Archive for February, 2010
Nominated for the Irish Blog Awards 2010
Posted: 20 February '10 by Niall
Irish Blog Awards
We’ve been nominated for the Irish Blog Awards 2010!
Thanks to all of you who’ve read our recipes, reviews, and rants over the past year – and thought we deserved an award for it.
The award ceremony will be held on Saturday 27th March, 2010 in Galway. We’re in the “Best Food/Drink Blog” category, which is sponsored by Bord Bia.
You can see the full list of nominees here.
We’ll report back on how we get on. In the meantime..
Thanks again!
Categories: Site Messages
No Comments - Click to Add Yours
Now accepting payments by PayPal
Posted: 20 February '10 by Niall
We’re now able to take online payments for our wine-tasting evening at Direct Wine Shipments!
The “Buy Now” button will take you to the PayPal website to allow you to buy your tickets. The payment is totally secure – just have a look at the bottom right hand corner of your window, or at the end of the address bar at the top to see the “lock” symbol.
You can buy your tickets for our wine-tasting evening here.
Hopefully we’ll see you all there!
Categories: Site Messages
No Comments - Click to Add Yours
Pancakes – How do you eat yours?
Posted: 17 February '10 by Niall
American pancakes with maple syrup
Yesterday was “Pancake Day”, the last day before Lent and a day to celebrate all of those guilty pleasures that might soon be denied us: butter, flour, milk, and eggs.
I have to admit, I was never the biggest fan of pancakes, a result of too many gluey, flavourless versions bought in convenience stores. Crepes were the only exception, especially those bought from the French Crepe stall in St. George’s Market – delicious! But Pancake Day isn’t about crepes – I was after the fluffy, sweet, bready pancakes that you see on American TV.
I came across this recipe in an old cookbook – welcome to pancake heaven!
All that remains is to decide what to have on yours..
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4
Ingredients
- 135g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 130ml milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly), plus a little more for cooking
To serve: real maple syrup
Method
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
- Pour the milk mixture into the flour and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing.
- Now for the important bit – Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
- Grease a non-stick frying pan with a little butter and place over a medium heat.
- When the pan gets up to temperature add a ladle of batter. It will seem very thick but this is how it should be.
- Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over (or toss it, if you’re feeling brave!) and cook until both sides are a nice golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm thick.
- Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven.
- To serve, drizzle some maple syrup over your pancake stack and tuck in.
Enjoy!
Other information
- You can try separating the egg-yolk from the white, mixing the egg into the batter, but whisking the whites into stiff peaks before folding the batter into the egg-whites for a lighter, souffle-like consistency.
- After you’ve made the batter allow it to rest – this resting period allows the gluten in the flour to relax so the pancakes will be tender, and lets the baking powder form bubbles in the batter.
- After the batter rests, do not stir it or you will deflate all the bubbles.
Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
No Comments - Click to Add Yours
Panettone bread and butter pudding
Posted: 15 February '10 by Niall
Italian bread and butter pudding
We had some Panettone left over after Christmas and with “waste not, want not” being our motto for the new year, I was wondering what I could do to make the most of the bread.
Panettone is a type of bread from Milan in Italy, made with candied orange, lemon zest, and raisins, and is traditionally eaten over the Christmas holidays. Although it was quite rare to see in Northern Ireland until recently, more and more delicatessens stock them now.
I love all of those old-fashioned, school-dinner type of desserts and I thought that the Panettone would be perfect for an Italian bread and butter pudding. I saw this recipe on TV a couple of years ago – Giorgio Locatelli added some grappa-soaked sultanas for a nice, boozy edge to the dessert – and who am I to change his recipe!
You can see more photos hereImageImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7Image 8
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
For the Panettone
- Panettone, cut into thick slices and buttered
- 75g sultanas
- A little icing sugar
- Some dark Moscovado sugar
- A little jam (I used apricot preserve)
- Some Grappa (optional)
For the custard
- 570ml/1 pint milk
- 55ml/2fl oz single cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- 4 eggs, yolks only
- 30g/1oz caster sugar
- 2 level tsp cornflour
You’ll also need a large saucepan, a whisk, a wooden spoon, and a good deep oven-proof dish.
Method
Method – The custard:
- Take a knife and slice the vanilla pod down the length of the pod
Place the pod in a second saucepan, making sure to get all of the small black seeds from the blade of the knife in there as well. - Add the milk and cream to the saucepan and bring the lot to simmering point over a low heat.
- Remove the vanilla pod.
- Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour together in a bowl until well blended.
- Pour the hot milk and cream on to the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time with a balloon whisk.
- Return to the pan, and over a low heat gently stir with a wooden spoon. You’ll know when the custard is thick enough when a clear line remains when you run your finger down the back of the custard-covered spoon
Method – The bread and butter pudding:
- If you are using Grappa to soak the sultanas then place the dried fruit in a bowl and cover with the grappa – you could do this the day beforehand to get the most flavour into the fruit.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- Cut the panettone into thick wedges and butter each side.
- Arrange the wedges around a casserole dish, working around the circumference and finally lining the centre of the dish with the edges pointing upwards.
- Sprinkle the sultanas across the panettone.
- Pour the custard into the casserole dish, until the custard almost covers the panettone leaving only a centimetre of each point showing.
- Take your egg-wash brush and dip it into the apricot preserve (or whatever you are using) and brush the points of the panettone that are showing.
- Sprinkle the moscavado sugar over the apricot jam.
- Place the bread and butter pudding into the oven for about 45 minutes. When cooked, it will have a slight golden crust on top but will still be slightly wobbly inside, and the moscovado sugar will be sticky and toffee-like.
- Spoon the dessert into a bowl and pour a little double-cream over the dish to serve.
Enjoy!
Other information
Grappa is a fiery Italian brandy of between 37.5% and 60% alcohol by volume.
Categories: Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes
No Comments - Click to Add Yours
Cream of chicken and vegetable soup
Posted: 11 February '10 by Ciara
Cream of Chicken and Vegetable soup
This is a yummy recipe and is made almost weekly in our house.
It’s also a great way of getting our daughter Sophie to eat her veggies.
You can see a larger photo here
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 chicken fillets
- 1375mls chicken stock
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 parsnip
- 1lb potatoes
- salt and pepper
- 250mls double cream
- 1 tbsp chives
Method
- Prepare chicken stock.
- Heat oil in a pan, remove fat from chicken fillets and seal the top and bottom of chicken fillets in the pan.
- Add a cupful of the chicken stock to chicken and simmer until chicken has cooked through (This normally takes around 10 minutes).
- Meanwhile chop up onions, garlic, carrot, parsnip and potatoes into small pieces.
- In a separate pot, fry onion and garlic in a tbsp of olive oil until soft.
- Add remaining vegetables to the pot with the garlic and onion in it, season with salt and pepper, add remaining chicken stock and boil for 25 minutes.
- Remove Chicken fillets from the pan, cut into small pieces and set aside.
- Add the left over chicken stock to the pot with vegetables in it.
- When the vegetables have softened remove them to a blender and blitz until they have turned into a puree.
- Add this back to the pot along with the double cream, chicken pieces, and chives.
- Reduce the heat and allow the soup to heat through (around 30 minutes or so).
- Serve with brown bread.
Enjoy!
Categories: Chicken > Featured Post > Recipes > Starter Course
