MasterChef Ireland 2014 - National Dish Challenge

After finishing the Canapé Challenge, we were all mentally and physically exhausted and, at the time, had no sense of how well we had or had not performed in the task. We had arrived at Croke Park very early in the morning with no idea of what lay ahead. We soon discovered that we would be divided into two teams - presumably competing against each other - to prepare and cook the canapés. We assumed that there would be a winning and a losing team. Little did we know that one person would be selected from each team and given a free pass into the next round!

I can truly say that everyone on the blue team, of which I was part, cooked their hearts out and each person individually contributed something crucial to the success of the challenge and the fact that we had managed to produce so many high quality canapés.

 

The Final Ten with Nick & Dylan. Photo: (c) RTE.

That night I fell into bed completely spent from the exhaustion and excitement of the task, knowing that I would be back in the MasterChef Ireland kitchen early the following morning to hear Nick and Dylan deliver their judgements.

When Diana and I were asked to step forward we were immediately alarmed, thinking that we were about to be sent home and that our time in the MasterChef kitchen was over…



Charlie, Rich & Nessa

It took a moment or two for the judges’ words to sink in - on the basis of our performance during the team challenge cooking post-match canapés for the players and their families in Croke Park, Diana and I were given a day off, were through to the next round and did not have to cook off in front of the judges to secure our place in the final eight.

Woohoo!

Both of us felt strongly that everyone on both teams had played their part and had worked their socks off to achieve success on behalf of their respective teams. We were delighted to be through to the next round, but realised that it so easily and justifiably could have been anyone else on either team!

 

The other contestants had to remain in the kitchen and cook a dish of their own choice that represented Ireland to them and one that showcased their skills and love of food.

 

Edel, Mark (aka "Justin") & Nessa

Until the episode aired, neither Diana nor I had seen how the other contestants had performed in the National Dish Challenge. When I watched it, I was so impressed by the dishes that were prepared. The amount of considered thought and passion that had gone in to developing the various plates of food was unbelievable. I believe that the individual personalities really shone through in the dishes that were cooked and presented.

The one thing that was true of everyone who got into the final 24 and subsequently the final 10 was an absolute love of food and cooking. We all wanted to be there and wanted to perform to the best of our abilities, but the reality was that we were all under huge pressure, having to cope with unfamiliar equipment in an increasingly surreal situation. Feasibly, anything could go wrong for any of us at any time.



Me & Rich

We all knew that we were only as good as the last dish we had prepared and this created added stress. There was so little to distinguish between the various contestants in terms of ability and passion for food, so even the tiniest mistake could mean that you were a goner and would be out of the kitchen AND the competition!

 

Diana and I had spent the day wandering around Dublin visiting various food shops and kitchen equipment supplies stores; we also had the chance to have a delicious lunch, but all the time we were waiting to hear how the Challenge back in the MasterChef kitchen was going. After what seemed like an eternity word filtered through that two cooks had been sent home. Rich and Sonya were out of the competition.
 

Hugh, Nessa, Nick & Diana

I really liked the dishes that both of them had chosen to cook and to me they sounded absolutely delicious, if very different from each other. Sonya’s ability and love of food was apparent in how she had performed in the previous rounds and tasks. She also fervently supported Irish produce and ingredients, which is something also very close to my heart.

I was devastated that Rich had been sent home as we had come through the heats together and I knew what an amazing cook he was, with such skills and abilities. He is such a talented cook and I would happily eat his food anytime. Above all else, I was going to miss his hysterically funny and quirky take on life and his ability to make us all laugh and relax with his funny one-liners. I love reading about his passion for food and cooking and will continue to be an avid follower of his food adventures which he expresses so well on his blog at www.chefilepsy.com 

 

This programme first aired on RTE1; 8.30pm, 2nd April 2014.
 

 

 

 

 

 

MasterChef Ireland 2014 - Cooking Under Pressure in Croke Park

Sunday, 8^th September 2013; the first time that the MasterChef Ireland final ten contestants came together… and what a day it was! It was a stressful, chaotic, pressurised, exhausting, but brilliant day and one that I will never forget.

The day started early, with the contestants being introduced to each other. I already knew Rich and Charlie as we had all come through the same heat, but I didn’t know the others and was extremely curious to get to meet everyone.

