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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!

Squash, Sage & Pork Carbonara

Posted on April 6, 2020July 5, 2020 by flavourie

Apparently, 6th April is World Carbonara Day, and I’ve just finished reading this wonderful article by Manuela Spinelli of Eurotoques Ireland on the heart pounding merits of a good classic carbonara, and also reminding us that the principle of Italian cuisine is “generally three ingredients that marry together and become a paradise of flavours.” I shudder to think what Manuela would say to me on spying the mushrooms I love to put in my carbonara, along with parsley and the wrong kind of pork and cheese.

But as much as my Carbonara a la Anglaise may be derided for tearing up the Italian cuisine rule book, I feel quietly confident that the recipe below for a very un-Carbonara-like-Carbonara would warm the cockles of your heart all the same. Just like the real Italian classic, it has three primary flavours, but that aside, this would probably have Italians the world over rolling their eyes at my incredulity and arrogance, while also unable to deny the glorious flavour triumvirate that is Squash, Sage and Pork.

In these times of Covid-19, when more than ever nothing should be going to waste in the kitchen, this recipe was born from the necessity to use up a couple of sausages and half a butternut squash. There is also sage, one of my favourite herbs for chilly days, a gentle hit of chili, garlic (because: well, garlic…!), and some lemon to freshen the whole thing up. It’s a surprisingly easy dish to make, but apologise to the evening’s pot-washer in advance as it definitely isn’t a one-pot wonder!

Top Tip! This dish will feed two people with plenty of left over sauce. This sauce can be thinned out a little the next day and heated up, drizzled with some chili oil and crème fraiche and served up with some thick crusty bread for a hearty soup for one the following day!

Ingredients:

Half a butternut squash, peeled and chopped into medium chunks
2 pork sausages, skinned and ripped into small bite sized pieces
1 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced
Red chili: either a few dried flakes or some fresh – to taste, background heat only!
Handful of sage herb, leaves only
1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Long pasta: either spaghetti or linguine
Olive Oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese

Method:

Steam the butternut squash until tender.
Place a large pot of well salted water onto boil. Just as the butternut squash is tender throughout, place the dried pasta into the boiling water.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan cook down the sausage meat in a little olive oil until browned and glistening. Take out of the pan and place on kitchen paper.
Reserve the meat cooking juices in the frying pan, and cook slowly the sliced garlic. Drain and place onto a piece of kitchen paper.
Just before the pasta is cooked, place the tender butternut squash into a blender with the garlic, chili, lemon juice, sea salt, a generous twist of pepper, most of the sage and remaining meat juices from the frying pan. Add a little dash of water, (I use the water from steaming to retain the flavour), to help it along and blitz until completely smooth. Set aside.
Drain the cooked pasta and place back into the saucepan. Dress the pasta with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and set aside.
Back to the frying pan and fry off the remaining sage leaves until crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.
Pour the butternut squash sauce over the pasta a little at a time to coat it thoroughly and luxuriously. Don’t worry if there is a lot of sauce left over – you can have that for lunch tomorrow!
Portion out onto warmed plates, top with nuggets of the browned sausage meat, crispy sage leaves, a final flourish with the pepper grinder and plenty of grated parmesan cheese.

Enjoy with a chilled, crisp white wine!

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!

Caitlin Ruth’s Baked Squash

Posted on November 23, 2016April 16, 2020 by flavourie

A couple of weeks’ ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caitlin Ruth, head chef of Deasy’s Harbour Bar and Restaurant for our local radio station, Clonline Radio (listen to the interview here). This was the second time I had the chance to interview Caitlin, and as before it was a lot of fun – more like having a chat, only that the wine was missing!

During our interview, Caitlin mentioned a recipe she made for a vegetarian friend who came for Christmas Dinner one year. A whole baked squashed, stuffed with loads of yummy things, served up whole and sliced at the table. I immediately fell in love with the notion of the humble squash being given as glorious a treatment at the turkey itself.

When I asked for the recipe, I didn’t think Caitlin would actually say yes, but she did. True to her word, a few days later arrived pictures and the full recipe of how to make her Baked Squash. I’m sharing this recipe with you as I feel now is about the time that there are people out there starting to have a melt down about what to make their vegetarian dinner guest on Christmas Day that isn’t a totally predictable nut roast. Well, thanks to Caitlin you no longer have to worry – we’ve got you covered!

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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!

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Squash, Feta and Rosemary Pastry Tart

Posted on July 1, 2015April 16, 2020 by flavourie

It was a truth that I had previously never doubted that I would never be any good at making pastry. “It’s just too difficult” I thought, “It’ll just always go wrong and then it’ll be a waste”. But then I thought – how hard could it be to make some harmless pastry. Turns out that all I really needed to do was roll up my sleeves and go for it.

Turns out that I’m actually pretty darn good at making my own pastry. Not as an every day thing you understand – I’m not that committed, but certainly in a batch and ahead of schedule and freezing down portions for later use is right up my street and the kind of vision of effortless mid-week cookery that I can handle without working myself up into a frenzy!

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Roasted Squash with Sage, Orzo Pasta and Blue Cheese Butter and Wild Garlic Dressing

Posted on May 12, 2015April 16, 2020 by flavourie

OK, so it’s not technically “squash season” anymore, but thanks to the fact that squash can keep well for a long time once harvested if stored correctly, mean that really they are still good to go now as a seasonal veg.

Of course, butternut squash are available all year round now too and thankfully this recipe works well with any kind of squash. Blue cheese, sage and squash is a classic flavour combination, and serving this up with Orzo pasta (fast becoming my favourite pasta because of its versatility) means that this can either be viewed as a comfort food dish or a light summery dish depending on how your mood takes you!

Make this dish extra seasonal by adding a simple in-season green leaf salad with raw Russian Kale (if yours is still growing as vigorously as mine is at the moment) or if you want something with an extra bit of pep, early season rocket or oriental mustard leaves are all in season right now.

Continue reading “Roasted Squash with Sage, Orzo Pasta and Blue Cheese Butter and Wild Garlic Dressing”

Pumpkin & Rosemary Biscuits

Kate Ryan