Splitting the Autumn!

A Irish Summer Truffle

Time managements crucial, come Autumn the black hole of Winter looms and concern

goes to the store cupboard that needs to be filled, so finding moody mushrooms, gathering a mass of berries and the small matter of time for fishing has to be exacted.

Last year we managed to maintain a 'Wild Food Menu' for a week,this time round

we'd like to repeat that, for a month, it'll be our 'October Festival'.

The format is simple each dish on the menu has a wild food component foraged by us.Nature will provide as long as conditions are favourable, days off need to coincide with the right weather conditions, weather vagaries count, thankfully in work the guys don't mind a day or two in the woods gathering up commands, so somebody will be off when the time is right- we hope.

We haven't set the menu in stone at the moment but preparations are under-way. Derek the sous-chef apart from his Blackberry and Elderberry picking detail will come up with pretty presentations and recipe ideas of our harvest.

A few of Spring and Summers goodies have already been carefully prepared and stored to be paired up with local Irish produce for our Menu.

Some of the things we have.Honeysuckle syrup waiting to be married up with Crab apples for a 'Double Amber' jelly. The Elder-flowers are now cordial and ready to infuse a parfait perhaps with a hot sauce of Elderberries. Last years Sloes aged in pale sherry to make sauce for Mallard are on the bill.We have started collecting Wild Fennel pollen to dust a sustainable Irish Fish, Common Poppy and Rose petals to colour and flavour Lisa's Turkish Delights.

What else will we have?

Fraughans, after much combing of the Dublin/Wicklow hills

Emily, Evan and Tom will hope to make a Bavarois, or Fruit Leather with their Juices.Naturally Mushrooms will feature fresh,dried and pickled, all able to stand on their own or with a starch to back them up. Seaweed gathered by our friends from Connemara on the west coast for butter, a salad or added to our home-made bread. Wild Greens will be complemented by herbs from our urban garden.

Shaggy inkcap, Wood Sorrel, Picked and peeled by Lisa and Joanna.

Shaggy ink caps- pop up mushrooms

Shaggy Ink Cap, Coprinus comatus, Lawyer's wig, Shaggy mane.
This fragile little guy pops up that fast you have to be quick to get them when they're small or you'll be using them like squid ink to colour a risotto or dramatic sauce.
They are remarkable in the way that they can push their way up through rough asphalt, it's this urban habitat that can be their saviour from the forager as they frequent the parks and road verges, and one must consider our spew of pollutants before deciding whether or not to add them to the pot. Best picked when they are thumb size and the gills are still white or just turning pink. These don't keep long so eat as soon as possible after pickng or they will mature into a puddle of ink.
The other important thing to note is that they don't react well when consumed of alcohol. causes nausea,stomach cramps and palpitations. Use a 24hr period as a rule. This aplies to the ink cap family, Common Ink Cap, Coprinus atramentarius
Glistening Ink Cap Coprinus micaceus, and the Coprinus disseminatus (Non Inky Coprinus) whose gills don't dissolve with age.
What to look for.
Cap. Cylindrical becoming bell shaped, scaly.
Gills. White when young, turning pink through to black~at this stage they start to disolve.
Stem. White,free moving ring up to 20cm in hieght, 1-1.5cm diameter
Spores. Black
Habitat. Greens, lawns, roadside/path verges.

These have a great flavour enjoy fried with breakfast, or made into a rich soup.

pod-cast of the the day I ran into Louis Smith up in Wicklow 
http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2012/pc/pod-v-30071214m57srecipes8mushrooms-pid0-897888_audio.mp3

'Slippery jacks' Suillus luteus

Slippery Jacks, Suillus luteus

Slippery jacks 'pinheads'

A member of the Boletus family that have sponge like tubes under the cap where one would normally expect to find gills.

