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Archive for November, 2010

Quick n tasty!

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, Soup, tagged , , , , , , , on 30 November 2010| 2 Comments »

After a long day … made even longer by cold weather and snow delays … a simple and tasty soup that is all about freshness and flavour.

 

 

 

 

Quick prawn noodle soup (for one)

  • Boil 85g thick rice noodles for about 6 minutes or until al dente, then drain.
  • Put 500ml hot chicken or vegetable stock in a pan with a tsp of fish sauce, the juice of 1/2 a lime, a star anise & a pinch of sugar.
  • Bring to the boil and add the noodles and a handful of small raw prawns.
  • Warm through, then pour into a bowl and top with a handful of mint and coriander leave and some chopped red chilli.

(We don’t like talking about calories too much but this is only about 250 calories a bowl and has no saturated fat – we felt very good (and full) after eating it).

Click here for original recipe on BBC Good Food.

Jono & Julie

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Georgio Locatelli’s duck breast with broccoli

Posted in Duck, Food, Rhône, Syrah, Wine, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 29 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve had Georgio Locatelli’s Made in Italy for yonks now but had yet to try any of the recipes until tonight. We had some duck breasts and were looking for a tasty recipe without too many ingredients. This fitted the bill perfectly except one of the ingredients proved very difficult to find – if you live in Dublin you can get farro or spelt in Fallon & Byrne but we had to go twice to find it!

After all this faffing about looking for farro you can’t even see it in our picture. I promise that is there though (under the duck breast).

This was absolutely fabulous and quite straight forward though I recommend you get organised with all the pans and stuff before you start.

Duck breast with brocoli (for 4 people)

4 duck breasts

4 tablespoons farro (spelt)

145ml extra-virgin olive oil

2 heads of broccoli, separated into florets

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced

salt and pepper

  • Take the duck breasts out of the fridge about an hour before you start.
  • Soak the farro in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain.
  • Preheat oven to 220C (gas 7).
  • Bring a pan of unsalted water to the boil and cook the farro for 15 minutes (salted water will make it go hard). Drain and tip onto a tray or big plate. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over and toss to coat the grains and keep them separate. Give them a jiggle every few minutes so they don’t stick together.
  • Blanch the broccoli in boiling salted water for a minute or two to just soften it. Drain and set aside.
  • Score the skin and season the duck; this helps the fat to render. Heat an oven-proof saute pan to medium-hot, then put in the duck, skin-side down, and cook until it turns golden (about 6 minutes). Turn over and cook for 1 minute, then turn down the heat. Take the duck out and keep warm.
  • Drain the fat off the pan, add the Worcestershire sauce and 3 tablespoons of the remaining oil. Stir to emulsify and turn off the heat.
  • Heat a saute pan, add the remaining oil, followed by the garlic and chilli, and cook without colouring for a few minutes.Add the broccoli and saute without allowing to colour, until just soft. Season.
  • In a separate pan, fry the farro without any extra oil until slightly crisp (drain off excess oil as you go). Season.
  • Put the duck into a roasting tray and put in the oven for 2-3 minutes (or more if you like it more done).
  • Spoon the farro into the middle of the plates, and arrange the broccoli around it with the oil.
  • Slice the duck and put on top of the farro and finish with the sauce.

This was so tasty Jono wanted a second helping even though he was stuffed!

We served this with a glass of red 2005 Saint Joseph ‘Les Pierres Leches’ from Yves Cuilleron. Nice medium weight so it doesn’t overwhelm the food but a really tasty and flavoursome Syrah at the same time. Highly recommended.

Julie

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Jono & Jules’ Wine of the Week

Posted in Gascogny, Wine, Wine of the Week, tagged , , , , , , on 25 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is our new “Wine of the Week” feature where we recommend a good value (under €15) wine we’ve liked.

It’s always good to have your drinking choices confirmed by a respected member of the wine trade; and it has happened with our house white wine this year!

