If you want to impress with your culinary skills I always feel that a terrine gives good bang for your buck.  The perfect terrine is not so much difficult as time consuming to set and therefore in this world of instant gratification many just can’t be bothered attempting to make one.  When a terrine is turned out onto a plate it is always very impressive with its layers of colour and uniform shape.  It is a fabulous picnic food but also works well as a starter or summer lunch dish.  A few slices of fish, chicken or duck terrine served on a bed of greens with some crusty bread creates a very satisfying meal.   It has many advantages; you can make in advance and it will hold for about a week in the fridge, so you don’t have to eat it all at once.

As with most popular restaurant-y foods that are considered sophisticated, terrines began life as humble French peasant food.  They were a way of using up leftovers and preserving meat.  They provided a hearty meal, could be eaten cold, were handy for transporting in lunch boxes and had a long shelf life.  It was ideal food for French labourers and was perfected by the ordinary French housewife long before chefs got hold of it.  Because of its origins there are thousands of different terrine recipes and once the basics have been grasped, it is also an easy dish to adapt and make your own so feel free to experiment.

I always feel terrine of anything is quite an adult dish and sometimes you have to develop a taste for it.  It can be heavily textured and chunky or smooth and spreadable like many pates.  It can have a mild taste or be quite spicy, herby, meaty and earthy.  Game pate and terrines are, in my view, a particular acquired taste but once you find the T-spot as I like to call it, you won’t look back.  Regular readers will know that I also like to bring my own twist to things and so I have adapted the idea of the terrine to work for accompaniments and desserts as well as being the main event.

While the word terrine is associated with the food it is also the name of the vessel used to create it.  A terrine is a long, relatively shallow, glazed earthenware dish, sometimes covered, but if you have a loaf tin it will work just as well.  The other thing to remember with terrines is that you are working upside down.  When the terrine is turned out what you put in first will be on the top, rather like an upside down cake.  We also want our terrines to be relatively solid so that they will slice well and not disintegrate disappointingly at the mere look of a knife.

So let’s start with an easy one. For a great salad accompaniment and one that makes the buffet table pop, how about a ridiculously easy beetroot jelly terrine.  Lightly spray a loaf tin with oil or line it with cling film.  Take a jar of beetroot and drain.  Line the loaf tin with the beetroot and then make up three quarters of a pint of blackcurrant jelly, with a full 1 pint jelly.  Pour it over the beetroot and leave in the fridge to set overnight.  When you turn this purple wonder out onto a plate it is like a gloriously big shiny jewel in the centre of your buffet spread. (Or you could tell the kids it’s a liquidised Barney; the fantasy of parents everywhere!  I’m just teasing, Barney is great and I have no wish to hurt an inch of his royal purpleness!)   This terrine slices easy and the sweet jelly sets off the beetroot really well as a salad dish.

The same principle can be used with summer fruits and other fruit jelly for a great fresh dessert.  I find the frozen berries work really well for this, but fresh raspberries and strawberries are equally as good.  A few slices of kiwi and grapes also add colour.  Just pour the bag of defrosted berries into the base of the loaf tin or the chopped fresh fruit.  Again make up three quarters of a pint of jelly and pour over the fruit and allow it to set.  By using less water in the jelly the terrines will be less wobbly and will create more solid slices.

When it comes to meat terrines it is all about flavour and making sure you give yourself time to let it all develop.  Some recipes require that you marinate the meat mixture in a wine and herb mixture for at least a day before you cook it.  After cooking there is also the pressing of the terrine to create the solid loaf which can take, in some recipes, another 48 hours.  So you see this is where the time comes in.  You can also be very creative with terrines.  Elegant French restaurants layer herbs decoratively in the meat or put surprises in the centre to create that interesting wow factor when it is sliced.  Traditionally, less expensive meats such as fatty pork or wild game birds such as grouse and partridge were used but these days restaurants are likely to use duck, goose and even fish.  I recently enjoyed a lobster and whiskey terrine as a starter and it was delicious.  Some cooks use chicken and vegetables or even cheese in their terrines.  Finally terrines are usually cooked in a bain-marie.  This is where the loaf tin is put into a roasting tray and hot water (but not boiling) is added around the loaf tin, about half way up.  This keeps the loaf cooking consistently all the way through.

Below is a recipe by Shannon Bennett that I found in his great book My French Vue.  I’ve used this recipe countless times and it always works out well.  If it’s your first attempt then stick to the ingredient list but as you gain more confidence you can always adapt the ingredients according to taste or, indeed, whim. 

 Chicken Terrine

600g (1lb 5oz) chicken thigh meat, diced

400g (14 oz) chicken breast, minced

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 teaspoons salt (I always use Maldon)

2 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon

200g (7oz) chorizo sausage, diced

2 tablespoons goose fat

Freshly ground black pepper

12 slices smoked bacon rashers, rind removed.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 C

Combine the diced and minced chicken, shallots, garlic, salt, tarragon, chorizo and goose fat in a bowl.

Mix by hand until fully combined.  Season with pepper.

 Arrange the bacon slices in a terrine mould (loaf tin) about 2 pints (1 litre) capacity, covering the bottom of the mould evenly, with the ends of the slices hanging over the edges.  Put the chicken mix into the mould and pack down using your hands.  Fold over the bacon and press it down tightly.

Cover with tin foil.  Put the mould into a roasting tray and add water to reach halfway up the side of the mould.  Put in the oven to cook for 80 minutes.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool.  Put into the fridge with a heavy weight on top of the foil and leave for 24 hours.  Turn out, slice and serve with crusty bread.

Surprisingly, I think I’m missing the hum of the vuvuzelas; those African horns that created the constant bee like soundtrack to the games of the World Cup.  Watching the football and hurling matches on Sunday I noticed what seemed like a quiet crowd.  I think it was just the distinct lack of humming that I was missing.  It probably wasn’t the best World Cup ever but it did allow for a few outdoor gatherings in various locations where people watched the match and those with no interest sat around and chatted; the obligatory barbecue keeping everyone sated.  Before the final I was hoping that Holland might pull it off as they have always played a particular style of football that is full of adventure and flair.  I was saddened to see the legacy of Ruud Gullit and Johan Cruyff trampled on by thuggish, cynical players on Sunday night.  Justice was done in the end, Spain deserved to win and as it’s their year in the sun let’s celebrate with them.

