Chinese inspired meatballs

I could not "not post" a Chinese inspired recipe. I was fortunate enough to spend about 3 weeks out there and to attend an afternoon cooking lesson. It was interesting seeing what their staple cooking station looks like. As you'd imagine, they rely on woks a lot. The main seasoning ingredients lined up beside the wok were salt, sugar, corn flour, chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine and toasted sesame oil. Quite a change from our vinegar and olive oil!
A friend suggested earlier I should post a Chinese recipe but with the lovely weather outside (rain and 10°C), I felt more like a Western dish. After thinking for a while, I decided to make a Chinese inspired broth/soup with veggies, meatballs and some rice on the side. You could easily served this dish with boiled noodles. I didn't have any so I had rice. Clearly a warming up dish for the winter we are having in the middle of the summer!

Ingredients:

For the meatballs (makes about 20 meatballs):
- a pound of minced beef
- 1cm piece of ginger chopped
- 1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of black bean sauce
- pepper
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs (no need to buy breadcrumbs, just put your stale white bread into a food processor)

For the veggies:
- 1 tsp of chilli paste
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
- 1 cm piece of ginger thinly chopped
- 1 celery stick cut into thin cubes
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
- 1 small courgette, cut into thin batons
- 1 bunch of sugar snap peas
- 3 spring onions cut into 2 cm pieces
- a pint of stock
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 2 to 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Some boiled or steamed rice/noodles.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the meatballs: mix the meat, ginger, soy sauce, black bean sauce, pepper, sesame oil, egg and breadcrumbs. Shape into meatballs and leave aside for about 30 min.

 Once rested:


2. Start cooking your rice or noodles.
3. In a wok or large and high frying pan, heat up about 1 tbsp of oil on medium to high heat. Brown the meatballs. Remove the meatballs and set aside.
4. Add the rest of the vegetable oil, about 1 to 2 tbsp. Add the chilli paste, garlic and ginger. Stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the celery and carrots, stir fry for about 4 min.
5. Then, add the courgettes, stir fry for 2 min. Add the stock and the soy sauce. Bring to the boil. Add the meatballs. Reduce the heat, put a lid on and simmer for about 10 minutes.
6. Remove the lid, add the sugar snap peas, cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve sprinkled with the spring onions.

-

Pain brun pour les Français

Pour les Français, les ingrédients sont les suivants:
- 1 tasse/mug de farine complète
- 1 tasse/mug de farine type 80
- 1/2 tasse de son de blé
- 1 cuillère à café rase de sel
- 1 cuillère à café bombée de bicarbonate de soude
- 450/500ml de lait ribot ou babeurre (si vous n'en trouvez pas, vous pouvez en faire vous-même en mettant 1 litre de lait dans un saladier avec 1 cuillère à soupe de jus de citron frais, laissez le lait se séparer 15 minutes. C'est prêt!)
- 2 cuillères à café de molasses (du miel marche aussi), c'est facultatif
- des graines

1. Préchauffer le four à 220°C. 
2. Bien mélanger les farines, le son, le bicarbonate et le sel. Vous pouvez y ajouter des graines de citrouille si vous le souhaitez.
3. Ajouter le lait ribot/babeurre jusqu'à obtenir une consistance assez liquide (mais épaisse quand même).
4. Ajouter la molasse. Bien mélanger.
5. Verser dans un moule à pain. Saupoudrer de graines si vous le souhaitez, d'habitude j'utilise des graines de sésame et de pavot.
6. Cuire pendant 35 minutes puis sortir le pain du four, le retourner dans le moule de façon à ce que le dessous du pain soit à la chaleur vive. Remettre au four 10 minutes.
7. Sortir du moule à la sortie du four et laisser refroidir.
Voilà c'est tout!

Answer to Alicia's request - Brown bread

While I was away in China, a friend of mine got in touch via Facebook to ask me whether I had a recipe for Irish brown bread. The thing about China is that Facebook is censored so you cannot get access to it at all. So, although I am back from China and should be posting Asian recipes, well I am starting back with an Irish recipe to answer my friend's request.

