Flori's Favorite Fried Chicken!

Hidden somewhere in the strands of my families DNA is the genetic code that instructs us to love fried chicken! really, what other explanation can there be? My mother has adored it since childhood, my grandmother having made the best fried chicken ever tasted, and I myself am extremely partial to it when in a 'meat' mood....... and now my daughter, who is convinced that there can be no greater food on this planet than fried chicken, is addicted to the stuff and will even pass over a delicious confit of duck in favor of fried chicken.....I'm almost ashamed to admit that!

It would be impossible to re-create the fried chickens of my childhood as each recipe is unique to each cook who will have their own 'secret' recipe, and these days, chickens don't seem to taste like they used to. I find it increasingly difficult to get a quality chicken that actually tastes of 'chicken' and isn't pumped full of brine! What is brine you may rightly ask? well brine is a salty liquid mixture which has either been injected into the chicken or which the chicken has been soaked in, that claims to keep the chicken moist during cooking and give a soft texture when you chew it, but believe me there's more in that brine than just salt! read the packaging and you will see for yourself, numerous unnecessary ingredients!

#MondayMotivation Meal - 3 bean butternut squash casserole, steamed couscous, cleansing salad & home pickled onions

At last I have gotten around to bringing my previously mentioned (numerous times) bean and squash casserole to the masses. The celebration of the Easter feast has now passed and after a weekend of chocolate indulgence interspersed with much work while everyone else seemed to be on holiday, it's time now to de-stress and cleanse my system of all that refined sugar. So as it's Monday, and I do love those #MondayMotivation meals that help us get back on track, I usually cook up something along the vegetarian or vegan line. I enjoy meat occasionally but I find myself leaning more towards plant based meals which I find as equally satisfying, and I always notice, that although I feel full and satisfied after such a meal there doesn't seem to be the heaviness in the stomach region that follows a meat based meal.

This casserole is packed with delicious beans and butternut squash lightly spiced with smoked paprika, chilli and a hint of garlic. I use pre-cooked canned beans just for the convenience but make sure they are canned in water with as little salt as possible. Feel free to cook your own beans from fresh if you are able to. You can use vegetable stock for extra moisture in the casserole but I tend to use water to keep things natural. You can double or triple up on this recipe and batch cook and portion for the freezer where it will keep well for up to 6 months!

Boozy Blush Granita

The much anticipated Easter weekend is upon us and Easter Sunday, if you celebrate that sort of thing, is another one of those days when families and their extended relations make an effort to get together and enjoy some delicious food, namely the Spring lamb.

This year though, we as a family are eschewing.....what a wonderful word.....the traditional roast leg of lamb in favor of pork, and boy have I found it difficult to get the specific cut of pork I wanted.
I went from butcher to butcher in quest of a whole piece of pork belly......yes it can be bought in the supermarket (I can hear you shouting at your screen!).....but here it always comes pre-sliced, and as I wanted to marinade the joint and slice it myself, this will not do. In the absence of pork belly I asked for loin of pork....it certainly wouldn't be as moist as the pork belly, but I would be able to add ample flavor....sadly it was not to be. The only pork loin joint on offer came minus it's delicious skin, which makes the scrumptious 'crackling'........and was presented to me in that mass produced vacuum packed, pumped with added water manner seemingly preferred by the public in general.........I was flabbergasted....how can this be? I asked perplexed......but according to each butcher, people don't like their pork that 'other' way.......oh you mean naturally! I replied with a bucket sarcasm......so now it's Friday night and I have nothing for Sunday lunch which means I will have to trail back into town tomorrow and see what's left...such fun!

She's No Spring Chicken! (Coq-a-Leekie Chicken)

Spring is almost upon us, in fact it's just a couple of days till the clocks shoot forward and we non 'Spring Chickens' loose an hour of our much needed beauty sleep! Still I find the milder spring weather brings a renewed vigor to daily life no matter what age you are. The daffodils are crowding the edges of the lawn, which received it's fist trim of the year this morning, and new growth is visible on the shrubs and hedgerows in the lanes. It just makes you feel that bit more full of life yourself.

