The Perfect Saturday

It started with blue skies {a mild hangover} and the feeling that maybe staying in bed could be the best thing ever. But it just wasn't so. Bed wasn't the best thing. There were simply far better and more amazing things in store. After a slightly long winded round about journey to the north side of Dublin we landed at the Botanical Gardens where there was just so much awaiting us.

Autumn is definitely here and even though we started with blue skies they didn't last for long, there was no place I would have rather been on this particular Saturday even when the heavens opened. The colours that surrounded us as we wondered and pondered. I must say, as a girl who is not used to cold weather I find myself utterly inspired my the colours of Irish Autumn. As you enter the black and gold gates, a view of olden day glass houses awaits you at the top of the pathway and you can imagine Victorian era horse and carriages riding past you. What awaits inside is an absolute wonder.

I was excited to enter the first glass house and couldn't believe my luck when I found it full of tropical plants and flowers that I was lucky enough to have been surrounded by during my time in Mexico. I couldn't quite believe that there I was walking under banana plants, next to agave cactus, bougainvillaea and much more. It was a welcome reminder of all the wonderful times I had been lucky enough to have during my time in the Yucatan.

The rain did end up getting the better of us but having the luxury of ducking into these intricate glass houses was a god send {it also helped that we wanted to take a gazzilion pics!} There literally is something for everyone at the Botanical Gardens. Orchids and roses, trees rising to the heavens and waterfalls, rock gardens and oriental trees, sculptures and displays. It's magical.

We were even accompanied by a local! If you ever get the chance to visit, please do. The Botanical Gardens are totally free. As in, you don't have to pay an entry fee or anything else. Isn't that fantastic?! Go and support. Have a coffee, see the art exhibitions, walk around and revel in the fact that this wonderful place is available and open for us, the people of Dublin.

This week has felt like the start of something extraordinary in my life. I've found myself back in Dublin working with some amazingly fantastic food industry peeps. First there were the Irish Quality Food Awards which was almost a week of judging foods in categories from meat to ready meals to baking, whittled down to one overall winner, The Golden Q, and winners in each category. I was lucky enough to judge for 2 days amongst a whole mix of food industry insiders from chefs, restaurant owners, food buyers and magazine editors. A real treat for me, I still can't quite believe it.

To top that off I'm now working with the lovely and talented Sharon Hearne-Smith on her first cookbook (which she SO deserves!) and Donal Skehan is photographing….August is a pretty sweet month! And the work which is cleverly disguised as fun, just keeps on rolling…seems like Ireland wants me to stick around and that is exactly what I'm going to do.

I managed a sneak visit to a Community Garden in Dublin at the beginning of the week and it was so great to see them maximising a tiny space giving underprivileged children and adults a chance to work with the earth and grow their own produce. See here and here for more on community gardens and I urge you to go and check your local one out!

And if that wasn't great enough, I find myself staying in a house full of foodies and 7 puppies…I am living the dream.

It's a Dahl of a Sunday

The weather has closed. Summer has gone. Everybody will be white rather than red soon and I want colour, smells and flavour. Dahl is that dish. That dish that can bring back the feel of summer. It's full of goodness, totally vegetarian and vegan and one of those great dishes that you can make a bunch of and freeze. Technically, Dahl is not a dish, it's actually the name Indians use for lentils. Meaning that anything with lentils in is Dahl.  There are so many different types of Dahl and every family will have their very own recipe…this is mine.

It starts like most of my cooking with onion, garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander. Take a minute and picture the smell that is coming off these 5 ingredients once you add a little heat. Just take a minute.

Let's talk about the eye watering onion. Ok, we all know that there are a huge amount of types of onions; red, white, spring, chive, small, large etc etc. But to think that the onion family has 325 members and is one of the oldest vegetables known to man is pretty full on. There are so many legends and old wives tales about this veggie; to strap it to the soles of your feet during a cold will suck it out. Peel it under water to avoid crying (never works for me!). Fell over? Strap some slices over the bruise and overnight it will have gone….have you tried any?

