Chicken Wings, Potato & Pepper Bake

'Chicken Wing Dinner' wild garlic pesto, ,Dunany. Wholemeal loaf.

A simple easy dinner nothing needs to be too exact about it, taste as you go, use what you have or prefer, we're just after simple tasty dinners, happy cooking.

Ingredients

A large wing each
400g Potato, sliced roughly
1 sweet red pepper, cut roughly
1 red onion, quartered
1 mushroom stock cube (veg will do)
Dessert spoonful of Turmeric
Pinch of Chili powder/flakes
Generous pinch Ground White Pepper
Oregano/Thyme/Rosemary
25ml oil olive/Rapeseed

Some pesto or greens/broccoli and some bread for mopping up (I'd made a loaf earlier using 'Dunany' Wholemeal Flour)

'The rough guide' Method.
Simple enough: put your potatoes, pepper and onion in a oven proof pan a good dessertspoon of turmeric, and a couple of twist of black pepper. Blend the mushroom stock cube with 350 ml hot water & pour over, should come up to about 2/3 the level of your potatoes( if your making a larger batch just use a little extra water)
Set the wings on top drizzle with the oil, season with a pinch of sea-salt, a good pinch of white pepper, the chili and a pinch of dried herb. Sprinkle a pinch of sea-salt over the dish.
Place in a preheated oven at 170°c, cook about 40 mins, check your chicken is done, the potatoes should be soft with a light crust and all should smell good, simple tasty food.

Doesn't have to be chicken could be a quarter Aubergine or flat cap mushrooms.

Pasta with Spinach, Feta Cheese, Walnuts and Tomatoes

 Pasta with Spinach, Feta Cheese, Walnuts and Tomatoes, 
Penne or Fusilli work great here, use whichever pasta you have in the cupboard.

Ingredients 1 portion
125g Pasta
250g Spinach wilted- & chopped
10g Garlic- chopped or pressed.
50g Semi-dried tomatoes - chopped
50g Walnuts - chopped
Pinch Ground Nutmeg
Sea Salt & Cracked Black Peppercorns
50gFeta Cheese
25ml Olive Oil

Method.
Cook your pasta as per the instructions on your packet, keep warm.
In a wide bottomed pan on a medium heat add the olive oil, chopped garlic and walnuts and let them fry a little stirring with a spoon, this softens out the garlic and brings extra nuttiness to the walnuts. Season with a pinch of Sea salt and a 1/2 teaspoon of cracked Black Peppercorns. Add the tomatoes and let the warmth get into them, next add the Pasta stir through to get the flavours coating the pasta, taste a piece of the pasta for seasoning adjust if necessary, now add the chopped spinach stir through again until it's warmed, we're nearly done
Spoon your pasta into a pasta bowl and crumble the Feta Cheese on top.
Warm under a grill to heat the cheese and your dish is ready to eat, enjoy!

Caesar Dressing

Caesar Dressing -
This can be used for so much more than the classic salad, great for your chips, a dollop on Spaghetti Bo to give it a lift, as spread to rescue that sourdough you've been toasting or a spoonful into a humble baked potato releases all the umami from the anchovies and parmesan.

Basic recipe.

300gm Thick Mayo - preferably homemade.

8gm crushed garlic

2 Anchovy fillets - finely chopped

Juice from 1/6 lemon

1/3 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

A couple of dashes of Tabasco

1 teaspoon of Balsamic Vinegar

50gm finely grated Parmesan.

Method.

Gather all your ingredients together stir them into the mayonnaise, don't forget to taste, add the parmesan taste again and adjust if necessary and you're done.

For this one I'm adding chopped wild garlic buds for serving

Basic Mayonnaise recipe 2egg yolks at room temp', 250 sunflower oil, 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 30 ml of cider vinegar. Pinch of sea salt & ground white pepper to season.
Put Yolks in a bowl (save the whites for meringue), add a dash of vinegar and seasoning, Whisk well until the yolks have lightened out, then add about 30ml of the oil at a time whisking well forming an emulsion, when you've about 200ml of the oil in add the rest of the vinegar whisk well and slowly add the rest of the oil. Check the seasoning and adjust to your preference as necessary.

