The Daily Spud » Snacks

Spud Sunday: Crisps A Go-Go

Daily Spud — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:24:08 +0000

Hard to believe, but I have been taken to task in certain quarters for having included on these pages a recipe for so simple a thing as the crisp sandwich. Yes, in these days where tv chefs and cookbook authors are falling over themselves to produce ever easier and ever simpler recipes, this might have been construed as a simplification too far.

My point, of course, was not to teach anybody how to make a crisp sambo per se, but to acknowledge the fact that it sits proudly in the pantheon of spud classics, as much as any buttery mash or creamy gratin. And the same, it has to be said, goes for its close cousin, the crisp toastie.

This week's crisp toastie

This particular toastie featured some of the new Keogh’s crisps that I sampled last week. What better place for a handful of the salt and vinegar variety than smushed between two slices of toasted batch bread, with some mature cheddar, tomatoes, spring onions and mayonnaise for company. It was a little piece of midweek lunch perfection.

Figuring that you might fancy making some toasties of your own, Keogh’s have offered to send one lucky Spud reader a sample of their new range, which includes Dubliner Cheese and Onion, Atlantic Sea Salt and Irish Cider Vinegar and Roast Beef and Irish Stout flavours. The rest of the toastie is, naturally, up to you.

To be in with a shout for the Keogh’s crisps, just leave a comment below.

Anyone with an address in the Republic of Ireland can enter and I’ll leave this open until midday GMT on Monday December 12th, after which I’ll pick a winner from the crisp bag.

A Little Bit O’ Bento

Daily Spud — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:55:32 +0000

I’ll admit that what you will see below was more carefully assembled (to say nothing of being more psychedelic) than my lunchbox usually is, but, in the bento scheme of things, I’m not sure that it counts as being especially kawaii. (If, at this point, you are sporting a blank or quizzical stare, then I should explain that bento refers to a packed meal common in Japanese cuisine and kawaii to the cuteness thereof – and some bentos are, indeed, tremendously cute).

The call to create a bento began (as many things do these days) as a series of exchanges on Twitter, resulting in an invitation from Chef Pandita to take up the bento challenge – a mission that has been variously tagged on Twitter as #bentomadness, #bentocuteness, #badassbento and (my own particular favourite) #halfassbento.

Lunch is served, bento-style

And while I will say that my efforts to fashion a face out of my food might indeed have been a bit half-assed (I mean, did you even guess that it was a face?), the assembled items, nonetheless, made for a satisfying and seasonal summer lunch (and that, surely, counts as a bento win).

Proudly making up the face in the top half of the box were the first of my newly harvested potatoes (woohoo!) tossed in homemade garlic mayonnaise, with spring onion slices for hair and two egg and smoked salmon rolls for eyes. Below, a triangle of toasted brown soda bread, topped with a cherry tomato smile (yes, I know, work with me on this), a carrot nose (no, I don’t actually know anyone who has a nose that looks even vaguely like that) and an anatomically misplaced cucumber moustache. It was, truly, a face made for eating, so that is precisely what I did.

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Egg and Smoked Salmon Rolls

These simple rolls were a vague nod to the Japanese origins of bento and the sushi rolls you might find in a Japanese bento box, though the fish used here is the much more Irish choice of smoked salmon. The recipe below, using a single egg, will make about 4 rolls, which will do one or two people, depending on how much else you’re having for lunch. You can easily double the amounts (or more) depending on how many you want to serve.

You’ll need:

vegetable oil for frying
1 egg
pinch of salt
1.5 tblsp cream cheese
1 tsp finely chopped chives
freshly ground black pepper
50g smoked salmon, sliced thinly
squeeze of lemon juice
1 tblsp finely diced cucumber

You’ll also need:

A small frying pan, around 20cm diameter, plus cocktail sticks to hold the rolls

The Steps:

Place your frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add oil to coat the pan.
Beat the egg and add a pinch of salt. Add to the pan and swirl so that it coats the pan thinly and evenly. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until the egg has set. Remove and allow to cool.
Mix the cream cheese with the chives and a little black pepper and spread onto the cooked egg. Top with the smoked salmon and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Place a line of diced cucumber across the middle of the smoked salmon and egg pile, then, starting from an edge parallel to the line of cucumber, roll the whole thing up – the cucumber should end up in the middle of the roll.
Slice into 4 pieces, skewer with cocktail sticks and serve.

The Variations:

You could tweak these by, say, adding a little crushed garlic when cooking the egg and/or adding some chopped dill to the cream cheese either instead of, or in addition, to the chives.

The Results:

Makes 4 individual rolls.

Sage Advice

Daily Spud — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:00:09 +0000

Sage a go-go in the backyard

So, what exactly does one do with an excess of sage?