We’ve been drinking the Domaine de Pellehaut, Harmonie de Gascogne blanc 2009 for the past four or five months and enjoying it most thoroughly. It is uncomplicated, fresh and flavoursome and a perfect medium weight. The flavours are a bit lemony and appley with a light, stoney mineral twist and it drinks well on its own and with food. Being a blend of grapes it takes a little of the best of each to make an interesting wine, without being too full-on – this makes it a perfect  week night wine and a great one to entertain a group of friends.

Stephen Spurrier, Decanter magazine’s Consultant Editor, concurs in an admission in his December edition column. His house wine too!

We get ours from Mitchell’s Wine Merchants in Glasthule or the CHQ Building, IFSC for €9.95  which is a great price for such a versatile wine.

Wine of the week

Jono 🙂

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A tasty carrot soup

Posted in Food, Healthy, Soup, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 24 November 2010| 1 Comment »

We actually make soup almost every week but rarely put them on our blog… not sure why but perhaps we’ll stick them up more often.

Here’s what we’ll be eating for lunch for the rest of the week:

Honeyed Carrot Soup (makes a big pot full)

  • Melt 2 tbsp butter in a big saucepan.
  • Add a big sliced leek and cook for a few minutes until starting to soften.
  • Add 800g of roughly chopped carrots, 2 tsp clear honey, a pinch of chilli flakes and a bay leaf and cook for another couple of minutes.
  • Pour in 2.5 litres of vegetable stock, bring to the boil, and simmer for half an hour.
  • Whizz the soup until smoothish and season.

Find the original recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4852/honeyed-carrot-soup

Julie

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Cheap and healthy tuna and couscous

Posted in Fish, Food, Healthy, tagged , , , , , , on 24 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

We were up in Belfast for the weekend which always means over-indulgence and I then flew to Birmingham for a conference and ate very boring and fatty food – what a waste!

This was a much needed healthy dinner and yet again I had succumbed to M&S reduced tuna steaks (I just can’t help myself when it comes to food bargains!).

This reads fairly dull but actually it was really tasty. I’m not a big fan of red onions (like I usually poke them out of a salad) but the way these are macerated with the lemon juice really takes the sting and sharpness out of them.

Highly recommended for when you feel like something healthy and tasty (or if you have to use them cheapo tuna fillets you bought).

I found this recipe in another of my old BBC Good Food magazines.

Hot mustard tuna with herby couscous (serves 4 though we halved it very successfully)

  • Put a finely sliced red onion in a little bowl with the zest and juice of a lemon and some seasoning – leave to soak for about 5 minutes to soften the onion a bit.
  • Put 250g of couscous into a large bowl and pour over 400ml of hot vegetable stock, cover with cling film and leave for 10 minutes.
  • Season 4 tuna steaks, brush with 1 tbsp olive oil, then pat 2 tsps of English mustard powder over them.
  • When the couscous is ready, add a bunch of roughly chopped flat parsley and 2 tbsp of capers to the onions – give it a good stir before mixing into the couscous with a fork.
  • Heat a griddle pan and sear the tuna steaks for a minute on each side (more if you don’t like it rareish).
  • Serve with lemon wedges.

Julie

Original recipe can be found here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4839/hot-mustard-tuna-with-herby-couscous

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Pork, Leeks and Green Peppercorns

Posted in Food, Pork, tagged , , , on 22 November 2010| 1 Comment »

Inspired by Nigel Slater … and because leeks are in season and we love leeks!

We made this last night for Julie’s parents, and after a weekend up in Belfast; a success as it was creamy and flavoursome and had a great freshness from the peppercorns.

