Daube de Lamb or Winter Lamb Stew, Donegal Style

When discussing France and food, it generally brings to mind those foods we most identify with a
country blessed with an abundance of heat and light. The fresh fruits, the crisp salads and faux fillets with the obligatory 'pommes frites', the fresh seafood, the creamy cheese just ripe for the eating, the light as air croissants and crusty baguette, the delectable tarte au citron or chocolate mousse, the crepes hot off the griddle and creamy ice cream in crisp waffle cones, these are the foods of long hot summer days enjoyed on a 2 week annual holiday.......if you are lucky!

Having had the advantage and privilege of being more than a holiday maker in France, I was able to discover another food side to this wonderful country, one that appears when the last bronzed sun worshiper steps onto the plane.
There is a whole menu of cold weather food......cold weather as in the sun is still shining but the temperature is minus 5! or when the psychotic Mistral wind blows for days on end!
So when it's cold outside, just like in Ireland, the natives are drawn to those heart warming dishes of casseroles, thick soups and rich wine soaked stews, best eaten in front of roaring log fires with glass of red wine in hand!

One of my favourite French winter warmers is the famous 'Daube de Boeuf'. A rich Provençal stew with lots of vegetables and beef soaked in copious amounts of red wine, then slowly cooked for hours till it melts in the mouth. Accompanied by our old favourite the boiled potato, and washed down with a few more glasses of wine, you have central heating that will make you sleep like the dead and keep you warm through the coldest of nights!

Bread & Butter Pudding 'Italian' Style!

At this time of year the wonderful Italian Panettone appears in the shops and people seem to be amazed at the high price commanded for what is basically a loaf of bread with fruit in it.

Panettone is a bread type product, but it is so much more than you imagine, it is rich, sweet and takes an incredible 20 hours or so to make, hence the extortionate price, but as you will agree when you've tried it, there's value in every bite!

Panettone, which is very much like Irish 'Barmbrack' is sweetened with dried fruit, but with a much higher ratio of butter, also it is put through 3 stages of rising which gives the panettone its distinctive fluffy texture. But unlike in Ireland, where we eat our brack with a good cup of tea, the Italians enjoy their panettone with a glass of sweet wine or a strong cup of coffee, preferably espresso.

Although panettone is as easy as making any other enriched type bread, it is time consuming with all the rising required, and with so many wonderful panettone products of a good standard on the market.......why bother!

Last Christmas I ................ made my cake too late.

If you wish to have a Christmas cake that would make even 'Mary Poppins' proud......that is, a cake that is 'practically perfect in every way', then this weekend or early next week is really that final window of baking opportunity!

Those of us who got ourselves ahead of the game early....and well done to you if you are one of our gang!.....we are now at our last but one 'brandy-fying' hurdle.

This weekend we will be turning our cake and brushing the base with brandy, re-wrapping it and storing it upside down! for the next week.


If you have however been extremely busy, as so many of us are, don't panic! if you can get your cake made by the end of this week then you still have time to let it mature, although I would suggest 1 less dose of brandy!

So if you missed it here's my Countdown to Christmas 'Part I'

If you're not into Christmas cake of any kind then take heart, I will have some delicious festive alternatives for you over the next couple of weeks!

"Frikadellen"......... pardon my German!

Wandering around a supermarket recently, I spied an unusual item that I hadn't encountered before.

The item in question resembled an extremely overcooked little meat patty almost like a burger, but so great was my curiosity that I couldn't wait to get home and 'Google' it to find out exactly what they were, and as it turns out they were very interesting!



What I had discovered was 'Frikadellen'! What the 'f.... ' is a 'frickadellen'? well the natives of this little island will certainly not be familiar with these things unless they have been to Germany that is! or if they were adventurous enough to buy them!

According to that great oracle 'wikipedia', the 'frickadellen' is a small meat 'dumpling', but rather than having a the round shape of a dumpling it is more like a meat patty really. They are very popular in Germany and in many of those other 'eastern block' countries.

Meanwhile back at the Blog!

I have been somewhat quiet for the last few days brought on a by an excess of people and things requiring my attention! Needless to say I will be back shortly with a new recipe!

We were greeted recently by the devastating news of the sad occurrences in Paris, and as a country I consider to be my second home the reports were both shocking and heartbreaking.

I am not going to launch into a political tirade here about who or what is to blame, but it never ceases to amaze me the depths our fellow humans can sink to.
When there is so much beauty in the world and so much to be thankful for, why can there not be more love and tolerance among us?

A willingness to learn and the practice of acceptance of others, regardless of their religious or non religious or political views, is something we should all aspire to.

A wise, great chef once told me that the day I stop learning is the day I should stop being a chef........and thankfully even after thirty years I am still learning.

Almost every week I come across some new foodstuff, a new type of fresh produce, a new method of combining flavours, or a way of cooking something, as in all things in life we should be humble enough to say that we don't know it all, that we are not always right in our version beliefs, and no matter whose side we believe we are on, remember....... there are always two sides to every story.

So to my beloved France....les pensees et les coeurs en sont toujours avec vous

Hot Pot - the King of 'One-Pot' dishes!

One-pot cooking..... how I love it! When you are busy with work and family the aim in the evening is to get dinner or supper, as some call it, on the table with the minimum of fuss and hassle so you can put your feet up and relax afterwards without facing a kitchen bomb-site, and one-pot cooking fulfils all those dreams.

The king of one pot dishes for taste and flavour is the 'Hot Pot'.

Traditionally from the Lancashire/Cumbrian region of the UK where the sheep is 'king of the pasture', the hot pot was an easy dish that could be assembled in the morning and left to slowly cook till evening over an open turf and wood fire.

