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Spooky Punch with Blueberry Eyeballs!

Posted on October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 by flavourie

This is one from the archives that I had almost forgotten about, but it’s so hugely fun to look at and easy to make, I’ve decided to recycle it for the blog! If nothing else, it’ll make you giggle like a kid, plus it tastes pretty good too.

And of course there is always the option to ‘Go Hard’ with this by adding it a decent amount of vodka, but maybe wait until the kids have had their share first before doing that!

For an extra bit of fun, serve it in one of those old-fashioned champagne saucers!

Ingredients (makes enough for about 15 servings):

1 ltr of Cranberry juice
½ ltr of Apple juice
150ml of Grenadine syrup
Juice of 1 lime
Handful of blueberries

Method:

Get a couple of disposable gloves (food grade, not the Marigolds!), fill with water and tie off at the end. Place in the freezer.
In an ice cube tray place a blueberry in each compartment, fill with boiled and cooled water and place in the freezer.
In a large transparent bowl, place in the juices and syrup and mix together. Decorate around the base of the bowl with spooky fairy lights.
When the water filled gloves and blueberry ice cubes are frozen solid, pop them out and place in the bowl.
Hey presto Spooky Punch with Ghostly Hands and Blueberry Eyeballs!

Mwahahahahaaa!

This recipe was featured along side two others (Mini Toffee Apples and Goulish Fruits) in the Autumn 2017 edition of West Fork Magazine with the Southern Star:

Bangers and Colcannon

Posted on October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 by flavourie

Bonfire Night in Ireland means something completely different to Bonfire Night in England. In Ireland, Bonfire Night is on 23^rd June to celebrate St John’s Eve, and like most of Ireland’s feast days, the roots are in Celtic pagan times that cross over into religious celebrations.

To burn bonfires on St John’s Eve is to herald the start of a good harvest as well as the usual pagan nods to fertility, and close to the summer solstice as well.

In England, Bonfire Night is 5^th November and celebrates the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 by Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament, overthrow the Protestant King James I and restore Catholicism as the dominant faith. As kids, every year at home in Bristol, my sister and I would make an effigy of Guy Fawkes using old clothes donated by Dad or Grandad. The ends of the trouser legs were tied and stuffed with newspaper; an old shirt or jumper the same, the arms tied off at the end; and either a balloon or a plastic shopping bag, stuffed with paper with a face drawn on it for the head. Local kids would sit outside shops or go house to house with their Guy asking, “Penny for the Guy” and on Bonfire Night, Dad would place our Guy on top of the bonfire and light it. We’d let off fireworks in the back garden and hope the sparklers wouldn’t burn our hands! Afterwards, we’d all tuck into Bangers and Mash, hot apple juice and Cinder Toffee.

One of the first party nights I hosted at our home in West Cork was to recreate Guy Fawkes night. I remember that year feeling a little homesick and deeply nostalgic for the things I had grown up with and known my whole life. Ireland and England may only be a short hop across the Irish Sea, but at times, the customs and traditions can be hugely different. Bonfire Night being one of them. It was a crisp, clear chilly night, just like I remember from childhood. Bonfires and fireworks are illegal in Ireland, except for strictly controlled events, so instead we lit our firepit, wrote our names in the night air with sparklers, whacked a piñata and let off glitter bombs. Then we all tucked into our food and warmed our hands around hot cups of mulled cider, apple juice for the children, and stood around the fire pit sharing stories.

What precisely constitutes Colcannon is ferociously debated in Ireland. I recently attended a talk about it where I learned that in some parts of New Foundland where there is a huge Irish ex-pat community going back generations, their Colcannon doesn’t have any potatoes in it all! In Wexford, it’s quite typical to have parsnips in the Colcannon, or to boil the potatoes and cabbage together and mash it up in one big pot. But it would always have cabbage in it – although traditionally not Kale.