So if you’d like to try for yourself:

  • Turn on oven to 150°C
  • Trim 650g leeks, wash and slice into 2cm slices. Warm 40g butter in a large, heavy based casserole dish. Add leeks and cook, covered for 10 to 15 minutes until tender. Lift out leeks and set aside.
  • Heat up pan again until hot and then add 500g cubed pork. Colour lightly on all sides and then remove and add to leeks.
  • Halve or quarter 500g mushrooms and add to the same casserole dish and fry until golden – add a little extra butter if you need as we did.
  • Return leeks and pork to the casserole and scatter 1 tablespoon plain flour and cook for a minute or two.
  • Slowly add 500ml hot stock (we used chicken) and then stir in 2 bay leaves and season generously with salt & pepper.
  • Bring slowly to the boil, cover and transfer to oven. Cook until tender for about 60 minutes.
  • Chop a small bunch of parsley and stir into casserole with 4 teaspoons of green peppercorns in brine (rinsed) and 140ml double cream.
  • return to oven for a further 5 minutes.
  • Serve with unbuttered potatoes and a little veg and enjoy 🙂

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Winter soup

Posted in Food, Soup, tagged , , , , , , on 13 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Dublin’s now officially cold and Wintery, so we thought we’d cook some soup for the week ahead 🙂

Winter cannellini bean soup

  • Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a big saucepan and tip in 4 finely chopped shallots, 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic, a finely chopped carrot, 2 finely chopped celery sticks, 2 finely chopped leeks and 140g finely chopped streaky bacon.
  • Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until softened but not browned.
  • Pour in 1.4 litres of vegetable or chicken stock (we use Marigold), then add 2 bay leaves and 1/2 tsp dried oregano or marjoram.
  • Season and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
  • Add 2 tins of drained and rinsed cannellini beans and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Credit to BBC Good Food:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1148/winter-cannellini-bean-soup

Jono

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Festive side: No. 1

Posted in Food, Side dish, tagged , , , , on 12 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Because we had pancetta, chestnuts and parsley that needed to be used in the fridge we thought we’d try out our first festive side of the season.

The result … yum!

  • Cook 500g of brussels sprouts in boiling water for around 5 minute or until cooked.
  • Meanwhile cook 125g pancetta in a little bit of vegetable oil until bronzed and crisp.
  • Add a large knob of butter and 100g cookedchestnuts – squashing the chestnuts to break them up a bit.
  • Add 25ml Marsala and reduce to a syrup.
  • Add the drained Brussel Sprouts, toss and add some parsley and lots of black pepper.
  • Enjoy.

Credit to Nigella – recipe from Feast.

Jono

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We can’t be gourmands every day!

Posted in Fish, Food, tagged , , , , on 12 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

When you a you’ve had a long week and Thursday night needs some easy comfort food – fish fingers, peas and home-made chips (or little potato things). Serve with tartare sauce and a glass of white wine 😉

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Greek Feast – Stifado

Posted in Beef, Food, Greek, tagged , , , , , , on 7 November 2010| 3 Comments »

This was so easy and super tasty. All the prep can be done before your friends arrive and then it just simmers away and makes the house smell lovely. Serve with steamed potatoes.

Warning: The meat is supposed to be marinated for 24-48 hours – I only realised this on Saturday afternoon so mine was marinated for about 5 hours – still was fab.

Moshari stifado (Veal Stifado but we used beef) – Serves 6

  • Make a marinade from: 120ml olive oil, 250ml dry red wine, 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 3 bay leaves, 20 black peppercorns, 10 allspice berries, 4 garlic cloves.
  • Add 1kg stewing beef pieces, turn to coat, cover and let marinate in the refrigerator, turning occasionally, for 1 to 2 days.
  • Blanch 2kg small pearl onions or shallots in boiling water for 1 minute, drain and peel.
  • Heat 250ml olive oil in a large heavy pan over a medium heat. Add onions in batches and cook each batch for 8 – 10 minutes until lightly browned all over. Remove each batch with a slotted spoon.
  • Remove meat from marinade and strain liquid into bowl – reserve the flavourings
  • Add meat to pan used to cook the onion and cook for about 8 minutes until lightly browned all over.
  • Pour in reserved marinade and season with salt & pepper. Add 2 of the bay leaves, 6 of the peppercorns and 6 of the allspice berries.
  • Add 750ml puréed fresh or canned tomatoes (we used pasatta). Cover, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
  • Add the onions and 3 of the reserved garlic cloves. Recover and simmer for 1.5 hours until meat and onions are tender and the sauce is very thick.
  • If the sauce has not reduced enough, remove meat and onions with a slotted spoon and then boil the sauce rapidly. Stir meat and onions back in before serving.