This veggie has so many healing abilities that if you don't include it in your diet you really should. It's known for it's antibiotical, disinfectant, diuretic properties as well as helping with asthma, dissolving blood clots, regulating blood, infection fighting, the list goes on and on. Basically, EAT IT!

Another oldie but goodie. Ginger….that nobly dry-on-the-outside root that is so tasty! The older it is the more fibrous but, you can still use it. Make a lemon and ginger tea or rhubarb and ginger jam. Don't throw it out. A great overall promoter of circulation in the body, ginger has again, been around for years and years. Those oldies knew what they were doing back in the day! Used instead of garlic and onions to spiritually and physically cleanse, Ancient Indians preferred ginger as it produced a sweet smell that didn't offend their Gods.

I've talked about cumin here so let's have a little chat about coriander today. One thing I found when I was researching is that the oil can be used to lower glucose levels and regulate insulin. Great for us Insulin Resitant peeps or those with PCOS. It's been used as a digestive aid for years and has been found in Bronze Age ruins.

Tomatoes! I love tomatoes that grow in summer. You cannot get any sweeter, tastier little mouthfuls than fresh off the vine. And, as Rory O'Connell would say 'eating tomatoes out of season is too horrific to think about'. Ok, I'm paraphrasing but you get the gist. Don't eat veggies out of their season! Tomatoes are over 93% water and when eaten raw are super effective at reducing liver inflammation..munch away while it's the season peeps especially with all those Pimms doing the rounds.

The other vital ingredient is the lentil. I love the red variety in this dish as it gives it that bright sun shinning glow. All varieties are good for you. Scrap that. Great for you. Really really great. Especially for those of us with Insulin Resistance and blood sugar level problems. Their high fiber content helps to slow down the rise of blood sugar levels after eating. They are also a massive source of oestrogen..so for those with hormone troubles, something to research and, yes, there's more. They are great for lowering cholesterol.

RECIPE:

1 large red/white onion 

3+ cloves of garlic (depending on your taste. I use 5)

1-3 chillies depending on heat

2 inches peeled and grated ginger

1tsp tumeric

1tsp whole cumin seeds

1tsp coriander seeds

1tsp curry powder 

1tsp garam masala (optional)

4/5 big tomatoes/10-12 small tomatoes

250g of cooked red lentils

Slice the onion, garlic cloves and chilli finely. Add to some hot olive oil/ghee and cook till soft. Add the spices and cook some more. Slice the tomatoes and add to the pan. Stir and add some water to help cook the tomatoes. Put on a low simmer. Meanwhile cover red lentils in water and put on to cook. Once the tomatoes have broken down and the lentils are cooked add together. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with some mint yoghurt.

A weekend away

And what a weekend it was. With temperatures of over 25C there were plenty of red bodies wandering half nakedly around. And I managed to find myself in County Wexford. Famous for the little red beauties that are strawberries.

There we were, windows down, bombing from beach to pub back to beach again. A quick stop at the worlds oldest operating lighthouse was amazing and the views! Wow. Who knew Irish waters could be clear and turquoise. Turquoise enough to put my Mexican Caribbean to shame. Amazed I am. Totally amazed.

We visited the oldest operating lighthouse in the world, did an hours walk around it and then climbed up to the top. Notice my matching jumper…?!

We visited Loftus Hall, supposedly the most haunted house this end of the world. I didn't see a ghost but hey. The legend has it that a family was staying there at the owners request. The young daughter, Anne, was lonely and bored. So when a dark and handsome stranger came a knocking guess what?! So One night they are playing cards, Anne drops one (I'm pretty sure she was trying to flirt!) and sees to her horror a cloven hoof. Now I'm not exactly sure what this is and I'm kind of wandering why she or anyone for that matter, hadn't noticed before when they were walking around but hey. So she screams, passes out and he flies out the roof. Which has never been able to be repaired. She wakes up mad as a hatter and a couple of years later kills herself and now haunts the house. 

