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....