Pails of Irish Blessing!

Just in time for the Christmas season the Ulster Kitchen would like to announce our holiday gift item, namely our:
’Pails of Irish Blessing’.
Beautiful, bountiful and brimming with Irish joy….how can you possibly resist?

The unique pails are filled with authentic Irish tea from Belfast (not the yucky stuff in a green box!), Butter Shortbread, Baileys Irish Fudge, Irish linen towels, Irish handmade candles and (of course) a few wee bottles of ‘the water of life’ , all garnished with a Kelly green bow. All the products are the ‘real McCoy’, made in Ireland and the cookies and fudge baked fresh the day of delivery. Now what more would you need to make a friends day special? Customers have a choice of Decaf or Irish breakfast tea and we will be offering Johnston’s Irish coffee soon all for the same deal. (Johnston’s coffee is blended and roasted in County Antrim in Ireland, and is wonderful indeed!)

Small Pails $25
Large Pails $49
(cash or check payable to the ‘The Ulster Kitchen’ )

An Irish heritage is celebrated through Irish Blessings, legends and poetry. So even if you are not Irish, the tradition to wish someone well and speak life giving messages of hope and blessings can be enjoyed by all.

As a culture the Irish have a principle of always giving a wee bit back to the community and in business relationships. My father is a sheep farmer and when he closes a deal and pays for sheep in cash the customer always gives him a ‘wee bit back’ in what we call a ‘luck penny’. So, as Christmas approaches it gives us all a chance to give back to the people with whom we have traded or shared community.

So go ahead and bless someone this season and remember, in life it is often the little things that count, and always count your blessings…..

E-mail me if you would like to give an Irish blessing this Christmas….
e: theulsterkitchen@bellsouth.net

May the Road Rise Up to meet you….

Judith

Pomegranate Irish Iced Tea

Ahh…tea, tea, tea. Wonderful indeed! I was literally baptized in the stuff and drink my favorite hot beverage at least 5 times a day, but I must confess, I am a bit of a tea drinking snob. Any old brand from the store just will not do, and the quest to find the perfect cup of tea here in Atlanta has led me back home. ..all the way home you might say….

Fortunately, after a lot of research involving tasteless teas, I discovered that Northern Ireland’s leading tea brand, ‘Punjana’ is now available in the US and be shipped anywhere in the US by The Ulster Kitchen. This is superb tea (am I biased?) and is blended in Belfast by a four generation family firm who consider quality their highest achievement. The differences between these authentic teas and the run of the mill brands from Kroger are amazing. You must taste the difference.

Of course, here in the South we also love our tea, and the popularity of iced tea can be appreciated at a whole new level when made with Punjana. The Ulster Kitchen’s Pomegranate Ice Tea was a big hit at a Women’s Expo promoting health, Lifestyle and Beauty held in Roswell Georgia this past weekend. Why I even had my husband and two sons promoting by giving out free samples in the warm Georgia fall sunshine to delight first time customers….photos may follow.

Tea has amazing health benefits including being a rich source of potassium, which is vital for maintaining fluid levels in the body and may help protect against heart disease and certain types of cancer. (Read more about the health benefits at www.punjana.com)
The pomegranate fruit containing tiny ruby red pearl like seeds is gaining popularity because of its health benefits also. he fruit is rich in antioxidants and contains folic acid, potassium, niacin, vitamin C, iron and calcium. So, go ahead and try this recipe for a fresh alternative to a wonderful drink.

Enjoy!
J.

Pomegranate Ice Tea with Mint

If you prefer to use fresh pomegranates cut them in half and juice as you would an orange. Strain any pulp or seeds. I like to use store bought juice and cheat by garnishing with fresh pomegranate red jewel-like seeds.

(Makes 1 gallon)

(Simple syrup)
1 cup sugar
2 cups water

(Tea)
10 cups (5 pints) natural spring water
8 bags of Punjana Irish Breakfast (decaf)
2 cups (1 pint) simple syrup
4 cups (2 pints) pomegranate juice
Mint sprigs (to garnish)
Seeds of one pomegranate (optional)

Method
Make simple syrup by bringing sugar and water to a boil. Set aside and cool.
Use fresh drawn cold water and bring to a boil. (Re-boiling water takes the oxygen out and stops the tea from brewing properly).

Preheat tea pot. Place tea bags in pot and pour over boiling water. Brew tea for 1-3 minutes depending how strong you enjoy your brew. Remove tea bags and dispose.

Combine sugar syrup and pomegranate juice to cooled tea.

Serve over crushed ice in an ice tea glass. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a few pomegranate seeds. Enjoy!

Goat’s Cheese, Dill and Peach Bites

My favorite restaurant in Atlanta has to be JCT Kitchen and Bar, owned by Chef Ford Fry, and last summer he served me an unforgettable appetizer with goat’s cheese and fresh Georgia peaches. So good it was, that it spurred me on to try my hand at a similar combination this summer.
Peaches and goats cheese really work together in my view, so, I decided to combine my love of quiche and pastry with local peaches, goat’s cheese and dill….and here’s the result. Light, crisp and very tasty…….

Invite some friends over, pull up a deck chair and enjoy this simple appetizer with the perfect glass of chilled chardonnay as we wave summer goodbye. Falling leaves will be here before we know it!

(makes 18 bites)

(Pastry)
1 sheet frozen puff pastry

(filling)
1 small Peach (stoned, peeled and chopped)
3oz goat’s cheese (chopped)
1 sprig of dill (stems removed and leaves chopped)
2 medium egg yolks
½ cup whipping cream
¼ tsp sea salt
pinch of ground pepper (1/8 tsp)
pinch of nutmeg (1/8 tsp)

Method:

Thaw pastry at room temperature. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease mini muffin pans with a little melted butter.

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface. To make pastry cups roll pastry out thinly enough to cut 18 squares (about 14”x 7 ½” rectangle) and use a knife to cut in to 2 ½” squares. Place in to mini muffin pan. Refrigerate pastry while preparing filling.

Whisk the egg yolks with cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg. Cut up goat’s cheese and peaches and chop dill. Remove pastry from refrigerator and divide the goat’s cheese, peaches and dill between cases. Pour just enough egg mixture evenly over cheese to fill cups.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the custard is puffy and pastry crust is golden brown and puffed. Remove from muffin tins.
Best enjoyed warm from the oven.

Enjoy!
J

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.