RSS

Monthly Archives: October 2012

A Great Weeknight Meal: Go Ahead and Thai One On

13 Oct

Now that the trip to Ireland is over and done, it’s time to get back to some everyday cooking again. I made a few different meals this week, but the one that stands out as something different was this one. I recently started a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated and when my first issue came, I had picked out this recipe as the first one I wanted to try. It is a Thai dish called pad see ew. It is a traditional street dish of charred rice noodles with some kind of meat, Chinese broccoli and eggs in a sauce. It looked good and the recipe seemed pretty straightforward to me and it seemed like something the whole family would eat. I am the first to admit, I do not normally like pasta or noodles, but the rice noodles had a little bit of different texture and taste to them and since they were crisping up in the cooking, I didn’t mind them at all. The hardest part I had was finding all the ingredients locally. Serrano chiles are apparently hard to come by around here, and it took a little work to find some broccolini and oyster sauce as well, but I did track them down at a local market that has mostly Asian food.

Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken (Pad See Ew)

Chile Vinegar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 serrano chile, stemmed and sliced into thin rings

Stir-Fry

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut against the grain into 14-inch thick slices

1 teaspoon baking soda

8 ounces rice noodles

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon molasses

1 teaspoon fish sauce

3 garlic cloves, sliced thin

3 large eggs

10 ounces broccolini, florets cut into 1-inch pieces, stalks cut on the bias into 1/2-inch pieces

For the Chile Vinegar: Combine the vinegar and the serrano chile in a bowl. Let stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.

For the Stir-Fry:  Combine the chicken with 2 tablespoons of water and the baking soda in a bowl. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Rinse the chicken in cold water and drain well.

Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Place the noodles in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the noodles. Stir, then soak the noodles until they are almost tender, about 8 minutes, stirring once halfway through the soak. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water.  Drain well and toss with 2 teaspoons of the oil.

Whisk the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, molasses, and fish sauce together in a bowl.

Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil and the garlic in a large nonstick skillet over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is a deep golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken and 2 tablespoons of the sauce mixture, toss to coat, and spread the chicken in an even layer. Cook without stirring until the chicken begins to brown, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Push the chicken to one side of the skillet. Add 2 teaspoons of the oil to the cleared side of the skillet. Add the eggs to the clear space. Using a rubber spatula, stir the eggs gently and cook until they set but are still wet. Stir the eggs into the chicken and continue to cook, breaking up the large pieces of egg, until the eggs are fully cooked, about 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer the chicken mixture to a bowl.

Heat two teaspoons of the oil in a now-empty skillet until smoking. Add the broccolini and 2 tablespoons of sauce and toss to coat. Cover the skillet and cook for 2 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking. Remove the lid and continue to cook until the broccolini is crisp and very brown in spots, 2 to 3 minutes, stirring once halfway through cooking. Transfer the broccolini to the bowl with the chicken mixture.

Heat two teaspoons of oil in the now-empty skillet until smoking. Add half of the noodles and 2 tablespoons of the sauce to coat. Cook until the noodles are starting to brown in spots, about two minutes, stirring halfway through cooking. Transfer the noodles to the bowl with the chicken mixture. Repeat the process with the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil, the noodles and the sauce. When the second batch of noodles is cooked, add the entire contents of the bowl back to the skillet and toss to combine. Cook without stirring until everything is warmed through, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer everything to a platter and serve immediately, passing the chile vinegar separately.

It’s a pretty simple meal that I think turned out quite well. Michelle and Sean both loved it, and I liked it too. And it’s nice because it fits easily into a one-pot meal for easy cleanup as well.The whole meal itself does not take long to cook and prepare, so it fit well into a school night meal.

As I said, finding some of the ingredients can prove to be a challenge depending on the type of markets you have locally to you. If you can’t get broccolini, you could substitute regular broccoli with no problem. I think you need to get the rice noodles to make it authentic and it does add to the taste, though I found the rice noodles to be quite expensive ($6.99 for a 1 pound box of noodles).

I had my budding photographer Sean take the picture of the meal for me as it cooked. He wants to be my blog photographer, so the job is his right now. I think he did a pretty good job on this one.

