I'm kicking myself. I absentmindedly knocked my camera at a job and bust my macro lens..  I'm very sad as I've discovered they are mucho expensive. I'll have to wait till after Chrimbo and hope there's a sale at the camera shop. So no photo's till then. I tried taking some with my standard issue lens and they look a bit pathetic. Foolish foolish, I do now own a camera bag...! 

Another long absence and this time there's a great reason.
I'm going to be a mum....   I am totally delighted, but the baby is making sure I have the stamina for when it's around. I'm being tested to the limits. Nausea and vomiting are not the best bedfellows for someone working with food!  For a couple of weeks I couldn't cook at all. Thankfully I am now back to cooking and on the whole feel better, I just have the odd daily turn.
I assisted on Neven's latest series last month. It will be showing in the new year. We were generously treated to dinner in McNeans not once but twice and all I can say is it should be on everyones to do lists.  The food is outstanding. It is very beautifully considered in it's cooking and its plating and top it off there is an element of fun. Combine this with excellent service and the experience is hard to beat. 

More birthday cakes.

Another cake commission but this one was a little different as it was for my uncle. The brief was Victoria sponge, so I did a victoria sponge but pimped it up a little! 
Nothing like  a bit of fruit and cream to bring a touch of luxury.

The ends of the earth.

My last job involved me travelling to a beautiful if inaccesible part of the world. I was working on a location shoot for another cookery programme, this time for a new chef on the block. The view from where I was chopping/cooking/baking was to die for. I realised the draw-back in living in such an untouched part of the world when I had to pick up grocery supplies and some props, a road trip would be a more accurate description than picking up some bits and pieces. The round trip which did involve almost two hours in the supermarket took 7 hours. I should have brought me a packed lunch. All saying that I'd be back in a flash, the beaches looked amazing, next time I'll organise a bit more time for relaxing.

Bangor, co. Down

Sometimes I love my job/jobs...    My last assignment took me to Bangor Co. Down to work on the Hairy Bikers new TV programme. I was drafted in for the day to assist the Home Economist a lovely lady, who was so on the ball I didn't have a huge amount to do other than fetching and carrying and making lunch for the crew. The bikers are very impressive, they are naturally very funny people. The script is all in their heads. They do most of their cooking outdoors which is fun but can bring it's own headaches. We were blessed with beautiful weather. The afternoon locationn was on a beach with the added exitement of the tide coming in. Off to the wilds of Kerry next to work on a different cookery show...

Canapes.

I had the pleasure of providing canapes for an event recently. It's an area of my business that brings me great joy. I think it's designing them in my head and then building them to meet my design, that gets my creativity flowing. It reminds me of my art college days, the design process was something I always loved.
A lovely friend took these shots for me.

Custard Creams.

For my last birthday one of my gifts was a lovely little cookie recipe book, since then I have had great fun testing out the recipes. As you can imagine this goes down with very well with my sweet-toothed other half. Many of the recipes are home-made versions of shop bought classics. I love playing around with them, there is great satisfaction from home making custard creams and chocolate digestives! 

BiBi's.

I've been doing well on the eating out front recently. My "must visit" list has had two strikes.
I went for lunch to BiBi's, a very cute little cafe deep in Dublin 8. As far as I know it's run by two sisters, one half of the venture is a clothes shop the other this cafe. The food is lovely I had a thai-style butternut squash soup and shared a carrot cake for afters. The food was good but I think my favourite thing was  the crockery. It's beautiful hand thrown stoneware, even the water beakers are ceramic. I loved the style of the place, the cakes are displayed all higgle-de-pigglety on a counter top, the menu written up on a chalk board. The one thing I couldn't understand is the fact that the outside tables are very close to a line of wheelie bins. With such attention to other detail I found this amazing, I know I am anal about hygiene but in this case I would not be alone. I hope the bins find a new home soon.
Also on my radar was Murphy's Icecream parlour. I had the joy of having some of this icecream when I was down in Dingle a few years ago. They have come to Dublin, the shop is on Wicklow street. I cannot rate their ice cream highly enough. It was fantastic. I loved the flavours they have some really good unusual ones. Check out the burnt caramel, sea salt, brown bread and lots lots more. The staff are amazingly upbeat, offering samples of any of the flavours. I had to restrain myself consoling myself that I'll just have to have a return visit to sample more! 