However, Kale is a type of brassica, so while it might not be the traditional variety of cabbage usually the staple of Irish Colcannon, I like it and, along with the scallion/spring onions, and an almost obscene amount of butter, makes for a seriously tasty plate of spuds. When it comes to the bangers (sausages), get the best quality you can and cook slowly – I usually place them in a cold frying pan and cook for up to 30 minutes over a low to medium heat turning every five minutes or so. Likewise, with the onion gravy: take your time! Time is the secret ingredient in truly brilliant onion cookery, so don’t rush it. Comfort food should never be rushed anyway – in my mind both the cooking and eating of food like this is what calms the soul and nourishes the body.

Ingredients

8 pork sausages, minimum meat content 80%
1 kg of floury potatoes, peeled and diced
250 g butter, cubed
50 ml whole milk
Bunch of Russian Kale (apx 2 handfuls)
4 scallions
1 tbsp parsley (any kind), finely chopped
4 medium red onions, peeled, halved and sliced
Olive oil and butter
100 ml red wine
Fresh thyme leaves
250 ml chicken or beef stock
Salt and pepper

Method

Place the sausages into a cold frying pan, place over a low heat and cook slowly, turning every few minutes to brown all over. Add a little olive oil if your sausages are a high meat, low fat content. Depending on the size of sausages, cooking could take up 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the potatoes into a pan of salted water, bring to the boil. Do not cook to the point of mush, the potatoes must hold their shape.
Drain and allow to airdry in a colander for 10 minutes. Return to the pan and break the potatoes down with a masher, if you have a potato ricer you can use that instead. Begin to the add the butter a few cubes at a time and beat through using a wooden spoon. Repeat until you have a creamy texture. You may not need to use all the butter.
Add the milk, you may not need all the milk, it depends how floury your potatoes are.
I prefer not to cook my kale and scallions. The kale will wilt gently amongst the warm potatoes and that is sufficient. Remove the kale stems and finely slice the leaves. Top and tail the scallions and finely slice into rounds. Mix all through the potatoes with the chopped parsley.
Season with black pepper and salt to taste.
Place the colcannon into a serving dish, cover with parchment paper and place in the oven, no more than 100 degrees Celsius, to keep warm.
For the onion gravy, into a saucepan over a low-medium heat, add a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter. Add the onions and stir to coat with the fats. Cover with a lid and cook the onions down slowly, stirring every now and again. The onions should brown but be careful not to burn. This should take between 15-20 minutes, the longer the better.
Add the red wine and allow the alcohol to cook off for a minute. Then add stock and thyme leaves. Stir and cook uncovered for the stock to reduce and thicken.
Serve up the sausages on a large serving platter, alongside the bowl of creamy colcannon and a large jug of the onion gravy.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin & Rosemary Biscuits

Posted on October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 by flavourie

When I say biscuit, its part that and partly scone. Bready and toothsome, deeply savoury and just about the perfect partner with a serving of Bangers & Colcannon or a hearty rooty soup to warm the cockles on a chilly day.

Mr Flavour swears he can taste bacon in these biscuits but I assure him there’s not, because there isn’t. Pumpkins and squash have magical properties: they are the chameleon of the food world, able to be sweet and savoury and can evoke buckets of umami. That’s what he was picking up as he scoffed into a freshly baked batch. I hope!

I recommend steaming the squash, rather than roasting and boiling, to reduce moisture intake (boiling) and moisture release (roasting). Steaming retains the pumpkins goodness, natural sweetness and shape. After steaming to perfection, I allow to just sit and air for about 10 minutes. It doesn’t matter if the squash gets cool because it’s going into the dough and then being baked anyway, but its an important step in getting rid of any excess moisture which can impact texture and rise. I like to roughly mash, mostly smooth but with some texture, to add a little bit of bite and interest to the finished scone.

The dough that you made will be quite sticky, so prepare to feel deeply uncomfortable when you’re handling the dough! Also, I can’t legislate for the type of pumpkin or squash you will use – there are so many varieties and each will have a different water content. So just be aware that if you are looking at your dough thinking: this can’t be right, it’s too wet, it probably is so just add a little more flour until such time as you have a dough that you can pick up and handle – but is still quite sticky too!

