Some snaps from overhead...

(c) Cliona O'Flaherty

These are some photos from an Udo's Oil shoot that I worked on as mentioned in a previous post. 

As you can see, the photo's were taken from over head which really shows off the food. However, when shooting food in this way you really have no where to hide so it's important to pay extra attention to the placement of each piece of food,  the shapes created and the props that you use. What looks great side on may not translate as beautifully from above and vice versa. 

Shooting everything in a collection in this way might be a bit of a headache to look at, so these shots were mixed with others shot in a more normal way.

Anyhow, pretty pretty..

Paddy's Day Pie

(c) Harry Weir

I made and styled these pie's for Superquinn's cookbook A Passion for Food. Beef and stout are a classic Irish combination so they would make the perfect lunch or dinner for St. Patrick's Day! Enjoy!

Beef, Mushroom and Stout Pie

Serves 6

4 tbsp sunflower oil
1kg (2 1/4 lb) round steak, well trimmed
2 onions, finely chopped
4 carrots, finely sliced
4 celery sticks, finely chopped
600ml (1 pint) stout
1 litre (1 3/4 pints) beef or chicken stock
250g (9oz) flat breakfast mushrooms, stems removed and chopped
600g (1lb 6oz) self raising flour, plus extra for dusting
300g ( 11oz) shredded vegetable suet
Sea salt and ground pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large pan with a lid and sauté half of the beef until it is well coloured. Transfer to a plate and repeat until all the beef is cooked.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and sauté the onions, carrots and celery for 10 minutes without colouring.

Pour in the stout and simmer gently until reduced by half, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any sediment. Return the beef to the pan with the stout, stock and mushrooms. Season and cover and simmer over a gentle heat for 1-1.5 hours until the beef is just tender but still holding its shape.

Strain through a colander set over a bowl, reserving the liquid and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 220 C ( Gas mark 7/ 425 F).

To make the pastry crust, sieve the flour into a bowl, stir in the suet and add just enough cold water to make a firm dough - 400 ml (14 fl oz) is about right.

Rest for 5 minutes, then cut into six pieces and roll out each one on a lightly floured board to a circle that is about 1cm (1/2 in) thick.

Divide the meat among individual pie dishes that hold about 450 ml (3/4 pint) and pour over enough of the gravy to come almost to the top. Do not overfill. Cut any superfluous strip off each pastry circle, dampen the rim of each dish and press the pastry strip firmly into place around the rim. Dampen the pastry strip in turn and lay the pastry lids on top. Press down to fit the lid and then press all around with a fork and then transfer to baking sheets.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.

Serve set on plates and straight to the table.

Banana Breakfast Booster!

(c) Cliona O'Flaherty

A delicious recipe from a recent recipe booklet shoot for Naturalife's Udos Oil.

BANANA BREAD SUNSHINE TOASTIE

This is a great energy booster in the morning. It is really tasty,very easy to make and will keep you going until lunch.

1 thick slice of wholemeal bread

1 large banana

sesame seeds

15ml of Udo's Choice Oil

Mash up the banana and spread it over the bread Scatter the sesame seeds on top and place under a warm grill for a few minutes or until it has toasted a light golden brown. Remove the toast from the grill and let it cool slightly before drizzling the oil evenly over the top.

Our Kitchen Hero

You're my hero...swoon...Pearl x

Pearly & I have been keeping up appearances and hanging out in the Westbury Hotel with super heros! We were delighted to be invited to afternoon tea by Donal Skehan, to help celebrate the launch of his fab new cookbook, Kitchen Hero.

Now, Pearly almost didn't get an invite, for fear of her upstaging himself. It was her first official appearance in the company of the coveted food bloggers & so, no doubt Donal feared the cameras & comments may not be directed exclusively at him *tongue firmly in cheek*. But, little does he know, Pearl secretly adores him & has posters of him plastered all over her nursery!

Donal tempts us with his tasty treats.

Anyhow, enough about my little hero & onto the main super hero here. Donal is a total inspiration in catapulting to foodie stardom with infectious enthusiasm. You can see for yourself tomorrow night at 8.30pm on RTE1, when his 13 part series kicks off. We can't wait. In the meantime, we have his book to enjoy cooking from & a resulting big jar of his 'fat boy peanut butter snicker squares' to tuck into. mega yum.

P.S. you too can have afternoon tea in the westbury with the kitchen hero. well, the book anyhow.

Superquinn Cookbook

Firstly, big sorry for the lack of posts. I've truely been missing in action, so plenty to catch up with. I have tales from London, New York & well, Cavan. It's all glamour-glamour round here isn't it? Well actually, I don't think so. Here are some behind the scenes snaps showing as usual the far from glamorous affair that is my foodie world.