I ponder this question, knowing that – lovely though it is – sage is not usually called for in anything other than fairly small amounts. As I look at my flourishing sage plant, however, it seems a shame not to be using its bounty of leaves in larger quantities.

So, as oft times before, I ask the internet what to do, and the answer returns, dipped deliciously in beer batter and fried. The future of my sage leaves is golden.

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Beer-battered Sage Leaves

While I have fried plain sage leaves before, it had never occurred to me to dip them in batter first. Done this way, they make for a tasty nibble to be enjoyed along with a glass of beer or whatever-you’re-having-yourself.

The recipe I’ve used is adapted slightly from one I found here, which notes that you might find deep-fried sage leaves as part of an Italian fried platter or frittura mista.

The quantity of batter is enough to coat quite a large number of sage leaves which will, in turn, provide nibbles for a large group. Of course you can always make a smaller amount or use leftover batter to coat anything else you might like to deep fry.

You’ll need:

100g plain flour
0.25 tsp salt
small pinch of baking soda
approx. 200ml pale ale
plenty of olive oil for frying
1 egg white
60-80 large sage leaves, with stems if possible, washed and patted dry

You’ll also need:

You can use a deep fat fryer if you have one, otherwise use a deep frying pan or wok for this.

The Steps:

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl, then add the beer and mix gently to a (fairly runny) batter, taking care to remove any lumps.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
When you’re ready to start frying, fill your pan with oil to a depth of about 2-3cm and place over a medium-high heat.
While the oil is heating, add a pinch of salt to the egg white and whisk until stiff peaks form, then gently fold the egg white into the chilled batter.
Check to see that the oil is hot enough to start frying: if you have a suitable thermometer, look for a temperature of about 180C, otherwise a drop of batter should sizzle immediately and brown quickly. If the oil is smoking, remove from the heat to let it cool a bit before proceeding.
Now, working in small batches, dip the sage leaves into the batter and fry, turning once, until crisped up and golden, 1-2 minutes. Remove with a tongs or slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot, perhaps with the rest of that beer that you had to open for the batter.

The Variations:

You could, of course, put some additional flavouring into the batter – a little hit of chilli might work well.

The Results:

Enough beer-battered sage leaves for 10 or so people to nibble on.

Spud Sunday: A Taste of June

Daily Spud — Sun, 29 May 2011 17:53:12 +0000

If winning a case of wine and/or scoring tickets to Taste of Dublin are of interest to you, then you’ll want to stick around until (or just skip straight to) the end of this post. That’s all I’m sayin’…

Yes, we have gotten to that time of year where I think my calendar might actually burst. There are a multitude of things going on in June, each one tastier than the next.

In just a few days time, from Thursday June 2nd to Monday June 6th, the Phoenix Park in Dublin sees the return of the Bord Bia sponsored food and garden festival that is Bloom in the Park. I’ll be going along, which, if last year and the year before are anything to go by, should be a most enjoyable day out.

On Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons throughout June, the Campo Viejo Tapas Trail will bring groups to five tapas venues around Dublin including Bar Pinxto, The Port House, Salamanca Dame Street, Salamanca St Andrews Street and Havana Tapas Bar. Participants will enjoy tapas and some Campo Viejo rioja at each venue and will, no doubt be quite happy by the end of proceedings. Tickets are €20 each and you can get more details and book tickets here.

On the tapas trail: patatas bravas

Later in the month, and for four nights only, from June 28th to July 1st, the Jacob’s Creek Pop-Up Wine & Dine experience will be happening at a secret (and I’m told impressive) Dublin city centre location. 30 guests each night will be given a free masterclass with wine expert David Whelehan, while chef Clodagh McKenna will prepare a menu to match the wines on offer. See the Jacob’s Creek facebook page for more information and to request a reservation.

Further down the country, Totally Tipperary on June 25th in the grounds of Cloughjordan House is another in the growing list of local food festivals, and will be showcasing the very best of Tipperary food with the help of food bloggers and local food producers alike.

And, finally, from Thursday June 9th to Sunday June 12th, Taste of Dublin is back, with its usual selection of restaurant stalls, chef’s theatre, artisan producers and entertainment. Granted it’s never a cheap day out, but some free tickets (or better yet, a case of wine) would help, right?

The Edward Dillon Wine Experience and Spirits Academy will be offering tasting masterclasses throughout Taste of Dublin on a range of their wine and spirit brands, including Hennessy cognac and wines from Carmen, Doña Paula and Wolf Blass. They will also provide a lucky spud reader with two tickets for the 12pm to 4pm session of Taste of Dublin on Saturday June 11th and they’ve thrown in a case of Carmen Reserva Carmenere to boot.