That’s it for today. i do have some more recipes to post that we have done recently, including some tacos and a bacon-wrapped tilapia, so look for those over the next few days. Until then, enjoy the rest of your fall day and enjoy your meal!

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 13, 2012 in Cookbooks, Cooking, Dinner, One Pot Meals, Poultry

 

Tags: , , , ,

A Taste of Dublin, Part 5

11 Oct

So this is all I have left from our trip to Dublin as far as the food goes. We ate a small breakfast on our last down, took one last walk around the city and we actually had hamburgers for lunch at the Jasmine Bar at the hotel before we headed for Dublin airport to come home. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there at the Storehouse. They do have a whole display of how Guinness has been incorporated into many food dishes in Ireland and the world. I picked up three separate recipes while we were there that all looked good. The first one is Irish mussels in a Guinness cream sauce. Keep in mind that all these recipe measurements are in metric so you may have to convert them when you give them a try.

Irish Mussels in Guinness Cream Sauce

1 kg fresh Irish Mussels

300 ml cream

200 ml fish stock

330 ml Guinness extra stout

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

Juice of half a lemon

In a saucepan over medium heat, place the butter, onion, carrot and celery and fry for 2-3 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the Guinness, fish stock and bay leaf and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half again. Add the mussels and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the shells of the mussels have opened. Add the dill and sprinkle with lemon juice.

I think this one will make a great appetizer for a group of 4 or 6 people. I’m not sure you can find Irish mussels easily, but I would try substituting mussels you can get at your local fish market and see how it goes.

For an entrée, I picked this recipe, one we actually saw on a number of menus in places we were at in Dublin. Beef & Guinness stew seems to be a favorite, and it just plain looks like it would taste awesome.

Beef & Guinness Stew

200 ml of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

400 g stew beef, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 large stalk of celery, diced

1 large parsnip, diced

1 liter beef stock

Sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the stew beef and brown on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook until tender then pour the Guinness and reduce by half. Add the beef stock and the herbs and simmer very slowly for between an hours and an hour and a half.

They serve the stew with mashed potatoes served on the side of the bowl of the stew. It looks like it has a great dark color to it. It sounds very simple to make and does not have a lot of ingredients, so you can easily make it on a weeknight.

Of course, there needs to be a dessert using Guinness as well. They had a few different ones to choose from, including some cakes, but I chose this recipe for Guinness chocolate truffles instead. It looks simple and should taste great.

Guinness Chocolate Truffles

1 kg dark chocolate, cut into small chunks

400 ml cream

100 ml Guinness

Zest of 1 orange

Cocoa powder

Add the cream and Guinness to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the chocolate and grated orange zest. Mix together until the chocolate is fully melted. Leave the chocolate mix until it is cool to the touch, but not set. Take a generous teaspoon of the mixture and roll it in your hands to form small round truffles. Dust each with the cocoa powder. Set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

A simple fast, chocolatey dessert to finish off a Guinness meal.

So that covers all of the Dublin meals. It was a wonderful trip and we hope to get back to Ireland again and see more of the country than just Dublin. it was a great experience and I would recommend to anyone that they go and enjoy it.

Back to real world cooking for me now though. I do have a backlog of some recipes we have tried recently that I plan to post, including one I just tried from Cook’s Illustrated the other night. Check back and see which one I display first. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!

 
2 Comments

Posted by on October 11, 2012 in Appetizers, Beef, Cooking, Dessert, One Pot Meals, Seafood, Soups & Stews

 

Tags: , , ,

A Taste of Dublin, Part 4

10 Oct

So it was on the second full day that we decided to stop for dinner at a local pub. We had seen the signs for the Hairy Lemon every time we walked back and forth to the hotel since they were on the same block. Just the name alone got the better of us and we knew we had to give it a try. It was a very quaint place jam-packed with old mementos and signs from years’ gone by in Dublin. The place was quiet when we got there and we easily got a table. The server was very friendly, as every server we came across in Dublin was. We ordered drinks ( I had a Guinness, of course) and took a look at the menu. They had quite a large selection, including several traditional Irish meals. We both saw the traditional Irish stew listed on the menu and agreed that it sounded wonderful so we both ordered it. Neither of us was disappointed. What came out was a very large stainless steel crock (actually 2 crocks, one for each of us) on a platter with a very large baked potato and some homemade brown bread. The stew was absolutely amazing. The lamb was super-tender and just melted in your mouth and all the vegetables were perfect. The server said the vegetables came in fresh every day from the market the chef shopped at, and he picked out what he wanted so sometimes there was something different in the stew each time. This time, there were definitely parsnips in there and they were good. We both finished our bowls clean and devoured the homemade bread, which they bake fresh each day and sell by the loaf if you want to take some home. I could barely touch my baked potato, and it was a big one. I ended up eating about 1/2 of it, but it was cooked well and I enjoyed it. Neither of us had room for any dessert after.