There was little time for conversation as we were bundled onto a coach with no idea of our destination. This added to the collective nervous excitement as none of us knew what to expect. It wasn’t until we saw the unmistakable form of Croke Park in front of us and remembered that it was the day of the All-Ireland Hurling Final between Cork and Clare that we began to speculate whether we might be about to be given some type of cooking challenge in the iconic stadium? We quickly realised that this was the case, but still had no idea exactly what the challenge was going to be.

Edel gives her reaction on hearing what the task is.

Standing by the Liam McCarthy cup in the empty stadium, Nick and Dylan soon informed us that we were to be divided into two teams of five and that each team would be required to prepare and cook 1,050 canapés. These would be served to the teams and their families as soon as the match was finished. It was hard to believe that within a few hours the deserted stadium would be thronged with tens of thousands of supporters shouting for their teams. It was very surreal standing there, looking at the pristine pitch and the magnificent stands and everything seeming so calm.

I was on the blue team along with Rich, Charlie, Edel and Nessa. We were told that we had 350 each of three canapés that we had to prepare within six hours and that they had to be ready to serve immediately once the match was over. We were given recipe outlines for each of the canapés. It was up to each team to decide who to appoint as team captain and how to divide the work.

The three canapés that we had to prepare were:

• Smoked Gubeen Tartlets
• Mini Thai Crab Cakes
• Mini Pitta Breads filled with Marinated Lamb, Baba Ganoush and Rocket

The team agreed that Rich would be team leader and that he would oversee the work and make sure that we all stayed focused.

I volunteered to make the tartlets and immediately set about making the pastry for the 350 individual tartlets. Because of the amount of pastry involved this had to be done in batches. The pastry then had to be rolled out thinly, put into the tart tins, blind baked, before being baked again with the smoked cheese and egg custard mixture.

Me and Rich.

The others had their own challenges to face. There seemed to be no end to the amount of pitta breads that Charlie had to individually bake; Nessa was trying to marinate mountains of lamb and cook it to melting tenderness in the allotted time and Edel had a show-down with some very belligerent crabs, but she prevailed! 

Throughout all of this Rich tried to calm us and halt the quickly developing panic that was setting in. My one overriding memory of the day is of Nessa, Charlie and myself trying to pipe baba ganoush into the beautiful pitta breads so lovingly baked by Charlie, but the ganoush was getting everywhere other than where it was meant to be going. We were covered in the stuff. We invented a new verb for the English language that day – to ganoush or be ganoushed; a very messy activity as the blue team can attest to!

Charlie looking for divine inspiration?

We were given six hours to complete this task, which at the beginning seemed like an eternity… it WASN’T! Time was running out and everyone, not least of all the judges were concerned that we might not have any canapés ready to serve.

We were working in unfamiliar surroundings in make-shift kitchens in rooms under the pitch, preparing food on a large scale but in miniature serving sizes which made everything so finicky to produce. We had to share oven and hob time which became increasingly difficult to co-ordinate as the pressure increased. It was just so stressful, made even more so by the fact that none of us knew each other well and even though we were part of a team we were also competing against each other in the overall competition.

Diana looking calm and composed

All this time, the match was being played above our heads and every so often we would hear the roar of the crowd but we had no idea of what was going on above ground….we just knew that we HAD to produce the blasted canapés!

In the end, we didn’t get the full cohort of canapés completed but our team did manage to finish and serve 900 canapés. In the context of the bizarre situation which we found ourselves in, this was an achievement in itself.

We had been through a stress-filled day surviving on adrenalin and a determination to do our best, but so had the players as the match ended up being a draw; the final score – Cork 3:16 to Clare 0:25. Apparently it was a great match, but all we cared about was that our canapés seemed to have been enjoyed.

In memory of the eventful day we all had in Croke Park, I have recreated a version of the little tartlets that and will post the recipe separately.

 

This episode first aired on RTE1; 8.30pm, 1^st April 2014.

Clotted Cream Shortbread

Clotted cream is one of those really naughty foods which are so lovely to eat every now and again as a special indulgent treat. I love its rich, almost buttery taste and always feel so decadent when I eat it.