We made daisy chains and sat in the sun. Ate plenty of food and ice cream and oh, it was good to get away. Good to be in the sun and enjoying. Long live the summer I say.

A little magic to make it summer

I promise that this will help, somewhat. I can't guarantee sun, heat waves, half naked bodies bronzing but, I can promise that the smell alone will, if only for a second or two, make you feel like summer.

It's one of the simplest things to do and if you make it in huge batches you have summer sweet goodness for the year.

I use it to make champagne cocktails, flavoured water, poaching fruit, ice pops and a whole mass of other things.

Yes that's right. I'm talking elderflower cordial. You've probably seen it, even smelt it and wondered what it was. In Ireland right now it is everywhere. I look out my window and I can see four separate trees full of this white summer scented blossom.

It's a five ingredient recipe and one that you make, leave it alone then bottle. You can all do this. It will take you ten minutes of your time to make and will be a great expedition for you, the family to go out and pick the elderflower blossom.

Give the blossoms a good wash before you get going as no-one likes a bug in their drink do they!
Elderflowers are, if eaten, poisonous so be careful won't you. And remember the foraging rules! Don't take all the blossoms of one tree, leave some for others. If the tree is in a private garden, ask before you pick.

I know that it looks a lot of sugar and to be honest, it is, but go with it. Sugar is a preservative too so it will keep everything nice and safe for months to come.

RECIPE:

12 large (and I mean large) heads of blossom. If you are unsure go with more, NEVER less

2lbs of castor sugar

2 lemons washed and sliced

1oz tartaric acid

2-3litres of boiling water

Place all ingredients in a big bowl. I find layering works well with the lemons holding the blossoms under the water. Make sure all the sugar has dissolved and stir occasionally. Leave to soak for 24-48hrs covered and then bottle in sterilised containers. 

Happy summer.

This will make your heart sing with joy.

It really is that good. I'm amazed myself because I am the quintessential chocolate lover but after going through a particularly large chocolate sized hole I decided (quite grown up actually) that I really needed to get a grip and not eat so much processed chocolate.

This recipe is so easy, I made it up in 10 minutes. I've seen raw brownies or similar things here and here but as I rarely have the internet in my kitchen and not having the time to try and find recipes I made it from what I had, my memory and tastes I like. The waiting for it to set and get cold is the hard part. Go for a walk. A long walk so you can't eat it before it's time.

There are also so many variations (see the very end) to this recipe that switching it up could become a regular thing meaning you will never get bored. Be careful when you've had a little too much wine as you'll wake up with half the thing gone…

Let's talk about dates. I adore them, literally could eat them till I'm sick. Especially the medjool date. It's a sticky, sweet moist little piece of fruit that contains good, natural sugar. It was one of four fruit used to help curing throat and chest problems back in the early medicine days and because of it's high good natural sugar levels it's great for those of us who do physical exercise regularly or heavy work.

I love that its considered one of the most ancient symbolic forms of the Tree of Life in subtropical desert regions, among Egyptians it is the symbolic Tree of the Year because it produces a new set of branches every year. Isn't nature amazing?!?

I'm warming up to the hazelnut outside of Nutella. I find it quite a nutty nut if that makes sense and sometimes I'm just not sure. But following the Nutella theme that hazelnuts and chocolate go well together I figured why not. Classically people seem to always pair almonds and chocolate and it works. But I like to be a little different. 

The hazelnut although tiny, is good for your teeth and gums. It is quite hard to digest even for those with a good digestive system so don't go crazy on them! They are also pretty good for normalising metabolism so lets go with a couple a day rather than a handful.

Two other ingredients were used in the making of this. The chia seed and raw cacao powder.

There is big talk about the chia seed at the moment and it's becoming a fad but it's still a great little thing of goodness. The plant itself is actually a member of the Sage family, which surprised me! Next to flax seeds, chia are the highest source of Omega 3 and back in the day these little seeds roasted and crushed were eaten to give enough energy to go desert walking in Central America. A lot of people make a chia pudding by soaking a teaspoon of seeds in almond milk. They swell up a little and form a jelly like surrounding and end up being similar to tapioca. I love it and it certainly energises me.

