Turkey and Ham Pie - Christmas Leftovers!

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. 

The week between Christmas and New Year's tends to be a particularly lazy one. Exercise regimes are taking a hiatus and many of us are taking a short break from entertaining and socializing until the weekend and are instead taking to roaring fires, box sets and boxes of celebrations. For those of us who manage to roll off the couch to make something for dinner, we want something that's easy with little preparation, provides maximum efficacy on use of leftovers so we can get our fridge back but also something that's suitably indulgent and comforting as that's what we've become accustomed to over the past week - after all we're allowed something a little bold at Christmas. This pie will tick every box and is a guaranteed hit with everyone. Lazy tip: Try doubling the quantities below if you have a large enough dish and make an extra big helping - what's left tonight will keep overnight in the fridge a save you from having to roll off the couch to go cooking again tomorrow.

This pie is very closely based on Rachel Allen's Turkey and Ham Pot Pie except I had to make some adjustments based on what we had on the pantry. Dill had to serve as a good substitution for Tarragon as and I'd add anything up to 3 times the quantity of stock, We were really looking to use up what was in the fridge and cook as little as possible, and as we didn't have quite enough mashed potato left, I ended up using puff pastry (thank God for the emergency Jus-Roll in the freezer).

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 350ml double cream 
• 300ml chicken stock
• 1 packet of mushrooms
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
• 1.5lb leftover turkey and ham, cut into 2cm chunks - brown turkey meat is perfect for this and a great way to use it so you can keep the turkey breast meat for sandwiches!!

• 1 pack on puff pastry
• 1 whipped egg
• 1tbsp milk 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F/Gas 4. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.




 

2. Add finely chopped onion and cook until very soft but not brown. This takes approx 8 minutes over a medium heat.

3. Using a slatted spoon, remove the onions, leaving as much of the butter as possible. Add the mushrooms and fry off for 4-5 minutes until softened and golden brown. This may have to be done in 2 batches.  

 4. Once they are cooked, add back in all the onions, mushrooms and stock. Ensure there is enough stock to cover everything in the pan.

 5. Add the cream and stir continuously until it is mixed through the mushrooms, onions and stock. Allow this mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes until it has reduced and thickened slightly. 

6. Then add the Turkey and Ham chunks and the Dill to the mixture, stirring to ensure that all meat is coated. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer this mixture to a suitable sized oven proof, shallow, gratin dish. The mixture should fill the dish completely - there's no need to leave space for the topping.

7. On a well floured surface, roll the puff pastry to a the thickness of a euro coin and gently lay it over the pie. Cut the pastry to fit the dish, leaving a 1-2cm over hang. There really isn't a need to be too precise here as the puff pastry will change shape on cooking.

8. On the leftover pastry, cut out some leaves for decorating. combine the whipped egg and milk and apply this glaze all over the surface of the pie using a pastry brush.

9. Place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until the pastry topping is golden brown and the filling is hot. This pie will go great with any leftover vegetables that may still be lurking in the fridge or if you're feeling more energetic than I am, it would also be beautiful with some homemade roast potatoes and honey roasted root vegetables. 

Enjoy!!!

Thai Green Curry with Prawns....all the way from Thailand!

The worst of going on holidays so early in the summer is that you start to feel a little jealous once August comes - especially with the Autumn coming at us and the nights closing in. Back in May we spent 10 days in Asia - 8 in Thailand and 2 in Kuala Lumpur - and it was a culinary dream. One of highlights was a private cookery course provided by the hotel. The recipes were relatively simple but it really opened my eyes to the difference it makes to use the correct authentic ingredients, what thos ingredients look like, which parts to use and discard and most of all what proper Thai food prepared by a head chef should really taste like. The good news is they gave me copies of the recipes - and I've a feeling there'll be a lot of Thailand reminiscing over the next couple of weeks.....

Gang Kiew Waan Goong - Green Curry with Prawn

1 cup of Vegetable Stock
3 tbsp of Green Curry Paste
3 cups of Coconut Milk
250g Prawns
2 Kaffir Lime Leaves
10 Sweet Basil Leaves
5 Slices of Red Chilli
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tbsp Plume Sugar
1 tsp of Seasoning Powder
150g Egg Plant

1. Heat 1/3 of the coconut milk until it begins to have an oily sheen then add the curry paste and stir well. 
2. Add the prawns and cooks until the colour changes.
3. Add remaining coconut milk and lime leaves, salt and sugar. 
4. Bring to the boil and then add egg plant and simmer until the prawns are cooked.
5. Add the basil and chilli and remove from heat and serve. 

