BBQ Camembert

My brother in law thought me this BBQ recipe which can be very funny and suprising for your BBQ guests.
French love cheese, and they always have a little cheese after dinner.

How it works:
Buy a Camembert Cheese in a wooden wrapping, remove any plastic and wrap the cheese in aluminium foil,
after place it back into the wooden package.

After the BBQ just throw it into the coal and wait until all the wood packaging is burned away, than your cheese is ready.
Your guests will think you are mad, since they didnt see the preparation with the foil.

Once you unwrap the cheese its melted and you can use it as a cheesy dip with bread.

bon appetit !

Recipe: Sausage Stangerl

Inspired by my friend Jens, who loves hotdogs with danish sauce, I recently made a lazy recipe where little Sophie could help me cooking.

First I made a dough after my Semmel bread recipe  than we took small pieces of the dough, about 100 grams each and flattened them on the board. To finish the roll we took a Frankfurter (Wiener) Sausage and rolled it up.

before we put the rolls in the 210C hot oven for 17 Minutes we brushed a lot of water on it and some of the sea salt we had home.

Its a yummy snack, before you serve it you can cut it open to add mayonnaise or ketchup.

Recipe: Caramel Cream a la Hugo

Hugo is my friend in the US, a real New Yorker, with an Argentinian touch. On my last trip to the US he served me together with a cake a lovely caramel cream.
The texture and taste was so nice, I didn't dare to ask for the recipe since I thought that must be really complicated to make.

I than learned, that it is actually so simple to make, I was falling in love with that recipe;

Take a can of condensed milk
Place can in a bain Marie (hot water bath) for approx 4 hours.

Make sure its not to hot otherwise the can might explode and you have a huge sticky mess in your kitchen.

That's it, the condensed milk turns into that lovely caramelized cream. It goes great with cake, ice cream, etc...

sooo yummi ! Thanks hugo for sharing that recipe ! Its now a family favorite !

Pea Soup

Time for a warming soup, this recipe is really simple but tasty.

Ingredients for 4 servings

Ingredient	Quantity	Unit
Peas	1	can
Onions	1	piece
Butter	20	gram
Potato	2	pieces
Leak	1	piece

First eat a small know of butter and add the chopped onion and leek, until the onion is golden brown. Add the peas and the skinned and chopped potato's.  Add 400 ml water with a vegetable cube.Let this cook for about 20 minutes, using a blender you create a smooth texture.

Finally add about 200ml cream and mix well before serving.
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Enjoy

Salmon Avocado Salad

Everybody who knows me know I love fish. Since I cant go out there myself catching some right now I cook my favourite, I wouldnt catch anyway out at the Atlantic. Salmon. Everybody who knows me closer knows I have a personal problem with Salmon, yes, when I say the word I pronounce the L.
I believe that's the fault of my English teacher, 20 years ago, anyway, my good friends here correct me on each occasion, its getting better.

The salad in this recipe is quickly made, just cook the salmon in the pan, arrange the salad nicely in a bowl. With a peeler slice nice thin chippings of a carrot. Boil that chippings in water for about 3 minutes or until they are softer. Place that on the salad, also with the cubes of avocado. Before serving sprinkle the oil and vinegar on the salad, spice it a bit with Salt and Pepper and place the salmon pieces on top.
Bon appetit !

Ingredients for 2 servings

Ingredient	Quantity	Comments
Salmon	200	gram
Vegetable Oil	20	ml
Avocado	1	piece
Carrots	100	gram
Salt	1	pinch
Pepper	1	pinch
Lettuce	1	piece
Balsamic vinegar	10	ml

Pear Cake - Tarte tartin

This is a great recipe I learned last year in one of Richys Cooking classes here in Clon, its so simple but yet so tasty.

Ingredients for 1 cake:

Ingredient	Quantity	Comments
Puff sheet	1	Pastry Sheet
Pear	3	pieces
Butter	150	gram
Brown Sugar	100	gram

You need a oven proof pan, add a bit of oil and the butter to the pan and let it melt. add the sugar and let it caramelize, but don't burn it. Split the pears in halfs and take out the core. Once the sugar caramelized place the pears in the pan in a circle. Cover all tighly with the puff sheet and place the pan in the oven at 180 C for 20 Minutes.  Once the puff sheet is golden brown and solid, remove the pan from the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and than place it up side down on a plate, Voila

Thanks to Richy for showing me this simple but so yummi recipe,
you should book a class if you are in town !

Semmel and Salzstangerl

Measure and mix all ingredients. Water and milk should be cold, make sure that yeast, salt and butter do not get into direct contact before mixing all ingredients into a doug. Salt kristals do kill the yeast, also the butter would lock in the yeast and the dough wouldn’t develop proper.

Mix for 5 minutes slowly, than an other 10 Minutes more intensive. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, than form little rolls as shown in the picture. I will post a video for that shortly if you dont know how to fold/roll them.

Put the rolls upside down on the tray, and let them rest a further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 210 C and also place water in the oven. Bake for 17 minutes at 180 C or until golden brown.