So, do please let me know in the comments if you’re interested in getting your hands on the tickets, the wine or both. You’ll need to have an address somewhere in the Republic of Ireland to be eligible (and, naturally, you will need to be of at least official wine-drinking age). I’ll leave this open until midnight (GMT) on Monday June 6th and then pick winners at random. And for those who don’t win (and even for those who do), there’s always some tapas-trail-inspired patatas bravas.

Update: And the winners are… Maria Murray, who’ll be going along to Taste of Dublin, and David Cochrane, whose red wine needs will be sorted for the foreseeable future. Congratulations both!

Patatas Bravas

Patatas bravas – potatoes cubed, fried and served with a spicy tomato sauce and aioli – are one of the classic tapas dishes. My interpretation here varies from the traditional mainly in that I roast the potato cubes in olive oil, rather that frying them, which saves a good deal of effort, especially if you’re making a large batch.

You’ll need:

1 kg potatoes, preferably a floury variety
Olive oil for roasting
Coarse salt
1 quantity tomato sauce (see below)
1 quantity aioli (see below)
Freshly chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

You’ll also need:

2 shallow roasting trays, each around 25cm x 38cm

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 200C
Scrub your potatoes well, peel or not as you prefer, chop into approx. 1cm cubes and pat dry.
Add about 4 tblsps of oil to one of your roasting trays and place both trays in the oven to heat for about 5 minutes.
Remove the trays from the oven, toss the potato cubes in the hot oil and add a couple of pinches of coarse salt. Spread them across both trays and return to the oven.
Roast the potatoes for around 40 minutes or until golden.
Serve the crispy potato cubes topped with tomato sauce, a spoon of aioli and scattered with freshly chopped parsley.

The Variations:

If you prefer to fry the potatoes, as is more traditional for this dish, then you can certainly do so – you might want to boil the potato cubes briefly before doing so.

The Results:

Tapas-sized portions for 5-6 people.

Tomato Sauce With Chilli And Garlic

Hooray for the approach of that time of year where locally grown tomatoes become available and making a sauce from fresh tomatoes is a vaguely sensible proposition. If you don’t have a source of good fresh tomatoes, substitute 2 x 400g tins of good quality tinned tomatoes instead. The result will be different but still tasty.

You’ll need:

Olive oil for frying
2 medium-sized onions, about 300g, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large fresh red chilli pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
0.25 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp sweet paprika
2 tblsp tomato purée
900g fresh, ripe tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1.5 tsp salt or more to taste
small pinch sugar
1 tsp red wine vinegar

The Steps:

Place a large, heavy saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add enough oil to coat the base of the pan well. Add the onion, stir and fry until translucent and softened – about 4-5 minutes.
Add the garlic and fresh chili. Stir and fry for another minute or so.
Add the cayenne and paprika, stir briefly, then add the tomato purée, tomatoes, bay leaves, salt and sugar. Stir and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly for at least 30 minutes.
Add the red wine vinegar and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. This sauce can be made the day before and reheated if you like.

The Variations:

You could certainly add in some chopped red pepper along with the onion and/or try substituting some smoked paprika for the milder sweet variety.

The Results:

Make around 750ml of sauce

Aioli

Provençal or Catalan? Made with egg or without? Such are the questions that exercise the minds of those concerned with the finer points of aioli or allioli. Me, I’m happy to think of it as garlic mayonnaise and just get on with it. And, of course, as with any homemade mayonnaise, your egg will remain raw so be sure to use a good quality egg, free range and organic if you can.

You’ll need:

1 egg yolk
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 clove raw garlic or 6 cloves of roasted garlic, crushed
0.25 tsp salt
1 tblsp red wine vinegar
50ml sunflower oil
50ml extra virgin olive oil

You’ll also need:

You can use a hand whisk, an electric whisk or food processor for this.

The Steps:

Add your egg yolk, mustard, garlic, salt and vinegar to a large bowl or into the bowl of a food processor. Whisk or blend well.
Very slowly, stream the sunflower oil and then the olive oil into the mixture. If you’re using a food processor, keep the motor running while you stream in the oil. By hand, you’ll just need to keep whisking all the time so that the oil and egg yolk becomes emulsified and thick. Add more salt and/or vinegar to taste.

The Variations:

I quite fancy adding a little lemon zest to the end result (though given half the chance, I’d probably add a little lemon zest to almost anything).

The Results:

Makes about 100ml

Food Al Fresco

Daily Spud — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:00:35 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I probably ate as many childhood summer picnics sitting inside while it rained as sitting outside in the sunshine. Still, soon-to-be-soggy tomato sandwiches, tayto crisps, club orange and mikado biscuits were as much of a summer treat inside our holiday caravan as out. Eating in also meant you avoided the inevitable gobful of sand that accompanied a meal on the beach, which was a not unimportant consideration.

