Oven-Dried Tomatoes

This is a really handy recipe to have in your repertoire, as once dried in the oven these tomatoes can either be eaten immediately or stored in a sterilised jar, covered with olive oil, until you are ready to use them. If you are lucky enough to grown your own tomatoes or know someone who does and is prepared to part with some of their produce, this is the recipe for you.

Drying the tomatoes in this way intensifies their flavour and really highlights their natural sweetness. Once made, these tomatoes can be used in a number of ways; scattered on salads or pizzas, roughly chopped up in sauces - the possibilities are endless. I regularly make preserved tomato bread rolls as one in a selection of flavoured breads if I am hosting a dinner party or other occasion which I have to cater for. They always go down a treat and people invariable ask for the recipe (which I will post in the near future).

I love homemade tomato soup using fresh tomatoes, but I find that the addition of a few preserved tomatoes before puréeing the soup really adds something extra in terms of the finished flavour of the soup.
 

The long slow cooking dries out the tomatoes leaving them slightly chewy, with a little moisture still remaining. If you cook them for too long they will become hard, brittle and a little bitter to taste - this is obviously not what you are trying to achieve, so I would advise checking them for the last half hour of the allotted cooking time, just in case they are ready sooner than expected.

The point that I want to get across is that these tomatoes are incredibly delicious but are also an extremely versatile ingredient with a myriad of uses in so many other dishes, so when tomatoes are in season, are abundant and cheap, have a go at making a few jars.

      

Ingredients:

100ml olive oil, plus extra to cover them if being kept
8 garlic cloves

500g cherry tomatoes

2tsp icing sugar

A few sprigs of thyme

Salt & freshly ground black pepper
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 110C/Fan oven 90-100C/Gas Mark ½.
2. Put the oil and garlic in a small oven proof bowl and place in the oven for 20 minutes to allow the garlic to infuse into the oil.

3. Meanwhile slice the tomatoes in half across their middle. Gently squeeze each halved tomato to remove some of the seeds and then place the tomatoes in a single layer, cut side uppermost in the baking dish (approximately 20cm x 30cm). Pour over the infused olive oil, discarding the garlic and ensuring that the tomatoes are well covered in the oil.

4. Sieve the icing sugar evenly over the tomatoes and season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Tuck the sprigs of thyme around the tomatoes.

5. Place in the pre-heated oven for 2½ hours. You can either serve the tomatoes warm or place them in a jar, discard the thyme and cover with fresh olive oil and refrigerate. They will keep in the fridge covered in oil for up to 6 weeks… if they last that long!

 Makes 1 small jar.
      

Fig, Goats' Cheese & Parma Ham Pizza with Rocket

Homemade pizzas are far simpler to make than you might think and once you have made the dough for the bases, you can top them with whatever takes your fancy. In my opinion they are really simple to make and every time I do so, I wonder why it is not a more regular event in our household as everyone loves to get stuck in, rolling out the dough and selecting their own favourite toppings.

The only time consuming part of the recipe is the making of the dough as, because it is a yeast dough, it must be given time to prove, but the pizzas themselves cook really quickly in the oven and if you have pre-made your dough, these are the ultimate in home cooked “fast-food”.

I recently had some figs leftover after making my Raspberry & Fig Tarte Tatin, so decided that I would use them on my pizza. No great thinking went into the making of this pizza. I literally looked in the fridge and store cupboard and used what I had to hand.

 

Luckily I had a packet of Parma ham and a log of goats’ cheese and knew that these would go wonderfully with the figs. Even though I could have made a tomato based sauce as I had the necessary ingredients, I decided that for this pizza I wouldn’t include a tomatoes either in a sauce or in any other form as I felt that their tendency towards acidity would fight against the musky fruitiness of the figs. I scattered everything on top of the pizza dough as artfully as I could and popped the pizza into the oven preheated to its highest temperature, for about 7 minutes until the base was cooked through and the cheese just melted.

 

The pizza was so simple to make, but most importantly, it was absolutely delicious.

 

Ingredients:

Dough:
500g strong white bread flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
3tblsp of olive oil
300ml of lukewarm water
A little semolina for sprinkling on the baking tray
Topping:
8 ripe figs, halved
200g soft goats’ cheese, roughly crumbled
8-10 slices of Parma ham
A little olive oil
A little balsamic vinegar
A large handful of rocket leaves
Salt & freshly ground black pepper 

Method:

Dough:
1. Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle in yeast. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil and gradually add the water. Start mixing everything together with your hands to create a firm but not overly dry dough – if need’s be add a little more warm water.

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes until it is smooth and springy to the touch.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled, clean bowl and cover with a damp clean tea-towel or some lightly oiled cling-film. Leave in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has risen and has doubled in size.

