Welcome to 2015 and a recipe for Harissa Cod with Cannellini Beans & Shredded Brussels Sprouts

2015.

It’s January; it’s a new year and time to plan for the things that I want to do in the coming months. Before I do that I think it’s worth looking back on some of last year’s highlights - in terms of my blog but also on a personal level.

2014 was the first full calendar year spent writing on my blog; it’s where I post my thoughts about and inspirations for the food I cook. There are also loads of recipes! When I was younger… and I mean quite young (aged about 8 or 9 years old) I wanted to be a food writer. Most children want to be doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen… but I wanted to write about food and have the opportunity to eat it and get paid for doing so!


   Me, Diana Dodog & Edel Byrne

From a young age I had adventurous taste buds and a palate eager to try new things. Life and responsibilities got in the way of my writing ambitions and I ended up taking a completely different career path, but my love of food, cookbooks, cooking and dining out has remained ever constant and has, in reality, developed and intensified over the years.

A couple of years ago, I decided that rather than talk about writing about food, I would just start doing it! These days, with the internet and the availability of various free blogging platforms, you can literally just start writing about whatever it is you want to write about!  In 2013, I also decided to apply for MasterChef Ireland and after a truly thrilling and exciting time, I reached the final of the 2014 series, which was won by Diana Dodog - a worthy champion! You can check out what Diana is doing now here.

  

Getting to the final of MasterChef Ireland really gave me the confidence boost that I needed and spurred me on to write about food and share my recipes on this blog. I write about foods that interest me; foods that I want to cook and eat. In as far as possible, I try to highlight ingredients when they are in season and to show different ways in which they can be used. I also like to include recipes for typical Irish dishes or foods that I remember from my childhood. In culinary terms, we have so much to be proud of in this country and we should celebrate these achievements. There are quite a lot of baking and dessert recipes on this blog but that’s because I like eating them, but in 2015 I plan on doing loads more recipes for savoury dishes.

 

The following were my most popular posts with visitors to my blog in 2014:

• Chocolate Biscuit Cake with Maltesers
• Clotted Cream Shortbread
• Portuguese Custard Tarts
• Carrot Cake
• Buttermilk Custard Tart with Blackberries

Interestingly, my personal favourite posts of the year were both savoury dishes and were for

• Curried Parsnip Soup with Smoked Haddock and
• Slow-cooked Pulled Pork

These are genuinely dishes that I enjoyed cooking, were relatively simple to make and most importantly, tasted absolutely delicious.  Food has to look inviting, so I try to present and photograph my food so that it shows it off at its best… but at the end of the day it HAS to taste wonderful; that is the most important thing as far as I am concerned.

 

All the recipes that I present on my blog have been cooked by me, sometimes a number of times so that they are tweaked, refined and hopefully perfected. I want people to feel confident when using my recipes, so I think it’s important that I put the effort in. For me the greatest compliment that anyone can give me is to say that they cooked and enjoyed eating my recipes.

 

During 2014, I was thrilled to be a finalist in the Food & Drink category of the Blog Awards Ireland. For, me it really was an honour and unexpected highlight of the year.

 

As 2015 starts, I want to continue writing and posting my recipes and other food-related. If 2014 was about sharing foods and inspirations from my past, I want to be more experimental and daring in the food I cook and the recipes I post during 2015. Inspiration can come from reading cookbooks and food magazines, by watching food programmes but the best way of getting inspiration is by dining out and trying new and different things – I hope to be doing a lot more of that this year!!!

 

As usual, I will continue to include a recipe with each post and as ever, I love to receive feedback so do feel free to comment. Thank you to all those who have given me encouragement and constructive criticism; it matters more than you know!

 

To finish, I am going to give a really quick and simple recipe that I made for dinner yesterday. After all the rich and heavy food of the festive season, I wanted something a little different, but still comforting to eat. I think this dish is just perfect. It’s spicy, with a faint background sweetness and is warm and satisfying to eat without being heavy. I used cod, but you could use any firm white-fleshed fish instead. I didn’t bother soaking and cooking the beans myself but rather used a can of cooked beans. Season well and add a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice just before serving as this will really bring the flavours alive.

