Tea Brack

Posted: 25 February '10 by Ciara

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

1. Dissolve the sugar in the hot tea, mix in the whiskey and soak the fruit overnight in this.
2. Next day, preheat the oven to 17o, gas mark 3 and line the loaf tins.
3. 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.
4. Bake for 1 hour.
5. Remove from oven, place on wire rack and immediately brush with honey to glaze (I used a pastry brush).
6. 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

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

1. Prepare chicken stock.
2. Heat oil in a pan, remove fat from chicken fillets and seal the top and bottom of chicken fillets in the pan.
3. Add a cupful of the chicken stock to chicken and simmer until chicken has cooked through (This normally takes around 10 minutes).
4. Meanwhile chop up onions, garlic, carrot, parsnip and potatoes into small pieces.
5. In a separate pot, fry onion and garlic in a tbsp of olive oil until soft.
6. 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.
7. Remove Chicken fillets from the pan, cut into small pieces and set aside.
8. Add the left over chicken stock to the pot with vegetables in it.
9. When the vegetables have softened remove them to a blender and blitz until they have turned into a puree.
10. Add this back to the pot along with the double cream, chicken pieces, and chives.
11. Reduce the heat and allow the soup to heat through (around 30 minutes or so).
12. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. When this is done add the wine or beef stock then add veggies, tomatoes and orange peel.
4. 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

1. Boil potatoes for 20-25 minutes
2. Drain and mash
3. Meanwhile heat butter and milk together
4. Add slowly to potatoes continuously mashing

Enjoy!

Tags: recipe, recipes

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

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.

see more photos here

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

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Cut the chicken fillets into finger sizes
3. Place the flour and salt and pepper into a bag
4. Place the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork
5. Place the breadcrumbs and parmesan into another bag
6. Toss the goujons into the seasoned flour, then remove and shake off excess flour
7. Dip into beaten egg
8. Toss into breadcrumb and parmesan mix and lay themk unto a plate
9. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes turning once and serve with honey mustard dip

Method – Honey mustard dip

1. 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

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:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4/350F
2. Line brownie tin base and sides
3. Melt butter and chocolate together in a bowl over a pot of boiling water
4. In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract
5. Sift the flour into another bowl with salt
6. When chocolate mixture has melted let it cool before beating in the eggs and sugar, then the flour
7. Fold in white chocolate buttons, then beat slightly and scrape unto brownie tin
8. 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

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