a dinner to remember (starters)

This weekend I had 6 friends over for dinner, I had never cooked a proper meal for them before so thought I better make it special so for Starters I decided on mussels in a creamy cider broth for the fish eaters, and  for the   non fish eaters chicken wings 4 ways. This was followed by a basil, lime and mint sorbet. For the main course I made steak and guinness pie and for those with room left for dessert I made sticky toffee pudding with baileys ice cream. If I was ever to go on come dine with me I think this would be my menu I guess its my interpretation of what Irish food is about.


Today I'll give my recipe for the mussels. I decided I wanted the freshest mussels I could find so I took my niece Kate out to Morningtown with our trusty green bucket to collect some, unfortunately the weather has been unusually warm this Autumn so much to Kates disappointmet the mussels never showed up. I wasn't quite as disappointed as I knew the local fishmonger always has good quality mussels.


Well thats enough talking about the mussels I better give the recipe before people start getting impatient. As with any great recipe i'll start with the ingredients, for this recipe you will need:

1 kg of mussels (about 12 mussels per person is a good starter portion)
4 smokey bacon rashers, diced
1 leek
4 carrots
2 celery stalks
8 shallots or 1 onion
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 lemon
1pint chicken stock
1 pint of cider
75ml cream
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper.

The main component of a delicious mussel dish is a delicious broth and this one is certainly that.
We start by frying our bacon to get it nice and crispy, when done remove from the pan and start frying the shallots in the bacon fat adding the bay leaf and a pinch of salt and pepper to get some seasoning into the shallots early. After sweating the onions for about 5 minutes add the garlic,celery, carrots and leek. Fry the vegetables for another 5 minutes adding the thyme and half the paprika during cooking. we now add the cider and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, add a squeeze of the lemon juice to taste.
If you want to spend more time with your guests you can  cook to this stage earlier in the day or as I done the day before.

Before you add your mussels to the stock make sure they are well cleaned and all the beards carefully removed. throw away any dead mussels that won't stay closed. I find a good way to check if a mussel is dead  is to close it with your fingers then gently tap the mussel with another mussel, if it doesn't stay closed then it is more than likely dead. If you cooked your stock before hand bring it back to a simmer, add the cream then add the mussels. cook for about 4 minutes then dish up and serve with a nice crusty bread.

amazing kedgeree

Kedgree is an Indian Rice dish which was brough to England and changed into a breakfast dish so I find it fitting that I discovered this dish through 2 friends in Glasgow who are Indian and English. This is a lightly spiced and extremely flavourful version of kedgeree.

Ok i'll start with the ingredients,

For this dish you'll need:
1 medium sized fillet of smoked haddock
1 medium sized fillet of salmon
3/4 a cup of raw prawns or a decent handfull
1 medium onion diced
1/4 cup of diced red pepper
1/2 cup of frozen peas
250g of basmati rice
1 1/2 pints of chicken stock
3 eggs
1 lemon juiced
1 tbsp garlic ginger paste
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp curry powder
pinch of saffron
2 bay leaves
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp tomato puree
salt and pepper to taste
knob of butter (am not sure if this is an irish measurement but its about 2 tbsp)
small bunch of thyme and fresh parsley




Our first step is to lightly poach the fish and prawns. to do this we add the stock, tomato puree, saffron, 1 bay leaf, lemon juice, fennel seeds,thyme, 1/2 garam masala & 1/2 curry powder to a pot and bring to the boil and   simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavours infuse into the stock. We then reduce the heat to low and gently  add the haddock and salmon, leave to cook for roughly 4 minutes and then add the prawns. After another minute remove the fish and prawns from the stock and sieve the stock into a bowl.

At this stage I boil my eggs, I like to use the immersion egg timer. Try getting the eggs to medium then adding to cold water to stop them cooking.

The next step is to cook the rice. I now wipe the stock pan clean and add half the butter and a dash of olive oil, when hot add the onions, sweat for 3 minutes then add the rice, ensure all the grains are covered in oil and     cook for another minute, this cooks off the starch and ensures the rice doesn't become mushy.  Now add the rest of the garam masala, curry powder, salt, pepper, bay leaf and garlic ginger paste. The next step is to gradually add 1 pint of the stock. dont add it all at once as we can always add more but can't take any out.
After 3 or 4 minutes add the peppers and peas and cook for about 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked, pay close attention to the stock and make sure the rice doesn't stick.




















Once the rice  is cooked remove from the heat,add some chopped parsley then add the prawns and break up the fish into large chunks and add this too. gently fold all the rice into a serving dish, quarter the eggs and put them on top. finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

I hope everyone enjoys my first recipe and I promise that there will be many more recipes from all over the world be it sweet savory or any other flavour that excites my taste buds.

Happy Eating,
Padraig Faulkner.