Damson Dessert

I was out collecting damson a few weeks ago and was wondering what I should do with them other than making the usual damson vodka to go with the sloe gin!

I cam across this recpie in a book I have called the Poachers Cookbook. Its an old desert called a cobbler. It was great but my God they are tart little fellas those damsons!

You will need:

750g Damsons

sugar to sweeten (plenty of this needed!)

Cobbler topping:

125g self raising

pinch salt

25g butter

45ml milk

First make the cobbler topping, sieve the flour salt and sugar into a bowl. Rub in the butter and mix in milk to make a soft dough. Roll out to 1cm thick and cut into 5cm rounds.

Cook the fruit with 1 tablespoon of water until the juice begins to run and the fruit is cooked. Spoon the fruit in a dish and cover with over lapping layers of the rounds of cobbler topping.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 220C for 20 minutes.

Irish Gravlax

Following on from the last post about catching a salmon here is my recipe for gravlax. We don't have a freezer down in Kerry so we needed some way to make the salmon keep as we couldn't eat it all fresh. It is quite easy to make, although not commonly seen in Ireland is very popular in Sweden.

Here are the ingredients:

2 fillets of salmon

100g coarse salt
75g sugar
some crushed pepper

a bunch of dill chopped ( I didn't have fresh dill so used 2 table spoons of dried dill and it made no difference)

Just mix the salt, sugar, dill and pepper together. You need some cling film too.

Lay out some cling film and then lay the salmon skin side down on it, cover it with the salty mixture. Make a sandwich with the salmon fillets with the flesh side facing each other and the skin side facing out.

Wrap up well in clingfilm and put in a container of some sort. Doesn't matter what kind as long as it is not metal. Stick a weight on top and it should take about 3 days. Turn it every day so the brine penetrates the whole lot. It should keep about a fortnight in the fridge

Salmon

I was in Kerry for a few weeks holidays and on my first day caught my first and only salmon of the trip. I was surprised to catch him as there had been very little rain which is usually needed in order to catch them. The fish fought like a tiger and I ended up with the fish in the river ready to be netted and a drop of about 10 feet from where I was standing on the bank. Nothing for it except to jump into the water which was waist high. I wasnt wearing chest waders, instead my wellies so I got a good soaking. I finally netted the fish which made it all worthwhile and then turned around to climb out. Now while it was easy enough to get into the river it proved a different task to climb the bloody bank back out. I had my rod in one hand and a net with an angry salmon the other. After about ten minutes I was back on dry land. It was one instance when I was glad there was no video, I was quite an undignified picture crawling up the riverbank!

Anyway I got the fish home and decided to eat one half of it fresh and make gravlax with the other half. I will post on the gravlax next time. When I am lucky enough to catch a wild salmon I always do the same thing with it. That is poach it in the fish kettle with some veggies and wine. I then serve it with homemade mayonaise and a cucumber salad. Here are a few pics of dinner that first night with my wife Sandra tucking in!

Woodcock Salad

I ment to post about this a few months ago when I made it but simply forgot. My pal Tom kindly donated a woodcock to the cause as I was looking for one to tie fishing flies. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I made a salad up with it for a posh starter one evening.

The problem with woodcock is twofold. One, they are very hard to shoot (especially for me!!!) and two they are very small and as I cant hit them I therefore need to find ways of making them go a very long way.

Homemade Chutney

At this time every year I make up a big batch of chutney for the long winter ahead. I usually let the last few courgettes grow on into marrows for the purpose along with whatever green tomatoes that look like they wont ripen. It's always a bit different each year depending on what is available. It is safe to say though that marrows, green tomatoes, onions, cooking apples (courtesy of my mum's friend!), sugar, spices and my own cider vinegar( a batch of cider went tits up on me last year and the result was 5 gallons of cider vinegar)

You basically chop everything up and lash it into a big saucepan and cook it slowly for 2 or 3 hours making sure not to allow it to burn by stirring every so often. Pot it up then into sterilised jars and it will keep for months. It improves with keeping for a few weeks I reckon.