This time, I was delighted to come home from a trip to see the new Superquinn cookbook on their shelves. I told you about it here. Congrats to everyone involved, particularly my good friend Orla Brodrick who wrote the book & basically kept the whole thing afloat. She deserved the fab review in last Sunday's Times Mag, so well done.

Anyhow, I'll keep it short (& will be back with some finished shots & recipes soon). Here are some snaps of the food's adventure in making it onto those pages...

see? it looks all fancy-schmancy on the pages but not so glam in reality!

desperately trying to cool some bread down very quickly waving it about outside while a yoga class moved into the studio at the end of the day!

photographer Harry checking out the shots on screen.

Harry loved those shots from a dizzy height! a sweet little dessert in not such a pretty setting.

Superquinn Cookbook

Superquinn turns 50 this year and are publishing a fab new cookbook as part of the celebrations. I have just finished working on the shoot for the book where we shot 50+ recipes. And yes, ate them all too. I was in good company with friends Photographer Harry Weir and Writer Orla Broderick. Together with our new BFF's from Superquinn, Bruce & Alison and David the designer from the publishers Harmonia, we had really great fun.

It has been a tough few weeks though...think 12 hours of food shopping, 40 dishwasher loads, 15 crates of props & equipment and I'm not even going to think about the calories consumed! The shoot days were ultra busy so we didn't even have time to take many behind the scenes shots. You'll get the picture with the few we managed to snap the other day though. So anyhow, as I tweeted, it's been emotional...

On my knees praying and checking my biccies aren't burnt.

Lovingly tending to some luciously lovely leeks.

Harry being happy from a height.

checking out the goods on the big screen.

Orla, David, Harry & Alison tucking into pies for breakfast.

Me unknowingly snapped in action.

Gourmand Cookbook Awards

Huge congrats to chef Neven Maguire for the award he collected in Paris at the recent Gourmand International Awards. 'Homechef' won the best chef cookbook for Ireland which is a great achievement. I'm still trying to burn off the calories from eating every recipe in the book last year when testing, but I can vouch that everything is most definitely worth trying!

Also, congrats to Ely restaurant who's cookbook came 2nd in the world for best book on matching food and wine, as well as best book in Ireland for matching food and wine and then best wine book for Ireland too!

Neven Maguire - HOMECHEF

Ok, so it was exciting to be away last week but unfortunately I missed Neven Maguire's new cookbook launch, HOMECHEF (published by HarperCollins). It was such a shame as it would have been lovely to clink glasses with all the team who worked on it and generally have a good old catch-up (not talking too much about work)! Anyhow, I hear everyone had a lovely evening where Neven cooked up a storm as usual.

Homechef is out now so I can now start showing you some recipes to tempt you. The rain is pelting down outside and the wind is blowing a gale so I'm thinking comfort food (& follower Deborah was looking for some wintery recipes so hopefully this will do the trick)! Use any stewing meat in place of the venison if preferred.

VENISON BOURGUINON

Serves 4-6

2 tbsp olive oil

25g butter

25g plain flour

2 tsp paprika

1kg venison haunch or shoulder, trimmed & cut into 1cm cubes

225g baby shallots, peeled & halved (keeping roots intact)

100g rindless smoked bacon, finely chopped

1 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp tomato puree

100ml red wine

900ml beef stock

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

100g carrots, diced

75g button mushrooms, wiped clean

salt and freshly ground black pepper

mashed potatoes, to serve

chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, to garnish

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F / Gas 4). Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil and half the butter in a heavy based casserole with a lid. Season the flour and place in a shallow bowl with the paprika, mixing to combine. Use to lightly dust the venison, shaking off any excess, then add to the heated casserole in small batched and cook over a fairly high heat until well browned. Transfer to a plate until all the meat has been sealed, then set aside.

Add the remaining oil and butter with the shallots to the casserole with the smoked bacon and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until the shallots are lightly browned and the bacon is golden. Add the garlic for the last 30 seconds. Pour the red wine in and allow to bubble down a little for 1-2 minutes, while scraping the sediment from the bottom. Pour in the beef stock and tomato puree. Return the meat and juices to the casserole and bring to the boil, then add the thyme and bay leaves. Season to taste, cover with the lid and transfer to the oven for 2 hours until the venison is almost tender and cooked through.

Remove the casserole from the oven, stir in the carrots and mushrooms and return to the oven to cook for another 30 minutes or until the venison and vegetables are completely tender. Season to taste.

Spoon the mashed potatoes into the centre of wide-rimmed bowls and spoon the venison bourguignon on top. Garnish with the parsley and serve at once.

Cookbook award

How very exciting that a cookbook I worked on last year (as per this post), 'From Tide To Table' by Georgina Campbell, was recently announced as the winner of the Bord Bia / Listowel Food Fair 'Irish Food Book of the Year'. Pat on the back for all the team!