Julie

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Greek Feast – Stuffed Vine Leaves

Posted in Greek, Vegetarian, tagged , , , on 7 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Our friends are just home from their honeymoon in Greece and as we are still new-fangled with Vefa’s Kitchen so we invited them over for a Greek Feast on Saturday night.

These vine leaves were a labour of love (they took me hours) but were well worth it and our friends reckoned they were better than any they had in Greece – though maybe they were just being nice. Perfect party food and can be made well in advance.

Dolmadakia gialantzi (Rice-stuffed Vine Leaves) – Serves lots of people!

  • Rinse 500g vine leaves and trim off the stems.
  • Add the leaves, a few at a time, to a pan of boiling water and blanch briefly, then drain, and leave to cool.
  • Cover the bottom of a large, wide, heavy pan with some of the leaves.
  • Put 175g finely chopped scallions and 2 large chopped onions into a colander, sprinkle with a little salt, and rub with your fingers. Rinse and drain, then squeeze out as much water as possible.
  • Combine 500g medium-grain rice (we used basmati), the onions, 25g chopped parsley, 15g chopped dill, 225ml olive oil, 4 tablespoons pine nuts and 4 tablespoons currants in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
  • Lay a leaf out flat, shiny side down. Put about 1 tablespoon of the mixture at the stem end in the middle, fold the sides over the filling, and loosely roll up into a parcel.
  • Arrange the stuffed leaves in the lined pan, seam side down – you will have more than one layer.
  • Pour over 225ml olive oil, 600ml boiling water, and 5 tablespoons of lemon juice.
  • Invert a heavy plate on top of the parcels to stop them from opening while cooking.
  • Cover the pan, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer until all the water has been absorbed (the recipe suggests 35-45 minutes but ours took much longer than this!).
  • Remove from the heat, put a cotton cloth between the pan and the lid to absorb the steam, and allow to cool.
  • Transfer to a serving platter and serve with Tzatziki or plain yoghurt.

Julie

These tasted great the day after too – best vine leaves ever! – Jono 🙂

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Lustau VORS Palo Cortado

Posted in Sherry, tagged , , on 7 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Lustau have recently released four Very Old Rare Sherries (VORS) and we are lucky enough to be one of the first in the world to taste them at Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants, CHQ store in Dublin. The Solera for these wines are at least 30 years old and only 1000 50cl bottles are being produced for each style.

One of my most favourite styles is a Palo Cortado, which for me combines the best of Amontillado and Oloroso characteristics, making it much more complex and interesting.

Now I know that sherry had got a bit naff and a bit of an old persons drink, but this is such a shame as good sherry, like Lustau produce, is fab. Each style is great with food and this one is no exception – this would work perfectly with game, like pheasant or venison.

What this wine delivers is bags of flavour, a roundness and warmth, and a great savoury texture. I really loved the layers of dried fruit and warm roasted nut flavours which are intertwined with a yeasty, salty and smoky character. This VORS Palo Cortado is really something extra and very special.

Jono

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Winter Warmer: Baked Prawn Casserole and New Zealand Chardonnay

Posted in Chardonnay, Fish, Food, New Zealand, Wine, tagged , , on 5 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Proper blog to follow but for all the Irish Foodies doing the Cookalong this evening here is our Winter Warmer – really rich and seriously tasty!

Serve with crusty bread and Man O’War wine.

Last night we took part in our first Irish Foodies cookalong. Check out the Irish Food Bloggers Association website for more information. We only heard about this on Wednesday and didn’t think we could take part as we were determined to cook prawns (as our freezer was full of them). Also the theme was Winter Warmers which to us means pie or stew or pumpkin or chestnuts, but not prawns. Still never ones to turn down a challenge (and not wanting to miss out on all the fun) we set about finding a Winter Warming prawn dish and I think we managed it with our Baked Prawn Casserole (from Vefa’s Kitchen).

We were at a fabulous Lustau Sherry tasting on Thursday night which inspired us to have some nibbles and Sherry to start (see post below) – all very festive.

