Author: traleeculinarygangsters

Chef, food truck owner, Gardner, forager, blogger, author , columnists,

Demo at ballyroe for artfert school

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Oven Roasted Plum Tomato Soup Recipe makes 12 portions

1 Celery

1 Leek

1 Irish onions (Smaller the vegetables the better the flavour, Irish onions are fantastic)

1 Cinnamon stick

4 Cloves

1 Star Anise

Very simply sweat off all your vegetables and season with salt and pepper. You don’t want to brown the veg as you won’t be blending it. Add 4 cartons of tomato juice and the cinnamon cloves and star anise. Bring to the boil and leave to the side.

 

After the soup has sat for about an hour and the flavours have infused from the cloves, cinnamon and star anise. Strain it, bring to the boil again and serve.

 

Serving suggestion: Put Pesto and Parmesan shavings on the top.

 

Mussels in a garlic, white wine, lemongrass, sweet chilli and coconut sauce.

1kg Net of mussels

1 large clove of garlic

1 stick of lemongrass

½ a cup of white wine

½ a cup of coconut milk.

First you must remove all the beards off the mussels, if you come across mussels that are open when you buy them, pinch them to see if they close, if they don’t stay closed or close slowly after then dump them. Then get a pot that is big enough for them when the mussels are open. Place the pot over a good heat and allow to heat up. When hot enough add the mussels and white wine, garlic and lemongrass. Place a lid on as quick as you can and the wine will steam the mussels open. This will take about 1-1.5 minutes. When the mussels are open add the coconut cream, bring to the boil and serve

 

Pepperonata:

First of all this recipe is best made with skinned peppers. Both yellow and red and more red then yellow. To skin a pepper is simple, first:

You need a naked flame and you burn the outside of the pepper, burn the skin. Then place the pepper in a covered or cling filmed container. Leave for about 20 minutes, take it out and the skin will literally fall off

 

3 red peppers

4 red onions

1 yellow pepper

 

1 cinnamon stick

3-4 cloves

1 star anis

 

½ a cup of cocktail capers

½ a bottle or red wine

2 splashes of white wine vinegar.

2 shots of creme de casis if you don’t have that use black current mi wadi and make it ½ a cup.

1 small tin of tomato purée.

 

First you must make a sack for the cloves, cinnamon and star anise (an old towel cut up and the clove etc. tied up inside it

 

Slice the veg into thin julienne.

 

Fry off the red onion in a little olive oil. When soft or close to caramelising add the red wine, vinegar and crème de cassis. Put the cloves cinnamon and anise in now to draw out its festive flavours. When the liquid is almost gone take out the spice sack and add everything else and cook the purée out for about 4 minutes folding all the time with a wooden spoon. At the very end add a fist full of chopped parsley, this will help soften all the different flavours. This will make a lovely veg for the Christmas period. Enjoy.

 

Plaice, Clams and Coastal greens

1. Heat oven 180degrees

2. Heat pan dust the plaice with salt and pepper (skin on or off)

3. Colour both side place in oven approx. 8 minutes.

4 place clams into pan with white wine and butter until clams open add greens to heat through Serve butter greens under plaice with clams around

 

Wild Boar rack mustard seed and Apple cider sauce.

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees

2. Heat a pan with oil and seal the rack until brown turn and place in the oven 30 mins

3. De-glaze the pan with cider, reduce add mustard seeds

4. Add a cup full of water and thicken with gravy granules & Serve

 

Smoked salmon roulade stuffed with brie and wild nasturtium pesto.

 

Start off with placing cling film on the table this well help you later on in the method.

Next place your salmon on the cling film in sections like a sheet. In a bowl mix your brie some lemon salt and pepper and add the wild nasturtium pesto. Mix well. Next spread your brie mix equally down the smoke salmon.

Roll the salmon as tight as u can when rolled pull back to you and roll the cling film around it by doing this you’re securing the salmon in place Next place in fridge and let to set over night. Then cut into section and serve. It can also help to cup by using a hot blade that you heat in boiling water and then dry before cutting.