Serve with some boiled rice!

Rachel Allen's Brown Soda Bread

Chicken Fillets stuffed with Clonakilty Black Pudding and wrapped in Smokey Bacon

Sometimes the ultimate comfort food is the most simple and hearty.....for example roast chicken. This is unbelievably easy and a definite crowd pleaser. I have cooked it for just the 2 of ourselves as Monday evening comfort food using leftover Sunday breakfast but also in my parents house for a group of 12 family and friends where it went down an absolute treat ( and anyone who knows us, knows we are good grubbers). I served this with typically rustic roasties, country vegetables, some gravy and cranberry sauce. I know us Corkonians can be a bit biased and we do love to look after our own but Clonakilty black pudding and rashers are undisputedly the most delicious. 

What you'll need:

Chicken fillets

Smokey rashers

Black pudding

Washed Rooster potatoes

Rosemary

Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Olive Oil

Vegetables

Instant gravy (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 190oC. Wash your chicken fillets and cut a deep incision along the side of the chicken fillet. 

2. Next take your black pudding and remove all packaging including and edible casings depending on your brand. Mash your black pudding in a large bowl so that it's easy to mold. 

3. Divide your black pudding according to the amount of chicken fillets that you plan on cooking and start packing each individual chicken fillet. 

4. Wrap each fillet in a rasher and place carefully on a sheet of tin foil on a baking or roasting tray. These will take about 35 minutes to roast so warp loosely in the tin foil for the first 20 minutes of roasting. For the next 15 minutes of roasting, unwrap so that they turn nice and golden roasted colour. 

5. For the potatoes, cut each one in quaters roughly, Place in a large bowl with some roughly chopped rosemary, about a desert spoon of Olive Oil and some salt and cracked black pepper. If you have time to par boil your potatoes, they would probably be nicer. I just didn't have the time. Just add the washed potatoes to boiling water with a sprinkle of salt. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5-10 minutes until you can stick a fork through but you still wouldn't eat them - roughly about half cooked. 

6. In the meantime, steam some vegetables, I used carrots and mange toute. 

Serve with some cranberry sauce - see Christmas posts - and some gravy from the roasting j

 

Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Breakfast Bars

I find it's always a good idea to have some baked goodies that aren't completely bold in the house. Let's face it - a cup of tea is no fun on it's own and having something relatively healthy at hand can alleviate some regrettable binges. I'm use the term healthy loosely as I haven't analysed these with my nutritionist hat on and I'm sure if  were to be critical enough I'd find some reason why they're not ideal, but in my opinion, as part of a balanced diet, these are both a healthy alternative to goodies after dinner or when I come in from work and also provide a reasonable alternative to a breakfast on a morning that I want an all important extra five minutes in bed.

 

Shopping List:

• 3 cups of oats
• 3 desert spoons of coconut oil
• 3 desert spoons of honey
• 75g blueberries
• 50g dark chocolate – preferably as high a coco content as possible
• 50g of flax seeds
• 1 cup of water

1. Preheat an oven at 200oC.
2. Melt chocolate and coconut oil together in the microwave for approx. 40 seconds and stir gently.

 
3. Chop chocolate roughly and wash blueberries.
       
 
4. Add the oats, seeds, blueberries and chocolate to a large bowl and mix so everything is evenly distributed.
       
 
5. Drizzle in the honey/coconut oil mix so that it’s as evenly distributed as possible, then mix             thoroughly through the mixture.
6. Finally gradually add the water, quarter of a cup at a time, stirring between each addition. You may not need all the water, just enough so that the mixture is heavy enough to stick together when flattened into a baking tray.
7. Line a suitably sized baking tray with parchment paper and add the mixture. Pack tightly with a spatula and cover with tin foil. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for a further 10 minutes.
8. Once ready, place in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Stuffed and Roasted Peppers

This is a very simple tasty and relatively supper that I cooked one evening last week. 