Beetroot, Buckwheat 'Kasha' & Blueberries

Beetroot, Blueberries & Buckwheat 'Kasha'
 Light & refreshing with a great bursts of flavour

Buckwheat's one of those staple foods that let's you sit back and eat in a mindful manner, soft, nutty with a light bite, satisfying and nourishing full of good stuff.
Beetroot's a longtime favourite of mine I remember my mother growing it, the sweet earthy smell in the kitchen on it's long slow boil, then peeling off the soften skin in bowl of water, a little warmth left in the beetroot to infuse the vinegar.
The blueberries add a bit of bounce and sweetness, good for you too and work well   with the beetroot, buckwheat and acidic back notes.

For the Beetroot & Blueberry part.
250gm Cooked beetroot, diced 1/2 cm
150gm Blueberries
1 Dessert spoon of Honey or sugar
1 Dessert spoon of Cider Vinegar
Pinch of Sea Salt
Cracked Black Peppercorns
1 Dessert spoon of Vegetable /Rapeseed Oil.
Put the honey and vinegar into a pan on a low heat add 100gm of the blueberries and let them soften out a little to release some juices about 2 minutes add the diced beetroot seasonings and oil raise the heat a little to get the beetroot warmed  you'll get a little more liquid released from the berries so push the beetroot and blueberries to the edges of the pan and let the juices evaporate off and concentrate the flavours. That done add the rest of the blueberries just before serving stir them in, these will give a nice fresh berry pop in the salad.

For the Buckwheat, choose the roasted 'Kasha' type in the shops, Rinse 75gm of it in cold water, strain off the buckwheat put it in a wide bottom pot add 150ml boiling water bring to the boil reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and cook for 4 minutes, remove from the heat take lid off to release the steam add a pinch of salt and a dessert spoon of oil stir and put the lid back on.

Serves 4 as a snack lunch, try it with Greek Yoghurt, Feta cheese or Irish Goat's Cheese also Great along with some smoked or roasted meats.

#glutenfree #recipes #cook #cookathome #ireland🍀 #berries #fruit #salad #creative #dublinireland #summer #washyourhands #stayhome #healthyfood #vegetables

Boletus Calopus aka Bitter Beech Bolete?

Calvatia / Langermannia gigantea, Giant Puffball

Thanks to Peter the farmer for pointing me in the direction of this one and permission to walk across his land, a friendly chat while out Blackberry picking got around to the topic of mushrooms,he did forewarn me that this one would be past it's best.However it was worth the look as I haven't seen one in this last couple of years and what ever stage they are at they are a thing to marvel.
When they are young and fresh (firm with the flesh white throughout) they are simple to cook, peel and slice 2cm thick, season with salt and white pepper, panfry with butter until golden brown both sides.They go well with the usual things, eggs and bacon being good.

Hay Makers, in 'The Far Bog'

That time of year again, but things a have moved on and there won't be many man in the meadows with their forks turning hay.This photo is from the mid 80's and my Father on the left has long since passed on, my Uncle John on the right sporting his trademark 'knotted hanker-chief' is still kicking though and like the rest of us enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass again, more especially for him in this his 100th Summer.

This field, known to us as 'the far bog' not an actual bog but low lying ground in the Bann Valley, that was revamped by my father who dug a drain wide enough to stand in and waist depth or more by the end that emptied into the Bann. It was a tough job, but my dad made light of it, one digging one shovelling (luckily one of the older brothers was a good shoveller).Lengthwise it was easily double of what can be seen of the hay-field in the photograph. Re-fenced and reseeded this was probably one of the first cuts of hay in that field and though my cousin had a 'hay kicker' the old boys still liked to get in there with the forks, it probably made the bottle of tea taste sweeter.
                                                               

  

                                                   

One of Summers great tastes.
                                                                   Meadowsweet Cordial.
Recipe
Meadowsweet, 25 Flower heads (about a compressed fistful)
1 litre of water
300 g sugar
Juice and zest of one lemon.

Method
Put the flowers, sugar and water into a large pot, bring the contents slowly  to the boil stirring so the sugar dissolves, remove from the heat add the lemon juice and zest, cover and leave to cool letting the flavours infuse, then strain through a fine sieve.Keep in the fridge until needed.
Dilute with sparkling water and serve with a twist of lemon and a few a ice cubes.

'Wild flowers of Ireland' A very useful site, here's link to Meadowsweet,
http://www.wildflowersofireland.net/plant_detail.php?id_flower=166