Store Cupboard Dinners

So, finally the thermometer is showing some decent temperatures, HURRAY! But I really, really don’t want to drag a 3yr old to the supermarket today, so I had a quick trawl of the supplies to see what I can come with so that I can swan off and visit my lovely friend and her 2 week old baby for the afternoon and sit in the garden drinking coffee and chatting instead.

Anyhow, I haven’t been to the butchers so while there is plenty of veg, there’s not a lot of “mate”, as they might say down home. But then inspiration hits me – pasta and tuna salad. A firm favourite dating right back to my college days, all I need is some veg, a tin of tuna, a bag of pasta and a bit of mayonnaise. Oh dear, there’s no tuna – but wait, what’s that lurking at the back of the food cupboard? Why, a long lost tin of salmon… that’ll do nicely, I’m sure!

So, stick some pasta on to boil and get chopping. Really, it’s a moveable feast of whatever you might have; today I have chopped carrot, tomato, cucumber, celery, red pepper, mushroom, sugar snap peas and some scallions, as well as a tin of sweetcorn. Personally, I find raw red pepper a little indigestbibe, so I quickly fry off the red pepper – I also add the mushroom, sugar snaps and scallions in too (fried scallions are lovely) but you can easily leave the raw of course. I find a bag of peanuts at the back of same press, nestling up to the salmon, so I reckoned, “why not?” and threw a fist of them in too, to add crunch. Drain the pasta and run some cold water over it to cool it, then throw it all into a big bowl, season and stir in a spoon of mayonnaise and Bob’s your uncle – dinner!

So, what's your favourite / easiest store cupboard dinner? There's a sausage casserole that is made with a tin of cannellini or borlotti beans, a tin of tomatoes and a packet of sausages that is also very good - I'll post that another day.

PS:- Lidl is on my way to my friend’s house, so I will pop in and get some lemons, cream and stuff, it’s lemon posset for dessert tomorrow after our barbecue... lamb chops, sausages, potato salad and bbq-ed corn on the cobs, looking forward to it already

Sarah

Cookies - need I say more?

So, it’s yet another boring dull Sunday in a wash-out month of May… Just got a text from my little sister inviting us to lunch, excellent, that’s an excursion sorted! But oh dear, I can’t really turn up with one hand as long as the other, can I? Especially considering I’ll be dragging those two mini tornadoes – oops, I mean daughters, that will rampage through her pristine (child-free!) home.

So, I was considering dashing to the corner shop for a packet of biscuits, but then I thought maybe I could use the opportunity to wrestle the afore-mentioned Tornado-Twins away from the TV for a short while – let’s make some cookies.

The "Tornado Twins" mixing

Stirring in the flour

Luckily, I have an extremely simple and impressively tasty recipe to hand. Rachel Allen’s “Basic Cookie Recipe” is really the most foolproof recipe I have, quite literally child’s play, and the results are supremely good. I really would encourage even the most reluctant baker to give them a go, even if they end up misshapen and lumpy, they still taste fantastic.

The joy of this recipe is that is completely versatile and you can adapt the cookies to whatever flavours you have, making them more childish (chocolate chips) or more adult (crystallised ginger and dark chocolate) or anything in between.

The biggest problem is stopping the "helpers" from eating all the cookie dough! They do love to help with rolling the dough between their little hands and it's definitely a break from Dora, Peppa and the rest.

Cookie dough also freezes supremely well so, if you don’t fancy making the full batch, you’re much better off to make the full amount of dough and freezing half rather than trying to half the recipe.

The end result

Here’s my tip – don’t buy Rachel’s own branded chocolate chips. They are over a fiver – ridiculous! The Dr. Oetker ones are about €1.20 and taste fine. I always use the plain ones, the kids don’t mind the taste of the dark chocolate, especially as the biscuits themselves are so rich. Alternatively, you could easily chop up a bar of chocolate – I’m very keen on the super-dark chocolates from Lidl and Aldi. I chop them with the kitchen scissors, but it’s relatively tedious so I usually fall back on the packet ones.

