My Second Smoking

Last week, I was lucky enough to do work experience in the kitchen with the crew at Fenns Quay restaurant in Cork city. What a great team of people who care that what comes out of their kitchen is as local as it can be, good quality and beautifully presented. The head chef Kate is a power house of ideas and vision. She is a great cook, teacher and now my friend.

We all know how my obsession with smoking is gaining in strength and at Fenns Quay they do some cool things with Earl Grey, a blow torch and salmon. So guess who volunteered their services to do this  weeks?? You got it, yours truly.

Here's the process.

Line a tray with salt and dill (or herb of your choice). Lay your pieces of salmon down. Sprinkle with tea of your choice, they use Early Grey.

Cover with more salt and herbs. Leave over night and then wash off the salt.

Pop the salmon back in a tray and wrap it up ¾ with cling film, not touching the salmon. In a little dish put some more Earl Grey tea leaves and get out the blow torch.

Once you get a good colour from the tea leaves, wrap the cling film around the gap as quick as poss. Leave for about half an hour and repeat. The more you repeat, the stronger the taste!

And voila, smoked Early Grey Salmon. Yum.

Ballymaloe LitFest

If you are not aware of the Ballymaloe LitFest where have you been living?!?

What a weekend. The sun shone, the atmosphere buzzed and I met my food hero. Yes, I met the incredible Madhur Jaffrey. She is a legend that brought Indian food to the Western World some would say.

She is a petite, beautiful 80year old woman who learnt to cook through her Mother and the other women in her family and continues that tradition of teaching others to cook.

The weekend was a conglomerate of chefs, authors, foodies, non foodies, stall holders, local producers. The list goes on and on. Over three days there were cooking demos, panel discussions, dancing, lots of eating and drinking, pop up wine shops, pop up bands and much much more.

I met some brilliant and world renowned chefs, David Thompson, Stevie Parle, Thomassina Miers, Stehpanie Alexander, Claudia Rhoden and many more. 

It was literally a who's who of the cooking world and what was fantastic to me as a young woman chef was how many more female cooks where speaking than men. A push in the right direction where, in todays world head chef posts are male dominated.

Sandor Katz the fermentation guru speaking over the weekend and showing us the art of fermentation.

There was the big shed, where drinking and eating activities where part of the weekends events. The pop up bar was a creative explosion with books hanging from the ceiling, old beer kegs as lights and a chandler made from an old whiskey barrel. All adding to the atmospherical aromas of food.

There were gardeners and foragers, dogs running around with children, laughter and ideas. Lots of them. New friends were made, old friends were introduced and it was just a melting pot of cultures. A beautiful melting pot that had all of us who attended in awe once again at the power of Ballymaloe.

A natural sugar snack that's healthy!

The last 2 weeks have been a powerhouse of workouts, trying to cut out sugar and generally getting back to health after the copious amounts of food I ingested whilst at Ballymaloe. The jeans are still a little tight (insert sad face).....I need a big change in my eating habits.

So as much as possible I'm trying to cut out sugar for the foreseeable future. All sugar which means fruit, juice, things like ketchup, carrots, tomatoes…the list goes on! Sometimes it's easy, sometimes I have sugar cravings so bad that I reach for anything sweet. These, are a healthy option.

Most people (like here, here and here) who make traditional sugar free treats use dates as a base but, these have a super duper amount of natural sugar (60% sugar content to be exact!) which is not so great if like me, you're trying to cut out sugar. Apricots on the other hand have an overall lower sugar content so I decided to give it a go and see what happens.

I used pre-soaked dried apricots but this is an easy step you can do yourself by putting them in a little water overnight. Do you know about the goodness of apricots? Well, basically they are little bundles of orange coloured flavourful goodness!

The nectar was the preferred drink of the Greek and Roman Gods. These beautiful 'Moon of the Faithful' fruit are highly concentrated in betacarotene which has been shown to be successful in thwarting certain cancers. Dry apricots have an even higher lever although do contain more calories if you're counting. Tree ripened fruits are one of the best sources of copper, cobalt and organic iron, great for building red corpuscles in your blood stream!

