lines.

But anyway, on to my recent find...beware I'm about to get poetic.....

Five little ducks came along one day..... one got confit'd....... the other 4 are in the freezer awaiting their fate!

I am a duck lover and I'm not ashamed to say it. I know there will be many out there who empathize with the poor little fluffy ducklings and shout from the heights...'how could you? how do you eat that?'...and my answer will be...'preferably confit'd... but I'm partial to a nice Cointreau sauce too!'

Duck is normally regarded as the preserve of the high class restaurant and only the very bravest of people dare take on the cooking of duck in their humble household, yet when it comes to the subject of duck....... Ireland has a secret weapon!

Pork on the Fork!

Pork is the culinary name for the domestic pig...'sus domesticus', and according to the modern day oracle that is 'Wikipedia', pork is one of the most consumed meats in the world....who would've thought!

There are a wide variety of pork products on the market in varying shapes and forms produced from the humble pig, some examples are:

• loin or tenderloin ; with or without the skin (it is the skin which becomes 'crackling' when cooked)
• loin chops with a bone in which come individually sliced between each rib or in a whole piece for roasting - rack of pork
• shoulder- whole or as chops bone in
• leg/ rump (butt)
• cheeks & whole head
• trotters
• belly
• ribs
• pork mince

pork is widely cured or smoked and available as;

• bacon - either sliced- rashers from the belly or back, or in a whole piece - loin
• gammon - whole joint or as thick slices for frying or grilling
• sausages - fresh, cured, smoked.... such as salami, chorizo, Arles sausage
• burgers / mince

A Curry in a Hurry!

'Chilled Out' Tikka Masala

Monday night is usually curry night in our house, it's a great way to use up any roast chicken or beef or even lamb or pork that may have been leftover from Sunday Lunch.....there's just one problem, we all love the exotic flavours of curry but we don't like the heat!

Why do people love a hot curry? or rather why do 'men' love a hot curry? and the hotter the better it seems! they even have competitions to see who can eat the hottest! Crazy if you ask me!

According to scientific research there is a reason for men loving curry and it's all to do with their testosterone levels, or what makes yer man a 'man'......so the hotter the curry that a man can eat, the higher his testosterone levels,....in other words 'real men' eat hot curries....apparently! mmmm, a 'hot' man, eating a hot curry #yum!  That's all very well but what is all that chilli doing to their palates?


I do not like my curry with a lot of heat as in an excessive amount of chilli being used, the minute the heat from the chilli kicks in, my taste buds go on strike and that's the end of the flavour-fest in my mouth, even with a drink of milk between bites!

Because of that I will always make my curry from scratch, it may sound time consuming but if you use a tomato sauce base it cuts down on  the length of cooking time considerably!

My favourite curry dish is Tikka Masala which is traditionally pieces of chicken marinated in yoghurt with spices, baked in an oven then served in a sauce....Masala spice mix or 'Tikka' paste usually contains... garlic, ginger, onion, garam masala and chilli paste... you can now buy tikka paste in pretty much any supermarket and you can of course buy the 'cook-in' sauces, but beware of additives and hidden sugars! But as it is so easy to get the required spices to gain that authentic flavour you can make your own and you know exactly what has gone in to it!

As we are using leftover cooked chicken for this dish we won't be marinating the chicken, but by the time the sauce is fully cooked and the chicken has heated through, it will have absorbed all the lovely spice flavours.
This curry is also a great way of getting some extra vegetables into your kids diets, the thick sauce hides them well and of course alters the flavours......and kids seem to love curries.

you will need: for 4 people

400 g cooked chicken cut into cubes or shredded  as you like

200 g cooked chickpeas (about 1 tin)

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 small onion

1 stick celery

200 g butter nut squash

1/2 pint water

2 tablespoons tikka paste

400 ml of 'Cheat's tomato sauce' (click here for recipe)

200 ml coconut milk

2 tablespoons sweet mango chutney

how to make your curry:

• peel and cut the onion into small pieces, slice the celery quite thin, 
• peel and cut the squash into small bite size pieces
• heat the oil in a deep heavy bottomed saucepan, add the onion, celery and squash and fry a little but don't let it brown, add the tikka paste and mix well, turn the heat down low, put a lid on the pot and cook gently for 2-3 minutes
• add the water and chick peas and continue cooking until the squash is almost tender but still has a little bite,
• by now, much of the water will have evaporated,  add the tomato sauce, coconut milk and mix really well, add the chicken, bring to the boil, add the mango chutney for a little sweetness, and simmer for about another 10 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly heated through

You can serve this curry with the usual rice, naan bread or poppadums.