 

James on nettles

nettle-leaves

 

so out off all the wild food that we have in Ireland the one thing that  strikes  me is no restaurant is using nettles there by far the easiest wild food to harvest it wouldn’t take too much time to get a container off it.there not hard to prep either or make a soup out off it. recipe

 

 

 

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Boil some water pour over the nettles to take the sting out off it chop the leaves and leave to the side while you Melt the butter in a large pot, over a medium heat. Add in the chopped potatoes, onions and leeks and toss them in the butter until well coated. Season well.cook the vegetables over a gentle heat for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft but not coloured.Add  the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer,Add the chopped nettle leaves and simmer

Be careful not to overcook the soup at this point or the vegetables will discolour and will also lose their flavour.Liquidise the soup, then add the cream

#cupcakehour mince pie tips

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Just like other pastry items, treat your mince pie pastry with a light touch

If using a food processor, only process the dough until it resembles breadcrumbs, before finishing it off by hand

make sure you allow the pastry to rest for at least 20 minutes before rolling it out and cutting the circles

You can make mince pies any size you like. Choose a muffin tin for a conventional size

You can store any uncooked mince pies in the freezer for up to 2 months

grease proof paper between the pies to prevent them from sticking and store in an airtight container

Pop the frozen pies straight into the preheated oven

try using an all-butter pastry recipe.

James on fish & fishing

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Salmon and cod account for 60% of the Irish fish market. And most of the cod eaten here is imported because the Irish fishing industry has notoriously low quotas for cod catches. Our addiction to cod means that overall about 40 percent of the fish eaten on this island nation is actually imported.Meanwhile, the waters around Ireland are full of up to 40 different species of fish, many of which are regarded as delicacies in Spain and France.for me its like the irish people do not realise the variety of fish in Irish waters.We export most of these fish because there just isn’t a market here for them but in spain they’ll pay good money for a fish caught here that most Irish people won’t even have heard of. in this day and age where governments are trying to make money wouldn’t it help to start advertising irish fish which would cut the cost of importing them not only that but when you go into your big named shops and you see fish for sale how fresh is that fish actually lets go through it it has to be caught ,processed ,packaged ,put on a ship ,from ship to truck ,to shop how many days old is that fish now makes you think .

Follow james on twitter @boilingjames

Kevins spanish omelette

 

My Spanish omelette

 

One of my favourite dishes to make.

Take 2 large enough potatoes

1 red pepper

1 large onion

1 pack of thick cut trad bacon

6 eggs.

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Peel and cut the potatoes (I like little half moons)

 

And then slice everything else.

Fry the potatoes until soft in the middle. You may have to fry several times because you don’t double them up. (Fry separately) as in the photos.

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Take at the potatoes out and using the same oil fry off the veg and bacon until the bacon goes almost crispy. Then strain the oil.

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Layer all the ingredients after that potato then veg & bacon mix, potato then veg & bacon mix. Then add the beaten eggs. Then cook the base of the omelette on a low heat and the top of the omelette under the grill. This will serve 2 people or 4 people with chips and salad.

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Kevin is on twitter @parsnip78

#cupcake hour cookie tips

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Dust rolling pin and smooth surface with flour. This will prevent dough from sticking

Too much flour will make cookies tough and dry.

Roll only part of the chilled dough at a time. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator

Roll the dough to the appropriate thickness. Thinner dough makes a crisper cookie; thicker dough makes a softer, chewier cookie

Check the thickness with a ruler. Cookies will bake evenly when the dough is rolled to a uniform thickness

Use a pancake turner to transfer cookies. This will prevent unbaked cookies from stretching and tearing and baked cookies from breaking

Refrigerate dough before shaping, if necessary, for easier handling

Flatten cookies with your thumb, a fork or the bottom of a glass. Dip them in either flour or sugar to prevent sticking

Refrigerate the rolls up to 1 week. You can also wrap them in foil and freeze for up to 3 months.