Rachel Allen’s Basic Cookie Recipe

“This recipe is a basis for many combinations. Experiment with ingredients – flavourings, dried fruits, nuts, spices and even herbs such as lavender – to find your favourite. Makes about 35 cookies”

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) butter, softened
• 110g (4oz) caster sugar
• 275g (10oz) plain flour
• Ground spices or finely grated zest (optional; see Variations below)

Method

1.     Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F), Gas Mark 3.

2.     Cream the butter in a large bowl or in a food mixer until soft.

3.     Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4.     Sift in the flour and spices or grated zest (if using) and bring the mixture together to form a dough.

5.     Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place them slightly apart on a baking tray (no need to grease or line). Flatten them slightly with the back of a damp fork and bake in the oven for 13–15 minutes or until they are light golden brown and slightly firm on top.

6.     Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool

PS, DinnerLady note here - the cookies will still be pale and totally pliable when cooked, they should be just very lightly coloured. The transfer to the wire rack for cooling is best done with a palette knife, but they can still crumble and break on you, so be careful


Notes & Tips

VARIATIONS -
Poppy seed: Add 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds to the flour.
Lemon: Add the finely grated zest of 1 lemon to the flour.
Orange: Add the finely grated zest of 1 orange to the flour.
White chocolate and orange: Dip the tops of the orange cookies in 50g (2oz) melted white chocolate, then allow to set on greaseproof paper.
Spices (cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger): Add 1 teaspoon of a ground spice to the flour.
Crystallised ginger and dark chocolate: Add 25g (1oz) finely chopped crystallised ginger to the flour. When the cookies are baked and cooled, dip the tops in 50g (2oz) melted dark chocolate, then allow to set on greaseproof paper.
Double chocolate chip: Use 250g (9oz) plain flour and add 50g (2oz) sifted cocoa powder to the flour. Bring the dough together and mix in 125g (41/2oz) dark or white chocolate chips.
White chocolate and dried cranberry: Add 50g (2oz) chopped dried cranberries to the flour. When the cookies are baked and cooled, dip the tops in 50g (2oz) melted white chocolate and allow to set on greaseproof paper.

RACHEL’S BAKING TIPS -
Roll leftover dough into a log shape, 2–3cm (3/4–11/4in) in diameter, then leave in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to a couple of months. To bake, cut off slices, about 1cm (1/2in) thick, and cook on a baking tray in a preheated oven. Always remove cookies from their baking trays while still warm otherwise they will stick.

Lemon Posset with Tom & Johann Doorley (in conjunction with Lidl!)

I know I promised this review weeks ago, but for starters its been the busiest month and secondly, it was hard to choose which dish to try out. So in time old tradition (and partly because I'm a lover of anything lemon) I'm starting with desert - Lemon Posset.

This recipe features on page 203 of this smashing little book and at first glance I decided that it couldn't possibly be a simple as it looked. I remembered having Lemon Posset in the Tannery, Dungarvan many years ago and along with their slow cooked fillet of beef, its a dish I've dreamed of ever since.


The ingredients are as follows:

500ml Morning Fresh Double Cream
125gr Cordelia sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
175gr Blueberries (the blurb states that Raspberries can be substituted here and would be equally glorious I imagine)

And for the method?
Simply put the cream and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat. Sitr until sugar has dissolved then add the lemon zest and juice and stir. Turn up the heat, bring to the boil then remove from heat and cool a little

And thats practically it!

While the mixture is cooling, divide the blueberries up between your dishes/glasses (more on this in a minute!) then pour the lemon and cream mixture in on top. Allow to cool before putting in the fridge overnight.

The recipe suggests that you then serve this chilled with some fingers of shortbread on the side.

And now comes my tuppence worth...

When deciding what to serve this in, why not be a little adventurous. The Doorleys suggest glass tumblers, but I'd say go a step further. If you have shot glasses (desert is about all mine are used for these days) champagne flutes or anything else transparent and pretty then work away. We say glass as the sight of the slightly softened blueberries through the glass adds an extra touch.

In this image I've used a liquor glass and put my shortbread alongside.

But if you've made this for a posh dinner party (isn't staying in the new going out?) then why not stretch yourself. With very little extra effort you could wow your guests with a Trio of Deserts. I suggest a small slice of the Chocolate Raspberry Cake, also in Home Cooking on page 216 (in my photo I simply used a brownie) and then a little bundle of fresh fruit in another corner of your plate, dust everything with castor sugar and bobs your uncle, your guests will think you're Michel Roux.




