Too tired to cook...

Cabbage and Bamboo Shoot Stirfry

The weather has been brilliant this week and I've been making the most of it by trying to catch up and get ahead on the gardening. Long days outside and heavy work means that by the time I come in for my dinner I've barely got the energy to light the fire and make a cup of tea. Meals have, of necessity, been rather dull. Food as fuel, not entertainment.

The stirfry above was flavoured in the manner of a hot and sour soup, white pepper and the sharpness of vinegar. It wasn't great and possibly the only thing of note about it was that the cabbage was harvested from the garden. No bamboo shoots yet in the vegetable patch but I'm working on it.


Vegetable Fried Rice

Naturally leftovers are playing their part, this fried rice was made with the spare rice from the stirfry and some more veggies. After stir frying the vegetables briefly I steamed them in a glass of Gewurztraminer wine before adding the broken up cold rice and finally frying it. I had another glass of wine with the meal.


Braised Endive and roast potatoes

I must have had the oven on for some reason, perhaps making that Potato Apple pie because this rather austere meal of wine cooked endive and roast potatoes would have taken me too long on a normal evening. It was only o.k. and I had the rest of the braised endives in a stew the next day, mercifully unrecorded.

Tonight, a sort of porridge of celeriac and couscous. I wanted bulgar but it seems to be rule of nature that whichever I want of bulgar or couscous I only have the other. Not worth photographing, I've saved a portion for lunch tomorrow.

The luck of the Irish

Potato Apple Pie

Happy St. Paddy's Day although for most of you it's nearly over already.

This is what I intended to submit to the Daily Spud for the Paddy's day parade, a slight tribute to the Spud herself as I think the inspiration comes from one of her recipes although I didn't have it to hand when I made this. But I was too late and serves me right. Apologies for the naff picture too, it's too dark in the evenings for the little camera to cope yet.

This is really very simple and even with all the omissions I made by way of sweetening and spicing ( I forgot the lot!) it's a welcome snack with a cup of tea. A tot of Irish whiskey helps it down too.

The pastry is where the potato is hiding. You will need;

About 400g freshly mashed potato, still warm
70g margarine
120g plain flour and extra for shaping.

A couple of eating apples - I only had one but it was huge.
Lemon juice
Sugar
Cinnamon or other spices to taste.

Prepare your apple(s) by taking out the cores and making neat slices. No need to peel. Sprinkle the slices with lemon juice, this improves the flavour as well as the colour so don't leave it out.

Make a lovely soft dough by mixing the margarine into the warm mash and then adding the flour. Use a fork or something to mix it well. Turn out onto your well floured board and divide into two pieces (or possibly three, I saved a little back and made a potato scone with it). Gently pat or roll one portion out into a rough circle shape about 25cm across. It's extremely difficult to move so it may be easiest to work straight onto the baking tray.

Arrange your apple slices over the base leaving a border all around them of about 3cm. You can pile them up a bit in the middle if you like. Add sugar if you think it needs it and sprinkle in a little of your spice flavouring.

With the other portion of dough make a lid. Start by patting out a circle on the board but before it gets too thin and unwieldy plop it on top of the apples and pat it out across them there. You need only top the apples with it. Fold the base up to meet it and seal the edges. The dough is easy to work.

Sprinkle some sugar over the top and bake in a medium oven, say 170C for an hour. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

That's all.

Roast Cauliflower

Far too tired for cooking, here is tonight's supper - a big bowl of roast cauliflower decorated with a few springs of calabrese and some shreds of onion.

Tomorrow morning I'm hoping to have the energy to create something for the St. Patrick's day parade over at The Daily Spud but just in case I'm too shagged out to make the deadline there's still time for you to submit your favourite Irish recipe for the show if you're quick.

Night night.

Back to the Farm

Transition day today - first movements back to full habitation for the summer.

Last night's dinner

Felafel and Chips with Salad

After a month of feeling guilty every time I reached for the bottle of oil I decided to break loose.

You can find the recipe for felafel here, chips here and tahini sauce here down the page a bit.

History lessons

Ruby Chard soup with leaf garnish

The first digital camera I owned was a little Ixus point and shoot. I've just spent a happy half hour looking through my archives to see which photo taken with it qualifies as the first food picture. There aren't that many to choose from, mostly birthday cakes, but I think it was the one above which shows some beet and chard (probably) soup probably made with produce from the allotments we had then. That was taken in October 2003, several years before this blog was started, before I'd even considered opening up my mealtimes to the world.

Keeping a blog running for nearly five years has changed the way we live our lives. We stop to take the picture before we eat, the menu is shaped by desires to make the next entry interesting to readers, novelty can sometimes overwhelm good taste and the predictability of weekday meals makes finding something to share in writing a task to fear rather than one to enjoy. It's a funny hobby for someone who's basically not all that keen on telling anyone anything.

Still, here we are and this is what's been done. In the next few months I think there'll need to be some changes around here. Perhaps a new format, perhaps a new direction. History might repeat itself but life never stands still.

Irish Range Dec 2002