BBQ Halloumi

(c) Hugh McElveen

Well, it looks like we might actually be having the summer weather we dreamed of (don't speak too soon though eh?!). We're definitely planning on getting the barbie out and as I totally love Halloumi we will have to include some amongst all that meat. This is a recipe from the Cooks Academy Cookbook, which I food & prop styled two summers ago. I remember it as being totally yummy so am looking forward to making and eating it again...

Halloumi Cheese Skewers

Serves 4

You can prepare these in advance indoors; fry them in a very hot pan until golden on the outside and then quickly reheat over the BBQ for that gorgeous smoky flavour.

250g halloumi cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
10 mint leaves, finely chopped
CAPER DRESSING
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lime, zest and juice
1 tbsp capers
2 small pickled gherkins, sliced finely into discs
salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1. Mix the dressing ingredients together, season to taste and add more oil if necessary. Set aside.
2. Slice the halloumi into 2cm thick slices. Brush both sides with oil.
3. Heat the BBQ until it's very hot and grill the halloumi slices for 1 minute on each side (remove them the halloumi starts to melt). Once grilled, allow to cool slightly before cutting (or tearing) the halloumi into large bite sized pieces and tossing in the dressing.
4. Just before serving, thread pieces of the halloumi onto skewers. Place on a platter and garnish with chopped mint.

skinny sushi

Well we're definitely seeing some sushi weather (def: that which makes you think of getting into the yellow polka dot bikini) going on here this summer which is great! Here is a shot from a disc I got in the post this week from the lovely Paul Sherwood. We worked on BIM's cookbook 'From Tide to Table' early last year (more about it on a previous post here) so I am finally getting some images from it up on my website today now too. Here's the recipe to go with it if you're dreaming about that bikini...

SMOKED SALMON SUSHI

This sushi is actually very easy to make and is far simpler to assemble than it sounds. Most large supermarkets now stock all the ingredients you'll need.

350g sushi rice
50ml mirin (japanese rice wine)
6 nori sushi sheets (seaweed)
4 tsp wasabi paste
400g smoked salmon, cut into long thin strips
6 spring onions, trimmed
1 cucumber, cut into 6 long pieces
1 small ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and cut into long strips
light soy sauce, wasabi and japanese pickled ginger, to serve

Place the rice in a sieve and rinse very well under cold running water. Drain thoroughly and put into a large pan that has a lid. Pour over 600ml of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 25 minutes or until all the water has been nearly absorbed. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Tip the rice onto a large flat clean tray, preferably metallic, as it will help the rice to cool down more quickly. Dress the rice with the mirin, turning frequently as this helps the rice to cool, and then wave with a fan or magazine until the rice is at room temperature (this is not essential but quite authentic).

To make the sushi, take a japanese bamboo sushi mat and place a sheet of seaweed on top. Have a small bowl of water to hand. Dipping your fingers in the water before you touch the rice, spread it over half of the seaweed, taking a little rice at a time and pushing it to the edges leaving a layer about 1cm thick.

Next, smear a little wasabi in a line a little off centre on the side nearest to you. Follow with a layer of smoked salmon, some spring onion trimmed down to fit, a piece of cucumber and some of the avocado. Roll up the bamboo mat slowly, tucking in the closer end of the sushi to start a roll and press lightly with both hands. Remove the roll from the mat and leave to sit with the joining edges downwards. You can wrap in clingfilm and keep in a cook place for up to 1 hour until you are ready to serve. Dont place in the fridge as this dried out the rice. Repeat until all of the ingredients have been used up.

To serve, use a sharp lightly moistened knife to trim the ends, and then cut each roll into 4 pieces - you should ahve 24 pieces in total. Arrange on plates and serve with tiny mounds of the pickled ginger and wasabi with dipping bowls of the soy sauce.

VARIATION:
You can use a wide variety of fillings in the sushi. Try smoked tuna or mackerel, for example, or fresh crab meat; cooked peeled prawns with avocado and rocket or chives also work well.

Jo is in The Mood for Entertaining

Congratulations to my friend Jo Pratt on her new cookbook, In the Mood for Entertaining, which is being published today. It's a follow on from her other fabulous book, In the Mood for Food. Both books show off Jo's effortless, gorgeous style and taste, both herself and her food! You can buy them from her publishers, Penguin, here. Also Jo, even bigger wishes for the soon to be born bump! xx

Rachel's Home Cooking

I was having a browse on Amazon, as you do, when I was shocked to come across Rachel Allen's next new cookbook (which I worked on here)...I only saw the first proofs of it last week, so was a little confused. Harper Collins are well ahead of themselves in that you can pre-order the book now...very speedy as the front cover was only shot a few weeks ago, so well done! A few different titles were bounding around so looks like they settled on 'Home Cooking', sounds lovely. The rough print looked fab so I really can't wait to see the finished book (but will have to until the 1st Oct)...