Shopping list:

• 2 tabelspoons of Extra virgin olive oil
• 300g of lean minced beef
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped 
• 100g of mushromms finely sliced
• 100ml of beef stock - either homemade or follow the instructions on the back of your stock cubes
• A handful of fresh herbs - basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, alternatively use a generous table spoon of pesto
• Salt and Pepper
• 3 peppers - one each for dinner and I kept one for me lunch the following day at work
• Freshly grated paremsan cheese
• 250g of rice of you choice

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.                               
2. In half of the oil, brown off the minced beef at a medium to high heat. Once brown,  transfer to a bowl and and then gently sauté the vegetables and garlic in the remainder of the oil.   
3. Return the beef to the pan, mix through the veg and the stock. Allow to reduce for a few minutes and then season with some salt and pepper. 

4. Remove the tops of the peppers, clean out seeds and remove a slice from the bottom of each pepper so that each one sits upright. Retain any left over pepper and use it in the mince meat mixture. 

5. Blanch the peppers by placing into already boiling water for 2-3 minutes so that they are soft but still firm enough to sit upright. Under-blanching rather than over-blanching is always better in this case. 

6. Spoon the mixture into each pepper, you may need to use your fingers to pack the tops and stop the mixture from spilling out, sprinkle a layer of grated cheese over each one and replace the pepper lids.                     

7. Place peppers on a lined baking tray and place in the preheated oven for approx 15 minutes.

8. Serve with some fluffy steamed rice!!!

These were actually a lot nicer for my lunch the following day. So much so that the next time I make them, it will be in advance. The sweetness of the peppers totally intensifies overnight. Just make sure you keep them refrigerated. Let me know how you get on, I'd only love to see pictures on my Facebook and Instagram - rebelnosher!!

Cod wrapped in Parma Ham on a bed of Buttered Cabbage with Cauliflower Puree

Last week I cooked dinner for some friends, as they are absolute food lovers, they were the perfect people to try out a recipe from a cookery course that I did in Ballinacurra.

Ingredients:

• 2 sprigs of fresh Thyme
• 100g of Monkfish per person (Monkfish tail preferably, split into 2 fillets)
• 4-5 slices Parma Ham

For Cauliflower Purée

• 25g butter 
• Small head of cauliflower
• 200ml milk
• 100ml single cream
• Salt and pepper

1. Take a monkfish fillets and arrange them beside each other so that there's a skinny and chunky side at either end.

2. Shred the leaves off your thyme and sprinkle over the monkfish.

3. Lay out the parma ham slices on a board so that they over lap each other slightly. Place the monkfish on the ham and wrap tightly so that the parma ham holds the fillets together.

4. Place the wrapped fish on a lined baking tray so that where the ham joins is on the underneath.

5. Preheat the grill for 3-5 minutes. When the grill is hot. Place the tray underneath and grill for 5 minutes on both sizes.

6. For the Cauliflower Purée, melt the butter in a large pan and add the cauliflower - cut into florets.

7. Cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the cauliflower starts to color and then add the milk and cream and season well with salt and pepper.

8. Bring to the boil and then cover and allow to simmer for 8-12 minutes. When the cauliflower is soft, strain it off, retaining the cooking liquid, and then transfer to a blender.

9. Blend at high power, add some of the retained cooking liquid if need to attain the correct consistency.

10. Taste and season if necessary.

This recipe works extremely well for a white fish with plenty bite in it, such as cod (which is what I used) or hake. As an extra accompaniment to this dish, I served some buttered green cabbage - just some finely shredded green cabbage leave sautéed in a little butter. I could only get my hands on a white cabbage on this particular day which was worthy substitute. Then, just land a big dish of potato au gratin in the middle of the table and you're done.

..........And when I wasn't under the supervision of a top chef, it turned out like this!

(I added a scallop just because I couldn't resist)

Chilli and lime prawns

 This is an incredibly easy and equally as tasty starter that I cooked last night.  