Anyhow, this Masterchef is off to to take on her next challenge... the Homemade Pizza on page 132. First time I've ever tried it, but if the recipe is even half as simple as the Lemon Posset, I know I'll be ok.

And if its a disaster at least I have a Trio of Desert to look forward to... This blogging lark is great!

Margaret
xx

A Golden Oldie...

When we were younger, there was no such thing as blogs to give you nice ideas as to what to have for tea. There also wasn't a lot of money, or indeed time (too busy washing & drying cloth nappies I imagine) for coming up with all new fascinating dishes for dinner. As a result, there was a type of food rota in our house. The week started with Monday's left over Sunday Roast and worked its way up to Friday's sausage & chips treat, with a variety of meat-and-two-veg combinations in between. One of these was always Bacon & Cabbage and I have to admit, it was a dish I dreaded. No offense to my mother's cooking (she was a baking genius) but waterlogged bacon and equally watery white cabbage are all I remember of this meal. As a result, I have never cooked it - until tonight!

So what spurred tonights foray down memory lane? Well I was in our local Centra one afternoon and happened to bump into my lovely Sister in Law who grabbed my arm and hissed 'Did you see the bacon's reduced?' Eh, no I hadn't, I answered not wanting to add that even if I had... Anyhow she convinced me to purchase two pieces of what looked like a large wedge of breakfast bacon, and they've languished in my freezer ever since.
Until tonight. After a week of Punchestown rations I've had a longing for a proper 'dinner'. My lovely husband cooked a fabulous Shepherds Pie as a treat on Sunday but then we went back to our usual healthy mid-week stir frys. My craving for 'dinner' just wouldn't go away though, so, when trying to think of what to have for dinner tonight, I remembered the bacon that I discovered in my recent freezer stock take.

So I took it out this morning and left it lying on the counter to defrost. When I came home this evening, there it was winking at me all pasty and pale just as I'd remembered. I toyed briefly with the idea of tossing it to the labrador but as that would defeat my new budgeting ethos, I turned on the oven, bunged it in (the memory of the waterlogged boiled bacon obviously still an issue) and went out for my run.


On returning, so delicious a smell had started to waft around the kitchen that I started to get vaguely excited about the meal. I had a few potatoes in the fridge (we try not to eat spuds midweek anymore) and in a flash of inspiration remembered another freezer find - frozen spinach. On went the spuds in a pot of salted boiling water and I chopped up an onion and cooked it in a LOT of butter. Plenty of salt & pepper and hey presto - posh cabbage & mash!
(I wish I could say that I then rustled together some homemade parsley sauce but the arduous task of trying to get our impossible two year old to bed meant that a packet sauce had to suffice, I promise I'll make it next time).

Because there will be a next time, not only was it an absolutely delicious and stress free dish to make, I do have that other piece of bacon in the freezer. Who knows, this could become a weekly staple, and wouldn't that give Mam the last laugh...

Margaret
xx

Fussy Eaters

Oh no… what was I thinking? How in the hell could a chef and a foodie wind up with a fussy eater?! I know, I know – but we did. All our own fault of course, but Junior DinnerMadam #1 is quite fussy. Not as bad at 5 as she was at 3 and 4, thanks to some serious work with the star charts / bribery etc., but no angel. And while I didn’t reapeat the same mistakes with her 3 year old sister, she has her moments too.

So, how to handle it? Well, as mentioned above, I got the star chart out. She was already 4 when I did this, I really do think that under 3 is too young and they just don’t get it. I drew the chart myself. Firstly, we chose a ridiculously over-priced piece of tat as the “prize”. My DinnerMadam is totally obsessed with all things pink and, as a result, idolised Disney’s Princess Aurora above all other princesses. A trip to the Disney store came up trumps – a pair of Princess Aurora shoes to go with the Aurora dress (Dunnes version!) she already owned. These shoes gave me a HUGE pain, €24… I could get a pair of Clarks in Kildare Village for that price! But it had to be something she valued highly, so I went with it.

