Eat Like a Girl - A Flavour First Recipe Site for Homecooks
Eat Like a Girl - A Flavour First Recipe Site for Homecooks
About
Editorial Policy
Contact Me
  • Cooking
    • Baking
    • BBQ
    • Brunch
    • Chocolate
    • Curry
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Gluten Free
    • Italian
    • Light Bites
    • Salad
    • Seafood
    • Shellfish
    • Snacks
    • Soup
    • Sweet treats
    • Vegan
    • Vegetarian
  • Travelling
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Brunei
    • Canada
    • Caribbean
    • China
    • Croatia
    • Cruises
    • Denmark
    • England
    • Finland
    • France
    • Georgia
    • Holland
    • Hong Kong
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Malaysia
    • Malta
    • New Zealand
    • Peru
    • Portugal
    • Singapore
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Thailand
    • Turkey
    • USA
  • About
  • Contact Me
Cooking, Irish, Pasta

Tagliatelle with Pork, Beef and Black Pudding Ragu

I cooked this at a supper club for 30 people recently. The fourth course of five – all containing black pudding – and as much as I love this dish, I fully did not expect every plate to come back clean. But they did! And so I think we can all agree that it is a winner. They told me so too. 

You see the thing is when so many of your days revolve around cooking and you are generally the only person eating it, it becomes easy to question every bite and wonder if it is enough. Should it be more, bigger, brighter? Everyone who works alone has this problem in one way or another. It would be perfect to have someone to bounce things off, a recipe tester, a friend. A room full of 30 people eating your food with enthusiasm? Perfection.

Many were surprised that I would add black pudding to ragu. It works so well. Already I have a recipe for black pudding ragu that is pure black pudding, no other meat. It is a popular recipe on here, called (tongue in cheek) Corkese. I use Irish black pudding and would suggest that you seek it out for this too. It has a different texture to British black pudding, made with oats and spices, it crumbles and almost bursts when you roast it. 

Using Traditional Tagliatelle with Ragu from Emilia Romagna as a Base 

Continue reading

March 22, 2019by Niamh
Cooking, Irish, Supper

How to Cook a Proper Irish Stew

Jump straight to my Proper Irish Stew Recipe.

Happy St Patrick’s Day! Or Paddy’s Day, but never Patty’s Day, ok? A patty is a burger, also a woman’s name. It is not the patron saint of Ireland whom this day is named for. And no mention of leprechauns, because, you know, groan. Can I just say that Lucky Charms are and American cereal and that it has nothing to do with us!

We don’t dye things green in Ireland, rivers or beer or foodstuff generally, but that is not to say that we don’t celebrate. We do, it is an important day. And I still do even now in London. It is even more important for me now, to plug in to my Irishness and catch up with my Irish friends. To have a laugh and to sing a song. To celebrate Irish friends, food and culture. 

IMG_9062EDIT

St Patrick’s Day in the Ireland of my Youth

Continue reading

March 17, 2017by Niamh
Cooking, Feeding a Crowd, Irish, Pork

Overnight Slow Roast Wild Garlic (Ramps) Porchetta (and Ponderings on an Irish Childhood)

Jump straight to Overnight Slow Roast Wild Garlic (Ramps) Porchetta

First things first, American readers, wild garlic is the same as ramps :) 

I always wondered why I didn’t know about wild garlic when I was growing up in the Irish countryside, and why the surrounding hedgerows and fields weren’t full of it. There was 3 cornered leek, slender and more grassy with a longer season, but still with gorgeous oniony flowers. But no wild garlic at all. The answer became clear as I investigated, rural areas which have lots of dairy cattle don’t have much of it because cows eat the wild garlic and it makes the milk very pungent. So the farmers dig it up. Once it takes root, if conditions are right, wild garlic will take over and spread. You will find it in the shade and with moist soil, you will often find them near patches of bluebells. Once I discovered this, I realised that we had had wild garlic all the time.

In an old abandoned stately home at the end of my road (not uncommon in Ireland), there was a beautiful wood which would be carpeted by bluebells and what we called white bluebells in Spring, and which I now realise was wild garlic. I loved that place and dreamed that one day I might own it. A big old house facing the Atlantic, it had a large wood on either side where we would go for conkers and fruit in Autumn and flowers in Spring. It had a walled garden with apple trees, cherry trees and gooseberry bushes. It was a secret garden that we would play in, the green door still intact and the white wall still high. There were abandoned old stables and a big house, still fully furnished. We found diaries, skis and a wedding dress when we investigated one day. There was a gorgeous small lodge at the entrance outside, which by now was a field full of cows. It was demolished to make way for a golf club, and I was devastated to discover it. Most of the local community were. 

