Simple Friday supper

I love pasta!!! I like pasta with tomato sauce (especially if the sauce is made from fresh, ripe tomatoes). I like pasta with creamy white wine sauce where you can experiment with lots of different ingredients and I like a simple pasta with just a drop of good quality olive oil, garlic, olives and chillies. I like penne, spaghetti, linguini, orecchiette, lasagne, etc. Give me pasta anytime and I'm a happy girl!!!

Yesterday I made Gordon Ramsey's:

"Mushroom & Leek Pasta"

(Serves 2)

Olive oil
200g chestnut mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced
250ml vegetable stock (or chicken stock if you not making this dish for a veggie)
4-6 lasagne sheets, dried or fresh
100ml double cream
2 tbsps tarragon leaves, roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large frying pan and add a dash of oil. Season the mushrooms and saute them, adding the garlic after 2 minutes and the leeks a minute later. Cook for 6-8 minutes until the leeks are soft and the mushrooms are coloured. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Add the stock and boil until reduced by half. Meanwhile, cook the lasagne sheets in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just al dente.

While the lasagne is cooking, add the cream to the frying pan and simmer for 2-3 minutes to reduce a little. When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pan with the sauce, stirring until well coated.

Turn off the heat, add the tarragon leaves and allow to sit for few minutes.

To serve, spoon he lasagne and mushroom mixture onto serving plates, layering them up attractively.

Gordon recommends serving the pasta with garlic bruschetta but I've served it with garlic bread, lots of parmesan cheese and glass of Sauvignon Blanc and although in the picture it looks a bit messy, trust me it was delicious! Very easy and quick to make dish (ready in about 20 minutes) with simple ingredients that everybody can find in their kitchen. Perfect for a simple Friday supper!!

And a mini Victoria sponge cupcake with fresh strawberries and a cup of tea for afters:) Yum!

Arnotts Cook Month

On Monday 13th May, Dublin department store Arnotts in association with Miele, Kenwood and Expert Electrical launched their inaugural "Arnotts Cook Month". During the next few weeks a series of exciting in-store events and demonstrations will take place as Arnotts, Miele and Kenwood will host a selection of well-known Irish chefs, such as Clodagh McKenna, Neven Maguire, Edward Hayden, Domini Kemp and Oliver Dunne joined by food writers and bloggers Sophie Morris and Ron and Mona Wise. For full schedule of events/ demonstrations look here Arnotts Cook Month

I am a big fan of Neven Maguire. I've got a few of his books and love trying out his recipes, up to now every single one of them has been a success! Neven uses ingredients that are widely available and his dishes are easy to recreate at home. Last Christmas Mr PB presented me with a gift card for Neven's restaurant in Blacklion, County Cavan which we will be visiting next month, I'm sure we are in for a treat!!!

I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see Neven "in action", so I went to Dublin city centre on Thursday afternoon to watch Neven doing a cookery demonstration in Arnotts Henry Street window.
As I expected, Neven was fabulous; funny and entertaining, full of passion for food which he tried to share with the audience but to be honest I didn't really like the window demo setup. We could see Neven making all this amazing dishes but we could't smell anything, Neven was not able to hear us and although we are in the middle of May it was cold and wet and after 20 minutes I was freezing!!!!!

Still, the demonstration was fantastic. Neven made prawns in kataifi pastry for starter, Thornhill duck breast served with cabbage, sweet potato fondants and honey & cloves sauce for main, passion fruit jelly with yoghurt as a palate cleanser, cute mini creme brulees and MacNean cheesecake with Coole Swan, white chocolate and strawberries.
Everything looked delicious and I'm planning to make all of the dishes at home for a special Sunday dinner.

What's For Lunch, Honey?

Mr PB loves Eggs Benedict. So today I decided to surprise him with a slightly deconstructed version of his favourite dish.

I've served poached eggs on top of toasted brioche and grilled asparagus with some smoked salmon on a side. Instead of hollandaise sauce I made butter sauce from "The MacNean Restaurant Cookbook".  I bought Neven's book at the start of this year and the recipe for eggs benedict was the first one I tried. The butter sauce is very tasty and much easier to make than the real hollandaise sauce and I have made it many times since.

The dish was delicious; lightly toasted brioche with fresh tasting asparagus cooked al dente, lovely smoked Irish salmon, creamy & zingy sauce and of course the star of the show - poached egg with runny yolk, yummy!!! Perfect combination, I will be definitely making this dish again. Next time I might try it with some bacon or prosciutto instead of the smoked salmon.