Birthday Cake.

For my latest adventures in cake making I took on the challenge of creating a very special cake for a 40th birthday. I went through a few design ideas before coming up with my final plan. The problem with not having loads of experience is I have a idea in my head but it doesn't always come out the same when in food form. I had some glam ideas but then realised it might look too like a wedding cake if it was all white with sparkles. I hit on the idea of using macarons to bring some chi-chi glamour but with colour! I have to admit I was pretty pleased with the end result, and when it was lit up with sparklers it looked good. The celebration was in The Cobalt Cafe on North Great Georges St. I had never been there although I had heard of it as a venue for small gigs and art exhibitions. It is gorgeous, It has beautiful georgian rooms with high ceilings ornate plaster work and massive gilded mirrors. I will definately keep it on file for events in the future.

Sushi making lesson.

Every once and a while I give a sushi making lesson. It's a great lesson as it's actually pretty easy to make decent sushi. I'm not going to arm wrestle a sushi master on this fact but for some californian rolls and some nigiri sushi if you follow instructions and are a little bit nimble of hand you should have no problem. I love the clean tasting flavours of the vinegar and ginger and am a little addicted to the whack of wasabi. I still like to think of it as healthy food, there's a lot of raw ingredients in there. Some kill-joy I was listening to on the radio who will remain nameless was denigrading sushi's nutritional stars, claiming it was high in sugar, low in fibre and therefore not so good for you. I do empathise with those not tolerant to blood sugar fluctuations but I have to think it still has to be better than alot of things. 

Back to the lesson it was a very sociable affair with guests rolling their own dinner to differing degrees of sucess, but that's the beauty of it it all tastes delicious. 

There's a photo of some maki rolls.

Beans and Doughnuts!

Sometimes my job is so very glamorous. I was working on a TV commercial for Batchelors beans for the last few days. I was assisting the food stylist. A large part of my job was sifting through piles of baked beans looking for perfect " hero " beans. I kid you not. The end result looks great, I got a round of applause as much out of sympathy for diligent bean sorting as much as anything. I'll look forward to seeing my little charges on TV sometime in the future.
I've had my eye on Mr Olivers doughnut recipe in his " Cook with Jamie, Cook Book." I made  them last week and found them a little lacking in oomph. It got me remembering doughnuts my sister used to make back when we were small. I remember them being so delicious that we couldn't eat them fast enough, almost burning mouths in the rush. I must give credit to my mother who although had no memory of the delicacies herself sought out the recipe in a ancient copybook. I'm glad to report they were as delicious as I remembered and are also dead easy. I did take Jamie up on his idea to serve the doughnuts with a fruit compote to dip into to. I made a rhubarb one and mmm it was good.


MAIRE'S DOUGHNUTS.
8oz SR flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
1oz butter
2oz golden syrup
5fl oz milk
1 egg

Maire's

Jamie's

Sift the dry ingredients together. Rub in the butter. Mix the liquid ingredients together, reserving some of he milk back. Mix the wet into the dry, do not overmix, until you have a soft pliable, rollable dough, add more milk if necessary. Roll the dough out on a floured board till it's 1/4 " thick, punch out rings with cookie dough. Fry in hot oil  c. Flip over half way through cooking, fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and dust in caster sugar which you have added some spice to. Serve with fruit compote. Enjoy.

Sardinia.

Back from Sardinia.

I'd thoroughly recommend it as a place to go for a week's holiday. We flew direct to Alghero with Mr Ryanair hired a car and motored around.

We spent a few days at the beginning of the week on the west coast around Alghero and at the end further south in Bosa. In between we stayed in a magical hotel inland near Oliena nestled in the Supremonte mountain range. 

We ate, drank and were merry, well, happy for our entire time with a little bit of merriness thrown in for good measure. 

The Hotel Su Gologne, had the most amazing traditional Sardinian food. It was a little like stepping back in time. The meat was cooked on an open fire, and what meat we had suckling pig as tender and juicy as I have ever tasted, boar, rabbit we didn't quite get around to the goat but had we stayed another day no question it was on our hit list. The care and skill required to roast the meat so perfectly was wonderful to watch. That was the other thing the dining room was adjacent to the fire so for curious folk like myself could watch the cook in action. Chef table how are you? We were only meant to stay 2 nights but decided to extend our stay as it was quite stunning. 