 

If truth be told, I mostly use clotted cream as an accompaniment in desserts… I use it in place of ice-cream, custard or whipped cream to partner warm apple pies, rhubarb tarts etc. I also love it on freshly baked scones with some homemade raspberry jam.

 

Reading about the origins of clotted cream, I learnt that in the past it was regularly used in place of butter in baked goods. This intrigued me.

 

As is very apparent from many of my posts, I have an enduring love affair with butter; I really can’t see myself and butter ever falling out of love - but I have to admit, I was hugely attracted to the idea of using clotted cream instead of butter in baking. And, yes… I gave in to temptation and recently made a clotted cream cake which was absolutely fabulous! I almost felt like I was cheating on my beloved butter, but the taste and texture of the cake was divine. I had taken a step into the unknown and there was no going back. I felt that there was room in my life for both butter AND clotted cream! I wasn’t going to give either up! Excuse the pun, but I wanted my cake and I wanted to eat it as well!

 

In my research I came across references to clotted cream shortbread but was unable to source any recipes. Emboldened by the heady feelings of blossoming love, I resolved that the lack of recipes would not thwart me. As a starting point I decided to adapt my basic shortbread recipe by replacing half the weight of butter with an equal weight of clotted cream. The biscuits I made were wonderful… there’s nothing more to say. They were delicious! DELICIOUS! I urge you to make them.

Ingredients:

100g butter, softened
80g caster sugar

100g clotted cream

200g plain flour

100g cornflour (or rice flour if a crunchier biscuit is wanted)

Method:

Make the dough:

1. Put the butter and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and cream together using a hand-held electric mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Slowly work in half the flour using a wooden spoon and then thoroughly mix in the clotted cream followed by the rest of the flour and the cornflour to create a firm dough.

3. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least half an hour in the fridge.

Bake the biscuits:

4. Preheat oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

5. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to a thickness of approximately 5mm with a rolling pin and stamp out individual biscuits using cookie cutters of your own choice (I used a round cookie cutter, approximately 6cm in diameter).

6. Place the biscuits on the prepared trays and bake for 10-13 minutes until pale golden and cooked through.

7. Remove from the oven when baked and allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling. Sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar before removing to the cooling rack, if desired.

Makes 20 biscuits.

     

Maple Syrup & Pecan Scones

One of the great things about my never dwindling enthusiasm for cooking and baking is that the more I do, the more confident I become in adapting recipes to use the ingredients that I have immediately to hand. When I first started cooking, I always had to have the exact ingredients specified and I would slavishly follow recipes. As I have become more confident in the kitchen and my understanding of the basic principles of cooking has grown, I regularly change recipes around and experiment. Sometimes it doesn’t work out as planned, but quite often it does.

 

I had some pecan nuts left over after another dish which I was keen to use up, so decided that I would roughly chop them up and add them to my basic soda bread recipe. As I was weighing everything out, it suddenly occurred to me that the classic combination of pecan nuts and maple syrup would work beautifully as a flavour accent in come brown scones so they are what I made.

 

I didn’t want a densely brown scone so I also changed the ratio of white to brown flour that I normally use to include a greater proportion of white flour.

I was delighted with how the scones turned out. They were slightly sweet courtesy of the maple syrup used and the nutty crunch of the pecans worked wonderfully with the stoneground wholemeal flour.

The finished scones were delicious made even more so that I ate them with a generous wedge of perfectly ripe Cashel Blue cheese. The blue cheese tasted absolutely fabulous with the slightly sweet and nutty scones… Absolute heaven!

 

Ingredients:

200g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt

275g stoneground wholemeal flour

60g pecan nuts chopped

300-325ml buttermilk

50ml maple syrup

1 egg, lightly beaten

To finish:

9-12 whole pecan nuts 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mark 6. Lightly flour a baking sheet and set aside.
2. Sift the plain flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the chopped nuts and mix through.
3. Add the egg and maple syrup and then pour in most of the buttermilk (do not add it all at once as you may not need it all). Mix everything together to create a soft, but not sticky dough.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead very briefly. Pat the dough with your hands until it is approximately 4cms thick and then stamp out circles of the dough a round cookie cutter (approximately 6cms in diameter). Place these on the floured baking tray. Just before baking press a whole pecan nut onto the top of each scone. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

5. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

 Makes 9-12 scones depending on size of cutter used.