I really like Irish brown bread. Despite this, it actually took me years before I attempted to make it. I had presumed that, like French bread and most white breads, it needed a lot of work and attention. I was quite surprised to find out that brown bread is made in 5 min, cooked in 45 min and is pretty much ready to eat in less than an hour. Needless to say, I have now caught up with all those years without making it. I now make it regurlarly.
When I know the bread loaf is not going to be eaten in the next two days, I usually bake the dough in muffin trays, that way I have mini brown bread muffins/loaves that can be used as needed. They can also be frozen that way and it is a lot easier to thaw them than to defrost a whole loaf of bread.

I think my favourite accompaniment to brown bread is probably home cooked ham, boiled eggs, cheese and an assortiment of salads... Great for picnics, rushed lunches and snacking!

Enjoy!


Ingredients:

- 1 mug (cup or other implement) of coarse white flour
- 1 mug of wholemeal flour
- 1/2 mug of wheat bran
- 1 teaspoon (not heaped) of salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
- About 450-500 ml of buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons of treacle
- various seeds

Procedure
1. Preheat your oven at 220°C.
2. Mix the coarse white flour, wholemeal flour, bran, salt, bicarbonate soda (you can add pumpkin seeds or any other seeds at this stage if you wish) and stir well.

3. Pour in the buttermilk until you obtain a fairly wet dough. The dough should be easy to stir. Stir well.
4. Add the treacle to the mixture, stir well.

5. Pour the mixture into a bread baking tin (I use a silicone one so I don't need to oil it, but if you use a metal one, make sure you oil it and flour it). Sprinkle some seeds on top of the bread.

6. Bake in the oven for about 35 min. Then take the bread loaf out of the tin, turn in upside down and bake for a further 10 min. If you are using muffin trays, your bread will be baked in about 20 min and you won't need to turn the muffins over during the baking process.
7. Take the bread out of the tin or muffin trays and leave to cool on a rack.

Spring/summer vegetarian dinner

Today was a quiet day for me. I took it easy enough and decided to cook to relax. I know it might sound strange but to be honest, running is my idea of hell so cooking actually does the job for me.
The thing is that when I cook, I can never cook for one. So I always end up with enough food to feed at least four people. This, in a way, is great, because I can pack some of the leftovers into my lunch box. The only problem is I am not one for eating the same thing two days in a row, never mind all week long.
This week, I made a big dish of spag bol and of Indian lamb meatballs. To make up for eating red meat, I decided to cook a vegetarian dinner for myself.
Now, there is one vegetable I really love in the spring/summer, it's asparagus. Not the green ones mind you, but the white ones. Unless, of course, I get my hand on some wild asparagus. I used to go picking them in France. I have looked for some in Ireland, unsuccessfully. If anyone of ye who might be reading this blog knows whether wild asparagus grow in Ireland, please let me know! I love them.
Anyway, I had a bunch of white asparagus and decided to have them for starter with some strong vinaigrette, or dressing. It's a really nice starter because asparagus are really light and don't fill you up too much.
Then, for main course, I have bookmarked a recipe for a while and I decided to try it out tonight, it is a take on paella with vegetables. Once again, this recipe involves cooking with vegetables in season in the summer, so it was perfect for our sunny day.
Lastly, for dessert, I made something as well, but you'll have to wait for my next post to discover what it is!


Here is a quick recipe for asparagus vinaigrette

Ingredients:
A bunch of big white asparagus
1 shallots diced
One handfull of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp of Cider vinegar
2 tbsp of sunflower oil
2 tbsp of rapeseed oil

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil. I used a steamer in mine but you can also simply boil the asparagus. Remove one inch at the bottom of the asparagus and with a peeler, peel them up to 7 cm from the tip. Once peeled, steam them (or boil them) in the saucepan for about 7-10 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the water and cool down in cold water. Once cooled, drain well.