"Home-made" Reward Chart

There are lots of charts available on the internet, but they mostly rely on the written word – my pre-schoolers (at the time) were too young for that. So I got creative, and printed off some pictures, both of the ridiculous shoes and the behaviour I wanted to stimulate; new foods and also general good behaviour. I didn’t make it too easy for her – initially she got stickers for licking food, but as the weeks progressed, she had to eat more and more. Within a month, she had the shoes and I had a little girl who no longer ate only fish fingers, beans, waffles and bread, but now also chicken curry, shepherd’s pie, bolognaise and a few others.

I do remember reading somewhere that takes a child 20 or more “exposures” to a food to be happy / comfortable with it, so perseverance this definitely the key here.

I also used to stress about the fact that she wouldn’t eat any recognisable vegetables. Then I decided to get over that – get her eating vegetables in “hidden” sauces, and I could work on actual recognisable things later. So, the food processor became my friend and I now make sauces with all sorts of stuff blitzed in them; courgette, broccoli, peppers, onion, carrot, celery, mushroom etc. Continued work has resulted in further improvement since – to the point where she will now eat mashed carrots and parsnips! Not mounds of them, and she does still need to be persuaded, but she does eat them. Okay, she has ketchup and mayonnaise on literally everything (ketchup and mayo on her chicken curry, mayo with bolognaise – gross, but hey, who am I to judge? In fact, I just caught her squirting mayonnaise directly into her mouth just now, my stomach did lurch a little, I must admit!).

One thing I did unfortunately notice was that when eating these dinners with “hidden veg” sauces, she had a tendency to eat all the meat and pasta or rice, but most of the sauce was left behind. So I had a brainwave – if I love naan bread with my curry, why not them? So I toasted two pitta breads, chopped them up and got them dipping. Happy days.

I now usually, when blitzing veg, do enough for enough a couple of dinners – it’s hard to do the quantities for just one dinner for two very small ladies. So today I did 3 celery stalks, 3 cloves of garlic, a whole onion, a small bit of broccoli, one whole sweet red pepper and a large carrot. ). As I was only making small portions for the girls (not including us in the pot, as Himself gets home too late to eat with the girls) I fried this off, used 2 chicken fillets and ⅓ of it for the chicken curry, 2 further fillets and ⅓ of it for the chicken with tomato sauce below and the final ⅓ will go in the fridge overnight and will form the basis for a bolognaise tomorrow (I’ll add courgette and mushroom as well.

Anyhow, I’m sure you all have your own bolognaise recipes, so here’s two other recipes that I use for “hidden veg”, the chicken curry is a Delia Smith adaptation, the chicken and tomato is my own creation, the kids love it but it’s a bit bland for me.

Hidden Veg, incl tin of Marigold powder

·       Hidden Veg

·         1 large onion

·         3 cloves garlic

·         3 celery stalks

·         1 large carrot

·         1 large red pepper / sweet red pepper

·         A small bit of broccoli

·         Any other veg you like – courgette, mushroom, whatever works with the sauce your making (I leave mushrooms out for the curry, for example, and add courgette only to the bolognaise and tomato sauce dishes)

1.       Blitz together (usually I need to do this in batches, as my processor is too small to take it all) and fry gently for 5 – 10 mins

Mild Chicken Curry	Chicken in Tomato Sauce
Serves 2 very hungry small girls	Serves 2 very hungry small girls
2 chicken breast fillets	2 chicken breast fillets
⅓ - ½ quantity of hidden veg	⅓ - ½ quantity of hidden veg
½ tablespoon plain flour	Passata sauce (tinned tomatoes are too chunky)
1 rounded teaspoon mild curry powder	Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp each turmeric & ground ginger	Tomato puree
½ pint chicken stock	1 tsp Marigold Swiss Veg Bouillon (see photo)
1 tablespoon cream (or crème fraiche)	Tomato ketchup
Pitta bread and rice, to serve	Pitta bread and rice, to serve
Add the cubed chicken to the cooked veg in the pan and brown gently	Add the cubed chicken to the cooked veg in the pan and brown gently
Add the flour and spices, to soak up the juices	Add the passata
Gradually add all the stock (slowly, to allow it to absorb)	Add a tsp or a squeeze of tomato puree, a shake of Worcestershire sauce, a small squeeze of ketchup (to sweeten it up) and a tsp of the Marigold powder
Simmer for 20 mins, on a low heat	Simmer for 20 mins on a low heat
Stir in the cream / crème fraiche and serve	Serve

Curry in the foreground, tomato-ey chicken behind

PS - A big plus for me has been that I love courgette again, I've always found it a bit a slimy, but blitzed into the bolognaise sauce, it's delicious, it really does add a lovely sweetness to it.