Thousands of us have visited Spain on holiday so we’re not totally unfamiliar with the food.  However in beach resorts we often tend to miss out on the real native dishes and instead get a very poor version of what they consider Irish or English food to be.  Sometimes when I’m in Spain I think how superior our food and restaurants are here and I often think that if we had Spain’s weather we could lose the run of ourselves completely.  Occasionally I have strolled down a side street or into a less touristy village and found a local joint that has been incredible.  There is nothing finer than a day spent soaking up the sun and working up an appetite followed by an evening of fine food and wine enjoyed at leisure with no worries of the following day.  And if you are going to Spain don’t be fooled by price.  Just because it is an expensive place with fancy tablecloths it doesn’t always follow that the food will live up to expectations. 

So what exactly is Spanish food and is it really just paella and expensive plates of cured meats?  There are wide and varying ingredients used in Spanish food.  Yes, Chorizo sausage and other cured hams and meats are consumed in great quantities.  They also grow oranges, lemons, olives, tomatoes, melons and other produce that lends itself to tasty, tangy natural dishes.  But Spanish cooking isn’t fancy.  It is accessible, down to earth, and based on the ingredients available locally or the crops grown regionally. Mountains run through Spain in several directions, acting as natural barriers to communication and making transportation difficult until the last half of the 20th century. This is one of the reasons why cooking differs so much from region to region.  But there is commonality; food in Spain is fresh, abundant and full of taste and the Spanish love their food.

Garlic and olive oil feature largely and are often the only common ingredients to foods from the various regions.   Ham is revered and you will even find museums of ham on mainland Spain.  Walk through any supermarket and the cured meats section is a sight to behold.  Surrounded on three sides by water it is not surprising that fresh seafood is always popular in coastal regions.  Wonderful cheeses of every type can be found made from sheep, cow and goat milk.  From aged hard cheeses to the soft creamy types, the range is staggering.  Eggs are big.  They form part of most dishes. Spain is a country of nuts and that’s not an insult as they are the top producers of almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts.  Traditionally the Spanish prefer meat grilled over coals or sautéed in a sauce and they seem to veer towards veal, suckling lamb and pig but roasted meats are popular for holidays and festive occasions.  Chicken is also eaten widely.  When you take this list and add in local legumes, vegetables and fruit you can see how many different and tasty options suddenly appear.

So if you want to go all Spanish you could try a Tortilla Espanola, a Spanish omelet, made of eggs, potatoes and onions.  Jamon Serrano is Spanish Ham, and just sliced with fresh crusty bread it is delicious.  Break out the Chorizo sausage and, taken seriously, a good paella will have them crying out for more. Paella de Marisco which translates to Spanish Seafood Rice originated in the fields of Valencia. People in the country mixed rice with rabbit, snails and vegetables and cooked it over an open fire. It has evolved into a dish where fish, shellfish, meat, pork and/or chicken may be used.

Finally, we cannot talk about Spanish food without mentioning tapas.  Little colourful bowls of olives, ham and chorizo create tapas and are eaten nationwide.  It would be very easy to create your own.  Finish it off with the eggy, smooth texture of a crème caramel and you might as well be sitting in Madrid.  Viva Espana! I welcome your feedback to pat@jwb.ie

Spanish Omelette with Spicy Tomato Salsa 

This is a Great Illustration of Simple, Enjoyable Food 

Serves 4 

Ingredients

• 1 tablesp. olive oil
• 8 potatoes, cut into small dice
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• 6 Quality Assured eggs, whisked in a large bowl
• A little salt and black pepper

Spicy Tomato Salsa  

• 4-6 well-flavoured tomatoes, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 fresh chilli, diced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablesp. basil or coriander, chopped
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tablesp. olive oil
• A little salt and black pepper

To Cook

Method

Lightly oil a large non-stick pan. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the onions and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes. Add the mixture to the eggs, season and mix well together.

Reheat the pan again with a little oil. Add the egg mixture. Cook until the under side is set. Put a large plate on top of the pan and turn the omelette onto it. Then slide it back into the pan and cook the other side. (If the pan is not super non-stick just finish under the grill).

To make the Salsa: Mix all the ingredients well together and set aside until ready to serve.

Serving Suggestions

Slide onto a board and cut into 4 wedges. Serve with the Spicy Tomato Salsa and mixed leaves.

I was a bit of a philistine when it came to pate.  Smooth or rustic; it really didn’t matter and was largely ignored on my list of food priorities.  In my younger years I thought it was a little girly.  Why dabble with a perfectly good hunk of liver which went very well with a pile of onions, was my general attitude.  Creating a paste to spread on a dry cardboard cracker was an unnecessary and cumbersome exercise.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that I have an early poor association with pate, but I can’t seem to locate the memory.  Maybe I tried it as a child and found the taste too rich for my unrefined, junior taste buds and subsequently steered clear of it for years.  Or maybe as a shy teenager I was forced to stuff a pate covered ritz cracker under the sofa, into a plant or into a pocket to avoid eating such a dodgy canapé thrust upon me by an overzealous aunt or cousin at a family gathering.   Suspicious looking canapés were a signature of Irish gatherings in the late seventies and early eighties and pate seemed to be very much favoured by the new and emerging sophisticates who had discovered French cuisine.  Those mavens leading the vanguard of this French food revolution misguidedly suggested that this was all about stretching us and learning to be as refined as the Europeans.  For the Europeans in question pate and terrines were a way of creating and preserving nutritious and inexpensive food.  Offal would have been the bits that were discarded or sold at low cost or as animal feed.   Making a nutritious and delicious pate was an inexpensive way of making this meat stretch.

Now I love pate, what a difference a decade or two makes.  When hunting for a quick late night snack it can be very satisfying to take a packet of crackers, a hunk of pate and a glass of wine or port, if possible, and indulge.  If I feel like cooking I might even go to the bother of making toast. 

My mind was changed as a student when I encountered a French girl who was in Ireland to improve her English.  When she suggested that pate was one of her favourite foods I found myself nodding in agreement and suggesting that I would be willing to share some.  Given her honeyed tones, olive skin and the heavily accented English, had she suggested that fried cats’ testicles were her pleasure I would probably have agreed to try those too and offered to harvest some for her!  Yes, men really are such simple, fickle creatures.  Fortunately her obsession was with meat pate.  Being the son of a butcher I had an endless supply of the main ingredients.  Looking back I wonder if I should feel used in that maybe she only wanted me for my meat.  Whatever the case, my taste buds truly benefited in the exchange and I developed a taste for pate.  I often look back fondly on those days of cheap port consumed with exquisite pate on Jacobs cream crackers while sitting on the floor listening to some awful French pop singer on a tinny cassette player.  I wish I could tell you they were beautiful moments of youthful trysts with legendary French singers providing the score to these epicurean pleasures but it was the complete opposite.  However, the lessons in pate making may as well have been from Raymond Blanc himself.  What this girl could do with a two ring burner, an old frying pan and a tiny fridge were quite remarkable.