Ingredients:

25ml olive oil2 or 3 shallots, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1tsp ground cumin

2tblsp harissa paste

2tsp honey

A large sprig of fresh thyme

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

400ml vegetable stock

8-10 Brussels sprouts, finely shredded

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

4 x 100g portions of fresh cod, skinned and pin-boned

Juice of half a lemon

To serve:

Lemon wedges, griddled
 

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a moderate heat and gently fry the shallot and crushed garlic for approximately 5 minutes until soft and translucent but not coloured. Stir occasionally.
2. Add the cumin and harissa paste and stir through. Allow to cook out for 1 minute and then add the honey and thyme. Let this also cook out for a couple of minutes, stirring continuously. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, the beans and vegetable stock. Allow to simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until reduced by a third (it should still be quite soupy).

4. Place the cod portions on in the saucepan. Cover with a lid and simmer for about 8 minutes. Add the shredded Brussels sprouts and cover again. Cook for a further 5 minutes or so until the cod is cooked through.

5. Add a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve with griddled lemon wedges if liked.

Serves 4.     

 

Brussels Sprout, Goat's Cheese & Bacon Frittata

I am really pleased with this recipe… because it uses up ingredients that I would probably have thrown out eventually but also because it tastes so darn delicious! Now; I fully realise that some people detest Brussels sprouts and that very little could persuade them otherwise, but I urge you (and them) to give this recipe a go. It really is incredibly tasty.

In a general sense, frittatas are great vehicles for using up those ingredients that you have hanging around, but this doesn’t mean that they should be dumping grounds for all the food odds and ends that you have lurking at the back of the fridge. As with most things, less is more and I would advise using ingredients that complement each other rather than using the frittata as a metaphorical blank canvas on which to express your culinary creativity.

I had some sprouts and a few strips of lightly smoked bacon in the fridge and wanted to use them up. Luckily the subtle smokiness of the bacon is a perfect foil for the earthy sweetness of the sprouts so I already had the foundations of a tasty dish. I added a finely chopped onion, a few eggs and some creamy and slightly salty goat’s cheese that was also left over after Christmas. Originally, I had considered making a savoury tart, but didn’t want to faff around making and blind baking pastry, so decided to keep it very simple and make a frittata.

The frittata was absolutely delicious and was fresh tasting but satisfying to eat at the same time. The most amazing thing was that the ardent sprout-haters in my family thought it was lovely, which as far as I’m concerned was a real result!  With some salad on the side the following recipe easily served 3-4 people.
 

Ingredients:

Olive oil
4 rashers of smoked bacon cut into lardons
1 medium onion, diced

1 sprig of thyme

12-14 Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

6 large eggs, beaten

50g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
 

Method:

1. Heat a tiny amount of olive oil in a medium sized non-stick, oven-proof frying pan and fry the bacon and thyme over a moderate heat until just beginning to get crispy and the bacon fat has rendered down slightly. Remove the bacon and thyme with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent kitchen paper. Discard the thyme. Leave the remaining oil in the frying pan.

2. Add the chopped onions and Brussels sprouts to the frying pan. Add a good glug of olive oil (about 25ml) and let everything and fry over a gently to moderate heat (almost as if it is poaching in the oil) for approximately 10 minutes until the onion is translucent but not coloured and the Brussels sprouts are beginning to soften.

3. Add the beaten eggs and return the bacon to the frying pan. Season well. Give everything a brief stir so that everything is evenly mixed. Sprinkle over the goat’s cheese and let cook over a gently heat for approximately 12-15 minutes until the eggs have set around the edges but are still slightly wobbly in the middle.

4. Place the whole frying pan under a hot grill for 3-5 minutes to until the frittata puffs up very slightly and is golden brown. Remove and serve cut into wedges.