The new season also sees a shift in our appetites and lighter meals are craved instinctively. We will move on from those heavy stews and heartwarming soups of the winter to foods that tend not to 'stick to the ribs' as they would say.

My coq-a-leekie chicken may be filled with lots of vegetables but with a light broth it can be enjoyed for both lunch or a main evening meal.....and you can of course use a Spring chicken!
This is another one of those wonderful one pot dishes and the 'one-pot' as we all know, is the busy families savior. The long slow cooking brings amazing flavors to the dish resulting in tender, moist meat and a delicious broth......it can also be made in a slow cooker making it even more convenient!

A LegenDerry Festival of Food!

2016 is the Year of Food and Drink in Northern Ireland and what better way to spend my first real foodie outing of the year but at the LegenDerry Food Festival which took place last weekend.

Artisan food producers and celebrity chefs from all over Northern Ireland and a few from Donegal, along with local cafe's and restaurants took over the Guildhall Square in the centre of the ancient walled city of Derry / Londonderry for a two day extravaganza of sample tastings, cookery demonstrations and talks. With street entertainment, a fabulous food marquee, and an abundance of local products to buy and take home it was a great day out for all the family....and the sun shone too!

Below are just a sample of what was happening on the day and I would need pages before I could do justice to everyone there! If you would like to find out more about the year of food and drink then click HERE! where you can find extensive information on local producers, restaurants etc. upcoming food festivals and local markets and all that is great about the wonderful Northern Ireland food industry.

Freaky Friday!..a Potato by any other name, would it still be Irish? - Oven Roasted pesto Gnocchi

Yesterday felt like Saturday....all day! And apparently I wasn't the only one suffering this glitch in the matrix! The previous day, Thursday, had been St. Patrick's Day.....what is St. Patrick's Day you ask?.......have you been living under a rock all your life?.. I reply! It's only THEE biggest festival day in Irish culture....... and the whole world seems to turn green on the 17th March....even the Colosseum in Rome did!....and why?......because there are so many Irish or people who claim to be of Irish descent, scattered around the world.....you could even say the USA was built by the Irish!  

This feast day celebrates St. Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland and chased out all the 'snakes'..... or those formerly known as the pagans and the druids!....well that's just my opinion.

In honor of this saint and his feast day, the whole country takes a holiday.......parades take place in every small town and city from Buncrana just a few miles from me here in Donegal, to Cork city in the south, Dublin in the east and Galway to the west, and probably every village in between too.....the pubs are packed from noon till midnight where the Guinness is served green, the food of the day is Irish stew, colcannon and boxty.......and there be dancin at the crossroads.

Avocado 'en suprise' ? ......sort of!

Having seen a recipe recently for a chicken pan melt using avocado and cheese, it brought to mind a method of cooking I learned many years ago as a lowly commis chef starting out.
Anything cooked in a parcel of foil, paper or even in pastry was termed to be 'en surprise'.....you break through the mysteriously plain parcel and surprise! you have revealed the wondrous treasure within.
Cooking food in this manner also has the advantage of retaining moisture which is excellent when cooking fish......any fish cooked in a foil parcel with a squeeze of lemon, a dash of white wine or vermouth and a few fresh herbs is simply divine....and when you open that parcel the concealed aromas burst forth and fill your senses......mmm!

This dish came about by me, as usual, being stubborn about any food heading for the compost bin......I'm big into the #wastenot campaign!
In my fridge I found half a butternut squash, the other half having found it's way into a squash and 3 bean casserole....recipe to follow in a day or so.....half an avocado that was beginning to brown even though I had used lemon juice on it, and a jar with a few tablespoons of my home made tomato sauce lying at the bottom of it.

Although avocados are lovely in a salad or as a nice garlicky guacamole dip, browned avocados are not the most appetising, but as I am partial to them cooked it doesn't matter what shade they are as long as they are near enough ripe. Cooking avocado changes the whole flavour of them and seems to intensify their creaminess and baking them with a tomato sauce topped with some lovely gooey mozzarella would be da bomb! as they say.

