Grilled Red Herrings

This isn't much of a recipe, but it is a great way to prepare herrings.

Soak whole herrings in cold beer, drain then grill until the fresh pulls away from the bones easily.

Serve with mashed potatoes or on hot buttered toast and sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

Oh and another tin of that beer to wash them down if you happen to have one handy.

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.

Simply Sponge

I have a simple, completely fool proof method for making sponge. Whether it be cakes, cupcakes or fairy cakes you want this recipe will get the job done.

Take the required number of eggs, two for an 8 inch pan, three for 10 inch, four for 12 inch and so on...

Now weigh your eggs still in their shells and put the same weight of self raising flour, butter, caster sugar and finally crack in the eggs. Beat well with a whisk or hand held beater and use in any recipe calling for sponge.

Whether it be Victoria sponge cake, cobbler or little fairy cakes it always produces a lovely light sponge.

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.

Boiling Potatoes in their Jackets

I love to cook potatoes without peeling them. They taste a lot better cooked with their jackets on and I find it protects the potato and makes it less likely that they will be overcooked and waterlogged.

However, it can be a bit of a nightmare to remove the skins from hot potatoes once they are cooked. The easiest way to do this is to remove a band of skin around the middle of the potato, around 1cm wide and then boil. Once the potatoes are cooked the skins will slip right off.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Seriously, who doesn't like chocolate.

I love chocolate.

No. I really love chocolate. And I love cupcakes, so these little babies rock my world.

They're a bit different because they contain buttermilk (or vinegar and milk combined if you can't get buttermilk) so I wouldn't recommend licking the spoon. The batter just tastes weird.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
1/2 cup (4oz) butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180C (350F)

Cream Butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Alternate adding buttermilk and flour until all is combined.

Line a 12 cup muffin pan and divide batter evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes a skewer comes out clean.

Remove to a cooling rack and once cool frost with;

Chocolate buttercream

4oz icing sugar
2oz butter
4 oz dark chocolate melted
(a little milk)

Cream butter and sugar together to make buttercream, add melted chocolate and beat again to combine. Add a little milk if the buttercream seems a little dry or you prefer a messier (nothing wrong with that) frosting.

Cauliflower Soup with Tarragon

Photo Courtesy of Supriya O on flickr

1 medium onion, finely diced.
a bunch of soup celery or 3 stalks of table celery, finely chopped.
1 tbls butter
2 tbls plain flour
1 litre of vegetable stock
1 cauliflower, chopped
300ml dried reconstituted milk (or fresh)
fat pinch of dried tarragon or small bunch of fresh.
Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.

Soften celery and onion in butter over a low/medium heat for five minutes then add flour and stir quickly to combine.

Add a little of the stock at a time and stir until about 1/4 of the stock has been added, the remaining stock may be added in 2-3 larger quantities. Allow to cook for a few minutes until mixture has thickened slightly.

Add cauliflower, bring to the boil, reduce heat and cover. Cook until cauliflower is tender (15-20 minutes depending on size of florets).

Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before blending until smooth, add milk along with the dried tarragon and seasonings (if using fresh wait until just before serving the soup to add), bring back up to simmering point and serve.

A handful or two of grated cheddar may also be added to this soup.