Found in abundance easy to identify and makes for easy pickings, the downsides are they're slightly labourious as you need to peel them and discard the slimy skin,hence the title 'Slippery jacks' best if you can pick them small and on a dry day for immediate use,or bottling up for winter treats, peel and thinly slice the larger ones for drying. The slugs get to them quickly as well usually attacking the sponge first.Slippery jacks do soak up a lot of water in moist conditions however I always give them a quick rinse before proceeding to use them as i do with most of the mushrooms I use, especially chanterelles. They are mycorrhizzal enjoying relationships with spruce conifers and pine.Depending on the season they can found towards the end of June through to August.

Slippery jack, Suillus luteus
What to observe.
Cap. Up to 12cm brown yellowish brown
Gills. Sponge small tubes pale yellow darkening with age.
Spores. Pale yellow.
Stem. Thick fibrous yellowish. browning with a ring veil.
Smell. Pleasantly sweet and fruity
Habitat. Pines, Spruces.

Chanterelles, A Gold Rush in the Woods

Chanterelles, A Gold Rush in the Woods

Gold Rush, A vien of Chanterelles or 'Kurka!'
 as my Polish friend Tom exclaimed with delight on seeing them.

June is departing and my thoughts are turning to the woods and areas where Chanterelles faithfully return that is unless some other forager has trespassed into the little patches of territory in Dublin’s hinterland that I have staked out in my mind as being mine, and term as my spots, every mushroom hunter does the same. Many good hours spent in my early days trekking through woods and forest off the beaten path in search of veins of the golden morsels makes one feel secretive and protective of their location. After a while in the woods you develop the sense of  knowing whether or not an area has been passed through of late or ever by another forager, if never seems to be the answer, automatically you thinks it's yours and stake it in your mind as such. Of course there are areas where one knows that can’t be claimed and that  ‘the first come first served’ rule applies in your mind. 

Chanterelle. Cantharellus cibarius, Girolles, Pfifferlinge, Kurka.
What to observe. 
Cap. Convex funnelling wavy margin deep yellow. ( tankard/cuplike in mature specimens)
Gills. Forked ridges rather than gills merging into the cap.
Spores. pale yellow / white
Flesh.  yellow into white, tough. 
Stem. Deep yellow short with veins emerging into the cap. 

Smell. Apricot, peppery taste
Habitat. Acid soils mossy river banks coniferous forest and with beech.

Tasting notes.
There's very little Chanterelles don't go with, sautéed on their own and added to scrambled eggs, in cream sauce with Chicken, with a pasta dish or simply served with Turbot,the two meaty textures standing up well together, like I had them one evening in a small restaurant in Baden-Baden , Germany dining with my son Isaac who's now currently on a well deserved post Leaving Inter-rail trip, hopefully he'll capture some good market stall images for future post as he winds his way through Europe.I like the German descriptive name Pfifferlinge, denoting a peppery note to the usual apricot references.

Nb. as with everything cross reference before going picking! beware of confusing with the False Chanterelle Hygrophororopis aurantiaca or in more central and south European areas Omphalotus olearius.

Last season after coming out of woods on that hadn't yielded much, I saw couple of cars just parked behind mine, not unusual for the area,the occupants were still getting themselves together and seemed to be conducting an interview with one of the group,  I naturally viewed them with suspicion, were they hill-walkers, tourist or competition? This is how it went down.

Foraging for wild mushrooms in west Wicklow       DV8 click on link

Cherries and Stove-top Crumble

I was fortunate enough to get to spend time lately here in Dublin with my Uncle John, a sprightly 97yrs and my cousins Mary and Patrick and his wife Maureen on a visit to the Eucharistic Congress, Uncle John had attended the one in 1932  when he was just 18 so it was a big occasion for him to do the double, he wouldn't have the same legs on him as then but his wits are probably sharper and his sense of completion and dedication to his faith were an Inspiration to those that met him.

