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Beetroot salad with mozzarella and rocket

Posted: 10 March '10 by Kelly

After watching Giorgio Locatelli’s “Pure Italian” for some inspiration, we made beetroot salad with mozzarella and rocket at the weekend.

This is a great starter either for a dinner party or a quick and easy mid-week meal. Not only does it look bright and colourful on your plate but it tastes so fresh and clean. The flavours go really well together: the peppery rocket, the milky mozzarella, and the earthy beetroot with wonderfully sharp vinegar vinaigrette – fantastic!

You can of course use the jarred beetroot but, honestly, the fresh stuff tastes much, much better. Make sure you get some good quality buffalo mozzarella too as you will definitely taste the difference.

Be warned though – beetroot is incredibly messy.. Our kitchen looked like the set from a Tarantino movie when we’d finished.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 4 unpeeled beetroot
• 6 tsp red wine vinegar
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 100g rocket
• Buffalo mozzarella (we bought the smaller pieces so we could add as much as we wanted)
• Black pepper

Method

1. Scrub the beetroot, removing any woody areas or roots.
2. Put the beetroot in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 40-50 minutes until tender. Remove the saucepan from the heat and leave it to cool.
3. When the beetroot are cold, remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon, making sure to keep the liquid for later.
4. Peel and slice the beetroot into 1/2 disks and reserve the skin. Put the beetroot slices into a bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of the red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and leave to marinate.
5. To make the vinaigrette put the beetroot skins into a food processor along with 2 or 3 tablespoons of the beetroot cooking water, 2 teaspoons of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and process until the mixture is smooth. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and whisk in the remaining 2 teaspoons of vinegar, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, salt and pepper.
6. Spoon the vinaigrette on top of the sliced beetroot.
7. Arrange the beetroot slices around the serving plate and pile the rocket leaves on top. Place the mozzarella in the centre. Drizzle the mozzarella with olive oil.
8. Sprinkle with several grindings of black pepper and serve.

Enjoy

Tags: beetroot, giorgio locatelli, recipe, salad

Categories: Featured Post > Recipes > Starter Course

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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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Wild rocket with parmesan and balsamic vinegar salad

Posted: 08 February '10 by Kelly

This really isn’t a recipe, but you will thank me for sharing it with you if you don’t already know about it.

Although you only need three ingredients for this salad, the quality of these three elements is very important.  We use a mature Parmigiano-Reggiano, wild rocket, and a good quality balsamic vinegar – all of which are easily found in your local supermarket.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 50g parmesan cheese
• 100g wild rocket leaves
• 4 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

Method

1. Rinse the wild rocket and shake well to dry – place the rocket leaves in a bowl.
2. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and toss the salad leaves.
3. Using a sharp knife cut wedges chips of parmesan into the salad, working your way back from the thin end. It’s important that the chips aren’t too thin.
4. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Other information

Bio-store, which you can find at the market in Belfast’s St. George’s Market on Saturdays, are now carrying some fantastic balsamic vinegar from Modena, with more varieties to come.

Tags: recipe, salad

Categories: Featured Post > Italian Food > Recipes > Side Dishes > Starter Course

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Seared scallops with black pudding and cauliflower puree

Posted: 27 January '10 by Niall

This was a dish that we first tasted in Clenaghan’s in Aghalee and we loved it that much that it’s become a favourite treat in our house.

The delicate flesh and sweet flavour of the scallops goes surprisingly well with the rich, spicy rounds of black pudding, and the cauliflower puree provides a subtle base and creaminess for the whole dish.

The secret to perfecting this recipe are the quality of the ingredients: fresh scallops and Clonakilty black pudding are a must. We usually buy our scallops from the Northern Ireland Fishermen’s Federation stall and the Clonakilty black pudding was bought from the Greenmount Farm Shop – both of which are in the City Food and Garden Market in St. George’s Market on Saturday mornings.

I usually slice the scallops along the middle to make two. There’s no reason to do this other than they make for an easier mouthful, and it looks like you’ve double the scallops on your plate!

I’ve also added some curry spice to my cauliflower puree to emphasise the sweet flavour of the vegetable and bring another dimension to the recipe. Cauliflower makes a fantastic canvas for other flavours too. So let your creativity run riot and add whatever you like to the puree – grated nutmeg and even mustard work well.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7

Serves 2

Ingredients

Ingredients: Seared scallops with black pudding

• Half a Clonakilty black pudding, cut into rounds that are about the same size as the scallops
• 6 scallops
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Splash of olive oil

Ingredients: For the cauliflower purée

• 1/2 a small cauliflower
• 100ml (6 tbsp.) cream
• 150g (10 tbsp.) butter
• A good pinch of curry spice

Method

Method: For the seared scallops with black pudding

1. Take a sharp knife and slice where the orange scallop roe (also called “coral”) meets the scallop. There is also a small membrane which runs around the scallop and should come easily free once the roe has been removed.
2. Brush your frying pan with olive oil and fry the black pudding on a medium heat until both sides have become crisp. Transfer the black pudding to a plate lined with kitchen paper and keep warm.
3. Rub the scallops with a little olive oil and season them with salt and black pepper.
4. Increase the heat of the frying pan until the oil smokes slightly.
5. Place the scallops in the frying pan and cook – one minute on each side should do. Each side of the scallop should have a nice golden crust.
6. Pat the scallops dry on kitchen paper.

Method: Cauliflower puree

1. Boil the cauliflower in the milk until the cauliflower has become soft.
2. Put the cream and cauliflower into a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.
4. Cook the butter until golden brown and add to the puree, along with the curry spice.
5. Season to taste with salt.

To serve

1. Place a piece of black pudding in the centre of each serving plate with a scallop on top.
2. Pipe or spoon a little of the purée in between.

Enjoy.

Other information

Clonakilty black pudding comes from County Cork. Produced by Edward Twomey from an old Harrington family recipe, and just crumbles in your mouth with the most delicious, more-ish flavour.

You can visit the Clonakilty black pudding website here.

You can also read more about St. George’s Market, Belfast here.

Tags: recipe, recipes, seafood

Categories: Featured Post > Recipes > Seafood > Starter Course

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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

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