We eat it for lunch with cheese and all sorts of cold meats and pate/terrines.

Redcurrant Jelly

OK so the summer hols went on a little bit longer than expected! I have tons and tons of stuff to stick on here about the wedding, the stag, the honeymoon as well as the usual stuff at home.

Here is my recipe of the classic accompaniment to venison, terrine, pate and the like

It couldn't be easier to make. Just get equal quantities of both redcurrants and sugar. Boil up the fruit until it realises it's juice (about ten minutes) and then add in the sugar. Boil for eight minutes before straining through muslin and into sterilised jars. Simple as that!

Forcing the garden to produce

I have been putting the garden under pressure the last month or so. It is always the leanest time in the garden with meagre pickings. One thing you can do to provide you with dessert is to force rhubarb!

I have a few rhubarb plants and force one of them by placing a big black bin over it. This means it grows like mad and gives you an dearly crop.

We usually either make a compote of the rhubarb and mix it muesli and natural yogurt for brekkie or make a pie or crumble.

The method is the same for both. Fire the chopped rhubarb into a saucepan with a little sugar and cook until it has softened. Simple as that

Tom Doorley digs the Bounty!

Been meaning to put this up. I recieved this message from food writer Tom Doorley about barrowsbounty.com.
"Hiya Liam. This looks really good. Keep up the good work. You have inspired me to start blogging again".
I must be doing something right!!! Good man Tom!

Trout Cakes

I was out recently fishing and caught the trout pictured below. Happy days says I, the perfect excuse to try out my new fish kettle!
We make fish cakes quite a bit and serve them with a salad and some sweet chili jam and they always go down well.

I cooked the trout in a bottle of white wine topped up with some water along with onions garlic and some herbs. The principal is the same no matter what fish you are cooking in a fish kettle. You bring it to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes and take it off the heat and allow to cool by which time the fish is cooked to perfection!

Next take the meat off the fish making sure there are no bones and make up the cakes.

This is the recipe I follow:

450g cooked deboned fish
grated rind and juice of 1 lime

4 spring onions finely chopped

1 red chili deseeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

3 tablespoons coriander leaves

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

125g white breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

Mix the fish, lime rind and juice, spring onions, chili, ginger, garlic, chopped coriander, mayonnaise, and breadcrumbs until they make a smooth paste (make sure to mix really well). Season to taste.

Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions, make them into balls and then flatten the balls to make the cakes.

Heat the frying pan and add some oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Job Done!

Parma sucess!........... at last!

Those of you who have been following my blog for the last year will no doubt recall last year's parma disaster! (For those of you that haven't here it is http://barrowsbounty.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-first-disaster.html)

Enough to say it was not a roaring success. Thankfully this year things seem to be on the up. Our hams have been hanging in a stable since October and one was finally cut down from the rafters this week. Needless to say it didn't look pretty but was scrubbed down with vinegar to remove all unpleasantness and then ceremoniously cut up ready for eating.

We were a but sceptical about eating it after what happened last year and I cant say I am proud of what happened next but needs must. George our working cocker was hanging round like a bad smell once he got a whiff of the ham and at the same instant both Sandy and I looked at each other and it was decided. George would be our parma Guinea Pig! He seemed keen, if not a little suspicious as to why he was getting such a treat but didn't look the gift horse in the mouth! We monitored him closely over the next few hours and can report that there seemed to be no ill affects other than an almighty thirst.

That was enough convincing for me and after waiting for two years I got my first taste of my own air dried ham! What a revelation. It was super and is now being had with brekkie (with melon), lunch(on a sambo) and dinner (on a pizza). All the hard ache was worth while!

Plans for the year

Firstly sorry for the break in posting. I was in hibernation with Christmas and the snow!

I really just wanted to let you all know what the plans for the coming year are going to be.

I will be continuing to try and grow as much of our vegetables and fruit as possible. The pigs and laying hens will also feature along with trying to find as much wild food as possible.. A new departure will be chickens for the table. Me and a buddy of mine are going to raise some chickens for eating so I will keep you posted as to how we get on!

