Jump straight to the Gojuchang Mussels with Cider, Cream and Wild Garlic Recipe

That does seem like a long list for a lockdown recipe, but this is fast and it is flavour packed. I have found that I haven’t really had to change much in terms of how I cook. I always cook from my store cupboard anyway, and nothing here is complex. There are 13 years of recipes to explore here too, don’t forget that! 

Gojuchang is one of my favourite ingredients and it comes into its own in lockdown. It adds fierce depth and heat in an instant to anything, lending the time used in its long fermentation to anything we cook it with now. And it goes with everything. There is nothing gojuchang doesn’t like. Or at least, I have yet to find it. Continue reading

Jump straight to the Chickpeas with Chilli, Coriander, Lemon and Red Onion recipe

Are chickpeas everyone’s favourite pulse, or just the one they are most familiar and comfortable with? Do you stock up to make the nations favourite dip, hummus? Or do you make curry, soup or add them to a salad? The chickpea is indispensable, especially now when some days, despite all the time, we require something quick and nourishing with little effort but lots of flavour. This is a plate of sunshine. 

Use tinned chickpeas, or home-cooked. Whatever you have. Take the sharp edge of the red onion by letting it sit in the lemon juice for 10 minutes before dressing the chickpeas. Use whatever herbs you have, basil, oregano, parsley would all work very well too. Lime juice would be lovely here but if you have no fresh citrus, use vinegar (any except malt vinegar which would be too harsh). Taste as you go, and enjoy the results.  Continue reading

Tofu! Now some of you are going to read that and think, WHAT?! TOFU?! Yes, tofu. Why? It is horribly underrated and completely delicious. Once you get the real thing. Tofu is thought of as a vegetarian or vegan ingredient, and yes it is, but in Asia it is as common to see it in a dish with meat, as not. See my recipe for Kimchi Jjigae (Korean Kimchi, Pork & Tofu Stew) for a very tasty example of this.

Tofu is also a fast food. The fastest, it is already good to go. It soaks up flavours and loves contrasting textures. I love it in a crispy fritter for brunch as much as I do in a stew. I love proper silken tofu, fresh from fridges of Asian food shops (especially Japanese). Silken is a joy, the very good stuff has the texture of custard. All of it is sublime when fried, and I have fried tofu every which way. A firm – nay, wobbly – favourite is Agedashi Tofu. 

Agedashi Tofu – Fried Tofu with Dashi!

A Japanese delight of a dish, age-dashi means fry-dashi and that is what this is, fried tofu with a seasoned dashi broth. Seasoned with soy and mirin (you can use sake too). It is naturally gluten free, usually using potato starch or corn starch. I love to use potato starch for this, it confers a stretchy crispness which is perfect with the wobbly tofu underneath. I sometimes mix the potato starch with rice flour, and of course you can just use rice flour too which will give a lovely crisp coating. Continue reading

Jump straight to the Cod Cheeks and Clams in a Tomato, Basil and White Wine Broth Recipe.

Simplicity is the key for me in cooking at home. Good ingredients, cooked well, often quickly. I have lots of store cupboard ingredients. There is always chorizo, a cupboard full of a variety of pasta shapes, noodles and rice. Lets call it the carb cave (and I LOVE my carbs). But often on a hot day I want simple seafood flavoured with fresh herbs and other bright ingredients. 

My original plan was to make the squid stuffed with beef and chorizo that I told you about in my last post. I am so keen to share that one with you soon. But, alas, there was no squid to be had. There was a bounty of cod cheeks, gorgeous delicate morsels of cod meat. There are many reasons to love these, they are delicious, and there isn’t even any chopping to do, they are all bite size. They are usually cheaper too, in this case they were half the price of the clams.

A Perfect Healthy Speedy Supper

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Jump straight to the Potsticker Sausage and Kale Dumpling Recipe.

What is it about dumplings that makes them so irresistible? Silky carbs enclosing gorgeousness, what is not to love?! 

I make dumplings more than is reasonable. Often I make the wrappers myself, it is worth the effort and is somewhat soothing when there is time. There are several recipes on the blog for dumplings already including wrappers (like this Beef & GInger Jiaozi recipe). I do use store bought wrappers too though, which do the job quite well (shop around as they vary), especially when pressed for time or on the road.

Making Handmade Chinese Style Dumplings

For now lets focus on Chinese style dumplings. Chinese style because they look like them and are most certainly inspired by them, but inside the filling for this dumpling is very Irish. Sausage dumplings are something that I have made for a while. I love Irish sausages so much that I had to make them with those, mixed with a little gorgeous kale to loosen the sausage mix and add texture and flavour.  Continue reading

Jump straight to Seaweed Cornmeal Soda Farls recipe

I love soda farls. Speedy Irish soda bread cut into triangles and fried, quicker than the time it would take to go to the shop for bread. And SO fresh. As the name implies, the bread is raised with soda (bicarbonate of) as opposed to yeast, the bicarbonate triggered by the acidity of buttermilk.  I have played around with the recipe many times in the past, making black pudding soda farls, bacon soda farls, and farls with spring onions and herbs. These new versions are my current favourite. 

Buttermilk can be difficult to source here, real buttermilk at least. In Ireland it is sold in the milk fridge in most shops, even small ones, in litre cartons the same size as milk. Here in the UK, it is more likely to be sold in a small cream carton, if you can find it. No need to worry though, it is easy to replicate it by souring some milk with yogurt, or a squeeze of lemon. Dairy free? No problem either. In fact these farls are dairy free as I am currently on a medical exclusion diet (the details of which are too boring for here). I used coconut milk with a generous squeeze of lemon. The coconut milk replicates the texture of the buttermilk perfectly when diluted down a little with the lemon, and the farls don’t taste remotely coconut-y. Perfect. You can also substitute a good almond milk, or any other dairy free milk of your choice.  Just don’t forget the lemon.  Continue reading

Jump straight to Cucumber, Avocado and Basil Soup. 