As with many such encounters of youth I have long lost touch with the person but her pate making lessons never left me.  It is a skill I have always enjoyed having and particularly as it was learned and acquired in such pleasant circumstances.  I regularly buy artisan pates but every now and then I indulge in making one of my own.  Molded up in pretty dishes, pate makes a great food gift. If you perfect the art of pate making and create a good recipe you might even find the odd person requesting it.

So what makes a fine pate?  Well I have long since dispensed with the idea that there is such a thing as a perfect pate.  Cake baking is an absolute science, mess with the basics and your cake will either turn out brick like and hard or too soft and will sink and crumble.  Pate making on the other hand is of a much more robust nature.  It allows and accommodates creative freestyle ingredient choosing.  Pate can be as fancy or as plain as you like and most are much easier to prepare than you might expect.  You can also use different alcohols from brandy and champagne to port and sherry.  Just free your imagination and your taste buds will truly appreciate the effort.  And don’t be afraid to experiment with the crackers either. The inspiration for this article came while working last Saturday one of my customers was telling me how hard it was to get chicken livers and this is true.  I was delighted to be able to tell her that available all the time at James Whelan Butchers we have 1lb tubs of frozen chicken liver if you ask any of the butchers.

 Try something new this week. I always welcome you comments and feedback.

Chicken Liver Pate

•500 g Chicken livers

•1 clove garlic chopped

•2 rashers bacon chopped

•50 g butter

•1 onion finely chopped

•2 tbsp chopped parsley

•3 tbsp sherry

•3 bay leaves

•150 g clarified butter

•salt and pepper

Using your large knife, remove the heart from the chicken livers and cut off the white sinews.

Heat a large frying pan. Add the chopped bacon and fry for about a minute.  Add in the  onions and garlic and fry for about another 2 minutes. Add the 50 grams of butter and toss the contents in it.

Add the chopped chicken livers. Stir and fry for 7-10 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Add in the parsley, sherry and season with salt and pepper. Then remove immediately from the heat.  (This is where you can be quite creative and use spices or other seasonings)

Spoon the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.

Spoon into a bowl and smooth it on the top. Lay decorative bay leaves on the top and then carefully pour over the clarified butter. Set aside to cool for 1 hour if you need to serve it soon. Or you can cover it with cling film and place in the fridge.   Once opened, it will last 2 days.

FOOD lovers are turning back the clock and preparing for the sumptuous ‘Long Table Dinner’ feast which sees the Tipperary Food Producers group tantalize the taste buds of gourmets nation-wide for this year’s banquet on August 25.

Organisers of the ‘Long Table Dinner’ gathered at the foot of the Rock of Cashel today (Wednesday, July 14), otherwise known as the ‘Seat of the Kings of Munster’, to launch the upcoming mouth-watering banquet to beat all feasts. Diners will be transported back 1,500 years for the Long Table dinner which takes place this year as part of National Heritage Week and runs in four locations across Tipperary.

In keeping with custom, only food from Tipperary will be served at the traditional feast. Fresh, seasonal produce from over 30 food producers – all members of the Tipperary Food Producers Network – will be used. The custom created menu will read like a journey around Tipperary, combining the very best artisan food from throughout the county.

The event is the brainchild of Pat Whelan of the award winning James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel and Chairperson of the Tipperary Food Producers group. Pat wants to showcase the very best in Tipperary food by creating an entire meal using only food produced and created within the county.

“We are delighted to be launching the third annual Long Table Dinner of Tipperary. It is great that this year the dinner will take place across four locations in the county, really giving everyone the opportunity to experience the traditional feast.

“This is an opportunity to recognise and showcase all that Tipperary produces. I think everyone will be amazed at the fantastic meal that will be prepared from Tipperary food. Tipperary is a county name that is renowned internationally as is the Rock of Cashel; we are building on this heritage and prestige and bringing the finest of Tipperary produce to the fore. This is very much a team effort and it is incredible to see what can happen when people work together.” Pat added. 

The Long Table Dinner will incorporate a very futuristic element this year as Tipperary Institute will be working with the organisers by filming the ‘Long Table Dinner’ at all four locations, fusing the most up to date technology with the indigenous food production industry therefore creating the longest virtual table worldwide. This unique production will be available for viewing on www.tipperaryfoodproducers.com

The ‘Long Table Dinner’ will take place across four strategic locations around the county. In Nenagh the Long Table Dinner will take place at award winning restaurant ‘Broca on the Water’ in Kilgarvan Quay, Ballinderry overseen by Chef Ann Gernon.  In Thurles the Long Table Dinner will take place at the award winning ‘Inch House’ overseen by the Head Chef Michael Galvin. In Cashel ‘Chez Hans’ will host the event where dinner will be prepared by award winning Chef Jason Matthiae and in Clogheen the Long Table Dinner will take place at ‘The Old Convent Restaurant’ with preparation by award winning Chef Dermot Gannon. Dinner will commence in all four locations at 7.30pm on the evening of August 25, 2010.

A unique booklet will be produced for the event – so guest can choose the venue by menu – this booklet will be available to view on www.tipperaryfoodproducers.com. Tickets for each venue will be  available from James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel on (052) 6182477 and at the four Long Table Dinner locations or from any member of the Tipperary Food Producers, please see www.tipperaryfoodproducers.com for full listing.

An article I read by juicing devotee Jason Vale pointed out that we are quick to embrace the latest health food product when a new ‘super’ enzyme or nutrient is isolated from, for example, a tomato.  He made the wise observation that instead of taking the pill we should just eat more tomatoes.  Ok, it is an overly simplistic view as an element may not be present in sufficient quantities for this to be practical, but I get and agree with the general gist of what he is trying to convey.  We should stop being so hung up on what’s in everything and just eat natural foods for health, energy and of course, taste.  (And just for the record I have no problem with supplements.) 

One of nature’s best offerings has to be honey.   Any time I see one of those ridiculously tiny pots of honey in hotels or guest houses I am instantly reminded of Chic Murray’s now infamous comment.  On being presented at breakfast with one of these miniature jars he hilariously said to the landlady, “Oh, I see you keep a bee.” 

I have just put down a new study on the benefits of honey and after reading quite a number of pages of detailed information I can condense it down to this, good honey is just very good for you!  Raw honey is of course the ultimate, but unlike Chic Murray’s landlady, few of us are keeping our own bee these days so we are dependent on local producers for their integrity.  Fortunately Tipperary’s honey producers are particularly good so if you buy local you’ll be fine.

Honey, that rich, golden liquid is nothing short of a miraculous feat of genius by those tiny little creatures. The process begins when the bees feast on flowers, collecting the flower nectar in their mouths. The collected nectar then mixes with special enzymes in the bees’ saliva.  On returning to the hive they deposit the mixture into the cells in the hive’s walls.  The collective fluttering of wings within the hive provides the necessary ventilation to reduce the moisture content making it ready for consumption.  When you stand back and watch nature at work on this level it makes all man made processes look clumsy and inadequate.  The elegant and magical process of making honey is truly remarkable.

Raw honey offers active enzymes, vitamins and trace amounts of minerals such as silica, copper, magnesium, iron and others.   Ancient peoples in Spain, India and Egypt knew that honey supplied a unique richness of nutrients. They didn’t squeeze their honey from plastic containers or scoop it out of jars; they ate their honey freshly harvested from local bee hives. They thoroughly understood the medicinal benefits of raw honey far better than we do today.  When Jesus Christ walked the earth honey was one of the premier medicines of the time.  Raw honey was used for sinus problems, rheumatism, arthritis, poor circulation, infectious diseases and topically for a whole host of other problems. 

Raw honey contains bee pollen which has many benefits including allergy relief, detoxification, anti-cancer properties, increased energy, amino acids, vitamins and thousands of beneficial enzymes.   Propolis, a material that bees use for constructing their hives, is another beneficial part of raw honey.   Propolis is believed to have antioxidant and even anti-cancer properties and is said to boost the immune system and improve the health of the liver as well. Most health food shops sell a propolis tablet as a natural antibiotic.

Like everything these days you need to pay close attention to the labels to make sure you are getting quality honey.  It should be completely unprocessed and unheated as the valuable enzymes in honey are preserved only if the honey is never heated above 105 degrees.  (Although purists claim that for honey to be truly raw, it should never be heated at all.)   For that reason raw honey should only be added to foods after they have been cooked and never before, since any exposure to heat risks destroying the beneficial nutrients.  If honey is stored in sealed, airtight jars it won’t go off.  Like a fine wine, it becomes finer with age.  Even open jars will stay fresh for at least several months and even then, raw honey will simply ferment and not spoil. Fermentation enhances the benefits of raw honey, although the taste may become too strong for some palates. 

Like all sugars honey stimulates the taste buds and gets the juices going.  It has long been used as a tasty addition to ham and bacon.  I know several weight watchers who add honey to their porridge instead of sugar and another who adds a spoonful to bolognaise sauce just before it is about to be served.  I’ve actually adapted that idea and often use it as my secret ingredient in a home made tomato sauce.  It is a perfect base for homemade pizza or an addition to pasta for a quick and healthy children’s supper.

Of course honey is always prescribed for sore throat sufferers or those with laryngitis but we lost much of what the ancient’s knew about its wound healing properties and are only now rediscovering them.  Honey has been used topically as an antiseptic therapeutic agent for the treatment of ulcers, burns and wounds for centuries. One study in India compared the wound healing effects of honey to a conventional treatment in 104 first-degree burn patients. After one week of treatment 91 percent of honey treated burns were infection free compared with only 7 percent receiving the conventional treatment. Finally, a greater percentage of patients’ burns were healed more readily in the honey treated group. Another study examined the wound healing benefits of honey applied topically to patients following Caesarean section and hysterectomy. Compared to the group receiving the standard solution of iodine and alcohol, the honey treated group was infection free in fewer days, healed more cleanly and had a reduced hospital stay.

Honey is a natural sweetener and a great item to have in any store cupboard for hundreds of different recipes from ham to flapjacks.  Always buy local, quality honey as the first difference is always going to be in the taste. I welcome your feedback to pat@jwb.ie

Roast Leg of Lamb with Honey Orange Glaze and Port and Mint Dressing 

Serves 8-10 

Ingredients

• 1 leg of lamb, trimmed
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• Few sprigs of rosemary
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with some salt
• The rind of 1 orange
• 2 tablesp. runny honey
• 2 tablesp olive oil
• Glass of white wine

Port and Mint Dressing 

• 4 tablesp. redcurrant jelly
• Juice of 1 orange
• Dash of port
• Few sprigs of mint

To Cook

Method

To cook, set the oven 200°C (400°F) Gas Mark 6.

Make about 10 incisions in the lamb with a sharp knife. Push a sliver of garlic and a sprig of rosemary into each hole. Place the lamb in a roasting tray with some chopped onions and a head of garlic cut in half. Mix together the crushed garlic, orange rind, honey and olive oil. Spread the mixture over the lamb. Place in the oven and roast for 30 minutes. Then add the glass of wine and a glass of water, this will stop the honey from burning. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) Gas Mark 4 and continue the cooking for another hour for pink lamb. Rest for 15 minutes before serving.

When the lamb is cooked remove from the roasting tray and strain the juices, keep the garlic to serve with the lamb. To the juices, add another dash of wine and a tablesp. of redcurrant jelly. Boil it up to make a jus, finish with a knob of butter and taste for seasoning.

To make the dressing, gently heat the redcurrant jelly, orange juice, port and mint. Add a little lemon juice if you think it is too sweet. Serve warm with the sliced lamb.

Serving Suggestions

Boulangère Potatoes are very good with the roast lamb and can be cooked in the oven at the same time. Simply layer some thinly sliced potatoes in a baking dish with thinly sliced onions which have first been sautéed in a knob of butter. Add seasoning and a few more knobs of butter as you do the layers. Finish off with some chicken stock and a sprinkling of Regatto cheese. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the potatoes are tender and the topping is golden and crispy.

A little like clothing, the great thing about food these days is that anything goes really.  Our purest attitudes to meal times and the type of food suitable to certain times of the day and special occasions have largely been put aside to cope with our busy and varying lifestyles, beliefs and pursuits.  Breakfast was and still is one of the most important meals of the day, and for some the only meal.  These days we tend to forego the value of a good breakfast and to our detriment trade it for extra minutes in bed.  Breakfast provides the first fuel for the day ahead and should never be underestimated as a foundation for great health.

Many people have dinner in the evening.  With the main work day over it is a relaxed time to come together with family or friends, break bread and reflect on events.  It is a time when many families catch up, share news and even air grievances.   Formal studies have found that families who get around a table and share at least one meal together every day function better than those that don’t.

Lunch is possibly the trickiest to get right.  Sandwiched neatly between breakfast and dinner it requires the right foods; food that gives energy for the afternoon but doesn’t cause a desire to sleep.  The definition of lunch changes at the weekends or on days off, when it can contain the very best dining experience of them all.  I have recently found that long, drawn out lunches at weekends and days off are particularly appealing. 

But Sunday lunch remains a firm favourite.  It’s perfectly acceptable to make a stab at a sophisticated, European experience for a Saturday lunch.  Various bean salads or rocket and spinach based fish dishes or pretentious risottos accompanied by rustic, crusty breads are all very well on a Saturday, but Sunday lunch is all about a roast.  And what better opportunity for a real Sunday lunch with all the trimmings than Easter Sunday.  Beef, chicken, turkey, lamb – or any joint of your choice; even the mere thought of a roast dinner gets the juices going.  Yes it requires work, but the result is worth it and the memories you are creating are priceless.

Some cooks favour chicken, others consider it a non event unless it is beef and then there is lamb, which still has the power to divide and polarise.  Some people love the smell of lamb cooking while others couldn’t even stand the thought of it.  Traditionally it is the joint of choice for Easter, but it really is a matter of individual taste; there are no rules.  While the meat forms the centrepiece, the gravy is hugely important.  Potatoes play a large part, with some even serving them in several forms.  It’s never surprising in Ireland to find mashed potato, roast and even croquet potatoes on the same plate.  If serving beef, a cook could stand or fall on the quality of the accompanying Yorkshire pudding.  Singles and couples tend to be greatly disadvantaged when it comes to roast dinners.  It is certainly a lot of work for just one person and even for two it is difficult given the quantity.  Just like the Turkey at Christmas, the key is having enough recipes in your repertoire to deal with the leftovers to justify cooking a joint of meat for two in the first place.  If you are having a crowd over, then a roast will always be a winner.  The ultimate resolution for a single or couple is to arrange an invitation to someone who is having a roast!  The Irish Mammy is still a good bet at Easter and Christmas despite the modern world.

However if you’re doing the cooking the first thing to get right is the type of joint.   If it is beef make sure it is rib or sirloin or at least a suitable cut for roasting.  Ask your butcher if you’re not sure.  There are two schools of thought on roasting: cook the meat from start to finish at a consistent medium temperature, which produces a juicy, evenly-cooked roast; or put it in a very hot oven to start, and then lower the temperature for the remainder of the cooking time, which helps brown the roast and its juices.  Always let the meat warm up to room temperature for at least an hour or two before putting it in the oven. 

Preparing the meat is also worth considering.  With a chicken I would always make sure the skin is dry to the touch and then generously butter it while also placing knobs of butter at the leg and wing joints.  A sprinkling of salt and pepper never goes astray at this point either.  With lamb I have always found success with making small slits in the surface and sticking in a slice of garlic and a sprig of rosemary at measured intervals.  When it comes to beef the least I would do is dust the fat surface with a mixture of flour and mustard powder.  Again none of the above is really necessary but adds to the overall finished dish. I like to baste meat, even if it is supposedly self basting, but always remember that every time you open the oven door you are affecting the temperature, so you’ll need to take this into account when calculating the overall cooking time.  And finally, rest, rest, rest! (And I don’t mean take a seat and enjoy a glass of wine; we’re talking about the joint.)  This is vital regardless of the meat you are serving.  Take the meat from the oven and let it rest for a minimum of 20minutes before carving or serving.

A roast dinner is all in the planning and preparation, but once underway it is actually much easier to cook than most people think.   While I love to embrace and experiment with new food ideas, we should never loose sight of the value of a roast dinner enjoyed by family and friends.  The memories will last forever and are therefore worth every minute of the preparation.  If you have any queries by all means drop by the shop, James Whelan Butchers in Oakville Shopping Centre where we will be happy to help.  Happy Easter.

Wine keeps you slim, fruit makes you fat and eggs are now a super food!  (I wonder does that include Cadbury’s Eggs, given the season!)  If you go back a few short years juicing fruit was hailed as a cure all for both health and weight loss, red wine was never considered a slimming aid but good for your heart and, at one point, eggs were nearly sold with a skull and crossbones stamped on the box to avoid over consumption. We’ve never had so much information about food and we’ve never been as confused.  You even hear small children using words like ‘protein’, ‘fat’ and ‘carbohydrate’, words that always sounded as if they were from another planet and little to do with the wonderful world of food.  Today’s generation of children are growing up with a completely different set of food rules and beliefs.  Of course it’s necessary as there is much more variety now.  When we were given milk at school, milk was milk.  These days there’s the bewildering choice of milk, chocolate milk or strawberry milk!  Why didn’t they just leave it alone; it was perfectly good to begin with?

 ‘Low carb’, ‘low fat’, ‘gluten free’, ‘protein rich’ ‘full of fibre’ are all buzz phrases used by marketers to enhance sales.  Health grounds are now seen as a way to distinguish a product and as a society we have bought into the game.  If you take a step back for a second, shouldn’t health giving properties be the basic quality you would expect from anything you are about to ingest into your body?  If we really considered what is in certain products we would naturally steer clear of them. 

I grew up with the ‘must clean your plate’ mantra ‘because of all the poor people in Africa!’  Many a comedian has since made the point that the expanding waistlines and clean plates of western world children never made any difference to the starving anywhere, least of all Africa.  The other revelation of the 70s and 80s was the low fat craze.  We eradicated natural fat to the point where food tasted like cardboard and in turn manufacturers put the taste back with chemicals, which made us even fatter in the long run.  Sugar was next on the hit list so we just solved that problem with another chemical; something that was even sweeter than real sugar but was calorie free. It may not be making us fat but God knows what it’s doing to our insides. Coffee has been through its fair share of positive and negative swings.  One article will have you believe it is nothing short of poison while others will claim a few cups a day are good for you.  There’s even another school of thought that believes using coffee enemas will clean out the liver and detoxify the body.  I think I’ll just stick to a mug in the morning, imbibed through the mouth. 

The author and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins wrote in one of his books once that if you owned a car but didn’t have a juicer, you should sell the car and buy one, it was that important for your health.  Jason Vale is known as the Juice Master.  He has sold books and has many franchised juice bars throughout the UK and Ireland.  There isn’t a shopping centre or mall in the country that doesn’t have a juice concession or smoothie counter.  Yet, here’s a headline from a newspaper only last week, “Too much fruit can make you fat! Thought plenty of grapes or apples will keep you healthy? Think again…”  Meanwhile the health authorities are at pains to encourage at least 5 a day.  Apparently exceeding the recommended amount is fine if you are a healthy weight, but if your are overweight or suffer from high cholesterol or diabetes, too much fruit could mean trouble.   The main concern is in the area of smoothies and juices.  Fruit sugar doesn’t trigger the ‘full’ feeling in the body like other foods and therefore even though you are taking in lots of energy calories with your juices and smoothies you don’t feel satisfied.

Eggs have gone in an out of popularity too but now they are being hailed a ‘super food’.  Blueberries, broccoli, oats and turkey are other foods that have reached the dizzy heights of the ‘super’ tag.  Eggs are even being credited with the ability to tackle obesity and are considered necessary for eye health, once the domain of the humble carrot.  The nutritionists say eggs are one of the most nutrient-dense foods and are recommending one a day for the maximum benefit. They discovered that, despite being low in calories, eggs are a rich source of protein and are packed with nutrients thought essential to good health, particularly vitamin D, vitamin B12, selenium and choline.   When it comes to protein rich foods, eggs contain the richest mix of essential amino acids, crucial for children, adolescents and young adults for body growth and repair.

Perhaps one of the best reports to emerge recently is the one about red wine.  If you thought sweating at the gym was the way to go, forget it.  Just take to the sofa with a glass of Merlot.  Quoting the report, “Women who enjoy a glass or two of wine a day put on less weight than those who stick to mineral water or soft drinks – with red wine particularly forgiving.”  I wondered why they didn’t mention men and then realized that the study was only carried out on women.  The study also proved that while a glass of wine has calories, those calories are burned off more quickly than calories from other foods.  So if a glass of wine has 120 calories and so does a chocolate bar, the wine will disappear fast while the chocolate will take up residence on your hips, get married and have a large family and live with you forever.

Sifting through it all there is only one answer; enjoy all food in moderation and as close as possible to what nature intended it to be and you can’t go too far wrong.  And I’m delighted to include in that wine and Cadbury’s Crème Eggs!

I welcome your comments to pat@jwb.ie

Apple and Jameson Tart     

Ingredients

• 250g (8 oz) shortcrust pastry
• 50g (2 oz) ground almonds
• 4 large Bramley apples, peeled and diced
• 2 tablesp. sugar
• 250ml (½ pt) cream
• 3 egg yolks 50g (2 oz) caster sugar
• Dash of whiskey

To Cook

Method

Set oven Gas Mark 6, 200°C (400°F). 

Line four individual tart tins with the pastry. Sprinkle some ground almonds on the base of each one. Then add the apple and enough sugar to sweeten. Heat the cream. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together. Stir in the cream and a dash of whiskey. Spoon a little of the cream mixture into each tart. Keep remaining cream. Bake tarts for 25-35 minutes.

Pour the remaining cream into a bowl. Place over simmering water. Stirring constantly, continue to cook until the custard thickens. Set aside – keep warm

Serving Suggestions

Serve the tart, dusted with icing sugar, with the warm custard. Vanilla ice-cream, thin almond biscuit, raspberries etc. are optional.

Irish food history is often dominated by the Potato Famine leading us to believe that spuds were historically a huge part of the Irish diet. This is untrue. First of all people died during the Famine because of oppressive politics rather than food shortages. The food we were producing was being exported leaving the potato for the natives. When that crop failed it meant disaster for the indigenous population. Legend has it that Sir Walter Raleigh was the first to have planted potatoes in Ireland and he wasn’t even born until the 1500s. We have a long and rich tradition of animal husbandry and it was the dominant food producing activity for thousands of years. In ancient Ireland the number of cows owned by a man was taken as a sign of his wealth. Cattle were kept for their milk rather than their meat, but meat was eaten in winter when the preservation conditions were better.
Farmers kept sheep, pigs and chickens along with cattle. Sheep’s wool is responsible for the itchy Aran Sweater or, colored with vegetable dyes, we get the sartorial style of Peig Sayers with her browny black shawl thrown around her shoulders! Sheep were raised on the hills while pigs were herded in woodland areas where they fed on acorns and fruit that fell from the trees; surely an orgasmic thought for the purist free range supporter amongst us. Chickens gave eggs and there was plenty of milk and cheese coming from all the animals. Even in death nothing was wasted, even the blood was preserved for long lasting nutritious puddings.
Even in the 20th century most homes stored their meat in little larders, cold rooms or covered vessels outside. With fridges still of the future, other methods of preservation were necessary such as salting, smoking and curing. In an older Ireland, community life and organization worked very efficiently. At different times of the year a farmer would slaughter an animal and the spoils were shared out between the neighbours meaning the animal was eaten fresh. Sometimes the meat was even bartered for work. If only our present day conurbations worked with such sharing and efficiency we all might be much better off.
We are spoiled with our vacuum packaging, high end fridges, home freezers and date stamps. ‘Use by’ dates amuse me greatly. If something is going out of date at midnight tonight does that mean it is fit for consumption at one minute to midnight but at one minute after midnight it’s gone off? On the other hand because of these recommended dates consumers have become very careless. The date stamps are subject to certain conditions. The optimum storage of meat is something that many people are not aware of. It is a constant frustration for butchers or any fresh food retailer. Meat and fresh produce regularly leave a shop in perfect condition only to be left for too long in a hot car on the journey home. The product hits the fridge in less than ideal condition. Ideally it should be put into the fridge as soon as possible and the temperature maintained at a constant rate. However the fridge is also the place where many other items are stored and so it is accessed repeatedly. With every opening of the fridge door the temperature is lowered and it has a cumulative negative impact on the shelf-life of any food stuff stored. We have an online meat service at James Whelan Butchers and I spent a long time looking at how best to safely ship small amounts of meat to customers who sometimes live quite a distance away. Keeping it cold during transportation was the goal and it was only when that was perfected could we move our website business forward.
There are two ways to store meat in order to keep it in the best possible condition; by freezing it immediately on getting it home directly from the point of purchase or by keeping a fridge specifically for protein. This may seem unrealistic but it need only be a small bar fridge and they are no longer prohibitive in price. Freezing meat is an excellent storage option. Get it into the freezer as quickly as possible and keep air from getting to the meat while it is in the freezer. It is a myth that once meat is frozen it keeps indefinitely. For best results meat should be dated on the day it is frozen, as oxidation and dehydration of meat continues even at freezing temperatures, albeit very slowly. Most home freezers are set higher than the optimum 0 degrees F, and so deterioration will definitely occur over time. The optimum time to use frozen meat is within a month of purchase, although periods of up to a year would be acceptable for beef and lamb and about 6 months for pork.