 

Serves 3-4.

 

Mincemeat & Marzipan Madeira Cake

Well… Christmas is over for another year, and we still have the New Year’s celebrations to look forward to. Doubtlessly, on New Year’s Eve there will be more feasting but until then I’m still using up the leftovers from the Christmas over-indulging!

Each year, I promise myself that I will not buy too much food to see us through the festive season, but I have yet to keep to that… mind you, this year on foot of plaintive requests from my gang who weren’t looking forward to the prospect of turkey curry in the days after Christmas, I did buy a small turkey, which was enough for the dinner on the Big Day and for a few sandwiches later that evening!

 

I still had leftovers however, and loathe to throw them out or to consign them to the back of the fridge wherein they would lurk, waiting to be re-discovered sometime in the next millennium, I have made a concerted effort to use them in more inventive and thrifty ways this year!

 

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I love baking and can quickly knock-up all manner of cakes, buns, pastries and other baked goods and also that I rather enjoy doing this…. So when faced with half a jar of homemade mincemeat and a lump of marzipan, I decided that I would make a very basic madeira cake, but use these in it instead of the more usual lemon zest only.

 

Initially I had toyed with the idea of mixing the mincemeat thoroughly through the cake batter, but then I decided that I would much prefer having blobs of mincemeat and little nuggets of marzipan in little pockets through the cake. I was a bit concerned that due to the weight of both these ingredients, that they would sink to the bottom of the cake as it cooked, but I decided to risk trying it on the basis that the batter for madeira cake is stiffer than other sponge-like cakes and would prevent this. Luckily, I was correct and I was delighted with how it turned out. The finished cake has a close crumb but was still light and fluffy to eat and I loved the fact that both the mincemeat and marzipan had retained their essential characteristics.

 

There was something quite plain looking about the cake when it was baked, despite the fact that I had sprinkled the top of it with some flaked almonds prior to baking, but luckily I had a small amount of icing sugar at the bottom of a packet, so used this with a little water and a drop or two of almond extract, to create an icing which I drizzled over the cooled caked. Although you could omit it, I strongly recommend that you do include it as it finished of the cake perfectly

 

This is a very festive cake full of appropriately seasonal flavours, was absolutely delicious and is one that I will definitely be making again.
 

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

210g plain flour

40g self-raising flour

60ml milk

150g mincemeat

75-100g marzipan, broken into little nuggets

50g flaked almonds

To finish:

50g icing sugar

1tsp boiling water

1-2 drops of almond extract
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160C/Fan Oven 140C/Gas Mark 2. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin and set aside.

2. Place the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl and beat together using a hand-held electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, making sure that they are fully incorporated before adding more.

3. Sieve the two flours together and fold into the creamed mixture, adding the milk as you go. Make sure everything is thoroughly incorporated and that there are no pockets of flour remaining.

4. Spoon one third of the mixture into the prepared tin. Use about half of the mincemeat to drop little blobs over the cake batter. Do the same with half of the marzipan ‘nuggets’. Repeat this with another third of the cake batter and with the remaining mincemeat and marzipan. Finally top with rest of the cake batter and smooth the surface with the back of a metal spoon. Sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over the top of the cake and bake in a preheated oven for 55 – 65 minutes or until well-risen and a golden brown colour.

5. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

To finish:

6. Mix the icing sugar, boiling water and almond extract together to create a smooth icing with a thick pouring consistency. Drizzle over the cake and allow to set.
 

Serves 10-12.

 

Steamed Mincemeat Roly Poly Pudding

I do love steamed puddings! To me, they represent so much about what food can be; warm, comforting, sustaining and delicious. There is no doubt about it though; they can be rich and heavy to eat, so you really do need to have a built up an appetite in order to fully appreciate them. Also, you don’t tend to eat pudding on its own – it is almost mandatory that they should come with a rich, sweet sauce, loads of custard or if you’re feeling a little restrained, just some softly whipped cream! This is not food for the faint-hearted (or for those counting calories).