Fast forward an unspecified number of years and my picnics, when they happen, are more likely to consist of crusty bread, a nice block of cheese, ballymaloe relish and a more adult beverage. Throw in some potato salad, coleslaw and maybe a tossed salad or sorts and I’m more than happy. It’s simple food to which the warmth of the sun (when it’s there) always adds its own particular seasoning.

That’s not to say, however, that you can’t mix it up a little every now and then.

This month’s 5 star makeover asked us to do exactly that: take some classic picnic fare and give it a shiny new look. Armed with a stash of ingredients from my recent Lebanese travels, I thought that I would take the simple tossed salad of tomato, lettuce and onion on a journey to the Middle East. The result is a salad packed with Lebanese flavours. The preparation, though, is simple, which is a must for picnics in Ireland. Too much time spent getting ready and you might have to enjoy your picnic inside, again.

hosted by 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro Cooks!

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Chickpea Salad With Lebanese Flavours

As Bethany, our guide for Taste Lebanon explained, you can make almost anything taste Lebanese by adding olive oil, lemon juice and garlic, some or all of which you’re likely to find in almost any dish you eat there. The dressing here combines those three with pomegranate molasses, another classic ingredient from the region, with its thick, syrupy tang.

As for chickpeas, you’ll find them in all sorts of places in Lebanese cuisine, from the ubiquitous hummus – which is actually just the Arabic word for chickpea – to warm dishes like Lebanese moussaka, which features chickpeas, aubergines and tomato. This salad includes both plain cooked chickpeas and roasted chickpeas for added crunch, along with spring onions, tomatoes, fresh coriander and parsley, all of which abound in the foods from that part of the world. If you can get your hands on some good labneh, the strained yoghurt that is very commonly eaten in Lebanon, then by all means add that to the salad, otherwise some soft fresh goat’s cheese makes a good substitute.

For the dressing:

3 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp pomegranate molasses
1.5 tsp honey
1 small clove garlic, crushed
coarse salt to taste

For the salad:

8 large spring onions, finely sliced
squeeze of lemon juice
250g cherry tomatoes, quartered (or halved if very small)
250g cooked chickpeas (either soak and cook approx. 100g dried chickpeas or drain and rinse a 400g tin of chickpeas)
100g roasted chickpeas with sumac and allspice (see recipe below)
100g soft, fresh goat’s cheese or labneh
6 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
3 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
coarse salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
leaves of baby gem, romaine or other crunchy lettuce to serve

The Steps:

Prepare the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, honey, crushed garlic and salt to taste.
Add the spring onions to a salad bowl and sprinkle with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
Add the tomatoes, chickpeas (both plain and roasted), goat’s cheese, coriander, parsley and dressing to the salad bowl. Toss to mix. Add coarse salt and black pepper to taste.
To serve, scoop spoonfuls of salad onto crunchy lettuce leaves and dig in.

The Variations:

You could replace the goat’s cheese here with feta cheese and (if so) reduce the amount of salt you add.

The Results:

Serves around 6-8, along with other salad dishes & breads

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Roasted Chickpeas

Chickpea fiend that I am, I find it surprising, and not a little shocking, that it took me this long to get around to making roasted chickpeas. Still, better late than never and I can guarantee that it won’t take me anything like as long to get around to making these a second (and third and forth …) time.

The flavourings I’ve used – sumac, with its lemony tartness and warm, aromatic allspice – are classically Lebanese but you can adjust to suit your own tastes, while the method is adapted from a recipe I found over here.

You’ll need:

250g cooked chickpeas (either soak and cook approx. 100g dried chickpeas or drain and rinse a 400g tin of chickpeas)
1 tsp olive oil
1.5 tsp sumac
1 tsp gnd allspice
0.25 tsp coarse salt

You’ll also need:

A shallow baking tray to accommodate the chickpeas in a single layer – one that’s around 20cm x 30cm should do the trick

The Steps:

Preheat the oven to 200C
Spread the cooked chickpeas in a single layer on your baking tray and roast for about 20 minutes, giving the tray a good shake about midway through.
Remove the tray from the oven and toss the chickpeas with the oil, sumac, allspice and salt. Spread them out onto the tray again and return to the oven for another 5 to 15 minutes, until browned and crunchy. Enjoy warm or at room temperature as a snack or use in the salad above.

The Variations:

You can vary the spices as suits your mood. The recipe linked above, for example, uses cumin and cayenne pepper, which sounds like a good combination to me.

The Results:

Makes around 100g roasted chickpeas

Spud Sunday: The Lefse Challenge

Daily Spud — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:06:02 +0000

So here goes round 2 of Project Food Blog. Needless to say, I’m hugely grateful for the round 1 votes that got me here. Voting for this round will happen between September 27th and 30th – here’s the handy voting link.

“But I’m not a paper-thin dough kind of girl…”, I protested.

Not that anybody was listening. I was just having one of those internal wrangles with my blog-self.