So for my Avocado 'en surprise'....you will need....feeds 2 people

the bulbous end of a butter nut squash          
1/2 an avocado
4-6 tablespoons of 'Cheat's tomato sauce'...recipe HERE! or you can use your favourite shop bought sauce
approx 100 g mozzarella
sea salt, black pepper
olive oil
1 clove garlic

How to:

• cut the squash in two even halves and scrape away all the seeds and any loose stringy flesh to leave a smooth interior shell
• place on an oven proof dish or baking sheet....if they wobble too much you can trim a bit of the hard skin from the underside to keep them steady
• score the inner flesh a couple of times with a sharp knife
• grate or crush the garlic and rub into the score lines
• season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil
• cover with tin foil or a lid and bake in a pre-heated oven, 160 oC for 15- 20 minutes to soften the flesh a little
• remove from the oven, and turn the oven up to 170oC
• fill each squash shell with the tomato sauce, top with slices of avocado, season with a little sea salt
• top with slices of mozzarella to your own liking.....some like a little, some like a lot!....feel free to use grated mozzarella if you like
• return to the oven for approx 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and delicious
• serve on their own or with a tossed salad on the side

You could use a nice mature cheddar cheese or some other suitable cheese with good melting properties like Edam or even brie, I wouldn't recommend using parmesan as the idea is that you have this lovely cheesy molten top....you break through and SURPRISE!...the creamy goodness of avocado....yum! You could transform this dish and feed more than 2 people by using a whole butternut squash and filling it with ratatouille, even omitting the avocado, and topping with cheese.

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'Back to Life' Breakfast - Farmhouse Loaf

Generally I am one of those people who bounce out of bed and greet each new day in that smug 'good morning star-shine the earth says hello' sort of way when others in the household would love nothing more than to bury their heads and sleep for  week..... yes I am miss perky in the morning.... well that is until I enter hibernation mode sometime in early November and then on those dark winter mornings I am the inevitable bear with a sore head!, but at this time of the year there's nothing to beat waking up with the sun and taking a wander around the garden listening to the birds chirp whilst watching the pheasants potter about in the field next door,

My stomach however regardless of the time of year, is another matter. For years I have literally had to force breakfast into myself, it is the most important meal of the day after all.....or so it has been drummed into us.......but according to the most recent research, the skipping of breakfast makes absolutely no difference to your ability to loose or maintain weight....HALLELUJAH!! for I simply loathe to eat first thing in the morning and funnily enough my son is the same, he can't bear to eat for at least 2 hours after getting up......he's a brunch man for sure......bless whoever invented brunch!

I begin my day with a big, and I mean a 'big' glass of water almost as soon as I get out of bed. I would roughly drink a pint of water shortly after waking, and even with that to kick start my system, it takes about another hour or even longer after that first glass for my stomach to be in a state where it can cope with food, even if I attend to my morning 'toilette' and maybe go for a walk with the dog.
But now I know that the nauseating thought of putting anything past my lips is not going to affect my health in the long-term, I am much happier, and don't feel I should be forcing myself to eat for the sake of my health.

When I do get around to having something to eat I would of course make sure that it is a balanced and nutritious 'start', guaranteed to bring my system 'back to life' and set me up for the day.
Along with the usual blood sugar regulating porridge and egg breakfasts, I do love my peanut butter and banana. I also read that if you are one of those people who eat peanut butter upwards of 3 times a week it can help with weight loss and healthy weight maintenance......although I would plump, if you pardon the pun, for the organic, low salt, low sugar varieties.
As a base for my peanut butter and banana treat, and I view it as a treat because it's something I look forward to, I use what I call my farmhouse loaf. It is a crusty, nutty, very nutritious and healthy loaf with plenty of fibre, and it just adds to what is a delicious way to begin the day.


So for my Farmhouse Loaf you will need....... 
                      