 Though it was when Uncle John said it was a pity that 'Wee' Eileen couldn't get down for the event I realised through his term of endearment, I had never thought of our Eileen as 'Wee'  in light she's always been big sister that had no option but to multi-task round the house in between her studies, doing the laundry in a twin tub, cooking our dinner, reading a book, keeping an ear on the radio, an eye on the telly and adjudicating some teenage squabble between the rest of us on a typical Saturday during her teenage years,was also was the main shopper in the house and most new food experiences then came from her basket, like the time she bought some cherries in Ballina market and shared them out like treasure, one each with much begging for a second on a holiday way back in the days when we were young and lucky getting to go on a holiday each year, always staying a caravan somewhere, Donegal got a good going over, the East coast was marauded and the West was settled with the obligatory trip to Knock.

 With All in mind, I joined the Pilgrim Walk between 7 churches starting at St Anne's Cathedral, a good idea and a fantastic insight into the life of the city and reflection of it in the churches, the Camino spirit meeting a good few people along the way including a Nun who knew a Nun from home that I wouldn't have known but with my Uncle John nearby the links were made with much excitement, feeling good my passport stamped, the path home from the Pro-Cathedral took me across Capel street,with the fruit sellers and their prams as always loaded with a seasonal fruit, I got lucky! Cherries, Soul Food!

Street Food, Cherries with Almond Crumble and Mascarpone

This crumble recipe is intended for all of those who are busy or in a caravan or who just have a pot and stove to cook on but would like the comfort factor of eating a crumble in the midst of it all.






Cherries with Almond crumble and Mascarpone cream

Recipe for four persons

300gm Cherries, stoned and halved, if you have a cherry stoner well and good, if not cut the cherries in half and remove the stone.

For The Crumble

25gms butter

25gms sugar

14gms, flour,

60gms ground almonds.

 Method

Put the butter and sugar into a small pot, melt over a gentle heat then turn up the heat until the mix bubbles, add the flour, stir with a wooden spoon until it bubbles again add the almonds and stir for a minute or two then remove from the heat and stir vigorously until the mix cools a little and resembles a coarse crumble or sand like texture.

Mascarpone cream

A Simple plate presentation. Eyed up

100gms Mascarpone

100gms double cream

Method

Place both in a bowl and whip until stiff.

Garnish with some mint, I like Lemon verbena with this and a drizzle of Poppy and Rose petal syrup on it [ Take a handful of edible rose petals and a dozen or  so poppy petals, crush them and soak overnight in 100ml of water  next day  boil together with 50gms sugar, strain and leave to

cool]

Cheffy Notions

The two Ed's 'Inishowen' Whiskey and Elderfower Ice-cream

The two Ed’s ‘Inishowen Whiskey’ and Elderflower Ice-cream

Capturing  Essence.
Thanks to @bidgestoneEd  who reported wonderful  snippets of information from the  2^nd Inishfood festival , one of them from Ed Hick's talk on Taste, notably that Whiskey and Elderflower  go well together, and thanks to the warm weather this week the elder-flowers are finally starting to release some of their headiness and that the  2^nd ‘Whiskylive' event is  happening  in Dublin makes for natural pairing.  I’d need for a whiskey based dessert to include on a Whiskey menu at work, ice-cream makes sense now that summers arrived. Which whiskey though to pair up with it was the challenge, I first searched whiskey and elderflower to see what was out there already on-line, Ed Hick popped again well at least a 2min ‘youtube’ video of a cocktail named  after him ‘Ed Hick's Whiskey Elderflower' being made in 'the sugar club' Dublin,  and can be seen at this link,  http://youtu.be/pH5RPz5nKBg

A little further research  ‘whiskey notes grape’ brought up Tasting notes for a whiskey called ‘Inishowen’, now made by  Cooley Distillery, that made happy coincidence, it’s not the most common of whiskeys in shops though so as in Ed's cocktail use Jameson or another Irish whiskey.
thanks to the two Ed's


The essence of the Inishfood Festival is well captured by Sally aka @bridgestoneEd in her Blog http://kitchenlifeskills.blogspot.com/
The other Ed' can be found in most good Markets selling Pork products not least 'Bacon Jam', but at www.hicks.ie  or  on twitter @edhick are a good start to follow his trail.