IMG_1434EDIT

We spent much of our childhood wandering around here. The house slowly degraded and became dangerous so we weren’t allowed go there but we still always would. The cows moved in from the field outside to the woods and the ground, and one day we were chased by some bulls (although I fear actually timid bullocks) and we spent hours up a tree waiting for them to go, having to dash across at one point and climb a thick briar, to be rescued from on top of the high external wall by my friends visiting cousin when he wandered past and heard us wailing. We brought a ladder another day to access the house from the first floor now that the downstairs was barred (remember: dangerous!) only to discover a hole in the window and a dead crow splayed on the ground. I took that as a sign and turned heel, with everyone else yelling chicken after me. Chicken maybe, but I just saw a dead crow! 

This wasn’t the only old abandoned house that we played in but it was by far the largest and the most magical. When people left Ireland in poverty, they left their houses behind to crumble with the weather and time. Woodhouse became one of their number and there are no photos that I can find of this gorgeous place. Likely it was much smaller than my child’s eye remembers. Fond memories remain only. 

IMG_1406EDIT

Harvesting wild garlic as I was all those years ago, although with no idea, just to put in vases all around the house. I loved their pretty flowers. Now, I treasure the flowers and the leaves and do all I can to get my mitts on them in season. The flowers have a gorgeous sharp flavour, the leaves too but more sour. I buy it at the farmer’s market, my friend Danny has a garden full and recently donated a plant to my cause, and last weekend I was in Cardiff and went foraging with my friend Abi. We found a riverside carpeted with it, it was more of a stream really. Tender small young leaves and mainly unopened flower buds, which I will pickle like capers. 

IMG_1425

With Danny’s plant, I made a wild garlic porchetta. I had porchetta in my head since my last trip to Rome and I had to make it, if only to exorcise it from my brain. I adore porchetta when it is well made. At home it is tricky, you really need to seal the porchetta as well as you can so that you can retain the fat within, the fat is key to moisture and flavour and there is much of it in the meat. The best way to do this is to stitch the porchetta closed all round. You can seal the ends with tin foil too. I didn’t have a butchers needle (although I have ordered one now) but I did have butchers twine, and so I wrestled my slippery porchetta just before midnight on a night last week and closed it as tightly as I could manage. 

IMG_1129EDIT

For porchetta, you want the loin and belly still as one joint (with the ribs removed). Ask your butcher to do this for you, one of my favourite butchers in London Turner and George prepared it expertly for me (they have an online shop and deliver too). I then blitzed some wild garlic leaves with some oil (rendered pork lard would have been better but I didn’t have any), and rubbed it on to the flesh inside. I rolled it tight and tied it as best as I could – not terribly well if I am honest, I need to work on it – but the results were still gorgeous. I started it bright and furiously, then covered it with foil to roast overnight at a lower temperature. In the morning, my flat smelled gloriously porky with a perky sharp edge of wild garlic, I removed the foil and blasted it again until the skin was perfectly crisp. Roasting it slowly overnight will always give perfect crackling once you dry the skin before you put it in. 

This was such a gorgeous dish. I recommend getting some friends around and serving it as you would a roast, or for a picnic in pizza bianca or gorgeous crusty bread. If you want to serve it for dinner, put it in first thing in the morning, it doesn’t need to be overnight. 

I have so many ideas for my wild garlic but I would love to hear yours too. Or do you have any favourite recipes that you could link me to? Thanks!

Danny’s superb food blog – http://www.foodurchin.com/

Abi’s gorgeous travel blog – http://www.insidethetravellab.com/

Other wild garlic ideas from Eat Like a Girl:

Wild Garlic Pesto (aka the Joy of Spring) [Recipe]

Wild Garlic & Chorizo Potato Gratin

Recipe: Linguine with a simple tomato sauce, wild garlic flowers and pine nuts

Crab Claws with Wild Garlic & Chipotle

Wild Garlic Frittata

Edible Wild Flowers: Three Cornered Leek/Wild Onion

Gorgeous wild garlic recipes from elsewhere:

Wild Garlic Pesto, Soup, Bread etc etc etc from Food Urchin

Wild Garlic Irish Soda Bread from Donal Skehan in Ireland

Wild garlic pesto aka ramson pesto recipe from Nami-Nami in Estonia

Wet & Wild Garlic Lasagne with Creamy St. George’s Mushrooms & Fresh Egg Pasta from Ramson’s & Bramble in Leeds, UK

Print
Overnight Slow Roast Wild Garlic Porchetta
Rate this recipe
7 ratings

serves 8 - the leftovers are brilliant also

Overnight Slow Roast Wild Garlic Porchetta

Ingredients

  • 1 x 4 to 5 kg porchetta joint (ask your butcher to prepare one with the belly and loin with ribs removed, and skin still on) - you won't regret making more, it is sandwich heaven
  • 50g wild garlic leaves
  • 2 tbsp oil like extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil (or pork dripping if you have it)
  • sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
    you will also need
  • butcher's string
  • aluminium foil to cover
  • a deep roasting tray that will fit the roast comfortably