I searched around on the Internet and have found that many of the Irish stews are basically the same recipe. although some use different vegetables or no other vegetable besides potato, so it is really your call as to what you want to make. Others also use a lot of beef broth to darken it. The stew we had was lighter but did taste of beef broth, so they must have used some. Try this one and see if you like it.

Traditional Irish Stew

4 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups leeks, sliced
1/2 cup flour
4 ounces butter
1 cup Guinness beer
3 cups beef stock
1/2 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
4 cloves garlic, cut in half
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, plus 1 tablespoon chopped
1 cup peas, shelled
1 cup leeks, sliced thinly
Oil for frying

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the lamb and brown evenly. Remove the lamb from the pot and set aside. Add the leeks and saute until soft. Add the butter and melt. Add the flour to make a roux. Turn the heat down to low, and cook the roux until it is brown, about 15 minutes. Whisk in the beer and stock. Add the reserved lamb, bring to a simmer, and cover. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.

 

While the lamb mixture is simmering, combine the parsnips, carrots, potatoes and garlic in a large bowl. Toss with remaining olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary sprigs. Place the vegetables in a roasting pan and place in a 400-degree oven. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Remove the vegetables from the oven and discard the rosemary sprigs. Add the roasted vegetables and the peas to the lamb mixture. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the chopped rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Add the thinly sliced leeks to a pot of heated oil and fry for 3 minutes, or until crisp. Remove the leeks from the oil and drain on paper towels. Season the leeks with salt. Garnish the stew with the fried leeks.

You could substitute some scallions for the leeks used at the end if you wanted to without frying them any, just chop them up and use them as a garnish. Either way I don’t think you can go wrong. I’ll definitely be trying this one at home myself.

We are just about done with our meals from Ireland. All we have left is our final day, which we spent entirely at the Guinness Storehouse at then at Whelan’s Pub for the show. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there which I will be posting tomorrow, and you can check my personal blog tonight for my account of the day we spent with Guinness. It was great! So, until tomorrow, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 10, 2012 in Eating Out, Lamb, One Pot Meals, Soups & Stews

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

A Taste of Dublin, Part 3

09 Oct

Tonight I am going to cover the Irish breakfast we had on our second day in Dublin. We woke up early that morning with the intention of getting to breakfast, since it  was included in our package of the trip from Guinness. We went down to the dining room early, about 8 AM, and were seated in the dining room. As soon as we sat down, we were offered coffee or tea and some toast. I was little surprised by the toast, but hey, I like toast, so why not, we accepted. The waitress came back with a pot of tea for Michelle, a pot of coffee for me and a rack of toast, about 6 pieces, 3 of which were white and 3 other three were the brown bread that is made especially by the Brooks Hotel. The Hotel actually supplies the recipe for the bread, which is made with Guinness of course. Here it is if you want to give it a try. Keep in mind that when I got the recipe, the measurements are all in metric because it is European, so you’ll have to make some adjustments.

Brooks’ Homemade Guinness Brown Bread

600 grams Wholemeal Flour
150 grams Plain Flour
75 grams Oatmeal (porridge oats)
2½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2½ tablespoons brown sugar
40 grams butter

480 millilitres milk
200 millilitres black treacle
½ pint of Guinness

Preparation:
Mix the butter with all the dry ingredients until the dough develops the consistency of breadcrumbs.
Add the milk, black treacle and the Guinness and mix until you reach a wet dough.
Bake in a greased bread tin for 40 – 45 minutes at 170°C in a pre-heated oven.