Anyhow, good luck with the fussy ones, and expect more on this topic in the future, 

Sarah xx

Jockey's breakfast; a rasher and a ??

(a bit of a break from our normal type of post, but with the week thats in it...)

The primroses are lining the Craddoxtown Road, there's a buzz about Naas town and the recent weather has changed from balmy days to blustery showers, all of which can only mean one thing - Punchestown is upon us again!

Living in a house situated a bare ten minute walk from the winning post, Punchestown week is something we prepare for weeks in advance. Apart from both taking time off our 'proper' jobs to work up at the track, we also open the house to visiting English stable staff ; a virtual B&B pop up!

I'm sure our friends think we're mad, and in the weeks before hand, when we're knee-deep in bed linen and general spare-room-clearing mayhem, we come pretty close to thinking they're right. As early as Sunday, the first lorry can trundle down our driveway towards our un-usually spotless house and there's always an anxious moment just prior to meeting our 'visitors' for the first time. But every year so far, within minutes of this meeting, I can feel my shoulders relax and I know that yet again, everything is going to be just fine.

For the last five festivals, we've been blessed with our guests. They're pleasant, chatty, and respectful of our home. To be honest, its quite a relief to have visitors that don't mind the Jack Russell under the table, the cat on the couch and the muddy wellies inside the back door. Having said that, this year we did borrow a large crate to put our new amazing door-opening cat in at night time as almost 15lbs of fat white purring fur landing on even an animal lover's chest at night time can be a step too far...

But we've a nice system going, to repay them for the odd animal jumping onto their lap and the occasional child crying in the night, we push the boat out on the hospitality. A lift into the pub at night time, The Racing Post every day and of course, the good old full Irish in the morning!

Sizzling sausages, crispy rashers, hash browns (or Birdseye Potato Waffles!) eggs & mushrooms are all standard on the menu - we've yet to meet an English visitor who liked black or white pudding though we did have a request from an ex-pat for marmalade one year... Heaps of toast, freshly ground tea or coffee and the occasional side order of baked beans, we've been told our breakfast generally negates any need for lunch. Luckily our guests are rarely 'real' jockeys though we did have one poor chap two years ago who was riding in an amateur race on the second last day and so had to sit and watch his colleagues munch away while he was restricted to toast and coffee. But boy did he make up for it on the final morning...

And last but not least is the celebratory bottle of champagne should their horse win its race. This tradition started in 2008 when Air Force One leapt to victory in the Champion Novice Chase to become the first of several of our 'residents' to come home with a prize that year. Of course we didn't anticipate being such a lucky house as we cracked open the first bottle, but it was worth it for the buzz that surrounded the house for the week. Several weeks after the festival had finished we got a surprise present of a picture of Air Force One (shown below in pride of place on the downstairs loo wall) and a really nice letter of thanks from Ben his minder.

Will we have any luck this year? Who knows. But just in case, there's a bottle of something bubbly nestled nicely between the sausages and rashers in the fridge. If all else fails, we can use it to celebrate the end of yet another successful Festival, and the return of everyone (not least one very disgruntled cat) to their own rooms...


Margaret
xx

All Things Pink and Barbie (and a Volcano, for luck!)

So, Barbie. Love her or loathe her, chances are those of you with a daughter of a certain are becoming more and more familiar with the pert-breasted, well-endowed plastic one. My own eldest daughter turned 5 recently and happened to spot a confection of Barbie-perfection in the window of a local bakery – a Barbie doll cake. Enquiring within, I hear that these creations sell for close to €50, I remembered seeing recipe for such a thing in Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess”. I remember not being able to work out what she meant about plunging a doll into a cone of sponge, and then seeing this in Terenure, I realised what it was; a cone shaped cake with a Barbie doll sticking out the top, the whole thing covered in icing and decorations. So, despite never having attempted any sugarcraft work before in my life, I decided that what with the cost of the party entertainer and presents and whatnot, I would easiIy be able to save myself €50 and make the damn thing myself.