The Ice-cream

Ingredients

1 Tin of condensed milk 390gms

500 ml cream

2 handfuls of elder-flowers approx 60gms (with the stems on is fine), if you cant get the flowers 50ml  of cordial should do.

100ml whiskey

Method

In a saucepan bring 50ml cream and half the whiskey  with the elder flowers to the boil, to infuse the flavours, and then leave to one side to cool over ice or in the freezer. Strain when chilled.

Put the the rest of the cream and beat with a whisk ( if your using an electric  mixer do this on a low speed always beat cream on a low speed gives as  it more strength and it holds itself better  for longer)  until it just starts to stiffen then fold in the condensed milk.

Now gently stir the elderflower cream add the rest of the whiskey to taste, you should get whiskey first then the elderflower  notes will arrive.

Place into a plastic container and freeze should take 3-4 hours depending on the container dimensions, divide into smaller amounts if you’re in a hurry.

Enjoy plain in a bowl or with a tipple.

Whiskey Recipes, with or without the 'e' whatever!

Whiskey or Whisky take your pick, just be careful which one you use for cooking, they are complex.  

‘Hot Whiskey’ Chicken and Prawn Skewers

I’ve chosen to use Paddy whiskey for this recipe, the chicken and prawns are delicate flavour and the mellowness of ‘Paddy’ lends itself to the sweetness of the honey and  bite of lemon.

Ingredients

For the skewers

16 Tiger Prawns

2 Free-range chicken breasts approx 150gms each

¼ of a lemon juiced

Salt and cracked black peppercorns

Rapeseed or vegetable oil for cooking

8    6’’ skewers

For the glaze

1 measure of ‘Paddy’ whiskey

1 tablespoon of honey

Method

For the skewers

Defrost and devein the tiger prawns.

Slice the chicken breast into 24 thin strips.

Marinate the above in a small bowl with the lemon juice salt and pepper 10-15mins

Then thread onto the skewers alternate 3 pieces of chicken and two tiger prawns onto each skewer.

Place onto a lightly oiled grill tray and cook approx 6-8mins turning once

For the glaze

In a small saucepan add the whiskey and bring it the boil add the honey and remove from the heat.

Finishing the Skewers

Remove the skewers from the grill and glaze with the honey whiskey mix place the skewers back under the grill to glaze- the honey should just caramelize.

Place on a party plate and share, with a glass of whiskey of course.

 ‘Mint Julep’ Lamb chops, Sherry and Egg emulsion, Rocket Salad

Whiskey and Lamb, kind of partners, usually coming from the same terrain, in this dish it’s all about the finnish I’m flaming the chops with a Bourbon pepped with a hint of mint and marrying them up with peppery Rocket leaves using the sherry emulsion to smooth things out, taking notes from a popular way of aging whiskeys in barrels previously used for other spirits.

Ingredients

For the lamb

 8 lamb cutlets

1 tablespoon freshly chopped mint

1 measures Bourbon, Jim Beam’s good

Salt and cracked black pepper

A little oil for the pan

For the emulsion

2 free-range egg yolks

1 measure sweet sherry

½ teaspoon sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon sugar

Salt and pepper

 Rocket leaves (approx 300gms) washed and dried.

Methods

The lamb

Marinate the cutlets with the mint and 10- 15mins.

To cook, rub of the mint and season with salt and cook on a hot pan approx 3mins each side.

The emulsion

While the lamb is cooking whisk the egg yolks with the sherry and sugar until white and frothy, season lightly with salt and pepper.

Flaming the chops

Once cooked dab any excess fat from the pan with piece of kitchen towel( you can use a pair of tongs to do this, to avoid burning yourself) add the whiskey to the pan return to the heat and light the  whiskeys alcohol vapour with a naked flame. Have a large lid handy to smoother the flame; your chops are now ready to serve.

Plating

Divide the rocket between four plates dress with the sherry and egg yolk emulsion, add two chops on each and enjoy.