Steamed puddings are definitely winter dishes - I’d be hard-pushed to think of one that you would eat at the height of summer - but like so many foods that are seasonal, I think you enjoy them all the more because of the fact that they are not available throughout the whole year.

Although most recipes for steamed puddings these days seem to be for sweet versions, historically, many were actually savoury puddings containing meat and vegetables. A traditional steak and kidney pudding, which is still very popular today, is exactly that – a pudding which is encased in a suet pastry and steamed for a number of hours, during which time the meat is tenderised and a delicious gravy is created.

The most popular steamed pudding must be Christmas pudding, but as I have noted in previous posts, it is not to everyone’s taste as it is laden with dried fruit and is incredibly rich. Personally, even though I absolutely love it (especially when served with brandy butter), it is a rather challenging dish to eat after a large meal and all the feasting on Christmas Day. I often serve a pavlova instead, which is much lighter on the stomach and still finishes off the meal on a sweet note without being so rich. I top the pavlova with clementines or pears poached in spicy mulled wine to follow through with the festive flavours.

 

There are a number of recipes for steamed puddings using mincemeat (the stuff you use in mince pies at Christmas) and they have always appealed to me because they are less- fruit laden than traditional Christmas puddings but still have all the tastes you associate with Christmas.

 

This recipe is based on one by the British food writer Simon Hopkinson, who has written a number of fabulous cookery books including one called Roast Chicken and Other Stories which he wrote with fellow food writer Lindsay Bareham and which is regularly cited on lists of the best cookery books. Simon calls this his Swirly Mincemeat Suet Roly-Poly Pudding. The pudding is made by making a suet pastry, rolling it out, spreading with mincemeat and then rolling up again like a traditional jam roly-poly pudding. However, the mincemeat roly-poly is then cut into slices and these are used to line a well-greased pudding basin before being covered and steamed. The slices of rolled pastry make a lovely pattern when turned out and given the fact that steamed puddings, by their very nature don’t tend to be the most elegant looking desserts, I was very pleased with the end result.

 

As already stated, this is my tweaked version of a recipe by Simon Hopkinson which I found in the on-line version of The Independent. The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

25g butter, softened
50g light brown muscovado sugar
250g self-raising flour
125g suet (I used Atora)
60ml cold water

300g mincemeat
 

Method:

1. Grease a 1 litre pudding bowl with the butter making sure that the entire surface, particularly the base of the bowl is well buttered. Use a little extra butter, if necessary (you do not want your pudding to stick when you come to turn it out).

2. Sprinkle the buttered surface of the bowl with the sugar, making sure that it is well coated and set aside.

3. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar, mixing it through the flour so that it is well distributed. Make a well in the centre and add the water. Mix with a fork until, the mixture comes together into a soft dough – if you need to, add an extra tablespoon or so of cold water to achieve the correct consistency.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work-surface and roll into a large rectangle about 30cms x 20cms. Spoon the mincemeat onto the suet pastry and spread out to within 4cms of the edge using a palette knife. Roll up neatly, nut not too tightly along the long edge to create a long ‘roly-poly’.

5. Use a sharp knife to cut the roly-poly into equal sized slices about 1.5cms thick. Use to line the sugared bowl, pressing them well into the sides of the bowl.  Pack the remaining slices into the centre of the bowl.

6. Cover the bowl with a sheet of pleated non-stick baking parchment and then a sheet of pleated aluminium foil and secure both in place around the lip of the bowl with twine.

7. Steam for 2 hours, either in a proprietary steamer or in a large saucepan with simmering water, making sure to keep the water levels topped up so that they come half the way up the edge of the bowl.

8. After the steaming time has elapsed, remove the pudding from the steamer/saucepan and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Remove the aluminium foil and baking paper and upturn the pudding on to a serving plate. Serve whilst still hot with warm pouring custard.
 

Serves 6-8.