Irish oatcakes..long, long ago!

OK, so how did your oatcakes turn out? The fun thing about these appetizers is that you can create a wide variety of toppings to suit any occasion. Next time I might post some oatcakes with smoked salmon ideas, just for fun…

Now, I did mention that I would add an entry about how old oatcakes really are…well, here it is. The photo above is one we took during a trip home a few years back of an Irish High cross. This wonderful monument was carved in the eighth century for an early Columban monastery in the heartland of Ireland, and can now be found near the village of Moone in County Kildare.

The simple carvings that cover the face of the cross on all sides depict various scenes from the old and new testaments, giving the cross the title of a ’Scripture Cross’. One of those scenes however really caught my eye as I gazed at those ancient carvings, namely the scene in the photo above.

Can you make out what it is?
Or can you tell which famous story it illustrates?
Do you see some fish? Round objects and two snake like creatures?

Well, in actual fact, the carvings illustrate two river trout, two eels and five oatcakes and they re-tell the famous story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Remember He took two fishes and five loaves?

To the Irish people of the eighth century fish and loaves meant brown trout and oatcakes. This remarkable carving gives us an insight into the diet of these Irish people, baking and eating oatcakes over a thousand years ago!

I told you it was a pretty old recipe!!

Have fun…next time I’ll post something that celebrates the coming of Autumn.
Something with apples perhaps? We’ll see.

Take care,
J

McNeill Irish Oatcakes With Blue Cheese and Pear

This recipe is named after my great great grandfather who claimed on his 100th birthday that these crunchy little bites and plenty of Irish tea were the secret to extending long life. Of course the Irish have been making oatcakes for centuries cooked on a griddle over an open fire, and next week I may publish another blog touching on this…

These versatile bites can be served with cheese as an elegant appetizer or eaten the way my two little boys devour them when getting home from school, with butter and jam. When making these oatcakes, go shopping for Scottish Oats otherwise known as ‘Stone Ground Whole Grain oats’. They are available often in the organic section of most US grocery stores, and can be found with some searching. As I may have mentioned before, Scottish Oats are different from rolled oats. They are made by grinding the whole oat kernel to produce a coarse meal. These Oatcakes have a ‘wee taste of Ireland’ in every bite.

(makes 12 Oatcakes)
1 cup of Stone ground Scottish oats
6 Tbsp all purpose white flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter
2 Tbsp boiling water
2 Tbsp brown organic sugar
(topping)
3 Tbsp Apricot Preserves
1 pear (thinly sliced)
3 oz Blue Cheese crumbled (Irish Cashel Blue or Stilton)

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the oats, all purpose white flour, baking soda, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center with a large metal spoon.

Pour boiling water over butter to melt. Combine with the dry ingredients and mix.

Sprinkle surface with flour and roll dough out in a circle ¼“thick. Use a small 1 ½” cookie cutter to form 12 oatcakes or cut with a knife in to 8 triangles. Transfer to a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake oatcakes in at 325 degrees oven for 20-25 minutes, or until hard and crisp. Leave them in the oven with the light on to dry out for a few hours or even better overnight for a crisp oatcake. Cool on a wire wrack.

To serve appetizers spread oatcakes with a little apricot preserves. Crumble blue cheese over preserves and broil for a few minutes to melt. Cut pair in half and remove center core. (Leave the skin on for color). Place pear on top of preserves and place cheese on top.

Assemble pear on top of melted cheese and serve straight away.

Enjoy!...(and watch out for my next blog to see how old oatcakes really are!)

J.

Fire up the grill!

Hey everyone! I hope your summer is going well…we just returned from the Low Country & Hilton Head Island and it was so stunningly beautiful that we wanted to stay home and grill most evenings, hence my blog entry this week. The one exception being the day we spent at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff where we indulged in the spa and had lunch at the restaurant where one of my favorite Food Network celebrity Chefs’ Tyler Florence frequently hosts shows and cooks. My reading choice whilst my toes nudged the sand was a cookbook by Pat Conroy called “Recipes of my Life”. Thanks to his incredible word pictures of sight, touch and taste from his childhood in South Carolina and my own sensory experiences my soul was able to drink deeply. The salt marshes, oak lined trees and the distant cries of the herring were charmingly unfamiliar from the small Irish pastures with forty shades of green.

Cooking Barbeque is intensely personal in the South. It seems being able to cook great barbeque is like a true religion with strong opinions about dry rubs, marinating and of course having the perfect sauce. I am still forever learning and taking it all in, but I know that in Georgia barbeque sauce is made sweet, and comes with a choice of mild or spicy. I also learned whilst in South Carolina that their barbeque sauce is mustard based.