What do you think of cold soups? Some people absolutely rage against them, don’t they? But they can be so good. Gazpacho? CHECK. Aja Blanco? Hells YES. That delicious confection of almonds, raw garlic, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar, with green grapes halved on top to finish. And of course, vichyssoise, aka wonderful leek and potato soup. We usually eat it hot here, but the tradition in France is to have it cold and it is gorgeous. 

It isn’t hot I know, at least it feels cool at 22 deg C with a breeze. My internal thermostat was forever reset by those days early in the summer in the mid 30’s and a few days over 40 in Ottawa in June. Yet, I wanted something cooling, and my friend, who is ill with a poorly intestine did too. 

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Sounds dreamy doesn’t it? And it was. Perfect for a sunny afternoon. It comes together quickly and it is as pretty as a picture. Any edible flowers will do and there are many. If you don’t already have a nasturtium plant I heartily suggest that you procure one. They grow easily, need little space and they are productive. Flowers and leaves taste and look great (a little peppery), and there are lots of different colours, mainly cheerful shades of orange, yellow and red. When they go to seed, you can treat the seed pods as capers, and pickle them. Here I use nasturtium, both flowers and leaves, but also cucumber flowers (a real garden treat, gentle and tasting of cucumber) and joyful chicory flowers.  Continue reading

Socca is a wonderful thing. So easy to make, and very delicious. Using chickpea flour it is also gluten free. This recipe whisks me back to Nice, to a summer there when I was 19. It was only my second summer away from Ireland, my first trip abroad ever I had spent on a farm outside an idyllic looking English village outside Canterbury picking apples. I say summer, it was 3 weeks and a brief trip to London after, but it allowed me to peek at the possibilities available to me and dream of a travel filled future. The following year, after 1 year in university, I headed to Nice for the summer. 

Nice was a whole different thing. I lived in a small studio apartment not far off the Promenade des Anglais (a boulevard bridging the city and the bright blue sea). I worked in a market in the evening, wandering during the days, loitering in bookshops and anywhere I found interesting. I read biology texts in French to try and develop my language skills (I was studying for my degree in Biology at the time). I read and I walked and I swam in the salty Mediterranean Sea. I burned my feet on the stones on the beach and I jumped from one stone to another to reach the sea before discovering that I would be spectacularly out of my depth after a couple of feet. I worked from 5 until midnight every day, every week, and then I went for pizza most days with friends that I had made there after we finished. I discovered jugs of rosé, pizza with thin gorgeous ham and bottles of chilli oil hiding sprigs of rosemary and dried chillies.   Continue reading

Have you been worried about your blue cheese? Lonely there on your Christmas cheeseboard. Every other cheese has a partner, and blue cheese does love a date (literally, especially medjool ones). Manchego has membrillo, cheddar has apple, there will likely be grapes, lots of crackers, and this year you want something different for your blue.

I adore a brash blue cheese, as strong as you can. Hello English Stichelton! The original stilton recipe, still raw and untempered. I especially love a sweet soft and strong sheep’s blue, like French roquefort and Irish crozier blue. A good blue deserves a bold relish. Nothing ordinary, something bright, something tangy, something that can stand up to the intensity.

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Courgette flowers continue to be a joy. Cheering my mornings with their generous wide open petals reaching for the sky with happy abundance. Greeting bees and then once the bees have had their turn, they come into the kitchen for me. Such a versatile ingredient, cooked until wilted just so and still retaining texture, they taste a little of courgette and mostly of themselves. Continue reading

The food inspired by hunger, a lack of time and what is available is often the best. Sometimes that is how I come up with my most interesting recipes. Like today.

There is something about a crispy egg with a runny yolk. And what is the point of a runny yolk if you don’t have something gorgeous to drag through it? Something that will grab on to it and greedily try and entice some of that yolk and pull is with it as it is dragged through. The crispy egg was the first thing I craved as I was at my desk this morning.

Pasta. Good pasta. In this case a spiral noodle extricated using a bronze die so it has a firm grip and superb texture. I just know that the bends in it will show that egg yolk who is boss, but what to have with the pasta?

I thought herbs, and contemplated sage. Something fragrant and light. But then I remembered the feisty ‘nduja lurking in my fridge waiting for its moment. Firey and rich, a Calabrian spreadable sausage made with pork, hot Calabrian chillies and lard. So good. And perfect for this dish. ‘Nduja makes an instant sauce, is wonderful to boost a tomato sauce, and is perfect just on bread, or fried with some seafood like scallops or prawns.

This is easy and speedy and the best reward for 15 minutes work. Make it and enjoy it. And be prepared to make more immediately after.

Note: feel free to substitute spaghetti or linguine. I used Iberico lard as a cooking fat because I had it and I love it, I encourage you to seek it out. But also feel free to substitute with any other fat (butter, oil). Lard is misunderstood and is not unhealthy when used in small amounts. It is a real food, it isn’t processed, and it is a wonderful base oil for cooking. The best savoury pastries are made with lard too. If you can’t find ‘nduja (you should be able to source it online), substitute with chorizo, and chop it small.

Serves one hungry person – takes 15 minutes – prepare to make more immediately after.