Still. There it was in 140 characters. A request from Imen for lefse.

Of course I knew about lefse – the Norwegian potato flatbread – though I’d never eaten it. No great surprise there, given that I’d never been to either Norway or Minnesota, the two places it seemed you were most likely to find it. And I really did want to make lefse – it had been on my list for a long time. Long before Imen had asked.

Longed-for Lefse

Except…

…managing the paper thin lefse dough seemed tricky. There was equipment involved. Pastry cloths and grooved rolling pins, lefse turning sticks and griddles, not to mention talk of a pastry sock. Pfft. The only socks I had were the ones I put on my feet.

I got the distinct feeling that it was the kind of thing you needed to learn by watching your Norwegian grandmother. And whaddya know, I didn’t have one of those either.

When I saw the process described as “chaos incarnated“, that had put the final nail in my lefse coffin. Until now, that is.

With a Project Food Blog challenge on my hands, it seemed as good a time as any to resurrect my lefse ambitions.

First, though, I was going to need a good long talk with my blog-self.

“Forget the equipment. The first lefse-makers didn’t have any special equipment”. True enough. I would do what I could with a rolling pin and pancake pan.

“It’s just a mashed potato dough. You’ve made gnocchi, you can make this.”

And, yes, as I set about making the lefse dough, it seemed to have much in common with gnocchi: with less flour better than more; soggy mash a friend to neither; and a grandmother of the appropriate nationality an advantage for both.

Lefse dough, ready to roll

But making dough is one thing. Rolling it out and cooking it quite another. And in my quest for paper-thinness, the lefse stuck and they tore (and I cursed and I swore). They crumpled. I cried. They burned. I sighed.

But while paper-thin perfection proved elusive, it didn’t matter in the end. My lefse were just as thin as something spread with butter, sugar and cinnamon needed to be.

Practice makes... a lot of lefse

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Lefse

This formula for lefse is based, among others, on the recipe found here, which seemed particularly helpful.

You’ll need:

1kg potatoes, preferably a floury variety (I used Irish Queens, in the U.S. try Russets)
50g butter (approx. 3 tblsp)
0.5 tsp salt (plus more for boiling the potatoes)
100ml whipping cream
approx. 175g – 300g plain flour

You’ll also need:

I’d strongly recommend having a ricer for the potatoes. If you have lefse-making equipment, then use it, though you can use your regular rolling pin to roll the lefse out, use a ruler or other long, slim implement to lift and turn the lefse and, if you don’t have a griddle, then a cast iron frying pan or pancake pan will do the job.

The Mash Steps:

Peel your potatoes and cut into roughly even-sized slices, around 1-2cm thick. Rinse under cold water.
Bring about 1.25l of water to the boil in a saucepan, add about 1.5 tsp salt and the potato slices.
Bring the potatoes back to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer gently, covered, for around 12-15 minutes or until just fork-tender.
Drain the potatoes well and return to the saucepan. Then either let them sit, covered by a tea-towel, for about 5 minutes or place the pan over a low heat and stir gently for a minute or so while they dry out.
While the potatoes are drying, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
Put the cooked and still warm potatoes through a potato ricer, then stir in the melted butter. Add the cream and salt and stir to combine.
Cover the bowl of mashed potatoes with a tea-towel and place in the fridge for several hours or overnight, allowing the potatoes to cool completely.

The Dough Steps:

When you’re ready to make the lefse dough, get your mashed potatoes and knead in about 175g plain flour, adding more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough that’s just slightly sticky and should hold together if you squeeze it.
Form the dough into small, evenly sized patties (about 3 tblsp of dough should be enough to make a 20cm wide lefse when it’s rolled out).
You can get ready to roll your first lefse now (and, meanwhile, keep the rest of the patties covered in the fridge).
Heat your griddle (to 500F if you have a temperature control) or place your ungreased stove top griddle or pan over a high heat.
Using a well-floured board, roll the lefse out as thinly as you can. Slide a turning stick or some other long, wide implement under the lefse, lift and transfer to the griddle or pan.
Cook for about 30 seconds or until the lefse has started to bubble and develop brown spots on the base. Flip the lefse over and cook briefly, just until the other side develops brown spots.
Remove and keep the lefse warm by covering with a towel while you get on with rolling and cooking the rest.
Eat warm with butter, sugar and cinnamon or allow to cool completely, fold in quarters and freeze until you’re ready to use them.

The Variations:

You can add a tsp or two of sugar to the mashed potato – many recipes do – or you can replace the cream with additional butter.

The Results:

Makes around 30 x 20cm wide lefse

What’s In A Flapjack?

Daily Spud — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:27:20 +0000

Well, the answer to that question is almost anything you like.