In this particular case, the famous Kentucky bourbon barbeque sauce and the sweet Georgia sauce influenced my own Ulster Kitchen barbeque to create a sweet Irish whiskey barbeque sauce….get ready to lick your fingers!

I served this recipe to a native of South Carolina earlier this summer and he gave me the thumbs up. It’s great with avocado-corn salsa and I serve some extra barbeque sauce.

Grilled Loin Rib Pork Chop with Ulster Whiskey Barbeque Sauce

Sweet Pork Dry Rub

(6 Loin rib pork chops)
1 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cracked black pepper
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

Sweet Irish Whiskey Barbeque Sauce

1 cup Irish Whiskey
1 cup ketchup
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tbsp onion (minced)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all the dry ingredients to make the rub. Apply rub to the surface of the uncooked pork chops before grilling. This can be done several hours in advance or else just before grilling.

To make barbeque sauce combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until the sauce has been reduced to about half.

Preheat grill to medium/hot.

Place chops on the grill and cook for about 7-10 minutes on each side. To check that pork is cooked use a sharp knife to cut the thickest part of the chop and check that it is done to your preferred liking. Brush a little barbeque sauce over both sides of chops and cook for 1 more minute on each side.

Remove meat from grill and rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Brush pork chops with a little more barbeque sauce.

Enjoy, while the summer lasts!

J.

White Chocolate Raspberry Scottish Cranachan

Last week at the Scottish Dessert Evening my faith in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster was called in to question. Can you believe it? Of course, my loyalty remained steadfast. What, after watching the movie ‘Water-horse’ recently how could we ever doubt such a legend? The magic should never end!

The Ulster Kitchen catered the Scottish Cranachan (also known as Cream Crowdie) using the traditional wild heather honey and whiskey folded in to the fresh cream and oats…and, this week I did some experimenting and came up with a white chocolate version! Yum!

White chocolate is folded in to the fresh cream and oats and the whiskey is added to the raspberries. This needs to be enjoyed right away because the oats tend to get soft and loose their crunch.

It’s fun to dip Ulster Butter shortbread cookies in to the pudding for added buttery crunch. Juicy summer raspberries are in season so enjoy now!

1/3 cup steal cut oats (toasted)
2 Tbsp light brown sugar
1 ½ cups heavy whipped cream
5 oz quality white chocolate
3 Tbsp Scottish or Irish Whiskey
1 cup (6oz) raspberries
2 Tbsp fine granulated sugar

Method:

In large skillet toast oats with brown sugar, stirring all the time being careful not to burn. Set aside and cool.

In a blender puree half the raspberries and strain to remove seeds. Fold in the remaining raspberries to puree. Stir in Whiskey.

In a small saucepan over low heat bring ½ cup heavy whipping cream to simmering point (do not boil). Incorporate chocolate to cream adding 1/3 at a time, stopping to beat with each addition until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

Beat remaining 1 cup of cream until soft peaks appear. Fold in white chocolate cream and toasted oats.

In a tall glass begin to layer first raspberry puree, then white chocolate cream mixture, raspberries and end with cream.

Garnish with a single raspberry, shavings of white chocolate, toasted oats and a sprig of mint.

Serve immediately as the oats can become soft and loose their crunch.

Enjoy!...J

Scottish Dessert Evening

This week I’m blogging about a ‘Scottish Dessert Evening’ I recently catered, and had a blast doing so. ‘Scottish desserts?!’ I hear you cry?? Ooh Yes.

A group from Atlanta who are planning a trip to Scotland this July asked me to give them a taste of some traditional desserts to prepare their culinary sweet tooth for their trip, so I turned in several highland delights for them to enjoy and I believe everyone had fun…..Scotland’s not all whiskey and haggis y’know!

We served Punjana Ulster tea and the hostess provided elegant Scottish china including a blue calico Wedgewood tea set that was a replica made for John Wesley by Josiah Wedgwood back in 1760 with the Rose for England, the Shamrock for Ireland and the Thistle for Scotland. As you can imagine I was in my element. The Scottish Cranachan (also known as Cream Crowdie) was served with my Ulster Butter Shortbread and Flake cookies that can be dipped in to the Cranachan. Blackberries or Strawberries can be substituted, but raspberries are the traditional choice. Serve in a tall glass on dessert plate with cookies on the side. Summer raspberries are in season so go ahead make it at home and enjoy!

In the coming weeks I’ll post recipes for some of these desserts, beginning with Scottish Cranachan next week, so check back for details!

Scroll down for a few pics of the food and the event.

Scottish Dessert Evening photos

yours truely, Pam and Deborah....thank you ladies!