The hotel rooms are scattered over a large grounds which we set about exploring, there was a very ancient crazy golf set up, a veggie garden, cocktail bar that only opened for pre-dinner drinks and at that only on one night we were there, we didn't quite get the logic but were happy we caught it as the strawberry daiquiri was pretty delicious. Oh and not forgetting the tennis court. Due to translation issues we thought it was table tennis and on asking for the bats were pretty surprised at what they came back with after a bit of a rummage. We gave it a go and with much laughing did not find we had hidden talents in the tennis department.

I found the turquoise colour of the sea enthralling I did think they touched up photos of the med and yet here it was all turquoisey. I enjoyed many swims, a snorkel would be a good addition to your kit as there was loads to see underwater. There are alot of diving companys in the area which would be worth investigating if diving is your thing. 

I think we'll be back, there's all the central and south of the island we have yet to explore. It was a really relaxing time mainly because everything was pretty easy, getting around was easy, accomodation was lovely, the people are very approachable and easy going and the flight was only 2 + 1/2 hours.

The jumbled buildings of Bosa

The oven in Su Gologne!

Hydrangeas in Castlesardo

Round 2 Macaron.

I've had another go at some Macarons. These were much more successful. You make an Italian meringue in this recipe, which basically means instead of just whisking the sugar into egg whites a la normal meringue, you whisk hot sugar syrup which slightly cooks the meringue. The end result gives you that nice chewiness that is integral to a macaron/macaroon. I am going to make these once more experimenting with some flavours and try to make them a little neater. I wish you could have a taste o vision.

Well it's been a while. May was a frenzy of work. I was non-stop for a while not just catering for communions but some work with Neven Maguire and Bord Bia, a few cookery lessons, the first and second BBq of the summer amongst other bits and pieces. Speaking of pieces I am in pieces but I have the cure for that, a week in sunny Sardinia and it's coming up very soon.

I'll be back in business on my return.

The fickleness of kids..

I caught up with two sets of friends I hadn’t seen in ages at the weekend. Both have children and I thought I’d make some cookies for them. Personal intials are always a winner, I decorated them with chocolate and sprinkles. Surprising to me, although one of the girls sucked the chocolate off all the ones in her batch refusing to eat the plain cookies, the little boy in the other family wouldn’t eat the chocolate part. I can never tell with kids. Perhaps they are perfect partners if you subscribe to the opposites attract theory. It reminded me of a catering job I did a little while ago it was a christening, a handful of the diners were children. I thought I’d keep them happy while being a little healthier than normal by doing roasted baby potatoes to accompany their meal. They weren’t buying it, ” these chips are horrible ” I think the quote went. Another of my great ideas thwarted. I’ll stick to chips in future!

Here is the recipe for the cookies:

175g soft butter

200g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

400g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 180c

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale, and moussy, then beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients, add to the butter mixture, mix gently until it comes together, try not to overmix. Let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out to 1/2cm thick. Cut as desired. Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden, cool on a rack.

Decorate with coloured glace icing or what I did was melt some chocolate and dip the ends of the cookies in that and then in whatever sprinkly bits you want. 100’s and 1000’s are good, silver balls, nuts whatever you like.

Macarons

I've been contemplating making some macarons for ages now, they are very a la mode. I tasted a divine Lauderee salted caramel creation and vowed to give them a go myself. Many months later I finally got around to it. I hunted down some recipes courtesy of the www, my favourite included some powdered egg white, my search for this was fruitless and was taking up far too much time so I opted to change recipes and see how I'd get on. You can see photo's of my chocolate, and salted caramel attempt.
They look ok, not quite the shiny smooth finish I was hoping for, and they taste quite nice but what I loved about the lauderee one was it's intial crunch and then it's soft chewy centre, mine was all crunch so it's back to the drawing board with it. The salted caramel was wonderful though, and very easy. I'll post the recipe. Once I perfect the macarons I'll post that recipe too but work is needed before that happens.