I used raw cacao (and cacao nibs to decorate) instead of cocoa powder as it's natural. There are so many benefits to raw cacao that range from reducing cataracts to improving heart function and alleviating stress. It's said that the theobromine which is naturally found in raw cacao is a mild, non-addictive stimulant that some people even believe can treat depression. Pretty good stuff huh?!?

RECIPE:

2 cups of dates that I soaked over night as I didn't have medjool.

½ cup of hazelnuts, chopped up 

1 ½ dessert spoons of cacao powder

3 teaspoons of chia seeds

handful of cacao nibs to decorate.

If soaking dates, put them in a bowl and cover with water overnight. Next day, discard the water and put dates in a blender. Whizz till a pulpy mush that is not too lumpy. The smoother the better, but with a spoon mush it around a bit and see if it's a texture you're happy with. I had no lumps. Add the cocao powder, chia seeds and chopped hazelnuts. Whizz again and then spread out into your dish. Sprinkle the cacao nibs over the top, cover and freeze for at least 2 hours. Longer is better!

Variations: 

add a handful of cranberries

use almonds instead of hazelnuts

add hemp seeds 

add a little bit of rock/flaky salt

add a little desiccated coconut.

A view from the Castle

It's my second week at my job. I'm growing to love it. I love living in the countryside, I love choosing what I cook for the family, I love looking out my window and seeing the mountain.

The last couple of days have been a heat wave here in Ireland, today the rain and grey came back and it's not pretty. But at least the elderflower is blooming, the wild garlic is still growing and I'm meeting people.

I've had some mishaps in the kitchen, thankfully not ones I've had to serve but I've been trying new recipes. Let's say that they still need some work, but mistakes are good right?  They help us learn, teach us what to do differently. Like this one. I'm trying to make a dahl crisp bread. First attempt = no go. But I'll keep trying!

I've made Greek salads, raw slaws, nut bars, fresh breads, spicy soups and much more. Here's to the future menus.

I've been away

I hope you have, but that you're not mad. I promise I was away scouting the world for tasty treats, tidbits and a tan. It wasn't easy, but someone has to do it right?

After completing the last couple of days at Camp Cavan with Neven, Sharon, Jo and the rest of the team I headed off to Palma de Mallorca. I've been before and loved it. In the sense that if someone offered me an apartment I would be there, like yesterday. It's an old town with the biggest Superyacht marina in the world. Pretty darn fancy (or it can be if you forget Magaluf)

I walked around, went for coffee, I always seemed to find my way to my new favourite cafe, The Room in Santa Catalina. Please visit if you can. It's a modern mix of easy style furniture on an old street with the Grannys and Grandpas walking around, sitting on their doorstop and generally running a muck!

It was lovely to be back in markets where the colours were so vibrant. Don't get me wrong, Cork has the English Market, Dublin has many all of which which are fan-bloody-tastic but it's cold, miserable and kind of grey on a regular basis. Imagine if the sun was shinning down, making every colour brighter, every smell stronger, everyone friendlier. There's just something about it. About a market in the sun.

We went to the beach and saw the boats, we played with the puppies and ate lots of food. There were a couple of days of really sunny weather in which I think I have turned one shade darker although, being half Indian, I still look albino!

I caught up with friends, walked the streets and tried to make menu plans. Honestly it was a little tough,  having to think about my soon to appear responsibilities and all that grown up stuff that come with my new job when the sun was shinning, the beach was calling and my friends were talking. Don't worry though, I worked as well! For a long time I have realised I meant to live a warm weather country but truth be told, until I had spent the last 4 months in Ireland I still was not convinced. I am now.

So now I'm back in Ireland at the Castle. The prep has been done, the shopping been shopped and I'm waiting for the bosses to turn up. The nerves are zinging (yes, it's a word) but I'm excited for a new challenge. Personally I think challenges are good.

In the meantime though, until the job finishes and I can head off towards sunshine. I have memories of the sun. Let's hope for a sunny Irish summer…