Scottish Cranachan ..............Chocolate Roulade

Pavlova with ripe strawberries.. Chocolate Pavlova with Highland toffee

Grilled lamb with peach salsa and mint drizzle

Here is a fresh and memorable entrée which is simple enough to make for a lazy Sunday lunch, and yet impressive enough to entertain friends if you so wish. It’s another ‘fusion’ recipe inspired by one of my favorite Ulster classics, ‘roasted leg of lamb and mint sauce’, with a definite Southern twist!

I know, I know…lamb is rarely cooked in American kitchens, but let me encourage you to give it a try! It’s really a terrific meat choice. Full of flavor, yet lighter than beef. Ooh, I can just recall the childhood memory of the succulent lamb rising to aromatic heights in the kitchen with the sound of it crackling and hissing in the oven! Yum! Realizing that helping Mum would speed up the proceedings, I was all too willing to chop, mix & stir! Even running out to the herb garden was one of my favorite little tasks, picking and adding the mint, sugar and vinegar…

In Ireland the leg of lamb is traditionally surrounded by roasted root vegetables and potatoes and served with rich gravy. However, living in Georgia, or ‘Hot’lanta, the back yard grill mentality has led me to reinvent one of my favorite comfort dishes using local ingredients to tantalize the taste buds, and suit the outdoor climate.

And…. As Georgia is also known as the peach state, peaches are just now in to season. Wonderful succulent fruit can be purchased at road side stands all over Georgia. Go out and get some...

So, try this one out to make a sunny summer day even more memorable!

Enjoy!

Barbequed Lamb with Peach Salsa and Mint Drizzle

4 Lbs boneless leg of lamb (cut in to 6 pieces)
1 tsp kosher salt

(marinade)
1 cup natural yogurt
juice of 1 lime
2 rosemary sprigs (stems removed)
2 cloves garlic
½ Vidalia onion
1’ piece of root ginger (peeled)
1 medium red chili pepper (seeds removed)

(Mint drizzle)
1 ½ cups mint (stems removed)
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
8 Tbsp olive oil

(Peach salsa)
4 peaches (peeled, stoned, finely chopped)
1 medium tomato (finely chopped)
1 small red onion (chopped)
1 jalepeno pepper (seeded, finely chopped)
¼ cup cilantro (stems removed, chopped)
juice of one lime
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp sugar

Method:

In a food processor or blender mix all marinade ingredients. Cut leg of lamb in to desired portions. Rub paste all over lamb and marinade overnight.
2.

Preheat grill. Discard marinade and season lamb with kosher salt. Place on grill and cook, turning frequently for about 30 to 40 minutes.
3.

Meanwhile prepare mint drizzle by placing mint leaves, sugar and salt in food processor. Add vinegar to form a rough chopped paste. Slowly blend olive oil. Transfer to squeeze bottle to drizzle.
4.

To make salsa combine all ingredients in a medium size bowl. Taste to adjust seasoning.
5.

When lamb is cooked according to taste, remove from grill and let it rest for 10 minutes.
6.

To serve place lamb in center of each serving plate. Drizzle a little mint dressing on plate and spoon on side of meat and a little on top. Garnish with a piece of mint or cilantro.

Stout and Onion Soup

Stout and Onion Soup

This dish is a perfect ‘Southern-Irish’ fusion number, taking the freshest ingredients grown in the Deep South and combining them with the Ulster’s favorite gourmet eats. So, on that note here is my version of a classic French onion soup, but with an Irish twist…

Why should the French have all the great recipes anyway? We all know Guinness is good for you, so combine that with the uniquely sweet and flavorful Georgia onion that is great for your blood and you have got a brilliant combo! If I ever move back to Ulster I will need to find a way to have the famous Georgia Vidalia onions shipped over.

The red Georgia clay can be a chore to produce home grown vegetables but in this case the soil hits a home-run and produces the best onion in the South and some would agree in the world. The wonderful ‘Vidalia’.

My sister had this soup at a restaurant in Ireland and called me up to tell me that I needed to have it in my cook book. I served this soup to my friends as an appetizer in my dinner party last week, and everyone agreed it was the best soup they had ever tasted. The flavor is amazing and the gruyere croutons add to the taste bud explosion. I can safely say this is now my number one favorite soup. Hope you all love it as much as we did.