I use buttermilk for an extra hit of savouryness, but you can of course use normal milk.

Ingredients (makes 12 – 14 scones using a 6cm cutter)

275g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp fresh rosemary finely chopped
60 g butter (chilled and cubed)
125 ml buttermilk (+ a little extra to brush with)
250 g pumpkin/squash, peeled, deseeded, cubed, steamed until tender and mashed/pureed
Toasted pumpkin seeds

Method

Pre heat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius, fan
Add the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, nutmeg and rosemary into a bowl.
Add the cubes of chilled butter and crumble through to create a breadcrumb texture.
Add the buttermilk and mashed/pureed pumpkin and stir everything together to combine well and to create a sticky dough.
Flour the works surface and turn out the dough. Knead lightly into a smooth dough and form into a round about 2cm thick.
Cut out the dough using a 6cm cutter and place on a lined baking tray. Gather the remaining dough up, and reform to cut out more. Repeat until all the dough has been used up.
Brush each scones lightly with some buttermilk and scatter toasted pumpkin seeds on top.
Place in the oven and back for about 20-25 minutes until doubled in size, golden and cooked through.
Serve up with Bangers and Colcannon, or slather with the Pumpkin Spice and Maple Butter as a delicious mid-day snack.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice & Maple Butter

Posted on October 16, 2020October 16, 2020 by flavourie

It’s autumn, which means that I usually overdose on Pumpkin Spice Latte’s. And I’m cool with that. I love those warming spices against comforting blanket of dairy goodness. But what I’m less cool about is why I have never tried to replicate the Pumpkin Spice flavour at home. This recipe remedies that!

October through December is also when I love to indulge in toasted carbs. Pancakes, not crepes but American Style or Drop Scones as they are traditionally known in Ireland, are a firm favourite for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But also toasted Barmbrack – the traditional Irish fruit tea cake that gains popularity in the lead up to Hallowe’en, or Samhain, because of the trinkets stored inside said to bestow good or bad luck on whoever found them hidden amongst the cake. Toasted crumpets, drowning in butter; ditto toast in general and raisin and cinnamon bagels…

American Style Pancakes with Pumpkin Spice and Maple Syrup Butter

All of these things are vastly improved with butter. Vastly improved yet further if that butter is THIS butter: flavoured with the heady notes of Pumpkin Spice and the sweet succulence of maple syrup.

Of course, the irony of Pumpkin Spice is that it doesn’t contain pumpkins or even taste of them. I probably should have looked into the history of that more, but I don’t think it really matters because, ultimately, what’s important is flavour and comfort and this flavoured butter has both of those things in droves!

Word to the wise: using unsalted butter and adding maple syrup to it does make this a soft butter that melts really quickly. I make sure it is well chilled before I use it, so the butter gets a fighting chance of sinking in to whatever you have lashed it on without just dribbling onto the plate and down your chin – although these are both perfectly acceptable too!

Ingredients (makes 1 x 15cm log of butter)

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground clove
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

Place all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until fully combined.
Empty out down the centre of a piece of parchment paper.
Wrap the parchment paper over the butter and start to twist the ends of the paper to force the soft butter into a log shape. Keep rolling and twisting until the butter feels compacted together into a tight butter log.
Place in the fridge and chill for at least four hours until very firm. If you can’t wait that long, pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Slice into disks and serve on top of anything that is warm and deserves this delicious butter!

Enjoy!

Kale & Pumpkin Orecchiette

Posted on December 14, 2019July 2, 2020 by flavourie

I made this recipe back in September just as the autumn was starting to make an appearance in earnest. And, despite it taking me a solid three months to get it up on the blog, thankfully all the flavours are still as relevant as we head into the end of one year and the beginning of a new one!