Pieces of mutton would be layered with onions, carrots and turnips, the 'kitchen garden' vegetables of the region, and topped with layers of potatoes. No liquid would be added, instead the moisture would come from the slow cooking of the vegetables and a tightly sealed pot!
Hot pot was always on the menu in the local hostelries, and the posher inns would even add oysters to the pot!

Today the Lancashire Hot Pot has passed into legend due to that well known long running 'soap opera' and all thanks to Betty!

Tasty Saturday Tea - Savoury Pork & Apple Puff

I love supporting local artisans and producers. Unlike an impersonal global entity, you can talk to these people face to face and find out exactly what is in their product or where it has been sourced from.
Buying local ensures you are in turn supporting small industry, encouraging the smaller farmer and helping people maintain their jobs.........a winner all round!

My closest butcher is one of those people and goes by the name 'Paul's Butchers', and they are based in the city of Derry with a couple of small outlets in the suburbs, you can find out more about them HERE!

Among their many fabulous hand made products are their award winning 'pork & leek' sausages which if I do say so myself are quite addictive! and I definitely need to practice restraint!

With a high meat content and fab flavour and available as thick or thin, they are great of course for breakfast but come into their own as a great dinner /supper mainstay.

But although I love sausages, a plain grilled sausage with mash potatoes, gravy and veg, or even with beans and mash, a local favourite! it gets a bit boring after a while so I always try and do something inventive that will enhance but not detract from their delicious flavour.


Saturday evenings after a busy week are not the time to be cooking a whole grandiose meal .... that's what Sunday lunch is for! so unless I have friends round for dinner I keep it simple, and light and this savoury pork & apple puff does the trick!

Countdown to Christmas Part II ......... Christmas Cake!

If you missed PART I of the Countdown to Christmas click  HERE!

great grandma Anna

Our family recipe for Christmas cake has been handed down through 3 generations.

It was the recipe my mother always used that was passed down from my grandmother and which probably came from her mother too.......all in that makes it roughly about 100 years old, times may change yet good recipes seldom do and now all members of the extended family who bake for Christmas use this recipe........it also makes a fine cake for a wedding!

The only change that has been made to the original recipe is the swapping of walnuts for pecans, personally I am not a walnut fan although I do love a good coffee and walnut cake which I will pick the walnuts out of......I like the flavour, just not the actual nut.......which seems strange as pecans are every similar in texture.

Pecans are a firm favourite in our family, that's the american coming out in us I suppose........ we do love a good pecan pie! that's another family recipe that will see the light of day on here too no doubt!
Pecans have come down in price significantly in the last few years, in line with their rise in popularity I'd suppose, and are available even in 'economy' supermarkets.

In defence of Parsnips!

A few nights ago, Monday night to be exact,
I must admit to being in moderate shock, but not really surprised, after watching Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'War on waste' on BBC 1.

The main subject of the programme was 'parsnips', an everyday run of the mill vegetable, but are you aware that there is a plot against the humble parsnip being perpetrated by the leading supermarkets? no?....well neither did I!

Hugh is leading the campaign within the UK against the unnecessary disposal of literally millions of tonnes of food needlessly dumped each year because the supermarkets claim that we don't want to buy them!

In Honour of Marguerite!

Today we are celebrating 100 years of the wonderful Marguerite Patten who sadly passed away only very recently, in June of this year.

An acclaimed food writer and broadcaster, she was the 'celebrity chef' of her era and a saviour to any housewife cooking in the 'modern age' of the 1950's, 60's and 70's.


Marguerite presented her first cookery program live on BBC television in 1947 having previously presented via radio during world war 2 when she worked for the ministry of food. Her radio broadcasts were advice to the war time housewife on how to make the best use of rations!
She also spent some time after the war demonstrating cooking appliances in the world famous London store, Harrods.

Countdown to Christmas!........Part I

Now that the season of the witch is at an end we are beginning to think seriously about planning our Christmas!

My good friends Georgina and Rhonda have 'Santa' sorted already for their troop of kids........how wonderfully organised they are, unlike myself.....I have yet to decide what I would like never mind what I intend to give others!......some hints please otherwise stockings may be bare!

But the time has come for making those Christmas cakes and puddings.........yes the next week or so is the time to do it........... good quality booze filled cakes and puddings need time to mature or else you'll be eating a semi-dry confection that tastes like it's just had a glass of brandy thrown over the top of it......and who wants that!

Meat.......are you dying to afford it?

We are eating too much red meat and increasing our risk of colorectal cancers!

Last week I read this headline and for anyone who had absolutely no dietary or nutritional education, and many people don't, it was a pretty scary statement guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any serious meat lover!

The national media frenzy that followed the release of this latest bit of health information from the World Health Organization did little to calm the panic!

Few bother to go beyond the sensationalist headlines and do some in depth research for themselves so may have decided to forgo not only red meat but meat altogether, when really the truth of the matter is far from this type of statement!

People do eat eat far too much meat......but more to the point they eat far too much of the processed kind! and when I say 'too much' I don't mean that they are sitting down and pigging out and over-indulging on it day after day....... they are eating it in normal amounts as part of their everyday diets.

But look at it like this, if you have a family or even just yourself to feed, and you only have a certain portion of your income set aside with which to do that, then when you head to the supermarket is it any wonder that you go straight to the product that will give you the best value for your money?

For example.......if you want to buy some ham for sandwiches to take to work or to send with the kids to school, you will buy the packet with the most amount of ham for the cheapest price....it's only common financial sense after all......and who can blame you......you are certainly not going to spend up to 3 times more for maybe only a couple slices of ham just because they are dry cured in a traditional manner, maple glazed and hand carved!  And as long as you can buy a packet of 12 processed beef burgers for less than the price of a kilo of lean minced beef it doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a minimal amount of education to figure out what your decision will be!