C'est Ca

This blog is now closed. You can find my writing in the Evening Herald (Dublin) and on this site:
www.ForknCork.com

Café des Irlandais

So Café des Irlandais is open a month or two now and things have settled down nicely. The original chef (Fred Souty) has moved on due to creative differences and duties have passed to Alan Hamilton who has worked in the likes of Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud and Guilbaud's baby bistro cousin Venu.

Sadly also departed is the meat jelly that Souty used to put in his salads - an intriguing mix of rich meat juices from the rotisserie mixed with agar agar (Japanese gelatin made from seaweed). I was ready for an aspic revival but I am probably in a fairly small minority.

Pictured above is my lunch which could have fed 2. The oyster has a small subtle spoon of lime jelly to add some zing and aromatics and cut through the briny juicy oyster. Of course we are all supposed to like our oysters au naturel and decry anything that takes away from the pure simple flavour, I beg to differ. Why not take the occasional oyster and deep fry it in bread crumbs and make a New Orleans Po'boy sandwich, why not add a dash of tabasco if you feel like it. I don't want to eat my steak with pepper sauce every time. The lime changed the oyster and added an ethereal hint of sweetness to it, a little limey accent if you will.

The Lyonnaise salad had good meaty bacon slices, a melting, barely cooked poached egg and crisp, lightly dressed salad leaves. The bread was airy and light and the glass of Grand Metaire Bordeaux Blanc (6.50) was crisp, lemony and fragrant.

My trainee chef companion (son's babysitter) almost managed to eat her oyster but couldn't quite manage it. She is young yet and has plenty of time to learn to love such things. She did however gobble her way through her 7 hour braised lamb and most of her creamy mash, enormous roast potato and various veg.

This is comfort food. We felt the need for just a little more comfort so we ordered a pear tart to share with an espresso and hot chocolate. Sweet moist pear, crumbly pastry, rich creamy inside.

fine espresso and creamy hot chocolate left us more than comforted, we felt cosseted.

Spelt Olive Bread

Spelt has been the new flour for a few years now. I do like its nutty texture and the aromatic bread it creates but I still think it benefits from a little added something.

I actually adapted this from the recipe on the back of the Dove Spelt packet.

Spelt Olive Bread
300g Wholegrain Spelt Flour
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp dried yeast (or 2 of fresh)
1 tsp brown sugar
175 ml warm water (hand hot)
3tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
70-100g of pitted olives (kalamata for preference)

Add the warm water to the yeast and allow to ferment. Mix the flour with the salt and sugar in a large bowl. Once the yeast is frothing add to the flour and quickly mix with a spoon. Once it has come together but is still loose add the olive oil. Knead for 4-5 minutes until you have a silky texture. Cover and leave in a warm place for an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Add the olives to the dough and knead again for a further 3-4 minutes or so until the olives are distributed through the bread. Rub a loaf tin with olive oil. Shape the dough and add to the tin. Cover and allow to rise for a further 25-30 minutes. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes. Remove and tap the bottom to check for a hollow sound. Allow to cool out of the tin on a wire rack to give the crust a chance to crisp.

One Good Thing The Boom Brought Us...

firstly the usual apologies about my absence from this blog. usual excuses apply. I simply cannot listen to the radio these days as we endlessly discuss the mess we are in and how long it will take to extricate ourselves.

I passed the Gasometer hotel/apartment block yesterday in Ringsend and it still looks great but as it remains empty and will probably be empty for the next 20 years or so, it is hard not to see it as a folly - a beautiful but useless monument to our over-reaching ambition.

a few years ago in 2007 Ireland was the richest country in the world according to one of the standard measures. Someone in Paris heard this and decided that Dublin deserved a Ladurée shop of its very own along with Tokyo, London and Paris. They would never have been crazy enough to open the shop could they have seen into the future, so this is the one thing the boom did for us - it brought us macaroons.

This may seem trivial but only to those that have not placed a whole rose petal macaroon in their mouth, closed their eyes and let it melt gently down their throat. The Mimosa one can taste of pure energy - champagne bubbles mixed with orange tangy deliciousness and an overall warm feeling moves gently through your bones. i could go on about the deep hued and fragrant violet and blackcurrant or the pure distilled essence of pistaccio (also pictured above) but you get the idea.

They cost just €1.60 each - about all we will have left out of our pay packets after the budget but I can think of no more pleasurable way to spend your money. Buy them regularly for your own pleasure and so they stay in this fair town for a while at least...

so fuck the bankers but give a silent prayer for the gift of Ladurée.

Blackout Pizza

So what do you do when the electricity goes out and you have about 2 kilso of pizza dough and all the cheese and toppings ready?

