Lettercollum Kitchen Project

It was an wonderful weekend here in West Cork. It’s difficult to imagine today as the rain hits the window, but we had wall to wall sunshine all the way, and yesterday evening we set off to join the Clonakilty Bicycle Festival’s final event, Meals on Wheels. Each course of this mystery dining experience took place in a different location reached of course by pedal power.

We all assembled in the car park with our trusty steeds. There were forty five people signed up for the event – maximum subscription – ten of which were stuck in the traffic jam getting off the beach! This held up the departure slightly but it was quite okay to wait and idly chat with the sun on our backs.

We soon caused a traffic jam of our own as we headed off out of town. The hedgerows full of flowers on one side and the sea wall on the other. We cycled to Ring, past Deasy’s Bar and onto Ring village where Ron’s mobile pizza oven had found the perfect spot to pitch up.

Great views, a couple of benches and plenty of grass for everyone else to sit on.

The first course was freshly made pitta breads, straight out of the oven, served with hummus and a selection of salads. This was washed down with delicious mint tea or an optional dash to Kitty Macs pub on the other side of the road for more fortifying beverages.

As soon as this was eaten we jumped back onto our bikes and headed further up the coast. It was slightly worrying as to where we could be going – there was talk of Dunworley which would be a major cycle along the coast – but it was a trick and next thing we did a u-turn and headed back down the RIng road and we  pulled up at Deasy’s Bar.

We piled inside to be greeted with the vision of chilled white wine on each table and massive feed of Ling with spicy sambal sauce and coconut rice. Yum!

Well, the white wine got rid of the wobble on the bike and we cycled back to Clonakilty with the wind on our backs. Where next, we wondered, for our dessert. And where better than Aidan’s wine bar in the centre of town on the newly revamped Astna Square. Sticky orange cake, high class brownies and fresh berries all washed down with a coffee in the last of the evening sunshine.

The final leg of the journey took us through the town and out to the by-pass roundabout which we circumnavigated and headed straight back in to town where we all waved to the little traffic jam that we had caused on the way up! Down past the Emmet Square and the library and into de Barras pub where we were greeted with a massive cheese board and a glass of wine. I was so stuffed I forgot to take a photo of the cheese but we enjoyed the wine.

I’m back in Barcelona and yesterday we spent a day out of the city at the allotment. This involves the metro and a train journey. Walking out of the station it all sounded so different – no wah wahs, no traffic or bustling people, just a lot of space and birdsong. We walked from the station through the small town of Molins de Rei, then along paths through fields of wildflowers to the allotments.

I last saw the allotment in November when it left a lot to the imagination. It had just been taken over and was  a patch of thistles and weeds. Some trojan work has happened since then and it is now a slug free paradise where all the vegetables are four times size the size of mine. At least four times the size of mine as most of the vegetables in our garden are far from the stage where they will land on a plate.

And no slugs! They just aren’t a problem here. Apparently their cousins, the snail, can be a pest but it’s so dry it just isn’t a good terrain for something that relies on slime to get around.

The vegetables look really healthy. There’s been enough rain this spring to keep everything lush and green and there are beds of pert looking onions and garlic, chard, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines. beans, peas, salads and herbs .

Our friends were already hard at work when we arrived. They had also installed a large bucket full of ice, chilled water and beer to go with the picnic we had all bought along. We settled in under the trees – no self respecting Spaniard would sit in the sun – and ate the picnic before tackling the weeds, picking and watering. There weren’t many weeds to be honest. Another perk of a drier climate but the watering is a mammoth task. The vegetables are planted in beds with little moats between to hold the water and it’s a serious business ensuring there’s enough for everything to prosper. This was the job that I volunteered for, watering being an A1 all round tanning opportunity, whilst the rest of the team set to picking the beans and peas

We headed back to the city with an enormous bag of vegetables for our dinner.