These made about 13 and were best kept in the fridge or freezer.

I used 11 almonds
1 good tbsp of chia seeds
2 tbps of a blended mix of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower seeds and goji berries

Pulse of all these together to the consistency you want. I like a bit of a bite so I kept them fairly chunky.

Next pulse 6 apricots in a blender till mush.
Add the nut/seed mix and pulse together.

Roll one and test to see if the mixture is nutty and solid enough. If not, add more seeds/nuts etc. I found that if I didn't put enough solids in, the balls where very mushy when it came to eating and not great texturally. You'll probably think you've put too much solids in but that's improbable. As long as it still comes together you're fine.

Wet your hands a little and then roll into balls, pop on some baking paper and freeze or fridge…Eat at your hearts content! without feeling guilty!

This recipe is so adaptable for your mood it's wonderful. Roll in desiccated coconut, add cinnamon, different nuts, or drizzle some homemade chocolate over. Have some fun and experiment!

Celariac Slaw

This week has been jam packed full of new adventures for me. I've been lucky enough to work with three super duper talented food related people. First up, the amazing food stylist Sharon Hearne-Smith who has worked with some big named chefs in the industry, second is the talented chef Neven Maguire who owns MacNean House in Blacklion and thirdly the fantastic photographer Joanne Murphy. It's been a big big week. Big for me, for my career and for this new path my life is taking.

Before I left home to set sail well, start the ferry engine back to Ireland my talented cook of a Mum made me one of my favourite dishes. Celariac slaw. I love the peppery fieriness, the way the little grated pieces make me think of grated clouds and the memories this slaw evokes of picnics at our house in the South of France and sitting on our 'magic carpet' picnic blanket, summer evenings with a fire and music and friends. Always friends.

This salad works well in the winter as well as in the summer due to the spicy nuttiness of the celeriac and the mustard powder.  Celariac is one of those ugly vegetables that doesn't really look like much but has such a punch and kick not only in flavour but in goodness that it's worth plucking these from the veggie stall.
It's known for it's diuretic qualities and is especially useful for those with kidney stones and arthritic conditions. It's also supposed to be beneficial to the urinary, lymphatic and nervous systems. Good all round then!

As for the recipe, it could not be easier. It uses 4 ingredients. Thats it.

Serves 4 as part of a main:
350g celariac, skinned and grated
1-2 tsps of mustard powered, sieved (try 1 to start and then if you want it more peppery put the other in)
6 tbsps of natural non sweet yoghurt.
½ a lemon squeezed (more if needed)

First off, sieve mustard powder and add to the yoghurt. Mix well and taste. Adjust if you want it more fiery, remember that celeriac has a spicy punch to it!

Grate the celeriac into the yoghurt/mustard mix and pour lemon juice over. This will stop it from discolouring and also adds a little 'je ne said quoi'.

Mix well and keep in the fridge. It will last for a couple of days and works well with fish or meat. Enjoy!

Homemade Chocolate

Yes you can. Have one that is. These bad boys of bittersweet goodness can be completely sugar free (and if not only contain agave syrup) and will impress your friends no end when you tell them you've made your very own chocolate!

It is so simple and produces such a large amount that it is one of those that I adore to make. Kids will have a blast and parents will love doing it with them because nothing can go wrong! It can be used to dip candied peel in, strawberries and other berries, make a sin-free hot chocolate, add fruit, nuts. Anything you want really!

All you need for this is equal amounts of Cocoa butter and Raw Cocoa Powder. I used 300g and 300g (doh!). Melt the cocoa butter in a bane marie. This is basically where you put water in a saucepan, put a bowl in the saucepan but not touching the water. Put whatever you are trying to melt into the bowl and turn the heat on. Once the water comes to a boil, turn it off.

Once your Cocoa butter has melted (it will look like melted butter) simply add in the Raw Cocoa powder. Take the time to sieve it in otherwise you'll be there far longer trying to get the lumps out!

At this point, you can add Agave Syrup. I adore my chocolate bitter and add just a teeny weeny squeeze but if you like yours a lot sweeter, add more. It is utterly taste dependant so add and try, add and try.