Butter sauce - "cheaters hollandaise" (from "The MacNean Restaurant Cookbook" by Neven Maguire):

• 100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) cream

• 1 tsp prepared english mustard

• 2 tblsp softened butter

• 1 tsp cornflour, sifted

• squeeze of lemon juice

• 1 tsp snipped fresh chives

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the cream and mustard in a small pan and simmer for 1 minute. Whisk in the butter, cornflour and lemon juice, then continue to whisk for 2–3 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the chives and season to taste. Keep warm.

We finished our lunch with some freshly baked orange and strawberry cake served with homemade vanilla ice cream, custard and fresh strawberries.

Ballymaloe Literary Festival

Ballymaloe Cookery School is without question Ireland's most famous cookery school. The school was established in 1983, is based in beautiful little village of Shanagarry, Co. Cork and is owned and run by Darina Allen - called by many the "grand dame" of Irish cooking. There will be a separate post about the school but today I would like to tell you about the fantastic event that I was able to attend last weekend.

From 3rd to 6th May, the Ballymaloe team hosted first ever Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine. On Thursday, just 1 day before the opening of the festival I've received a message from "Food and Wine" magazine that I was the lucky winner of a VIP pass, which allowed me to attend any of the events taking place during the festival. The prize was sponsored by "Foods of Spain" and the Spanish Embassy. It was a fantastic surprise and I was delighted!! Unfortunately, due to our busy work schedule, we couldn't get to the festival on Saturday but we decided to leave for Ballymaloe very early on Sunday morning. It took us just over two hours to get to Midleton. I must say the signposting for Ballymaloe is pretty terrible but after taking a few wrong turns and having to ask a few passers-by for directions, we finally arrived at the Ballymaloe House.



We started with a little stroll around the Ballymaloe House, shop and cafe.

After our walk we visited the Big Shed where lots of free events were taking place throughout the weekend. With live music, farmers market food stalls, craft corner, wine talks and tastings, book signings and many other activities, the place was buzzing. Looking at all the delicious food has made us hungry, so we decided to sample some Spanish food from Silvia Iglesias Hilara Spanish Food stall (after all it was the Spanish Embassy that sponsored my VIP pass!) and some lovely apple juice from Mealagulla Orchards.

After our little lunch, we decided to have a look at the cookery school, farm shop and gardens. I would love to do the 12-week certificate course at Ballymaloe at some stage (still saving for it!) and was curious to see the school and student cottages.

The cookery school is located in the middle of its own 100-acre organic farm. The gardens surrounding the school are wonderful and the school itself is modern and well-equipped. It would be such a fantastic experience to be able to spend 3 months here. Who knows, maybe next year?

There were many workshops, talks and demonstrations taking place during the festival and I was able to attend one of the most exciting cookery demonstrations with three past Ballymaloe students: Rachel Allen, Thomasina Miers and Stevie Parle.

Thomasina Miers is an English cook, writer and TV presenter. In 2005 she won the British MasterChef. Thomasina is the founder of the "Wahaca" chain of Mexican diners.

Stevie worked in some of the best restaurants in England, opened his own "Dock Kitchen" and has written 3 award winning cookery books.

And finally - Rachel Allen. Rachel is an Irish celebrity chef, known for her work on television and as a writer, she also teaches at the Ballymaloe School. Rachel Allen is one of my favourite Irish celebrity chefs and there will be a separate post about her.

The demonstration was absolutely amazing: funny and educational. The chefs have shown us how to make:
Caramelised scallop, avocado and orange salad with spices
Luxurious chicken liver toasts
Easy goat's cheese souffles with spiced almond crust
Chicken roasted in pomegranate molasses&mastic with braised broad beans
Asparagus thoran
Lemongrass coconut cake
Dulce de leche cake
Madeleines
We were able to sample all of the dishes after the demonstration.  Everything was delicious but suprisingly, my favourite dish was the goat's cheese souffle (I don't really like goat's cheese) and that will be the first dish on my "to re-create at home" list.

The demonstration finished at 6pm, we spent another hour doing a bit of shopping (stocking up on Ballymaloe Country Relish, lovely olive oil and spices) and as we had to be back to work the next morning, we decided to drive back to Dublin.

I had a really great day and I am only sorry that we couldn't stay longer...Thanks very much to all involved, thank you "Food of Spain" for the fantastic prize and last but not least: thank you Mr PB for driving me to Cork and spending the day there with me.

Welcome to my new blog....

Hello everybody! So here we go, this is my first post on my brand new blog. This blog will be about food. Yes, that's right - another food blog!! But sure there can't be too many blogs about food... I always feel excited when I find a new site about food and I hope that the online circle of foodies will welcome me to their group. This blog will be a diary (and an album) of the food I make at home. You will also find posts and comments about eating out, cookbooks, my favourite chefs, foodie events, etc. I also hope to be able to write about the food I will sample on my future travels (NYC in 4 weeks time, yippee!!!) Please feel free to contact me with your comments and suggestions.