Salted Caramel:
200g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
200g cream
4g maldon sea salt
140g butter, chilled and cubed
Cook the sugar in a heavy bottomed pot, stirring all the time until you get an even caramel. Meanwhile bring the cream up to boiling point. Add the seeds from the vanilla pod to the caramel. Add the cream bit by bit as it will bubble up. Then add the salt. Stir to make sure the caramel is all dissolved. Cool the mixture to approximately 50 c. Blend the butter in gradually with a stick blender, until you get a smooth glossy paste. Cool, then store in the fridge until you need it. Spread on macarons to sandwich two together.

I think this has potential for many uses, it is really delicious. It should store in the fridge fine for a week or two, if it lasts that long of course!

The Winding Stair

This is my first restaurant review and I'm sorry it's a bad one. It was a special occasion last Sunday and I jumped at the chance to go to one of my favourite spots in Dublin, The Winding stair. Previously I have been very impressed with this establishment, I've liked the food the ambience and the service. To give it it's due credit the ambience and the service were good, it was the food that let everything down. We had a hot buttered crab starter to share. There was an overabundance of onion in the crab, to the extent that you could taste nothing else. A sizeable piece of shell, so big my neighbours thought I'd broken a tooth, was left in the crab. It put me off a bit but I understand it can happen. Next my main, lamb with minted peas and cheesy gratin. It looked lovely, it was cooked well, unfortunately the lamb tasted of nothing, I mean it there was no taste, the texture didn't help it was chewy and then papery, I was left with potatoes and peas to eat. I felt like I had a junior dinner, trying to eat peas with a fork. The other main was a steak and chips, it was fine except the steak was served w a garlic butter, there was so much of this the chips were sitting in a lake of melted butter, I challenge anyone who thinks this is a good idea. French paradox or not. My sense of occasion made me want to linger a little but we just weren't feeling it. I won't be in a rush back...

mmm Cakes.

This blog seems to be bringing the cake out in me....
These were some lovely chocolate, almond & amaretto tarts.
I'd been eyeing up the recipe in Allegra Mc Eveedy's book for ages, I made them and some portugese custard tarts, much to my surprise the custard tarts won the favourite prize though it was pretty unanimous that these ones were delicious too, just not quite as delicious. I'll root out the recipe for the portugese tarts and post it soon....

Edible birthday gifts...

I've been working on some edible birthday present ideas.
I'm pretty happy with my results, I made mini cupcakes, filled them with lemon curd and topped them with proper vanilla buttercream made by beating egg whites in a bain-marie until cooked and then beating in butter. The result was worth the effort. I loved doing the lettering but I'm going to keep quiet on how I did it......

Cookies.

I’ve been having a bit of fun playing around with some recipes for homemade versions of some classic “ shop bought “ biscuits. My favourites were the custard creams, the inclusion of custard powder lending the biscuits a lovely crispness. Although I do object to using hard vegetable fat, I’m going to try them with all butter.Unfortunately I have no photos of these but I think the jammie dodgers look great as do the iced gems. The high percentage of coloured royal icing of the latter isn’t so good to eat, though maybe age plays a part in my preference..

CUSTARD CREAMS.
175g plain flour
3 tblsp custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
60g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
60g cookeen, cut into small cubes
3 tblsp icing sugar
1 lrge egg
1 tblsp milk
Pre-heat the oven to 190c.
Sieve the flour, custard powder and baking powder into a bowl, rub in the fats until it has the consistency of sand. ( I do this in a food processor ). Add the sugar and mix. In another bowl beat the egg and milk, pour this onto the flour, and mix well and form into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 mins. Roll out the dough to 3mm thick. Cut the dough into strips 3 cm and then across 4 cm to give rectangles. Bake for 15 mins. Leave to cool.
FILLING.
50g unsalted butter softened
1 tblsp custard powder
100g icing sugar
few drops hot water
Cream butter, sugar and custard powder together until light and fluffy. If the mixture seems stiff add water.
Sandwich 2 biscuits together.

NY.

