Irish medicine - Hot Whisky

Winter time is cold time and I was told the best way to fight it is to have a nip of Irish medicine. Hot Whisky. So, take your Whiskey of Choice, I prefer Jamson 4 cl, take a few gloves, a tea spoon or two sugar,(or drop of honey) and a dash of lemon and mix it with hot water in a glass.

Be careful, put in a spoon in the glass when you fill in the hot water, otherwise it might blow.
Checkout my blogpost from last year, how not to prepare it !

After you finished that glass, go to bed and sweat out that cold !
Get well soon !

The Xmas tree recycle

Its not really gardening season but I was  bored the other day when I started to recycle the Xmas tree.
I did cut of the branches which left me with a rather funny looking stem. Instead of chopping of all and hiding away the Xmas stand for a year I decided to fill the stand with earth and plant some beans.

I wonder if it is too cold or if I am look and these French runner beans I planted make their way up along the old Xmas tree and I can harvest some in a few months ?
So far the Irish winter was really mild, so I will let you know the result in spring.

Challenge 2013 - Make my own Leberkaese

I wrote before about the Austrian Dish Leberkaese, and now after long research I got a recipe how to make my own. So the challenge is on, I will try the recipe soon and taste my way through many attempts before I publish the perfect recipe for that great meaty dish from my old home.

Stay tuned !

Happy Bday honey

My sweet wife turned 30 today, before the big Party on the weekend I surprised her with a little raclette at home. Raclette derives from the French word racler, meaning "to scrape" according to wikipedia. to make sure no one damages the metal every set contains wooden spatula which should be used to scrape off the cheese.

In the modern version of raclette also beef, pork or chicken is grilled on the top of the grill.
If you life in Ireland, Aldi or Lidl sometimes has a offer for a set for as low as 25 Euro.


Happy Bday honey, I look forward to the next 30 years with You !

New Blog in Town

(c) The Recession Kitchen

A friend on facebook made me aware of a new blog which might interests me.
The Recession Kitchen

Anja, who I know from playing harp in the summer concerts of my local pub has a interesting goal for 2013. For a year she will document how she is running her kitchen.

Interesting will be, that she has the goal not to spend more then €2.50 to €5.- per person per day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She will cheat a bit buy growing some of her own and shopping cheap.

The dinner table above was entirely prepared out of leftovers, doesnt it look tasty ?
Have a look at her blog, yummi, I might steal the odd recipe maybe :-)

Roasted duck legs

Duck, that's a kind of poultry you either like, or dont. I love it and my family too.
Its good quality food, easy to prepare, and not too expensive.

Ingredients

2 duck legs
2 baking potatoes or 1 pound other large white-skinned potatoes
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
On the stove, heat a small roasting pan and sear the duck legs, skin-side down over medium heat until the skin turns golden and gives out some oil.

Turn the legs over, and take the pan off the heat while you peel the potatoes.
Arrange these potato around the duck legs, then let a few sprigs of thyme fall over the duck and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper, before putting into the preheated oven.

Cook for two hours, occasionally turning the potatoes, for optimal outcome, which is tender duck legs and crispy potatoes.

I also like to serve some garlic carrots with it, which I cook separately.

Mini Quiche

hmmm, Quiche, I love quiche !
And its so simple to make, all you need is:
1 puff sheet
3 onions
2 table spoon butter
2 eggs
200 ml cream
1/2 tea spoon nutmeg
salt & pepper

First chop the onion, leek , or what ever you got to put into your quiche, traditionally in France its onion and ham.
Grease your cupcake baking form with the  butter. Cut out of the puff sheet round sheets with a glass or cookie cutter and put them in the form. Now mix onions,cream,eggs, nutmeg and salt and pepper and fill the puff sheets in the form. When you filled all, place the tray into the oven for 20 minutes on 180 C.
They will taste lovely and last 2 days in the fridge but you can also freeze them and just reheat them for a few minutes when you get hungry for a little snack.

Enjoy !

2013, a new year has started

It is going to be a challenge 2013 to get all done I want to have done. The todo List seems endless,
and there is also lots of activities planned. Clonakilty celebrates its 400 year existence and so a huge list of activities will happen throughout the year.

Also, my cookbook is waiting to be completed and printed, baby #2 its on its way, a lot of challenges at work, so forgive me if I don't blog always as regular than you are used to.

I wish you a great 2013 too, and if you have any suggestions what you would like to see this year on this blog please leave a comment.

What happens at night in your kitchen ?

What happens in your kitchen when you are not there ?
here a great Irish movie production:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rg0Ae1QgaK0

Xmas or New years Buffet

New years is all about having a good time with your family. So the preparations for the new years eve shouldn't keep you busy all day.

Prepare a little buffet with delicous food in no time,for 6 people all you need is:
A box of cheese, from your local farmers market or shop
2 baguettes
butter
ham
asparagus from the tin
12 eggs
2 spoon mustard
250 ml vegetable oil
1 lemon
Salt&pepper
1 pack fillet of salmon
butter

Preparation time for one person should be approx 45 minutes.


Step1:
boil 10 eggs in water for 10 minutes until they are hard. We are going to make filled eggs.

Step2:
while the other eggs boil separate remaining 2 eggs, you need the 2 yolks. Add a dash of the lemon, two teasppon of english mustard, a bit Salt and Pepper. Using a hand mixer you are going to make mayonnaise by poring in, bit by bit the vegetable oil. Mix well and dont poor to much oil at the time.

Step3:
Cut the boiled eggs in two half's, remove the cooked egg yolk and put them into a bowl. Add some mayonnaise made in Step 2 and some salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

Step4:
Take the egg mix and fill the empty egg half''s with that now spicier mix. You can use a piping back to make it look attractive.

Step5:
Cut the baguettes in slices, half of it topped with butter and the salmon nice arranged on a plate, the other half in a bread basket so people can use it with the cheese.

Step6:
Take the asparagus and roll it in the ham to get little rolls as shown on the picture above.

That's it, very simple but effective. But most important, its tasty and there is something for everyone.

Hope you will slide over well into 2013, see you there !