I mean, you’re more than likely to find oats and butter and sugar, but, really, you can add whatever else takes your fancy (just take a look at Sarah’s five flavours of flapjack post, which is what got me started down this road in the first place). If you’re me, the “whatever else” might just take the shape of some Baileys Irish Cream (which is no more than you would expect from someone (hic!) who has been known to add kahlúa to their porridge…).

Presenting Baileys flapjacks

I’ll admit, though, that the decision to add a splash of Baileys in this case was pretty random. The bottle of Baileys happened into my line of sight as I went about my flapjack-making business and into the flapjacks it went. Simple as that.

At least that’s how it happened the first time.

For subsequent batches (and there have been several), the first step has always been to fetch forth the bottle of Baileys. Very shortly thereafter I will be found scarfing down gobfuls of the uncooked, Baileys-laced mixture. By the time the cooked version (what’s left of it) is gone, well, whaddya know, it’s time to go looking for that bottle again…

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Baileys Flapjacks

The real beauty of these (or any) flapjacks is just how simple they are to make. Melt what’s meltable, add the liquid ingredients to the dry and you’re done. Well, apart from the baking part that is, which you can omit entirely if you just want to eat the raw mixture (and I promise not to tell anybody if you do so).

You’ll need:

175g unsalted butter
50g dark muscovado sugar
2 tblsp golden syrup
2 tblsp Bailey’s (or other Irish cream liqueur)
0.25 tsp fine salt
50g sunflower seeds
250g porridge oats (rolled oats)
25g dessicated coconut
50g dried cranberries or dried sour cherries

You’ll also need:

A shallow baking tin – mine was 28cm x 18cm x 2cm deep – and parchment paper to line it

The Steps:

Preheat the oven to 160C and line your baking tin with parchment paper.
Place a small, heavy saucepan over a medium heat and add the butter, sugar, golden syrup, Bailey’s and salt. Heat until the butter and sugar have melted, stirring periodically.
Meanwhile, place a small, heavy frying pan over a medium heat. Add the sunflower seeds and toast them, stirring frequently, until starting to brown – about 4-5 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, coconut, sunflower seeds and dried fruit. Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter mixture. Mix to combine and scrape into your baking tin, flattening the mixture out and pressing it into the tin with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
Bake in the centre of the oven until golden brown, around 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin before slicing into squares or bars and, if you don’t scoff the lot straightaway, store what’s left in an airtight tin.

The Variations:

Of course you don’t have to add Bailey’s – substitute with cream or melted chocolate, leave out altogether or replace with another flavouring. You can also play around with the choice of dried fruit, nuts, seeds and/or chocolate chips.

The Results:

Makes around 27 6cm x 3cm flapjacks

Spud Sunday: Cut And Dried

Daily Spud — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:27:17 +0000

My new favourite potato thing: oven-dried crisps

Fond though I am of a proper bag of crisps, I don’t mind telling you that I am more than a little excited by these.

Paper-thin slices of potato, soaked in salt and vinegar, then dried to a crisp in the oven.

Yep, that’s dried, not fried.

I’ll grant you that these are not likely to usurp their fried-in-oil cousins anytime soon, but they do make a good case for themselves as a light and crispy snack in their own right. And they’re positively healthy to boot.

There’s a lot to like.

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Oven-Dried Salt ‘N’ Vinegar Crisps

These crisps were the very happy combination of ideas from 2 different bloggers.

I was firstly intrigued by a recipe on 101 Cookbooks which involved grilling slices of potato that were first parboiled in vinegar. Then, over In Jennie’s Kitchen, I spotted some oven-dried slivers of potato and, hey presto, these crisps were born.

The idea couldn’t be simpler.

Take paper-thin slices of potato, soak in salted vinegar for 10 minutes and bake in a very low oven until crisp. If you don’t want vinegared crisps, just soak in salted water instead. If you like, you can bake the crisps without soaking and then sprinkle with some coarse salt, but I like the results better when they are soaked in salted liquid first.

You’ll need:

approx. 200g potato (one medium to large spud)
0.75 tsp fine salt
150ml malt or cider vinegar (or use water for plain, salted crisps)

You’ll also need:

A mandoline for cutting paper-thin potato slices, plus a couple of large baking sheets (approx. 40cm x 30cm) and parchment paper to line them.

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 120C and line your baking sheets with parchment paper (otherwise the crisps may stick to the baking sheets).
Mix the salt with the vinegar (if using) until dissolved or mix with an equivalent amount of water instead.
Scrub your potato(es) well and leave unpeeled. Cut into paper-thin slices using a mandoline or similar implement.
Place the potato slices in a bowl, pour over the liquid and leave to soak for 10 minutes. The liquid should just cover the slices. If you don’t have quite enough liquid, you can try weighting the slices down lightly using a plate or saucer
After soaking, drain the potato slices well and shake off any excess liquid. Lay the slices in a single layer on your baking sheets.
Bake for 30 minutes, then turn the baking sheets around, swap the shelves that they’re on and bake for another 15 to 30 minutes until crisp. Ovens, potatoes and slicing thicknesses vary, so check them periodically.
Eat on their own or with dips.

