My new toy, a mincer

Life is great, and since I like to try out new stuff, I got myself a new toy. A mincer !
At the moment I have troubles to find cheap meat I can mince, since in the supermarket the minced meat is actually cheaper per Kilo than any other pieces of meat I can find to mince.

At my local butcher i got a kilo of good pork I could mince for a very good price, but I am not as much used any more to pork mince than I thought. I think I will try next time a combination of pork and beef.

Next step would be to produce my own sausages, that will be a interesting adventure, I hope a friend can help me to accelerate my learning since i think its complicated to make a good sausage.

I keep you posted !

Garlic Spaghetti butter

Out of laziness, I didn't want to wait for the butter to melt to make garlic butter, I just used the garlic press and made some spaghetti like garlic butter as you can see here in the picture.

Simple idea, looks great.

Clonfavour favour fyre

I had huge fun last Sunday with the first ever Clonfavour favour fyre, swapping my own produce with others. I ended up with fresh fish, apples, Swiss chard, etc. a full menu :-)

Checkout more pictures and Infos about Clonfavour here.

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: Black Berry infused Vodka

Its not to late yet, at least here in Ireland, get out there quick to get a handful or two of the last remaining black berries you can find.
Clean them well, put them in a bottle and squeeze a few. Top it up with the vodka of your choice and let it stand for 2 weeks, turning it once or twice a day.

After 2 weeks you should be able to taste the first drop and you hopefully will have a nice flavoured shot. I keep you posted how it goes, and if the result tastes as good as it looks.

Greetings, your Master of long sentences (my wife calls me that)
Christian

The egg trick

So, its October, my little blog break seems to be over,
however I decided to move on in a bit a slower pace since I plan to finish my cookbook before Xmas there is a lot of work to be done.

I will however try to post 3 times a week about my ongoing projects or interesting stuff I find around my favourite topics.
Lets start with this video I found on the web, isnt it exciting what kind of stuff people come up with ?
http://vimeo.com/49708691

Clonlin Blog Break

Dear Blog followers,

let me first say sorry, you might have noticed the past few days no news from me.
It was a awful busy time for me at work but also at home, so I take a little time-out from blogging until the end of the month.

I am working hard to get my first cookbook finished before Xmas and some other projects are in the pipeline.

Please stay tuned, sign up here on the right via Email,
and I will be back in October with fresh topics, new recipes, and funny stories !

Cheers
your Clonlin

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

Bernerwuerstel

The weather is supposed to be better again in Ireland, so if you don't want to spend much time in the kitchen, here a simple and delicious way to make a simple dish like a frankfurter sausage a bit tastier.
In Austria we have a sausage style called Berner Wuerstl, all you need is a simple Frankfurter (Wiener) sausage, Serrano ham and pieces of any cheese really.

Make some slices in the sausage, wrap the ham around and cook it in the pan. I usually serve some vegetables with it.

Latest Review: Adrift restaurant @ Dunmorehouse hotel in Clonakilty

Checkout my latest review on the West Cork times about a fabulous restaurant in Clonakilty