To finish:

4. Preheat the oven to its highest setting (on my oven this is 250C). Lightly dust a large baking tray with a little fine semolina and set aside.

5. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and knead it a little, punching out the air. Divide the dough into four equal pieces.

6. Roll each piece of dough out into a rough circle about ½cm thick leaving a slightly thicker narrow “lip” of dough around the edge. Place on the semolina dusted baking tray. Scatter over 4 fig halves, a quarter of the crumbled goats’ cheese and some of the Parma ham. Drizzle with a little olive oil and a small amount of balsamic vinegar. Season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes until the base is cooked through and everything is piping hot. Remove from the oven and scatter a handful of fresh rocket leaves on top. Serve immediately, cut into slices.

8. Repeat this process with the remaining dough and other ingredients to make 4 medium to large pizzas.

Makes 4 medium to large pizzas.

Fig & Raspberry Tarte Tatin

Figs are a fruit you either love or hate. They contain quite a few seeds and some people find that this gives them an almost gritty texture. Although, I discovered fresh figs only relatively recently, I have to admit that I love their slightly exotic allure and their taste is unlike any other fruit that I have eaten. Ripe figs have a rich, almost meaty taste and there is a definite air of the exotic about them. The aroma of a fresh fig is something beautiful to behold and promises much in the way of flavour to tempt the diner.

 

Figs are an extremely popular ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking and are quite regularly paired with rich or salty foods or meats in many recipes. They sit equally well in both sweet and savoury dishes and for me, this really adds to their appeal – there is something so grown-up and refined about figs and I love to use them, when I can, in my cooking.
 

Many people are surprised that figs can be grown quite successfully in the British Isles, provided you have a sheltered spot which catches the sun – because they really do need that warmth to release their full taste potential.
 

Amongst my favourite fruits are raspberries. I love their taste and believe that they complement the flavour of figs so well. The juicy sweetness of the raspberries marries so well with the rich, heady flavour of the figs and they taste delicious together. This is really an example of a dessert that is so much more than the sum of its parts.

 

I have previously given variations on the tarte tatin theme and I unashamedly give another one here. The reality is that tarte tatins are so easy to prepare, look so elegant and taste wonderful. So… here is another recipe, which I hope you enjoy!

 

Ingredients:

5 fresh figs, halved
150g fresh raspberries
100g caster sugar

55g butter

350g all-butter puff pastry
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan Oven 200C/Gas Mark 7.
2. Place the sugar in a large oven-proof frying pan (about 25cms in diameter) with 2 tablespoons of water and heat gently over a moderate heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn up the heat until the mixture starts bubbling. Allow it to bubble away for about 5 minutes, keeping a close eye on it to ensure that it does not burn. Do not allow it to become too dark – you want to achieve a rich golden colour.

3. Once it has reached this stage, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the butter and mix through. Set aside to cool.

To finish:

4. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 3mm and into a circle large enough to fit the frying pan with a little overhang.

5. Place the figs, cut side down in the frying pan on top of the cooled caramel. Nestle the raspberries in and around the gaps created by the figs.

6. Lay the rolled pastry on top of the figs and raspberries and tuck in the excess pastry around the edges, so everything is contained within the frying pan. Place the frying pan on a baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes approximately until the pastry is golden and well-risen.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for about 5 minutes before carefully inverting onto a serving plate.

8. Serve immediately, cut into wedges, with some freshly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

 

Serves 6.
 

     

Cauliflower Soup with Cashel Blue Cheese

I have always loved cauliflowers and think that they are a much underrated vegetable that only ever seems get any air-time when smothered in a cheese sauce, gratinated and served as an accompaniment. I think that this is an awful shame as the cauliflower truly is a delicious vegetable and one that can be used in so many ways and in so many recipes when cooking.

Don’t misunderstand me - I love cauliflower cheese and sometimes as a completely indulgent treat, I like to make a Baked Cauliflower and Macaroni Cheese into which I throw in some leftover ham and a sprinkling of some crispy breadcrumbs – HEAVEN. I will post the recipe and some photos of that particular recipe in the near future, but for now, I want to give a recipe that shows the simple elegance of the cauliflower.

I love this soup. The earthy sweetness of the cauliflower really comes through and is accentuated by the addition of some crumbled Cashel Blue cheese. All too often blue cheeses are uses as a partner for broccoli, but I think that they work equally well with cauliflower, highlighting the sweet, creamy and almost nutty taste of the vegetable.

I deliberately do not use any stock when making this soup, as the taste of the cauliflower can get swamped by the taste of the stock… for me this soup really is all about the taste of the cauliflower and I prefer that nothing detracts from that. I do add a finely chopped small onion and one clove of garlic though; just to give the soup a little depth.
 