Well last night in Terenure at around 8pm as our Italian student was heating the oven to cook his lovingly prepared pizzas (they took all afternoon), we looked out at the pouring rain and thought we were glad to be indoors about to be fed our dinner. His host family and two friends from his english course were sitting waiting in anticipation (the dough seemed to take forever to rise). The wine was open and hunger was beginning to bite, and then the lights went out.

A quick look on the street made it clear that every house in the area had no lights either.

Unlike the other houses on our road however I have a clay and straw built oven in the back garden. built a couple of years ago by a French builder friend. It is really more of a bread oven than a pizza oven but it can do pizzas in small batches. It also can be heated with about 3 logs chopped into small pieces so it is very inexpensive to run (far cheaper than cooking pizza in a conventional oven).

The outside is covered in lime plastering to protect from the rain but given it is made from all natural materials I usually keep it covered. You see in the pics that I had an umbrella over it and a piece of polystyrene to deflect the rain that was pouring down in torrents from our damaged gutter. It is never fun cooking outside in the pouring rain but it is made much worse by the constant splashing of water from a leaky gutter!

Anyway I had to begin cooking as soon as it got any heat or we would have all starved with the hunger so there were a few charred edges but all in all it worked well. Everyone was fed and I just sat down to eat my own pizza, enjoying my triumph over adversity and the romantic atmosphere created by the candles, when the lights came back on!

I used the extra heat and the remaining pizza dough to cook some foccacia as the oven cooled and I am munching a piece as I write this.

Mushroom Season

Mushroom season is upon us again. The dry weather in August and much of early Sept. did not produce much in my usual spots except the odd shaggy ink cap. This week I found lots of ink caps (shaggy and non - the latter avoided as who wants to eat wild mushrooms without a glass of wine)

This beauty pictured is 600g of pure giant puffball and will be fried in steaks. An inch thick steak fried on the pan will shrink down by half but taste delicious on buttered toast (rub the toast with garlic first for extra zing). Sadly they are nearing the end of their season I reckon so search for them while you can.

Lots of growth of (poisonous) yellow stainers - these little buggers look just like field mushrooms or horse mushrooms but smell of ink and piss and make many people sick (not willing to see if I am one of those that is unaffected). Lots of russulas around but no edible ones and also spotted a mass of cortinarius limonius (or similar) - similar to what nearly did for the author of the Horse Whisperer and his family (see here).

Parasols are also out but in very small numbers. Off to Wicklow and Carlow this weekend to see what else I can find.

Crepe Suzette

Crêpe Suzette is a dessert from the grand old days of French cooking before nouvelle cuisine and diets came along and ruined things.

It is a perfect pre-Lenten indulgence but works just as well in the middle of summer.

Serve with a muscat based dessert wine such as Moscatel de Setubal from Portugal which has a distinct orange rind flavour. Brown Bros. Orange Flor Muscat will also work well (and will be easier to find) and failing that you should be able to find a Muscat de Beauces de Venise.

In its simplest form Crêpe Suzette is pancakes flamed with Grand Marnier (or Cointreau or Curaçao) but the version below is richer and more satisfying.

The pancakes can be made ahead of time and warmed in the pan at the last moment.

Crêpe Batter (makes 8-10)
Break an egg into a jug, add 175ml milk and whisk vigorously. Grate in the rind of a Satsuma and next squeeze in the juice. Gradually add 175g flour, whisking the batter all the time, until it is the consistency of thick cream. Finish with a splash of Grand Marnier.

The batter will improve if left to settle for an hour or so, but if you want to use it immediately it is said to be best to mix the batter more gently using a hand whisk rather than an electric beater.

To make the crêpes heat a frying pan until it is very hot, add a small knob of butter the size of the tip of your finger and roll it around the pan. Pour or spoon on enough crêpe batter to just cover the base of the pan. After 20-30 seconds the edges should start to curl and you will be able to flip the crêpe (use a spatula unless you are a proficient crêpe tosser).

Keep the pan on a medium-high heat and add a tiny knob of butter between each crêpe, stacking them on a plate as you go.

Orange Butter
Beat 50g softened butter with 50g of sugar, the juice and rind of a Satsuma, and a tsp of Grand Marnier.

Spread a little orange butter on each crêpe and fold it into 4. Melt 25g butter in the pan and arrange the crêpe in a circle.

To Serve:
Warm a generous splash of Grand Marnier and a similar amount of Brandy in a small saucepan. Bring the crêpe pan to the table, pour on the alcohol and flame in front of your guests. Serve with Vanilla ice cream or softened vanilla ice cream, laced with more Grand Marnier and orange rind.