Irish Stew

Irish stew in the Farmgate Café, in The English Market, Cork:



First you need a proper stock.

You can use lamb (sheep less than a year old), but mutton (sheep at least 2 years old) is a better choice.

Put sheep bones in a large heavy-based saucepan with 1 large carrot (quartered), 1 onion (quartered), half a celery stick (quartered), 1 bay leaf, 2 large sprigs of thyme, a generous sprig of parsley, 6 black peppercorns (crushed) and 1 tsp salt. Pour in 3 liters water. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

Strain and return to the pot. Reduce until 1,3 liters of stock. When frozen you can keep this three months.

Make the stew:

Cut a little less than a kilo of middle necks of mutton in small chunks or use together with bone. The meat will fall of the bone easily. Peel 1.3 kilo potato and cut in similar sized chunks, half floury (kruimig) potatoes and half waxy (vastkokend) potatoes. Peel 1 kilo carrots and cut into slightly smaller pieces. Slice two onions into thick rings. You can quarter the potatoes and carrot.

Put the mutton in a large saucepan. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Skim off foam, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the floury potatoes, carrots and onions. Season generously (salt & pepper) and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Add the waxy potatoes and half a tsp fresh thyme leaves. Simmer until mutton is tender. Take off heat and leave for another 15 minutes (don't stir).

Garnish with chopped fresh chives and parsley.

Callaloo (Trinidad)

Went to a Trinidad & Tobago restaurant yesterday: Trinbago (1e van Swindenstraat 44, Amsterdam). Ordered callaloo with beef.

From Wikipedia: "Callaloo is widely known throughout the Caribbean and has a distinctively Caribbean origin, created by African slaves using ideas of the indigenous people along with both African (okra) and indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants (See Palaver Sauce for the West African dish)."

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped celery
1/4 cup fresh thyme
1/2 cup chopped chives
15 okra, sliced
1/2 cup chopped west indian pumpkin (substitute butternut squash)
15-20 dasheen leaves, washed and coarsely chopped (or 1 bunch swiss chard and 1/2 bunch spinach)
1 cup coconut milk
1 maggi seasoning, cube plus
4 cups water or chicken stock
2 live blue crabs, cleaned and washed in lime juice (or 5-6 pieces salted beef or salted pigtail)
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (Congo pepper)
2 tablespoons golden ray cooking margarine
1 teaspoon salt (if using maggi cube taste first before adding salt or the soup will be too salty.)

1 Put salted pork pieces in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Drain off this water. Repeat this process to draw off the excess salt from the salted meat.
2 Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion, garlic, celery and fresh herbs. Sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add okras, pumpkin and dasheen leaves and sauté for another minute or so. Add the coconut milk and stock or water, crab and hot pepper.
3 Keep an eye on that hot pepper use one that is not bruised. You DO NOT want that pepper to burst while cooking. The heat from the burst pepper will overpower the other flavours.
4 Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about 35 minutes.
5 Taste and add salt if needed.
6 Remove hot pepper and crab or meat, and swizzle the callaloo, or put in a blender or you can use an immersion type blender, and beat until smooth. Return the crab or meat pieces to the soup. Add the cooking margarine or butter. Simmer for 5 more minutes. Stir well.
7 Serve hot as a soup on it's own or as a side dish.

Kartoffel Kapern Salat

From www.marions-kochbuch.de. An excellent way to prepare potatoes a day or even more in advance. Basically, you marinate boiled potato slices in vegetable stock with onion and an olive oil-vinegar dressing.

Recipe for 600 gram potatoes (cook them in shell and peel when warm):

1 - Simmer in a pan for 5 minutes: about 200ml vegetable stock and one onion, cut in small cubes.

2 - Prepare dressing from: 3 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or: white balsamico vinegar), pressed garlic, pepper and salt.

3- Pour stock and dressing over the cooked potato slices.

4 - Add (this is just a reference): fresh parsley, anchovies, 5 teaspoons caper, 12 black olives, 120 gram cherry tomatoes (halved).

Let the potatoes marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will keep for a few days.

Or:

KARTOFFELSALAT

Voor 4 personen:

kilo vastkokende aardappelen

ongeveer 150 ml hete kippen- of groentebouillon

1 el gladde mosterd

3 – 4 el witte azijn

3 – 4 el zonnebloemolie

1 middelgrote ui, fijngehakt

8 zure augurkjes, fijngehakt

of 3 el kappertjes, afgespoeld

of de helft van allebei

blaadjes van 1 – 2 takjes dragon, fijngehakt

handje bladpeterselie, fijngehakt

Risotto con funghi

Another visual shopping list. This time for Risotto con funghi (Risotto with mushrooms). For 2-4 people.



25 gram dried porcini
175 gram fresh mushroom
juice of half a lemon
75 gram butter
2 tbsp chopped parsley
900 ml chicken or meat broth (not too strong!)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
100 ml. dry white wine
3 tbsp Parmesan
275 gram arborio (rice)
salt & pepper

Preparation in 7 steps

Step 1 Soak dried mushrooms in 350 ml warm water for 40 minutes. Drain and reserve soaking water for step 3. Cut soaked mushroom finely.

Step 2 Slice fresh mushrooms and toss with lemon juice. Melt 1/3 butter and fry mushrooms. Stir in parsley after mushrooms begin to brown and set aside.

Step 3 heat broth and add mushroom soaking water. Simmer until needed.

Step 4 Heat another 1/3 butter with the olive oil in same pan mushrooms were cooked. Stir in onion until soft and golden. Add rice and stir for a few minutes. Add soaked and sautéed mushrooms.

Step 5 Pour in wine and cook until it evaporates.

Step 6 Raise the heat and add a little hot broth. Cook until the rice dries out. Add more broth. Repeat for 20 minutes. Taste and continue until rice is al dente. This may take 35 minutes.

Step 7 Remove from heat. Stir in remaining butter and parmesan. Whisk quickly and grind some black pepper. Rest risotto for 3-4 minutes before serving.

Update: this can be a very powerful risotto (taste-wise), depending on the strength of the broth. Use a more watery broth if you want to taste the rice, mushrooms & wine better.

Linguine with lemon

A simple tangy lemon-cream sauce.

Juice of two lemons
50 gram butter
200 ml panna da cucina
100 gram Parmesan, grated
salt & pepper

1) Boil and simmer for 5 minutes: lemon juice, butter and cream. Add salt and pepper. You can add some grated lemon rind as well.

2) Meanwhile cook linguine (or similar pasta).

3) Add Parmesan to cream sauce. Taste. Mix with drained linguine. Above quantities are good for 2 - 4 people. Serve as an 'in-between' dish.

Just 4 ingredients: