Cassoulet without the drama.....

Last Saturday morning I stood on a alter watched by a full congregation of healthy food lovers and I enjoyed it. Yes an alter in a church. I was asked to do a healthy food cooking demonstration for the Row Practice in the old Presentation Convent in Waterford. The surprising thing is that I think it was the best demo I have done to date, Devinne inspiration eh.....
Anyway, back to the real world, this is a simple recipe for the famous Cassoulet make easy, give it a go it is beautiful....

This is one of those dishes you eat while on holidays and love the simplicity of it but might be afraid to make it once you return home. Yes there is a bit of work in it but once it goes in the oven you can forget about it. It’s done; all you have to do is serve it with some crunchy bread and a nice green salad. Cooking at its best…

Serves 10
1 kg of haricot beans
1 carrot
1 onion
Bouquet garni
300g streaky bacon
55g duck fat
3 onions thinly sliced
8 cloves of garlic finely chopped
8 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1.2 litres of chicken stock
4 duck legs
450g shoulder of lamb cut into thick cubes
4 Toulouse sausages
50g bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

Soak the haricot beans overnight in plenty of cold water, next day drain off the water and put the beans in a sauce pan with the chopped carrot, onion and bouquet garni and cover with water. Cook for ½ hour or until the beans are ¾ cooked, drain and discard the vegetables, set aside.
Cut the bacon into 1 inch squares, heat the duck fat and fry until beginning to turn brown, add the onions and the garlic, tomatoes, salt, pepper and a bouquet garni, now add the stock and simmer for ten minutes.
Add the duck legs, lamb and sausage; finally put the beans on top. Bring the Cassoulet to the boil, spread the breadcrumbs over the top and place the lid on the pot, put into a slow oven (150 degrees or gas 2) for 1 ½ hours or until all the meat is nice and tender.
A crust should have formed on top of the stew, serve at once.

Sauces..

The cook as alchemist
"A pinch of this, a pinch of that - the creative process is bewitching. A flame licks up from the pan containing the bubbling, steaming potion, illuminating the sagacious face of the saucerer. He inhales the fumes laden with the first aromas. His imagination is fired as he conjures up the magic of his sauce" Michel Roux

Birdy - People Help The People (Live Version) OUT NOW

Have a good one in 2012

Tom Wenger surfs 16 ft Toothpick! - Nathan Oldfield

Three men and their birds....

Christmas would not be Christmas without a bird of some sort so with this in mind I caught the ferry to Co Wexford last night with Paddy Ryan, one of the chefs at the Castle. We were on our way to the Hook Head to dispatch two home grown Turkeys rared by a great friend of mine.
In the pitch dark armed with a bottle of Paddy's slow gin we tackled the two birds one by one, plucked them bare and got them ready for the oven.
Sean Dillon, a true gentleman watched over us with halk eyes and made sure we were doing the job properly.
The whole job took no more than a hour and these fine birds will be enjoyed by many on Christmas day. Old school you could say .....
Happy Christmas to all......

This knocks the stuffing out of stuffing.......

This is going to be my only Christmas recipe this year, every Tom, Dick and Harry are creating recipes for the masses so I guess you all have enough of it, at least I do.
This time of year is about Peace and Love and not the quantity of food you waste after all the festivities are over, so please support the local producers when ordering your food for December 25. Take pride in cooking and eating it that's what it is all about..
So here is a very simple recipe for stuffing you can use with duck, goose, turkey or pork. It is delicious and simple to make..

Enough for one duck
35g of butter
70g of finely chopped onion
1 tblsp of chopped sage
1 tblsp of chopped tarragon
1tsp of chopped thyme
20g chopped chestnuts
20g chopped apricot
100g of soft white breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper

Heat the butter in a heavy pan, sweat the onion over a low heat for five minutes or until the onion has gone translucent, add in the sage, chopped chestnuts, apricots and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

A night full of game at the Castle.....

It all started off with a rabbit croquette, followed by a quail pie, washed down with a clear pheasant broth. Then out came the wild brill with caper stem puree and loin of Irish red deer with red cabbage jelly trotting after it. All followed by a rich tempting dark chocolate torte and beetroot, delicious......

Hot buttered Lobster with a hint of garlic and orange

If you get fed up of the traditional dry turkey and ham this Christmas, get yourself a few lobsters from your fishmonger or a day boat fisherman and try this one out, fantastic is all i can say..

This is the ultimate dish, simple to prepare, not to many ingredients and a serious taste of more from the food. The secret of this dish is to get your lobster straight from the sea and cook it as quick as possible.
Serves 4
1.8 kg live lobster
Court bouillon
120g of good Irish butter
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 orange, freshly squeezed

Cook the lobster in the Court bouillon, as soon as it has cooled enough to handle, split them in half and take out all the meat from the claws, body and tail. Cut the meat into chunks.
Heat the lobster shell, melt the butter with the garlic, when it foams add the lobster meat and orange juice and warm through. Spoon the meat into the warmed shell and pour the rest of the melted butter into a ramekin. Eat at once…

Shellfish, its fast to cook, sometimes free and delicious to eat

This is the fast food of the sea and we are surrounded by it. The next time you are walking by the coast keep an eye out for, mussels, cockles, whelks, periwinkles and crab. It’s all there all you have to do is find it, bring it home, cook it and eat it. Or if you are lucky, and see a small day boat coming ashore ask the rosy cheeked fisherman if he would sell you a lobster, shrimp or a brown crab. This, my friends is the way to obtain fresh shellfish.
At the Castle I have being using the best of suppliers for years and Martin Simpson is right up there with them, his lobster and shrimp are second to none, they are the best I can get my hands on. He is a true artisan, a man who goes to sea on his own while most of us are tucked up in bed fast asleep. When he arrives back to the pier in Dunmore East he has caught some of the finest shellfish money can buy.
As a nation we export 90% of the shellfish caught off our shores, you will see the best of Irish crab and lobster in the markets in Paris and Barcelona, this is a crime in my book. We should be using our own natural produce in our kitchens. Yes it might cost a little bit extra, but isn’t it worth it?
Like most of our produce it is sought after abroad, people from Europe know what they are looking for and know how to cook it, so it is time for us to embrace our own food and learn to cook and enjoy it.

Classic Beef Bourguignon, a must have for the weekend....

This is a classic dish first served in Burgundy, but now known all over the world. As ever you must get the best ingredients you can afford for this dish, ask your butcher for well hung shin of beef. This is a cheap cut of meat but when cooked slowly it is delicious.
Serves 6
1.3kg of shin of beef or stewing beef cut into small cubes
185g of streaky bacon
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 onions sliced
500ml Red wine
400ml of beef stock
1 tblsp of tomato puree
200g of chopped tin tomatoes
Sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
3 cloves of garlic
1 strip of orange peel
Salt and cracked black pepper
Juice of ½ orange
20 small onions (this is optional)
450g of button mushrooms

Cut the bacon into ½ inch cubes and fry in a pan with a little olive oil until nice and crisp, transfer to a casserole. In the same pan fry the beef in batches until nice and brown on all sides. Toss in the carrots and onions into the pan and remove to the casserole. De-glaze the frying pan with the wine, scraping the little bits of meat from the base of the frying pan, bring to the boil and add to the meat.
Bring the casserole to the boil and add in the tomato puree, stock, tin tomatoes, thyme, bay leaf, orange peel, orange juice and garlic. Season with salt and black pepper, cover and gently simmer for 1 ½ - 2 ½ hours on the stove top or in a low oven (170 or gas 3) depending on the meat used. Add the peeled onions and mushrooms 20 minutes before the dish is ready to serve.
When the meat is tender pour everything into a strainer placed over a saucepan. Remove the fat from the liquid and if the sauce is too thin reduce for a few minutes, pour in the meat and vegetables back into the sauce pan and serve at once.
This is fantastic served with creamy mashed potatoes or brown rice.