With some dishes I come up with, I wonder where a dish transforms from being a mere assemblage of ingredients into an actual recipe, and this is very much one of those dishes. So whichever it may technical set upon, the ingredients and method, such that it is, is noted below. But aside from all of that, this is the kind of dish that is pure comfort and joy. Don’t stimp on loading the roasting tray for the squash/pumpkin with endless cloves of garlic so that the kitchen is filled with that: the best aroma of all!

Ingredients (serves 2):

Enough Oriecchiette pasta for two people
1/2 Butternut Squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed into 1inch pieces
Lots of garlic – at least 5 cloves, in their skin and smashed
20g of blue cheese (Shepherds Store works well)
1 pack of Gubbeen streaky bacon, sliced into thin lardons
2 generous handfuls of seasonal kale, destem and tear the leaves.
Handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil, sea salt and pepper

Method:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, prepare the squash and arrange it on a baking tray. Toss in the smashed cloves of garlic, drizzle over a small amount of olive oil. Toss through and roast until the squash is tender. Turn once during cooking.
Bring a pan of well salted water to the boil, add in the pasta, a drizzle of olive oil and cook until tender. Drain and set aside.
Fry off the bacon until all the fat has rendered out and the bacon has gone crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
Keep the bacon fat, and once the squash is cooked through heat up the bacon fat again and quickly cook the kale leaves until they have softened.
Into a large sharing bowl, add the drained pasta, squash, pumpkin seeds and the crumbled blue cheese, season with sea salt and black pepper and toss together.
Scatter about the kale, then crumble the bacon over. Finally, using a veg peeler, peel off some Parmesan cheese over the whole dish and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Glazed Autumn Berry Pudding & Meadowsweet Cream

Posted on September 7, 2019April 16, 2020 by flavourie

A couple of years ago, I started experimenting with Meadowsweet – a wild plant festooned with flowers that have a honey-like aroma that blooms in late summer and into early autumn.

My first foray was to make Meadowsweet Cordial with it, and since then it has supplanted Elderflower Cordial, superior as it is in pretty much every way!

Since then, at this time of year I seek to find ways that I can add it into other things, and I’ve always been a believer that what grows together goes together, so no surprises then that I frequently pair Meadowsweet with its seasonal berry cousin, the Blackberry.

This recipe is basically a Summer Pudding but just with a few little twists to elevate it, and really make it work for the seasonal fruits of the year.

Glazed Autumn Berry Pudding,
Meadowsweet Cream

In my recipe, I used four fruits together: fresh blackcurrants and redcurrant, and the final remnants from the freezer of last years’ autumn blackberry harvest, and the early summer Wild Bilberry harvest. Frankly, you can use any fruit for this, although I would suggest staying away from strawberries (fresh or frozen), and maybe just get out there, pick some free, wild blackberries and then see what you can find from you local farmers’ market and go from there!

The addition of a glaze to the pudding make the whole things shine like a jewel, and adding Meadowsweet Cordial to the just whipped cream makes the whole thing sing of early Autumn. A splash of Kinsale Mead, an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey, cherries and blackcurrants, is another nice way to bring a local flavour to the whole dish. And anyway, what is pudding if there isn’t some booze in it somewhere!

A note on the bread used here: I would normally never advocate using white slice bread in anything, but the fact is that it does make a very good structure for this pudding, so I allow it! A half sliced pan is enough for this recipe, and if you can, leave the bread out for a few hours before using so it has dried out a little.

Ingredients:

Half pan sliced white loaf
No less than 1kg of fruits, fresh or frozen (I used blackcurrants, redcurrants, wild blackberries and bilberries)
175g either golden caster sugar or coconut blossom sugar
Generous glug of Kinsale Mead Wild Red Mead
150ml of whipped cream
1tsp Meadowsweet Cordial
1 chocolate covered honeycomb bar, smashed
Meadowsweet Flower to garnish

Method:

