Ballymoney Oyster Soup

Nothing says "special occasion" like oysters. Luckily we have some fantastic suppliers of beautiful oyster in Ireland. I usually buy mine from Sean Keown in Bangor or occasionally the husband will stop off at Dundrum Bay Oyster Fisheries and pick some up. While in season they're actually pretty reasonably priced.

This is a good recipe for those who have maybe never tried oysters or don't like the idea of eating them raw.

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, cooked until tender
4oz belly of pork or streaky bacon if the belly is hard to come by
1.5 pints of hot milk
36 fresh oysters
1 bouquet garni
salt and pepper
1-2oz butter.

Open the oysters and reserve the liquor, a good fishmonger will do this for you but its easy enough once you get the hang of it.

Dice the belly or pork or bacon and fry gently until cooked without colouring too much.

Mash the potatoes with the hot milk, add the herbs and seasonings and bring to the boil.

Add the pork, oysters and liquor and simmer for a few minutes.

Add butter and serve hot.

This makes about four good sized portions. The soup shouldn't really be made in advance as the oysters will become tough when reheated. Feel free to make up the soup a day ahead and when ready to serve, bring the soup to the boil and add the oysters and liquor at that stage.

Irish Boxty Bread or Potato Bread

Boxty on the Griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
The wee one in the middle,
It is for Mary Ann.
If you don't eat boxty,
You'll never get your man.

I'm not entirely sure where this little rhyme came from, but it does make me laugh.

Boxty Bread (makes 16 farls)

1lb raw grated potato
1lb cooked mashed potato
12oz plain flour
1/2 oz baking powder
1 tsp salt
4oz softened butter.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

Grate the raw potatoes and squeeze out some of the excess liquid.

Place all ingredients in a large bowl or basin and mix with your hands until well combined.

Empty dough out onto a flour surface, divide into quarters and roll each portion of dough into a circle about 1/4 inch thick.

Place onto a greased baking sheet and mark into farls (quarters).

Bake for 35-40 minutes and serve straight from the oven, swimming in butter.

Enjoy.

Champ Potatoes

This week over at Rocks in my Dryer, WFMW is themed - Recipes using five items or less.

I love champ, it's easy, cheap and absolutely gorgeous, all by itself.

Champ

Floury potatoes, enough for your family. I usually use five good sized potatoes, the ones that fill the palm of your hand.

Scallions (spring onions) - one onion for each potato, finely sliced into little rings, green and white. You can get fancy with this if you like by cutting them at an angle.

Butter - don't try to skip this, it ain't champ if it doesn't have butter.

Milk - about half a cup for the amount of potatoes above.

Peel, cube and cook potatoes until tender.

Strain the water away from the potatoes and leave in the pot or in a colander uncovered to allow any remaining water to steam off.

In the meantime, put milk and scallions into a pan and bring to the boil, turn off heat and leave to rest.

Mash the potatoes until smooth and add milk and scallions and beat into the potatoes, add butter and beat again and season to taste.

Serve all by itself, as a side or use leftover cold champ to make fishcakes. This is great with good pork sausages.

The kitchen bar in Belfast used to serve champ in a pile, with a well made in the centre and a raw egg yolk cracked in and covered over with the potatoes. It would be left to sit for a few minutes to allow the heat from the potatoes to just barely cook the egg yolk and then eaten. It was beautiful. They don't do it anymore, it's up to you if you want to try it. You need to be pretty confident about your eggs for this one, although a soft poached egg on top is just as good.

There you go five items or less *ahem ... not counting the seasoning*

Give it a try and let my know how you get on. This recipe works for me and for more recipes which work for other people, take a look at WFMW over with Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Also for more great recipes using potatoes, rice, pasta and bread check out the Frugal Food Series at Frugal Upstate.