Baked Prawn Casserole (to feed 6 but there was 4 of us and we managed to finish it)

  • Put 1.5kg peeled prawns into a saucepan, add 4 tablespoons of water, bring to the boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and keep the liquid.
  • Melt 60g butter in a pan and add a large chopped onion, cook for 5 minutes or until soft.
  • Add a sliced carrot and a green pepper cut into thin strips, cook for another 5 minutes.
  • Whizz up a tin of tomatoes until smooth and pour into the pan along with the reserved prawn liquid, season, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until thickened.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C and brush and ovenproof dish with oil.
  • Take the sauce off the heat and stir in 250g crumbled feta and 4 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.
  • Spoon the prawns over the base of the prepared dish and pour the sauce over them.
  • Sprinkle with 150g diced Gruyere and a pinch of cayenne pepper and dot the top with butter of drizzle with some olive oil.
  • Bake for around 30 minutes, until the  top is lightly browned.

We served this in bowls with some crusty bread for mopping up all the lovely sauce.

Our guests brought us a bottle of Valhalla Chardonnay 2009 from Waiheke Island, New Zealand (which has just arrived this week in O’Brien’s). The wine worked perfectly as it had the weight to pair with the richness of the dish.

Aren’t we lucky!

Julie

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Winter warmer – starters

Posted in Sherry, tagged , on 5 November 2010| 1 Comment »

Nibbles & Sherry – a lovely & warm single cask Palo Cortado

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A veggie recipe for Laura

Posted in Food, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 2 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Oh where to start. This was supposed to be a straightforward Tuesday night dinner – blanch a few cabbage leaves, make a bit of stuffing, roll them up and pop them in the oven.

All I can say is that the air was blue in my kitchen (if you don’t use that expression it means I swore a lot).

First I removed the central stalk and blanched the leaves as instructed. Then I made some seasonal stuffing, then I tried to put some stuffing onto a cabbage leaf and roll it into a neat parcel and that’s where it all went wrong. Did the person that wrote this recipe have some sort of gigantic cabbage leaves or something? Or were their cranberries not round and so didn’t ping out the minute you started trying to roll the things? Or did the big split up the middle not cause them a few problems when trying to keep all the stuffing inside? I’ll stop cause I’m getting angry just thinking about it.

Do not be put off by my bad experience – these are divine!!!  A few tips… don’t bother your head taking out the stalk; 6 cabbage leaves is not enough to use up all the stuffing so blanch a few more leaves than this; don’t panic if your stuffed cabbage leaves look like crap they will be fine when they come out of the oven (see pic); and it helps if you stick a cocktail stick through each one to hold it together (good idea Jono).

We had just these for dinner and I cannot do justice to how tasty they were. Chestnuts, wild rice, cranberries, rosemary, balsamic, honey and a few other goodies. The leftovers are going to be used for a side dish tomorrow night.  This is a great recipe and if you follow the advice above hopefully you won’t lose your temper while making. If you do lose your temper I promise you’ll feel better when you taste them.

Find the recipe here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8018/braised-stuffed-cabbage

Julie

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Our favourite cheese shop

Posted in Food, tagged on 2 November 2010| 2 Comments »

We can eat cheese forever … but we try to restrain ourselves … sometimes

Our friend Antoinette opened a cheese shop (Clydesdale & Morrow) a while back and has completely immersed herself in everything cheese! It is so great to see someone eat, breathe and sleep their passion and you cant help being drawn into it as well. BUT it doesn’t help that we’d eat cheese all day, every day, anyway 🙂

Saturday’s delights were:

Each cheese Antoinette chose was perfect for eating now:

  • the Delice de Bourgogne was soft, creamy and smooth;
  • the Wiston Bassett Stilton had a classic salty and creamy core; and,
  • the Little Black Bomber, again creamy, had a great tang that made the flavours sing.

Each matched the other so that we just had to keep on trying a bit of the next one on the board …

Thanks Antoinette

ps. Clydesdale & Morrow is opposite Marks & Spencers on the Lisburn Rd in Belfast – check it out

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