2. Make the dressing: put the salt, pepper, vinegar into a bowl. Stir. Add the oil, mustard, parsley and shallot and stir again until the dressing is homogenous.

3. Put the asparagus in a dish and pour the dressing over. Serve with some crusty bread. Yummy!

Vegetable paella:

Ingredients:
16 cherry tomatoes
2 handfulls of green beans
1 cup of fresh peas
1 courgette cut into 4 cm pieces
2 garlic cloves sliced
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 pinch of saffron
320gr of arborio rice
60 ml of boiling water
800 ml of stock
3 tbsp of vegetable oil
Toasted almond flakes

1. Put the pinch of saffron into the boiling water and let it infuse.

2. Put 2 tbsp of oil into a deep frying pan. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until the skin starts to split. Remove from the pan and add the courgette, green beans and peas. Stir fry for a few minutes until the courgette starts to golden. Remove them from the pan too.

3. Add the last table spoon of oil, the garlic and rosemary. Cook for 2 minutes. Then add the rice. Stir the rice into the oil for 2 minutes. Add the saffron and boiling water. Add the stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the head and simmer until all the water is absorbed. Season.

4. Check whether the rice is cooked. If not, add another bit of water. Add the reserved vegetables to the rice and leave on the heat for another few minutes until the vegetables are heated through. Serve with scattered toasted almonds.

Easy peasy!

Back from hols to sunny Ireland... or am I?

Hello all,


I have been back from holidays for a few days now and readjusting to living in Ireland. I was delighted when I got back because a heatwave was on the forecast for the next few days. Sadly, the heatwave barely lasted 24 hours and disappeared as fast as it came. Now, it's back to a showery and rather cool Ireland. The thing is though, when I heard about the heatwave, I went to the market on Saturday and bought lots of "summery" food, thinking I would rather enjoy them this week. 
Now, don't get me wrong, I am still enjoying the summery food I bought on Saturday, but I have also had to readapt my weekly menu to suit the climate of the week.
Yet, one of the dishes I did not really have to modify is my beetroot, fennel and rocket salad with homemade goat's cottage cheese and sour dough bread.
So here is how it's made:

Beetroot, Fennel and Rocket Salad & Sour Dough Tartine with Homemade Goat's Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:

1 ltr of Goat's milk
1 teaspoon of vegetarian rennet
1 spring onion
A few sprigs of thyme
Cheese cloth
1 bunch of rocket
2 beetroots
1/2 bulb of fennel
Juice of half a lemon
A few glugs of olive oil
Salt, pepper
A few slices of sour dough bread


1. Make the cheese, two hours in advance + cooking the beetroot
Heat the milk to about 37°C, i.e. luke warm temperature. Make sure it does not get hotter or you won't be able to make the cheese. Then, add the teaspoon of rennet. Leave in the pan for 10 minutes to cool down. Once cooled down, transfer the mixture into two overlapping cheese cloths and leave to drain for two hours.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the two beetroots and boil for 45 minutes or until you can pierce them easily with a pointy stick. Once cooked, transfer into cold water to cool them down.


2. Finish making the cheese + peel the beetroots
After two hours, you should have in the cheese cloths a fair amount of goat's cheese with the consistency of cottage cheese. Transfer that into a bowl. Add the sliced spring onion, the bit of thyme, season well.
Peel the beetroots and cut them into cubes.


3. Make the salad + Prepare the bread tartines
Put the cubed beetroot into a bowl, add the sliced fennel and the rocket. Add some salt, some pepper, the lemon juice and the olive oil. Stir everything.
Spread some of the cheese on the sourdough slices.



Et Voilà!!!
Bon appétit!

Time off

I am lucky enough to be going away for a few days so I won't be posting much. Now that Blogger is fixed though, you can leave comments and suggestions for anything you'd like me to post about!
See you soon with lots of new ideas!