200 g wholemeal flour                       100 g rye flour
100 g spelt flour
100 g self raising flour
60 g pinhead oatmeal........ plus a little extra to scatter on the top of the loaf and make it look pretty
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 egg at room temperature
80 g room temperature butter.... plus a little extra for greasing
230 - 250 mls buttermilk
80 g raw cane sugar

you will also need a 1lb loaf tin or 2 small 1/2 lb tins

How to:

• butter your loaf tin really well and set aside....or you can use that spray on low cal stuff
• sieve the self raising flour and baking powder
• place all the flours, sea salt and the pinhead oatmeal into your mixing bowl
• dice and add the butter, add the sugar
• rub the butter into the flour on medium speed or by hand
• beat the egg and add to the flour, mix gently for a few seconds on low speed
• add some of the milk then keep adding milk while mixing on a low speed until all the flour has lifted from the bottom of the bowl and is incorporated
• if the mix seems dry then add a little more milk, you should end up with a slightly wet dough...you won't be able to knead this dough and if you can then it's too dry!
• clean down the sides of your bowl then transfer the dough into your loaf tin
• smooth the top of the loaf with the back of a wet tablespoon or even use the palm of your hand but wet it slightly
• scatter some of the oatmeal on top of the loaf and place in a pre-heated oven at 180oC for 20 minutes
• after 20 mins turn the heat down to 160oC, check your loaf with a skewer after 40 minutes, if the skewer comes out dirty then leave the loaf for another 10 - 15 minutes or until the skewer is dry when you test.
• when you think it's done give your loaf a tap....does it have a hollow sound? then it's done
• remove from the oven and loosen around the edges of your loaf with a sharp knife, with luck it should come away easily from the tin
• turn your loaf out onto a wire cooling rack and leave until fully cooled
• store in a suitable container or freeze in a suitable freezer bag 

This loaf will keep for a good 4 days and even longer if you store it in the fridge. I love to have it toasted and then top it with a tablespoon of peanut butter and my sliced banana, enjoy with a cup of refreshing green tea with lemon......keeps hunger at bay for hours!

This bread is very tasty with soup too.....even try it baked in the oven with cheese on top.....yummy!

A Monday Motivation Meal Mish-Mash!

My #MondayMotivation has kept pace with my appetite, or maybe that's the other way around...... and my supper/dinner, call it what you will if it's a meal eaten around 6 - 7 pm, has turned into a mish-mash of what I fancy and what is in the fridge.

An avocado I purchased...... last week! would you believe.....has eventually, with the assistance of the unseasonal sunshine of the last 2 days, bloomed into full, smooth and sleek ripeness just perfect for my spinach salad.
When I added it's creamy slices to a bowl of mixed leaves and baby spinach, I thought it looked a little lonely so I added some vegetable ribbons. These are fun, and so easy to make, and, it's a perfect task to get kids involved in the kitchen.
Simply take a vegetable peeler and peel the outside from a carrot, I also use cucumber, once you get rid of the outer rough layer you can just keep peeling long strips. I always count 2 strips then give the carrot a quarter turn, count another 2 and so on. The ribbons are more uniform that way.......yes I am obsessive over shape and form. A few slices of spring and red salad onion, a drizzle of balsamic or other dressing and away you go!

Next up were the sweet potato oven chips, and can I just say....where were sweet potatoes all my young life?  I can't seem to get enough of them now. I love them baked, chipped, mashed, but definitely not in a pie! I know I'm letting down the American side of the family but to me sweet potato are much better in a savory style. Oven baked chips are the fastest way to cook the sweet potato......simply remove the hard red outer peel, cut into thick slices, then into long finger like chips, toss in a little olive oil, a dash of sea salt, fresh black pepper and maybe a little paprika and roast in the oven at 180oC for apporx 15 - 18 minutes until crisp on the outside and just a teeny bit firm in the centre.

As I was cooking fresh linguine with a tomato and oregano sauce for the teens I couldn't resist pinching a bit for myself......just 2 forkfuls.....honestly!...... a few broccoli florets and supper was on the table.......and delicious it was too......now I have to think about what to have tomorrow.......food....I'm either eating it or thinking about it!

Sweet Oat & Rye Cookies

After a weekend where some of us may have been a bit naughty and over indulged..... well I will admit to having one treat yesterday.....a gluten free muffin with butter icing to follow our delicious Silver Hill confit of duck.....would that be classified as 2 treats?.........it was an extended family get together after all so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!......today is the day we get 'back on the wagon'.....or.... 'normal meal service' resumes!