Thawing meat is a process that should be carefully considered, as bacteria are ever present in every environment and should be avoided if possible. The meat to be thawed should be placed into a large dish to avoid any possibility of drips onto other food. It should be thawed out overnight in the fridge and it’s vital that it be thawed completely before cooking. Large joints will take longer than 24 hours to thaw, and 2 days should be allowed to ensure it is ready for cooking. Of course busy life-styles dictate that meat is often defrosted in the microwave, which is perfectly safe, although the end result is definitely taste-compromised.

If using meat fresh from the fridge there are some differences to consider between the various types of meat purchased. Minced meat is best cooked on the day of purchase, as is poultry and offal. Beef, lamb and pork can be stored for days before cooking. ‘Use by’ and ‘Best Before’ dates are handy modern guides but if you really want to know if something is alright I recommend natures free gift and essential guide, the nose!
I welcome to your feedback to pat@jwb.ie

Roast Ribeye of Beef

 Ingredients
• 2 kg ribeye of beef
• 2 teasp. chopped fresh thyme
• 2 teasp. sweet or smoked paprika
• ½ teasp. English mustard powder
• Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
• 2 tablesp. Dijon style mustard
• 1 tablesp. olive oil
 • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
 • 1 large carrot, roughly chopped
 • 2 teasp. plain flour
 • 300ml beef or chicken stock
 • Creamed horseradish, roasted root vegetables, to serve

To Cook
Method
Place the thyme, paprika and mustard powder in a bowl with a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, then mix to combine. Wipe the meat with damp kitchen paper and then spread a thin layer of the mustard all over the fat side of the joint. Sprinkle the spice powder on top, patting it down gently to help it stick.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7, 220ºC (425ºF). Pour the olive oil into roasting tin and heat in the oven for 5 minutes. Add the onion and carrot, tossing to coat. Season with salt and black pepper. Sit the beef on the bed of vegetables. Place the roasting tin in the pre-heated oven.
Reduce the oven temperature to Gas mark 5,190ºC (375ºF). Roast the beef for 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare, an extra 15 minutes for medium-rare and an extra 30 minutes for well done.
Remove the beef from the tin and place on a large dish. Rest in a warm place for at least 20 minutes before carving. To make the gravy, stir the flour into the juices in the roasting tin and then gradually stir in the stock. Place directly on the hob to heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to release any sediment. Season and pour through a sieve into a gravy boat, discarding the vegetables that the beef has been roasted on. Carve the beef into slices and arrange on warmed plates with a dollop of creamed horseradish and the roasted root vegetables. Hand round the gravy separately.

Reading a recently published memoir of an Irish childhood in the early fifties, I was struck that we have regressed in terms of human relationship despite all our technological progress.  In the book the writer recalled his Grandmother’s house where neighbours and friends came regularly to play cards and share supper in the evenings.  Inevitably, the night was rounded off with music and songs as one or two of the card players were proficient on the box or the fiddle.  Even the television brought people together; his Grandmother had the first television in the area and many would gather to marvel at the hazy, snowy black and white pictures emanating from the magic box.  When they tired of the TV, the kitchen beckoned where tea and cake would accompany laughter and chat. He mentions the post man stopping in for a cup of tea and has vivid memories of making the daily trip with his mother and sister to the shops on foot.  Without fridges and freezers fresh food supplies were purchased daily.  He recalled the walk as being a special time with his mother and he had fond memories of the relationship his mother enjoyed with the local shopkeepers.  The greengrocer and butcher called her by name.  They shared in her celebrations and good fortune but also acknowledged her sorrow when necessary; sympathising over the death of a relation perhaps or the difficulty of a sick family member.  There were kindnesses.  If needed, an extension of credit for a few days was proffered easily, or the throwing in of an extra bit of meat here and there, “just for luck”, as the butcher used to say.  The shops were also a source of news and generally of help to the community at large.  Whatever was happening you heard it first in the shops. If someone received a good or bad report the shop had it.  Admittedly the dark side was the propensity for unwholesome gossip, but the good outweighed the bad, and it was largely the glue that held communities together.  Even in my own childhood, the 70s and 80s, I would have witnessed my mother and father dealing with customers in a similar manner.  There was always a kind word at the news of a birth or even a death.

Our modern world talks the talk about community but the actions promote isolation. The drink driving laws have rendered many in the countryside to long lonely nights.  Gone are the days of catching up with friends or even the publican for the news.  I’m not objecting to the drink driving laws, they’re totally necessary, but that doesn’t change the fact that Paddy or Johnny might not speak to anyone for days and nights on end.  Their quality of life has been changed irrevocably and no one is looking for a real solution.  Even during the day, the very idea of the postman stopping for a cup of tea and a chat in 2010 is possibly a sacking offence.  The impatient queues and overworked staff at the post office or the banks are no longer fair game to pass the time of day with and attempts to engage some shop assistants could result in you being under suspicion for having a stalker’s intent.  With all our telephones, mobile phones, skype, facebook, twitter, blogs, e-commerce and other tools of communication we are, as a nation, a much more lonely and isolated society than at any other time in history. 

It’s important for me to say at this juncture that I’m not looking to go back to the past and I wholeheartedly embrace facebook, blogs, twitter and being able to shop on the internet.  What I believe we need is balance.  I love the idea that we can enjoy our modernity without negating our humanity.  We are not robots programmed to receive, but humans geared towards outreach.  John Donne put it perfectly when he wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself….”  John Donne lived in the 17^th century so our leaning toward the singular must have been a cause for concern even then.  It has been a slow trajectory but a steady one all the same.

I think the more recent resurgence of artisan and farmers markets throughout the country is as much about the people as it is the food.  There is a convivial camaraderie among the stall holders and the customers.  It’s a novelty to speak to the food producer, the very source.  During the tiger years there was a good deal of nonsense attached to some of these markets; over inflated prices for mediocre product was just one difficulty.  However our newfound lust for value has doomed the charlatans and the markets are now growing into small wholesome communities as they should do.  We need to insist on this level of interest in our traditional shops also.  It costs little for the checkout assistant to acknowledge a customer and yet the value to the shopper can be immense.  

Where do shops fit into society these days?  To be honest if we don’t encourage the social side then why should people make the effort to visit?  Why should a person take the time to travel and the trouble to find parking if the experience is going to be cold and soulless?  Why not just encourage everyone to buy a computer and shop online from the comfort of their own home?  We must bring value back to retailing and that value is often found in the intangible.  There is no boast in value, layout or hygiene these days; these should be a given, but we can single ourselves out on the shopping experience as a whole. The time is certainly ripe to welcome back the Cead Mile Failte that we’re known for around the world.  Couldn’t we all do with the extra smiles!