If you do add Agave Syrup, you will notice the consistency gets a lot gloopier and thick and lovely! It will also thicken as it cools.

At this stage either leave it to cool so you can roll it into truffles (dusting with cocoa powder and salt is a fav option of mine) or pouring it in to moulds. If rolling into truffles you will have to go back every 10mins or so to check it hasn't completely solidified! I only had an old ice tray lying around and not really sure if it would work, I gave it a go. Bob is most definitely my Uncle as it worked like a charm!

Or if you want bark type pieces line a flat tray with baking paper and spread the mixture over. I did it this way too and used some apricot kernels as my nut of choice…turned out soooooo good!

Happy making.

There are lots of people making this recipe (all with variations but in general the same) and I should really give them a mention! Sorry I didn't before…..here, here and here.

I love a smoker

It's true. I can't help it. Since my time at Ballymaloe and meeting all the hardworking local producers, I've become a little bit obsessed. The first one I came across was Frank Hederman, smoking genius that he is and then, we met Bill Casey who works literally a stones throw from the school grounds. Frank does hot and cold smoking, Bill only does cold if I remember rightly. Everytime I meet another smoker I get a big knock somewhere in the back of my head telling me how I'd love to do this, what recipes I would try and what my smoke shack would look like...

While I was visiting the West Coast of Scotland I managed to go and visit Mandy. Shieldaig's very own smoker. Ever since I can remember smoked salmon from this smokery has been finding it's way into our postbox every Christmas. First John started it and since he retired Mandy has taken over. She does both hot and cold smoking and the recipe hasn't changed since John started smoking back years ago

Roughly 2100 salmon find their way onto the filleting block and into the smoker to either be smoked cold as a whole side or sliced into fillets for a hot smoke. The taste is fantastic and with all the fish coming from local fishermen in local waters it really doesn't get any better. Salmon deemed for a cold smoke is first dry salted and the hot smoked is brined instead.

I loved visiting and seeing that anybody can set up a business in their back garden. It gave me real hope that I can be that person, I can have my own food business and be successful. Keeping it local, seasonal and being passionate about what you're doing are the real key components and I can't wait to find my way.

A quick trip over to the left.

These last couple of days I've been over on the West Coast of Scotland. Having the Great Aunty living there helps a treat as it seems hipsters from every corner of the globe are buying up tiny crofters houses, which means, there's no accommodation to be had and the pubs are all full. With the hipsters though comes new imports such as olive oil. It's hard to remember that they only had a road put in in the 70s.

Friends of ours have a prawn business over there and each visit we are gifted several kilos of prawns. For those in Ireland they would be Dublin Bay Prawns. For those in Scotland they are obviously Scottish Prawns and everywhere else in the world I'm sorry, but you'll have to chose which you want to call them. Having prepared, cooked and eaten these yummy, sometimes arm length prawns at Ballymaloe Cookery School I was quickly put to work and set to cooking. Throw in some homemade mayonnaise, using the olive oil that's now being imported, supper was delicious with a view that people would pay thousands for. Oh right, they do.

We had beautiful sunny weather most of the time and for anyone who's been to Scotland, 5 days in a row of sun is quite exceptional. Lapping it up, we went on walk after walk with the puppy. Snow peeked mountains looming over us as, we slowly and heavy breathed our way further up and up until the view got the better of us and we stopped to admire. This moment, here. Is what has made me understand why my Great Aunt moved up here in the 60's. No roads, no running water or electricity is pretty hard core. But when it's sunny and you can see for miles and mountains I can understand.

It's been a spectacular couple of days with my Maman. Hanging out, no TV, no internet just the heather on the mountains, highland cows, lambs, deer and good conversation. I've loved it.


Ballymaloe Cookery School Mayonnaise:

3 egg yolks
¼ tsp mustard
2 tbsps vinegar
8floz of oil (they do 6 of non flavoured veg oil and 2 of olive oil)

Whisk together the egg yolks, mustard and vinegar. Then very slowly but steadily drizzle in the oil, whisking all the time. Add more vinegar or mustard at the end if needs be.