The day disappeared yesterday while i was busy in the garden and when I arrived in the kitchen clutching an armful of spring greens I discovered there was very little else in the vegetable basket. Two small sweet potatoes, a handful of carrots that had seen better days and the butt end of a butternut squash. The family began to look slightly agitated, wondering if dinner was going to happen, so i had to do some quick thinking

I turned the oven on, peeled the veggies and tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into the oven to roast. Next I put a pot of water to boil, weighed out some polenta (ground maize) and grated some parmesan. as soon as the water boiled I whisked in the polenta. I let it cook for a few minutes before taking it off the heat and beating in the Parmesan cheese and a knob of butter, salt and pepper.I poured it onto a large tray and left it to cool. The spring greens were rinsed under the tap and cut into ribbons. I chopped a couple of cloves of garlic to stir fry with the greens. By now the veggies were just about cooked so I whacked on the grill pan to heat, cut the polenta into wedges and drizzled with a little olive oil.This is where the multi tasking kicked in. Once the grill pan was hot I put the polenta wedges on to cook and lit the gas under the wok for the greens. For the greens I added a little oil and a scanty teaspoonful of flaked chilli, a teaspoon of fennel seeds and the chopped garlic. These got a quick whirl before I threw in the greens to stir fry and then I flipped the polenta to cook the other side. Once the greens had wilted down I added a little soya sauce and a splash of water to finish them off.

Onto the plates went a pile of chilli greens, a couple of wedges of polenta and a little heap of roasted veggies, To top it off I dropped a spoonful of Greek yoghurt on top and drizzled a little rocket pesto around.

It looked pretty posh and tasted delicious!

The thing to remember about woofas (willing workers on organic farms) is that they don’t necessarily know anything about vegetables and to send them on a picking mission unaccompanied is dodgy. The shop requested a bucket of spinach and a bucket of chard for tomorrow and our lovely woofa volunteered to go picking. This was such a tempting offer that after a brief ‘do you know’ conversation, off she went armed with two buckets. Some time later she returned with a beautiful bucketful of rainbow chard and a large pile of baby rocket. I was horrified, as for a moment I thought she’d destroyed the fledgling crop of rocket, but it’s fine. In fact it didn’t harm the rocket at all, as it does like to be picked, and I certainly wouldn’t have had the patience to get down and pick such baby leaves singularly. So no harm done and  after having a spinach identifying and picking lesson we have the added bonus of rocket pesto with linguine for our dinner.

Yum!

Rocket Pesto

20g sunflower seeds

20g pinenuts

150g rocket

50g Parmesan cheese

1-2 cloves garlic

approx 100ml olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt

Place the sunflower seeds and pinenuts into a food processor with the garlic and blitz until fairly finely ground. Add the rocket and slowly pour in the olive oil and lemon juice. Add the Parmesan and mix well. Season with a little salt and adjust the consistency by adding a little more oil if necessary. Tip into a bowl. Put a layer of olive oil over the top if the pesto isn’t going to be used immediately. This will stop the pesto from oxidising. Use within the week.

This is a recipe which I have put together for the West Cork People Holiday guide. I wrote it with people staying in holiday accommodation in mind so it’s very simple and ready for good weather

Here’s hoping for sunshine!

Here is a recipe for a summer chickpea salad, which can be made by opening cans and jars. It’s a very popular dish in Spain where they use an incredible amount of canned beans and tuna in the kitchen. It’s very tasty and nutritious and makes for easy holiday cooking or indeed anytime cooking. This makes a great lunch and is perfectly portable for a picnic.

It is worth splashing out on a decent can of tuna as you definitely get what you pay for. White tuna, also known as Bonito del Norte is delicious and quite a different animal from standard tuna. This is used widely in Spain but isn’t as well known here. It’s worth seeking out. Ortiz is the most well-known and widely available brand, the only trouble is that once you’re seduced it’s difficult to return to the other kind.

If you don’t like tuna or are a vegetarian substitute the tuna with feta cheese.

Summer Chickpea salad

1-2 cans chickpeas

1 small red onion

2 large red peppers or one jar roasted peppers

200g cherry tomatoes

1 small can tuna – Ortiz is best, or about 100g feta cheese

a handful fresh parsley

1-2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tbs sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

If you are using fresh peppers you need to roast them first. Pre-heat the oven to 200c and place the peppers directly onto the shelf. Cook for ten minutes then turn and cook for further 5-10 minutes. The peppers are ready when the skin is blistered. Take the peppers from the oven and pop them into a plastic bag. This will make them sweat and the skins will be easier to remove. When the peppers have cooled enough to handle peel away the skins and remove the seeds.