St Patrick’s day is almost upon us so I attach a great recipe for corned beef.

I welcome your feedback – pat@jwb.ie

As individuals we are defined by our personal values. If you asked me what value I remember most about my Grandmother for example, I could say without hesitation, ‘honesty’.  “Tell the truth and shame the devil”, was her mantra.  The crime was never the issue with her as long as you owned up to it and forgiveness was always the first response.  It was a super lesson for children, the association of telling the truth with the positive consequence of forgiveness and warmth and not punishment and suffering.  Sadly, my Grandmother would have a hard time living in today’s world where honesty is of decreasing importance and marketing relies more on spin than truth.  This was brought home starkly when a glossy brochure from a well known supermarket discounter spilled out of my Sunday newspaper. 

As I picked it up, the retailer and marketer in me instantly recognised a cunning ruse.  Picture smiling Irish farmers and food producers in your fancy brochure and without too much effort you are pedaling the notion that not only have you special offers to tempt me with, but also your products are Irish and therefore the quality is intrinsic.   If I had even a shred of guilt in me before about buying discounted goods from all across Europe, suddenly the consumer in me was acquitted; they were Irish goods after all!  This is, at best, stretching the truth.  Yes you will find Irish produced goods at your local German discounter but nobody will tell you what percentage that is.  Is it 1, 2, 10, 50, 75 or 99% of all they stock?  In fact you will still have to upturn every item to see where it is made and where it has come from.  Not everything is as it seems at first.
 

The trend towards discount supermarkets has been huge in this country.  It has still to sweep the UK in the same manner, but that’s due to tighter controls on planning permission and government imposed competition rules.  Ireland has a different attitude.  During the tiger years our unrelenting appetite for building and development meant that we embraced this European ideal and these stores sprung up everywhere.  Indeed some Irish towns and cities have stores in multiple locations and all Irish market conditions have suited their strategy.  While we were enjoying our prosperity they were bedding in, slowly reprogramming the consumer with the ‘we’re cheaper’ message.  Now at a time of tighter market conditions the bite of recession has blinded us all to the difference between price and value.   We are lured in the main by the cost of the item and in these straitened times few tend to stop and consider the value.  Many would be surprised if they were to learn that sometimes what appears as ‘cheaper’ is actually more expensive and I’m not talking about the added value of nutrition or the environment; actual hard cash.  For example if you see two strip loin steaks for €7.99 it appears fantastic value for the price of a meal for two.  However when you look more closely you will see that the weight might be 300grams per steak.  When you multiply that out, the price per kilo can be more than the price per kilo in your local butchers or in the indigenous supermarkets.  That means that if you were to buy the same size steak at your local butcher’s, it would actually be cheaper in monetary terms.  Of course the other question is do you really want a measly 300 gram steak to begin with!  Maybe if you are on a restrictive diet but eating for pure pleasure will leave you deeply unsatisfied.   There is also the possibility that any profit the local retailer makes will be spent locally.  His or her family will buy their food, their school uniforms, their clothes, their cars, their electrical items etc., from other local retailers.  Sadly when the profits are going to privately owned German companies the likelihood of anybody buying as much as a stick of rock in Clonmel or County Tipperary has about the same odds as hell freezing over any time soon. 

The discounters have done a superb job on the perception front.  By stacking them high and removing all frills they have convinced us that they are ‘definitely’ cheaper.  They have achieved the Holy Grail of good marketing and that is they have managed to change the perception of the public even if the actual difference is, in some cases, negligible and when you consider the offering outside of just price points, they can be more expensive.  So what is the main discounter strategy?  Well essentially it is to keep all business costs to a minimum, hence the no frills and uniform appearance of the stores and the cash only rule.  Also, traditionally they carry a smaller range of goods so choice is restricted.  That said they have had to adapt their model specifically for the Irish market.  Originally they would have sold a small range of own branded, dry grocery goods but the Irish shopper is more used to wider product ranges, fresh produce (meat and vegetables) and fair trade items.  We have all noticed how the Discounter has changed since it first launched on this island.

However I don’t wish to engage in xenophobic bashing of the competition for being foreign or to wage war with guilt and move consumers to buy local and Irish out of some idealistic sense of patriotism.  Money is tight, we are in the grip of recession and we need to find the best bang for our buck, but just because the discounters have the loudest voice in the playground doesn’t mean they have the best value on everything.  As a consumer you owe it to your pocket to verify their claims and statements on value.  Please consider comparing like with like.  Don’t discount the non discounters because of some notional marketing message.  Rediscover your local greengrocer, butcher and deli.  There is monetary value to be had there too and you won’t have to compromise on quality or customer service.   Honest!

I welcome any feedback to pat@jwb.ie

Beef Wellington  for Two

Prepare the Beef Wellingtons ahead of time and you’ll have enough time to change into something more comfortable before you sit down to dinner. Just the two of you.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. (45 mL) butter, divided
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) minced shallot or red onion
• 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) coarsely chopped mushrooms
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) red wine
• 2 x 4oz Fillet Steaks , cut 1 inch (2 cm) thick salt and pepper to tast
• 1/2 pkg. frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. (15 mL) water

Cooking Instructions

1. Melt 2 tbsp (30 mL) of the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the minced shallots and cook, stirring, just until softened — about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until mushroom liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms have started to brown. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until it has evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the remaining 1 tbsp (15 mL) of butter to the skillet and increase the heat to high. As soon as the butter has melted, add the steaks to the pan, sprinkling them with salt and pepper and quickly sear both sides until browned — about 1 minute per side. Remove steaks from pan immediately. Let cool.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the block of puff pastry dough out to a 12-inch (30 cm) square. Cut the square in half, then cut one of two halves in half again (reserve the remaining half of the dough).
4. Beat together the egg and the water and brush lightly over the surface of the two small squares of dough. On each square, spoon half of the mushroom mixture and top with one steak. Pull the corners of the dough up and over to wrap the whole thing up like a package — seal up any openings by pinching and folding them together. Turn over and arrange on a baking pan. Brush with egg mixture. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut shapes out of the reserved pastry dough to decorate the top of each packet and brush with egg wash.
5. You can prepare the Wellingtons to this point as much as 3 or 4 hours before you want to serve them. Refrigerate, covered until about one hour before you want to begin baking.
6. Remove Wellingtons from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before baking to allow them to come to room temperature.
7. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
8. Place Wellingtons in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until puffed and golden. Let stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Servings: 2