 If you find that the spice is too mild then you can always add another spoonful of the tikka paste  when cooking, you can always add more spice but it's impossible to make it cooler! so start out with just a little.

Baking on a Sunday afternoon!

When I was a wee slip of a girl, and that was quite some time ago! Sundays throughout Ireland were traditionally kept as 'visitors' day.

A day when aunties, uncles, grand parents, and cousins, second cousins and even thirds, descended in turn on the homes of their relatives for a 'visit', and if you were lucky enough to live in the countryside then the 'townie' relatives were sure to make an appearance!

In those days Sunday lunch was a strict 'close' family affair with only grandparents the extra additions to the family table, the extended family would then attend in the afternoons, arriving after 3 and would be gone by 6!
The preparation for an afternoon visit would see the fire lit or an electric heater turned on in the 'good room', a room which the family seldom entered except at Christmas, Easter or if the local clergyman paid a visit, or heaven forbid if there was a wake in the house, then the deceased would lie there in state. Other than that the room lay undisturbed from Sunday to Sunday, slumbering peacefully until its next guest appeared.


Unlike today, where we have the luxury of space, the skills and the desire to show off our culinary abilities to our relatives, visits of extended family would never have involved a sit down meal on a Sunday at the kitchen table nor even in the dining room, this was more likely due to financial constrictions as meat was always expensive. Instead, visitors were treated to a cup of tea and a bun, a simple queen cake that would be iced and sprinkled with those thin sugar strands called hundreds and thousands.
The more ambitious who had a few more pennies in their housekeeping money, may have even presented a boiled fruit cake or a Victoria sponge sandwich of their own making filled with the woman of the house's home made raspberry, blackberry or gooseberry jam and a layer of thick, whipped 'real' cream or butter cream.
     

"I live on good soup, not fine words!"

Summer is at an end and as the long nights draw in earlier and earlier our body clocks and our appetites seem to shift instinctively, gearing us up for the long months of darkness and semi hibernation. With the onset of colder weather I yearn for those warming winter foods that just radiate heat from your insides out and there's nothing that does that better than a good deep bowl of steaming home made soup!

Soup is a food popular in every culture it seems and apparently us women are more likely to order soup in a restaurant for lunch rather than anything else!
It is probably one of the most versatile dishes as it can be eaten for breakfast...quite popular in Japan & China, not so much here in Europe!, or you can enjoy it for lunch, dinner in the evening or a light supper late at night.
Soup is also one of the most nutritious meals and the legend of 'chicken soup' and how good it is for you pervades many cultures!

Here in the most northerly parts of Ireland in the province of Ulster where the winter can last up to nine months of the year, or maybe it just feels like it does!, soup, especially vegetable soup, is a mainstay of the populations diet. It may be called vegetable soup but more often than not the broth base will have been made from a piece of shin of beef, but for convenience we will hereafter just call it 'vegetable' soup because that is what it is known as!

Vegetable soup is so widely popular here that it will always be seen on every restaurant, cafe or coffee shop menu.......if they serve soup at all it will most likely be vegetable, be it a cream of vegetable or a good broth with lots of chunky vegetables, barley, peas and lentils, and you will still find vegetable soup on the Sunday Lunch menu in nearly every hotel.

Some places do try their luck adding maybe a tomato and basil soup or a cream of mushroom soup to their menu but vegetable will always be the most popular!
Every household in this part of the country will have their own family version of vegetable soup, a recipe that will have been handed down through 2 or 3 generations at least, our own family recipe is now into its 4th!

The home made vegetable soup takes pride of place on the table as the first course at certain times of the year, usually at Easter Sunday lunch and most definitely for Christmas day!
It is a tradition that vegetable soup is made on Christmas eve, usually in the afternoon.
As the presents are being wrapped or the turkey and stuffing are being prepared for the next day, the soup will be bubbling away on the back of the stove top, its aromas invading the whole house, even drowning out the scent of the pine tree.

After the midnight church services there will be a mad dash home through the frosty air knowing a bowl of hot soup is there for the taking. Next day the soup will be reheated as the first course of Christmas luncheon and if there is any left over, and usually there is, it will be eaten on boxing day too! with maybe some turkey added, depending on your recipe of course!

As for other days of the year, vegetable soup forms an important part of the weekly diet during the autumn and winter months.

Many households have soup on a Saturday afternoon as it comes in handy when the lads return from their football practices or when 'mammy' gets back from the town having done the shopping.

There is also usually a dinner of vegetable soup during the week too. The shin of beef will have been pressure cooked for a hour or so and then the soup made with its rich stock. The meat will be allowed to cool and then either shredded or cut into cubes and put back into the soup.
Many will 'bulk out' the meal by serving potatoes or 'spuds' as they are fondly known, on the side which have been boiled in their skins. When peeled, the potato will be crushed down into the soup, each person peeling their own potatoes as they need them.

