Blog

10
Apr

Fancy a date?

A friend of mine asked me if I realised that there are more than 1000 varieties of dates in the world, I had not until that moment thought about it. He asked this as I stuffed the third medjool date into my mouth. This same friend had just returned from the Middle East and was filling my head with tales of chocolate covered dates, rich date stews and presentation boxes of sweet almond stuffed dates. It was he who brought the very welcome gift of the medjool dates back from his travels.

Our conversation got me thinking of the sweet intense flavour that only dates can impart. They are a natural sweetener and work wonders on the digestive system. Dates are used to break the fast after Ramadan and so are embedded in the Muslim culture. The same friend described seeing oasis filled with date palms in the desert, where the fronds stretched high into the hot, blue sky and the heavy sagging bunches of dates are left on the tree until they are bright yellow and ripe for picking. Although the exact origin of the date palm has been lost in time it is known to have been used in the construction of temples in Southern Iraq as far back as 4000 BC.

Dates are called nature's toffee for good reason, they are one of the sweetest natural foods I know. They are also a great way of helping you get over that mid-afternoon slump. A date is full of fiber and provides our bodies with energy and natural goodness, as well as potassium, magnesium and calcium. I like using sweet ingredients in savoury cooking so I love combinations such as sweet dates in a bitter winter salad. The bitterness of winter leaves mixed with perhaps a creamy goats cheese and slices of date all work to create a tasty meal. Medjool dates wrapped in bacon and quickly popped under the grill are a great pre dinner snack. They have all the saltiness of the bacon and it bounces of the sweet sticky dates and works so well. You can stuff the canapes with a sliver of blue cheese before wrapping them in bacon for an extra rich and flavourful hit.

Dates wrapped in bacon

you will need: a good knife, 10 cocktail sticks and a wire rack and a grill

10 medjool dates de-stoned
5 thinly cut rashers, all cut in half lengthways

Wrap the bacon around a date and secure with a cocktail stick. Place it on a wire rack. Do the same with all of your dates and then place them under a medium grill for just a few minutes until the bacon starts to crisp. Turn the canapes around until they are completely cooked.

FOOD

1 comments

04
Apr

New York I love you .....

I love walking across the Williamsburg Bridge on a crisp and clear morning, I love strolling through Central Park in the Autumn, I love turning onto a soaring avenue and feeling the wind in my face, I love walking along the “High Line Park” and watching the sun set behind the Jersey shore, I love sitting at the tip of Red Hook and looking across the bay at the Statue of Liberty standing tall and most of all I just love being in New York. I am probably not the first person to point this out but in my mind New York city is the best city in the world. It is certainly the best when it comes to food. It has made the cupcake famous, it has the best pizzas that I have ever tasted, it has queues of people lining the streets by a battered old Mexican food stand selling slow roasted pork cooked in spicy mole, it has amazing Vietnamese bread rolls filled with coriander and julienne veg and of course it has breakfast. Nobody does breakfast, or should I say brunch, quite like New Yorkers.

New York is an ever changing city, with new favourites and adventures to seek out upon every visit. On my last trip I found myself sitting outside the fantastic “Five Leaves” diner, in Greenpoint, having brunch and watching the achingly hip locals walk by. Venturing down under the Williamsburg Bridge to sit at the bar in “Marlow and Sons” and munching on pancakes served with a boozy brandy cream. In Manhattan I sat in the tiled booths of “Goat Town”, in the once legendary Alphabet City, and slurped down oysters straight from their shell while drinking tomato spiced beer, much nicer than it sounds, I promise.

Egg's Eggs Rothko

I also visited a diner called “Egg” in Brooklyn on my last whirl wind tour of New York breakfast joints and I enjoyed one of the best and most excellently named breakfasts on my trip; Eggs Rothko. If any of you are familiar with the painter Rothko you will have seen his blurred canvases. well what was served in frount of me did very much resemble one of his atmospheric paintings.

you will need: knife, a frying pan, a grill, a cookie cutter, a grater

1 tablespoon butter
1 thick slice of brioche bread
1 large eggs
enough Cheddar to cover your slice of bread, grated, Hegarty's works well

Melt half of your butter in a pan and fry the bread until it is golden on both sides. Using a cookie cutter or a glass cut a circle from the centre the slice and remove the extra piece. Put the rest of the butter into the hole you have created in the bread. Once the butter is hot crack an egg into the hole. Once the egg is solid enough, flip the bread over and cook it on the other side.

Remove the bread from the pan and sprinkle it with the cheese and place under a medium grill.

Once the cheese has melted you are done. Serve the circle that you cut from the centre alongside your dish. You can top it with grilled tomatoes if you like.

TRAVEL FOOD

1 comments

26
Mar

Fancy a cuppa?

Having a cup of tea is not only about the flavour that it imparts, but about the time taken to follow an ancient ritual. I feel it is a treat, a relaxing start to any day, to have the time to sit and enjoy a hot cup before that day begins. If I manage to get out of bed early enough in the morning I relish the pleasure of a cup siting down at the table rather than a mad dash out the door, it seems like civilized start to the day .