Black treacle is what they call molasses in the UK and Ireland. The bread tasted very good and it seems very simple to make, so I may have to give it a try sometime. Michelle and I both liked the Irish butter that was served every day as well. it had a much better flavor than the butter we have here in the States.

For the rest of the breakfast, you have a  choice. They serve a simple breakfast which is a buffet breakfast of simple things like scones, croissants, cereal, fresh fruit and yogurt. The yogurt was very tasty as I had it on other morning we were there. it had fresh raspberries in it and tasted quite good. You could also order off the menu, and the menu offered a full Irish breakfast. Now, I had heard about the fill breakfast before and knew it was going to be quite large, but we both figured that we wanted to give it a try. When else were we going to have the opportunity to try this anyway? So Michelle and I both ordered the breakfast with scrambled eggs. I wish I had taken a picture of what we actually got, because when it came out on a plate we were both shocked. Here is what was on the plate:

Irish sausage – which was absolutely delicious, by the way

There was bacon, but not in the way we think of bacon in the United States. It was much more like a piece of ham, but it was better than any ham I had eaten. i am not a fan of ham myself. The hame we get here seems way too salty and usually has some kind of curing on it that makes it too sweet for my liking. This tasted much cleaner and purer with little fat. It was delicious.

A very large pile of scrambled eggs in the center – traditionally it is served with fried eggs, but we both opted for scrambled for some reason.

Underneath the eggs was a slice of potato bread, which seemed more like a potato pancake with a nice crust on the top of it. I had never had anything quite like it before and it was pretty tasty.

A fried tomato – it was half of a small tomato

Sauteed mushrooms – these were really good

Black and white pudding – Okay, I knew what it was before I tried it and this was something a lot of people shied away from or warned me about but I wanted to try it. Heck, if millions of people have eaten it for hundreds of years, how bad could it be? It’s also known as blood pudding for those who may not know and is made from onions, oatmeal, pork fat and other spices, much like a sausage, but it also has pig blood in it, hence the name. I have to admit, it’s not something I would go out of my way to get again, and it has a very distinct flavor to it, but I am glad I tried it. The white pudding is the same ingredients without the blood, and there is a taste difference. The white tastes more like a sausage that you would find here, except the oatmeal adds a certain texture to the meal.

I did find a recipe for blood pudding if you want to give it a try to make it yourself. Finding the pig’s blood might be tough, but if you can get it give it a try.

Blood Pudding

1 quart pig, lamb or goose blood

16 ounces milk

salt and pepper
1 pound shredded suet
2 large onions, minced
1 ounce oatmeal, toasted

Bring a large  stew pot 3/4 full of water almost to a boil. Pour the blood into a deep bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt, stirring constantly. Strain with a sieve. Add milk, mix well.
Add suet, minced onions, toasted oatmeal, 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of black pepper and mix well. Pour the mixture into an oven-safe pan and cook in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. Remove from the oven and slice into one-inch squares or rounds. Fry the rounds in a saute pan with a pat of butter until crisp on the outside, about 1-2 minutes per side.

Give it a shot and see if you like it.

Tomorrow, I will post the recipe for the dinner we had on the second night, which was a traditional Irish stew that we had at the Hairy Lemon in Dublin. Check back tomorrow and see how it is. until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!

 
2 Comments

Posted by on October 9, 2012 in Breads, Breakfast, Cooking, Pork

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

A Taste of Dublin, Part 2

08 Oct

To pick up where I left off yesterday, we did not really have a dinner that first night in Dublin. We were so tired we had slept right through dinner and just went downstairs to the bar in the hotel to see if we could just get a drink and relax. When we arrived there, we found out that we could still order things off the var menu. Neither of us was tremendously hungry, but we did want to have a little something. We each decided to order the lemon tart with raspberry sorbet and an Irish coffee. I can tell you, all three things tasted fantastic. While I did not get the exact recipes for the lemon tart and the raspberry sorbet, I did find some recipes that I think will bring you the same tastes that we had that night.

Lemon Tart

1 fully baked warm tart shell, 9- to 9 1/2-inch (you can buy a store-bought shell if you want, or I will post  the recipe for the pastry shell following)

7 large egg yolks

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2/3 cup lemon juice from 4 to 5 medium lemons

1/4 cup grated lemon zest

Pinch table salt

4 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the tart pan with the shell on a cookie sheet.