Ingredients:

• 6-8 prawns per person (starter portion)
• enough butter to cook the prawns, or a cooking oil of your choice if you prefer.
• table spoon of finely chopped coriander
• 1-2 finely chopped/crushed garlic cloves
• half a lime, freshly squeezed
• a generous sprinkle of chilli flakes and sugar (alternatively, use sweet chilli sauce like I did)

 

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a frying pan and then add the prawns, garlic and coriander
2. As the prawns begin to turn pink, add a generous dollop of sweet chilli sauce.
3. As the prawns turn a even shade of pale pink all over add the lime juice.
4. Have a quick taste to make sure the sauce is to your liking - this one is very much to your own individual palate, some like it sweeter, some like the citrusy lime flavours to shine through.
5. Quickly transfer to a plate with some green side salad and freshly butter brown bread

 

This recipe is equally as tasty when scallops are used instead of prawns.

These ingredients can be adapted slightly to make a delicious salsa for almost any white fish.  

Porridge panckaes

  

 

Shopping List:

60ml Porridge flakes

150ml Low fat milk

1 desert spoon of brown flour

1 egg

 

Method:

1. Whip the egg and add to the porridge flakes and brown flour and mix well.

2. Gradually add the milk until mixture resembles a batter. Remember it's not going to be smooth due to the porridge.

3. Spoon about a third of the mixture onto a preheated, oiled frying pan and use a spoon to spread to pancake thickness.

4. Add you favourite toppings - mine are strawberries, blueberries, honey and a small sprinkle of chocolate protein powder. Natural yogurt and banana are also tasty options  

 

Kinsale Gourmet Academy

https://youtu.be/1VOCxLsKcpw
Really excited for my 'Food from the Sea' course tomorrow under the expert eye of David Rice formally of Chapter One in Dublin.....stay tuned for a blogpost....

Tuesday Night Curry Club

I love a good curry so I'm trying to come up with my own recipe that’s not out of a jar. I've attempting to practise this over the past couple of weeks but it's very much a work in progress. All comments, suggestions and improvements are welcome.

• 2 desert spoons of extra virgin
• 2 chicken breasts, diced
• One thumb sized piece of ginger, finely grated

• Red Onion, quartered and sliced
• Handful Green Beans
• Red Pepper, sliced julienne

• Approx. pint of chicken stock
• 3 teaspoons mild curry powder (Hot if you prefer)
• 2 desert spoons of mango chutney
• 3 desert spoons of natural yogurt
• approx. 200mls of crushed tomatoes
• One teaspoon of Garam Masala
• One teaspoon of Cumin
• 3-4 cardamom Pods
• Half a teaspoon of chilli flakes

• 130g of brown rice
• Handful of coriander leaves sliced
• Poppadums

1. Follow the instructions on your packet of rice, and cook accordingly.
2. In a frying pan or wok, over a medium to high heat, brown the chicken pieces in the oil. Add the vegetables, ginger, garlic and curry powder and stir fry for about 4-5 minutes.
3. Pour in the stock and stir in the mango chutney. Stir gently until even.
4. Add seasoning.
5. Add the crushed tomatoes while stirring. Turn heat to low.
6. Allow to simmer for another 4-5 minute to thicken.
7. Taste and add yogurt if necessary. Add further seasoning if necessary.

Serve on a bed of brown rice and sprinkle with coriander.

I've been trying to post this for weekss but i can't seem to get a good enough picture of this that'll do it justice anytime I make it...any tips or tricks on how to take the most professional looking photos would be much appreciated!! X

 

 

 

 

 

I usually be a big fan of spicy food but the onset of this cold weather is making me crave something with some heat in it. This really simple Chilli is a really winter warmer and is also very healthy and nutritious for those who are still keeping to their January diets.

• Approx 300g extra lean minced beef 
• 1 finely chopped re onion
• 2 peppers, colours of you choice
• 2 medium sized carrots grated
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 carton tomato pasata
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans, drained
• 1 can mixed beans, drained
• handful of coriander leaves
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Fry off the peppers and onions in a the oil until soft, stirring regularly, and then add the garlic. Add the grated carrot and mix in with the rest of the vegetables.

1. Add the beef and all the spices and mix through the vegetables, keep turning until completely brown.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes and pasata and bring the whole mixture to a gentle boil.
3. Open an drain off the beans, and add these stirring gently. 
4. Serve with some wholegrain rice and sprinkle the fresh coriander over as a garnish.