Into a large, heavy bottom pan, place your berries and sugar and bring just to a simmer for enough time for the fruits to break down a little and release their juices.
Place a sieve over a bowl and empty out the fruits, collecting the juices underneath. Allow to drain while you prepare your pudding bowl.
Butter a 1 litre pudding bowl generously. Set aside.
Remove the crusts from each slice of bread. Flatten each slice slightly with a rolling pin.
Take one slice, place the base of the pudding bowl on it and cut around the circle using a knife. Cut two slices into triangles, cut the rest into rectangles.
Take the collected juice and dip each slice of bread so that it has taken on colour and flavour but can still hold itself.
Assemble as follows: start with the circle and place that in the bottom of the bowl. Then the rectangles – overlap them slightly to create a seal. This will also create a pleasing look, kind of like a Bundt cake tin. Then add in the fruits and pack them in tightly. Finally, dip the triangles of bread and place over the opening to seal the whole thing up.
Cover the top with either the bowl lid, or a piece of foil, and place in the fridge to set for a minimum of 8 hours, but longer is better.
Decant the fruit juices into a airtight container and set aside (don’t put in the fridge).
When ready to release the pudding from the bowl, bring the pudding out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 mins.
Take off any covering and place a plate over the top. Hold firm and then quickly invert. The pudding should drop out easily. If you have used a plastic pudding bowl, give it a gentle squeeze all around until you hear the pleasing thunk of the pudding hitting the plate.
Add the the fruit juices back into a saucepan and add in the Mead. Reduce slowly over a low heat until the mixture is thick and syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Generously glaze the pudding all over with a thick layer of the syrupy fruit juice. It should set almost instantly.
While the glaze is setting, whip the cream. Just before it is fully whipped, add in the Meadowsweet Cordia, and then whip again for a few more seconds until it is fully combined.
To serve, garnish the pudding with a sprig of fresh Meadowsweet, and around the base of the pudding scatter the broken pieces of chocolate honeycomb. Serve with a generous dollop of the Meadowsweet Whipped Cream.
Best served with a glass of something crisp, cool and fizzy!

Enjoy….

No-Bake Cheesecake with Bilberry Compote

Posted on September 1, 2017April 16, 2020 by flavourie

“I’m not really a fan of baked cheesecakes, if I’m being honest.”

Mr Flavour and I have been in each other’s pockets for 17 years. He’s repeated this refrain at least once a year, and yet I have never made anything other than baked cheesecakes.

He eats them because he loves me, but really all he wants is a light, fluffy cheesecake with a crispy base.

A couple of months ago I decided maybe I should have a go at making him this much-lusted for cheesecake. I secretly hoped he would hate it so I could go back to the baked variety once more, but unfortunately it’s flipping delicious.

Continue reading “No-Bake Cheesecake with Bilberry Compote”

Meadowsweet Gin Fizz

Posted on August 29, 2017April 16, 2020 by flavourie

I’m putting it out there…

As much as I love and adore Elderflower, I think it’s time it took a break and laid the way clear for Meadowsweet instead! (stand back and awaits collective intake of breath…)

I walk the laneways and boreens around the village where Flavour.ie is headquartered through all kinds of weather and all the seasons, year after year. I am always on high alert – noticing things, the slight annual variations on how, and what, is doing well or not so well. 2016 was probably the year of Elderflower. I had never seen so much of it flowering everywhere and with such huge flower heads; hedgerows and ditches pungent with their heady scent. Suddenly, everyone was making elderflower cordial and tonic water, continuing its steady rise to famedom, was beginning to be infused with it.

I’m not the kind of person who buys into fads and fashions. As soon as anything starts to look like a fad, I instantly get in a huff and march off in pursuit of something new. This is what happened with the Year of the Elderflower, 2016 AD. By 2017, everyone was on the bandwagon at which point I alighted to find my new thing.

At about the same time that Elderflowers were making their comeback, I had noticed a weedier version of it growing in the hedgerows. The stronger and more prevalent the flower became, the more intense its aroma as I walked by it – like the sweetest honey. My instinct told me that this plant that I had walked past and ignored for the last few years in pursuit of Elderflower was Meadowsweet. Cross referencing my books on wild food and hedgewitchery told me my instinct was correct. It also told me that Meadowsweet got its name from the old English name “Meade Sweet” because it was used to sweeten Meade (n.b the next craft spirit to come our way – trust me!)