In a medium non-reactive bowl, whisk together yolks and whole eggs until combined, about 5 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk until just combined, about 5 seconds. Add lemon juice, zest, and salt; whisk until combined, about 5 seconds. Transfer the mixture to a medium non-reactive saucepan and add the butter pieces, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until curd thickens to a thin sauce-like consistency and registers 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes. Immediately pour the curd through a single-mesh stainless steel strainer set over clean non-reactive bowl. Stir in the heavy cream; pour the curd into the warm tart shell immediately.

Bake until the filling is shiny and opaque and until the center 3 inches jiggle slightly when shaken, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 45 minutes. Remove the outer metal ring, slide a thin metal spatula between the bottom crust and the tart pan bottom to release, then slip the tart onto a cardboard round or serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve.

Tart Pastry

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick, very cold), cut into twenty-four 3/4-inch cubes

1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour for dusting

Whisk together the yolk, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl; set aside. Pulse to combine 1 1/4 cups flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over the flour mixture; pulse to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about fifteen 1-second pulses. With the machine running, add the egg mixture and process until the dough just comes together, about 25 seconds. Turn the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Unwrap the dough; lightly flour a large sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap and place the dough in the center. Roll out  the dough and line the tart pan. Freeze the dough 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, adjust one oven rack to the upper-middle position and the other rack to the lower-middle position; heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the chilled tart shell on a cookie sheet; press a 12-inch square of foil inside the tart shell and fill with metal or ceramic pie weights. Bake on the lower rack for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through the baking time. Carefully remove the foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. Transfer the cookie sheet with the tart shell to the upper rack and continue to bake until the shell is golden brown, about 5 minutes longer.

Both of these recipes come from America’s Test Kitchen, but of the ones I looked at, these seemed to be the ones that would produce the results closest to what we had. For the raspberry sorbet, I looked around all over the place to try to find one that I thought would be close to what we had when I came across this one.

Raspberry Sorbet

1 pint fresh raspberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Wash the raspberries well. Dissolve the 1/2 cup of sugar into the 1/2 cup of water. Combine the sugar-water mix and the raspberries in a blender (optional you could strain out the raspberry seeds at this point if they bother you. A lot of people don’t like them). Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker. Freeze as for making ice cream. It takes about 30 minutes in a 1 quart gel canister ice cream maker. Let the sorbet harden for an additional 30 minutes in the freezer. (Don’t leave the sorbet in the freezer too long, or it will be hard to scoop and have the texture of a popsicle.)

That’s all there is to it. It’s a pretty simple recipe that I think will produce results just like what we had. Here’s a picture of what we had at the Brooks Hotel;

The Irish coffee we had I thought would be similar to what I make but it did taste different. I have posted my recipe before if you want to see how I make it, but I watched the bartender make hers and she did it somewhat differently.

Irish Coffee

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

1 1/2 ounces Irish Whiskey

6 ounces fresh brewed coffee

Clotted cream

Pour hot water into your coffee glass. Allow the glass to get warm and then dispose of the hot water. Add the sugar and whiskey to the glass. Pour the hot coffee over the whiskey and sugar. Top with clotted cream and serve.

Now I add extras to my Irish coffee, but I have to say it tasted great this way.You could get a good taste of the Irish whiskey and the clotted cream, which we don’t really do, tasted great. We each had Irish coffees on several nights and noticed that different bartenders make it different ways at the same bar. The first bartender we had mixed the whiskey and sugar before putting the coffee in. She also topped the cream with a single coffee bean, which I thought was a nice touch. The second bartender told us when he served it that he did not mix the sugar into the whiskey and gave us spoons to do it. He said some people don’t like the sugar mixed in, so he leaves it up to the customer. You could certainly taste the whiskey more in the second bartender’s version, but both were pretty good. Here is a picture of the one we had on the first night.

Michelle liked that served each one with a piece of Irish chocolate too :). They also left a piece of chocolate on our pillows every night.

I was going to include the Irish breakfast in tonight’s post, but this one is already running long so I think I will include it in tomorrow’s post instead. It was quite a full breakfast, and unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of that one, but it was good and I’ll fill you in on all the contents tomorrow. We’ll see how long tomorrow’s post goes and what I’ll include or maybe I’ll just wait until the next day. Keep checking back to see what shows up. until then, enjoy the rest of your evening and enjoy your meal!