The big project for the year however is going to be our wedding which is happening in June. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew here as I want to try and have all the food for the wedding either home grown produce or wild food! At 150 people it is by far the biggest challenge I have attempted in the garden and kitchen.

We are having a marquee and the idea is to have a relaxed homemade wedding with all our friends and family. The food (hopefully!!) will be some canapes of wild food followed by a whole spit roast pig with salads and vegetables from the garden and then some kind of seasonal dessert which will feature our eggs and fruit. God its a bit overwhelming when you actually write it all down!

I will post on here as to how I am getting on with the preperations, whether it be catching a wild salmon to growing the vegetables or trying to encourage the pig to grow so it is ready for June!!

The picture above is of me and George spending some man time on our local shoot which we have been doing quite a lot of while we have been away.

Parma Update

After last year's disaster with my homemade parma ham I thought I had better give proper attention to this year's one. Up until last week things had been going great. I lavished my ham with all the love a ham could ever want. He lived in the fridge for the first 30 days wrapped up in cling film while the cure worked it's way through the 8KGs of meat. It was then unwrapped and lovingly hung in the hot press for 3 days before being moved to what would have been it's final resting place in the spare room. It should have stayed there in the spare room for at least a month if not two before it would have been ready at a constant temperature of 15 degrees and 70% humidity. Alas this was not to be. After a couple of days a porky perfume started wafting from the spare room and although not unpleasant it certainly raised a few eyebrows from both my fiancee, Sandy and my gun dog, George. George was very enthusiastic about the origins of the new smell, Sandy less so. And so it was on day five that the parma ham had to find a new home.

After much thought it was decided that an unused stable would be the next best place for my prize ham. We built a vermin proof cage to stop any little beasts treating themselves to my prize ham before I get to sample it. It isn't the right temperature and it isn't the right humidity but I am hoping that the ham will be happy in it's new home and that in a few months I in turn will be happy with how my ham turned out.

Chanterelle Pizza

I made this pizza in much the same as my nettle pizza. I fried the chanterelles with some of my homemade pancetta in a pan for a few minutes and then topped my base with some tomato sauce, mozzarella and the mushroom and bacon toppings. Pretty sexy even if I say so myself!!!

Super Ted

To give you all a break from the piggy posts I thought I would tell you about a pretty cool Swedish fella with a Cork accent. He too is a bit of a pig fancier and has brought the art of spit roasting them to a new level.

I met Ted last year at an event he was doing the food for. There were not enough people to justify doing a whole pig so Ted improvised and cooked full sirloins of beef. They were absolutely fantastic. He also cooked a paella of rabbit and had some fantastic salads. His cooking is a breath of fresh air as is his enthusiasm for local organic produce. Ted has strong ties with Ballymaloe and shares many of the same values in his cooking.

His company is called Wildside Catering and his website is well worth a look at http://www.wildsidecatering.ie/

Success

I have to admit that I felt pretty smug this morning tucking into my bank holiday fry up. It consisted of eggs from the girls, a potato cake made with spuds from the garden and taking pride of place was out own dry cured bacon and our own sausages. Doesn't get much better than this. Makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Salami

What a week! It all been very porky around the place since the pigs came home last Wednesday. Over the next few posts I will show you what we have done with all the pork and how we try and preserve it for use over the winter.

First off is salami, we made 17kg of Chorizo and 34kg of two French types of dried sausage. One is smoked and will be ready in about a month and the other will take 6 months to mature. Between the lot we should be OK for salami for the whole year.

The way we make them is basically the same no matter what the variety, the only difference being the spices we add and if they are smoked or not. Some also take longer to mature.

We start off with the meat (We get the butcher to mince it for us as there is some hardship in trying to mince over 50kg of meat with a hand mincer!). This is lean minced pork and the back fat from a pig which is mixed thoroughly by hand. We then add in 2% salt by weight to the mince and fat mixture. You then add in whatever spices you want (chorizo would have lots of garlic and paprika, the French saucisson would have less garlic but have quatre espiece as the dominant flavour).