Lavender, camomile and mint tea

Mix equal parts of the following

dried lavender flowers
dried chamomile flowers
mint tea (I find spearmint the best)

This tea keeps very well for a few months in an airtight container.

DRINK

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21
Mar

Porridge

The Scottish tend to claim a monopoly on porridge with their “World Porridge Making Championships” and their salty tales of superstition and evil spirits. Some Scots would have you believe that porridge should be stirred only using the right-hand and in a clockwise direction to ward off bad spirits. I think it is about time we Irish proudly claim its place in our history. Porridge is an ancient food and was the staple food in Ireland until usurped by the potato in the the late sixteenth century. It was used in ancient times as oats grow well in the short wet growing season of northern Europe and were even widely used in early whiskey making.

There are many plus sides to porridge, it is local, healthy and very very cheap. I would nearly go so far as to say it is one of our national treasures. There are so many delicious ways to make it and so many great uses for the oats. My perfect bowl of porridge is made with milk rather than water and left a little runny. It does not have to be eaten plain, a dollop of lemon curd works a treat or some stewed fruit. If you drop a small handful of raisins into the porridge as it cooks they plump up all nice and juicy, sprinkle a little brown sugar and a touch of cinnamon and you have a breakfast fit for a king. When I eat oats for breakfast I notice my energy levels are better and I am not hungry until lunch time.

Porridge

Soya milk or water can be used instead of milk in the porridge. Water does make a lighter porridge.

You will need: a cup,saucepan, wooden-spoon, hob

1 cup of porridge oats
2 cups of milk

Place both in a saucepan. Stir continuously until the porridge begins to make a plopping noise. Keep stirring slowly for another few minutes, they you are done.

If you are in a hurry in the mornings you can soak the porridge oats in the milk over night. Put them both in a bowl and pop them in the fridge. Your porridge will cook that bit quicker.

To serve:

1 small spoon of dark brown sugar
1 dash of cream
a small splash of whiskey

To serve:

a small handful hazelnuts, roasted and chopped
small drizzle of honey
zest of half an orange

Sprinkle the nuts, drizzle with honey and finally add the zest of half an orange

To serve:

1 large spoonful of fruit compote
a dash of cream

FOOD

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20
Dec

Beautiful Morocco

I visited Morrocco last year and picked up some recipes on the journey. We started our Morocan adventure in the walled city of Teroudant, an hours drive from where our plane landed. There was a large bustelling market being held over the few days we were there, farmers had travelled long distances from the surounding villages and mounains to sell their livestock. We wandered around looking at the bleeting lambs, braying goats and noisy chickens. The food stalls were selling piping hot bowls of steamed cous cous and lamb was cooked over open fires and of course there was mint tea.

Very little happens in Morocco without a glass of mint tea in your hand. It is poured from a height into pretty, painted glasses through the spout of an ornate silver tea pot. Fresh mint is mixed with green tea leaves and alot of sugar, it is offererd in shops, restaurants and stalls on the street. Morrocan tea glasses are available in many Middle Eastern shops or Mosques around the country. In Morroco you often see them used as vases, filled with bunches of fresh aromatic roses.

Here the cous cous was steamed in an unuasual contraption called a couscoussier, which is very traditional to Morroco. It allows the cook to make a type of stew in the bottom half as the cous cous steams above, infuseing it with the flavours from below. Each grain of cous cous swells up due to the steam without getting heavy and wet.

When leaving Teraudant we decided to take a shared taxi across the Atlas mountains to Marakesh. Packed tightly into an very old and rickety Mercdius we left the orange groves of Terodant behind us and climbed into the foothills of the mountains which were dotted with olive trees and pumpkin patches. As we climbed further the whispy white clouds burnt off and the blue azur sky shone down on the mountain tops revealing all their rugged glory. There were short scrubby herb bushes growing everywhere and now and then our amiable driver would pull over to the side of the windy road and pick a bunch for us. The thyme here smelt like none other I have ever smelt, it was strong and pungent. We climbed higher and higher around hairraising bends. My heart was in my mouth many times, I kept telling myself that our driver wants to get home to his family so he will get us there safe and sound.

Morrocan mint tea

you will need: a small tea pot and serving glasses

per person
a small bunch of mint leaves
1 tsp of green tea
2 tsp of sugar or honey

Put all the ingredients into a small tea pot and fill it with boiling water. Leave it to brew for a few minutes and then serve, in small glasses or tea cups..

Moroccan preserved Lemons

you will need: a knife, a sterilized jar with a lid

unwaxed lemons
1 tbs of salt per lemon
water

Cut the lemons as if you were going to cut them in half lengthwise, starting from the tip, but do not cut all the way. Squeeze it open slightly and add a table spoon of salt to the centre of each one, rub the salt in then push the lemon back together. Press the lemons very firmly into the jar, squash them down so that the juice is starting to coming out. Top up your jar with a little water so that the lemons are completely covered with the juice and water.

Place the jar in a cupboard and forget about it for at least three months when they will finally be ready for use. They get stronger as the months go on and can last up to a year