Stout and Onion soup (made with Georgia Vidalia onions)

1 ½ Lbs Vidalia onions (thinly sliced)
¼ cup (2oz) butter
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
2 ½ cups (1 ¼ pints) chicken stock
2 ½ cups (1 ¼ pints) Beef stock
½ cup Guinness stout
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

(Cheesy Croutons)
6 slices crusty French bread
1 clove garlic (peeled and cut in half)
2 Tbsp butter
½ cup (2oz) Gruyere cheese (grated)

Method:

Melt butter in large sauté pan. Add the onions and sugar and cook over medium heat stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium/low and cook the onions slowly for 30 minutes or until they are light brown in color.

Add the flour to onions and cook for 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Gradually add the stock and Guinness stout. Bring soup to a boil and the lower temperature allowing simmering for 20-25 minutes. Taste soup and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

To make croutons slice bread and rub with the cut garlic. Brush both sides with melted butter and toast one side on preheated grill. Turn toast over and sprinkle with freshly grated cheese

To serve preheat serving bowls and then fill with soup. Place a slice of the cheese topped toasted bread on top of each bowl. Place bowls under broiler until the cheese melts and bubbles. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

So, what's so great about Irish food anyway?

Isn’t it all cabbage and corned beef I hear you ask!?

Sadly, my experience over the years whilst living America is a widely borne misconception of Irish cuisine. Sure, most people admire the Irish beauty and adore the Irish culture and love the smell of Irish Spring (!)…but just don’t know much about Irish food. The truth though, is that Irish food is greatly admired in Europe, but greatly misunderstood in the United States. You’re all too focused on ‘Lucky Charms’ and green tinted beer…but fear not! I am here, ‘The Irish foodie’, and my mission is to set things right! Yes indeed!

So, here’s the scoop…the green island of Ireland boasts some of the most ‘organic’ farms in the world. No mass production here! Just lush, green rolling hills bringing with them prized produce that is deeply in demand throughout Germany, France, and throughout Europe. Beef cattle are raised on farms grazing grass, not artificial feed, and without any hormones. Big fat sheep wonder the hills chewing the herb, not restricted to small smelly enclosures. Our rivers are clean, and the Atlantic west coast of Ireland has some of the most unpolluted waters of the world harboring the most wonderful seafood.

My point? Well, as a cook I know that good produce means good food, and in the case of modern Ireland…the food is very good indeed! Belfast and Dublin are bursting with top class restaurants serving the most incredible Irish organic produce that keeps the tourist trade buzzing.

The Irish culinary arts are inspired by the land, the sea, the rivers, game shooting sports and vibrant and rich cultural traditions. There is something wholesome about knowing the story of ‘from the farm to the table’, and in this age of scary cancers it just makes sense to be as organic as possible.

So, this is my quest. To introduce you to the wonderfully ‘green’ cuisine of Ireland, and to remain true to the naturally organic nature of Irish food.

It’s not just the beer that’s green!

Oatmeal Cookies, perfect for afternoon tea:

Anyone for tea?

An old BBC TV commercial for a famous brand of British biscuits (or, cookies!) used to say “a drink is too wet without one”, and in my case ‘the one’ will always be an oatmeal cookie.

This week my Canadian friend, Charlotte came over to my kitchen and we spent the morning baking my two favorite Irish cookies, butter shortbread and oatmeal cookies. The recipes came from my grandmother’s handwritten, torn cookbooks and I cannot bake or eat them without reminiscing about her.
She and my grandfather owned and ran a B&B overlooking the Irish Sea in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, and afternoon tea was served every day at 3.30 pm in the parlor. Back in ‘those days’, tea-time was an occasion to dress up, pull out the china and the silver 3-tier cake stand. The savories were served on the bottom tier, scones and tea breads on the second layer and the top plate was filled with cookies, pastries and fresh cream cakes. OK, I know most of us cannot pull this off every day, but we can all enjoy the pleasures of a simple cookie and a cup of tea and think about times past.

Oatmeal cookies are buttery rich with a crunchy texture, but, to add balance, are made from oats and rice grains. So, don’t feel too guilty when you’ve discovered you’ve eaten all two dozen cookies in one session!

Oatmeal cookies:

½ cup (4oz) butter
¼ cup (1oz) all purpose flour
¼ cup (1oz) rice flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 ¼ (5 oz) cup quick cooking oats (makes 1 cup ground)
¼ cup (1 oz) organic dried unsweetened coconut
¼ cup (2oz) light brown sugar
¼ cup (2 oz) granulated sugar (plus 2 Tbsp to sprinkle)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grind oats in food processor.
Combine flour, baking soda, ground oatmeal, coconut and set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugars in electric mixer, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bow. Continue to beat until light and fluffy.

Add all the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix to fully incorporated.
Lightly flour surface and roll out the dough using a floured rolling pin to a thickness of about ¼”.

Cut cookies using a 1 ½” round cutter.

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool.

Enjoy!