If you pour a shot of hot water into the oven right after placing the tray in it produces steam (careful) and the bread will raise a bit more.

for 8 servings:

Ingredient	Quantity	Unit
Flour Plain	500	gram
Yeast	7	gram
Sugar	10	gram
Butter	20	gram
Milk	60	ml
Water	220	ml
Salt	10	gram

Lentils Soup

This is a really easy and great recipe for a tasty soup and you need only the following ingredients:
1 onion
1 carrot
half a teaspoon curry powder
400 ml (can of) coconut milk
400 ml (can of) chopped tomatoes
200 gram red Lentils
600 ml chicken stock
1 spoon olive oil
salt and pepper

heat the oil and add the chopped onion and the carrot and let them brown a bit. Add the tomatoes and the coconut milk, bring to boil. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Use a blender to give it a creamy texture. If you made it rather spicy I suggest to serve a bread roll with it.

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 !

Tiramisu

Bella Italian, I love Italy and especially the Italian Food.
One of the famous desserts from Italy is Tiramisu.

To make a great Tiramisu you just need to put in just few Ingredients but a lot of amore (love)
250 gram Mascarpone (to be found in the cheese section)
50 gram sugar
sponge fingers
200 ml Coffee
1 table spoon rum or a bit rum aroma
3 eggs
cacao powder

First separate the eggs, than add half of the sugar to each, yolk and white and mix it well. Place the sponge fingers in the coffee and let them soak a bit. Mix the Mascapone to the egg yolks and add than the white and mix in the rum too.

Make a layer with the sponge finger, than add a layer of your mix, add another layer of sponge fingers and again a other layer of the mix in a form.

Place your finished product in the fridge for a few hours to settle, before serving sprinkle it with cacao powder.

Bon appetito !

Recipe: A Quick Chili con carne

Lazy days are happy days...
Sometimes when I am really busy, like now working on my cookbook I need to cook quickly something up.
So here my very quick Chili con carne.

Carne is Italian and stands for meat, so take minced meat, cook it in a pot with some oil, add the chopped onion, a can of beans and corn and to Finnish up some chopped tomato. Spice it to taste, I think you get the Idea ?
Some Chili should be in it too, dont you think ?
Anyway, its prepared in 5 minutes, let it simmer a bit and serve with some toast, or with the famous Sopa paraguaira

Enjoy !

Snails - Escargot

Today I share a pretty easy recipe with you, Escargot. (Snails) First, get some Burgundy Snails in a can, (if you don't have access to alive ones) and snail houses, than make a garlic butter with herbs.
Place a bit of butter in the snail house, stuff back in the snail, and close the house with more butter as seen on the picture.
After place the tray in the preheated oven at 180 C for 5 minutes, than serve them hot.Tastes super, usually its served with some white bread.

Recipe: The world fastest cake

When you short of time and still want to give your loved ones a dessert after a meal, why not trying this recipe.
Its the world fastest cake, and it tastes actually pretty good if you consider that it only bakes for a few minutes.
This is what you need for one portion:
4 Table Spoon flour
4 Table Spoon cacao powder
4 Table Spoon sugar
1 Table Spoon vanilla sugar
3 Table Spoon milk
3 Table Spoon vegetable oil
1 egg
1 pinch of baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together and fill it in a greased form, i used my crème brule forms for it.
To avoid a mess cover it with some cling film. Dont fill the form completely since the cake will rise.
Place the forms in the micro wave and turn in on at the highest setting for 4 minutes.

After let it rest for half a minute or so, be careful when removing it from the microwave, its extremely hot. Let it cool down a bit, before serving you can give some chocolate cream or powder sugar on top.

Enjoy !

Recipe: Sweet Potato Gnocchi in Tomato Sauce

A recipe I wanted to try for a long time is sweet potato Gnocchi . I found several recipes on-line but all contained peanut butter for the sauce, or almonds. Since I am allergic to nuts I needed to modify the recipes to be able to enjoy it myself.

To be honest, I didn't like the result, maybe because the Austrian version of Gnocchi is fried, and not boiled in butter.

My wife and my au pair however loved it, so here it comes, my simplified recipe.

Ingredients:
1 kg sweet potato
1 egg
250 gram plain flour
250 ml water
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt

for sauce:
tomato chopped
garlic fine chopped
honey
1 onion fine chopped
1-2 teaspoon of sugar

heat your oven to 200 degree C and cut the potatoes in slices as shown on the picture above.With a bit of oil place them in the oven so they get soft. In meantime prepare the sauce. Chop onion and a toe of garlic and fry them in a pot. Once nice roasted add the sugar, than the chopped tomatoes. (you can use the ones out of the tin) Add a spoon of honey and salt to taste. bring to boil and than keep it warm. Making the sauce really depends on the taste you like to have, you can vary this.