An easy three course dinner... How to eat your 5 a day in one meal

They were two votes for an easy three course dinner on the latest poll I posted. So, here we go, here is an easy three course dinner that will feed four people and will make the most reluctant of them eat their 5 a day in one meal. 

I have subscribed to a veg box scheme for the past couple of months. I have to say that I have always got top quality products for a fair price. The basket is also great for pushing me out of my comfort zone and making me cook dishes I would not have cooked otherwise. I think things have changed in France now but there was some "vegetable" snobbery going around when I was growing up. Even now, I am sure you can still hear people say "Parsnips are for rabbits", "Corn is for chickens" or "Oats are for horses"... I don't even need to tell you what the French would say about eating sprouting alfalfa! 

Anyway, I have learnt to cook swede over the winter. But for the veg basket, I would not have bought swede to be honest. The thing about swede is that the taste is not strong enough and the consistency nice enough so you can eat it by itself, so I usually cook it along with something else. The problem is then that swedes do not usually come in small sizes so then you are stuck with eating swede for the rest of the week. So, thanks to my cast-iron casserole dish, I have become quite good at mixing ingredients and getting pretty good results! I usually end up bringing some of the food I have made into work in my lunch box. I also freeze some for emergencies. And I have discovered that it's a great way to disguising vegetables so that even the most reluctant eaters do get their veg in!

So, here is the menu for my easy three course meal that will feed four and will take 30-40 minutes to make:

Apple, cheddar and mixed leaves salad

Roast chicken with a swede, mushroom, broccoli and spinach casserole

Mini strawberry Eton mess

Ingredients:

The salad:

1 apple, sliced

3 slices of mature cheddar 1/4 inch thick cut into cubes

mixed leaves

1tbsp of cider vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp of rapeseed oil

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

Salt and pepper

The Chicken + Veg casserole:

1 chicken cut into 4 pieces (ask the butcher to do that for you + ask him to give you the leftover bones from the cut, you will need them for the veg casserole)

1/2 a swede cut into small cubes (1 cm)

1 onion, sliced

4 smoked streaky rashers cut into thin strips

250 ml of cooking white wine (anything dry)

125 ml of single cream

A few sprigs of thyme

1 medium head of broccoli

200 gr of spinach

Salt, pepper

A few tbsp of olive oil

For the strawberry mess:

A small punnet of strawberries: all cut into thin strips but for 4 of them. You will need them for decoration

Some meringues

125 ml of single cream

Vanilla extract

(2 tbsp of sugar if you want)

1. First, preheat your oven at 200°C.

2. Take the chicken pieces, rub them with some olive oil, season them. Put them in the oven, bake for 1hr ish, turn them over after 30 minutes of baking. 

3. While the chicken is cooking, take a cast-iron pot, put 1tbsp of oil in it. Brown the onion, rashers bits, bones left over from the chicken and the swede bits over medium to high heat. 

4. Once browned, after about 8 minutes, pour over the wine, cream, season a little (not too much there are rashers in there already), and add the thyme. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Turn it off after that and leave the lid on.

5. Prepare the dessert: 

whip the cream with the vanilla extract, add sugar if you want. Crush the meringues (Here I used the meringues I made while baking the vanilla bavarois, see the previous post on that topic for a recipe for meringues), add slices of strawberries, add a heaped tablespoon of cream and decorate with a strawberry.

6. Prepare the starter: 

Make the dressing first. Add the salt, pepper, the vinegar, the sliced apples. Stir. Then add the oil, the mustard, mix again. Then add the diced cheese and the leaves. Do not stir the leaves until you are about to eat as the salad will wilt otherwise.

7. Have a glass of wine and chill.

8. When the chicken is cooked, add the spinach and the broccoli to the casserole, stir. 

9. Have your starter, the green veggies will be cooked by the time you are finished with the salad. 

10. Have another glass of wine and chill!

Sláinte!