My friend and allay in all things wild, April Danann, informed me that this honey-sweet smelling, weedy looking plant is up there as one of the most medicinal plants because you can use every part of it: the flower, the leaves, the stem and the root. If Elderflower is the X-Factor winner, Meadowsweet is the more talented, struggling artist. And I do love an underdog.

This year, I haven’t done this miraculous plant justice, as the only thing I could think to make with it was a cordial. I make cordial once a year, and it is usually Elderflower, but in a fit of fevered rebellion (well, maybe not fevered) I decided to ditch it in favour of my new fascination with Meadowsweet. “Surely,” I thought to myself “I just make this in the exact same way?” And I did.

I use the Elderflower cordial recipe from Darina Allen’s beautiful book “Forgotten Skills of Cooking” (a masterpiece of a book). The only thing I changed was that I added 14 Meadowsweet flower heads to the 10 Elderflower heads in the recipe, purely going by the fact that the flower heads are smaller and more delicate so in order to get a sufficient flavour from them I would need more.

Once the cordial is made of course there are endless uses for it: flavouring ice creams, desserts – panna cotta in particular (my favourite dessert!), and, of course, cocktails!

I decided to pair my Meadowsweet cordial with Dingle Gin, Blueberries and Mint for a surprisingly refreshing yet luxuriously delicious simple cocktail.

If you are quick, the last few Meadowsweet flowers are still in bloom. Harvest them, and see what inspires you. Else crack open the gin – either is good!

Ingredients (for 1 cocktail, served in a Champagne flute):

10ml of homemade Meadowsweet cordial
35ml measure of Dingle Gin
Blueberries / Wild Bilberries / Hedgerow Blackberries (any of these is good!)
Mint sprigs
Top up with any of the following: Fizzy water / Plain tonic water / Prosecco (any fizzy as long as it isn’t too dry, so I’d stay away from Champagne, it’s all about the Meadowsweet so don’t mask it with a dry fizz).

Method:

Pour in the Meadowsweet cordial, top with the measure of gin.
Add in your berries.
Fill to the top with your chosen fizz.
Garnish with fresh mint sprig.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Squash and Chestnut Soup

Posted on October 28, 2015April 16, 2020 by flavourie

I fear I can barely contain my excitement about the fact that it is finally full-blown squash season once more! Yes, yes I know…it’s all a bit “drama, drama” but genuinely, if autumn is my favourite food season, then the Squash is sitting pretty, right at the top of my pile of food loves, wearing a crown and winking!

Cucurbits is the family name given to all squash and pumpkins that also include courgettes and the things that get turned in loofah’s (are they called “loofah’s” before they become so? Is “loofah’s” the correct plural for “loofah”? Who knows? Answers on a postcard please!) I think that it must also include cucumbers and maybe possibly aubergines too. Sometimes life is too short for such research, and mainly in this instance because I want you to proceed immediately to your kitchen and make this soup. You can thank me later in the comments below!

Can I just say at the outset that, although I am all about the flavour, this soup can have the capacity to look unattractive so a little time spent on presentation at the end will work wonders as the photo of the finished product will attest to. I also want to note to you, dear reader, that in this instance I used a magnificent Crown Prince squash which has attributed greatly to the slightly bogie-green hue to the soup. However, any squash or pumpkin will suffice for this soup so the final colour could range from bogie-green to sunshine yellow depending on the squash chosen, grown or available.

A final note on soup. I love soup. I am considering writing a whole piece on the art of making good soup. There are fewer things in this world that can satisfy you like a delicious bowl of soup can. It’s a gift of a thing. You’ll notice that in amongst the blog are quite a few soup recipes. Please don’t dismiss them…soup is a wonderful thing and endlessly versatile, fulfilling and nutritious – not to mention thrifty!

Continue reading “Squash and Chestnut Soup”

Spooky Punch with Blueberry Eyeballs!

Kate Ryan