Instructions

  • This is best prepared in advance, although I have prepared it right before too, so don't stress too much if you don't have time.
  • Score the pork skin with a very sharp knife or craft / stanley knife, or have your butcher score it for you. Try to just cut the skin down to just before the fat but not below. If you go into the flesh, the flesh will lose moisture and you run the risk of drying the meat and the escaping moisture will kill the crackling on the way out.
  • Put the wild garlic and the oil in a food processor or blender, or chop the wild garlic finely and mix with the oil. Rub into the flesh (not the skin side), season with some sea salt and black pepper, and then roll the joint so it is skin side out and as tight as possible. This might be a bit of a slippery wrestle but it is worth it. Tie it tightly with string as best you can (there is lots of info online about butchers knots, mine were clumsy but worked). You really want it to be as tight as possible to maintain flavour and moisture as much as possible. You can cover the ends with foil which will help, and the gold standard is to stitch it all closed tightly with a butchers needle and string.
  • Dry the skin with kitchen towel, and if you have time, place it uncovered in the fridge for as long as you can, up to 8 hours, to dry out the skin completely.
  • Or just roast it, which is ok, just make sure the skin is very dry. You can even use a hair dryer here if you like (it works!). Season the skin with sea salt just before it goes in (and not earlier as it will draw moisture out).
  • Preheat your oven to as high as it goes and when hot place the porchetta in the tray and put it in. Blast it for about half an hour or until the skin starts to blister. Remove from the oven and turn the oven down to 130 deg C. Cover the porchetta with foil and put it back in the oven to roast it for 8 hours - or overnight.
  • Remove the foil and remove any excess fat that has rendered. This will be brilliant for roast potatoes another time. Turn the heat right back up for about 20 minutes, keeping an eye on it, until the crackling is perfectly crisp.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to rest for half an hour before serving. You can heat slices gently for warm sandwiches later too.
  • It is SO good, Enjoy!
  • 4.14
    https://eatlikeagirl.com/overnight-slow-roast-wild-garlic-ramps-porchetta-and-ponderings-on-an-irish-childhood/
    Copyright: Eat Like a Girl

     

    April 11, 2016by Niamh


    Hello! I’m Niamh (Knee-uv! It’s Irish).

    You are very welcome here. Eat Like a Girl has been my place to scribble online since 2007. That’s 14 years of recipes and over 1000 posts to explore.

    Eat Like a Girl? It’s simple, we love to eat too. Anything else you’ve heard about women and only eating salad? It’s noise and misogyny.

    But, we really love an excellent salad too. Shouldn’t everyone?!

    Get Email Updates

    We can email you when there is new posts!

    Join 60,240 other subscribers.

    Buy Bacon the Cookbook

    Get your copy of Bacon the Cookbook at baconthecookbook.com

    Comfort & Spice

    Press

    One of Britain’s 500 Most Influential People (according to The Sunday Times / Debrett’s January 2014)

    Best Food Blog, Observer Food Monthly Awards, October 2011

    Debrett's 500 Most Influential People

    Recent Posts

    My New Book, Bacon the Cookbook, Publishes on Thursday

    My New Book, Bacon the Cookbook, Publishes on Thursday

    Dream Now, Travel Later: Plotting a Return to Nova Scotia

    Dream Now, Travel Later: Plotting a Return to Nova Scotia

    Jalapeño Brined Fried Chicken and Homemade Chicken Fat Tortilla Tacos

    Jalapeño Brined Fried Chicken and Homemade Chicken Fat Tortilla Tacos

    Chilli Roast Pumpkin, Halloumi, Cavolo Nero and Pomegranate

    Chilli Roast Pumpkin, Halloumi, Cavolo Nero and Pomegranate

    Confit Duck with Damson Plums, Puy Lentils, Beetroot and Sage

    Confit Duck with Damson Plums, Puy Lentils, Beetroot and Sage

    Nduja Clams with Garlic Aioli

    Nduja Clams with Garlic Aioli

    Baked Seaweed Beans (Haricot Beans with Tomatoes, Seaweed and Balsamic Onions)

    Baked Seaweed Beans (Haricot Beans with Tomatoes, Seaweed and Balsamic Onions)

    ‘Nduja Chickpeas with Tomato, Coriander and Scrambled Egg

    ‘Nduja Chickpeas with Tomato, Coriander and Scrambled Egg

    Announcing our Special Guest for this weeks Cooking and Cocktail Show (TODAY at 5pm)!

    Instant Mini Rhubarb and Rose Cheesecakes

    Follow via RSS

    RSS Feed RSS - Posts

    RSS Feed RSS - Comments

    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

     "So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all problems for the time being" -- Franz Kafka

    Copyright Eat Like a Girl 2006 - 2020

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
    Cookie settingsACCEPT
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled

    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

    Non-necessary

    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

    SAVE & ACCEPT