Another trip, I'm doing well at the moment, this time I had a few days in New York. This was my second trip there and this time I enjoyed it even more than my first. I had done a little research this time around and was rewarded by eating some fabulous meals. I feel truly inspired. There is a style and panache to the food scene over there that seems truly effortless that I love. I find it hard to describe, It’s part shabby chic part utilitarian, but it is a self-conscious style. It’s all about the details and I suppose that’s why it rocks my boat being an anal details person myself. I’ve taken a snap of the menu in one of my favourites, Marlow & Sons in Brooklyn and then a lucky fortune fish that each guest receives in The Mermaid Café in the East Village. The food combinations were simple but quite new to me for example I had lamb 3 ways, a chop, some braised shoulder and some merguez sausage so far not too wild but it was served with a lovely creamed polenta that just brought it all together in a lovely smooth silky way. Another I loved was skate with black butter and capers, also nothing new there but it then it was served with a roasted cauliflower puree which had the most lovely deep nutty flavour and colour. Divine.
Asides from eating we did take in a few NY sights. I made it to the Guggenheim, a building I’ve been inspired by for quite some time. The Art was good but the building for me was by far the star. The lines of the architecture with the smoothness of the finish and unusually shaped rooms are such a delight. Another favourite venue was the High Line. This is an elevated park, it’s a converted disused railway line. They are still extending the conversion so it has a bit of the feel of Gaudi’s sagrada famillia. The style of the park is very zen, lots of wild but not really wild grasses and plants, it has concrete walkways the slabs in shapes evoking the old railway lines, lots of clever benches and sun recliners. I recommend to anyone to go and have a look. It’s there or thereabouts W 14th street accessible by lift or steps from most of the cross streets. A few days is not even scratching the surface of the city. I do feel the familiar desire to spend longer possibly working for a time there but that is something I have done regularly in my past and now I think I’m happier here in my settledness as long as I can keep having forays into the distance. I imagine I’ll keep going back to visit for a long time yet. I don’t usually revisit places too often but this is different.

Skiing.

Just back from a week skiing in Austria.
I'm just past being a beginner. I've been once before but that was a bit of a disaster. My mission this time around was just to improve and I'm pleased to say I managed that. In fact I'm still not very elegant but I got over alot of fears and am happy enough to go off into the unknown as long as I don't have to do any black runs ! We were incredibly lucky with the weather, there were two stunningly sunny days and then a few with snow falling. I find snow so magical I loved it even though it was so so cold. My face was entirely numb for one of the days.
Not much to write about the food. Up on the mountain it's purely fuel. Back in the village, at least it wasn't all cheese.
Check out the lovely Aldi ski suit. It's a little beyond me but it attracted sizeable attention from the locals... Must be the pink trim making them blink excessively..

I have a bit of a crusade going on. I think it's in my genes...
I love a proper bakery and there are so few around any more that I feel the need to alert people to the good ones. I just hate crap bread, we all know that fluffy, not-cooked properly stuff.
I have a few favourite haunts but always have room for a few more. I drove by this place last week and had time today to go and investigate a bit more closely. It's called the Corner bakery and it's in Terenure. It's a lovely little place lined with loaves of bread with character and lots of baked things. I bought two gnarly ( I mean that as a compliment ) bagettes, carried them home under my arm feeling very french. I devoured almost the whole of one of these beauties, the texture was dense and delightfully chewy, I'll definately be back for more.
The corner bakery is 17 Terenure Road North, D 6

INTRO

I’ve thought about blogging for some time now and have decided in 2010 it’s time to take the plunge, feet first…

Can seasoned bloggers please forgive the newbie for any unintentional guffs, faux pauxs or any abuses of the system. I’ll get the hang of it.

My hopes and dreams are that this will be an amusing commentary on food affairs , life in general and also an archive of my researchings….!

To give some background I am self-employed in the catering trade. My job has many facets, I cater for all occasions, I teach cookery lessons, I chef for cook books and cookery shows among other bits and pieces.There’s hardly ever a dull moment..although as a contractor the flip side of that is the constant angst of “where the next job is coming from” I’ve learnt, or more honestly am learning, to ride the waves and there is the thrill of potential job mana around every corner.. For example working on the TV shows this year was an unexpected delight and with a bit of luck I may do a few more.

I spend a good bit of my time trawling around our various food outlets for ingredients both exotic and familiar and hope I might be able to direct some foodies to sought after items.

When not cruising around the shops or on a job I’m often to be found testing recipes and ingredients, I nearly always have a back log of new cook books and clippings of things to try. At the moment top of the list is some Butterscotch cream pots from a blog I follow. Mmmm or as my sister would say Nnyummy. So I can filter through some recipes and offer some short cuts.