We stuffed the mixture into beef middles (Beef Intestines) and tied each salami off with a piece of string. It is important that they are as tight as possible because the salami will reduce in size by 40% and beyond. I then hung the salami in the spare room for a few days at room temperature before the saucisson went into the smoker for 3 or 4 days. It then joined it's pal the chorizo hanging up outside in Graham's porch. The chorizo will be ready in a week or so and the first of the French stuff will be ready in a month.

Next post I will tackle the parma ham. God I hope it turns out better than last year's one!

So Many Choices

Ok, now that the pigs are gone my mind starts thinking about all the porky delights we will be enjoying for the best part of the next year. After much consideration here is what we are going to do with the meat.

2 yards of prime roasting loin of pork:

3 yards of dry cured back bacon ( some smoked, some green)

1 yard of dry cured bacon joints

3 back legs for a parma ham style cure

3 back legs for nearly too big Christmas hams

6 yards of pancetta

About 120lb of toulouse sausage

about 60lb of saucisson and chorizo

loads of ribs

12 trotters

Seems a lot of meat processing when you write it down like that. I think I need a drink!

Rabbit Pie

Sorry about the delay in posting but it has been a mad few weeks. I went over to Spain for a friend's wedding and liked it so much I went and got engaged myself!
I promised last time to let you know what I did with the rabbit, well, I made a traditional rabbit pie. I unfortunately don't have any pictures because "someone" probably rightly decided that pictures of our engagement were more important than my rabbit pie! So here you have it without the pictures, but I can assure you that it looked and tasted delicious.
I prepared the rabbit (Which I will show you how to do in a later post) so that I was left with cubes of meat off the bone, which were very similar to chicken breast.
Here is the recipe:
1 rabbit,
150g button mushrooms, quartered
600ml mushroom soup,
50g chopped parsley,
1 pack of puff pastry,
1 beaten egg,


Mix the rabbit, mushrooms, soup and parsley together. Transfer to an oven dish. Roll out the pack of pastry and cover the oven dish with it. Lightly push down the edges with your fingertips. Trim off any excess pastry and glaze with the beaten egg.
Put the pie into an oven at 180 for 20 mins or until the top is golden brown.

"Sundried" Tomatoes

This time of year is all about preserving the glut of produce for the dark winter ahead. We always try and preserve as many tomatoes as we can ( not that easy because it is hard not to eat the buggers straight off the plant). I grew only cherry tomatoes this year but grew a few different varieties. One that I missed out on though was the sungold which my pig buddy Graham grew. They are the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I ever tasted and are definitely top of my list for next year.

Seeing as we don't get enough sun in Carlow to sun dry the tomatoes I need to cheat a little. Instead of doing as the Italians do and allowing them to dry under the sun I need a little help from the oven!

The method is very simple. Get a wire rack and put the oven on its lowest setting, around 50 or 60 degrees. Next cut your tomatoes in half and place on the wire rack with the cut side facing up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some sugar and salt over them. Into the oven they go for an hour before turning them over so that the cut part is on the wire rack. They need another 11 hours in the oven before they are done. They turn out "semi sundried" with this amount of time in the oven which is how I prefer them. To store them simply out them in a jar and top them up with olive oil and maybe some dried herbs such as oregano.

Venison Liver Pate

OK so as promised here is my recipe for liver pate. It also works great for the pigs liver and I am pretty sure lamb would be good too.

You will need:

800g Liver

400g Minced pork belly ( ask your butcher to mince it for you.)

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

100g bread crumbs

a handful of sage chopped

a wine glass of port

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper

streaky rashers

Chop or mince the liver and onion. You want it good and fine so a food processor would do the job. Mix all the other ingredients in with it.

Line a bread tin with the rashers and fill with the mixture. Cover with greased foil and put in a bain marie. cook in the centre of an oven for 1 1/2 hours at 170 degrees. Allow to cool in the tin and then turn out when cold. It should last about a week in the fridge. It also freezes very well.