A visit to torc brewing co.

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Recently at eabha joans restaurant for the listowel food fair one of our menus was a craft beer & food pairing menu & i had the pleasure to visit the torc brewing .

And had a chat with the lads behind it, as i ended up using a few of their fine beers throughout the menu .

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This raspberry & vanilla ended up on the menu in a dessert, never know it existed pior to that very intresting drink well worth trying out .

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While there a was given a lesson on the beer process including smoked beers, torc have a very nice dark smoked ale & and a polish style smoked beer which is very tasty Indeed ,

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These are short run beers alongside the ones they already do . I have to say a big thank you to the guys for their time & all the info they shared with very passionate about what they do and it shows . In both they way they talk about beer & in the end product .

All hail the ale , all cheer the beer

Cheers  lads

Twitter @chefnoelk instagram @chefnoelkeane

Wild clams

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Clams and crabs

Recently while out on an evening forage I spotted a lot of sea birds making a lot of noise on the other side of the beach while I normally would get the sea greens.

I figured being a documentary watcher sea birds means food, thinking maybe a few crabs or something nice. To my surprise clams and periwinkles and some mussels, into my bucket ye go onto the dinner table later.

I spent an hour there picking clams bent down like I was footing turf. A crab came over and dug himself under my bucket. See pic of the angry little fella.

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Having never done this before, putting the clams under water overnight to purge they are still quite salty, they really need 2-3 days of purging to remove the grit and the excess saltiness to reveal the sweet tastiness that is clam meat.
To reference James on their final resting plate  alongside mussels, linguine and parmesan cheese yum yum.

Follow for more adventures on Twitter @chefpaulc Instagram @chefpaulc

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Sid on Hypothyroidism

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Hypothyroidism -(Underactive Thyroid)

 

The thyroid gland, consisting of two large lobes is located at the base of the throat, just below the voice box. It produces hormones essential for the proper functioning and maintenance of all the cells in the body, therefore helping to regulate the body’s growth, metabolism, digestion, body temperature and heart rate.

 

What is it?

Hypothyroidism or the under activity of the thyroid gland is a condition, which occurs when the thyroid gland fails to produce enough thyroid hormone. This results in the metabolism becoming sluggish, and can often mimic long-term mild depression. It affects women four times more than men especially those between 35-60 years.

 

What causes it?

 Heredity: thyroid problems can simply run in families.

 Iodine insufficiency: its strongly proposed that millions of individuals develop hypothyroid due to lack of adequate iodine intake, which may be due to soil depletion and lack of iodine in our diets. Since iodine is necessary for the synthesis, storage and secretion of thyroid hormones, a deficiency of iodine can result in hypothyroidism.

 Auto immune: most cases of hypothyroid result from an auto immune disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the thyroid gland.

 Genetic factors, hormonal disturbances elsewhere in the body, surgery, radiation or medication are other possible causes.

 

Signs and Symptoms

These include: Fatigue, depression, unexplained weight gain, decreased appetite, dry skin, hair loss, disturbed sleep, muscle and joint pain, heavy menstruation, constipation and hoarseness among many more.

 

Dietary and Lifestyle factors

 Exercise is particularly important in hypothyroidism as it stimulates thyroid gland secretion and increases tissue sensitivity to thyroid hormone.

 One’s diet must incorporate adequate amounts of iodine, selenium, zinc, copper, vitamin C and E. All of these micronutrients are crucial for thyroid hormone synthesis.

 Goitrogens: Must be limited within the diet, these include turnips, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, radishes, peanuts and pine nuts. When eaten these foods should be well cooked to breakdown their goitrogenic constituents.

 Soy products: Must also be limited within the diet as they have a definite anti-thyroid and goitrogenic effect. Long term consumption can promote formation of goitres (protruding bulge on the throat) and development of autoimmune thyroid disease.