Once the cauliflower is softened I purée the soup and then pass it through a fine sieve so that the resulting soup is velvety smooth. The only other additions I make are cream and seasoning. I really do encourage you to taste the soup as you go along, adjusting the seasoning as necessary as it is crucial to the success of the finished soup. I use white pepper as the flecks of freshly ground black pepper, if used interrupt the virginal look of the finished soup.

 

Ingredients:

15g butter
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 medium-sized cauliflower, broken into florets

250ml double cream

Salt & white pepper

To finish:

Some crumbled Cashel Blue cheese 

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sweat the diced onions and crushed garlic for about 5 minutes over a low heat until softened but not coloured. Add the cauliflower florets and cover with enough cold water to barely cover the cauliflower. Bring up to the boil over a high heat, and once boiling, reduce the heat and allow simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until the cauliflower is cooked through.

2. Transfer the contents of the pan to a blender and purée everything to create a fairly thick, but still liquid mixture (You may need to do this in batches).

3. Pass the cauliflower purée through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan and add the cream. Gently heat the soup, but don’t let it boil.
4. Serve in individual bowls with a little Cashel Blue cheese crumbled over the top.

 

Serves 4.     

Smoked Gubbeen & Thyme Canapés

This is not the exact recipe for the cheese tartlets that I recently made as part of a team challenge given to the final ten cooks on MasterChef Ireland, but it is my attempt at recreating what I made as part of the blue team on that day.

 

As mentioned in my previous post this was an incredibly stressful test, but one that looking back on it, I enjoyed tremendously. For the task we were expected to produce 350 of each of three canapés, one of which was Caramelised Shallot & Gubbeen Tartlets. The following recipe is my take on these tartlets.

 

Needless to say, cooking these in my own kitchen, in familiar surroundings and using equipment I am used to was a world removed from the situation that myself and the other contestants found ourselves in on All-Ireland Final day in Croke Park. Also, this recipe produces 36 bite sized tartlets rather than the 350 we had to do last September, but please feel free to scale up the recipe if you are planning on serving them to scores of people!!!

I will say that the great thing about having endured the Croke Park Canapé challenge is that cooking at home for a few friends and family no longer seems daunting.

Ingredients:

Pastry:
200g plain flour, sieved

A generous pinch of cayenne pepper

A pinch of salt

100g butter, chilled and cubed

1 egg yolk

1tblsp cold water

Caramelised shallots:

2tbls vegetable oil

Large knob of butter

500g shallots, sliced finely

2 bay leaves

Filling:

2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg

150ml double cream
100ml milk

100g Smoked Gubbeen cheese, grated

1tblsp fresh thyme, finely chopped

Salt & freshly ground black pepper
 

Method:

Make the pastry:
1. Place the flour, cayenne pepper and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and using your fingertips rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and water. Using a fork, lightly work in the egg yolk and flour to make the pastry dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and knead briefly to form into a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Caramelised shallots:

2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the shallots over a medium heat for about five minutes, stirring regularly.

3. Reduce the heat as they are just beginning to colour and add the butter and bay leaves. Season well. Continue to cook on a low heat, stirring frequently for about 40 minutes until the onions have reduced in volume and are a deep golden colour. Set aside to cool. Remove and discard the bay leaves.

Blind bake the pastry:

4. Preheat oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Lightly grease a 36 whole mini-muffin tin and set aside.

5. Using a rolling pin, roll out the pastry to about 2mm thick on a work-surface lightly dusted with flour. Stamp out 36 rounds of the dough using a 5cm round cutter and use to line 36 mini-muffin tins. Place an empty mini-muffin case on top of the pastry that you have just lined the muffin tins with and weight down with a few baking beans.

6. Blind-bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside for 5 minutes to cool. Remove the baking bean filled muffin cases and allow the tartlet shells to cool completely.

7. Reduce oven temperature to 150C/Fan Oven 130C/Gas Mark 3.

To make the filling:

8. Using a small balloon whisk, whisk the egg yolks and whole egg together in a mixing jug. Add the milk and double cream and whisk again to fully incorporate everything. Mix in the Gubbeen cheese and chopped thyme and season well.

To finish:

9. Put a small teaspoon of the cooled caramelised shallot mixture in the base of each tartlet shell. Carefully pour the egg and cheese mixture almost up to the top of each tartlet case. When all the tartlets have been filled, place in the preheated oven and cook for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and the egg custard mixture has slightly puffed up (this will deflate as they cool). Allow to cool and serve at room temperature.

Makes 36 tartlets.