I often wondered why the potatoes were not simply cooked 'in' the soup like for a 'leek & potato' soup, but I've to realize after much enjoyable experimentation that there are complex flavours at work and personally I now prefer my potatoes cooked separately and then added to my soup!

A typical Ulster 'vegetable' soup is not made from simply fresh vegetables. A selection of dried pulses will always be added, the most common being a mixture of split peas in green and yellow, red lentils and barley.
I tend to only use red lentils and the odd time I will add split peas too, but I detest barley, always have, always will, so I will never add it to soup if I am going to be eating it! Some people love barley and I'm sure that's nice for them! but I prefer using simply lentils as when the lentils cook down it gives good 'body' to a soup, the barley always seems to just sit there in the broth.

In our soups here you will never see other things added like beans, haricot or broad beans or any other variety for that matter, the addition of any other veg like broccoli or maybe courgette is simply a no, no, and changes completely how the soup is viewed....it's just not vegetable soup any more if you do that, well not according to our traditions! so now that you've read my 'fine' words on soup you can hop over to one of my pages and try out this recipe for a good 'vegetable' soup.....will you be having 'spuds' with yours?

If you'd like to know some history behind soups click here to read more!

Airport fodder!....why won't we eat like the French?

After a two hour drive on an eerily empty auto-route, we arrived in Nice......well the road was virtually empty in one direction anyway, everyone seemed to by doing their best to get as far away from Nice as possible whereas we were intent on getting there!

Contrary to the usual French efficiency and excellence of their roads, we encountered a big problem when it came to actually finding a way into the airport.

A new road layout was begun late last year and even by this time it is still not completed. As you come off the 8 lane motorway you suddenly find yourself almost in the centre of Nice, and in a grand canyon of high rise apartments blocks, but which way to go?


We knew the airport was somewhere on our right but exactly which road would take us there was anyone's guess! If we had been crows we could have hit the terminal in less than 10 minutes, if only it where that easy!

In true Irish fashion we choose the wrong lane and ended up on a magical mystery tour of the port area, and very nice in Nice it was too. The Mediterranean sea was blue, the sun was shining, Mercedes and Ferraris lined the quays, and the super yachts were bobbing in the bay of Cannes, but there was no where to do a u-turn!
After cruising the bay area we eventually made our way back letting the palm trees guide us and lo and behold there were signposts leading us right into the airport, we were saved and still on time!
By now it was lunch time and since it had been 5 hours since breakfast we were starving, stress also has a habit of increasing the appetite!

Adieu a France!

We have reached the end of our short sojourn in this wonderful country but I know for sure we will be back!
It has been 8 days of fabulousness.
The sun has shone continually, we have only had one downpour, during the night though, and a very entertaining but dry thunder storm where lightning lit up the sky for a few hours, but still the heat remained.
When I woke this morning I looked outside at yet another sunny day with hardly a cloud in the sky, but there was a noticeable difference.
The wind which has been a welcome breeze in the 30 degree heat for the last few days but has now developed into the classic 'Mistral' which I have been told can blow strong enough to take the ears of a donkey! That may be true but I wouldn't really want to hang around to see that!
There was a russet tinge to the trees this morning and on our way to the village there was movement among the vines which have been drooping closer and closer to the ground for the last few days, we are on the cusp of the vendange!

For our last day in Provence we headed off to the historic town of Saint Remy de Provence, a convenient 10 minutes away crossing one of the loveliest plains filled with olive groves, forests of pine, orchards of laden apple and pear trees, poly tunnels filled with herbs, fields of melons and verges of bamboo which seems to grow profusely around here and provides great privacy from inquisitive passers-by!
One thing I will say about the southern French is that they are a very discreet people or maybe they don't want the tax man to see what they're up to!. Wealth is never on display here like it is in Ireland, you never know how big someone's house is until you actually drive up to their door.
The French do love their privacy and security though and you will find houses hidden from view and surrounded by banks of high foliage, evergreen trees, yew trees, wire fencing, high stone walls and high solid metal manual or electrified gates. Even houses along the roadside have few windows facing outwards, all the action goes on behind the scenes....unlike Ireland where houses are constantly on display for all the world to see.... 'look at the big fancy house I built'..... no doubt the bank probably owns the greatest share of it!

I want to be a tomato!......'Cheats Tomato Sauce'

Fruit or Vegetable?

The debate on whether the humble yet versatile tomato is a fruit or a vegetable has drawn battle lines across many a dinner table and even professional kitchens........so let me tell you how it is!