If you are using a jar of roasted peppers drain them.

Cut the peppers into long strips then cut into approx 5cm pieces

Peel and chop the onion and halve or quarter the cherry tomatoes, depending how big they are.

Drain the chickpeas and rinse.

Drain the can of tuna and flake the fish with a fork..

Put all of the above ingredients into a bowl and season with a little salt and pepper. Peel and chop the garlic and whisk together with the vinegar and olive oil.

Pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss together.

Chop the parsley and scatter over the top.

Best served at room temperature.

The loaf was sitting just where I left it this morning. It looked like it had risen by about a centimetre but that was obviously all the seeds and physllium swelling as there ‘s no yeast nor raising agents involved. I popped it into the oven and cooked it for twenty minutes, as instructed, then tipped it out of the bread tin and onto a baking tray for the final thirty-forty minutes of cooking. I checked it after thirty minutes but it took the full forty minutes before it sounded hollow when tapped.

I left it to cool as the recipe said to be sure it was totally cold before slicing but in fact it was still a little tepid when we chanced the first slice as a customer was curious to taste it.

It sliced perfectly and is a very interesting loaf to eat with the hazelnuts , all the seeds and a slight oaty flavour.  Something like a pumpernickel bread and very good with butter and marmite.

One of the main attractions of making a loaf like this is to cater for all the gluten free/dairy free/yeast free customers but this loaf isn’t actually gluten free as the recipe states, as it has oats in it. I am going to try making it with quinoa flakes next time which would solve that problem and up the protein hit even more.

Definitely a recipe to play with!

There was a recipe for a bread that was heralded as a Life Changing Loaf in last weeks Guardian Food supplement This is quite claim and if this is the case I’m wondering how it will taste so I have followed the recipe, apart from changing the maple syrup to honey,  to see what it is like.

It’s quite a collection of ingredients – sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds and hazelnuts all held together with oatflakes, coconut oil and pysllium seeds – the psyllium seeds being the main glue. The picture looks quite enticing showing slices of bread with hazelnuts cut through and it could be delicious. Whichever way it is going to be rocket fuel with all those omega threes and fibres.

It’s very simple. Just a matter of mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, squashing it all into a tin and leaving it for at least a couple of hours/all day/or overnight.

I’ve gone for the overnight option and my tinful of omega three goodness is sitting in the shop kitchen until I bake it tomorrow morning.

I’ll take my camera to work and take a picture and update you with the results

I headed up to the garden this evening to gather some salad and was instead seduced by the spinach which has really taken off. I picked a bucketful of it. Bright green and perky. This threw the dinner plans in a different direction altogether. By the time I arrived back in the house I was thinking of the Spanish dish of ‘Espinacas con Pasos y Pinones’ -Spinach with Raisins and Pinenuts. This dish was heavily influenced by the Moors and gives a slightly sweet and exotic twist to what would otherwise be plain wholesome spinach. This alone did not add up to a dinner , even though Popeye would have been delighted , so I made a pot of Fassoulia, which is a Lebanese stew of beans, barley and vegetables  to go with.

I have to admit to getting a little creative with the Fassoulia recipe as without pre planning I did not have any soaked cannelini or haricot beans at hand. I rummaged around on the tin shelf and came up with a can of chickpeas which I was going to use but then I came across a can of baked beans. The recipe called for cooked beans, canned tomatoes and tomato puree so I decided to go down the baked bean route and it worked out fine. The slight nuttiness of the barley and the soft beans was a great combination, I ‘d say it was better than a chickpea substitution. It sat together perfectly with the spinach.

Here’s the Spinach Recipe

Espinacas con Pasos y Pinones

about 750g spinach

2tbs pine nuts

2 tbs rains

1 small onion

olive oil

salt

Put the raisins in a bowl and cover with boiled water. leave aside for thirty minutes then drain

Put the pinenuts in a dry pan and gently toast until they are golden.

Wash the spinach and remove any thick stems.

Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat a little olive oil in a large pan and cook the onion until it softens but don’t let it brown. Add the spinach, a little salt then stir to mix everything together. Cover with a lid and cook gently for a few minutes until the spinach has wilted and is tender.. Add the raisins and pine nuts, toss everything together and serve.