Ham Hock Wellington

What a unexpected surprise this lunch was. Seasonal in colour and comforting to eat. Extraordinarily melting broccoli – slowly confitted in olive oil, with anchovies, garlic and chilli. By confiting, the broccoli bursts with soaked up flavours. Caramelised onion purée, subtly both sweet and savoury. Black radish, thinly sliced and salted to draw out the pepperiness. Finished with a [...]

It’s not easy trying to stay seasonal and avoid clichés… It’s the Bank Holiday before Halloween today in Ireland. Leaves litter the garden, but I’m inside the house with the curtains drawn, the fire lit, slowly roasting a shoulder of lamb. Nothing to do, nowhere to go.  It’s a good day to eat soft fatty yielding shoulder meat, [...]

Autumnal in colour and taste, this is a  side dish for the season that’s in it. The nutty aromas of golden butter browned, whipped into some Greek yogurt, scattered with dry roasted pine nuts and poured over salt-baked sweet potatoes. Heavenly with any roasted meat. As per the photo – I served them with a soy [...]

Straight up adaptation of the Kale Salad from Battersby, Brooklyn. Kale leaves, pulled from the stems, brushed with oil and dehydrated in the oven until crispy. A lip-puckering, tongue tingling chilli, lime and fish sauce dressing which I’ve used before over brussels sprouts and with mango and  prawns. Pickled thin strips of carrot and slices of cucumber [...]

Lamb Shoulder, roasted low and slow, soft as butter to cut, retaining a crispy salty crust, and oozing with flavour.  A secondary cut like a lamb shoulder is cheaper, but has richer pickings when cooked right. As the joint is slightly fatty, the meat succulently melts when slow roasted, the fat keeping the meat tender and moist. [...]

After the last couple of comfort food posts (here & here) I wanted to try something a little less robust. In my fridge I had a beautiful Carraig na Breac smoked duck breast. Thinly sliced duck breast is a real treat, the deep smoky flavour needs a flash of acidity provided from the sweet pickled blueberries. [...]

Still slowly recovering from my weekend of excess. Smacked about physically and financially it’s been a week of comfort food  and recuperation. In no mood to faff about in the kitchen I wanted something that took little effort, and was dirt cheap. Picking up a ham hock in the butcher for €2 I dabbled with [...]

Late Summer is the perfect time to make this savoury tart, when tomatoes are bursting with flavour and at the height of their sweetness. With a buttery, flaky crust, a pesto sauce and a sweet caramelised onion filling this is equally delicious served warm or cold. Paired with a simple green salad and a chilled [...]

This is a little Irish homage to a Japanese street food dish called Taoyaki (octopus balls). A little batter ball filled with smoked salmon, pickled cucumber, sour cream, dill and capers. Sprinkled with toasted black sesame seeds and Shichimi Togarashi (a Japanese 7 spice blend including chilli pepper, roasted orange peel and seaweed). Hot and lightly crispy [...]

This is a classic Japanese way of eating aubergine and is really easy.  All you do is to slowly roast them in the oven until tender, spoon over a thick, gloopy, Miso dressing and toast under the grill for 5 minutes until the Miso dressing caramelises. When roasted long enough, the aubergine has a creamy, [...]

Seasonal dish, simply prepared perfect as a starter or light lunch**. There’s little cooking here, just taking the best of this weeks ingredients and putting it on a plate – messing around a little – but relying on the seasonality to shine. (1) Earthy beetroot and their stalks boiled in milk and butter till softened. [...]

The ultimate compliment is when someone who you’ve fed thousands of times turns around and says that this is the best thing that you’ve ever cooked for them. Though to be honest, I didn’t acknowledge the praise –  I was too busy diving back into the pork shoulder, pulling off shreds of pig, smothering it [...]

I’ve recently become besotted with the idea of making a savoury panna cotta, and as the the summer days are still lengthening I find myself with a little more time to experiment in the kitchen. Today I bit the bullet and made this for lunch. Creamy celeriac, served cold as a panna cotta, dotted with [...]

When I have any leftover roast chicken, I like to shred it, sprinkle some salt flakes, soak it in freshly squeezed lemon and smother in olive oil to store in the fridge for quick snacking over the next few days. Today was one of those lucky leftover days, as I had been playing with some [...]

I was in Spain for a wedding recently and on the day before I left I was a little out of sorts and hankering for food. It was lunchtime, and having managed the holiday hangovers other mornings with variations of croque madame’s or pizza, I felt that I should try something green and salady. So, [...]

I don’t know about you, but I find that I never have friends over for food during the colder months. All I want to do is snuggle up on the sofa in front of the fire with the curtains drawn. But at this time of year my thoughts turn to entertaining. So I am always [...]

Super simple. Minimal cooking. All you have to do is boil water for pasta. Perfect for this time of year, when you want to be sat in the garden with the weekend papers, not stuck in your kitchen. A plate of contrasts in textures and tastes. I can see myself eating a lot of this [...]

As I bit into the toast the rich, decadent, wobbly marrow on top oozed a little , leaving a faint smear of fat on my lips. I was in a fancy restaurant in New York (Minetta Tavern) and surely I couldn’t just drag my tongue across my lips. The fuck I couldn’t. I licked my face clean [...]

I live like I cook, and this is not a good thing. When I’m in the kitchen, I like to think of myself as relaxed, organised and competent. Though the reality is I usually start to cook with no definite plan, have only a vague idea of where I’m heading, use what I find to [...]