THE TOMATO IS A FRUIT!...... but alas, it is also classed as a vegetable, well according to US customs regulations, but we'll not worry about that right here!

The tomato is botanically a berry fruit as it has soft flesh, but when it comes to cooking with it everyone treats it in a savoury manner, you will never see tomato crumble with whipped cream on the menu! and frankly I wouldn't care to taste that....would you?

Because of our 'wonderful' north European climate, and I use the word 'wonderful' with a large dollop of sarcasm, tomatoes tend to not grow to their best unless you are the privileged owner of a poly tunnel or have a nicely glazed porch, conservatory or a good sized glass house, basically you need somewhere with a good heat supply that will get the best of what sun is on offer and plenty of space as little tomato plants have a nasty habit of growing up to be giants, even ones purported to be dwarves!
The average tomato plant can grown between 3-10 feet in height and require copious amounts of tomato feed or they just don't do well.

If you are adventurous enough to have a jungle of tomato plants in your conservatory or greenhouse then be prepared to have a few kilos of them all ripening at once.....heed my warning!

Tomatoes seem to be available all year round now in our supermarkets but you certainly don't get the numerous varieties like there are on display in France where I counted 15 different varieties in a small town supermarket, all of them locally grown I might add!

I found the differences in shape, colour and textures of the tomatoes fascinating.
From the deep purple that looked more like a knobbly potato to a smooth orangey yellow resembling a miniature pumpkin, to a brilliant red that you just know is loaded with juicy sunshine goodness.
It would have been an exciting exercise to be able to buys lots of each variety and do some experimenting to find which ones would make the best soup, a tomato sauce or to just eat in a salad....but I am on holiday after all!

Vive La France et Le Difference! - why can't we be more like the French?

Contrary to what the media & lifestyle gurus have been force feeding us for years! fat is now good for us....

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-100371/Why-fat-good--choose-right-type.html

Yippee! I hear you shout from the rooftops, but then those us of 'in the know' always knew that anyway, especially the French! but that good news does not mean you can high tail it to the closest fried chicken or burger outlet.......like all good news there is also bad.

I have always admired the French attitude to fats and food in general. Their entire food culture is something to be esteemed and something we here in Ireland should aspire to, not that there is no one out there doing their damnedest to change general attitudes.

The food culture of Ireland has literally exploded over the last two decades and the country is now awash with restaurants, a lot 'meh', some good and a few fabulous!  Artisan producers are all the rage growing their own and making their own with specialist food shops, farmers markets and food festivals popping up all over the place.

As I sit writing I am in the lucky position to be doing so from the south of France where I am on my annual sabbatical. sounds posh but just means I'm on a wee holiday....food inspired of course!

To say I love coming to France would be an understatement......'J'adore' coming to France, I would even go as far to call it my second home and if I were able I would be here for 2 weeks instead of 9 days...if I were really able I would stay here for a month....and if in the future I am truly able (as in lottery wining style) I would retire here or at least spend the bulk of the year here.

Having had the pleasure and privilege of previously living and working in France I was able to witness first hand the French attitude to fats and oils. I have stood by in semi shock as whole shanks of lamb and halves of duck were stewed for hours in it,whole joints of meat were copiously bathed in it, salads were served drowned in it, and thick slices of day old bread were fried in it to make crisp croutons...the perfect 'raft' for that black gold 'tapenade'...... a purée of black olives and anchovies with even more fat! how could my arteries ever survive this type of assault I thought? but surprisingly they did! and in the healthiest of ways.

Tantalizing Taglitelle! - Bolognese my style!

Speedy Saturday Tea

Saturdays are generally family days for most people, but the day seems to be just as busy as any other day of the week for me!

I can't quite remember when I last had a lie in on a Saturday morning, it may have been sometime in March but don't quote me on that!.... by a lie in I mean sleeping until after 8am!

There may be no more early morning work shifts on a Saturday for me but there are other duties that I get dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn for!




Oldest child has developed a penchant for climbing but at 18 years old he can't be expected to climb trees any more so a newly opened climbing wall in Derry city at the Foyle Arena is drawing young'uns like himself.

The younger child has been horse mad probably since she realised what a horse was, so Saturday is stables day, with lots of lessons, hacks out, stables to be mucked out and ponies to be hugged and fussed over.

Then there's usually a trip to the cinema or maybe bowling or some other fun family outing in the early evening to amuse and spend some quality time together. It means I spend most of my Saturday running a free taxi service.

But Saturday night is usually 'my' night. The one night I get together with my girl BFF's, mid-week meet ups are just too much hassle as we all have school, college, work routines and children to deal with.