Hashtag 'monday motivation' will have been all over my Twitter feed from early morning making me even hungrier and a touch guilty as people post pictures of their healthy meal choices, but with the sun shining outside I'm feeling optimistic that I will 'maintain'........lightly cooked eggs for breakfast with a lemon green tea, a home made vegetable broth with hummus and crackers for lunch, a spinach and avocado salad with oven baked sweet potato 'chips' for supper, and a pat on the back for me at bedtime......planning is everything when it comes to sticking to your food guns!....plan what you will eat....keep to it and you can't go wrong.

It's much easier to control your own will power than it is others, and keeping two teenagers on the sort of straight and narrow when it comes to food choices is a challenge to say the least when one is obsessed with Oreo chocolate bars and the other with chewy mints. Luckily both take a packed lunch to their respective colleges, and to reduce the chances of them hitting the candy counter in the cafeteria at break time I slip a little something slightly sweet and rewarding into each box.......plus a few extra to feed their friends!

These oaty cookies are a healthier treat, albeit a sweet one, so they won't feel they are missing out on anything.....or so I tell myself.
Made with a high proportion of oats, unrefined cane sugar, honey, and the surprising addition of rye, they are chewy, nutty and deliciously moreish.
You can use golden syrup if you're not a honey fan, and some people aren't! You might like to dust these with castor sugar like you would shortbread, or you can zip them with, or dip them in chocolate.

You will need: makes approx 12 -20 cookies depending on the size you cut them

250 g rolled oats
75 g rye flour
50 g plain flour
250 g rolled oats
125 g light brown or raw cane sugar
200 g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons clear honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
pinch salt

How to:

• dice the butter and chill in the fridge
• heat the oven to 150 oC
• put the oats, salt, rye flour, plain flour and sugar in your mixing bowl
• add the chilled dice butter and using the spade attachment, rub in the butter on medium speed....you can of course rub in by hand but really it's such and awful lot of work.
• when the mixture begins to gain a sandy texture add the vanilla and the honey
• continue to mix gently until it comes together like a pastry dough
• scrape out the dough onto a lightly floured surface....you can use the rye or plain flour for this task
• roll out the dough to a thickness that suits you, some people like really deep oatcakes,  I like mine the thickness of a digestive biscuit
• cut out the cookies using a round plain or fluted cutter or you might like to cut shapes such as squares or triangles
• place the cookies on a non stick baking sheet and chill for 15 minutes before placing in the oven
• bake until they are a light golden brown
• remove from the oven....now is the time to dust them with sugar if you want.....otherwise, let them cool on the tray for a minute or so until they begin to firm up
• loosen the cookies slightly with a palette or other knife and leave them for another 10 minutes
• transfer to a wire cooling rack until fully cooled

As I said before you can dust these with sugar as soon as they come out of the oven or zip them with some melted chocolate or you can dip them.

Dip half the cookie in melted dark chocolate, shake off any excess, lay them flat on some greaseproof parchment and scatter some nibbed almonds or chopped pistachios on the chocolate side and leave them to set. Store your baked cookies in an airtight biscuit tin or suitable container....they freeze well too!

Sunday Lunch...........heaven or hell?

A family Sunday lunch should be a time for fun, a time to catch up with those whom we may not see for weeks at a time, and a chance to enjoy, at leisure, the pleasure of each others company over great food and maybe a glass or two of wine.

However in many homes this is not the case! A family Sunday get together seems to cause consternation especially those on whose shoulders it fall to feed the multitude! so why not put the ease back into your Sunday cooking with a simple, straightforward one pot dish, guaranteed to satisfy the pickiest of eaters and to get you out of the kitchen and enjoying that precious time with family.

Click HERE! for an easy.....like Sunday should be..... lunch....... bon appetit!

Ginger Salt Water Taffy.......Cake or Pudding?.......You Decide!

This heavenly concoction is a meeting of my favorite dessert... 'sticky toffee pudding' and that afternoon tea cake......ginger cake. 

