Category: recipes

gangsters demo

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Puy lentil stew. 5-7 full portions
1 onion
1 leek
3 sticks of celery Roughly chopped small for frying
3 carrots (medium sized, because they have more flavour)
1 parsnip Diced
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper Sliced or juilliened
1 medium courgette Small dice.
3 medium potatoes Diced
250g of green puy lentils.
1/2 a glass of white wine.
3 vegetable stock cubes
700ml’s of water Start
: Fry off the onions, leek and celery with a little olive oil. Not to hot as you don’t want them to brown. Add seasoning (salt & pepper) as this will help the flavour and stop the browning. When the onions are soft and the flavour has been extracted add the white wine, carrots, parsnips and peppers. Reduce the wine. Then in a little boiled water from the kettle mix the stock cubes in a bowl until dissolved. Best to have this ready before hand as this is a quick recipe. Add the water and the lentils and bring to the boils and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the potatoes and cook until the lentils are cooked ( they will be soft to mushy to eat) Finally just before serving add the diced courgette. If cooked for to long the courgette will go mushy and not nice therefore it’s the final thing. Bring to the boil and serve.
Wild mushroom sauce
1 generic tub of wild mushrooms (shiitake a my favourite) chopped
1/2 a finely diced onion
1/2 a glass off white wine
250mls of pouring cream
2 table spoons of garlic butter
Fry off the mushrooms and onions in a hot pan in the garlic butter. Add the white wine when the onions are soft and the mushrooms are browned. Add the white wine and reduce until halved. Add the cream, bring to the boil and serve with a smile. For a more intense flavour in the sauce, some people may add dices of bacon at the frying stage but this is optional
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Salsa Verde
25g capers
3 garlic cloves
50g wood sorrel
50g wild mint
50g wild chervil
100ml olive oil

Wash all wild herbs
Puree the garlic with the blade of your knife and add to a bowl
Chop all the herbs and capers finely and add to the garlic
Add olive oil to bind
Salt and pepper to taste

Rosti

3 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
Butter

Wash and peel the potatoes
Grate the potatoes into a bowl
Squeeze all excess moisture from the potatoes
Finely dice the onion and add to the potatoes
Mix well and season with salt and pepper

Heat a non stick pan to a high heat
Make little rounds of the rosti mix (use a scone cutter to form a nice neat circle)
Place these rostis in the pan and colour then until crisp and golden brown on each side

Place in an oven at 180 degrees Celsius to finish cooking

Haw sin sauce

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500g haw berries

250ml cider vinegar

250ml water

250g castor sugar

Salt & pepper

Clean berries place in a pan vinager & water. Bring to the boil allow to boil till berries start to burst and start to go mushy.

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Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean container and squeeze with a ladel or spoon .

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Return to a clean pot add sugar . Heat until boiling and goes syurpy

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Pour into sterilised jars

This is great with stir frys . Duck & pork belly .

@chefnoelk twitter @chefnoelkeane instagram

picked crab apple

this is something I have made in the restaurant so the volume is quite large but it last a very long time so worth make it in volume for this I use unripe crab apples

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wipe your apple with a clean damp cloth and cut off the base just a little bit it helps with the pickling of the apples and it is not the nicest piece to eat

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1 litre of cider vinager

600 ml of honey

600 ml water

I cinnamon stick

1 wild bay leaf or store bought one is fine

bring the liquid to the boil and reduce to a simmer

place the apples in and leave for five minutes

remove from the heat and leave for ten minutes

remove the apples and cool both

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place the apples in a spotless clean jar and pour the liquid over the place in either the fridge or larder for about a week before use but for up to a year maybe more it doesn’t last in the restaurant

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you can follow me at @chefnoelk on twitter and @chefnoelkeane on Instagram

 

 

wild billberries by paul cotter

Wild billberries (fraughans)

These little berries are ingrained in my childhood memories as being little juicy delicious balls of sweetness coming into season in July/ August. They are found to me in marsh land, roadsides and forestry trails. They make beautiful jam and are best served simply with a dollop of cream and a sprinkling of sugar. But enough of the anecdotes.

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Bilberries 

They found growing in acidic hilly ground throughout ireland. They are best described as a wild blueberry.

They begin to flower mid to late summer. The flower looks like a little red lantern not much bigger than a pea

They are ripe for the picking at the moment varying in size from bush to bush depending on the age of the bush and if you get there before the birds do. Average size again is about the size of a blueberry.

They are ripe for the picking at the moment varying in size from bush to bush depending on the age of the bush and if you get there before the birds do. Average size again is about the size of a blueberry.

They are ripe for the picking at the moment varying in size from bush to bush depending on the age of the bush and if you get there before the birds do. Average size again is about the size of a blueberry.

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What can I do with these

There are a variety of recipes out there for billberries from jams to fools even a bilberry gin

Jam recipe

750 g bilberries

750g sugatr

* Wash and dry all the berries ensuring to remove any stalks

* Place into a wide based pot on a medium to low heat

* Allow water to start to evaporate

* Add sugar and allow to dissolve and come to the boil

* Allow to simmer for 15 mins

* Allow to cool

* Pour into clean dry jars cover when cold.

Enjoy with toast or some homemade brown bread

 

Coming next are blackberries and the berry from the hawthorn (sloe) and of course elderberries watch this space for more information and pictures. Also Twitter and Instagram @chefpaulc

james on salmon part 2

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Salmon follow on blog
so I’ll start be just a quick brief on more detailed stages of the growth of a salmon
Stage 1 ova. The rate of egg or “ova” development is dependent on water temperature
Stage 2 alevins. When their sac is absorbed the alevins become increasingly active and begin their journey up through the gravel of the riverbed. When strong enough the small fish must rise to the surface of the water for air. they fill their swim bladder to making it easier to swim and hold their position in fast flowing stream
Stage 3 fry The fry have eight fins, which are used to maintain their position in fast flowing streams and manoeuvre about in the water during the Summer months
Stage 4 parr Over the Autumn the fry develop into parr with vertical stripes and spots for camouflage they all start to change to the sliver colour and start to adopted to sea water.
Stage 5 smolts In Spring, large numbers of smolts leave Irish rivers to migrate along the North Atlantic
Stage 6 adult salmon Salmon that reach maturity after one year at sea  and full growth at about 2 year mark they return home to the river from the north altantic by the use of smell.
Id like to give a quick and easy recipe for a salmon dish
Salmon fillets marinated in Irish whiskey and honey
Ingredients 2 tablespoons honey
cider Irish whiskey
teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
teaspoons grated lemon zest
2tablespoons vegetable oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Mix together honey, vinegar, whiskey, thyme, lemon zest, oil, salt and pepper. Pour over salmon and marinate for 4 hours refrigerated.
Preheat oven to 220 .Remove salmon from marinade and place on a a roasting pan. Bake for 10 minutes, basting once with the marinade or until golden and white juices are just beginning to appear.
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