Tea Brack
Posted: 25 February '10 by Ciara

Irish Tea Brack
I got this recipe for Tea Brack from a work colleague and tried it out at the weekend. I absolutely loved it, although i had to give half of it away to my mother-in-law, being the only one in my household to like this sort of cake! Otherwise i would have eaten all of it myself…
Irish tea brack is a rich, moist cake which is perfect for a breakfast or an afternoon snack. “Brack” comes from the Irish word “brac”, which means speckled.
You can see more photos hereImage 1
Makes 2 generous tea bracks
Ingredients
- 450g Dark brown Sugar
- 2.5 cups of tea (make it in tea pot first)
- half cup of whiskey
- 375g raisins
- 525g sultanas
- 3 eggs
- 450g plain flour (no need to sieve)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 teaspoons mixed spice
- honey for glazing
You’ll also need a little butter and some baking paper to line your baking tins.
Method
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea, mix in the whiskey and soak the fruit overnight in this.
- Next day, preheat the oven to 17o, gas mark 3 and line the loaf tins.
- Mix the eggs, flour (no need to sieve), baking powder and mixed spice with the fruit mixture, (i just use a fork) and pour into the prepared tins.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven, place on wire rack and immediately brush with honey to glaze (I used a pastry brush).
- Serve with tea and butter.
Enjoy!
Other information
Please note that these bracks will keep for up to 2 weeks because the whiskey preserves them, although they wouldn’t last that long in our house.
Please also note that instead of the 1/2 cup of whiskey you can just add another 1/2 cup of tea.
Tags: recipe
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Featured Post > Irish Food > Recipes
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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!
Tags: recipe
Categories: Chicken > Featured Post > Recipes > Starter Course
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Comforting beef casserole with mashed potatoes
Posted: 22 January '10 by Ciara
I am really excited about this new recipe. I tried it for the first time this evening and we all loved it. It is packed with flavour and was the perfect thing to eat on a cold snowy evening. Sophie has been quite run down recently, so i am a bit paranoid that she should be getting as much goodness into her as possible, and i was delighted that she loved this.
Please note that I cut my vegetables quite small and also the carrots were grated quite finely too as Sophie doesn’t really like a lot of lumps in her food, so feel free to cut up your veggies to your own liking.
The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s “Nigella Feasts” programme.
Serves 5
You can see more photos here.
Ingredients
Ingredients: Beef Casserole
- 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots sliced or grated
- 2 celery stalks sliced thinly or 1 inch thick
- 3 cloves of garlic grated
- 2 dried bay leaves
- 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2lbs of beef fillet stewing meat
- 1/4 cup flour
- salt & pepper
- 1/2 cup red wine or beef stock (i obviously used beef stock for Sophie)
- 1 large can whole plum tomatoes (i also blend these for Cor, who hates lumps of tomatoes in his food)
- peel of half an orange
Ingredients: Mashed Potatoes
- 6 maris piper potatoes
- 4 knobs of butter
- 30ml full fat milk
Method
Method: Beef Casserole
- Heat oil and over a medium heat fry onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves and thyme for 5-10 minutes until onion turns translucent. Remove veggies to a bowl leaving as much oil in the pot as you can.
- Meanwhile, place flour and salt and pepper in a plastic bag along with meat. Shake until meat is coated. Place into the pot which you have just removed veggies from and cook until pieces are well browned.
- When this is done add the wine or beef stock then add veggies, tomatoes and orange peel.
- Bring to a simmer and then reduce to a low and cook for 3 hours. Remove bay leaves, thyme sprigs and orange peel and serve with mashed potatoes.
Method: Mashed potatoes
- Boil potatoes for 20-25 minutes
- Drain and mash
- Meanwhile heat butter and milk together
- Add slowly to potatoes continuously mashing
Enjoy!
Categories: Beef > English Food > Featured Post > Main Course > Recipes
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Parmesan Chicken Goujons & Honey mustard dip
Posted: 13 January '10 by Ciara

Parmesan Chicken Goujons
Firstly, i would like to apologise for being a bit lazy about adding new recipes. I have been extremely busy since the end of November between shopping in New York and the lead up to Christmas. But i’m sure i’ll be forgiven when i share some of the new recipes that i have picked up recently.
I also have to write a few reviews on restaurants that i visited while in New York and also in Dublin during the lead up to Christmas.
The chicken goujons are a definite favourite in our house. These are one of my daughter Sophies favourite foods. They are really handy and can be made in advance. I made them recently with chips and mushy peas but they also go well with mashed potatoes and broccoli and parma ham.
Ingredients
Parmesan Chicken goujons
- 600g chicken breasts
- 50g flour
- salt and pepper
- 2 eggs beaten
- 100g breadcrumbs
- 50g parmesan cheese
- 3 tbsp oil (i used goose fat recently and it was yummy)
Honey mustard dip
- 250ml creme fraiche
- 1 tbsp grainy mustard
- 1/2 tsp honey
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
Method
Method – Parmesan Chicken goujons
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees
- Cut the chicken fillets into finger sizes
- Place the flour and salt and pepper into a bag
- Place the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork
- Place the breadcrumbs and parmesan into another bag
- Toss the goujons into the seasoned flour, then remove and shake off excess flour
- Dip into beaten egg
- Toss into breadcrumb and parmesan mix and lay themk unto a plate
- Cook in the oven for 20 minutes turning once and serve with honey mustard dip
Method – Honey mustard dip
- Mix all of the ingredients altogether and serve. Note, depending on your taste you may want to add more honey or more mustard.
Enjoy!
Tags: chicken, recipe, recipes
Categories: Chicken > Featured Post > Recipes > Starter Course
4 Comments
Brownies with white chocolate buttons
Posted: 28 October '09 by Ciara

Brownies with white chocolate buttons
I was “surfing the net” a few weeks ago looking for a brownie recipe and came across a Nigella Lawson one. I have to confess, it was the first time that I have ever tried one of her recipes and I can tell you I was delighted with the results. These have to be the nicest brownies I have tasted. The gooey centre is to die for! I tried them firstly, for myself, Cor and Sophie and must admit I ate the majority of them.
The second time I made them was at the weekend just past, for my family in Belfast and they absolutely loved them. This time round, I added more chocolate buttons. You’d swear they’d never seen chocolate the way they went on about them.
You can see more photos hereImage 1
Ingredients:
- 375g dark chocolate - I use Green & Blacks as they are made with 70% cocoa solids
- 375g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 eggs
- 350g caster sugar
- 225g plain flour
- 250g white chocolate buttons
- brownie tin
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F
- Line brownie tin base and sides
- Melt butter and chocolate together in a bowl over a pot of boiling water
- In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract
- Sift the flour into another bowl with salt
- When chocolate mixture has melted let it cool before beating in the eggs and sugar, then the flour
- Fold in white chocolate buttons, then beat slightly and scrape unto brownie tin
- Bake for 25 minutes until the top is dried to a paler brown and the centre is dark and gooey
Enjoy
Tags: biscuits, cakes and biscuits, Chocolate, nigella lawson, recipe, recipes
Categories: Biscuits and Cakes > Dessert Course > Featured Post > Recipes