You can enjoy this recipe as an afternoon tea treat or have as a dessert.....serve warm with lashings of whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream dolloped on top and watch it melt into the salty toffee sauce.....to die for!

Some sticky toffee pudding recipes use dates for adding richness, moisture and 'stickiness' to the sponge...... but I have found that prunes (tinned in their own juice, not a sugar syrup) do the job just as well.....and it cuts down on the cost, prunes are way cheaper than decent dates!

When getting ready to bake have your ingredients at room temperature, especially the eggs.....adding very cold eggs can cause curdling of the mixture, having them at room temperature lessens the chance of that happening.

You can bake this in a loaf or round cake tin as I have done, or you can even make muffins or cupcakes from the mixture........you will get approx 16 - 18 cup cake from this. 

As always I advise the use of an electric mixer unless you have strong arms for all the mixing required.
If you don't like the idea of the ginger 'bits' through the sponge you can always leave them out, but add an extra teaspoon of ground ginger to keep it tasty!

Bloggers Choice Awards 2016

Do you enjoy my blog? well you can nominate it HERE! for..

'Bloggers Choice Food Blog of the Year'  award with Irish Blogger Association

Bon Appetit!

Irish Stew?.....No...Give me 'Derry Stew'!

Stew is synonymous with Ireland and when most foreigners think of Irish food, stew is the one dish they seem most familiar with.

Irish Stew is traditionally made from the tougher cuts of lamb that require lengthy cooking but alternative recipes exist all over the country and no two recipes will be the same!

Unique to the north of Ireland though, and particularly to the border areas of Donegal/Derry, stew is made with minced meat, usually beef. 

In the city of Derry where I grew up, stew is made with 'Doherty's special mince'. This minced beef, made under a secret recipe probably going back a hundred years, gives a delightful spiciness to a stew, impossible to replicate so it has to be Doherty's mince!

Stew is the working mans food. Made with the cheapest vegetables you could buy, or grow yourself at home, those being onions, carrots and turnips, the cheapest cuts of meat were used and even then there wouldn't be much meat in it! The stew was cooked long and slow for a couple of hours to tenderize what meat there was, then potatoes would be added to bulk it out.

Stew is still one of the cheapest and indeed one of the easiest and most nutritious meals you could make for a family. It not only contains all the essential food groups of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, it is the ultimate Irish comfort food and in the winter there's nothing like coming in from a chilly walk or an afternoons snowball fight and sitting down to a big bowl of yer mammies stew.......with lashings of brown sauce!

Juan's Spicy Burger with Sweet Onions & Wilted Kale

A burger or a meat patty is my quick go to dinner during the week when we are busy with school, college and work. Though we eat very little red meat in our household we all enjoy pork and I will always have minced pork on hand either fresh or made up as meat patties in the freezer ready to be cooked.

Pork on it's own can be quite plain so I like to spice my meat patties up and as it's my sons favorite dish, I use lots of onion and garlic flavors with a touch of smoked paprika and a little chilli powder.....he likes it hot!.

These can then be pan fried quickly and then finished in the oven or cooked on the bbq or griddle.

You have to have onions with a burger! so I like to use the sweeter red onion and add red wine vinegar and brown sugar to caramelize them. Served up with some garlic scented wilted kale and you have a tasty and very nutritious meal!

Wee Buns!........or.......Easy Peasy Cupcakes!

The phrase 'wee buns' has two meanings in this part of the country, it can mean something that is easily done or it can mean 'small cakes'...... 'wee' as in small and 'buns' as in cakes!

At some point every parent is bound to run the gauntlet of the school charity bake sale and must produce 'the goods' on behalf of their child.....'look what my mammy / daddy / granny made'......they will be so proud of you!.......but if you are allergic to baking then these 'wee buns' are the answer to your prayers, they are easy to make especially if you have little helpers on hand, they taste great and you most definitely will be crowned cupcake king or queen!

For this basic cupcake/bun recipe I use vanilla to flavor the sponge, feel free to adapt for other flavors and toppings if you like, whatever is your pleasure, but these are great with a simple frosting, a few sprinkles or other edible bits and you're good to go!