To start with, I had to locate a tin. My usual source, www.lakeland.co.uk came up blank, but a trawl of the internet sorted me out and there are loads of sites that have them. Kitchen Complements in Dublin’s Chatham St also stock both the basic tin that I got on the internet (they were out of stock, otherwise of course I would’ve supported the Irish economy and shopped local!) and a very fancy kit one, that is a lot more expensive. Expect to pay just under €20 for the basic tin. However, you can also build up your own by layering up cakes and cutting them to shape – there are lots of YouTube clips showing you how.

Which brings me neatly to YouTube. As I mentioned, I’ve never done any sugarcraft work in my life. I remain forever indebted to the fabulous ladies in Kitchen Complements who gave this novice endless free advice. I was about to purchase a small amount of ready to roll and ready coloured pink icing when I thought to ask the shop assistant who’d been advising me about tins how much I’d need to cover Barbie’s skirt. Thank God I asked! She laughed (politely, of course) at the notion that a single packet would be sufficient and she recommended I buy a big block of ready to roll icing in white and colour it myself. There would be way too much, but of course it keeps. So that was another €15. Lots of pink sugar flowers - get them in specialist shops and even in your local supermarket. Colours - luckily I already own colour pastes, so that saved me about €4. (Top tip, it’s much better to colour with pastes, even though they are expensive you use very little so they last literally for years and using so little doesn’t affect the consistency of what you are colouring, whereas the liquid colours will.) She also suggested I check out YouTube for video demonstrations of how to go about using the icing. All I can suggest is that if you are planning such an undertaking, you follow their advice and have a look at YouTube and also do searches on Google Images for “Barbie Cake” to get decorating ideas (I think I’ve mentioned before, I am not very creative and lack imagination, but I am a great copier!).

Anyhow, to steal a phrase I used in every primary school essay I ever wrote, “finally, the big day dawned”. Barbie turned out to be a ROARING success, and the twenty-odd 5 year olds screaming around my house were in awe. I have to say, it was worth it, I felt a million dollars, although the astute accountants amongst you will doubt have worked out by now that it really would have been cheaper to get the cake from the bakery!

Since then, I’ve used the same tin to make a “volcano / dinosaur” cake, using a couple of plastic dino’s from a bucket from the €2 shop (incidentally also the source of my “Barbie” dolls, why pay €6 for a real one when you can save?! Also, it is easier to use a legless Barbie, and believe me – there’s a reason the one I got was €2, it’s much easier to pull her legs off!). For the volcano, I again used Google Images for decorating inspiration, and chose buttercream as the easier option – it worked a treat, although I over-estimated the amount of green I needed and still have lots over, whereas I really needed more red and yellow for the fire – also, my red is actually “ruby”, I might have to invest in something more convincing next time! You can also buy dry ice on the internet and insert that in the top of the cake, add water and have a smoking volcano – IMPRESSIVE!

I’m making another Barbie right now for a friend, so hence the inspiration for the post. This is my second ever Barbie, you can check out the results either side here, between both - #1 on the left, #2 on the right.

Oh, PS, for this type of cake, a basic sponge won’t work, as it is too light and wouldn't hold all the icing. I believe madeira sponge is the most commonly used, although as I mentioned above, Nigella Lawson does give directions for a Barbie cake in her “Domestic Goddess” book, it’s the buttermilk birthday cake. I suggest though, if you choose the Nigella cake, that you use the yoghurt and milk option rather than the buttermilk – again, it’s a UK versus Ireland thing. Buttermilk in the UK is sold in small pots (like cream or yoghurt) and is much thicker than what we use here. My first cake was fairly ropey and slightly under-done in the centre (luckily the 5 yr olds didn’t give a damn as it’s pretty much all about the visuals for them!) so I changed tack to the yoghurt option and it’s working much better.

So, get creative! Do expect your kitchen to look like a volcano exploded in it afterwards, though... Or if you like, you can always get me to make one for you, I won't charge €50!

Sarah xx