Remove the potato from the oven, they should be easy to skin now, than using a blender make a smooth paste, add the water, flour, nutmeg, salt and egg and mix well. I used a kitchen machine but you can do it also with your hands. You should get a sticky dough.
Bring a put of water with a pinch of salt to cook. Using 2 spoons you form little dumplings which you let fall into the boiling water. Once they are cooked they rise up to the surface.Keep them warm untill you have made all, than serve with the tomato sauce you made.

Voila, Sweet Potato Gnocchi. A lovely vegetarian dish witch tastes good according to my wife.
I will soon try the fried version and will let you know if I liked that better.

Recipe: Quiche

Ingredients:

Dough

150 g of ham (little pieces)

100 g fresh cream

4 eggs

A bit of nutmeg

Salt, Pepper

Take a tray, and add a bit of flour

Spread the dough on the tray

Cook the ham in a pan slowly, and spread on the dough

Mix the fresh cream, the eggs, salt, pepper and add on top

Pre heat the oven 180°C, and cook the quiche for 40 minutes

Recipe: Frog Legs a la Provencale

Since my first trip to China and south of France I discovered how tasty frog legs are, and there are so many tasty ways how to prepare them.

Taste wise frog legs taste very similar to chicken wings, here a French recipe I tried recently.

First thaw the frozen frog legs slowly in milk, than dry them off well. Coat them in flour, melt butter in a frying pan and add the frog legs. Careful the frogs open their legs once they are in contact in the hot butter, so be careful that they don't push each other out of your pan if you have placed to many of them in it.

Cook them for 7 to 8 Minutes on the hottest setting while stirring regular. Then dust with a mixture of minced garlic and parsley, add salt and pepper and serve warm with salad or rice.

Enjoy !

Recipe: Kiwi sorbet

Time for a summer recipe, even if the summer in Ireland seems to be on holiday somewhere else...

for 6 portions you need:
5 Kiwis
1 spoon honey
half a lemon
1 spoon brown sugar
a splash of water

Skin and slice the kiwi, add the other ingredients and blend so you get a smooth purée. put it in little cups and let it freeze for about 40 Minutes, if it gets to frozen its difficult to eat.

Enjoy your self-made Kiwi sorbet,
was Easy to make, wasn't it ?

Guestpost: Rhubarb and Strawberry Marmalade

by Alison Wickham

3 cups cleaned, finely sliced rhubarb
1 lemon, finely grated rind and juice
1 orange, finely grated rind and juice
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
2 cups sugar
Place three clean, dry, recycled jam jars in a 100C oven for ten minutes to sterilise them.  Boil metal caps in water for 10 minutes.
If you have a food processsor, the quickest way to get the grated rinds is to peel them lightly (avoiding white pith) and whizz them with 1 cup of the required sugar until finely chopped.
Place all of the above ingredients into a large saucepan and slowly bring to a rolling boil.  Keep the mix boiling for at least ten minutes, stirring often until the mixture is thick and clear looking.  Test for setting by placing a little on a  saucer in a cool place.  After a few minutes if you lightly push the edge of the spoonful with your finger you should see a wrinkled skin form (about 100C if you have a thermometer in the pot).  If the mixture in the pot has developed a foam on it, this can be dispersed by stirring in a 1/2 teaspoon of butter. Let jam rest for five minutes.
Meanwhile get your jars out of the oven and place on a chopping board.  Pour jam into a large jug and then pour carefully into the hot jars avoiding dropping the jam on the jar rim.  Drain screw caps and wearing rubber gloves to protect from the heat, screw on tightly.
Variations: Just before filling the jam jars stir in 1/2 cup of walnuts that have been soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water and then chopped.  This adds an interesting texture.
Or add 1/2 cup of chopped crystalised or stem ginger and the walnuts to the jam instead of strawberries.  Tastes wonderful but looks a little drab.

Guestpost: Shortbread by Alison Wickham

by Alison Wickham

1/2 lb butter (I use the regular kind. Butter needs to sit at room temperature for a while to be soft enough- not oily though.)
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 and 1/2 ounces cornflour
10 ounces of plain flour  (it should not contain any raising agent, so check the bag)
1/4 teaspoon salt




Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and then add in remaining ingredients.
Mix well.  You may need to knead the dough to get it to stick together into a thick non-sticky lump.
Turn out onto a long strip of greaseproof paper. Using the paper to help, shape into a long rectangular log about 2 inches by 1 inch and cut with a sharp knife into 40 pieces (about 1/4 inch deep).
 Alternatively roll out 1/4 inch thick between sheets of cling film, or on a silicone sheet,  and cut into small shapes with fancy cutters (check cooking time after 15 mins if you choose to do this).
Place on a greased oven tray. As these cookies have no eggs or raising agents they spread only a small amount.

Source: Original recipe from New Zealand Anchor or Fernleaf butter wrapper circa 1970.

I used to make these in the early 2000’s for the Clonakilty Market and Inchydoney Hotel.

Bake in a cool oven (160 C) for approximately 20 minutes until golden. They should not be brown, but a pale creamy – gold colour, but crisp right through the centre when cool. (They brown up more after they are removed, so be careful.)
Cool on a wire rack.

Part of a tray about to go into the oven.