THE Bill Granger

I was back at The Afternoon Show again today, this time setting up for THE Bill Granger...what a lovely man! He was very sweet and so smiley, you could just take him home! Bill was over to promote his gorgeous new cookbook (full of his trademark simple but tasty recipes), feed me now!...

I didn't manage to get a snap with Bill but I truely was lucky enough to meet and work with him - he did sign his cookbook for me though...

Bill cooked two recipes, a spicy prawn stir fry and a delicious coconut slice (which needless to say, didn't last long with the crew around!)....click here to check out demo recordings. Here's the stir fry recipe...

Spicy Prawn Stir Fry

. 2 tablespoons mild flavoured oil, such as sunflower
. 20 large prawns, shelled and deveined, with tails intact
. 2 tablespoons red curry paste
. 1 large onion, cut into thin wedges
. 400g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 4cm lengths on the diagonal
. 1 red pepper, cored, deseeded and cut into thin strips
. 200ml coconut milk
. 2 tablespoons lime juice
. 1 tablespoons fish sauce
. 1 teaspoon sugar

. Coriander leaves
. Steamed rice

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok or large frying pan over a high heat. Add the prawns and stirfry for 2 minutes or until they turn pink and are just cooked. Remove and set aside.
2. Return the wok to a high heat, add the remaining oil, followed by the curry paste, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the onion and asparagus and stir fry for 2 minutes, then add the red pepper and cook for a further 1 minute.
3. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar, and stir to combine. Return the prawns to the wok and cook for a further minute or until they are heated through.
4. Scatter over some coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice.

neven's new cookbook

I'm just back from piling on the pounds in Cavan - I've been busy testing the 130 recipes from Neven Maguire's next new cookbook. People always ask me what I mean by testing....it isn't just taste testing (although not fitting into my desk chair now makes me wonder!), I also make sure timings, sizes and dimensions, temperatures, quantities and descriptions are correct and make sense so that the recipe 'works' when people follow it.....I have the disasters, not you!

Anyhow, I have now officially cooked more in Neven's home kitchen than he has (although I'm not surprised as he's always in the restaurant kitchen).....this new book is a great collection of Neven's signature recipes that he cooks in the restaurant...although still easy enough for the home cook to make - that's why it's been given the catcy title, homechef. watch out for it at the end of this year.

me and my other husband (with a mock-up front cover)!

Thanks to Neven's wife Amelda for not batting an eyelid at me taking over her lovely home once again for weeks on end. Huge thanks also to Neven's chefs Vicky, Zara and Carina for helping me test and for all that shopping! and of course to Amelda's mum Eileen for all her help. not only in work but also with eating all that food and drinking all those cocktails!! cocktail o'clock...amelda, carina and eileen...

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book shoot

Friday was a busy busy day in Cork working on the reportage shots for Rachel Allen's new cookbook. It was nice to see that the recipes worked perfectly also, phew! We were spoilt to work with amazing photographer David Loftus, and the lovely Jenny Heller from Harper Collins was over from London also. Really can't wait to see the finished book now - but I'll have to be patient for another few months yet!

David, Issac, Rachel & Jenny

'the book'

I've felt like I've been guarding the devil wears prada 'book' since last November. In this post I didn't explain properly what I've been up to all this time. I've just this second finished working on Rachel Allen's new cookbook. I've been busy developing and testing recipes with Rachel and her husband Issac. It's been a rollercoaster (Rachel even managed to deliver scarlett lily in the middle of it all!) but we've managed to submit about 240 recipes so it's a whopper - watch out for it later on in the year (when I'll be able to tell you more). In the meantime here's some of the action from the job (which hopefully doesn't give too much away!)...

Glossy Food

I was very excited to open the current edition of 'The Gloss' mag to recognise a photo in there. They featured Simon Dougan's cookbook 'The Yellow Door' which I styled (and Cliona O'Flaherty snapped). Here it is...

professional shopper

If car door dents are anything to go by, I spend a lot of my life in supermarkets. I'm still busy testing recipes (for a soon to be revealed cookbook) which means I'm shopping even more than usual - here are some recent (OCD) shopping lists...

back to work blues

OK, OK, Happy New Year! It was a bit of a shocker for me this year to be back with a bang and a big work load - no January hibernating for me - I guess I shouldn't complain. I did struggle to get my head around it a bit though - here's some funny evidence of mardiness (well, more tiredness than anything, i am enjoying it really!)...

loving being back amongst the boxes of god knows what (in yet another little cottage)

back to work and being a brat

and what am i up to? testing like a mad woman...