The Variations:

I have really only begun to experiment with these, so I suspect that the possibilities are endless. Do try varying the liquid you use and the length of time you soak the slices for. Slices soaked for 30 minutes in vinegar were, well, very vinegary, but you might like that. Who knows.

The Results:

Around 25g to 35g of crisps.

Alternatively…

If it’s real crisps you’re after, you could do worse that to seek out a new entrant to the Irish crisp market. I had the opportunity to sample some of Ed O’Donnell’s Tipperary Crisps during the week and, my, but they are worthy of your attention.

They are naturally appealing for the fact that they use fine, locally sourced ingredients, like Mount Callan cheddar and cider vinegar from Tipperary’s Apple Farm, but mostly they just taste good. The cider vinegar and sea salt flavour I thought an especially fine example of the genre. Here in Ireland, look for them in SuperValu or Centra.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Eat ‘Em

Daily Spud — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:33:01 +0000

The ubiquitous dandelion

Bloomin’ dandelions, eh?

Claiming squatters rights to lawns and gardens everywhere, while gardeners and lawn keepers do their best to evict them. It’s a losing battle, frankly. Dandelions have sheer force of numbers on their side and they’re just too comfortable in the open, sunny, newly turned sod of the garden.

I, however, have a cunning plan. I happen to know that my yellow-headed tenants are blessed with lots of edible possibilities, therefore I shall simply eat them. Ha!

In fact, I might even advertise for more dandelions to move in:

“Young dandelion leaves, wanted for salad”

“Seeking alternative bitter greens, for stir-frying and more, apply within”

“Frying opportunities for seasoned dandelion flowers, genuine callers only”

Fried Dandelion Flowers

Oh yes, allow me to introduce you to fried dandelion flowers. Would that the solution to all of my weed problems were this simple. Dipped in seasoned flour or batter and fried, dandelion flowers can make a tasty (not to mention novel) snack – once you can successfully get your head around the idea of eating them, that is.

Notwithstanding the fact that I am quite happy to eat my wild garlic flowers, that I have used lilac florets to make ice cream and have eaten both stuffed courgette blossoms and nasturtiums, I will admit that eating flowers still presents me with somewhat of a mental hurdle. It’s one that I’m willing to overcome, however, so dandelions-in-residence beware. I have a frying pan and I’m not afraid to use it.

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Fried Dandelion Flowers

The trick here is to remove as much green material from the dandelion flower head as possible, while keeping the flower head intact. The green parts lend bitterness, so you want to minimise that, while the yellow flowers are mild-tasting and faintly sweet.

Before frying, you can dredge the dandelion flowers in seasoned flour or dip in batter. Personally, I like the combination of dipping, first in beaten egg, then in some seasoned polenta, which is what I’ve described below. The quantities are approximate and the seasonings can, of course, be changed as suits your mood and taste.

You’ll need:

approx. 20 dandelion flower heads, stalks and extraneous green parts removed
olive oil for frying
2 tblsp polenta (cornmeal)
pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of dried oregano
1 egg, beaten

The Steps:

Rinse your dandelion flowers and gently pat dry using some kitchen paper.
Place a frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add a thin layer of oil to the pan.
Mix the polenta with the salt, black pepper, dried thyme and dried oregano.
Dip the flowers first in the beaten egg and then in the seasoned polenta.
Fry in batches, stalk side up, for around 3 minutes or until golden. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.
Eat as a snack or use to surprise, and maybe even delight, unsuspecting family and friends.

The Variations:

You can vary the herbs to suit your taste or go all out by dipping the flowers in an eggy batter and deep frying them.

The Results:

Snack for 2-3

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Dandelion Tea

Perhaps we should talk, not so much about edibility as drinkability when it comes to dandelions. The flowers have long been used to make dandelion wine, the leaves to make dandelion tea and the slow roasted roots to make dandelion coffee.

I have yet to try dandelion wine, but I can tell you that my attempt at dandelion coffee tasted bitter and soupy, so I don’t think I’ll be trying that again. My dandelion tea, on the other hand, made as described to me by my mother, was light, earthy and far more palatable. She remembers it being made as a drink during that period of wartime privation known here as The Emergency.

As dandelions are known to be a diuretic, this is probably something that you will want to avoid drinking in extremely large quantities.

You’ll need:

small dandelion leaves – 10 small leaves should make around 1 tsp of dried, crumbled leaves, enough for one cup of tea

You’ll also need:

A baking tray to hold the leaves in a single layer.