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 8, 2012 in Beverages, Dessert, Eating Out

 

Tags: , , ,

A Taste of Dublin, Part 1

07 Oct

Now that I finally have some time to sit down and do some writing, I can talk a little bit about our trip to Dublin and our food and beverage experiences. We weren’t quite sure what to expect in terms of food when we arrived in Dublin. I am sure I am not the only one who has heard horror stories about cooking from Britain and Ireland. I can tell you that we did not have a bad meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner, while we there. Everything was great. Granted, we did not always have a lot of time to do meals because we wanted to do a lot of things and only had 4 days to do it all. We also knew that we were going to spend an entire day with Guinness while we there, as they had requested since they sponsored the contest I won.

When we arrived in Dublin the first day, it was about 11 AM. We went over to the hotel and couldn’t check in until 2, so they graciously held or luggage for us and we went exploring around the immediate area. The rain was torrential that day, which we really limited where we could go and do things. We walked aimlessly in the rain for a while trying to figure out where we could go. We eventually ended up at the Dublin Wax Museum, which was a nice treat. It is housed in an old bank so all the rooms are in old bank vaults, making it seem a little creepier. We had a great time walking around there and took some great pictures (you can check my other blog soon or my Facebook page now to see them). By the time we were done there, it was still only about 12:30, so we decided to get some lunch.

We walked around trying to find some places to go. There are pubs everywhere (we would later find out that Dublin has 750 pubs, and that doesn’t include the pubs in the hotels, which pushes it over 1,000). We found a place near the hotel called Peter’s Pub. It was a small, quiet location that was perfect for us. We sat down and were met by a very friendly barkeeper who sat us at a table right in the window. They have a very simple lunch menu, which included the lunch special, which is soup, a sandwich and a pot of tea for 10 Euros. Michelle and I each decided to have that. We both ordered the same thing, a tuna sandwich a pot of tea and the spiced beef soup. I was not familiar with the Irish spiced beef before, so I wanted to give it a try. It was worth it, for sure. The spiced beef was certainly a different flavor to the soup. It took a little investigating on my part, but I was able to find that spiced beef is very close to what American’s would call corned beef. The difference is while we use a brisket, they use a rump roast. It is something they use for holiday meals and is traditionally served cold. I was able to find a recipe for the spiced beef if you want to give it a try.

Irish Spiced Beef

6 lbs sirloin tip roast or 6 lbs beef eye round
3 bay leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground mace
6 ground cloves
1 clove garlic, crushed and made into a paste with
salt
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 teaspoons molasses
2 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1 bottle Guinness stout

Mix all the flavorings and spices together. Place the beef in a large bowl and rub all over with the spice and flavoring mixture. Cover and refrigerate the beef. Rub in the mixture once or twice a day for a week; turn the beef as you repeat the rubbing in process. The spices and flavorings will now be mixed with the juices drawn from the beef.

Tie up the meat firmly and place in a large pot or Dutch oven. Rub in a final teaspoon of ground cloves. Cover the beef with cold water and the bottle of Guinness. Simmer gently for 5-6 hours until the beef is tender. Allow the beef to cool in the cooking liquid. When it is cool, remove it from the liquid, place it on a serving dish and cover it with a weighted plate. Refrigerate until serving time and serve thinly sliced and cold.

Peter’s Pub had diced the beef and served it in a beef broth with some vegetables like potato, carrots and celery. It tasted wonderful with the bread they had served. The tuna sandwich was a simple sandwich but was a large serving with some chips on the side. The whole meal was incredibly filling for both of us and we each had a pot of tea, which really hit the spot after being in and out of the rain for a few hours.

The great thing we noticed about the different pubs and places we went to in Dublin is that no one ever rushed you out. They would let you sir for hours if that is what you wanted to relax and enjoy yourself.. Being from New York, I think we expected to get rushed around and we sat around for about an hour relaxing before we finally asked for the check. He gave it to use with a big smile and wished us a good day.

