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