The Steps:

Preheat your oven to 90C.
Wash your dandelion leaves, then place in a single layer on a baking tray and into the oven until the leaves are dry and crispy, around 7-10 minutes.
Remove the dandelion leaves and crumble them, discarding the midribs.
In a mug or cup, pour boiling water over about a tsp of crumbled dandelion leaves and leave to infuse for about 5 minutes, before straining and drinking.

The Variations:

You can vary the strength as you wish – I found that this amount made a light tea that was not too bitter, but you may wish to experiment to find a strength that suits your taste.

The Results:

Cup of dandelion tea for one.

Cheap As Chickpeas

Daily Spud — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:56:38 +0000

“I’ll not starve.”

That was the thought that crossed my mind as I pondered some weighty financial issues.

“I could always live on chickpeas” (and, before you ask, there is an implied “and potatoes” in that sentence).

I know for a fact that the modest sum of €3.30 will buy me a hefty 2kg of dried chickpeas at The Asia Market. Allow me to illustrate just how many chickpeas that is:

Chickpeas, lots thereof

I adore chickpeas and would really survive both happily and well if they were my dietary mainstay. I’d eat them in Indian-style curries, stewed Spanish-style with leafy greens, in their many Middle Eastern guises (of which hummus is king), in assorted salads or cooked on a pan burger style. That jar-full, for example, would make about 200 of these little baked chickpea burgers, which would, no doubt, keep me going for quite some time…

Baked Chickpea Burgers

Dried chickpeas are, of course, anything but convenient. They do require soaking overnight and cooking for hours on end (unless, like me, you have a pressure cooker). But they are cheap. And cheap in a good, nutritious way, not like industrialised and overly-processed foods which can be made cheaply but which lose so much of their value as real food in the process. With a little bit of advance planning and perhaps a weekend at your disposal, dried chickpeas will repay your investment well.

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Baked Chickpea Burgers

These burgers are packed with things that I love to eat with chickpeas, including garlic, ginger, carrot, coriander and parsley. As a change from frying, I baked these on an oiled tray which, I have to say, worked out pretty well. Like their deep-fried falafel cousins, these little burgers are lovely stuffed into pita breads and eaten with salads, yoghurt and tahini.

You can, of course, used tinned chickpeas here if you don’t have time, or can’t be bothered with the endless cooking required for the dried variety. If you are cooking dried chickpeas, though, do save the chickpea cooking liquid and freeze it – it makes a nice base for soups.

You’ll need:

150g dried chickpeas (or used tinned – you’ll need about 375g chickpeas once drained)
1 tblsp olive oil plus more for greasing the baking sheet
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 baby leeks or 5-6 spring onions, green and white parts finely sliced
0.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tblsp grated root ginger
1 medium carrot (about 125g), coarsely grated
2 tblsp chopped fresh coriander
4-5 tblsp chopped parsley (either flat leaf or curly)
1 tblsp lemon juice
6 tblsp rolled oats / porridge oats (or use wholewheat breadcrumbs)
1 tsp salt or to taste

You’ll also need:

A large baking sheet – mine was about 20cm by 30cm – or a couple of smaller ones.

The Steps:

If using dried chickpeas and you haven’t had time enough to soak them overnight, you can quick-soak them as follows: cover with several inches of cold water, bring to the boil and boil rapidly for about 2 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to soak for at least an hour in the heated water.
Drain the soaked chickpeas, put into a heavy saucepan with about 1 litre of fresh water. Bring up to the boil, then simmer, partially covered, for about 1.5 – 2 hours or until the chickpeas are tender. Alternatively, if you have a pressure cooker, they’ll only need about 20 minutes of cooking once they’ve been brought up to pressure.
If using tinned chickpeas, just drain and rinse them.
Preheat your oven to 200C and brush your baking sheet(s) with olive oil.
Place a large frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add the olive oil and swirl it around the pan. Add the garlic and leeks (or spring onions) and stir and fry for about 4 minutes or until the leek whites have become translucent.
Add the cumin, grated ginger and grated carrot to the pan and stir and fry for another couple of minutes, then remove from the heat.
In a large bowl, mash the chickpeas coarsely, either using a potato masher or a fork.
Add the carrot and leek mixture to the mashed chickpeas, along with the chopped coriander and parsley, lemon juice, oats and salt. Mix well to combine – you should end up with a fairly stiff mixture.
To make each burger, scoop out a generous heaped tablespoon of the mixture, flatten and form into a patty around 5cm or so in diameter and around 0.5 cm thick and place on the baking sheet. Continue until you’ve used up all of the mixture.
Bake for about 10 minutes, then flip the patties over and bake for another 7-10 minutes until golden.
Serve with pita bread, yoghurt and/or tahini and salads.

The Variations:

You could easily add some fresh mint here I think – either use it to replace the fresh coriander or use both.

The Results:

This amount make 12-15 burgers and feeds 3-4, along with pita breads and salads.