Tomorrow I will continue posting some recipes of things we came across in Dublin, including the late night snack we had the first night of a lemon tart with raspberry sorbet and Irish coffees and the traditional full Irish breakfast we had the next morning. Check back to see how it was and what was in it. You can also check my other blog where I am going to write more about our trip to lead into getting back into my blogging and what our experiences were like.

I plan to get back to posting regular recipes we made at home at the end of this week so you can check back for them at the end of the week as well. until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 7, 2012 in Beef, Eating Out, Soups & Stews

 

Tags: , , , ,

Our Favorite Slider Recipes | Food Republic

03 Oct

Our Favorite Slider Recipes | Food Republic.

Sliders are all the rage right now in many restaurants and I have to admit I love them. I am a big sandwich guy and these are perfect for me. So why not try some at home and make them yourself? Food Republic gives a great variety of slider recipes in this blog post. I know I’ll be trying a couple of them (the lamb and artichoke sounds really good, and so does the red wine sloppy Joes). Check it out and see if you find any you like!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 3, 2012 in Appetizers, Cooking Websites, Sandwiches

 

Tags: , , ,

Thin-Crust Pizza – Cooks Illustrated

02 Oct

Thin-Crust Pizza – Cooks Illustrated.

I don’t often make my own dough for anything because we have such a small kitchen and no counter space to do it, but this one sounds like it is worth giving a try. If I am going to eat pizza, I would choose a thin crust every time and it looks like this one will come out perfectly. I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to give it a shot and you should too! If you have tried this one, let me know how it has worked out for you so we can see it.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 2, 2012 in Cooking, Cooking Websites, Pizza

 

Tags: ,

Back from Dublin for Some Home Cooked Pork Loin

01 Oct

After spending a wonderful week in Dublin last week, it’s time to get back to the real world of work, school and chores around here. That means back to cooking dinner, and yesterday I decided to make some pork loin. I had gotten the recipe from a Williams-Sonoma link I posted here on the blog a while back but I hadn’t had the chance to cook it yet. Last night I gave it a shot, and I can tell you it turned out great and the lentil salad was out of this world.

Roasted Loin with Lentil Salad

 

1 cup lentils

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 bay leaf

6 cups chicken stock

Salt and ground pepper

1 pork tenderloin, about 1 pound, trimmed of excess fat

1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

 

In a saucepan, combine the lentils, half of the garlic, bay leaf and stock. Season well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer the lentils until tender, about 45 minutes. Let the lentils cool in stock.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season the pork well with salt and pepper. In a ovenproof saute pan over medium-high heat, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil. Sear the pork, turning occasionally, until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes total. Add the remaining garlic and rosemary. Place the pork in the oven and roast until the juices run clear when the pork is pierced with a knife, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain the lentils and put them in a bowl. Add 1/4 cup olive oil, mustard, vinegar, onion and parsley. Season and toss to combine. Spread on a serving platter. Slice pork thinly, arrange on lentils and serve.

The lentils tasted great. The combination of the mustard, red onion and red wine vinegar add just the right tang and bite to the lentil salad. We also had enough left over that we can use it as a side dish again later this week with one of our other meals. I also served this with some brown rice and steamed green beans.

For the rest of this week, I plan to post some recipes of things we ate while in Ireland. I will also give some of my observations about the food and pubs and the style of cooking that we observed while we there. It was a great experience on many levels for me, with the food aspect being just one of them. You can check my other blog at The Office of Iguana Flats this week for some of my more personal outlooks on the trip.

I also have some recipes planned for this week that we’ll be using in the  coming days that I hope to get up on the blog soon as well. Check back and see what we had in Ireland and what I’ll be making in the coming days. Fall is coming, so we are planning lots of soups, stews, and slow cooker meals. I also recently subscribed to Cook’s Illustrated and got a few great recipes from there this month that I plan to cook soon. Boy, we have a lot to cover! Until next time, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on October 1, 2012 in Cooking, Cooking Websites, Dinner, Pork, Salad, Side Dishes

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Newer posts →
 
National Day Calendar

Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.

The Write Romance - The Writings of Lacy Hart

Happily Ever After Lives Here

Jennifer Probst

a little bit naughty a little bit nice

Laissez Faire

Letting Life Lead

What To Have For Dinner Tonight

Simple and delicious dinner inspiration